In a tightening economy it is difficult to recommend and justify additional staff to meet peak period operations. 

Some organizations are reducing call center staff to lower operating costs and thus have fewer people to do the same amount of work. This often results in lower customer satisfaction ratings, lower service levels and higher than usual number of escalations and complaints.

To counteract the effects of staff reductions and the freeze on adding staff in the call center, companies must find ways to make employees more efficient and effective in their daily routines and tasks.  By receiving appropriate information at the agent desktop and manager dashboard in real time, call center stakeholders can better manage their daily workload.

Companies using desktop screen pops and dashboards in their call centers report a marked improvement in the adherence to company-stated goals; increased customer satisfaction ratings; and an improved ability to complete daily tasks.

Furthermore, virtual call center agents (i.e. home-based agents) have access to the same detailed information as agents and managers in the office.

Spectrum (News - Alert) provides desktop and dashboard software that captures data from multiple data sources.  Some of these sources include:

--ACD statistics

--Help desk ticket information

--MS-CRM, Sage CRM, Salesforce.com

--SAP

--IBM (News - Alert) Tivoli and Cognos

--HP Open View

 

Spectrum Corporation is a leading provider of call center digital signage solutions. To learn more about the company and its products, click here.

Dan Boehm is VP of Sales and Marketing at Spectrum Corporation, a leading provider of digital call center signage.