Agent training is a major concern for call centers, and each year the industry spends millions making sure that the reps directly interacting with customers are doing so in a professional and efficient manner. Though countless methods have proliferated, each offering different training advantages, scripting is one method that’s always been treated with skepticism. Fears of cold or robotic responses and pathways that squelch open and productive discourse have taken it off the table for many call centers. But one company at this year’s call center week is taking a new approach to scripting and proving that the utility can still be used to the advantage.

A division of the Jones International University, Jones/NCTI started as a cable support business designed to reduce the amount of technician house calls for providers. Given their parent company’s roots in the business education and certification industry, their ability to do this was heavily influenced by the information at the disposal of the agent on the line. The result was a simple scripting tool that could quickly facilitate agent diagnoses and determine in real time whether or not more service was necessary.

As utilities were added to the solution, Jones/NCTI realized that what had been developed was far beyond scripting software. “The term scripting is everyone’s first reaction but that really makes me cringe,” say’s VP of productivity solutions Jack Latzer, “It really has become so much more than that.”

Dubbed LogiCALL, Jones/NCTI showcased the call center tool at Call Center Week, the first time the company has attended this annual event. Their focus has shifted away from media companies as the tool they’ve developed. The software now not only allows for scripting options to help agents decide what the next course of action should be, but also integrated with a host of other technologies proactively providing relevant information to reps as needed.

“We’re finding that there are a lot of folks that have need for the product. It’s a scripting tool at the base level, but much more complex than that. We can use it as an advanced desktop in some places because it integrates into billing systems, IVRs and any number of other tools. That lets it pull information to the agent. The agent can then pick it up were say a IVR or billing system left off. LogiCALL transfers all the information to where ever it’s going, while offering an agent a way to solve problems” says Vincent Dibase, Senior Vice President of Sales.

Dibase gave the example of a power or cable outage in a customer’s immediate vicinity. When the customer calls to check service issues, their location will be displayed to the agent who will already know if there’s a problem in the area. With connectivity to billing utilities, the rep can then reimburse or discount the time lost to the customer. All systems interconnected leads to faster and better response from agents.

Scripting is not a dead technology, but it’s come a long way from the form that’s given it such a bad reputation. With LogiCALL Jones/NCTI has proved that there is still some juice left in scripting and has augmented it for the more demanding customers of today.

Chris DiMarco is a Web Editor for TMCnet. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) Chris worked with e-commerce provider Suresource as a contact center representative and development analyst. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Follow him on Twitter @cpdimarco.

Edited by Rich Steeves