People love to speculate about what goes on behind the scenes in government, but one area where transparency rules is in government call centers. The government is relying more and more on its call centers and is seeking technology tools and applications to help them perform better and gain a better view and understanding of all of the data derived from its call centers.

A little more than a year ago, a study called Government Contact Center Satisfaction Index  done by the CFI Group showed that despite receiving exponentially higher numbers of calls, primarily to government agencies for support and services due to the economic downturn, satisfaction levels with the care provided by the government call centers rose five points in the year 2010, according to a publication call Government Technology.  

Commenting on the study’s finding of improvements made by government call centers, David Ham, CFI Group’s public-sector program director, was quoted in the article as saying, “This type of short-term rise only happens when an organization, in this case our government, not only makes the effort to listen, but takes action on what it hears to actually improve the way it does business.”

Nevertheless by December of 2010, IQPC (News - Alert) stated in one of its conference pieces that government contact centers will continue to face mounting pressure to “deliver the highest level of information delivery in the most cost-effective manner.” The organization further noted that government call centers “are looking for strategies to increase overall team performance.”

Call center reporting software is an answer to this need. Government call centers will want to investigate call center reporting software, such as Unified Contact Center Reporting Solution from a company called Spectrum Corporation that provides real-time information from a variety of sources that will benefit all call center members, from agents to team leaders to managers. With the particular solution mentioned, data from “in-house” databases, workforce management, ACD and CRM applications would be captured and highlighted in unified reports that could be used to help improve overall team performance. Even better, the data can be delivered via wallboards so that instant action can be taken.

According to Spectrum (News - Alert) Corporation, some of the most asked about key performance indicators (KPIs) from government call centers include cost per call, average speed of answer, service level, abandon rate and call quality.

-

Each one of these KPIs could lead to callers perceiving the government call center in either a positive or negative light. But if all affected parties within the call center have a real-time view via a wallboard of what is transpiring throughout the center and within the various applications, the chance for a negative perception diminishes greatly because remedial action won’t be delayed. When you think about it, a call to a government agency is usually initiated because of some dire need, not just a whimsical purchase, so knowing the status of these KPIs in real-time is critical. For example, if the center’s average speed of answer statistics are low and the abandonment rate statistics are high at any point in time, the call center staff needs to be able to see this immediately so adjustments can be made. With reporting and wallboard software, this can happen. Without them and the statistics they provide, as Spectrum Corporation has said, “the call center can be moving along blindly.” And that is no way for government call centers to keep their performance levels—and caller satisfaction levels--high.