'Optimizing' VoIP for Contact Centers

CUSTOMER [email protected] SOLUTIONS — March 2011

'Optimizing' VoIP for Contact Centers

VoIP is delivered to customers' premises through SIP trunks over the Internet on broadband or on traditional data T1 circuits, which are significantly less expensive than voice lines or voice T1s. There are a wide range of VoIP providers, with new SIP trunking providers emerging into the marketplace, along with the current major PSTN/TDM carriers…

Feature Articles

CALL CENTER TECHNOLOGY

From Foe to Friend
Automated voice systems, both DTMF, a.k.a. TouchTone IVR and speech recognition, a.k.a speech rec-based, have had an unfortunate reputation as customers' foes thanks to too many poor implementations. They have driven customers to "zero-outs", resulting in higher expenses and risking decreased loyalty and lowered sales from them and from their friends and followers and others via social media, thereby clawing back the tools' cost savings. Some firms have capitalized on these poor customer experiences by trumpeting that they do not use these technologies; they connect callers to live agents instead.

CRM, BPO & TELESERVICES

Entrusting The Technology
Hosted contact center solutions, also known as cloud or software as a service (SaaS), from third party vendors can and does deliver a widening range of functions from ACD to workforce optimization. It does so with minimal or no capital and support costs and with fast ramp ups/downs, ready updates, assured business continuity and heightened security compared with premise-installed solutions while using best-of-breed solutions from OEMs.

OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT

Navigating the Compliance Rapids
If complying with laws and regulations can be likened to navigating a rapids-strewn river, there is a confluence of long-running currents and fast new streams and obstacles that are making the journeys more treacherous for contact centers. Do Not Call (DNC) and call abandonment regulations are mixing in with new rules written and proposed in response to criminal and consumer harassment threats arising from the inevitable misuse of new technologies.

Awards and Recognition

Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine's 26th Annual Top 50 Outbound Teleservices Agency Ranking
Our "Top 50" rankings are based on extensive detail gleaned from an exhaustive application process, in which outbound teleservices vendors quantify their service delivery in terms of minutes usage in their various call center locations. Through more than a quarter century of consistency in processing and evaluating applications, the Top 50 ranking has become the benchmark for businesses seeking high-capacity teleservices agencies.

Columns

Publisher’s Outlook

The Importance of Quality Interactions
To learn more, I reached out to Chris Coles, President & CEO of HyperQuality, which focuses on helping…

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Avoid Lawsuits, Avoid Credit Checking Applicants
While there is little likelihood of major new laws and regulations coming down from…

HIGH PRIORITY!

SMBs are Call Centers Too
There are two approaches to the small and mid-sized business (SMB) market - treat it as a unique market or as a downsized enterprise. It's a dilemma that many telephony vendors have struggled with over the years and, while some have succeeded, many have failed to make a significant impact on the market.

Ask the Experts

Jumpstarting your Contact Center with Communications as a Service (CaaS)
It's a balancing act for contact center executives everywhere: improve the quality of customer interactions, but minimize expenses to do it. Ok, how? With advanced applications like intelligent ACD routing and quality monitoring to improve the customer experience, and especially with its pay-as-you-go approach for minimizing startup costs and ongoing expenses, many contact centers are turning to Communications as a Service, or CaaS. Moreover, in a dynamic business climate, contact centers are also discovering how flexible CaaS is, and how rapidly it allows them to adapt to whenever needs dictate.

Case Study

Analyzing the Conversations
Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group (HRRG), a division of TeamHealth, a large healthcare professional staffing and administrative services firm, provides medical debt collections services. HRRG has 74 agents, split between contact centers in Lathrop, Calif. and Plantation, Fla. Its focus is on improving revenue recovery while retaining patient customers.