Hello

What open source software solutions do you wish existed?

Please indicate why you would like it to be open source. Is it in the hope it would bring the cost of running the software within your budget? Would like to have access to source code to customise it for your own needs?

Hi All,
I have recently taken over the position of supervisor for a small call centre (10 agents)and it is now my job to boost productivity in the call centre. At the moment there is no dress code in here but I am considering bringing in a business dress code. Does anyone have any experience with this or have any tips and hints for me?
Thanks, Chantelle

Hi all, I am looking for ideas to capture voice of the customer and engage my team in collation of this.

I have been tasked with a work stream which is particularly specific in that it's not about capturing the customers voice through complaints handling ie the customer bringing it to us, but from the perspective of contacting customers for their feedback. 

Currently we have an external company who collates feedback. An additional requirement for us is to task our Team and Assistant team leaders with calling out to our customers and capturing feedback. A process has been provided which is scripted questions, it is non sales based and a database designed to record feedback... Probably wondering why I'm asking for ideas... The TL and ATL group are not engaged, it is time consumely, frustrating when cannot make contact and are finding that other sites are being praised for number generation when I feel actual feedback and what we can do with that is far  more important to make our service better...

Yours thoughts, ideas and suggestions are welcomed on how I can best drive capturing voice of the customer to increase my TL and ATL engagement in its task and outputs
In hope...
Emma

Does anyone know what standards or kpis helpline uses to monitor and measure performance?

How do you keep your frontline staff stress free?

On Call Centre Helper we are putting together a panel piece about stress and were wondering if anyone had any tips - Please note that we are not looking for a technology angle for this article.

I am looking at introducting our Quality Assurance Department into induction training a little bit more, to give it a stronger presence on the sales floor. We have a short training window (5 days), so i need some ideas of effective/time friendly ways to do this. Many Thanks

I am new to the forum but hoping somebody can shed some light on suitable solutions to our current challenge.

We want to consider using an outsourced solution to help manage inbound calls in various European languages including German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Does any body have any recommendations? We have no idea of potential volume and need a scalable option. We have some in-house language resource but not enough to cope. My concern is finding the right people locally with language skills may prove too much of a challenge.

Any advice would be welcomed.

I currently have a number of agents the continually answer and speak during a call with a DULL and BORED tone of voice, also they don't seem to engage or show empathy to the caller.... sounding like a old BBC news reader for example Moira Stuart

I have suggested a number of different ways to answer the call for example a smile on your face, also I explain to the agents talk how you are talking to me (how you speak to a friend or colleague face 2 face) but this fall on deaf ears.

I even sit side by side listening to the calls setting a small objective for the next call as above this falls on deaf ears.

Also I have notice the caller starts of upbeat but mirrors the agent in tone of voice and often becomes negative or frustrated during the call.

Can any help or suggest what to do next?

Hope to hear from you all soon

TOP BOY

Hey Team

A quick question on a subject I am not familiar with at all so bear with me.

Is there any regulation for using an outbound dialler to call other businesses we call on a regular basis but spend a lot of time on hold with? Does an outbound dialler even have that functionality?

Sorry if I am being a bit vague but any help would really be appreciated.

Thank You

Joe

Hi

I have been working in call / contact centres for the last 14 years and managing one for the last 4. I would really like to have a qualification to recognise the skills and knowledge I have, and also to challenge me. Looking online there does not appear to be many in the UK???

The only one I did find (Diploma in Contact Centre Management) has not had all of the course content completed and may not be ready for some time.

As I am full time in work, the course would need to be work based. Does any one know of any courses?

Thanks

Hi there,

I have just become a member of this forum and was looking for some help.

What do you think is the best incentive for staff?
Do you currently run incentive schemes? If so, how many staff do you have, what gifts do you use etc.

Thanks in advance for all your helpful ideas!

Clair

We keep the rules fairly simple and straight forward.

Do - share your experience, knowledge, hints and tips
Do - answer people's questions
Do - remain anonymous if you want

Don't - promote your products and services (or those you have a financial interest in.)
Don't - use your logo as your profile picture
Don't - use your company name as your user name
Don't - use your e-mail address as your user name
Don't - ask people to contact you
Don't - leave your phone number or email address
Don't - worry too much about spelling - it's the message that counts

There is freedom of speech but please do not harass people – everyone has a right to give their own opinions

We have three active moderators keeping an eye on the forum and have a no tolerance policy to commercial messages.

I hope that you enjoy the community

Hi all

About 3 weeks ago i started as a new call centre manager with several team managers as direct reports my initial first impressions on a couple haven't been great, in fact one of them came across as slightly rude and not interested in either me or what I had to say and these were only the introductions !! They did not go for this role and therefore I don't believe it was because they were unsuccessful in promotion but I'm wondering how to tackle this going forward ?

Hi,

-I'm new here so i just wanted to know if anyone from you had experience with targets!
-I have been appointed to make targets for 2012 for a team that has 30 members!
-We are telecommunication company, and main activities are surveys, new offers, new promotions etc...
-The problem is that we don't have proper plan, but we receive work from time to time, and i found it hard to set targets for my team!
-They work 4 hours a day and have only 30 minutes brake!

-Any one has any idea ?

Thank you in advance
Blake

Good day,

I am looking to create a new complaints process and implement this into my office. Could I kindly ask if anyone has a robust process in place that they dont mind sharing or any tips/links you could share.

We are currently working from a spreadsheet were we log complaints and update with resolutions however this is not measurable and I am looking for something in which we can measure and manage performance, introduce stratagies for improvement etc.

Here's hoping you can help.

Hello,

We are looking to introduce a new performance framework in our contact centre (Local Authority) We have set up a task and finish group to work on this. We have recently gone through a huge transformation in the way our operatives work, partly due to the roll out of a new CRM system. The focus is very much about adding value and our customer strategy is focused around helping customers to help themselves. We have previously used AHT for individual services and more recently calls per hour. Does anybody have experience of removing numeric figures and/or a framework in place that is centered around the customer experience? It would be useful to know how staff are measured.

Just a quick question to find out the number of call centres in the UK, and how many of these contact centres are in-house or outsourced.

Any feedback would be benifical on this.

Hi Guys,

I'm just looking for a team leader job performance appraisal can you help me please to find a good form and guidelines for how to evaluate them.

Best Regards
Maghraby

Hi,

Just trying to find out the best practice for creating menu tones in our business.

I understand the IVR (in voice routing) but is it best to have less options or to have complex menus.

Any advice on this would be helpful.

Thanks,

Martin

Hi, does anybody know the calcuation eWFM uses to determine staff requirement?

Many Thanks

Good Morning All

I have created a project for myself to come up with an alternative customer experiance within my existing company.

There are many ways to begin the process and I have started an initial review of current proces to see what is essential and what can be stripped out.

This is however my first attempt at anything like this and just wanted to know if anyone had implemented something similar and could pass on any words of wisdom,

Thank you in advance

Joe

Hi

We are looking to run a recruitment day for a new CS advisor and are considering a telephone interview to screen as a first stage. Anyone else use this method and if so what typeof questions do you use to ensure you're not missing out on a really good candidate

Thanks

Hi,

I would like to get an idea of how many quality outbound calls your, in a general sense, agents are expected to make in a normal working day, say 08:30-5:00pm.
Naturally we are looking to up date the data held on the profile and speak to the correct person.
Would 160 calls a day in order to generate 4-6 leads a day be a sensible option. this would include typing up notes, up dating data and emailing the company email should this be requested.

Morning All

We are playing around with an idea to involve our management team with all of our different agents.

To this end we were thinking of having our managers rotate which team they look after every 6 months. This will hopefully enrich our agents because they are exposed to different management styles, encourage development as our managers will want to show they can be successful with any agent and reduce the chance of agent vs supervisor clash as it will be temporary.

Has any one done this before or has any words of wisdom to watch for?

Joe

I am currently reviewing the yearly performance plans for my real time and planning teams and was hoping you could share with me the kind of performance metrics you set for your teams e.g 8% daily forecast accuracy.

Thanks in advance,
Catherine

In our contact centre we have been using Quality Monitoring forms that have a scale from 1 - 5 for each thing that is being marked. The problem is that what someone sees as a 3, someone else might mark as a 5. This meant that scoring was not consistant.

I made up a new form and it seems to be working a bit better although it is not perfect by any means.

I am interested to hear how other people Quality Monitor their calls and if possible it would be great to see some examples.

I am putting together a new form that will be scored as yes/no, a work in progress.

Looking forward to hearing how everyone else does it.

In the process of a National Schedule Review within the business. One of the principles we set out was to provide advisors a choice in shifts patterns.
We have come across a issue in the selection criteria, how do we assign 1 shift pattern to 2 different advisors who have selected this as their 1st choice (for example).
There have been numerous discussions around performance, length of service, behavioural issues, however with each criteria highlights problems. Length of service - ageism, Behavioural - somebody’s discretion.
Is there a fair way we can allocate shift no based on the above?
Thanks

Hi all

Im trying to get some info on exactly how to use this software to manage real time inbound call volume effectively. I have minimal knowledge limited to using "simple control" function. Can anyone provide a link or any hints/tips?

Many thanks

Hi all,

We introduced a new induction programme last year and have had 3 groups of new staff go through it. 3 weeks classroom based and 2 weeks Grad Bay. Previously there was nor real formal induction in place. We have found that people going through the new induction are performing realy well and are well prepared for the job.

I have been tasked by my manager to do a ROI on the new induction so we can present to the Board of Directors as they are wanting proof that this new induction is giving good value for money.

I am looking for tips on how to do this. It ks a long time since I have completed an ROI.

Any help appreciated.

I have been asked to look at the impact adding call back and web chat facility to our website. We are an inbound contact centre handling member service enquiries. We currently receive 500-700 calls and 200 written/fax or e-mail contacts.
There are approx 850 hit to our website daily, and I wondered if anyone has experience of setting these up and understanding the forecasted contact impact.

Many thanks

Brian

Pls tell me common Sales advisor interview questions.
Tks so much!

Just wondered what top five things do you look for when recruiting for a business Call Centre?

I'm so bored with common interview questions. What are some Creative interview questions you know? Is it appropriate to be asked in small companies?

Good Morning

I have been asked to look at new metrics to remove the need to target AHT. I have heard occupancy mentioned so many times but this is not something i have ever looked at. Can any one help with some advsie what this may be and if this could be a good way in which to manage productivity/performance in a small (14 people 500 calls a day) call centre

Hi all, was wondering if any of you know of any good sites for training material on a range of different topics ; call coaching, customer service, sales etc etc I'm happy to pay but need to start from scratch so any pointers would be great like a trainers for trainers for call centre etc

Many thanks in advance

Hello all,

I am new to the call centre business and am trying to understand how I can schedule our agents most effectively.

We have approx 120 agents split between three groups. An IVR directs calls to one of the three groups, however my problem is that not all agents in a group are skilled in the same thing.

To try and explain further - group 1 includes service A, B, C and D. There are 30 agents in group 1. Some can take service A and B, others can only take C and some can take all.

To further complicate we are open 8-6 and full time hours equate to 35 a week so we have three shifts: 8-4, 9-5 and 10-6.

Our IVR allows agents to receive only the calls that they are trained in but our WFS system (prariefyre/Actimax)does not allow for variable skill-sets so at the moment I have 2 excellent staff desperately trying to work it out via spreadsheets and doing as good a job as they possibly can!

We have had high level conference calls with the company who say what we request is not possible but other call centres must have the same issue!!

Any help/suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks.

Hi All,

I appreciate if any one could give me an idea of a roster pattern for a staff of 7.Working hours for each person should not exceed 45 hours per week.If anyone can provide me a help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!!

Hi There,

I'm due to take over a CS team in the next month or so. At the moment I feel we're understaffed as we have support coming in from Telephone, emails and a Live Chat system but need to justify an increase in staffing to the MD.

I have looked into calculating this using Erlang, however I need some help with this such as the data I need to get so I can carry out the calculation, then how I go about it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Graham

Anyone got any good tips,exercises or websites to visit to help improve agents skills in typing notes whilst still in call? Obviously an attempt to try to improve wrap times but also to help agents in their skill sets.

Hi All

Wanted to wish all of you on my favourite online forum a happy Christmas and lets hope a good new year

Best Wishes

John

We are currently using Open Wave 5.4 WFM software and are having a few issues with the preferance based shift rotation that it suggests via simulation.

Also we can't see a way to include our split shifts into the process and really need this functionality.

We have raised this to Open Wave direct but thought we would ask if anyone here is using the same software and is running preference based shifts that we could potentially visit to see how it works and ask some questions.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Joe

Hi All

I have trying to find a definition to "Staffing (absolute) as these are included in my forecast figures.

Example:

Actual is 10
Forecast is 89.

Can anyone explain this, I would be very grateful! :)

Hi all, hopefully you can help me out here I have an interview for a new call centre for which I am applying for the call centre manager role - I am stuck! The presentation should be about how and what I can bring to the role the company and how I can make this new centre good etc etc I kinda no but I just don't know where to start!!!

Hi guys,

Just wondered what people think the qualities are that make a professional contact centre.

Thanks,

Adam

Hi
I'm using a VERY old version of Aspect TCS and it has stopped pulling the actual volumes through from the AVAYA ACD and i don't know what to do to kick start it again.
The server has been rebooted but doesn't appear to have any joy.
To add to the complications the company i work for was a purchase from a larger company and we are piggybacking this tool (and others) using CITRIX.
I don't think this is relevant to the fault as it has worked fine for several months, but the logistics around investigating it may get comolicated!

If anyone has any suggestions i'd much appreciate it

Hi all,
I was just wondering what each organisation would define as their 'Core values of Remarkable Customer Service'.

I am interested to see what they are, and how they were arrived at.

I am looking to run a planning and real time course and was wondering if anybody knows a good exercise to promote the power of one theory?

please i need help on how to calculate shift allowance and hazard allowance in call centres.

I manage in a high inbound call center, providing product which is reordered regularly from customers (oils).
We understand the importance of FCR but concerned about how we will measure it as customers will call us each month to reorder anyway.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can measure or have any other creative ideas.

I'm looking for some software that would allow me to implement a "process flow" system. Our call centre is not scripted (and this is unlikely to change) however we do have some home-grown process flows that are used to deal with particular type of issues.

In essence, this is a web-based flowchart, where each page contains a string of text and images. This might be technical information, a question to the advisor, or information we need to give the customer. The advisor then clicks on 'answers' at the bottom of the page to continue.

For example, "Is the customer on package X, Y or Z?", then the advisor would click on X, Y or Z to continue to the next page where relevant advise or more questions would be asked.

The current structure of the system is a bunch of (what has now become several thousand) static HTML pages and maintenance is a massively tedious job.

I'm looking for some database driven software that would allow such a system to be maintained much more easily and without the need for any technical knowledge of coding pages.

I don't know whether such a thing exists on the market, or whether there is any call scripting software that could be used for this purpose, but hope someone can help :)