January 2008 Archives

According to a report in the Elmira Star-Gazette, Gov. Eliot Spitzer was expected to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of Sitel Corp.’s new contact center in Erwin, N.Y. this morning.

The new 400 seat contact center -- which will be a real shot in the arm for Erwin and Elmira-area’s economy -- will be located in a 45,000-square-foot former Corning Inc. building at 103 Canada Road. According to the report, the state of New York is contributing $2.25 million to the project, including a $1.5 million grant from Empire State Development and $750,000 from the Governor's Office for Small Cities. Sitel will invest up to $4.6 million to renovate the former Corning Inc. facility.

Privately-held Sitel is a leading contact center outsourcing firm with more than 145 facilities in 30 countries employing 67,000 employees.

In other contact center opening news, Global Contact Services of North Carolina has announced that it will be opening a new call center in Pittsfield, Pa., creating at least 200 new jobs by early March. This will be GCS’s eleventh call center location. As per a report in the Bangor Daily News, “the move softens the loss of 145 local jobs announced Monday by San Antonio Shoe and six teaching positions that will be lost in June with the closure of St. Agnes Catholic School.”

Dell is reportedly making more staff cuts, this time at one of its Ottawa call centers. According to a report in London Free Press, dozens of employees at one of Dell’s call centers in Ottawa will be given pink slips sometime in the coming weeks. But the bigger blow is that Dell has decided to scrap its plans to add 1,200 seats to its call center operations in the province.

Dell representative Jess Blackburn told London Free Press that the cuts are “part of Dell's global review of its business operations and efforts to consolidate and reduce our costs of operations around the world."

For the past few years, Dell has opened one call center after another, the philosophy apparently being that opening more centers, rather than improving the quality of service, was the best strategy for boosting c-sat … but now it appears the tide has turned, and lately I’ve seen more announcements about Dell call center closings, rather than openings.

This particular report makes me wonder if the current unfavorable exchange rate on the U.S. dollar in Canada had something to do with Dell’s decision …

Not to go off on a tangent, but another thing I always wonder, when I read these reports, is whether self-service solutions and other channels for contact, such as email and Web, are gaining favor among consumers and are therefore starting to have an impact on staffing levels …

Arvato Services, a leading global third-party customer service outsourcing provider, is reportedly expanding its use of Aspect Software’s leading contact center solutions.

Specifically, Arvato is using Aspect’s Uniphi Connect with its existing Aspect CallCenter ACDs to create a “virtual” SIP-based VoIP contact center. With this new IP-based solution in place, Arvato will be able to improve agent performance and boost customer satisfaction. It also gains a solution which can scale more readily, and which offers greater flexibility to meet rapidly changing business needs.

Because Uniphi Connect is a hybrid solution, Arvato will be able to use it to support agents working in both TDM and IP environments. By coupling the solution with Aspect CallCenter ACD, Arvato will now have a virtual contact center solution, where all end points on the network are “equal.” Such systems are ideal for facilitating the remote agent model, or the informal contact center, where other knowledge workers within the organization can be used as “expert agents,” with all the same software and resources available on their desktops as agents in the main center. Calls and other contacts can be routed seamlessly to all end points using this system. In addition, the system can be administered via a single interface, from Arvato’s central office, which will be key since it will be deployed across different centers in different areas, including the company’s internal IT support desk staff, which is scattered across three offices in Antwerp, Abcoude and Venlo and connected by VoIP.

Because the system is VoIP-based, Arvato can now save big time on its communications costs, which in turn will keep the price per user low. It will also benefit from minimum time to execution (1 hour/25 seats) at minimal cost; increased flexibility to add or decrease agent seats on demand; the ability to leverage remote services (in-house and externally), providing enhanced overflow to external contact centers as needed; and disaster recovery options by using the contact center in Antwerp as a backup centre for Venlo, and vice-versa. Perhaps best of all the company didn’t have to make any investment in new hardware, as this is an all software solution.

“When the state lottery has its drawing, there is a sharp increase in customer contacts which means Arvato has to be prepared,” explained David West, Senior VP International Sales EMEA, Aspect Software.“With SIP-based VoIP and the virtual contact center capabilities that Aspect provides, Arvato is able to have the appropriate resources available to manage those contacts and maintain a consistent level of service.”

“Aspect CallCenter ACD is proven technology with extremely high reliability and virtually one hundred percent uptime,” added Leon van Adrichem, CTO at Arvato Services Benelux. “Additionally, Aspect is our supplier for other solutions, so this was a natural progression. Our investment remains protected and the implementation time was considerably shortened as Aspect already knows us. It has gone flawlessly.”

“This solution also helps Arvato offer our contact center capabilities as a hosted service, meaning third parties are able to offer their services by building upon our infrastructure,” he added. “This is an important step forward in our strategy to be an innovative market leader in the field of complex solutions in the services industry.”

For more information about Aspect Software, visit www.aspect.com.

For more information about Arvato Services, visit www.arvato.com.

Interactive Intelligence yesterday announced that it has been re-certified to ISO 9001:2000, marking its third consecutive year of compliance.

That means the company's management system is up to snuff, as per ISO standards, and that it is equipped to deliver the products and services it promises it can deliver, with the quality that customers should expect. The International Organization for Standardization is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Headquarted in Geneva, Switzerland, it promulgates world-wide industrial and commercial standards.

In order to gain ISO 9001:2000 certification an organization must consistently follow a set of procedures covering all key processes in the business, including monitoring processes to ensure they are effective; keeping adequate records; checking output for defects, with appropriate corrective action where necessary; conducting regular review of individual processes and the quality system itself; and facilitating continual improvement.

Interactive Intelligence underwent an audit at its headquarters in Indianapolis last month to ensure it was maintaining ISO standards for the development and distribution of its call/contact center and enterprise/SMB communications solutions.

"Being certified to ISO 9001:2000 gives further assurance to customers and partners that we are able to satisfy their most stringent quality, reliability, efficiency and cost-effectiveness requirements," said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald E. Brown in a press release. "Particularly for large enterprises, as well as those representing regulatory-driven industries, such as government, financial services and healthcare, our certification gives these customers added assurance that we can meet their highest standards."

Interactive Intelligence first achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification in December 2004.

A recent report from the Associated Press underscores what many of us in the call center industry have known for years: The job just simply isn’t healthy.

Call center agents sit all day and barely move from their cubicles. And as many agents in India are coming to learn, that lack of activity can lead to a wide range of health problems, from obesity to heart disease to diabetes to sleep disorders. Not to mention depression and family discord (the latter probably stemming from the really strange hours most call center agents need to keep -- many of them have to work the “dead man’s shift”). After all, it’s tough working in a place where the air is stagnant, germs are abundant, and there’s little to no natural light (not to mention the generally lousy attitude and gloomy outlook on life that is so pervasive among call center workers).

The article makes it sound as though the call center industry in India, which employs literally millions of people, is causing a widespread health crisis that is spiraling out of control – a crisis which might actually end up ruining the industry in that country. According to the article, many agents are quitting after they discover that they are piling on the pounds and encountering a variety of health problems. But perhaps the bigger point is that the industry is causing a health care crisis which the state will ultimately end up having to pay for (as health care in India is government subsidized).

“Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power,” the article states.

The one thing the article doesn’t point out, however, is that call center agents aren’t the only ones who are chained to their computers all day. There are all kinds of jobs out there that require you to sit at a desk and use a keyboard, mouse and phone all day long. And as businesses become more and more reliant on technology, there will only be more of these “sedentary” type jobs out there. As everyone well knows, it is a matter of balancing the lack of activity with exercise and healthy eating habits. Maybe that’s what the call center agents in India need to wake up and realize.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said this about the call center agents who are encountering these health problems:

"After working, they party for the rest of the time ... (They) have bad diet, excessive smoking and drinking," he said at a public meeting last month. "We don't want these young people to burn out."

So there you have it. Fix the problem yourself, stupid, and stop blaming your job.

When I worked as a call center agent doing outbound telemarketing and surveys, me and my co-workers used to always joke about the various ways we could keep ourselves healthy while at the same time doing our jobs. One idea I came up with was to have some sort of a treadmill or exercise bike at each work station that would enable the agent to dial and talk on the phone while getting some mild exercise. Of course, the treadmill or exercise bike would have to be pretty darn quiet, and you’d have to find a way to not make it sound like you’re out of breath when you’re handling an interaction. I also thought that maybe my employer should let every worker have 30 minutes of exercise, for every four hours of work. My manager said, “as long as you don’t mind getting paid for eight hours out of a 10-hour shift (lunch included, of course), by all means ….”

I think the call center workers in India are just now starting to encounter the general health problems caused by desk jobs that we’ve already been dealing with, and trying to prevent, here in the U.S. for the past 20 years – it’s just now catching up with them. I wonder how many call center workers in India have health club memberships. Hey Bally’s, are you reading this?

A while back, I blogged about EFM firm Allegiance’s recent survey of bank customers, showing that banks could be doing a lot more to earn their customers’ loyalty. I think I came off sounding a bit bitter and I might have left the impression that I hate the banking industry, which isn’t really true, I appreciate what the banks do, for all of us -- and I don’t really believe that all banks are run by evil, greedy people.

But the Allegiance survey did get me thinking about some of the things I’d like to see my bank do, in order to serve me better. So here goes.

Like a lot of people, I keep a “coin jar” which I use to offload my coins when I have too many rattling around in my pants pocket. Actually, my coin “jar” is really a heavy duty freezer bag that I keep on top of my refrigerator -- I started using a bag because it forces me to deposit the coins sooner than when I used a glass Crystal Rock jug, which would sometimes reach a weight of over 100 pounds when it filled up with change. Sometimes when my seven-year-old daughter comes into the kitchen and sees the bag, she asks me what I’m saving the coins for, and I jokingly tell her that it is her “college fund,” upon which she usually laughs, because she knows I’m only joking (at least for now). When the bag gets too full to be manageable, I take it to an area grocery store which has a Coinstar machine – a fabulous device which quickly and conveniently turns your coins into bills (usually for a 10 or 15 percent “cut” of the total). To me, this is a far better option than throwing all that change into all those “tip jars” that are turning up everywhere (at the quick oil change place? You gotta be kidding me ….)

Not too long ago, I read an article which said that West Coast Bank, a leading Pacific Northwest community bank, was one of the first banks in the country to offer the new Madison coin-counting kiosk from Coinstar. According to the article, the service is being free of charge to bank customers in 10 Oregon and Washington branch locations.

I would love to see my bank put a Coinstar machine at every location. In fact, I think it would be really cool if you could deposit your coins into a slot right at the ATM machine, so that you’re not limited to banking hours (plus, as I mentioned, I have service free checking, so I don’t feel like I’m allowed in the bank building anyway …). This would be huge for the “little minnows” like me who see significant savings potential in coin currency. In fact, I’d even be willing to give my bank a small cut of the proceeds.

Sound trivial? Not at all when you think about the results of the Allegiance survey …

As I’m sure you already know, speech recognition and speech analytics are two related yet very different disciplines. In the call center world, speech recognition has evolved from the clunky DTMF touchtone solutions of a few years ago (which you basically bolted onto your switch to handle call steering), to highly advanced, speech-enabled self-serve solutions -- or “automated agents” -- which actually have “personas” and can guide you, just like a live agent, through a transaction via natural conversation (this facilitated through today’s advanced speech algorithms and increasingly sophisticated “full vocabulary” speech engines). With today’s self-serve solutions, very often the “automated agent” can handle the entire interaction – whether it’s informational or transactional -- and the customer may never need to speak to a live agent. Speech analytics, on the other hand, primarily relates to the “mining” of recorded call data, which typically takes place post transaction, and does not require the same level of speech recognition technology as an “automated agent” or IVR application takes. With speech analytics, organizations can “mine” their recorded agent/customer interactions, post-transaction, and gain new insights into customer and agent behavior – insights which can be used to drive key business decisions.

OK so there you have the basic functions/advantages of both technologies. And keep in mind that both are now largely viewed as being an application residing within the enterprise network – not just on the call center switch. I won’t bore you with my detailed list of the advantages of each – nor will I bother explaining how the value both of these technologies becomes exponentially greater when they work as part of a tightly integrated suite of applications. Suffice it to say that both are now being viewed as important, if not critical pieces of the contact center software ecosystem – and speech analytics is now being viewed as a critical tool for gaining business intelligence.

Here’s the point I want to make – and I make this point every time I do an interview with a company that deals in both technologies:

Speech recognition will one day begin to rob speech analytics of its value.

Why do I say this? Well, it’s a pretty simple observation, really. As more and more contact centers begin to deploy speech-enabled self-service solutions -- and as they are able to have those systems handle more and more of the transactions all on their own -- there will obviously be less need for customers to interact with live agents. But wait a minute – what about those important “insights” that are delivered through the mining of recorded interactions? What happens if a large percentage of your customers never actually talk to a live agent?

You see, as call centers push off more and more calls onto these automated systems, they are losing the valuable customer insights that they normally gather by mining recorded interactions through speech analytics. It’s kind of ironic, in a way, but one technology ends up sapping the power from the other. If you have less recorded interactions, then you have less data to mine, right?

Usually when I raise this point, most vendors explain that very few organizations are able to serve their customers entirely through self service solutions – in other words, there will always be an opportunity for a customer to talk to live agent when there is a problem. But with the industry really pushing for these self-service solutions, and with these solutions becoming more and more advanced each day, it is easy to imagine that one day most customer service centers will be able to handle the vast majority of calls using self-service apps. So, my point is, even if a call center is able to automate 60 percent of its transactions – that’s still 60 percent less recorded interactions which can be mined to gain valuable business insights. Now you can only mine 40 percent of your interactions – and those are probably the interactions where the customer was dropped out of the self serve system for one reason or another. In my view, this totally stands to “skew” the data that is collected from through speech analytics. Now, you are able to mine only the transactions where something went wrong, initially, or at least only the ones where the customer had to speak with a live agent (perhaps the call was escalated to a higher level to handle a higher value transaction, or whatever).

I see tremendous irony in this and I’m wondering if there are any other readers out there who also see that speech enabled self-service solutions are like a “knife in the back” of speech analytics. I’ve been told that some organizations are now recording and mining the interactions with the self-serve solution, to see if they can gain insights from those, but to be honest, I don’t really see the point in doing that. I mean, after all, if you’re customer completes his transaction with the automated system, you must be doing something right … right?

Anyone out there think I'm right?