Improving Customer IVR, Customer No-Nos, Voice Biometrics, Call Center Advantage - Remote Monitoring

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David Sims
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Improving Customer IVR, Customer No-Nos, Voice Biometrics, Call Center Advantage - Remote Monitoring

The thing about Interactive Voice Response is that while, yes, it does save businesses a lot of time and money, it also saves the customers time too, when used correctly. Frankly this reporter prefers automated interactions when it’s simple information that’s needed.

But too many IVR systems are one size fits all, instead of having the capability to tailor to the customer. That’s the contention of IVR industry insider Jason Andersson, who wrote recently that it’s highly possible “self-service applications, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions are looking at a slow painful death because of lack of innovation.”

Take grocery shopping. Wouldn’t it be nice, Andersson says, if you could walk into a grocery store arranged for you to fast-track your trip, with all the things you normally buy in the same place up front? Sure if you have the time go get an exotic mustard for a special dinner, but the bread, milk, beer, all that’s up front, easy to get.

Read more here.

Every once in a while we like to step away from the little technical details of operating a call center, and discuss some of the more general, humor-filled issues.

On that note, you have to, just have to love an article titled “Five Stupefying Statements From The CRM Call Center.” For one thing, you admire the writer’s ability to hold it down to five.

SAP’s Anthony Leaper recently offered what he sees as five unbelievable things that real live call center agents really say, to real live customers, destroying real live customer loyalty, good will and company profits.

#5: “Patience, dear -- I have to finish this call script.” Yes, that’s actually said by call center agents all over this great land of ours. Leaper observes, of course, that customers are not much interested in the script the call center agent has to follow, they’re interested in getting their problem solved.

Read more here].

Yes, it is possible to use voice biometrics to improve customer service “and close more business,” according to a recent white paper from Angel, which sells Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and related call center products.

The paper lists some of the advantages of voice biometrics. Since there are over 120 touchpoints to anybody’s voice, biometric technology can essentially make a fingerprint of your voice, which can replace paper-based signatures, according to the paper. This can speed up the flow of business considerably, especially since the paper points out that this “satisfies FFIEC and FCC CPNI compliance and HIPPA/CMS guidelines; and is recognized by the FDA as a legally binding,  E-Sign Act compliant, e-signature.”

And since you don’t need any special phone systems or hardware or software, there isn’t a great capital investment to start using it. Since it works with any phone, mobility is increased. In addition, the nice thing about a voice is you don’t need to memorize it like you do a PIN or password, and it can’t be stolen.

Read more here.

Being able to make your 3rd party remote call monitoring solution your own sounds like a no-brainer when it comes to seeing ROI, right?

Since call center agents have a very short window of time where they can listen to and respond to feedback, a huge benefit of 3rd party remote call monitoring is that agents can take direction from a direct supervisor who uses chunks of both recorded and live calls to highlight what the employee did right and wrong. Agents will then adjust the way they do things. Without some clear objectives in place, agents can be left in the dark as to how they should be handling individual circumstances  Fair, consistent and accurate feedback they’ll take on board, and 3rd party remote call monitoring gives you just that.

So we hope we’re all clear on why every call center needs to implement this innovative solution if they haven’t already. Good. Now: Why should you be able to customize it?

BPA Quality officials have put together a compelling case that being able to build your own tracking, trending and reporting capabilities is the way to get that extra benefit out of 3rd party remote call monitoring.

Read more here.



 



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