ORECX CALL RECORDING BLOG

Enterprise SBCs make it easier to embrace launching a new next-generation contact center

The contact center landscape has grown increasingly sophisticated during the past several years, largely due to the rapid proliferation of mobile and IP communications.

Now that customer service departments are using VoIP solutions and mobile-enabled technologies, agents are able to manage more workloads and interactions without introducing performance complications or risking the inability to collaborate with prospective or existing clients using their desired platforms.

While these benefits are appealing, the diversity of communications in the contact center has introduced some significant challenges. This drives the need for enterprise session border controllers (SBCs) within these contact centers, as the technology can alleviate numerous concerns and potential costs.

Enterprise SBCs sit at the network edge and provide security as well as an effective way to translate different SIP formats so that many types of devices function on the corporate network with ease.

Sophisticated enterprise SBCs are designed with the scalability in mind to support in-house and remote agents, making them a perfect fit for contact centers that are looking to engage in teleworking strategies.

Mitigate security issues
Now that end-users in and outside of the contact center are using a multitude of devices and communication solutions, businesses must be able to monitor and protect those connections if they are to completely mitigate risk. Enterprise SBCs have the unique ability to view each interaction and application as a single session, which can make it easier for security and IT professionals to keep operations flowing smoothly and safely.

The adoption of unified communications systems, where VoIP, instant messaging and other collaborative tools converge, makes a strong case for using enterprise SBCs. This is because SBCs can give managers the unique ability to observe and track touch points without interfering.

Consolidate remote workers
Mobility has empowered the workforce and driven employee operations out of the office and into homes. This remote working phenomenon has made the contact center life both easier and more difficult. While companies have fewer in-house agents, decision-makers need to ensure that teleworkers stay efficient and are able to connect to the network.

As contact centers evolve and become more diverse in nature, decision-makers need to consider if their current telecommunications infrastructures will be able to make the cut. Enterprise SBCs can be highly advantageous for organizations that want to embrace bringing your own device (BYOD) and support remote working without worrying that doing so will introduce unmanageable security or connectivity issues. Ultimately, this makes the SBC an ideal partner for a next-generation contact center.

Check out this white paper on Session Border Controllers, the Critical Component for more information.

Call recording software can bring substantial value to any organization in the form of improved customer service, regulatory/industry compliance, order verification and dispute resolution capabilities.  In this piece we are going to focus only on the customer service and dispute resolution value of call recording.

When you capture customer calls (and agent screen activity), you have a goldmine of data to help you dramatically enhance your entire customer service operation. The reason is that these interactions are precisely where your company delivers its service.  These customer conversations with your agents are at the very center of your organization's ability to deliver a stellar customer experience. So not only do you want to record these interactions, but you also want to listen to what the recordings are telling you.

Here are the top 3 things you can learn from your recorded calls:

1. Which customers might defect and why - why not have each agent ask callers at the end of the conversation to rate the service given on a scale of 1-5.  With this information, your supervisors can review the calls of anyone who gave a score of 1-2 (possibly 3) and call them back if necessary to keep them from defecting.  You can also use these recordings to ascertain where the problem lies - was it due to poor agent performance, a correctable workflow issue, etc.

2. Which workflow processes need fixing - A dissatisfied customer might be the result of faulty workflow processes.  When supervisors listen to a sampling of calls (and view the screen recording) from each agent, they may discover workflow issues.  For instance, you might find that certain data (like purchase history) isn't populating properly on the agent's screen.  Perhaps there is an on-screen glitch in order processing and certain orders won't take and need to be resubmitted.  With the recordings, you will be able to identify such root causes of customer service disruption so you can work to correct them right away.

3. Who is at fault in a customer dispute (agent or customer?) - Customers often times say one thing and recall saying something else.  When this happens, disputes can occur.  With the specific recorded call at your disposal, you and the agent can listen to the interaction and determine precisely what was said.  If a customer did in fact provide authorization to charge his/her credit card, for example, you will hear it.  If he/she did not offer such approval, you will learn that too.

Call recording software helps businesses of all sizes capture customer/prospect calls so the organization can go back and listen to calls in order to settle he-said/she-said disputes, support litigation, prove compliance and more.  While a highly effective tool in its own right, when combined with quality monitoring software, you have a powerful one-two-punch that will greatly enhance the performance and capabilities of your contact center.  And who doesn't want that?

While most Fortune 5000 organizations employ both tools, it is fair to say that many small to mid-size organizations either just have call recording or nothing at all.  The value of the combination of call recording and quality monitoring software is so high, that these organizations need to really start considering employing both.

Value of Call Recording + Quality Monitoring Together

In fact, there are a number of statistics that illustrate just how important quality monitoring software is (along with call recording software), including:

86% of buyers will pay for a better customer experience

89% of customers will go to a competitor due to poor service

Average first call resolution rate in the U.S. is just over 80%

We've taken a look back at our 25+ blog posts from 2013 and learned that the following five were most heavily viewed and commented on:

15 Critical Call Center Management Statistics

Important call center management statistics to help you understand just how important it is to focus as much on your call center's customer experience as it is to focus on the product/service you deliver/support.

2013 Customer Service Stats to Help you in 2014!

11 important statistics from last year to help you focus your efforts for this year to increase your overall customer satisfaction.

5 Tips for Coaching Staff with Call Recording Software

Several unique ways you can use phone recording software to improve customer service skills within your contact center.

Critical KPIs for your Call Center and Enterprise

Includes a matrix of over 25 important key performance indicators for your call center.

With 40+ Recording Vendors Who’s the Best and Why?

A detailed description of several key variables to consider when choosing a call recording system among the 40+ vendors today. 

You can Click Here to see all of our blog articles.

Did you know all the different types of insightful business data you can glean from your call recording software?  You can garner important information to help you make performance improvements and more informed business decisions.  This data goes far beyond the standard agent performance, quality monitoring type of data. There are likely some new types of data listed below that you might not have thought of before, and these can help you realize maximum value from your call recording system as well as drive improvements across specific areas of your organization.

Some of the key pieces of data you can glean from your call recording software include:

Geographic Purchasing Data - Which parts of the country or the world are most receptive to a new product or marketing campaign?  From this data you can ascertain some important insights regarding your products and specific markets.  The same holds true for particular vertical industries.  In other words, why are you receiving calls from a recent campaign from insurance company prospects (or from individuals in Greece) only?

Solution Problem Identification - You can determine which products/services are receiving the most support calls and can pass this information along to your product development and product marketing teams along with specifics on what the most prevalent problems were.

Competitive Intelligence - What are callers saying about what they like or don't like about the other products they've tried or are considering? Customers love to tell us how great our competitors and their offerings are.  What can we learn from this competitive data that can help us improve our products/services and sales and marketing campaigns moving forward?

Dispute Patterns - Are there certain geographies, industries or sizes of companies that are yielding more disputes than others?  What might this tell you?

Promotion Ideas - Customers often tell agents about a great promotion or deal a competitor is offering in hopes the company will match it, for example.  You can pass this important data on to your sales and marketing teams to help them with their efforts.

False Promises Data - What if your call center receives a bunch of cancellation calls for a specific product?  Might this tell you that the sales/marketing messaging around the product might be misleading and making false promises or claims?

These are just some of the many unique things you can learn from your call recording software.

Before you purchase a call recording solution you need to be sure you receive adequate answers to a number of very important questions.  The right answers to these questions will ensure the system will fit your specific needs, will scale with you as you grow and will  interoperate with your existing environment. 

These are the questions:

1. Do I pay upfront as a capital expenditure or is there a subscription fee?

2. Do I have to sign a long term contract or simply pay as I go?

3. What does the implementation process entail? How long? How much involvement is required on my end? Do I need to have specific technical expertise?

4. Do I have to pay for all features and capabilities or can I select what I want? In other words, is it a single integrated solution or modular and I can pick and choose call recording, quality monitoring, screen recording, live monitoring, mobile recording, etc.?

5. Is there an open API so I can integrate with my other existing applications?

6. What PBXs does the system support?

7. What are the ongoing maintenance requirements?

8. What is involved in customizing the software to my specific look and feel, requirements, etc.?  Does it require your professional services support?

9. How many current users/customers do you have?  What countries are they in?

10. How do I know you will be around in three to five years?

11. Can I review some customer success stories?

12. Do you offer a free trial so I can test the software out in my environment before I purchase?

13. What type of training do you offer and how long does it take to become proficient with the software? Is it easy to learn?

14. How many channels/seats can your software support?

15. Can I use my own server(s)?

16. Does your software support multi-site? How about multi-tenant?

17. Can I speak with some satisfied customers?

18. Is your software PCI Compliant? HIPAA Compliant?

19. Are recorded calls portable in an open-file format?

20. Do you support TDM and VoIP?

21. What if I need to add more users? Do I need more hardware? What is involved?

22. Do you offer mobile phone recording?

While call recording software can add significant value to your customer service, compliance and risk mitigation efforts, there are certain rules an organization must live by with regard to its use.

Call Recording Do's:

1. Set-up pre-defined search queries for the specific types of calls you are looking for (e.g. all calls that result in a cancelled order).  The availability of this intelligence will help you make important decisions.
2. Notify all customer-facing staff and customers that their calls are being recorded.
3. Record your sales calls too.  It helps to have recorded sales calls on hand to share with others that are brought in on the deal and also they are invaluable for training new salespersons.
4. Keep a repository of best and worst calls to help train new agents or to improve the skills of existing ones. Store calls that span all different types of interactions, including calls that resulted in a closed sale, up-sell, cancelled order, dispute, unhappy customer, etc. 
5. Be sure the call recording system you choose can integrate with most leading PBXs.  You may choose to replace your PBX one day or you might merge with/acquire another company that has a different PBX and you'll want to be able to integrate with that switch as well.

Call Recording Don'ts:

1. Don't purchase a call recording solution that doesn't also offer quality monitoring/selective recording because you may need/want it later on and you'd hate to have to migrate all of your recorded data to a new platform that can offer it.
2. Don't purchase a call recording solution without first trying it out.  Like anything else, you want to be sure it works in your environment, provides you with the functionality you require and is easy to navigate and utilize. 
3. Don't purchase call recording software that doesn't offer an open API so you are assured it will interoperate with your existing and future applications.
4. Don't under-utilize the system.  Ensure all staff that can benefit directly from the system are successfully trained on its use and have access to recordings.  This includes staff from Sales, Marketing, your Executive team and so on.  They can all realize significant value from hearing the actual voice of the customer.
5. Don't dump recordings before a year if possible.  You will see as times goes by how valuable these past calls can be for training, dispute resolution, agent incentivization and so on and you'll want to have them accessible for these reasons up to 12 months down the road.

How do you know when it's time to shelve the old call recording software and purchase a new call recording solution?

There are several signs to look out for, some of which may seem obvious while others may not:

1. The product's end of life is coming up and will no longer be supported.

2. The product can no longer scale up to support your growing needs (channels, sites, etc.).

3. It cannot easily integrate with other software you are installing. 

4. It requires too many IT support resources to maintain the system.

5. You are heavy into M&A activity and the current system cannot support the multiple PBXs of the various merging entities.

6. It does not have the added capabilities you need, such as quality monitoring, screen capture, live monitoring or even mobile recording.

7. It costs a lot of money to bring on new users, sites and/or capabilities, and it requires expensive professional services support to do these things.

8. The software does not support all of the compliance requirements you have to deal with, such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, Do Not Call, etc.

9. It is complicated to use and learn and takes too long to get new users up to speed.

2014 is right around the corner and now is the time to start thinking about your overall customer service capabilities, strategy and resource allocation. Do you have the right call recording and quality monitoring technology in place, for example?  Are you focused on the right metrics?

Below are several important statistics from this year to help you focus your efforts for next year so you can increase your overall customer satisfaction.

42% of service agents are unable to efficiently resolve customer issues due to disconnected systems, archaic user interfaces, and multiple applications. (Forrester)

89% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after experiencing poor customer service. (RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report)

Consumers are 2 times more likely to share their bad customer service experiences than they are to talk about positive experiences. (2012 Global Customer Service Barometer)

Consumers still prefer telephone assistance the most - Phone (61%), email (60%), Live Chat (57%), online knowledge base (51%), “click-to-call” support automation (34%). (eConsultancy)

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. (McKinsey)

Almost 10% of consumers have experienced being transferred from agent to agent without any resolution of their problem. (American Express)

A 10% increase in customer retention levels result in a 30% increase in the value of the company. (Bain & Co)

The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%.  (Marketing Metrics)

For every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent. (Lee Resource)

On average, agents spend 11% of their time looking for information needed to manage customer interactions. (Aberdeen Group)

46% of contact centers identify improving agent productivity and utilization as a main objective. (Aberdeen Group)

Only 26% of companies have a well-developed strategy in place for improving the customer experience. (Econsultancy MultiChannel Customer Experience Report)

A good, inexpensive and easy to install call recording and quality monitoring system can help you address these and many more customer service needs.

Almost one in every three people in the world uses email, and there are over 6.8 billion mobile subscribers globally.  This same ubiquity should hold true for call recording.  The ability to record calls enables you to document and store important business discussions, treasured personal conversations and more.  Wouldn't it be great to be able to go back and pull up that call you had with that client a few weeks ago who mentioned that great new product idea?  Or how about that call you had with your 1 year old last month in which he spoke for the first time? What about that last call you had with your loved one that recently passed on?

Having these conversations recorded and stored for easy access would add significant value to our lives.  Wouldn't it?

I think we take for granted just how big a part of our life the telephone still is.  Sure we are all texting, emailing and chatting more and more, but I'll bet you placed or received at least one phone call in the last 24 hours.  Am I right?

Why shouldn't we all (whether big business, entrepreneur or everyday individual) have access to call recording that is either free or extremely inexpensive so we can leverage its value to our business and/or personal lives?  The cell phone is a seminal component to our every day lives now and we do not have a foundational capability that we should have with it - recording our calls.

While I am primarily referencing cell phone recording, this same premise applies to landline phones too.  Most of us still use them at home and especially at work.

In order for the pervasiveness of call recording to explode, several things have to happen:

1. People need to embrace the concept of recording business and personal calls.

2. Mobile apps for cell phones need to emerge.

3. The cost of call recording software needs to come down dramatically from most vendors (OrecX is already extremely affordable!).