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Contact centre technologies – Issue three

Hello, from Aculab call central.

In this post, the third of these, I’ll be taking a closer look at the technology used in contact centres. If you’ve got a question, you’re welcome to post it below, in the comments section.

Diallers – how and why

In the previous post, I introduced predictive diallers, with the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of using them.

Diallers are used to increase productivity by predicting the number of calls that need to be generated to ensure that a real person on a call can always be connected to an agent or account representative.

That provides the agent with a steady flow of live contacts and increases h[is/er] ability to get a payment or a promise-to-pay, or whatever other appropriate result is desired.

In fact, with outbound IVR, you might not wish to connect to an agent; merely wish to play a recorded message to a real subscriber rather than their answering machine. But that’s a thought for another post.

Detection functions

We met call progress analysis (CPA) in an earlier post as a means of screening no-answers, busy signals and disconnects, in order to present only live speakers to agents.

CPA takes place as the outbound call is being established (the pre-connect phase) and as it’s being answered (the post-connect phase).

Essentially, CPA employs a number of detection functions – telephony resources or media processing firmware and algorithms typically provided by DSP boards or host media processing (HMP) software – which listen on the line and determine what is happening.

Proceeding in an orderly manner

Those telephony resource functions detect information from the telephone network, such as dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals, used to enter a PIN, for example, and what are known as call progress tones. That latter includes ringing, busy/engaged, voicemail, special information tones (SIT) or ‘triple tones’, and fax tones. And, in addition to all that, there are ‘caller ring-back tones’ (CRBT), which just might be music file, instead of ringing.

Answering the call

Also mentioned previously was answering machine detection (AMD), which involves telephony resource algorithms that detect the frequency, noise gate and energy of the audio signal. By doing so, the firmware attempts to distinguish whether the call is answered by a human, or if a voicemail or answering machine greeting is being presented on the line.

Unfortunately, there’s no BS detector – or expletive detector.

What if…

Other software, associated with the telephony line protocol in use, provides complete cause code functionality for non-connected or disconnected calls, which is useful for statistical analysis and, of course, to direct the dialler application’s behaviour during operation.

So now we know

So now we know all we want or need to know about the call – before it’s passed to an IVR or to an agent. But there are implications to consider, which I’ll look into in the next post. Don’t miss it. Bye!

Contact centre technologies – Issue two

Hello, from Aculab call central.

In this post, the second of several, I’ll be taking a further look at the technology used in contact centres. If you’ve got a question, you’re welcome to post it below, in the comments section.

Recap

In the last post, I introduced call progress analysis (CPA) and answering machine detection (AMD). Those functionalities are used to underpin contact centre technologies that are variously described as interactive voice messaging (IVM), ‘outbound IVR’ or predictive dialling.

Companies involved in proactive notification services, sending out alerts and other information, such as political messages during election campaigns, make use of IVM or outbound IVR. In the healthcare sector, broadcast fax is used extensively in the management of appointments to improve things like ‘did not attend’ performance. Companies whose business is debt and subscription collections make extensive use of diallers.

Terminology

It’s worth pointing out that the term ‘predictive dialling’ is synonymous with power dialling, preview dialling, and progressive or agent-less dialling. We’ll just call them diallers for short.

How it’s used

Diallers use CPA as a means of guaranteeing contacts, which they do by screening no-answers, busy signals and disconnects, in order to present only live speakers to contact centre agents. They use AMD to distinguish whether a call is being answered by a human or an answering machine, or if a voicemail greeting is being presented on the line.

An outbound dialler is typically a server that has been preconfigured to make calls automatically, under control of a software application, to a list of customers or prospects.

Why they’re used

A fully integrated dialler is used to increase productivity by anticipating (or predicting – hence the name; clever, huh!) the number of calls that need to be generated to ensure that a live call can always be connected to an agent or account representative.

A model solution

When calling consumers or subscribers at home, it’s not untypical for only one in five calls to be answered by a real person. Diallers solve this problem using mathematical modelling or virtual simulation to determine the appropriate number of calls to make at any given time to maximise agent productivity.

That relieves agents of the dialling function and provides them with a steady flow of live contacts.

Benefits

Dialler technology increases an agent's ability to speak to the right person at the right time and increases the chances of getting a payment, a promise-to-pay or whatever other appropriate result is desired.

Diallers are cool!

Next post coming soon – don’t miss it

Check back next week for more, when I’ll be looking in more detail at what happens during a call. Bye for now!

Contact centre technologies – Issue one

Hello, from Aculab call central.

My name is Joeb Logger and in this post, the first of a few, I’ll be looking at the technology used in contact centres. If you’ve got a question, you’re welcome to post it below, in the comments section.

Nothing new

Multi-channel contact centres are not a new concept. They have been around for years and are a vital business tool for many organisations. Contact centres play a central part in developing customer relationships and revenues.

In the early days, when we used to refer to them as call centres, the majority were intended to handle inbound call traffic. These days, there are as many outbound contact centres as there are inbound.

Usage strategies

Many businesses incorporate proactive notification strategies in their operations. Some companies make voice and/or fax broadcasting their business, sending out information as diverse as weather alerts or ‘snow day’ warnings for schools and colleges, and political messages, which go out during election campaigns. In the healthcare sector, broadcast fax is used extensively in the management of appointments to improve things like ‘did not attend’ performance. And of course, debt and subscription collections make extensive use of predictive dialler systems.

The technologies

The technologies used are often referred to as interactive voice messaging (IVM) or ‘outbound IVR’ or predictive dialling. However, those technologies rely on other functionalities, such as call progress analysis (CPA) and answering machine detection (AMD).

The functionalities

I’ll cover CPA and AMD in more detail in future blog posts, but at this stage:

• CPA takes place during the pre- and post-connect phases of an outbound call attempt. Its purpose is to guarantee contacts by screening or filtering no-answers, busy signals and disconnects, in order to present only live speakers to contact centre agents.
• AMD is a function of CPA and is used to distinguish whether a call is being answered by a human or an answering machine, or if a voicemail greeting is being presented on the line.

The ultimate test of these enabling technologies is how quickly and accurately their analysis can differentiate between the various line tones, ‘PIN numbers’, a human “Hello?” or an answering machine, before connecting the call to your agent.

Next post due soon – don’t miss it

Check back next week for more, when I’ll be taking a closer look at where such functionalities are used.

Bye for now!