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!
- Joeb Logger
