Contact Centers

Today's contact center is widely recognized as a critical business function. It represents the ears of the organization, collecting valuable customer data that can lead to overall business improvement and increased customer satisfaction. Consequently, organizations don't want to hand over their contact center operations to just any company. Nor do many want to hand over the entire operation.

Today, most contact centers outsource on a smaller scale, using the outsourcer as a strategic extension of their own center to help fill in gaps, handle overflow, and expand services, hours of operation and/or channel options.

In the government, it is more and more accepted that contact centers are not part of their core competencies and the whole contact center business function is outsourced to provide a better citizen-centric approach.

We offer you complete or partially outsourced Contact Center operations.

In order to assist you the best we can, we embrace the latest tools, trends and best practices to provide you with the solutions that fit your specific situation and needs.

• Operations
  
• Quality Assurance
• Forecasting and Scheduling
• Content Management
• Telecommunications System
• Business Continuity
• Program Management
• Statement of Work Activities

Operations

Operations include quality assurance, staffing, forecasting, on-site IT management and support, and telecommunications for a turnkey solution. We offer industry leading contact center practices following methodology recommended by the Incoming Customer Management Institute (ICMI). Our managers, supervisors, trainers and quality analysts therefore follow leading practices leaving nothing to chance. Processes and metrics are fully documented to ensure consistency and accuracy.

Quality Assurance

We maintain a quality program that combines process, technology, and practice management in order to ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved. Every call may be recorded for quality purposes. The supervisor uses a scorecard questionnaire to score the agent contact. Agents are routinely reviewed and given their own scorecard report and allowed to see how they rate versus the group. Using examples of high scoring contacts, the supervisor coaches and mentors agents on a regular basis. A scorecard report is shared with the customer on a weekly or monthly basis.

Forecasting and Scheduling

Forecasting and Scheduling is handled with appropriate processes per the size of agents and number of contacts. ICMI recommends use of a spreadsheet program to assist in the case of smaller contact centers. In larger centers, we have access to automated workforce management software that is a part of an overall contact center interaction management system. Schedule adherence reports are also available to the customer as part of the ongoing program management.

Content Management

Access to content entails three parts: technology, training, and ongoing content management. Data access to your systems is handled via a secured data link that is maintained at our site. Agents access customer data and account information from their desktop through secured login. Software support is handled through our IT staff. Training on account screens and how to handle inquiries is developed in close cooperation with the customer, and is given onsite during the implementation with a train the trainer format to the contact center supervisor. We participate in ongoing updates to frequently asked questions or other content management systems through a documented knowledge management process.

Telecommunications System

We use your telecommunications/ contact center system or use our own: We have access to a state-of-the-art interaction management system that provides all inbound automatic call distribution, e-mail handling, fax handling, and web chat/collaboration activities, reports management, real-time monitoring and service level management, quality assurance, and much more.

Business Continuity

If you choose to use our telecommunications system and outsource a part of your contact center services to our non-profit's off-site location, we offer you a business continuity solution as well. Our software-based approach to interaction handling allows us to offer your own agent access to our system from any remote location in case of disaster. During times of outage, disaster, or lack of access to your contact center sites, calls/contacts are redirected to our system. Your agents log in from home or other site in order to participate in the contact center activity. Your agents will require data access to your systems and to the small footprint client software from our contact center system. This can be arranged and tested in advance with a specific group and in case of major outage, extended to a larger group within hours.

Program Management

We maintain contact center operations and report to you based on the statement of work as to service level adherence, quality assurance, and staffing plans. We provide project management assistance during the implementation and transition. Implementation and coordination is handled with a specific project plan that is detailed from your Statement of Work.

Statement of Work Activities

We have assisted numerous customers with the development of a statement of work that outlines specific deliverables, functional requirements, and plans for project coordination and cooperation. We have several Statement of Work templates to assist with detailed requirements. These templates are based on the type of contact center service/solution combination you need. A detailed price proposal is developed based on the statement of work.