Jon Silverman, CTO, Calabrio Inc. You Asked Can you tie Workforce Optimization tools into a unified desktop view?

To put this in perspective, let's discuss why a single view of the customer is important. In the contact center, agents are at the front-line of customer interaction. Because the service they deliver plays such a critical role in customer satisfaction and retention, agents have at their disposal many, many tools to improve their efficiency and productivity. The challenge is that most of the tools may co-exist on the desktop. However, these tools have little or no integration, forcing agents to toggle back and forth between applications.

A typical contact center agent uses CRM applications, catalogs, finance applications, knowledge bases, softphone tools, scripting, chat and email, to name a few. There’s also data, including current call activity, call history and real time operational state. When these tools are not integrated, too much time can be spent toggling between applications, looking for information and updating data in multiple locations. This takes away from time that could be better spent focused on the customer.

A single view of the customer ties the tools and information together. The agent then has a quick and easy view of all of the information required to understand and address the customer needs. The benefits include a greater understanding of customer history, needs and priorities and allow agents to address the needs of the customer the first time, every time. This contributes greatly to both efficiency and customer satisfaction.

The Value of Workforce Optimization

Unifying agent tools streamline processes. Tying in workforce optimization helps agents focus on delivering maximum value to the business based on goals – in other words, it makes them more effective. For the agents, these tools include the day’s schedule, future schedules, PTO and time trade requests, a performance score card, personal recordings and evaluations, and eLearning. By knowing the team’s schedule, presence and current call volume, agents can make informed decisions about whether or not, for example, they should go on break or request to leave work early.

Other critical information includes key performance indicators, or KPIs, that measure an agent's performance. Supervisors use KPIs to determine, for example, if their agents are meeting sales quotas, consistently delivering quality customer service and upholding high customer satisfaction levels.

These are not new ideas. Many contact centers have some level of monitoring, quality management or workforce management systems in place to measure, evaluate and train agents based on performance. However, oftentimes this becomes yet another collection of tools on the desktop. Lack of integration between workforce optimization solutions and agent workflows can contribute to greater inefficiency in business processes. It can also result in conflicting data or gaps in information.

By weaving these performance tools within the agent’s unified desktop toolset, the view of the customer becomes clear and continuous performance improvements become integral to the agent’s daily process.

Tips for Implementation

Before you start, a clear understanding of business goals is critical. Most companies will want to avoid large development costs or on-going support fees. Depending upon the scope, projects could take as few as three months to more than a year.

The important thing to know is that it does not all have to be built from scratch. Contact centers should take advantage of pre-packaged, integrated tools to get to 80 percent of the solution. When looking at pre-packaged tools, make sure to look for a framework that is web-based, or based off a service-oriented architecture. This will make integrating with additional third party applications much easier.

If it is a large project, it is best to prioritize and approach it in phases so it doesn’t overwhelm your business. If bottom line profitability is the goal, unifying CRM and other applications and automating workflows for greater efficiency are good places to start. If growing revenue is the objective, focus on getting quality management and performance management tools into the hands of agents and supervisors first.

The benefits are clear: a happier workforce in a well-run contact center that clearly and effectively supports the goals of the overall business.

Jon Silverman is CTO of Calabrio, Inc., a provider of unified desktop and workforce optimization software for small to large IP-based contact centers. He can be reached at jon.silverman@calabrio.com. Calabrio Inc.