Voice Processing Fundamentals

Customers demand convenience. They want information quickly, but they also want specialized attention. And they want to reach you on their timetable, not necessarily yours.

Voice response assures callers reach the right department without the need for an agent. Callers like having options. They hate being forced to wait in queue. Voice processing means you can offer them options. Depending on the technology you use, they can leave a message for a return phone call, retrieve information themselves, or request that it be sent to them.

And the benefits to you are even greater. When you use a voice processing system, more calls get handled through the system. Instead of paying your reps to answer every call, they can handle just the callers who ask to speak to them. Depending on circumstances, you’ll be able to handle higher call volumes with the same number of reps.

Information that an IVR system captures is always accurate. It comes firsthand, from the customer. By now everyone realizes the value of customer information. You can use it for cross marketing, surveying demographics about who your customers are, and so much more.

A lot of information about IVR will be presented in the next section. IVR is a special animal; it’s the key voice processing component in call centers, worthy of special attention. What this chapter will do is explain some of the other voice technologies that are available. These technologies, like speech recognition and automated attendants are, if not critical, then important for specific applications and industries.

Less than 10 years ago it was possible to go through each voice processing technology and give an example of a standalone system that offered that technology. Today’s systems are much more sophisticated.

These days certain technologies are found almost exclusively as functions in larger systems. It’s likely that some or all of these are included in the ACD you’ve already got, whether you use them or not. (Maybe in reading this brief chapter you will see the virtue of simple voice functions and trot out your ACD manual to get some of them turned on.)

When there is a standalone product, it is almost always aimed at the low end of the market. But today’s voice processing market is also a place where you can get what you want — exactly what you want. The hottest technologies are application generation software products, voice boards and the accessories needed to create “do it yourself” voice processing systems.

Here, I’ve outlined the technologies that are available. In a sense, all I’m really doing is showing you how some core voice technology (voice boards plus some software logic) can be put to use. There is precious little difference between auto attendants and their grown-up cousin, IVR, besides power, scalability and feature set. Under the hood, they are all essentially the same. But no matter what type of voice system you choose, they all share one common characteristic — you’ll be more productive and will save money in the long run.

Computer Telephony

Any company’s main focus should be its customers: fielding their calls, delivering service, getting orders out the door, making sales. The easier it is for a customer to get in touch with you, the better the relationship will be. Companies that do the best job of opening the door to customers, those that make it as easy as possible for customers to find out what they need to know, are the ones that have the best track records in the long term. Small and medium-sized companies that have adopted customer-focused attitudes have, over time, become giants of their industries.

Over the past few years there has been much discussion of the pros and cons of a new set of technologies called CTI, or computer/telephone integration (or just computer telephony — they all mean the same thing). Computer telephony was designed specifically to enable better contact between companies and their customers.

It is a loose but complicated amalgamation of interlocking technologies. It isn’t any one thing, not any one piece of hardware or software. It’s a way of combining the two streams of information — voice and data — through open, standards-based systems. It has uses in all areas of modern business, but its most dramatic possibility is in the call center. If implemented well, it can improve the way a company interacts with its customers, which of course, is the whole point behind the call center.

Computer telephony is a way of reaching beyond the traditional limitations of either of the component technologies (phones and computers) and bringing them together in a way that improves them both, by bringing more information to the person on the phone, and making the data behind the scenes much more flexible.

Think about it. The ability to integrate your computer and telecom system could bring the customer’s phone call along with his datafile right to the agent’s desktop, as the call comes in. This translates to massive savings in 800 line charges and agent labor.

In practice, implementing computer telephony has been a dicey proposition. Until very recently, it was largely custom, with each venturesome company taking the plunge using a systems integrator to cobble together all the necessary links, proprietary interfaces and special connections to applications. The benefits are easy to see, but sometimes difficult to achieve. Most call center CTI experiences begin with good intentions. Somehow, they don’t all end up that way. Imagine this scenario:

Your company is facing stiff competition and is growing rapidly, resulting in a certain amount of customer tension — people have a hard time getting you on the phone when things go wrong. It takes too long for sales reps to respond to good leads. Emails come in from customers and go...you’re not exactly sure where. Same thing for fax traffic. You don’t even have time to think about the traffic coming in from your website (and whether your site is connected to your call center).

You hear that there are technologies out there that promise relief. They promise to tear down the walls between you and your customers by bringing voice and data together. You swallow the bait. You hire a consultant and they present you with a plan. Screen pop, says the consultant. When a call comes in, shouldn’t the agent have all the information? Sounds good, you say. Single point of contact, he says. So when a customer calls, whoever handles it has all the relevant info. Makes sense, you say. Links between the switch and the host. Connections everywhere.

Of course it makes sense. And before you know it, you are in the middle of an implementation. The months drag on. The consultant puts a dollar figure on the technology, but once he’s gone from the scene you realize that his number didn’t include things like training, or coordinating what happens in the center with what goes on in other departments. Of course, the technology works, but do the people know how to work the technology?

A year later, you are staring at the prospect of starting all over, with a different set of technological priorities, a different consultant, but the same basic feeling in your gut that yes, you do need to get closer to your customer. You just need a better way to get from Point A to Point B — one that has clearly defined cost and benefit signposts along the way.

For most of the 1990s, installing CTI systems was an incredibly custom job that involved detailed on-site “fixing” to make sure that everything worked together. Luckily, things have changed a lot.

Computer telephony is simply defined as “adding computer intelligence to the phone call.” When you think of it that way, everything from simple screen pop to predictive dialing becomes, at one level or another, a computer telephony application. Depending on your call center’s level of sophistication, and the capabilities of the underlying telecom infrastructure, you may already be using core computer telephony technologies.

Contract negotiation

Businesses that do not diligently manage their telecom expenses always pay too much. Telephone companies make a lot of money from customers who do not proactively manage their phone expenses. The customer audits his bills, fine-tunes his telephone accounts, and takes action to reduce his costs. This post will offers proactive cost management strategies for dealing with telecom contracts. Negotiating a new contract is the single most significant way for a business to cut its telecom costs.

The basic elements of a telecom contract and the most common special clauses that may be in a contract, then offers advice on how to negotiate a favorable contract with a telecom carrier. The information applies to all types of telecom contracts, including local service, long-distance, data, and wireless service.

The three phases of procuring telecom services are represented by the following documents:

The proposal;

The contract;

The phone bill.

The carrier first gives a proposal for services. A contract is signed. Then, a month later, the customer receives his first phone bill. To avoid being overcharged, the customer must give careful attention to each of these three phases. Only then can a business stay in control of its expenses. Phone companies are normally not out to deceive their customers, but their complex bureaucratic processes frequently put the customer in an unfavorable position. Telecom contract negotiation has many pitfalls that open up a business to undue financial risk.

Every customer’s situation is unique. Service offerings and contracts vary from carrier to carrier. But some things remain consistent, and this will explain the contracts and tactics most frequently used in today’s marketplace.

Circuit switching

Circuit switching

Overview
The original telephone service consisted of two phones in two separate locations connected by a single line. To call multiple locations required multiple phone lines. Cities across America began to be covered with a network of unsightly telephone wires. After the switchboard was invented, a person could call any other phone using a single telephone line. Half a century later, the same situation occurred, except this time it was with data calls instead of voice calls.

With dedicated private lines, two remote computers connect over a distance using a fixed circuit. That circuit cannot be shared by anyone else. But the phone companies do not like their lines being tied up, so they invented circuit switching.

With circuit switching, the caller (normally a computer) dials the other caller and the two have exclusive use of the phone line until they decide to end the communication. Once the communication is finished, the connection ends and the line is available for another caller. Circuit switching works just like a regular voice phone call between two people; they call, they chat, they hang up.

At the beginning of each circuit switched call, the network determines the route of the call. That path, or circuit, is open for the duration of the call. On the next call, the network may choose an alternate path (see Figure 1). With packet switching, the network establishes a permanent route for the call. On each call, the data travels across the same path in the network. In frame-relay networks, this is called a PVC.


Figure 1: Circuit switching.