“About a year ago I wrote that CallCopy had emerged as a major vendor of agent performance management (APM) software…”

In order better reflect current market conditions and to “recognize that companies now have to manage more channels of communication and that more people, including home workers, are engaged in handling interactions,” Ventana has refined its definition of agent performance management (APM) to include interaction recording, quality monitoring, workforce management, training, coaching, incentive management, agent-related analytics and performance management.

“My research into the state of contact center technology shows that many companies use stand-alone products for call recording and quality monitoring. But more mature companies are now considering integrated product suites such as CallCopy’s that integrate all the components of APM. Such systems can reduce effort by enabling passage of data between applications and thus provide a more holistic approach to managing the total workforce who handle customer interactions.”

CallCopy also recognizes the tremendous value in being able to deliver a more holistic view of the contact center. This is why we continue to develop new features and functionality within our solution suite, with desktop analytics being the latest addition. It’s this type of forward thinking and innovation that provides value to our customers and in turn has led to our own organizational success.

Thank you for the continued coverage, Richard!

The survey, conducted by industry analyst DMG Consulting LLC (DMG), is designed to assist contact center and IT managers in selecting the best solution, technology and partner to meet their organization’s current and future needs.

“CallCopy received impressive results in DMG’s workforce optimization customer satisfaction study. The results are a clear indication that CallCopy is highly committed to their clients and working hard to deliver products and services that address their needs.” – Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting

For the report, DMG surveyed customers of thirteen leading workforce optimization (WFO) solution providers. Participants were asked to rate their level of satisfaction in eleven product-related categories and eight vendor-related categories. In addition to receiving the highest average Product satisfaction rating, CallCopy received the highest rating in eight of the eleven product-related categories, including six perfect scores of 5.0 (completely satisfied) and two in which they shared the top score.

To view the full results of the satisfaction survey, visit www.callcopy.com/dmg

The report, Unlocking Business Intelligence in the Contact Center reveals opportunities for your organization to improve performance by leveraging business intelligence mined from data collected via contact center and CRM software.

As your partner in success, we’re excited to offer you a complimentary copy of this new report. Download it now to learn how best-in-class organizations were able to achieve:

• Cost savings of 45% per call,
• 27% higher first call resolution (FCR) rates, and
• Daily closure rate improvements nearly double the industry average.

» Access Your Complimentary Copy of the Report Now

» Learn How CallCopy Can Help You Achieve Best-in-Class Results

Please note that this $399 value expires 12/3/2010.

For years, Americans have had their phone calls about credit card bills and broken cell phones handled by people in the Philippines or India. But American firms are starting to bring call centers back to the U.S. — and this time around, they are hiring more people to work in their own homes.

Home workers [...] represent one of the cheapest models for customer service. There are an estimated 60,000 people doing call center work from home.

[...] Industry watchers say so-called home sourcing will continue to grow as companies look for quality that used to be harder to afford.

We’ve seen many of our customers make this transition from brick-and-mortar call centers with higher overhead costs to work-at-home agents who are granted a sense of autonomy and independence.  It’s really a win-win situation for both the organization and the employee.

In fact, this shift in the market inspired our latest whitepaper, Building a Work-at-Home Program: What You Need to Know About the New Agent Spectrum.  This resource provides best practices for using workforce optimization applications to meet the demands of a shifting work environment, and empowers decision makers to deploy effective solutions.

• Download our Building a Work-at-Home Program: What You Need to Know About the New Agent Spectrum whitepaper.

We’re always eager to hear what customers and analysts really think about our solutions.  Honest feedback helps us shape and plan for future releases and gives us insight into the wants and needs of the market.

Naturally, we were excited to be featured in a recent blog post by Richard Snow, Global VP & Research Director at Ventana Research.  The post, CallCopy Emerges as a Player in Agent Performance Management, is a great review of our solutions from a respected industry analyst, and showcases CallCopy as a proven vendor in the agent performance management arena.

Overall, we’re thrilled with the coverage, but one part stood out to us in particular. After having spoken with several CallCopy users, Richard points out that while they are “well satisfied with the products,” the training we provide has room for improvement.  Fortunately, thanks to feedback collected during our ongoing customer surveys, we were already aware of this shortfall and had taken steps to enhance our training program.

Barry Knack was recently hired as CallCopy’s new Director of Education, and will spearhead our efforts to deliver the best training in the market. Barry brings extensive experience in the areas of coaching and training, combined with great leadership and high energy. With these skills, Barry and his team are working to rejuvenate CallCopy’s training offerings to meet the high standards we’ve set for ourselves. Look for additional news in the coming months, as we roll out new training features to serve our users, alongside our free monthly training sessions and active user community.

Thanks for this valuable piece of research, Richard!

In addition to a fantastic view, the festivities included a band, plenty of ice cream, and lots of time to socialize with CallCopy friends and their families before the “Ooohs” and “Ahhhs” ensued.

Happy belated Fourth of July from all of us here at CallCopy!

Whether your organization performs manual or automated quality assurance (QA), call center coaching forms are an integral component of an overall QA program.

Developing Call Center Coaching Forms

There are several components you’ll want to consider when developing call center coaching forms for your organization.  For example, your call center coaching forms and the weighting of different sections should mirror your organization’s customer service goals and priorities.  In addition, ensure that all requirements are met by involving staff from different areas and levels of the organization.  Regardless of these special considerations, there are certain components that all call center coaching forms should include, such as:

• A section analyzing the opening and closing of the call.
• Space to define strengths and weaknesses associated with system knowledge, resolution skills, product knowledge and familiarity with business processes.
• A section reviewing the overall communication skills of the agent.
• An area to identify applicable best practices and up-training opportunities.

Because these requirements overlap from industry to industry, many companies choose to base their call center coaching forms on a pre-existing or sample form (CallCopy provides several sample forms in our Contact Center QA Guide).

Once a form is completed, review the results with the agent, either by scheduling time with the agent for a coaching session, or by using a tool like CallCopy to share the evaluation with the agent.  Follow up with the agent directly, or use our tracking tools to ensure that the agent has reviewed the content.

Why Use Call Center Coaching Forms

Ultimately, the end goal of any QA program should be to facilitate increased customer satisfaction.  In addition, call center coaching forms can help improve agent productivity, ensure better transaction quality and reduce enterprise risk.

Learn more:

• cc: Quality | Quality Management
• cc: Agent | Agent Coaching & Training
• Download our Contact Center QA Guide
• Download our Improving the Customer Experience with Peer-based QM Whitepaper

We spent part of the day this past Friday moving, unpacking and getting settled in at the new digs.  Everyone helped out to make the move go as smoothly as possible and we’re all happy to have more space with room to grow!

As you may know, we’ve seen rapid growth in recent years and this move is a direct result of our continued organizational expansion.  We’d like to thank our customers and partners for their continued support.

When the brunt of the storms rendered other Columbus, Ohio offices (and offices across the country, for that matter), non-operational, we were able to work from home thanks to our communications infrastructure and our own CallCopy software.  As the Avaya Insights blog points out, snow days don’t mean what they used to….

For many organizations, hazardous weather conditions have historically meant that when school districts close, parents are forced to either try to find a babysitter at the last minute or take the day off to watch their kids. Inclement weather also traditionally means longer, more dangerous commutes for employees, shorter work days, and above all else, lost productivity.

But that was then, and this is now: our software can record our work-at-home IP phones, and our tools can be accessed remotely via VPN. To ensure our continued operations, we utilize the same technologies that our customers rely upon.

One customer leveraging this functionality is Mohawk Flooring. Using CallCopy software alongside their Avaya Unified Communications infrastructure, Mohawk was able to ensure business continuity despite a crippling ice storm impacting their Dallas, Texas facility several months ago. Agents were able to work from home during the ordeal, eliminating risky commutes and decreased productivity.

To remain competitive, businesses need to be well-equipped to handle inclement weather or even more extreme scenarios such as a pandemic, flu outbreak or natural disaster.

Fortunately, CallCopy’s solutions allow businesses to rest easy knowing that their employees can maintain productivity regardless of the situation. Our contact recording and screen capture technology allows organizations to manage the performance of remote workers – so they remain both safe and productive.

You can trust that CallCopy is working hard to bring you the absolute best solutions and service possible.

“Having a relationship with customers rather than viewing [each one] as a number…that’s [CallCopy’s] number-one differentiation.”

As Ray Bohac, CallCopy’s president and CEO put it in an email to the CallCopy team, “Time and time again, we’ve won customers not only as a result of our first-rate solution offering, but also because we provide something unique and rare in today’s business world – a solid relationship with our prospects and customers.”

“[CallCopy is] beginning to encroach upon the Tier 1 revenue stream, thanks to solid technology, a much-lower price point, and a higher level of support.”

Since the beginning, innovation has been one of CallCopy’s core values.  Our product roadmap is driven by customer suggestions and feature requests – meaning that it’s customers like you that influence and shape the solutions we build.

We would like to thank you for your business, your support, and for the part you play in making CallCopy an industry leader.

» Read the press release
» View the CRM magazine article
» Learn more about CallCopy’s WFO solution