“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

We’d like to share the top questions from the Q&A segment of the webinar:

Q: Can we blackout a sensitive field like a credit card number?

A: Yes. cc: Fusion can send blackout triggers to hide the screen capture and mute audio recording while sensitive information is being passed across the line.

Q: How is cc: Fusion looking for certain screen events to trigger an alarm? Is it looking at certain quadrants on the agent’s screen?

A: cc: Fusion is not doing geographical scraping (also known as X,Y coordinate scraping). It establishes unique identities for each field on a screen and applies logic matches to know what/when to parse values out of them.

Q: Does Fusion work with all desktop environments (PC, Citrix, Wnterm, etc.)?

A: Yes.

Q: Is cc: Fusion available as a stand-alone application, or only as a part of the CallCopy recording suite?

A: cc: Fusion is not currently available as a stand-alone application as it relies on communication with the CallCopy API server.

Q: Can fusion deliver prompts to agent based on screen activity? For example an upsell reminder.

A: cc: Fusion is currently communicates with the CallCopy API. We will be introducing functionality in the future that would allow for it to extend its reach to 3rd party components.

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.

We were excited to be able to sponsor lunch for the U-Haul team and prizes for team members recognized in the following categories (based on interactions recorded with CallCopy software of course): Above and Beyond, Most Improved, Overcoming the Objections, Perfect Tone of Voice, and Sharp Listening.

Thank you to our fabulous customers for the opportunity to be a part of this exciting event!

As you enjoy the week and take part in a host of agent-appreciation events, remember to celebrate people skills with these six simple tips from customer services guru and people-skills coach Kate Nasser:

1) An authentic smile changes everything. On the phone, in person, and even the words you use in text, chat, emails, and your website design should smile at the customer.

Studies show that a physical smile can actually change the way you sound on the phone.  Use this technique to your advantage.

2) Treat people the way they want to be treated — not the way you want to be treated.

This is important to keep in mind as every customer is different!

3) Be the sun, not a thorn. Even with thorny difficult customers, be the sun.  Shine light on the problem to be solved and fix it.

There will always be difficult customers; remember to not take it personally and to shine on!

4) A plane flies well on auto-pilot mode. Customer service doesn’t! Adapt to each customer — personalize and localize including personality type, culture, geographic differences, and generational differences.

Not only is every customer unique, but every contact is unique is well.  Use all information at your disposal to create the best customer service experience possible – every time.

5) Empathize before you analyze! Show customers you care and they will care enough to help you help them.

In most cases, customers are more than willing to tell you what they want or need.  Listen to their suggestions and be considerate of any emotional responses.

6) Kindness transcends constraints. (Tristan Bishop) There are obstacles and challenges in customer service and technical support. Kindness to the customer ensures a continued bond while you work to overcome the challenges.

Kindness is key.  In customer service, in life.

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!

This is a big win for CallCopy. Although I am named on the award, this is truly an award for the company, its owners, and of course our family of employees. It is a culmination of the hard work, dedication, and passion that we all have to each other and to our customers.

It seems like it was just yesterday that our founding team Jeff Canter, Rick Daley, Patrick Hall, Mark Studer, Tarne Tassniyom and I joined forces to promote and grow what at that time was just a software application called CallCopy. Out of sacrifice we, and our families, dedicated valuable time and sweat equity to create a company that at its core is about having an excellent work environment, passion for our customers and each other, and constant innovation.

Without our employees this would not have been possible. We are blessed to have a team who strives towards those same core values each and every day; a team that constantly goes above and beyond without expecting or asking for gratitude, and a team that won’t allow internal barriers inhibiting the delivery of service based on the highest standards in our industry.

CallCopy has grown significantly over the past several years. Financially we have doubled year over year in revenues while remaining profitable and only taking on a small amount of debt in regards to the build out of our new facility. Although this is an indicator of strength, the true strength comes from within. It is the continued passion and energy that is still being delivered from our founding team and our employees that is the true reason for our strength and this award.

As we celebrate this award/nomination we must think about those who this ceremony truly celebrates.

• Nick Anastos
• Brad Anderson
• Chris Anderson
• George Barsa
• Keith Bennett
• Kent Bowen
• Jeff Canter
• Andy Courneya
• Jon Dunham
• Cheryl Eddy
• Shawn Eddy
• Charlie Emminger
• Ken Falk
• Matt Garrett
• Patrick Hall
• Julie Harrington
• Todd Hersey
• Shirley Hoff
• Kate Hornik
• Joe Keeran
• Barb Kendrick
• George Kerber
• Barry Knack
• Keith Kress
• Matthew Lehmer
• Matt Madzia
• Jeff Meador
• Beki Nowlan
• Morgan Nunnery
• Ken O’Donnell
• Kerry O’Donnell
• Scott O’Neal
• Ed Porter
• Cheryl Rankin
• Jeff Rector
• Michael Reeves
• Matt Reynolds
• Frank Rollings
• Kevin Seeley
• Chris Sellers
• David Siegel
• Jason Snyder
• Michael Sretenovic
• Ross Stevens
• Mark Studer
• Michael Sugg
• Tara Swartz
• Tarne Tassniyom
• Tom Taylor
• Beki Thomas
• Daniel Thomas
• Jackson Tremaine
• Lee Vaughn
• Laura Watkins
• Timothy Williams
• Yao Xie
• Nicole Young

Thank you all for helping CallCopy achieve this recognition.

– Ray