Optimizing of a call center for computer users

Contents

List of figures

List of tables

1 Introduction

2 Call Center Specifics In General
2.1 The Call Center Activities
2.2 The Call Center Technology
2.2.1 Telecommunication Facility
2.2.2 Automatic Call Distribution - ACD
2.2.3 Routing
2.2.4 Interactive Voice Response - IVR
2.2.5 Dialers
2.2.6 Call Blending
2.2.7 Computer Telephony Integration - CTI
2.2.7.1 CTI Applications
2.2.7.2 CTI Solutions
2.2.7.3 Standards
2.2.8 From Call Center To Contact Center
2.2.8.1 Fax Services
2.2.8.2 E-Mail Management
2.2.8.3 Web-Chat
2.2.8.4 Shared Browsing And Call Me - Button
2.2.9 Asyncronous Transfer Mode - ATM
2.2.10 IP - Telephony
2.3 The Call Center Personnel
2.3.1 The Call Center Agents
2.3.2 The Call Center Management

3 Analysis Of The University’s Call Center CAU
3.1 The CAU Activities
3.1.1 Organizational Structure At The University Of The Basque Country
3.1.2 The Call Center At The Campus Of San Sebastian
3.2 The CAU Technology
3.2.1 Telecommunication Facility
3.2.2 ATM & IP
3.2.3 ACD & IVR
3.2.4 Dialers & Call Blending
3.2.5 CTI & Contact Center
3.3 Software
3.3.1 FileMaker Pro
3.3.1.1 The Original Database File “Incidencias”
3.3.1.2 The Fields Of “Incidencias”
3.3.1.3 The Value Lists Of “Incidencias”
3.3.1.4 The Related Files
3.3.1.5 The Scripts Of “Incidencias”
3.3.2 Magic TSD 7
3.3.3 Others
3.4 The CAU Personnel
3.4.1 The CAU Agents
3.4.2 The CAU Management

4 Optimization Proposals
4.1 Software FileMaker Pro
4.2 Hardware & Others

5 Realization Of The Proposals
5.1 Software FileMaker Pro
5.1.1 The Layouts Of The New File "Incidencias"
5.1.2 The New Fields Of "Incidencias"
5.1.3 The Reports Of The New File
5.1.4 The Related Files And Value Lists Of The New File
5.1.5 The Scripts Of The New File
5.1.6 Problems And Alternative Solutions During The Project
5.2 Hardware & Others

6 Summary

Appendices

Index

Bibliography

Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung

List of figures

Figure 1: Skill groups

Figure 2: Possibilities of automatic speech recognition

Figure 3: First Party- and Third Party-CTI architecture

Figure 4: Architecture of a Contact Center

Figure 5: Comparison of transfer units of STM, PTM and ATM

Figure 6: Comparison of the transmission of STM, PTM and ATM units

Figure 7: Education levels of call center agents

Figure 8: Competence areas of a call center agent

Figure 9: Layout ‘Formulario’ of the file ‘Incidencias’

Figure 10: Header of the layout ‘Formulario’ of the file ‘Incidencias’

Figure 11: Edit Value List window

Figure 12: Lookup specification window

Figure 13: Specify Calculation window

Figure 14: Specify Mail window

Figure 15: Sort Records window

Figure 16: Script performing information window

Figure 17: The new layout ‘Listado’ in Layout Mode

Figure 18: Layout specification window

Figure 19: Layout ‘Informe_Problemas diarios’ in Layout Mode

Figure 20: Layout ‘Clases diarios’ of the file ‘Informe Clases diarios & semanales’

List of tables

Table 1: Telephony standards

Table 2: Realized and future CTI-applications

Table 3: Comparison of the characteristics of STM, PTM and ATM

Table 4: Options for Summary fields

1 Introduction

The present thesis was prepared in cooperation with the University of the Basque Country in Spain. Within a project at its call center CAU I optimized its database that was developed within the software FileMaker Pro 5.0. The call center is located on the campus Guipúzcoa in San Sebastian and responsible for all IT matters on the campus. Between 12 November 2002 and 22 January 2003 I got an insight into the call center’s work improving the existing database. This way I was able to make proposals for further optimizations. For the improvement of the database I had to learn the software FileMaker Pro, that I didn’t know before.

The database improvement was finished with the project on-site. In contrast to that, the analysis and optimization concept for the whole call center went on until the completion of this thesis.

To avoid to go beyond the scope of this paper, the call center analysis, that preceded the optimization concept, is focused on technical and personnel characteristics.

The theoretical foundation in this context is handled in chapter 2 Call Center Specifics In General. It provides a view of technological standards and trends as well as characteristics and requirements regarding the human resources, which are the most important ones in call centers.

Chapter 3 then analyzes the call center CAU relating to the theory and describes detailed its original database in FileMaker Pro 5.0 which my work in San Sebastian was focused on.

The fourth chapter gives suggestions for optimizing the call center work and enhancing its effectiveness. Here I tried to stay within the CAU’s sphere of influence. Otherwise they weren’t very useful and not realizable.

In chapter 5 it is discussed how to put the proposals into action. The database modifications and arised problems during their development are explained.

Finally their effects on the CAU and its work are stated in the summary of chapter 6.

2 Call Center Specifics

This chapter concerns the specific features of call centers. It will deal with the tasks and the technique of call centers and point out the special features for staff and management.

2.1 The Call Center Activities

What does a call center require and what is the use of it?

The professional group TeleMedienServices of the German direct marketing union (DDV) defines a call center briefly as an „Instrument to organize the customer- and marketcommunication by means of the telecommunication“¹.

When one likes to take the tasks, aims and resources in a call center into account, however, the following description of Kruse² is meaningful:

Call centers are organization units who’s tasks are to enable a service-oriented and efficient telephone dialog with customers and interested parties by means of most modern information and telecommunication technologies under observance of qualitative and quantitative company and marketing aims.

From this we are able to filter the following nuclear elements of a call center:

- Organization
- Customer/ service orientation
- Telecommunication technology
- IT-support
- Trained personnel

In connection with the use of modern media like fax, voice mail, email and internet nowadays, we speak more and more about Communication Center, Customer Interaction Center, Web-enabled call center, Multimedia call center or Contact Center.

The sizes of call centers vary extremely. In many enterprises call centers originate in pilot teams of a few agents, i.e. call center employees.³ Small call centers in Germany employ about 20 employees; direct banks and the mail order business up to 500 agents.⁴

Call centers are distinguished in Inbound and Outbound call centers.

Inbound call centers answer incoming calls, in Outbound call centers the agents conclude the calls. Call centers which change between in- and outbound are called Blended call centers. In this way it is possible for them to compensate fluctuations, especially in the inbound, by outbound calls.⁵

Due to this separation inbound and outbound call centers also accomplish different tasks, of which some are exemplary mentioned⁶:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Beside the distinction into in- and outbound there is a further one in real and virtual call centers.

In real call centers the agents sit in open-plan offices and deal with calls in the in- and/or outbound area.

In virtual call centers the employees are located on their desks in the company or at home working places and are connected with each other or with the company by means of local networks and CTI (Computer Telephony Integration). So it is possible to spread calls in high peak times from fully stretched to other employees and to provide the customers a better service by shorter waiting times.⁷

2.2 The Call Center Technology

In this section you will be introduced to the most important components of the call center technology as well as to their functions.

2.2.1 Telecommunication Facility

The telecommunication facility, that is also called Switch or PBX (Private Branche Exchange), should be a modern efficient ISDN facility.

Depending on the dimension of the call center it must have a sufficient number of lines to the telephone network and to the agents as well as a connection to the language processing system IVR (Interactive Voice Response).⁸ It is attached to the CTI server by a Computer Link Interface (CLI) and so connected to the IT world which allows a “voice/ data synchronization“⁹.

2.2.2 Automatic Call Distribution - ACD

An ACD facility (Automatic Call Distribution) is one of the most important components of a call center. It performs essentially three functions¹⁰:

Distribution of incoming calls on the call center agents or waiting queues (Routing function)

Monitoring- and Reporting function

Interface to other call center components like IVR or CTI.

The distribution of calls, the routing, should take place in the way that the agents are occupied as even as possible. You may read more about the different possibilities of the routing in section 2.2.3.

If once there is no agent available, the callers are switched to a waiting queue, in which they are asked for patience and entertained with music. It often happens, that callers in such an "invisible queue"¹¹ upsetly hang up before the conversation is accepted by an agent and possibly change to a competitor. To counteract this, it is meaningful to inform the waiting callers about the number of persons waiting in front of him in the line and the duration until he will be assigned to an agent.¹²

These data are generated by the ACD.

The Monitor- and Reporting function serves esp. the supervisor of one or more agent groups to monitor status and performance of single agent groups and resources of waiting fields, exchange lines and others. With help of these data and ACD-simulators, scenarios can be gone through and customizations regarding the capacities can be made during the running call center business.¹³

The reports/statistics can be represented in tabular form as well as graphically and usually be retrieved at the supervisors’ screen.¹⁴

You can find three versions of ACD systems at the call center market¹⁵:

- Adapted System
- Integrated System
- CT-System (Computer Telephony).

At adapted systems the ACD server is connected with the telecommunication facility via an interface, e.g. a standardized CSTA interface (Computer Supported Telecommunications Application). These are the so called software based systems. The advantages of this are the simple integration capability into the IT world (the software is independent of the PBX manufacturer), a good performance, a simple maintainability and comfortable configuration- and reporting possibilities.

The disadvantage of this variant is that one needs an additional server and is possibly tied by the interface to one or few certain manufacturers.¹⁶

At the second version, the integrated or hardware-based ACD systems, the ACD functions are integrated as modular scalable hard- and software components in the telecommunication facility. This solution offers a high reliability and failure safety as well as a higher conversation volume.

It is adverse though that the ACD software has to be PBX-specific, its price is very high and the administration is expensive.¹⁷ Often they restrict the number of the agent groups, the agents per group, the waiting loops or service levels, too.¹⁸

The third architecture type is a CT solution, at which the ACD server takes on the functions of a telecommunication facility and no special hardware (PBX) is needed. The advantages of this system are a high flexibility and an easy scalability. However, a great disadvantage is still the lower failure safety against PBX solutions.¹⁹

It is observable that more and more call center runners pass over to adaptive, i.e. software based systems, due to the increasingly stable operating systems. In addition, the need for flexibility and simpler maintainability increases since no longer only special trained technicians carry out configurations but also team leaders in the call center.²⁰

The performance of ACD systems is indicated by manufacturers in BHCA (Busy Hour Call Attempts) or BHCC (Busy Hour Call Completions). This means the maximum number of incoming calls which can be registered or processed by the system in an hour.²¹

2.2.3 Routing

The Routing is the distribution as even as possible of incoming calls on all call center agents. It is carried out by the ACD device that, in comparison to the call distribution via PBX, can increase the productivity of a call center by 40%.

Types of routing are distinguished as follows²²:

- Static Routing
- Intelligent dynamic Routing.

At the Static Routing the system distributes the calls by determined algorithms adjustable by the supervisor. From the view of the caller one pursues the "first come first serve-principle"²³ at this, i.e. the calls are distributed in the order in which they are received by the system.

The distribution to the agents is then carried out:

- cyclical
- hierarchical
- by the Longest Idle principle or
- by the Least Occupied - principle.

In the cyclical method the calls are distributed the way, that any agent is assigned as many conversations as others.²⁴

At the hierarchical distribution the calls are always first assigned to one or few certain agents. Only if these are in a conversation or in the post-processing, the calls are distributed to agents of the next step etc..²⁵

If the calls are put through to the agent with the longest rest period after his last conversation, the "Longest Idle - principle" is followed.

The "Least Occupied - principle" is pursued when the agent with the fewest conversations in a shift so far gets the call.

The hierarchical distribution is usually coupled with one of the two last-mentioned methods/algorithms.²⁶

If the calls just cannot be assigned to any free employee, the ACD system puts them into a queue. In general there are several agent groups in the call center. Corresponding to each group one queue exists. Is the scheduled queue already very long, i.e. the caller had to wait longer than a time fixed by the supervisor before, the system checks whether in another group, a so called overflow group, is still place in the queue. If a call is then assigned once, this cannot be undone due to an event arising later.

Is the overflow group also too big, the caller still can be switched further to a voice mailbox on which he can leave a message. The return call is then carried out by a call center employee as soon as possible.²⁷

If there is the danger that the ACD system ‘overflows’, the call still can be dropped.

The dynamic routing differs from the static routing including in the distributing algorithm data of the inner or outer metric. To the inner metric belong e.g.:

ƒ- Number of all calls in the system
ƒ- Time of a call in the system
ƒ- Time of a call in the queue
ƒ- Average time of a call in the queue
ƒ - Number of callers in the queue.

Data for the external metric are e.g.:

- Voice
- Client code
- The caller’s phone number .²⁸

With help of this information callers can be rated dynamically and routed intelligently. Examples of this way of the distribution are:

- VIP customers who only are attended by certain agents or agent groups.
- Agent Direct Routing: Callers or customers are put through to the agent who has attended to them last or always. This type is also called “Last Agent - Routing” or “Relationship - Routing”²⁹.
- Skill Based Routing (SBR), that connects the caller with the call center employee who can offer the most qualified service due to his abilities and knowledge, such as foreign languages or special product know-how.³⁰

Here I like to go into the Skill Based Routing a little more exactly.

To be able to carry out this type of routing the agents have to be assigned qualifications and abilities (skills). These skills of the agents are stored by the ACD system in a data base that takes them into account at the call distribution.³¹ If there are for example 3 agent groups for the areas information/service, sales and payment transactions/complaints, 3 skills result from these demands, which can be assigned to the agents.

For a high quality service it is necessary to assign the agents not only to one of the three groups, but additionally to two or all three of them. The group of qualified employees should be as large as possible of This has the advantage that the agents can be employed versatile and so less staff must be hired.³² The following figure illustrates the skill division in the groups.

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 1: Skill groups (Own representation by Riveiro 2002, 34)

It seems that more than 3 groups have to be managed now since there are overlaps. This is a fallacy because the ACD device does not take any overlaps into account. It checks the availability of all agents who have the demanded qualification in their skill profile, regardless whether this is just ‘information/service’ or combined with ‘sales’.³³ How does the ACD system recognize which caller needs to be connected with which agent group?

Here an automated speech dialog system, the IVR system (Interactive Voice Response), is used, which is described in the following section.

2.2.4 Interactive Voice Response - IVR

The IVR system (Interactive Voice Response) is a speech computer which is directly attached to the PBX. It offers callers with help of automated speech dialogs the possibility to retrieve information from a data base, to execute transactions or to let themselves connect with a call center agent.

IVR serves to identify the caller, e.g. by asking for the client code or his request, to classify and afterwards to connect him by intelligent routing to the ‘right’ employee.³⁴ Banks, tour operators or insurance companies usually work with this method. That increases the customer satisfaction since the caller also reaches the company when no employee is available and he is not connected repeatedly.

The IVR can also be post-switched to the conversation with the agent as it is the case e.g. at the information office of the Deutsche Telekom AG, where the desired phone number is announced.³⁵

An automated dialog can as well replace the personal conversation completely. Enterprises frequently use this version, if it concerns standardized and clearly structured processes.³⁶ Examples for this are bank balance and share price queries or transactions like loading a mobile phone account by means of a prepaid card.

IVR systems have two different functions - the speech playback and the speech recognition. The former makes it possible to retrieve information in which a dialog does not always have to take place. Pure audio text systems only play announcements at this. They are suitable for value added services like horoscopes or weather forecasts.³⁷ Speech synthesis-systems even permit a reproduction of written texts from data bases or documents in digitized language. This means they are converted into speech only in the moment of the call.

Meanwhile it is also possible to request information via the IVR system by fax, email, as a file by FTP or as sms text.³⁸

With regard to the interaction with the system different possibilities are used for the voice input or speech recognition. They are represented in figure 2.

The simplest manner of a 'dialog' is the one by touch tones (DTMF - Dualtone multifrequency). At this the caller gets a menu announced in which different words or menu items are assigned to a number and he/she must press the corresponding number on the phone to step forward.³⁹

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 2: Possibilities of automatic speech recognition (Steidle 2000, 58)

The second form, which is also used very often, is the whole word based speech recognition. At this the system ‘understands’ only a few words like ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘stop’, ‘help’, as well as the numbers 0 to 9.⁴⁰

A further development of this standard is the phoneme based speech recognition. "Phonemes are the smallest sound units of a language"⁴¹, which fix the pronunciation of the words like the phonetic spelling in dictionaries. With help of these phonemes the IVR system are 'trained' words, which serve as basis of comparison for the word recognition in the speech dialog.⁴²

An alternative to this is the Word Spotting. There the system can filter certain keywords, which are deposited in the system, from sentences and use for a dialog design.⁴³

Natural dialog systems are the highest stage of development of the speech recognition. With them it is almost possible to have a regular dialog with the computer, because they can identify the relevant information out of spoken sentences and process them.⁴⁴

Summarizing we can say that IVR-systems have the greatest saving and efficiency potentials in a call center.

With their help it is possible to:

- save personnel by caller qualifying,
- increase the availability for customers,
- decrease the Lost Call rate during high peak periods, + leave a message on a Voice-Mailbox,
- provide information instead of music and so to enhance the customer satisfaction and to lower the running costs.⁴⁵

2.2.5 Dialers

Dialers are automatic dial helps in outbound call centers and represent the counterpart of the ACD in the inbound. They initiate calls on the basis of Calling- or Call Job-Lists⁴⁶ and connect them with the next free agent.

There are three types of dialers:

- Preview Dialer
- Power Dialer
- Predictive Dialer

Preview Dialers show the data of a phone number directly on the screen. The agent decides him/herself whether and when he/she is ready to talk and initiates the dialing process manually by keyboard or mouse.⁴⁷

This method is not much more effective than the manual dialing on the phone. It may increase the time of talk only up to 20 to 30 minutes per hour in comparison to 15 to 20 minutes per hour by manual dialing. The remaining time is reserved for dialing, connecting and calling (waiting for answer).⁴⁸

Power and Predictive Dialers initiate the dialing on their own and put only successful calls through.

The difference is that Power Dialers start several calls when there is at least one agent available. Predictive Dialers precalculate the end of a conversation and initiate a number of calls while the agents are still talking or in the post-processing.⁴⁹

With both methods an overdialing occurs. This means more calls have been successfully established than agents have been available at the moment of putting them through. In that case the dialer drops the call.

To minimize the drop rate and to optimize the productivity, Predictive Dialers consider call center data like the following in their algorithm⁵⁰:

- Average duration of connecting
- Average waiting time until the phone is picked up
- Average duration of a conversation
- Average post-processing time
- Percentage of successfully connected calls
- Number of agents working
- Maximum drop rate.

If a call had to be dropped, that phone number is put on a drop list. Later when an agent is available these numbers are called again. This ensures that the drop case is not repeated to the same person.

Power and Predictive Dialing are very effective methods which enable a high stretch-out of the agents. By these dialers the net time of conversation per agent can be increased up to 40 to 55 minutes per hour.⁵¹ Indeed it is doubtful whether 55 minutes per hour pure talking time on the phone is efficient.

Because Power and Predictive Dialers put only successful calls through, they must be able to distinguish between dialing tones, busy signals, fax tones and voice - and they do. A problem for the most of them is to differentiate answering machines from voice. If an answering machine is reached, the call is either dropped or transferred to a Voice Processing Unit (VPU), that announces a text while the agent can continue his/her work.⁵²

Summarizing it can be said, that dialers are very useful helpers in a call center which can increase the effectiveness and the productivity by a factor of two or three. The other side of the medal are very high costs per working place. Therefore a number of at least 6 to 8 agents working at a time is required for a fast amortization of the investment within 12 or 18 months.⁵³

Besides this the use of dialers is only possible if CTI is used, because the agents need information about the called person. That information must appear on the screen in that moment in which the call is put through.

2.2.6 Call Blending

Call Blending is the change from inbound to outbound and conversely. In that way fluctuations in the inbound traffic can be compensated. This is done during high peak periods, e.g. after advertising spots or during teleshopping programs, from out- to inbound and in low traffic periods from in- to outbound by switching between ACD and Dialer.⁵⁴

Agents who deal with incoming and outgoing calls are called Smart agents or Swinging agents.

Call blending makes sense because no company wants to pay for unused working time or can afford to lose customers due to insufficient service. But call blending can not be realized without problems. The agents need different skills for in- and outbound, and usually a ‘warm-up’ is necessary for an effective outbound.

Another way to span periods without calls is to answer voice mails, faxes or emails, which had run into during high peak periods or out of business hours when they could not be served.⁵⁵

2.2.7 Computer Telephony Integration - CTI

CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) synchronizes voice and data by connecting the telecommunication facility with the computer. In other words CTI is “The functional integration of telephony and computing to provide a platform for applications which streamline or enhance business processes”⁵⁶

This system ensures that companies and (their) call centers are able to provide a better service to their customers and to increase their productivity and sales.⁵⁷

2.2.7.1 CTI Applications

The most common CTI applications are:

illustration not visible in this excerpt

For the creation of a screen pop-up with the customer data it is necessary to identify the caller. This identification is primarily realized by the Calling Line Identification (CLI) also called Automatic Number Identification (ANI). Here the caller’s phone number is transmitted through the public telephone network, especially the ISDN, and can be compared with the entries of the database.

Unfortunately that is not possible in the analogue telephony. Further in most cases the telephone number is only a criterion to identify the connection but not the person.⁵⁸ Other ways for the caller identification are IVR and DTMF where the caller feeds the identification number, e.g. client code or phone number either by voice or by the telephone keys.⁵⁹

The agent usually is able to update the customer information (e.g. address, orders, complaints) or to set dates on the calendar directly into the computer system. Sometimes it is necessary to update customer or company data parallel to others. This is possible by ODBC-drivers (Open Database Connectivity) or via SQL-intervention. The advantage of actuality and reduced data redundancy is here detracted from a lower performance because the data have to be retrieved of the other system and stored back into it.⁶⁰

The CLI is also the basis for the intelligent routing such as Last Agent- or Relationship-Routing in which the customer is being connected with his responsible service employee. Here the CTI is the link between IVR, ACD and telephone because it provides the ACD with additional information, which is the basis for a qualified routing to the ‘right’ agent.

With help of CTI, an effective Outbound is possible. Power or Predictive Dialers⁶¹ dial numbers from electronic telephone directories automatically or by manual triggering. This is very helpful for telemarketing or inquiries.⁶²

Sometimes during a call it is necessary to connect the customer with another agent. The customer information, found by means of CLI in the database, and the call build a unit. Once the caller connected, these information are transmitted simultaneously to the other work station. That is called Voice and Data Call Association (VDCA)⁶³ and avoids that the customer has to repeat his request and data.

For reports and statistics it is necessary to monitor and record the call center proceedings, e.g. duration of calls or number of calls per hour or day. This Call Monitoring is realized by CTI.⁶⁴

2.2.7.2 CTI Solutions

As already mentioned, CTI integrates telephone, telecommunication facilities and computer in a network environment and enables them to communicate with each other. There are basically two CTI solutions:

- First Party - CTI and
- Third Party - CTI.

Also known as Personal CTI, First Party - CTI is a single-working place solution in which each agent PC is physically connected with the telephone via a CTI-Link. This is usually realized by a cable using the standard interfaces, e.g. V.24-V.24 or USB (Universal Serial Bus), on PC and telephone. Here the computer is able to supervise and control only its own line and to show its state (busy, free, off) on the screen. Calls can be initiated, held, transmitted and ended. Furthermore conference connections can be established.⁶⁵

This CTI solution is often used in small call centers as Desktop Integration. It is simple, low-priced and system-independent. However, the disadvantage is, that each agent working place needs the specific hardware.⁶⁶

The second CTI solution is the 3rd Party- or Workgroup-CTI. In contrast to 1st Party-CTI, here each client PC is only logically (or virtually) connected with its telephone. For that a CTI-Server is installed and connected with the PBX via a CTI-Link. This solution enables the server to monitor, control and visualize all calls and line states of the PBX. The server may intervene on all devices, e.g. phones, ACD and IVR, and connections. So for example it controls the routing or initiates screen pop-ups by getting information from the telecommunication facility and transferring them to the corresponding device.⁶⁷

Figure 3 visualizes the differences in the architecture of both solutions.

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Figure 3: First Party- and Third Party-CTI architecture (Gamm 1999, 32)

Using Third Party - CTI the client PCs don’t need separate communication hardware. The (ISDN-) telephone may be substituted by a headset because the caller’s phone number is shown on the PC screen and outbound calls are initiated by dialers. Therefore 3rd PartyCTI is ideal for middle-sized and big call center with different working groups.⁶⁸

2.2.7.3 Standards

An important prerequisite for a smooth cooperation of all CTI components are standards for their interfaces. These standards have been developed and are still developed further by several computer manufacturers or organizations (national and international) such as ECMA (European Computer Manufacturer Association), ECTF (Enterprise Computer Telephony Forum) or ANSI (American National Standards Institute). Because of these different origins it is distinguished between:

De-facto standards and

De-jure standards.

De-facto CTI-standards were and are developed by manufacturers of computers or telecommunication facilities. They are not official standards by standardization organizations but widely used and known.

De-jure CTI-standards are developed and approved by standardization organizations.⁶⁹

The following table lists the most known telephony standards, their authors and use.

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Table 1: Telephony standards (Enterprise Consulting 1999, 224)

Here shall be explained only the most common standards. To comment on all would go beyond the scope of this work.

CSTA - Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications

This is a standard protocol for the connection (CTI-Link) of PC with telecommunication facility.⁷⁰ It is probably the most common standard because it is a de-jure standard and manufacturers of telecommunication facilities pass over to CSTA implementing new facilities.⁷¹

TAPI - Telephony Application Programming Interface

TAPI was originally a module for connecting the serial PC interface with the telephone - a 1st Party solution. Later a second version - TAPI 2.0 - was developed and so an interface for 3rd Party-CTI. TAPI meanwhile is a standard function in Windows 95, 98 and NT and enables a further development of CTI-incapable applications to 3rd Party-CTI applications on Windows NT. TAPI 3.0 even allows an integration of IP (Internet Protocol)-gateways.⁷²

TSAPI - Telephony Supported Application Programming Interface

TSAPI is a variant of the above mentioned CSTA in which the Novell Telephony Server (NTS) is physically connected with the PBX. With help of TSAPI external software may control the PBX. It is a standard only for 3rd Party-CTI that provides many call control functions.⁷³

Due to the fact that does not exist an international standard, there are numerous manufacturer-specific telecommunication facilities on the market. These may be integrated in a CTI solution by CTI-Middleware.

Middleware integrates non-standard interfaces of PBXs and forms like an extra layer between telephony/PC and the application with all control functions. It is only the call and data provider not the controller.⁷⁴

Middleware is also used for heterogeneous systems of different telecommunication facilities, client PCs and operating systems. But sooner or later middleware will loose its importance, because for manufacturers it will be more profitable to integrate standard interfaces into their devices.

In this chapter you got to know the most important aspects of an integration of telephony and computing world - the CTI. The following table summarizes the CTI-applications in use and gives an overview of other possibilities of CTI-employment/use which are partly treated in following chapters.

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Table 2: Realized and future CTI-applications (Enterprise Consulting 1999, 309)

As you can see, CTI covers a wide range of tasks or functionalities. If theses were done by people, it would take much longer than with the use of CTI. Some of them weren’t even possible in the two separate worlds telephony and IT.

The use of CTI has the following advantages for companies and their customers⁷⁵:

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But there are also a few big disadvantages like high costs, especially for the acquisition (telecommunication components, software, licenses), but also for implementation, maintenance and staff training, and the lack of an international standardization of interfaces. Companies normally have a mixture of different telephony and computing systems which require different software, drivers, operational systems and hardware. Therefore it is difficult to integrate them and to keep the costs low. The best that companies can do to organize a (new) service department or call center is to buy telephony and computing systems with the same requirements and standard interfaces. That minimizes the problems in case of an integration. Especially companies which are call centers are not competitive and able to survive without CTI.

2.2.8 From Call Center to Contact Center

CTI is an important, fundamental basis for a multi-media communication in a call center, that normally operates only via phone.

Modern media like fax, email and internet increase in importance and frequency of use. Integrating them in the call center activities extends its interaction radius and increases the customer liability and so its own competitiveness. Because of the use of different media call center are often called “Communication Center”, “Contact Center”, “Customer Interaction Center” and others.

The GardnerGroup defines this new type of call center as followed⁷⁶:

„the term ‚contact center’ is used to encompass the activities of the traditional customer service call center, as well as the new channels of customer and prospect communication. While traditional call centers handle voice-only customer contact, the term ‘contact center’ is meant to include all types of channels of customer contact, including voice, E-mail, Web, faxes, video kiosk and mail”.

Prerequisites for a working Contact Center are⁷⁷:

- A permanent, high-performance internet-link
- CTI Server
- Mail Server
- Fax Server
- IP-Gateway or Internet Telephony Gateway (ITG) for IP-Telephony
- Standard components of a call center (PBX, ACD, IVR, database) Figure 4 illustrates that.

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Figure 4 : Architecture of a Contact Center (Schmid 2001, 257)

In the following the different communication media in a Contact Center are discussed.

2.2.8.1 Fax Services

Fax is worldwide the most prevalent communication medium to spread documents in writing.⁷⁸ So it is obvious to integrate the fax in the customer service done by a call center. There are several types of fax services:

ƒ- Fax On Demand
ƒ- Fax Back
ƒ- Fax Polling
ƒ- Fax Broadcasting
ƒ- Fax Mailing

The first three methods allow to get standardized information 24 hours a day by totally automated processes. The differences lie in the ways how to realize that.

At the Fax On Demand method the person, who needs information, calls a phone number and selects the desired document out of a spoken menu by pressing touch tones or by speech. When the fax tone is heard the caller has either to press the start-button on his phone/fax-device or to connect with the fax-device, if both are separated.⁷⁹

Fax Back is a method where a phone number is called, the desired information selected and the IVR-system fed with the user’s fax number. After this procedure the phone can be dropped and the fax is sent by the fax back - server.

Here the costs for the fax back are borne by the service provider.⁸⁰

For Fax Polling a polling function is needed on the fax device. Here each document has its own direct dialing (extension) of a phone number and a document can be selected by dialing the corresponding number. Hearing the fax tone one switches into polling mode and gets the fax.⁸¹

Fax Broadcasting means the mass sending of a fax document.

In comparison to that Fax Mailing is the personalized forwarding of fax documents. This means the receiver is directly addressed and is the only one in the fax header.⁸²

Automated fax services like the above mentioned are a good possibility for companies to cut costs and to increase the efficiency. The fax is a simple, fast and reliable communication medium. It can be used combined with email or internet. It is yet possible to send and receive faxes by email systems or to call them off via world wide web.⁸³ Fax systems serve mainly to relieve the call center by providing information and answers to frequently asked questions or to topics of general interest, e.g. health, financing and investments.

2.2.8.2 E-Mail Management

Electronic mail is a fast growing communication medium that has already diminished big shares of the communication via mail and phone in many sectors, be it private or business. It is widely used because it is fast, uncomplicated and cheap. As fast it is as high are the customer’s expectations regarding response times which are said to be optimal between 2 and 24 hours.⁸⁴ But these expectations are met only by the fewest companies and call centers. In most cases they are not prepared for the email ‘run’. They underestimate the importance of an email request and the consequences of not answering them nor within an appropriate time.

To ‘save its face’ it is necessary for companies to use an Email - Management - System (EMS). An EMS is software for classifying, routing and processing emails.⁸⁵ The basic requirements for EMS are⁸⁶:

For Inbound For Outbound

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The email classification by products or services is necessary for a skill based routing (SBR) and a competent, fast processing. The following qualifying techniques are in use⁸⁷: ¾ Partitioned email addresses

- Web forms
- Manual qualifying
- Lexical analysis (Text filter)
- Text Mining

The first classification method is realized by different email addresses for each service area, e.g. sales@xyz.de or complaints@xyz.de.

Web forms on company web pages are a possibility for standardized emails which can be qualified automatically by check box- or list box-elements. Here the email address is not known, that prevents the sending of shapeless emails.

Using the manual qualifying is the most labor- and time-intense variant. Agents screen and value emails by subject, sender, date or text elements.

In the lexical analysis the emails are automatically screened by certain words or word groups in the subject and body.

Text Mining is the most complex technique to classify emails. Here the system compares words and word groups with classification variables considering also their frequency. Some text mining systems are even able to learn by the emails as well as by the agents’ answers.

As soon as the emails are classified they can be transferred, e.g. by SBR, to the agent with the appropriate qualifications. The same process can be used for incoming fax documents too.

Because the agents in a contact center normally serve more than one communication channel, they cannot reply to emails at once. The emails are answered when there is less traffic via phone or chat, because these channels do not allow delays. Regarding response times contact centers are more flexible at emails and faxes. Therefore it is necessary to be able to send at least an acknowledgement, which is done automatically by the EMS.

The EMS helps again at processing and answering the emails. It provides text elements for a fast and qualified response and checks the spelling.

To provide a competent service it can be useful to route emails to the agent who had always attended to the customer (Keep Owner functionality).⁸⁸ It is also important to have links to back office systems like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), to a knowledge database and of course to the customer database.⁸⁹

2.2.8.3 Web-Chat

Web-Chat, also known as Text-Chat, is a written real-time communication. Both, agent and customer, have to be online and communicate by means of a chat software. The conversation appears on the screen of both parties.

To ‘talk’ one writes one or a few sentences in a second window on the screen and sends them by pressing the ‘Send’-button.

The agent can use preformulated sentences, e.g. greeting, and is able to open other internet pages on the customer’s screen. He/she may show the customer where he/she can find FAQ’s or documents which answer his/her request.⁹⁰

2.2.8.4 Shared Browsing And Call Me - Button

That functionality of starting a new browser and leading the customer to new web pages is also known as Shared Browsing or Collaborative Browsing.⁹¹

This method to communicate usually precedes the operation of a ‘Call me-‘ or ‘Call back-‘ button on the company’s internet pages by the customer. That triggers off a call back in the contact center.

Another way to contact the center being online is via a ‘Smart Call Button’ that initiates the call from the customer’s side.⁹²

No matter which side the call is coming from, both need two telephone lines, one for the internet and one for the phone. Private households can do shared browsing via ISDN, mobile phones or Voice over IP (VoIP).⁹³

During a shared browsing session customer and agent look at the same web pages synchronously. If only the agent is able to show the customer where and how to find the desired information on the net, we speak of “One way follow me”. If both can do that it, is called “Two way follow me”.⁹⁴

Bookmarks can be used by the agent as a guide for the conversation as well as additional information about the topic. Data files of any format can also be sent via such a connection.

Most of the so called Teleweb Systems which enable shared browsing are based on Java and require only an internet browser, e.g. Netscape or Internet Explorer. This way the customer is platform independent and does not need to install special software, e.g. MS NetMeeting.⁹⁵

For this communication channel as well as for web chat it is also helpful to integrate them into CRM- and ERP-systems. That means the customer data are extended by information like the web pages the customer came from and was led to or the transferred data. In this way customer histories can be set up, the service can be personalized and an active customer relationship management can be realized.⁹⁶

For all of the above mentioned communication media in a contact center it is valid that they won’t substitute the phone but complement it. Automated fax services and internet serve to relieve the contact center by providing as much information as possible. The contact center is being contacted more and more for very specific topics. So the agents have to be better qualified and knowledge databases have to be developed and maintained.

The customers of today are demanding. They like to have the choice between different communication media and expect a fast and competent service. Only if that is offered, companies and call center are able to bind customers and to increase their sales.

2.2.9 Asyncronous Transfer Mode - ATM

The Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a switching telecommunications transmission technique that allows the simultaneous transfer of different signal types, e.g. voice, video and data. It was developed as basis for the Broadband Integrated Services Digital

Network (B-ISDN) because of an increasing demand for broadband services and the necessity of the integration of (all) existing services.⁹⁷

ATM has the following characteristics:

- Bandwidth on demand

The bandwidth is dynamically allocated according to the user’s needs. That means the users may use a proportion or the whole of the link’s capacity.⁹⁸

- Efficiency

There are no permanent lines like in the analogue telephony but the connections are statistically multiplexed by using a virtual channel connection (VCC).⁹⁹

- Flexibility

ATM supports the simultaneous transmission of different information types such as voice, video, data etc.¹⁰⁰

- Integration of existing net techniques / protocols

ATM is able to interoperate and link between LANs, WANs and telecommunication facilities.¹⁰¹

- Scalability and Modularity

ATM can provide different transmission speeds (bitrates) of 2 to 155 Mbit/s in LANs and WANs and 622 to 2400 Mbit/s in backbones and for mass data transfer such as multimedia application.¹⁰²

The ATM is not a net, like B-ISDN, it is a subnet technology for existing protocols. The transmission principle asynchronous transfer mode is a combination of synchronous and packet transfer mode. Figure 5 illustrates these three transfer modes.

Synchronous Transfer Mode (STM), also called Circuit Switching or Time Division Multiplexing, is a transmission method that uses time slots of 8 bits (1 byte) in frames of 8 time slots on a circuit. All time slots with the same position in every frame form a channel. The user has a constant bitrate (speed) and a real time transfer available. Therefore STM is optimal for continuous signal types like voice that does not allow delay on the transmission.¹⁰³

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Figure 5: Comparison of transfer units of STM, PTM and ATM (Orlamuender 2000, 15)

Packet Transfer Mode (PTM) or Packet Switching or Label Multiplexing uses for the transmission packets of many bytes with a predetermined limit (e.g. 4096 bytes). They have a packet header that contains the destination address - the label - and a body with the user data. The labels of packets belonging to the same communication identify the connection. If packets of the same connection are being transmitted other packets must wait in a buffer because the link bitrate is fully occupied. So delays are possible.

For this reason PTM is ideal for data transfer that is bursty and does not require real time transmission.¹⁰⁴

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), also known as Cell Switching, Cell Relay or Statistical Multiplexing, works with packets of a fixed size of 53 bytes called cells. The cell header needs 5 bytes for the label, whereas for the user data in the information field are reserved 48 bytes.

The connection is, like in PTM, identified by the cell’s label. The cell transport is similar to STM and takes place on a conveyor belt.¹⁰⁵ Figure 6 illustrates the transmission of the three modes. The difference is that the cells are not being transmitted synchronously but statistical multiplexed which means that cells belonging to the same connection are arranged on the belt according to the demand of other connections. So the link bitrate is used simultaneously by different connections, but more effective than in the STM because the sources are not tied to fixed bitrates in time slots (fixed channels). The source’s own bitrate controls the cell generation process. This is why the technique is called asynchronous transfer.¹⁰⁶

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Figure 6: Comparison of the transmission of STM, PTM and ATM units (Siegmund 1997, 22)

You can see that ATM combines the simplicity of STM with the flexibility of PTM. In table 3 are summarized the main characteristics of all three methods.

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Table 3: Comparison of the characteristics of STM, PTM and ATM (Boisseau 1996, 8)

[...]

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¹ Wiencke 1997, 11

² see Kruse 1998, 15

³ see Moeller 2000, 4

⁴ see Kruse 1998, 16

⁵ see Steidle 2000, 53

⁶ see Kruse 1998, 18 f., Wiencke 1997, 22

⁷ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 319

⁸ see Kuhn 1998, 312

⁹ Enterprise Consulting 1999, 190

¹⁰ see Haller 1998, 386

¹¹ Cleveland 1998, 28

¹² see Wiencke 1997, 40

¹³ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 330

¹⁴ see Haller 1998, 395

¹⁵ see Gamm 1999, 31

¹⁶ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 324

¹⁷ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 324

¹⁸ see Friedrichs 2002, 42

¹⁹ see Gamm 1999, 31

²⁰ see Friedrichs 2002, 42 f.

²¹ see Henn 1998, 727

²² see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 334

²³ Enterprise Consulting 1999, 335

²⁴ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 335

²⁵ see Birken 1999, 37

²⁶ see Gamm 1999, 30

²⁷ see Birken 1999, 37 f.

²⁸ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 336

²⁹ Fojut 1999, 39

³⁰ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 335

³¹ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 337

³² see Riveiro 2002, 34

³³ dito

³⁴ see Wiencke 1999, 24

³⁵ see Wiencke 1997, 42

³⁶ see Moldenhauer 2002, 23

³⁷ see Wiencke 1999, 24

³⁸ see Witte 2001, 50

³⁹ see Steidle 2000, 58

⁴⁰ see Wiencke 1997, 100

⁴¹ Rother 1997, 29

⁴² see Rother 1997, 29

⁴³ see Witte 2001, 50

⁴⁴ see Thieme 2000, 96

⁴⁵ see Witte 2001, 51

⁴⁶ Enterprise Consulting 1999, 341

⁴⁷ see Gamm 1999, 34

⁴⁸ see Pleteit 1998, 432

⁴⁹ see Gamm 1999, 35

⁵⁰ see Pleteit 1998, 437

⁵¹ see Pleteit 1998, 430

⁵² see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 341

⁵³ see Pleteit 1998, 430

⁵⁴ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 346 f.

⁵⁵ see Steidle 2000, 54

⁵⁶ Lachel, L., Ovum Ltd 1997, in: Enterprise Consulting 1999, 189

⁵⁷ see Fojut 1999, 39

⁵⁸ see Klein 1998, 351

⁵⁹ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 278

⁶⁰ see Klein 1998, 359

⁶¹ see chapter 2.2.5

⁶² see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 356

⁶³ Klein 1998, 370

⁶⁴ see Klein 1998, 371

⁶⁵ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 203

⁶⁶ see Klein 1998, 355

⁶⁷ see Klein 1998, 357 f.

⁶⁸ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 237

⁶⁹ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 229

⁷⁰ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 224

⁷¹ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 233

⁷² see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 213

⁷³ see Enterprise Consulting 1999, 218

⁷⁴ see Kuhn 1998, 316

⁷⁵ see Klein 1998, 347 f., Enterprise Consulting 1999, 197, 372 f., 376

⁷⁶ Amuso 1998, 7, in: Steidle 2000, 70

⁷⁷ see Strawe 1998, 534 f.

⁷⁸ see Han 1998, 407

⁷⁹ see Han 1998, 408 f.

⁸⁰ see Wiencke 1997, 104

⁸¹ see Han 1998, 409

⁸² see Han 1998, 410

⁸³ see Han 1998, 413

⁸⁴ see Schmid 2001, 260

⁸⁵ see Günaydin 2002, 41

⁸⁶ see Lazarz 2002, 24

⁸⁷ see Günydin 2002, 41

⁸⁸ see Lazarz 2002, 24

⁸⁹ see Schmid 2001, 246

⁹⁰ see Strawe 1998, 530

⁹¹ Schmid 2001, 258

⁹² see Schmid 2001, 256

⁹³ see Strawe 1998, 531

⁹⁴ see Schmid 2001, 256

⁹⁵ see Schmid 2001, 258

⁹⁶ see Schmid 2001, 257

⁹⁷ see Hasslinger 1999, 28

⁹⁸ see Clark 1996, 8, 35

⁹⁹ see Clark 1996, 8

¹⁰⁰ see Kyas 1998, 66

¹⁰¹ see Schill 1997, 10

¹⁰² see Kyas 1998, 100 f.

¹⁰³ see Pitts 2000, 4 f.

¹⁰⁴ see Pitts 2000, 5 f.

¹⁰⁵ see Pitts 2000, 7 f.

¹⁰⁶ see Boisseau 1996, 29