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LOMA 335 I*STAR > chapter 12 > Flashcards

chapter 12 Flashcards

1
Q

define contact center management

A

combines tactical planning with real-time monitoring and decision making to ensure that the right combination of human and technological resources are in place at the right times to handle customer contacts within established time frames.

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2
Q

What are the goals of contact center management

A

meet the needs of customers, employee and the company while maxi-mixing contact centre resources.

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3
Q

What is a contact centre?

A

an organizational unit that provides a company’s customers with a variety of channels for communicating with the company.

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4
Q

CSRs in contact centres handle two broad types of customer contacts: inbound and outbound. Define these

A

inbound customer contacts: request initiated by the customer for products, information, services, or transactions.
outbound: company initiated

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5
Q

Inbound customer contacts come in two major varieties. Define them

A

1) those that do not require immediate handling (post-mail, email, faxes)
2) those that require immediate handling (phone calls and web chats)

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6
Q

what is a queue

A

a line-up of telephone calls or other types of communication awaiting handling.

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7
Q

Define the term intelligent call routing (ICR)

A

refers to any automated process of analyzing and directing inbound telephone calls.
- uses information about the caller, the call, or employees to determine which employee or work group will receive which calls and when.

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8
Q

what is an automatic call distributor (ACD)

A

is a divide that, at the most basic level receives telephone calls and directs them to the appropriate employee or work group.

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9
Q

What is the longest idle agent (LIA) method?

A

each inbound telephone call is routed to the available CSR who has gone the longest time without receiving a call

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10
Q

What is the uniform call distribution method?

A

inbound calls are distributed in a predetermined order amount available CSRs so that each person receives approximately the same number of calls.

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11
Q

ACDs can route a customer contact based on the skills required to process the request. This is called a skill-based routine system (SBR). What is the advantage?

A

allows contact centers to send specific types of request to the most qualifies CSR
- helps avoid multiple transfers.

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12
Q

Some companies will combine the use of an ACD and IVR system. What is an IVR system?

A

interactive voice response system. its a computer based technology that answers telephone calls, greets customers and prompts them to enter the information/make request by voice.

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13
Q

Define computer tenchnology intergration (CTI)

A

refers to the harware, software and programming that integrate computers and communication technology, to enhance customers contacts and the information they provide.
- a screen pop devliers a customers account information to the CSR handling the request.

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14
Q

What is the automatic number identification (ANI) which starts up the screen pop process?

A

a technology that identifies an inbound telephone call by thte callers telephone number or some other type of personal identifiers.

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15
Q

What is random traffic patterns?

A

a somewhat predictable traffic review, which can be used to identify patterns in random traffic.

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16
Q

What is peaked traffic patterns?

A

refers to the time where is there is a spike in traffic that occurs over a shot period of time.

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17
Q

In extended surges is the traffic consider random or peeked?

A

random.

The determining factor is the time frame. Less than or greater than 30 mins.

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18
Q

Contact centre management can be divided into 5 broad activities. Name them

A

1) analyzing data and developing forecasts
2) determining resources needed.
3) scheduling
4) managing real time
5) evaluating performance through key performance indicators.

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19
Q

Define Call volume

A

the total number of calls recevied during a given time period; call volume is often reported in 15 min or 30 min intervals

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20
Q

Define longest wait time

A

longest time within a given time interval that a customer has to wait before being connected to a CSR

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21
Q

Define abandoment rate

A

the percentage of inbound calls that are places in the queue and then terminated by the caller before the call is answered by CSR

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22
Q

Define Average speed of answer (ASA)

A

the amount of time , on average that is takes a contact centre to answer a telephone call

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23
Q

What is the average handling time (AHT) AKA turnaround time

A

the average amount of time that employees take to handle calls.

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24
Q

What is number of blocked calls?

A

the number of call that encounter a busy signal or cant get through the contact centre.

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25
Q

What are misdirected calls?

A

the number of calls or % of inbound calls that are transferred to the wrong person.

26
Q

how many years is typically used to reflect enough data to forecast seasonal or monthly patterns?

A

3 years.

4-5 weeks is enough to forecast day of the week and 1-2days to forecast half hour increments.

27
Q

What is call load forecasting?

A

a process used to predict, the volume of inboundcalls and the amount of staff needed to handle these calls.

28
Q

Inbound contact centre’s forecasting is based largely on call loads. What is this?

A

the time required to handle the total volume of inbound calls received ina given time interval.
(formula) multiply the call volume by the average time handling in minutes.

29
Q

What factors can distort forecasting?

A
  1. busy signals/dropped calls - avoided by using programs that dont count these calls in call logs
  2. after-call work- comapies define and monitor after-call work.
  • usually programs monitor both of these outliers
30
Q

`After analyzing data and developing forecasts the companies will determine the number of CSRs and trunks it needs to handle the expected call load. What is a trunk?

A
31
Q

what is occupancy rate?

A

the percentage of time that available CSRs are either handling calls or performing after-call work.
- indicates the time CSR’s are not waiting to take calls.

32
Q

Do companies want occupancy rates at 100%?

A

`no- these leads to burn outs for the employees and possible influx of holding times for customers if a surge where to occur.

33
Q

What do you call the truns between the same two locations?

A

trunk groupings.

34
Q

What is a trunk load?

A

the volume of calls occupying the lines in a trunk group and includes calls on hold and in queue as well as calls actually being handled by an IVR system or by CSRs.

35
Q

some companies use custom-designed workforce management systems maintained and operated by a dedicated contact centre analyst. what is a workforce management system.

A

a computer-based approach to forecasting call load, calculating staffing, and trunking requirements and organizing employee work schedules.
- develop prohections in 15min or 30min intervals showing the number of CSRs needed to meet service level objectives.

36
Q

in work-force management systems based on traffic engineerign formulas the user enters the desired service level and what historical data points?

A
  1. call volume
  2. average talk time in secs
  3. average time spent on after-call work in seconds.
37
Q

What else can be projected by a work-force management systems based on traffic engineering formulas with the number of available employee and the data points mentioned before?

A
  1. expected service levels
  2. probability of droped calls
  3. average speed of answer
  4. average delay of calls not answered immediately
  5. average number of calls in queue
    6 occupancy rate
  6. trunk traffic.
38
Q

what is the benefit of a computer simulation program in an inbound contact centre?

A

this allows a user to create a model of real or prosed environment and then conduct imaginary or virtual runs on the model to observe outcomes.

  • valuable planning tool
  • can provide expected service level, trunk usage, cost # of CSR handling calls. etc…
39
Q

What is scheduling in a contact centre?

A

the process of determining how many and which CSRs will be available to serve customers during specified days and time intervals.

40
Q

What is Base Staff

A

the mini number of CSRs needed to be available to take calls during any given time interval to meet the service level-objectives.

41
Q

To account for the discrepancy between schedules staff and available staff, base staff is usually revised upwards by a numberical factor called the rostered staff factor. What is this?

A

indicates the minimum number of CSR needed to meet service-level objectives, taking into account CSRs who are schedules but unavailable - helps base scheduling on real world factors.

  • # of staff to maintain service levels.
  • think breaks/training/sick days etc…
42
Q

Managing in real time in call centres depends on two important factors. What are they

A
  1. communicating expectations and information to CSRs

2. monitoring and responding to changing situations.

43
Q

What is a readerboard?

A

a screen mounted in a contact center that displays real-time statistics and recent performance results for a particular work group.

44
Q

To prevent real-time waste by CSRs they need proper training and need to understand how their actions affect service levels. they need to understand adherence- what is this?

A

the degree to which CSRs follow the staffing schedule developed to handle inbound customer contacts.

45
Q

There are problems with adherence that can arise from a variety of factors. Give 3 examples

A
  1. attendenve related- illnesses, weather work.
  2. Work related - working on other work/lunch
  3. miscellaneous - taking personal time while on work hours
46
Q

True or False.

adherence has minimal impact on contact centres that are improperly staffed

A

true.

47
Q

CSRs, managers, and supervisors need to constantly monitor and respond to changing situations. What are some real-time statistics and performance results that should be regularly examined?

A
  1. number of calls in queue
  2. longest wait time
  3. key performance indicators
  4. number of available CSRs and the acitivities they are engaged in.
48
Q

What is the difference between adherence and occupancy

A

Adherence is the measurement of compliancy of the scheduled staff who are doing their required work
occupancy: is the measurement of staffing and having the right number of CSRs to do the work.

49
Q

What is a trigger point?

A

a predetermined event or workload level, tied to real-time statistics which initiates a corresponding action.

50
Q

What is a controlled busy signal?

A

a feature on a telephone system that can be set to provide a busy signal when call volume or call load reaches a specified trigger point.

51
Q

some companies use conditional routing to manage unanticipated fluctuations in workload. What is conditional routine?

A

the directing of customer contacts based on changing criteria.
- refers to routing between various work groups within a single contact centre or between separate contact centres.

52
Q

define a KPI

A

key performance indicator is an important measure of the performance of a department or unit.

53
Q

What is call quality

A

refers to the quality of the service provided by CSR.

54
Q

What is expected from a CSR during handling of customer contacts to assure good quality standards?

A
  1. be courteous and professional
  2. provide customers with relevant information
  3. perform any necessary transactions correctly
  4. use appropriate greetings and other call scripts.
55
Q

Companies also use mystery shoppers to evaluate call quality. What is this?

A

is a trained evaluator who approaches or calls a contact centre and pretends to be a customer.

56
Q

What is First-contact resolution? (FCR)

A

AKS one call resolution, refers to the % of inbound customer contacts that are successfully completed at the initial point of contact.
- correlated to customer satisfaction.

57
Q

How do you calculate forecast accuracy?

A

(forecasted call volume- actual call volume) divided by Actual call volume x100 for percentage.

  • used for short time intervals (mins)
58
Q

Some comapnie use a KPI that evaluate average call value- what is this?

A

revenue to total calls and is found by dividing the total revenue of a contact centre by the centres call volume for a given time interval. `

59
Q

What is cross-selling?

A

customers being invited to purchase a product other than the produt they already own.

60
Q

what are some advantages to having remote workers

A
  1. lower turnover rates, higher productivity, and ^ quality of work
  2. use of telecommuting reduces company’s operating costs and improves scheduling flexibility
  3. CSRs are geographically dispersed in a typicall telecommuting arrangement, and respond better to a crisis situation.
61
Q

Contact centers may choose to have their performance evaluated by DALBAR. What is this?

A

market research company that evaluates and rates financial service companies in the united states and canada in areas such as

  • Cx satisfaction,
  • service quality
62
Q

to evaluate a company’s telephone service DALBAR randomly samples customer interactions and uses 4 criteria to assess the service quality. What are they?

A
  1. CSR attitude
  2. CSR’s level of accommodation
  3. CSR’s level of expertise
  4. how effectively the company handles interruptions to the flow of a call

LOMA 335 I*STAR (14 decks)

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