MonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorthe voice and speech technology newsletter

MonitorMonitor““ ””””

Hillarys made-to-measure quality approach extends to customer serviceEstablished in 1971 Hillarys is the UK’s number one supplier of made-to-measure blinds, shutters and curtains. Handling over 1.2 million inbound customer contacts a year the company is dedicated to providing the highest levels of customer service across a 180 seat contact centre, supported by 1,000 fi eld based Sales Advisors.

Managing a multi-channel contact centre, enquiries are split 50/50 between web and inbound calls. With KPIs around answering 80% of calls within 20 seconds and minimising lost calls to under 2%, Hillarys fi ts the mould of a best practice contact centre, earning themselves a place on the UK’s top 50 Contact Centre list. As part of a continuous programme of improvement the company took the opportunity during a recent telephony upgrade to review their call recording infrastructure and how it could be improved to better support the needs of their customers and agents. THIS ARTICLE CONTINUES ON PAGE 4...

T 020 8326 8280E sales@businesssystemsuk.com W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk� @BSLHQ

CASE STUDY

Summer 2014

Reading through some of our recent case studies, it’s surprising how much in common our customers share when talking about what they want a call recording or quality monitoring (QM) system to deliver for them. This article picks out three common themes which we hope will help you when thinking about your own investment or upgrade.

1. Will it help me run a slicker operation?

Many of our customers who have bought into the technology are committed to reducing ineffi ciencies and labour intensive processes. Their aim is to resolve customer issues quickly, learn from mistakes and build better relationships with customers. They are using the technology to remedy these areas and report back on improvements made as a result. Neil Nasser, Customer Services Manager at Hexagon Housing recently built a business case for call recording by identifying how the organisation could better meet the needs of residents and help improve rent collections through improved communication and service.

2. Will it empower my sta� to take action?

The ability to pull together quickly under pressure cannot be underestimated. Call recording and quality monitoring give you the ability to deal with issues as they occur using tools like live monitoring. Simplicity also plays a factor, we are seeing increasing interest from customers who want an easy to use technology that minimises their reliance on others to fi nd and playback their calls. Cheryl King, Head of Call Centre Operations at Betfred comments

“When a customer query now occurs, fi nding and playing back the call couldn’t be simpler. Instead of telling the customer ‘we have to get back to you on that’, we can now instantly deal with the query as and when it happens.”

3. Will it deliver ongoing rewards after implementation?

It’s not just about getting the technology in and working quickly. It’s about working with someone who can provide you with updates of the latest technology advancements, new features and software updates and once you’ve reached a plateau, knowing there is still more you can do with the system. Taking the time to thoroughly train staff up in how to use the call recording or quality monitoring system will help a lot post implementation. As Lin Hinkley, Customer Services Manager at Knauf nicely puts it “we are on a journey of discovery, identifying which features will best benefi t us in future.”

If you’re considering a new call recording or QM investment, get in touch with us now to � nd out what other tips we can give to help you make the right choice on 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com

3 questions to ask when buying a call recording or QM system

2

The guru’s guide to contact centre management

A recent guide released by Contact Babel on Customer Contact Analytics cites one of the key drivers for uptake of speech analytics being fi ne avoidance and compliance with legal regulations.

Certainly one of the key sectors we are now starting to see some signifi cant growth in is the fi nancial services and trading fl oor space. Particularly within those organisations governed by the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA). The DFA has enabled regulators to issue trade reconstruction requests, where they want to look more closely at a specifi c trade,

and fi rms have to comply within 72 hours. Not surprisingly this poses some real issues and is virtually an impossible task when trying to retrieve older call recordings which have been archived.

This is where speech analytics technology comes into its own. It’s increasingly being used to mine audio recordings to help meet these obligations in the timescales required. Investment fi rms, banks and stockbrokers are working with specialist fi rms like Business Systems using speech analytic engines to extract data and recordings and look for key terms and phrases related to a specifi c investigation.

Thanks to the ability to eff ectively ‘rent out’ speech analytics technology in the form of a managed service, fi rms don’t have to meet the massive upfront costs of a full analytics technology investment. Calls can be extracted related to a specifi c trader or group of traders over a certain time period and the audio analysed to identify any potential issues helping fi rms to more eff ectively meet their compliance obligations.

With the ability to deploy speech analytics on a project type basis and within short timescales this element of fl exibility is a key driver for uptake within the fi nancial and compliance markets.

To � nd out more about how Business Systems can help support your organisation analyse audio during compliance investigations contact 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com.

What’s driving speech analytics take up in � nancial services?

MonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitor““““ ””””

The editorial team at MyCustomer.com have done a sterling job in the creation of a new guide focussed on the modern contact centre, the challenges faced and the tools, tactics and technology to address them. In fact we were so impressed we decided to sponsor the guide so that we could share it with our customers.

Covering a range of topics including creating a contact centre strategy, powering up your staff with gamifi cation and rethinking your contact centre metrics, it’s got something for everyone.

We picked out � ve key stats in the guide worth sharing:

88% of organisations run contests on

whiteboards and by email, but more than two-thirds of

them do so less than once a month

80% of interactions are

typically about a small number

of things

50 - 60% of agent attrition occurs in the � rst

90 days after recruitment

29% of contact centres are now listening

to audio to identify spoken

patterns

25% of contact

centres are truly multi-channel

The guru’s guide to contact centre managementThe editorial team at MyCustomer.com have done a sterling job in the creation of a new guide focussed on the modern contact centre, the challenges faced and the tools, tactics and technology to address them. In fact we were

Covering a range of topics including creating a contact centre strategy, powering up your staff with gamifi cation

At just under 100 pages the guide is not for the faint-hearted, so we have decided to split it into 9 chapters and will be releasing them in a series of blogs in the coming months.

If you can’t wait and want to download the full guide you can access it at http://bit.ly/WLEdz1

T 020 8326 8280E sales@businesssystemsuk.com W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk� @BSLHQ

Following hot on the heels of the Vocal Wordwatch multi-recording engine portal which provides playback of call recordings from diff erent systems in a single interface, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new performance management module.

If it’s got a fi eld we can report on it to deliver informed insight at your fi ngertips and tailored to your role or remit in the company. With drag and drop functionality you can reduce the overheads in time and resource to produce state of the art tracking of your KPI’s.

Connecting into any data source the technology has the capability to draw from multiple systems simultaneously to provide a single view of your call recording, quality monitoring and even workforce management stats. With it proving easier than ever before to consolidate meaningful information in one place users can drill down and identify the root cause of issues quicker.

If you sync it up with your quality monitoring technology, dashboard reports can highlight how many evaluations per agent have been conducted in a given time period, what the average score of that agent is over time and how many evaluations have been conducted per evaluator.

Stephen Thurston, Director at Business Systems goes on to say “We are talking about a very powerful performance management tool here, it’s not just taking data from the call recording but the other elements which surround it, it truly is a step towards managing big data in the contact centre.”

To � nd out more about how the Vocal Wordwatch performance management module can provide you with more informed insight contact 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com for more details.

3

Introducing the latest performance management technology

There was a lot of shared insight at the webinar we hosted back in May with Call Centre Helper and one of the stand out points for us was the recognition of the rise of the multi-channel contact centre yet the lack of monitoring going on across those channels. According to an audience poll during the webinar only 15% of the audience monitored web chat and only 22% monitored social media - interesting statistics.

Understandably, there is just not enough time to listen to and monitor everything, which is where social media and speech analytics tools can be set up to do the listening for you and increasingly at lower cost for the entry level speech analytics packages. A shared tip from the audience commented on listening being a shared responsibility across the organisation.

With only 28% of marketing and 23% of product development teams in our audience poll having access to customer calls, there is perhaps a case to be built for giving those departments who play a role in your customer’s journey and experience access to calls as well.

There was also some suggestions given on how best to fi x broken processes. For example empowering your agents with the ability to fi x broken processes was only being carried out by 20% of the audience. Those already engaging in this encouraged others to start asking agents for feedback on business processes and incentivise them to share specifi c customer experiences and propose solutions by actually doing something with the suggestions made.

The webinar also pointed out that ideally you should be balancing all this with the needs of your business to successfully function and not fall foul of regulation, over-spending and over resourcing. From making sure you are meeting regulatory requirements and reducing the risk of fraud with slick voice biometrics solutions to ensuring you have the right amount of agents in place to meet your service level agreements, success doesn’t come easy.

Find out what you missed by viewing our webinar at http://bit.ly/1k3tM3Z

What are the most successful contact centres doing right?

The whole drive around PCI compliance is focused at stopping fraud most of which starts from within an organisation, and this along with employee theft accounts for just over £1 billion in losses to the UK.

Preventing fraud is one part of the equation but so too is dealing with it when it happens, this normally starts with the suspicion of specifi c individuals and a subsequent investigation process. Investigative interviewing is a delicate area and professionals in this space use specialist interview technology to protect the interests of all parties. Vocal Recorders have recently released ‘IRES’ an updated version of their ‘Interview Recording & Evidence Suite’ to make the process easier.

Based on approved government design IRES provides 3 major benefi ts:

1. Reduce costs - The costs involved in providing an accurate record of an interview can be horrendously high if the business process is poor. Contemporaneous note taking as an example is dangerously outdated by today’s standards; it is responsible for unnecessary administrative costs and fl awed results. By contrast an error free recording process saves time and produces professional risk free results.

2. Managing risk is essential. Recording a conversation is the safest way for an organisation to protect themselves should a dispute or a false accusation occur. Having an accurate record of what was said can go an extremely long way in maintaining the integrity of your business and your investigation.

3. Improving the quality of your investigative process - should be at the forefront of your investigations. By allowing your staff to listen, watch and learn from their previous interviews, best practice standards can be set with goals to be aspired to.

Call 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com to � nd out how we can help you proactively tackle fraud or theft in your organisation.

CASE STUDY continued

Internal fraud – regrettably it’s common placeCleansing legacy call recordings

to achieve PCI compliance

MonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitorMonitor““““ ””””

Business Systems (UK) Limited 462 London Road, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 4ED T 020 8326 8280 W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk � @BSLHQ4

After reviewing a number of call recording products and suppliers on the market, Business Systems (UK) Ltd was selected as a strategic partner to work with in implementing the Red Box Recorders Quantify product. Julian Bond, Head of ICT at Hillarys commented “Business Systems was an organisation we could work with; they weren’t restricted to selling us a single product but focussed on understanding our business and helping us choose the product which would work best for us. We wanted a capable partner with plenty of experience in complex integrations and appreciated their collaborative style and informedapproach that seemed to be genuinely centred on delivering tangible value to our business”.

Paul Mellors, ICT Service Delivery Leader at Hillarys goes on to comment “The Red Box product felt like a good fi t for us, it was simple to implement, easy to work with and has an intuitive interface and the commercials were right.” Julian adds “We wanted to ensure quick utilisation, scalability and a product which was clearly unhindered by the need to support extensive legacy features. A solution built around web services was key to allowing easy and fl exible integration with other systems, as we continue to pursue a service-oriented architecture strategy.”

View the full case study at: www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk/casestudies

Do you know whether your older call recordings meet the PCI compliance requirements of today?

If you’ve only just recently implemented a PCI compliant call recording solution but still need to retain recordings where you took credit card data from customers a few years back, those legacy recordings still need to meet PCI compliance requirements.

In other words sensitive customer credit card data should not be accessible by your business or your agents, regardless of how old the call recording is. Luckily we have just the solution for you, it does not remove or delete calls it simply takes your existing non-compliant recordings and exports them into a secure hosted environment. Using full symmetric encryption methodology, you can then provide secure and controlled access to replay those calls as and when required.

By cleansing your legacy call recordings and eff ectively ring-fencing them, you can ensure that any risk is now out of scope whilst still enabling regulators to access the calls should they need to in future.

Find out more about our legacy call recording and storage retrieval solution call 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com

Julian Bond, Head of ICT, Hillarys