Connections Magazine News
November 2005

NAEO Members Launch Hurricane Relief Efforts

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the National Amtelco Equipment Owners (NAEO) group stepped up to offer assistance for the Gulf Coast area and the many teleservice employees left jobless.  NAEO set up an Operator Relief Fund "to help those that say ‘May I help you?' hundreds of times a day."  According to Marci Imes, NAEO President, "As an industry, we immediately recognized that many call center staff members were impacted by Katrina and we needed to find a way to help those who have helped so many over the years."  Although contributions are not tax-deductible, over $100,000 has already been contributed. 

Betty Bouchie, the NAEO Operator Relief Fund Coordinator, stated, "We have a number of call centers who have offered to re-locate agents, often including housing as well as a paycheck, while the details of their new lives can be planned.  We have a team working closely to contact and locate call centers in the area.  We hope to reach as many call center workers as possible."

For more information on NAEO, and the NAEO Operator Relief Fund, email NAEO at donations@naeo.org or call 800-809-6373, x2.  For more information on Amtelco, call 800-356-9148 or email info@amtelco.com.

CAM -X to Present the New Face of the Call Center

The Canadian Call Management Association ( CAM -X) invites you to hear about progressive call centers that have broken away from the old answering service stereotypes.  Join CAM -X at their 41^st Annual Convention and Trade Show, November 29 through December 2, 2005 in , Alberta .  At the convention, they will explore the incredible evolution of the industry from cord board message takers to fully integrated partners in clients' businesses.  Attendees will see the many ways to make clients' businesses more productive, more professional, and more profitable. 

Gary Pudles, President and CEO of the AnswerNet Network, will welcome us to the "Evolution," delivering a fun and educational session that will take a fresh look at how the industry has moved beyond this old model.  "CAMX members tend to be quite progressive in the services they deliver to their customers," Pudles stated.  "However, like any technology driven businesses, many of our members have only begun to scratch the surface on new and exciting revenue streams and opportunities."

For more information, contact -X at 800-896-1054.

SHUG and SNUG Merge

Startel National Users' Group (SNUG) announced the completion of the merger with the Startel Hospital User Group (SHUG).  SNUG president Dennis O'Hara said, "We're excited to have SHUG join us as this will result in a stronger, more diverse user group bringing more resources to the table."  

Tanisha Threats, president of SHUG added, "We are energized about the opportunities that merging with SNUG presents to the healthcare group.  It affords us the chance to exchange ideas and concerns with a larger group."

 SNUG is a not-for-profit professional association serving the membership of education needs of Startel equipment users.  For more information, call 800-317-8529.

ATSI Awards Call Center Certification

The Association of Teleservices International ( ATSI ) announced that MTM Communications has received the 24/7 Call Center Certification Award.  The certification indicates that MTM Communications has met or exceeded high standards in the following areas: business practices, life safety, operations including normal and emergency procedures, personnel hiring, training, and ongoing evaluations through a peer review program focusing on 99.9% annual run time.

MTM is the second (CadCom Equipment Owners) site to be certified.  CEO is a volunteer organization comprised of telemessaging services and call centers who utilize telemessaging equipment manufactured by Onvisource. 

CadCom is a provider of contact center portal applications, including customer-oriented and advanced products, hosted application services, customer support programs, and business operations professional services.  ATSI is an international trade association established by and for entrepreneurs in the teleservices business.

Business Connections Earns Gold

The Association of Teleservices International ( ATSI ) announced that Business Connections, Inc. has re-certified and qualifies for the 24/7 Call Center Certification Gold Award.  This Certification indicates that Business Connections has met or exceeded high standards in the following areas: business practices, life safety, operations including normal and emergency procedures, personnel hiring, training, and ongoing evaluations.

ATSI is an international trade association for the teleservices industry.

SNUG Deploys Enhanced Email List Serve

Startel National Users' Group (SNUG) announced that it has deployed a new and enhanced email list serve.  The new list serve has a bulletin board interface where members can read and post to specific threads.  In addition, it offers chat rooms for members to share ideas in real time. Large file attachments are also supported which is ideal for sharing documents and files.  Startel CMC users will also be able to post client templates and programming for other users to import and utilize.

"This new format will make it easier for members to search archives, share ideas, and better manage their electronic mail," stated Aaron Boatin, SNUG Technical Committee Chairperson.

SNUG is a not-for-profit professional association serving the education needs of Startel equipment users.

ASTAA Update

The recent ASTAA 2005 Manager/Supervisor Conference was well attended by individuals from many states.  The success of this conference has led to planning for another similar conference in 2006.

Sessions will stress matters of concern at the managerial/supervisory level.  Fees will be reasonable; accommodations, economical; and the location, accessible.  The target date will be in October 2006.  More information will be forthcoming.

To help plan this event, contact Nell Norris at 800-718-1712 or astaan@mindspring.com.

InfoCision Hires 125 in Columbus

InfoCision Management Corporation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today at its newest call center location in Columbus , .  The facility will be home to InfoCision's 24th call center and employ about 125 people.  An expansion at that site could create another 125 jobs.

InfoCision Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Steve Brubaker thanked city, county, and state officials for their assistance in welcoming the call center to Franklin County through a generous incentive package.  "We're proud to work closely with government officials at all levels as well as organizations like the Columbus Chamber of Commerce," said Brubaker.  "We're fortunate to be able to expand and excited to do it in the state's capital."

The new call center will focus on telephone campaigns for clients in the company's Commercial Division, according to Brubaker.  "Our Commercial Division is exploding with new business," added Brubaker.

InfoCision also opened new call centers in Youngstown and Mansfield within the last year.

InfoCision provides customer care services, commercial sales, and marketing from 23 call centers at 13 locations in OH, PA, and WV.

AnswerNet Answers Katrina Aid Calls

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the AnswerNet Network, a telemessaging firm and contact center outsourcer has been on hand to answer the call, in more ways than one.  AnswerNet has been assisting agencies such as the America's Blood Centers and the American Red Cross handle huge volumes of calls.  Other contact centers have asked AnswerNet to help manage calls for relief organizations such as the Salvation Army.

"The need is so great from this terrible disaster; it is a blessing that we have the capabilities, the contact centers, and the staff to assist those who are assisting others," said AnswerNet President and Chief Executive Officer Gary A. Pudles.

AnswerNet is recovering from its own brushes with Hurricane Katrina.  The hurricane hit Miami and southern and sideswiped , .  Fortunately none of AnswerNet's employees were killed and damage to their homes was minimal.

Toll-free calls from AnswerNet's and contact centers were temporarily rerouted to other sites.  The facilities remained open on emergency power, serving local customers including hospitals.

Other telemessaging companies and their employees in the devastated regions were not so fortunate.  Pudles reported that offices and staff members' homes were destroyed.  Many agents and their family members died.  Others evacuated and are picking up the pieces.  To assist these victims, the AnswerNet Network made a $5,000 donation to the Operators Relief Fund established by the National Amtelco Equipment Owners Association. 

Appletree Acquires Herndon Reston Tyson's Corner

Appletree has acquired the assets of Herndon Reston Tyson's Corner Answering Service (HRTC) in northern .  The 34-member staff of HRTC, which includes many remote agents, have joined the growing Appletree family.  Appletree founder and President John Ratliff said the HRTC is a great addition to the growing Appletree family.

This marks the fourth acquisition for Appletree, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in October 2005.  In 2003 the company purchased Florida-based Johnson Communications and Answer Xact, based in ME.  In addition, Appletree also acquired nearly 75 percent of Delaware 's Christiana Care Health System's in-house answering service in 2004.  Appletree was named one of the fastest-growing private businesses in America by Inc. magazine on its 23rd annual Inc. 500 list.

Ambs Deploys Suite of Online tools to help Clients Communicate in Real Time

 Ambs Message Center, a provider of inbound, outbound, and e-bound voice and text-based customer contact and fulfillment services, has deployed a suite of online tools that allows its clients to retrieve orders and messages using any Internet enabled device.  In addition, clients can update call status, procedures and protocol, and on-call coverage schedules within seconds.

"Our goal is to help our clients gain a competitive advantage by utilizing emerging technologies to their fullest potential," said Vice President Aaron Boatin.  "Our clients' customers demand a quick response.  These new tools help our clients keep in touch on a real time basis."

Ambs Message Center handles order entry, messaging, sales, lead qualification and other customer management functions.

AccuCall Release has Rotating On-Call Schedule

With the release of AccuCall version 2.1, CadCom Telesystems, Inc. introduced a rotating scheduler feature for the AccuCall Notify Schedule.  Customers will now have the ability to rotate resources that are on call simultaneously.  Once the top resource is notified, it would then be moved to the bottom and the next available resource will be used for the following instance. 

This is a configurable feature in the client control/Account setup screens on the page level.  Also added to release 2.1 is the ability to update the CadCom automated on call scheduler via the Internet.  These new features give clients and on-call personnel the power to maintain their own schedules.

Telescan Announces On-Call Scheduler Updates

Telescan has expanded their Spectrum on-call scheduler software by adding a Web-enabled feature.  This new feature allows clients to enter their own schedules through the call center's Website from any computer, anywhere in the world, that is connected to the Internet.

Telescan's Spectrum on-call scheduler, a Windows-based program, helps track clients' complex schedules easily and accurately.  The new Web-enabled feature will reduce agent time to manage schedules and will minimize errors. 

Spectrum on-call scheduler allows for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly client schedules with contact information.  Client schedules are instantly available to agents as the client sends in their electronic schedule.  Spectrum on-call scheduler will make the process of maintaining difficult client schedules easier and more efficient.

To find out more about Telescan's Web-enabled Spectrum On-Call Scheduler, call 800-770-7662.

Manpower Links Agent Satisfaction with Caller Satisfaction

Most call center managers intuitively believe there is a link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  That is, they believe more satisfied employees translate to more satisfied customers.  Seeking empirical evidence of this link, Manpower commissioned the Service Quality Measurement Group ( SQM ), an organization that specializes in benchmarking customer and employee satisfaction for contact centers, to study the link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. 

The study is based on data collected from January 1, 2004 to March 31, 2005 .  Customer satisfaction data is based on more than 200,000 surveys with people who phoned a call center.  Employee data is based on more than 18,000 surveys of employees who work in a call center.  More than 200 call centers in North America participated in the study.  The key findings include:

• For every one percent increase in employee satisfaction, there is approximately a two percent increase in customer satisfaction.

• Improving first call resolution rates also improves customer satisfaction.  Fifty-eight percent of the time, the source of error for first call resolution is due to errors made by agents.

• With a 2.5 percent improvement in employee satisfaction, a call center can improve the average number of calls needed to resolve an issue by .1 percent.

• The five most important attributes that contribute to call center satisfaction are: feeling appreciated, not working in a stressful environment, being valued and respected within the organization, opportunities for advancement, and effectively utilizing the agents knowledge and skills.

• When asked to rate their satisfaction with current job attributes, call center employees were least satisfied with the freedom to leave desk, having two-way, open, honest communication, call monitoring, career opportunities for advancement, and scheduling policies and practices.

The complete study is available on-line at www.connectionsmagazine.com/papers.

Study Shows Why New Hires Fail

According to a new study by Leadership IQ, 46% of newly-hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve unequivocal success.  But contrary to popular belief, technical skills are not the primary reason why new hires fail.  Instead, poor interpersonal skills dominate the list, flaws which many of their managers admit were overlooked during the interview process.  The study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can't accept feedback, 23% because they're unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary technical skills.

The three-year study by Leadership IQ compiled these results after studying 5,247 hiring managers who collectively hired more than 20,000 employees during the study period.  Eighty-two percent of managers reported that in hindsight, their interview process with these employees elicited subtle clues that they would be headed for trouble.  But during the interviews, managers were too focused on other issues, too pressed for time, or lacked confidence in their interviewing abilities to heed the warning signs.

"The typical interview process fixates on ensuring that new hires are technically competent," explains Mark Murphy, of Leadership IQ.  "But coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, and temperament are much more predictive of a new hires' success or failure.  Do technical skills really matter if the employee isn't open to improving, alienates their coworkers, lacks drive, and has the wrong personality for the job?"

The study tracked the success and failure of new hires.  It identified the top five reasons why new hires failed (i.e., were terminated, left under pressure, received disciplinary action, or significantly negative performance reviews):

• Coachability (26%) 

• Emotional intelligence (23%) 

• Motivation (17%)

• Temperament (15%)

• Technical competence (11%)

In addition, the study found no significant difference in failure rates across different interviewing approaches. 

White Paper for Customer Service Solution Available

 Increased customer demand for shopping convenience and information has made multi-channel customer service an enterprise's competitive advantage.  This includes seamlessly integrating a company's Web site with the live-agent telephone center.  This is according to a White Paper entitled "Click-to-TalkÔ Web Customer Service: A Business Case," released by Dr. Jon Anton of the  Purdue University Center for Customer-Driven Quality and BenchmarkPortal, Inc.

While Websites are successfully being used for various self-service applications, including marketing and eCommerce, the majority have not been able to efficiently meet customer service needs.  According to the White Paper, "while the Web can effectively divert a portion of customer inquiries from the call center, it still does not meet the individual needs of most customers.  More importantly, the Web has not met the needs of the enterprise when it comes to maximizing revenue."

The majority of Web-based self-service implementations are unable to efficiently deliver a personalized customer service experience, or the necessary consultation capabilities required to complete complex transactions.  Additionally, most Websites do not allow for up-selling and cross-selling opportunities.

Avtex and Telstar to Join Forces

In a move that merges two leaders in call center and IP telephony solutions, Avtex, Inc. of Minneapolis has acquired the Contact Center business of Telstar Communications, Inc. of , WI .  The combined companies will operate a Avtex, Inc. based in Minneapolis , MN .  The merger will better position Avtex to provide multi media contact center solutions.

According to Avtex President Robert Denman, "This combination will bring many new resources and solutions to our customers and provide exciting growth opportunities for our employees."  Avtex is an application and systems integration company that designs, develops, deploys, and supports messaging, contact center, and IP telephony solutions that enable organizations to embrace their customers.  Telstar Communications is an Interactive Intelligence Platinum Elite Partner with its main focus in the design, implementation, and ongoing support of VoIP telephony systems, contact centers, and messaging solutions.  "This merger will allow both our customers and our employees to reach new levels of achievement," said Scott Panzenhagen, president of Telstar.  Scott will pursue other business opportunities.   

Calabrio Enhances Scheduling Capabilities

Calabrio, previously named Odysoft, delivers multi-channel and multiple time-zone capabilities to its customers, free of charge, as part of the basic solution.  Calabrio release 7.5 offers an integrated way to manage any type of media contacts, as well as the flexibility to interface with multimedia ACDs.  Handling these media brings new complexities for contact centers, such as longer service objectives (for example, 100% response in four hours) and the opportunity to defer part of the workload to a future interval within that service objective.

Additionally, Calabrio's new time-zone support adds flexibility to its multi-site management capabilities, a feature first introduced several years ago.  With it, managers are assured adequate coverage of all queues and service units across several centers, regardless of their time zones.

"Today's contact centers are evolving towards national, multi-site entities, serving vast numbers of customers via many new media," stated Guillaume Perron, VP, Product Management, Calabrio.  "The challenge of managing agents across several time zones while they handle email, chat, or phone calls is considerable.  Our latest release, release 7.5, handles these issues seamlessly."

VoiceLog Releases "Anti-Slamming Rules Report"

VoiceLog LLC, provider of third party verification, released its most recent "Anti-Slamming Rules Report," a comprehensive summary of anti-slamming rules in all 50 US states.  The report summarizes states' rules in a common format, describing which methods of order verification are accepted, special exceptions from Federal FCC rules and common verification practice, fines for telecommunication slamming, and other details.  The report is based on VoiceLog surveying all 50 state public utility commissions as well as legislative databases. 

VoiceLog provides the report free to all members of the telecommunications industry, law firms, and other interested parties.

For more information about third party verification services, contact Larry Leikin at 410-643-4384 or lleikin@voicelog.net.

IEX Introduces Workforce Management for Outbound Centers

Addressing the needs of outbound contact centers, IEX Corporation introduced TotalView® Workforce Management System for the outbound environment.  The TotalView Outbound Solution applies inbound workforce management techniques to the outbound environment.

"Contact centers of all types and sizes are playing a more significant role in generating revenue for their companies," said Paul Stockford, chief analyst of Saddletree Research.  "As these centers take on a more strategic role – whether they're inbound, outbound, fully blended, or some combination – putting workforce management at the center of the effort will help ensure the company realizes the full benefit of its marketing investment."

The TotalView Outbound solution provides accurate forecasts, serving as a strong foundation for efficient staff plans. Using this system, managers can quickly and easily build schedules that meet the specific needs of the environment: inbound only, outbound only, blended, block scheduling, or any combination of methods.

"Outbound centers are playing a pivotal role in supporting corporate goals and profits.  Yet the majority of them have little visibility into operational metrics," said Debbie May, president of IEX Corporation.  "This solution allows outbound centers to take advantage of the workforce management processes."

Concerto and Aspect Complete Merger

Concerto Software and Aspect Communications announced the completion of their merger. The transaction was approved by a majority of Aspect Communications' shareholders on September, 21 2005.  The new privately held entity will operate as Aspect Software.

The newly formed company will have a product portfolio that includes predictive dialers, automatic call distributors (ACD), unified contact center systems, self-service interactive voice response (IVR) systems, workforce management applications, and performance analytics solution.  Aspect Software plans to continue to evolve and support all of its major product lines, build tighter integrations among its products, and provide evolutionary methods for customers to adopt new and emerging technologies.

"The new Aspect Software is committed to protecting our customers' investments and is well-equipped to support them in achieving their strategic collections, customer service, and sales and telemarketing objectives," said Jim Foy, President and Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) of Aspect Software.

For more information, call 800-480-2299.

HigherGround Announces Upgrade

HigherGround®, a software developer of call recording, data collection, and reporting tools, released version 7.5 of its Fusion Series 7™ software suite, which integrates telecom data.  The product suite can monitor and verify phone and data transactions, help improve agents' performance and productivity, optimize telecommunications resources, and present a comprehensive view of contact center performance.

A few of the new features included in version 7.5 are virtual channel recording, hyper-threading compatibility, secure portable playback functionality, additional VoIP processors, and an improved agent evaluator interface that includes transparent forms and expanded reporting options.  The Fusion 7.5 upgrade is provided at no cost to customers that subscribe to HigherGround's maintenance agreement.  HigherGround also upgraded its online presence with the launch of a corporate Website with a new graphic design and user-friendly navigation structure.

Avaya Predictive Dialing Add "Cruise Control"

Avaya Proactive Contact increases agent productivity through a new predictive dialing automation capability, known as "Cruise Control."  This feature allows administrators to more easily set service level objectives and have the system dynamically adjust the pace of calling activity with no further manual intervention.  The software tracks a range of key parameters in real-time, such as the number of outbound calls answered and length of time on calls – to achieve faster throughput while complying with government regulations. 

Proactive Contact can accelerate or reduce the pace of interactions based on its predictions of when agents are free or too busy, reducing "nuisance calls."  These are calls that occur when a customer hears silence on the other end and maximizing agent time, making for a more productive outbound campaign.

MIR 3 Notification Powers Katrina Emergency Alerts

MIR 3, a provider of notification software, announced that five Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) and ImpactWeather, a Houston-based provider of weather forecasting services, successfully used 3's notification system to alert customers about the severity of Hurricane Katrina, or in DMAT's case, to quickly gather, assemble and give deployment orders to DMAT members.  There are 29 DMAT teams in the National Disaster Medical System that provide assistance to local organizations in the event of major disasters and catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina.

 ImpactWeather started notifying customers in the petroleum, manufacturing, energy and utility industries, located in areas between Beaumont 3 greatly increases the company's ability to reach large numbers of people in a short period of time,­ which is critical when a potentially catastrophic event such as a hurricane may affect the lives of millions of people.

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