* Presence and Instant Messaging. Sometimes even scripting and knowledge management
are not enough, and the agent needs help from a subject matter expert (SME). To achieve first call resolution, however, access to the SME has to be swift and seamless.
Ross Daniels, director of solutions marketing at Cisco Systems, described the following negative scenario: A customer calls a bank to apply for a mortgage. The operator who takes the call refers to a printed list of in-house mortgage specialists. The agent then does a “blind” call transfer to a specific specialist or to a group phone number and moves on to the next call. If no one answers the transferred call or if it goes to voice mail, the sales opportunity may be lost—no first call resolution.
Instant messaging (IM) and presence technology offer a solution. “Presence,” said Daniels, “indicates the availability of a resource for a task.” In the mortgage example, presence technology tells the agent which mortgage experts are available before the call is transferred. Or it may represent the availability of resources in the mortgage department without identifying specific individuals. Either way, presence lets the agent do a “warm” handoff, first sending an instant message to alert the target SME and then transferring the call.
In addition to ensuring successful transfers, presence and IM can be used to get quick answers. An agent can locate and “chat” with an SME, a supervisor, or another agent without putting the caller on hold.
* Real-Time Speech Analytics. One of the latest advances in the quest for first call resolution is real-time speech analytics. Speech analytics monitors customer-agent conversations, evaluating factors such as speech energy, inflection or emotion, phonetics, silence and what’s actually being said. It analyzes the content of the conversation to identify inappropriate language, to spot competitors’ names and other key words, and to recognize phrases like “cancel my order” or “talk to your manager.”
Historical or post-call speech analytics lets contact center managers review past calls and use the findings to improve future operations. Realtime speech analytics, however, yields immediate insights about active calls: Is the agent listening to the customer, or are they talking over each other? Is the customer getting agitated? Is the caller inclined to buy more products or services? Is the customer considering a competitor’s product? Is the customer considering cancelling his or her account?
“The contribution of real-time speech analytics to first call resolution depends on how you define ‘real time’,” said Calabrio’s Silverman. “Some vendors talk about finding patterns over multiple calls during the same day. Others refer to generating results within minutes of the call. But speech analytics is the most valuable if it has an immediate impact on the outcome of a call.” Silverman defines “real time,” therefore, as within a few seconds of when the event occurred.
Caught up in the flow of the conversation, an agent may not notice if a call is going awry. But real-time speech analytics can notice a shift in pitch or speech energy and send an alert to the supervisor’s computer or display a standard coaching message to the agent. It can also trigger an alert based on a combination of events—speech energy, key phrases, etc. The supervisor can then monitor the call, join the call, or coach the agent via IM. Real-time speech analytics identifies potential problems as they arise, allowing more issues to be resolved on the first call.
* Training and Policy. To take advantage of real-time speech analytics or any other tools, contact center employees need training. “Front-line staff need the proper skills, tools and knowledge,” said Penny Reynolds, senior partner at The Call Center School. “You have to equip the agents properly. But there’s no such thing as training for first call resolution. I wish it were that easy.”
To achieve first call resolution, Reynolds suggested, contact center management must have the right mindset. They must prioritize first call resolution over efficiency. Many contact centers rate agent performance by average handling time (AHT), because it’s easily quantifiable and can be measured automatically. But grading performance by AHT leads to the desire to finish calls quickly rather than resolving customers’ issues.
It’s harder to relate agent performance to call resolution than to AHT. Someone has to listen to the calls and decide if the customers’ issues were resolved. “It’s very much subjective,” said Reynolds. But many contact centers are stepping up to first call resolution. Managers tell agents to take as long as needed to satisfy customers. And they invest in listening to calls to understand where more information or more training is required.
Conclusion
First call resolution is an important, but elusive goal for many contact centers. With the help of tools like presence, knowledge management and real-time speech analytics—and by making first call resolution a priority—contact centers can make significant improvements in both operating efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Bob Bellman is an independent consultant and technology writer with more than 35 years’ experience in engineering, sales and marketing.
