Call center basics: ACD and reporting

Another part of preparing for your purchase is deciding which features are most important to you: reporting or automatic call distribution (ACD) features can make or break your decision. Doing your homework in advance will make it easier to compare different packages.

General attributes
Before delving into detailed feature descriptions, here are some general considerations you should keep in mind:

• Timeframe to deploy/integrate – Installing and integrating a call center software system can take anywhere from a few weeks to six months or longer. Find out what a typical timeline is for each product you’re considering.
• Ease of use – Every provider will tell you their software is easy to use. Try it yourself and see. Are controls clear? Can you get to important information quickly? This question is one that your call center agents can help you evaluate.
• Flexibility – Again, every vendor will tell you their product is flexible and customizable – and to some extent, they all are. However, true customization is more than just changing some labels and colors. Find out how well the system can be made to match your existing business processes.
• Maintenance/administration – You’ll want to be able to make minor changes to the system and create new reports without placing service calls or depending on your IT staff. Look for a system that lets average staffers learn how to do routine administration and maintenance.

Automatic call distribution
Automatic call distribution is one of the defining characteristics of call center software. ACD uses caller ID information to match an incoming call to your customer database. If a match is found, the call is routed according to which products the customer uses, how much they spend with you, their contract status, or any other piece of information you have about them. You can even specify individual agents who should help particular customers.

Advanced ACD applications include conditional routing, which changes call routing based on specific situations. For example, “If group A’s queue times exceed two minutes, and at least one agent in group B is available, route group A calls to group B until hold times are less than one minute.”

ACD goes a long way towards increasing customer satisfaction: by connecting customers to the right agent before the line is even picked up, you greatly reduce additional hold times during transfers. You can also improve sales results and reduce call handling times by playing to your agents’ strengths. Skill-based routing allows you to list each agent’s strong points – sales, specific products, or technical skills – and have callers distributed based on those skills.

Reporting options
Reporting is probably the single most important feature of a call center solution. There are two types of reporting to look at: real-time information on how your call center is doing right now, and overall reporting on performance over a given time period. In most cases, the pre-packaged reports that come with the system will answer many of your needs. Since call center activity and metrics are fairly consistent across different industries, the software creators have a good sense of what reports are most valuable.

However, every company’s reporting needs are different, and you may want more specific reports than are available out-of-the-box. For the most flexibility, look for a system that either includes an interface for generating your own custom reports or allows you to export the data to Crystal Reports or other reporting software you might use.