When is a contact centre solution not a contact centre solution?
No, we’re not trying to catch you out with clever riddles. Perhaps we should start with a more fundamental question - what do we mean by a contact centre in the first place?
According to Tollring, the UK-based cloud call analytics specialist, all we really mean by the traditional definition of a contact centre is a dedicated department responsible for handling inbound and outbound calls. In terms of the core technology required to perform this function, there is no real difference to the rest of a business PBX - you essentially need telephones, a switchboard and various call handling and management tools.
The real distinction lies in the role the contact centre plays in the overall organisation of a company. The clue is in the name - the contact centre is first and foremost about handling contact with customers, and therefore its real specialist role is providing customer service. Or, in the case of outbound calling, sales and marketing.
In both cases, theses added functions create a need for oversight, monitoring and measurement against KPIs. Customer service teams want to know about things like wait times, resolution rates, abandonments and customer satisfaction levels so they can improve performance. Outbound sales and marketing teams want to be able to measure responses, follow ups and conversions.
All a contact centre solution is, then, is a marriage of these two core functions - a sophisticated PBX capable of handling large call volumes, and reporting tools to measure performance.
Tollring would argue that this traditional definition of a contact centre no longer reflects how businesses organise themselves, certainly from a customer service point of view. The arrival of multi-channel communications means service can no longer be based purely around the telephone. Customers are choosing from a wide range of communication methods, and the modern contact centre must be set up to embrace them all.
The arrival of omni-channel has also shifted the goalposts on contact centre reporting. Performance data now has to come from multiple touch points aside from the humble telephone. But more than that, say Tollring, as customer service has grown in importance as a competitive point of difference, responsibility for delivering great service has spread beyond the confines of the contact centre and across the whole organisation.
And that is why Tollring says that the highest value contact centres are not really contact centres at all, but whole businesses built around the principle of delivering outstanding customer service throughout. To that end, it positions its iCall Suite (iCS) Online platform, which is more a reporting and analytics product than a contact centre solution in the traditional sense, as perfect for the needs of the modern cross-organisation contact centre.
Before we take a closer look at what iCS Online can deliver in the contact centre, please remember that all of the opinions in this review are those of the author only, and that UC Today does not play any role endorsing or promoting any specific brands.
What can it do?
iCS Online is a cloud-based analytics suite which plugs into existing cloud or on-premises telephone and UC systems to deliver service-oriented reporting.
In total, iCS Online has six modules available:
- iCS Insight provides live reporting and data visualisations through predefined dashboards and wallboards which refresh every 15 minutes
- iCS Report offers enhanced reporting and dashboards which can be broken down by agent, hunts group or ACD call queues. Incoming calls can be analysed and monitored in greater depth, and report scheduling can be customised
- iCS Report Premier adds live monitoring to iCS Report’s capabilities for supervisory control. Agent availability and handling stats are available live, with configurable call queue parameters to display on wallboards and dashboards, and ‘what if’ contact centre modelling to aid staff resourcing
- iCS Contact integrates multi-channel, multi-touch contact points with calls. It provides enhanced supervisory controls such as in-play group and agent reallocation, and additional call control and preview functions
- iCS Record is an adaptable call recording and playback suite. iCS Record Plus adds supervisor functions such as call tagging and call evaluation
- iCS Detect is a security module which guards against call fraud
All of these modules are designed with contact operations in mind. Comprehensive live statistics delivered via reports, dashboards and team wallboards provide supervisors with real-time visibility of presence, call flows and call handling activity, allowing them to manage teams and base decisions on accurate data.
