Virtual Observations - The CSI Call Center Blog

Virtual Observer & Server Virtualization: Lean, Green & Mean

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:17:17 PDT

The engineers up in the labs are once again giving us excellent content to drop on our blog. This time, the topic of "virtualization" came up with an enterprise prospect who needed a zero-hardware call recording implementation.

Of course, since this prospect had Avaya and AES, we went down the path of CMAPI/DMCC for harvesting the calls. We are definitely able to avoid recording boards when we integrate directly with the phone system. There's one hardware requirement removed from the equation.

Our engineers asked if there were any servers in the data center running VMware. The prospect said yes -- we explained we have several customers running the Virtual Observer recording, database and application services on VMware, creating a smaller footprint and a much greener environment.

Our engineers informed us we've actually had VO deployed in virtualized environments since 2001. More and more enterprises are going green, and virtualization is one of the processes helping them meet that goal.

VO is 100% compatible with VMWare and Microsoft Virtual Server, an excellent option for a lean and green Call Recording and Quality Monitoring implementation.

A Special Father's Day, Complete With Excellent Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:20:19 PDT

For Father's Day this year, my wife and son decided to take me to an independent coffee roaster in Bethel, CT. I was very excited to go but there was one hitch: they weren't open on Sunday. I decided to email the company and see if there was any chance of setting up an appointment.

The owner of Redding Roasters, Bill O'Keefe, emailed me back right away. He explained that he had the day off and was going to be spending time with his granddaughter, but he offered to open up the shop at 9 am and he'd give us the tour.

I replied instantly, thanking him for his offer but I told him we'd decline as we'd never want to interrupt HIS Father's Day. He insisted again, saying it was not an inconvenience at all, so we made the appointment and the early morning trek down to his facility.

He brought us in a little bit early as there wasn't much traffic, and immediately made us some fresh Ethiopian Harrar. He then gave us a lengthy overview of his business process, from roasting tips and methods to the decaffeination process. He was even patient with our 1 year old, as the baby morphed from patient observer to restless explorer.

Bill then did what I was hoping for - he fired up his 2004 Diedrich Roaster, and ran a small batch of Ethiopian Harrar. The green beans turned to a medium brown in about thirty minutes or so, as the roaster scaled to 440 degrees fahrenheit.

Bill showed us his inventory of beans, highlighting the most popular and the most rare. He didn't mind that I wanted to take pictures and ask questions. Our visit lasted two hours, an hour beyond what was initially agreed on for the appointment.

It is rare that you come across this kind of customer service. Bill left a tremendous impression on us.

I did become a customer, purchasing a 1/2 pound of the fresh roasted Ethiopian Harrar (he said to wait about a week for peak flavor), a 1/2 pound of Brazilian, and a 1/2 lb of Brazilian decaf.

Redding Roasters offers a large menu of fresh roasted beans and also does quite a bit of private labeling.

Virtual Observer Earns ShoreTel Certification

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:09:30 PDT

We are pleased to announce that Virtual Observer (VO) is now certified within the ShoreTel TPP (Technology Partner Program). Having successfully tested out our ShoreTel integration in the ShoreTel labs, VO's call logging engine is designed around ShoreTel Architecture, integrating with the ShoreTel System (TAPI) and runs on Windows Servers. VO provides the lowest cost of ownership in the industry for ShoreTel Call Recording.

More about ShoreTel's Technology Partner Program:
ShoreTel's growing eco-system of technology partners provide complementary products that extend ShoreTel’s Unified Communications system capabilities. Members offer hardware, software, and services that enable customers to enhance their communications and more fully leverage their investment in the network and in their voice system. By working with the Technology Partner's, ShoreTel's expansive network of channel partners can offer customers' comprehensive solutions to today's most challenging business communications needs.

CSI puts quality monitoring to work for eRx Network

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:11:22 PDT

A while back we posted the announcement that eRx Network had selected Virtual Observer, and now we're pleased to publish the full success story documenting the performance gains achieved by the eRx contact center after implementation. Here is an excerpt:

"We track several quality metrics using Virtual Observer, including weekly, monthly, and quarterly quality assurance scoring averages per agent, team, and center," said Joseph Balcken, contact center quality manager. "We believe that immediate access to more data, as well as reliable, consistent reporting of QA scores, have improved the department’s overall quality -- a dramatic result that is attributable to our use of Virtual Observer."

Read the full quality monitoring success story here.

Three ways call recording and quality monitoring can provide an instant return on investment

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:07:30 PDT

There are many different ways a call recording and quality monitoring system can provide benefits, both in the short and long term.

Here is a quick bullet list of three ways that come to mind based on customer feedback, providing them with an almost instant return on investment.

Call center customer service agents, knowing they are going to be recorded, may be motivated to start stepping their game up. They'll want their scores to be decent. If the implementation of the call monitoring system is rolled out in a positive manner, the employees will embrace the effort to make them better at their jobs.
If your company implements a call logging solution, capturing every call, you'll never be caught missing that important call which can be preserved for training purposes. For example, a customer was able to play back and score a call which captured an agent saving a large customer's account. The "why" behind the possible cancellation and the "how" the save was conducted was preserved as training material for all new hires.
In some cases, call recording can help catch fraud. A system was recording for just under 48 hours when it captured a fraudulent customer calling in to activate his stolen credit card. The caller had presented all of his contact information, and the recorded call was presented to the authorities.

Call center quality monitoring can yield dramatic improvements

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:15:26 PDT

The core quality assurance features which come bundled with Virtual Observer helped to make SRA Associates' recent call recording implementation a resounding success:

Read this excerpt from an article on TMCnet:

The Virtual Observer team implemented a system to record calls of SRA’s Samsung (News - Alert) phone system. Using an SMDR feed, the calls are able to be tied back into the agent database. Screens are captured and synchronized to give SRA a complete perspective on the customer's interactions. SRA leverages the integrated evaluation, screen capture and performance reporting to automate the quality process and reduce agent turnover as well as improve customer satisfaction.

"Virtual Observer presented a strong value proposition, and I would recommend it for any financial services organization," offered Chiara, as he turned on his pc screen, which showed thumbnails of his entire staff's desktops. Using VO Live technology, John can double-click on an agent desktop, go full screen, take control, or chat for assistance. "VO Live is one of the features that sold me. The power was apparent," John added.

Continue on reading the entire article SRA Associates Sees Dramatic Improvement in Call Center Performance...

Going the classic trade show route in an era of Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:45:23 PDT

Last week we exhibited at an industry trade show. The face to face meet and greets at a trade show can be like speed dating in that you have about a minute to impress people (kudos to my sales manager for the analogy).

On the opposite end of the marketing spectrum (debatable?), last month we also saw the launch of our Twitter account, which is available at http://twitter.com/virtualobserver.

We're going to use it to deliver brief bursts of CSI and Virtual Observer news, as well as snippets and other noteworthy call center industry links.

The best way to describe Twitter for those who don't really understand what it is yet is that Twitter allows you to post or receive quick status updates on people/companies/brands that you care about. In about three minutes, you can go to your Twitter homepage and review what everyone is doing. That's it, you're caught up, you can get back to your busy day.

Many companies are using Twitter to reach their most loyal customers, updating them with exclusive specials, breaking product news, or insider tidbits that only a true fan would want to know.

Of course, many people bombard Twitter with many trivial and useless tidbits of information. If you don't want to follow those people, you don't have to.

Back to the trade show. The trade show was very fruitful -- very glad we went. Sometimes you can't beat good, old fashioned face-to-face contact.

CSI and Windstream partner to deliver Siemens call center quality monitoring to Assurity Life Insurance Company

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:08:14 PDT

We are pleased to announce that Assurity Life Insurance Company, located in Lincoln, Nebraska, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer Professional for call recording and quality monitoring. Virtual Observer was implemented to record calls off of Assuritys’ Siemens phone system.

CSI worked hand-in-hand with partner Windstream Communications to configure a robust quality monitoring solution for Assurity which not only met all project requirements but was also able to bring in the total project cost under budget.

About Assurity:
Assurity Life Insurance Company offers a wide variety of insurance and annuity products and services designed to solve complex financial problems for individuals, families and businesses. Assurity is committed to tailoring clients’ plans with a variety of creative solutions to fit wide-ranging needs for protection and wealth accumulation. For additional information about Assurity, please visit www.assurity.com

About Windstream:
Windstream Corporation is an S&P 500 company that provides digital phone, high-speed Internet and high-definition video and entertainment services to residential and business customers in 16 states. The company has approximately 3.1 million access lines and about $3.2 billion in annual revenues. For more information, visit http://www.windstream.com

Recent enhancements to call recording performance reporting features

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:51:43 PDT

Here’s a quick update on some of the latest updates to VO's Performance Reporting & Analytics features:

- Added dynamic real-time date range capabilities to our "Dashboards" feature: Current Day, Current Month, Current Year.

Added Trending Reports:
* New Recording Statistics which cross-reference a period of time (Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year) against Agent, Agent Type, Supervisor, etc.
* New SMDR Statistics Report: gathers SMDR Stats over a period of time, such as (Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year) and grouped by Extension, Trunk, Direction, Digits (ANI / DNIS) etc.
* New Channel Statistics Report: includes recording attempts over a period of time, such as (Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year) and grouped by Agent ID, Agent Name, Extension, Channel, Result Code.

- Added a "simple" view for our Query Wizard as an alternate option for diving deep into data. Simple mode is a new mode that allows a user to quickly select a field and a value and quickly get the result they are looking for. You may also chose a condition, such as equals, not equals etc, and a relation to each piece of data (AND or OR). The user has the option of moving between advanced and simple by clicking the proper buttons. The query wizard will remember your last selected mode and will stay in that mode until you change modes.

- Enhanced Calibration features within our evaluation system.

- Enhanced the Event Log with "Favorites": Users can now set a quick-pick list of commonly used data searches. These Favorites are saved in the User Profile so they are independent from user to user and are not shared. The system ships with and initially sets up a list that is empty. The user can click the new "favorites" button and then add, edit or delete favorites. Each time thereafter, when the event log is loaded, the favorites will be available from the pick list.

Please contact customer support for questions about these new features.

8 things your call center can implement to help offset the impact of a challenged economy

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:18:33 PST

* Reinvest in current customers. Re-allocate resources to take extra care of those customers who have stuck with you.

* Cross train your people. Cross training your call center reps will improve productivity and add flexibility to your schedules.

* Take new approaches. If your customers aren’t spending time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.com, etc., they will be soon. Make sure your company is visible on these social networks and easy to find. You’ll want to include social network monitoring and response as part of your agent cross-training.

* Consolidate troops. Move all your teams and departments to the same location to save money on technology, energy and training cost. Taking it a bit further, you could combine your purchasing power with other companies to gain greater negotiating leverage and reduce costs. This applies not only to purchase products and supplies but also to services. What contact center does not utilize a cleaning service?

* Reinforce the basics. Simple fine tuning of courtesy skills can have a dramatic impact. Even if you have not implemented an automated quality monitoring system yet, set up some peer evaluation and coaching as part of your new cross-training regimen.

* Reward your people. Innovative rewards and incentive programs can motivate and refocus your team. Make it fun to achieve.

* Personalize your CRM efforts. If you have call handling scripts, think about adding some personalization. Add some fields in your CRM for your customer's birthdays, sports teams, local town, family status, etc. Next time the customer calls in, they will feel special and truly cared about, and most importantly – “they're more than a number” to you.

* Capture the “WOW”. Have your reps add some notes on the "wow" moment - that moment when a customer seems to really show their satisfaction. Save these recorded calls to a "Best Of" media library and share amongst the organization. This will not only beef up morale but can help in training new hires.

News, RSS Feeds and Social Networks for our supported phone systems

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:09:50 PST

Virtual Observer connects to most popular phone systems, and I've tried to round up some of the latest news from each of them. After perusing the excerpts and links, you will find a list of RSS feeds for each phone system vendor so you add them to your RSS feed readers. If that's not enough, I've also compiled a list of the various social networks where these companies have presence.

LATEST NEWS EXCERPTS:
ShoreTel: Nortel Demise Marks the Beginning of a Huge Category Shift
An excerpt: "As you've no doubt read, Nortel Networks has filed for bankruptcy, marking the demise of a once leading company in the communications industry. Is Nortel just another unfortunate victim of the recession? Does it indicate major problems for all providers of telephony solutions? No and no....click here to read the full article on ShoreTel's Blog.

Avaya: Avaya Unified Communications and Contact Center Solutions "Certified Green" by Independent Test Labs
An excerpt: "Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today announced that its Unified Communications and Contact Center solutions have been "Certified Green" by Miercom, an independent testing organization. The designation verifies that Avaya Communication Manager-based networks are environmentally-friendly designs that can save companies money and boost efficiency....click here to read the entire news release.

Cisco: 1-800 CONTACTS is deploying Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise to help it manage growth and increase uptime. An excerpt: "By integrating contact center, web support and administration on the same platform, 1-800 CONTACTS is now able to expand capabilities of its at-home agents by blending inbound and outbound calls into a single queue, allowing contact center associates to answer calls faster. In addition, the entire system is more stable and uptime has been increased by eliminating technical issues inherent in a patchwork system...click here to read the entire article

PHONE SYSTEM VENDORS' RSS FEEDS:
- Avaya Contact Center News RSS Feed
- Cisco Unified Communications RSS Feed
- ShoreTel news feed
- Mitel RSS Feed
- Alcatel-Lucent RSS Feed
- Nortel RSS Feed

FIND PHONE SYSTEM VENDORS ON THE SOCIAL NETWORKS:
- Avaya DevConnect on LinkedIn
- Avaya DevConnect on Facebook

- ShoreTel on LinkedIn
- ShoreTel on Facebook

- Cisco Ecosystem on Facebook

- Mitel Solutions Alliance on LinkedIn

How the Results Group automated their quality monitoring with CSI-Avaya solution

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:13:36 PDT

Avaya just published a success story detailing Virtual Observer's impact on the ever-scaling Results Group's quality initiatives.

Some highlights:

* Results Group expanded their operation by opening 23 new contact centers across North America and Europe.

* Results Group needed a scalable call recording and quality monitoring solution that could accommodate their aggressive expansion and still provide excellent value to price.

• The number of successfully recorded calls has risen to more than one million calls per month

• Staffing levels have increased to more than 4,000 agents

• New agent training is completed in a fraction of the time

• Quality levels have risen dramatically

Please read the full Avaya success story here.

Virtual Observer selected by Home Depot Bath Remodeling for Avaya VoIP Logging and Quality Monitoring

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:57:19 PST

We are pleased to announce that Home Depot Bath Remodeling, located in Kansas City, Missouri, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer Professional VoIP logger for call recording and quality monitoring.

The system will be logging calls off of Home Depot Bath Remodeling's Avaya phone system.

Home Depot Bath Remodeling chose CSI based on robust quality monitoring features as well as CSI's solution-sales approach.

About Home Depot Home Services:
Home Depot Bath Remodeling provides a team of on-time, courteous, insured professionals providing total project management – delivering the materials, performing the work and thoroughly cleaning the jobsite, creating a new bathroom for you to relax and enjoy. Home Depot Bath Remodeling focuses on customer satisfaction and accountability throughout the entire remodeling experience. expectations.

Fun Friday Fyi: A look back at phone system articles via Google and Popular Mechanics

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:00:04 PST

Google has indexed many books, newspapers, photographic archives, images, videos, flash movies, PDFs, etc., and now they've added full archives of magazines. For example, I did a Google Book Search on "phone systems" and it returned a number of results from "Popular Mechanics".

A preview of the search results:

* New take-along telephone give you pushbutton calling to any number (1973)

* Here's Your Ultimate Telephone Center (1984)

* Phones on the Go (1984)

* How to Install Your Own Phone (1983)

* All of this technology can be understood if you know how the phone system beyond
the dial tone works. (1987)

A. Duie Pyle leverages call center quality monitoring solution from CSI

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:13:52 PDT

A. Duie Pyle offers a complete transportation and logistics service throughout the Northeast United States. On-time performance of A. Duie Pyle exceeds 99% on all shipments delivered direct throughout the Northeast.

Investment in technology for customer service has helped Pyle win numerous quality-recognition awards from 1989 to the present.

Two members of the Pyle team, Jeannine Risley, Director of Customer Service, and Jim Dobson, Director of Information Technology, were able to discuss the technology initiatives which have been put in place to continue meeting quality objectives.

In describing the Pyle contact center, Risley stated that "Our objective is to continue to answer the highest percentage of calls within 20 seconds or less. At least 90% of our calls are getting answered within three rings to provide the highest level of customer service possible. Our focus is to be proactive in service, as opposed to the typical call center model where you wait for customers to identify a problem and call you. We make quite a few outbound calls to preempt the inbound calls that otherwise might come." As far as staffing, in 2003 Pyle had 21 people in the contact center and has since expanded to two facilities with 50 people between the two.

When it came down to choosing a vendor for call recording and quality monitoring, Pyle selected CSI’s Virtual Observer solution. "Price and functionality were the two main contributors. They were considerably less expensive than the solution offered by our PBX vendor. And they didn’t just offer the call monitoring. They offered the call evaluation package as well. We really got more for our money. And they were very helpful before we even finalized the contract by customizing the evaluation forms and things like that so that we could have a true sense of what it would look like should we sign a contract with them," Dobson reported.

"It was more than just cost, though. They actually scheduled time with us, including all of our supervisors, so that we could go through a web demonstration and actually see how we could use it. Where Virtual Observer enables to deliver a quality experience to our customers is the way calls are always being monitored. We can go in and review them at our convenience. There’s a call monitoring form that goes over everything, from the way that the call is opened to the conclusion and of course making sure that accurate and appropriate information is given in between. So, we want to make sure that we’re answering the calls quickly and that once we answer them, that we’re providing the highest level of service possible," added Risley.

Read the entire A. Duie Pyle & Virtual Observer success story here

CSI included in article on "Four Technology Companies Continue to Innovate"

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:02:33 PST

While Connecticut has yet to be confused with Silicon Valley, or even Silicon Alley for that matter, technology companies in the Nutmeg state are providing vital services throughout the world, and those offering money saving services and products are likely to continue growing.

It’s rough out there these days. No reasonable person is going to try to tell you otherwise. However, as so often happens during lean economic times, with crisis comes innovation.

And perhaps there is no greater motivation to innovate than the desire to cut costs. The companies that stay on top during the lean times often do so through developing cost saving technologies that others need. In fact, the technology industry has historically had cycles apart from the larger economy precisely because innovation creates the ability to overpower the normal market fluctuations.

One technology-based company that has long roots in the Nutmeg state is Coordinated Systems, Inc., established in 1972. The company has continually evolved their solutions, growing a thriving business built on high quality long term relationships with customers and partners.

Coordinated Systems’ flagship product, Virtual Observer (VO), a call recording and quality assurance solution for call centers, is helping others make strides within the industry in recent years by offering a robust, user friendly feature set that provides high value and exceeds client requirements and enhances client satisfaction.

"We consistently continue to add new features to Virtual Observer,” said Rich Marcia, marketing director at Coordinated Systems, Inc. “There are three driving forces which enable us to sustain innovation. The first is by listening to our customers and responding to their needs. The second is by working with partners to create connectors which can allow our system to work with other, complimentary call center solutions. The third is the creativity of our engineering team. They are consummate professionals who never fail to deliver beyond expectations." - Read the complete article here

Survey of LinkedIn Network members asks: What's the most significant customer service technology breakthrough?

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:55:10 PST

I recently asked the LinkedIn network "What's the most significant customer service breakthrough you've seen in your time, from a technology standpoint? Is it your CRM? Workforce management? Quality monitoring? E-Learning? Web Chat? Google Services?"

As a testament to the power of social networking, I was able to get 27+ responses from business professionals. Now I can take this feedback, and through the blog, have it reach readers who can then share the story over various other social media. The story may even make it back to LinkedIn eventually, as LinkedIn had recently opened up and allowed external applications to dip into their pool.

While the answers were varied, they can be categorized into a few distinct yet connected areas:

1) Analytics:
"I am speaking as a customer rather than a service provider, but I have to point to "targeted service levels" based on data analytics. The example that comes to mind is a recent transaction with amazon.com. My daughter received a kindle for her birthday and within 15 days had downloaded 15 books and within 30 days had broken the device. Technically the accident wasn't covered by the warranty, but I have to believe that amazon.com understood this revenue stream (in the same way they know what I want better than my husband) and replaced the kindle, no questions asked. The incident created a delighted customer (who will spend many more hours and dollars at amazon) and, in the end, a happy amazon. This was win-win customer service."
- NancyLachance, Director at DeVry Inc.

"I think that the inmplementation of "membership clubs" made the biggest impact on customer service and led to today's emphasis on CRM. It was initially a way to incentivize people to frequently purchase to gain rewards; thereby increasing sales, but it led to the collection of a massive amount of data which led to good database marketing opportunities. Later, through more sophistication, these programs became for interactive and real time with the availability of providing preferences sections. One this opened up, a clerk could provide very personal service to a customer by reading/seeing their profile. This tool is still expanding and technology is being furthered (such as data chips, RFIDs, etc.) It's a very exciting area that all started by incentivizing folks to buy more stuff ;)"
- Mary Mussard, GSD

"Customer service is or ought to be an all-encompassing thing. Hence, in the use of a technology platform, I have to suggest Amazon as the most significant customer service breakthrough of the Internet Age thus far. They set the standard as to how e-commerce and customer service work, from the customized greeting and recommendations to the safe and secure one-click check out process and then product fulfillment. The entire process is flawless. And in a sense, customer service is what Amazon offers -- not its products."
- Frank Feather, Keynote Speaker + Strategy Consultant, CEO + Business Futurist + ex-Banker

"I believe knowledge management (KM) represents a true break-through in customer service. A KM solution harnesses the vast base of experience and knowledge that exist within a company and its universe of customers, to answer questions, empower self-service online and drive better agent-assisted support in the call center, Serena Software gives a great real-life testimonial in this brief but powerful video: http://www.youtube.com/user/SmartOnQ It's based on real customer service challenges addressed by a knowledge management solution."
- Gonzalo Mannucci, Director, Lead Generation at InQuira

2) The Internet:
"The most significant development in my opinion has been the internet - providing easy ways to communicate, exchange documents, etc. This increased the “touch” points dramatically"
- Brian Casto, CEO Group 19, Sales Consulting & Outsourcing

"I agree it is the Net. Specifically Google. The ability to enter any error code or model number and get information is a breakthrough."
- Bruce LeRoy, Retired Puerto Rican Programmer

"Of all the things that catch me by surprise, it's Twitter. I have learned more about SAP in three weeks by reading their tweets than any press release would have ever provided.

I think we're going to see more of this personal, bit-direct interaction in the future. It makes it more personal. Really amazing example is how Comcast is using tweets to talk to people."
- Cristin Merritt, Global Marketing at Insite Objects, Inc.

"I would not put my finger on a single one breakthrough, yet if I had to point one thing out it would be the Wikis as an elegant solution to knowledge bases.
That of course precludes, the internet, the lan , the ethernet, the linux server, open source, a call center , voip possibly etc. that need to be in place for a wiki user to be actually productive."
- Angelos Karageorgiou, Internet Architect && IT Strategist

"The internet has created a real opportunity for companies to get fast, easy interaction with the customer. BUT - far too many companies think of net support only in terms of lower cost. It’s real strength is to provide a higher quality customer support for the same price. But if your customer service costs less, your cutting quality. If you question that think about your last time you contacted a vendor for customer support.
- Allen Laudenslager, Independent technical documentation professional

"Graphical Browsers made Internet a conduit for all elements of the purchase transaction. It had been around previously but 1994-1995 was when it began to penetrate the non-techie space opening the door to all that most consumers take for granted today. Shopping Research, Mass Customization, E-Commerce, Post Sale Customer Service and resale have all been made possible by this presentation tool. Its hard to imagine life today without the ability to get nearly any question answered and the ability to purchase nearly anything."
- Don Waskiewicz, Deep Blue Insights

"I feel that Live Chat is one of the most useful forms of customer service. When I am online and need an answer, I want it quick. This allows me to not only get my question answered immediately but raise other questions as needed, without waiting for back and forth email."
- Deborah Ferraro, Controller/HR Manager at customedialabs

"Live chat customer service online. It breaks through the language barrier, is fast, effective and interactive."
- Allan Katz, Owner, Loyalty Marketing Institute

3) Telecom:
"I think that "the internet" is too broad an answer because it isn't specific to customer service. I actually think it's 2.0 voice and messaging services. The fact that my credit card can text me when I approach my credit limit, that I book a product delivery with an automated call-based calendar, and that my doctor's office can automatically ring me when a free appointment comes up is pretty amazing and delivers real value to me as a customer."
- Sabrina Dent, Owner, SabrinaDent.com

"The iPhone is a technological breakthrough for me. If you are running an online, small business via your website, being able to respond to emails, make website changes and do minor research from a mobile device is a milestone. Portability and mobility is an asset to any business."
- Rommel C. Caibal, Creative Director

"By far the most significant technology breaktrhough has been the standard telephone. It gave the ability for customers to make a phone call and talk in person with a companies representitives that would actualy provide service to assist then in their problem resolution. It helped build company and brand loyalty on the part of consumers. The worst invention was the auto atendent and voice mail. The more technology that stands between the personal interaction between a consumer and the business, the worse it makes the experience. 15 years ago I was extremely impressed with the technical support offered by a company called Sybase. You not only reached a live person right away but got the help you needed to resolve any and all problems you had. Today companies of all sizes are getting away from the human experince in their technical support. Sure it saves cost in the budget, however it hurts the bottom line in other ways. Some companies its impossible to talk to a person to have your issues resolved. How does that build loyalty?"
- Gary Estridge, IT and Services Professional Consultant

4) Software As A Service:
"Move from batch to real-time administration of policy transactions - reported on to customers via CRM and variety of admin sx web based interfaces.
- Gail Johnson Morris, Customer-centric Financial Services Executive - in transition.

"Customer service hasn't gotten better, it has in general, declined. The best advancement that can be made is the people who work in customer service, which of course depends on the CRM package they use."
- Lee Stevens, Microsoft Support Engineer

5) Outsourced Services:
"Managed Services - it has increased our abilities to deliver a consistent, stable experience to the user in multiple ways.
- Nathan Vincent, Owner, NextX Communications

6) Open Source:
"For me it would have to be companies open sourcing their software (transparency, really). When a company's product is open source I rarely, if ever, have to contact their support department. Solving a problem goes from waiting on hold or waiting for the "right" support person to simply taking a closer look at how the product works (the code) or performing a simple Internet search.

The more "open" a company is with their products the less I have to deal with their support department and to me, that is the best customer service you can get. All of the following are huge (to me) when it comes to customer service:

1) Public forums where you can search for previous questions/answers from other users of the product.
2) Publicly published code and documentation (that is indexed by search engines).
3) A public bug reporting system where anyone can submit or query bugs.

Customer support people come and go (especially the good ones) but the above items ensure that no matter what happens to the company or their employees I can continue to use their product efficiently and overcome any problems.

Some other really great customer service breakthroughs in recent years:

- Including a return shipping label with shipped products (and/or an automated online system to get an RMA number and print your own label on demand). Zappos and ShoeBuy are good examples.
- ATMs (though, I was just a kid).
- Self check-out lanes (the kind that work well--not the kind at Walmart and Lowes).

...and various other technologies that allow customers to take care of things on their own without having to deal with waiting or other slow/manual processes.

I suspect that in the future things like RFID, biometrics, and video conferencing will provide further breakthroughs in customer service."
- Dan McDougall, IT Security and Linux Expert

7) Other:
"Different industries benefited in different technologies but here I think were the top 5 technologies: VOIP, CRM, RFID, WIKI and SAAS."
- Duke del Prado, Manager-Financial Info Systems at Intralinks, Inc.

"The most significant breakthrough is the discovery that it's possible to run a company in a "service industry" without providing much customer service."
- John Nagle, Owner, SiteTruth

"Self service that works - the airlines do it, amazon do it, ebay do it. End to end service and no people contact - but great customer service when it works."
- Stuart Jolly, Development Director at Teleperformance

"Depending on what you want to service! If your customer service scenario involves hardware shipments (like spare parts or supplies) and/or involves forms of data exchange (like software updating, or simply customer's feedbacks) there might be different levels of enhancements. However, I'd say that any kind of possible "remote data connections" (like the Internet, but also Cellular Modems/phones) is THE big breakthrough. What you need is to move data, not people and parts."
- Fulvio Giacobbe, R&D Developement at OPM

"Our breakthrough has been customer extranets. We have started using an intranet and extranet tool called HyperOffice. In addition to setting up intranet workspaces it allows us to quickly set up extranet workspaces for each client. These extranet workspaces are password protected virtual spaces accessible from any web browser where we can store relevant documents for documents (specifications, forms, training, policy), collaborate with clients on documents, manage joint tasks, keep them abreast of events with group calendars, provide them relevant contact information with address books, have discussions on forums, or conduct feedback surveys using online polls. It literally takes just a few minutes to set up a basic extranet workspace. Moreover we can customize and brand each workspace with logos, easily manage the layout, content, hyperlinking, collaboration tools etc. This has greatly enhanced our client relationships, as well as simplified management of these relationships."
- Pankaj Taneja, Business Dev. Exec. at Second Foundation

"I would absolutely agree with the note in a few posts here - customer service is an all encompassing enterprise wide activity, however, that aside, from a technology perspective I think the most significant advancement has been automated engineer scheduling. Scheduling tools pull together location, skill set, priorities, contract / service credit information and so on to schedule engineers with the right know how, the right parts and the right approach to be in the right place at the right time - if your service model relies on man in a van, you will no doubt recognise the need for all of these to fall into place. On every key metric on the B/S I have found this a winner - commercially costs are saved in mileage, dead time, spares etc; from a people perspective engineers are working and not kris-krossing a city; from a customer perspective they get the right service, carefully managed; and from a learning perspective it helps all understand the gaps in the service offering. Clearly this doesn't help in certain environments - mainly where service engineers are not needed used (e.g. the Amazon example). However where people are core to the offering, I have seen scheduling technology revolutionise services in road side assistance businesses, white goods businesses, technology businesses and a number of other industries, all be it there needs to be a specific business model in place to be beneficial."
- Richard Ackroyd, Application Governance Manager at Siemens

"I've found community forums for self help to be the most significant break-through. Really great providers of services and products create interaction between prospects, partners and customers."
- Marc Pitre, Chief Marketing Officer at AmeriStart

"WebEx - GotoMeeting - These products have enhanced our ability to service our customers immediately. We no longer have to wait for data to load or faxes to be sent for screenshots. We use these relatively inexpensive tools to be on the phone and shared desktop with our client to see exactly what is taking place. Take all of the guess work out of customer support. Brings customer service and satisfaction to a new level."
- Scott White, Allegro, Energy Trading Risk Management, Oil&Gas Accounting, Document Imaging

"'the voice of the customer' - its true, but our ability as consumers to gather together in communities, with the speed and velocity of the internet has meant organizations need to react quickly to consumerism!. A perfect example is the UK Bank Charges case, sites like moneysavingsexpert.co.uk. These forums and communities have changed the way companies now interact and provide service. Another good example is the CEO of a UK based HiFi brand - Arcam, comments on boards themselves, giving that extra personal touch. Other companies are following suit having experts or champions protect and manage their online brands and ensure the customer experience is protected well.."
- Nigel Walsh, General Manager, UKISA & Southern Region

"My vote is Web Self Service applications. Self Service for customer service is like Blackberry to Email. Self Service applications have given SMB companies the ability to give 24x7x365 service to customers without the heavy cost burden. Visibility into knowledge bases, incident management, and self admin tasks have increased customer satisfaction levels with a cost effective solution."
- Hoyt Mann, President and Co-Founder

CSI Partner NACR celebrates 15 years of Success

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:26:23 PST

North American Communications Resource, Inc. marks 15 years in the communications business with a yearlong celebration including special events for employees, customers, and partners.

NACR is a leading provider of comprehensive communications solutions including Voice over IP (VoIP), convergence, mobility, collaboration, unified messaging, and contact centers; network readiness, design, implementation, and testing services; and ongoing consultative, maintenance, repair, and technical support.

NACR partners with CSI to bundle Virtual Observer for call recording and quality monitoring on Avaya platforms. Virtual Observer's versatile and robust recording methodologies make it a great fit for NACR's customer base.

Click here to read the entire news article on NACR's 15 year celebration.

Click here to read the latest CSI-NACR success story.

Virtual Observations Greatest Hits, Volume Two

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:09:15 PST

Digging into our web analytics, we're pleased to bring you a list of the top ten most-read blog posts from our four years of blogging:

- Top 5 Motivational Quotes for Call Center Employees

- Harry & David Scale Up Their Call Quality For the Holidays

- Do You Hear What I Hear?

- What Makes a Good Partnership?

- Announcing Reliable Call Recording for ShoreTel

- Federal Credit Union Call Center

- SMDR Integration Benefits

- Leading Pharmacy Claims Management Company Chooses Virtual Observer

- CSI Selected for Avaya DevConnect Program

- Fast Food Call Centers Emerging

Scalability, Feature Set Drive 1&1 Internet to select Virtual Observer

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:26:39 PST

We are pleased to announce that 1&1 Internet will be implementing Virtual Observer to record calls on their Alcatel phone system to enhance their customer service quality program. Virtual Observer quality monitoring features which will be utilized include Integrated Evaluation, Integrated Screen Capture, E-Learning, SMDR Integration, Media Encryption, and Auditing.
"At 1&1 Internet our customers expect the best when it comes to customer service. With 1&1’s many years of experience in global customer care, we appreciate Coordinated Systems Inc.’s (CSI) special approach with prospective clients. The informative presentations and availability of experts during the evaluation process from CSI were extremely helpful --
Virtual Observer not only offers an excellent and scalable platform, but also provides a better interface and feature set compared to other well-known brands. Virtual Observer is a great value for the price, and it will quickly become one of the most important assets for our customer service quality program."
- Dirk Moreno Arias, VP International Customer Care, 1&1 Internet

1&1 Internet is the world’s largest web hosting provider by known servers with over 7.7 million customers worldwide. 1&1 currently serves over 10 million domain names at its 55,000 server strong worldwide data centers. 1&1 Internet is a subsidiary of United Internet Group, a public company of over 3,000 employees.

Founded in 1988, 1&1 has pioneered the ‘one stop shop’ approach to web solutions. 1&1’s product portfolio caters to the home user, as well as the professional web developer. 1&1 offers a full range services such as domain names, web hosting, dedicated servers, virtual servers, eShops and MailXchange.

Adding to the Virtual Observer - LFCU Success Story

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:26:52 PST

Today the news wires featured a story about how "Virtual Observer helped Lockheed Federal Credit Union deliver timely member services".

One noteworthy addition we need to mention with this article was that not only were we recording their main call center with nearly 100 phones, but we'd also record their 10 satellite offices, each with a handful of phones.

The LFCU implementation is a true enterprise-caliber solution with a central data repository, and multiple harvest remote harvest points, illustrating how Virtual Observer is a natural selection for smaller and mid-sized credit unions, but VO also is a perfect choice for large and enterprise-scale credit union call recording needs as well.

Earning trust in today's tough economic climate

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:09:42 PDT

There is something to be said about being in business for 36 years.

Experience builds character and a big part of that character is stability.

It’s easy to go through the up times, but it’s the economic down times that strengthen businesses.

Stability comes from the experience of living through those down times and making the sometimes painful changes necessary to endure.

Frequently, crisis become a lesson learned for the future.

We at CSI have learned a lot in 36 years and are proud of our stability. We've been allowed to plan, build and sell a high quality product at a fair price.

Our longevity stems from our core philosophy of making sure everything we do is simple, effective and affordable.

We have continued to accomplish this by learning to keep away from the excesses that would require adding inflated costs to our products and even more paramount to swallow up capital should something happen to our economy.

And now as our country is facing a financial crisis, we'll continue to spend wisely, improve our products, and take care of our customers. Having no financial debt, we feel we are in a good position for growth.

We think this will have a major bearing on who prospective customers trust to do business with today and in the future.

We will continue to do our part by providing the best value to price in the industry, as well as the overall lowest cost of ownership.

GameStop chooses Virtual Observer to boost quality monitoring initiative

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:31:28 PDT

We are pleased to announce that GameStop, Inc., with headquarters located in Grapevine, Texas, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer call recording and quality monitoring solution for their Nortel phone system.

"We chose Virtual Observer because it offered the flexibility we needed for our growing customer support center. I found Virtual Obesrver to be an economical yet powerful call recording system that is very easy to use and can be easily expanded as our needs change."
- Kent Morris, Director of Customer Service, GameStop

GameStop is the world's largest video game retailer. The company operates 5,557 retail stores throughout the United States, Austria, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The company also owns two e-commerce sites, GameStop.com and ebgames.com, and GameInformer(R) magazine, a leading multi-platform video game publication. GameStop Corp. sells new and used video game software, hardware and accessories for video game systems from Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. In addition, the company sells PC entertainment software, related accessories, and other merchandise.

ShoreTel VoIP News Round Up

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:03:03 PDT

We've gathered up some of the latest news relating to the ShoreTel VoIP phone system:

You can also visit the ShoreTel.com News Page or the ShoreTel Blog or you can view this real-time, dynamically updated rss feed (typically not viewable in your email or news readers, so come back to this blog post to view):

You can also read about the Virtual Observer Logger for ShoreTel.

Boston Scientific chooses Virtual Observer for Avaya Call Recording & Quality Monitoring

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Marcia) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:35:13 PDT

We are pleased to announce that Boston Scientific, Inc., located in Natick, MA, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer call recording and quality monitoring solution for recording calls off of their Avaya phone system in their Valenica, CA location (Neuromodulation division). "We are very excited about the opportunities that Virtual Observer will give us to bring our Customer Service Staff to the next level. Over the past several years we have focused on skills training, product knowledge as well as phone skills. VO will give us an opportunity to evaluate our individual representatives in this area and help them to improve their skills through real life interactions. We chose VO (and CSI) by features, price as well as meetings with the professional staff during our evaluation process."
- Gary Peyser, Director of Customer Service, Boston Scientific

Boston Scientifics’ pain management business is the innovation leader in less invasive microelectronic implantable technologies used to treat chronic neuropathic pain. The use of minute pulses of electricity delivered directly to nerves, known as Spinal Cord Stimulation, has been in use for more than 30 years.

Without the unwanted side effects and long term costs associated with pain medications, and less invasive than surgical procedures such as spinal fusion, Spinal Cord Stimulation is a reversible therapy that has helped thousands of people find relief from chronic pain.

For more information on pain management, please visit http://www.controlyourpain.com from Boston Scientific.

Please visit our website for more information on call recording solutions for the Avaya platform.