The quarterly voice and speech technology newsletter from Business Systems, offering you the latest news and insights on call recording, quality montioring, speech analytics, PCI Compliance and much more. Featuring our latest case studies, webinars (including our latest one 'What are the most successful contact centres doing right?') and sponsored guides.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and Grafana
Business Systems Monitor Newsletter - Summer 2014
1. Monitor the voice and speech technology newsletter “Monitor”
T 020 8326 8280
E sales@businesssystemsuk.com
W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk
@BSLHQ
3 questions to ask when buying
a call recording or QM system
Reading through some of our recent case studies, it’s surprising
how much in common our customers share when talking about
what they want a call recording or quality monitoring (QM) system
to deliver for them. This article picks out three common themes
which we hope will help you when thinking about your own
investment or upgrade.
1. Will it help me run a slicker operation?
Many of our customers who have bought into the technology are
committed to reducing ineffi ciencies and labour intensive processes.
Their aim is to resolve customer issues quickly, learn from mistakes and
build better relationships with customers. They are using the technology
to remedy these areas and report back on improvements made as a
result. Neil Nasser, Customer Services Manager at Hexagon Housing
recently built a business case for call recording by identifying how the
organisation could better meet the needs of residents and help improve
rent collections through improved communication and service.
2. Will it empower my sta to take action?
The ability to pull together quickly under pressure cannot be
underestimated. Call recording and quality monitoring give you
the ability to deal with issues as they occur using tools like live
monitoring. Simplicity also plays a factor, we are seeing increasing
interest from customers who want an easy to use technology that
minimises their reliance on others to fi nd and playback their calls.
Cheryl King, Head of Call Centre Operations at Betfred comments
CASE STUDY
Summer 2014
“When a customer query now occurs, fi nding and playing back the call
couldn’t be simpler. Instead of telling the customer ‘we have to get back
to you on that’, we can now instantly deal with the query as and when it
happens.”
3. Will it deliver ongoing rewards after implementation?
It’s not just about getting the technology in and working quickly. It’s
about working with someone who can provide you with updates of the
latest technology advancements, new features and software updates
and once you’ve reached a plateau, knowing there is still more you can
do with the system. Taking the time to thoroughly train staff up in how
to use the call recording or quality monitoring system will help a lot
post implementation. As Lin Hinkley, Customer Services Manager at
Knauf nicely puts it “we are on a journey of discovery, identifying which
features will best benefi t us in future.”
If you’re considering a new call recording or QM investment,
get in touch with us now to nd out what other tips we can give
to help you make the right choice on 0800 458 2988 or email
marketing@businesssystemsuk.com
Hillarys made-to-measure quality
approach extends to customer service
Established in 1971 Hillarys is the UK’s number one supplier of
made-to-measure blinds, shutters and curtains. Handling over 1.2
million inbound customer contacts a year the company is dedicated
to providing the highest levels of customer service across a 180 seat
contact centre, supported by 1,000 fi eld based Sales Advisors.
Managing a multi-channel contact centre, enquiries are split 50/50
between web and inbound calls. With KPIs around answering 80% of
calls within 20 seconds and minimising lost calls to under 2%, Hillarys fi ts the mould of a best practice contact centre, earning
themselves a place on the UK’s top 50 Contact Centre list. As part of a continuous programme of improvement the company
took the opportunity during a recent telephony upgrade to review their call recording infrastructure and how it could be
improved to better support the needs of their customers and agents. THIS ARTICLE CONTINUES ON PAGE 4...
2. 2
“Monitor”
T 020 8326 8280
E sales@businesssystemsuk.com
W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk
@BSLHQ
What’s driving speech analytics take up in nancial services?
A recent guide released by Contact Babel on Customer Contact
Analytics cites one of the key drivers for uptake of speech analytics
being fi ne avoidance and compliance with legal regulations.
Certainly one of the key sectors we are now starting to see some
signifi cant growth in is the fi nancial services and trading fl oor space.
Particularly within those organisations governed by the Dodd-Frank
Act (DFA). The DFA has enabled regulators to issue trade reconstruction
requests, where they want to look more closely at a specifi c trade,
and fi rms have to comply within 72 hours. Not surprisingly this poses
some real issues and is virtually an impossible task when trying to
retrieve older call recordings which have been archived.
This is where speech analytics technology comes into its own. It’s
increasingly being used to mine audio recordings to help meet these
obligations in the timescales required. Investment fi rms, banks and
stockbrokers are working with specialist fi rms like Business Systems
using speech analytic engines to extract data and recordings and look
for key terms and phrases related to a specifi c investigation.
Thanks to the ability to eff ectively ‘rent out’ speech analytics
technology in the form of a managed service, fi rms don’t have to meet
the massive upfront costs of a full analytics technology investment.
Calls can be extracted related to a specifi c trader or group of traders
over a certain time period and the audio analysed to identify
any potential issues helping fi rms to more eff ectively meet their
compliance obligations.
With the ability to deploy speech analytics on a project type basis
and within short timescales this element of fl exibility is a key driver for
uptake within the fi nancial and compliance markets.
To nd out more about how Business Systems can help
support your organisation analyse audio during compliance
investigations contact 0800 458 2988 or email
marketing@businesssystemsuk.com.
The guru’s guide to contact centre management
The editorial team at MyCustomer.com have done a sterling job in the creation of a new guide focussed on the
modern contact centre, the challenges faced and the tools, tactics and technology to address them. In fact we were
so impressed we decided to sponsor the guide so that we could share it with our customers.
Covering a range of topics including creating a contact centre strategy, powering up your staff with gamifi cation
and rethinking your contact centre metrics, it’s got something for everyone.
We picked out ve key stats in the guide worth sharing:
88%
of organisations
run contests on
whiteboards and
by email, but more
than two-thirds of
them do so less than
once a month
80%
of interactions are
typically about
a small number
of things
50 - 60%
of agent attrition
occurs in the rst
90 days after
recruitment
29%
of contact centres
are now listening
to audio to
identify spoken
patterns
25%
of contact
centres are truly
multi-channel
At just under 100 pages the guide is not for the faint-hearted, so we have decided to split it into 9 chapters and will be releasing
them in a series of blogs in the coming months.
If you can’t wait and want to download the full guide you can access it at http://bit.ly/WLEdz1
3. Following hot on the heels of the Vocal Wordwatch multi-recording engine
portal which provides playback of call recordings from diff erent systems
in a single interface, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new
performance management module.
If it’s got a fi eld we can report on it to deliver informed insight at your
fi ngertips and tailored to your role or remit in the company. With drag and
drop functionality you can reduce the overheads in time and resource to
produce state of the art tracking of your KPI’s.
Connecting into any data source the technology has the capability to draw
from multiple systems simultaneously to provide a single view of your call
recording, quality monitoring and even workforce management stats. With it
proving easier than ever before to consolidate meaningful information in one
place users can drill down and identify the root cause of issues quicker.
If you sync it up with your quality monitoring technology, dashboard reports
can highlight how many evaluations per agent have been conducted in a
given time period, what the average score of that agent is over time and how
many evaluations have been conducted per evaluator.
Stephen Thurston, Director at Business Systems goes on to say “We are talking
about a very powerful performance management tool here, it’s not just
taking data from the call recording but the other elements which surround it,
it truly is a step towards managing big data in the contact centre.”
To nd out more about how the Vocal Wordwatch performance
management module can provide you with more informed insight
contact 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com
for more details.
3
Introducing the latest performance management technology
What are the most successful contact centres doing right?
There was a lot of shared insight at the webinar we hosted back in
May with Call Centre Helper and one of the stand out points for
us was the recognition of the rise of the multi-channel contact
centre yet the lack of monitoring going on across those channels.
According to an audience poll during the webinar only 15% of
the audience monitored web chat and only 22% monitored social
media - interesting statistics.
Understandably, there is just not enough time to listen to and
monitor everything, which is where social media and speech
analytics tools can be set up to do the listening for you and
increasingly at lower cost for the entry level speech analytics
packages. A shared tip from the audience commented on
listening being a shared responsibility across the organisation.
With only 28% of marketing and 23% of product development
teams in our audience poll having access to customer calls, there
is perhaps a case to be built for giving those departments who
play a role in your customer’s journey and experience access to
calls as well.
There was also some suggestions given on how best to fi x
broken processes. For example empowering your agents with
the ability to fi x broken processes was only being carried out by
20% of the audience. Those already engaging in this encouraged
others to start asking agents for feedback on business processes
and incentivise them to share specifi c customer experiences
and propose solutions by actually doing something with the
suggestions made.
The webinar also pointed out that ideally you should be balancing
all this with the needs of your business to successfully function
and not fall foul of regulation, over-spending and over resourcing.
From making sure you are meeting regulatory requirements and
reducing the risk of fraud with slick voice biometrics solutions to
ensuring you have the right amount of agents in place to meet
your service level agreements, success doesn’t come easy.
Find out what you missed by viewing our webinar
at http://bit.ly/1k3tM3Z
4. “Monitor”
The whole drive around PCI compliance is focused at stopping fraud
most of which starts from within an organisation, and this along with
employee theft accounts for just over £1 billion in losses to the UK.
Preventing fraud is one part of the equation but so too is dealing with
it when it happens, this normally starts with the suspicion of specifi c
individuals and a subsequent investigation process. Investigative
interviewing is a delicate area and professionals in this space use specialist
interview technology to protect the interests of all parties. Vocal Recorders
have recently released ‘IRES’ an updated version of their ‘Interview
Recording Evidence Suite’ to make the process easier.
Based on approved government design IRES provides 3 major benefi ts:
1. Reduce costs - The costs involved in providing an accurate record
of an interview can be horrendously high if the business process is poor.
Contemporaneous note taking as an example is dangerously outdated
by today’s standards; it is responsible for unnecessary administrative costs
and fl awed results. By contrast an error free recording process saves time
and produces professional risk free results.
2. Managing risk is essential. Recording a conversation is the safest
way for an organisation to protect themselves should a dispute or a false
accusation occur. Having an accurate record of what was said can go an
extremely long way in maintaining the integrity of your business and your
investigation.
3. Improving the quality of your investigative process - should
be at the forefront of your investigations. By allowing your staff to listen,
watch and learn from their previous interviews, best practice standards
can be set with goals to be aspired to.
Call 0800 458 2988 or email marketing@businesssystemsuk.com
to nd out how we can help you proactively tackle fraud or theft
in your organisation.
Do you know whether your older call recordings meet the
PCI compliance requirements of today?
If you’ve only just recently implemented a PCI compliant call
recording solution but still need to retain recordings where you
took credit card data from customers a few years back, those legacy
recordings still need to meet PCI compliance requirements.
In other words sensitive customer credit card data should not
be accessible by your business or your agents, regardless of how
old the call recording is. Luckily we have just the solution for you,
it does not remove or delete calls it simply takes your existing
non-compliant recordings and exports them into a secure hosted
environment. Using full symmetric encryption methodology, you
can then provide secure and controlled access to replay those calls
as and when required.
By cleansing your legacy call recordings and eff ectively ring-fencing
them, you can ensure that any risk is now out of scope whilst still
enabling regulators to access the calls should they need to in future.
Find out more about our legacy call recording and
storage retrieval solution call 0800 458 2988 or email
marketing@businesssystemsuk.com
CASE STUDY continued
Internal fraud – regrettably
Cleansing legacy call recordings it’s common place
to achieve PCI compliance
After reviewing a number of call recording products and suppliers on
the market, Business Systems (UK) Ltd was selected as a strategic partner to
work with in implementing the Red Box Recorders Quantify product. Julian Bond,
Head of ICT at Hillarys commented “Business Systems was an organisation we
could work with; they weren’t restricted to selling us a single product but focussed
on understanding our business and helping us choose the product which would
work best for us. We wanted a capable partner with plenty of experience in
complex integrations and appreciated their collaborative style and informed
approach that seemed to be genuinely centred on delivering tangible value
to our business”.
Julian Bond, Head of ICT, Hillarys
Paul Mellors, ICT Service Delivery Leader at Hillarys goes on to comment
“The Red Box product felt like a good fi t for us, it was simple to implement, easy to work with and has an intuitive interface and the
commercials were right.” Julian adds “We wanted to ensure quick utilisation, scalability and a product which was clearly unhindered
by the need to support extensive legacy features. A solution built around web services was key to allowing easy and fl exible
integration with other systems, as we continue to pursue a service-oriented architecture strategy.”
View the full case study at: www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk/casestudies
4 Business Systems (UK) Limited 462 London Road, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 4ED T 020 8326 8280 W www.businesssystemsuk.co.uk @BSLHQ