Specialized software: turns telephone systems into management tools.

Most managers, when questioned on the role of the telephone system in their company, shrug their shoulders and reply, "To make and receive phone calls." The basic need for a company to be able to communicate with its market often drives the purchase of a telephone system. While it is obviously important to address this need, many businesses currently have this expensive piece of hardware, known as a phone system, that is only utilized for making and receiving phone calls.

Concerned with fine tuning operations, managing employee productivity, and focusing on the "bottom line," these same managers constantly search for more accurate ways to "measure" productivity and costs so they can "manage" them more effectively. Unknown to most managers, however, is that a very powerful measurement tool already exists in their office and it sits right in front of them on their desktop. It is their telephone system.

In effect, the telephone systems of today are actually highly specialized computers.

One result of this technology is the ability of a telephone system to provide raw, detailed data about the events that it processes. By capturing that raw data and manipulating it through specialized software, managers now have the ability to utilize very powerful information, previously unavailable to them, concerning resource utilization, customer service standards, and employee productivity.

Call accounting software is an example of this type of software. A telephone bill, if read line by line, gives you an idea of telephone numbers dialed, the day they were dialed and the cost of each of those calls. But, a good call accounting software package will tell you who within your company dialed those numbers and what department or division of the company they come from. It will tell you total amount of time spent on the phone and the calls that are the most expensive and longest in duration. It can sort information by specified criteria such as time periods, names, extensions, departments or divisions simplifying the analysis process.

Imagine the impact a manager could have with the ability to track how many calls the telemarketing or collections department made on a particular day or how many inbound calls came into the office or into a particular department within a specified time period. A company can detail the costs for calls needing reimbursement or enhance the budgeting process by allocating telephone expenses to a particular department or division within the company. They can identify telephone misuse or abuse. A company can increase productivity and reduce expenses, sometimes drastically, with call accounting software. Call center management software is a useful tool for companies that have one or more call centers. Effective call center management can impact levels of customer satisfaction and retention, sales, and unnecessary expenditures. Take for example a service company with an 800 number for customers to call in and schedule appointments.

What happens when calls are put on hold? First, they lose a percentage of clients who hang up because they will not or cannot wait. A certain percentage of those that do "hold" become irritated, especially if waiting on hold is a routine way of doing business with this particular company. Finally, because these customers called an 800#, This service company is paying for wasted time their customers wait on hold.

Call center management software measures this activity so that managers have the information that allows them to make decisions that can have a positive impact on their center's performance.

For instance, real time information shows them the activity as it actually takes place, such as how many calls are currently "on hold"; how long these callers have been waiting; and how many callers called, waited, and eventually hung up before being helped. It tracks how many agents are currently available to take (or place) phone calls. It shows each agent's status, whether they are idle, on an inbound, outbound, or do not disturb situation. If a manager sees that there are 20 calls "on hold" and 20% of the callers are hanging up after waiting an average of 10 minutes, they know they need to react to that situation. They can call in additional help or jump on the phones themselves, reschedule breaks or ask agents on less pressing outbound calls to begin answering inbound lines. Armed with knowledge of the situation, managers can take the appropriate steps to do something about it.

Historical reports let managers evaluate performance for an individual agent or group of agents for a specified time period allowing them to verify payrolls, track actual amount of time spent on phone, and chart performance for evaluations.

Reports also tell management whether they have too few or too many phone lines available to answer call volume and it helps them spot call trends and peak periods so they can staff accordingly in the future.

Software for call accounting and call center management are just two examples of software that taps into and formats into useful information the wealth of data that most telephone systems can provide. The right software will be cost effective and pay for itself may times over by helping managers enhance employee productivity, reduce expenses, increase sales and customer satisfaction, and maximize one of their greatest existing management tools -- their telephone system.

Terri Miller is president of Sunburst Software, a company that specializes in consulting on standard and custom written software solutions for telecommunications and other industries.