Call Quality Monitoring Is More Important Than Ever With Holidays Approaching

Believe it or not, the holiday shopping season is less than one month away (Black Friday), or in some retail outlets, it is already here!.

Reports say that consumer spending in 2010 might be down this season. Other online reports show increased spending for Christmas.


This has some interesting effects in our space: online catalog companies, and e-tailers, are likely to see an increase in call center activity, as shoppers call in with questions, for support, to place orders, etc.; call center operations managers will be challenged to produce -- more upsells, more saves, increased customer satisfaction.


As always, it will also be important to reduce the costs of running the center - less churn of employees, faster training cycles, faster customer handling times, etc.


Virtual Observer has been able to help many e-tailers address these issues and make serious performance gains, including Harry & David, Crutchfield Electronics, Fox Head Inc., Casual Male XL, Cigars International, J&P Cycles and many more.


Do your CSRs enter credit card information on-screen or take credit card information over the phone? It is also mission critical for e-tailers to maintain PCI compliance.


Virtual Observer helps firms remain compliant through the use of 256-bit media encryption and through granular security which allows administrators to control privileges down to the functional level and through our "LightsOut!" functionality, which automatically eliminate sensitive data after it has been entered on the screen.

Related articles

• Bold Software Releases Holiday Readiness 2010 Research Report (prweb.com)
• Retailers ramp up hiring for holiday season (calgaryherald.com)

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

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