If screen pop is your target ... better raise your sights!

Ever since the CTI industry discovered how to synchronize the arrival of a telephone call, along with an associated customer data file, screen pop is wanted more than Jesse James in Dodge City. Customer after customer asks technology vendors, "Do you do screen pops?" The vendors reply, "Sure. What exactly do you want to happen?" "Well," the customer replies, "we want screen pops. You know...screen pops." "I know you want screen pops, but how, and under what circumstances?" The line on the other end often goes silent at this point. Then, a reply: "We don't know."

All too often, screen pop is thought of as the ultimate goal, the be-all and end-all of the process; however, in reality, it is just one side of a multifaceted whole. The real goal is something much broader, something -- for the purposes of this article -- we can refer to as intelligent inbound call routing (IICR).

IICR, when properly executed, should be the well thought out result of the first commandment of CTI: "Pop not thy screen for thine own self...but for thy customer." IICR finally brings to the table a technology that delivers a "win-win" situation for both customer and call center. And believe me, the win can be big.

It's The Customer

Too many times, those in the business of buying and delivering technology forget what our real purpose is. The technology, with it's features and functions and its operating system, becomes the object of adoration. We swoon over a system's multitasking, multithreading and multi-whatever capabilities, making certain that the chosen product will handle the expected traffic load without breaking a sweat. Having applied due diligence, we sign the check and rest peacefully knowing we have just bought into the fastest, greatest and bestest stuff that money can buy. Congratulations! But long before you sign the check, you should be agonizing over how you're going to deliver this "screen pop" stuff to your customer service staff.

IICR leverages network-generated steering data (automatic number identification, caller ID, etc.) and does a great job of telling us who's calling. So far, so good. Surely, knowing who's on the line is important. However, is this information enough to send the call to screen pop land? Not necessarily. We need to know more than the customer's identity. We need answers to the following questions:

1. What type of customer is on the line? Let's be honest. We have good customers, great customers and customers who warrant rose petals laid at their feet. We have customers who don't pay their bills, and chronic problem customers. The point is, customer type will help determine the call center's response.

2. How does the customer want to be treated? The customer may, for example, have a preferred agent they wish to deal with.

3. Why is the customer calling?

4. If all the agents are busy, do we throw the caller into the ACD dungeon of darkness?

5. If the customer has questions about a specific product, do you have a way to get the call to the product guru?

6. Do you want your customer talking to a machine or a person? I think by now you're beginning to see there are many things to consider before you pop that screen. Let's look at them, one at a time.

Customer Profile

Gone are the days when inbound customer calls had to be treated within the confines of a few limited classes of service provided by the private branch exchange (PBX). We're in the computer age now, which means that every customer can have a database profile created to determine just how their call should be routed under every conceivable circumstance on any given day from now till the end of time. Although I don't think any of us want to get that involved, the creation of a customer profile is arguably the most important (and first) step in the screen pop process.

A well thought out profile should tell the system about how you, the IICR user, wants the customer to be handled. Some questions you should ask yourself are: Do I want the customer speaking to a machine? If you know who's calling, the customer profile can direct the call routing process to a non-intrusive (direct to a live agent) or an intrusive (automated attendant/voice mail) environment. It will tell the process what to do if the desired agent isn't available. It will tell you who should be sent to voice mail, and who should never be sent to voice mail (remember those rose petals).

Intelligent Interactive Queues

Okay, so now we know who's calling, and how to handle the call. The world is our oyster, right? Maybe not. No matter how well we staff our call center, there will always be those times when the call volume overwhelms your agents, and the caller has to go into a queue. I have always thought of queuing as the ugly stepchild of automatic call distribution (ACD). And for some reason, queuing has also been thought of as inseparable from ACD.

In the process of implementing your perfect screen pop world, you need to free yourself from this age-old myth. Unfortunately, no matter how sophisticated or expensive your ACD is, it is still centered on agent performance, agent reports, agent response, agent this and agent that. Remember the slogan favored by Bill Clinton's campaign staff? They liked to keep themselves (and the candidate) on track with: "It's the economy, stupid!" Well, in our business...It's the customer! And customers don't give a damn how much you've spent on automation when all they

hear is: "We're sorry, all agents are busy. Please hold and your call will be answered by the first avail' able agent." You could spend big dollars for screen pop and still find this queuing scenario being played out in your call center, in which case you will have a bottleneck that will send your money spilling into the gutter.

If your callers have to be put into a queue, why not smother them with timely, meaningful information that will encourage them to hang on? The screen pop system (IICR) you buy should be able to create queues that tell a caller what their queue position is, and give them frequent updates as to their progress. Give them a reasonably accurate estimated "time-until-answered" announcement. Most important, give the caller options. If they can't wait, let them leave a message. And for those abandoned calls, make sure your system can trap automatic number identification (ANI) information and generate a screen report. This way, you can contact these people with apologies...and give yourself an opportunity to capture what could have been a lost sale. Interactive intelligent queues can work with or without ACD and should be an important part of your screen pop process.

Skills-Based Routing

Let's say your call center is dedicated to selling multiple products, or to providing technical support. Or, perhaps, you're in the fulfillment industry. Here is a perfect opportunity to:

1. Harness IICR in an intrusive environment.

2. Get the caller to exactly the right agent, based upon why the customer is calling.

3. Pop the screen to boot!

Skills-based routing is a dream come true for any customer who has ever been transferred multiple times in an attempt to speak to someone who is knowledgeable about a specific product or service.

In this IICR scenario, you are going to allow the caller to be greeted by a system whose prompts will instruct the caller to identify the product or service they wish. At this point, with skill-based routing, the IICR is going to search its agent skills database table to determine which agent(s) possess the skills needed to help your caller.

Next, the IICR is going to determine which agent with the necessary skills is available to handle the call. Once that is determined, both the call, and an associated screen can be passed. A log on routine should be built into the IICR and required for your agents to let the system know they're present.

It's The Call Center

Okay, okay. So we've talked about the wonderful functions, features and applications that can be brought to the table for the benefit of the customer...all in the name of customer satisfaction. But are call center managers about to invest substantial sums of money just to make their customers happy? Quite frankly...no.

So, why would a call center invest in IICR technology? Because the biggest winner on the dollar side of the equation is...the call center. IICR is attractive because it can shave many seconds off each call in expensive, nonproductive call set-up time, often completing the entire screen pop process in twelve seconds (two rings). That alone; in a sizable enterprise, can equate to reduced 800 service billings that can repay your investment in months Additionally, your agents can handle a substantial increase in call traffic, reducing the need to add more people. More calls, more orders; more orders, more revenue; more...you get the point.

You Don't Have To Be Big

My last point deals with the size of your call center. Up to now, IICR vendors have focused on T1 as the only vehicle to which their products have been mated. All well and good if you're big enough to warrant T1. The fact is that plain old analog caller ID is about to be carried nationwide, and there are systems out there that connect not only to analog trunks, but also work in conjunction with the more robust hybrid and key systems, making IICR with its banner screen pops a possibility for the smaller enterprise. So there it is. All you need to know...to start thinking about popping that screen. Go for it!

Norman A. Schwartz is CEO of GrapeVine Technologies, Inc. located in Morrisville, Vermont. GrapeVine is the developer of the GarpeVine system, on intelligent inbound call routing system that provides network and non-network call/datascreen synchronization in conjunction with customer profile and skills-based routing data tables. The GrapeVine system serves from as few as 4 agents to 384.

Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation Oct 1995
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