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Best Practices for Implementing and Managing a Cloud-Based Contact Center

April 2014

Sponsored by:

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Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Building the Project Team ....................................................................................... 1 Implementation Planning ........................................................................................ 2 Reporting and Dashboards are Critical ................................................................... 4 Managing the Contact Center on an Ongoing Basis ............................................... 5 Final Thoughts ........................................................................................................ 6 About Genesys ....................................................................................................... 7 About DMG Consulting LLC .................................................................................... 7

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Introduction

You’re contemplating a move to the cloud. You are considering a cloud-based contact center infrastructure solution, an automatic call distributor (ACD) or outbound dialer, along with other applications such as recording, workforce management and quality assurance. Whether this is your first contact center application or a replacement for an existing on-premise solution, it’s essential to employ best practices to succeed with your roll-out. The implementation deserves as must attention and planning as the selection process. The business is responsible for the implementation, even through the cloud-based vendor provides the hardware and software. Of course, it’s helpful to work with a vendor who is a true partner and offers guidance and direction throughout the process. Building the Project Team

Success with any implementation depends greatly upon proper planning and having the right departments and resources involved. The size of the implementation does not alter the steps that have to be performed when installing the new ACD or dialer, but does change the amount of time required for each one. For example, 50 agents can (and should) be trained in one day, while it will take 3 to 4 days to teach 1,500 agents to use the softphone interface on a new application. The four primary constituents in a cloud-based contact center infrastructure implementation are listed below, along with their primary responsibilities:

1. The business – contact center, customer service, sales, collections, help desk, HR, field service, etc.

2. Internal IT – voice, data, network management and security

3. Vendor – project management, network management, professional services (to configure the application), security and training

4. Carrier – processing orders, porting numbers, installing MPLS, etc. It’s helpful to start with the vendor’s implementation plan, even though the schedule and time frames will be set by the end-user organization. DMG recommends that prospects ask vendors to provide their standard implementation plan during the selection process. End users should review the project plan to see if there are any areas of concern before finalizing the selection. This way, there will be fewer surprises during the roll-out.

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Implementation Planning

The business should dedicate at least as much time to a cloud-based contact center implementation as they would if their internal IT staff were responsible for the initiative. In many cases, the business will want to be even more actively engaged in the cloud-based implementation process, or will have the chance to be more hands-on than if their IT group were responsible. (One reason why companies move to the cloud is because they are not satisfied with the support provided by their internal IT department.) Either way, the business has a lot of decisions to make, some of which will vary depending on whether this is a first-time implementation or a replacement system. If this is a replacement application, DMG encourages users to take a fresh look at what they need to do and how they want to get it done. The new cloud-based contact center infrastructure solution likely comes with capabilities and features that were not previously available in their old application. Just replicating past configurations and routing approaches will not allow them to take advantage of the application’s value-added features and benefits. DMG recommends that businesses follow these guidelines when implementing their new contact center solution. Cloud-based implementations are typically shorter than similar premise-based initiatives, so the time frames are abbreviated and require a more intensive focus.

1. Set up the project team – be sure to include participants from all involved departments and functions; involve resources who are senior enough to know what’s going on and how to do the job, but with enough “bandwidth” to respond on a timely basis.

2. Confirm your department’s business goals and objectives – make sure that everyone is on board with the goals that need to be achieved.

3. Obtain the vendor’s project plan – work with the vendor to customize it for your operating environment; the project plan needs to include a schedule of activities, responsibilities and time frames.

4. Place orders with carriers – this step has the longest lead time and is critical path; it should be done as soon as possible.

5. Address and plan for integrations – decide exactly what systems need to be integrated, and identify the resources to get it done; this may involve both internal and vendor IT staff.

6. Decide how to configure the solution – work with the vendor to specify how the ACD or dialer should be set up.

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7. Define system reports – understand what information is available, and work with the vendor to learn how to utilize standard reports and customize new ones, as needed.

8. Train system administrators – the business (and possibly IT) should be actively engaged in setting up and configuring the application; the sooner you learn how to use the system, the more you’ll benefit from it.

9. Enhance existing voice messages – review and enhance all existing voice messages; odds are that the new application has a lot more options that can be used to improve the customer journey.

10. Review and improve your voice prompter or interactive voice response (IVR) scripts – take advantage of the new system’s capabilities to improve the self-service options that you offer to customers and prospects.

11. Draft a detailed test plan – be sure to test every aspect of the new application, even if you’re just replicating something that was previously available.

12. Create and document the vendor management process with service level agreements (SLAs), escalation policies and contact details – this will save a great deal of effort in the future; even with the best planning and systems, things occasionally go wrong, and it’s important to know who to contact to get them fixed.

13. Schedule training – agents, supervisors, managers and the quality assurance team need to be trained to use the system.

14. Plan for cut-over – this should include the decommissioning of any existing applications, and cancelling maintenance and unused telecom lines.

The time frames for typical cloud-based contact center infrastructure implementations vary greatly, depending on the initiative’s size and complexity, as well as the number of integrations, sites and resources involved. An implementation with 2 sites, 75 seats and 2 integrations should be accomplished in 4 to 6 weeks. However, a large replacement with multiple sites and integrations in addition to the need to revamp a complex IVR application, could take 3 to 6 months. In every case, planning out the steps and resources will greatly improve your odds of success and achieving the important goal of making this cut-over invisible to your customers and the public.

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Reporting and Dashboards are Critical

The top complaint about contact center solutions is the lack of reports, dashboards and actionable data. Given the amount of information captured by ACDs and dialers, this issue is surprising, and it is avoidable. Prospects are encouraged to include in their request for proposal (RFP) a description of all reports and key performance indicators (KPIs) that are required to manage their contact center. This list should include both real-time and historical data that is needed for agents, supervisors, managers, quality assurance specialists and workforce management administrators. Defining reporting and dashboard requirements up front, before the system goes live, gives vendors and users time to properly address these needs. In many cases, standard dashboards and reports contain the necessary information, even if it is not in the exact format that is required. In other situations, custom reports, dashboards and scorecards may need to be priced and created. However, when these reporting requirements are specified early in the selection process, it can be dealt with as an operational opportunity rather than an implementation problem. Figure 1 shows the KPI data requirements for the six most common contact center roles: leaders, managers, supervisors, agents, WFM administrators and QA specialists. Dozens of KPIs are used by contact centers around the world to evaluate their effectiveness, and there are even more ways to calculate them. The most successful contact centers use KPIs that provide visibility into the customer experience, satisfaction, quality, agent satisfaction, as well as productivity. Figure 1: KPIs Requirements for Contact Centers KPI Requirement Contact Center Leader

Requires real-time and historical KPIs and metrics to evaluate effectiveness, quality, customer satisfaction, productivity and sales/collections of the department, sites, teams and agents. Must also identify trends and evaluate the customer experience, journey and ease of doing business with a company.

Managers Require the same high-level information as the contact center leader, but will have detailed visibility only for their teams and agents.

Supervisors Require the same high-level information as contact center manager and detailed data for each team member, agent/salesperson. Need data to compare their team’s performance against others to gauge their effectiveness.

Agents Require real-time data in order to self-manage, by providing visibility into how well they are meeting their goals throughout the

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Figure 1: KPIs Requirements for Contact Centers KPI Requirement

day. Also need historical information to assess their effectiveness and contributions to the department.

Workforce Management (WFM) Administrator

Requires historical, real-time and interval data on an ongoing basis to be able to forecast, schedule and modify staffing requirements to meet real-time demand. Must also have access to high-level department performance and service level data.

Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist

Requires historical information to create a retrospective view of contact center and agent performance and trends on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.

Source: DMG Consulting LLC, April 2014

Managing the Contact Center on an Ongoing Basis

Managing a cloud-based contact center solution is different from an on-premise model; the primary difference is that a third-party vendor bears the responsibility for keeping the cloud-based solution up and running without any service disruptions. To avoid unpleasant surprises, prospects are encouraged to negotiate SLAs during the selection process. (Most cloud-based vendors need to take their solutions down periodically to perform maintenance and updates, but the frequency and timing are negotiable.) Here are the steps for creating a positive relationship with your cloud-based vendor:

1. The customer and vendor should establish SLAs before the contract is signed; it’s essential to understand what “downtime” means, as it varies greatly among the vendors.

2. The business should assign one or two people to be the primary contact(s) for the vendor.

3. The vendor should provide one phone number to function as the single point of contact; ideally, the vendor should have a group of people assigned to each customer account.

4. The customer and vendor contacts should meet (via teleconference) and get acquainted during the implementation phase.

5. The vendor’s systems implementation (or professional services) team should do a formal hand-off to the support team, and the business should be invited to participate.

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6. The lead systems implementation specialist’s name and contact information should be listed in the support files, and this person should be “on call” to help the support organization, as needed, for a period of time.

7. The business should be “trained” on how to report system and performance issues; it will save both sides a tremendous amount of time and effort in troubleshooting.

8. The vendor should provide a website that tracks system performance, uptime and the status of all reported issues; this site can also be used by the customer to report problems.

9. The vendor should track the types of questions asked and issues reported by the customer, in order to identify training opportunities.

10. The vendor should offer training courses to their entire customer base or specific to the customer, on an ongoing basis.

11. The vendor should provide a crowd-sourcing site to solicit input for future system enhancements.

12. The vendor should perform “health checks” 4 months and 10 months after the implementation; the primary support contact should be involved.

The best way to manage expectations and avoid surprises is to establish formal processes that define roles and responsibilities, and to set up a mechanism for discussing and resolving service and support issues before they become major problems.

Final Thoughts

Whether your contact center solution is on-premise or in a third party’s data center, the business should be actively involved in managing its operation and performance. (Taking this step alone would significantly improve the success of many operating environments.) Outsourcing the ACD or dialer to a cloud-based vendor does not mean that you can forget about the application. While the business does not need to be staffed with contact center technology professionals, they do need to appreciate how the system works and its strengths, limitations and features, so that they can optimize its use and benefits. Cloud-based vendors want to build excellent working relationships with their customers; they are often much more cooperative and responsive than internal IT groups, as their future revenue depends on the customer’s success. Business managers should leverage this opportunity to work more closely with their contact center infrastructure vendor to create differentiated servicing environments.

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About Genesys

Genesys is a leading provider of multi-channel customer experience and contact center solutions.

With over 3,500 customers in 80 countries, Genesys orchestrates more than 100 million customer

interactions every day across the contact center and back office. Genesys helps customers

power optimal customer experiences that deliver consistent, seamless and personalized

experiences across all touchpoints, channels and interactions. www.genesys.com

About DMG Consulting LLC

DMG Consulting LLC is a leading independent research, advisory and consulting firm specializing

in contact centers, back-office and real-time analytics. DMG provides insight and strategic

guidance and tactical advice to end users, vendors and the financial community. Each year, DMG

devotes more than 10,000 hours to producing primary research on IT sectors, including workforce

optimization (quality management/liability recording), speech analytics, workforce management,

performance management, desktop analytics, surveying/voice of the customer, text analytics,

cloud-based contact center infrastructure, dialing, interactive voice response systems and

proactive customer care. Our actionable solutions are proven to deliver a lasting competitive

advantage, and often pay for themselves in as little as three months. Learn more at

www.dmgconsult.com.

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