How can an enterprise provide their customers multiple channels of communication while preserving their existing telephony infrastructure?

"To meet the challenge of multichannel customer service, firms will transform call centers to multimedia contact centers."
- Forrester Research

Providing quality service to ensure customer loyalty while maximizing sales can be a difficult challenge in an e-business environment. That's especially true when customers expect to contact an e-business when they want and how they want.

"To meet the challenge of multichannel customer service," says Forrester Research, "firms will transform call centers to multimedia contact centers." But how can an enterprise provide its customers multiple channels of communication while preserving the company's existing telephony infrastructure? How can your customer service representatives (CSRs) be enabled to deliver quality service while maximizing operating efficiencies?

Live CSR Host Telephony answers these questions. Because it is based upon enterprise-level Java technology, Live CSR Host Telephony can build on your existing call center system. It then provides the capability to route customer telephone inquiries into Live CSR Host's Universal Queue, transforming your call center into a multichannel contact management center that works in harmony with your existing PBX system. CSRs can efficiently manage customer inquiries from multiple communication channels, allowing customers to contact you however they may choose, anytime, anyplace.

The advantage of Live CSR Host Telephony over conventional call centers is the wealth of resources computer integration provides the CSR. Once a customer has established an identity with the company, all of that customer's history, including purchasing record and preferences, can be made available to a CSR as a singular customer view for use in upselling, cross-selling, promotions, or in problem resolution. Live CSR Host equips companies with the tools necessary to provide the kind of quality service that strengthens customer loyalty. And CSR productivity is dramatically increased by having agents efficiently respond to email messages in their queue when they're not on the phone or involved in other real-time customer interactions.

Live CSR Host Telephony is part of Live CSR Host's Enterprise Interaction Suite (EIS) developed to help enterprises better manage their customer interactions and provide enhanced online customer service. EIS is available as a licensed product or an ASP service. Other components of EIS include Live CSR Host Collaboration (live collaborative chat), Live CSR Host Email, Live CSR Host Assist (self-service), Live CSR Host VoIP* (Voice over Internet Protocol) and Live CSR Host Wireless.

Telephony Features

CSR/Supervisor Features

• Active List. Enables CSRs to view current session information while managing sessions with several customers simultaneously.

• Softphone Interface. Enables CSRs from their desktops, to manage common call functions, such as answer, hold, transfer, do-not-disturb and disconnect.

• Predefined Message Window. Provides a collection of questions and answers for frequent inquiries that can be accessed from the CSR's desktop. Saves time by eliminating the need for CSRs to search through product and corporate information. Enables new hires and trainees to be more effective and productive while ensuring consistent responses to customer inquiries.

• Customer Forwarding. Enables a CSR to forward a customer to another CSR or supervisor for better service or to escalate an issue for timely resolution.

• Outbound Calls. Allows CSRs to make outbound calls to complete callback requests. All outbound call information is captured and saved to the customer database in the same manner as inbound call information.

• Detect Hang-ups. Provides CSRs with notification when a customer disconnects while on hold.

• Interaction Logging. Interaction information is saved when the customer is disconnected. The information saved includes the customer's telephone number, if available, and the time and date of the call. The CSR specifies an end-of-contact reason and provides comments regarding the nature of the interaction.

Enterprise Interaction Platform Features

• Administration. Administrators can create and manage user accounts for CSRs, supervisors, and application customers.

• Routing. Intelligently routes telephone calls in the Universal Queue to an appropriate CSR group in order to be processed by the next available CSR.

• Interaction Servers. Coordinates the interaction channels collaboration, telephony, VoIP and wireless between the Universal Queue and the CSR.

• Universal Queue. Integrates web collaboration, telephony, VoIP, callback and wireless chat requests into a blended queue for distribution and delivery to the most appropriate CSR who obtains the next customer from a single source.

• Predefined Content Manager. Allows business managers and administrators to define and manage, for use by CSRs, collaborative content and messages that are consistent across all channels.

• Enterprise Report Manager. Enables business managers and administrators to create, manage and view reports from interaction data stored in the database.

Enterprise Application Integration Features

• Company Information Manager. Permits administrators to configure and manage data agents that are used by CSRs to access customer-related data.

• Enterprise Application Manager. Allows administrators to configure event-driven controls for third-party applications. CSRs can access these controls to pass relevant customer data and create sub-screens within those applications.

• Application Program Interfaces (APIs). A comprehensive set of programming interfaces that allow third-party applications to integrate into the interaction platform.