You can make your agents better. At least you can help them perform better, and you probably don’t care about the difference. The ability to adjust your incoming call flow improves operations from the client side and can make the system as a whole work better. Optimizing operations on the other end, the agent interface, can have the same effect once the call has been answered. The interface, especially the client interaction script, has to be well organized and present the correct information in an easy to read format in order to give your agent a chance to handle the call effectively.
The most basic way to customize the agent interface for better call handling is to update the client information script. Call center software that allows the script to be updated in the call based on script progress or based on information on or gathered in the call is ideal. Being able to present a different script based on the number dialed allows a great deal of flexibility. Additional features that can be used to improve agent interaction are:
- Data access from web service. The web service could accept nearly any detail from the inbound call and process it using whichever business logic is needed. This allows the custom work to be applied away from the software itself.
- Adding CSS or modifying the HTML of a web-based agent interface. Creating a custom theme allows highlighting of certain components, hiding confusing aspects, renaming, etc..
- Adding custom JavaScript. Use of JavaScript allows custom logic to be inserted directly into the agent interface, changing the way it works. JavaScript has become a strong platform on its own, and allows for powerful changes to be made.
- Calling an external page. Using another web page entirely, called by the screen with data from the call, can be a simple solution in cases where the level of customization would be impractical. This allows systems that would not normally be able to co-exist to work side-by-side. The most common examples are domain-specific CRMs.
All of these are available in Q-Suite via the customer interaction script builder.
The ultimate in customizing your interface is writing your own. Using the call center software APIs available with the system, it should be possible to create an interface to your own specification. This is not something that would be done by call center managers, of course, but a developer or two should be all that’s required to create the interface you need if the APIs are up-to-date and documented.