LightLink Display Groups and Virtual Displays

January 17, 2012 — Kelly

Many Inova LightLink users manage large numbers of displays, in a wide variety of physical locations.  Thankfully, LightLink has built in capabilities to help these users manage messages and data for these displays.  Through the functionality of display groups and virtual displays, users can more effectively communicate vital information to contact center personnel.  These features are key, particularly for agent desktop applications and LED wallboards.

LightLink display groups are used to combine separate display devices into a group so one message can be sent to multiple displays.  This is especially useful if you have a large number of displays and often wish to send messages to select groups of those displays such as specific agent groups, physical locations within your building, or even certain geographic locations.  Once you have created a display group, you can then select that group as a destination for relevant messages.

LightLink virtual displays allow you to divide a single display into different grids.  In effect, each grid can then be treated as a separate, or virtual, display.  This is helpful in a wide variety of situations because you can send messages to individual lines of a display or even send the same message to the top line of one display and the bottom of another.  Possibly the most useful application of a virtual display is that it allows you to lock certain regions of displays so that other users cannot make changes.  If you haven’t already done so, once you’ve devoted the time to creating just the right display of data on your display, you’ll understand the criticality of being able to lock that region!

Creating and managing display groups and virtual displays is a relatively straightforward process.  It is well-documented in the LightLink materials; in addition, this month’s LightLink OnCourse Complimentary training will be devoted to helping you understand the process of creating and managing both of these LighLink functions.  Customers with active support agreements should look for an email invitation to join us at 2:00 pm EDT on January 19 to learn more about these incredibly useful capabilities.

Posted in Call Center Resources, LED displays, News and events, Training. No Comments »

6 Ways to Keep CSRs Focused on Queue Metrics

August 23, 2011 — Maureen

The operations arm of customer service departments often invests valuable time and resources implementing a real-time data monitoring and display solution. This can take many forms – LED wallboards, LCD digital signage, desktop applications, email alerts or web dashboards displaying metrics from ACDs or other internal databases. This is certainly a worthwhile investment, as awareness of real-time data has been proven to aid call center managers and CSRs in the delivery of quality customer service. However, that value can only be realized if agents and managers notice and pay attention to the data and messages on the screens. Since call center jobs are often a juggling act requiring multitasking and attention in a number of different areas, it is possible that call center metrics displays may be overlooked. However, there are a few easy ways that managers can ensure that agents pay attention to call center wallboards.

  1. Update call center signage frequently. Agents may be interested in flashy digital signage screens at first, but they will tire quickly of looking at the same view. Appoint someone on your team to create new digital signage software views at least monthly. If you don’t have the time or expertise in house, then outsource the task.
  2. Don’t be afraid to utilize non-work related media. Call center managers often tell me they can’t include sports or entertainment news feeds on their LCD or LED call center wallboards, because this will distract workers. On the contrary, including interesting content on contact center displays will actually make agents more productive, because it causes them to check the boards often. They will therefore be more likely to notice an operational red flag or instructional message from management.
  3. Everybody loves a contest. Give agents a reason to regularly look at your call center wallboard. Announce a contest – trivia or otherwise – that will appear on your reader board’s message line during specified hours. Those who notice the message and respond to your email address quickly will be entered in a raffle to win a prize. The cost for this type of content can be low, but the paybacks are high in terms of increased attention to real-time metrics and messages.
  4. Denote attention-worthy thresholds with sound and color changes. Many call center wallboard systems have built-in threshold capability that allow you to indicate levels at which certain metrics require attention. For example, if your team considers 15 calls waiting in queue excessive, then you can set that number in a display grid to change color from green to yellow when calls waiting hits 16. Perhaps the number changes to red when it reaches 20. This is a simple but effective visual indication to your team that adjustments need to be made.
  5. Make sure information is clear and visible. This may seem like a no-brainer, but if your agents aren’t close enough to see data presented on a call center wallboard, or if that information is not clearly presented, they have no choice but to ignore it. I have seen digital signage views that are aesthetically beautiful when viewed close-up, but the designer forgot that the screens may be 30 feet away from the viewer in some cases. When in doubt, go with big, bold numbers and high contrast on digital signs. If you can’t fit all the information you’d like on one screen, create multiple designs and rotate them.
  6. Set to lock or pop-up desktop metrics applications. Since CSRs often have many windows up on their computer – for CRM data and other systems – queue metrics from a desktop reporting application may be lost. If you utilize desktop metrics display software, you may want to consider locking the application on agents’ screens, so they cannot minimize it. Alternatively, you can set the application to be always minimized unless you send a priority message, in which case the application “pops up” and this movement catches your busy agents’ eyes.

How do you ensure contact center agents stay on top of changing operational conditions and messages?

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Customer service, LED displays. No Comments »

What’s the best way to display call center metrics?

April 27, 2011 — Maureen

Call center managers know the importance of real-time ACD data. It gives invaluable insight into the center’s day-to-day operations and allows managers and agents to adjust to changing conditions. But what is the best way to display the data? I’ll discuss a few common options.

1. LED readerboards – The display method of choice from the early days of the call center is still a popular choice. These electronic signs use light emitting diodes in up to three colors to display metrics and messages.

Pros: Visibility and energy-efficiency are excellent with readerboards, and they’re known to last a long time. Cons: The signs look old-fashioned and limit the type of content that may be displayed.

2.  LCD digital signage – Recently, LCD and plasma screens and digital signage software have threatened to replace tried-and-true LED readerboards for call center data reporting. Digital signage offers a sleek and modern way to present multimedia content, such as data, messages, video, PowerPoint, news, images and more. Some digital signage even has touch-screen capability (wow factor!).

Pros: Modern look and feel shows very well when visitors come to your center, and the ability to display many media types adds value to the solution. Cons: Poor visibility from long distances and wide viewing angles may limit utility.

3. Computer desktops – Sometimes, the layout of call centers doesn’t provide a good central location for a wallboard or digital sign. In these cases, as well as with at-home agents, you’re better off utilizing desktop applications to bring real-time call center metrics directly to your agents and managers’ computer desktops.
Pros: Agents can access all their important call information on their computer screen, without having to keep track of stats posted elsewhere. Cons: Computer screen real-estate is precious, and agent screens may already be filled with other CRM programs.

4. Web-based dashboards – Similar to desktop metrics applications, many call center managers are utilizing dashboards built on their intranet to display and share call center data with key stakeholders. You can even access this data on a smartphone, which keeps you informed even when you’re walking the floor.

Pros: Access data from any computer with an internet connection. Drill down to areas of interest to learn more. Cons: Like any reporting solution, you’ll need to make sure you’re measuring the right KPIs and have the right processes in place to take action when needed.

5. Email alerts –Email alerts are great for contact center managers who don’t have time to monitor every real-time metric that comes through the phone system. With email alerts, managers can be automatically notified of red flags when they are not in viewing distance of an LED or LCD reporting screen.

Pros: Email alerts offer a great threshold-based reminder when certain conditions fall outside your acceptable range. Cons: Not a complete solution; it is better used as a supplement to a more comprehensive reporting platform.

So what’s the verdict…the best way to display real-time call center data? Ultimately, it all comes down to the needs of your team, your space limitations, and budget. Feel free to send me an email if you’d like more information about any of these solutions.

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Digital signage, LED displays, Technology. No Comments »

Evaluating LED wallboards and LCD displays for the call center

March 31, 2011 — Camille

Real-time data display white paper

Just a couple days ago we released our 12th free white paper! “A guide to evaluating LED wallboards & LCD displays in the call center” helps call center managers evaluate real-time data displays and decide how to select display options that meet their messaging and metrics needs.

The new white paper gives an overview of three key considerations call center managers must acknowledge including:

 

  • Visibility- Call center wallboards provide excellent visibility from long distances and wide viewing angles.
  • Content flexibility- The options are virtually endless with call center digital signage; incorporate everything from PowerPoint® presentations to PDF files to live video along with your call center metrics and messages.
  • Cost- There are a few items to consider regarding costs of LED wallboards and LCD displays such as warranty, expected lifetime and energy efficiency.

These three considerations play a large part in a call center’s decision to implement real-time data displays because all three are vital to the success of the reporting project.  Many contact centers find that a mix of LED wallboards and LCD displays accomplishes the goals of the project.

Read more about the three keys to selecting real-time data displays by downloading the free white paper at http://www.inovasolutions.com/call-center-reporting/resources/call-center-data-displays.html.

And keep a look out for more great call center resources.  With 27 years of call center business under our belts and many employees who have been with Inova for more than 10 years, we have a lot of industry knowledge to share!

Posted in Call Center Management, Call Center Resources, Digital signage, LED displays, News and events. No Comments »

What to do with real-time call center data?

March 16, 2011 — Maureen

You finally have access to real-time operational data in your contact center. Great! Now comes the tough question…how exactly do you use that information to improve your center’s efficiency?

At Inova Solutions, many of our call center customers find themselves in the same boat. They know how valuable it can be to have instant visibility into ACD queue statistics, internal databases, and other data sources – but only if they use that information to make smart operational adjustments. After all, if you can see all your real-time ACD stats on a stunning large-format LCD screen, but you go about business as usual, then you’re really not getting much return on your investment.

While every center is different, I thought I’d share some ways our customers have put their real-time data to use:

1.       Automate with threshold messaging. Let’s say you’ve noticed that after wait times exceed a certain threshold in your center, callers start to abandon. To avoid this, you can set a threshold message to automatically appear on your real-time digital signs or agent computers when average wait times exceed your pre-defined threshold. The message could instruct agents to shorten their talk times and postpone after call work in order to accommodate more callers. As a result, abandon rate goes down and you avoid losing those potential customers.

2.       Reassign agents to overloaded queues. If you’re monitoring the number of calls in queue in a real-time grid on your computer screen, set that metric to automatically change colors or play an audible alert when it exceeds the number of calls your team can handle. Time to call in reinforcements! Route the excess calls to another skill group who may have a low number of calls in queue at that time.

3.       Take advantage of downtime. Of course there are busy times in call centers, and depending on the industry, there may also be times when the phones just aren’t ringing. If the number of calls waiting drops below a certain threshold number (that you defined), you can set your LCD digital signage system to start playing a training video, so that agents can get caught up on professional development when they’re not overloaded with calls.

As you can see, a lot of what makes a real-time data system useful is the automation of processes that were previously manual. Why watch the stats all day when you can go about your business and be alerted as red flags pop up? And of course, any form of real-time data reporting and monitoring is far more effective than the “flying blind” alternative of just relying on historical reports at the end of the day. By then, the problems that could have been resolved by smart action have already occurred and may negatively impact your bottom line.

What are some other ways your center uses real-time data?

Posted in Call center KPIs, Call Center Management, Digital signage, LED displays. No Comments »

Deciding Between LED Displays and LCD Digital Signage in Call Centers – Things to Consider

October 27, 2010 — Linda

In my role as customer advocate at Inova Solutions, I’ve helped many customers implement a reporting solution based on LED displays, LCD digital signage, or a combination of the two. If you’re deciding which display system would be best for your call center, here are a few things to keep in mind.

  • Expected Life. Inova has been building LED displays for 26 years, and they are quite sturdy devices.  The expected life span is 10 years, and we have found through experience that they can exceed even that estimate.  I have heard many customers say, “I want to get the new model, but this older one just won’t die!” On the other hand, LCD technology has made great strides in the last few years, and if you buy a commercial brand for the call center, you can get a 3 year warranty.
  • Visible Viewing Distance. LED displays can be read from a distance of about 80-100 feet.  Depending on font size, color use, and other design elements, LCDs will likely offer readability from about 30-40 feet.
  • Glare. In sunny spots, you are going to want to go with LED displays as they have a non-glare plex that allows them to be visible in high light.
  • Flexibility. There is nothing more flexible than LCD technology.  LEDs are a great workhorse.  They display your statistics clearly and you can run threshold and scheduled messages.  But when recognition and motivation are your primary goals, LCDs really shine.  A picture is worth a thousand words and you can show those pictures easily on an LCD.  You can use flash and media players to run clips and video files.  You can have several scrolling lines with text, news feeds and corporate messages while also displaying graphical data and corporate Powerpoint briefs.

All that said, a lot of customers do a combination of both LED boards (the workhorse) and LCD screens (motivational).

Posted in Digital signage, LED displays. No Comments »

How Government Agencies Are Building Better Call Centers

September 30, 2010 — blog@insideinova.com

The image of calling a government agency only to be left on hold, talk to computerized systems, or reach some bored employee who doesn’t really care about the caller is a thing of the past. Government entities from local law enforcement to the Internal Revenue Service are redesigning their call centers to give better service by using the latest technology including advanced call center analytics and electronic reader boards.

People Want More From The Government

The public has decided it will no longer tolerate poor customer service from their government agencies. People are demanding shorter hold times, more responsive agents, and faster resolution of their problems.

This change in attitude has been driven in a large part by the private sector. Companies have slowly come to realize that customer service is an essential part of building loyalty in their clients. Revolutionary changes in information technology have led to call center management tools that would have been impossible a decade ago. As people have gotten better service in the private sector, they have expected an equivalent change from public officials.

There has also been pressure to change from stressed out government workers. Working in an inefficient call center is difficult as callers take their frustrations out on the agents.

Balancing Efficiency With Shrinking Budgets

One reason the government has historically been so slow to emphasize customer service is the belief that it is a luxury. With taxpayers and government oversight committees looking over their shoulders, public managers feel they need to spend money wisely. Cutting edge call centers were seen as a frivolous expense and often at the bottom of the list of priorities.

Today’s public organizations know they must provide exceptional service, just like private companies, but also face criticism of wasteful spending from the same agencies demanding better service. They must find ways to make their call centers run more efficiently while also saving money and not wasting taxpayer dollars. The latest generation of information technology has made this a reality. Easy access to computer software and fast computer networks allows call center management tools to be affordably deployed.

The Latest Call Center Management Systems

The line between phone systems and computer systems has become blurred, and with technologies like VoIP, the line has completely disappeared. No longer are expensive tools needed to generate meaningful call center statistics. Software automatically gathers information on caller volume and agent response and displays the information in real time on electronic reader boards.

All agents can view highly-visible electronic reader boards to see how the call center is functioning so they can adjust their activities accordingly. The data is updated in real time so the information is always current. The latest generation of electronic reader boards use PoE (Power over Ethernet) so are cheaper to install and use less energy than previous models.

Modern call center management tools have made government call centers better experiences for callers and agents alike.

Posted in Business, Call center KPIs, Customer service, LED displays. 1 Comment »

Learning from Disaster: Maintaining your Inova LightLink System

September 13, 2010 — Andrew

Your Inova LightLink system functions often without any worry, displaying your department’s real-time statistics, and aiding you to reach your service level.  However, when a data source breaks or your statistics stop displaying, your Inova LightLink system has instantly become mission critical.

I witnessed this first hand a couple of weeks ago.  One of our clients was forced to rebuild their Inova LightLink server from scratch.  We had to rebuild every message, consulting with each department head to determine what they wanted displayed on each readerboard.  For a few of these departments, properly addressing call volume was their biggest priority.  And without a way to communicate these statistics, our client lost time, money and satisfied customers.

Not every disastrous situation is completely avoidable, but there are reasonable steps to prepare your business prior to an outage.  Below I have outlined three tips to help maintain, and therefore protect, your system.

  1. Automate monthly back-ups. This may be the most important tip on this list.  Without a viable back-up, you may be forced to start from scratch if anything were to happen to your Inova server.  As described above, this causes a distraction for your business, and can easily be avoided.  Running a back-up for the Inova LightLink server is as simple as setting up a single automated task.  For step-by-step directions, click here.
  2. Make sure your hardware is under warranty. I often receive calls from customers who are struggling with an 8 to 10 year old readerboard.  One good business practice is to always be one step ahead.  This allows you to have better vision of your potential market, and better control over your money.  Maintaining your Inova LightLink system is no different.  Have a plan to upgrade your hardware before you are forced to react.  Reach out to your Invoa sales representative if you have any questions.
  3. Stay informed about Inova LightLink upgrades. Although every LightLink upgrade may not be essential to your Inova LightLink system, it is a very good idea to stay informed on what new features have been released and what bugs have been fixed.  For example, in the last couple of releases Inova has introduced Windows 7 Professional and Windows Server 2008 support, along with tools for maintaining large agent deployments.  For more information on our newest releases, visit our support site.

Posted in Call center KPIs, LED displays, System Maintenance. No Comments »

Real-life applications for Inova’s products, part 2

September 7, 2010 — Mari

A couple weeks ago, I shared with you examples of how real call centers are utilizing the Inova Solutions reporting system. By popular request, here are a few more examples.

1. A leading online education company came to us because they want wanted to change the culture of their admissions department to emulate that of a high performance call center. They realized that with the rapid growth of online education comes an equally rapid increase in competition. Every delayed or abandoned call from a prospective student could lead that student to call a competing company.

Our LED and desktop solutions allow 700+ admissions advisers to be aware of queue conditions so that they can manage their time most effectively. The result is a reduction in average speed of answer and therefore abandoned calls, and a corresponding increase in new student enrollment.

2. The payroll department at a major player in the retail industry came to Inova because they wanted to leverage the call statistics captured in their new Avaya phone system. The call center needed a way to optimize productivity without adding headcount. They implemented the Inova LightLink system with an interface to Avaya CMS with statistics and alerts output to OnTrack LED wallboards.

The initial small system was so successful that the company has since more than quadrupled the number of Inova OnTrack displays and expanded the Inova system to optimize the benefits department by enabling “management by exception” and employee empowerment.

3. A health care company came to Inova with two goals. First, to present a professional and proactive image to visiting and prospective clients to demonstrate that the company invests in leading technology in order to provide a high level of service and customer satisfaction. Second, the center hoped to reduce average handle time while maintaining service levels.

These goals were accomplished by providing call center agents and managers with real-time information regarding queue conditions, supporting information, and trigger-based messages that guide optimal work processes.

The company deployed the Inova LightLink and Broadcaster digital signage system in its call center. Our LightLink middleware captures and monitors real-time and historical information from the telecom system. This information is displayed graphically on large screen LCD monitors along with ad-hoc and threshold messages and multimedia content such as graphics, flash presentations, logos, etc.

4. Another health care institution came to us when they were contending for a prestigious industry award which requires visual notification of call center status to agents. Additionally, with the emergence of social networking and internet sites that rate patient experience, the institution wanted to ensure positive reviews by providing excellent customer service for patients calling the appointment and billing centers.

They also hoped to improve resource utilization, and therefore revenue, throughout their system by using visual displays to alert schedulers to the availability of same day appointments in different facilities.

They initially deployed the LightLink system with real-time statistics and alerts on four OnTrack LED displays. After achieving positive results, they added five more LED displays as well as informational RSS feeds.

Curious how Inova’s real-time reporting solutions can help your call center? Send me a note and I’ll be happy to discuss!

Posted in Business, Customer service, Digital signage, Installation, LED displays. No Comments »

Real-life applications for Inova’s products, part 1

August 27, 2010 — Mari

At Inova Solutions, we hear stories every day about how customers are successfully utilizing our real-time reporting solutions to solve their operational problems. Thought we’d share a few with you. (I’ve omitted the companies’ names for privacy purposes.)

1. One of our customers is a major player in the financial services industry and a longtime Inova customer. They utilize our agent desktop application in one of their business units.  They had previously been using Lotus Notes for sending messages to the agents, which they replaced with Inova Marquee. They did a test to compare the effectiveness of each messaging system, and the group using Inova Marquee for messaging achieved 75% compliance in four minutes, while the Lotus Notes group took 18 minutes to achieve the same compliance level.

This company sees such value in our system that they plan to add another 2500 desktop applications this year.

2. Another one of our customers is in the healthcare industry, and sought out Inova Solutions to capture and consolidate real-time information from their ACD and help desk systems. They utilize four output formats:

  • Multi-media output to four large screen monitors via Inova Broadcaster.
  • An XML file to allow statistics or text to be posted on their company intranet.
  • Inova Marquee for statistics to be displayed on desktops.
  • Email output channel for special alerts.

This is designed to relieve the Help Desk of repetitive calls by posting system outage info to the company’s intranet. This improved Help Desk Service Level for mission-critical applications. It also provided consolidated information from multiple systems to aid in management decisions.

3. A company that specializes in business outsourcing came to us because they were growing and adding more agents and clients. The ability to manage agent adherence in real time was critical to moving forward with productive growth.

We recommended our Broadcaster and Performance Tracker applications, which pull call statistics from multiple Avaya switches as well as Oracle Call Center Anywhere and their internal database. Inova then displays this data on flexible dashboards and large screen displays in their command center.

The Broadcaster screens alert workforce managers to problem areas and the Performance Tracker dashboard allows them to drill down to view more detail and isolate the issue. This allows workforce managers to address adherence and service level issues proactively and improve their own productivity by managing by exception.

4. Another prominent Inova customer is an innovator in outsourced contact management solutions. The goals of their call center automation project were to dramatically reduce costs by eliminating a costly manual alert process between HQ, WFM, and call centers, and to enable cost reduction via offshore monitoring and communication tools.

This customer chose to deploy the Inova LightLink real-time reporting system in upward of six call centers. LightLink captures real-time telephony and CRM information from their Avaya, CRM, and Data Warehouse systems. An automated email system sends targeted alert and status messages based on the compiled data to workforce managers. The captured information is also monitored and displayed on large screen LCD monitors in the Command Center and on LCDs and LED displays in the call centers.

Additional benefits were:

  • They leveraged previous investments in state of the art technology in telephony, CRM, and workforce management.
  • They are able to centralize and standardize their operations.
  • They achieved visibility across programs and call centers.
  • They are now able to communicate effectively with targeted groups.
  • They had the choice of different formats (LCD screen, web, mobile device, wallboard, etc.) to meet their specific needs.

These are just a few examples of our successful customers. More to come.

Posted in Business, Customer service, Digital signage, Installation, LED displays. No Comments »
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