Table of Contents

The Fundamentals of Interaction Recording Contact Center Missions Purposes of Quality Monitoring Manual Quality Monitoring Methods Wastes Supervisors Time No Permanent Record to Review No Basis for Compliance or Verification Skewed Perception of Quality No Means to Check Consistency Automated Recording Systems Full-time Recording versus Selective Recording Full-time Recording Systems Selective Recording Systems The Trend is to Full-time Recording Selecting an Automated Recording System About the Author and VPI Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 8 Page 8 Page 9 Page 9 Page 9 Page 9 Page 10 Page 10 Page 11 Page 11 Page 12 Page 12 Page 15

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Four Missions of Contact Centers Figure 2: Estimated Technology Penetration by Size Figure 3: Purposes of Interactions Recording Figure 4: Examples of Soft Skills Figure 5: Critical State and Federal Regulations Figure 6: Do You Use Automated Monitoring Technologies? Figure 7: Advantages of Manual Quality Monitoring Methods Figure 8: Disadvantages of Manual Quality Monitoring Figure 9: Core Functions of Automated Recording Systems Figure 10: Advantages of Automated Recording Systems Figure 11: Reasons for Trend to Full-Time Recording Figure 12: Solutions Selection Considerations Figure 13: Special Features Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 8 Page 10 Page 10 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14

The Fundamentals of Interaction Recording

Contact centers come in all shapes and sizes. They can range from the local non-profit call center that employs five people answering phones and cold calling for donations, to the giant, multi-site outsourcer that houses a thousand or more agents at just one location. However, the vast majority of contact centers are small-to-medium in size. The PELORUS Group estimates that 65 percent of contact centers have from five to 20 agents. Moreover, sites of 150 agents or fewer comprise 95 percent of all the worlds contact centers and employ over half of all agents. Most indications are that small contact centers make up the fastest growing segment of the contact center industry. This makes sense because large companies are moving to smaller, multi-site operations and fast growing medium-size companies of 100 1000 employees are creating new contact centers. Furthermore, two large sectors that are major employers of contact center agents financial services and telecommunications providers have been downsizing and consolidating in recent years. The focus of this handbook is interaction recording for the small to medium-size centers, for the purposes of both quality control and liability protection. We will cover the basics of why quality control is essential to your organization, examine the manual and automated options, and outline important considerations for acquiring a modern automated interaction recording system.

Contact Center Missions

Small- to medium-size contact centers have exactly the same four core missions as the giants. Sites of 150 agents or fewer comprise 95 percent of all the worlds contact centers and employ over half of all agents.

Figure 1: Four Missions of Contact Centers

To delight customers To increase revenue To minimize operating costs To provide valuable business insights
The relative importance of contact centers in retaining customers, building goodwill, growing revenue, and cutting costs is just as important or even more so for small to mid-sized contact centers. The quality of customer care may be the only significant edge they have over larger competitors. The loss of even one substantial account can turn a profit into a loss. \ While smaller operations have exactly the same core missions and operate in much the same way as their larger counterparts, they tend to lag far behind the over 250-agent centers in technology adoption.

Figure 2: Estimated Technology Penetration by Contact Center Size

Agents in Contact Center
25-50 Interactive voice response Interaction recording Predictive dialers Workforce management software Performance management software Voice Over IP Telephony 46% 35% 11% 8% <1% <5% 50-250 50% 58% 19% 35% 3% 15% 500+ 66% 90% 21% 85% 12% 25%

Sources: The PELORUS Group, Contact Babel, Cornell University

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Consequently, small to medium-size organizations are operating less efficiently. For example, the absence of three agents in a 300-agent contact center means a capacity loss of one percent. In a contact center with thirty agents the absence of three people means a capacity loss of 10 percent - enough to wreak havoc on service levels. Large centers have sophisticated workforce management software that automatically calculates shrinkage (unplanned absences) and forecasts staffing needs accordingly. Smaller operations seldom have this technology or the luxury of keeping extra people on staff. If they are short on agents they have to call in reinforcements from other departments. Another example is quality control. About nine out of 10 very large contact centers have automated quality monitoring systems in place. This shrivels to barely one-third with 25-50 agent contact centers and 58 percent for medium-size centers. Automated quality monitoring systems are among the must haves for todays contact centers. Industry experts agree that once your staff reaches 20-30 people (depending on call volume and other factors), manual methods are no longer practical or cost-effective.

Purposes of Quality Monitoring

Quality monitoring is a general term that refers to the process of listening to agent conversations and (sometimes) monitoring electronic interactions such as email and chat. Quality monitoring is the most fundamental of contact center management practices and has been used since the birth of the formal contact center. Interaction recording has five purposes, which revolve around the core missions of the contact center.

Figure 3: Purposes of Interaction Recording

To identify coaching opportunities and requirements To evaluate agent performance on soft skills To assure compliance with laws, regulations, and directives To help protect against liability claims To capture and share valuable business intelligence

To identify coaching opportunities and requirements

Coaching is an ongoing process and arguably the most important responsibility of management. Contact centers have always been highly dynamic working environments. Annual turnover runs at about 30 percent for centers in general but can exceed 100 percent in very large, highly stressful environments. One of the many advantages of smaller operations is that agent retention is generally higher. In smaller contact centers agents and supervisors are able to build closer personal bonds and personnel are not as isolated from the larger enterprise. This greater visibility provides more avenues for career growth outside the contact center. With new employees entering the agent pool on a regular basis, there are constant demands for training and coaching. The operation seeks to maintain consistent quality with customer interactions. There are many numeric measures for agent performance, but soft skills assessment can only be accomplished by direct observation.

Automated quality monitoring systems are among the must haves for todays contact centers. Industry experts agree that once your staff reaches 20-30 people (depending on call volume and other factors), manual methods are no longer practical or cost-effective.

Figure 4: Examples of Soft Skills

Script adherence Adherence to work processes Courtesy Knowledge of products, services, and policies Voice clarity 4

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Accuracy of voice responses and data entry Call control Sales skills Problem-solving ability Software application skills Perceived customer satisfaction The precise skills and priorities attached to each of these will vary with the goals and core competencies of the enterprise. Obviously, accuracy will be a top priority for travel reservationists. Product knowledge and problem-solving will be at the top of the list for technical support operations. Call control may be paramount for collections agents. The list of soft skills has to be kept short because of demands on supervisors time. The recommended span of control is one supervisor for every 15 agents. However, this is rarely achieved, especially in smaller operations. Managers and supervisors of large contact centers have many resources for coaching. Electronic learning systems with a deep selection of desktop training and coaching tools are more likely to be available. Large operations will also have archived model interactions accessible to agents and management staff for learning purposes. Team leaders are available for day-to-day mentoring. Contrast this with small centers of 15 to 30 agents, where one supervisor may be responsible for the entire staff. Beyond training manuals, the primary resource is the knowledge and leadership skills of the supervisor. As a rule of thumb, 75 percent of a supervisors time should be spent monitoring and coaching. This is very difficult to achieve even in the largest operations and nearly impossible in small to medium-size contact enters that lack automation tools such as interaction recording and electronic learning.

To evaluate agent performance on soft skills

Although it is important to identify the skill areas that require coaching attention, it is equally important to evaluate progress. The evaluation process helps management assess how well individual agents are applying the skills they have learned. It also helps managers to better understand their own coaching strengths and weaknesses. Unlike hard metrics, such as calls processed each day, average handle time, and attendance, the evaluation of soft skills is unavoidably subjective. Virtually all (95 percent) of contact centers use a form for conducting these evaluations. The evaluation form should reflect what matters most to the enterprise, and hence the contact center. Outbound and other revenue-focused operations will evaluate agents on several dimensions of sales skills. More service-centric operations will have different measurement attributes. Supervisors secure the raw data for evaluations by observing multiple interactions from each agent. In practice, the number of interactions monitored ranges from two to 10 per month per agent, with five to seven being quite typical. The number of calls monitored will generally be lower in contact centers that rely on manual monitoring processes. It simply takes much longer for supervisors to find and intercept coachable calls.

As a rule of thumb, 75 percent of a supervisors time should be spent monitoring and coaching. This is very difficult to achieve even in the largest operations and nearly impossible in small to medium-size contact enters that lack automation tools such as interaction recording and electronic learning.

To assure compliance with laws, regulations, and directives

The number and complexity of laws, regulations, and directives has expanded sharply since the beginning of the new decade. Unlike coaching and agent evaluation, compliance can only be measured and proved with automated interaction recording systems. Centers need to be cognizant of both state and federal statutes and regulations. Federal regulations establish mandatory requirements for interstate communications, but states can and do enact even stiffer laws for intra-state communications. Enterprises with off-shore contact centers need to comply with legal requirements within the country the contact center(s) are located. Canada and some European nations have even more stringent privacy protection laws than the United States. If originating or receiving calls from US residents, off-shore centers are also subject to US federal laws. Although each law or regulation applies to very specific circumstances, in general the broad goals are to protect individual privacy and to assure honesty and integrity in business-to-consumer communications. Following is a summary of the legal requirements that have the most direct impact on contact center operations.

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Figure 5: Critical State and Federal Regulations

Consent to record Telemarketing Sales Rule Truth in Lending Act Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

Consent to Record
As of this writing, in 38 states and the District of Columbia it is legally permissible to record a telephone conversation if only one party to the call has granted their consent. Both parties must consent to be recorded in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Illinois. If the caller and the called party are in the same state then only that states law would apply. Interstate calls implicate three bodies of law, federal law, the law of the calling-partys state, and the law of the called- partys state. Federal requirements are spelled out in Section 2511 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. If a contact center is using automated recording technology, then it is always sound practice to present the familiar phrase This call may be recorded for quality or training purposes at the voice response unit (VRU). If the contact center does not have a VRU, then each agent must recite this or a similar phrase prior to commencing the call. It is also sound practice to alert all agents (in writing) that their customer calls may be recorded for quality and evaluation purposes.

Telemarketing Sales Rule

The Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule (January, 2003) gives effect to the Telemarketing Sales and Abuse Act. There are provisions that directly impact outbound contact centers and inbound centers that task agents with revenue generation via cross-sells and up-sells. Many of these have to do with telemarketing practices, such as adherence to the national do-not-call list and the use of automated dialing devices. However, there are several requirements for mandatory disclosures and express informed consent. When sales or sales attempts are conducted entirely by phone, the only way to prove compliance is to maintain a searchable data base of recorded interactions. When sales or sales attempts are conducted entirely by phone, the only way to prove compliance is to maintain a searchable data base of recorded interactions.

Truth in Lending Act

This federal law is intended to assure fairness and consistency in communications to creditors. If a consumer orally asks a creditor about the cost of credit, the creditor must state the annual percentage rate. For closed-end credit, they also may give a periodic or simple interest rate that is applied to an unpaid balance. For open-end credit, once they state the APR, they may also give the periodic rate. The law applies to advertisers as well as original lenders. For example, retailers or wholesalers promoting manufacturer financing incentives are just a liable as the manufacturer or financing institution that sponsors the original offer. Telephone marketers should be given a prepared script to assure that the proper terminology is used when discussing financing terms. Automated recording systems are used to confirm compliance and as a defense for any legal challenges.

Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act is primarily intended to protect consumers against predatory collection practices. Collectors cannot make false or misleading statements, use obscene or profane language, make false representations about who they are, threaten debtors with wage garnishments and lawsuits unless legally authorized to do so, contact debtors at work without their authorization, and other practices. Debtors can take the collection agencies to court to seek recompense and damages. Sound practice is to record all collection calls and frequently monitor and evaluate collectors for compliance.

Others
Other laws, regulations, and directives that contact center management should have a working understanding of are the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governing electronically stored information, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and compliance rules imposed by the Payment Card Industry.

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To help protect against liability claims

Contact center agents have very limited authority to make promises or negotiate with callers. But it can happen. And it is highly likely that at some point a caller will claim that a promise was made and the enterprise did not back it up. From a public relations standpoint or perhaps even a legal standpoint if a reasonable promise was made then the organization needs to stand behind it. But the first thing is to establish exactly what was said to whom and when. Lacking any tangible evidence to the contrary, the situation can quickly become a he-said/she-said dispute. Companies that have invested in automated recording technology often extend the application to other business functions where liability and/or verification is a concern; such as purchasing, human resources, and sales. An actual example is a concrete company that takes orders by phone. A builder refused a truckload of concrete, claiming he never placed the order. There wasnt much the company could do other than dump the wet concrete. Now, all phone orders are recorded. If the customer refuses the delivery, they still get billed.

To capture and share valuable business intelligence

The contact center is the organizations listening post. Every day, agents learn about potential quality problems, service complaints, competitive actions, local laws and regulations, the success of promotional campaigns, new product applications, and ideas for new services and products. According to the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) less than half of contact centers share customer insights with other departments in the enterprise. Large consumer companies typically spend hundreds of thousands of dollars conducting market research to get the pulse of the customer, often oblivious to the fact that they already have much of that information and its even stored in the customers own voice! Smaller enterprises need to compete with giant global corporations. They do this by being more resourceful, more innovative, and by taking better care of their customers. A great way to get a jump on the competition and make the contact center manager shine in the eyes of senior management is to capture, digest, and report on valuable consumer insights. This can only be done with automated recording. New speech analytics tools make it quick and easy to extract the wheat from the chaff. If your organization does not have speech analytics software, agents can activate recording on their own when they hear something that needs to be shared. The more advanced recording systems also allow agents to append flags or notes to the call recording, while the call is still in progress this is invaluable for identifying specific recordings that require further review in environments where 100 percent of all calls are recorded.

Companies that have invested in automated recording technology often extend the application to other business functions where liability and/or verification is a concern, such as purchasing, human resources, and sales.

Quality Monitoring Methods

In early 2005, ICMI published a large survey of international quality monitoring practices. The survey showed that in 2005, 92 percent of contact centers monitored agent interactions with customers. While all of them monitored voice calls, less than half monitored email interactions. At the time of the survey, 58 percent reported having an automated recording system.

Figure 6: Do You Use Automated Monitoring Technology?

Yes 58%

No 42%

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The percentage dropped to 44 percent for contact centers with 21 to 50 agents. In the absence of automated recording systems, manual methods are employed, such as side-by-side monitoring and remote monitoring. In side-by-side monitoring the supervisors join the agents at their workstations and listen to the calls via a headset. In remote monitoring the supervisor listens to calls from his or her own office and workstation. In this latter case agents are not aware that the calls are being monitored. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.

Manual Quality Monitoring Methods

Manual methods are the norm for small to medium-size contact centers. Side-by-side and remote monitoring require no additional expenditures for hardware, software, and related services. This does not mean that these approaches are cost-free, as there is significant added burden to supervisor resources as well as unnecessary compliance and liability exposure. The main advantages of manual recording techniques are:

Figure 7: Advantages of Manual Quality Monitoring Methods

Little or no capital expense No ongoing maintenance expense Ability to directly observe data as well as voice skills (side-by-side only) Ability to provide immediate coaching assistance There are two functional advantages to manual monitoring. First, since the supervisor is monitoring the interaction in real-time he or she is in the position to offer coaching immediately. Experts agree that coaching is most effective if it is provided right after the coachable event. For side-by-side monitoring, there is another advantage. The supervisor can observe the agents workstation skills as well as monitor the live conversation. This is particularly important for new agents. They need to know how to use the customer tracking system and quickly and accurately navigate work processes. Examples are order-entry, reservations, and claims processing. Smaller contact centers often lack the economies of scale to cost-justify productivity investments. The direct labor savings for automation come from reductions in supervisor time. Suffice to say that in a small contact center it is impossible to operate without a supervisor, and it is challenging to hire additional supervisory resources. In a 500-agent operation with 30 to 40 people serving in supervisory capacities the math is a lot different. Fortunately, the cost of modern automated solutions has come down in recent years, primarily because vendors like VPI have figured out that the 94 percent of all contact centers with 150 or fewer agents represents a huge business opportunity. These companies are producing highly advanced integrated solutions for management of contact center quality and productivity that are cost-justifiable for operations with 25 to 250 agents. While there are some advantages these are far outweighed by the many problems with manual monitoring. Manual monitoring and evaluation wastes precious time as the supervisor must wait for a coachable call. For more meaningful assessment of quality, the supervisor needs to see how agents handle more difficult callers and more challenging situations.

Figure 8: Disadvantages of Manual Quality Monitoring

Wastes supervisor time No permanent record to review No basis for compliance or verification Skewed perception of quality based on evaluations of atypical behavior

Wastes Supervisors Time

The supervisors main role the role they should be spending 75 percent of their time on is mentoring and coaching agents. Manual monitoring and evaluation wastes precious time as the supervisor must wait for a coachable call. This means holding the line in a remote monitoring situation or simply sitting next to an agent waiting for calls to come in. Most calls will be pretty basic. For more meaningful

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assessment of quality, the supervisor needs to see how agents handle more difficult callers and more challenging situations. Further, it is not sufficient to monitor just one call. Best practices call for five to ten per agent per month. That adds up to many hours of sitting passively next to an agent or holding on a line while ignoring other matters that demand immediate attention. After the call, the supervisor has to complete the evaluation form by hand, based on his or her recollection of the conversation. Once completed, the evaluation form is still just one piece of a puzzle. Manual forms mean manual reporting. This means more unproductive hours spent working on consolidating information from individual evaluation forms into spreadsheets and preparing reports. Contrast this with modern automated systems that include embedded forms and scoring mechanisms. The agent quality scores are periodically archived and can be reported in a variety of ways. Finally, while the supervisor is engaged in live monitoring, everything else has to be placed on hold. Contact centers are highly dynamic environments. Problems come up that demand immediate attention to prevent negative impact on the contact center as well as the rest of the organization. This is especially critical for small to medium sized organizations that are more vulnerable to negative impact of missteps. With automated solutions, the supervisor can prioritize much better, with the ability to monitor and evaluate interactions on his or her schedule.

No Permanent Record to Review

In manual environments, once the interaction is completed, it is gone forever. If the agent later challenges an evaluation, there is no way to go back to the source and replay the interaction. This absence of proof can lead to unspoken feelings of favoritism. There is no way to assure consistency. Further, the center has lost the opportunity to select model interactions for training and coaching aids. Automated call quality monitoring systems allow supervisors to search for coachable calls based on a variety of criteria. The evaluations are performed anonymously.

No Basis for Compliance or Verification

As we discussed, compliance and verification are very important perhaps critical. We live in a litigious society. Violations can be costly. Even more importantly, violations can do lasting damage to your companys brand and reputation. The only reliable way to verify compliance (and protect against noncompliance) is to record the interaction. About 60 percent of contact centers with automated recording systems record every interaction. Today, there is a marginal cost difference between systems that record only a sample of calls and those that capture all calls. Full-time recording applications can quickly search and retrieve archived calls and screen actions when the need arises locally or remotely over the Web. It is easy to determine if there has been a violation and further identify the source and causes.

Skewed Perception of Quality Based on Evaluations of a Typical Behavior

Side by side monitoring is awkward at best and intimidating at worst. The nervous agent may perform poorly if a supervisor is sitting next to him or her. The opposite also happens. The agent performs admirably knowing that the call will be the basis for evaluation. Neither of these cases represents the typical daily performance of the agent. Consequently, such evaluations are a poor basis for assessment of the performance of individual agents and even worse for the contact center as a whole, where the error is multiplied. Automated call quality monitoring systems, on the other hand, allow supervisors to search for coachable calls based on a variety of criteria. The evaluations are performed anonymously.

No Means to Check Consistency

Judging call quality is inherently subjective. There are no hard criteria for courtesy, helpfulness, voice clarity, call control and most of the other soft skills upon which evaluations are based. If there is only one supervisor performing the evaluations, then the applied criteria should at least be consistent. But if more than one person performs evaluations, then the same agent could be rated differently on the same attributes, depending on who performs the evaluations. Well-managed contact centers deal

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with this through calibration sessions. All evaluators listen to the same recorded interaction, make their individual determinations, and then as a group attempt to reconcile the differences. This then leads to improved consistency in upcoming evaluations. Such a process is not possible when the evaluations are all based on manual monitoring methods.

Automated Recording Systems

While specific systems vary greatly in the level of functionality, capacity, scalability, ease of use, technology, and special features, all contact-center grade systems provide as a minimum five basic capabilities.

Figure 9: Core Functions of Automated Recording Solutions

Capture, compress, and store voice (and sometimes data) interactions Tag the interactions with telephony and business attributes so they can be easily retrieved based on specified search criteria Search and retrieve stored interactions on command Automate the evaluation process Produce reports as needed We say contact center grade because there are low cost alternatives, such as banks of tape recorders and PC-based recording solutions, but these lack the reliability, storage, and essential capabilities required by the modern contact center.

Figure 10: Advantages of Automated Recording Systems

Quality monitoring and agent evaluations can be performed at a time of the supervisors choosing Agents do not know when they are being monitored Management can select the calls to be monitored, based on pre-determined or retroactive criteria tied to business objectives Agent can initiate the recording process or easily tag important recordings when all calls are recorded Model calls can be shared with others for training purposes Evaluation process is transparent and automated Supervisors can review calls and associated evaluations with agents Enables calibration sessions, to improve consistency of subjective ratings Helps reduce perceived bias or favoritism Agents can review their progress and better manage self-development Automated report generation Provides basis for resolving evaluation disputes Provides basis for compliance and verification Captures important consumer insights and observations

Purchasers of VPIs recording and quality monitoing platforms report supervisor productivity gains of 30 to 50 percent and quality assurance productivity increases over live monitoring of up to 70 percent.

Full-time Recording versus Selective Recording

Recording systems can be classified into two broad categories; Those that record all calls are sometimes referred to as loggers or full-time recording systems. Those that record only a portion of interactions, referred to as quality monitoring or selective recording systems. 10

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Full-time Recording Systems

As the term implies, full-time recording systems capture all voice interactions. They can also capture some or all data interactions, such as screen actions and email correspondence. In order to capture all voice communications, full-time recording systems connect directly to lines (extensions) or trunks. Line-side connectivity is best for contact centers that are located within the broader enterprise and calls are routed from the central communications server to the ACD that serves only the contact center. This is also the most appropriate configuration if you desire to capture internal communications and transfers. If the entire operation is a contact center, such as an outsourcer or remote site, then trunk side connections tend to be more appropriate. In this case, the connection is at the demarcation point where internal trunks connect to the service provider. Full-time recording systems are always used in public safety environments such as air traffic control and 911 dispatch centers. They are also commonly deployed in environments where verification is essential, such as financial trading firms and ordering centers. While selective recoding systems are commonly software-only solutions (with a modicum of hardware), full-time recording systems are typically sold as combined hardware and software turnkey solutions. In order to assure reliable full-time performance, most vendors prefer to sell the hardware to assure that server and voice card specs are met and the system is fully tested before shipment. Full-time recording solutions tend to be more costly than selective recording applications for three reasons: the hardware is often included with the purchase, voice storage requirements are greater, and installation costs are higher particularly with line-side connections. Selected vendors, such as VPI, solve this by allowing you to provide your own hardware and route recordings onto your own network-based storage devices for archiving. Your IT personnel may be trained for direct maintenance of the recording system, with remote guidance from the manufacturer. All of this reduces costs and improves flexibility for contact centers. Advanced applications like VPIs interaction recording solution allow management to select calls for quality evaluation from the archive of all recorded interactions. As mentioned before, a major timewaster in manual environments is having supervisors wait idly for coachable calls. The VPI approach is to empower managers to establish criteria for selecting the sample of calls to be evaluated. All calls are tagged by agent, time answered, time completed, date, and other identifying information that is automatically collected from integrated telephony and business systems or manually added by agents or supervisors as comments, tags and flags. Managers can then simply command the application to pull calls with certain attributes. For example, they may select calls that were handled by a certain agent, during a certain time span, exceeded a threshold talk time, incurred multiple transfers, or other criteria that signal a potentially coachable call. At the same time, all transactions are stored for the timeframe specified by law or senior management, even if this means storing different types of interactions for different periods of time prior to automatic purging. This functionality may also be used for the more advanced, more intelligent management of storage capacity than standard selective recording it allows for events that occurred before, during, or upon the conclusion of the conversation to automatically determine whether or not the recording is retained and for how long. In other words, all calls may be recorded tentatively, but only those that really matter would be retained and stored. The more advanced systems also allow agents to decide whether or not to retain a recording at any time during the call and still be able to save the entire recording (vs. only the fraction of it from the point of decision to record and retain a common limitation of standard recording on demand).

The VPI approach is to empower managers to establish criteria for selecting the sample of calls to be evaluated. All calls are tagged by agent, time answered, time completed, date, and other identifying information that is automatically collected from integrated telephony and business systems or manually added by agents or supervisors as comments, tags and flags. Managers can then simply command the application to pull calls with certain attributes.

Selective Recording Systems

Selective recording systems connect to the service observe port of the ACD. Installation costs are much lower since fewer connections are required. Where full-time recording systems tend to be all-in-one hardware/software products, selective recording systems consist of 90 percent software. Instead of capturing and storing approximately 1,200 interactions per month per agent, the system only stores the

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typical three to 10 interactions per month required for quality monitoring, based on the criteria for quality control known at the time of recording. Selective recording systems also have the capability to capture agent-customer interactions according to predefined business rules that pertain to events that occurred at the beginning of the call. Agents can initiate recording on demand.

The Trend is to Full-time Recording

While selective recording is less costly on both a per-seat basis and initial installation, the trend is very strongly toward capturing all interactions. The PELORUS Group has been tracking the call recording market since 2003. Based on our research, we estimate that in 2006 over 60 percent of world seat shipments were for full-time recording solutions. Our outlook is for full-time recording shipments to grow by double digit rates with sharp declines in selective recording shipments.

Figure 11: Reasons for Trend to Full-Time Recording

Heightened concern over compliance and verification Decreasing cost differentials due to better product designs, the sharp drop in data storage costs, and lower hardware costs that are passed on to buyers of turnkey solutions Desire for more representative and equitable agent evaluations Maturation of speech analytics technology We feel that it is especially worthwhile to expand on the latter point about speech analytics. The technology has advanced far beyond basic word spotting. It is now possible for speech engines to search for meanings as well as words and phrases. The more sophisticated applications automatically categorize and quantify user communications so that management can get quick and accurate answers to basic questions like: Why are people calling? Why is customer satisfaction trending up or down? Why are we seeing more customer defections? What has been the impact of campaigns on caller behaviors and attitudes? What product or service defects need immediate attention? Are agents using improper language? When have there been incidences of possible compliance verifications? Are competitor actions impacting market share? In other words, speech analytics technology has the power to transform vast stores of verbal interactions from warehouses to treasure troves. Contact centers that dive into this data and share it with the VP of Marketing or CEO are recognized for their initiative and contribution to the broader mission of the enterprise. Top management may not understand the many acronyms that the contact center dispenses all too frequently, but they certainly understand threats and opportunities. While speech analytics is still viewed as a big contact center luxury, costs are coming down and innovative firms like SER solutions are marketing applications that are directly targeted to the small to medium-size contact center. You may not be ready for speech analytics this year or even next, but without a full-time recording platform, you will never be able to take advantage of this highly exciting and promising technology. While selective recording is less costly on both a per-seat basis and initial installation, the trend is very strongly toward capturing all interactions. Our outlook is for fulltime recording shipments to grow by double digit rates with sharp declines in selective recording shipments.

Selecting an Automated Recording System

Fortunately, small to medium-size contact centers have more options today then ever before. As recently as five years ago, there were perhaps a half-dozen vendors that offered solutions designed and priced to their needs. Now, virtually all vendors have introduced small- to medium size solutions, and a few companies serve only this niche.

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There are many factors to consider when acquiring an interaction recording system or any other essential operational support product. The paramount concern is vendor reputation and support. Contact centers investing in recording for the first time need mentoring. Your vendor must help you in training personnel on how to use the systems, helping secure buy-in from potentially skeptical agents, and advising on best practices for monitoring and coaching. Vendors that appear to be primarily interested in just getting the sale should be omitted from consideration. Other important considerations include: Full-time or selective recording Integration Ease of use Technology

Figure 12: Solution Selection Considerations

Full-time or Selective Recording Reliability

If you believe your organization will never have to contend with compliance or verification issues, use speech analytics to mine your data base, or simply do not have data storage for full-time recording AND there is a significant cost advantage to selective recording then take that route. However, you need to understand that full-time recording systems can handle quality monitoring, i.e., select a sample of calls for evaluation, or even store a sample of calls that were initially recorded (the ones that are not needed are automatically purged.) The reverse is not true. Systems that only provide selective recording cannot perform full-time recording. Think of it as a one-time decision. You can also anticipate some challenges in finding vendors that provide selective recording for small contact enters.

Integration
Recording systems must work well with the ACD and (ideally) other applications that you have, or may wish to have, in the future. Examples are workforce management software, performance management, and electronic learning systems. While it is possible to build integrations with virtually any ACD, the speed and accuracy of these integrations will be much better if your recording vendor is a certified developer for the ACD manufacturer. Certified developers have attended extensive training sessions with the ACD vendor and have the required number of certified technicians on staff. They know all the ins and outs of the ACD. They are also authorized to use approved connectivity links. Certified developers have access to all the required technical information, they know ahead of time when ACD software releases are scheduled, and they can contact the ACD vendor directly if they need assistance. However, it is unrealistic to expect your recording vendor to be a certified developer for every ACD company. It can cost upwards of $100,000 for a recording company to become certified. There are a lot of ACDs in use today some from vendors that are no longer in business or have long ago merged with another company and some from manufacturers that do not even provide a certified developer program. In general, systems developed fully on the principles of open, service oriented architecture are far better equipped for integration with your telephony or business systems, today or in the future, than their proprietary-based counterparts.

Systems developed fully on the principles of open, service oriented architecture are far better equipped for integration with your telephony or business systems, today or in the future, than their proprietary-based counterparts.

Ease of Use
Smaller contact centers do not have extensive IT support organizations. Your solution should be easy to administer and easy to use. Ease-of-use is becoming a bit of clich these days with every vendor laying claim to the attribute. Like beauty and call courtesy, ease of use is better observed than measured. Participate in demos and, if possible, conduct site visits. Seek opinions of front-line managers and agents. Color and graphical displays do matter as they encourage use of the application. Users should have the ability to build their own evaluation forms around embedded templates, using any number of scoring attributes with appropriate scoring scales and styles for each. Weights applied

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to each scoring attribute should be adjustable. Agents should be able to initiate recording or mark the call for retention when they think it is advisable. Recordings should be easy to select from the workstation views, whether accessed over the LAN or Web. You should be able to forward compressed voice and multimedia (voice and screen recording) files as easily as PDF documents.

Flexibility
Flexibility in this context refers to the ability to change the system as your needs evolve at minimal additional expense. For example, can system capacity grow without the need to replace components of the initial investment? Can you later add speech analytics, customer feedback surveys, electronic learning and other elements? What if you later decide to add screen recording as well as voice? Will you be able to replay voice and screen actions simultaneously? Will the core application later accommodate recording of email and IVR interactions? What will it cost to add speech analytics? The idea is to start with a core product that can serve your needs today and economically and efficiently adjust to your future needs.

Technology
Analog is old news. The application should at least be digital and capable of migrating to Voice over the Internet protocol (VoIP). The trend is strongly toward VoIP . There are potential savings in network service costs, but the biggest driver for VoIP-enabled recorders is the ability to extend recording to remote agents. Another consideration is how the product is designed. Design principles like service-oriented architecture (SOA) use a modular approach that makes it much easier to implement future enhancements and enable contact centers with qualified personnel to customize the product, without incurring exuberant professional services costs from the recording systems vendor.

Reliability
No contact center of any size wants downtime due to system failures. Reliability is especially important for smaller centers with limited IT resources. Inquire about system alerts, self-monitoring, self-healing, and remote diagnostics. Turnkey systems (hardware and software combined) are generally favored for full-time recording environments.

Features
Vendors offer dozens of special features. These are typically different ways of doing the same thing, like providing more weighting options for evaluation forms, colorful rich-text reports, Web portals for agents to view their performance reports, catch up on the latest information, get messages and training aids, etc. and simplified access protocols like mimicking familiar tape recorders. These are more points of differentiation than substantive new features but their importance should not be discounted. Speed and simplicity of access are important determinates of actual usage of that feature. You want to get maximum value from your investment.

Design principles like service-oriented architecture (SOA) use a modular approach that makes it much easier to implement future enhancements and enable contact centers with qualified personnel to customize the product, without incurring exuberant professional services costs from the recording systems vendor.

Figure 13: Special Features

Full-time recording only Selective recording only Capable of both Rules-based call selection Random recording Agent initiated recording Voice and data recording VoIP recording 14

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Number of Items tagged for later search and playback Browser-based query and playback Permission-based access to recordings Customizable Evaluation forms Adjustable weightings for evaluation criteria Search by customer data Graphical displays Customizable reports Real-time reports or performance tickers Attach flags or comments Data analytics/Drill down reporting Speech analytics eLearning and eCoaching Customer surveys Agent portals The feature names are largely self-explanatory. One feature we have not discussed is customer surveys. Automated surveys, integrated with the recording systems, provide a means of gathering quality data directly from the customer. This is an extremely valuable capability. In the end, the caller is the final arbiter of call quality. Research has shown that supervisors and agents almost invariably rate caller satisfaction higher then the callers themselves. When combined with advanced tools like speech analytics it is possible to drill into the data to find out just what attributes are most important in driving customer satisfaction. There are many options for adding survey or voice of the customer evaluations to your arsenal customer care applications. Sometimes recording system vendors offer integrated solutions. There are also independent software vendors and various service bureaus that you can contract with on as needed basis.

Reliability is especially important for smaller centers with limited IT resources. Inquire about system alerts, self-monitoring, self-healing, and remote diagnostics.

About the Author

Dick Bucci is Senior Consultant for The PELORUS Group (www.pelorus-group.com) where he specializes in contact center technologies. He has authored in-depth reports on interactive voice response, workforce management, and quality monitoring. Richards articles and observations have been published in CRM Today, Contact Center World, Communications Convergence, CRM Magazine, Call Center Magazine, Contact Professional, Call Center News, Speech Technology, Workforce Performance Solutions, and several other trade and business publications.

About VPI
VPI (Voice Print International) is a leading innovator and provider of integrated call recording and workforce optimization solutions for enterprises, trading floors, government agencies, and first responders. Through its awardwinning suite of solutions, VPI empowers organizations to proactively improve the customer experience, increase workforce performance, ensure compliance, and align tactical and strategic objectives across the enterprise. With the power to be proactive, organizations are equipped to actively identify and maximize opportunities and minimize risk. For more than a decade, VPI has been providing proven technology and superior service to more than 1,000 customers in over 30 countries. Learn more at www.VPI-Corp.com or call 1-800-200-5430.

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2008 Voice Print International, Inc. All rights reserved.