Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to streamline the agent desktop by integrating all aspects of the call center into a single interface, allowing the agent to focus on the customer, and give the customer a better overall experience.
As always, should you or any of your IT force fail, the boss will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
As you may have noticed, this is my first blog entry for NICE. I'm excited to share and contribute my knowledge and ideas to the open community. Every day we expand and evolve the way we learn, share, interact and retain information. I strongly believe that the internet is helping us achieve a larger collective base for us to gather and distribute these experiences. We are living in an amazing time, where we're able watch the birth and evolution of a new way for humans to communicate, as well as be a part of the development process, shaping where technology goes for generations to come. This is truly an amazing time.
I'll begin by introducing myself. I am Chris Scholl from St Louis Missouri, Senior Engineer for CarSafe, LLC. I have a degree in Interactive Digital Media with an emphasis in Film Special Effects. I've worked for the State of Missouri and Federal Government doing IT work for more than 10 years, have created over 400 websites and am currently lead developer and president of a software company that produces a web-based CRM with deep NICE integration, Rubi Professional LLC. You may have seen me speak at ICUC 2011 or demo Rubi Pro at the NICE Showcase.
My introduction to the call center world began with CarSafe over 4 years ago, with 4 cubicles and an antiquated phone system. I was contacted to setup gateway access to the computers, install WiFi, and try to get the phones working. After months of replacing, restarting, beating and crying over a system that even when it was running properly still was not up to par, we went in search of something better.
We met with countless large companies, and all sold us on one feature or another, but none were quite the perfect fit we were looking for. CarSafe, however, was on the move. Our industry was quickly expanding and we needed a flexible system that had the features we needed and would grow and accommodate us along the way.
We heard of NICE through a friend who told us about a new system that was the next step up and above. At first I was a bit skeptical — all these options, features and promises — NICE had quite a bit of clout to live up to. Four years later, CarSafe is now one of the most successful Vehicle Service Contract broker operations in the country with over 100 employees in 2 different states, and NICE is part of the reason for our success.
NICE not only provided us with a rock solid VoIP platform, but also opened our eyes to the potentials of their system. My prior employment with the government was to develop a HIPPA-secure EMS CRM. Once my work was completed, I was able to apply my skills to companies like CarSafe. I began by watching how each agent operated, how the different divisions all interacted, and began to develop a system that would streamline their daily routine utilizing the many different tools and processes they already had in place.
After two years of researching, developing and coding everything from the agent environment to a management back end, we began testing Rubi Professional CRM on the sales floor. It was the extra piece we needed to run an efficient contact center. Before Rubi, the agent had multiple disparate systems for everything from phone controls, to basic CRM functions, to a separate website for checkout, creating a myriad of windows cluttering up the desktop and causing the agent to lose focus on the pitch. With a new streamlined interface, we were able to control the agent experience and tweak it until the CRM was a tool, and not a hindrance. A few weeks in, we were able to verify the core was working properly, gateway integration was up and secure exports to banks were all running, we began to use Rubi Professional full time. Then I began NICE integration with the system.
I began the integration process by enabling managers to link logs and voice recordings with the customer file automatically and instantly. This seemed the most important as most support tickets I received were related to issues with reviewing calls. After a few days of training the appropriate people, tickets for pulling calls stopped.
With the encouragement of building a more streamlined system, I began a few more days and late nights integrating additional NICE tools into the Rubi system, including:
- Changing your state
- Modifying the IVR
- Spawning outbound calls to a web-based power
- Tools for mobile control and reporting that work on iPads, iPods, iPhones and Androids
- Screen pops that display the file of the caller, all before the agent's phone rings
At the end of the day, I was able to leverage the vast data in the CRM and the NICE system and integrate the information to allow the agent to focus on what’s really important – the customer and their pitch.
Managing a call center is a difficult task, and without the proper tools and communication, it's all but impossible. Rubi Pro integrated with NICE gave CarSafe managers an insight they never had before. This is the call center of the future, today.
