David Albright This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Piecing Together A Customer Care Network

   www.callcentermagazine.com/art - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/14/2000   Last Visited: 8/8/2001

   [ They ] monitor our different call centers [ so that ] we know exactly what's happening and can keep up with the status of each center to see how we're handling call volumes , says David Albright , contact center architect for RCI. The company originally hired two people to route calls in 1990 , when RCI had only one center in Indianapolis with agents who handled member service and travel service calls.
   
   Albright explains that all of RCI's call centers connect to each other and to the contact point through a wide area network. They use AT&T's Route-It and Cisco's ICM Software to identify incoming calls and route them among centers. They also use Lucent Technologies' ( Murray Hill , NJ ) CentreVu Supervisor software to monitor call statistics at each center like the number of calls in queue , average speed of answer and average handle times. Viewing this data enables the team at the contact point to route calls efficiently and minimize customers' wait time.
   
   RCI also handles scheduling for agents at each call center from the contact point. Albright says that this team formerly used in-house software to set agents' hours when the company had only one center. The in-house software hadn't been upgraded in seven years and couldn't accommodate a multi-site call center , Albright says. So the company purchased IEX's ( Richardson , TX ) TotalView workforce management software in April 2000. We especially like its real-time schedule adherence reporting feature , says Albright. The software enables him to run schedule adherence reports for call center managers on a biweekly basis , and lets managers submit any proposed changes to agents' work hours to the contact point team from a Web browser.
   
   To help manage agents' schedules , a workforce management coordinator at each of RCI's call centers acts as a liaison between the contact point team and the managers at each center. All scheduling decisions are made here [ at the contact point ] , but we have constant contact with all centers throughout the day.
   ...
   We download data from the predictive dialers and from phone switches [ at each center ] into our database , says Albright. Call center managers then receive printed copies of each report and can also view them through the company's intranet from a Web browser. Managers can also request ad-hoc reports for any particular statistic by requesting it from the contact point team.
   
   MemberWorks Reworks Its Call Centers
   
   MemberWorks , a direct marketing company based in Stamford , CT , offers membership programs that customers can join to receive discounts on a variety of products and services.