Managing Communication Processes for Clients
Posted by Larry Bear on Thu, Apr 12, 2007 @ 08:46 PM
Answering services are all about managing communications. One of the major changes in the answering service industry in the last 20 years has been the automation of repetitive processes. The first iteration in the industry was to eliminate paper messages. This happened in the 80's and early 90's. The next iteration began to make some of the answering operations and the dispatch (delivery of messages) automatic. The second generation of automation happened in the 90's and early 2000's. It was largely driven by changes in telephony .... 800 numbers became affordable; long distance rates plummeted; call forwarding became widely available; voice mail technology began to improve etc.
Now there is a third generation of automation that revolves around business process management. It focuses on freeing the operators to maximize their interactive conversations with callers. The automation does much of the routine repetitive operations that are rules based. The technology is just now becoming widely available to answering service/call center companies.
All this background is simply an introduction to some of the changes the we are beginning to implement at Port Answer. I knew when I became involved with Port, that is was operating on very solid second generation answering service equipment. It had served the company well for almost fifteen years. Future growth needs third generation automation.
We have made our decision to invest in a system called Pinnacle. I'll explain my reasoning in another blog. For now, I think we are moving towards the future leader of the third generation of answering service automation equipment. Pinnacle has been a leader in call center rules based scripting for at least 10 years. Four years ago, they combined their rules based scripting to the job of managing the calls and the dispatch for typical answering service clients. In my mind, they got it right for the business of answering services and small call centers.
There are other good equipment providers to the industry. For our clients in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties of New York, what Pinnacle offers will allow us to partner with our clients to allow our operators to spend more time in their dialogs with our client's callers. The automated processes will help us make sure that the information our clients want from their callers is taken properly according to the rules our clients have. It helps make sure that the information is dispatched to the right person at the right time ... again rules based.
We are going to a training session this next week to learn how to set up and operate this third generation equipment. As we learn how all of this works, I'll try to add some blog notes about some of the things we will be able to do efficiently for our clients.