Computer-Telephony Integration
by Alliance of Computer-Based Telephony Application Suppliers
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Introduction
Through computer-telephone integration applications, organizations are providing more efficient, personalized service to their customers. Such value-added services have become potentially decisive differentiators in today's crowded, complex marketplace. High quality service, moreover, inevitably results in highly satisfied customers and high levels of repeat and referral business. At the same time, these organizations are increasing productivity and reducing costs.
According to AT&T, 27 percent of customers who can't get through to a company's 800 number buy elsewhere or skip the transaction entirely. Companies using CTI in conjunction with their 800 number service make sure customers get through.
Computer-telephone integration (CTI) provides for the exchange of information between telephones and computers. More specifically, CTI links telephone switches with computers to coordinate computer information and intelligence with telephone call handling to automatically add relevant data, fax, graphics, and/or video to voice communications. Calls are enhanced according to the availability of selected services or equipment that passes identifying information with a telephone call.
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Faster, More Personalized Service
In today's business environment, the telephone is often the primary means of communication in many different situations: placing cata!og orders, checking airline schedules, querying prices, reviewing account balances, and recording and retrieving messages. Usually, each telephone call involves a service representative talking to a caller, asking questions, entering responses into a computer, and reading information to the caller from a terminal screen.
When organizations automate this process by linking their computer and telephone systems, they can lower costs, provide better customer service, increase the number of services available, and extend hours of operation. CTI lets customers, for example, use their Touchtone phone to check their bank balance 24 hours a day rather than walk to a cash machine or wait on hold for a customer service representative. And the marriage of phone and computer systems can identify incoming calls, route them to the appropriate person, and deliver the caller's file on a computer screen to the person answering the call -- before the call is answered.
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New Technologies
Today's computer-telephone integration offerings enhance a range of emerging technologies, such as:
Interactive voice response: the ability to input and retrieve information from a computer database via a Touchtone phone
Fax publishing: the ability to request that fax information be automatically forwarded to the caller via Touchtone phone
Two-way message notification: the ability to link voice mail and electronic mail (E-mail) systems so that users can collect all messages -- voice and data -- via a single source
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How Consumers Benefit from CTI
Less time on hold
Improved response time for callers once they get through to the company
Instant access to database information, often on a 24-hour basis
Callback options for callers who don't want to stay on hold
Better-informed customer service representatives who are able to understand the caller's past relationship with the company
Access to service reps who, when freed from routine functions, have more time to research and answer complicated questions
No need to repeat identification information and reason for calling when transferred to another agent or department
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How Businesses Benefit from CTI
Prompter and more accurate response to inquiries, orders, and service requests
Personalized attention and efficient problem resolution
Improved customer and prospects access to information about new products and services
Increased number of services available and extended hours of operation
Increased telesales revenue
Higher levels of referral and repeat business
Fewer data entry keystroke errors
Shorter transaction time, increased employee productivity
Improved employee morale
Cost savings from operational efficiency
Lower toll-free telephone line charges and trunk requirements
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CTI and the Multimedia Desktop
Through applications that link voice, voice mail, e-mail, data, fax, graphics, and video, computer- telephone integration will make all our work lives a little easier and a lot more productive.
A Personal Productivity Revolution
Today, we place and receive phone calls with one device, try to remember how to use that device to forward a voice mail message, and use a different device to access our company's database system and to send and read e-mail messages. Some of us have a fax board in our PC and even fewer are experimenting with PC-based videoconferencing. Just imagine the convenience of using applications that tie all this together. Those of us who spend a lot of time talking on the phone, but are not call center agents, can use CTI at the desktop to improve our "personal productivity" as we interact with customers and each other.
From One Device on the Desk
The day will soon come that individual workers can access voice, voice mail, fax, and other media capabilities from one device on the desk. And on that day, CTI will move way beyond switching screens and calls in the call center.
The overall concept is that we will soon use Apple or Windows-type, mouse-driven graphics on a single PC or workstation for voice, voice mail, e-mail, data, fax, graphics, and video transactions. Instead of flipping through rolodexes or phone books and then dialing a number, for example, the CTI desktop would let you access an on-screen directory, allow you to point and click on the name of the person to be called, and then would dial the number for you. The screen could display the name of the person the caller is talking to as well as the name of the person on hold. The desktop CTI system could provide an automatic call log, an important feature for professionals who bill their time. And borrowing from the CTI call center concept, those of us who talk to customers during the work day would better serve those customers by having their account records on our desktop computer screen during the call.
Furthermore, CTI at the desktop would unleash the true productivity potential of voice mail. Many voice messaging system features (e.g., rewind, record, forward ) go unused because users who can't remember the arcane commands are required to listen to long instruction menus. But through desktop CTI, all voice mail instructions will be on the screen in the form of icons and pull down windows. Research shows that when users can point and click on commands with a mouse, they use more features more often.
Now let's add e-mail to the personal productivity equation. You're out of town on travel and call into your CTI PC and hear a synthesized voice say that in addition to your six voice mail messages, you have three e-mail messages. If the message is short, perhaps a text-to-speech feature in the system "reads" the e-mail to you. Or if you prefer hard copy of the e-mail, you quickly move through an interactive voice response menu to have a copy faxed to you at your hotel. Then suppose you would like to respond to the e-mailed fax but not in writing. You fax the copy back to the colleague who sent it to you with a voice-annotated message. His PC flashes an icon informing him that a voice mail message accompanies the e-mail message.
There is a lot of talk in the industry about the advent of "shrink-wrapped," off-the-shelf desktop CTI software packages. The idea is just as we can today walk into a computer store, buy Turbo Tax, and expect it to run on virtually every brand of PC, we will soon walk into a store and buy software packages that let individuals and companies conduct their multimedia activities on any PC.
The computer and telecommunications hardware manufacturers and software developers recognize the vast potential of the multimedia desktop. They are working fast and furious to resolve the necessary hardware and software compatibility.
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CTI and Call Centers
Today, the majority of CTI applications are being built for call centers. A call center is a customer business center where initial access is by telephone. Agents working in call centers provide services over the telephone. Their tasks can include placing outgoing calls, answering incoming calls, asking callers for information, or providing services. While handling calls, agents often use desktop computers to enter or retrieve information. The typical CTI call center makes use of products and services from several different sources: public and private networks; voice switches, automatic call distributors, hardware and software from computer vendors, specialized business applications from software suppliers, and components such as voice response units, voice mail systems, call sequencers, predictive dialers, and fax machines.
Call Center Applications Enhanced by CTI
An application is a purpose of a computer program or set of programs. Call center applications typically enhanced by computer-telephone technology include telesales/telemarketing, order entry, customer service, help desk, account management, field service dispatch, emergency services (e.g., 911), fund-raising , collections, reservations, registration, and information access (800, 900 services).
Call Center CTI Application Functions
Interactive Voice Response: A customer calls his insurance company's customer service center. Instead of putting the customer on hold to wait for the next available agent, a recording from an interactive voice response unit (IVR) asks the customer to enter a customer identification number on the telephone keypad. After a few additional prompts (e.g., "Press 1 if you have a question about your home insurance policy"), the computer pulls the customer's account record from the database, and then the customer hears how much was paid on his home insurance claim -- without having to wait for a customer service representative. Or, a ship captain calls into a PC-based CTI system on a cellular telephone and hears the latest current and wind speed data, which is measured every 10 minutes.
Intelligent Transfer: If an inquiry is too complex for interactive voice response, the CTI system uses information collected from the caller by the IVR unit to transfer the call to the appropriate group of agents, or perhaps to the particular agent who normally handles the caller's account. When the agent answers the call, the customer's data file is already on the agent's computer screen, eliminating the need for the agent to repeat the questions asked by the IVR unit.
Coordinated Voice/Data Transfer: This function forwards on-screen customer information at the same time a customer call is transferred. If the call must be transferred from the original agent to another department or supervisor, the call and the data -- including any updated information added by the agent will be forwarded.
Consultation: This function sends a copy of the customer's information, along with a call, to a supervisor or specialist via the terminal. For example, an agent can put a customer on hold while consulting a supervisor, or the agent can include the supervisor in a three-way call with the customer. Either way, both the supervisor and the agent can view the customer information while discussing the situation. This capability helps improve customer service by eliminating the need to re-explain, and allows supervisors and specialists to make informed decisions quickly.
Intelligent Answering: This function uses Automatic Number Identification (ANI) information from the telephone system to bring up an appropriate screen for each incoming call. ANI is a service offered by telephone networks that provides the billing directory number associated with a calling party. Here's how it works in a CTI application: When a customer calls an 800 number to order from a catalog, the call arrives at the call center with the caller's telephone number. The telephone number is passed to a computer. The computer looks up the number in its database and identifies the caller (if it is a person who has placed an order before and is calling from the same number.) The computer then accesses the customer's order screen, passes it on to an agent, and the voice call is put through to that agent.
All of this happens in a split second. The agent already sees the customer's name, address, and order history on his or her terminal before picking up the telephone. At a busy call center, such automation can significantly increase productivity by eliminating the time it takes to ask callers for their name, zip code, or other identification information, to key it in, and then retrieve the proper screen before the transaction can begin. It can also increase the level of personal service given a customer. The agent, for example, can ask the caller, "How did you like the sweater you ordered from us last month?"
Organizations that maintain multiple 800 numbers can also use Dialed Number Identification Services (DNIS) offered by carriers to identify what the caller wishes to discuss. A bank, for example, can assign 800-55-1222 to VISA cards and 800-555-1333 to VISA Gold cards and use DNIS to automatically bring up on the agent's screen the script for the product the customer is calling about. Rather than having individual agent's serve as product specialists waiting for customer's to call about the product on which they have been trained, DNIS used in conjunction with CTI makes it possible for agents to have the information on screen they need to handle inquiries on a wide range of products.
Many call center applications combine the use of ANI and DNIS. Mr. Smith dials the Acme 800 number for its health insurance department. The computer cross-references the incoming caller's number (ANI) with its database to realize that this number belongs to Mr. Smith. Using DNIS, the computer determines that Mr. Smith is calling about a health insurance question. The computer then retrieves Mr. Smith's health policy file (not his life or car insurance file) and delivers it to the screen of the agent answering the call.
Intelligent Call Routing: Calls can be routed to specific department or agents based on the calls' ANI or DNIS information. When calls come into a contact lens manufacturer, for example, calls from retail optical customers automatically go to the retail customer department, and calls from eye care practitioners go to agents who service those accounts.
Abandoned Calls CTI systems using ANI make it possible for companies to capture information about abandoned calls. If a customer hangs up while waiting for an agent, agents can proactively call back customers and offer to be of assistance.
Intelligent Dialing/Outbound Call Management: This CTI function uses detailed information in a database to organize and establish outbound calls for such activities as telemarketing and collections. The agent's computer screen displays information about the customer and the call destination so the agent can personalize the conversation. With a predictive dialing feature, the CTI system initiates a call before assigning it to a specific agent. The system monitors the progress of the call, and connects the call to an agent station only after the call is answered. CTI call center applications can also generate statistical reports that provide transaction details on calls. Call center management can use this information to analyze staffing levels, assess training needs, and allocate resources to maximize productivity and maintain high quality customer service.
Transfer Load Balancing: This function allows a CTI system to transfer calls to the least-busy agent group, even if that group is in a different time zone. It also allows agents to transfer calls to, and conduct conference calls with, agents on another telephone system -- while viewing the same on-screen information.
Message Center: Call center benefits can be extended to all departmental or corporate-wide staff members, providing them with access to message handling and other telephone functions from desktop computers and terminals. For example, a message desk attendant uses a CTI terminal to give a caller a specific message, take a message from the caller and relay it to a colleague (through electronic or voice mail), and activate a message waiting lamp on the colleague's telephone.
Fax Response and Publishing: The ability to receive, store, and transmit large volumes of facsimile messages -- and to integrate fax services with various voice and data processing capabilities -- is fast becoming a prime requisite in today's call centers. Integrated image and forms processing lets callers access a wide range of images and forms and receive fax hard copy as part of a transaction. The caller is prompted to enter a fax number and to place a priority on the receipt. Based upon this priority, the system will either transmit the document immediately or store it for later transmission. For instance, a customer calls his broker to buy into a mutual fund and receives a confirmation of the order by fax within minutes of making the call.
A variety of forms can be digitally stored in a host database for transmission, including company letterheads, billing forms, confirmation forms, and sales brochures. CTI systems that incorporate optical disks can retrieve and send copies of archived information, including birth certificates. Or a loan office in a financial institution might use CTI technology to assemble and transmit an electronic document containing payment history, a copy of an original loan document, and copies of recent checks. All kinds of brochures, price lists, order forms, and other product information can be stored in computers and transmitted by fax to potential customers upon interactive voice response (IVR) request.
Customer Voice Mail: For a caller who prefers not to wait on hold for the next available agent, a CTI application can offer the caller the option of leaving a voice mail message. Then, when the agent listens to the voice message, he views the database record associated with that caller at the same time.
Or suppose a customer would rather not wait on hold while the IVR unit or a customer service agent researches a complicated question. The organization can assign the customer a temporary voice mail box and access code. The customer is told the answer to his question will be recorded in the temporary voice mail box by a certain time, and the customer then calls in for the message at his convenience.
Industry Applications of CTI
There is no limit to the number and type of organizations enhanced by CTI systems. Here are examples of typical CTI applications, organized by industry segment:
Transportation: When a truck driver calls to check in with his dispatcher, an interactive voice response unit asks him to input his rig's identification number. When the computer receives the caller's telephone number through ANI, the number is checked against a database of all area codes and exchanges in the U.S. to determine the location of the calling trucker.
Travel: Travelers use CTI to check flight schedules or flight status and availability, make reservations, and purchase tickets.
Education: CTI handles students' inquiries about class availability. Then, with their completed worksheets in hand, students register by Touchtone phone.
Health Care: CTI tracks patient information, automates hospital room assignments, and validates insurance coverage. Patients call and obtain test results from a database maintained by lab technicians.
Financial Institutions: Customers call the bank's customer service information line both during and after regular banking hours. Via their Touchtone phone, customers review savings and checking account balances, recent transaction history, mortgage rates, and CD rates. Brokerage firms use CTI to quickly check stock prices, provide stock quotes to clients, or review clients' portfolios.
Businesses: A customer can inquire about a stock item and the system determines availability, reserves the stock, and schedules delivery. And businesses can use CTI systems to verify charge accounts or check status of catalog orders.
Emergency Services: A 911 operator uses ANI to verify the caller's location and then the computer automatically identifies the closest available unit to respond and passes the information to all affected stations and mobile units, using leased lines, radio links, or the dial telephone network.
News Organizations: Journalists on deadline can get stock quotes and sports scores over the phone. Or they can have press announcements and briefing materials faxed to them on a moment's notice -- without waiting to speak with a public relations representative.
Government Agencies: Federal, state, and local governments can design a CTI application that lets individuals check the status of their tax refund, social security benefits, motor vehicle registration, voter registration, etc.
A plumber needs to know when his current job site will be inspected by local officials. The plumber calls in and punches in his personal identification number and the permit number of the job, which correlates to the job site address. A mainframe computer verifies those numbers and tells the plumber when the inspection will be done. Transactions are logged into a database, and during nightly batch runs, work orders are printed at the appropriate inspection depots, giving inspectors their agenda for the day.
Service Industries: To track calls and bill them properly to clients, a law firm takes files from the phone system and moves them directly to the accounting system, eliminating the lawyers' costly participation in the account reconciliation process.
Utilities: A Southern California gas utility provides voice response prompts in Spanish to let callers transfer directly to Spanish-speaking customer services agents. Callers can also use the voice response unit to indicate an emergency call and receive quicker attention.
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Conclusion
The leading advocate of CTI is the Alliance of Computer-Based Telephony Applications Suppliers (ACTAS), a member organization of the North American Telecommunications Association. Participants in the CTI industry generally agree that, just as spreadsheets and word processing drove the market for PCs in the 1980s, the key to the success of CTI at the desktop will be powerful applications cost-effectively deployed in the 1990s. |
