As the administrative and/or technical contact for your organization, you must understand that we are not simply attempting to replicate or mirror your company’s old systems or processes. Instead, we are implementing a new system and a new “XTIUM” way of communicating.
The first step is awareness of change, followed by a willingness to evolve, and finally careful planning and execution. If you have any questions about the topics covered below or are looking for advice on how to best share this information with your users, please contact your Project Manager and we’ll be happy to assist.
What to think about when implementing your XTIUM Call Center:
Configuration Options – XTIUM provides several options for customers to set up their queues. During our implementation process, we’ll walk you through the process of creating one queue per the Call Center Implementation Package cost of $1,000. Included in the initial ACD setup are:
- Up-front design session/call center orientation- Preparation and Configuration of initial queue- Consultation and Implementation of ACD Call Flow, including
- Routing policies according to the Call Center feature package selected on the Sales Order
- Review of standard ACD/Queue report options from Web Supervisor
- Access to XTIUM Knowledge Base, including User, Admin, and Product Guides
Additional ACD configuration options can be purchased and are detailed on the CC - Call Center ACD Installation article
Agent and Supervisor (non-administrator) Training Options – We have several training options for a call center. Call Center application training for Agents and Supervisors is recommended 1-2 days before launch. It is not recommended to have call center training on the day of cutover. On-site and remote Call Center training covers applications and functions used for the call center, including Agent and Supervisor clients, and handset functions used by Agents. Call Center Administrator Training covers call flows and Call Center ACD policies and is reviewed with the system administrator during the implementation process, and a post-go-live remote session will be scheduled to review MAC/D’s that will likely occur after the initial soak period of cutover. Remote training for enhanced reporting is available on-demand via pre-recorded webinar or can be scheduled with an XTIUM Associate if required by the customer.
Moving from Hunt Groups – Occasionally, our customers choose the XTIUM Call Center to advance the capabilities of their existing Hunt Group configurations. The addition of call queuing, comfort messaging, and advanced routing provides a significantly increased level of service and visibility in high-volume call centers. If you fall into this category, our Call Center team will help you design your ACDs (Automatic Call Distribution) based on XTIUM best practices. Please ask your project manager or call center consultant for advice on how best to accomplish this migration.
Moving from Existing ACD Solutions – Frequently, our customers choose the XTIUM Call Center to gain the operational advantages of moving their ACDs to the cloud, including increased business continuity, agent mobility, and reduced telecom costs. Most ACDs perform similar functions, but every ACD goes about achieving call distribution differently. Our call center team will offer advice on how best to leverage the capabilities of our system to achieve your desired result. Supervisors and Agents must understand that calls will be delivered differently. In addition, reports will appear slightly different and may be difficult to compare to previous solutions. It is important to be aware of these changes and ensure all stakeholders are aware of the systemic differences that are part of any migration effort. Please ask your project manager or call center consultant for advice on how best to accomplish this migration.
Holiday and Time Schedules –Each routing instance in the system (Auto Attendants, Hunt groups, ACDs) is tied to a specific holiday and schedule. On holidays, the instance is marked closed for the entire day, and a busy treatment message is played. For business hours, you can determine the hours of the day when that item is open and/or closed. Greetings will be adjusted accordingly. You may create multiple time schedules and apply and change them as needed. The setup of holiday and time schedules is NOT covered in this document, but is a standard part of our OSSmosis administrator support resources and training guides. All items in question will be set up for you with a default time and holiday schedule. You will have the opportunity to adjust these schedules in the OSSmosis administration portal.
Agent Awareness – It is also VERY important that your agents be informed of the changes to how they will operate, how calls will be handled, the reporting/visibility available to leadership, and the reason behind these changes. Agent expectation and opinion are often the root of difficulty when introducing a significant change like a new call center solution. We strongly encourage you to communicate with your agents multiple times in advance of the XTIUM Call Center implementation to promote agent adoption and alleviate the strain associated with such a significant change to their daily routines.
Reporting – The XTIUM Call Center includes Enhanced Reporting, which provides administrators with the ability to run a wide array of ad-hoc reports or pre-schedule reports for email delivery. Enhanced Reporting is available via the Web Supervisor interface. We encourage you to read the XTIUM Enhanced Reporting User Reference Guide available on the XTIUM Knowledge Base. This guide serves to document the different available reporting options, as well as provide a detailed overview of data options. A detailed overview of Enhanced Reports will also be covered with your Call Center Administrator during implementation and after cutover.
Staffing – Call center performance is tied directly to the staff who are answering the phones. With sufficient agent staff on-site combined with the appropriate behaviors, call centers can achieve their intended goals and provide an outstanding customer experience. The XTIUM Call Center can provide you with the appropriate metrics to ensure adequate staffing levels and that your agents are operating effectively to meet your organization’s expectations.
In some instances, the migration to the XTIUM Call Center illuminates an issue that the customer didn’t realize existed. Often, customers are unaware that they are not receiving all of their calls because the callers receive a busy signal if all their phone lines are in use. With the XTIUM Call Center, there is no fixed capacity for phone lines and therefore no trunk limit on the number of phone calls that can be received. If you notice more calls than you expected, then this is most likely the result of a similar situation in your organization.
Assignment of Agents and Supervisors to queues is NOT covered in this document. Agents and Supervisors will be added to queues in the OSSmosis portal by the customer after initial ACD configuration is complete.
Enterprise Queues (ACDs) - One of the benefits of the XTIUM Call Center is that our call center queues are not location-specific. That is, anybody in your organization, regardless of their geographical location, can participate in any call center queue. The ability to have any call center agent answer calls in any queue can result in improved service levels and higher agent utilization than separate or stand-alone queues. As you work on the design of your call center, be sure to consider this key benefit and how your organization can leverage this capability.
Messaging and Music – Through our OSSmosis administration portal, your organization can quickly and easily change the messaging heard by callers or put in place temporary announcements related to high-volume, a known outage, or any other critical message that callers may need to hear before reaching an agent. You can also provide messaging that is heard when a caller is in queue, such as complementary product offerings or your website’s address that can be unique to each queue. If you would like to take advantage of the different types of messaging during your implementation, be sure to ask your Project Manager about these capabilities.
System default messaging will automatically be configured for your ACDs. You may add custom announcements (including chains of up to 4 messages) within the OSSmosis portal. For custom announcements, the following settings are required: .wav, 8 kHz, mono, u-law, 7 data 1 stop bit.
Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery – Because of the inherent values of cloud-based technologies, the XTIUM Office offers significant protection from potential service-threatening issues (power, carrier T-1 facility, building problems, etc.), and in most cases, these issues can be mitigated with proper business continuity planning. If your office experiences a service-affecting issue, the XTIUM Office allows you to automatically reroute your company’s inbound calls from the XTIUM Private Cloud to various destinations. By default, calls to your user DIDs will terminate in their respective voicemail boxes. Alternatively, you can decide to have your numbers forwarded to an auto attendant, cell phones, an answering service, or another remote location of yours. Please take the time to plan where calls to your main numbers will ring in the event of service disruption.
In instances where XTIUM is providing your internet access over multiple T-1 facilities, in many cases, we can utilize diverse carriers for access, which protects from many potential problems. If we are only providing 1 T-1, or if you desire a higher level of service diversity, we offer Voice Continuity service. Our Voice Continuity service enables your inbound and outbound calls to be routed through a public IP service, such as Broadband Cable, in the event of a T1 failure. Additionally, the Broadband service can be utilized for primary Internet service, which may fit bandwidth requirements for your organization. If Voice Continuity service has not already been selected, please ask your Project Manager or Technology Advisor about additional monthly and one-time configuration charges that will apply. XTIUM offers a full suite of Continuity and Data Backup/Recovery services. If additional Continuity services are required, please contact your Technology Advisor to ensure products and services are accurate on the Sales Order. XTIUM also offers Data Backup and Recovery Services as well should you be interested.
You must take the time to discuss, plan, and detail the business continuity needs for your organization. Then, discuss the best implementation method for your business continuity needs with your Project Manager. For Call Center Best Practices, XTIUM has developed a guide specific to Call Centers, which explains what the DR/BC features are, and how they can best be utilized by organizations: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery guide for XTIUM Call Center customers