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Characteristics of contact center software

Contact center software is the backbone through which all the operations of a contact center are carried out. The design and architecture of the software depends on the process handled by the contact center, the size of its operations and its customer base. An effective and non redundant software design is crucial for success of any contact center.

While handling a call, a contact center agent has to do a lot of multi tasking. He has to converse with the customer in a polite, business like manner and at the same time retrieve relevant pieces of information from the database and manipulate it accordingly. One of the foremost requirements of contact centre software is a simple front end design. This ensures that the agent does not have to concentrate too hard in using the software. With a simple design he / she can divert attention in conversing with the customer which is extremely vital for maintaining the quality of the call. The second requirement is timely retrieval of information. A call can become too long and the customer may get irritated if information retrieval from database takes too long. Therefore quick information flow becomes an important designing factor for the software.

Another important feature of contact center software is to manage incoming and outgoing calls so as to keep agent idle time to minimum. In outbound call centers predictive dialers are integrated with the software system, to call bulk numbers and transfer live calls to idle agents. The key idea here is to anticipate when agents will complete their calls and to time new calls so that the next called person will answer shortly after an agent becomes idle. In inbound call centers, incoming calls are placed in queue and transferred to an idle agent. The software ensures that there is an even call distribution among the agents. Contact center software monitors in real time the idle state of each agent and transfers calls on priority to those agents who have had the idlest time. The software is integrated with an interactive voice response system (IVR) to enable customers to select the exact service and skills level of agents. The contact center software then routes the call to the specific agent or to a specific department.