All blog posts

In a recent webinar, centred around hosted workforce management, Business Systems hosted with Call Centre Helper, 60% of attendees stated that they still use excel spreadsheets to manage their workforce planning. Dispelling common misconceptions and introducing the concept of how a managed service approach could work using hosted workforce management, this paper identifies how the technology is becoming increasingly accessible to all organisations regardless of size and internal resource skills. Addressing how more flexible demand workforce planning could be rolled...

[Last updated: August 2016] Once the exclusive domain of police stations and tribunals, the recording of specific interviews and meetings is now moving into the realm of normal business usage, very much for the protection of all parties and especially so when the relationship is between employee and employer. Following cutting edge development of recording technology for UK police forces, general business has been quick to realise the commercial benefits this technology can bring, in providing an accurate record of...

Not a problem our rental, leasing and managed service arrangements ensure that customers can access the latest technology without having to pay all the costs to upgrade your call recorder upfront. As an independent supplier, we understand that during harsh economic times, flexibility and budgeting is everything. We provide short and long term hire of call recording or quality monitoring systems available on monthly or quarterly plans ranging from 8 to 1000’s of channels. So how does it work? If...

Adopting a multi-channel approach to collecting customer feedback is a must with today’s fickle, mobile customers seeking engagement on their terms, which is why Business Systems has recently added NICE Fizzback to the portfolio. Industry stats suggest that response rates from customer feedback tools like Fizzback can be as high as 55% particularly if SMS text surveys are incorporated in your channel feedback strategy alongside email, web, phone, chat, social media, IVR and in-store mechanisms. As well as improving response...

If you feel that you are not getting the most out of your call recording system you are probably not alone. Like most technology investments, the initial training and installation tends to focus on the basics, adopting a ‘walk before you run’ methodology. Outlined below our consultancy team highlight three key areas designed to help you drive more value from your investment. I. Identify training needs based on knowledge gaps Are you confident your team are using the full systems...

We all know that regulatory call retention periods have been steadily increasing for some time but that knowledge probably wouldn’t prepare you for a whopping 60 year obligation if it were to land in your lap tomorrow. Luckily this is not the case for most organisations but some insurance companies are indeed facing this very problem. The difficulty these companies have is not so much to do with modern call recording systems but with the older recording systems that: a)...

Visit Business Systems and sister company OPEX Hosting on stand F20 at this years’ Call Centre and Customer Management Expo taking place at London Olympia on October 2nd and 3rd. This year we will be showcasing the latest advancements in ‘voice of the customer’ technology including Call Recording, Quality Monitoring, Workforce Management, Customer Feedback, Analytics and much more. Consultancy Clinic Need advice on your latest technology challenges? Put our in-house experts to the test at our consultancy team and let...

Recent controversies surrounding the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance have highlighted a need for banks to improve monitoring of customer-agent interactions to ensure compliance to regulations. In addition, the recent global financial crisis has led to greater consumer wariness of banks and increased likelihood to complain about services received. Making the case for customer interaction monitoring Against this backdrop and with finance-focused consumer interest groups highlighting where the best deals and service can be found, an environment has been created...

Agent workforce planning & workforce scheduling provides a great opportunity for the planning team to gain buy in from the operation and agents. It presents an opening to highlight the value of the team and also the benefits and flexibility of your workforce management (WFM) application. Include the Resource Planning Operation in the Process If you are deploying WFM or creating a new set of resource planning schedules consider including the agents in the process. As we discussed in our last...

Increasingly, call centre outsourcers are turning to technologies like speech analytics to drive value in their contact centres through revenue generation and improving the quality of their services. The growth in this historically recession-proof sector has increased competition, making it important for an outsourcer to stand out from the crowd. Using analytics to demonstrate industry sector knowledge Research (from the CBI Market Information Database) shows that call centres that offer industry-specific expertise are at a particular advantage at this time...

Our last blog highlighted what makes an effective short term forecast. These are the forecasts that you will apply your workforce schedules against and in this post we will cover tips for creating and applying best practice WFM scheduling. Customer Experience vs Expense Resource optimisation and resource planning is in simple terms, an attempt to balance service expectations against expense or operating costs. The key to optimising resource and minimising expense is the creation of effective shift patterns that meet...

Although a monopolised market, the budgets of water and sewerage companies are at the mercy of their performance. Ofwat (The Water Service Regulation Authority) uses the recently created Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) as a measure of the quality of service provided by the water and sewerage sectors of England and Wales. The prices that water companies are permitted to charge their customers are a reflection of their performance on these measures; a company providing a good service to their customers...