To achieve and maintain the same level of service that your business has always provided, consider the following strategies and technologies. Offload calls using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) IVR is a mature technology that’s been around since the 1980s. The good news is that it’s easier than ever to deploy if you aren’t currently using IVR and want to invest in it. IVR voice menus can replay frequently requested information, such as store directions, office hours, and product prices, letting agents handle more complex requests. IVR is a proven way to boost call throughput and deliver superior customer service. Avaya Interactive Response is an interactive voice response system for automating telephone transactions. It offers organizations the ability to evolve their self service architecture to take advantage of the latest web and voice technologies. Implement a cost-saving home agent program With greater Voice-over-IP coverage, agents can work from their homes and plug into a “virtual call center.” They use special VoIP-based client software to control calls and receive screen pops on their PCs. Agents prefer the at-home arrangement (thus reducing turnover) and call center’s save on office costs. The Avaya Home Agent solution offers end-to-end capabilities and options based on your specific business needs. Home agents appear transparently to reporting software, wallboards, workforce management software, and other agent performance solutions. The Home Agent solution consists of the IP Agent softphone at the agent desktop. IP Agent is driven by Avaya Call Center software running on Avaya Communication Manager. Optionally, Avaya SIP Enablement Services provides integrated instant messaging, enabling home agents to readily access experts across the enterprise. Provide a richer customer experience with speech recognition IVR is not the only way to perform the self-service function. Speech recognition technology delivers a more natural and richer experience to customers. In the old days—pre-2000—speech recognition required significant expertise and investment to implement. With the advent of less expensive media processing hardware and a new open standards scripting language called VoiceXML, speech recognition is within reach of even small call centers. Avaya offers standards-based Voice Portal and Dialog Designer to help businesses easily provide self service to customers. Voice Portal combines the power of open standards, web technology, and IP telephony. Dialog Designer uses a Java Integrated Development Environment for visual application prototyping and development. Dialog Designer supports both VoiceXML and ccXML. Optimize your staffing Overstaffing is an ongoing challenge in many contact centers. But when business is down, it’s even more critical to match staffing with demand. A new generation of contact center reporting software can help find operational problems (too many long phone call, excessive transfers, idle agents) in real-time and guide managers in changing agent behaviors. Analytic software tools are available to help managers forecast call loads and determine optimal staffing based on agent schedules. Avaya IQ is a reporting and analytics platform that offers standard reports that’s easy to customize. Real time data from Avaya customer service solutions is available for review and analysis in easy-to-use dashboards, cross tabs, drill down and roll ups. Avaya IQ provides insights and help contact centers determine optimal staffing. | 
