[asterisk-users] (Getting OT) Re: Call Center SoftPhone with Auto Answer

[Steve Totaro]

Anselm Martin Hoffmeister wrote:
> Am Dienstag, den 18.09.2007, 17:33 -0400 schrieb James FitzGibbon:
>   
>> On 9/18/07, David Gomillion <david.gomillion at gmail.com> wrote:
>>         I've stayed out of this thread for a long time, and really
>>         didn't read the past comments, so if I'm repeating someone,
>>         I'm sorry. I've been thinking this for a while, and just have
>>         to say it. If you feel like you have to keep people from
>>         turning off the auto-answer feature on a softphone, you don't
>>         need a new softphone. You need new people.
>>
>> Yes, but have you ever drawn up a budget for a full-blown meatware(tm)
>> upgrade?
>>     
>
> I do not know American work law, but if you tell your people to NOT turn
> off auto answer, and they do for having a break, would that not count as
> work refusal? As long as they get all the breaks they are supposed to
> take, of course. If for example a cashier in a supermarket here in
> Germany would just leave her position for a few minutes for a smoke,
> small-talk or whatever, outside her assigned break times, she could
> afaik get a written warning, and at the second occasion the full wad of
> papers (aka been fired).
>
> On the other hand, if you count only times while they are on-a-call,
> with appropriate logging software, adding a few seconds per-call for
> overhead, as their worktime, they pretty soon will keep auto answer on
> to get the required number of work minutes during their shift, I would
> expect.
>
> But this is not as much a technical problem as a social one: If your
> agents are unmotivated, they might spend time talking off-business to
> any caller/callee on the phone that seems to be interested in
> small-talk, and _that_ you could hardly find out technically.
>
> So you might get an upgrade without paying for the deinstallation of the
> previous "meatware", but the installation process of course has costs.
>
> BTW putting too much pressure on your agents might do bad things to
> their effiency, motivation, even mental health. Getting the balance
> between control and good atmosphere right is not easy, and something
> that cannot be generalized but must be tailored to the situation. The
> value of a "human asset" (imagine me vomiting my way through those
> words) can materialize in the number of sales, calls, ... and also in
> the customer experience he creates, which is hard to be counted in
> numbers.
>
> For example, I recently bought some music instrument and accessories at
> a phone-order company. The people there were relaxed, friendly, helpful
> and made the effort of giving me competent, quick information that I
> needed. All contact with them was extremely positive.
>
> As I needed some more stuff that I knew was a bit cheaper at another
> store (which only deals with customers in a matter-of-fact way), I
> decided to honour that effort. I also recommended the company to
> friends, which they probably will never know about and as such cannot
> count in as a bonus for their sales personell.
>
> *Just my loose change. Man, there were lots of coins in that purse.*
>
>   
>> Makes Vista look like a picnic.
>>     
>
> IMO Vista is an apple short of one ;-)
>
> To get the Asterisk relevant topics:
>
> You could
> - count on-call minutes to rate agent performance
> - track off-call intervals on a certain line and so track the turned-off
> auto answer
> - do some "social engineering" or "policy work" to get this sorted in a
> non-technical way (work contract terms, etc)
> - pay some softphone manufacturer to implement needed changes
>
> BTW what would hinder your agents from shutting down the softphone app
> when they do not want to answer calls? What would hinder them from just
> not talking to the caller when they do not want to?
>
> Best regards,
> Anselm
>
>
>
>   
By "American" (I assume you mean the USA and leaving out the rest of 
North and South America) employment laws vary state by state.  Maryland 
is an "At will" state which means you can be fired or quit at will 
(unless you have a contract in place that says differently).

Agents are the absolute best at finding bugs and ways of beating the 
call center system.  You can lock them down but they will find other 
ways around every time.

I think holding a company wide meeting about the issue and creating an 
official policy on what is acceptable and what is not. 

Make it a zero tolerance policy. 

Then wait a few days, the first one you catch messing around with the 
system, make a very public and open dismissal of the employee and make 
sure the other agents know exactly why their co-worker was dismissed.  
There will be quite a bit of gossip and possibly turnover depending on 
the rep that was dismissed but you will see much less of the offending 
behavior.  Don't stop at one, make sure you let the agents know that 
they are being monitored and will receive no warning if in violation.

Sounds harsh, but you have to lay down the law.  Even if you catch your 
best rep doing it, immediate termination, that will really get the point 
across. 

Thanks,
Steve