Latest revision as of 13:50, 4 May 2015

1 Overview

With all the scenarios listed below, the primary consideration is hands-on ability to use BE. All of the terms in the Lexicon that are used in this training permeate subsequent training.

NOTE: Different browsers and versions will show different layouts and options so this learning document will use a reference browser to demonstrate the How To scenarios

2 Technical Help Desk Solution

In order to make relevant how BE can deliver against a case management solution we need to construct a worked example which can be used for a number of scenarios.

The first step of analysis is to get a full background analysis of the scenario. Please note this scenario is extremely limited and is used for highlighting only primary functional capabilities.

Computer Company Limited offer a number of pcs and printers. There are a number of departments: Sales, Customer Care, Billing, Shipping and Manufacturing. The solution is for the Customer Care department to be able to manage customer requests. The contact is from customers who have purchased equipment and have support issues. The business offers support contracts on the equipment for 1 year. If customers are outside of contract they are referred to a third party support company. There are often calls whilst coming in on the care line are not for care. All post is scanned and then the images transferred to care via a network drive. There is an Avaya phone system in place but it is not CTI enabled.

There is a care email address support@computercompanylimited.com The company would like to implement customer effectiveness surveys for marketing and customer satisfaction purposes. The company also has a Twitter, Facebook and Linked In company page. The public website has a customer care form. Live webchat has been considered but the supporting technology is not currently available in the company.

There are support processes which are managed by process experts exist within the organisation. There is some training and documentation but it is not exhaustive. Training is a common feature within the organisation and is classroom based. The product portfolio and other soft skills are trained as required.

There is a variety of reporting required but the primary focus of the business is ensuring the customer is happy and brings repeat business. Cutting down customer required contact and increasing cross sell / upsell opportunity is paramount.

The staff operating the solution has been in place for a number of years. They accept that improvements can be made, but the system must improve life not add further complexities to an already complex situation.

Investment has been made in previous solutions which haven’t worked exactly as required. Changing processes are normally perceived internally as a negative thing. Currently the solution uses an Access database to log queries. Microsoft Excel is used extensively in support for reporting. Microsoft Outlook manages communications between agents and customers. Some emails are templates but most are custom creations of the agents. Supporting documents come in the form of a network drive with Microsoft Word Documents, Adobe PDF documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations and images where appropriate.

3 Analysis

3.1 Stage 1: Initial Fields

The first task is to compile all of the fields required. Using the existing Access solution, creating a form in BE add in all the fields possible. [CC-1-3]

The form should then be optimised to group the fields and colour where needed. [CC-3-2]

The form should have logic added to mirror the current workflow [CC-2-5]

The outcomes and appropriate validation need to be added for data integrity [CC-1-5] [CC-3-2]

You now should have a form that mirrors the primary elements of the current workflow.

3.2 Stage 2: Contact points

The contact points can now be examined, once the fields and initial outcomes are in place.

Identifying a team and granting them access to the form, will be the last step, but this is how calls will be handled. [CC-2-1]

Next is to link into the email box to retrieve the emails for the work queue. [CC-3-4] It is also advisable to set up the full reply linking to allow replies to continue a case rather than only every creating new cases. [CC-3-4] details your options for this.

The website would be integrated next to allow public pages to push records into the form. [CC-4-3]

The social media would then be configured so that messages go to the mailbox. This too is described in [CC-3-4]

Depending on the version of Live Chat available to you, integration will vary. [CC-4-3] goes through some of the options available.

At this point it is also useful, where they exist, to link outcomes to other forms, to allow CDAs to transfer from one form to another [CC-4-2]

3.3 Stage 3: Operational control

From any number of sources, we now should have the ability to create a CDA. We now need to exert some operational logic to the script and some operational control to ensure timely delivery.

You should consider, especially for reporting purposes the following fields:

• Initial medium: Email, Phone, Web, Post, Social Media
• Preferred medium: Email, Phone, Web, Post, Social Media

It is important for agents to understand the primary preferred medium of the campaign. Operationally cost savings are made through email with post, or international calling being the most expensive alternatives.

3.3.1 Case Management tool 1: Duration since first contact

When a CDA is created, the clock begins. The first report to support this is the commonly used :

Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant – Data > Data – Data – Report by Period, by Outcome > Form + Time Period of records interacted with >

In the options at the top of the next page, if you tick “Duration since first contact”, from the first date and time of the record to the start of when the button at the bottom of the page is clicked, the duration will be calculated. This ensures all CDAs reported on, are for the same time period, especially in reports that take some time to generate.

The duration since first contact allows for analysis on jobs taking long times.

The outcome you choose is very significant. If you choose the final outcome of the flow (case closed), then the time is from the starting CCL through till that outcome was used in a CCL. If you choose an open case outcome, you will get the time up to that point in the case. This can be useful for interim process analysis. i.e. How long till we get to that stage in the process on average?

3.3.2 Case Management tool 2: Cases Timing Report

With less case detail, but more focus on time and split between complete and incomplete, is the cases timing report.

Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant - Reminders and Case Management > Case Management – Cases Timing Report > Choose the time frame and Form

The puts the longest outstanding cases at the top for closer analysis with click through to the record for review.

3.3.3 Case Management tool 3: Open Cases

On a day to day basis, it is far more practical to examine those cases that are still not complete. An open and closed case is driven by outcome. The outcome chosen should reflect “Complete” or “Incomplete”. Complete is closed and Incomplete is an open case. [CC-1-3]

Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant - Reminders and Case Management > Case Management – Open Cases > Choose the time frame and Form

The report that generates gives

• Id: With click through to review the case. This does not alter the case in anyway
• Contact Count: How many CCLs with this CDA, showing how many interactions so far
• Start: The date and time of the first CCL
• End / Last Interaction: The date and time of the last CCL, regardless of period chosen
• Status: The current status of the CDA
• Duration How long between the first interaction and when the report was generated

Operationally this tool sorts by Id as the smaller the Id the longer the record has been on the system, subsequently the one that should be dealt with first.

The time period of the report provides facility to exclude very long term records from operational reports to allow more focused windows. For a record to appear in the report it must have had some contact in the time window selected on the first page. If nothing has happened with that record in a long time it fades from the operational reports. The All time frame button will list all incomplete cases.

3.3.4 Case Management tool 4: Exception reporting

As time management is so critical for some key clients, reporting must focus on the exceptions rather than the rule. BE has the ability to establish a base line for exceptions. These exceptions can then be highlighted for process improvement. When setting up the case management, there are two exceptions settings: Time and Contacts.

Time is in days. So if a case takes more than X days to reach a complete, or is indeed still incomplete, should it show up in the exception report. So for our help desk, if the case is still open after 4 days, then there is something seriously wrong.

If First Call Resolution (FCR), or reduced contact is a goal, then by setting contacts to 3, all cases that have 3 or more touch points will appear in the exception report.

When set, the report will return two sections: Incomplete and Complete

Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant - Reminders and Case Management > Case Management – Exception Cases > Choose the time frame and Form

The time period again, will only include records interacted with during the time period. All is required to view all exception cases. Please note that over time All will get long, so sectioned time windows like quarters or choosing custom dates is a sensible set.

The Incomplete’s are cases still open.

The Complete’s are cases now considered closed but which fell outside the exception parameters.

3.3.5 Case Management tool 5: ReOpened Cases

In some instances, there may be agents attempting to circumvent the reporting of open cases and will make a case as closed when it is not yet fully complete. The customer will then contact again about the same case, although it is marked closed. The system will allow the handling of the case by the agent. Closed cases are not locked out.

When an outcome is added to the system, following an outcome that is marked as Complete, then the cases is considered to be reopened. ReOpened cases are not exceptions and should be thoroughly examined. There is no reason for an agent to cause a reopening unless the closing agent closed the case incorrectly.

Tracking for this must be turned on initially. In the Form settings in the Case Management section, “Exception: Track Reopen” must be enabled. This will then track going forward (only) what cases are reopened.

The report can be found Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant - Reminders and Case Management > Case Management – ReOpened Cases > Choose the time frame and Form

3.3.5.1 Team level reporting

If the organogram has been set up correctly for the organisation [CC-3-1], then the teams will be ready to go and all the above reporting is available in a “My Team” context [CC-1-4]. So open, exception and reopened cases where a specific agent in their team has caused the case / last interacted with the case will be displayed to allow team leads to focus on local management of cases to prevent exceptions and reopened and more importantly manage them properly when they may occur.

3.3.6 Case Management tool 6: Cases Still Out

Where a CDA has been transferred from a form (for clarity, form 1, our customer care form) to another form (for clarity, form 2, the billing department) for processing, there is a delay to form 1 on being able to get back to the customer. In order to demonstrate delays in processing of form 2, or delays in the return of cases, which cause subsequent delays for form 1, this report shows which forms are still out with another form and for how long.

3.3.7 Case Management tool 7: Daily Dashboard

It is often useful as a contact centre manager to get a view on where the floor currently is with all the cases in operation.

The system dashboard provides access quickly to a number of reports. The first of these reports is the Overall Summary report, which should appear similar to something below:

• Con: Contacts, how many CCLs in this period
• Rec: Records, how many CDAs created in the period
• ReO: Reopened cases in the period
• Pro: Cases processed from this time period and others started in previous periods
• Com: Cases flagged as complete in the period
• Agn: Unique agents working on the cases in the period

Ideally the received and closed are identical. A higher closed total indicates closing from another period. Weekends are excluded from the report by default. Low spikes show bank holidays and national holidays.

This reporting has gone through a number of enhancements and iterations. The inclusion of an SLA pie chart allows an overall time SLA be set and cases outside this SLA are graphically represented.

3.3.8 Case Management tool 8: In-depth Analysis

As previously mentioned it is very important that further analysis be able to be performed on the data. Returning to the first tool, which is a data export: Main Menu > Data Profiling > Instant – Data > Data – Data – Report by Period, by Outcome > Form + Time Period of records interacted with >

There a significant number of other fields which can be exported with the data which will add to the analysis possible.

Display duration of contact: When a CDA is shown to the agent, to the time when the agent selects and outcome and clicks save on the record, is considered the duration.

N.B. Please note that these times can be affected by leaving records open over lunch or even overnight. Contact Sequence Number: This displays the number of the CCL in the sequence of that case.

• Duration since last contact: This allows for analysis of delays between CCLs.
• Depart of User: this allows the department of the user to be a column of data which can be filtered on.
• Organogram Group of User: If the organogram is set up correctly this column of data will include all the teams that this user is involved in.

3.4 Stage 4: Other party integration

At this point it becomes important to enhance the workflow with external contact point integration. So how are all the other contact points in the system to be handled?

Examining each one, automation is applied.

Emails can be very useful for quick communication where appropriate, with data protection to the forefront and not including excessive details. It is a more secure approach to provide a link to log in and review the data within BE. This is not always possible but for security should be the preferred option. [CC-3-2]

SMS messages are exceptionally useful for mobile workers as an alert to get to terminal / internet connection when possible. [CC-3-2]

Dialler / click to dial integration is also another consideration to allow the agents to call out. [CC-4-3]

It is possible to perform data transfer from one system to another, providing the receiving system has some method for accepting data. This accepting is usually done through an API or data import process. This is a technical setup and will require someone with some level of medium to advanced IT skills to properly implement. [SI-2-2]

3.5 Stage 5: Knowledge Integration

At this point existing documentation, training systems and learning material should be integrated into the solution. The scope of this process is discussed in greater detail in [CC-3-3].

3.6 Stage 6: Quality Mechanisms

[QA-1-2] [QA-3-4] and [QA-3-5] go into a lot more detail about how quality and quality approaches can be applied.

3.7 Stage 7: Documentation

At this point it is possible to combine all the documentation gathered, the information drawn from building the prototype and interaction to confirm the accuracy of the processes and procedures. Project management of the scope of the work should now be much easier as an accurate picture of what is required and possible is now available. This document should be produced at this stage to serve as a reference point (“bible”) for the project and what is to be achieved.

4 Design

With a working prototype, where process reengineering is required, the design phase, examines each aspect of contact, workflow and outcome. Is each one optimised or where can human effort and time consumption be replaced with computer automation.

Cost and time availability are the primary concerns at this stage. The working prototype provides a base platform to allow all parties quote, express and understand the process. The documentation serves as a reference to allow reviews of the solution with seeing the system in action and to raise procedural queries.

At the end of this process, a call is made to all parties for final feedback and comments. This ends the scoping of the provision of the solution.

5 Develop

To ensure all development avenues are completed correctly iterative testing is used in the development phase to ensure the delivery is as per the analysis and design specification. This should not be an elongated process but should be used to ratify all exceptions. Break the processes where possible with worst case exceptions and known challenging areas.

6 Implement

The key to case management being accepted and used properly is training and adoption of the system by users. A training plan to show how the system is used as a process flow, how the operational tools deliver the reports and for management how high level reporting delivers against requirement is required. BE is designed modularly so examining smaller elements for phased implement is always better than big bang approach of entire system replacement.

7 Evaluation

The first 24 hours of implement should provide a conference centre for free flowing feedback with ever user invited to submit their comments and suggestions in live operation. This process should be done for two operational weeks. A further review done after one week then two weeks of operation. At this point all primary challenges can be addressed and verified. A plan must then be implemented for quarterly review and suggestions for optimisation encouraged.