Latest revision as of 03:32, 2 January 2016

1 Overview

bxp software (bxp) has the ability to be used as a ticketing solution or helpdesk solution. There are a number of aspects to setting up the solution with all the features which allow you to use technology you have or allow for progressive upgrade to a fully featured solution. This provides operational advantage as you expand your operation and seek to understand all the operational change required to take advantage of the new tools.

To demonstrate how the solution can be used, we use a worked case study to show the build up and implementation process.

2 Examples of clients using all or elements of this solution

3 Scenario and Setup

XYZ Enterprises realise that they need to provide a dedicated support line, track support tickets, improve quality and find ways of generating revenue from customer contact. This involves input from Sales, Business Development, Operations, Projects, Support, IT, Quality and Board input.

XYZ Enterprises build widgets and provide widget support consultancy. The Support department deals with all queries. Projects provides the consultancy.

To get things going, the solution has been turned over to a IT team to get the solution up and working.

IT realise that they have some but not all of the solutions they require, so they need to build up the solution.

3.1 Step 1 - Communications channels

The first job is for Marketing and Operations and Projects to decide what lines of communications they wish the customers to communicate with them via. It is decided that as many lines of communication as possible will used:

• Inbound Phone Call
• Inbound Email
• Inbound Fax
• Inbound Website Query
• Inbound Post
• Inbound Social Media
• Inbound Live Web Chat
• Outbound Phone Call

With so many lines being opened, IT recognises that a phased approach to their implementation is a far better idea than a big bang solution.

It is decided to implement them in the order above building up the solution for people as smoothly as possible and giving processes and procedures time to mature, so as not do completely wipe out current operations. New tools allow for new processes to be implemented they do not create the processes.

Time lines are given to get the project up and running. The larger the operation the bigger the time lines. For a company of 30 people and with current workloads an aggressive time line is put in place.

• Inbound Phone Call - 4 weeks (initial processes and procedures)
• Inbound Email - 1 week (dovetailing into the phone call processes)
• Inbound Fax - 1 day (using an email approach)
• Inbound Website Query - 4 weeks (to facilitate website development and marketing)
• Inbound Post - 2 weeks (to facilitate new processes and operations)
• Inbound Social Media - 2 weeks (utilising the email processes already operational from above)
• Inbound Live Web Chat - 1 week (technology dependant on approach chosen)
• Outbound Phone Call - 3 weeks (to facilitate training and operational change)

Total Project Time : 17 weeks

To enable this aggressive time line, assistance from All n One is to be maximised to jump start the setup and ensure IT has minimal implementation and maximum return on investment. While it is possible to perform all the tasks withouth All n One, using the All n One project teams allows for experience and system familiarity to expedite setups.

3.2 Step 2 - Deciding a process and procedure set

The next stage is for Operations and Projects to decide what are the major events that occur in day to day operation. The life cycles of the operations and projects are used:

• Sales enquiry
• Delivery failure
• Delivery contents incorrect
• Widgets broken
• Billing enquiry
• Widget operation
• Widget solution design
• Troubleshooting
• Personal contact for staff
• Business Development enquiry
• Project support enquiry

There are also the other department enquiries that come in on the wrong line:

• Human resources contact
• Supplier contact
• Spam / Wrong number
• Marketing contact
• Back office enquiry

So the first step is to identify each of the departments a query may come in for:

1. Sales
2. Business Development
3. Operations
4. Projects
5. Human Resources
6. Marketing
7. IT
8. Personal
9. Other

Now for each of these areas, a solution can be refined as to how Operations are going to deal with the enquiries.

1. Sales - Transfer
2. Business Development - Transfer
3. Operations - support procedures
4. Projects - support procedures
5. Human Resources - Transfer
6. Marketing - Transfer
7. IT - Transfer
8. Personal - Log a missed contact
9. Other - Log a missed contact

Each department is then contacted to ensure that the primary contact points are established. i.e. If a sales call comes in, it goes to Person 1 first. They will then manage it from there.

IT can now revist with Operations and Projects, what happens with:

• Operations - Delivery failure
• Operations - Delivery contents incorrect
• Operations - Widgets broken
• Operations - Billing enquiry
• Operations - Widget operation
• Operations - Troubleshooting
• Projects - Widget solution design
• Projects - Project support enquiry

For each of these headings there are questions that need to be asked and information captured. The easiest way to deal with each of these types is to apply a simple Input - Process - Output review for each one.

• Input - What are the basic pieces of information required to deal with this kind of query.
• Process - If we have all the basic info, what existing tools, processes and procedures do we use to solve this currently.
• Output - Working with marketing what message / outcome do you want to leave the customer with

When performing this exercise, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and realise there is a lot to this area. It is important to remember to focus on the perceived high traffic areas. Make sure that the solution being designed solves the bulk of the challenges. Do not get bogged down in detail. Using "chat to Nora" as she is the answer expert is a perfectly acceptable process which can be refined in the future. The important part is to ensure that Nora has all the basic info she needs to create a solution.

At this stage, all the key players have been identified, the key processes have been documented and an approach to how the business operates is now available.

3.3 Stage 3 - Mapping contact to procedures

For each of our contact types we now apply the contact type to the area & procedures. The easiest way to do this is to take the busiest process and apply the most common contact type. e.g. Customer phones in wondering where their delivery is.

Not all contact types will be suited to all procedures, so developing a matrix can be exceptionally useful. Put the longest list down the left column of the matrix and the shortest list along the top. This usually means procedures down the left and contact type along the top.

Decide as a company which ones you're going to employ / not employ. It is important to get all stakeholders to confirm what is going to be used.

Next, prioritise the implementation of each of the intersections so people know what is going to be worked on in what order. Number from 1 to 10 in order to decide what the highest priority for the company to get up and running.

If documentation is taking people some time to get together, you can use this to delay / speed up implementations. Getting easier more readily available solutions up and running can show people that the solution is moving along, instead of delaying whilst waiting for people to get some paperwork done.

Any procedure which has all the Inputs ready (from Stage 2) to go, is ready to be implemented.

3.4 Stage 4 - The builds

Depending on which items are to be implemented we can build an implementation sequence. In our worked example we can now begin building the solution with bxp.

To demonstrate the primary build options and approach to bxp we are going to use the following sequence:

• A. Inbound Phone Call - Operations - Delivery failure
• B. Inbound Email - Operations - Delivery contents incorrect
• C. Inbound Fax - Operations - Widgets broken
• D. Inbound Website Query - Operations - Billing enquiry
• E. Inbound Post - Operations - Widget operation
• F. Inbound Social Media - Operations - Troubleshooting
• G. Inbound Live Web Chat - Projects - Widget solution design
• H. Outbound Phone Call - Projects - Project support enquiry

We can now treat each of these separately or as a sequence. Where possible this Wixi uses other articles to discuss the specifics of implementation.

3.4.1 A. Inbound Phone Call - Operations - Delivery failure

First thing for any inbound call we have a few decisions to make:

Note: All the items below not supplied as part of bxp, they are all telecomms provider, phone system provider options or an internal decision. TP indicates Telecomms Provider. PSP indicates Phone System Provider. ID indicates Internal Decision. All n One can be used to provide consultancy on all options.

• TP : What is the phone number?
• TP : If you're moving or going to outsource contact, do you want to have a non-geographic number? (0818, 1850 number, these allow the land lines to be hidden and easily changed without affecting marketing and printed documentation)
• PSP : Do you have Interactive Voice Response (IVR) on the line (press 1 for sales, 2 for support)?
• PSP : Do you want to add intelligence to your IVR (please give me your account number before I put you through)?
• ID : Do you want to go straight to the support people or a reception / filtering person first?
• ID : What hold messages / music do you want the customer to hear while holding? (Don't forget to register with IMRO if playing music)
• TP : Do you want to try generate revenue from the support call? (i.e. put the number on a paid non-geographic 1550 type number. This can put customers off phoning in and legally requires you to answer the phone immediately... i.e. no IVR and always have staff available.)
• PSP : Are you going to use phones on the desk or Soft phones (i.e. through the computer)?
• PSP : If you have people on the phone a lot during the day, headsets are required for health and safety and reducing Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI).
• ID : Outsourcing first line support can be very useful to help with large volumes and busy period
• TP : What redundancy do you provide if your primary telephone line fails?
• PSP : What redundancy / support have you if the phone system fails?

All n One have a number of partners and have work extensively with numerous TPs and PSPs

• TP : eircom, meteor, 3mobile, Telefonica O2, Colt, Magnet, Digiweb, Clearwire
• PSP : Avaya, Nortel, Cisco, Telefonica O2, Flexible Contact Soltuions (FCS), Diacom

With all of this decided, you will now be able to state how he phone calls come and be able to ring a number and for it to arrive at a person's office phone. This physical test is important as this is the primary life line of any call based operation.

These questions highlight the difference between telecomms challenges and data challenges. The telecomms challenges are getting the communication to someone who can deal with the contact. The data challenges are once the contact is with a person how do we manage it.

Now bxp is going to be used to handle the data.

The basic starting point is to build a form. In order to build the form please use the step by step training guide available in CC-1-3 Introduction to the Blended Form Structure. Contact_Centre_Training

The first field you add is a drop down list, containing all of the contact types you are going to support. Also the issue types.

• Initial Contact : Phone, Email, Web, Chat, Fax, Post
• Primary Issue :
  • Operations - Delivery failure
  • Operations - Delivery contents incorrect
  • Operations - Widgets broken
  • Operations - Billing enquiry
  • Operations - Widget operation
  • Operations - Troubleshooting
  • Projects - Widget solution design
  • Projects - Project support enquiry

To start we need the fields in your form that are the primary input fields identified to solve the Operations - Delivery Failure process. Usually this would include:

• Customer Name (Complex - Title Block)
• Company (Simple - Text Box)
• Customer Contact Number (Simple - Text Box)
• Customer Email (Simple - Email Box)
• Order Number (Simple - Text Box)
• Invoice Number (Simple - Text Box)
• Order contents (Simple - Text Area)
• Actual Delivery Address (Complex - Irish Address Block)
• Original order date (Simple - Date Time)

Next we add / modify the outcomes of the process. Outcomes are dealt with in CC-1-5 Introduction to Form Outcomes Contact_Centre_Training

• Contact Resolved
• Contact Outstanding

Technically your process is now ready to be used. The system as a query is logged into the fields, provides the information for the process and will either be resolved or be outstanding.

Contact Resolved as soon as the query comes in is called First Call Resolution. This is the ideal support desk scenario. Customer issue is resolved immediately. Every contact logged is a ticket or case. Each ticket is referred to in bxp as a CDA or Contact DAta record. Along with this ticket a contact record is also record a Contact CaLl or CCL. This records who dealt with the query and when. This is recorded automatically.

We do however now have the challenge of if the call cannot be resolved immediately. There are a number of strategies available for how you might like to operate open tickets / cases. There is full documentation on your options here Form_-_Record_ownership_strategies. We are going to use a very simple flagging work list to demonstrate how a manager could view queries that need to be managed. This strategy is referred to as Ownership by Flag / Status strategy.

The process of setting up a work list is described here bxp_-_Worklists. The two limiting criteria we use for our worklist is that the Primary Issue = "Operations - Delivery failure" and Status = "Contact Outstanding".

We then create a number of buttons on the main menu to help the processes:

• Add a ticket
• Lookup a ticket
• View Delivery Failures - Outstanding

The article Control_Bar talks through creating Control Bar buttons and setting up commonly used links.

At this point we now have a ticketing solution for handling calls and exceptions.

It is VITAL to the success of any process change that its adoption is completely support at upper management level, that everyone involved in the process is committed to using the new solution and that the solution is actively used by all. This is vital in the establishment of a new process.

Reporting is covered in the next section.Scenario_-_bxp_as_a_Ticketing_System#Reporting

3.4.2 B. Inbound Email - Operations - Delivery contents incorrect

Now we have a form into which we can put our tickets and are managing all call based contact through the form. We now want to extend the communications channel to include email.

The following process is dealt with in Email_-_Start_Here#Receiving in a generic manner.

The first step is to allow bxp to read a mailbox to retrieve the emails. bxp will go into the mailbox, extract the email and then create the record in bxp as a CDA. Attachments are added as CCLs so nothing from the email is lost.

The process of creating an email box log in is discussed here BEMail_accounts

Now with the email login details ready to go, we need to modify our form to compensate for the new fields of data.

We add two questions to the form

• Email Details (Basic - Section Group)
• Email Details (Complex - Email Block)

The next step is to configure the form to read the mailbox. This described in detail in BEmail_(_Email-2-Campaign_)

We now have emails being loaded into the form, ready to be actioned. We now need to put in place a mechanism to allow these tickets to be distributed to staff to perform work on them. This strategy of distribution is called First Come First Served (FCFS) strategy. For this we set up an outbound campaign. Scenario_-_bxp_for_Outbound_Campaign_management describes how to queue up records for processing.

In the training Contact_Centre_Training CC-2-3 Outbound contact management goes into detail about how the outbound contact strategy is implemented and managed.

We now have a number of new buttons to add to our main menu:

• View the Stacks
• Process a ticket
• My unfinished tickets

There are more advanced rules which can be applied to loading and processing of emails. BEmail_Content_Retrieval goes through a number of these scenarios including

• Firstly you may wish to flag spam emails and this is done through adding inbound processing rules
• As the emails are retrieve extra processing / classification could be useful
• Two way email support, which allows an agent to reply through an outcome and continue conversations

3.4.3 C. Inbound Fax - Operations - Widgets broken

The simplest way to manage fax is to use an conversion service which turns faxes into emails.

Here is a good guidance article on the subject : http://www.wikihow.com/Email-to-Fax

There are numerous solutions available to do this https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=fax+to+email

bxp has worked examples of integration using Zetafax for security concious organisations who require retention of their phone line / fax number. http://www.equisys.com/products/zetafax/ In Ireland Servaplex can supply Zetafax http://www.servaplex.com/

Once the fax becomes an email, it is processed in the same way as B above.

3.4.4 D. Inbound Website Query - Operations - Billing enquiry

It is possible for websites to directly read from and write to any Form within bxp. This is done through the bxp_API bxp_API. Full instructions on integration is done through the API iteslf.

Whoever looks after your website will be able to interpret the API and tell you how long it will take to integrate.

An extremely simple setup is to put an enquiry form on the website. This form will create a record directly in the form.

Alternately entire, account management and customer relationship management can be a custom build with bxp being the secure database for your very public website.

3.4.5 E. Inbound Post - Operations - Widget operation

Handling post is also simple. We provide an entire scenario on the options available for the Post Room. Scenario_-_bxp_and_the_Post_Room

3.4.6 F. Inbound Social Media - Operations - Troubleshooting

Social media interaction also can be converted to email and managed through the email mechanism above. Integrating with Linked In, Facebook and Twitter with step by step instructions is available through our Scenario Scenario_-_bxp_and_Social_Media

3.4.7 G. Inbound Live Web Chat - Projects - Widget solution design

Integrating a LiveChat solution is done exactly the same as integrating the phone system.

There are many LiveChat options such as those listed on http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/08/05/7-live-chat-software-solutions/

3.4.8 H. Outbound Phone Call - Projects - Project support enquiry

Building an outbound campaign is fully detailed in our training documentation. Contact_Centre_Training

• CC-1-3 Introduction to Blended Form Structure
• CC-1-5 Introduction to Form Outcomes
• CC-2-2 Data import management
• CC-2-3 Outbound contact management

4 Reporting

This area alone is vast. We cover this in our Start Here article Reporting_-_Start_Here#Form_Reports