Custom Announce

Custom Announce is a sophisticated announcement module that has been proven to significantly reduce abandonment rates in contact center environments.

Abandoned calls often equate to lost business and contact centers that replay the same announcements over and over to waiting callers are very likely to annoy them, often to the point that the customer hangs up.

With Custom Announce, managers can create customized announcements on a per queue basis – ensuring that announcements are relevant to the callers. Callers can be presented with constantly changing information relating to their position in queue, new products, promotions, business hours, locations, contact details and so on.
Custom Announce also includes Audio text and Auto Attendant functionality which give callers the ability to access information and direct their calls without requiring the assistance of an agent. Audio text plays pre-recorded responses to frequently asked questions, freeing up your agents to handle more complex queries. An Auto Attendant can significantly improve agent efficiency and customer satisfaction by directing callers to the right area of the organization, without requiring them to wait for operator assistance.

The Caller Query feature allows the system to ask callers for their PIN or Customer Number and redirect them, based on the information entered, to a more appropriate queue or increase their priority in the queue. When the call is delivered, any information entered by the caller is presented to the agent, reducing talk time and enhancing customer service levels.

Custom Announce Features

Custom Announce provides contact center managers with the following functionality:

• A virtually unlimited number of different announcements on a per queue basis are available.
  
• Queue announcements can vary based on the time of day/day of week and can be automatically scheduled or activated manually.
  
• Voice or text announcements (depending on the medium) can be configured for Phone, Email, Web Chat and Web Callbacks.
  
• Callers do not hear ringing between announcements.
  
• Callers can be forced to listen to an announcement before the call is considered for delivery to an agent.
  
• Calls can be delivered the instant an agent is free, cutting through a lengthy announcement – or else only calls not being played announcements can be available for delivery; the choice is yours.
  
• Callers can be provided with information on their current position in queue or the estimated time (calculated by the system) to answer.
  
• A fully multi-level Auto Attendant is available, with varying options depending on the Calling Line ID (CLI), customer number and status, queue name, time of day and day of week.
  
• Audio text functionality provides callers with answers to commonly asked questions.
  
• Callers can be redirected to another queue, given a higher priority or delivered to a specific agent based on Caller Query results.
  
• Callers can be offered the option of leaving the current queue for another destination such as the operator, or another queue.
  
• Announce Groups allow supervisors to create sets of progress announcements that can be unique, or else shared among multiple queues.
  
• Text fields are attached to each announcement, allowing on the spot scripting of each recording.
  
• Reporting is available on Announce Usage, Announce Exceptions and Auto Attendant Options selected by callers.
  
• Administrators have a real-time view of the status of the system announcement ports.
  
• Multilingual capabilities are available on a per queue basis for Auto Attendants, Progress Announcements, Queries and Callback.
  
• The Administrator application makes it simple to configure Custom Announce features and functionality.
  
• Context sensitive and keyword search Online Help is available for every field and option in Administrator.

Custom Announce Benefits

Custom Announce delivers the following benefits:

• Ensure that the messages and options given to callers are relevant and encourage them to stay on the line.
  
• Maintain a consistently high level of service by controlling and standardizing announcements across multiple media types.
  
• Caller abandonment rates are reduced by keeping customers informed of their queue position and/or the estimated time to answer.
  
• An intuitive administration interface makes it simple to configure announcements, auto attendants and other Announce features without requiring specialist expertise.
  
• Pre-set schedules automatically change announcements through the day, saving managers’ time and eliminating the potential for error.
  
• Managers have the ability to override Scheduled announcements, allowing them to immediately adjust announcements to address service-affecting situations.
  
• Displaying Caller Query data to agents assists them to offer a more personalized service and reduces talk time on each call.
  
• Callers can be routed to the most appropriate agent to handle their request, streamlining call handling time and improving customer service.
  
• Using an Auto Attendant can lower telecommunications costs and customer confusion by reducing the number of inbound phone numbers required to handle calls to different queues.
  
• Prompting callers to have specific information ready before their call is answered reduces agent talk time and improves first-time call resolution rates.
  
• Audio text provides callers with immediate access to the information they need, without keeping them waiting in the queue or utilizing valuable agent time.
  
• Multilingual capabilities ensure that callers’ language preferences are catered for in a simple and intuitive manner.
  
• Administration of multilingual systems is simplified as there is no need to create unique queues for each language. A specific language is played based on the number dialed.
  
• Announce Reports and Port Status Viewer keep administrators and managers informed on how the system’s announcement ports are being used, both historically and in real-time.
  
• Text fields containing announcement scripts make it easy to identify what is contained in each announcement rather than having to listen to the recordings.