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QoS Testing In The Call Center By Call Center Magazine
One overlooked component of managing quality in the call center is the quality of the call itself " are your customers and agents exposed to sub-par transmission, and in the process repeating themselves and wasting time and money? To combat this, Empirix has come out with an improved version of their tool called Voice Watch, a voice application monitoring service. Version 5.0 features a new component, Voice Watch Call Quality - that measures end-to-end call clarity from a caller's perspective. Voice Watch 5.0 measures such variables as call connection, prompt accuracy, host response times, CTI call variable delivery, screen pops and voice quality. It was designed to help ensure the Quality of Service (QoS) delivered by distributed and outsourced contact centers using Voice over IP networks as well as traditional TDM networks and converged infrastructures. The Voice Watch Call Quality service dials directly into a system such as an ACD, IVR or voice mail system - just as real callers do, using traditional TDM lines over integrated TDM and VoIP carrier networks - to retrieve a voice clip. Using voice quality algorithms (industry standard PESQ scoring), the retrieved voice clip is compared to a reference clip and call quality is assessed. Scores are documented and contact center managers can be alerted if performance degrades beyond specified service levels. Thus, potential problems can be addressed quickly before QoS is impacted. As an example, Fiserv Securities (an outsourcer of call center services and a subsidiary of banking and financial services IT giant Fiserv) uses the system to monitor and ensure the quality of the applications it hosts for its clients. "As a service provider, it's essential that FSI be able to provide its clients with timely information about the health of their applications," said Dan Deist, of Fiserv Securities, Inc. "With Voice Watch, we are able to provide them with up-to-the-minute data that demonstrates the very high quality of service we provide. That visibility is a key component of the great relationships we have with our customers, and is a great differentiator for Fiserv in the marketplace." As call centers begin the slow migration to IP-related transmission technologies, audio quality of service issues need to be tackled before they impact customer service quality. One analyst at Gartner has noted that contact center managers ultimately need to ensure that their VoIP networks and applications offer a QoS that equals or exceeds their existing TDM service. Voice Watch 5.0 also features a new Call Recording feature that enables users to record every single test call so technical staff can listen to failed calls to determine what went wrong. This is an extremely useful feature for troubleshooting because it allows users to validate problems and share data with co-workers. |