The year 2021 is drawing to a close and we have asked ourselves: Did we manage to implement all that we planned? What successes could we take pride in? In search of answers to these questions, I am compiling a list of “victories” – big or significant – for the second time at the end of the year. So, here is my list of weighty updates and improvements of the outgoing year:
Training Materials
24 videos on YouTube and 33 publications on the blog: Theoretical and practical materials on the management of Contact Centers and the Oki-Toki service.
Agent Control
This year, a separate section has been created for agent control – “KPI and Discipline”. Here various tools are collected, the primary task of which is the automation of agent control:
- Evaluation of the agents’ work – create checklists for supervisors, by which the agents’ conversations will be evaluated. This tool covers both detailed and summary reports. Learn more about checklists in this article
- Stenography – a transcript of the conversation with division into parts of dialogue. Free and paid versions are available (the free version recognizes only the agent side). Stenography brings significant benefits when combined with “Speech Analytics” – an automated keyword search tool. Here’s a tutorial video.
- Agent KPIs – an alternative to the disciplinary report. It’s a counter of events related to the agent’s work, for which the system, according to pre-set scenarios, assigns or deducts points. Points are accumulated and can be adjusted to be considered as a part of the bonus salary. There’s also a separate logbook for calculating and outputting “bonuses”.
- Report Builder – Datamixer. It creates a custom report with only the columns that are relevant to you. A single report can perfectly accommodate both the agent’s status data, dialer task data, and columns from other reports that contain information about the calls you’re looking for. We highly recommend giving it a try, here’s a note, and here’s a video.
PBX Functions
- Managing dialer task from agent’s console – control menu for managing the task without a form right in the agent’s workspace. Something like this was very early in our platform and was forced into being when there was no other way to link a new dialer to the old agent’s console. Over time, this option proved to be demanded, so we redeveloped and significantly improved it. During a call with a client, the agent can click the “Task Management“ button. There, you can transfer or complete the task, as well as change the callback number.
- The robot “Auto Agent” is now in an open Beta. It’s built on the abilities we’ve already mastered – speech synthesis and recognition. Bolstered by advanced “NLP” natural language processing technologies, popularly regarded as “artificial intelligence”. Our robotic creation will operate according to your CRM scripts. It can conduct surveys, log inquiries, and collect data when receiving inbound calls (for instance, first line support). This isn’t the simplest among our tools, but it absolutely delivers a return on investment. It’s not human yet, but it can already hold a conversation 🙂
- The Universal Cube IVR – we’ve brought some order here! As the service evolved, different versions of IVR cropped up, totalling three (well, actually four). We’ve tidied up, creating a fourth version (which is now the only one). The new IVR can function as any of the previous versions or as a hybrid (e.g., recognising both voice and keypad input simultaneously). A few companies still have older versions of the interactive menu, but only for complex processes they were afraid of messing up. Creation is now limited to the new cube.
CRM
We ardently desired and worked diligently to conclude the year with a complete CRM transition and a complete disconnect of the old (green) interface. However, we decided to slow down to ensure everything is done correctly and reliably. The old interface is now left only with the contact list and contact export, not the most complex tools from a development perspective but vital for our customers, hence pushing its transition to the first quarter of 2022. But today, let’s discuss what we’ve achieved this year:
- Conversation scripts – also known as scripts, dialogue scenarios, agent scripts, and survey content. We made the settings simpler, more informative, and significantly increased them. This tool was so large that we had to test and redesign the interface twice. We like the result, and we believe you will too.
- Customer profile – it’s not any less complex than a conversation script. Most of the complications we faced were with it, and we thoroughly thank our patient clients for their assistance in rigorous testing and bug reporting. There are still some pending customer wish lists, but the profiles now look decent and worthy.
- Dropdown lists for CRM forms – we’ve merged them with the already familiar lists of the new interface, typically used as a Customer Blacklist or for other, more sophisticated, usage models. In essence, there were two tools, but now there’s just one.
- Duplicates of CRM contacts – a tool designed to maintain the uniqueness of the client base. It’s not new to us, we just refreshed it, simplified it a bit and moved it. The mechanism is already working, but we know how to make this tool even better, leaving a bit of work for next year.
- Script Import from Google Documents – We’ve recently completed our long-term project of preparing scripts from .doc type documents. Creating large scripts with 50-100 questions through the interface is a task for the persistent. Knowing that many contact centers are people accustomed to office documents, we have provided them with the opportunity to upload already prepared scripts to our system. For assistance in preparation, contact the ticket system, a note on the rules of script import will be available very soon!
- Field access management in forms, contacts, and projects – a crucial update for multi-project Contact Centers. Fields are now divided amongst projects, with all the consequent advantages of confidentiality and cleanliness during unloading.
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So what’s the bottom line?
The CRM migration is almost done, plus an entire section of analytics – those are massive chunks composed of ideas, code and energy. But behind the “showcase” updates, there’s a lot of invisible work – it’s 3,457 tasks completed by the programmers and 4,202 tickets closed by the support team this year. I have no doubt that each of us has given all our energy to the common cause and I’m confident it’s worth it.
Lastly, some announcements. Some things will be launched in January, something will come out towards the end of the year, but here’s what’s in the plans:
- CRM contact lists, export, as well as a mini-CRM widget for the agent’s place;
- We are removing the old interface along with the old agent’s location;
- Omnichannel – chats, bots, messengers in one window;
- Mobile version of the agent’s place;
- Transition to Kubernetes – updating IT infrastructure in Oki-Toki;
- Training materials: we are developing a YT-channel – increasing the flow of training videos, returning to seminars, talking about interesting cases. We integrate the accumulated knowledge base into the interface.
From the entire Oki-Toki team, I want to wish you omnichannel, mobile and textual sales and service channels in the New Year. The rest will follow. 🙂
Stas Luchkin
