Queue management is the heart of your contact center. When queue management works, your contact center is a healthy organization that represents your company in a positive light; but when queue management fails, your contact center is infected with the “contact center disease” – hold time.

The Virtual Hold system is designed to work alongside an ACD. During times of peak call traffic, Virtual Hold intercedes and informs the customer of the current Estimated Wait Time. It promises a return call in the same amount of time as if he remained on the line holding for an agent. When the customer chooses the Virtual Hold option, the system collects his name and phone number, then disconnects the call and inserts a virtual placeholder (with his information) into the ACD queue to reserve his place in line.

As the agent queue is worked off, the system begins to make outbound return calls at the rate in which agents become available. When a return call is answered, the system plays a reconnection script that informs the answering party of the origin and intent of the call. To ensure that the system gets the intended party on the line, the script includes a voice file with the customer’s name, spoken in his own voice. In addition, the script requests that a key be pressed on the phone’s touch-tome pad when the intended party is on the line. Upon pressing the key, the call is transparently routed to the next available agent. The return call takes place in the same amount of time as if the customer had remained on hold. If the estimated time of the return call is not convenient for the customer, Virtual Hold also offers the option of scheduling an appointment with an agent at a later, more convenient time.

With the WebConnect™ module, Virtual Hold provides your online customers with these same options. Customers visiting your Web site can click on a link to start WebConnect. Depending on queue conditions, the customer will receive a return call either immediately or when he is next in line to be connected with an agent. Instead of waiting on hold, your customer is free to continue browsing your Web site. WebConnect requires no agent desktop software and allows agents to handle Web customers in exactly the same manner that they handle other calls – eliminating the need for specialized agent groups, additional training, and costly software for handling e-mail and/or live chat. Voice calls and Web requests are managed in a unified queue, offering convenience and elevated service to customers in both channels.

There are four aspects of system integration. They are: Discovery, Server Setup, ACD Setup, and Testing.

Discovery: A Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) Business Applications Engineer (BAE) investigates the configuration of your contact center environment. It starts with a site survey to uncover the unique details of you center. These may include special routing, CTI applications, reader boards and reporting. VHT has developed adapters to various contact center technologies such as the Cisco® ICM and Genesys® CTI to ensure that these complementary technologies work together smoothly. If your contact center environment contains a homegrown application, VHT works with you to develop a custom adapter. During this phase, you and your BAE will identify resources, create task lists and distribute instructional documentation. Once the BAE has designed the correct queue management solution and communicated it to you, he continues to manage the project to its successful completion.

Server Setup: You are responsible for procuring, setting up and supporting your own Windows 2000 servers. The BAE provides a list of hardware and software requirements. The number of servers required is based upon the capacity of the system. Typically, the Virtual Hold system requires one QueueManagement™ server, which houses the application software, and one QueueInfo™ server, which houses the historical database and EyeQ™ Web-based management and reporting system. Because EyeQ is Web-based, no desktop client software is required. VHT provides the Intel®/Dialogic® digital T1 circuit cards for your IT staff to install in the QueueManagement server. You are also responsible for procuring, installing and supporting third party software; the BAE provides a detailed list of all required third-party software, which includes the operating system, database and remote access software. Finally, your IT staff places the servers on the correct Local Area Network identified in the Discovery phase. Once you have successfully completed the server setup and provided a method of remote access, a VHT Installation & Support Engineer loads and configures the Virtual Hold software.

ACD Setup: VHT integrates to the following ACDs:

When VHT develops a business case for you, we provide far more than just a list of our features, benefits and prices. We perform a detailed analysis of your contact center that touches on many aspects of your business. Our goal is to present an objective and thorough examination that helps identify existing and potential issues. Our recommendations are focused on managing the customer experience. Our mission is to help turn your current customers into long-term, loyal customers while reducing your contact center’s operational costs.

We measure our success by your success, which is why we are dedicated to follow-up. On a proactive basis, we prepare detailed performance reports to help optimize the performance of your Queue Management Strategy and measure your ongoing Return on Investment. Our goal is to continuously offer assistance that helps grow your business.