Contact center the TV Rate (The project of automation of telephone service in outsourcing call center the TV Rate)

Project Objective:

creation of specialized call center where the personnel are made by people with total or partial loss of sight. The Tele-Kurs company with assistance of the Government of Moscow aimed to create the comfortable, technically equipped working conditions in which they could solve problems of telephone customer service effectively for visually impaired and blind employees.

Project Tasks

In the program of strategic development creation of 906 jobs was provided in the first stage and further increase in power of contact center. Automation of production process and control functions in future call center became one of important tasks for the new enterprise.

To reduce investment risks, it was reasonable to automate work of call center based on the complete solution providing:

• operational management of production process;

• minimum costs for start and maintaining new projects;

• transparency of activity of call center for the management;

• service quality control.

Choice of the software solution

Selecting the solution for automation of call center, specialists of TV Rate carried out contrastive analysis of proposals of domestic and foreign suppliers. A choice was made for benefit of the Russian solution Naumen Phone Outsourcing and NAUMEN company as contractor of the project. The won offer was unique among competitors by a number of criteria:

• the complex nature of the solution Naumen Phone Outsourcing developed especially for outsourcing call centers allows to avoid the risks arising when using products of several vendors;

• capability of the supplier in a short time to develop specialized option of the workplace for blind and visually impaired operators requiring serious modification of the user interface;

• existence of experience of creation of call centers with a power more than 300 jobs, unique for Russian vendors.

Besides, the developer showed readiness to make advances the customer in questions of rendering full support of the project during its start and further development.

Project Steps

The pilot stage of the project started in 2008. Its results showed that visually impaired and blind operators can effectively service phone calls.

In July, 2009, after the preparatory period, the full-function outsourcing call center, and in two months, in September got to work, its official opening took place.

Project Results

Production capacity of call center. located in Moscow, at the moment – 825 jobs of operators and 81 workplaces of the supervisor, total area – 43 thousand sq.m.

Jobs of call center agents TV Rate are equipped with personal computers, LCD monitors, professional headsets of Plantronics and a sintezatorma of the speech. On each computer the program Naumen SoftPhone telephone – the main tool of the operator for acceptance and processing of phone calls is installed. Especially for the project the user interface of program phone was adapted so that all information, important for the operator, and controlling units of the program (parameters of the processed call, the maintenance of a case, the name of data entry fields in forms, etc.) were submitted in the text format allowing to work with the program of screen access of NVDA (skrinrider). Skrinrider announces for the blind operator text information from his monitor, and thanks to it the operator is capable to perform the working functions.

Blind call center specialists execute the main part of transactions using the keyboard with a large number of "hot" keys. Using "hot" keys the operator can:

• manage telephone calls (acceptance, commission of an outgoing call, end, deduction, redirection, a call-back);

• manage the statuses showing readiness of the operator to accept a call;

• organize conference communication;

• regulate the volume of the microphone and loudspeakers in earphones;

• carry out work with facsimile messages (acceptance, sending, viewing the magazine);

switch between windows, etc.

Achievements

"The TV Rate" dynamically develops: existence of ready technical infrastructure allows call center to employ new employees and to increase order amounts.

Today in contact center TV Rate about 1000 visually impaired and blind employees fully work. Use of the software solution Naumen Phone Outsourcing allows call center to render to clients the wide list of services (telemarketing, telephone questioning, a hot line, SMS mailing, updating of the database, etc.) and to manage effectively production processes.

Based on 2008 TV Rate became the project on creation of call center, largest in Russia (according to CNews Analytics).

In March, 2010 TV Rate received an award Crystal Headset for the social importance of the project and high approval of jury of annual tender in the industry of call centers of Russia and the CIS of CCG Call Center Awards – 2010 in two nominations: "Best use of technology" and "Best call center for work".

About project perspectives

In 2010 the project aimed at employment of people with sight problems drew attention of the federal authorities. So, at the request of the Russian President of the Ministry of Health and Social Development organized a hot line concerning social protection of the population, and its calls are serviced with participation of specially trained operators of TV Rate. The project started at the beginning of July of the current year. In June the contact center was visited by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Having examined activity of the enterprise, the head of the government encouraged call center agents: their professional skills quite can be demanded during annual "direct line" of the prime minister soon.

Considering scale and the social importance of the TV Rate project, federal authorities recommend to consider the possibility of its replication in regions, relying on support of the regional authorities and the Government of the Russian Federation.