Call Center Overview

Optimizing & Using the Get Next Call Feature in MarketSharp Call Center Call center was designed for small or large companies with one of more locations that receive or transmit a large volume of inbound and outbound requests by telephone. The most popular feature in Call Center is “Get Next Call.”  You can prioritize the “buckets” or types of calls (we call them Rulesets) your company handles, and which employees work each type of call. When a call center employee clicks on Get Next Call, MarketSharp pulls up the next highest priority call for that employee. Call Center sounds simple enough right??  However, initial setup takes some thought. Let’s think through an example. ABC Company sells windows and siding.  They get the majority of their inquiries from contacts that phone them inquiring about products.  They have a paid account with Home Advisor for capturing leads.  They recently participated in a home show, so also have some inquiries coming in from that event. Key Point to Remember:  Get Next Call is only for Activity Type Call Out! 6 key steps to setting up the Get Next Call Feature.  Let’s walk through them.

1. Identify and Grant Permission

Identify the employees in your company that will use Call Center (write them down) and give them permission.  For our example, ABC Company employees that will use Call Center are Jason, Loren, Joe, Sarah, and Mary. Grant Call Center Permission

•  Click the Admin link.

Note:  You must have administrator permissions to access the Admin link.

•  Click Employee Maintenance
•  Click the edit pencil for the employee
• Check the Call Center box for Employee Types

 

2. Identify Who Handles What

 Do you have employees that are responsible for particular types of activities?  From the list of individuals you created in step 1, identify what type of inquiries and/or activities each one of them works with. In our example, ABC Company has 5 employees. Jason – confirmation calls Loren – Any type of call Mary – Any type of call Joe – Marketing Campaigns/special events Sarah – Enters new leads/activities into MarketSharp

3. Identify Rulesets (types of inquiries/activities) your call center will handles.  Write them down for your company.

Rulesets are based on the types of inquiries and activities your call center handles.  Write these down for your company.  You will use them to create specific criteria that determine who and when an activity will be given to an employee by the get next call feature. Identifying your rulesets is very specific to your business, and will require some thought.  Think about the business process your employees follow when creating new lead inquiries, primary and secondary lead sources, activity references, and inquiry statuses you track to help identify your rulesets.   For example, you may have a primary lead source of Direct Mail if you are running a marketing campaign; you may also use “confirm appointment” as an activity reference for all confirmation activities.  If your company does not have a defined business process for lead inquiries, we recommend creating rulesets by date.  In this case, you would give the highest priority to the newest inquiries. Let’s look at the types of inquiries our example ABC Company gets, and how they are setup in MarketSharp.   (We’re keeping it simple, but this list could be quite long for your company)

1. New Leads  - any inquiry or activity less than 2 days old
2. Confirmation Calls – activity reference is Confirm Appointment
3. Home Show – Inquiry Source Primary is Home Show, with Inquiry Source Secondary Fall 2012 Home Show. Activity Reference is Home Show Follow Up.

ABC Company has setup primary and secondary lead sources and activity references to accommodate these types of inquiries.  Most of this setup should already be done for your company if you are currently using MarketSharp. Note: Primary & Secondary lead sources, Inquiry Status and Activity references are setup in the Editable Drop Down Lists section under Company Setup on the Admin Page.

4. Understanding  Prioritization

  When a user clicks Get Next Call in Call Center they are given the next activity based on rulesets you create, and the priority you assign them.  Users are given activities assigned to them in order of priority.  If an individual is out of the office, it is the manager's responsibility to re-assign their activities to another individual.   It may be necessary to break your rulesets down into categories by date.  Often the newest inquiries are the top priority.   Write down the priority of your Rulesets identified in step 3.   (Prioritization is from 1-100.  The higher the number assigned, the higher the priority.)   Get Next Call prioritizes Call Out activities in the below ascending order: Note:  1-6 are dealing with activities assigned to an individual.

1. Assigned, Due Now (+ or - 1 minute)

If there is an activity that has a due date of +/- one minute, it takes top priority and will be given to the person assigned that activity when they click Get Next Call.

2.  Assigned, Past Due Today

3.  Assigned, Past Due Prior to Today

These activities are given to the assigned employee at random.  There is no ordering of activity due dates.

4.  Assigned, Due Today.  There is no ordering by time.
5. Assigned, No Due Date
6. Unassigned Activities – are always prioritized after assigned activities.

In our Example, ABC Company priorities as follows:   (Prioritization is from 1-100.  The higher the number assigned, the higher the priority.) New Leads - any inquiry or activity less than 2 days old - priority – 100 Confirmation Calls – activity reference is Confirm Appointment – priority – 95 Home Show – Inquiry Source Primary is Home Show, with Inquiry Source Secondary Fall 2012 Home Show.  Activity Reference is Home Show Follow Up - 100  

5. Create Rulesets in MarketSharp

Remember.  Rulesets are specific criteria you create that determine who and when an unassigned activity will be given to an employee by the get next call feature.  They can be assigned to an individual(s), and prioritized. Let us walk through adding a Ruleset for “New Leads” to our example ABC Company.

• Click Get Next Call Maintenance under the Company Setup in the Admin section

• Click Add New

• Enter the name of the Ruleset and click Save.

• Click New Link

• Check the desired box(es) to activate the criteria. Enter the priority. (Prioritization is from 1-100.  The higher the number, the higher the priority.)  Click Save.

  In our example for ABC Company, New Leads, regardless of where they originate have top priority.  The best way to define this rule is by date.  ABC Company feels a new lead is anything that has been acquired within the last two days, or with an inquiry date of less than 48 hours. The rule we have created states:  An unassigned call out activity with an inquiry where the inquiry is between 0 hours and 2 days old.

• Assign Employees to the ruleset

But who handles these unassigned New Leads?  For ABC Company, it is Loren & Mary.  Add them to the rule set.

a. Click Edit

b. Select the employees.  Click update.

Now we need to ask, will that cover all the New Lead situations our business could encounter.  Most likely, you will need to add additional rules.  In our example, what about a new lead that is assigned to someone?   Remember, anything assigned to an individual is automatically handled by MarketSharp.  (See the priority rules we discussed earlier in step 5, Understanding Prioritization.)  Rulesets only handle priority for unassigned activities.  In the case of ABC Company, using a date criteria to identify all New Lead scenarios is sufficient. Want to walk through a couple more?  Keep reading.  Otherwise continue to set up your own business rulesets. Let’s create a ruleset for handling “Confirmation Calls.”

• Click Get Next Call Maintenance under the Company Setup in the Admin section

• Click Add New

• Enter the name of the Ruleset and click Save.

• Click New Link

• Check the desired box (es) to activate the criteria. (Prioritization is from 1-100.  The higher the number, the higher the priority.) Click Save.

In our example for ABC Company, Confirmation Calls will always have an activity reference of Confirm Appointment, and be performed at least the day before the appointment.

• Assign the employees that will work these activities. For ABC Company, it is Jason.

Our ABC Company ruleset for Confirmation Calls states: Let’s walk through one final example.  ABC Company just participated in a Home Show where individuals signed up to receive information about the products they sell.  These are hot leads, and ABC Company wants to make sure they are handled right away.  They have designated Joe to work solely on these leads. In preparation for the home show, ABC Company added a Lead Source Primary called Home Show and a Lead Source Secondary of 2012 Fall Home Show.  ABC Company participates in a home show in both spring and fall; having the Lead Source secondary differentiates which home show.  They also created an activity reference of Home Show Follow-Up. Here is what our ruleset looks like. And the finished ruleset!!!

6. Require Inquiries on Activity References used on Call Out Activities

 The most robust feature of Get Next Call is the ability to filter activities based on your rulesets.   Remember, Get Next Call is returning activities, so if rulesets filter on inquiry fields, (inquiry date, inquiry source primary/secondary, inquiry status, and inquiry division) there must be an inquiry linked to that activity. Let’s take an example from ABC Company. Sarah is entering new contacts and home show follow up call out activities for the new leads generated at the home show. Below is the Call Out activity created. Editable Drop Down Lists for Activity Reference in the Admin section of MarketSharp allow you to require inquiries for specific activity references.  In this example, activity reference Home Show Follow Up requires an inquiry.  (Admin\Company Setup\Editable Drop Down Lists\Activity References.) Click the Edit this List icon for Activity References.  Clicking the Inquiry Required checkbox will require an inquiry to be created and linked to an activity. Click the Inquiry Required option for any Activity Reference that will be used on Call Out activities.   We are almost ready to start using Get Next Call.  Let’s summarize what we have done.  

1. Identified who in the office will be using Call Center and granted them permission
2. Decided who will be handling specific types of activities in Call Center
3. Identified the types of inquiries/activities our Call Center will handle
4. We understand Get Next Call prioritization
5. We have created our rulesets, assigned priority, and who will handle them
6. Required Inquiries for all Activity References used in Call Center

Let’s try it out. Keep in mind, perfecting call center may take some time.  Call Center Setup is complex, and requires a lot of time and thought.  It may not be perfect on the first attempt.  We can always add/change things as we go.   Using Get Next Call Center!!   Now that we have our setup complete, we are ready to start using the Get Next Call feature.  Let’s take a look at how it works using our ABC Company example. Remember our call center employees Joe and Jason?  Joe handles marketing campaign and home show new leads.  Jason handles appointment confirmation calls.  Sarah is responsible for entering in new lead inquiries and activities, and has just entered in all the home show leads.  Sarah also takes calls from customers and sets up sales appointments. Our employees, Joe and Jason have logged into Call Center and are ready to start work for the day.  Let’s recall the details of the rulesets we created for ABC Company. Ruleset:  Home Show – An unassigned call out activity with an inquiry between 1 and 2 days old,  an inquiry source of Home Show 2012 Fall Home Show, and an activity reference of Home Show Follow Up.  Priority - 100 Ruleset:  Confirmation Calls – An unassigned activity with an activity reference of Confirm Appointment between 1 and 2 days before the activity due date.  Priority 90 Joe Clicks Get Next Call.  Call Center gives him an unassigned activity, and automatically assigns it to him.  Remember, Call Out activities assigned to an individual take priority over unassigned activities.  That means that Joe did not have any activities assigned to him.  (We can verify this in the Activity List by filtering on employee Joe, and Activity Type Call Out.) Call Center Activity View (Joe) Activity View (Joe) Inquiry View (Joe) The activity contained exactly what we stated in the ruleset that Joe was assigned to handle. It has an activity reference of Home Show Follow Up It has a Lead Inquiry of Home Show 1012 Fall Home Show. It has an inquiry date of 5/2/2013, (current date = 5/3/2013 for this example) which falls within 1-2 days old.   Jason clicks Get Next Call at the same time as Joe, and receives an activity for a Confirmation Call. Call Center Activity View (Jason) Activity View (Jason) The activity given to Jason is exactly what we stated in the ruleset. Note: this activity would not be given to Joe, as he is not assigned to handle activities from the Confirmation Call ruleset. The activity has a reference of Confirm Appointment, with an activity date between 1 and 2 days before the activity is due.  (Current date = 5/3/2013 for this example.) Note: The contact has more than one activity.  Call Center highlights the one the employee needs to work on.  You must modify the activity and save before you can receive a new activity.  This prevents cherry picking of activities. Remember!!!  For activities assigned to individuals will always be given to those individuals before any unassigned activities.

1. Assigned, Due Now (+ or - 1 minute)

If there is an activity that has a due date of +/- one minute, it takes top priority and will be given to the person assigned that activity when they click Get Next Call.

2.  Assigned, Past Due Today

3.  Assigned, Past Due Prior to Today

These activities are given to the assigned employee at random.  There is no ordering of activity due dates.

4.  Assigned, Due Today.  There is no ordering by time.
5. Assigned, No Due Date
6. Unassigned Activities – are always prioritized after assigned activities.

  Trouble Shooting Get Next Call You now have call center setup and running, however it is not functioning as you expected.  Here are some common areas to look at.

1. Call Center only uses Activity Type Call Out.  If your activity type is not Call Out, Get Next Call will not pull it.

2. If you are using any inquiry fields in your rulesets, your activity reference must require an inquiry.

When adding mass activities, make sure the activity reference being used has the inquiry required box checked if they use inquiry fields in their Call Center rulesets.  If they create mass activities, and this is not set, development can do a mass delete of these activities so they can re-do them. Companies currently using MarketSharp that start using call center likely will not have activities and link to inquiries.  Development can write a script if necessary to do this linking, but there is a cost for this.

3. Date filtering can be confusing.  Make sure what you have makes sense.  For example, an activity due date can’t be before 2 days and 1 day.  1 day = 24 hours.  You must have numbers in these fields if you are using date criteria.

4. Is the employee assigned to handle the rule set the activity falls under?

5. Employees will always be given their own, assigned activities before any unassigned activities.