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85 A. Information/Customer Characteristics: 1. What kind of information do you provide to your cus- tomers via telephone? 2. What other media do you use for customer service (such as website or e-mail) and what information do you pro- vide through those other media? 3. Do you see your telephone customer service as serving a different need or type of customer than your other cus- tomer service media? 4. How do you ensure that your call center and overall customer information strategies are responsive to the needs, preferences, and capabilities of various types of customers? a. How do you determine needs, preferences, and capa- bilities? b. How do you accommodate varying needs, preferences, and capabilities? i. Bilingual options? ii. Seniors? iii. Hearing or vision impaired? B. Call Center Office Setup: 5. Is your call center operation centralized or decentralized (i.e., local call centers serving each location)? C. Staffing: 6. What are the daily hours of operation for your call cen- ter and how many shifts do you staff? 7. Of your call center operators, how many are full-time and how many are part-time? 8. What are the key requirements or capabilities for your call center personnel? D. Operations and Management: 9. What techniques do you use to forecast the demand for your telephone customer service? E. Automation/Technology: 10. Which of the following call center technologies do you uti- lize, or will utilize (the project is funded and programmed), in your call center operation? a. Automatic call distribution (ACD, a technology that di- verts incoming calls to available agents automatically); b. Interactive voice response (IVR, allows customers requesting information to provide either voice or touch-tone responses to system voice prompts) and guided speech IVR (a hybrid model in which a live agent helps a caller on the IVR system to avoid any machine error such as problems in voice recognition); c. Computer telephony integration (CTI); d. Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions; e. Customer interaction management (CIM) solutions; f. Text to speech (TTS, a technology that converts nat- ural language text into speech); g. Voicemail; h. Voice recording (which records conversations among call agents and customers for quality monitoring); and/or i. Speech analytics (a process of performing data min- ing on daily conversations among customers and call agents). 11. What prompted you to invest (or not invest) in these technologies? a. Handle more calls with fewer operators? b. Filter customer requests for appropriate routing to an operator? c. Improve customer satisfaction? d. Other? A P P E N D I X A Transit Agency Interview Questionnaire
86 F. Quality Monitoring and Performance Management: 12. Which of the following call center metrics do you track? a. Information requested; b. Number of agents ready to take calls; c. Average number of agents in wrap-up mode; d. Average call duration; e. Average call duration including wrap-up time; f. Average number of calls in the queue; g. Number and percentage of calls answered; h. Number and percentage of calls abandoned; i. Average time taken to pick up a phone call; j. Average time until the call is abandoned; k. Average delay a caller may experience while waiting in a queue; l. The number of calls/inquiries per hour an agent handles; m. The amount of time spent while an agent processes customer requests while not speaking to a customer (referred to as not ready time (NR), or after call work (ACW), or wrap up); n. Percentage of time agents spend not ready to take calls, often referred to as idle time; and/or o. Percentage of calls that completely resolve the cus- tomerâs issue at the first call (if the customer does not call back about the same problem for a certain period of time). 13. Are there other metrics that are critical to your organiza- tion and not in the above list? 14. How do you monitor quality (that is, do quality assurance/ quality control [QA/QC])? 15. How do you monitor customer satisfaction? Which media do you use? a. Online, b. E-mail, and/or c. Telephone. 16. What is the average cost per customer request? G. 511-Specific Questions (for Transit Agencies Only): 17. Does your agency participate in a regional or statewide 511 phone system? If yes, what information of yours is available on the 511 system? a. General information like hours of operation and type of service (e.g., rail, bus, fixed-route); b. Service disruptions; c. Your agencyâs customer service telephone number; d. A call transfer option from 511 to your customer ser- vice center; and/or e. Real-time information (e.g., bus arrival times). 18. (Only ask if agency does participate in 511 phone sys- tem.) What 511-related statistics do you track (e.g., num- ber of call transfers to your call center from 511, number/ percentage of all 511 menu selections that pertain to your transit agency, etc.)? 19. Is your agencyâs information included in any other trav- eler information systems, such as: For each, if there is transit information, describe what it is and how itâs integrated/linked. a. Phone systems (other than 511), b. 511 websites, c. Other (non-511) websites, d. Dynamic message signs, e. Highway advisory radio, and/or f. Others. 20. (Only ask if agency does participate in 511) How has 511 participation impacted your agency? a. Changes in number of calls coming through tradi- tional customer service line; b. Trends in the number, duration, or other parameters (e.g., information requested) in 511 call transfers over time; c. Any changes made in staffing; d. Any technology upgrades or other changes needed to support 511 participation; e. Do you pay the 511 system operator for the cost of transfers to your call center; f. Have you changed how you market your customer in- formation since 511 (e.g., do you market the availabil- ity of 511 to your customers); and/or g. Does the 511 system operator target any of their 511 marketing to transit users. 21. Why did you decide to participate, or not participate, in the 511 system that covers your area? Read each of these items to the interviewee, regardless of whether they are cur- rently participating in 511 or not, and ask them to indicate which factors played a role in their decision. Pro (factors supporting participation in 511) i. Wanted to include transit in a multimodal traveler information systemâwanted to keep âa place at the tableâ; ii. Wanted to be a good partner with highway agencies; iii. Hoped to divert some calls from your transit call center; iv. Wanted to provide your customers with an alterna- tive, easy-to-remember phone number; and/or v. Other. Con (factors arguing against participation in 511) i. Not invited to participate by the 511 developers/ operators; ii. Concern about an increase in overall call volumes coming into your transit center (the addition of 511
87 call transfers) and the implications on staffing and number of phone lines; iii. Cost of any technology investments needed for 511 participation; iv. Cost contributions you were asked (by the 511 sys- tem operators/partners) to make in order to support the implementation or operation of the overall 511 system; v. Concern about the possible inconvenience your callers will experience if they call 511 only to find out they will be transferred to your call center; vi. The 511 system operators only wanted you to par- ticipate if you would contribute certain transit in- formation to their system in certain formats (and you were unable to do so, for either technical or cost reasons); and/or vii. Other. 22. Are any changes planned in regard to your agencyâs par- ticipation in either 511 or other regional traveler infor- mation systems? What, and why? 23. Do you consider participation in 511 an alternative to investing in your own interactive voice response system (e.g., handle all âautomatedâ information requests via the 511 system and only transfer to your call center for operator assistance)? Why or why not? 24. Is there any advice you would give to other transit agen- cies that would help them decide whether and how to participate in a 511 system?