NCO Uses Data Analysis for Better Call Center Performance

NCO Group, Inc., a provider of business process outsourcing services, announced the deployment of a Web-based software tool to track and analyze customer behavior patterns, leading to better, data-driven business decisions.

“uNCOver” is one in a set of analytical tools in NCO’s proprietary Insite call center management suite of applications, designed to improve performance in the call center.

NCO program managers use uNCOver as part of a structured analysis methodology to improve results for clients. uNCOver helps achieve goals such as enhancing the customer’s experience, reducing the incidence of repeat calls, increasing first-call resolution, and dentifying automation opportunities. The tool also helps gather data needed to support making the business case to drive process and system improvements.

uNCOver features desktop data capture, which automatically gathers relevant data useful for analyzing call trends and patterns. Browser-based, uNCOver is easy to deploy, allows immediate updates, and tightly couples to host systems.

NCO agents use uNCOver’s drop-down menus to record the reason why each customer calls. For example, customized categories may include disputes, IVR dropouts, payments, misdirects, restorals, or to report or request information.uNCOver also captures what action the customer took as a result of the call. In addition, it records what action was taken by the agent, such as redirecting the call to another department, escalating the call to a supervisor, or restoring service.

Using data gathered by uNCOver, NCO can identify “root causes” for specific customer behaviors. Based on analyses, NCO’s management team, in collaboration with the client, can identify, prioritize, and implement process and system improvements leading to greater efficiency, effectiveness, and quality.

For example, for one client, NCO was able to reduce annual call volume by 18 percent over an 18-month period, significantly reducing operational costs for the client.

In another case, NCO was able to reduce operating expense for a client by $4.6 million over two years by improving processes using data gathered by uNCOver.

uNCOver also aids in day-to-day call center management, quality assurance, and training efforts by providing immediate information to identify and quickly respond to any operational issues.