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JUMPING THE QUEUE: An ACD feature that allows a caller on hold to be plucked from the queue and immediately be redirected

SCREEN POP: Computerized customer history or product information that pops up on an agent's screen at the time of the call

RINGING IN THE NET

The future of call centers is rife with Internet applications. The following applications, says Edwin Margulies, author of nine computer-telephony books, are among the most promising:

• A prospect visiting a Web site sees something that tickles her fancy. If the site uses a product like CyberCall 3.0, from ATIO Corp. (612-837-4000, www.atio.com), she can click on a "callback" button, and a form will pop up asking for her name and telephone number. After she types in that information, the Web server sends it to the company's telephone system, which places the message in a queue for the next available agent, who pulls it up on his screen and phones the customer. A twist on that concept is a "callback tag" that travels with the prospect's name and number. In that scenario, the agent also receives a screen pop of the Web page the customer is viewing, so he can be ready with information about whatever appears there. In a more sophisticated application, a product like the SomeOne service, from NETcall Telecom Inc. (303-486-0855, www.netcallplc.com), allows the agent to embed a tag on the site that the customer can use to establish voice communication. The customer clicks on the tag, sending a message through the Internet to the public phone system, telling it to set up a call between agent and customer. Within a few minutes, phones on both sides ring.
• A call-center agent receives messages in multiple media--faxes, phone calls, E-mail, Internet telephony calls. Products like the Enterprise Interaction Center (EIC), from Interactive Intelligence (317-872-3000, www.inter-intelli.com), allow her to view a listing of all those messages on a single screen. If she clicks on the phone icon, her phone rings and she can speak to the caller; if she clicks on the fax, she can view the fax on-screen.
• An agent needs the help of a supervisor in responding to a customer's call. Using MeetingPlace, from Latitude Communications (408-988-7200, www.latitude.com), he pulls up a form on the company's intranet and, by clicking on the names of the people he wants to rope into the conversation, automatically sends them messages to dial into the conference call.
• A customer without a PC wants a document that lives on the company's Web server. The Web-on-Call Voice Browser, from NetPhonic Communications (650-962-1111, www.netphonic.com), allows that customer to call in on a phone and use an interactive voice-response system to pull the document off the Web site and fax it to him.

RESOURCES

The Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), in Annapolis, Md. (800-672-6177, icmi@incoming.com), has a knowledgeable staff and a variety of resources to offer. They include a Web site (www.incoming.com), which has useful links to vendors; a monthly newsletter, Service Level Newsletter ($333 a year), filled with call-center specifics; and a comprehensive book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward, by Brad Cleveland and Julia Mayben (1997, $34.95).

Though they can be light on editorial and heavy on vendor advertising, there are several magazines devoted to call centers. Two worth checking out: TeleProfessional (800-338-8307, www.telepro.com, $39 a year) and Call Center Magazine (888-824-9793, www.callcentermagazine.com, $14 a year).

The industry's largest trade show, the World Conference and Exposition on Incoming Call Center Management, will take place September 1 through 3 in Denver. For details call 800-265-5665 or visit www.callvoice.com/iccm98.

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