Webmail Management

Webmail Management —
Marrying E-Mail Processing to Enterprise Call Center Activities
(Originally published in Messaging Magazine, November/December 1998)

By Art Rosenburg, Telemessaging Communications

The headlines and the statistics say it all! The world is moving swiftly into two-way digital messaging, which includes both personal e-mail and enterprise "Webmail."

Industry research indicates only 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies respond to questions directed to the Website’s Webmaster, which means a large number of customers aren’t getting the response they expect.
A recent study of a group of 258 companies with call centers that support e-mail shows that those companies receive approximately 300,000 e-mail messages per year, with 55 percent of the messages going straight to the call centers. The study indicated that these businesses expect to receive approximately 2 million messages per year by 2000. The study also showed that the current mean response time for handling e-mail (the response being in the form of e-mail or fax) was 17 hours, the mean cost of handling e-mail was $17.85 per message, and that 54 percent of the cost is directly related to labor cost!

So, what does that all mean for the enterprise and its future call center operations?

If it hasn’t happened yet, it will happen soon. That is the day that your company’s call center manager and/or Website manager will come to you with a problem. They want to find a cost-effective way to deal with customers who will make contact via the Website, instead of the traditional telephone call. Why are they coming to you? Because you know all about your e-mail system and they want to know how it can be used more efficiently for processing e-mail traffic from customers.

Of course, you will have to tell them that your legacy e-mail system was never really designed to control and manage this kind of message traffic, and something must be added to make e-mail response processing cost-efficient, especially when the Website application can’t always be "self-service" and completely automated.

Immediate Call Center Voice Connections—"Callthrough" Versus "Callback"

Gaining immediate access to live assistance is a logical call center service the enterprise can offer to Web callers accessing its Website. The power of realtime voice conversation is augmented by the ability to share the same Webpage informational content and for the Web Support Representative (WSR) to consultatively guide or control the exchange of such information through the Web caller’s PC screen. The first attempts at providing such call center access required Web callers to have a second telephone line for voice callback, while retaining the first Internet connection for the Webpage. However, Internet telephony "gateway" technologies and new client PC software now allow a single Web caller phone line to be used concurrently for both the Webpage and the Internet telephony voice connection ("callthrough").

"Webmail"—Why Web Users Will Message an Enterprise

The alternative to establishing a realtime connection with call center staff assistance, is through two-way messaging, except that the interaction is not person-to-person, but between enterprise workgroups and the Web caller. The workgroup can include not only people, but self-service applications as well, such as typically associated with "help desk" support.

There are many practical reasons why Web callers will choose to send a message instead of establishing a realtime voice connection with call center staff, including the following:

They can’t or don’t want to wait for someone to assist them.
They will use the context of Webpage information for the basis of their message inquiry or transaction.
They need the convenience of 24x7 messaging access.
They don’t necessarily need to "discuss" anything about the information they want or the transaction requested.
They may want to send information and data attachments first, before any interactive discussion is engaged in.
They want a well-documented audit trail of the two-way messaging interchange.
They want to eliminate the time, errors, and effort involved with transcribing detailed information during a live conversation
They don’t have a required second telephone line for an immediate live callback while still connected to the Web.
They want to direct their communication to a very specific group or individual that may not be readily accessible realtime.
It’s just more convenient and cheaper than a live connection.

Messaging is a call center communication access option that Web callers can exploit to either request an informational message response or a scheduled telephone callback. Because Web callers will implicitly have their own personal e-mail mailboxes, two-way messaging exchange is now a more viable alternative to live telephone connections. Not only is there public access to the Web caller’s personal mailbox, but multimedia informational attachments, that might normally be mailed or faxed, can also be immediately e-mailed or faxed in response.

Implications for Call Center Activities

First, there is no question that enterprise "callers" will include a healthy percentage of "Web callers," who will connect through the enterprise Website, for either immediate call center assistance, or a deferred response (telephone callback/message).

Second, manually processing e-mail messages is not cost-efficient, so a high degree of automated intelligence must be employed to minimize expensive labor.

Third, messaging responses, while not necessarily as demanding as picking up a telephone call, must still be timely. E-commerce replies will typically be expected in time frames between less than an hour to the "next day."

Fourth, both realtime voice connections and e-mail messaging correspondence will remain logical alternatives for supporting customer contacts originating from the World Wide Web, and must therefore be managed as related responsibilities.

Finally, just as traditional call center staffing activities must be properly managed, from recruiting, training, scheduling, to performance monitoring, so too must message processing activities also be organized and managed in similar fashion. This is an area that call center people know a lot about, but must now apply differently to e-mail messaging communications.

Call Centers and Message Processing

There has been a growing exploitation of (two-way) e-mail messaging from Website visitors, but it was not done within the context of traditional telephone call centers. Until recently, such e-mail activity has been relatively unorganized and often supported outside of the traditional call center’s operational domain, typically as part of the IT department’s e-mail or Website responsibilities. However, call center managers and departmental "application managers" are starting to realize that the objectives of Webmail processing are identical to those of traditional telephone call centers, and it is now important to understand the differences in operational strategies involved in order to merge them with current call center facilities.

"Webmail" Versus E-Mail

New technology gets into trouble with potential users of the technology by confusing terminology, and it is important to differentiate person-to-person e-mail messaging from electronic enterprise correspondence. "Webmail" is e-mail that originates from a Web caller via an enterprise Webpage, and is not addressed to any particular individual or personal mailbox. It will be critical for efficient message response processing to structure such messages as much as possible using enforceable Web forms. Although freeform e-mail messages will also be part of Webmail, particularly for follow-on messaging replies, structured Web forms will remain the key to cost-efficient Webmail processing.

Where a single message response to a request is not adequate, "two-way messaging" (Reply) or a conversational calls will be required to complete the interchange between the Web caller and the call center. Continuity with the Web caller’s self-service activities, live call conversations, and all messaging transactions must be preserved, no matter who within the call center becomes involved with the customer, through the use of tracking numbers and identifiers (e.g., Web caller or company names), activity logs, and multimedia transaction folders.

Personal Mailboxes Versus Message Queues

The temptation to treat Webmail simplistically (e.g., e-mail that goes directly into someone’s mailbox) is absolutely the wrong way to deal with such "call center messages." These messages are not personal, must be controllable at all times by operations management, and must be amenable to dynamic call center priorities and routing rules for processing, depending upon the form of access involved. For example, an incoming fax message, which is a form of "one-way" messaging, may not be as demanding as a Web caller waiting for a voice connection, but may be considered more pressing than an e-mail message. It will be the routing "queues," rather than a mailbox, where message management logic will be applied for voice/fax/e-mail messages that come to the call center separately. However, because Web callers can now receive, and may even send, multimedia e-mail messages, such messages must be managed as e-mail (with attachments) for call center routing, retrieval, and archiving.

Message-Based Self-Service Application Processing

A principal key to cost-efficient support of Web callers is the provisioning of a Website with self-service interactive applications. These screen-based applications have many advantages over the limitations of interactive voice response (IVR) applications that are available to telephone callers in call center operations. However, where an immediate response cannot be provided online, automated Webmail processing can still provide the necessary response without live staff involvement. The Web form or e-mail message can be scanned, interpreted, processed, and a response transmitted, all through software tools that work tirelessly night and day. Such automated processes also detect the need for human assistance and initiate a task assignment accordingly.

Webmail Processing

Just as Automatic Number Identification (ANI), Dial Number Identification Service (DNIS), and IVR facilities help identify and route callers to self-service or human-assisted call center applications, so too will a combination of message-oriented processes intelligently expedite the routing and disposition of incoming Webmail. These message-processing facilities can effectively work with your existing e-mail network operations or with Internet e-mail access.

1. Message Content Scanning—Automatic text analysis provided by content mining software is useful for both structured and freeform message analysis, and can even be applied to language translation for global Web callers. Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) software using knowledge databases, and case-based reasoning, can analyze the full content of a message for disposition routing to fully automated response generators or staff-assisted processing. The use of such natural language processing can eliminate or minimize a very labor-intensive step and allows practical context-based priorities to be exercised before any message routing (e.g., skills-based routing) is performed. Natural language context scanning will be particularly useful for follow-on freeform message interchanges, after an initial response to a more structured Web form.

2. Message Processing Assignment Queues—Traditional call centers are well known for their call assignment queues, where incoming callers wait for the "next available operator" with the prerequisite call handling skills. Incoming messages are treated in similar fashion, but with a different perspective of priority. Just as priorities escalate over time for telephone calls waiting in queue, so too will that apply to e-mail messages being managed by an Automatic Message Distribution (AMD) software package that can interact with your existing e-mail facilities. The AMD software will track assignments, turnaround times, and the follow-on e-mail activity that results from an initial Webmail response, etc., for purposes of evaluating the adequacy of response information content and WSR activity. The critical objective here is being able to continually expand the scope and quality of automated message processing. Several message assignment approaches can be taken. First, message "routing" distribution can be made to specific WSR mailboxes, and then it will be up to the individual WSR to process the message in a timely manner. A second alternative is to keep the messages in a shared, common queue displayed to a group of WSRs, letting them choose their next message assignment. (A "pull" approach.) For maximum management and control, however, the AMD software keeps all messages in queue, just like an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system, and delivers individual messages, one at a time, whenever a WSR indicates availability for a new task assignment (a "push" approach). Even after assignment, the messages are still controlled through the AMD software, and can be reassigned, if necessary, if not processed promptly. This insures that messages are not forgotten about, and their inherent priorities dynamically maintained. New, sophisticated AMD software products provide such centralized message management for applications that must process large message volumes "responsively."

3. Message Response Processing—Because the labor costs of dealing with reading and writing text messages can be so much higher than talking on the telephone, there is a driving need to automate as many aspects of Webmail message processing as possible. This will not only minimize staffing requirements, but will reduce the need for additional skills training.

4. Fortunately, frequent Webmail requests can be fully automated (like Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)) or, can exploit the use standard message templates, along with cut & paste response information. The "worst case" situation, however, is to have WSRs read Webmail (or listen to voice messages) and manually type a complete e-mail response.

Realistically, Webmail processing requirements can encompass a spectrum of routing and response procedures, depending upon the operational situation and message context.

These can include:

Automated acknowledgement of message receipt ("mailbots"). These do not do anything with a Web caller’s message, but send a canned response to every message received.
Automated text content scanning and analysis, with fully automated e-mail (or fax) responses. These responses can still be "personalized", based upon message content and customer database information.
Automated text content scanning, with automated, skills-based assignment to an appropriate, available WSR.
Automated routing to an available WSR, with manual message content review and response generation.
Use of standard response message templates, with "cut & paste" information from a dynamic knowledge database.
Manual transfer of difficult Webmail messages via e-mail to more expert staff, complete with all necessary context information.
Return telephone calls (callback), rather than an e-mail response, based on complexity, need for discussion, and urgency of situation.
"Instant Messaging" or "chat" connections can be activated if the Web Caller is logged on to the Internet.
Where customized responses are always necessary, new "cross-media" messaging techniques can be applied, since it is faster and easier to create a "voice e-mail" response (sent as a .WAV attachment), which avoids the problems of spelling and typographical errors, and increases personalization of the response.

5. Webmail Accountability—Proper tracking and accountability are the hallmarks of efficient AMD and Webmail management. Since messaging is traditionally fraught with sender insecurities and practical methods of determining accountability, Webmail management software must "intelligently" confirm message receipt to the sender, indicate a realistic response time, and provide a practical method for tracking the individual messages associated with a Web caller transaction for future reference.

In addition to scanning the information about the sender and the nature of the message, it is also important to check for other requests from the same originator, even when a tracking number is not included. This may uncover changes from a prior request, additional information for a prior request, or cancellation of the prior request. Repeated requests may indicate the urgency of the problem, and trigger special treatment, but should not blindly generate redundant responses.

WSR Message Processing Skill Requirements

As indicated earlier, Web caller text message processing must be as automated as possible in order to be cost efficient timewise, in comparison to voice call handling. This is particularly necessary in light of the following kinds of skills necessary for message handling:

E-mail message management—Sending, retrieving, addressing, routing/forwarding, replying, archiving, data attachment handling, etc.
Written language skills—Reading
and screening Web caller text content, grammatically correct writing, selective use of technical terminology, properly employing customer-sensitive verbiage, etc. For global e-business, multilingual language skills, as well as being able to understand poor English text, will be an important consideration.
Typing proficiency—Speed and error-free typing to minimize the time to create a text message response. Accurate name spelling and data entry will be extremely critical, as usual. This includes accuracy in procedural keyboard entries for e-mail messaging and data file management.
PC usage literacy
Internet/Website navigation skills
Web caller applications procedures and information
Understanding Web caller perspectives, mindsets, and physiology

Text message processing is still going to be more time consuming than voice, even with the use of skilled personnel, and, because such personnel will now be more expensive to recruit and retain, their time has to be used much more selectively on an exception basis. That is why the real solution is to be much more organized and automated for e-mail response processing.

Considering the differences in skill requirements involved, realtime voice connections and message processing for Web callers may be most effectively handled initially by separate staffing resources in a call center environment.

Managing Webmail Processing

Typical call center management responsibilities will apply to staffing for Webmail processing. These include recruiting, training, work force scheduling, and performance monitoring. In addition, management must also take responsibility for specifying the rules that will be applied to message routing and disposition, based upon content analysis and elapsed time priorities.

Call center management has already developed most of the tools necessary for managing voice call handling, and some of these may be adapted to e-mail message processing. However, new management criteria will be involved, and new software facilities are coming from the call center industry to support such added requirements.

WSR Performance Monitoring and Evaluation

Just as call centers must monitor and evaluate the performance of their traditional telephone call-handling activities and "applications", i.e., IVR call flows/information content, Customer Support Representative (CSR) scripts, and individual CSR performance, so, too, must there be auditing facilities for regularly evaluating the activities associated with Web callers.

Adding Webmail Processing to Your Call Center

The technology to manage Webmail processing is becoming available from various sources, including traditional call center and ACD system providers. There are several practical reasons to slowly evolve the merging of telephone call processing with Webmail processing in the call center. There will be much to learn about Webmail processing, traffic, staffing, and skill requirements, for your applications. Until they are fully understood, the traditional call center operations should not be exposed to any perturbations from these new activities.

Once all Web Caller support activities have been successfully implemented as separate operational functions, it will be appropriate to evaluate the ways in which they can be consolidated and "blended" from the perspective of shared staffing and relative assignment/routing priorities. Even though call center personnel can handle different types of task assignments separately, it may be more complicated and ineffective to intermix them sequentially or multitask them.

wpe228.gif (21067 bytes)

Summary

The World Wide Web and Internet e-mail will require that the power of two-way messaging be added to the repertoire of call center technology. This will ultimately prove to be a major benefit to the call center’s most important operational problem, staffing and labor costs. It will offload call center operations away from the staffing pressures of the traditional telephone traffic "busy hour," towards more manageable and cost-effective customer support activities. However, because of the increased skill requirements for processing text messaging, new technology tools and more strategic use of enterprise call center and e-mail systems are becoming essential. It’s time for the e-mail and call center people to talk about both technology and managing message processing activities!