The Ascent Group, Inc.

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at 888-749-0001 or by email.

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You can also fax completed surveys to 866-941-0005.

Handling Trouble Calls and Outages — High Volume Call Answering

If you offer self-service Trouble Call or Outage reporting or status updates through your IVR, please answer the following questions:

1. Please check all the outage-related capabilities of your IVR:

   Relay area-specific/geographical outage information based on telephone number (DNIS, ANI, or input)

   Relay customer-specific outage messages based on telephone number (DNIS, ANI, or input) or address blah, blah, blah, etc.

   Relay estimated restoration times (ERT) based on customer location or geographic area

   Let customer report outage

   Let distribution employees update outage status or estimated restoration times

   Automated link to Outage Management System or Trouble Reporting System (to send outage reports and/or receive outage status updates or ERTs)

   Offer call-back to customers to confirm power restoration

   Call customers back to confirm power restoration

   Other

2. Do you do anything different with your IVR, call center queuing, or telephone network when responding to a very large outage (extremely high volume of incoming calls)? Please explain below.
   
3. Please explain your highest volume day — number calls received on that day, peak hour volume, and the situation that induced the highest volume of calls to your call center. Include calls overflowed to other centers, third-parties, or IVR service providers. If this was a storm, please indicate total storm-related calls if more than one day.
   
4. On your highest volume days what technology worked best and why? What worked the worst and why?
   
5. Maximum number of calls that can be answered an hour (with agents, IVR, third-party, and automation)?
   calls
6. Number of incoming phone trunks? Number of simultaneous calls that can be received?
7. Number of ports in IVR? Number of ports available in third-party IVR?
8. How quickly is outage report information provided by customers in your IVR available to company employees? (Distribution, Dispatch, Call Center...)
9. How quickly is outage status information and Estimated Restoration Times provided by Distribution / Dispatch available to:
• Your IVR?
• Third-party IVR or Service Bureau?
• Your call center agents?
• Third-party call center agents?
10. If you use a third-party to handle calls during highest volumes or outages, please provide name of vendor, how long using service, pros and cons of using their service.
    
11. At what point do you begin offloading calls to a third-party IVR or call center? How is this accomplished?
    
12. Lessons learned regarding handling extremely high call-volumes?
    
13. If you have a separate published telephone number for outages, please explain how these calls flow into your IVR and ACD (or to a third party, if applicable). Is this different from your normal call flow? How?
    
14. Other technologies that have worked well for your company in handling extremely high call-volume?
    
15. Outage Management System Vendor?
    System Name?

Call Center Background

16. Number of phone centers? Number of customers supported by centers?
17. Hours of operation?
18. Call totals
1. Inbound calls (per year)?
2. Outbound calls (per year)?
3. Agent handled calls (per year)?
4. IVR handled calls (per year)?
19. Total full-time equivalents answering incoming phone calls? initiating outbound calls?
20. Total full-time equivalents supervising agents?
21. Call Center Service Level Goals?
1. Average Speed of Answer seconds
2. Answer % of calls in seconds
22. Average Handle Time — length of time to handle a phone call, including talk time and after call processing or wrap-up time? minutes
23. Average Talk Time — length of time talking to a customer, including holds and transfers? minutes

Integrated Voice Response Technology Information

24. Total calls offered to Integrated Voice Response (IVR) Technology (per year)?
1. Percent of calls handled completely or successfully by IVR (no agent intervention) per year?
   2004 %
   2003 %
   2002 %
2. Percent of calls referred to agents from IVR (opt-outs) per year? %
3. Total full-time agent equivalents handled by IVR (number of agents that it would have taken to handle the calls that the IVR handled)?
25. How long has your IVR been in operation? years
26. IVR vendor? model?
27. Do you outsource any calls to an external IVR service?
    Yes
    No
    If yes, how long?
    Please explain (under what circumstances, to what vendor, what percentage of calls...)
    
28. Voice Recognition?
    Yes
    No
    If yes, how long with voice recognition?
29. CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) enhanced IVR?
    Yes
    No
    If yes, how long?
30. Use estimated wait time announcements?
    Yes
    No
    If yes, how long?
31. Offer customers use of IVR during wait queue?
    Yes
    No
    If yes, please explain.
    
32. What kinds of transactions can callers accomplish in your IVR?
    
33. IVR Configuration

    IVR controls menus and routes callers to IVR applications and agents

    ACD controls menus and routes callers to IVR applications and agents

    CD routes calls to the IVR which controls menus and applications

    Other, Please explain below.

34. Please explain how a call arrives and the path it takes through your ACD, IVR, and CTI to an agent.
    
35. IVR Deployment Strategy

    Selectively force callers through IVR for some applications (callers are not given the option to choose the agent or IVR)

    Only as back-end, overflow relief valve (invoked during heavy call volume to give callers other options)

    Optional self-service feature

    Handles all calls (no opt out)

    Only as a routing tool to distribute callers to the appropriate queue or work group

    Other, Please explain below.

36. Will you participate in a follow-up telephone interview?
    Yes
    No

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