The Client. Sennheiser Inc. is a Germany-based high-fidelity audio company that makes and distributes high-end headphones, headsets and microphones to consumers and businesses across the globe.

The Challenge. Sennheiser was fielding more interest from customers in the United States, so it decided to expand its contact center and upgrade its phone system to Cisco Call Manager. The company wanted to take advantage of the system’s security, accessibility and call administration features. But after installation, Sennheiser found that Call Manager’s CDR reports didn’t provide enough data on employee productivity or communication trends.

“We needed to get an account of which extensions were making and receiving calls, especially for our cold call department,” said Duncan Work, network and infrastructure administrator for Sennheiser. “We have certain metrics we need to measure and our Cisco reporting wasn’t enough. We required something clearer and easy to run.”

The Solution. Work asked Total Communications Inc., a regional IT and communication technology provider that manages Sennheiser’s Cisco phone system, for help. Total Communications specializes in unified communication and earned Cisco’s Customer Excellence Gold Star twice last year.

Bob Osborne, Total Communications’ account manager, met with Sennheiser to assess the situation. Osborne suggested Sennheiser try the Metropolis XT Telemanagement product.

“Sennheiser was trying to get a better handle on their calls, specifically in their sales departments,” Osborne said. “They tried to do it themselves through Cisco reporting, but needed more. Whenever we have a customer with needs that are not met with the Cisco reports, Metropolis is the go-to product in the call accounting arena.”

In a call center, priorities include agent productivity and the elimination of unanswered and abandoned calls. In general, all agents are required to make or receive a minimum number of calls per day, to minimize their ring and hold times, and to reduce the amount of time they’re on each call. To monitor this activity, supervisors need to be able to track agents’ performance metrics and benchmark their progress. Supervisors also need to be able to pinpoint abandoned calls so they can reconnect with the dropped customer and try to improve client satisfaction.

The Result. XT Telemanagement allowed Work to schedule automated reports for his teams that show KPIs and trends such as disconnected calls and agent performance. As a result, Sennheiser call agents’ productivity has seen a drastic improvement. 

“We send our call center staff their own data every hour so they can stay on top of their calls,” said Work. “We’ve seen a 50 percent increase in productivity since they’ve been receiving this reporting feedback.”

Work has also used XT for risk management and investigations. That’s because the platform features custom alert messages that send emails, SMS or screen notifications regarding lengthy calls, unusual call patterns, and 911 and other emergency calls. Sennheiser also is able to retrieve detailed information from the moment the call arrives at the phone to the time it concludes, including statistics about the number of transfers the caller experienced, hold times and call durations.

“If we have a dispute or customer complaint, we can simply input the phone number and get a resolution,” Work said.