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Follow UsVoIP is the process of converting voice conversations into digital data packets and transmitting them over the Internet or other IP-based networks. VoIP traffic flows over a general-purpose packet switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice network.
VoIP service options include PC-based calling using “softphone” application software, traditional analog phones connected to VoIP via analog telephone adapters (ATAs) and end-to-end solutions using next generation VoIP phones.
The rapidly increasing consumer acceptance of VoIP is driven mostly by cost savings and enhanced features unavailable in the traditional phone service. However, given their experience with traditional wireline service, consumers also have high expectations of quality — of installation, of ongoing service, and of customer support.
It is a challenge for VoIP service providers to provide consumers with the service quality they demand. Voice has real-time characteristics, which have very strict requirements for network performance. VoIP implementations can also be very complex, often requiring a skilled technician for installation.
(Figure: Voice over Internet Protocol ( VoIP))
The demand for VoIP has skyrocketed past the early adopter stage and has now entered the mass market. The pursuit of VoIP cuts across all types and sizes of service providers - from established cable MSOs, the world’s largest Telcos, and major software vendors to small regional competitors and new VoIP entrants.
Each is trying to capitalize on VoIP’s rapidly rising demand and cost advantage, while gaining a foothold from which to expand value-added telephony or multi-play services.
Meeting Customer Expectations
To leverage the increasing global demand, service providers need to address very high customer quality expectations. VoIP is fighting an uphill quality battle when compared with the “five nines” of traditional telephone reliability. Users count on their phone working 99.999 percent of the time.
There are numerous points of failure in a VoIP environment. From the home, through the network and soft switch node, and ultimately to the fixed or mobile network endpoint, there are many places where call quality and feature availability can be impacted.
Initial installation is a critical first step in the customer experience; professional installers allow the cable company to ensure proper installation and testing of the VoIP service.
A professional installer can control some of the variables in the customer’s environment including location of the VoIP gateway and home wiring.
(Figure: Potential points of failure in a VoIP environment)
With the large variation in training and experience of installers, however, cable companies have to deal with inconsistent use of best practices, wide variations in installation quality, and lack of management visibility into the work being performed.
A professional installation is expensive but can be more costly if not done correctly. In a 2005 study on triple play demand and expectations, “convenience” and “service” were cited as key factors in consumers’ choice of a triple play service provider. Despite high expectations, 68% of cable broadband customers still anticipate some sort of issue while installing VoIP.
In addition to the initial installation, the introduction of VoIP services creates a whole new range of call drivers for the service desk, and often can create additional truck rolls (visit to the customer site). The result is avoidable calls to customer support, additional truck-rolls to the subscriber’s home and poor customer satisfaction — all of which can lead to high costs and customer churn.
Additionally, the customer service organization has traditionally had limited visibility into the network side of advanced digital services. As a result, troubleshooting VoIP problems is difficult customer service executives being reliant on anecdotal evidence from the customer and often results in expensive yet needless technician service calls.
Optimizing VoIP Service Delivery
As VoIP service delivery adds to the complexity of managing multiple services to the home or small business, employing service automation and related best practices for installation and ongoing customer support are essential to ensuring a great customer experience.
Today the availability of a comprehensive line of support automation solutions that can help Digital Service Providers automate customer deployment, provisioning and ongoing support for VoIP (as well as other services in the “triple play”) to cost-effectively maintain a high QoS.
The company’s solutions are in production deployment at service providers worldwide and span the entire spectrum of the Digital Service Provider offerings as explained below.
Support automation software can automatically validate the installation of a customer’s VoIP service and assist in diagnosing problems when they occur - whether within the provider’s network or at the customer premises.
It efficiently and effectively identifies problems, guides the user to resolution using best practices methodology, and verifies that the service is operating within acceptable parameters.
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Configurable service dashboards are adaptable to expertise levels within the customer care organization, providing a clear, real-time understanding of the QoS delivered.
The solution is also highly flexible; it is able to integrate with and complement a variety of work processes and practices.
Additionally the Support Automation software provides tools and the information to installers, service technicians and/or dispatchers, as well as customer service representatives (CSRs) to prevent future problems and resolve current issues.
This also helps to ensure that field technicians can leave the job knowing that the work has been done correctly and that the customer has access to all the services they ordered. When a customer calls with an issue, the solution also gives CSRs the tools they need to remotely diagnose and resolve problems.
The software can also validate customer eligibility; assist a technician through the cabling process; configure the router and terminal adapter with the correct parameters; and verify connectivity with the backend network. By automating the technician installation process, the software helps reduce subscriber acquisition costs and accelerate profitability by reducing support calls and minimizing or eliminating truck rolls.
It provides complete support of installation of initial and future value-added services, including the escalation to a technical support representative, if necessary.
The company also has software that combines the convenience of self-service with the reassurance of assisted service. This can lead to higher end-user adoption of lower-cost support channels. This software improves incident outcomes with specialized content retrieval technology and "do-it-for-me" one-click fixes. Self-service ticket status management and seamless handoffs to assisted support accelerate time-to-resolution — even for complex issues.
The software can reduce or eliminate support intervention to solve common problems by making self-service channels convenient, relevant, and useful to non-technical customers. And, it can increase customer satisfaction by accelerating time-to-resolution. The software leverages the company’s personalization capabilities to allow context-specific, search and multimedia answers and fixes.
The Support Automation Software provides consistency across all channels - Web, email, live chat, and phone interfaces and all services, giving customers the flexibility to easily reach support when they need to and giving the service providers seamless service convergence.
The products are part of a family of field-proven software solutions that are designed to help digital service providers install and support triple play services. The offerings are encompassed by the company’s product vision, which provides an integrated, automated support experience for IP-based broadband, digital video, and telephony services.
The author is the country manager and director, SupportSoft India. SupportSoft is a provider of software and services that automate the resolution of technology problems.