ASTERISK Based Open Source IP-PBX System for Accountable Customer Support Service
Mohammad Azam Khan
Khaled Mahmud Shahriar
Department of Computer Science and Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh
[email protected]
Department of Computer Science and Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh
[email protected]
Abstract—Customer support service has now become an integral part of every large enterprise since customer satisfaction is largely determined by the quality of service he/she receives after purchase of a product/service. Traditionally legacy phone based PBX systems are deployed to provide customer support service where operators are appointed to receive calls and respond to customers’ queries or complaints. Unfortunately such a system severely lacks accountability from the support service personnel. There are often cases such as operator is not in his desk while the phone is ringing or may deliberately leave the phone unattended, misbehaving with customers, not registering complaints and doing the necessary follow-ups etc. There is very little system support for the management to monitor and track such inappropriate conducts from the support service employees. However all these desirable features can be achievable if the legacy PBX system is replaced by an IP-PBX system. In this paper, we propose a solution for accountable customer support service using Asterisk based open source IP-PBX system. Being open source, Asterisk given the flexibility to create rich features set for customer support service at a very low cost. Keywords—Customer support service, Call escalation, Open source, Asterisk, IP-PBX system.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Every large enterprise now-a-days provides phone based customer support service that allows a customer to request for support over phone before, during and after purchase of a product/service from the respective enterprise. In a typical customer support service scenario, customers call some pre specified numbers in the service center and operators are appointed to receive those calls and respond to customers’ queries or complaints. Usually enterprises deploy legacy private branch exchange (PBX) systems for such phone based customer support. However such a system severely lacks accountability from the support service personnel. Some common complaints are- the operator may not be in his desk while the phone is ringing or may deliberately leave the phone unattended, misbehaving with customers, not registering complaints and doing the necessary follow-ups. There is very little system support for the management to monitor and track such inappropriate conducts from the support service employees. Some of the mechanisms to add accountability to such a system are as follows: (i) provision for call escalation i.e., when a phone is left unattended, the
call will automatically be redirected to the next person in the hierarchy, (ii) provision for call recording, (iii) enforcement of complaint/query registration to keep all the communication documented for future reference. However all these desirable features are not available in the legacy PBX systems and can only be achievable using an IP-PBX system [1]. Though many proprietary IP-PBX systems are available, it is always desirable to deploy one with open source solutions that offers greater customization ability and flexibility in creating rich service sets tailored to organizational need, all at a comparably very low cost. Asterisk [2, 3] is presently the most powerful open source communication server [4] that runs an IP-PBX system. In this paper, we present how an accountable customer support service can be provided using an Asterisk based IP-PBX system. II.
IP-PBX
An IP-PBX is a business telephone system designed to deliver voice or video over a data network and interoperate with the normal Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Traditional PBX is based on hardware circuit switch while IP-PBX is an IP telephony system that uses softswitching [5, 6]. The system converges voice and data backbone, simplify network and service management, provide flexible/scalable solutions and above all, it has a lot of customizable service sets. There are a lot of proprietary IP-PBX systems such as 3CX, ActivePBX, Brekeke, EasyPBX, Goldennet Technology, Hosted PBX, Kamailio (former OpenSER), Matrix IP-PBX, Magiclink IP-PBX, MERA VoIP Soft Switches, Nortel and YATE [7]. However it is always desirable to have an open source solution that will provide the freedom of customization as needed as well as keep the cost low. III.
ASTERISK: OPEN SOURCE IP-PBX
Asterisk is one of the most powerful and popular open source alternatives to use for an IP-PBX system. Asterisk is a software framework for building communications applications. Using Asterisk and some low cost hardware, it is possible to turn an ordinary computer into a communications server. Asterisk also powers media gateways, conference servers and other custom solutions. It is used by Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), large businesses, call centers, carriers and government agencies,
worldwide. Asterisk can become the basis for a complete business phone system, or used to enhance or extend an existing system, or to bridge a gap between systems. Asterisk includes many features available in proprietary PBX systems such as auto meeting notification, auto attendant, voice mail, call conferencing, interactive voice response call recording and automatic call distribution. Users can also customize and create new functionality within an Asterisk system [8]. Therefore, Asterisk based IP-PBX system can be customized to develop an accountable phone based online customer support service solution for large enterprises. IV.
ACCOUNTABLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICE USING ASTERISK
To understand how an accountable customer support service [9] system works, consider the topology of an IPPBX system spanning geographically separated multiple customer support service centers of a large enterprise in Figure 1. In a typical customer support service scenario based on the given topology in Figure 1, a customer calls a pre-specified local Customer Service Center (CSC) number using a PSTN/mobile phone [10].
and complaint registration features to make the support service accountable. V.
MAKING CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICE ACCOUNTABLE
Customer support service has to be made accountable from both ends of service operators and management. By adding features such call recording, call escalation, mandatory complaint registration and incentive/penalty on performance, we can enforce an operator to behave appropriately with the customer. On the other hand, we can build a web based complaint management system integrated with Asterisk that will enable the management to track complaints, generate various statistics such as complaints with high frequency, average service resolution time etc. to identify service improvement areas for greater customer satisfaction. The following features can be enhanced to incorporate the accountability features. A.
Call Recording The server can be configured to record all the call details such as caller ID, call time, call duration and even complete conversation that goes on during a call. An operator is expected to avoid misconduct with customer when he knows that all his conversations are being recorded. B.
Call Escalation ‘Call escalation’ is the process of transferring a call to a higher level when it is left unattended at the lower level. If an operator does not respond to a call, Asterisk can detect it using timeout mechanism and direct the call to the next person in the hierarchy, say the manager. With call escalation enabled, an operator will always be cautious against leaving the desk during office hours. C.
Figture 1. Topology of an IP-PBX system for phone based customer support service
The call reaches the CSC through the PSTN/mobile operator’s network and is intercepted by a media gateway in the CSC. The media gateway converts data contained in the incoming call signal to IP packets and routes the call to the Asterisk IP-PBX server in the Central Management Center (CMC) using IP network through a secured channel created by VPN routers and firewall on both ends. The Asterisk server then checks the next available operator extension and routes the call to the operator phone in CSC again through the secured channel of VPN routers. The operator then hears the dial tone, lifts the phone and a call is established between the customer and the customer support service operator. Since all the communications are made through the Asterisk server, it allows to introduce call recording, call escalation,
Complaint Registration Complaint registration is the process of documenting complaints whenever a complaint is received by an operator. With Asterisk powered IP-PBX system, an operator’s legacy phone can be replaced with a PC-based soft-phone where it can be enforced to fill up a complaint registration form (that will pop-up) whenever a call is received. With all the complaints registered, the management will be able to track complaints, generate various statistics such as complaints with high frequency, average service resolution time etc. to identify service improvement areas for greater customer satisfaction.
Figture 2. Complaints lodged in the system
We have developed a web-based complaint management system integrated with Asterisk to facilitate complaint registration. We show a screenshot of the application in Figure 2. Service operators (Staff) may add a new complaint by clicking on Add New Button from this screen. Administrator/Staff or even any authorized person may view/respond to any complaint by clicking on the individual complaint in Complaint column. Respective audio file will also be played back from this page after updating the related audio file using Asterisk CDR (Call Detail Record) table. Complaint may also be closed or deleted through this screen if necessary. For space constraints, we omit the details of the systems which can be found in [11]. Incentive/Penalty on Operator's Performance Using an Asterisk based IP-PBX system, we can evaluate the performance of operators based on the number of calls received/left unattended and then accordingly operators can be rewarded/penalized that will act as incentives for operators to serve better. We propose one such performance evaluation and associated reward/penalty mechanism that can be developed into the system using queue and priority features. Initially all operators are of equal priority and calls are routed to operators in round robin fashion to ensure fairness. However if an operator fails to serve an incoming call, his priority is reduced resulting in less number calls received that in turn will affect his performance indicator negatively. Detailed configuration code for the proposed mechanism can be found in [11].
As another example of informed business decision facilitated by the complaint management system, consider the bar chart in Figure 4. The chart shows comparison of complaint resolution time between the old manual system that used legacy PBX for customer support with the new Asterisk based IP-PBX system. The chart reveals that number of completed solution for phone based accountable customer support service solution within 1 (one) hour increases abruptly whereas in manual system the number of completed solution required 2/3 hours usually. Such chart can be used to justify and convince management to invest on replacing the legacy phone system with an IP-PBX system for customer support.
D.
VI. COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR INTELLIGENT BUSINESS DECISION: A CASE STUDY We now present a case study of an Asterisk based IPPBX system we have developed and deployed for customer support service in a utility (electricity) service provider of Bangladesh. The company presently has almost about one million customer base in its electricity distribution network. To demonstrate how the system has facilitated the management to make more informed business decision, we cite two examples. Consider the pie chart in Figure 3 that represents percentage of each type of complaints out of total complaints. The chart has been generated from real complaint data for a period of 6 (six) months. Using such charts, management can find information such as which complaints are more frequent, from which area, in what part of the day etc and thus decide where the most service improvement is required.
Figture 4. Solution time progress for different types of support service complaint
VII. CONCLUSION Success of any enterprise is directly connected to customer satisfaction and the factor that greatly influences customer satisfaction now-a-days is good customer support service. Unfortunately such service is largely neglected in our country, particularly by government enterprises. In this paper we have shown how accountable customer service can be provided using open source IP-PBX solution. We also demonstrate how such a system can facilitate intelligent business decision to improve service quality and customer satisfaction thereby. Thus we expect that this should prove sufficient to justify and convince enterprises of our country to adopt and deploy Asterisk based IP-PBX system to provide accountable customer support service. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work is based on an M. Engineering project work done in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) [11]. We thank BUET for its facilities and support. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3]
Figture 3. Different types of support service query/complaint
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