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Tag: empirix

  • Survey: 79% of Consumers Have Experienced Poor Voice Quality

    According to a recent survey undertaken by the Customer Experience Foundation (CEF) on behalf of Empirix, 79 percent of consumers have experienced poor voice quality.

    The study asked 3,925 consumers about their experiences in dealing with contact centers and identified technology related trends and common problems that are affecting customer service and costing organizations around the world billions of dollars.

    The high percentage of global consumers that highlighted poor voice quality as a common problem points to a real issue in the industry. The study also revealed that poor voice quality drives down sales volumes, increases call lengths and the number of calls that are forced to be redialed. As a result, churn rates can increase for both customers and staff. The magnitude of the problem is indicative of how much businesses are struggling to come to terms with this issue, while consumers are quickly losing patience.

    "The word most associated in the study by consumers with poor voice quality was stress, which is not a word organizations want associated with their customers’ experiences," said Tim Moynihan, vice president of marketing, Enterprise business unit, Empirix.

    "Nearly half of the consumers who commented also felt that poor voice quality was a sign that companies really didn’t value their business-at a time when ensuring customer loyalty is more important than ever in any industry. When you analyze the problems with the core issue of poor voice quality, it equates to costing the industry billions of dollars, directly impacting the bottom line of organizations across the globe," he said.

    Other key survey findings include:
    ● Consumers say that 42 percent of all call center calls are impacted by poor voice quality.
    ● Thirty percent of consumers who experienced poor voice quality said it happened in more than half of their calls, with 68 percent of those saying they would usually hang up as a result, and if they were calling about a new product or service, they would call a competing company instead.
    ● Twenty-six percent of consumers say they need to redial to complete a transaction.
    ● Only one in six companies said they used specialist tools to manage voice quality, so it is no surprise that 72 percent of the businesses polled said they had frequent voice quality issues for which they could not identify the root causes.
    ● "Stress" is the most commonly used word when consumers were asked to explain how they felt after a poor voice quality call was completed.
    ● Case studies show that consumers are often forced to repeat themselves on calls as a result of poor voice quality.

    "Consumers are quickly losing patience with companies that suffer from poor voice quality-truth is, it’s a consumer’s market; they have choices in today’s market," said Professor Morris Pentel, chairman at Customer Experience Foundation.

    "Consumers are having major issues that they will not tolerate, which has obvious ramifications for businesses. Customer and agent churn will increase if they are unable to communicate with each other, not to mention the loss of new business opportunities, such as upsells or new products and offerings. Organizations with a reputation for poor customer service are simply pushing their customers toward their competitors, which impacts market share and the bottom line."

    The survey had more than 5,140 responses online and by telephone, which came from call center and IT Professionals in the U.S., UK, France and Germany, as well as 3,925 consumers.

  • Empirix Brings VoIP and IMS Expertise to Mobile Networks

    Empirix has expanded its flagship Hammer XMS technology to provide end-to-end network monitoring for mobile core architectures.

    For mobile operators transitioning to all IP LTE networks, and traditional wire line operators or MSOs that are adding mobile service offerings, Hammer XMS "helps lower the cost of deploying and maintaining multi-protocol network architectures and ensures a more consistent customer experience," as the company claims.

    Hammer XMS includes a suite of protocol support for both GSM and CDMA networks including MAP, CAP, IS-41, CAMEL and WIN services, complementing existing SS7/C7 and IMS protocol support. The new solution by Empirix extends its hallmark end-to-end view across TDM and IP domains to the mobile market. Acoording to the company, it gives operators ‘unparalleled visibility into the customer experience throughout the core network.”

    Transaction monitoring, real-time packet analysis and historical storage of CDRs enable operators to troubleshoot, analyze and report on service quality much more effectively – thereby giving them the ability to more quickly identify and fix issues before they impact their customers.

    “As the boundaries between fixed and mobile services blur, end-to-end network validation will only become a larger, more complex task for providers adding mobile services as well as mobile operators migrating to all-IP networks,” said J.D. Doyle, General Manager of service assurance solutions at Empirix.

    “Ultimately, however, these new services will help them become more nimble and Empirix is committed to smoothing the inevitable transition to IP, lowering costs and speeding the time to market for our customers,” he said.

    Hammer XMS also provides operators with the tools to introduce and monitor multiple IP-based elements and services. End-to-end correlation between TDM and IP domains is provided for mobile softswitches, helping carriers assure the quality of service over SIP-based trunks to the PSTN.

    According to Empirix, femto cell launches will go more smoothly as carriers will have the ability to monitor the quality of voice as traffic from femto cell is carried over the broadband network. Carriers can then assure a smooth integration of femto based sessions into the core mobile network. Additionally, carriers will be able to more effectively enforce SLAs with lower cost IP interconnect partners.

  • Empirix VoIP Monitoring Now Avaya Compliant

    Empirix, a provider of VoIP monitoring solutions, announced that its products are now compliant with key contact center solutions from Avaya.

    The Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance solution is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya AuraTM Communication Manager on Avaya S8700 servers with MCC1 Media Gateways and Avaya Proactive Contact with PG230RM.

    The company says this solution gives organizations the ability to test their outbound contact center from end-to-end thus enabling companies to ensure performance, a high quality end-user experience and compliance with government regulations.

    Empirix is a Platinum member of the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.

    As a Platinum member of the program, Empirix is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Basking Ridge, N.J. There a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compliant.

    Doing so ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs, the company says.

    “Earning the Avaya compliance accreditation is important because it gives customers a cost effective, comprehensive approach to ensuring the performance of the Avaya solutions in their unique environments from end-to-end,” said Tim Moynihan, vice president, marketing for the enterprise business unit at Empirix.

    “Combined with innovative products, such as Avaya Proactive Contact and Avaya Aura, Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance gives organizations confidence that their business-critical outbound infrastructures will deliver the most business value in the least amount of startup time,” he added.

    According to Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya, the companies that are members Avaya’s DevConnectprogram are able to use Intelligent Communications to connect employees and customers to information from wherever they are, over whatever device they have available – “getting more out of their multivendor network and delivering new value to their bottom line.”

    Widely acclaimed Empirix Hammer Test Engine, with more than 30 patents, is the acknowledged global standard for validating the quality of IP networks, systems and applications.