Staff and user awareness

The pain

"Oh the pain, Will Robinson..."

By its very nature collecting disbursement information from staff, especially about something as pervasive as telephone calls, can be seen as intrusive. Making it obvious that their telephone calls are being monitored at least at the level of which number they called and how long they were on the telephone will also be seen by some as intrusive. For a small minority it may also be seen as a financial burden as they can not longer make the unmonitored 'free' calls they were able to before.

For all these reasons implementing the MonTel client can be a negative experience for staff unless managed well.

In making the decision to purchase MonTel the firm will already be aware of the obvious benefits of telephone cost recovery. These are, recovery cost of telephone calls from clients. Minimising call abuse. Giving staff the ability to see the cost of calls in real time thereby allowing them to use more sensible (cheaper) calling options in future, for example, by calling a land line rather than a mobile.

The question then becomes how is that information collected. In the old days it might have been done in a number of different ways. There might have been a sheet of paper sent to each user at the end of the month with the calls made. What a pain trying to remember what each call was for, of which number belonged to which client. This could have been done more frequency, even at the end of each day, or sent around by email. But in the end that would still be a pain.

MonTel Makes it easy

MonTel makes it easy for the user, as there is a pop up that occurs on their computer at the completion of each telephone call. If telephone number have been imported, or numbers already recorded against that client or matter then it will probably be prompting the user with the correct client code. It is important then that staff are aware of the alternatives to using MonTel, and while a pop up is an interruption the alternatives are a lot more painful.

But there are some less obvious benefits for the users of MonTel.

1. They have proof that telephone call was dialled, as well as its duration, date and time of call. This can give them extra confidence in conflict resolution, by being able to call on very specific information.
2. A crib for time sheets. In many cases phone calls are an interruption. But by checking the update call record, they can quickly see who and how much time to charge against a client code. White not a time sheet program at all, it does give the user a quick and reliable reference point when in doubt.
3. For checking telephone numbers, especially when caller identification is available. "What was the number of that person that called yesterday ?". Or, even as an address book by using the drop down selection for clients users can easily see all the telephone numbers that have previously been dialled for that client.

Getting it right

Over the years it has been shown that there will usually be tweaks, changes and perhaps even features added to make a best fit with user experience and firm requirements. To avoid awkwardness, and to reduce the ammunition for the nay sayers (yes almost every firm has them!), a small pilot group should use MonTel for a week or three before the rest of the staff to iron out any kinks, and make sure that the settings and pop up levels are appropriate for the firm.