How is agent matching software priced?

How contact-centre software is usually charged

Software for contact centres tends to be charged in one of three ways, or a mix of them:

• Per seat or licence. A set amount for each agent or user, monthly or yearly. Easy to budget, and paid whether or not results move.
• Per minute or per use. A charge on volume, such as minutes, calls or records handled. The cost follows activity rather than results.
• A share of results. The vendor is paid part of what it adds. The cost follows the outcome, but only if both sides agree, before the start, how "what it adds" is measured, and the buyer can check it each month.

BestPair uses a fixed fee for the first stage and a share of results for the second.

What BestPair charges

The Floor Assessment is a report you keep, delivered four weeks after your data is confirmed. Nothing changes on your floor during it. Stage 2 starts on the first day of the month after the readout unless you opt out in writing within ten business days of it, in which case nothing further is owed. The two stages are set out on the homepage, and what you pay if the report shows little room has the detail on Stage 1.

How the extra is measured

The Stage 2 fee is a share of the extra dollars collected, measured against a control group. It is not a share of everything you collect.

1. Accounts in scope are split at random: 80% are allocated by BestPair and 20% stay on your current routing as the control group.
2. Each month both groups are scored on dollars collected per account contacted.
3. The extra is how much more the BestPair group collects per account contacted, multiplied by the number of BestPair group accounts contacted.
4. The fee is the greater of 10% of that extra and $2,500. A month with no gap costs the minimum.

Both groups’ results are on every invoice, and BestPair provides the supporting calculations on request. Once in any twelve-month period, your agency may have the previous twelve months’ calculations reviewed by an independent accountant bound by confidentiality, at its own cost unless the review finds an overcharge of more than 5%, in which case BestPair refunds the overcharge and pays the reasonable cost of the review. At least 70% of BestPair group contacts must reach the assigned collector, and that share is reported too. What holding back a control group costs.

Comparing the fee with your own share of the extra

A share of results needs finance to agree how the gain is worked out. That is why the measure is written into the Order Form before anyone signs.

An agency on contingency keeps only its share of each dollar it collects, and the rest goes to its client. So the useful comparison is your own share of the extra against the fee. BestPair’s business case format works it out like this:

1. Take monthly collections on the campaigns in scope.
2. Choose a few levels of lift yourself. They are scenarios for your decision-makers, and BestPair does not forecast a lift.
3. Extra collections are the lift times the 80% of collections in the BestPair group.
4. Your share of the extra is that amount times your contingency rate.
5. The fee is the greater of 10% of the extra and $2,500.
6. Your net gain is your share less the fee. For the first year, take off the $15,000 Floor Assessment fee and add back the credit it earns.

Above the minimum, the fee takes ten cents of each extra dollar and your share of that dollar is your contingency rate. The months to look at closely are the low-lift ones, where the minimum applies and your share of a small extra may not cover $2,500. The Floor Assessment gives you an estimated range from your own history, and a one-page Stage 2 business case, before you decide.