Key Advancements in Call Centers

Whether for sales, customer service or emergencies, companies across the channel are rolling out new innovations to make call-center operations run more efficiently and with improved interaction.

CarrierSales, Numonix, ScanSource, Afiniti and others recently have announced new offerings aimed at reducing wait times, better pairing of callers and agents, and improving agent productivity.

Our gallery highlights nine examples of companies that are on the cutting edge of call-center technology.

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Fonolo recently re-launched its Onholdwith.com , a website that scans Twitter and catalogs complaints from customers on hold, in an ongoing effort to increase awareness of long hold times and the detrimental effect they have on businesses. The company said it saved customers more than 35 years (18 million minutes) of hold time in 2016. It continues to grow by helping organizations improve the call-center experience across many different verticals, including retail, financial and health care.

“Now more than ever, callers on hold expect the option of a call-back,” said Jack Santeramo, Fonolo’s vice president of sales. “As the contact-center market continues to mature, there is greater demand for Fonolo’s solutions.”

Dizzion and CarrierSales have formed a partnership that combines Dizzion’s secure, cloud-delivered desktops with CarrierSales’ focus on the contact-center space, aimed at driving agent productivity, lowering capital expenditures and increasing customer confidence. Common issues faced by contact centers that the partnership addresses include: endpoint security concerns; managing a work-at-home staff or third-party contractors; scaling more quickly when bringing on new agents to accommodate rapid growth or seasonal demand spikes; and optimizing in-house IT resources.

“We know very well the problems these organizations face on a daily basis — we live and breathe this world and no one else in our industry has the resources we do to not only navigate the contact-center space, but to support it,” said Richard Murray, CarrierSales’ president. “This is the biggest growth area for our company and the partnership with Dizzion will put us both at the forefront of a significant market opportunity.”

Arkadin said businesses now can deploy contact-center agents on local cloud infrastructure in the Americas, Europe and Asia that integrates with Skype for Business.

Arkadin’s hosted Clarity Connect Contact Center for Office 365 allows customers to deploy agents in more than 15 countries, all connected on a single domain. Arkadin worked with Clarity Consulting to develop the service, which addresses the needs of global customers that are not currently supported natively in Skype Online, including IVR, advanced call routing and queuing, IM routing and webchat.

“Our customers’ global footprints continuously expand; as such they need a digital communications partner who can support their growth strategy,” said Zach Katsof, Arkadin’s director of UC. “We have a proven track record of success as Clarity’s largest cloud contact center hosting partner, and believe the only way to deliver the highest quality experience is to deploy end users in-region on an enterprise global network.”

Numonix’s RECITE Interaction Recording service delivers what the company says is comprehensive, compliant recording of all Skype for Business interactions on-premises, hybrid cloud and in Microsoft Office 365. It records all modalities, including voice, video, chat and desktop screen, is available in enterprise and service-provider editions, and scales from five to thousands of users.

In addition to being a Microsoft-certified Skype for Business provider, Numonix also has achieved Microsoft Silver communications competency. As a Microsoft ISV, Numonix received certification for its RECITE service for Skype for Business.

Tech distributor ScanSource is offering Plantronics Manager Pro, a cloud-based software subscription service that gives resellers access to tools aimed at helping their end-user customers manage their audio communications devices. It allows IT and contact-center managers to oversee audio communication devices and gain insights from voice interactions. The service uses analytics to turn a headset into a data-aggregation tool, aimed at improving customer service at the point of interaction.

“As a longtime partner of Plantronics, we are proud to lead and support our customers in this new suite of Plantronics communications solutions,” said Brian Cuppett, ScanSource’s vice president of merchandising. “This one-stop solution for audio device management, monitoring and user support will allow our resellers working with C-level and IT decision makers to provide valuable insights into their systems and grow their own recurring revenue.”

Afiniti allows real-time, optimized pairing of individual contact center agents with individual customers in large enterprises.

Using big-data analytics, Afiniti analyzes customer data from third parties and internal client data to provide a holistic view of individual customers and agents. It then uses artificial-intelligence algorithms to determine the optimal fit between callers and agents. Every 24 hours, these AI algorithms scan newly generated contact-center data to improve the behavioral pairing process.

Salesforce’s LiveMessage personalizes service communication by providing any company with the ability to engage customers via messaging apps like Facebook Messenger or SMS/MMS, directly within Service Cloud. Companies can either use Service Cloud bots to streamline the information-gathering process or integrate third-party bots via bring your own bot (BYOBot) to accelerate their transformation to conversational service.

“Customer service will fundamentally change with the explosion of mobile messaging apps,” said Mike Rosenbaum, Salesforce’s executive vice president of CRM apps. “The best customer service today is conversational and on the customer’s terms. LiveMessage seamlessly blends CRM and mobile messaging in an intuitive way that’s easy for companies to deploy.”

CallTrackingMetrics has released its Auto Dialer, which automatically connects call-center agents with prospects and customers in need of service. The feature automates outbound calls based on customized criteria and timeframes. Call-center managers can keep the flow of outbound calls strategically in line with agent availability and caller behavior. The result is increased responsiveness, better lead cultivation and higher conversion rates, according to the company.

“The Auto Dialer (is) a fantastic way to reduce inefficiencies in your agent’s days and make them more successful,” said Todd Fisher, CallTrackingMetrics’ CEO. “They no longer have to do things like dial the phone number, listen to voicemails, busy tones and no-answer or manually leaving voicemails. It does it all for them. They can focus more on closing sales and delighting customers.”

GeoComm and RapidSOS have announced a strategic partnership to provide public safety agencies that use GeoComm 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) mapping systems with accurate location and additional data from the RapidSOS Clearinghouse. PSAPs working with GeoComm will be able to make use of data from the RapidSOS NG911 Clearinghouse — including accurate handset location from all smartphone location sensors natively embedded into the 9-1-1 call flow.

“We are excited to work with RapidSOS to get call takers all the data they need to respond to 9-1-1 calls from mobile phones,” said John Brosowsky, GeoCom’s vice president of product management and innovation. “By pairing RapidSOS technology with GeoComm indoor mapping software, we are able to address many problems related to locating cell phone callers in an emergency.”