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Improving the Customer Experience with VoIP

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VoIPAlmost everyone has spent time on hold when trying to contact a customer service line for support. For American consumers, Time magazine reports, this means 10-20 minutes per week spent on hold, or up to roughly 13 hours a year. This hold time frustrates customers and can affect the business they’re trying to contact as it creates a negative customer experience.

Fortunately, technology has improved to the point where businesses have alternatives to the traditional phone system, such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and unified communications (UC). VoIP and UC allow extended support, new ways to resolve problems, and integrated solutions.

Streamlining

The biggest benefit of UC is that it enables single solutions no matter what communication channels are used, from instant messaging to live chat to the traditional phone system. VoIP and UC streamline communications so well that research firm Infonetics predicts that by 2018, their market will reach $88 billion.

Benefits of UC and VoIP

Using UC and VoIP systems creates a seamless experience for the customer. Previously, a customer who was handed off from live chat to the phone system would need to rehash information to the representative on the phone. With UC, this information is given once at the start of the communication and is then available to all agents regardless of channel.

VoIP provides the ability to use interactive voice response systems to record the customer’s name, phone number, and other identity information as well as a summary of the customer’s issue. This means less stress for the customer and improved resolution time because the agent can focus on the problem at hand instead of taking time to record information the customer has already provided.

Reducing Pressure

More communication channels means more ways for the business to help the customer. Issues that are easy to solve can be handled using convenient support channels such as social media and live chat, leaving phone support to be used for issues that require greater explanation and a more focused response. UC and VoIP can also ensure that specific issues get routed directly to the people most qualified to solve them instead of the first representative to pick up the phone.

Combining Support Measures

Computers are used for almost everything, and many representatives are able to solve a problem in a smaller time frame through screen sharing. In the past, this meant use of a separate application; now, UC usually has screen sharing built in. This allows the representative to quickly access the customer’s computer in order to see error messages, check settings, and demonstrate procedures.

Video Conferencing

As with screen sharing, video conferencing allows both sides to have a visual component to their support. One of the benefits of video conferencing is that it allows multiple people to get support at once, rather than each person having to call in and speak to a different representative. Representatives can see exactly what the customers did before the problem occurred. Speaking to a real person also helps improve the customer experience.

The use of UC and VoIP improves the support experience on both ends, leading to more efficient employees and loyal customers. By streamlining support channels, combining support measures, and connecting the customer with the most qualified representative, UC and VoIP reduce customer stress and enhance a business’s relationship with its clients.

Making the Right Choices for Unified Communications in the Enterprise

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shutterstock_218833846Unified communications (UC) can be a powerful tool to bring together a company’s various technology modules. With so many UC vendors offering countless packages of services, choosing the one that best fits the business is a challenge, especially at the enterprise level. Knowing what elements and areas are most important will help design a UC strategy that is effective and useful.

 
 

Teamwork

Part of the allure of UC is that users from multiple departments are able to collaborate in a timely, cooperative way. Enhancing collaboration is painless with UC as long as the right tasks are contained within its workflow. Frequently-accessed tools and features must be part of the program and its reach must extend throughout the whole organization. Each team must be able to contribute in a meaningful way with its current set of tools.

Flexibility for the Future

A solid UC program must account for integration of current and future applications as well as organizational needs. Whether the company stores data locally or in the cloud, uses a particular application vendor, or is considering future avenues for functionality, the UC solution must be able to flex and shift.

The selected package and vendor should guarantee flexibility and cohesive integration with new technology. A good example of this is the use of REST API to make updates and connections to other tools. The potential UC package should also employ a mechanism that facilitates connectivity.

Make It Secure

While accessibility is a key consideration for any system in the current technological climate, it must be provided with top notch security in mind. The last thing a business wants is to build a UC program that has vulnerabilities from inception.

Strong and evolving encryption, multifactor authentication, and satisfactory performance through firewalls are mandatory provisions of a UC platform. Verify the reputation and internal practices of the UC vendor before beginning a transition project by performing a thorough risk and security assessment.

Decide What’s Important

Getting lost in the long list of features provided by UC vendors is easy to do. Remain focused on the elements identified as most critical and begin with those. Add-ons can be fantastic, but they sometimes create too much noise in the decision-making process. If additional features are offered, assess their true value before committing to anything. Entertain competitive offers for essential items first to simplify the selection process.

UC enhances cooperation, fosters relationship-building, and enables a company to use its entire array of tools effectively and efficiently. Making a choice that accounts for the enterprise as a whole will help ensure the best toolkit is selected.

Planning VoIP: The Right Hardware for the Right People

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shutterstock_292470590Over the past decade, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems have become the status quo for the majority of companies. Complex telecom systems like private branch exchange (PBX) are becoming obsolete. The trend toward VoIP is so prevalent that most equipment manufacturers have made it the standard for production. It is worthwhile for companies still using legacy systems to update their communications solutions.

 

There are typically three types of telephone interfaces to take into account when changing phone systems: the traditional desktop phone, the smartphone or mobile device, and softphone applications. The key to planning a VoIP implementation project is to understand how to accommodate a company’s employees and their distinct communication needs.

Remote or Traveling Workers

Many companies have realized the value of telecommuting workers and remote work arrangements, or simply have staff members that travel frequently. VoIP is the perfect answer for these employees since it provides all of the necessary features no matter where the employee’s workstation may be.

Desktop Phone Users

Employees who generally require desktop phones are those who are largely stationary and desk-centric. Inside sales, support, or call center representatives are perfect examples of desktop phone users. Others are technical support, administrative employees such as human resources, or anyone needing added security for compliance purposes. Executives may require both desktop and mobile phones.

Mobile Phone Personnel

On the other side of the VoIP coin are mobile users who travel extensively and need to visit client locations often. Anyone in the field of logistics who drives for a living should be set up with mobile. Outside sales, field managers and workers, and anyone else who tends to roam should primarily use a mobile phone device.

Other VoIP Needs

Occasionally there may be a need for specialized phone equipment in locations such as meeting rooms, classrooms, or employee lunchrooms. In addition, softphone applications can be used from either mobile devices or computers and will allow calls and dialing via an easy interface. This is immensely helpful for sales and service roles.

Additional Considerations

Using a combination of VoIP telephony hardware types does present some challenges. Mobile, for example, is not always completely secure, so certain tasks should not be performed on a mobile device. Further, calls that must be monitored should go through desktop hardware.

Unified communications tools may be difficult to synchronize when a blended system is employed. But allowing these tools to work together effectively enhances productivity and efficiency by leaps and bounds, as in the case of call centers using customer relationship management (CRM) and auto-dialing systems.

VoIP is an impressive business tool that can help optimize many areas of a company, and a bit of preparation goes a long way in the implementation process. Careful analysis of employee needs combined with a good planning checklist from the vendor will ensure that the right solution will be installed.

Video Conferencing Solutions for Today’s Business Environment

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shutterstock_48879208The deployment of mobile technology is swiftly becoming a crucial aspect for business success. The global marketplace demands organizational flexibility through mobile solutions, and indeed, employees now have access to business systems on a wide variety of personal devices. And, because of that mobility, video conferencing has emerged as an important factor in sustaining unified communication and business collaboration.

Technology has provided faster and better ways to communicate. Cloud-based services offer any size organization scalable, virtual resources and collaborative tools to help them embrace a host of business applications, including video.

And although video conferencing offers a modern solution for today’s mobile business environment, a poor quality performance (such as is experienced with mass-audience, public platforms) can be excessively frustrating and devastatingly harmful to the impression a company wants to convey. To competently project an aura of efficiency, there’s no room for grainy images, audio delays, or other quality problems in the virtual meeting place.

Answering the Call

Cloud computing has made it much less expensive to meet modern business needs. Fulfilling a vital aspect in interpersonal communications, video conferencing that is conducted through the cloud seamlessly allows a company’s departmental personnel to conduct meetings with potential clients around the world. And, it allows them interpret the subtle clues conveyed through body language, facial expressions, and other indicators necessary for productive interaction.

However, the increased adoption of cloud computing—which provides a reliable, secure method for engaging in video conferences—has led to a vast employment of diverse applications and platforms, rather than a single, consolidated video standard.

Federation Solutions

Cloud federation offers the solution for a consolidated video standard. By interconnecting the cloud computing environments of multiple service providers, traffic can be load balanced and spikes in demand can be accommodated appropriately to prevent poor video quality.

The “Meet Me” model is an excellent example of a centralized service that offers the flexibility and performance today’s end-users require for video conferencing. Its shared conferencing environment can be accessed through a central meeting point regardless of the different vendor technologies employed for access.

Cloud federation means a client in India can access meetings on his laptop; a stakeholder in China can call via smartphone. Cloud federation means they can engage in seamless communication with participants around the world.

Securing Enterprise Unified Communications With UCaaS

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shutterstock_268428323Cyber crimes have recently been carried out in shocking sophistication, sending waves of alarm bells to big enterprises. An enterprise’s communications system is the first vector of attack that criminals can target. Securing B2B unified communications (UC) with a cloud-based UC-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution is a logical option.

Business benefits of UCaaS

UCaaS has opened new opportunities for businesses by merging internal and external communications. Ideally, all hierarchy levels in an organization should be able to collaborate with one another, and UC has satisfactorily fulfilled this need. However, enterprises also have business communication needs beyond their corporate walls, like 24/7 connectivity to customers, B2B communications, and unimpeded contact with every tier in the supply chain.

UCaaS provides a centralized and unified solution for multiple communications mediums. Instant messaging (IM) and presence, voice and video, mobility needs, and the implementation of authorized traffic are significant trends that are changing the way businesses communicate.

UCaaS increases the availability and efficiency of the IT team. Team members are no longer tied up with the upkeep of hardware, updates on software, testing, and scheduling. Instead, they can be deployed to help core businesses run faster and be more competitive. Business communications under a UCaaS environment also help employees increase productivity wherever they may be – in the office, on the road, abroad, or at home.

With the right design, UCaaS offers solid reliability because data and applications are automatically replicated and backed up in the provider’s multiple data centers. This makes disaster recovery (DR) processes faster and enhances business continuity. Reliability is further boosted by a round-the-clock monitoring of the provider’s data centers and the latest encryption and security protocols.

Role of UC federation in a UCaaS environment

To be more effective, businesses should enable their employees to collaborate in real time with customers, external business partners, and the rest of the supply chain in a secure manner. UC federation makes this possible by cutting down the latencies between the communication sessions of users using different platforms in enterprise or intercompany communication.

UC federation can control which organizations can communicate with each other and at what level they can do so. It also allows specific modes of communications to be deployed or disabled, such as instant messaging or presence.

UC federation can be leveraged by mergers or joint ventures that have different UC technologies. The issue of interoperability during transition would be less of a problem.

There is a growing number of UC platforms and range of specifications from different vendors, such as Microsoft, Cisco, ShoreTel, and Avaya. UC federation aims to offer seamless interoperability between these platforms. NextPlane is one of the pioneers of this service, and AT&T launched its offering in early 2015. In 2010, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Logitech, Polycom, and Juniper Networks formed the Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCIF). It later merged with the International Media Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) in 2014.

As a hosted service, UCaaS is a powerful tool to streamline B2B communications. It also allows businesses to do everything faster: work, communicate, collaborate, and increase profitability.

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