Inside Virtual Call Center

Internap Corp., a provider of Internet business products and services, stated in a press release today that Five9, a virtual call center software provider, will use Internap’s New York City data center to shore up Five9’s cloud capabilities.

“Our selection of Internap represents a key strategic decision for Five9,” said Jim Dvorkin, CTO of Five9, “as it provides high availability and geographical redundancy for our Silicon Valley data center, and the New York location is in closer proximity toEurope to facilitate our continued expansion. Internap’s network backbone provides us with resiliency and high quality connectivity for the tens of thousands of call center agents we support worldwide.”

The data center will serve as a geographical redundancy for Five9 as the call center provider continues to expand globally.

To lay it on thick, Internap’s New York facilities feature “multiple layers of hardened physical security and is staffed and secured 24/7. The state-of-the-art data center is served by top-tier telecommunications carriers and is equipped with fully-redundant power and HVAC systems to ensure service continuity.”

Five9 has been a regular of the on-demand call center market. The company covers both inbound and outbound call center capabilities. Founded in 2001 and based in Pleasanton, California, the company has over 170 employees worldwide.

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Building or choosing call center software can be a very difficult task because there are many different types of virtual call centers and call center features to choose from. Most call center companies have the basic services, such as IVR and predictive dialing, but there are several other features that are essential to a call center. It is important to check that the company you are considering hiring offers those features. Here are five necessary features that you need to look for when choosing call center software.

1. Call Center Analytics

Simple data reports and charts do not suffice if your company needs comprehensive information about how your company is doing and what you can change to make it better. There are interactive tools that can process and analyze data, allowing users to identify issues faster, measure performance, and make the right decisions related to their business. These advanced tools have dashboards and visualization features so users can compare data, interpret information, and look at brief overviews. Also, users can monitor trends, KYIs, and performance issues. Call center analytics are so much more than the typical reporting services.

2. Workforce Management

Agents are the most expensive resource for a company and managing them is extremely important. Optimizing an agent’s performance is key to increasing a company’s revenue and reducing operating costs. Workforce management integrated with a call center allows administrators to view and manage agent’s availability and performance variables. Admins can also analyze call patterns to forecast future call volume, create work schedules based on the forecasted call volumes, and generate reports that display schedule changes.

3. Call Recording

Call recording is a very useful call center feature because companies can extract a lot of useful information from recorded calls between agents and customers. Businesses can improve customer service by measuring performance and working with agents on their phone decorum. Also, they can follow up on legal issues because today there are many corporate governance policies that companies have to be aware of. Call recording is a helpful feature of call center software.

4. Compliance Management

There are many regulatory laws for call centers and the failure to comply with these laws could lead to litigation and a decrease in customers. Investing in a call center with compliance management features is well worth it to avoid complicated legal situations. They help you make intelligent decisions and follow the law. For example, there is a global list of Do Not Call numbers and there are certain HIPPA and PCI Security Standard requirements. Compliance management will help ensure that data is stored and sent safely and that dial settings comply with the specific requirements.

5. Script & Call Flow Designer

The process of collecting and organizing information is time-consuming and can be complicated. A script designer makes sure that all information is retrieved and put away in the database where it belongs. It also validates data and makes sure that it is entered correctly. Also, the script and call flow designer facilitates individual script settings for each particular campaign.

So, when your company decides that it needs call center software- check its features before you make a purchase. Make sure the call center software comes with more than the basic IVR and dialing abilities. The five listed above are important and essential and sure to save your company a lot of time, money, and effort.

Technorati Tags: call center analytics, Call Center Software, call recording, compliance management, script and call flow designer, Virtual Call Center, workforce management

Shiftboard Inc., an online and mobile call center scheduling software provider, has released a new scheduling application for the call center industry. The solution includes key features such as self-service scheduling, which allows call centers 24/7 coverage to meet call demand from around the world.

The Shiftboard virtual call center solution allows for efficient staff scheduling. Managers have 24/7 access to any number of schedules through any web browser and can fill in schedules as caller traffic changes. Schedules can be adjusted instantaneously so service is maintained. The application allows for communication with any staff member, regardless of location.

Call center managers can see schedules in a twenty-four hour schedule layout across multiple call centers. The Shiftboard software is also able to manage break times so that they are staggered and all customers can be answered.

On the other end, agents have access to and receive notifications for their schedules 24/7. Self-scheduling is also offered, so agents can independently pick up whatever shifts that are open at the moment, as well as trade shifts with other agents.

Scheduling can be accessed via web or mobile phone

By far, the largest cost factor to call centers is call representative staffing. This has become increasingly complicated as call centers expand coverage across larger areas. With better technological capabilities, call centers have also reduced the large, single-site centers to smaller, more widely distributed locations. Virtual call center representatives can even work from home. Bryan Lhuillier, chief product and technology officer at Shiftboard, notes that the new scheduling solution was designed “to meet the needs of an industry that has undergone a significant transformation in the last decade.”

Lhuillier continues, “With their highly distributed global workforces, today’s call centers can no longer tolerate the rigid and costly scheduling software of years past. With this announcement, Shiftboard has introduced a highly scalable, cost-effective solution that meets the needs of single location and globally distributed call centers.”

Shiftboard’s scheduling solution is now available to call centers on a subscription model at $79 per month. More information can be found at Shiftboard’s website at www.shiftboard.com.

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Last week, CallFire announced the launch of their new SMS text messaging product. It is a part of CallFire’s call center, as it complements its Interactive Voice Response and Voice Broadcast features. The SMS text messaging capabilities allows CallFire customers to engage their callers or customers in a whole new way.

CallFire’s SMS Text Messaging service is easy to use. Users just need to upload their list of targeted customers to CallFire’s platform along with the message that they want to send. Users can send up to 160 characters per message, and they can forward the message to one or thousands of clients. This is an easy and advanced way to reach a lot of people. CallFire users can avoid abandoned or missed calls because text messages are a foolproof way to make sure that their message gets through.

CallFire’s SMS features are ideal for many different types of companies or individuals. The SMS service could be useful for pharmacists who want to send refill reminders to their customers. Professors could send homework assignments or reminders to their students. Marketers could even send prize information to contest winners via text message. CallFire will even send users delivery reports and analytics so that companies can evaluate how many people they reach out to and whether or not the text messaging service works well for them. Users can even upload the CallFire reports or messages to their computers using Excel.

Text messaging services have grown over the last couple of years. SMS text messaging has become a necessity for many phone users. It is an easy way to reach out to a large group of people, in a low-cost and low hassle way.

CallFire’s SMS messaging service is pay-as-you-go, at 3 cents a message. There are no setup or startup fees. Users can send as many text messages as they want. Read more about CallFire’s SMS product on their website.

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For growing businesses, call centers rapidly become a necessity. If your staff cannot handle excessive amounts of calls and you do not want to lose that large portion of your customer base, look into implementing call center services. Call centers ensure that customers are satisfied and that all calls are taken in a timely manner. Call centers help businesses grow without requiring a lot of money or extra staff members.

Here are five major benefits of deploying a call center:

1. Increase Customer Satisfaction

Customers will be more satisfied because there will be a shorter wait time to speak to an agent. Call Centers route calls to the appropriate agent and ensure that agents do not have to handle abandoned calls, which saves time. This allows for them to talk to more customers in one day than they normally would. Also, for companies who make frequent outgoing calls, call centers can help increase agents’ dialing efficiency by automatically dialing the numbers in the call center system, avoiding blocked numbers or dead end calls. This helps agents reach and help more customers.

2. Increase Efficiency

Whether there is an influx of ingoing calls or outgoing calls, call centers help agents handle them. The number of calls that businesses can handle when they deploy a call center dramatically increases. Most call centers offer a predictive dialer for outgoing calls or an interactive voice response (IVR) menu for ingoing calls. IVR provides callers with a list of options, gathers information, and allows callers to be routed to the correct agent. Also, agents are presented with the information that the customer provided to the virtual voice response menu. This allows them to provide a personal service to the customer and it saves time because they do not have to sit on the phone and gather the information themselves.

3. Save Money

Most call centers are inexpensive and pay-as-you-go. This allows users to cancel the plan whenever they want to. Businesses do not have to hire new employees to handle the extra calls because the call center helps direct the calls. This, in addition to the increased revenue from the augmentation in helped customers can greatly escalate business profits.

4. Find Ways to Improve with Statistics

Call centers track the number of calls businesses make and receive every day. These data statistics help businesses evaluate their service, progress, and how they can improve. Certain patterns can show companies where they went wrong or right so that they can change their protocol for the future.

5. Ameliorate Overall Communication

Call centers can process forms of communication other than live calls. Call centers can process emails, instant messages, and even web conferencing calls. They help businesses avoid neglected emails. Call centers will instantly increase customer satisfaction while taking some pressure off of the employees to check all the different ways that customers contact them.

There are so many benefits of call centers for growing companies. Here are some recommended call center companies that are worth looking into if your business is considering deploying call center software.

• Call Fire
• Five9
• VoIP
• CosmoCom
• Contactual
• Transera
• VIP Desk
• Telemarketing from Home

Read about the specific features that each company’s call center software has to offer to determine which one fits your company best. You can find this information on the Virtual Call Center Blog or on each company’s website.

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Last month, New York Daily News deployed Five9 Inc.’s on-demand virtual call center software, integrated with Salesforce CRM, to increase advertising renewal rates.

The newspaper uses the Five9 call center software for its classified ad sales representatives to call advertisers as their ad approaches expiration. Productivity has increased dramatically with the call center automation.

The call center application, integrated with Salesforce CRM, includes click-to-call functionality and instantaneously delivered advertiser histories from Salesforce.com. The upgrade in call center technology has allowed for more efficient operations and better visibility, so agent activity is made clear. Employees are less occupied by organizational minutia, and customers are appreciative of the more organized services.

Says Chris Thompson, Director of Advertising Administration and Financial Operations at the New York Daily News: “Our classifieds agents were dialing manually before, and tracking renewals to properly credit our agents was next to impossible. With Five9, we have full tracking and management capabilities on all agent activity and all orders. We can now better manage our entire staff and properly credit each agent for the accounts they’ve earned, reducing agent churn. Our advertisers are also happier because we are better able to manage outbound renewal calls.”

The Five9 call center application is entirely cloud-based, as deployed through the Five9 Cloud Computing Platform for Call Centers and Salesforce.com. Jim Dvorkin, CTO at Five9, says that because of this, “New York Daily News was able to improve productivity without the long implementation cycles and up-front capital investment associated with deploying traditional premise-based call center equipment.”

Five9 is an industry leading on-demand virtual call center software provider with both inbound and outbound capabilities. Founded in 2001 and based in Pleasanton, California, the company has over 170 employees worldwide.

Technorati Tags: cloud computing, five9, salesforce integration

CallFire.com, a voice over IP (VoIP) developer and virtual call center provider, recently released their newest product, the Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR is a feature of advanced cloud-based virtual call center systems that eliminates the need for agents to do time-consuming tasks. It serves as a virtual receptionist and can handle thousands of calls at one time.

There are many advanced features of CallFire’s IVR system, including realistic ‘Text to Speech’, where the system can read text. This feature is useful for menu options and the virtual receptionist who speaks to the caller before they are transferred to an agent. CallFire’s Text to Speech option can even be used for outbound calls if companies want to send messages to callers. It can also send appointment reminders or survey previous callers. The press menu feature, which allows agents to gather information about a caller through key presses before they ever speak, is a feature of CallFire’s IVR. IVR can also transfer calls to specific agents, which saves time because callers are routed to the appropriate agent to handle their inquiries. If callers hang up, the calls are disconnected so that agents do not have to waste their time on abandoned calls. Users can even record their calls with CallFire’s IVR if they press the pound button before speaking.

CallFire’s advanced IVR system saves time, money, and prevents hassle. Agents do not have to waste their time gathering information from customers or transferring them to other agents because the IVR system directs callers to the appropriate person. CallFire’s IVR is very easy to customize because it has an IVR designer, which has a user friendly interface so agents can monitor past calls or change settings for future ones.

CallFire’s Customizable IVR Designer

While IVRs are generally used for larger companies, CallFire’s IVR is targeted for smaller to mid-size businesses. It is an easy to use system, where no programming skills are required. CallFire’s IVR is pay-as-you-go, at 5 cents per minute, so there are no installation or monthly fees. There is no minimum or contract, so users can stop using the service whenever they want. Hosted IVR services can be deployed in as little as a few minutes. You can sign up for a free trial on CallFire.com to see how it works for your company.

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An OnState diagram of their call center capabilities

OnState, a cloud-based virtual call center provider, has released the spring 2010 version of its virtual call center software solution. This recent iteration has various updates for increasing service quality and productivity among call representatives.

OnState’s Virtual Call Center is a cloud computing application that offers business-grade customer communication and management capabilities.

Features of the Virtual Call Center include: communication through voice, video, chat, click-to-call, web call-back, IM and conferencing; business-rules routing; skills-based routing; customer and market segregation; support for multiple communication protocols; application integration; Pending Communications, which does automatic callback scheduling; reporting and analytics, and presence enabled.

This new product release adds visual analytics, new network-based call recording, graphic elements to the OnState dashboard, which makes administration easier, and other agent productivity updates.

The new Virtual Call Center’s enhanced real-time and past reports also give better performance visibility, so administrators are more able to monitor the flow of processes through the call center.

The network recording feature works on a variety of devices like landlines, mobile phones, SIP phones, and Internet video conferencing phones (ex., Skype and GTalk). The calls can be recorded in the network and stored through any one cloud-based option.

OnState’s Virtual Call Center and Virtual PBX can be run through Salesforce.com’s ERP application.

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Kingsdale Shareholder Services, a strategic capital and business solutions provider, decided to answer their growth by installing Five9’s Virtual Call Center Suite.  Kingsdale Shareholder Services was created by Kingsdale Capital Corporation, a global financial services firm, because of the growing importance of shareholder service providers.  The Kingsdale Shareholder Services staff has to frequently call clients and proxy voters, to explain the voting processes.  Staff members have to make up to thousands of calls per client, which can be a long and grueling process because they have to manually dial each number since they did not have a call center solution.

Kingsdale Shareholder Services decided to implement the Five9 Virtual Call Center to help them handle outgoing calls.  They were growing rapidly and started signing multi-billion capitalization companies which required thousands of calls. The new call center helped them handle the influx in call volumes, which ultimately helped them grow and expand their services.

Five9, a leading on-demand telemarketing and call center solutions provider, offers predictive dialing, which helps avoid blocked numbers or busy signals.  This saves time and money as agents do not have to manually dial numbers.  Also, agents can avoid dead end calls. Five9 is ideal for rapidly growing companies that need to handle more outgoing or ingoing calls.

Five9’s virtual call center was a success at Kingsdale Shareholder Services.  They were able to increase their daily outbound calls from 500 to over 5,000 with the new call center.  This helped Kingsdale double their customer base in one year.  Mayu Baba, a Kingsdale Shareholder Services employee, was very pleased with the call center implementation.  He said, “We felt that the Five9 solution provided the features we were looking for – predictive dialing, reporting, call monitoring, and high-quality VoIP – at a price point we could afford.”

Five9 installed the call center in a few days, as opposed to the months or weeks that Kingsdale expected.  Kingsdale saved money with Five9 and accordingly they were able to double the number of agents that they had on staff.  Training is faster and easier with Five9’s call center.  Kingsdale completely customized the virtual call center.  Their company grew significantly because of it.

Baba said, “The overall impact of the Five9 solution has been very positive for Kingsdale Shareholder Services,” said Baba. “It has allowed us to offer new value-added, personalized services to our clients such as offering dedicated 1-800 lines, and increase efficiencies enabling us to double our customer base and number of call center agents in just one year, while maintaining the stellar client services that we are known for.”

Users can build their own call centers with the help of Five9’s informational webinars, which can be found on their website.  Five9 can also provision business call centers in as little as 48 hours.

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Angel.com, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and call center solutions provider, recently released their revolutionary business intelligence and reporting for IVR. Angel.com wanted to add stronger reports to their IVR solutions as well as embed business intelligence analytics into their on-demand platform. This break-through technology, entitled Caller First Analytics, came out of Beta in April.

Caller First Analytics was designed to help companies increase the efficiency of their Interactive Voice Response solutions while saving money. Angel.com wanted to take IVR and make it better, so they determined the problems with IVR and targeted what they wanted to improve.

Some of the key features of Caller First Analytics include Voice User Interface Reports, which track hang-ups and trouble spots in companies’ voice applications, and Application Performance Reports, which measure and tracks task completion metrics. Caller First Analytics is customizable software-as-a-service (SaaS) that customers can also use to check their call parameter history to see how call metrics have changed over time. Caller First Analytics also provides Funnel Analysis, which analyzes callers path through the system to identify entry and exit points so companies can avoid abandoned calls.

Jay Lassman, the Research Director at Gartner, Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company, commented on Angel.com’s Caller First Analytics. He said, “Recently the marketplace has been expressing interest in the merits of integrating business intelligence with IVR. This marriage offers the possibility for large enterprises to better analyze and understand customer needs as well as voice call data, which should lead to improved customer satisfaction and business growth.”

Caller First Analytics will allow businesses to intensely analyze their IVR applications to improve customer service and efficiency. This on-demand solution does not require any hardware, software, or human resources. Angel.com’s pay-as-you-go pricing is also affordable.  Their detailed application performance, call data, and IVR reports will help businesses overcome the challenges they face to get the most customers possible.

You can view a demo of their Caller First Analytics on their website, Angel.com.

Technorati Tags: angel.com, call center solutions, Gartner, interactive voice response, IVR, SaaS Call Center, SaaS Virtual Call Center