Don’t Let The Grinch Steal Christmas: Take Your Business To The Cloud

Diksha Gusain

Author

Contact Center

December 10, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Well, folks, it’s that time of the year again. Raise your hand if you get cosy and start bingeing Christmas movies as soon as December begins (or even earlier, I won’t judge). I plead guilty as well.

We can finally bring out the mistletoe, candy canes and ugly sweaters, and jam to carols. After all, just because the pandemic has thrown a damper on 2020 doesn’t mean it can steal our holiday spirit—even the Grinch’s heart grew thrice its size on Christmas!

Navigating this season in a remote set-up could seem daunting and time-consuming. But fret not, even though you are physically apart, you can still stay virtually connected with the latest cloud technologies.

What’s cloud communication, you ask?

It’s what the world runs on in this day and age. As beings with noses stuck inside smartphone screens, we primarily communicate over the Internet. Calls, texts, videos—all through the cloud.

This is also the technology that helps businesses thrive in high seasons. And you can use the solution too, to help your business through the festive rush. Not just to stay connected with customers, but also to keep employees engaged and aligned with your goals.

So let’s get into it. Here’s how you, as a company, can use cloud communications to prepare for Christmas.

‘Tis the season to be charitable

Christmas is a festival that celebrates the sentiments of giving and sharing—not just for loved ones, but to everyone in the world. It’s the perfect time to extend support to causes you believe in and inspire people to join your mission of helping the less fortunate.

This brings a sense of community that better connects your business with customers, while also showcasing your core values and place in the society. You’re essentially able to curate a positive brand image and reputation. Additionally, you attract people that are passionate about the same causes as you.

The cloud helps you spread your message across better and gives people easy pathways to join you. Simply send a broadcast of your support to different charities and allow people to respond or contribute. These broadcasts are cost-effective and can be sent to your customers, and also to a wider audience.

Other cloud-based solutions, like hosted phone systems and toll free number, make it possible for you and your customers to connect with each other more efficiently at affordable rates.

This way, you’re interacting with way more people and are likely to attract like-minded clients to build a lasting partnership.

Holiday routing with no blockages

Energies are high in the holiday season. With Christmas preparations and gifting in full gear, businesses tend to gain a lot of traction. On the other hand, you also need to be mindful of the burden on your employees and their personal commitments.

So what do you do?

To quote the American entrepreneur Jessica Jackley, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”

In other words: delegate. Use the latest automation features that cloud solutions offer to manage your workflow like a pro. Leverage Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) to manage all your communication tools and bring them on a single platform.

An intelligent multi-level IVR can be used to determine the level of the query. So, while simpler issues can be resolved by self-service, only the high priority tasks will involve live agents.

These calls will be routed accurately and swiftly to the appropriate extension. This will free up your agents to focus only on the complex queries, instead of getting bogged down by mundane issues.

An auto-attendant can also make sure that no caller goes unaccounted for, even if the office is low on staff. People can leave voicemails which will be sent to the agents’ inboxes with transcripts. They can quickly review the problem and get back to the client in a jiffy.

The calls can also be routed using the holiday routing strategy. This involves redirecting calls to alternate phone lines available especially for the holiday season or plays a special voicemail for the occasion.

Similarly, all missed calls will be recorded in your call logs along with the necessary client information and tags. No call needs to go unanswered, even in high traffic situations.

Season’s greetings, new and improved

Out of sight, out of mind is just a school of thought—but why test the theory? Maintaining communication with customers is always important, but even more so during the holidays.

Spread the holiday cheer around by sending season’s greetings to your loyal clientele. A simple message, full of positivity and support, can truly light up someone’s day.

Use automated calls and bulk SMS features to send wishes to your large target base simultaneously. Make sure you’re a part of their cheer and in a positive light.

But why stop there? You can also send voice broadcasts regarding Christmas offers, campaigns, and gifts, especially to express gratitude to long-time and VIP customers. Even small gestures such as these go a long way in etching your brand into people’s hearts.

With dirt-cheap cloud solutions, you need not worry about phone bills for such promotions and can focus your budgets on the offer itself.

What’s Christmas without carols?

Whether you’re a fan of classic carols like Silent Night and Deck the Halls, or go gaga over Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas, there’s no denying the cosy sentiments these songs evoke in us.

Needless to say, if people call you and are put on hold, you need to ensure they have a pleasant time even while waiting. So bring out the tunes.

Customised music-on-hold is a super attractive feature of cloud phone systems. Instead of making callers suffer through mind-numbing beeps, just play some festive music. You’re much more likely to have successful conversations when the customers are happier from the get-go.

And the best part is, there’s a variety of songs to pick from and you can even upload your own music. Just keep rotating them—and clients can have a totally new experience when they call again.

Bring out some friendly competition with fun contests

All work and no play… well, you know the rest. A relationship between a business and a customer needn’t be purely transactional.

The holiday season is the best time to get people on board for engaging contests. You can offer prizes and giveaways to further encourage participation. Send out personalised e-invites to people for special competitions and broadcast large-scale contests.

For example, you may give prizes for the most aesthetic Christmas trees. Or have a big award for the customer who uses your product or service most creatively.

In fact, why not take this up a notch? Hold a virtual awards ceremony (if the Emmys can do it, so can you). With high definition cloud connectivity, you can hold an online event, and even record it so that you can share it later! Utilising the video conferencing solution, you can keep your event exclusive to your loyal customers.

People can share their acceptance speeches virtually and send congratulatory wishes over chat simultaneously.

As we’ve discussed, there are so many ways to establish a Christmas connection with clients. But that’s not enough. You also need to look at the happiness of the employees and do your bit to share some joy with them.

And that’s not difficult at all. Get your staff involved with activities like:

Virtual Christmas party

What better way to share the festive joy than face-to-face? With the cloud’s large-scale video conferencing capabilities, you can hold virtual parties with ease. Get some drinks, play jolly music and host fun games like Mad Libs, Charades or Pictionary. It’s a great idea to have a Christmas-themed online scavenger hunt as well.

Secret Santa

Everyone loves getting gifts. But add in the secrecy twist, and you’ve got yourself a really fun event. Secret Santa basically involves the random assignment of giftees and gifters, and you don’t know who’s going to get something for you.

The fun is in determining your colleague’s taste well, and then actually guessing who gave you the gift. You can simply place an order online (with secure cloud transactions) and have it delivered to your assigned colleague’s address. Then you can host a video call where people will open their gifts together and guess who their Santa was!

Holiday movie night

Watching movies with someone is a different experience than doing it alone. Considering we have no shortage of festive movies, you can host a viewing party where people can watch a film together (or marathon a series of cringeworthy holiday movies). With food, entertainment and funny commentary, it’s the perfect recipe for an engaging and bonding experience.

Flexible work hours for festive teams

Christmas is all about family. Maintaining that work-life balance is really important, and cloud offers you just the right amount of flexibility to pull it off. Allow people to join the office network right from home, be a part of meetings, share critical files, track team progress, and much more.

VoIP makes remote working easy. You can make high-quality calls even on low bandwidth.

And while your employees are connected from their home network, you can rest assured about your data security. Cloud technology comes with end-to-end encryption and multiple layers of security.

They can have more time with their loved ones and work flexibility around the holiday responsibilities. Automation further helps reduce the workload on agents and smooth out the processes.

Conclusion

We’re a resilient bunch of people. Christmas is here, and it’s all about joy, caring, colours, and a lot of festivities. Businesses and customers alike feel this rush—so a remote set-up need not become an obstacle.

Keep customers and employees connected, engaged, and in the right spirit with the help of a variety of cloud communication tools. The rest will work itself out.

Curious about how to take your business to the cloud, and what benefits you can avail? Get in touch with us at 1888-859-0450 or send an email to [email protected] and we’ll be right with you. And a very Merry Christmas to you.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

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Diksha Gusain

Author

Diksha is a junior content writer at Acefone. As a tech-lover, she aims to bridge the gap between tech articles and non-savvy readers. She’s equally interested in pop culture and worldly affairs. And in her free time, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or discovering new music for her chaotically diverse playlist.

Hosted PBX vs SIP Trunking: Which One is Better For Your Business?

Acefone Editor

Author

Phone System

December 9, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Hosted PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Trunking are different solutions but united in bringing a range of exciting features to business communications. If you want to enjoy the benefits of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), the first question you’ll need to ask is whether to opt for hosted PBX or SIP trunking.

This article will explore what hosted PBX and SIP trunking really are, their differences, and why these differences matter. When switching to VoIP, it’s important to make an informed decision and choose the most suitable system for your needs. So, take some time to look carefully through the main differences and reach out to our team if you’re left unsure of your requirements.

Read on to find out the amazing benefits of both Hosted PBX and SIP trunking for modern businesses.

What is hosted PBX?

A hosted PBX system works entirely on the cloud. These phone systems are managed off-site by a third-party company. This allows businesses to connect to the office network from anywhere in the world and at any time of the day—as long as they have an Internet connection.

Additionally, hosted PBX systems can be accessed from multiple compatible devices, making it possible to switch from one device to another seamlessly. This means that hosted phone systems lend themselves to working remotely, or working on the move.

Hosted VoIP systems also make it unnecessary for businesses to deploy specialised infrastructure or equipment. They can simply enjoy enterprise-grade communications wherever they are. This also eliminates the need for a physical office space, and can be a great solution for smaller businesses that still want to achieve a level of professionalism.

What is SIP trunking?

A SIP trunk connects your existing telephone system to the Internet. This means that you can use your existing hardware and still enjoy the benefits of VoIP—all you need is a virtual connection between your telephone equipment and a VoIP service.

SIP trunking is ideal for businesses that have made significant investments in their telephone equipment and would like to manage an in-house phone system. Businesses with larger and more experienced IT teams may lean towards it as they have the resources to ensure smooth operations without having to rely on external agents.

A SIP trunk will introduce your business to a more reliable communication system and many exciting features as compared to a traditional phone system.

How do SIP trunking and Hosted PBX differ?

While both these services have their similarities, such as relatively low set-up costs and similar monthly costs, they do differ quite a lot in other areas. To make an informed decision, you must compare the following elements and see which solution best suits your business needs—now and in the future.

1. Maintenance and ongoing costs

If you choose SIP trunking and connect your existing telephony equipment to the Internet, you are likely to receive a monthly maintenance bill. Further, if your IT team does not have the expertise to deal with your advanced phone system, you’ll need to hire an engineer for updates, repairs, and general upkeep.

Although maintenance can sometimes be included in your contract, emergency call-outs for repairs or anything outside of your contract could end up being extremely costly.

Hosted PBX differs from SIP trunking in this aspect—all maintenance and updates can be completed remotely by your provider, meaning no extra costs for you! You just need to ensure your devices are working effectively and everything else is taken care of by your provider. Without the burden of heavy and expensive infrastructure, you are much less likely to run into unexpected problems or costs.

2. Growth and flexibility

With SIP trunking, you can add lines to your phone system as and when you need them. However, adding lines here also requires the addition of new (and often expensive) hardware, which can limit free hiring.

With a hosted PBX system, you can easily add and remove lines online, and new recruits can connect to your phone system from their own devices immediately. There is no need for any extra hardware.

If your business is seasonal and you need extra hands for certain periods of the year, a hosted PBX would be the better choice. You can add and remove these temporary workers at will without the hassle of dealing with hardware, as is the case with SIP trunks.

It’s also notable that SIP trunking provides a greater degree of flexibility in comparison to a traditional phone system. It allows employees to access a range of VoIP features such as video conferencing, call recording, and more. These capabilities allow your communication system to be used more flexibly throughout your business.

These same capabilities are accessible from a hosted PBX system as well, with the added benefit of not requiring hardware. So you could essentially relocate or simply add and remove lines and features with total convenience.

If your business is heavily reliant on a static physical office without much movement of employees, a SIP trunk would be perfect for you. You can use your existing phone hardware and utilise all the resources of the office building.

On the other hand, if you’re considering expanding to allow remote workers to join you, need employees to travel for work, or don’t have a set office building, then a hosted PBX system may be the better option for you.

Put simply, both solutions can work extremely well depending on your business requirements!

3. Recovery in times of crises

Another question you must ask yourself is: what if something happened to your office premises? Or what would happen if you couldn’t get to your workspace for any reason. Would business come to a halt? If the answer is yes, then you should look for a solution that is the safest in times of crises.

Many people were thrown into a work-from-home model during COVID-19, with lockdowns across the world. Luckily, both SIP trunking and Hosted PBX came to people’s rescue. Both these solutions can handle such a transition with ease—SIP trunking by forwarding calls from the office phone and hosted PBX with its ability to work on any compatible device.

However, if something were to compromise your office building, a SIP trunk may not offer the protection needed to get you back up and running. An engineer will need to come out and complete the repairs which can take a lot of time and can be extremely costly.

In contrast, a remotely hosted PBX system can have you back on your feet within seconds so your business is never interrupted.

As a business owner, you must think very carefully about how quickly you can recover and have a solid plan in place just in case something unexpected happens.

Why do these differences matter?

It’s quite simple. One decision can be the difference between your business getting the best out of its hosted phone system or not! Investing in any change or new phone system needs a lot of careful consideration as it would determine just how smoothly your operations will run in the long-term.

What suits your business now, may not suit you in the future. It’s important to consider all the differences and ensure that whatever solution you choose, it will work for you as your business grows and expands, not just at the current time.

If you need some help figuring out which solution is right for your business, don’t hesitate to call our friendly team on 1888-859-0450 to discuss your business needs. You can even email us at [email protected] and we’ll get right back to you.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Acefone Editor

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Acefone provides a broad range of cloud communication services to businesses of all sizes, which includes Hosted Phone Systems, Free Phone Numbers, and Cloud Contact Center Solutions. Being the UK's leading provider of VoIP service provider, we always strive to provide excellent customer service and high-quality custom solutions to our customers.

Effective Feedback: Game Changer in Quality Management

Acefone Editor

Author

Call Center

7 mins read eye

Table of content

For someone who is a part of a call center in any way, be it an employee or manager, the most important aspect to consider is what the client wants. Then, the question that follows is: are we satisfying these needs?

“We all need feedback. That’s how we improve.” These are the words of the one and only—Mr. Bill Gates, on the importance of customer reviews. Quality and feedback always go hand-in-hand. After all, the best way to improve is by knowing what your customers feel about you.

Constructive criticism will also improve your agents’ performance drastically. However, delivering corrective feedback comes with its own challenges. Unfortunately, there are a number of loopholes that can derail this process, such as:

(a) Lack of Confidence

Confronting employees with the results of their feedback or potential issues can be tough. While some managers do it with grace, others may doubt their ability to handle such situations. This greatly impacts the transparency of feedback.

(b) Vague Feedback

Managers providing vague or non-specific feedback often fail to motivate their agents to do better or point them in the right direction. Non-targeted feedback often fails to provide real-time examples and actionable suggestions, vital for improving overall performance.

Providing timely, effective and transparent feedback plays a very important role in employee engagement and improving their work satisfaction as well. To empower call center leaders and improve agent performance, we’ve curated some effective practices that will help deliver impactful feedback.

(1) Consider Customer Feedback as a ‘Starting Point’ Towards Better Customer Service

If you want to implement a continuous improvement plan for your call center’s service quality, the best place to start would be by gathering consumers’ responses to build an assessment. This practice helps understand the current scenario and design new experiences.

(2) Effective Feedback is a Two-way Street

While customer critiques hold enormous value and we believe all feedback is good feedback, you’ve only truly won if you heed the responses and act on them promptly. When we say feedback should be a two-way street, we mean that it should also be acted upon and not just listened to.

(3) Be Consistent with Feedback

They say there’s no better time than now. Reflect upon a situation is as soon as it happens. If you see something positive, say it then and there. For example, when you see an agent doing well on call, do not wait for a month-end meeting —instead do a little thumbs up right away to let them know.

This puts employees in a positive frame of mind, and they act accordingly. It also makes the employee feel valued and boosts their energy and confidence to perform even better in the future.

(4) Let Agents Self-evaluate

When someone initiates the conversation of self-evaluation, be it employees or companies, things tend to flow seamlessly. Both the parties remain open to feedback compared to when it’s a unilateral process.

Impactful feedback is more than just the communication of client comments. It requires meaningful dialogue and parties who are open to encouragement as well as criticism.

Of course, the art of giving criticism is just as important as the ability to receive it.

So How can You Effectively Phrase Feedback to Measure Call Centre Performance?

Be neutral and objective: Feedback should be free of personal bias and emotions. Base your comments on observations, data and concrete figures so that your agents do not feel dumbfounded or cornered.
Empathize: Never forget to listen to the other party’s point of view during a feedback session. This makes agents feel understood and they are more receptive towards implementation of the feedback given.
Start with praise: In case it’s negative feedback, don’t jump to criticism right away. Instead, start with the aspects of their performance that you do appreciate and then segue into critical aspects of it.
Pair feedback with real-time examples: Call center performance evaluation must include relevant examples to help drive home your point.

Simply put, feedback is important at every step of the quality evaluation process. Now that the features of an effective feedback session are clear, let’s move on to creating a call center quality evaluation process that works for you.

(a) Call Analysis

While it’s ideal to trust the capabilities of your agents, there will always be scope for improvement––for them to deliver a service that fits the company culture perfectly.

Call monitoring is the first step towards setting up an effective quality assurance method. By keeping a record of customer-agent interactions, you get to know the quality of the conversations firsthand.

Other important aspects that are highlighted by call monitoring are:

Impactful service delivery methods
If the agent’s tone is in line with the company
If issues are being identified and resolved within stipulated time

Based on the results of these recordings, managers can also create personalized and targeted sessions to improve specific skill sets and train new recruits.

(b) Leveraging Reports to Enhance Quality

Comprehensive and graphic reports based on call center data enable managers to decipher the service levels better. They also let you sort the data and metrics using filters for specific quality parameters.

Call center performance needs a holistic approach across departments and agents, and putting data at your fingertips helps make informed decisions.

(c) Consistent Training

Training should be a consistent and on-going aspect rather than being an occasional effort, and call center quality management lets you do just that.

Implementing a timely and personalized learning process equips your agents with essential tools and eliminates the fluff that can otherwise go unnoticed.

However, don’t try to measure everything

We are living in an information-intensive environment. By including and measuring all the KPIs under the sun, it makes it very difficult to evaluate what really matters.

The transition of quality management from conventional scoring to measuring the overall quality of the interaction.

Effective-feedback

By focusing heavily on rigid measurements, your quality assurance framework might be right, but you may miss out on other important aspects. Smart organizations realize that checkbox approaches such as “Did you say customer’s name at least thrice on a call?” never result in great customer experiences.

Instead, companies should concentrate on the overall outcome of customer delight. Flexibility is key and providing agents with the autonomy to conduct themselves over calls boosts confidence and motivation, and in turn, the overall outcome of customer satisfaction.

Opt for Cloud Solutions for a 360-degree Feedback System

To stay updated on the technology front, you need to look for solutions that are highly flexible and, yet, scalable at the same time. Cloud services provide you with a robust analytics system and real-time feedback. They offer features such as call recording and data insights which are vital to performance evaluation.

Quick wins that Quality Assurance Managers Can Implement Easily

Introducing a comprehensive cycle of collecting data, analyzing it and training the agents surely guarantees excellent quality assurance. However, if you want to start slow, begin with these practices for immediate results:

Ensure that your metrics and KPIs really contribute towards quality assurance. Consider Average Call Handling Time or AHT. A commonly used metric, it can actually be detrimental to the quality assessment process if agents are focused on the duration of call rather than customer satisfaction.
Keep a holistic approach when it comes to customer communication. Scripts should only be used as references. Real value lies in looking at a conversation from the customer’s point of view. If they’re happy with the outcome, you should be too.
Make sure that the insights you collect are not only negative but positive too. Agents should feel comfortable about the feedback session rather than just having their shortcomings pointed out to them. A little praise takes everyone a long way.

By following these strategies, your call center will have a more motivated and focused workforce. Your agents will experience a higher level of engagement and, hence, job satisfaction. Effective quality assurance practices will also boost productivity and collaboration so that your organization works together like a well-oiled machine.

There is no shortage of latest technologies and tools to aid ideal quality assurance processes. However, with a lack of appropriate strategies or goal understanding, these tools can fall short of their objectives.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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How Cloud Communication Can Help In Improving Inbound Marketing?

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

December 8, 2020

6 mins read eye

Table of content

Generic marketing techniques are no longer effective. The need of the hour is to understand the specific requirements of your customers and solve their problems.

Nobody likes their inbox filled to the brim with sales emails. It is the customer who decides what product to buy and which brand to associate with. Therefore, your business must be ready to connect with people in the most convenient ways. Inbound marketing is the answer—across industries and business sizes.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a potential method used to improve your brand’s visibility amongst the target audience using curated content. This includes blog posts, social media posts, website content, and infographics to name a few.

Content delivered through inbound marketing should be educational, engaging, and interesting to attract your prospects on the lookout for the right purchase.

For example, consider someone who is interested in purchasing a laptop. He will research the internet, visit your competitor’s website for information, and compare pricing.

Through your inbound marketing strategy, you can reach out to this prospect by offering useful information about your product. You may use your website, social media platforms, or blog posts to showcase how your product stands out.

Why should you focus on improving your inbound marketing techniques?

Inbound marketing helps you to draw in your customers towards your brand. Instead of simply shoving your products and services on the customer’s face or interrupting your target base with mundane emails, inbound marketing offers the opportunity to deliver contextual experiences to your customers.

It helps you communicate the value of your products and services to your customers and cater to their particular needs. This methodology attracts customers to your brand when they feel it is time to make a purchase.

Furthermore, when your inbound marketing strategy begins to promote your business, it automatically attracts prospects organically.

This results in a surge in website traffic and helps in bringing higher ROI with marketing analytics. With so many benefits at hand, don’t you think it is high time you work towards boosting the quality of your inbound marketing techniques?

Here, we have consolidated a few ways about how using cloud communication helps improve inbound marketing. Check them out right away!

According to a Forbes’ report, inbound marketing generates three times more leads than traditional methods.

1. Provides centralised access to data

The current pandemic has made businesses rethink their traditional working methods. It has made stakeholders realise the importance of and the need for remote work.

One major challenge remote work has to address is access to sensitive data. When your inbound marketing team works from home, it is important that they be provided with the appropriate tools to access customer information.

Cloud-based inbound marketing pushes centralised access to data. It saves all your information on the cloud which allows your team to retrieve data from anywhere across the globe irrespective of the device they use.

Furthermore, the cloud facilitates simultaneous file updates, sharing of documents, and sending and receiving information. This feature ensures that your team can work uninterruptedly from the comfort of their home.

Consider a scenario where your marketing team needs to collaborate and discuss a campaign initiation. A cloud-based system can easily facilitate video conferencing equipped with data required for the meeting. Your team members can virtually meet each other and plan strategies.

2. Offers cloud-based phone system

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a cloud-based telephone system that enables your entire inbound marketing team to connect over the Internet. You won’t need to stay near your desk phone attend to customer calls. You can use your IP phone to connect with your system and work from anywhere in the world.

This feature especially proves beneficial in a distributed organisational setup or in situations like this current pandemic when employees are not able to work on-premise. VoIP helps in uninterrupted inbound marketing while ensuring the comfort of the users.

Furthermore, cloud-based systems help you reach out to talent pools across the globe. You need not restrict your recruitment to locals. This helps improve the quality of your workforce.

3. Provides powerful analytical tools

Analysing and obtaining intuitive insights from data is crucial to the success of every inbound marketing strategy. Cloud-based systems are competent to track and monitor inbound marketing initiatives.

Cloud-based analytical tools also help in deriving insights about inbound marketing campaigns like SMS, contests, and customer surveys that have worked best with the target audience and those that have not been successful.

These tools help you understand the shifting trends and demands of your target audience along with offering the support to test marketing channels with minimal risk and determining ways that have been accepted by the target audience.

4. Ensures high-end data security

Your inbound marketing team deals with sensitive business information day-in and day-out. The slightest breach of this information can have a huge negative impact on your brand. With cloud-based inbound marketing techniques, you can rest assured that your data is secure.

Data stored on the cloud is secured by state-of-the-art security protocols. Even in cases where your team will need to work from home and access data through their devices, cloud-based systems provide access to critical data only after appropriate authentication. This system adheres to a role-based authentication where access is provided only if the responsibilities of the user demand access to the data. Again, a multi-level authentication mechanism is implemented to make sure your data remains unharmed.

Moreover, cloud-based systems are managed completely by cloud service providers. They take complete charge of updates and maintenance of your system. This feature not only frees you from the trouble of maintaining this system but also helps you focus on other core business activities.

Additionally, your service provider makes sure to update the system periodically. This ensures adherence to the latest security protocols thereby securing your customer data efficiently.

5. Offers backup and disaster recovery

In case of a crisis, where you have lost all your data, it may become impossible to bounce back and provide uninterrupted service to your customers through inbound marketing. This may hit your brand’s reputation. For example, you may have to stop posting blogs, feed your social media with information, or break promotional campaigns.

Cloud-based marketing has a state-of-the-art backup mechanism in place that helps you to retrieve your lost information quickly. The cloud manages centralised data centers in distributed locations that enable you to save a copy of your data. This feature allows you to restore your data thereby helping you to restart work in a faster manner during an unprecedented situation.

6. Helps save costs

Setting up an in-house data center may cost you a lot. A cloud-based system helps you enjoy the benefits of a centralised data center at minimal costs. You are saved from the trouble of maintaining the system and dedicating a separate team to administer it. These are automatically taken charge by your cloud service provider leaving your team with more time to concentrate on core marketing activities.

Parting words

It has become important to find newer and effective ways to connect with your customers. Your target audience should be able to contact you whenever they need your help. This kind of uninterrupted service is facilitated by a cloud-based inbound marketing kiosk.

Hopefully, the above-mentioned points throw light on the importance of inbound marketing and how adopting cloud technologies can help improve it.

Looking for ways to further optimise your inbound marketing? Contact Acefone at 1888-859-0450 or send us an email at [email protected] and we’ll help you out.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Expert Opinion: Customer Experience Is The Pillar of Modern Business Says Tiffany Carpenter

Tavishi Arora

Author

Expert Opinion

December 7, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

“Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.”

-Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon

Resilience and agility. The two most-spoken aspects of the business arena today. Companies that have survived the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic can confirm one thing: at the heart of their operations is incredible customer experience.

Yet, this can not be the only approach to guarantee success. Entrepreneurs will do everything they can to serve their customers with top-notch service until externalities make it a challenge.

So, what can you do to maintain a strong relationship with your customers? It boils down to one thing: make efforts and keep trying. The dedication you show will definitely be rewarding in the long run.

Your customers appreciate your attempts to keep them happy and that is what ensures success.

However, this drives us to an interminable question of how to achieve top-grade customer experience? How to improve our customer interactions? What do experts think about customer experience?

We talked about customer experience strategies and much more in our recent interview with Tiffany Carpenter—a thought leader and keynote speaker. She has spent 2 decades transforming customer experience for businesses across their sales, service, and marketing operations.

Currently, she guides organisations on the application of advanced analytics and AI to harness customer insights and deliver a highly-personalised service. In addition to being a member of the CMO council, she is the co-founder of Griswold, a boutique fitness concept that delivers personalised fitness programs based on data and analytics.

Here’s what she thinks of the contemporary CX approach and how businesses can guarantee a seamless customer journey.

Q1. What made you choose the field of CX?

I started out my career advising organisations on how to optimise their contact centers to balance customer service while optimising operating costs and profitability.

Back then, the contact center was a growing channel and digital channels didn’t exist as a means of customer interaction. Websites were brochureware and phones weren’t smart. My career in CX has been a progression as the Internet, social media and smartphones empowered the customers; organisations needed to respond by adopting a more outside-in approach.

Q2. How would you define a good customer experience?

A good customer experience is the sum of every interaction that brands have had with their consumers across their entire relationship. It’s the way a customer feels and their emotive sentiment attached to the brand—both during and after all these interactions—and it’s the basis on which many consumers decide to keep transacting with a brand.

Consumers today have increasing expectations and more choices than ever before. To that end, a good customer experience not only meets expectations but exceeds them to make customers want to come back.

Q3. What’s the best way to ensure a seamless customer experience?

Consumers don’t think in channels and they don’t care that your organisation might have complex processes and siloed business units. They see one brand and expect a seamless and consistent experience regardless of how, when and where they choose to interact.

To ensure a seamless experience, organisations need an always-on approach to data and analytics which continuously monitor customer behaviour and pick-up customer insights. This always-on approach must also process and analyse all these signals and act on the insights in a timely way—often in real-time.

For most organisations, this means moving beyond the use of analytics just for reporting and business intelligence and investing in real-time analytics and automated decisions. It’s the only way to pick-up individual customer signals within the noise of data and to create personalised responses in real-time, regardless of the channel.

Q4. How would you define your journey as a customer experience expert?

It’s a personal learning process—a journey that will never end as the only constant is change. Knowing that the work I do is driving change for the better of an organisation, employees, and customers are very rewarding.

Q5. What are some of the best CX tips that you’ve offered? How do you feel when your customers achieve success with your aid?

Whether your goal is to fundamentally transform the customer experience or to improve it at the margins, your CX strategy needs to be clearly understood by the rest of the organisation. I recommend that companies start by defining their vision as a set of statements. These guidelines can act as guiding principles which will drive the behaviour of the entire organisation.

Next up, you need to understand your customers and identify the gap between their expectations and their actual experiences. Gathering data is the starting point but it’s important to ensure you are asking the right questions of the data. Check if you are only asking the “what” and “how” questions but that you are also asking the important “who” and “why” questions. Who are my customers as individuals? Why do they behave as they do?

My final tip would be to avoid waiting on lengthy IT projects and big-budget programmes to build a single customer view and instead prioritise action today using the data you have available right now.

Q6. How do you think inspiring keynote speaker performances help businesses deliver superior customer experience?

Keynote speakers bring an outside perspective and can share industry trends and tips as well as real-life experiences. An inspiring CX keynote speaker can get everyone involved, share the vision of customer experience, help audience members step into their customer shoes and energise the entire organisation to get on board and play their part in driving customer experience towards the future goal.

Q7. Please share an instance where a company successfully went the extra mile for their customers.

Covid-19 created an unexpected and extreme set of customer challenges for every organisation. Despite this, brands across every industry have risen to the occasion. Many of them have acted decisively and quickly to make tremendous transformations in the customer experience, breaking down traditional barriers to change and find new ways of working more effectively and efficiently.

In fact, research by SAS Software and 3Gem reveals that a quarter (25%) of customers surveyed noted an improvement in the customer experience during the lockdown.

The pandemic and resulting recession are pushing customers to the brink both financially and mentally and I have been heartened by so many organisations, from large well-known brands to small family businesses that have stepped up to support their customers and communities, through the crisis, winning customer loyalty in the process.

Q8. Tell us about your journey of becoming the co-founder of Griswold Studios.

Health and fitness are fundamental to our quality of life and regardless of your age, there’s strong evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and happier life. But the business model in the gym industry relies on aggressively selling memberships, not on customer outcomes.

How many people do you know who pay an annual gym membership and turned up once or maybe twice per year? It can also be quite an intimidating experience for many. As an avid health and fitness enthusiasts, my husband and I determined to shake up the model. We have built a boutique fitness studio, focused on customer outcomes, specialised experiences, a sense of community and inclusion, and flexible participation.

Our business model is built on customer experience from the moment a customer walks in the door to the moment they leave. We started with our customers’ wants and needs and worked backwards in designing our space and offerings.

We’ve hired employees who are committed to our CX vision and delivering successful customer outcomes for every member. The best thing is, I have been able to establish and grow a business with my husband, whilst balancing my full-time role at Head of Customer Experience Solutions at SAS Software, the global analytics, and artificial intelligence leader.

Q9. In the two decades of your career, there has been much advancement in AI and related technology. What do you think of using these advanced technologies in delivering CX?

Everywhere you look today you can see Artificial intelligence is making our lives easier. Smart speakers and smart appliances are infiltrating our homes, whilst businesses are transforming and automating legacy processes. At the same time, organisations everywhere are looking to compete on CX, and AI has an important role to play in turning customer data into insights and delivering the type of real-time, individualised experiences that customers have come to expect.

Over the next few years, organisations will increasingly harness the power of machine learning to predict customer needs and automate highly personalised experiences at scale. Self-learning algorithms will determine the best next action for each individual customer, from product recommendations and customer service right through to delivering personalised pricing and offers. AI is already being adopted faster than the arrival of the internet and it’s delivering hyper-personalised customer experiences across almost every industry today.

Q10. Are you working on a new book? If yes, can you tell us what we can look forward to?

I do have a book in the works. It’s still in its early stages, but I’m planning to provide practical advice to help executives understand the promise of AI with concrete examples, and how it can be used to compete on customer experience. Luckily, I’m able to draw on the experience of my company SAS Software, a leader in this space. I’ve been interviewing colleagues and customers to bring together a wide range of views, experiences, and practical examples.

Acefone’s contact center solutions offer downloadable data that you can use to track your CX strategy and figure out the gap between your clients’ expectations and the services you provide. The technology is easy to use and can be used from anywhere on earth, allowing your agents to give their best to your customers. Acefone’s contact centers have a 99.9% uptime and experts to assist you 24×7 should you have any questions. Up your customer service experience by leveraging the latest cloud telephony solutions. Create stronger customer relationships with the help of these latest tools.

Call 1888-859-0450 or email at [email protected] now to get started.

About the Expert

Tiffany Carpenter is a customer experience guru with over two decades of experience helping organizations change customer experience through their sales, service and marketing departments. Currently, she works at Microsoft where she advises organizations on the use of data, digital technology and artificial intelligence to change employee collaboration and customer experience for the better.

Carpenter is also an advisory board member of the CMO Council and co-founder of Griswold Studios, a boutique fitness concept that uses data and analytics to deliver personalized fitness programs

You can learn more about Tiffany on her LinkedIn or connect with her over Twitter.

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Tavishi Arora

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Tavishi is an outgoing person and you will find her near books, dogs, or artsy cafes. She is a fitness freak who also loves to hog. Connect with her on Linkedin and Facebook

Teletherapy: Keeping Therapists And Clients Connected Over Distances

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

December 4, 2020

7 mins read eye

Table of content

This is an era of a constant digital revolution, wherein we strive to break the barriers in the way of seamless communication. And more so during this current pandemic. We have been forced to stay indoors, often deprived of meeting our near and dear ones.

Naturally, daily routines have been shattered for many. Patients who need consistent medical support are not able to access hospitals comfortably. The fear of stepping out has pushed them to look for alternatives like seeking consultation over the phone or through video conferencing.

This move has resulted in the advancement and popularity of teletherapy.

So, let’s understand this practice that’s taking the world by storm a little better.

What is teletherapy?

Teletherapy is a form of therapy that utilises technology to facilitate sessions. This involves the process of managing online appointments and other admin tasks, as well as the actual virtual patient-doctor sessions.

A few examples of teletherapy are:

Conducting therapy sessions over the telephone
Having group chat sessions
Video therapy sessions for couples or individual clients
Accepting requests for appointments through emails or messages
Incorporating apps that can help therapists and their clients communicate with each other effectively

A study by Software Advice comparing teletherapy and in-person consultation found that 96% of clients telepsychiatry patients were happy with their online sessions.

And why is that? Video conferencing software helps improve the quality of the therapy experience for both the counsellor and the client—especially in cases that need dedicated in-person counselling.

Let’s see just how it does that. Here are the benefits of teletherapy that account for its great success in the field of telehealth:

1. Reduced waiting time

A dreaded aspect of seeking out a counselling session is the need to wake for weeks or months on end to get an audience. The thought of insurance clearance and paperwork may demotivate you from reaching out to a therapist in-person.

However, the teletherapy medium is a boon in disguise that slashes down the wait time. It eliminates the need to make repeated visits to the clinic or keep enquiring about your appointment.

With state-of-the-art communication tools in place, all you’ll need to do is to place a request remotely, and you’ll have your appointment set with minimal paperwork.

Moreover, in emergencies wherein the client is in dire need to contact a therapist, they can arrange urgent or immediate sessions using this remote medium of teletherapy.

2. Improved access to remote places

The availability of accessible medical care across the globe is extremely important. It’s integral to improving the quality of life for people everywhere. With teletherapy, you will be able to contact a reputed therapist who practises far away.

It essentially helps establish a connection between remote places and therapists who may not be accessible otherwise.

People may seek medical assistance through a video conference from the safety of their homes. This capability of teletherapy can be particularly beneficial for elderly clients who find it tough to travel and physically wait in the clinic.

3. Better privacy

Therapy may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Unfortunately, there’s still a bit of stigma attached to mental health issues. Besides, some people may have inhibitions about sharing details of their personal life with a therapist in a secure manner.

Teletherapy eliminates these issues. You may connect with the best therapist in town from the comfort of your home. With the assurance of absolute privacy, you can divulge your concerns in a free manner and have more intimate sessions.

Some people may be shy about having face-to-face conversations. For them, a simple voice call can also suffice and rather help them open up better.

4. Boosted flexibility

At times, you may not be able to visit your therapist on time. This may result in the cancellation of your session and lead to endless waiting for the next session.

This vicious cycle can be dealt with easily through remote therapies. You can easily reschedule your session if you are busy with other activities. It does not need any in-person visit but simply an online request.

Moreover, emergency meetings with the therapist can also be easily organised—without worrying about coordinating and navigating the time restraints of both parties involved.

5. Opens new opportunities for therapists

A significant advantage of teletherapy is that it does not need a physical clinic or kiosk to deal with clients. This offers therapists the ability to connect with patients across the globe. Psychologists can experiment with new customers and add value to their experiences irrespective of the geographical location.

They can also extend their services to benefit clients in sensitive places or to help differently-abled people. This allows for complete inclusivity and shows just how accessible mental health can be, breaking the stereotype of it being costly while still being difficult to access.

6. Provides better work-life balance for therapists

Therapists may be involved in other professional activities like having shifts in a hospital or lectures in colleges. The clinic may be functional only during a particular time in the day.

This poses a significant problem generally. If someone needs urgent counselling, they won’t know where to find the doctor and may run a wild goose chase in already difficult circumstances.

Teletherapy helps overcome this challenge. The therapist can attend to her clients without the need to be physically sought out. They can connect with clients over phone calls or a video session, right from home, or from another working environment. This kind of accessibility showcases the reliability of the therapist, resulting in happier and satisfied clients.

7. Reduces overheads to deliver therapy

Therapists spend a huge amount of money to set up their clinic. It needs to be a sizable area with the appropriate ambience and medical equipment. Moreover, clients expect the clinic to be reachable from anywhere across the city.

With teletherapy, the therapist can build the clinic without worrying about all these details. So while one would still require appropriate medical equipment, the location of the office needn’t matter, and they can work on the go whenever required.

Furthermore, teletherapy works well with home offices too. This way the therapist can reduce overhead costs and focus more on delivering better patient support.

8. Helps in streamlined communication

Every time you need to contact a therapist, you have to go through a reception, get an appointment booked, receive a confirmation. At times, you may need to make multiple calls to ask for more information—what to bring, how to approach the therapist, and so on. In our busy schedules, this could be such a hassle.

But with cloud solutions, you can improve the call flow and benefit everyone involved. For example, if you are trying to contact a therapist over an app, you will be provided with all the basic information like the medical documents you will need to bring and an approximate time frame of the session.

Moreover, you will have access to a database of frequently asked questions. This information will help you get an idea of what to expect from the session and perhaps alleviate your anxiety before the meeting.

Furthermore, chances of miscommunication are eliminated as you have a checklist of the basic requirements within reach. You can also easily reschedule or cancel your appointment without the need to contact the clinic personally.

Parting words

People are looking for newer ways to establish connections with their dear ones from the comfort of their homes. Better accessibility to medical help is no exception.

We’re currently experiencing a higher acceptance level of digital communication channels, considering the advantages of safety and convenience they’re accompanied with.

Hopefully, this post throws light on some of the various benefits of teletherapy like flexibility and better access. Undoubtedly, these merits will help pave the way for improved and reliable relationships between clients and therapists.

Learn more about cloud communication tools by visiting our resource library or simply call us on 1888-859-0450. Drop us an email at [email protected] and our team will promptly get back to you.

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The ABCs of SIP: What Is It And What Are Its Benefits

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

December 3, 2020

5 mins read eye

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SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, can open up your business to a world of new opportunities and possibilities. If you have a traditional PBX system and are looking for ways to save money then SIP is a natural first step into the world of VoIP.

The technology allows you to enjoy the benefits and security of VoIP software using your existing infrastructure, without having to be completely cloud-based. It is ideal for businesses that don’t want to lose the capital they invested in existing phone lines but would like a more flexible solution.

This blog explores the various dimensions of SIP––its functionality, advantages, and how it helps businesses establish a local presence.

What is SIP?

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) replaces traditional phone trunks with SIP trunks. It uses Internet connections to transmit calls between PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network).

SIP sets up ‘sessions’ to send messages over the internet, thereby reducing call costs. These messages can be voice calls, video, or even instant messages.

Working of SIP Trunks

Primary functions for a SIP connection include:

Discovering user location
Determining user availability, and transferring calls to other devices or voicemail in case of unavailability
Ascertaining capability of the end-user in terms of compatibility between the communication channel and user’s device
Looking at which encryption/decryption methods would be suitable
Establishing a session or a call
Session management which includes transfers, termination, etc.

It adds a layer of security to your telephone system, ensuring that your business communications remain safe and secure.

And that’s not all, SIP trunks are easy and inexpensive to purchase, allowing you to conveniently scale your phone system as you grow.

It is a well-known fact that traditional phone lines will become obsolete in the forthcoming years. A SIP-enabled phone system implies enhanced security and flexibility––two qualities that will make you and your staff future-ready.

To summarise, SIP is a way to enjoy many features of a hosted phone system, without having to completely overhaul your telephone system.

What are the benefits of SIP?

From being pocket-friendly to packed with features, SIP has a lot to offer to your business. Moving from a traditional phone system, your staff will be astounded by its capabilities and you’ll wonder how ever you operated without it.

1. Cost-effective

Purchasing a SIP trunk is significantly cheaper than acquiring a new traditional phone line. In fact, it generally costs around 8 times lesser than an on-premise phone line. This means that you will get a return on your investment both instantly and further down the line as well. No matter how large your business gets, the system will keep saving you money. And the more SIP trunks you put into use, the greater the saving.

2. No installation costs

Scaling up your traditional phone lines brings the associated cost of an engineer installing the service along with it. New lines are likely to need maintenance which can also lead to increased costs.

With SIP trunks, once your traditional phone system is configured, adding additional lines or capacity comes without an installation fee and requires no additional site visits. Therefore, you needn’t worry about costly installations or an engineer callout fees.

3. Quicker fixes and upgrades

One does not need an engineer to make changes to their SIP phone system. This means that most fixes and upgrades are much quicker and don’t result in any downtime.

The service provider takes care of regular maintenance and updates, and all one needs is an active connection. These upgrades improve the security of the system, add the latest features, and eliminate any bugs and lags.

4. Control your phone system with cloud-hosted telephony

Your online portal can give you access to a range of insights and statistics which would have never been available with a traditional phone system. Keep track of call times, recordings, real-time data, and more to ensure that your team is performing optimally at any given moment.

The benefits don’t end here. These insights improve your business performance. They help you understand if you need more staff during peak times, and then you can rota accordingly. These insights can also indicate if the staff needs extra training. The applications are, as you may have guessed, endless.

5. Establish a local presence with amazing features

Leverage the plenty features that come with SIP to establish a local presence and elevate the customer service experience that you deliver.

One of these is having a local number that your agents can use. When customers see a local number, they feel more confident in reaching out to a business. While the numbers can be from any region, and you could be based anywhere in the world, they give off the impression that you’re well established in a particular region.

You can create as many numbers as you want and each number will go through to your agents, and the customer won’t see or hear any difference.

SIP also enables remote working which further helps businesses cement a local presence. As explained earlier, staff can connect from anywhere in the world, as long as they have a stable Internet connection. This also allows you to hire talented employees without worrying about the restrictions that come with geographical boundaries.

SIP trunks are fantastic for those with traditional phone systems to enjoy the features of a hosted phone system. They provide a flexible way to upgrade your telephony and exercise greater control over your traditional PBX system, without having to break the bank! To find out more about SIP, call our expert team at 1888-859-0450 .

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Revamp Your Business Communication For The Future By Leveraging These UCaaS Trends

Acefone Editor

Author

Unified Communication

December 2, 2020

7 mins read eye

Table of content

We’ve all been a witness to the unprecedented massive digital transformation that has taken place in the past year. No aspect of our lives has been left untouched by this paradigm shift. Most of the platforms and services that consumers engage with daily have changed beyond recognition in an incredibly compressed timeframe.

Of course, a lot of it has to do with the COVID-19 outbreak. Interest in UCaaS technology has jumped by as much as 86% in the wake of the global pandemic.

It goes without saying, then, that all businesses and organisations, irrespective of size or scale, should be cognizant of and try to make the most of UCaaS trends for their own growth.

However, before we proceed to understand how organisations can leverage the upcoming UCaaS trends, let us look at the basics of the platforms and its benefits.

UCaaS trends signify the new default –

Businesses are used to isolated, disparate communication habits wherein all their communications take place on a variety of platforms and mediums. This has posed to be a hindrance, of course.

It doesn’t allow for collaboration, doesn’t lend itself to coherence or efficiency, creates data leakage risks, and so on. It’s no surprise hence, that more and more businesses are quickly pivoting to UCaaS platforms.

What UCaaS technology offers is an integrated, coherent, and unified platform for all the communication needs of any business. These cloud-based unified communication platforms boast of in-built advanced capabilities and indeed offer new functionalities in this era of rapid digitisation.

Here’s a quick look at four of the most important benefits that UCaaS platforms offer –

1. Significantly better for collaboration –

We’ve witnessed this first hand, how the pandemic forced all organisations into embracing remote work and how collaboration on projects emerged as a problem area given the distributed nature of the workforce.

UCaaS technology solves this challenge and a lot more. Given that it is a cloud-based platform, employees can text, call, video chat, make presentations, and more, no matter where they might be based out of.

Similarly, even if there are some employees in office and some who are working remotely, they can collaborate just as seamlessly on that one single platform given the location-agnostic nature of cloud communications.

2. Removes the hassles of multiple backups –

We’re all very familiar with the fact that data sanctity is a huge deal for almost all businesses these days. Organisations are generating an ever-increasing amount of data and they need all of it to be safely and securely stored.

Till date, this used to be a big challenge on legacy, premise-based server solutions owing to issues like data theft, need for manual backups, problems handling large amounts of data, periodic updating, and so on.

UCaaS platforms solve this issue seamlessly. You can schedule backups, allow for auto backups, store your data on the cloud, clearly define access and so much more. It is, of course, the safer option.

3. It is (much) cheaper –

The thing which matters the most to a business’ health and sustainability in the medium to long run is cost-efficiency. UCaaS platforms are significantly more efficient and much easier on the pocket. UCaaS trends are headed towards making it even more efficient.

For example, you don’t need to install an in-house technology team or hire specialists to manage your communication and data systems. Similarly, these systems eliminate the need to deal with and avail services from multiple vendors as well, given how UCaaS technology takes care of all your needs on a singular, unified platform itself.

4. Flexible to the core –

UCaaS platforms allow for near limitless flexibility, in all kinds of functions. For example, one can very easily add or remove employees from internal communications with just a single click.

In times like these, when businesses have to prepare for any and all kinds of disruptions, such rapid scaling flexibility is a boon.

Similarly, you can integrate a number of peripheral services/technologies like CRM systems, advanced analytic tools, and so on to significantly enhance the capabilities for your business going ahead.

“The act of innovation and the attempt at enhancing efficiency gains never ceases, no matter the software. Same goes for UCaaS technology. Its growth has been relentless and UCaaS trends for 2024 portray an ever-more advanced and capable technology for businesses to leverage.”

The next generation of UCaaS trends for business communications–

Even though UCaaS technology currently is far more advanced than any other existing alternative, it has continued to grow all this while. Following are the four key UCaaS trends to watch out for in the year to come –

1. Remote work is not so remote anymore –

As of now, what most businesses have done is simply re-model video conferencing tools into probable collaboration platforms. However, this is a misfit and will never provide the kind of tools and technology that are needed to enable productive collaboration between teams and individuals within an organisation.

For example, it is standard practice now for teams to make use of features such as screen sharing, collaborative documents, file sharing tools, and so on. As per UCaaS trends, these features will become the new standard as remote, collaborative work becomes the new default for businesses and organisations in the years to come.

Similarly, artificial reality and virtual reality hold an important role here. This is owing to their capacity to transform surroundings for people virtually to a space resembling their workspace, for example, and open up new vistas of collaborating.

2. Artificial intelligence ties in with UCaaS Technology –

Artificial intelligence is expected to have far-reaching impacts on a number of technologies and UCaaS platforms are no exception either. For example, AI-powered bots and chatbots are automating a number of routine and redundant communication chores.

Similarly, AI is empowering a large number of data analysis tools which offer features like mood and sentiment analysis, for instance. This vastly enhances business efficiency and unlocks newer forms of predictive analytics as well, especially for consumer-facing verticals of the organisation!

3. The rise of open interface standards –

This steadily builds upon the point of flexibility and powerful customisation that was mentioned earlier as well. UCaaS technology allows for an unprecedented amount of integration as well as flexibility.

The concept of Open Platform Development is fast gaining ground wherein businesses can now quite literally choose the exact feature set that they need and include it in their UCaaS platform offering like a stack.

Similarly, software-like APIs i.e. Application Programming Interface capabilities on these open platforms allow for even greater room in terms of collaboration as well as flexibly maximising efficiency gains for a business.

4. The complete integration of UCaaS Platforms –

This is one of the most important UCaaS trends as we head into the future of business communication platforms. UCaaS platforms have very steadily begun the permanent phasing out of legacy, premise-based telephony systems.

For example,hosted PBX systems are now being used widely instead of traditional hardware setups of yesteryears. Similarly, instead of cable-based telephony setups, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is what organisations are quickly moving to given its sheer reliability and efficiency.

As a result, UCaaS platforms have become mainstream and are fast becoming the ultimate business communications technology of choice. This allows developers to add in even more capability into the platform, facilitating its growth along with that of businesses. Expect more of the same going ahead.

Conclusion –

It is abundantly clear by now that the adoption of UCaaS platforms, especially in a post-pandemic era, is a question of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ for most businesses globally.

This inevitability of adoption is what makes it all the more important for organisations to take cognizance of UCaaS trends, adapt upcoming features in the broader cloud-based unified communication platforms space, and leverage efficiency improvements to build more resilient businesses going forward.

Given the various flexibilities and features that come with the technology, there is something to gain for businesses of all sizes and scopes. Make the shift today, well in time to support business growth and organisational efficiency for the years to come!

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How picturephones evolved into facetime: A timeline of video calling

Diksha Gusain

Author

Interaction Hub

December 1, 2020

10 mins read eye

Table of content

Let’s start off by admitting that many of us have been pulled into late night meetings while working from home. Thanks to COVID-19, late-night meetings and sudden calls became a part of our routine.

Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and even WhatsApp are some of the platforms that allow such meetings to take place. One moment you’re having dinner, and in the next you’re attending a video conference with your team, in your bedroom.

Do you ever think where it all began?

The birth of video conferencing can be traced back to the late 1800s, when Bell’s invention, the telephone, revolutionized communication. Even before the advent of the telephone, visionaries had conceived the idea of transmitting images over long distances.

In 1876, the concept of videotelephony was already being discussed. These early discussions laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the cornerstone of modern video conferencing.

Let’s look at the evolution of video calling apps in this brief timeline.

Where it all started

Two years after the invention of the telephone, the Bell Labs came up with an idea for a combination of a videophone and wide-screen television, naming it “telephonoscope.”

Although it took some time to achieve this successfully, video conferencing and video calling apps became increasingly popular and now stand as a pillar of modern relationships.

Here is a timeline that shows how various large companies started their video calling services or when they incorporated them into their platform:

1970s-1990s: The era of emerging videophones

AT&T’s second picturephone model, Mod II was inaugurated in June of 1970. This was the first time that people did not need to visit special booths to make calls but could ask for a connection right from their homes and offices.

AT&T’s Mod II

Source: Labguy, a.k.a. Richard Diehl, CC BY 3.0

This service flopped soon though. People weren’t yet accustomed to being observed on the phone. They also found the service too costly for regular use.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Compression Labs (AT&T’s competitor) launched its corporate video conferencing system in 1982 while 1988 saw Japan’s foray into the industry with Mitsubishi’s videophone.

More and more companies found themselves stepping into the video conferencing world. However, these initial video calling systems were incredibly expensive and mostly designed for use by large corporations. Corporate Labs’ product cost a staggering $250,000, rendering it unfeasible for the public.

1996: Webex Meetings

Launched in 1996 by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu, Webex Meeting Center pioneered the concept of online meetings. It allowed users to collaborate and communicate in real-time over the internet.

After being acquired by Cisco in 2007, Webex was revamped and launched as the Cisco Webex Meetings in 2010. In response to the technological advancements, the Cisco Webex Meeting Center continued to evolve. It introduced new features such as HD video conferencing, mobile compatibility, and integration with other productivity tools.

By 2024, Webex has gone through several rebranding, technical advancements, with new features such as Webex Personal Room and Webex Assistant.

1999: Yahoo! Messenger

With the launch of the webcam in the 1990s, things started to change, and we slowly entered the era of rampant video calling apps—the end of the millennium.

Yahoo! Pager, launched in the year 1998, was renamed as Yahoo! Messenger in 1999 and served as an instant messaging app for everyone. You could make VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls, join chat rooms, transfer files, and host video calls over webcams.

The early 2000s saw this video calling app making waves as it connected people over slow Internet cables and brought them face-to-face. Since Yahoo! Mail was also extremely popular, companies allowed users to have a unified Yahoo ID, serving multiple needs.

2005: Skype

Founded in 2003, and sole to eBay in 2005, Skype became one of the most popular VoIP and video calling apps worldwide. Skype’s user-friendly interface, affordable pricing, and cross-platform compatibility made it a favourite among consumers and businesses alike.

It was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 and has been developing constantly under the tech giant since then. By 2013, Skype released its free video messaging service for all major operating systems.

Today, this video calling app is supported on a variety of devices—from smartphones, computers and tablets to even Xbox consoles and smartwatches.

Around 2016-17, Skype transitioned from its peer-to-peer system to Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing system. The constant improvements in devices and Internet connectivity make the app and the video conferencing industry thrive more.

2010: Facetime

Chabe01, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As Apple Inc. gained more and more traction, founder Steve Jobs announced the release of Facetime, a videotelephony software exclusively for Apple users, in 2010. At first, it only allowed one-on-one calling, meaning new calls required you to cut off the previous one.

Its high-definition video calling capabilities made it a fan favourite regardless of this limitation. In 2018, with the iOS 12.1 update, Facetime introduced video calling—and how! You could now practice video conferencing with up to 32 people at the same time!

Additionally, the ease-of-use and integration with other Apple software like iMessage, made Facetime one of the most popular services available. Besides, you can access Facetime on Apple’s non-telephony devices like the iPad, iPod Touch and Mac and always stay connected with your friends and family.

2011: Zoom

Who hasn’t heard of Zoom? This video calling app has become rather synonymous with online meetings and remote work.

Launched in 2011 as a videotelephony service, Zoom launched a beta version for video conferencing with 15 participants within a year. By 2013, Zoom reported 1 million users, showing early signs of the great success that was to follow.

Over time, the company integrated with famous third-party apps like Slack and Salesforce. By 2015, it expanded its participant limit to 50 people, enabling large-scale video conferencing.

This ability proved especially useful during the global pandemic in 2020 as people realised the importance of video conferencing for work meetings. The education industry, particularly, relied heavily on Zoom to accommodate numerous students for online lectures over video conferencing. Zoom even offered its services for free to K-12 schools in quite a few countries.

2015: Facebook Messenger

Started as a messaging app for the huge Facebook user base, Facebook Messenger stepped into the voice call arena in 2013. By 2015, it was offering video calling services, and a year later, group voice calls for up to 50 participants were introduced. They also tried to rope in the younger generation by introducing live filters and emojis during video calls.

What was primarily a social app for casual conversations, tested the corporate waters in 2015 by allowing business interactions between customers and companies.

In 2020, to compete with Zoom’s massive popularity, Facebook introduced Messenger Rooms. You could create rooms, public, exclusive or on link-based entry. While in Messenger video calls, you could view one main speaker and 6 participants at a time on screen. The new video calling app allows better viewing for larger parties.

2016: Whatsapp

Undeniably one of the most popular messaging and VoIP calling apps in the world, Whatsapp started way back in 2009 when the founders realised the potential for the App market.

It didn’t take too long for the app to gain favour as it continued to tweak its features on the go. By 2011, Whatsapp was part of the top 20 apps on Apple’s American App Store.

When Facebook Inc. acquired Whatsapp in 2014, the world was left agog at the mammoth purchase (on the lines of $19 billion). And just a year later, the company entered the voice call market, and by 2016, video calling was incorporated as well.

By now, the app was already being widely used for all kinds of calls, but 2018 proved to be a big year. Apart from creating a Whatsapp platform for businesses, they also introduced group voice and video calls for up to 8 people at a time, making conferencing feasible and super convenient.

In the latest news, it is expected that voice and video calls will be added to the desktop version, Whatsapp Web, in addition to the mobile app. This version is apparently in its beta testing stage, which means it won’t be long till it’s officially released, and you’ll be able to make Whatsapp calls directly from your computer!

2016: Google Duo and Google Meet

Google, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Google launched its video calling app in 2016—Google Duo, to replace Hangouts. With HD video calling even in low bandwidth, end-to-end encryption and high brand accessibility, it proved to be quite a successful venture.

In the year 2020, Google Meet was launched as a more robust and enterprise-focused solution while maintaining Google Duo for consumer-oriented video calling. Coincidently, it aligned with the growing demand for remote collaboration tools during the COVID-19 pandemic and experienced a boom in its demand among businesses.

2017: Microsoft Teams

Since its launch in 2017, Microsoft Teams has undergone a remarkable evolution, becoming a daily element in the modern workplace. It was initially introduced as a chat-centric platform, included in the Office 365 application bundle.

With the addition of features like audio calls and screen sharing, Teams expanded its capabilities, catering to diverse collaboration needs. Microsoft solidified Teams’ infrastructure to meet regulatory requirements and ensure user data protection.

The platform’s adaptability shone during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting the introduction of remote-friendly features like virtual backgrounds and breakout rooms. With the ongoing updates and improvements, Microsoft Teams continues to redefine workplace collaboration. It offers a dynamic and versatile video conferencing platform for teams worldwide.

Conclusion

What started as a revolutionary vision, unsupported by the science of the time, has today become commonplace and rather a way of life.

Videotelephony and video conferencing have gained so much traction because of one primary reason: the fast-paced lives we lead today.

Therefore, the ability to come face-to-face with people allows more balanced and clear communications. We can now talk with our expressions and body language effectively.

What do you think of the journey of video conferencing? How has your experience been with these famous video calling apps, share your thoughts with us in the comments down below!

To learn more about cloud-based communications and their potential for your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] or call us at 1800-120-3100.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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Diksha Gusain

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Ways To Deliver Differentiated Customer Experience With Video Contact Centre

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

November 30, 2020

5 mins read eye

Table of content

The world is going through an unexpected crisis that demands minimal human contact. Businesses have left no stone unturned to survive and emerge successfully from this battle. Working remotely and reaching out for products and services from home has become the new normal.

Though organisations have begun to adapt to changes, what is the real impact of these changes on businesses? Are you equipped to serve your customers who come with explicit limitations?

In the case of sero meetings and no room for face-to-face contact with customers, your customer service representatives may not be able to sense the pulse of your customers.

To overcome this challenge, businesses can opt to set up video contact centers and offer differentiated customer experiences.

What is a Video Contact Center?

Mobile applications have made it easier for customers to contact organisations for more information about products and services.

When you offer video chat through your contact center, representatives can simply demonstrate the attributes of your services rather than trying to explain verbally. Furthermore, customers will not have difficulty comprehending and interpreting information as they can see it work.

Video contact centers not only increase credibility and trust but also pave the way for exemplary customer experiences. Customers can visualise your agents empathising with them. This helps establish a personal connection with the customers without a physical presence.

Though several businesses have begun to seriously incorporate video chat in their contact centers, start-ups are still exploring this option and trying to see if it will be the right fit for their contact center strategy.

According to a Forbes report, video conferencing is fast becoming the norm. The usage of video chats has risen to 84% when businesses collaborate with customers and external stakeholders. This medium has proved to optimise team performances significantly.

We have listed a few ways video contact centers can help businesses offer seamless customer experiences.

1. Helps provide personalised customer experiences

Empathising and understanding the needs of the customers’ help in delivering personalised customer experiences. Nobody likes mundane and robotic answers from customer care representatives when contacted for an issue. Video chat takes charge and makes conversations more human. They help in establishing a personal connection between the customer and the representative. The customer can see exactly how helpful the representative will be.

Similarly, the agent is also able to better gauge the mood and tone of the customer. This helps in predicting the urgency of the customer, quicken solutions thereby improving the quality of customer experiences.

Furthermore, these one-to-one sessions can help build trust amongst your customer base. Even if the representative is not able to offer a clear solution to the customer issue, the customer is assured that his problem will be taken care of resulting in customer satisfaction.

2. Improves the quality of real-time support

There may be instances when a customer may not know how to use your product. Lack of technical knowledge may be the reason behind this. If this person contacts your call center, he will be routed to an agent. There are chances that the customer may or may not understand the verbal directions.

There is a high probability that the customer may even quit using your product, finding it too complicated.

However, if you have a video contact center, your representative will be able to virtually direct the customer on how to use the product. Your representative can physically demonstrate using the product through options like screen sharing available in the app. This will not only resolve the customer’s problem but also improve their confidence resulting in a loyal and happy customer.

3. Facilitates streamlined communication

Video chat has proved to significantly improve the rate of sales and customer satisfaction. You may facilitate this option through your website or incorporate a mobile app to help your customers reach out to you. Video chat supports an easy transfer of calls. Calls can be transferred to video chats and they can also be escalated in case the customer wants more help. Video calling also comes with the option to call back if they were unable to talk to a representative at a given time.

Furthermore, video chat options support call recording and monitoring capabilities. These features help managers have a complete hold on the quality of calls. They can monitor and identify weakly performing agents. Again, stakeholders can recognise bottlenecks in operational processes and work towards rectifying them promptly.

4. Boosts the rate of first call resolution

When a customer is offered a satisfying resolution to their problem during the first contact with your agent, it boosts the rate of first call resolution.

Video chats can contribute significantly to this. Agents can effectively demonstrate the capabilities of your products to customers. The customers in turn thoroughly comprehend the features of your products and are fully convinced before disconnecting the call. A video chat eliminates the room for unnecessary doubts and helps in providing faster and timely solutions to the problems presented by the customers.

5. Helps save costs

Your customers may give it a second thought if they had to visit your service center whenever they had a problem with the product. Through video chats, your agents can effectively guide your customers with operational issues in the product and ask them to visit your center only when it is required.

This option will eliminate unnecessary visits, save customer’s time and money along with avoiding frustration. This results in happy customers.

Parting Words

Undoubtedly, face-to-face interaction helps businesses connect personally with their customers and sense their pulse in a better way. Video chats can help organisations explore opportunities to augment their customer base and improve the quality of service they deliver. The above-mentioned aspects of video chats will throw light on how they can be incorporated in contact centers along with their benefits.

Provide an excellent customer experience with Acefone’s video chat software. In case of queries and concerns, connect with us at [email protected] or call us at 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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[email protected]

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Acefone Editor

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Don’t Let The Grinch Steal Christmas: Take Your Business To The Cloud

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