The Fear of Being Too Connected…
May 22, 2008
By Marissa Jacquay
As I’ve begun to meet with more customers and prospects and define Unified Communications, and how it plays into enhanced productivity within their organizations, I keep getting the same response. Well Marissa, I like the idea, but I don’t want to be TOO connected.
Mobility, in regards to communications has changed so much over time. I think back to childhood, and life seemed simple. Maybe it was due to the fact that I was young and had a child’s perspective, but making trips out and about, and running errands with my parents was simple. We put on our shoes and our coats and we left…I never heard them say, “Oh, hang on, I forgot my cell phone,” or “I will call or text you when I get there.” I remember my neighbor had the first cell phone I had ever seen, and it was connected to a bag that you had to carry around, and I thought that was so cool, strange, but cool. Then pagers came into the picture, you were somebody if you had a pager, and knowing the lingo that if someone paged you with a “911″ after it, that meant, it was urgent. Suddenly more convenient analog cell phones came into the marketplace, and yes they were bulky, but they were better than the original phone in a bag and these allowed for more mobility. And today, well, most people have some sort of a mobile device.
Okay, you’re probably asking yourself, why is she rambling? The point I’m trying to make is this, just as we grow up and mature from children to adults, technology does the same thing, and as technology evolves, society adapts to that changing technology and although we have early embracers…we also have those who wait, and wait, and suddenly the technology embraces them. They have to adapt or they’re lost. Look at the World Wide Web. Company web pages were a thing of the future, but today, if you don’t have one, or don’t have some aspect of e-commerce you’re losing a piece of the pie and the competition might just leave you in the dust.
We’ve gone from basically not being connected at all, to developing ‘Blackberry Thumb’ and being connected to our devices 24/7. You have the two extremes, and you’ve got that happy medium. Technology is only going to keep progressing and changing, and it’s up to all of us to “Roll with It,” but remember that we have choices, and it’s up to us to determine the boundaries that we set with our communications. Productivity is what is pushing these changes, but remember that increased productivity may allow you to still stay on top of your work responsibilities, and still manage to have a life outside of work, and the benefit of this is that you know can have the best of both worlds, and one or the other doesn’t have to suffer. In the past, you had to choose to stay late at work to answer e-mails or leave early to attend your child’s baseball game. Now, you can leave on time, answer the e-mails from your smart phone while you’re waiting for the game to start, and still have the life you choose outside of the confines of the brick and mortar office. It’s a balancing act that may take some practice, but with being TOO connected, the positives outweigh the negatives, and at the end of the day, it is all about CHOICES, and it’s okay to turn off those mobile devices and CHOOSE to come back to them when you’re ready.
Marissa Jacquay is a technology specialist with G3 Technology Partners and works with businesses to analyze and assess how technology can solve business problems. She can be reached at 317.876.6535 or by email at marissa.jacquay@g3tp.com.
An Integrated Solution and Outbound Dialer: From ‘What is It?’ To ‘How Did We Do Without It?’
May 12, 2008
by Michelle Heiden
As a technology specialist, I’m always looking for big problems that can be solved by well-executed, properly-designed technical solutions. For me, the bigger the better.
Well, recently I helped install a system for a health supply company. When we first began diagnosing their issues, they thought they merely needed a new PBX. But after further investigation, we realized they needed a solution that fundamentally changed the way they manage and grow their business.
It is so significant, that I thought you should hear.
Company Overview:
Butler Animal Health Supply is a national leader in providing pet supplies for independent Veterinarians across the United States. Their products range from cotton swabs to medicine to food supplies for all pets related to Veterinarian practice. Butler Animal Health Supply has multiple locations with their corporate headquarters located in Dublin, Ohio. They have inside sales centers in an additional 8 cities and multiple distribution centers throughout the country.
The Problem:
Butler was hoping to solve multiple problems. All the problems below have a significant hard cost ROI associated:
- Multitude of old disparate phone solutions at each site with minimal to no reporting. (Due to this environment Butler Animal Health Supply did not understand how their organization, as a whole, was providing service to their customers, how many calls the call centers were handling, and bandwidth required to handle activity. They did not have accurate data to support growth.)
- No interoffice dialing. Long distance dialing was required to call remote facilities.
- Each site with individual voice mail solutions. No central management, no standardized use of voice mail and multiple people needed to support this environment.
- Multiple support organizations, excessive network costs. Due to multiple environments, Butler Animal Health Supply was paying up to 8 separate support companies to support their environments, which means little control and inconsistencies.
- Minimal call distribution solutions. Limited call processing.
- No automated dialing, and little to no flexibility or integration to other applications.
Solution:
When we begin with a customer, we get very clear on the goals. In this case, their goals were to:
- a) to make their environment more efficient to for revenue growth,
- b) to increase management effectiveness by giving them tools, and
- c) to reduce technology costs.
The implementation of a VoIP telecommunication leader, Customer Interaction Center, provides a centralized solution that allows for ONE solution across the entire enterprise.
Implemented an Outbound Dialer which automatically initiated outbound sales calls when inside sales reps were idle.
The End Result
was a consolidation of support contracts into one national contract. That, in turn, reduced network costs due to implementing VoIP technology which reduces long distance costs and allow technology to take advantage of the existing data network.
Advanced supervisor, reporting and monitoring tools which allows management to appropriately manage, support and grow the business.
Michelle Heiden is a consultant with G3 Technology Partners (Cincinnati, OH). She specializes in business applications for technology solutions and can be reached at 317.876.6588 or at michelle.heiden@g3tp.com
Attention Call Centers: See What VoIP Can Do For You
May 7, 2008
By Amanda Morris
Most companies are aware of the latest VoIP (Voice over internet) technology, but many don’t recognize the benefits of such technology and the positive impact that it can have on their organization.
There is a wide spread misconception about the benefits of VoIP.
If you ask many companies why they want this technology, they say they’re looking to eliminate their long-distance bills. While this might be financially compelling in some scenarios, the reality is that the true ROI of implementing this technology is not in the savings of telco bills.
If Not Cost Savings, What Is The Benefit?
Most VoIP solutions offer customized applications that can be designed specifically to meet the customer’s needs. No one industry benefits more from this technology than Call Centers themselves.
A poll of 105 Call Center Managers in 2006 by Interactive Intelligence showed that 73% plan to implement VoIP Technology in the future. 43% of these respondents said that improving customer satisfaction was the main concern when evaluating communication platforms.
Are You Building A Customer Service Powerhouse?
The truth is that by installing such technology and properly using it, you can help a call center establish a service powerhouse. This technology provides flexibility, innovation, and agility. The end results can provide a company with the ultimate customer service advantage–more profits, longer term customers, more revenue.
OK, so it is easy to claim all of the above, but if you are like me, you probably want to know how. Each call center is different, but there many applications that can help call centers across the board. Some of these applications are Interactive Voice Response, Unified Messaging, Skills Based Routing, Administration, and Outbound Dialing. Below I will briefly discuss the benefits of each application.
A Quick Menu of Options
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) can offer self-service to customers 24/7. The IVR can be speech-enabled and can create an auto response for e-mail and web chat. [what kinds of companies do you find that don’t use this now that could? What are the characteristics of the type of company that this could fit?] This feature is popular in education, financial services, and companies that have customers who are calling in to check on their account.
- Unified Messaging today does more than just deliver your voicemails and faxes to your email. Today’s UM allows for Presence Management (ability to see on PC what other employees are doing) and enhanced call functionality (allows callers in to see where you are. By having unified messaging, employees work smarter, faster, and more accurately. Recording, chat, camp and conferencing functionality are just some of the features that allow that to happen. The bottom line is that every one of these features reduces cost, could increase revenue and increase customer satisfaction.
- Enhanced Routing features give a company the ability to route calls to locations or people based on skill level. This same routing technique can apply to e-mails, chat requests, and pre-defined media such as trouble tickets. Bottom line is it gets the customer in contact with the person they need to speak with—quickly.
- Administration of VoIP technology can be a Telecommunication Director’s dream come true. Gone are the days of paying for someone to change an extension or move a phone. Every aspect, from users to security access, of a VoIP communication system can be managed locally or remote. In addition, administration takes place from one interface. While every company is different (number of stations and people) one company saved over $55,000 in the first year. And many other companies have decreased their reliance on outsourced telecom service personnel.
- Outbound Dialing in the VoIP world allows call centers to optimize revenue opportunities by monitoring and analyzing real-time campaign performance. In addition, the outbound dialer can be set to an “agent-less” dialer. This dialer can be programmed to target specific demographics at certain times of the day or week.
The True Value For Your Company is Customer Satisfaction (and Revenue)
You can talk about the technology all you want—and many people do—but you need to know this: The true benefits, if properly designed and installed, can impact a call center significantly with higher levels of customer satisfaction and profitability.
It is imperative for the contact center manager(s) to get involved in the design of the technology before anything is decided upon.
Doing this will help ensure that the system is specifically customized to how it can best help your business.
Amanda Morris is a G3 specialist and contributor to this blog. She can be reached at amanda.morris@g3tp.com
Sources:
“IP Communications for the Contact Center”, Interactive Intelligence
“VoIP call centers on slow but steady adoption path”, Jeffrey Snyder
“VoIP adoption changing how contact centers do business”, Andrew Hickey
A Principle Centered Approach To Technology
May 6, 2008
We get calls all the time from people wanting merely to “replace” their existing technology. This most often happens when there is equipment that has gone “out of service”–a fancy way of saying there are few parts available for it.
Recently, I was asked by a prospect about our approach to this and we talked about 3 principles that govern any recommendation we make.
1. Complete and Utter Analysis. We have something we call SPA, Systems and Procedures Audit. It’s a way for us to be “on target” with what we recommend. In other words, we want to make darn sure we’re solving the right problem. If you’re merely looking to replace what you have, you may be solving yesterdays’ problems and not preparing yourself for tomorrow’s.
2. Business Application. Part of this Audit is to understand the business drivers. Yes, we will want to know more than ‘how you answer your phone.’ We’ll want to know your plans for growing your business. It used to be that technology was a convenience–now it can be a “competitive advantage.” So for us NOT to ask those questions could rob you of future market advantage.
3. ROI. As far as we’re concerned there needs to be a financial ROI on your investment. If there isn’t, then you shouldn’t spend any money. This ROI is divided into Hard Costs and Soft Costs. Hard Costs are easy. But Soft Costs is where the real financial windfall comes. We will ask you many questions so that our recommendation makes financial sense for you.
Do other companies do this as well? Of course. But if you’d like to see our SPA (audit) then call us and let us know if you want to go through it.
Pete DiPaola is the Chief Executive Officer of G3 Technology Partners and a contributor to this site. He can be reached at pete.dipaola@g3tp.com
Tech Tips Coming Soon!
May 3, 2008
Stay tuned for ‘G3 Tech Tips’ which will offer you useful tips, tricks, and how-to’s related to better managing specific applications and technology products. Our project managers, engineers, and technical support personal possess a wealth of knowledge that we’d like to share so you can make the most effective use of your time, resources, and technology.
If you’d like to request a specific topic or technology to be addressed, leave a comment to this posting and we will work on developing a post targeted toward your interest!