Tag Archives: Mobile

Best Practices: Callback Technology and Intelligent Routing

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By Michael Haisten

Enterprises that decide to offer a callback option enable their customers to avoid quite possibly the most frustrating problem with call centers, excessive hold times.  In cases where the callback option is presented via the company’s website or mobile application, customers are also able to skip navigating an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, another frequent source of frustration.    By allowing customers to choose whether they want to wait on hold or receive a callback at a convenient time, enterprises are providing a sense of empowerment which results in increased levels of satisfaction and loyalty.

On the other hand, the enterprise is able to more evenly spread its demand throughout the day.  Agent productivity and service levels are improved by shifting calls from busy periods to the slowest periods.  Idle time in the call center is reduced.  Callbacks also reduce the number of abandoned calls which can increase sales and revenue.

So how is callback technology best implemented?  Here are some rules of thumb, many of which are slightly modified concepts from regular inbound calls. Continue reading →

Part II: Supercharge Your Mobile Customer Care Apps

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By Edwin Margulies 
(Part II of III)

Make it Private

Another way to supercharge mobile applications is to establish a private communication channel to the enterprise for customer service. Not SMS – that’s not private the way it is handed-off between aggregator and cell phone provider servers. And you also have to interrupt the application you are using to get to a separate communication application. The smart alternative is to simply drop-in a communication module into your smart phone app.

This has many uses, such as the ability to do simple push notifications that will allow the user to launch or flip over to your app and provide a chat or messaging tab with a status update in it. For example, a flight status update, a service order update, a delivery status update. The possibilities are endless.

Now imagine being able to send messages to your customers via your own Smartphone application and offering a two-way private channel into your contact center. These communications can be set up using IM/Chat protocols such as XMPP – complete with presence and other goodies such as rich media support. The good news is you don’t have to build these capabilities from scratch. You can get drop-in java and ObjectiveC code that hooks you up to the network that does all the heavy lifting.

Continue reading →

Supercharge Your Mobile Customer Care Apps

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By Edwin Margulies 
(Part I of III)

Mobile apps are evolving. And the thrill for practitioners of customer service is they are becoming more service-aware. At first, Smartphone apps were mere stripped-down web sites. But now, the Smartphone modality shows great potential for taking a front seat in customer care.

So what’s missing?

What’s missing from most customer-facing enterprise mobile care applications is real collaboration. That is concierge services, feedback loops, and even private, secure communications.

Continue reading →