CMIQ calls Fonolo’s approach “Nirvana”

Customer Management IQ, one of the leading publications covering the call center and customer service space covered Fonolo in a recent article.

Senior editor Blake Landau wrote:

The paradigm here is that callers, like visitors to a standard or mobile web page, get to click or tap on the box that best represents what they need. From there, the Fonolo application connects them directly to the agent that can best serve them. Callers get directed to the right agent on a first try, instead of ‘mis-directing’—but no longer interface with the plague of DTMF or speech driven menus. Nirvana!

The problem of “misdirecting” or, as we call it, “mis-navigating”, is more than just an annoyance to callers, it can also add considerable cost to the call center operation. When a call is connected to the wrong agent, time is wasted while the agent: assesses the caller’s needs, concludes that an internal transfer is needed, explains that to the caller, makes the transfer, then logs the call or does other wrap-up work before rejoining the queue.

Landau discussed Fonolo’s approach to turning the phone menu into a visual interface and described it as a “more natural way” to navigate.  We certainly agree. It is hard to overstate just how much people dislike traditional phone menus. Whether they are speech-driven or tone-driven, they do a poor job of getting callers to the right agent while usually increasing the caller frustration.

Landau concludes:

[Fonolo’s] mission is not to dismiss or replace the IVR, but rather to make it work better by inserting more intuitive interfaces between the call center and the customer to better both sides of every manager’s equation—customer experience and cost control.