More and more call centers are offering a call-back option as an alternative to putting customers on hold. At Fonolo, we see this trend through the increased demand of our own call-back solution. We also see it in survey results such as this one from Contact Babel last year. We just received an early copy of a new report, by Ryan Strategic Advisory, that surveyed 491 enterprise executives who had decision-making authority of their company’s contact centers. The data results show impressive growth.
News broke last week that Mitel is 
Summer may be over, but the sun is rising on a busy 2018 fall trade show season. Fonolo has many events on the horizon, but is especially excited to be a first-time exhibitor at 
Today’s demanding consumers have high expectations when it comes to the call center experience. A surefire way to fall out of favor with a customer is to leave them on hold for more than a few minutes. (For proof, head over to 
Fonolo is thrilled to announce the launch of its new portal available to all customers today! The team has been working diligently on MANY enhancements that will maximize your productivity, and make your Fonolo experience even better. We even put together a nifty video to show off some of our most exciting changes.
Many call center platforms today offer some form of call-back functionality. That means if your hold times are long, your callers have the option to get a call at a later time instead of waiting for an agent. These built-in call-back features work by holding the caller’s place in line (“virtual queuing”) so the total wait time is the same. You can think of this as “ASAP” call-backs.
Although there’s a plethora of intelligent call center technology to take advantage of, many organizations still only have basic functionalities in place. For example, it’s rare that you’ll find a call center operation without an interactive voice response system (IVR), an automatic call distributor (ACD), computer telephony integration (CTI) or a workforce management solution (aka “the basics”). So, instead of discussing the solutions that you (should) already have in place, let’s focus on the ones that you likely haven’t implemented yet.
Historically, great customer service depended on one thing: people. Call center agents acted as the main liaison for delivering a positive or negative customer experience. But in our world of multi-channel communications, the need for speed has changed the game. According to Forrester, 
I recently read a great analogy on what it feels like to call customer service today. Imagine being a child again and asked to do your math homework – a subject you’re unfortunately not very good at. You end up procrastinating the task for as long as possible because deep down you know it will take much longer than expected, and somewhere in the process you’ll be throwing up your hands in frustration. Speaking to a live agent is amazingly similar to doing your dreaded math homework.
