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The Power of SMS Technology in Call-Back Communication

By Jessica Suezin on November 19, 2019
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The Power of SMS Technology in Call-Back Communication Fonolo BlogPeople are busy, often going from meeting to meeting at work, chasing after their kids, running errands, or out and about with friends and family. Moments when they have to get in touch with the customer service call center of a company is met with dread, because they don’t have the time or energy to call, wait on hold, and be passed around from one customer service agent to another to solve their problem. Sometimes, even a simple phone call can seem inconvenient, and the best way to stay up-to-date, or to communicate with a company, is through a simple SMS, or  Short Message Service, text message. 

Here is why and how your company can implement simple, convenient, and effective SMS call-back technology into your customer service and call center strategy.  Continue reading →

Why Your Customer Service Strategy Should Include Online Chat

By Jessica Suezin on September 10, 2019
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Why your Customer Service Strategy Should Include Online Chat and MessagingYou’ve probably already noticed: There is a major shift towards messaging in the customer service game. While call centers remain important, many brands are moving towards online conversations with customers over SMS, social media, and live chat. Need proof? Look no further than Shopify’s roll-out of Apple Business Chat to over 80,000 merchants. Or, look at WhatsApp Business, recently announcing that the app is now being used by 5 million small business owners.

From SMS to live chats, it’s clear that messaging is becoming an important part of any brand’s sales and customer service strategy. So, what’s all the hype about? Let’s take a look at a few reasons why messaging is becoming increasingly popular and how implementing a chat feature can benefit your business. Continue reading →

Who Will Control the Customer Service Messaging Channel?

By Shai Berger on July 11, 2019
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Who Will Control the Customer Service Messaging ChannelText or talk? Voice conversations are still critical, but data shows that the former is becoming a bigger part of customer service interactions. This trend is driven partly by consumer preferences and partly by companies striving to lower costs. Companies are also leaning towards text because of the promise of increased automation, which is easier to do once a conversation has shifted to text.

To facilitate text conversations, you also have to ask the question: “Which channel?” There is SMS, of course. And then there are the big messaging platforms: Messenger and WhatsApp (both from Facebook), Apple’s Business Chat, and Google’s offering called (for now) Google My Business Chat. Among those platforms, a big battle is raging.

 

Continue reading →

Amid Messaging Channel Jungle, SMS Stands Alone

By Shai Berger on March 13, 2019
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Amid Messaging Channel Jungles SMS Stands Alone

Text-based communication plays a growing role in customer service. There are several big questions around how it will evolve. The most important one, in my mind, is how text should work alongside voice. What is the ideal arrangement between typing and talking?

The second big question is: What channel will carry the messages? We have four broad categories: Web-based chat, SMS, social media (e.g. Twitter DMs), and proprietary networks (e.g. Facebook Messenger, Apple Chat). I know that other people divide things differently, but this structure makes sense to me. On that second question, there’s been quite a bit of news in recent months. Let’s go through it.

 

Continue reading →

Contact Centers? Say Hello to 2019

By Shai Berger on January 9, 2019
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Goodbye 2018 Hello 2019 Contact Centers

2018 was a big year for the contact center industry. Major product launches, intriguing acquisitions, new entrants, re-emerging giants. Added to the mix were the frustrating dalliance with AI, the quasi-melding with CRM, the embrace of chatbots, and the rise of RPA. All juicy topics worth exploring.

We’re going to dive into all of the above on our blog this year, along with our usual coverage of industry reports, public company earnings, fun posts about call center life, findings from our sister site OnHoldWith.com, webinars, hangouts, Fonolo news (of course), and more.

Buckle up for an exciting year ahead!

Continue reading →

How Will People Contact Companies Next Year? Beware Cohort Behavior Studies

By Shai Berger on November 6, 2018
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How Will People Contact Companies Next Year Beware of Cohort Behavior StudiesEveryone involved in customer service wants to understand consumer channel preference. Otherwise, how can you allocate resources between phone, email, chat, SMS messaging and social channels?

So, we’re all involved in a little anthropology project. In my best David Attenborough voice: “Let’s observe this 35 year-old male as he wishes to find out why his order is late.”

In fact, it may be harder than anthropology because we are looking forward as well as at the present and the past. We also want to know what the preferences will be next year, and in five years. Otherwise, how can we plan ahead? Technology takes time to deploy.

It’s understandable that there is a craving for data on this topic. Every year, many analyst firms and research groups try to illuminate the future with surveys. And one of the most common ways to present results from those surveys is via the cohort chart. It seems to give us the exact answers we need, but can also be misleading.

Continue reading →

Contact Centers and SMS, a Love Story

By Shai Berger on February 10, 2015
2

Contact Centers and SMS, a Love StoryOver the past year, there has been growing attention paid to the role SMS might play as part of the contact center mix. One reason for this is there are now several cloud services that provide easy platforms on which to develop SMS-driven interactions, e.g. Twilio, Tropo and Plivo. Another reason is a change in attitudes on the part of the carriers, who are now willing to allow inbound SMS to any toll-free number. (In the past, carriers strongly preferred that “commercial” use of SMS went through “short-codes”, which required large monthly fees.) In response to this, a number of companies have emerged, or pivoted, to take advantage of the SMS-for-customer-service opportunity, e.g. TextGen, OneReach and MMS.

All of this answers the “how”, the bigger question is “why”. Yes now it’s easier to build SMS into the customer service workflow, but what advantages does it give us? Don’t we have a big enough challenge juggling all the channels we already have? Continue reading →

Trends that will Drive the Contact Center In 2015

By Daniela Puzzo on January 29, 2015
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Trends that will Drive the Contact Center In 2015Customer service has always been a competitive battleground for businesses. That’s why call centers are constantly on the lookout to create more effective strategies using the latest trends.

A new year presents a new opportunity for call center managers to boost their game! So what trends seem to be the most relevant? We’ve already identified the Top 10 Call Center Trends for 2015 in our latest whitepaper, but there are four areas that we see making the biggest impact. Continue reading →

Webinar: Top 4 Contact Center Trends for 2015

By Daniela Puzzo on January 22, 2015
2

 Top 4 Contact Center Trends for 2015Contact centers will continue to transform in the year ahead. Those who focus on new technology and evolving consumer behavior will ultimately succeed. Adapting to changes in the call center industry has become an annual requirement; this is especially true for organizations that stay in tune with the latest trends. Continue reading →

In Customer Service, Mobile is the Trend to End All Trends

By Shai Berger on July 24, 2014
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In Customer Service, Mobile is the Trend to End All TrendsMobile phones have changed consumer behavior more than any technology in recent memory, perhaps since the invention of the car. By 2016, US consumers will own 257 million of the devices (according to “Mobile is The New Face of Engagement” by Forrester). Deloitte predicts that within three years “mobile influence” will be directly determining some $689 billion in US retail sales – a number 22 times bigger than anyone’s forecast of mobile e-commerce and more than twice the size of total e-commerce.

We’ve been covering customer service trends on the Fonolo blog for several years now (see our 2014 list here) but I’ve recently reached a major conclusion on the topic. Based on our recent conversations with clients, and new stats (like the ones above), mobile is the “trend to end all trends”.

Keep reading and see if you agree. Continue reading →

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