TORONTO, ON – July 21st, 2015 – Fonolo, the company that improves the call center experience by replacing hold time with a call-back, today announced the addition of interactive SMS functionality to its call-back solution. This new feature allows callers who request a call-back to stay informed about their progress through the call center queue, receive important notifications, and more.
Many call centers experience periods of peak call volume, often resulting in long hold times. Giving callers the option of a call-back – rather than waiting on hold – is a far superior approach: It reduces abandon rates, improves customer satisfaction and lowers telco costs. However, a caller waiting on a virtual hold doesn’t receive ongoing updates about their status in the queue or have a way to interact with the call center during that time. Fonolo’s new interactive SMS functionality solves this key problem.
SMS stands out as a customer service channel because it is widely available, simple to use and highly reliable. A recent Forrester study reported that 86% of surveyed enterprises plan to use SMS, as it has become a very important part of the multi-channel mix for customer service – especially for younger consumers. According to Experian, U.S. smartphone owners aged 18 to 24 send an average of 67 texts on a daily basis. That’s almost double the rate seen in the next older group, smartphone users aged 25 to 34.
“Replacing hold-time with a call-back is truly a win-win scenario. Callers get their time back while companies lower their cost-per-call. Increasingly, our customers want to offer this functionality across all channels and we’re excited to offer new SMS capabilities” said Shai Berger, Fonolo CEO. “Now the convenience and pervasiveness of SMS can make the call center experience less frustrating for callers and more efficient for companies.”
Keeping with Fonolo’s cloud-based approach, companies can add SMS functionality to their call center without installing any new hardware or software, regardless of the call center platform being used.
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About Fonolo
Fonolo is the leading provider of cloud-based call-back solutions. The company’s innovative products improve the way call centers interact with their customers by seamlessly replacing hold time with a call-back. Regardless of where the conversation begins – on the web, mobile or by phone – Fonolo quickly and conveniently routes customers through the call center, connecting them to the right agent and eliminating hold time. A growing list of organizations trust Fonolo to improve the call center experience for their customers. Learn more at fonolo.com.