One of the best tools for managing customer interactions is a ticketing system. These systems help businesses track, manage, and resolve issues systematically, ensuring no query goes unanswered. Here, we look at the benefits of a ticketing system and why you should integrate it with your telephony solution.
Benefits of a ticketing system Using a ticketing system for your support team offers numerous advantages that can transform how a company handles customer service and internal processes:
Improved customer satisfaction: Tickets ensure every customer query is logged and tracked, leading to timely resolutions and happier customers.
Enhanced efficiency: Automating ticket assignments and tracking reduces manual effort, allowing teams to focus on resolving issues rather than managing workflows.
Better insights: Comprehensive reporting and analytics help identify patterns, peak times, and areas for improvement, enabling data-driven decisions.
Streamlined communication: A central platform for all customer interactions ensures consistent communication and reduces the chances of miscommunication.
Integrating ticketing with company telephony Ticketing systems offer even greater value when integrated with company telephony systems by centralising communication and resolution processes. Incoming calls can be converted into tickets, ensuring all customer interactions are logged and tracked. This integration enhances customer service by providing a seamless experience where every call is accounted for and follow-ups are systematically managed.
Introducing Telavox’s feature Tickets For businesses seeking a lightweight yet powerful support ticketing solution, Telavox’s Tickets feature is a perfect choice. Tickets is designed to integrate seamlessly with Telavox’s telephony services and provides a streamlined approach to managing incoming calls and customer queries.
Key features of Tickets: Automatic ticket creation: Tickets can be created automatically from calls in a queue, ensuring no call goes untracked. Status management: Easily change the status of a ticket (open/closed) to keep track of unresolved issues. Assignment flexibility: Assign tickets to yourself or a colleague, ensuring the right person handles each query. Internal notes: Take detailed internal notes for better knowledge sharing and quicker resolution. Activity log: Keep track of all actions taken on a ticket with an activity log. SMS replies: Reply to mobile callers via SMS (additional charges apply), providing a quick and convenient response method. Interaction history: View previous interactions to provide context and continuity in customer service. Colleague mentions: Mention colleagues in a ticket to involve experts and facilitate collaboration.
With Telavox’s Tickets feature, businesses can boost their customer service capabilities by ensuring that every call and query is managed efficiently. This solution is ideal for companies that need a straightforward, easy-to-implement ticketing system that integrates with their existing telephony setup.
Conclusion Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, choosing the right support ticketing system can significantly impact customer service quality and operational efficiency. Telavox’s Tickets feature provides a robust, integrated solution that simplifies ticket management and enhances your ability to serve your customers effectively.
If you use Microsoft Teams, you know that there are lots of possibilities for communication – from chat to video meetings to email and collaborative documents. But did you know that Teams is also a perfect platform for managing your company telephony? In this post, we’ll tell you more about the benefits!
1. A complete platform for communication
By connecting Telavox to Teams, you’ll quickly discover the advantages of having everything at the same place and still be as available as before. You and your colleagues can use the same platform when you communicate and collaborate, without any hassle. You can call free of charge, chat, and transfer calls between the Nordics and the UK, just as if you were in the same room.
To have your telephony in Teams also means that you won’t have to juggle different interfaces, remember logins or keep track of in which channel you talked about what before. This will make you more effective in meetings, both with colleagues and customers.
With everything in one system, you’ll not only have access to your colleagues’ numbers and mail – it’ll also be easier to save contact information in one place.
Teams is all about collaboration, and one of the features is that you can invite clients to your meetings, directly in the system. You can let them read chat messages, and even work live in the same document as you’re on the phone. Effective communication – all in one place!
2. Overview and control of your telephony
A competent PBX system is one of the best tools to make your communication more efficient – internally, as well as with your customers and collaborators. With all your telephony in Teams, it’s also easy to manage your calls. The possibilities are almost endless. For example, you can do the following:
Decide which number to show when making outbound calls.
Call all of your contacts directly to their mobile or fixed number – regardless if they have Teams or not.
Decide if you want to answer incoming calls in Teams, your mobile, or through your computer’s softphone.
Manage your profiles directly in Teams: switch transfers, change your voice messages or add an out of office notice.
See a list of incoming calls and listen to previously recorded conversations.
Another benefit of having your telephony in Teams is the efficient synchronisation that Microsoft offers between their tools. Calendars and contacts are automatically updated in both your mobile phone and computer. That way, all information in both in- and outgoing calls is correct.
Plus, your phone will sync directly with your calendar bookings, meaning that if someone calls you when you’re in a meeting, they’ll be informed of when you’ll be available. Another option for when you’re busy is to transfer the call directly to the queue or a colleague. This is a lifesaver that you don’t want to be without once you start using it!
4. Seamless integration with telephony and other systems
The benefits of collecting the company’s telephony in one place isn’t just related to getting an overview and smart synchronisation. Teams also offers integrations with hundreds of tools and apps that a lot of companies use daily. Apart from Microsoft’s own tools, like Outlook with mail and calendars, it’s just as easy to merge everything from analytical tools to case management systems into Teams. The extensive possibilities provide departments with a wide array of advantages, not least for the ones with daily customer contact.
For example, with an integrated CRM system, your customer service can see who’s calling since their contact card will appear when they’re calling in. That way, it’s easy to provide them with effective support directly. A plus is that you’ll never again have to switch between programs and browser windows to find the right info – everything’s a click away in Teams!
5. Stats and analytics directly in Teams
With a smart telephony system that’s integrated with Teams, it’s easy to get comprehensive stats to evaluate how you actually work. What do you do right, and what can you do better? With your telephony in Teams, you’ll also connect to Power BI, in which it’s easy to analyse data on how many clients have called, your answer time, and the number of tickets to customer service.
At the same time, you can see how Teams is being used internally and how it impacts your efficiency. With Power BI, you can also create your own statistical reports to use when it’s time to update and optimise your internal routines.
Summary: Here’s why you should connect your telephony with Teams
Integrating Teams and telephony will boost your workdays. Make calls directly in Teams, get access to all of Telavox’s functions, and have it all in a user-friendly interface.
Keeping on top of regulations can be challenging, especially in highly complex industries like finance. Regulations such as MiFID II and the upcoming MiFID III mean that compliance is more important than ever. The various MiFID regulations refer to the role of telephony, along with specific requirements for how phone calls should be conducted, recorded and stored.
This article will help you understand how to ensure your company complies with the MiFID regulations’ telephony requirements, and how to simplify the process.
About MiFID: MiFID II, which came into effect in 2018, is a big upgrade from MiFID I. It’s aimed to address weaknesses in the financial markets and keep up with new technology. The regulations cover lots of aspects of investment services, like trading and how information is handled. The main idea is to enhance transparency, protect investors, and keep the market fair.
MiFID III goes further, expanding the remit to include retail customers, among other changes.
Key areas affected:
Investor Protection: Look out for the people who invest to ensure they are not exploited or put at unnecessary risk.
Transparency: MiFID II aims to increase transparency in financial markets by introducing requirements for the publication of trade data, the use of trading venues, and the reporting of transactions to regulators.
Market integrity: MiFID II includes measures to prevent market abuse and enhance the integrity of financial markets. This includes stricter rules on the monitoring and reporting of suspicious transactions, enhanced supervision of algorithmic trading activities, and the introduction of position limits for commodity derivatives.
MiFID II and telephony
MiFID II mandates recording all telephone and electronic communications related to activities aiming to finalise transactions or provide client order services, even if they don’t lead to actual transactions. This includes mobile conversations, emphasising the need for a comprehensive recording approach.
There are three primary reasons behind this recording requirement:
1. Dispute resolution: Recorded evidence aids in resolving disputes between firms and clients.
2. Code of Conduct supervision: Supervisory bodies within firms benefit from recorded communications to ensure adherence to codes of conduct.
3. Market Abuse Deterrence: The recordings enhance detection capabilities, acting as a deterrent against market abuse.
In line with MiFID II, investment firms must take reasonable steps to record relevant communications on firm-provided equipment. This obligation extends to preventing employees from using personal, unrecordable devices for such communications. Importantly, the directive’s emphasis on mobile phone recording isn’t new; it dates back to 2010. While the cost of recording mobile phones has decreased, MiFID II maintains the requirement.
To protect themselves, firms are advised to provide mobile phones to covered employees, ensuring control, oversight, and policy adherence. The directive’s comprehensive nature mandates recording all relevant communications, emphasising a holistic approach to compliance.
MiFID regulations also place specific requirements on how phone calls should be recorded and how those recordings should be stored. For example:
-Record all calls which could result in transactions
-Inform customers that the conversation is being recorded
-Store all recordings for a minimum of five years
-Quickly and easily retrieve all communications related to a specific transaction or in a given time.
There are also technical requirements on how systems should be set up, mandating that recordings are started automatically rather than relying on manual activation and specifying the permitted time allowance for data transfer and retrieval.
How to simplify the MiFID compliance process: All these regulations can be overwhelming, but it is possible to streamline and simplify the process. It’s recommended to use native call recording directly within your telephony system to avoid any potential delays or manual processes. Additionally, dedicated compliance platforms can be utilised to ensure that those recordings are transmitted and stored correctly.
The most efficient way to ensure compliance is to use integrated systems rather than trying to manage several different platforms that don’t communicate with one another.
Telavox’s MiFID package The Telavox MiFID package is tailored to the specific requirements of banks, financial advisors, stockbrokers, traders, hedge funds, and insurance companies. Specifically, it simplifies recording maintenance, allows timely reporting and establishes a robust data management system.
Native recording and integrated storage With Telavox’s call recording feature, you can record calls directly within the telephony system, simplifying your tech stack and ensuring automatic activation. These recordings can be integrated directly with Touch’s archiving platform, meaning your compliance process is handled automatically.
Audit trails and historical data: A key aspect of MiFID that many companies struggle with is accessing previous communications. Telavox’s integration means you can effortlessly access historical data for dispute resolution, audit trails, inspections, documentation, monitoring, and notifications.
How can Telavox help with MiFID compliance?
Seamless automatic native call recording for relevant communications.
Comprehensive compliance management with our partner Touch Call Recording, which specialises in archiving and monitoring, will ensure ongoing compliance with MiFID regulations.
Secure and streamlined integration of BankID before or during phone calls to ensure two-factor authentication (2FA), enhancing identity verification in financial transactions.
Future-proof solution and a one-stop-shop for archiving and audit log requirements of your calls.
Conclusion: MiFID regulations require businesses to understand the role of telephony in customer interactions. Requirements for call recording and the storage and management of that data can sound complex. However, by utilising native call recording and combining that with dedicated storage platforms and identity verification, you have the building blocks for a powerful yet straightforward compliance process.
Please keep in mind that the above post is not meant as legal advice and is just a description of Telavox’s and its partners’ product offering.
Microsoft Teams is an incredible platform for collaboration, unifying file, and knowledge sharing, with messaging, conferencing, and even artificial intelligence. However it doesn’t support voice as we are all used to from a traditional PABX, UC or UCaaS perspective.
Many traditional platforms will interface with Teams, via API or an App but a business phone license is required.
Voiceflex, a multi-award-winning telecoms carrier, offers unified communication as a service, connectivity, SIP, AI recording, conversational IVR and Contact Centre: Voiceflex UCaaS offers Flow. Integrates directly with Teams via an embedded App, enabling traditional voice applications, without the need for a business phone license.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. Flow gives you an all-in-one traditional voice environment, for in & outbound calls.
We took a closer look at Voiceflex flow, to determine how it can help companies increase the return on their Microsoft Teams investment.
What is Voiceflex Flow? Truly Unified Communications
Voiceflex Flow, created in partnership with the Nordics-based communications provider, Telavox, is a UCaaS solution can be sold standalone that brings telephony, meetings, messaging, and contact center capabilities together in a single app, available within Microsoft Teams,
With Voiceflex Flow, companies can access omnichannel communication capabilities, integrations with third-party solutions (like CRM platforms) and unified presence features, all within a simplified user environment. There are even self-service controls, which allow users to quickly change the setup of their customer service and voice environments based on their specific needs.
Commercials
“We understand, there is no point in selling a fully loaded Flow UCaaS license, with a Teams App, as Teams, will take care of the UC element, we have reduced the licence feature set, which in turn has reduced the cost. Another major benefit of Flow is that it’s completely white labelled, you can call the application whatever you want, and you own a unique brand,” says Paul Taylor, CCO of Voiceflex.
The Key Features
Voiceflex uses direct routing technology to integrate your telephony solution into the Teams environment, offering a comprehensive, business-ready experience. Features include:
Presence sync: Automatic syncing of presence data between Microsoft Teams and Voiceflex Flow, ensuring users can rapidly access insights into their teams.
Flexible licenses: Licenses are kept separate from users and numbers so that you can move them easily around your organisation.
Self-administration: The Voiceflex self-administration portal simplifies the process of assigning licenses, managing teams, and even transferring numbers into your ecosystem.
Call notifications: Accept calls and use Teams to control call handling and transfers.
Number controls: Users can leverage Flow’s caller ID masking capabilities within Teams, to determine which number they should display during outbound calls.
Outlook Calendar integration: Comprehensive insights into all of your contacts, details, and upcoming meetings, synchronized within Teams.
Live statistics: Companies can monitor call logs, and create comprehensive live dashboards to monitor service levels, average holding times, and call abandon rates from one location.
Complete PBX controls: Access blind transfer options, call coverage insights, call-back, wrap-up, system pause, and delayed hunt groups within a unified interface.
Advanced call features: Users control Flow profiles directly within teams, with access to recordings, call lists, look-ups, and voicemails.
Contact center controls: Skills-based routing, queuing, call-back, and unified statistics, all designed to help you improve customer experience.
Plus, the solution gives companies and users comprehensive flexibility when it comes to managing calls. Colleagues can choose whether to answer inbound calls via Teams or Flow, and access cross-platform support for mobile, PSTN, and internet-based conversations.
The Unique Benefits of Voiceflex Flow
With Voiceflex Flow, employees, teams, and customers can stay connected however they choose. Regardless of whether a call happens over mobile, PSTN, VoIP, or Microsoft Teams, the features teams can access remain the same. This ensures companies can consistently engage customers, maintain flexibility in their workplace, and take advantage of intelligent tools for growth.
The key benefits of Voiceflex Flow include:
Complete cross-platform support: Voiceflex flow supports IP telephony, fixed mobile convergence, cloud PBX, soft phone, SIP trunking, and a native Microsoft Teams integration, empowering users to communicate however, and wherever they choose. Plus, it aligns with multiple communication styles, giving users an environment for meetings, telephony, messaging, presence, and mobility, in the same hub.
Excellent call distribution: With built-in contact center features, Voiceflex makes managing calls simpler. Companies can access ACD and IVR technologies, as well as skills-based routing, to streamline customer journeys. There are advanced programmability options, allowing companies to leverage CRM and ERP solutions to create custom call flows, and there are even tools for call-backs, hunt groups, and unified mailboxes.
Comprehensive self-service: Administrators can manage users, licenses, and costs within a single unified interface, which also includes access to comprehensive reporting capabilities. Flow users can utilize role-based access to reduce threats, move users, services, and products between cost centers in seconds, and easily view or cancel unused licenses.
Complete customization: Alongside allowing users to communicate however they choose, Voiceflex Flow ensures companies can integrate the systems and resources they access into a single pane of glass environment. There are direct integrations available for not just Microsoft Teams, but also Dynamics 365, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, Power BI, and more.
Ease of use: With Voiceflex, there’s no need to set up any PowerShell connections, meaning companies can sit up and implement Teams integrations in minutes. Plus, they get the familiarity of the straightforward Flow app, embedded into Teams workflows. The overall experience reduces the need for teams to switch between apps, and improves engagement.
Who Can Benefit from Voiceflex Flow?
With Voiceflex Flow, any company can extend the value of their Microsoft Teams investment, align contact center and backend employees, improve collaboration, and reduce costs. There’s no need for a Microsoft Teams Business Phone License to get started, and Voiceflex even offers a range of flexible packages, to ensure you can stay on top of your budget.
With Voiceflex, you can scale your packages up or down, without worrying about costs being tied to specific phone numbers and people. This means you never have to think about cancelling and creating new contracts, you can simply move the licenses you need around your team, as needed.
Voiceflex Flow gives companies a simple way to maintain control over their traditional voice and customise their technology stack to suit their needs, without unnecessary cost.
Read the article from UC today here: https://www.uctoday.com/reviews/unified-comms-reviews/voiceflex-ucaas-platform-review-streamlined-voice-and-collaboration/
Don’t waste time looking for customer information when someone calls! Instead, make sure that incoming callers automatically show up in your CRM. Contact lookup is a Flow integration suitable for all kinds of CRMs. Let’s see how contact lookup can improve your company’s customer experience. ?
The importance of customer experience in business success
Customers are more likely to continue doing business with you if they have a positive experience. That includes everything from their interactions with customer service representatives to the ease of navigating a website or purchasing something.
A positive customer experience can also lead to word-of-mouth referrals and positive online reviews, attracting new customers and generating more business. So, prioritising customer experience is vital to creating loyal customers, driving business growth, and standing out from your competitors.
Customers want personalised experiences. To provide them with that, your customer service team needs to see who’s reaching out and get the necessary information to help the customer ASAP. That’s where contact lookup comes in.
Contact lookup is like a further development of caller identification. When someone calls, the integration automatically searches your CRM so that the agent taking the call gets a detailed overview of the caller, like name, email, phone number, or the customer’s contact person at your company. The agent can automatically open the customer’s contact card to see the detailed information in the CRM or ticketing system, answer the call, and redirect the call to the responsible Account Manager.
And how is this relevant for your business?
4 benefits of using contact lookup to improve customer experience
1. Personalised and efficient customer service
Contact lookup instantly lets you retrieve relevant customer information, including previous interactions, purchase history, and preferences. You can also retrieve information such as the callers’ account manager or contact person, helping you to direct the call to the right place. This means you can give service that feels personal, a key factor in customer satisfaction and retention.
2. Faster issue resolution and improved customer satisfaction
By integrating contact lookup into customer support systems, agents can easily access customer contact details, eliminating the need for manual searching and reducing response times. That leads to faster issue resolution and improved customer satisfaction as you can reduce time to resolution and other important KPIs.
3. Improved cross-department collaboration
As the integration makes it easy to share customer information across different departments, it allows for seamless collaboration. Sales, customer support, and marketing teams can access relevant data and provide consistent service, leading to a unified customer experience.
4. Comprehensive view of customer journeys
Contact lookup can be integrated with various CRM platforms, helpdesk systems, or communication tools, enabling businesses to centralise customer data and get a comprehensive view of how your customers interact with you.
Contact lookup for your CRM
Hybrid Comms offers contact lookup integrations with many CRM systems. Our contact lookup integration means you can have a direct connection to, for instance, Hubspot, Salesforce, Lime and Zendesk inside the Hybrid Comms platform. The integration pulls information from these systems to Hybrid Comms, and you can easily view the customer profile directly. We also provide CTI CRM integrations with HubSpot and many other CRMs, where you instead insert the Hybrid Comms telephony features into the CRM and make calls directly within their platform.
Conclusion
Contact lookup ensures that the customer support team doesn’t need to spend time searching for additional information before helping the customer. That makes your support team more efficient, and your customers get support that is quicker and more relevant right away. This results in happier customers and better work days for your agents.
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Why should your Business consider using your phone-systems ‘Call – Queues’ features ?
Service-delivery and customer-experience are key determining factors of a successful business, and it is becoming increasingly essential to use the tools available to differentiate your service-offering as a business to your prospects and Customers alike.
Call queues provide a number of benefits to Customer Service, Sales, and Support operations of an business.
When a caller phones your business, the call will usually be greeted with a custom ‘welcome message’, usually offering a number of options as to which department or team the caller can choose to connect to. Each option is a ‘Call Queue’ and typically represents a ‘department, or team, within your business.
Each ‘Call-Queue’ can have different messaging recordings about different aspects of your business or service, for example.
This means your Customers can be played messaging specific to the queue they have chosen – for example your ‘support queue’ messaging may talk about your online helpdesk or your web chat options if the Customer wants an instant response.
Call Queues offer a number of other features to help you improve your customer’s experience of doing business with you – and to help your teams to deliver that experience.
Here are a few of the tools our business phone-system offers – and these are common features in most cloud pbx platforms / VoIP systems
Queue position announce – Use queue-position announcements to keep your callers updated as they wait for someone to answer their call with information about where they are in the queue.
Queue call-back – instead of asking your callers to wait on hold on your service line, for example, you can offer your caller the option of a call-back when it becomes their turn in the queue. This can avoid frustration, and allows your Customer to get on with other things while they wait to talk with you.
Optimum Call Routing / Skills-based routing) – opt to route inbound callers directly to the best team or agent to deal with that call (e.g. the dedicated Account Manager for that Customer) to drive better results and outcomes.
Call Distribution – queues can distribute calls equally among your agents which prevents overworking and overwhelming. Or, you can route new calls, for example, to the ‘least busy’ agents.
Queue Monitoring- see at a glance from the ‘Admin Overview’ exactly who, and how many agents are available or unavailable in each queue. Easy and instant ‘Drag-n-Drop’ to move your agents around between your queues -to cover busy times or holidays /sickness etc.
Are you making the most of your Business phone system ?
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
The quality of customer service has become a determining factor for the success of any company. Today, millennials and Gen Z might not buy due to a single instance of poor customer service, such as long waiting times. To achieve and maintain high customer satisfaction standards, it is essential to have effective tools that provide comprehensive and useful insight into customer interactions.
One way in which many businesses aim to improve their customer service is by recording their phone calls. In this article, we will discuss how call recordings have become a critical necessity for organisations. We’ll discover how it not only helps identify improvement opportunities but also contributes to customer service team training, ensures regulatory compliance, and enhances service quality.
5 benefits of recording calls
1. Discover strengths and areas for improvement
Call recordings offer a unique opportunity to discover your team’s strengths and areas that can be improved. By analysing these recordings, you can highlight your staff’s effective strategies and share best practices in the organisation. You can also identify approaches that are not benefiting your customers or your business. Success assessment should not be limited to the contact center; every company member is crucial in pursuing excellence in quality management and customer experience.
2. Ensure regulatory compliance
Certain industries, such as the banking and finance sector, have specific regulations about call recording. There may also be specific guidelines about how recording should be initiated – for example, “passive recording” means that the recording is triggered automatically without needing to be activated by an agent. Every organisation must comply with company regulations and security policies.
For some organisations, this involves recording all customer interactions. This helps avoid potential sanctions and serves as a legal protection mechanism. A misunderstanding between an employee and a customer could trigger a lawsuit. Recording customer interactions allows you to resolve disputes in favour of your organisation, as they can serve as objective evidence to clarify what really happened.
3. Speed up onboarding of new agents
Training programs are essential to accelerate the growth of new contact center employees, turning them into pros in no time. Use recordings of common scenarios to help new team members learn from both successes and challenges. Hearing authentic customer interactions will prepare them more effectively than reading a manual. This reduces ambiguities and ensures they are ready to handle real situations in less time.
4. Feedback, innovation, and product development
These recordings provide insights into how your products or services solve customer problems and drive innovation. By analysing these recordings, you can identify opportunities to improve your offering or even develop new products that address customer needs, keeping your company competitive.
5. Test your strategies
Call recordings in contact centers can provide valuable data on the effectiveness of your marketing and sales strategies. By reviewing recorded interactions, you can identify which sales approaches and marketing arguments are most effective in persuading customers and closing sales. This allows you to adjust and improve your strategies more precisely, increasing conversion rates and revenue.
How to record your calls
The best way to record calls is directly within your telephony system. A multi-platform system allows you to record no matter which device they’re received on i.e. softphone, mobile or fixed telephony calls.
Recording directly in the telephony platform itself means that you get access to the highest quality audio and can set up recordings automatically rather than needing to trigger them manually.
Is it legal to record calls?
The legality of call recording can be a tricky subject and varies across countries and industries. Recording tools are designed to help you meet regulations, but it is your responsibility as a business to know what requirements you need to follow.
Ensure that you store and manage recordings in line with relevant legislation such as GDPR. In some cases, you may need to combine call recording tools with other dedicated compliance tools, such as data storage platforms, if you are subject to certain regulations.
Conclusion
Call recording has become an essential tool for organisations that want to provide exceptional customer service. These recordings not only allow for training, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and regulatory compliance, but also fast-track new agents, drive innovation, and improve marketing and sales strategies. In a world where customer satisfaction is paramount, call recording is an valuable investment to ensure service excellence and business success.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Small healthcare businesses such as dentists, vets and physios often find themselves overwhelmed when juggling the running of the clinic alongside communicating with patients and practitioners. Effective use of telephony and IVR can offer numerous benefits for healthcare companies, including reduced workload and more effective communication..
Introduction
Running a small healthcare business, such as a dental practice or veterinary clinic, can be a demanding task. One of the significant challenges faced by these businesses is managing the workload and reducing stress for their staff whilst providing a professional and accessible service. This is especially true for businesses with only a small number of employees.
The day-to-day challenges of clinics can be further complicated by the fact that much of the daily work still revolves around telephone communication. With many patients and clients calling every day, receptionists and practitioners (who are often the same person) may find themselves spending more time on the phone than doing other parts of their job. In other cases, businesses with limited resources may find themselves missing important phone calls due to being busy with patients or other tasks.
Fortunately, modern technology offers solutions that can help streamline operations and enhance efficiency. In this article, we will explore how telephony and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can assist small healthcare businesses in achieving these goals.
Telephony: The heart of communication for small clinics
Effective communication is the cornerstone of any healthcare business or clinic. The telephone is often the first point of contact for patients or pet owners seeking appointments, information, or advice. Small healthcare businesses can benefit from adopting modern telephony systems such as IVR to manage their communication effectively in an efficient, secure and accessible manner.
IVR systems are automated phone systems that interact with callers through voice or touch-tone keypad inputs. For small healthcare businesses, IVR can significantly improve customer service and reduce the workload for staff in several ways:
1. Call Routing:
Telephony systems can route calls intelligently, directing patients or clients to the right department or staff member. This reduces the need for staff to constantly answer and transfer calls, saving time and minimising frustration. This is beneficial for single-site clinics, but especially useful for healthcare businesses which work across several different sites, for example dentists who have clinics in multiple locations.
2. Appointment Scheduling:
Implementing appointment scheduling via telephony can allow patients to book appointments at their convenience. This can significantly reduce the workload on receptionists and make the process smoother for everyone involved.
3. Callback:
Everyone hates waiting in a queue, and receptionists often don’t have time to answer every call immediately. IVR systems can inform callers of estimated wait times and give them the option to hold or request a callback, leading to a more organised and less stressful phone environment. By using callback, callers can hang up whilst keeping their place in the queue, and receive a call when someone is available to speak to them.
4. Information Retrieval:
Patients or clients can obtain basic information like clinic hours, address, or payment options using IVR. This reduces the number of repetitive inquiries handled by staff, and frees up the phone lines for more urgent issues.
Modern telephony solutions also offer information retrieval benefits for the person receiving the call. Features like contact lookup allow receptionists to immediately see who is calling, and automatically open the caller’s profile in their patient database. That means they can instantly get all the information they need to provide swift, effective service.
Combining fixed and mobile telephony
Many small healthcare businesses have a lean organisational structure, often employing only a few employees who nonetheless have to handle several aspects of the business. In many cases, these businesses operate on a single site, or a small number of locations.
Since a single employee has so much responsibility, it’s important that communication is as seamless as possible. The best way of achieving this is combining fixed and mobile telephony. That means using landline or desktop devices alongside mobile phones. This integration of fixed and mobile communication tools offers increased efficiency, improved patient care, enhanced staff flexibility, and a competitive edge in the healthcare industry. Here are some key advantages:
1. Enhanced Accessibility and Responsiveness:
Seamlessly connecting fixed and mobile telephony allows healthcare professionals to remain accessible at all times, meaning they don’t miss important calls. Whether they are in the office, at home, or on the go, they can answer patient inquiries, respond to urgent matters, and maintain a high level of responsiveness.
It also means that the call can always be directed to the right person, even if that person isn’t currently in the office. This accessibility means requests can be handled more effectively, which improves patient satisfaction and can be critical in emergency situations.
2. Flexibility and Mobility:
Healthcare professionals can move freely within the healthcare facility or between different locations without being tethered to a desk. This flexibility is essential in a fast-paced medical environment where immediate decisions and actions can be life-saving. But it can be equally relevant for day-to-day business operations, for example a receptionist being able to manage booking requests whilst out shopping for clinical supplies, or a veterinarian liaising with other staff members whilst out on a home-visit.
3. Cost Savings:
Integrating fixed and mobile telephony can lead to cost savings. With the ability to make and receive calls from mobile devices, healthcare companies may reduce the need for landline phones in every room or office, which can be expensive to maintain.
In conclusion, the seamless integration of fixed and mobile telephony systems offers numerous advantages for small healthcare companies. It empowers healthcare professionals to deliver better patient care, improves staff flexibility, enhances accessibility, and contributes to cost savings. This integration not only benefits the healthcare company but also leads to improved patient satisfaction and competitive advantages in the healthcare industry.
It’s also possible to use Programmability to add more complexity to the call flow, for example by asking callers to enter their verification details using their phone keypad, and then directing the call onwards based on the information they input.
The best telephony solutions are those that you can adapt to suit the specific needs of your business.
Conclusion
Incorporating smart, modern telephony and IVR systems into small healthcare businesses, such as dental practices and veterinary clinics, can lead to significant improvements in operations. These technologies enhance communication, reduce the workload on staff, and ultimately contribute to a more efficient and less stressful work environment. By implementing these solutions, healthcare professionals can focus more on providing quality care to their patients and clients while leaving the administrative and communication tasks to these reliable technologies.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Every modern business is expected to provide customers with immediate support if they’re experiencing problems. Yet with the evolving digital landscape where users expect instant gratification, how can businesses facilitate this without having customer teams on-call 24/7? The answer is simple, empower your customers to find their own solutions with Customer self-service.
What is customer self-service?
Customer self-service is any action or task that can be completed by a customer without the involvement of an agent or employee.
Common examples of self-service include: scanning items at a supermarket self-checkout, marking an item for returns on an online retail store, or ordering on a screen at a fast-food restaurant.
Cost-effective for businesses and convenient for customers
For most companies, the benefits of customer self-service are two-fold:
Customers are better equipped to solve their own problems, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and a higher likelihood of word-of-mouth referrals and repeat purchases.
Businesses benefit from decreased demand for support services and, as a result, incur lower labour costs.
This effectiveness of self-service systems has been reflected in their popularity with customers across the globe. In a report by the Harvard Business Review, 81% of customers stated they would prefer to handle an issue themselves before seeking assistance.
Another study revealed that 40% of all customers who contact a call centre do so only after trying to self-serve. This tells us two things: the first is that self-service is the go-to option for a large volume of unsatisfied or confused customers; the second is that, unfortunately, many businesses are not offering efficient self-service options.
What’s more, customer self-service isn’t just limited to brick-and-mortar shops. Online self-service is a crucial part of the modern customer experience. How crucial? A study by Microsoft showed that around 89% of American customers expect businesses to have some form of online self-service.
Benefits of customer self-service for businesses
On the businesses’ side, the benefits of implementing efficient self-service solutions are also backed by the data. A study by Gartner Research revealed that organisations see up to 70% reductions in calls, chat, and/or email enquiries after implementing a Virtual Customer Assistant.
But that’s not all: self-service can also help you close more sales. A study by Forrester shows that 53% of customers are likely to give up on an online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. In other words, if you don’t have answers readily available, half of your potential customers will not buy from you.
How to improve customer self-service
Depending on your business, there are a variety of ways to begin building or improving your current self-service setup.
Here are four ways your business can introduce customer self-service:
1. Use knowledge base software to build a knowledge hub
Knowledge bases are dedicated areas of your website made up of written articles that provide customers with targeted answers to their queries. Knowledge base software can help you create and organise resources to make your self-service materials more accessible, engaging, and helpful for your customers.
Depending on your business, a knowledge base can sit on a separate web portal, or as a collection of individual pages on your website. This will also be determined by the knowledge base software you use and the level of personalisation it allows.
You can write and share articles with various functions within a knowledge base, such as:
a) Explainer articles: Explainers provide general overviews of individual features, while also outlining the benefits and use cases.
b) How-to articles: How-to articles are step-by-step guides that direct a customer through a specific process or troubleshoot common issues.
c) Frequently asked questions (FAQs): FAQs are searchable lists of customers’ most frequently asked questions and the relevant solutions for each, which should be easily accessible to help customers address common issues.
Picture: The welcome page of Connex One’s Knowledge Base Hub
You may also want to include a community forum or comments section in your knowledge base. Community forums allow your customers to discuss solutions among themselves without the need for an agent, reducing the need for intervention from your team even further.
The value of a robust knowledge base goes beyond customer service. It can also help your website rank higher on search engines like Google, which is important for receiving more traffic and potential customers.
Optimising your knowledge base articles for search engines by using relevant keywords and phrases helps them appear higher in search results. When people click on your articles from search engine results, it sends a signal to search engines that your website is a credible source of information, leading to higher rankings and more potential customers.
In summary, having a robust and optimised knowledge base can boost your website’s search engine rankings, which can help attract more customers to your business.
How to create a knowledge base
These days, it’s easier than ever to set up a knowledge base. All you have to do is find a knowledge base software tool that serves your particular needs.
Tools such as Help Centre from Connex One enable you to design your own customer self-service portal. Think of it as a knowledge based article creator, support ticketing system, and training course designer all rolled into one!
2. Offer product knowledge training courses
Short and interactive product knowledge training courses are an effective way to teach your customers how to utilise your products or features. These courses can include video tutorials, written walkthroughs, and quizzes to test the knowledge gained and ensure the customer has understood the content.
To make product knowledge training courses more engaging, you can also incorporate Gamification and certification elements, allowing customers to complete courses at their own pace while receiving rewards for their progress.
Interactive training courses offer several benefits compared to other training content. An Easy Generator study showed that a well-designed product knowledge training course often leads to:
a) Lower customer churn rates
b) Higher customer engagement
c) Reductions in one-time customer issues
It’s estimated that companies who include some form of early-stage education will make a customer 131% more likely to make a purchase, according to a study by Conductor.
Picture: A screenshot of HubSpot’s learning centre
How can I create product knowledge training courses?
Companies like 360Learning give you the opportunity to create training programs through a learning management system (LMS).
LMS’s are cloud-based platforms designed to help you build your own custom course with customisable rewards and certificates.
3. Provide training videos
If you’re looking to add another dimension to your customer self-service offerings, developing your own training videos can offer a more visual approach.
You can use them to answer FAQs, showcase and demonstrate product features, or give your customers tips and tricks to help them navigate your company’s services.
Not only that, but you could also embed them in your knowledge base articles, giving your customers flexibility when it comes to handling queries.
What’s the best way to make training videos?
With the array of tools on offer, video creation has become more accessible, enabling more and more businesses to establish their own in-house.
We recommend starting with your script. This process can be simplified if you already have written documentation on a product or feature.
You could then easily adapt it to a video script, where you can put it into a teleprompter, or add it to a text-to-speech service like Natural Reader for a low-cost voice-over solution.
When it comes to editing your video, there’s a variety of services at your fingertips, both free and paid. Outside the typical heavy hitters like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro, companies like Clipchamp offer a free cloud-based editing suite that gives users an intuitive way of creating their own videos.
To host your videos, look to websites like YouTube or Vimeo, as they can provide you with enough storage space for your videos while also giving you the ability to easily share them all across the web.
Live chat gives agents the ability to handle multiple customer interactions at the same time while also providing instantaneous responses to all kinds of queries.
If you want a completely automated system, you could also enhance your live chat service with chatbots.
An example of how the Athena AI Conversational Bot interacts with a customer via Live Chat
Chatbots, also known as Conversational Bots, use language-processing to analyse keywords in a customer’s question. The chatbot can then provide the user with an answer to their query or direct them to any relevant learning material.
How do I add live chat to my website?
It’s never been easier to add live chat to your website. You can use products like Connex One to add a live chat widget directly to your site without needing coding experience and start talking to live users within minutes.
For a more bespoke configuration, pairing with Connex One’s Flow feature can fully automate live chat processes, along with the rest of your customer journey, or enable your team to use canned responses and ai self-service to quickly guide a customer to the right destination.
Implementing customer self-service
Hopefully, we’ve given you a better idea of how customer self-service can add value to your customer service. While you might want to try to add every suggestion at once, we recommend starting off your self-service journey by talking to an expert.
If you’re looking for an easy way to create a knowledge base or implement customer self-service, book a meeting with our team to discuss how you can utilise our user-friendly Help Center knowledge base software.
Are you still tied to your old PBX system? Then it’s time to consider switching to UCaaS – a move that can future-proof your workforce and streamline your workdays.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for success. One technological shift transforming how organisations communicate and collaborate is the transition from traditional PBX systems to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). Here’s why should upgrade your existing phone system to one that supports unified communications.
Made for the workforce of the future
As the workforce evolves, so do their communication needs. The rise of remote work, flexible hours, and global teams has reshaped how we connect and collaborate. UCaaS is tailor-made to address these changing dynamics by providing a comprehensive and integrated communication platform that transcends traditional phone lines. It empowers your team to communicate seamlessly, whether they’re at the office, working from home, or on the go.
UCaaS allows employees to stay connected through various devices, from smartphones to softphones and desktops. This adaptability is essential in a world where communication happens beyond the confines of a desk phone. By enabling your workforce to communicate effortlessly regardless of location or device, UCaaS ensures that your team can keep up with the demands of the modern work environment.
In the fast-paced business landscape, juggling multiple communication tools and platforms can be a drain on productivity. UCaaS streamlines this process by offering a unified solution that combines voice, video, chat, file sharing, and more. This consolidation simplifies communication and promotes collaboration by providing a centralised hub for all your communication needs.
Rather than using an array of different tools and services, UCaaS offers a comprehensive package for the diverse requirements of a modern organisation. From video conferencing and instant messaging to presence status and voicemail, UCaaS brings all these features under one roof, eliminating the need to toggle between different applications and boosting efficiency.
Effective communication extends outside your organisation – it involves seamless interactions both internally and externally. UCaaS enhances these interactions by providing a platform that connects not only your team members but also your contacts. This means that whether you’re discussing project details with your colleagues or holding a virtual meeting with a client overseas, UCaaS enables clear and reliable communication.
In addition, UCaaS provides access to advanced communication functions that surpass standard telephony. With features like IVR, smart routing, and programmability, your organisation can project a professional image and ensure that no calls is left unanswered. The ability to communicate smartly and efficiently within your team and with external stakeholders is a significant advantage in today’s competitive business landscape.
The flexibility of a mobile workforce
Gone are the days when work was confined to a desk. Modern work is about flexibility and adaptability, and UCaaS aligns perfectly with this philosophy. The ability to work on different devices and on the go means that your employees are not tied to their phones or desks. Whether they’re at home, in transit, or visiting a client, your team can stay connected and productive.
There are benefits to having a mobile workforce that go beyond just being convenient. By untethering your team from their desks, you’re enabling them to make the most of their time and create a work-life balance that suits them. This freedom to work from anywhere also has tangible benefits for your organisation, as it can reduce costs associated with office space and commuting.
Save time and increase productivity
One of the most compelling reasons to switch to UCaaS is the potential for cost savings and increased productivity. UCaaS eliminates the need for extensive hardware investments and maintenance costs associated with traditional PBX systems. Additionally, UCaaS streamlines communication and collaboration, resulting in faster decision-making, reduced miscommunication, and increased efficiency.
Embrace the future with UCaaS
UCaaS isn’t just a technological upgrade; it’s a strategic move to future-proof your team and optimise your workdays. The workforce of the future demands flexibility, smart communication, and seamless collaboration – all of which UCaaS delivers in a single, comprehensive package. By making the switch, you’re investing in a communication solution that saves time, money, and effort while enhancing productivity and overall well-being.
Check out all our contact lookup integrations, and let us know if you have any other questions.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
WhatsApp is ranked today as the world’s most popular instant messaging app, with over two billion active users worldwide.
Number of WhatsApp Monthly Active Users (source: Statista)
With more than 100 billion messages sent through WhatsApp every day, the app is quickly becoming the preferred platform of communication for both personal and business use.
How WhatsApp for Business Works
In 2017, one year after WhatsApp became fully encrypted, it launched a new feature – the WhatsApp Business Application.
This feature allows businesses to create their own business profile on WhatsApp for free and then add WhatsApp ‘contact us’ buttons or links to their online pages and social media profiles (e.g. a website or Facebook page).
Bupa Australia has integrated WhatsApp as it’s main live messaging service
Businesses can also use WhatsApp Business to set up autoresponders for new customer messages and link their landline numbers with WhatsApp for any calls through the platform.
This feature quickly became a great benefit to small and medium enterprises, enhancing their customer relationship management by opening up a more convenient channel for customer interactions.
How KLM directs its customers to a WhatsApp chat
Soon after the launch of the WhatsApp Business app in 2018, the company launched the WhatsApp Business API for enterprise communications.
But what is the difference between the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API?
WhatsApp Business vs. WhatsApp Business API
Despite their similar names, the two applications have significant differences in features and functionality.
WhatsApp Business is a free platform that caters to the startup and small business crowd, offering essentials like messaging, analytics, and profile management. It’s a fantastic starting point for small businesses stepping into the world of WhatsApp-driven customer service.
The WhatsApp Business app, as advertised on the official WhatsApp Business website.
On the other hand, for enterprises seeking advanced features, the WhatsApp Business API emerges as the superior choice. This API seamlessly integrates with existing CX and CRM systems, automates customer messaging, and puts the power of custom chatbots at your fingertips.
A comparison of features and tools available with WhatsApp Business and the WhatsApp Business API
Why Enterprise Businesses are Choosing the WhatsApp Business API for CX
There are many reasons why enterprise businesses are integrating the WhatsApp Business API into their existing customer service infrastructure. Here are a few of the top reasons:
Advanced Messaging Capabilities WhatsApp Business API allows businesses to send and receive more complex messages, such as rich media messages, location-based messages, and voice messages. This allows businesses to provide more engaging and informative customer experiences.
Shared Team Inbox WhatsApp Business API supports a shared team inbox, which allows multiple team members to collaborate on customer messages. This can help businesses to provide 24/7 customer support and ensure that customers receive timely responses.
Automated Efficiency Automation is at the forefront of the WhatsApp Business API benefits. By automating routine interactions, businesses free up resources for more intricate tasks, ensuring customers receive swift and accurate responses.
Chatbots / Conversational Bots WhatsApp Business API can be used to create custom chatbots. Chatbots (aka Conversational Bots) can answer customer questions, provide customer support, and even sell products. This can help businesses reduce the workload on their customer service agents and improve the efficiency of their customer service operations.
Integration with CRM systems WhatsApp Business API can be integrated with CRM systems and CX platforms. This allows businesses to track customer interactions across multiple channels and provides a single view of the customer, enabling them to provide more personalised and efficient customer experiences.
Example: A WhatsApp conversation being handled within Connex One via the WhatsApp Business API integration
6 Ways to Utilise WhatsApp for Enterprise Customer Experiences
1. Address common customer queries with ease
For many businesses, the majority of customer queries will be common questions or simple requests that can be handled with ease. With the integration of the WhatsApp Business API, connecting with your support teams becomes seamless for customers.
With WhatsApp’s instant messaging at their disposal, customer service teams can promptly share relevant information or valuable resources such as FAQ pages and explainer videos. This dynamic approach ensures quick query resolution, thus elevating customer satisfaction.
2. Collect customer feedback
While advanced AI feedback tools such as sentiment analysis and speech analytics provide valuable granular insights into customer satisfaction, it is important to remember that many businesses can still benefit more from simple customer feedback gathering.
If a company has not yet implemented AI solutions in its customer satisfaction processes, seeking feedback via WhatsApp proves successful due to its simplicity and speed. This approach acknowledges the time constraints customers face and ensures that providing feedback remains painless and convenient.
Using a quick rating scale of 1-5 along with basic details yields valuable insights in seconds, making the feedback process a breeze for enterprise businesses.
Travel Agency Gobibo using WhatsApp to request customer feedback
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Furthermore, the WhatsApp Business API can take this feedback gathering a step further by enabling the generation of advanced analytics and comprehensive reports through CX platforms.
Automated workflows can be implemented to gather all feedback scores from chats and forward this data to custom reports, enabling easy reporting of customer feedback.
3. Real-time order updates and instant notifications
In the realm of customer satisfaction, transparency is paramount. When dealing with time-sensitive orders or services prone to changes, the WhatsApp Business API becomes an invaluable tool. By integrating it, customers receive timely updates on their orders with ease.
Businesses can also use the WhatsApp Business API to share real-time updates on estimated arrival times or request essential journey details (such as directions for drivers or preferred drop-off points).
Furthermore, customer teams can also use WhatsApp messaging to share tracking links, allowing customers to independently monitor order or delivery progress without the need for multiple messages.
Proactively disseminating information not only mitigates potential frustrations but also empowers customers to make necessary rearrangements. Businesses can also utilise the WhatsApp Business API’s adaptability to send billing notifications, appointment reminders, and images of delivered parcels.
4. Seamless booking processes
Imagine a scenario where all booking-related information resides seamlessly in one central hub, allowing customers to bid farewell to rummaging through SMS or wading through email chains for key travel details or documents. This is the reality that the WhatsApp Business API can help businesses create for their customers.
Let’s take flight bookings as an example. Customers prefer to receive boarding passes on their mobile phones and no longer need to print out booking information. However, the real difference lies in having all your booking information centrally located. Booking information for flights and travel can now be delivered all at once, seamlessly via WhatsApp.
Aero Airlines sharing a customers boarding pass through messenger
For sectors grappling with high-volume surges of inbound customer calls, SMS or emails, responding to all customer requests through various channels can be very hard to achieve, and failing to keep up can have a negative effect on brand reputation.
By centralising all communications and information sharing via WhatsApp, businesses can provide a seamless experience for customers on one channel and gain a competitive edge.
5. Providing 24/7 support – 365 days a year
For customer messages or requests outside of business hours, businesses can set up auto-responders or chatbots for WhatsApp interactions, which can detect the key contents of customers’ messages and provide the most appropriate response for their queries.
Regardless of time zones across the globe, integrating Chatbots with WhatsApp through a CX platform will enable businesses to be available 24/7 with the ability to reply with automated responses.
If chats require more complex answers, using a CX platform with omnichannel functionality can improve levels of service by smoothly enabling the redirection and escalation of chats to a live agent where necessary.
6. Stop, Pause, Engage – Working on customer’s time
When it comes to contacting a business, customers often cite long waits for live chat responses and being held in phone queues as their biggest inconveniences and pain points.
With frustrated customers frequently abandoning call queues after a long wait or ‘timing out’ in live chats before an agent can reach them, many businesses are missing out on valuable opportunities to engage with their customers and quickly resolve their inquiries.
An example WhatsApp conversation where a customer asks to have their delivery date changed
WhatsApp chats are a much more flexible communication option for customers, as they can start, pause, and revisit message threads with no loss of communication. WhatsApp combines the digital aspect of email with the immediacy of a phone call, offering the best aspects of both channels.
By integrating the WhatsApp Business API into CX platforms, conversations can easily be revisited and picked up again as they are linked to customer profiles and not logged as general support tickets.
Providing customers with the ability to stop or pause conversations as they board transportation, enter important meetings, or simply step away from their devices can be a huge win in improving satisfaction rates for your business’ customer service delivery.
The Benefits of Integrating WhatsApp in Customer Engagement
Customer Experience teams across multiple industries have experienced vast improvements in performance by integrating the use of WhatsApp Business features into their existing CX processes, including faster resolution times for customer queries and reductions in wait times.
According to Brian Bvundura, Global Head of Business Development at Connex One, integrating WhatsApp communication is proving incredibly useful for many enterprise businesses:
“Our clients have seen huge improvements after implementing WhatsApp communication through the Connex One platform. Allowing customers to communicate with them via the messenger app of their choice rather than directing them to phone lines or emails has significantly increased customer satisfaction for many businesses.
“Many customer teams have also seen resolution times improve dramatically as the flow of information is much faster and flexible than with traditional communication channels.”
CX platforms like Connex One utilise the WhatsApp Business API to integrate with your existing CRM solutions, such as Salesforce – bringing all customer interactions and data into one system and improving customer service with increased functionality. In addition, rich media content such as videos, images, or documents can be easily sent to customers instantly, allowing them to receive a wider variety of information on demand.
Getting Started with WhatsApp Business API
In a world where WhatsApp users are constantly on the rise, an immense opportunity awaits businesses aiming to broaden their reach and enhance customer engagement.
To explore the full potential of integrating the WhatsApp Business API into your customer processes, you can turn to our Connex One user-friendly CX platform. It handles the technical complexities, allowing your business to focus on harnessing the power of WhatsApp for Business in your customer communication strategy.
To unlock the power of WhatsApp for Business in your customer communication, get in touch with our team at hello@hybridcomms.io or request a free demo of our CX platform here.
The world of Customer Service is changing at a faster pace than ever before, and there are some incredible ‘AI assisted’ tools & features now being offered by phone systems, and that are being used by companies to deliver a better experience for both their Customers as well as their staff/Agents.
Many of these tools also help businesses to drive efficiencies across both their staff teams, as well as the way they do business, with much deeper reaching reporting and data-insights, often in real-time.
Let’s look at just a few of the areas in which AI is driving change and efficiencies across the Business Telephony world . . .
1. Task-automation based on voice calls
Think about all the daily and repetitive tasks your sales, Customer-service and support teams have to do off of the back of a Customer or Supplier/ Partner phone call. . . “I’ll send your our product overview deck”, or “I’ll send you ‘this’ form or ‘that’ document”.
The AI feature-set in modern phone-systems can listen to your live calls – and have already sent your Customer the document your Agent mentioned on the call as they talk.
This offers a great Customer experience, making the Agents life easier -as well as driving efficiencies in saved ‘wrap-time’ per call, for example.
2. Knowing your calling Customers
Having all information instantly on-hand to your Agents about the caller – before they answer the call -is an incredibly powerful CX and Revenue tool.
Imagine being able to see on your screen, before you pick-up the call, everything about the calling Customer . . .
All of their previous calls to your business, with Call Recordings
All of their emails to your business, with the emails attached
All of their contact via your Social Channels, with the messages attached
All of their contact via your WebChat or RTC
Insights and Overview of their previous experiences with your business
All in 1 place. All in a queryable timeline. Instantly.
3. Deep data and customer insights, map your Customers’ lifetime-journey
Having a historical timeline of all Customer interactions enables business owners to make key-growth decisions based on real-time information about what their Customers are demanding.
Being able to instantly view Customer trends, query historical Customer calls for keywords or key-phrases to see why a Sales offer worked well/ or didn’t, AI adds a whole new level of Customer-insights from the data you already have as a business.
And, being able to offer your Business Teams a new level of insight to your customers, prospects and targets offers an advantage to them in their roles – as well as creating a better working environment for Agents as your Customers will love dealing with you.
4. Training and redeployment of resource
The automation that AI offers now to a business phone system gives companies the opportunity to maintain Agent quality-standards when dealing with client calls.
For example, AI can be used to query ‘Show me all our calls, in the last Month, where the Agent said ‘Keyword/Phrase’? This can be used to spot calls where the Agent requires training for example.
Another use – ‘show me all calls where the Agent didn’t ask 3x qualify and required by legislation ‘data-protection’ questions. The AI used in current phone-systems can Quality-score your business’ calls to a higher level of accuracy than a human now. So there is potential to re-train and redeploy your QS teams to other teams or tasks within your business.
The AI used in current phone-systems can Quality-score your business’ calls to a higher level of accuracy than a human now. So there is potential to re-train and redeploy your QS teams to other teams or tasks within your business.
5. Agent Scorecards, Rewards and real-time Gamification
Creating an engaging working environment for your Agents is key to attracting and retaining the best talent – and ultimately to delivering the tools to enable your teams to deliver a happy, knowledgeable and positive Customer experience.
Having Agent leader-boards based on rewarding target-behaviours’ is key to the Contact Centres ability to create a buzzing environment, and to drive competition amongst Agents to drive the required results.
AI offers the ability to deliver updated results in real-time to Agent wallboards and Management alike, and to be able to link-live to mapped ‘Reward-Programmes’. For example, the lead agent each day may get an Amazon voucher – this can be allocated and sent to the Agent via the phone systems AI tool which ‘links’ the Wallboard to the Reward-pool as well as the company Amazon account. All without anyone having to touch anything once setup.
If you would like to have an informal chat around understanding more about how your Business phone-system could utilise AI to enable a better service-delivery and a better Customer-experience, while delivering efficiencies – we would love to talk.
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
With the surge in remote work and the growing emphasis on seamless collaboration and communication, businesses are increasingly adopting UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) to streamline operations and enhance productivity. UCaaS offers an array of features that break down communication barriers, empowering employees to work more efficiently, no matter where they are or what device they use.
For manufacturing companies, UCaaS proves particularly advantageous as it facilitates real-time collaboration between on-site teams and remote workers, enabling more effective production management and responsive customer service.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the top five benefits that UCaaS brings to manufacturing companies, highlighting its potential to elevate collaboration, scalability, mobility, customer service, and cost-effectiveness.
What is UCaaS?
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is a cloud-based communication solution that integrates various communication channels, including voice, video, messaging, and conferencing, into a single platform. It allows employees to communicate and collaborate seamlessly from any location, on any device.
Top 5 benefits of UCaaS for manufacturing companies
1. Enhanced collaboration and communication
In the manufacturing industry, effective collaboration and communication between teams and departments are vital for smooth operations and timely product delivery. UCaaS solutions enable employees to communicate effortlessly with each other, regardless of their location or device, using various channels like voice, video, messaging, and conferencing. For instance, a plant manager can conduct video conferences with remote engineers or technicians to resolve technical issues or strategise production plans. Sales teams can also collaborate with the production department to ensure sufficient inventory for fulfilling orders. UCaaS integrates with other collaboration tools, such as project management software, further streamlining workflows and boosting productivity.
2. Scalability and Flexibility
Manufacturing companies often experience fluctuations in demand, impacting their communication needs and workforce. UCaaS solutions offer scalability and flexibility, enabling businesses to easily add or remove users and features as required, without the need for costly hardware investments. For instance, if a company needs to scale up production quickly, it can effortlessly add more users and conferencing capabilities to the UCaaS solution. Conversely, during slowdowns, the company can scale back the UCaaS solution to match reduced communication requirements.
3. Increased Mobility and Remote Connectivity
In today’s mobile workforce landscape, many manufacturing employees work remotely or travel frequently. UCaaS solutions provide increased mobility, allowing employees to communicate and collaborate from any location and device. For example, a remote sales representative can access the company’s UCaaS solution on their mobile device to connect with colleagues or customers through voice or video calls, messaging, or conferencing. Executives on business trips can join virtual meetings using their laptops to discuss production or supply chain matters. UCaaS features like voicemail transcription and call forwarding enhance mobility and productivity.
4. Improved Customer Service
Exceptional customer service is crucial for manufacturing companies, especially for supporting complex products or services. UCaaS solutions offer features that enhance customer service, such as call routing, queuing, and analytics. Companies can direct customer enquiries to the appropriate department or representative using call routing, ensuring quick and efficient resolution. Additionally, UCaaS analytics provide valuable insights into call volume, wait times, and resolution rates, allowing businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize their customer service operations.
5. Cost Savings and Efficiency
UCaaS solutions bring significant cost savings for manufacturing companies by eliminating the need for expensive hardware, maintenance, and upgrades. Subscription-based pricing ensures businesses pay only for what they use, without worrying about additional expenses or capital investments. This becomes particularly advantageous for manufacturing businesses with fluctuating staff levels due to growth, turnover, or seasonality. Moreover, UCaaS solutions reduce travel costs, as employees can collaborate remotely instead of traveling to different locations. They also minimize downtime and improve efficiency by enabling swift issue resolution and effective collaboration.
Conclusion
UCaaS solutions offer manufacturing companies a host of benefits, including enhanced collaboration and communication, scalability and flexibility, increased mobility, improved customer service, and cost savings. In an era of remote work and mobile devices, adopting UCaaS has become essential for businesses aiming to remain agile, efficient, and appealing to both customers and employees.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
It’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to adapt like never before, with research showing the crisis accelerated the digitalisation of customer interactions by several years (McKinsey survey, October 2020). But at a time when there’s more pressure on businesses to streamline activities and increase productivity, customer satisfaction is more important than ever.
That’s where artificial intelligence comes in. There’s an underlying attitude that AI is only for businesses at a certain scale, with enterprise use of AI growing 270 per cent over the past four years (Gartner, 2019).
However, when it comes to customer engagement, business size doesn’t matter. In this article we explain how, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, AI implementation can revolutionise the way you do business with your customers.
Personalisation comes first
Incorporating AI innovations into any customer engagement set-up allows you to offer more tailored communications, and in turn solutions, for current and future customers.
For any inbound interaction, AI-driven intelligent routing can immediately assign the enquiry to the most suitable team member. This can be based on the call purpose, or additional criteria generated and recorded from previous contacts. The end result is minimised wasted time for the agent and customer alike, and higher levels of customer satisfaction.
AI chat bots can also keep your comms one step ahead of your customer at all times. If a potential customer has repeatedly checked one of your products online, chatbots can generate conversations based on this browsing history, supporting the sales journey without any action needed from a contact centre team – a clear win for business.
Increased quality means rocketing results
Automatic sentiment analysis – which facilitates live monitoring and rating of calls – is vital in gaining a holistic view of customer communications. Without AI, call monitoring and marking can fall on the backburner as it’s a time-intensive manual task. Through sentiment analysis, time can be freed up for team members to do what matters most – outreach, sales and customer support.
A sentiment analysis report
Gamification is also a game changer when it comes to employee engagement. Contact centres are fast-paced, high-pressure environments, where incentivisation is key to maximise morale and team performance. AI-driven gamification software turns the stick into the carrot, motivating staff to perform at their best through fun, engaging activities. One of our global clients was even able to boost their productivity by 233% after adopting gamification, driving over £1 billion of revenue.
Real-time data for decision-making
AI can streamline all decision-making. For example, automated keyword extraction of spoken and written queries can generate live recommendations while an agent is managing a ticket. By tracking customer emotions, or frequency of word use, agents can adapt their engagement tactics to better handle the situation based on this analysis and insight, helping increase resolution rates and creating an essential positive experience.
Keyphrase analysis report showing the most used phrases during calls
The data-rich information can also support businesses in dealing with unpredictable events. By tracking behavioural patterns of customers during transactions, AI can identify those at risk of leaving, and signal the need for action to retain them. It can also quickly identify unforeseen events – for example a spike in call volume referencing an outage or complaint – alerting teams to address a problem that might otherwise have gone undetected before spiralling out of control.
It’s time to act
Artificial intelligence implementation sounds daunting, but it shouldn’t. Ultimately, through AI-powered initiatives, your business can revolutionise the way you manage inbound and outbound enquiries, as well positively influencing productivity, staff retention and the bottom line.
Through our powerful next-gen technology, we arm businesses with the capability companies need to thrive when it comes to AI-driven customer engagement. For more information and to set-up a free demo of our platform, click here.
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
In the past year, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has had a profound impact across various sectors, including customer service. The future of AI in customer service holds significant potential, prompting us to consider its upcoming developments and the resulting impact on the customer service landscape.
Among all industries, customer service stands out as one with immense opportunities for AI integration. By leveraging AI tools, businesses can enhance the overall customer experience while also boosting the efficiency and agility of their internal customer service departments. These tools are specifically designed to streamline processes in ways that surpass human capabilities.
In this blog post, we will delve into the shifting priorities of businesses and contact centres, transitioning from a focus on cost reduction to prioritising the delivery of an exceptional customer experience. Furthermore, we will explore the emerging AI technologies that empower organisations to achieve remarkable advancements in customer service.
The Importance of Customer Experience
Business optimisation is no longer just about lowering costs and increasing outputs. This has become increasingly clear in recent years as the concept of customer experience (CX) has emerged as one of the industry’s most important components.
Source: SuperOffice’s 2023 survey of 1,920 business leaders
Customer experience is, by definition, human-centric, and to compete in the customer engagement landscape, contact centres and customer service teams must provide a pleasurable, seamless, and, most importantly, human experience.
So where does AI fit into these human experiences?
The Rising Demand for Customer Service AI
With the growing significance of customer experience, there is a parallel rise in the attention given to emerging AI technology in contact centers. According to a Deloitte survey, an impressive 79% of customer service leaders have expressed their intention to invest in additional AI capabilities within the next two years.
The potential benefits of AI technology for customer engagement are vast, and its relevance in shaping business-customer interactions is only set to increase.
However, what lies ahead for AI in customer engagement? How will the future of customer service strike a balance between automation tools, AI integration, and the crucial element of human touch to provide a personalised customer experience?
The Top 4 AI tools that are reshaping customer service
To maintain competitiveness, contact center leaders face the challenge of effectively balancing the substantial advantages offered by AI with the human elements of customer engagement.
To illustrate the harmonious integration of AI and human-led processes, let’s explore four contact center AI tools that can empower organisations to deliver exceptional customer experiences:
1. Chatbots and Virtual Customer Assistance for Self-Service
Userlike conducted a study revealing that 60% of individuals prefer engaging with a live agent rather than a chatbot due to concerns about the chatbot’s ability to accurately comprehend their queries.
Nonetheless, when implemented effectively, chatbots can be highly efficient. According to a 2023 Gartner study, chatbots achieved a resolution rate of 52% for customer inquiries related to orders and purchases, and 48% for returns or cancellations. As chatbot AI continues to advance, these rates are projected to soar in the future.
In summary, chatbots can be an invaluable tool when employed appropriately, but they cannot fully replace the significance of human support. Chatbots powered by advanced AI can respond swiftly to standard queries, surpassing the speed of human agents. By deploying the right chatbot, organisations can alleviate their staff from handling mundane inquiries, enabling them to concentrate their skills on high-value interactions that necessitate human involvement or specialised expertise.
2. Interactive Voice Routing (IVR)
The introduction of AI IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) has brought about a transformative shift in customer service by incorporating ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) and NLP (Natural Language Processing) technologies to understand customer queries and provide precise and relevant information. These systems enable customers to engage with businesses using voice commands, replacing traditional menu-driven IVR systems.
Through the power of AI, IVRs can intelligently route calls to the most suitable department or agent, minimizing wait times and elevating the overall customer experience. Moreover, AI IVRs can handle routine inquiries and perform basic tasks like bill payments or order tracking without human intervention.
This automation optimises operations and allows human agents to allocate their focus on more intricate and high-value interactions. With the capability to deliver prompt, accurate, and personalised responses, AI IVRs significantly enhance customer satisfaction, leading to heightened loyalty and improved business outcomes.
3. Sentiment Analysis
The progress made in speech analytics AI has been remarkably rapid. While AI has not fully mastered certain aspects of language that rely on complex human factors like socialisation and culture, it has demonstrated comparable or even superior understanding of language compared to humans in many cases.
One notable application of speech analytics AI in contact centers is Sentiment Analysis. By analysing various factors such as tone, vocabulary, speech rhythm, and inflection, AI can accurately assess the emotions expressed by callers. This enables AI to track the caller’s emotional state throughout a conversation and evaluate the customer service performance of agents.
By harnessing Sentiment Analysis technology, customer service departments and contact center managers can gain valuable real-time insights into their teams’ performance. This enables targeted coaching to enhance the customer service skills of agents based on specific areas of improvement identified by the AI analysis.
4. Keyphrase Analytics and Entity Recognition
Indeed, Sentiment Analysis is not the sole method through which speech analytics AI tools can derive valuable insights from customer interactions.
Keyphrase analysis tools, for instance, can identify the most frequently used words or phrases during calls and text conversations, presenting this information in a clear and useful report for managers and stakeholders. This reveals the topics and areas of interest that customers care about the most, enabling contact centres and customer service departments to anticipate market trends and gain a competitive edge.
Additionally, Entity Recognition AI can aid customer service managers in identifying mentions of specific entities, such as company names, brands, or products, during calls. This simplifies the process of tracking how frequently these entities are referenced by callers in real-time. Businesses can utilise this data to determine which entities are relevant to their operations, such as products, time periods, prices, and more, and categorise them for future reporting.
Using this information, Entity Recognition AI can identify and categorize each mention of these entities during customer service interactions, providing comprehensive reporting on the findings as needed.
Remaining Competitive with Contact Centre AI
As advancements in AI continue to emerge rapidly, customer service departments and contact centers must swiftly adapt to leverage this technology and maintain a competitive edge. The integration of AI and automation should not only enhance customer engagement efficiency and optimise processes but also ensure that customers feel heard, which lies at the core of the industry.
Navigating this ever-evolving technological landscape can be a daunting challenge for customer service leaders and decision-makers. The constant influx of new applications and tools can be overwhelming, making it difficult for contact center leaders to stay abreast of the latest developments.
This is where the Connex One platform can provide valuable assistance. Our suite of customer engagement tools and AI is designed to be flexible and adaptable, growing alongside our clients’ evolving needs and requirements. We continuously incorporate new features based on invaluable feedback from our clients, ensuring that our platform remains at the forefront of customer engagement AI.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Different customers have different preferences when it comes to communication. Some prefer phone calls, while others opt for emails or chat. By integrating a live chat feature like HybridFlow chat on your website, you can enhance your accessibility to customers. This enables you to seize every opportunity and offer multiple communication channels for your company.
Surveys indicate that modern customers are both impatient and easily distracted. Consequently, if they require prompt assistance, they may turn to another provider. In fact, 44% of Zendesk’s surveyed customers emphasised the importance of live chat or chat widgets as a critical feature for online companies. Furthermore, according to Forrester, visitors who engage in live chat are 2.8 times more likely to make a purchase compared to those who don’t.
Why should you invest in a live chat? Nowadays, customers typically visit a website before seeking direct interaction. With a live chat option, you can provide visitors with the instant opportunity to engage with a real person. This approach effectively drives conversions, boosts sales, and facilitates exceptional customer service.
A live chat feature offers easy accessibility for customers, eliminating the need to search for contact information or email addresses. Instead, support is readily available in a pop-up window directly on your website. Customers can engage in real-time conversations with your agents, resulting in greater satisfaction since they no longer have to wait for email responses or spend time on hold during phone calls.
Additionally, many customers appreciate the informal nature of live chat conversations. By breaking down interactions into smaller, manageable parts, a chat session can often resolve what would have otherwise required multiple emails over several days. We have previously highlighted the significance of first-contact resolution, which live chat can greatly assist with. When utilized correctly, live chat becomes the helping hand that enhances the customer experience and increases the likelihood of repeat business and future revenue.
Fits WordPress out of the box.
Hybridcomms offers a WordPress compatible chat widget that enables seamless customer conversations. No other product combines telephony and chat functions as comprehensively as Hybridcomms chat widget. By implementing this widget on your company website, you can engage in live chat with your customers.
With the widget, assisting customers becomes much easier as it displays the expected wait time in the telephone queue, your company’s opening hours, and contact details. What’s more, the chat widget is provided at no additional cost within HybridFlow, eliminating the need for separate system management or expenses.
Our aim is to enable our customers to eliminate traditional “contact us” pages from their websites. Instead, we offer a tidy widget that remains accessible regardless of the user’s location on the page. The live chat functionality adds value by facilitating dialogue and allowing you to tailor the service according to the customer’s specific needs.
Check out all our contact lookup integrations, and let us know if you have any other questions.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Eliminate the need for time-consuming searches for customer information when receiving calls! Instead, enhance your CRM capabilities by ensuring incoming callers are automatically integrated into the system. Contact lookup, a versatile integration compatible with various CRMs, can significantly enhance your company’s customer experience.
The Significance of Customer Experience in Business Success
A positive customer experience fosters continued business relationships. This encompasses interactions with customer service representatives, website navigation, and the purchasing process.
Enhancing Support through Contact Lookup
Personalised experiences are highly sought after by customers. To deliver such experiences, your customer service team must identify incoming callers and promptly access the necessary information to assist them. Which companies stand to gain the most from contact lookup integration? Any business that receives incoming calls and desires convenient access to customer information.
Contact lookup represents an advancement in caller identification. By automatically searching your CRM when a call is received, the integration provides the agent with a comprehensive overview of the caller, including their name, email, phone number, and relevant contacts at your company. Agents can effortlessly open the customer’s contact card within the CRM or ticketing system, answer the call, and redirect it to the appropriate Account Manager.
Four Benefits of Contact Lookup for Improved Customer Experience
1. Swift access to customer information:
Contact lookup enables instant retrieval of pertinent customer details, such as previous interactions, purchase history, and preferences. This facilitates personalized and efficient customer service.
2. Streamlined communication
Integrating contact lookup into customer support systems allows agents to easily access customer contact details, eliminating the need for manual searches and reducing response times. This leads to faster issue resolution, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced time-to-resolution, among other crucial KPIs..
3. Enhanced cross-department collaboration
The integration promotes seamless collaboration by facilitating the sharing of customer information across different departments. Sales, customer support, and marketing teams can access relevant data, ensuring consistent service delivery and a unified customer experience.
4. Integration with other tools and systems
Contact lookup can be seamlessly integrated with various CRM platforms, helpdesk systems, and communication tools. This centralises customer data and provides a comprehensive view of customer journeys.
How to implement contact lookup effectively
To maximize the benefits of contact lookup, several key considerations should be kept in mind. Firstly, select systems that align with your business requirements and seamlessly integrate with your existing systems. When choosing telephony platforms, evaluate their compatibility with your CRM. Similarly, when selecting a CRM, assess how well it integrates with your telephony system.
Conclusion
Contact lookup eliminates the need for the customer support team to spend valuable time searching for additional information before assisting customers. This significantly improves the efficiency of your customer support team, ensuring customers receive immediate assistance and resulting in heightened satisfaction. Implementing contact lookup is undoubtedly a wise decision.
HybridComms offers contact lookup integrations with numerous CRM systems as well as access to our API. Our integration enables a direct connection with platforms like HubSpot within our ecosystem. Information from HubSpot is seamlessly pulled into Flow, allowing easy access to customer profiles. Additionally, we provide CTI CRM integrations with HubSpot and other CRMs, enabling the integration of telephony features into HubSpot for making calls directly within the platform.
Check out all our contact lookup integrations, and let us know if you have any other questions.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
For decades, telephony has played a vital role in the manufacturing industry. Despite the increasing digitisation and automation of processes, the need for reliable voice communication remains crucial. Whether it’s internal communication within a factory or coordination between different sites and offices, telephony continues to be a key component for the effective functioning of manufacturing companies.
One often overlooked aspect of telephony is its scalability and adaptability to meet the evolving needs of businesses. In this blog post, we will explore how telephony can assist manufacturing companies in adjusting to changes brought about by company growth, seasonality, and evolving work behaviors.
The benefits of telephony for manufacturing companies
Telephony has numerous benefits for manufacturing companies. One of the most significant advantages is improved communication and collaboration. Telephony provides a reliable channel for employees to communicate with each other, whether they’re on the factory floor or in a different office. It also allows for quick and easy access to decision-makers, which can be critical in a fast-moving production environment. Collaboration is also enhanced as employees can easily communicate with each other to coordinate tasks and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Another benefit of telephony is increased productivity. With reliable communication channels, employees can quickly resolve issues and get answers to their questions, reducing downtime and ensuring processes run smoothly.
By providing a unified communication platform, telephony can also simplify the process of getting in touch with different departments and stakeholders. It can also facilitate the sharing of information and data, reducing the need for manual data entry and ensuring that everyone is working from the same information.
Overall, telephony is an essential tool for manufacturing companies looking to improve communication, increase productivity, and streamline processes.
The challenges of workforce changes in manufacturing
Finding skilled workers is one of the biggest challenges faced by manufacturing companies, as the demand for specialised skills continues to rise. This is particularly a challenge during periods of high growth, as demand for skilled employees often exceeds the pace at which they can be recruited.
In addition, managing seasonal employees can be a headache, as the number of employees fluctuates with changes in demand. This requires careful planning to ensure that the right number of employees are hired and trained in a timely manner.
By addressing these challenges head-on and implementing effective telephony solutions, manufacturing companies can ensure that their workforce remains agile, productive, and engaged.
How telephony can help with a changing workforce
With the right telephony solutions, manufacturing companies can overcome the challenges of workforce changes and take advantage of the benefits telephony has to offer.
Licences instead of fixed contracts. One of the challenges manufacturing companies may face when setting up their telephony is the fact that many solutions are fixed, rather than being flexible to the needs of the business in question. In contrast, HybridComms uses licences instead of fixed contracts. This approach allows companies to easily add or remove users as needed and only pay for what they use.
This means that if a manufacturing company experiences a period of high growth and needs to add more employees to their solution, they can do so quickly and without incurring unnecessary costs.
On the other hand, if an employee leaves, licences can be cancelled or reassigned to other users. This flexible approach is particularly beneficial for manufacturing companies that experience fluctuations in demand or have a seasonal workforce.
Easy onboarding A deciding factor when evaluating solutions for businesses which are regularly recruiting is simple: “How long does it take new employees to learn how to use this effectively?”
There are a great many systems which look great on paper, and offer powerful functionalities that promise to utterly transform your workday. That’s all well and good, but how long does it actually take to learn how to do that?
Manufacturing companies work on tight deadlines and need to get employees up and running quickly. It’s key therefore that the solutions they use are easy to grasp, and deliver the promised results right away.
HybridFlow is designed specifically to be easy to learn for first-time-users. This frees up management to focus on other tasks, and enables every employee to go from a beginner to an expert in record time.
Landline vs mobile vs softphone telephony When considering business telephony, many peoples’ thoughts will initially turn to fixed landline systems. These certainly warrant considering, even in today’s highly mobile workplaces. But effectively combining landline hardware with mobile and softphone devices can introduce a higher degree of flexibility. For example, a receptionist might answer a call via softphone and reroute it to a landline in the factory. Or a sales representative might begin a call on their computer, but transfer it to their mobile device when they need to leave the office.
Having solutions which combine different types of telephony can create a more resilient set-up, which more easily adapts to changes in the work environment or employee turnover.
A single platform for everyone, on every device Having a combination of devices available sounds great, but can easily become a logistical headache. A benefit of solutions like HybridComms is that the same platform can be used on every device. That means that landline, softphone and mobile technology are all used in the same way and interact with one another seamlessly.
Calls can be handled on any combination of devices. Consistent ways of working and responsive tools make platforms easier to learn and faster to to use. An absolute must-have when you regularly have new employees and tight deadlines.
Summary
Telephony is an essential tool for manufacturing companies, facilitating communication, collaboration, and productivity. However, workforce changes can pose challenges that require proactive solutions.
The use of flexible telephony solutions, such as those offered by HybridComms, can help companies adapt to changes in demand and employee turnover. By implementing a single platform that is easy to learn and works on every device, manufacturing companies can ensure consistent ways of working and faster delivery.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
More and more conversations are happening with Schools and Educational Professionals regarding a VoIP Phone system but what is it and why should schools acquire this solution?
Schools and Multi-Academy Trusts in the last few years have started to migrate to a VoIP Phone System. There have been a few drivers for this. Two of the main reasons is that VoIP is a cheaper and more flexible solution than traditional phone systems.
So, what is a VoIP Phone System? VoIP Phone Systems merge your telephone and computer networks. Calls are cheap or free and adding more facilities like calls from computers and conferencing. A VoIP Phone System is hosted on physical hardware in the Cloud. Just different than traditional phone systems handsets (e.g. an IP Phone, computer, or a mobile device). Effectively VoIP uses the internet rather than phone lines to make and receive calls.
VoIP Phone Systems can be hosted and managed by 3rd party suppliers. Hybridcomms utilise Cloud Telephony and therefore provide a fully managed VoIP phone system service. From configuration to the end-of-life Hybridcomms host and manage the configuration, system monitoring, updates, maintenance plus provide any hardware such as handsets.
A Few Features and capabilities:
Less architecture VoIP uses the existing internet connection to make calls. Therefore, not as many wires are needed because a phone line is not needed reducing hardware and maintenance costs.
Hassle-Free and Easy Access Easy to add and remove extensions. Adding an extension can take a matter of minutes. All that is needed is a connection to the internet and an IP phone. Teachers also have access to their extension in any location not reduced to one office.
Desktop and Mobile Device Access VoIP Phone Systems can be accessed on any device through an app, allowing teachers to access their extension and voicemails from their computer and mobile devices.
Scalability VoIP Phone System is easily scalable. Providers can shrink or grow to suit the schools’ needs without any hindrance to internet speed.
Reduce Costs VoIP is overall a cheaper phone system than a traditional phone system. Moving two systems into one and not needing as many wires frees up the budget for schools and trusts to invest more into other areas to benefit a pupil’s schools experience.
Flexibility A VoIP system is flexible. It is easy for a school to set up a new extension. It only takes a couple of minutes to set up a new phone extension. All that is required is a network access point and an IP phone.
Accessibility Teachers can access their VoIP phone system in any location, listen to voicemails, reply to urgent matters on the go having a positive impact on student safety and educational experience.
Improved quality of education. VoIP has benefits in improving the quality of education. Strong communication provides a thriving learning environment. VoIP will improve communications with teachers, students, parents helping schools build valuable relationships and access more resources to improve school’s academic success.
BT to switch off traditional phone systems 2025. BT has announced they plan to reroute calls over the internet (IP/ Internet Protocol) and switch off traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) by 2025. It makes sense for schools to migrate now and stay ahead of the curve.
Conclusion
The main reasons as to why schools are moving to VoIP systems are costs and hassle-free flexibility to set up. Schools do not want a hefty phone bill each month and a system that is easy to set up without any problems. A VoIP phone system provides that.
If you need an upgrade to your phone system or the current system is becoming faulty, please get in touch. We will be happy to talk and give honest, consultative advice.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Action to make it easier for patients to contact their GP and end the 8am rush, with £240 million given to practices across England to embrace latest technology.
Patients will be able to contact their general practice more easily and quickly – and find out exactly how their request will be handled on the day they call – as part of a major multi-million pound overhaul of primary care, the government and NHS will announce this week.
Practices across England will also be given £240 million this year to embrace the latest technology, replacing old analogue phones with modern systems so patients never get engaged tones and easy-to-use online tools to ensure patients get the care they need as soon as possible.
This will mean that when patients contact their practice online or over the phone they will know on the day they make contact how their query will be managed, rather than being told to call back later. If their need is urgent, they will be assessed and given appointments on the same day. If it is not urgent, appointments should be offered within 2 weeks, or patients will be referred to NHS 111 or a local pharmacy.
Primary care is the way most people access the NHS and the government is committed to modernising the way patients contact their GP surgeries – improving satisfaction and delivering on the Prime Minister’s promise to cut waiting lists.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, will announce a major expansion of the role of receptionists to become expert ‘care navigators’, whose job it is to gather information, to make sure patients are directed to the most suitable healthcare professional and to simplify and streamline the process.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay, said:
We are already making real progress with 10% more GP appointments happening every month compared to before the pandemic.
I want to make sure people receive the right support when they contact their general practice and bring an end to the 8am scramble for appointments.
To do this we are improving technology and reducing bureaucracy, increasing staffing and changing the way primary care services are provided, which are all helping to deliver on the government’s promise to cut waiting lists.
Minister for Health, Neil O’Brien, said:
Where GPs have already moved over to these new technologies we see they free up the phones, making it much easier for people to get through to their general practice team.
As well as being more convenient for patients, these really easy to use digital tools allow a lot of patients to get the help they need without ever needing to go in for an appointment, which will help cut waiting lists.
Investing £240 million in these modern tools and the help GPs need to move onto them will make things more convenient for patients, but also make the workload more manageable for general practice teams.
An average sized practice of 10,000 patients often receives more than 100 calls in the first hour every Monday.
With advanced digital telephony, rather than an engaged tone, patients will receive a queue position, a call back option and their call can be directly routed to the right professional. The phone system will also be integrated with the clinical systems so practice staff can quickly identify patients and their information from phone numbers.
Practices that have invested in modern online booking and messaging systems find they help free up phones for those who prefer to call, while giving patients a convenient way to get the help they need.
As well as helping patients to make contact, the government is supporting staff in dealing with the calls. Working with NHS England the government will fund 6,500 care navigator training places – that is one member of staff per practice who can then pass on the training to colleagues.
Care navigators will help assess, prioritise, respond and assist. They can help make sure those who want to see a named GP or preferred member of staff can do so while those who are happy to see a duty doctor can also do so.
Care navigators will direct patients to other professionals within the general practice or other medical professionals such as community pharmacists who can best meet the needs of the patients. Successful care navigation can help direct 40% of requests more effectively and speeds up appointments for those who need them.
The government will provide primary care networks and GP practices with the funding and support required to make the changes, including through integrated care boards.
Dr Amanda Doyle, National Director Primary Care and Community Services, NHS England, said:
Produced by the NHS, this plan will make it easier for patients to access the care they need.
GPs and their teams are already delivering half a million more appointments a week than before the COVID pandemic.
However, we know staffing needs to be put on a sustainable footing so we are also working with government to publish a long term workforce plan.
Find out more about how businesses are using the Hybrid Flow business communication platform to deliver a more responsive and tailored approach to their customers here: Hybrid Flow – tell me more
As organisations move to support hybrid and remote workforces, they’re challenged with managing the different devices that access organisation resources. Employees need to collaborate, work from anywhere, and securely access and connect to these resources. Admins need to protect organisation data, manage end user access, and support users from wherever they work.
One of the tools IT Admins can use to assist with this challenge is Intune from Microsoft.
Intune is one of many cloud-based endpoint management solutions. It manages user access and simplifies app and device management across your many devices, including mobile devices, desktop computers, and virtual endpoints.
You can protect access and data on organisation-owned and users personal devices. And, Intune has compliance and reporting features that support the Zero Trust security model.
Hybrid Comms are seeing more and more customers looking to Intune to help solve this challenge. Many of our customers are firmly entrenched in hybrid working, and a number of them are operating on a fully-remote basis since the pandemic.
HybridFlow, our phone system for businesses, enables users/ Admins to download the software from your ‘app store’ (Android/Apple).
This means easy integration with mobile device management suites such as Intune, enabling Admins to control User updates, version management and patches, etc.
MS Intune as a package allows fully-remote management and deployment of HybridFlow to any users, anywhere. A signed msi package offers integrity, ease of deployment (one client in particular has a workforce that never return to the office, for example). and reporting with both traditional and next-generation application management.
Security benefits of a cloud-based endpoint management system such as MS Intune are clear, with easy deployment and monitoring / reporting enabling admins to easily monitor versions, access and compliance, again on any user, anywhere.
Find out more about how businesses are using the Hybrid Flow business communication platform to deliver a more responsive and tailored approach to their customers here: Hybrid Flow – tell me more
With the pandemic causing a shift in the way numerous industries and businesses function, we are witnessing a transformation in communication dynamics and an increasing demand for collaboration. This trend is particularly noticeable in the shipping industry, as competent companies in this sector play a crucial role in providing manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers with the necessary resources to stay afloat during these uncertain times. The key to these changes lies in improved interactions, and as a shipping business, you should explore solutions that can enhance your operations.
One such solution is VoIP, which has become the communication system of choice for a variety of industries, from e-commerce giants to small-scale local businesses. However, the advantages of VoIP for your shipping business are unique, and understanding them beforehand can assist you in not only making the switch but also selecting a trustworthy provider who can cater to your needs. Here are a few ways in which VoIP can benefit shipping organisations worldwide, streamlining their operations, particularly during these challenging times.
Multiple Integrated Communication Channels
By utilising VoIP, you can take advantage of various features such as automated notifications, easy setup of international video conferences, and the ability to integrate your email, phone, and fax systems. This simplifies your communication management, which is particularly beneficial if you have been using separate platforms. You are likely familiar with the negative consequences of losing an invoice, missing an important meeting, or passing up an opportunity to establish an international partnership with a new supplier. With VoIP, you can avoid these issues by consolidating all of your communication channels into one place, enabling you to monitor, analyse, and optimise your business performance by seamlessly integrating various tools.
Cost Effective, easy deployment
In the vast shipping industry, advanced technology solutions can often come with a hefty price tag when it comes to implementation and maintenance. However, VoIP stands out as an affordable option that may require some adaptation, but offers a range of benefits. By exploring various VoIP solutions tailored to your industry, you will discover that their services come with a multitude of features and functionalities at a reasonable cost.
For instance, you can enjoy free calls for all your registered users, as well as texting, emailing, and faxing capabilities. Additionally, call recording and analytics features, paired with long-term expense management, enable you to keep your budget under control. With VoIP, you can communicate on a global scale within the service package you choose, without worrying about incurring high phone bills. Given the costs involved in running a shipping business, it makes sense to cut expenses effectively in the long run, and VoIP provides a viable option for achieving this goal.
Summary
In summary, as the demand for global trade grows, it’s crucial for shipping companies to find ways to manage their operations effectively. VoIP systems provide a unified communication toolbox that can help improve the efficiency of your shipping processes. By integrating all of your communication tools into one platform, you can collate data from all your shipping efforts, analyse the results, and identify areas for improvement. With features such as CRM integration and cloud-based analytics, VoIP is becoming an essential tool for companies in all industries. By unifying all platforms into a single, secure place, VoIP enables shipping businesses to conduct their business more efficiently and enhance productivity on many different levels.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
How frequently do you check the digital security of your business? We explain how you can do a security audit in just 10 minutes.
Regardless of size or industry, all businesses can benefit from improving their digital security measures. At HybridComms, we prioritise our own digital security, as well as that of our customers.
While larger enterprises might rely on specialised IT professionals and security experts, this may not be practical for every company. Given the ever-changing digital landscape and the emergence of new security threats, it is advisable to conduct security audits regularly to ensure your business is adequately protected.
Of course, implementing and maintaining thorough digital security can be a demanding job that requires expertise and experience. Nevertheless, any business can perform a preliminary security audit within a few minutes to identify fundamental vulnerabilities and mitigate the possibility of malicious activities.
What is a security audit?
When referring to a security audit, we are discussing a basic examination of several aspects of your business to guarantee compliance with established protocols and best practices. If all is well, that’s excellent! However, if some practices are not being carried out correctly, it is advisable to detect and address the issues early on, rather than waiting until a problem arises.
Who should do a security audit?
Businesses that possess the necessary resources may enlist the aid of external experts to conduct periodic reviews of their security. Alternatively, they may have staff members in-house dedicated to continually scrutinising and verifying the company’s digital security measures.
In some instances, the responsibility of monitoring security may fall upon the IT Manager or Head of Operations. Nonetheless, all employees should be security-conscious and ensure that they adhere to the company’s protocols. Anyone with administrative access to any tools or systems must be particularly vigilant about how these resources are used and who has access to them.
How often should I check my digital security?
The frequency of a security audit depends on the scope of the review required. For a comprehensive analysis, it might be conducted annually. Alternatively, for a brief assessment, it could be performed monthly. A useful guideline is to conduct a quick internal security review every time a new staff member is hired or a new tool or software is introduced. This is an opportune time to consider the appropriate permissions and access to grant. While doing so, it’s a good idea to take a few extra minutes to confirm that everything is in order for the rest of the team.
How to do a quick security audit:
The task of conducting a comprehensive root-and-branch review is highly detailed and exceeds the scope of this article. Rather than that, let’s concentrate on the quick and effortless tasks that can be performed regularly to maintain the system and avoid issues from escalating. By checking a few key things within a time span of just 10 minutes, you can ensure peace of mind.
1. Check your company policies
Before conducting a security assessment, it is important to understand the standards that need to be met. If you have established policies or principles, it is advisable to take a few moments to review them. This has two advantages: first, it will keep the standards and procedures fresh in your mind while conducting the review. Secondly, you may identify areas that require updating or modification. For instance, your policy may mandate that all new employees must physically visit the office to sign their contract, which may not be feasible in a world of remote and hybrid work. It is best to recognize and address such outdated policies to avoid potential issues in the future.
2. Update your passwords
Security experts recommend using a complex combination of letters, numbers, and special characters for your password, changing them frequently, and using a unique password for each platform. However, in reality, most people don’t follow these guidelines. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to periodically review your passwords and assess their level of security. Many companies have encountered problems due to weak passwords such as “BUSINESS_NAME_123!”.
It’s important to check your login credentials and update any that are weak or easily guessed, and to use different passwords for each platform to avoid compromising your entire system.
If you suspect that your passwords may have been shared within your company and you’re uncertain who has access to them, it’s advisable to change them. If you must share a single account, consider speaking with an IT expert about investing in a password vault.
Pro tip! Remember to change passwords when employees leave the business, or any time they no longer need access to a particular tool.
3. Review access and permissions
It’s best practice to never share passwords or login details with anyone. Most tools allow for multiple logins and accounts, enabling you to set different access levels based on employee seniority and required features.
Periodically reviewing access levels is important, particularly for long-term tool use. It’s not uncommon for an employee to begin with basic user access but end up with admin access to perform specific tasks. Consequently, a large number of people may have access to sensitive aspects of the tool unnecessarily.
Checking the access levels of your team and determining whether they require that level is crucial. Many platforms are implementing more granular permissions, allowing for turning on and off specific features for different staff members. It’s helpful to review who can perform particular actions in your tools and assess whether it’s necessary, particularly for anyone with access to customer or financial data.
You don’t need to audit every tool each time; instead, it’s wise to conduct a quick review of existing users when adding a new one. Additionally, it’s recommended to review each tool in your tech stack roughly once every quarter.
4. Check your site’s security
Ensuring the security of your website can be a complex process. However, many hosting platforms now have systems in place that can flag potential issues in a clear and understandable way. For instance, they may alert you to any questionable login attempts, allowing you to assess their legitimacy. If you receive a login attempt from a location that does not correspond with your employees’ usual location, it’s possible that your account has been compromised, and you should take swift action.
In addition to enhancing your website’s security, a security review can reveal other benefits. For instance, you may discover toxic backlinks, which can harm your online reputation and make it more difficult for customers to locate your business online. Toxic backlinks are links originating from low-quality or suspicious websites. You can make an effort to have them removed or disavowed, so that search engines no longer associate your site with such negative sources.
Pro tip! These tasks don’t need to be specific to managers. Ask your team members to regularly review security policies and refresh their passwords in order to keep things safe. This has the added benefit of ensuring all employees recognise the responsibility they have when it comes to digital security. Make it part of your business culture.
Summary
Conducting a brief examination of your business’s digital security can help you avoid significant issues in the future. It doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Devoting just 10 minutes to a security audit on a periodic basis can help you nip small problems in the bud before they escalate into major concerns for your company.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
With the continuation of hybrid working since the pandemic seemingly a permanent fixture for many businesses, are we also faced with increased ‘call-waiting’ times as a result?
How, with a remote-workforce, can businesses manage key workers to ensure customers aren’t kept waiting while your work-at-home agents are getting their laptop ready to take a call?
There are some key tools available to help service-led operations to manage this issue, now that your Customer Service, Support and Call-centre teams aren’t in the room with you.
Here are a few of the more well-used tools we’ve found being used by businesses to deliver a better customer experience (while in many cases saving £s and resource) …
1. Web Chat – a quick search on the web will tell you that companies using web-chat as a tool increase both Sales and customer-retention from a service-view. Some companies use chat as merely a support tool, taking some of the load away from their 1st-line teams.
Other companies use as a sales-aid, ‘helping’ potential customers to the right pages and information in order to decide to buy.
A web-chat tool that integrates with your phone-system enables your CS operatives to take a true view on delivering a great customer-experience (agents can see both web-chat and the caller on-hold). An integrated chat/ phone tool offers management a holistic reporting view of both agents, as well as valuable insights into their customers needs.
2. Messaging on Hold – a great way to keep callers to your business informed as to what to expect as they ‘journey’ through your phone system, or wait on hold to have their call answered. Most phone systems enable a level of personalisation so that you can upload your own greetings and messaging. And if you want something more professional there are many providers to choose from that offer bespoke messaging on hold services with professional recordings.
3. Queue Call-back – a lot of phone systems, particularly ‘cloud-based’ operators offer a queue ‘call-back’ feature. This enables callers to your business to press a number on their keypad to request a (Scheduled) call-back to avoid having to wait in the queue. Some systems enable callers to request a specific time and/or day for a call-back. No-one likes waiting – help your customers love you by calling them back! Businesses using ‘call-back’ features report a very different experience for their agents as they aren’t dealing with a ‘frustrated-caller’ that has been waiting for 15 minutes to talk to them /someone.
4. Social Channels – a good ‘social-strategy’ can deliver a huge-saving in the number of calls your business takes. Companies that are proactive at publishing company news, product updates, version fix’s and announcements, etc, via their company Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc save time and resource staffing customer-service call-centres. Younger buyers prefer to get information via apps versus having to talk to an agent. Many companies are actively educating their customers towards using Social channels for customer-support etc by offering a ‘better experience’ (quicker response time etc), and with a view to reducing reliance on live-agents to answer calls.
Done well, a good social strategy enables a business to cross-over between customer-support operations, and customer-sales, with numerous benefits around marketing to both existing and new customers Vs. a call centre operation (tagging, likes, reposts etc).
Being able to view your Social interactions as a company in your phone system offers holistic reporting across all channels, and therefore a different-level of insight when understanding your customers demands.
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
The 2025 PSTN switch off is coming, have you thought about it? Isn’t it time to make the move?
At HybridComms we have launched a new suite of connectivity products that enable one key difference to our customers. You are connected to our core network. Doesn’t that make sense? One supplier, one network, one phone call.
Convergence is important, why travel over the internet to make a phone call? Keep it in one place, cost effectively and securely.
That’s why we are today releasing a product suite that does exactly that.
The contact centre feature enables customers to communicate with a company through various channels, consolidating all communication channels to provide a seamless and optimal customer experience.
Any company that interacts with external parties typically has a customer service department, commonly known as a contact centre, whose primary objective is to assist customers with their inquiries. This department serves as a point of contact for all customers, regardless of the nature of their questions.
A well-organised and effective contact centre integrates all modes of communication onto one platform. It goes beyond traditional communication methods such as phone calls and emails. By providing multiple channels of communication, customers have the freedom to choose the method that suits them best, resulting in an enhanced customer experience.
Contact centre = a unified place for communication
Nowadays, the challenge is that various contact channels are often operated by different vendors, resulting in difficulties with integration, limited oversight, and inefficient ticket management. The optimal approach is to consolidate these systems.
A contact centre solution is specifically designed for customer communication via various channels, such as email, phone, social media, or chat. As a company, it’s highly beneficial to aggregate these features into a unified platform to simplify customer dialogue management.
To monitor incoming tickets, many organisations utilize an integrated contact centre solution, which enables efficient ticket resolution and streamlined customer communication.
The customer decides the communication channel
In most cases, customers initiate their interactions with a company through Google, with up to 90% of customer service inquiries starting there. Whether they need to cancel a subscription, check their latest invoice, or update their address, customers tend to seek out the most appropriate communication channel to connect with the company.
By utilising an integrated contact centre solution, you can easily reduce any potential obstacles for customers and guide them towards the appropriate communication channels. This may involve displaying your email address or phone number in search results or providing the option for customers to send a chat message through the company’s Facebook page.
The key objective is to offer communication channels that cater to the customer’s preferences, rather than selecting the ones that are most convenient for your business.
5 common channels in a contact centre:
Telephony – generally a cloud-based Private Branch Exchange (PBX) featuring an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
Email – consisting of separate email addresses for general enquiries, customer support, and personal correspondence.
Social media – encompassing platforms such as Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, and others.
Chat – providing a live chat option with either a human representative or chatbot.
Knowledge base/FAQ – a web page containing frequently asked questions and relevant information to assist customers.
An efficient contact centre requires competence and intelligence
An efficient contact centre requires competence and intelligence In order to maximise the benefits of the contact channels, you first require people with the right know-how. A smart contact centre isn’t just made out of channels but different competencies. This is the most important thing to solve tickets the right way. By dividing the contact centre into groups, every customer service worker can dig into specific areas and provide efficient answers – whether a customer calls, send a chat message or leaves a comment on Facebook.
To achieve an effective contact centre, you need to have skilled and knowledgeable personnel. The intelligence of a contact centre goes beyond its channels and involves various competencies. Competent staff is essential for resolving tickets correctly and promptly.
By organising the contact centre into teams, each customer service representative can specialise in specific areas and provide effective responses, whether it’s through phone calls, chat messages or social media comments.
While Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a traditional aspect of a PBX, it may require manual management when it comes to social media channels. For instance, if a customer submits a ticket via email one day and then inquires about the same issue on Twitter the following day, your solution should be able to manage the query without requiring the customer to repeat their details, such as their customer ID.
Omnichannel – for unified customer dialogue
The objective is to provide customers with the flexibility to transition seamlessly between various channels while maintaining an uninterrupted dialogue with the company. Omnichannel is the solution to this challenge, allowing you to manage communication from different channels in a single, unified platform.
An omnichannel contact centre can connect all customer communications, enabling customers to move between chat conversations and emails while still receiving an exceptional customer experience. This is crucial in keeping customers satisfied.
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Working from home has become increasingly accepted and many of us now do so. However, how can we ensure productivity when working from the comfort of our couch? The answer lies in choosing the right IT solutions. In this article, we will explore the essential tools that your IT solution should possess.
Employers may be concerned about losing control over how their employees work with remote work.
Studies have shown that remote work can increase productivity and reduce stress levels, as well as being beneficial for the environment and promoting work-life balance. Additionally, it allows for more flexibility, which typically leads to happier employees. Furthermore, offering remote work options can attract talent from outside the company’s geographical location.
Employers may be concerned about losing control over how their employees work with remote work. Traditionally, employers kept track of employees’ activities when they were in the office. However, with remote work, the focus should be on the results achieved during working hours.
It is better to measure productivity by the outcomes achieved rather than the number of hours spent in the office. This requires managers to set clear goals and explain why remote work is beneficial for employees. Clearly defined goals enable growth for both the individual and the company.
Successful remote work depends on the IT solution
The success of remote work largely depends on the IT solution provided. Many of us require a quiet environment to perform certain tasks, and for work that demands concentration, remote work can be a suitable option. Additionally, the pandemic has shown that working from home can be effective when feeling slightly unwell but still able to work.
According to a study by Owl Labs, 16% of companies worldwide are fully remote. Companies like Spotify have adopted a remote work model, allowing their employees to work from home, a café, or a summer cottage. However, the effectiveness of working outside the office is contingent on the employer’s IT solution. If the technology does not function correctly, the positive effects of remote work may not be realized.
To ensure the success of remote work, your IT solution should possess four essential features:
1. Chat
A quick and easy way to communicate with colleagues one-on-one or in chat groups. This tool is perfect for remote work and enables rapid correspondence. For instance, at HybridComms, a chat room is created for all employees to receive the latest company news.
2. Video meetings
Digital meetings are essential for smooth remote work, and video meetings make it easier to organize internal and external meetings without any hassle. With HybridFlow’s video conference tool, you can start meetings instantly with colleagues and send invite links to participants for external meetings.
3. Mobile App
Accessible and easy-to-use telephone conferences are crucial for remote work. A mobile app allows you to create invite codes and call participants from landlines or mobile phones without using your own phone.
4. Smart Profiles
This feature, such as HybridFlow’s profiles, enables you to display your availability to colleagues, making it easier to know if you’re in a meeting, at lunch, or out of the office.
In conclusion, remote work is not possible for every industry, but for those that can, having the right IT solution is essential for efficient and successful work from home. With a plethora of digital workplace tools available, it is crucial to choose the ones that suit your team’s needs. Smart digital tools make remote work a breeze, increasing productivity and reducing stress. If you want to help your employees work more efficiently from home, consider exploring some of these digital tools.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
First impressions matter – not least when your customers call you. But if you’re not there to respond, what do they hear then? Hopefully, a professional welcome message. Here’s how to do it!
Crafting a Professional Welcome Message for Your PBX
When your customers call your company and you’re not available to respond, what do they hear? Hopefully, it’s a professional welcome message that provides essential information such as opening hours and options to direct the call to the right agent. However, many businesses tend to overlook the importance of this initial impression. A poorly crafted welcome message can make a large company appear disingenuous, while a well-executed message can enhance the professionalism of a small business.
A welcome message is the recorded message that plays when someone calls your company, providing important information and directing them to the appropriate department or agent. Don’t underestimate the significance of the first impression! The message not only provides valuable information to the caller but also signals how your company appears to them.
A noisy, impersonal, or incorrect welcome message can make a large company seem disingenuous, whereas a small business can appear more professional and prominent with a thoughtful and pleasant message. Therefore, it is crucial to create a high-quality welcome message that reflects your company’s image and brand.
8 tips for a great welcome message:
1. Preparation Before Recording
Before recording your welcome message, it’s essential to plan and prepare in advance. Creating a script will not only make your message clearer but also save you time in retakes. You can refer back to your script if you lose track or become unsure of what to say.
It’s crucial to use simple language and avoid complicated terms that might confuse callers. Ensure that the message is clear, concise, and to the point. A useful technique is to read your script aloud to ensure that it sounds natural and easy to understand. This will also help you gauge the length of the message and ensure that it’s not too long.
2. Take Inspiration from Others
While you shouldn’t copy other companies’ welcome messages, it’s a good idea to draw inspiration from them. Listening to welcome messages from companies in your industry can be especially helpful. Consider what works well in their message and what stands out, such as the tone of voice, the structure of the message, or the menu options.
By examining other companies’ welcome messages, you can gather ideas and inspiration for your own message. However, be sure to personalize your message and make it unique to your business. Your welcome message should reflect your brand and convey a positive image to your customers.
3. Customize to your target group
If you have internal buyer personas or voice and tone guides, use them now to tailor the message as much as possible. What do your customers want to hear first? The opening hours of your store or the URL to your website? Which parts are most relevant to highlight in the message?
4. Don’t forget the opening hours
For many, opening hours are a given part of a welcome message and something many customers request. You want to present the opening hours clearly, so the caller knows when your PBX is closed. Also, don’t forget holidays; if you wish, you can adjust the greeting message seasonally and, for example, have a unique message for Christmas and another during summer.
5. Keep this in mind when you record
Getting your message across is so important, you must speak loudly, clearly, and slowly. It must never feel rushed, and don’t go too fast. Remember you are trying to help.
6. Think about the room
For the best possible quality, you should record the greeting message in a professional recording studio. If you don’t have that option, at least make sure to exclude as much disturbing noise as possible from the surroundings. You don’t want a colleague’s mobile or the shredder ruining a good recording.
7. Are any changes needed?
Listen to the message when you’re done. Was it good or great? Did you sound natural or nervous? Do you hear background noise? If you’re not happy, record again until you feel satisfied. Also, ask someone else to listen and give you feedback.
8. Consider different languages
For all international companies, you should be available in the most important languages for your customers. But even those who run a smaller business can have a lot to gain from not forgetting potential customers from different countries. This has the opportunity to impress them from the get go. If you serve different languages, record a message that helps direct callers to the right queues. For instance: “For English, press 1. For French, press 2.
That’s it. Now you hopefully have all the information you need to record a professional welcome message. With HybridFlow, it’s super-easy to record your own welcome message – and much more. We also have HybridonHold where we can offer you professional voiceover actors to read your message for you in a recording studio. Ask us for details, its not expensive.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
IVR technology utilizes the phone’s keypad to facilitate quick and easy caller navigation to the relevant party, resulting in enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced call expenses. Gain comprehensive knowledge of IVR’s technologies and benefits.
What is IVR?
An IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a phone system that utilizes pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech technology in combination with a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) interface to automate telephone interactions. This enables customers to receive assistance without needing to speak to an employee. By recognizing the keys pressed on a physical or virtual keypad, the customer can navigate through menu options and be directed to the appropriate destination.
An example of an IVR in action is when calling a bank’s inbound call number and receiving voice instructions on how to navigate the dial pad. Pressing a specific item on the menu leads to a redirection to another item, with the IVR either providing an automated message or routing the call to a recipient.
That’s one of the many reasons why 61% of customers still prefer to speak to someone over the phone when they need help. According to a study by Salesforce, 75% also believe they get the fastest response time if they call a company.
8 advantages of using IVR
1. IVR enhances mobile customer experiences
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems offer a personalized customer experience as callers can directly connect with the appropriate contact person by simply pressing a button, instead of being transferred through multiple people. Certain IVR systems are designed to be user-friendly and self-service-oriented, enabling customers to independently solve problems. By effectively addressing the customer’s issue, the company can increase the likelihood of the customer’s loyalty. A study by Forbes shows that 58% of customers are willing to pay more for great customer service, which says a lot.
2. Routing the caller to the right agent or department
When it comes to customer service, different agents specialize in various services, and speaking with the wrong agent may not be helpful. Traditional call routing often involves transferring a call among multiple agents before reaching the correct one, which can be costly and time-consuming, and result in dissatisfied customers.
However, IVR systems are programmed to efficiently direct customers to the appropriate agent or department based on their specific needs. For instance, a business banker specializes in different tasks than a teller, and calling a teller for issues related to business banking may not yield the best results.
Customer service representatives typically have expertise in specific areas of the company’s services, and not everyone can assist with every issue. Customers who are transferred multiple times before finding the right person are more likely to be dissatisfied with the customer service experience. IVR systems solve this issue by enabling callers to navigate to the right department or person using smart keypad options, making it easier for the customer to reach the correct agent.
That is where voice response systems come in: they can be programmed so the caller can navigate to the right person or department. These 3 smart keypad options, for example, make it easier if you’re using IVR.
3. Expanded call capacity with interactive voice response
VR systems provide a significant advantage to companies as they can handle a greater volume of calls compared to traditional methods. The automation of responses through IVR systems also allows customers to resolve certain issues without needing to speak with a human representative, thus freeing up call agents to manage a larger volume of calls.
For simpler inquiries, such as checking opening hours or inquiring about prices, a call agent may not be required. Well-designed IVR systems can easily handle these types of customer inquiries, providing a seamless experience for both the customer and the company.
4. Creating a better company image
The way in which companies handle incoming calls is a crucial factor in shaping the overall customer experience. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can leave a positive first impression on callers, setting the tone for the rest of the customer interaction. This is particularly beneficial for small businesses and startups, as IVR systems can help them appear more professional and established. Additionally, IVR systems demonstrate that a company values its customers by being reliable and available, which can help foster positive relationships and increase customer loyalty.
Automated responses provided by IVR systems are also beneficial as they can resolve customers’ queries without the need to contact a call agent, which saves customers time and frustration. By providing prompt solutions and responses, businesses can improve their ranking on the customer’s priority list and create a positive reputation. Overall, IVR systems play a significant role in shaping the customer experience and should be considered an important part of any company’s customer service strategy.
5. Unlimited customer access with IVR
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems offer several advantages, such as boosting customer satisfaction, cutting call costs, and enhancing operational efficiency. By automating call handling, businesses can deliver more efficient and seamless customer service while lightening the workload of their call center agents. According to Smart Insights, 88% of customers frequently use IVR to solve their queries.
6. Empowering call agents to perform at their best
Voice response systems offer benefits not only to customers who prefer automated assistance, but also to those who require human interaction. By efficiently directing calls to staff with the necessary skills, these systems allow for quicker problem resolution and enable staff to respond with confidence and expertise. Additionally, voice response technology provides a flexible and essential solution for customers with disabilities, including those with impaired vision or hearing.
7. IVR improves first-contact resolution
A PBX system lacking an IVR component runs the risk of misdirecting or even disconnecting customers. In companies with a large staff, disorganization can have disastrous consequences. Implementing an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that intelligently directs customers to the appropriate contact can lead to increased customer satisfaction. IVR systems help reduce time-to-resolution, which is a critical metric for contact centers.
By utilizing intelligent routing features, customers are connected with the most qualified agent on the first attempt, reducing the need to confer with multiple agents. This results in faster query resolution with minimal wait time, leading to higher customer satisfaction and an increase in first-contact resolution, ultimately improving overall time-to-resolution.
8. Lowering the cost per call
Calling business numbers typically incurs higher costs than calling ordinary mobile numbers, resulting in financial strain for customers. As a result, some customers may be forced to disconnect calls prematurely due to insufficient airtime. Dropping calls can result in unresolved customer queries, which can be detrimental to your business.
Implementing an IVR system can help address these issues. IVR technology allows calls to be routed quickly and efficiently, reducing wait times for customers. By connecting callers with the most appropriate agent, the time spent on the line is also minimized. Customers benefit from automated responses, which can further reduce their call costs. By utilizing an IVR system, businesses can reduce call costs and improve customer satisfaction.
The Bottom Line
To transform your workspace and improve customer care, consider investing in an efficient and effective interactive voice response (IVR) system that best suits your business. The call center plays a crucial role in your business, and adopting the latest technology can enhance its operations.
By implementing an IVR system, you can improve call routing and resolution times, leading to increased customer satisfaction. With intelligent routing features, customers are connected with the most appropriate agent quickly and efficiently. Additionally, automated responses can help reduce wait times and decrease the number of calls that need to be escalated to a human agent.
Investing in the best IVR technology for your business can set the pace for effective customer care and transform your call center operations. With the right IVR system, your business can benefit from increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and a more streamlined call center.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
And, the tools an ever-younger and more tech-savvy are now demanding.
There are some great features and tools available out there – here are a few that if you aren’t using maybe prompt some thought about how your systems should help you both delight and retain customers…
> Queue callback. Don’t make customers wait in queues. Systems now can offer callers option to be called back, and when.
> Preferred contacts. Route calls to particular Account Manager or team based on the callers no.
> Webcall. Offer prospects on your website or customers via a dedicated webpage an instant and free call to talk to your team.
> (web) Chat. Offer an instant way for your web visitors to engage with you and get quick answers.
> offer new channels such as WhatsApp / Facebook / LinkedIn so your customers can talk to you in the fast-changing ways they are now using
> using integrated apps to deliver and manage Customer-Service and Ticketing and moving away from email.
…and there are many more. Get in touch if your phone system needs a feature update to help your business stand out in an ever competitive and service-driven market.
As our younger generations – from #millennials to #genx – gain increased spending power, whether personally, or by virtue of becoming buyers in business – the tools they actually use have changed.
Businesses that enable their prospects & customers to talk to them using their customers’ preferred Apps , whether that’s webchat, whatsapp or messaging, will grow their potential audience, sales and £Revenues by attracting these new buyers.
A modern omni-channel platform for your own business has benefits from a staff/ operational view too:
– Make working easy and familiar – enabling your teams to use the apps & platforms they are used to makes for increased productivity
– Simple Management – with easy new user setup via apps, for simple user management and support, from anywhere.
– Work how your customers want you to – enhanced reporting enables you to understand your customers’ behaviours, and ensure you continue to delight them
– Drive Sales and excite your Sales Teams with ‘deep-data’ insights to maximise client-opportunities leading to increase in sales revenue as well as empowering and motivating your ‘account winners’
– walk the walk of a truly hybrid business – easy with the right platform to enable your teams to work from everywhere.
Get in touch to find out how our customers are using our omni-channel platform HybridFlow to drive benefits to their customers and staff teams.
The healthcare industry has made strides in efficiency in recent years, but the cost of healthcare and the size of healthcare systems still pose challenges. To provide high-quality, cost-effective care, healthcare providers must overcome these challenges. One solution that can aid in this is UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service). This article will explore how UCaaS can help address common challenges in the healthcare industry.
Increased yearly costs for healthcare
The rising cost of healthcare is driven by factors such as aging populations and chronic diseases. Diabetes is one such example, with 537 million people worldwide and 61 million in the European region currently living with it. This number is projected to reach 69 million by 2045.
Advances in medicine and treatments are resulting in higher costs, but also improving quality of life and extending life expectancy. Healthcare professionals seeking to improve communication, reduce expenses, and simplify processes for both staff and patients, can benefit from utilizing UCaaS (Unified Communication as a Service) solutions.
What is UCaaS?
As the number of communication channels continues to grow, it is increasingly important that they are able to interact seamlessly. This is where Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) comes in. UCaaS is a cloud-based solution that integrates all communication channels, including telephony, PBX, email, chat, and video calls, into a single platform. Additionally, other technical tools such as CRM systems, which store information about contacts and patients, can be integrated to facilitate smooth communication and increase efficiency.
UCaaS, or Unified Communications as a Service, is a subscription-based cloud solution that allows you to avoid high upfront costs and only pay for the number of users you require.
Common challenges in healthcare
Cloud computing
Despite the widespread adoption of cloud computing, some healthcare facilities are still resistant to the transition, clinging to expensive, hardware-based, non-integrated systems on-premise. Some may be hesitant to let go of these systems they have invested in, while others may have concerns about security in the cloud.
However, it’s important to note that secure and reliable cloud-computing is achievable today. In healthcare, cloud-based UCaaS solutions offer significant advantages such as streamlined and cost-effective operations, lower total cost of ownership and most importantly, improved patient care.
Internal communication
In some healthcare organisations, there’s still a need to migrate data endlessly between incompatible systems. Sometimes, incompatibility drives a need to duplicate data on various devices. As clinicians and caregivers sort through this morass, delays occur. Finding a patient’s history takes a lot of manual work. Test results may take too long to arrive. Sometimes results may not get to the patient at all. Clinicians may be making decisions based on incomplete or out-of-date information. All this can cause people to lose confidence. But if healthcare providers can avoid burdening the patient with a slow diagnosis and treatment process, the quality of care improves significantly. Seamless experiences lead to happier patients and increased trust, and a UCaaS solution can provide a smoother process.
In large and complex healthcare ecosystems, communication can be a major challenge, with a lack of standardization leading to increased risk of errors. Outdated tools, such as traditional phones and closed VoIP systems, are often still used, resulting in staff being overwhelmed by unnecessary alarms and notifications. Migrating data between incompatible systems and the need to duplicate data on various devices also leads to delays in finding patient history, delays in test results and clinicians making decisions based on incomplete or outdated information. This can cause patients to lose confidence in their care. However, by avoiding a slow diagnosis and treatment process, the quality of care can be greatly improved. UCaaS solutions can provide seamless communication and data management, leading to happier patients and increased trust in the healthcare provider.
9 ways in which UCaaS can help solve these challenges
1. Only a single call and number are necessary
Communicating with busy physicians can be difficult due to the use of multiple landlines (for the office and the hospital) and smartphones. UCaaS solutions provide a way to establish a single channel for communication, enabling family members and the health team to receive the latest patient updates in a timely and organized manner, this can also improve the coordination of care and reduce the workload for physicians.
2. A clear overview and faster communication
UCaaS solutions offer real-time access to the entire communication queue, making it easier to make data-driven decisions, such as scheduling. It allows for combining multiple call center services into a single platform, including voice and IP telephony, instant messaging, video conferencing, voicemail, IVR and more. This allows doctors in the field to easily access test results and set up online consultations, improving communication and coordination of care.
3. Smoother telehealth and eHealth
UCaaS enables remote examinations, consultations, and other forms of telehealth, which allows for high-level care even over long distances and in emergency departments. It does not require specialized hardware for video conferencing or medical examinations, allowing patients, doctors, and specialists to use the services via mobile devices, focusing entirely on care.
In countries like the UK, acceptance of digital care is increasing, with more people using healthcare e-services and e-prescriptions. As telehealth continues to grow, UCaaS can adapt resources to meet demand and in some cases, better manage doctor shortages than older systems.
4. Enhanced collaboration – even for mobile teams
Mobile communication is crucial in healthcare, as it helps to improve collaboration among team members. UCaaS takes mobile communication to a new level by eliminating the need for multiple communication systems, allowing for seamless collaboration among team members. Regardless of where the clinics and human resources are located, everyone can interact through a single number, making communication more efficient.
5. Simpler administration for the IT department
IT professionals in healthcare organizations have to deal with a wide range of demands and expectations in a constantly changing environment. UCaaS solutions can empower them by enabling them to spend less time on maintenance and more time on long-term planning. Integrations between various communication channels, CRM systems, and analytical tools become easy and efficient. In addition,
UCaaS can also lead to cost savings, improved system performance and increased security through features such as single-pane management, automatic technology upgrades, rapid security patches and enhanced disaster recovery.
6. Strengthened cybersecurity
According to IBM, the cost of a data breach has reached an all-time high, with the average cost for a single data breach in 2022 being USD 4.25 million. Furthermore, the impact of a data breach can last for several years.
In healthcare, cyberattacks lead to poor patient care and increased mortality, and outdated communication channels can contribute to the problem. Modern systems, such as cloud solutions, can help to prevent many attacks. By using cloud services, more resources can be devoted to identifying, isolating, and eliminating cyber threats.
7. Unleash the potential of IoHT
The Internet of Things is revolutionising many industries, and in healthcare, it’s called the Internet of Health Things (IoHT). An example of an intelligent IoHT service is that data generated by sensors can be migrated to the cloud. Remote monitoring and data collection can grow and be managed like never before without wasting resources, resulting in more informed decision-making. Now also comes fast 5G and other advances in wireless connectivity. The right UCaaS solution integrated with IoHT is just the beginning, and the value of IoT is expected to grow to USD 188.2 billion by 2025.
8. Finance and accounting
With UCaaS, the accounting department no longer has to monitor large capital investments in communication hardware. The cost of organization-wide, cloud-based communication is consolidated into a single monthly invoice. Additionally, the unpredictable costs of hardware repair, as well as the costs associated with training and re-training, are eliminated.
9. Match use to need
UCaaS is subscription-based, and when staff numbers change, it’s easy to adjust. Add new users, remove users when people leave, and avoid spendings on unused contract services.
Choosing the right UCaaS provider
Choosing the right UCaaS solution for your organization can be a challenge. Here are a few questions to consider when evaluating potential solutions:
How well will the UCaaS solution integrate with your existing systems and processes?
How closely does the solution align with your specific communication needs?
What is the provider’s track record for reliability and uptime?
Does the provider meet or exceed data privacy and security standards?
What is the customer interest and retention rate for the provider?
Is the provider actively developing and integrating new advances in technology? Answering these questions will help you to get a better understanding of the options available and how well they fit your organization’s needs.
Summary: UCaaS for healthcare
The need for tailored communication in healthcare is on the rise. UCaaS, or Unified Communications as a Service, offers secure, cloud-based solutions with lower entry costs, and easy-to-manage and maintain services. You only pay for the number of users you need. UCaaS solutions also meet the expectations of today’s patients, who want the same level of seamless communication they experience in their daily lives. They want access to information about their case at any time and any place.
For healthcare professionals, UCaaS provides many advantages, such as easy access to information, ability to focus on care and patient contact and IT department can outsource simple tasks and focus on the business.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Microsoft Teams is growing, UCaaS providers like HybridComms are seeing customers that want Omnichannel engagement. CX (Customer Experience) is the way forward.
When is the last time you saw a teenager talking on a desk phone? Maybe never. Yet, teenagers are using technology to communicate more than ever. Much more than any previous generations did, but the way that they communicate has changed. The new generation of budding young entrepreneurs have a plethora of choices when it comes to communication tools in their lives, and their choice is definitely not the desk phone. They need a headset, microphone, webcam, and speakers, or a chat client. A young person owns a mobile, laptop, and gaming device either a console or PC. This is everything they need and won’t be held back by a desk phone. The main problem with a hardware phone is its size. It’s not something that you can take between work and home and definitely wouldn’t be a good look next to your laptop in the local coffee shop!
The next generation will expect engagement via social channels, voice with video, and chat. The desk phone will be nowhere to be seen. It will be in the local Cash Converters with the CD player, VHS player and TV Console.
HybridFlow is a fully featured UCaaS system that’s so much more than just a phone system, it’s a communications platform. We can support a desk phone, of course we can if that’s what you’d prefer, but you don’t need it. In fact, we can give you more functionality without it. Just use a headset. Many business leaders we speak to say to us they have a VOIP phone system already and think they are up to date. Then we show them ours. Chat, voice, video, and social all for an affordable price. Now you can support your employees and customers in a modern world.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
In the hospitality and service industry, prioritizing customer needs is essential and utilizing advanced technology such as UCaaS can greatly enhance customer support. Let’s explore the advantages of using UCaaS and telephony for companies in this field.
Companies like Airbnb and Uber have revolutionized the sharing economy by prioritizing access over ownership. In this new market, the hospitality industry’s adoption of UCaaS is vital for meeting guest expectations. The objective of seamless guest experiences is now more crucial than ever.
As expectations rise, guests are often frustrated by:
Lost reservations, failed guest requests such as missed wake-up calls, issues with package tracking and delivery and inability to communicate with a designated contact person.
What is UCaaS?
UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) is a cloud-based solution that brings together various communication channels into one unified system. This allows for a seamless communication experience across various locations, making it ideal for hotel chains, conference centers, restaurants, and other venues.
UCaaS is the next evolution of traditional UC (Unified Communications) which improved communication services by integrating telephony, PBX, chat, mail, and video calls. However, traditional UC required costly maintenance and management. UCaaS, on the other hand, is a subscription-based service, making it much more cost-effective and easier to manage.
UCaaS in retail, banking and healthcare
UCaaS has already brought significant changes in industries such as retail, banking, and healthcare. It enables faster transactions, advanced features, and extended real-time services in retail environments. In healthcare, it supports telemedicine and makes it easier for physicians to consult with each other.
How UCaaS help meet challenges in hospitality and service
UCaaS improves the guest and worker experiences in a number of ways, resulting in satisfied guests, more motivated staff, and increased profits. Let’s examine how UCaaS can enhance the guest experience, simplify operations, and boost productivity in the service and hospitality industry.
1. Simplified deployment and operations
With UCaaS, traditional location-based telephony becomes obsolete, and a subscription-based service like UCaaS results in lower costs for hardware. Cloud-based communication is easily integrated across all locations and departments and can be easily scaled up or down as needed.
Guests can interact with your hotel or service through phone, online, mobile apps, and contact centers, and receive prompt, accurate responses to their requests. You can also integrate diverse services such as property management, front desk services, room billing, and instant messaging. This also helps the members of the hospitality team to be more efficient and less stressed.
UCaaS also offers the possibility of providing bundled services to guests from anywhere, at any time, through their smartphones. Conference centers are ideal candidates for UCaaS as it allows for quick responses to a wide range of requests from hundreds or even thousands of guests and attendees. Additionally, it is also possible to increase revenue through customized communication services such as video conferencing and voice over WiFi.
2. An improved customer experience
Hotels are inundated with inquiries, requests, and changing reservations, making modern communication essential as both customer satisfaction and productivity are at stake. Today’s guests interact with hotels through more channels than ever before. A guest may book a room on their computer, then monitor the reservation on their phone. Guests may also reach out to your contact centre for assistance. UCaaS provides a seamless guest experience across all channels.
Employees armed with mobile devices are better equipped to serve guests. They can quickly respond to special requests, for example, relaying emergency announcements to guests. Business travelers enjoy more seamless transitions between calls, contacts, and concierge services. Every second saved enhances guest satisfaction, and ultimately adds to the hotel’s bottom line.
3. Productivity and the virtual front desk
The increased use of mobile devices parallels the increased implementation of UCaaS. For example, employees may check guests in using tablets, and guests may arrive at their room to find a mobile tablet waiting for them. Digital connections that reduce phone conversations increase efficiency for all parties.
For many workers, making a positive impact on guests’ lives is one of the most rewarding aspects of the job. UCaaS enables employees to serve guests in unique ways, such as instant messaging, video calls, and by integrating communications with CRM systems.
For hotels, employees and guests are no longer tied to a physical location thanks to the concept of the virtual front desk. Guest communications now consist of more than just phone calls and knocks on the door. Integrated digital communications benefit both vacationers, business travellers, and hotel employees alike as all parties find the virtual front desk more freeing and productive.
4. UCaaS helps relieve IT pressures
In the hospitality industry, disruptions to critical communication services can quickly escalate into a crisis. Cloud-based UCaaS is a solution to this problem. Many businesses that adopt UCaaS experience a significant improvement in uptime. The need for IT workers to put in overtime to fix problems with in-house systems becomes a thing of the past.
Cloud-based UCaaS is often much easier to manage and administer compared to outdated and expensive on-premise systems. A cloud-based solution allows for automation of certain tasks, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and saving time for the business.
5. Scalability across many locations
Multinational hotel chains can greatly benefit from transitioning to the cloud. Mergers and acquisitions often leave hotel chains with outdated and incompatible communication infrastructures, but with a cloud-based UCaaS solution, it’s easy to manage and administer different locations from one central location. Making changes such as updating opening hours for a location or reordering call queues in the PBX can be done easily and quickly.
6. Accommodates heightened guest expectations
Hoteliers are aware that many business travelers are familiar with the latest developments in modern digital communication, and they expect the same convenience and productivity when they travel. Back at the office, many such guests already enjoy the productivity gains of UCaaS.
To meet this expectation, it is important to provide guests with the information they need quickly and without confusion. Integrating a streamlined communication system with an effective mobile app creates an ideal user-friendly interface. Making a reservation at the spa, ordering room service, or completing an early checkout can all be done easily and quickly. Overall, guests should have a seamless, frictionless experience.
7. Personalised service
To create an experience where guests feel valued and important, UCaaS helps bring a new era of personalized guest services. For example, a repeat visitor with a history of using the gym can receive texts about fitness center hours.
Vacationing guests want to escape the regular workdays and traffic jams during their daily commute. They want to feel like they’re not just part of the crowd. Business travelers desire personalization for productivity, and international travelers face a variety of challenges such as jet lag.
Failing to take care of guests can lead to alienation and negative reviews online, which can greatly impact profits. UCaaS brings coherence and efficiency to the high-stakes hospitality industry. It is crucial for hospitality professionals to adopt a modern communication infrastructure.
Why HybridFlow works so well for companies in the service industry
The team at HybridComms has been developing cloud-based solutions since 2002. Today, their communications platforms are used in a variety of industries and more than 350,000 users already benefit from the efficiency and accessibility of HybridFlow product.
HybridComms offers UCaaS solutions that are well-suited for the hospitality industry, providing positive gains in productivity, guest satisfaction and security. Some specific benefits that HybridFlow can provide include:
Efficient call management – the provided statistics allows you to get an overview of missed calls, answer ratio, and more. Through this information, you can provide better support and a more personalised service to your guests.
Seamless integrations – our telephony solution is easy to integrate with CRM tools like Salesforce, Hubspot and many others.
Personal support – we always provide a Customer Success Manager that is dedicated specifically to you from the onboarding process and forward.
Conclusion: Benefits of UCaaS in hospitality and service
It is clear that customers are reaching out through more platforms than ever before and their expectations are higher. For service-related industries, it is crucial to be present where your customers are and provide them with the service they desire, tailored to their needs.
UCaaS makes it easy to implement and fully scalable according to your company’s needs. It allows for a better customer experience by ensuring all channels are in sync with each other, making it easy for guests to reach you through their preferred channel.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
PBXs and telephony are essential for transportation and logistics companies. Voice calls are the primary means of communication for drivers, and customer service relies on them to handle calls and provide services. HybridComms PBX system is a great choice for companies in the industry. Read on to find out why.
Customer service employees working in transport and logistics know there can be many daily calls. With HybridComms, a haulage company can significantly improve their workdays by integrating their cloud PBX with the CRMsystem or reviewing PBX stats in our admin portal – things that make it easier for drivers and customer service. These are just some of the advantages of HybridComms PBX system. Here are five other ways to make life easier for the transportation and logistics industry.
1. User-friendly application
A reliable, easy-to-use telephony solution is essential for transport and logistics firms that typically receive plenty of calls. With HybridComms, you can make virtually all PBX changes yourself, without having to contact support. Want to alter the opening hours for a staff gathering? Not an issue! Easily direct calls to the office or voicemail when people are occupied. This smart, user-friendly PBX solution ensures better conditions for both satisfied employees and customers alike.
Likewise, consumers today expect companies to communicate with them in a way that suits them best and offer them a great experience. In order to be available to your customers as efficiently as possible, it is necessary for you to be available via several channels, including phone, email, and chat. Using HybridComms PBX solution, you can follow customer requests more easily because everything is centralized in one place.
2. Be available – everywhere
HybridComms cloud-based PBX solution, employing IP telephony, is the ideal answer for transport and logistics operations. This way your drivers can always stay in touch with office and warehouse staff. To ensure everything runs like clockwork all that’s needed is for the driver’s mobile phones to be linked up to your communications system.
With user-defined profiles and the capability of controlling which number is displayed when someone makes contact, staying in communication – regardless of being out on the road or in either the office or warehouse – is made much more efficient.
But it is just as important to set profiles for when your staff are busy, sick, or on holiday. It makes it easier for colleagues as they can quickly see who is available, and for customers as they are not forwarded to an unavailable person. You ensure that no drivers need to receive phone calls when they have lunch and that calls are routed to other people within the company when someone is on holiday.
3. A PBX solution for the European and Worldwide Operator
HybridComms operate throughout the UK, Europe and Worldwide market, meaning a transport and logistics company can drive across national borders without having to worry about high call costs.
HybridComms deliver complete native PSTN replacement, including local or regional support and localisation. That makes HybridComms stand out compared to many other vendors that only provide a gateway solution to connect to local telephone operators.
Call rates within the company are reduced and calls made to countries you have offices in are counted towards the included call minutes.
With a unified service for all of your offices, you get smoother collaboration, better cohesion, and a unified customer journey. A common solution for the entire European region means that staff can make free calls between themselves. Read more about the advantages of a PBX solution for UK companies.
4. Call recording
Do you find yourself logging calls manually due to the increasing volume of telephone traffic? HybridComms offers a call recording function that will help you save time and money. You can listen to important conversations and take notes without having to write them down. Listening to past calls can be beneficial in order to recall important details or catch interactions that were not previously documented.
5. IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a smart feature when all agents are busy and cannot answer the phone. One of the main reasons for frustrated customers is if they don’t get a response or answer to their question. Therefore, you must be careful to notify customers when you are expected to be available again. Offering customers to call them back is a good option.
IVR is a great way to get customers to their desired destination immediately. With IVR, they can use the buttons on their phone to go through various options and then be connected to the right person. Providing clear instructions that make them move on and finally land with the right person increases trust and security.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
This is a great explanation of what is on everyone’s minds going in to 2023. From an employer perspective, management is concerned about productivity as costs go up and wages are squeezed. From an employee perspective, Hybrid work has been embraced and their lives have changed for the better.
The UK government wants everyone back to work feeding into the economy, but won’t accept inflation pressures have changed the modern workforce. Therefore, buses, trains and at some points international travel are not an option. If you still have your car, can you afford the daily commute or are you using that money saving to pay your energy bills? It all feels like we are on a collision course.
And what happens if you and your family have chosen the good life? You have left the rat race on the understanding that hybrid work is here to stay, only to be told there is a new policy of being in the office two or three days per week.
At HybridComms, we believe there is no going back for the UK. Hybrid working is the new norm. We have some of the most expensive train fares in Europe and in this coming year the daily commute will not be an option for many families. We believe the ‘great return’ can only happen if the UK can embrace Hybrid workers.
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk!
Does your business have all of the tools it needs to service your customers’ needs to the highest standards?
> Simple Management App / Portal – can you see & manage all of your team and customer communications – streamline your ‘inbound’ to ensure your customers are getting the best service from you – from anywhere with a simple user-friendly app on your mobile.
> Attract new Customers – with an ever-younger audience now becoming buyers, it’s time to start looking at engaging this audience using the channels and apps that they prefer using. Do you offer new customer-channels to enable buyers to reach you using, for example, WhatsApp? so that you can attract buyers that your competitors can’t! Can you manage a WA/ sms / webchat like you do a phone call?
> Instantly Scaleable – can you add new staff / team members when you need to? Can you manage user-licences, phone numbers and additional features such as queues and wallboards – on the fly and without having to speak to your provider?
> Full integrations with your preferred systems, such as your CRM including Google / Outlook/ Teams / Hubspot / Salesforce – as well as many others, to enable ‘smart-working’ and better sharing of your customers’ information across your teams, leading to better service delivery.
> Simple Install – is your system currently a headache when a new starter joins? Have you got a simple, installable app for remote-users? Setting up new team members should be a very easy process and most systems now offer apps for hybrid/remote workers. ….
If you are concerned your phone system isn’t keeping up with your business get in touch – we would love to show you how HybridFlow is helping our customers be better!
Get in touch for a chat or a quick Demo – We love to talk! hello@hybridcomms.io – or give us a call
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
