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There are multiple factors to consider when moving away from your existing phone system to a new IP telephony system. One of the most important decisions to make is choosing the right PBX system, and taking into consideration the company’s IT and business practices.

The implementation and future growth of the business or organization depends on an important decision you need to make at the start: you need to choose between hosted PBX and a premise-based system. The latter means you will have the company’s PBX system physically located at arm’s length, which also means full control, while the former means your PBX is hosted by an external service provider.

While there are a couple of factors that come into play, we will focus on costs and unique features that will help you choose the right PBX system. 

In the long run, cost is one of the most important factors to consider. While it’s obvious that the initial setup costs of a hosted solution will not be as high as an on-site solution, there are factors that will influence the bill in the future, such as maintenance costs.

A hosted PBX offers lower setup costs and no maintenance costs, as these costs are shouldered by the service provider. Premise-based PBX systems have higher setup costs, but potentially lower ongoing costs (the maintenance costs); however, it’s risky, because you never know how technological change will affect your existing equipment.

Besides saving you money and offering scalability, hosted PBX services come with different features and packages, such as voice recording, click-to-call widgets, voicemail to email, and performance tracking, just to name a few.

Call recording increases company productivity and helps the company to better evaluate sales people's performance. The recorded conversation can be easily downloaded with the help of an active Internet connection.

With a click-to-call widget, companies can take advantage of another way to get in touch with their customers, as a call can be initiated simply by clicking a widget that appears on the screen.

With growth being the keyword for every business, performance is an essential factor that needs to be measured, and a hosted PBX allows exactly that via reports that track calls, their length, and other important details.

After taking into consideration all the advantages of hosted PBX systems, one difficult question still remains: since more and more companies are providing such services, which one should you choose?

In order to make the best decision, here some of the most important things to consider: integration, reliability, support, and finally, the features included in the service package.

What separates Digitcom from others is the company’s 20 years of experience in the business. Digitcom has grown to become the leading provider of hosted PBX, and has won numerous awards over the years, including the prestigious CDN Top 100 Solution Providers of 2011, 2012 and 2013 three years in a row.

For more information on hosted PBX systems and to learn more about Digitcom, please visit www.digitcom.ca.

Enterprise SBCs make it easier to embrace launching a new next-generation contact center

The contact center landscape has grown increasingly sophisticated during the past several years, largely due to the rapid proliferation of mobile and IP communications.

Now that customer service departments are using VoIP solutions and mobile-enabled technologies, agents are able to manage more workloads and interactions without introducing performance complications or risking the inability to collaborate with prospective or existing clients using their desired platforms.

While these benefits are appealing, the diversity of communications in the contact center has introduced some significant challenges. This drives the need for enterprise session border controllers (SBCs) within these contact centers, as the technology can alleviate numerous concerns and potential costs.

Enterprise SBCs sit at the network edge and provide security as well as an effective way to translate different SIP formats so that many types of devices function on the corporate network with ease.

Sophisticated enterprise SBCs are designed with the scalability in mind to support in-house and remote agents, making them a perfect fit for contact centers that are looking to engage in teleworking strategies.

Mitigate security issues
Now that end-users in and outside of the contact center are using a multitude of devices and communication solutions, businesses must be able to monitor and protect those connections if they are to completely mitigate risk. Enterprise SBCs have the unique ability to view each interaction and application as a single session, which can make it easier for security and IT professionals to keep operations flowing smoothly and safely.

The adoption of unified communications systems, where VoIP, instant messaging and other collaborative tools converge, makes a strong case for using enterprise SBCs. This is because SBCs can give managers the unique ability to observe and track touch points without interfering.

Consolidate remote workers
Mobility has empowered the workforce and driven employee operations out of the office and into homes. This remote working phenomenon has made the contact center life both easier and more difficult. While companies have fewer in-house agents, decision-makers need to ensure that teleworkers stay efficient and are able to connect to the network.

As contact centers evolve and become more diverse in nature, decision-makers need to consider if their current telecommunications infrastructures will be able to make the cut. Enterprise SBCs can be highly advantageous for organizations that want to embrace bringing your own device (BYOD) and support remote working without worrying that doing so will introduce unmanageable security or connectivity issues. Ultimately, this makes the SBC an ideal partner for a next-generation contact center.

Check out this white paper on Session Border Controllers, the Critical Component for more information.

Call recording software can bring substantial value to any organization in the form of improved customer service, regulatory/industry compliance, order verification and dispute resolution capabilities.  In this piece we are going to focus only on the customer service and dispute resolution value of call recording.

When you capture customer calls (and agent screen activity), you have a goldmine of data to help you dramatically enhance your entire customer service operation. The reason is that these interactions are precisely where your company delivers its service.  These customer conversations with your agents are at the very center of your organization's ability to deliver a stellar customer experience. So not only do you want to record these interactions, but you also want to listen to what the recordings are telling you.

Here are the top 3 things you can learn from your recorded calls:

1. Which customers might defect and why - why not have each agent ask callers at the end of the conversation to rate the service given on a scale of 1-5.  With this information, your supervisors can review the calls of anyone who gave a score of 1-2 (possibly 3) and call them back if necessary to keep them from defecting.  You can also use these recordings to ascertain where the problem lies - was it due to poor agent performance, a correctable workflow issue, etc.

2. Which workflow processes need fixing - A dissatisfied customer might be the result of faulty workflow processes.  When supervisors listen to a sampling of calls (and view the screen recording) from each agent, they may discover workflow issues.  For instance, you might find that certain data (like purchase history) isn't populating properly on the agent's screen.  Perhaps there is an on-screen glitch in order processing and certain orders won't take and need to be resubmitted.  With the recordings, you will be able to identify such root causes of customer service disruption so you can work to correct them right away.

3. Who is at fault in a customer dispute (agent or customer?) - Customers often times say one thing and recall saying something else.  When this happens, disputes can occur.  With the specific recorded call at your disposal, you and the agent can listen to the interaction and determine precisely what was said.  If a customer did in fact provide authorization to charge his/her credit card, for example, you will hear it.  If he/she did not offer such approval, you will learn that too.

Call recording software helps businesses of all sizes capture customer/prospect calls so the organization can go back and listen to calls in order to settle he-said/she-said disputes, support litigation, prove compliance and more.  While a highly effective tool in its own right, when combined with quality monitoring software, you have a powerful one-two-punch that will greatly enhance the performance and capabilities of your contact center.  And who doesn't want that?

While most Fortune 5000 organizations employ both tools, it is fair to say that many small to mid-size organizations either just have call recording or nothing at all.  The value of the combination of call recording and quality monitoring software is so high, that these organizations need to really start considering employing both.

Value of Call Recording + Quality Monitoring Together

In fact, there are a number of statistics that illustrate just how important quality monitoring software is (along with call recording software), including:

86% of buyers will pay for a better customer experience

89% of customers will go to a competitor due to poor service

Average first call resolution rate in the U.S. is just over 80%

We've taken a look back at our 25+ blog posts from 2013 and learned that the following five were most heavily viewed and commented on:

15 Critical Call Center Management Statistics

Important call center management statistics to help you understand just how important it is to focus as much on your call center's customer experience as it is to focus on the product/service you deliver/support.

2013 Customer Service Stats to Help you in 2014!

11 important statistics from last year to help you focus your efforts for this year to increase your overall customer satisfaction.

5 Tips for Coaching Staff with Call Recording Software

Several unique ways you can use phone recording software to improve customer service skills within your contact center.

Critical KPIs for your Call Center and Enterprise

Includes a matrix of over 25 important key performance indicators for your call center.

With 40+ Recording Vendors Who’s the Best and Why?

A detailed description of several key variables to consider when choosing a call recording system among the 40+ vendors today. 

You can Click Here to see all of our blog articles.

Did you know all the different types of insightful business data you can glean from your call recording software?  You can garner important information to help you make performance improvements and more informed business decisions.  This data goes far beyond the standard agent performance, quality monitoring type of data. There are likely some new types of data listed below that you might not have thought of before, and these can help you realize maximum value from your call recording system as well as drive improvements across specific areas of your organization.

Some of the key pieces of data you can glean from your call recording software include:

Geographic Purchasing Data - Which parts of the country or the world are most receptive to a new product or marketing campaign?  From this data you can ascertain some important insights regarding your products and specific markets.  The same holds true for particular vertical industries.  In other words, why are you receiving calls from a recent campaign from insurance company prospects (or from individuals in Greece) only?

Solution Problem Identification - You can determine which products/services are receiving the most support calls and can pass this information along to your product development and product marketing teams along with specifics on what the most prevalent problems were.

Competitive Intelligence - What are callers saying about what they like or don't like about the other products they've tried or are considering? Customers love to tell us how great our competitors and their offerings are.  What can we learn from this competitive data that can help us improve our products/services and sales and marketing campaigns moving forward?

Dispute Patterns - Are there certain geographies, industries or sizes of companies that are yielding more disputes than others?  What might this tell you?

Promotion Ideas - Customers often tell agents about a great promotion or deal a competitor is offering in hopes the company will match it, for example.  You can pass this important data on to your sales and marketing teams to help them with their efforts.

False Promises Data - What if your call center receives a bunch of cancellation calls for a specific product?  Might this tell you that the sales/marketing messaging around the product might be misleading and making false promises or claims?

These are just some of the many unique things you can learn from your call recording software.

Before you purchase a call recording solution you need to be sure you receive adequate answers to a number of very important questions.  The right answers to these questions will ensure the system will fit your specific needs, will scale with you as you grow and will  interoperate with your existing environment. 

These are the questions:

1. Do I pay upfront as a capital expenditure or is there a subscription fee?

2. Do I have to sign a long term contract or simply pay as I go?

3. What does the implementation process entail? How long? How much involvement is required on my end? Do I need to have specific technical expertise?

4. Do I have to pay for all features and capabilities or can I select what I want? In other words, is it a single integrated solution or modular and I can pick and choose call recording, quality monitoring, screen recording, live monitoring, mobile recording, etc.?

5. Is there an open API so I can integrate with my other existing applications?

6. What PBXs does the system support?

7. What are the ongoing maintenance requirements?

8. What is involved in customizing the software to my specific look and feel, requirements, etc.?  Does it require your professional services support?

9. How many current users/customers do you have?  What countries are they in?

10. How do I know you will be around in three to five years?

11. Can I review some customer success stories?

12. Do you offer a free trial so I can test the software out in my environment before I purchase?

13. What type of training do you offer and how long does it take to become proficient with the software? Is it easy to learn?

14. How many channels/seats can your software support?

15. Can I use my own server(s)?

16. Does your software support multi-site? How about multi-tenant?

17. Can I speak with some satisfied customers?

18. Is your software PCI Compliant? HIPAA Compliant?

19. Are recorded calls portable in an open-file format?

20. Do you support TDM and VoIP?

21. What if I need to add more users? Do I need more hardware? What is involved?

22. Do you offer mobile phone recording?

While call recording software can add significant value to your customer service, compliance and risk mitigation efforts, there are certain rules an organization must live by with regard to its use.

Call Recording Do's:

1. Set-up pre-defined search queries for the specific types of calls you are looking for (e.g. all calls that result in a cancelled order).  The availability of this intelligence will help you make important decisions.
2. Notify all customer-facing staff and customers that their calls are being recorded.
3. Record your sales calls too.  It helps to have recorded sales calls on hand to share with others that are brought in on the deal and also they are invaluable for training new salespersons.
4. Keep a repository of best and worst calls to help train new agents or to improve the skills of existing ones. Store calls that span all different types of interactions, including calls that resulted in a closed sale, up-sell, cancelled order, dispute, unhappy customer, etc. 
5. Be sure the call recording system you choose can integrate with most leading PBXs.  You may choose to replace your PBX one day or you might merge with/acquire another company that has a different PBX and you'll want to be able to integrate with that switch as well.

Call Recording Don'ts:

1. Don't purchase a call recording solution that doesn't also offer quality monitoring/selective recording because you may need/want it later on and you'd hate to have to migrate all of your recorded data to a new platform that can offer it.
2. Don't purchase a call recording solution without first trying it out.  Like anything else, you want to be sure it works in your environment, provides you with the functionality you require and is easy to navigate and utilize. 
3. Don't purchase call recording software that doesn't offer an open API so you are assured it will interoperate with your existing and future applications.
4. Don't under-utilize the system.  Ensure all staff that can benefit directly from the system are successfully trained on its use and have access to recordings.  This includes staff from Sales, Marketing, your Executive team and so on.  They can all realize significant value from hearing the actual voice of the customer.
5. Don't dump recordings before a year if possible.  You will see as times goes by how valuable these past calls can be for training, dispute resolution, agent incentivization and so on and you'll want to have them accessible for these reasons up to 12 months down the road.