Julie and Keith Towner are currently consulting with the Missouri Call Center Task Force to help provide innovative government communication solutions. Learn more.
Read More
Everyone loves a good upgrade. Especially when it means quick new features, and slick and easy use. That’s why Effective April 1, 2020 the Atlas end-user dashboard is being retired and replaced by BOOMEA!
About Boomea
Boomea is a business-driven chat application, available across multiple platforms, built from the
ground up with Unified Communications in mind. Bringing people and teams together with the
ability to chat anytime, anywhere, Boomea provides that often missing chat integration to your
business. Ever had to work remotely and the only convenient way to talk to your team would be
to call them? Now, you can simply open the Boomea app to chat with your co-workers. With the
seamless, easy-to-use ability to send photos, videos, and any other file type, you can feel confident
that you’ll be prepared in any situation.
Features
Chat
Send chat messages to other users in your account. Emojis are included and file attachments are
supported.
Public Channels
• Any user can create a public channel
• Any user within the account can join a public channel and read the entire chat history within the channel so keep it PG!
• Any user can invite any other user within the account to join the channel
Private Channels
• Any user can create a private channel • Only the channel creator can invite other users within the account to join the channel
• Only the channel creator can eject other users from the channel
Direct Messages
• These messages are between you and your coworkers! Direct messages include one-on-one messages as well as group messages
• Mentions
• Use the @ symbol followed by the user’s name to direct a chat to a singular person when in a group or channel. The user will receive a notification that they have an unread mention and the channel or chat will show a badge of the number of unread messages.
Outside Messages
• With contacts integration, Boomea now allows you to chat directly with your contacts who also have the Boomea UC client! When a person outside your account initiates a chat with you, a chat access rule is presented as a question for you to answer regarding whether you want to accept their request to chat, ignore the request for a set period of time, or block the user. This chat access rule is per-person and can be changed at any time in your Boomea account settings. Imagine how this can help by chatting with support!
• When communicating with a contact in another Boomea account as an outside message, you may also define whether you wish to share your chat presence with that contact.
Call Routing
A user may manage their own call routing by defining which devices to ring, in which order, and for what duration of time. Other configurable options include:
No Answer Route
• This is where to send the call if the user does not answer
Busy Route
• This is where to send the call if the user rejects the call Outside Timeframe Route
• This is where to send the call if the caller at- tempts to call the user outside their defined time frame
Time Frame Schedule
• This is how a user can set the time frames that callers may reach them
Voicemail
When the user gets a voicemail on the Atlas platform, the voicemail will be sent to the Boomea application and the record will appear
without the need to refresh anything. The user may then listen to the voicemail, download, and/or delete the voicemail. When a voicemail
is deleted, it removes it from the user’s voicemail in their phone as well for easy voicemail management!
Call History
Call records from the Atlas platform are pushed to the Boomea application in real time so a user can be up-to-date with their calls,
both missed and answered! No refresh is necessary as the records will appear as they are created.
Call Recording
When a user is recorded on the Atlas platform, the recording will be sent to the Boomea application and the record will appear without the need to refresh anything. If the user has access to other user’s recordings via management permissions, this user will be able to review, play, download, and/or delete all recordings they have access to. The user may only delete a recording if they are given the delete action specifically by management permissions. Call recordings are ordered by date and time and display the name of the user that was recorded.
Call Center Console
A user can access the Atlas platform call center console from the Boomea application. This enables a user to monitor the status of their queues and agents in real time. The interactive display allows the user to click on an agent and see their specific queue statistics. User can login, logout and set themselves away on the application. Admins can login, logout, and set agents away and ready in the application.
Agent and admin can also see callers waiting in the queue.
Contact Integration
Boomea Contacts the first milestone in our goal to provide the most robust UC product on the market. Contacts was the center point of all our communications, and this new feature integrates your contacts with Boomea. Current integrations are with the following providers:
o G-Suite (Google)
o Office365
This integration includes avatar images and contact sync between Boomea and your integration point. You may also choose not to integrate at all. In that situation, we provide the user the ability to upload a CSV file with their contacts and they may manage that list within the
Boomea interface. Integrating your contacts with Boomea provides a variety of new features and enhancements to
Contact Management
o Click-2-Call your contacts
o Click-2-Email your contacts
o Outside Chat Messages
o Communication History
Contact Management
Boomea Contacts allows you to view and manage your contacts by syncing your contacts with your integration point. The integration includes avatar syncing. Any updates made to contacts in Boomea will be pushed up to your integration point. The converse also applies – any changes made to the contacts in your integration point will be pushed down to Boomea
Click-2-Call and Email
Using the contacts list, any contact that you have a telephone number assigned to, you can click the phone icon to initiate a call to that phone number. If the contact has more than one telephone associated to them, the contact information is expanded downwards to show you all their numbers and allow you to click on a specific number to call. Click-2-Email the contact’s email address. If the contact has more
than one email address associated to them, the contact information is expanded downwards to show you all their email addresses and
allow you to click on a specific email. The Boomea application will then automatically open your computer’s default email client and
pre-populate the ‘To’ field with their email address
Outside Messaging
With contacts integration, Boomea now allows you to chat directly with your contacts who also have the Boomea UC client! When a person outside your account initiates a chat with you, a chat access rule is presented as a question for you to answer regarding whether you want
to accept their request to chat, ignore the request for a set period of time, or block the user. This chat access rule is per-person and can be
changed at any time in your Boomea account settings. Imagine how this can help by chatting with support! When communicating with a
contact in another Boomea account as an outside message, you may also define whether you wish to share your chat presence with that contact
Meetings
Tasks
Boomea Tasks module is the first productivity tool created for the Boomea application. The tasks module allows a user to manage their personal and organizational tasks within the Boomea application. Features include:
• Personal and Organizational Task Management
• Task Delegation
• Task Sharing
• Task Activity Log
• Task Notifications
• Link UC Objects to Tasks for Quick Referencing and Centralization
For More information on Tasks please visit our website https://boomea.com/boomea-tasks
Mobile Tasks
The new tasks module wouldn’t be complete without a mobile app! Take your tasks on the road with Boomea Tasks Mobile available for iOS and Android platforms. Enjoy the same robust functionality on your mobile device as your desktop application.
What do you need to know?
- If you’re currently using the Altas dashboard you need to contact us!!
- Towner will ensure that we work together to make a smooth transition!
With the impending threat of a skinny work force due to the Coronavirus, businesses are looking for ways to preserve the health of their team and their clients. The mobility doesn’t just mean the ability to collaborate via video conference solutions like ZOOM, doesn’t mean that your people have accuses to work from home just like they were at the office.
To ensure that you have a truly mobile company, you need collaboration across all communication platforms. This means better unified communication through messaging, the ability to share documents easily and from any where, easy and safe teleworking, and an entire host of other collaboration connections that will keep your company producing when it gets crazy out there!
To find out more on how companies are prepping for the Coronavirus check out this New York Times :
1,000 Workers, Go Home: Companies Act to Ward Off Coronavirus
Originally published on syn-apps.com
If the extreme weather conditions of recent years―historic droughts, devastating hurricanes and catastrophic wildfires, among others―have taught us anything, it’s that severe weather can strike at any moment, and every second counts. That’s why all organizations should have a strategic, well-tested emergency communication plan in place.
This article provides tips on how you can improve your emergency weather strategy by leveraging mass notification technology to optimize your communications processes to protect your people and assets.
Know the Terminology
To begin, make sure your team understands the different types of alerts issued by weather-related government agencies in your country. Typically, they include:
- A watch: Sent when weather conditions are favorable for a specific type of event, such as a tornado or flooding. For example, a tornado watch would mean that a severe thunderstorm and tornadoes are possible. It does not mean a tornado will occur.
- An advisory: Generally means a weather event is imminent, but not severe. For example, a winter weather advisory would be issued for several inches of snow in most areas. This is a notable occurrence, but not likely to cause long-term issues for most businesses and organizations.
- A warning: Issued when a severe weather event is imminent. For example, a blizzard warning means a severe snowstorm is expected within the next 12 to 18 hours.
We recommend familiarizing your teams with the terminology, as well as relevant sirens or tones so they’re not alarmed should the forecast take a turn.
Determine Who Should Receive Severe Weather Notifications
If you haven’t already, determine who has decision-making authority within your organization, who needs to be informed of each weather condition and how they should proceed.
For example, you may decide that watches should go to executive team members and the facilities crew so they’re prepared to make contingency plans. You may choose to send advisories to all supervisors on premises because the weather event may require people to leave earlier than usual. You may choose to send warnings to all personnel because they may require people to seek shelter. Some situations, such as hurricanes and severe winter weather, often require management to determine if and when to close the facility or make arrangements for people to stay home.
Leverage Technology to Optimize Your Communications Plan
Next, determine how your organization will monitor and distribute information to the appropriate stakeholders. Most distributed recipient mass notification systems can send secondary notifications like e-mails or texts, but only advanced emergency mass notification systems are equipped to provide immediate and intrusive audio/visual alerts.
Advanced systems typically allow users to customize alerts so stakeholders receive a cohesive message from your organization. This helps establish trust and credibility with your recipients because they know the information they’re receiving is truly coming from your organization.
Providing ample notice can save lives, and automating weather alerts can provide the timely, effective information people need, without requiring one-off communications. Look for an emergency notification system that complies with all relevant regulations and integrates with trusted sources. As weather events develop, of course, you may want to add more personal and specific information based on your communications plan.
Test Your Systems & Conduct Drills
Conducting routine drills familiarizes personnel with existing procedures and acquaints them with new ones to ensure everyone understands what to do in a real weather emergency. They’re also helpful to identify process and system inefficiencies, arming leadership with valuable insight to fix issues right away.
Leverage a robust mass notification system with a scheduling solution like Mitel Revolution to plan drills in advance, so you can spend more time practicing and perfecting your emergency processes.
Syn-Apps is a leader in paging and mass notification solutions designed to improve business processes, increase safety and streamline communication. Since 2001, thousands of organizations across 35+ countries and a range of verticals – K-12, higher education, government, enterprises, retail, healthcare and more –have integrated Syn-Apps’ notification solutions with phones, paging systems, IP speakers and hundreds of other systems and services. Syn-Apps is also an OEM manufacturer of mass notification software for Fortune 500 global companies in the fire / life Safety and VoIP communications industry. For more information, visit syn-apps.com or call 1-866-664-6071.
Cloud contact center isn’t just a clever buzz phrase for big businesses anymore. Small Business Trends reports that Seventy percent of businesses either are planning to migrate their contact center to the cloud within the next year, or already have a cloud based contact center in place. This isn’t just a fancy fad: Market watch predicts that by 2024, that the $8.9 billion cloud contact center market will grow to more than $33 billion.
As cloud contact centers continue to become the way to do business, critical trends are surfacing that are promising a strong year in 2020.
2020 Cloud Contact Center Trends
- A Legitimate Omnichannel Experience Offers More Robust Ways To Communicate.
The omnichannel experience is old hat in the contact center world, however many times not utilized to its fullest capabilities. A legitimate omnichannel experience enables customers to navigate effortlessly from one method of communications to another. When fully integrated and utilized as designed, omnichannel offerings ensure organizations can meet hyper evolving customer expectations.
As an example, MiCloud Connect Contact Center, enables your clients to easily interact with your agents, no matter what their channel of choice, without having to repeat their troubles or lose their information.
- Training And Assistance Performed By A.I.
Gartner survey recently came out that Fifty-nine percent of organizations have already deployed AI, with many more organizations planning to implement AI projects during 2020. Gartner also forecasts that by 2021, AI interactions will handle 15 percent of all customer interactions. We’re just scratching the surface of how AI will transform cloud contact centers, and the customer experience. Major planned investments will enable AI to have an even bigger and badder role in how we interact with our customers over the next year.
This will include real-time training and coaching through virtual agent assist, or chatbots.
MiCloud Connect CX already handles this type of training. Speech analytics transcribes recorded conversations and uses AI to analyze key moments for coaching so your team can deliver better interactions. AI virtual agents also monitor conversations and present agents with relevant information that help them resolve customer questions more quickly and effectively.
The result? A more pleasant customer experience and a more effective interaction that’s on-brand and on-message. New agents handle calls like seasoned veterans in no time, and supervisors spend less time on training.
- Impactful Analytics.
AI ensures more impactful and meaningful data analytics. Contact centers have been collecting data on customers since their inception, but the information’s useless if it’s not accurate, or properly analyzed and applied.
Natural language processing (NLP) interpret data and provide analysis around the “why” of customers contacting your company, ways you can improve your products and services and how you make information available to customers. This data enables you to move beyond contact center efficiency and focus on improving the overall customer experience. Since these insights are created in real-time, you can respond and adapt to customers’ preferences quickly, increasing loyalty while staying ahead of the competition.
- Self-Service Is A Big Deal.
Customers often prefer to help themselves. They don’t want to get stuck in a queue or wait for a human agent – especially when they have a simple question about a product or service. Chatbots are the primary means of self-service, so it should be no surprise that the global chatbot market is expected to hit $5.63 billion by 2023, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 34 percent over the 2018-2023 period.
Chatbots allow customers to get answers to basic questions and FAQs. They also free up human agents to focus on more complex queries and keep wait times down for those who really do need to speak to a live agent.
A key differentiator in 2020 will be the provision of chatbots that create a smooth transition when a customer needs live support. Smartbots route customers to an agent with the appropriate level of expertise and provide agents with a full history of the customer engagement. This saves customers from having to repeat themselves and enables agents to pick up exactly where the chatbot left off.
Expanded FAQs and video tutorials are other ways in which cloud contact centers will offer self-service in 2020, so businesses need to be sure they’re prepared to meet those demands, as well.
- Contact Center Agents Move From Reactive To Proactive.
Integration with CRM systems provides cloud contact center agents with detailed customer data in real time. When customers call with an issue, agents have instant access to purchase histories and other relevant details. That allows them to take a more proactive role in addressing the customer’s issue.
MiCloud Connect CX is an example of a cloud contact center solution that integrates with your CRM so you can immediately assess customer information and create a more personalized interaction. Agents can even note the customer’s mood, which can trigger automated actions and help your business better prepare for future interactions. Personalization and customer sentiment help your business improve customer satisfaction levels and monitor them over time.
- The Rise Of The Remote Contact Center Workforce.
The days of large rooms full of agents answering calls are disappearing. Cloud contact centers have ushered in the ability to maintain a remote contact center workforce, without the need to offshore calls to a third-party vendor. With a cloud contact center, agents can be dispersed throughout the country, putting them closer to your customers. The money saved on office space and other overhead can be applied toward hiring local talent that can provide localized service. “Homeshoring” improves customer satisfaction, and we expect this trend to continue in 2020.
There’s no doubt that 2020 will be an exciting time. Innovations in cloud contact center solutions will give your business the advantage it needs to remain competitive in a customer-driven world. And by putting these cloud trends at the center of your contact center plans, you’ll be sure to meet your customers’ expectations for a stellar experience.
