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Your Contact Center is Your Competitive Advantage

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Why Your Contact Center is Your Key Competitive Advantage (Video)

In this video blog, Mitel’s General Manager for Contact Center Brian Spencer discusses how mobility and big data are influencing customer experience, and how to transform your traditional contact center into a customer experience center for a sustainable competitive advantage.

Video transcript:

I’m Brian Spencer, the General Manager for Mitel’s contact center business, and I’d like to share with you our vision for the contact center as it evolves into the “customer experience center.”

Today’s consumers – they’re different. They’re not waiting until they get home to pick up the telephone and call into an organization to handle personal business. They’re working in real time. They want instant access to services – how they want it, when they want it. They’re typically going to start on a mobile device using a mobile app or a mobile website, some sort of digital tool. And, often, they’ll complete an end-to-end engagement and access the services they need autonomously, completely on their own.

Think about how you may engage with mobile banking. I know when I engage with mobile banking, I handle everything through the mobile app or the web app. In fact, I can’t remember the last time that I interacted face to face with a teller at the bank. That’s how consumers want to access goods and services, and that’s going to permeate businesses of all shapes and sizes moving forward – even yours.

So, my vision of the future is taking myriad contact centers and converging them into a center of excellence – a customer experience center – that is focused relentlessly on driving positive customer outcomes to create customer retention, loyalty, and long-term, lifetime customer value. How is that going to happen? Think about the customer journey. Your customers will engage through the mobile or digital tool of their choice. They’ll be on a mobile app and they’ll hit a point where they need to interact with a human. Today, there’s nothing more frustrating than getting 80 percent through accessing a service, having to stop, place a telephone call and start all over.

In the future, they’ll be accessing that service, they’ll hit the point where they need to interact with a human and, right through that mobile app, natively, they’ll be able to start a communication channel – maybe text-based, maybe voice-based, maybe video-based or using some media we’re not even thinking about today. But, in any case, it will come into that center of excellence, hit the right person at the right time – someone who’s relentlessly focused on pleasing them, who knows exactly what they’ve been through already and is able to pick up that conversation, creating a seamless transition from the digital tool to live assistance. They’ll be able to handle that sophisticated or more complicated requirement that couldn’t be handled through routine automation.

All of the data from that interaction will be captured, and business analytics will be used to allow management to constantly adapt the tools and the customer experience center processes and technologies to optimize the interfaces that customers want to use, increasing the level of service available through automation and also increasing the sophistication that the workers have in their ability to satisfy more complex tasks when engaged. They will be able to use that information to create a sustainable competitive advantage for your business, because you will be pleasing your customer better than your competitor down the road.

That’s our vision for contact centers transforming into customer experience centers in the future. I hope you share that vision and come along for the ride with Mitel and Towner Communications.

by the Experts at Mitel

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Mass Notification Saves Atchison Students and Staff

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Mass Notification Saves Atchison Students and Staff

Atchison Spill

 

Many times our clients scoff when we offer mass notification features, or they bock at us when we point out that critical errors or fixes need to be addressed in their phone system… JUST IN CASE….

Just in case happened to our partners at Atchison School District on Friday, Oct 22, when a major chemical spill threatened the lives of everyone in the area. Luckily the week before and even that Monday, Towner Communications had been working with officials in the school district to perform maintenance and address fixes that would have a great impact on the functionality of their paging system. It’s this attention to the “Just In Case” mass emergency notification system and it’s maintenance, that kept students and facility safe during what could have been a catastrophic and completely unforeseen situation.

 

NBC NEWS

CNN

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Don’t Call it a CALL CENTER

Don't Call it a CALL CENTER

In this video blog, Mitel’s General Manager for Contact Center Brian Spencer explains why we need to stop talking about call centers or contact centers and start looking at the bigger picture: building a customer-driven, best practice-focused center of excellence called the customer experience center.

Video transcript: 

Contact centers. It’s a term our industry has been using for a very long time. It’s the place where you see loads of people in cubicles, working on their computers, probably with headsets on, presumably taking and making calls to customers. And they’re disparate throughout the organization. Well, that’s the way that the world used to work. Let me talk about the way the world needs to work.

The customer experience center.

Businesses have myriad touchpoints through which they reach out to or are reached by customers. Creating a center of excellence that will drive best practices, the right social acumen, the ability to communicate effectively, with empathy, with emotion, the ability to drive the processes that build loyalty and foster a long-term, healthy relationship between an organization and its customers – that’s the way of the future, and the technology is ready now.

So let’s stop talking about call centers or contact centers, and let’s start talking about the customer experience center, the place in which we create real engagement and where loyalty is fostered.

What does this mean for your business? It means creating a center of excellence, a place where people know exactly how they’re supposed to act with the customer, they advocate for the customer, they learn from the customer. They use the technologies that support the communication paths that the customer wants to use today.

I’ve been talking a lot lately about the mobile consumer because, the reality is, we’re all mobile. We all start from our mobile device. We reach into a mobile app, we reach into a mobile website and, when we can’t get the service we need completed, we want to interact with a human. It may be through text messaging, a messaging app, a voice call, video chat or other technology platforms that we haven’t even thought of today. But all of it comes down to a touchpoint between your business, the people within your business and your customer.

So, having a best practice center of excellence focused on engaging with people to drive customer outcomes – that’s the way of the future that will foster loyalty, help grow business revenue and help maintain a positive working relationship. That’s what we’re focused on here at Towner Communications.

by Lisa Sarazin

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Dodging Downtime! Improving Network Reliability

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network reliability

It’s the kind of scenario that keeps IT administrators up at night: the latest in a string of network failures plaguing airlines, Southwest Airlines recently experienced an outage that resulted in costs of five-to-10 million dollars, according to news reports.

The cause? A single malfunctioning router.

Facing a complicated labyrinth of equipment of varying ages, vendors and health, it’s a perennial challenge for those managing today’s business communications networks—identifying potential problems before disaster strikes. Fortunately, there are ways to minimize the risk so network admins can sleep at night.

Best practice #1: Monitor for insight

End-to-end network monitoring not only gives you peace of mind, it provides insight into the health of the devices on your network. Seeing increasing CPU or disk usage? There could be bandwidth congestion as a result of a failing device. On a Mitel/Towner network, often what presents as a voice quality problem is in fact caused by a failing or misconfigured router or switch. By dealing with the failing equipment, you’ll prevent a voice quality problem that leads to a poor user experience.

Best practice #2: Proactive service quality for faster problem resolution

A poorly performing device is like the needle in a haystack—tricky to find. In a reactive service model, the search for a culprit begins with a voice quality problem that prompts a support call.

The proactive model that’s become increasingly adopted by channel partners uses performance monitoring software to identify problem devices before the user experiences a voice quality problem.

In either case, without the right tools, network admins can spin their wheels for months trying to find the problem. Testing tools like Ping, Traceroute, iftop, DNS and MTR that launch directly from the bad call in a monitoring system’s dashboard can diagnose on a hop by hop basis, shedding light quickly on where the breakdown occurred.

Best practice #3: Use monitoring systems designed for business communications

Networks are not created equal, and business communications networks have quirks that ‘out of the box’ network management system aren’t designed to understand. When your network management software specializes in unified communications, it can give you valuable insight into how events on your network impact voice communications. Mitel Performance Analytics is the software designed specifically for the management of Towner Communications solutions.

Best practice #4: Go deeper with analytics

The ‘big data’ generated by your network can tell you a lot about its health and performance. Usage data can tell you in advance when it’s time to expand your network or add new licenses, and alarm analytics can bring you to the most important issues on your network faster, so that you can plan effectively and make better business decisions. This 2 minute video explains how Mitel and Towner Communications users can turn their network performance data into a business asset.

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Best practice #5: Prevent an aging infrastructure with software updates

The recent outages plaguing airlines have been blamed on an aging infrastructure that hasn’t been updated to keep pace with newer technologies. Software assurance can be a cost-effective way to deploy the latest and greatest updates, which protects against not only obsolescence, but security vulnerabilities and interoperability problems.

Mitel customers can take advantage of both software updates and Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA) by purchasing Premium Software Assurance. MPA is our network performance management solution designed specifically for Mitel networks—giving you the best picture of your communications network.

Discover how Mitel Performance Analytics can help improve communications network reliability >

by Tracy King

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Why People HATE Video Conferencing

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5 Surprising Reasons For Low Video Conferencing Adaptation

video conferencing

You probably already know that businesses are adopting video conferencing technology at rapid pace. MarketsandMarkets recently projected that the enterprise video market, which includes video conferencing systems, will reach $36.8 billion by 2020.

In fact, more than 54 percent of employees regularly take part in work-related video conferences, but not all of them are eager participants, according to a recent report.

So why are roughly half of employees hesitant to turn on their cameras for work meetings? There are plenty of causes, but here are five of the most common reasons keeping employees from using videoconferencing software.

1. Multi-tasking

While meeting holders would prefer to think everyone on their call is giving the meeting their full attention, the reality is usually much different.

Meeting attendees are replying to emails, preparing presentations, eating lunch, and doing other work while (hopefully) muted on conference calls.

If the same people joined a video call or video conference, they would have to give the call their full attention. They wouldn’t be able to multi-task. And while plenty of research has shown that multi-tasking actually hurts productivity, many workers still operate under the illusion that they can get more done by multi-tasking.

Sometimes, these kinds of behaviors can happen in in-person meetings, too, but being on video makes multi-tasking much more obvious, hence a big reason many workers avoid video conferencing.

Want to try and cut down on this objection? Help people understand the real cost of multi-tasking and the productivity benefits of giving a task their attention.

People feel like they have to multi-task because they’re in too many meetings? Have workers take a hard look at whether all of their meeting attendees are critical to their call.

2. Making eye contact

Video calls are great, but a few of the details mean that they’re are not quite the same as in-person communications. One thing some people dislike about video calls is the disconnect in eye contact.

With most videoconferencing systems, you have to choose whether to look at the other participant on your screen or look at your camera.

If you look at the other participant on your screen, it doesn’t look like you’re making eye contact to them. And if you look at your camera to appear to make eye contact on their side, you can’t focus on the other participant’s face on your screen. Either way, someone gets left out with the way most videoconferencing cameras are set up.

For some, the difference is imperceptible, but to others, that slight disconnect in making eye contact – or trying to figure out to look at their screen or their camera – is enough to make them ditch video altogether.

3. Platform and network issues

Whenever I get a meeting invite, it’s always an adventure to see what I’ll have to do to get everything to work properly. Sometimes a video conference works perfectly, but in the real world, things rarely go off without a hitch.

For starters, with so many different videoconferencing software choice, I often have to download a new client onto my computer before I can join the meeting (though you can simplify this a little by standardizing on one videoconferencing software throughout your company).

Maybe my sound works and my video won’t come on. Maybe it’s the reverse. Maybe the presenter is having trouble sharing their screen. Whatever, the case, you can quickly lose five minutes or more just getting everyone’s settings correct. And that’s before you get to highly technical issues.

If your network does not have quality of service (QoS) rules in place, then you’re highly unlikely to have a good video collaboration experience.

More importantly, if your network does not have packet prioritization rules in place, then your video calls might get choppy or completely interrupted when other network users are doing something as simple as sending emails.

4. Worrying about personal appearance

On a typical phone call, it doesn’t matter if an employee calls in from a messy living room in their pajamas. But if meeting participants find out the same call is a videoconference, all of a sudden they have to scramble to get presentable.

Video calls add a whole new dimension to the meetings. Something about being on camera – even if it’s just for employees who see them in person every day – makes people more self-conscious.

And it goes beyond simply being bathed, clothed and offering a background that doesn’t look like a disaster area. People often feel they’re being put on the spot, as if they’re being filmed for a video.

Is my hair messed up? Is there food on my face from lunch? How does my makeup look? Is my collar crooked? These are things that people worry about during video calls that make many people abandon videoconferencing altogether.

One of the biggest culprits may be the little window where video conference participants can see themselves. While this is probably intended to help participants line up their camera or make sure they have decent lighting, it often acts like a mirror, and people can end up fixating on it, distracted by their appearances. There’s nothing like staring at yourself in a slight fisheye lens under fluorescent lighting to ruin a worker’s focus and keep them from turning on the camera at their next meeting.

5. Office interruptions

If you work in an open-plan office, jumping on a video call from your desk can be a risky proposition. People near you may be on other calls. There could be an impromptu standup nearby. Etiquette challenged coworkers may interrupt with no regard for what you’re doing. Or your coworkers may just enjoy making faces in the background. Whatever your coworkers are like, modern office arrangements can make it challenging to conduct video calls without interruption.

Conclusion

Why aren’t people using your company’s chosen videoconferencing software? Now you know. And knowing is the first step in how to raise videoconferencing adoption at your company—which is good because meeting via video has some great benefits. Making closer personal connections, reducing travel costs, having more productive online collaboration, and improved team cohesion are just a few.

Learn more about Towner Communications videoconferencing software >

by Preston Miller

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Surviving Team Collaboration Tools Overload!

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How To Survive Team Collaboration Tool Overload

Team collaboration

Google “business collaboration tools” and you’ll get 58 million results. Suffice it to say, there’s a proliferation of collaboration tools out there, especially over-the-top (OTT) applications to help your business.

Some tools are for chatting, some for conferencing, some for screen sharing, some for file sharing, and so on (to the tune of 58 million results).

Most organizations use a large number of tools for communicating, collaborating, and sharing, so it’s easy to understand how workers can feel overwhelmed by the different collaboration tools used between departments and vendors.

The company might have an official collaboration tool. But your department uses the free version of another tool for convenience. Another department is running an inexpensive version of the latest, flashiest social/mobile group chat platform. Several people use screen share software from a new startup they just heard about while your vendors are using the old standbys, and somewhere, somebody is still trying to use AIM.

That means your users’ desktops and browsers are cluttered with collaboration tools. The minutes wasted just figuring out which tool to use and updating to the latest version at the beginning of meetings begin to add up to hours, days, weeks of lost productivity. And security is probably a distant pipe dream. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can tame the overload.

Here are eight steps you can take to get your company’s collaboration tool situation under control, pare down the number of applications in use, and start standardizing across your business to increase productivity.

Step 1: Identify current tools

When you run out of space on your smart phone, what’s the first thing you do? You identify the applications that are on your phone and take a hard, honest look at what you do and don’t use.

When employees run out of the capacity to handle the deluge of collaboration applications in use at your company, the first thing that needs to be done is similar—take an inventory of the tools users have on their systems.

You’ll probably find multiple applications for chat, video-conferencing, file storage, file sharing, etc.

Make a consolidated list of all the related applications you find and make notes about the primary functions of each.

Once you have a complete inventory, you’ll have laid the groundwork for step two.

Step 2: Identify your business needs

Now, it’s time to understand what exactly everyone is trying to accomplish with the different collaboration tools they’re using.

Ask yourself, your employees, your vendors, etc. what exactly they use each tool to accomplish, and why they prefer the tool that they use.

Some common functions include chat, group chat, file sharing, video calls, video conferencing, screen sharing, simultaneous file editing, approvals, and task/workflow management.

During this exercise, you’ll be able to see not only what collaboration tools different groups prefer, but why they use each tool. You might be surprised to learn that workers value one chat tool when you thought they preferred another. Or you might discover that they place more value on file sharing than they do on video calling. It may turn out that employees engaged in shadow IT are using a different tool simply because it offers a better user experience. Maybe the most important feature isn’t an application or communications channel in itself, but rather a capability—like a persistent experience across mobile as well as desktop.

The more data you gather, the clearer your company needs will be.

You may be able to gather a lot of this data by scanning employee devices, but some sort of direct employee engagement will be required. Employees are typically happy to fill out surveys to indicate their preferences, especially if the survey itself is intended to help make their lives easier.

If some employees are nervous about sharing, it may be important to assure them they won’t be disciplined (if you have company buy-in for this) for answering honestly. Some workers may be concerned that using things other than company purchased and/or approved collaboration tools will get them disciplined. But if you don’t create a safe enough environment to have an honest conversation about your company’s tools, you’ll never get a true view to help you get tool overload under control.

Step 3: Map needs to tools

Remember the application inventory you gathered? Now’s the time to bring it back.

Map the needs you’ve identified to the current tools you have. Which tools are offering the most collaboration capabilities based on the feedback you received? Which tools are under-utilized? Which tools are rarely utilized?

Take careful note of what you have, what you need, and be honest with your responses.

This step is for analysis only: don’t jump the gun and start cutting out applications. There are other consideration factors than the most popular applications for your employees (although that is absolutely important).

 

Step 4: Understand integrations

Here’s where your careful evaluation in step three will come in handy. Knowing the collaboration tools worth keeping depends on more than how certain tools map to certain needs: it’s also important to know how these applications interact with other applications, other collaboration tools, existing software—including, but not limited to—CRM, ERP, CMS, etc.

Is it necessary for your collaboration tools to be platform agnostic? Mobile-first? Easily scalable?

Different businesses have different needs, which is why so many collaboration tools exist in the first place. Different tools integrate with different vendors, software and APIs. Be picky—your employees will thank you for it.

Woman in chair with black and white striped shirt offering help desk services

Step 5: Consolidate tools

You’ve identified your current tools, specified your needs, mapped your needs to existing tools, and ran through your integration needs. Now’s the time to head to the chopping block.

See where you have overlap between tools. Look for opportunities to consolidate multiple functions into fewer tools if possible. Cut the applications that do not meet your needs or have insufficient integration capabilities.

It’s up to you if you wish to have multiple application tools to use if that works for you—otherwise cut the collaboration application dead weight.

But remember, it’s important to ensure that your final list of tools serves your workers’ needs.

If you cut critical capabilities when you cut out tools, you’ll find yourself right back where you started—with workers embracing shadow IT and unapproved tools to fulfill their needs.

If you’ve done your analysis thoroughly, your collaboration application list should shorten dramatically. If it hasn’t, it may be time to repeat steps one through five again to maximize the benefits of this exercise.

Step 6: Establish collaboration tool standards and policies

One of the reasons team collaboration tool overload exists in the first place is that companies haven’t established standards for preferred tools, that they fail to provide/approve tools that meet specific worker needs, or that they don’t enforce existing standards and policies. It’s never too late to lay down a concrete foundation for company-wide tools and applications.

If you don’t have standards and policies in place, this is the time to create them.

If you already have existing standards and policies in place, review them to make sure they’re up-to-date, especially with the company-wide collaboration applications now in place. Communicate your standards and policies far and wide within your company ad nauseum—it’s crucial to get your message across the multitude of messages your employees deal with every day.

Lastly, empower your IT staff to enforce these policies, whether it’s blocking certain applications from downloading, or performing daily/weekly/monthly scans for unapproved applications. If you find violators, be sure to understand why. They may help you uncover an important gap in your standards.

 

employee and client collaboration solutions

]Step 7: Provide adequate training

After you have the tools you need, and standards in place, make sure you provide training sessions so your employees know how to use your chosen tools and feel comfortable with them.

You can have the best collaboration tool out there, complete with chat, conferencing, calling, storage, and sharing features, with mobile-first design.

If your employees can’t figure out how to use it or access it from their devices, adoption and usage will suffer.

Then they’ll download the collaboration tools they are comfortable using, which will result in multiple applications across your company, and before you know it—you’re back to collaboration tool overload. Train your employees, provide support templates, enable your IT staff to answer any questions, or provide vendor contact information for product support.

When collaboration tools that meet your company’s needs are used effectively, productivity soars.

Step 8: Monitor and adjust

Keep an eye on usage to gauge what’s working and what’s not. When you catch something that isn’t working, make adjustments to tools, policies, standards, or workflows as necessary to get your employee collaboration back on track. There’s no reason to stick stubbornly to a standard or policy if it’s simply not working.

Kiss overload goodbye

Collaboration tool overload is more common than you think, but you can tame with this simple eight-step process. Making sure you understand the “why” that created the overload environment is key to getting it under control. And when you do, workers will benefit, your company communications will benefit, and overall company productivity and efficiency should benefit as well.

by Jordan Nadler

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What DOES Unified Communications Mean?

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What DOES Unified Communications Mean?

Unified Communications: More Than Just a Buzzword

Unified Communications (UC) isn’t just about connecting calls—it’s about revolutionizing the way your business communicates. In fact, 75% of businesses have moved to cloud-based UC platforms in the past three years, signaling a major shift in how companies operate.

Ask around, and you’ll find countless definitions of UC. Gartner emphasizes integration across communication methods, while Webopedia talks about single-platform solutions. But no matter the definition, the goal is the same: making communication easier, more seamless, and ultimately, more effective for everyone involved.

Perspectives from the Experts on Unified Communications

  • Gartner: “UC products integrate communication channels (media), networks, and systems, as well as IT business applications and, in some cases, consumer applications and devices.”
  • Webopedia: “A single communications platform integrating data, video, and voice in one supported product.”

Local Expertise, Tailored Solutions

At Towner Communications, we understand the unique challenges that businesses in Mid-Missouri face. Whether you’re in Jefferson City, Lake Ozark, Columbia, or Kansas City, our UC solutions are designed to fit your specific needs, from cloud-based systems to integrated contact centers. Unified Communications isn’t one-size-fits-all, and we tailor our approach to ensure you get the most out of every feature.

Business communication Mid-Missouri

Real-World Impact:

Take, for example, a local healthcare provider in Columbia that switched to our cloud-based UC platform. Not only did they streamline communication across departments, but they also reduced response times to patient inquiries by 30%. That’s the power of a unified solution.

Why It Matters in 2024:

In today’s business landscape, UC is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. With the rise of remote work and the increasing demand for seamless communication, having a reliable UC system in place is crucial. Our cloud-based solutions offer the flexibility, scalability, and security that modern businesses need to stay competitive.

 

Unified Communications: Your Questions Answered

Ready to elevate your business communications?

Contact us today to learn how Towner can tailor a UC solution that fits your needs. Whether you’re looking to improve team collaboration or streamline customer interactions, we’re here to help.
Contact Us

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Nine Office Trends Redefining Online Collaboration

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Nine Office Trends Redefining Online Collaboration

 

Busy collaboration space with multiple laptops, snacks, phones, and drinksTechnology helps us all adapt our lives, and businesses are no exception. But the way people use technology continues to shift at a quickening pace and consumer behaviors and expectations are bleeding into business environments, creating new requirements and new ways of doing business. To adapt, you have to understand the factors at play, which is why we’re going to look at several important office trends that are redefining the way people online collaboration.

1. Using more outsourced resources

Freelancers and consultants fill a wide assortment of roles depending on a company’s size, priorities and policies. Whether enterprise or SMB, some companies use the expertise of outside resources to provide a necessary perspective, service, or advice to help business. Other companies use outsourced workers as a way to quickly scale up and down—improving their agility and flexibility.

In fact, according to the SMB Group in its 2016 communications survey, 28 percent of SMBs outsource IT management to third parties, contractors, or consultants. And a large portion of that outsourced help works outside of a company’s offices. That means businesses using freelancers, consultants or other types of help need robust online collaboration tools to connect these outsourced workers with each other and with the company’s own staff to work effectively and efficiently.

2. The rise of solopreneurs

The trend of companies using more outsourced workers and the rise of solopreneurs go hand-in-hand. Solopreneurs run their own single-person businesses, often relying on contracting or consulting work for employment. They’re often experts in certain areas. As more workers become solopreneurs, especially those with skilled niche expertise, companies will increasingly have to look outside of their walls to fill needs in those specialties.

Like any type of outsourced worker, solopreneurs need to collaborate with the businesses they’re working for, so the ability to scale and quickly provision new users is crucial for a company’s online collaboration tool.

Furthermore, online collaboration tools should be user-friendly so solopreneurs don’t need to be experts in obscure software to get on board—they can stick to where they add the most value.

3. Cloud enablement and the rise of mobility

With increased connectivity, the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, and a global economy, mobility changed the game for many companies. With today’s cloud-based technology, work is an activity, not a location. Files and other resources once chained to the office are now available from anywhere with a decent Internet connection.

Because of this, online collaboration tools are more important than ever to connect those in the office, those traveling, those working from home, or outsourced resources to keep work moving productively. Makers of online collaboration tools are adapting to think beyond the office to facilitate all of these new modes of working and cloud-based tools are a natural match for this new go-anywhere mentality.

4. Work hour flexibility

Given today’s global economy – and for many workers, a renewed focus on quality of life – work hour flexibility is a trend that’s influenced the need for changes in online collaboration tools.

Workers in different time zones, different cities, and different countries still need to connect with each other to get tasks done: this might mean taking calls at 6 in the morning or 10 at night to connect with someone on the other side of the world—something’s that much more comfortable and convenient to do from home.

With work hour flexibility, connected workers can also handle important or inconvenient personal errands—like, doctor’s appointments, caring for sick children, home maintenance appointments, and more—if they have the kind of online collaboration software that lets them work remotely. It also gives them the flexibility to finish up outside of normal office hours to avoid losing productivity.

5. Real estate consolidation and savings

Real estate can be pricey for businesses, with some urban areas commanding $100 or more per square foot of office space—making a 10×10 office a staggering $10,000 per year in some places.

The cost of office space can make a serious dent in a company’s bottom line. But enabling remote workers can help keep real estate costs under control by reducing your need for space, avoiding relocation, and more.

But remote workers need to be kept in the loop and to work with others to be effective. Without a good online collaboration tool designed with the remote worker in mind, it’s tough for workers to connect with each other and their in-office counterparts to get work done.

6. Hyper specialization

When you need an expert in a particular field, the field may be quite small and there’s a good chance they won’t live near the office you’d like them to. Some are willing to relocate. But many are not. If your much-needed expert feels like staying put, you may need to make concessions to bring them on board. Or you might have to offer them work-hour flexibility as a perk to seal the deal. Either way, it makes hyper specialization another factor putting pressure on companies to use solid online collaboration tools to stay competitive.

7. Wanderlust and the rise of ex pats

Have you seen House Hunters International? It’s not just showcasing ex pat retirees settling into another country to spend their golden years with an exotic sea breeze tickling their noses.

More people on the show are working professionals who want to travel or live abroad while continuing to work. This trend is growing and smart companies are leaning on online collaboration to help enable staff to work where they want in order to keep key talent on board.

8. First-contact resolution

Customer service expectations have dramatically impacted the need for online collaboration tools. Customers prefer multiple channels to interact with companies and it’s imperative businesses enable and effectively manage as many channels of communication as possible.

Think of the last time you contacted a business to schedule a service, report a problem, or have a question answered. Many of the call agents and chat representatives will place you on a brief hold to collaborate with coworkers to find the expert who can effectively answer your question. This kind of cross-departmental connected collaboration results in increased customer satisfaction, shorter times to get answers, improved first-contact resolution and better agent productivity.

Happy agents. Happy companies. Happy customers.

9. BYOD

BYOD shouldn’t be a big surprise when it comes to identifying trends that are redefining online collaboration. Bottom line: companies who enable BYOD must find an online collaboration tool that works across a wide range of platforms, smartphones, tablets, and computers.

BYOD has also driven the need for collaboration tools to be mobile-first, or at the very least, mobile-enabled. This trend points to the need for a user-friendly interface that’s intuitive and easy to use. Because if it’s not easy to use, workers will be quick to abandon it, hurting productivity or spawning pockets of shadow IT.

The modern workplace is changing fast and it’s leading to a revolution in the way we collaborate online. Smart companies and savvy tech providers are adapting to stay competitive and make sure work gets done. Whether you’re affected by one of these trends or all of them, it pays to know the forces reshaping the landscape. Because the more you know, the better you can respond.

by Jordan Nadler

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Avoid a Customer Experience Horror Story

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10 Ways to Avoid a Customer Experience Horror Story

Black woman with square earrings using headset at a call centerDo you always deliver a great customer experience?

Looking for new insights into effective practices?

How can you solve customer experience challenges?

Improving customer experience is a top priority for today’s executive because of the impact it can have on the bottom line. With the variety of communication methods now available, managing the customer experience is more complex than ever before. For today’s contact centers, it’s vital to study customer service best practices from a variety of verticals to learn and adapt your strategy for success — which is why we’re looking to help out.

Download the article for some harrowing tales of terror from prominent customer service experts, and find out how they were resolved — or how they could have been avoided in the first place.

Check out these excerpts from the experts:

“Processes and categories only go so far when dealing with human beings.”
Jeannie Walters, CEO, 360 Connect

“Convey the right information from the beginning.”
Roy Atkinson, Senior Writer/Analyst, UBM Tech

“You always have control to deliver amazing customer experiences.”
Shep Hyken, CAO, Shepard Presentations

“Mistakes happen. It’s what happens next that matters.”
Dave Evans, VP Social Strategy, Lithium

11 Lessons for Avoiding Your Own Horror Stories

  1. Invest in measuring, monitoring and incentivizing consumer-centric behaviors.
  2. A single interaction can make or break a customer experience.
  3. Understand the customer’s end-to-end experience to avoid breaks in the chain.
  4. Don’t wait for customers to contact you. They love when you take the initiative.
  5. Don’t make it difficult to do business with you—make it enjoyable.
  6. Constantly monitor interaction quality and be on the look out for “bad seeds.”
  7. Use your data to improve your customer experience—it’s full of hidden gems.
  8. Eliminate issues out of agents’ control so they can put their best feet forward.
  9. Know your customers well and treat them well—loyalty drives revenue.
  10. Your customers are always evolving, so take the opportunity to grow with them.
  11. Give agents tools and scripts to ensure they deliver the right message the first time.

Making the Best of Your Contact Center Experience

You have one chance to make a lasting impression with your customers. A contact center solution can help you enhance the customer experience from the moment calls reach your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to call resolution. They help you to attract and retain customers, and please them for less.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, Swanson Health Products is America’s #1 rated catalog/Internet merchant. So when they needed a solution that would help them track and handle their calls, emails and chat, they turned to Towner Communications MiContact Center.

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You And Your Cloud Provider

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Are You And Your Cloud Provider A Happy Couple?

Woman in purple shirt using cloud communication solutions at wineryDo you have a cloud provider? If you do, are you happy with them? It’s a question many business owners don’t ask themselves enough. Cloud communications is an investment of capital, time, and human resources—an investment that you should be thrilled with. Once we sign contracts, we tend to accept the level of service we receive without analyzing our satisfaction with what we actually get. Part of this resignation stems from the contracts signed up front: breaking contracts usually means serious financial detriment. In the business world, that’s highly frowned upon because you’re costing the company even more money. But if you weren’t bound by a contract, what would that mean to you?

When the honeymoon period is over

Business relationships are susceptible to the same characteristics of any personal relationship—sometimes entering into a contract with a vendor starts off flawlessly and everything is sunshine and rainbows. But far too often in business, once the dotted line is signed, things change: service levels drops off, promised features become elusive, and costs can skyrocket. Being stuck with a cloud communications provider who doesn’t put your business needs first is more than irritating—it can harm your customer service, internal productivity, and your bottom line.

When you want more features

Not every cloud communications provider is created equal. Once you choose your provider, you may initially be happy. You get the service level you expect, the features you wanted—all at a price you are comfortable paying. Technology is notorious for constantly evolving. And your provider may not offer the latest features you’re interested in for your business. While you may be happy with every other aspect of the business relationship, the bottom line is this: limited cloud features and offerings could jeopardize your business.

When the contract dictates your decision

I’d wager most businesses stay with their cloud communications provider because the contract is king. Why evaluate the level of service and feature offerings if both are satisfactory and you can’t go anywhere anyway? Evaluation is crucial to consider because the best-performing and most lucrative companies don’t just think about today, but think about their company’s future. Still, many companies are wary of breaking contracts. But what if the contract was removed from the equation? Right now, Towner Communications could remove the barrier for you and give your business the best cloud communications applications for today and tomorrow.

Questions to ask yourself

Now that we can remove your existing contract from the equation, there are some questions you should ask yourself to truly gauge your satisfaction with your current provider.

1. Am I happy with the level of service I receive from my current cloud provider?

2. Do I have the features I need to maximize my business productivity?

3. Is my cloud provider a leader in Gartner’s five magic quadrants?

4. Do I trust my cloud provider to offer the latest and greatest features?

5. Is my cloud communications platform easy to use?

6. Does my cloud communications platform enable team and project collaboration?

If you answered “yes” to all the above, congratulations! You have a cloud communications provider that works for you and your business needs.

If you answered “no” to one question, you might have the right cloud provider for you—but why not verify by checking just in case?

If you answered no to two or more questions, you should strongly consider looking into Towner Communications Cloud program. As partners with Mitel, a leader in Gartner’s five magic quadrants, Towner is uniquely positioned to provide the cloud communications your business or enterprise needs.

Nearly 2,000 cloud subscribers choose Mitel each day. Businesses across the world trust Mitel for their cloud communications solutions—see why you can, too.

by Jordan Nadler

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