Your Call. Creative and profitable solutions for inbound telephony White Paper

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1 Creative and profitable solutions for inbound telephony Your Call The control and customer insight afforded by the extensive functionality of inbound telephony as a sales and marketing tool is becoming more and more sophisticated. Customers seek competitive power and the confidence to own telephony solutions that they believe will deliver it. In order to be able to harness the growth of this highly demanding market, to the benefit of the bottom line, dealers, resellers and service providers require adaptable configured solutions that their own competitors would have difficulty in replicating; creative and innovative techniques, for solving customer problems and maximising customer opportunities, that are never less than bespoke, cutting-edge, cost-effective... and delivered fast. This discusses how to provide them.

2 YOUR CALL Marketingdriven customer service goals The inbound telephony market is becoming more and more sophisticated. Two major influences propel a dynamic market scenario. Firstly - technology. Business appreciates the value of one of its most intimate and immediate interfaces with customers. Unanswered, missed, misplaced or misdirected calls create negative impact on a company s competitive standing. The proliferating capabilities, enabled by the technology, serve to enrich the customer experience, often contributing to a step-change in customer service, within organisations of any size or shape. Secondly profit. Forward-thinking businesses accept that management information, gleaned via inbound telephony tools, can enable customer segmentation, can offer the semblance of personalised service and can facilitate the building of customer loyalty. Nonetheless, they also increasingly expect telephony solutions to leverage increased profits and decreased costs. This is not a unique market profile; it is simply one which reflects the pressures and opportunities of today s commercial realities. This is not to say that dealers, resellers and service providers can set out their stall with a proposition that appears to their customers to be less than unique. Customers expect solutions moulded and crafted to their needs, responsive to their opportunities and capable of providing them with the most versatile, easy-to-adopt, seamlessto-integrate communication platform. They seek competitive power and the confidence to own solutions that they believe will provide it. In order to be able to harness the growth of this highly demanding market, to the benefit of the bottom line, dealers, resellers and service providers require adaptable solutions that their own competitors would have difficulty in replicating; creative and innovative techniques for solving customer problems and maximising customer opportunities that are never less than bespoke, cutting-edge, cost-effective... and delivered fast Improving the customer experience This is a that starts at the end, and ends at the beginning. It starts with the effect, rather than the cause. It kicks off with the pay-off; the true customer-centric, end-user-driven focus of inbound telephony; improving the customer experience. Ultimately, competitive differentiation in the inbound telephony market depends on ingenuity, from the organisations which serve it, to drive constant improvements for their customers. On an operational level, a company can be enabled to configure its own telephony systems so that they can cope with high call-volume at peak periods, or can enhance profitability by filtering calls to minimise response times whilst maximising revenues; simple operations facilitated by readily available technology. On a strategic level - the long-term vision of growth through customer acquisition and retention competitive differentiation is reinforced by empowering organisations to derive maximum benefit from inbound calls; building profiles of their customers, extending and revolutionising their services, enriching their data, laying down the foundations for maximising the lifetime value of each relationship. (And, of course, knowing that whatever system you offer for achieving these marketing-driven customer service goals is fully resilient, scalable and affordable). Take one step back and the requirements are no different for companies servicing this market, across the board, from NGN providers, Call Centres and Telecoms Dealers, to Application Service Providers, IP Centrex Providers and Hosted Service Providers. Without the end customer, the person sitting by their phone and tapping in that number, there s no need to even switch the system on. We can all go home.

3 YOUR CALL Inbound telephony solutions should be created, and nurtured long into the future, by strategic partners who add true value to the business. Every single individual is important; the customer is king. Thus the observations set out in this White Paper also apply as much to resellers targeting customers with employees as they do to the higher throughput, bulk calling end of the business. Inbound telephony and call control as deployed by large organisations can be brought within reach of the SME budget, de-mystifying the services, making them easy to manage. This is where features such as Call Whisper come into their own; enabling customers with multiple numbers at one location to identify, for example, which campaign or product someone may be calling about before the call is answered. Features such as this simply make everything more efficient, responses more accurate, customers more satisfied. The permutations of service packages are not exactly limitless, but can be formulated in such a way as to respond to a diversity of customer needs, meaning that the provider is able to adopt a strategic approach to every customer; evaluating the long-term growth possibilities for a customer s business and thus assuming the role of a development partner rather than simply a supplier. Stationery and toner can be delivered by suppliers; inbound telephony solutions should be created, and nurtured long into the future, by strategic partners who add true value to the business. The market is competitive. Communications providers can no longer expect to offer a simple portfolio of off-the-shelf services and assume there is any business to be gained by a business-as-usual approach. Providers that offer a take it or leave it service will decline. Customers will leave it. The characteristic of healthy business growth in this market will, henceforth, be bespoke solutions; making sure that the service approach dovetails with identified customer needs- more sophisticated, more specialised, more responsive, more empowering. The process starts with developing an intimate understanding, sector by sector, of where customers expect to mine their revenues. Based on this understanding, the next stage is tailoring a proposition that focuses with absolute pinpoint precision on giving customers the tools, the applications, and, significantly, the network, through which to achieve their goals. Costeffectively. The optimum solution allows a provider s proposition to assume greater capabilities, answering any customer needs that may arise, but with no requirement for Capex investment, installation and maintenance costs. It facilitates real-time change management. It sits on a Tier 1 carrier network and is 100% proven, reliable, tested and trusted. It provides the fundamental cornerstones upon which any claim to a genuine point of competitive difference can sit unassailably. To appreciate how such a solution can comprehensively address the requirements of the many and varied breeds of resellers within the market, from generalists, to those offering specialist solutions to specific needs within tightly defined sectors (a focus, for example, on retail or finance or entertainment, sectors where nature of operations defines their telephony styles and needs) the following section discusses critical market drivers. What customers want Service activation - how fast can it happen? Phone calls happen, naturally, in real-time. Sales (and relationships) are secured in real-time and can be lost just as fast. No-one likes to be kept hanging on the telephone. This means that business opportunities have to be captured in real-time. A responsive inbound telephony proposition has to rise to the exacting demands of a dynamic market-place. An online portal, or direct access to the platform via an Application Programming Interface (API), enables changes to be made to call configuration directly by a service provider in real-time. As opportunities arise, customers can then act upon them. This has not always been the case, nor is it universally the case with all portals on the market. Kcom s Myriad* affords total control to service providers, enabling them to make immediate changes to their inbound services. It is not unusual to find portals where several hours,

4 *Myriad is the real-time inbound call management solution from Kcom, delivering high-volume, resilient, cloud-based inbound services, giving customers the flexibility to manage inbound call handling needs quickly and efficiently through a web portal. YOUR CALL ~ Myriad ~ many features, one goal; IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE... One One routing One One routing with voic facility Time of day routing Call Hunt Group Fax to Multi time-ofday Call Hunt group Multi-level IVR with Time Of Day and Voic 2 option IVR queue Call Recording Queue One- One, Time Of Day with Voic Time of Day Call Hunt Group One-One divert on busy or no answer Audio Conferencing or even days, notice is necessary for planned-in changes, which are then delivered against SLAs which can, themselves, be a day or two, or even more. Service provision is somebody else doing it better? This is a question which no reseller or service provider would ever wish to accept could be answered affirmatively. The ability to offer the most robust and innovative solution in the market place defines the competitive edge. Having full control over this solution, either from a White Label perspective or through an API integrated into an existing call management platform, is what refines that edge; the irresistible point of difference that wins customers. Being able then to reduce the book-to-bill time is what helps make winning them worthwhile. Service satisfaction got what it takes? On the assumption that adaptability to market demands - through the ability to affect changes in real-time, instantaneously- is a given; and that resilience and innovation are givens...providers need to structure a proposition, based on these pillars of strength, that locks customers in for the long-term. Providers need to ask themselves if their platforms or solutions, no matter how they are configured, have the solidity and stamina for the long-term, can evolve as the market evolves and can help their customers stay one step ahead of the competition. These factors are the critical ingredients of successful mutually beneficial and, thus, loyal, business relationships- keeping the customer satisfied for long-term lock-in and loyalty. Network based services empower providers Kcom s heritage as a Tier 1 carrier bears testament not only to the resilience and scalability of its inbound telephony solution, Myriad, but also underpins reseller propositions with the reassurance that end-customers rank so highly business continuity and disaster recovery being strong characteristics of the Kcom network. This factor delivers greater up-time and fault tolerance, and ensures that capacity can be increased easily and quickly. Through the Myriad API model, providers have full control of the look and the feel - the front end can reflect whatever values, capabilities, image and operational focus they wish it to. It is, in effect theirs, but better than theirs since the architecture is a fully open model, further enhancing a resellers versatility when it comes to putting together the bespoke solutions to which the market responds. They can readily respond to the needs of clients with rapid growth rates through the remote management capabilities they have over how the API functionality evolves and responds to client needs. It also offers a ready platform for the next generation of services as they become available; effectively future-proofing a provider s portfolio and meaning that there s no margin for guesswork as to what the shape of the business may be in 18 months time - through a network-based solution such as Myriad, the reseller will be ready for it. In terms of the here and now, Myriad offers the capabilities the market needs, the platform for differentiation and control which the reseller needs and a booking-to-billing timescale that permits a commercially alluring contribution to ongoing cash-flow management. As an example, a reseller can CONTACT set up an IVR within US: minutes and a voic -to- or a fax-to- can be set up while the customer is on the phone. A call queue can be created for a customer with an unexpected situation such as a parts recall or a ticket help line in instances where a band may be cancelling a concert appearance at the last moment. Providers can control the speed and quality of service provided to customers, and positively impact their own bottom lines very quickly. Such manoeuvrability also enables resellers to access business opportunities they might not have been able to offer a service for in the past. Equal versatility is available when the provision and use of data is considered either as an option or as an integral part of the service package formulated

5 Making interactions more efficient Providers and resellers using Myriad have seen a huge increase in the number of minutes they are able to carry. YOUR CALL Myriad is the mature, low-cost, highly versatile inbound telephony solution ideal for... Small and medium businesses in all sectors Customers running small call centre operations Customers with sales and customer services desks Customers with large volumes of inbound voice calls Customers utilising geographical or general numbers (08 /03 /09 /012 numbers)...all organisations that place a high value on improving the customer experience... in response to specific customer needs. A reseller can provide data to its customers as a service, or offer customers access to a portal so that they can evaluate their own call patterns in near real time and can interrogate the unique data relative to individual calls. Thus they can identify repeat or first-time callers, ascertain queue sizes, measure call durations and origins by checking into the bespoke dashboard view which the Myriad API facilitates. An API sitting on a network services support infrastructure, effectively cloud-based, using open architecture, evolves with the needs of the market. Myriad API anticipates them. In the beginning... The Myriad API, the carrier-strength inbound telephony solution, enables resellers to integrate Myriad into existing call management platforms via the KCOM interface, direct into the KCOM back-end system. The reseller can then configure the platform however should be required, assuming full control through their own dashboard interface. Myriad came to market in early 2008 and was developed in direct response to the identified inbound telephony needs of a number of KCOM channel partners. This makes it the most mature solution on the market today. When it comes to making that call, Myriad could be the perfect place to start. One channel partner has seen their call minutes grow exponentially since utilising the Myriad platform over the past year. This shows the significant and positive impact that Myriad can bring to inbound telephony. About KCOM KCOM provides worry-free management of critical communications, giving you the time and freedom to plan for tomorrow. We are a Tier 1 carrier with the largest network infrastructure in the UK. So, as our partner, you ll have access to a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. Using these we can tailor solutions to maximise your revenues, backed up by guaranteed SLAs. Our unique mix of network expertise, communications knowledge and business experience is a powerful combination. It can help your customers meet their business needs via the critical communications of tomorrow. You can also rely on our comprehensive product portfolio and high levels of technical expertise. So, whether you are a telecoms or IT reseller, virtual telco, ISP, carrier or media solutions company, we are ideally placed to help you support your customers communications needs - whilst providing your business with a highly competitive channel offer. June 2010 please visit channelpartners.kcom.com or call or us channelpartners@kcom.com