When my wife and I go to the movies, we have two choices: drive east into the city to visit a multiplex or visit one town to the west to enjoy the intimate setting of an old-time, one-screen theater.
Last night we drove west to enjoy Oz the Great and Powerful, a creative, inventive prequel to the original film, The Wizard of Oz. Viewing it marked the end of an era: This will be our last movie experienced through the medium of 35 mm film.
Nowadays most cinemas receive and play their movies digitally. The industry announced that 2013 would mark the end of shipping film to old-school cinemas such as ours.
The owners of our hometown cinema planned for this day, and though they assumed they had a few more years, the unexpected announcement forced them to move up their timetable. After Oz, the theater will close for one week, allowing for the installation of a digital projector.
They will reopen the following week, showing The Croods in digital.
While I don’t notice the difference between film and digital, purists decry the end of film as a sad day. The other problem with the transition to digital is that many small theaters lack the financial means to cover the upgrade costs. Their only option is to close.
This got me thinking about the call center industry.
Most call centers and contact centers, like larger movie multiplexes, are technologically advanced, able to adjust to ever-changing industry conditions, offer the latest innovations, and provide services the market expects.
However, some call centers, like theaters that can show only film, have not stayed abreast of changing technology. They operate on old platforms or make do with cobbled systems.
Unlike the movie theater industry, there is no watershed event looming on the telecommunications horizon that will force the closure of underequipped call centers. However, several innovations may conspire to seal the doom of smaller call centers that lack the needed infrastructure:
Remote Agents and Distributed Workforce
Letting agents work from home – under the right conditions – is a boon to increasing agent satisfaction and reducing turnover. Additionally, being able to accommodate off-site employees provides the option to tap into an otherwise qualified workforce who is unwilling or unable to travel to an office to work.
Finally, having the means to expand unified operations into another city, state, or even country allows for tapping into desirable labor markets. These options are readily available to contact centers running modern equipment and software but are an inaccessible dream for those with older platform and legacy systems.
Call Center Versus Contact Center
Processing calls is still king, but other forms of contact are gaining ground: email, chat, text, and social media. Leading platforms can integrate these growing channels into the traditional agent queue, allowing for equitable distribution, efficient processing, and integrated data collections.
However, effective implementation is a mere dream for most call centers operating within the confines of analog switches. Although a “call only” focus may be a strategic distinctive, being adverse to other forms of contact limits the pool of customers and may thwart attempts at retaining existing customers who desire more than just call processing.
New Interface Options
There was a time when POTS (plain old telephone service) was all a call center needed. Then came DID, followed by T-1, and then ISDN. What about VoIP, SIP, and so forth? Older systems can’t accommodate newer telephony and technology interfaces – or at least can’t handle them well.
Cloud-Based Computing
The debate of cloud-based versus on-site technology will continue into the future. However, we should expect to see more features that are only available on hosted platforms because of either cost considerations or business strategy.
Lacking the infrastructure to effectively tap cloud solutions is a growing limitation for older call centers. Granted, hosted solutions are the quickest path to upgrading a call center’s technology, but some centers lack even the requisite computer network and high-speed Internet connection to make this option possible.
If any of these four considerations present a restraining factor for your call center, it’s not too late to plan a different outcome, but don’t delay – the time is limited.
It seems that seldom a week goes by when I don’t receive a call from someone wanting to interview me. Sometimes it is a local newspaper, other times a specialty magazine. I was quite unnerved at my first interview request. I envisioned it being a hard-hitting, muckraking interrogation, intent on getting me to say something I didn’t mean. That was the best-case scenario. Worst-case, I feared a tabloid style grilling, twisting the truth, obliterating the context of my comments, or generating all out fabrications. As such, it is not surprising that I viewed each question with suspicion, searching to ascertain its hidden agenda, carefully constructing my response, and guardedly protecting my words. It took me a while, but I eventually came to realize that the vast majority of reporters merely want to get enough useful information to complete their piece. So now, I just answer their questions, as openly and honestly as possible — and then get back to the work in front of me.
Over time, I realized that the tenor of these interview requests fall into three categories. The first group is those who were trying to better comprehend the call center industry. I’ve tried, with only partial success, to educate the uninitiated in the distinction between inbound and outbound. I’ve tried to help them understand the call center industry is not necessarily synonymous with telemarketing (specifically, being interrupted during dinner), and the differences between in-house call centers and their outsourcing cousins. All too often, they want to skip this rudimentary instruction and go right to the main lesson – one that they are not yet prepared to adequately grasp.
The second category of questions revolves around outsourcing. Again, their level of understanding is simplistic. They assume that all call center outsourcing takes place offshore. They are surprised to learn that there are many viable outsource call centers onshore. They are incredulous when I tell them, in fact, that the majority of call center outsourcing occurs to call centers that are located, not at some third-world locale, but rather within the confines of their country’s borders. Then they go on to rant about accents and uncomprehending agents – as if accents equaled offshore. Yes, there may be a correlation, but there are plenty of local agents with accents and, indeed, offshore agents without accents. This, they cannot comprehend. Surely, they reason, if an agent has an accent, they must be offshore, won’t be able to effectively communicate, and must have a substandard intelligence. Such stereotypical attitudes will not easily be overcome.
The third group of questions revolves around the future. “What are the major call center trends that you see developing over the next 12 months?” Or, “How will technology impact the call center?” Other questions are less informed, such as “Will the Internet affect the call center industry?” Or “Do you think computers will ever be used in call centers?”
Sometimes the questions are nonsensical, along the lines of, “With the documented increase in demand for left-handed widgets in the Pacific Rim, how will the ongoing viability of the home-based agent in rural America be assured?” Okay, maybe I am being dense or perhaps they have an agenda, so I ignore the question and give a benign and generic reply, such as “We can be assured that technology will play an increasingly important role in tomorrow’s call center infrastructure.” That seems to make them happy. Plus, it is a valid, yet innocuous quote that they can slip anywhere into their article without me having any real concerns of being misrepresented.
In truth, I am reticent in making future prognostications. The reality is that sometimes my words come back to haunt me. In 1990, I wrote an article, proclaiming that advanced call forwarding features and stutter dial tone would be the “dynamic duo” of the decade for the telemessaging industry. As it turned out, advanced call-forwarding features did afford more connection opportunities and stutter dial tone could have been a powerfully effective message-waiting indicator, yet I failed to realize that telcos had no real interest or incentive to let call centers access their switches to turn on and off the stutter dial tone. At best, I batted 500.
Five years later, I gave a speech about home-based agents. My words about HR issues, training, and management are as relevant today as they were nine years ago. Yet I missed the mark on timing, as I envisioned this opportunity fully developing within a year or two. It wasn’t until the Internet became ubiquitous, that technology allowed home-based agents to become viable, practical, and cost-effective.
At another meeting around that time, I gave an informative primer on the Internet and impassionately urged attendees to begin learning and experiencing the Internet; indeed, their call centers’ future viability was at stake. My words were accurate and my advice was astute, but it almost didn’t happen. Some 12 years prior, in the early 1980s, I first heard about the Internet. I learned that it had limited accessibility (you needed to be at a major university or work for a defense contractor) and therefore I deemed it an anomaly with no practical business application. My understanding of the Internet remained frozen in a 1982 perspective until circumstances forced me to reexamine it. My how things had changed – and I almost missed it.
So, it is with great trepidation that I stick my neck out; I predict…
Offshore outsourcing will continue, grow, and succeed. True, there may be unaddressed quality issues and political ramifications today, but those will diminish. My good friend, Mike Leibowitz, succinctly summarized the situation, “Remember when ‘Made in China’ meant the products were of low quality? For that matter, ‘Made in Japan’ had the same stigma a generation ago. But they learned and improved and now Japan and China produce the highest quality items. So, don’t discount the Indians and Pakistanis just because they are having some issues with call center performance today. They are smart, they are motivated, and they will get better – much better.”
The Internet will become even more important. Lack of Internet acumen will relegate call centers to second-class existence – or worse. First, there are the basics.
Call centers must have a website. At minimum, it should be professional, be an effective marketing piece, and contain complete contact information. Too many small outsourcing call centers have put this off.
Key staff (preferably all staff) need to have their own business email address. Having one email address that everyone uses is, well, appalling and second rate.
Your email addresses must convey professionalism. Is blond4you@CheapEmail.com an email address that your call center can be proud to use?
Make sure that you actually test and check your email. In sending messages to the “contact us” email addresses on websites, I have found that about 15 percent are rejected and that about 65 percent are never answered.
Beyond these essentials, you need to be thinking about client services on your website, “talk-to-me” and chat options, remote agents, high-speed Internet access, VoIP, and hosted services. These are our future differentiators.
VoIP cannot be ignored. Sending voice calls over the Internet (VoIP) is an opportunity that every call center must consider. It allows home-based and remote agents to be cost-effective and viable and has the promise to lower telco costs. Your next switch (maybe even your current one) will likely be based on this premise. Be sure to choose your VoIP vendor with care; many will not survive.
Telco costs will go down. It was once postulated that the rate for long distance would converge at one cent per minute; rates will continue to move in that direction. However, with the aforementioned VoIP, the incremental cost of a long distance call could become zero!
Consolidation and mergers will continue. Consolidations and mergers will continue unabated. This will occur with phone companies, with equipment and software vendors, and among call centers. Regardless of which camp you are in, you must grow (either more market share or new markets) or find a niche (preferably multiple ones) in which you focus, excel, and lead. The status quo is not an option.
Government will be an increasing force. Expect new laws and policies to affect call centers, especially relating to privacy issues and outbound calling. The degree to which the FCC does or does not regulate telephone and related services will have far-reaching ramifications in terms of service availability, feature richness, pricing, and taxation. It is hard to predict what will happen, only that something will happen!
Adopt a mobile strategy. Did you know that half of all long distance calls are placed from mobile phones? Increasing numbers of consumers are jettisoning their landline phone in favor of a mobile phone, which affords them greater flexibility, “free” long distance, more features, and often lower rates. Our society is going mobile and the call center needs to strategize around that trend.
Some predictions will be wrong. This includes not only the preceding comments but those from everyone else, as well!
Some embrace it, others spurn it, but most would agree that the Internet is part of everyday life today – and it is here to stay. Of course, some people will never use the Internet, but then there are still those who do not have a telephone or own a television!
The Internet is a big part of Connections Magazine, too. In the past nine months, not a single letter to the editor has arrived via “snail mail”; all have arrived through cyberspace.
We now only accept press releases and articles in digital form and though these could be put on a disk and mailed, all contributors elect to simply email their copy. Though the telephone takes the lead in communicating with advertisers, email is an essential secondary channel.
Ad copy needs to be in digital form and even the layout and design proofs are transferred over the Internet. Last and not least, all articles and other relevant industry information are on our website which is updated every couple of days.
Yes, for a traditional business – print media – the Internet is playing an increasingly bigger and profoundly more critical role.
In the same manner, the Internet is – or should be – transforming your business. Are you a leader, a follower, or a naysayer? In what ways can you use the Internet to achieve greater success?
First, you can use the Internet to keep closer to and better serve your clients. Second, you can supply innovation and services that your competitors are not – or at least have the ability to match competitive offerings. Third, you can reduce costs and overhead, thereby increasing profitability. And fourth, you can open up new lines of business.
Jim Esser, Product Manager at Amtelco, helps put the importance of being Internet-ready into perspective, “Anyone who has asked questions or done business on the Internet recognizes that…eBusinesses aren’t equipped to provide their eProspects and eCustomers with the information and responsiveness that they need. It is not at all uncommon to wait days or perhaps never even get answers to questions asked on a eBusiness website.” This is the essence of opportunity that is presented to the teleservices industry. It is up to us to make the most of this occasion.
Many vendors in the teleservices industry share this perspective and aggressively work to offer innovative and groundbreaking services, features, and options capitalizing on the acceptance, popularity, and ubiquity of the Internet.
These initiatives fall into five areas: agent tools, message dissemination, client control, remote access, and hosted services. Additionally, a few innovations defy categorization. Also, do not overlook the importance of having your own website as a critical part of your Internet initiative.
Agent Tools
Agent tools are services and capabilities afforded by the Internet to facilitate agent productivity, enhance quality, or increase efficacy.
Web Pop: A common implementation is the venerable screen pop to a website. For this application, a client’s URL (Web address) is preprogrammed into their account. With the touch of a key or two, the agent can access the site and enter call data or access client information. Although this can occur from a separate PC browser, it is often accomplished from within the call-processing application. Amtelco’s ePop is a prime example.
AccuCall’s Weblink provides a Web pop when a call is answered. The Web page can be viewed in either a window or full page on the account screen. One Weblink per account page means that up to 999 different Web pages per account can be accessed. Weblink also provides for the ability to access third party Web chat and appointment scheduling packages. Alston Tascom, AccuCall (CadCom), Startel, and other platforms can also pop Web pages.
In addition to accessing a client’s website, other valuable resources can be queried. These include tracking a caller’s shipping status from the delivery company’s website, accessing any one of the useful phone number lookup or reverse lookup site, and consulting a area code directory.
Szeto Technologies’, Call Linx platform can access a centralized database that is shared between the call center and its client so that the client can access the same database, through Internet, as is used by the call center’s agents. One common application is appointment scheduling. In fact, any database accessible on the Internet can be used by any platform that provides Web pop capability.
Instant Messaging: Instant messaging (IM) is another business tool of growing popularity. It can be used for intra-company communications for short messages or to broadcast urgent communiqués and even for interaction with key clients. At this time, the integration of IM into the call center is a homegrown implementation; no vendors surveyed offered it as part of their software package – yet.
Web Channels: Other services focus on alternate communication channels, such as integrated text chat, callback, and talk-to-me services. Each of the three provides ancillary means of communication, all from a client’s website. Coupled with this is the ability to “push” Web pages to the caller/surfer.
Amtelco’s eCallBack feature lets clients place an icon on their websites that allows a person who is browsing the site, and has more questions, to enter a telephone number and preferred time to receive a call (either right away or at a later time).
The Infinity system receives this request and then schedules that call and at the appropriate time delivers the request to an agent who can call the inquirer. Coupled with the ePush option from Amtelco’s Infinity, agents can access the list of Web pages that can be ‘pushed’ from a pre-programmed inventory of pages for the client. In similar fashion, the Tascom and Startel system can also handle Web callback.
For text chat, pre-written responses to common questions can be quickly pasted into the text window, allowing for ultra-fast response times. Amtelco’s eChat also allows clients to place icons on the Web page, which, when clicked on, opens a two-way, interactive text chat session with an Infinity agent. (The Infinity system distributes the text chat sessions to agents using its regular call distribution rules.) A text chat can be used to give additional information to a person on the client’s website.
AccuCall’s Weblink provides for the ability to access third party Web chat and appointment scheduling websites. Whereas Alston Tascom provides for text chat capability within the Tascom system, allowing agents to engage in free-flow text chats and to add pre-programmed text responses for each client account. Agents can engage in multiple text chat sessions simultaneously if desired.
Email: Lastly is “email answering service.” The vision of email answering service is to be able to accomplish everything with an email message that can currently be done with a phone call: capture data, give out information, covert it into another form (an alpha-page, fax, or voice mail message), or redirect it to another destination.
Amtelco does this using eResponse. It is an Infinity feature that can ‘poll’ a client’s email server for messages, download them into Infinity, and then distribute them to agents as specified by call distribution. The agent can answer the email, either manually or with pre-written responses, or forward the email to another person. Also, eResponse can be used to place a client’s email into an Infinity message ticket to be dispatched as a fax or alpha page or to be recorded into voice mail.
For text chat, call-back, talk-to-me, and email answering service, though each can be independently implemented, it is critical for them to be fully integrated into a holistic message queue that manages all messages, regardless of source or form, in a unified and equitable call distribution.
Message Dissemination
Email: The Internet provides several alternate message dissemination options. Email is, of course, the premier means, quickly rising to “must have” status for the serious teleservice provider in order for them to remain competitive and viable.
Most current teleservice platforms have the means to send messages and orders to clients via email, including Amtelco’s Infinity, CadCom’s AccuCall, Alston Tascom, and Szeto Technologies’ Call Linx. AccuCall messages can also be exported in ASCII, comma delimited, and Excel formats.
In other implementations, an external message server can be utilized. The venerable FMDS system from Professional Teledata is one such system. Using a standard message communication protocol, FMDS allows most systems to provide the capability to email (as well as fax) messages to clients.
The Axon 8000 is one such system. Additionally, the Axon/FMDS interface is unique in that once a fax or email message is dispatched and accepted, the FMDS reports back to the Axon and the message is marked as delivered. This allows call center agents to have up-to-date and accurate status information about message transmissions.
An exciting option, prompted by many of the leading unified messaging vendors, is the ability to convert a voice mail message or other audio recordings into a wave file, sending it over the Internet to an email address.
The voice recording can then be listened to, replayed, responded to, copied, or deleted, just like any other email message. The email interface then becomes a cohesive message management machine.
Amtelco’s Infinity provides resources that allow a client’s text messages to be sent to an email address, either directly from the Infinity system itself or from the Infinity UltraComm message server.
The eVoicelink feature expands upon that by automatically sending voice mail files to clients as wave file attachments to their email.
Most current generation (that is, digital) voice loggers allow recorded phone calls to be sent as a data file to an email address. Record Play/Tek (RPT) is one such vendor. For obvious security and control issues, the files cannot be automatically delivered to an email address.
Someone at the call center must first review the message and, since RPT records audio continuously, mark the start and ends of the call. RPT’s Michael Stoll has explored the idea of remote access to their voice logger, but in user group discussions and repeated customer interviews the response has been overwhelmingly to not provide for remote access. The reason is consistent: security issues simply loom too large and problematic.
Wireless: Wireless PDAs and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) telephones free business people from their desktops and allow them to do business anytime, anywhere. Amtelco’s Infinity supports that by allowing message delivery and access to other Infinity client information.
Similarly, wireless connectivity allows users the ability to collaborate with the Tascom system database from most popular wireless devices. Startel also offers a PDA wireless interface that allows messages, on-call schedules, and directories to be accessed remotely.
Unified Messaging: Unified messaging platforms allow email, voicemail, and faxes to be retrieved from a single inbox, accessible from any phone or Internet connected PC anywhere in the world. Vendors, including Amtelco, Alston Tascom, CadCom, Hark, and Telescan offer aspects of unified messaging, typically in conjunction with messaging platforms.
Web Site: Messages and orders can also be posted on a secure, password-controlled website. Comparable to Web-based email portals, such as Yahoo and Juno, messages and orders can be sorted, stored, forwarded, deleted, organized, and saved. Szeto Technologies’ Call Linx system can provide a Web page where clients can pick up their messages from the Internet, as can Amtelco Infinity, and Alston Tascom.
Web Portal – The Client Control Interface
Taking the concept of the Web-based message portal to the next logical step is to allow clients to interact with your staff by changing the programming, parameters, and information within their accounts. Szeto Technologies’, Call Linx can provide clients access to the call statistics and various call traffic information via the Internet connection through a website.
Alston Tascom has developed the Tascom client Web interface. In addition to viewing messages, clients can create, update, and dispatch information (messages, on-call schedules, reaching information, and even database entries), listen to voice mail messages, and run pre-defined custom client reports.
Clients can access their accounts and message information via a standard Web browser or wireless Web via a handheld device. Each client can create multiple users with unique log on, password, and varying degrees of access to features and capabilities via the Web. Clients can also enter data or update information about their account into the Tascom server via the Web.
Access to reports over the Internet allows clients to view, filter, sort, print, and deliver specified system and account-specific reports via alpha pager, fax, email, and HTML, as well as to upload and download database files.
Also, Tascom Evolution automatically creates HTML versions of all message forms and can provide immediate access to virtually all system data via the Internet.
In the same way, the Infinity client Web desktop offers a secure, password protected Internet website that serves as a central point where a call center client can access the resources of the Infinity system via the Internet.
From their desktop, clients can change their Infinity status, view messages, change their system automated on-call information, view the roster (status) of other employees in their organization, and even create messages that will be sent to other employees using Infinity’s message distribution.
Startel’s Web Text Retrieval feature similarly allows the end user the ability to manage their messages using an Internet portal.
Remote Access
Many teleservice platforms, such as the Amtelco Infinity, allow remote agent access via an Internet connection. When this is available and configured, any authorized agent can access the central system any place they have Internet access.
This allows for managers and supervisors to view information, research problems, update and program client profiles, monitor system performance, and perform basic troubleshooting.
Some systems allow audio access as well over the Internet using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). In these implementations, full agent functionality is provided, including the opportunity to take calls and monitor agent audio in real time.
There are some quality issues with VoIP and, although quality is steadily improving as technology marches forward, an alternative is to provide for the audio connection on a dialup basis using a regular phone line.
Using standard Internet IP telephony gateways and Axon 8200R remote operator terminals, Axon 8000 systems can establish complete remote operation from virtually any location.
System operation is completely transparent and toll-quality voice communication is achieved over standard DSL connections, avoiding long distance telephone charges.
Remote agents can also connect to the Tascom SQL digital system using a virtual private network (VPN) and have calls routed via standard telephone lines.
AccuCall remote agents can connect through cable modem or DSL lines to make the data connection; the audio path is established through a T-1 or PRI circuit. Future developments will enhance this capability with the addition of VoIP to allow the audio to be routed over the Internet as well.
Hosted and ASP Services
Some vendors are beginning to provide hosted services for their customers. These fall into two classes of purposes. The first is a temporary, “try-it-out,” small scales basis. The idea being that before a significant investment is made in hardware or software, a customer can use the hosted services from their vendor to serve their initial clients.
As they add more and more clients, a critical mass can be reached where the revenue from this new niche is sufficient to justify and pay for the purchase of the system or platform. Once the equipment is installed, clients are then migrated off the hosted platform on to the newly acquired, locally installed system, allowing for greater margins and increased control.
The other scenario of hosted services is where the hosting is continued indefinitely. This may be a result of the business model established by the vendor, or more likely, because of the preference or circumstances of the customer.
In this situation, the vendor in essence becomes an ASP (application service provider) for their customer. Although the customer will pay an ongoing fee for as long as they use the service, the vendor maintains the equipment, handles the software upgrades, and replaces hardware when needed.
This is a great alternative for a teleservice company that does not have a great demand for the service in question, has limited internal technical expertise, or wishes to focus investment dollars in other areas. Ken Coleman of TimeTrade Systems concurs, stating “the Web makes it easy for smaller teleservice companies to gain access to world-class software without purchasing, installing, and maintaining the software themselves.”
Amtelco offers three hosted services, which can be used either as a short-term, incremental step or as an ongoing solution. Their Infinity, eCreator, and IVR services are generally thought of as being located on premise, at the serving call center.
However, all three of those services can also be provided by Amtelco’s own servers located in Wisconsin and accessed over the Internet by call centers located anywhere.
Similarly, Alston Tascom offers hosted services for two of their popular offerings. One is Web-based appointment setting, on-call scheduling, and verification services. The second offering is interactive voice services, which features Web, email, and touchtone interfaces.
TimeTrade Systems saw that appointment and reservations scheduling was ripe for transformation using Internet technology. Before the Internet, it was inherently difficult for a call center to book appointments for a client. If the outsourcer takes an appointment, how is the schedule updated and synchronized with the client to avoid double booking and confusion?
TimeTrade solved that problem with Web-based software that allows call centers to view the available resources and timeslots of a service business and confirm an appointment for the caller in real-time. The schedule information is stored centrally, where it is accessible by all parties, using the Internet, and instantly updated whenever an appointment is made.
Businesses can book appointments in a number of ways – at their front desk, by call forwarding to a call center, or by enabling self-service scheduling for their end customers over the Internet. TimeTrade hosts its software as an ASP (Application Services Provider) and charges a monthly fee for software use and technical support.
Timeskeeper, Inc. also offers an appointment setting solution, as does Telescan, working in conjunction with Adjuvant Technologies of St. Cloud, Minnesota
Other Significant Developments
Account Networking: Amtelco’s enhanced order-entry call scripting product, eCreator, can be run entirely within a call center’s own network facilities but is also a Web-capable application that can be deployed over the Internet allowing multiple call centers to collaborate to handle accounts that are too big for any one of them to manage on their own.
Using Web resources, eCreator is also able access a client’s internal ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) compliant databases. This paves the way to provide many complex and intricate services to clients, which have been previously not feasible.
Email Bills: Sending bills by email is not a new development, but one advanced several years ago by Professional Teledata in their TBS billing platform. With the growing use of email, sending invoices in the manner has more accepted and with higher participation rates. Bill delivery outsourcer TASbill.com has found that clients are more likely to view an email bill immediately and pay it sooner.
In fact, experience has shown them that those who pay online pay within two or three days rather than two or three weeks when the invoice and payment are handled through the regular mail. Chris Twigg, shared this example: “If a teleservice firm invoices $100,000 each month and sends half of its clients an email bill, it could expect to bring forward around $25,000 in receivables by about two weeks.”
Sending bills by email has been common for medical, banking, and insurance companies for some time; these companies report that a major side benefit is sales of new services to existing customers – much easier than new sales to new customers.
Also, the bill can become a sales or customer service tool as Internet links can be embedded into the electronic invoice.
Credit Card Processing: QOS Merchant Solutions offers a number of Internet-based electronic payment solutions for merchants of all kinds. The first is their Virtual Terminal products that allow for processing credit card transactions over the Web.
They also provide WebLinks so you can add credit card processing to your website. WebLinks can also be used by all centers can accept checks by phone for their clients. Lastly, QOS Merchant Solutions allows customers to use Web-based reporting services for electronic payment transactions.
Website
Not to be overlooked in the discussion of the critical relevance of the Internet to teleservice companies is essential prerequisite of having a website. At the most basic level, a website is an on-line sales and marketing tool.
More significantly, it is rapidly becoming a necessary indicator of business viability and significance. Businesses without websites are increasingly being viewed as out-of-date and outmoded.
Web designers and developers are almost as ubiquitous as the Internet itself. Each local market likely has a plethora of self-proclaimed Web designers, offering services of varying quality and prices. Although it may make sense to select a local firm to design your website, there is also considerable justification to select an industry specialist.
Axon Communications operates ConnixUP Web Services, a separate operating department of Axon. ConnixUP offers a convenient one-stop location where you can confidently establish a website solution for your business that includes domain name selection and registration, website design, website hosting, search engine registration, and website management.
