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Secrets from the Vertical Experts: Get the Most Out of Your Cloud Communications Solution

Companies don’t come to Vertical looking for products. They’re looking for expert solutions. And our team loves solving these challenges with smart, innovative, and value-driven implementations. While each client gets a custom install from Vertical, many of these solutions can help any company improve its communications.

Let’s take a look at 6 solutions Vertical has delivered for its clients and how they can benefit your cloud unified communications and contact center.

#1 A Better Contact Center through Automation

The Challenge:

As our clients explore opportunities for their contact centers, they often encounter the same frustration: agents are expensive. So try an automated solution! While this saves money, the best Smart Agent can still be frustrating and deliver a sub-par Customer Experience. The key is balance. When information can be easily and effectively delivered automatically, do it. For complex questions, have a live agent on the line (quickly!).

The Solution:

Vertical helped one client upgrade from a super-complicated IVR to a much cleaner Smart Agent that offers a variety of ID options for callers. Most callers are looking for basic account info (balance, due dates, etc.) and the system can answer those questions quickly and easily. If the caller needs more help, there’s a fast priority transfer to a live agent. Costs are dropping and customer satisfaction is rising with the new system in place.

#2 Setting Appointments When No One Answers Calls

The Challenge:

When you get a phone call that you don’t recognize, do you pick it up? For most people, the answer is no. Many legitimate businesses are trying to reach out, say to set an appointment, and not able to quickly reach the customer. It’s not that the customer doesn’t want the call, they just don’t know who it’s from.

The Solution:

Send a text! Text messages are read much more than anyone answers calls or listens to a voicemail. Vertical worked with one client who sets appointments for new employees to get tests done. No one was answering their calls and appointment-setting took days to accomplish. Vertical helped them implement business SMS. Agents now send a text message first, alerting the new-hire of the purpose of the call. Not only did the answer-rate shoot up, many of the new-hires actually took initiative and called first!

#3 Handling Multiple Customer Entities with One Team

The Challenge:

In a perfect world, your first impressions team recognizes every caller and instantly knows the best way to address the call. In reality, its never so easy. Your team might be handling a high volume of calls coming in to a variety of local numbers—maybe even for different company brands. Trying to consolidate this call-handling under a single managed team can be very hard.

The Solution:

Vertical recently worked with a client who is in a major growth cycle. They are acquiring smaller businesses on a regular basis. Integrating those businesses into their organization can be challenging in many ways—including call-handling. Rather than having calls answered at 20 different offices by 20 different people, the client wanted to consolidate this into one team with a consistent process for better Customer Experience. To help, Vertical introduced an advanced operator console. This solution identifies where each call is coming from and presents the unique brand and script for that call. The operator is also presented with just the extensions specific to that brand. Even new members of the team need little training to quickly answer calls and get the caller to the right location. The result is happier callers and fewer staff taking calls.

#4 Simplify Remote and On-The-Go Workforce Communication

The Challenge:

For decades the hallmark of your business office was a desk and a desk phone. These were the sign you were “in the office.” When businesses had to suddenly transition their workforce home, this became a problem—the desk phone did not easily go home.

The Solution:

Vertical has helped a number of clients realize that many (if not all) of their workers don’t need desk phones. Their computer and/or their smartphone can operate as their business phone instead. These can be used at home, in the office, and on the go. Vertical clients are recognizing that many of their workers will stay remote and some will be hybrid. These workers are much more comfortable if they are using the same softphone no matter where they are and they enjoy the flexibility this option brings. The result is more empowered workers who are able to communicate more effectively.

#5 Improving Retail Store Call Handling

The Challenge:

Many employees spend all day sitting at their desks. Retail employees rarely have that luxury. Stock checks, inventory, helping customers, and many other tasks lead them to move about the store regularly. This makes it hard for them to answer customer calls in a timely fashion. We’ve all waited and waited while the phone rings at our favorite store.

The Solution:

Another new trend in Retail has offered a great solution for Vertical’s many retail clients. That solution is the rise of the mobile device Point of Sale (POS) system. Store staff are carrying smart devices with them. Vertical has worked with some of our clients to develop and deliver a softphone customized to work on the chain’s standard POS device. This solution can be delivered and managed via MDM and ensure store staff can more quickly answer calls and communicate with each other. The result is staff who aren’t rushing for the counter to answer a phone and customers who get answered more quickly.

Just a Few Examples…

These are just a few examples of the innovative solutions that Vertical brings to our customers. An experienced reseller, like Vertical, offers more than simple installation of the technology. We offer 972 years of experience tailoring technology solutions to real customer problems like these. We can provide you with similar solutions. Contact us if these sounds familiar or if you have even more business challenges that needs expert tailoring to solve.