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Author: Laura Swatton

NEW Wildix x-caracal: Care for and control the performance of your sales team

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

This month’s Wildix product update focuses on the brand-new Wildix x-caracal solution.

About x-caracal call centre monitoring and analytics

x-caracal is a contact centre analytics tool that enables you to monitor in real-time the quality of your interactions with leads and customers to give you a real insight into your business. Unlike some other options on the market, this solution integrates seamlessly into your Wildix communications solution.

Wildix as a communications and collaboration vendor has a great solution to boost each step of the customer journey. WebRTC Kite and Wizywebinar help generate leads, while x-bees is the perfect tool to drive sales, convert leads into customers and keep customers engaged and satisfied, avoiding churn.

But, how can you add additional value during the lead conversion and customer experience stages of the customer journey? By making sure that customers’ expectations are met.

x-caracal is the perfect solution to compliment the existing Wildix customer journey portfolio.

ACD Stats

Raise the quality of your customer interactions in real time and close more deals thanks to the first ACD Stats that boosts revenue

Boost your customer journey

A core part of the Wildix business communications package, x-caracal is the evolved communications monitoring centre, providing you with dashboards to track your customers and leads with built-in business intelligence tools.

Here are some of the key benefits that we think rock!

Unlike other ACD Stats, x-caracal is:

  • Web-based and hosted in the cloud – requires no physical installation.
  • Agile – provides you with constant feedback allowing you to improve your customer experience.
  • Effective – fully integrated into the Wildix communication system, monitoring all agents’ devices including mobile.

For more information on how Wildix x-caracal or the Wildix portfolio can benefit your business, please contact a member of the Evoke sales team to discuss in more detail or to request a fully immersive live demonstration. Contact us in the way that suits you on 0800 8403688, hello@evoketelecom.com or by web chat.

Headset Housekeeping: How often should you replace your headset cushion pads for your team members?

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

Replacing the cushion pads on your headset is often way down on the list of organisational priorities or perhaps not even thought about at all but, this bit of tech equipment housekeeping should be a regular occurrence. Think of it like changing the oil in your car. Not only does changing the pads have hygienic merit, but it also helps to preserve the original sound intended which delivers consistent call quality and integrity. A comfortable headset for the user also contributes to overall employee wellbeing and productivity. Even if the pads are clean, they become compressed as they age, and this alters the effective acoustic space.

Manufacturer guidelines recommend ear cushions should be replaced every 3 months or replaced if the headset is passed on to a new staff member.

A leatherette universal ear cushion

The EC-16 Universal 70mm Leatherette Ear Cushion supplied by Evoke fits most makes and models of headset and couldn’t be simpler to replace existing ear cushions. The EC-16 fits: JPL-401S, JPL-402S, JPL-501S, JPL-502S, JPL-Connect, JPL-HAC, JPL-611, JPL-612, TT3 EVO, X500, BT500. Poly: SupraPlus, EncorePro. Jabra Evolve 40, 60, 65 Ear Cushion.

The Evoke team can work with you to establish the right frequency of headset cushion pad maintenance for your organisation based on the level of headset usage and staff turnover.

Please speak to your Account Manager or a member of the Evoke sales team to discuss ‘Headset Maintenance’ in more depth or to set up your regular headset cushion pads replacement schedule. Contact us in the way that suits you on 0800 8403688, hello@evoketelecom.com or by web chat.

A female call centre employee at a desk speaking into a telephone headset A female call centre employee at a desk speaking into a telephone headset

Make it easier for customers to engage with your organisation with a new breed of CCaaS

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

This month’s product update focusses on the brand-new Horizon Contact Cloud based, omni-channel contact centre. It’s quite a topical one as organisations looking at ‘hybrid working’ and driving a ‘work from anywhere’ culture need to consider not just UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service or cloud telephony) but CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) as the next phase of development in measuring and managing a dispersed workforce, embracing AI (Artificial Intelligence) whilst ensuring that customer service levels are upheld and exceeded.

What is Horizon Contact?

Horizon Contact is a cloud-based omni-channel contact centre solution (voice, email and web chat) that is designed specifically to work in conjunction with Horizon and Collaborate (the Horizon UC solutions).

Perfect for organisations who want to make it easier for customers to engage with them and unlike most Contact Centre solutions, Horizon Contact provides an easy to use, self-service feature set, for small to medium businesses. This is ideal for organisations looking to incorporate AI at an affordable price point.

Here are some of the key benefits that we think rock!

  • Ideal for Hybrid Working – Agents can log into any device and work anytime, anywhere. The solution is compatible with all current Gamma handsets, but agents can also work with just a laptop and headset because Horizon Contact uses WebRTC to deliver the same experience wherever your teams have internet access.
  • Integral CRM – Built in CRM database that may be used to keep track of customer interactions to ensure customers don’t need to repeat themselves every time they call in or equally, Horizon Contact can integrate with MS Dynamics or Salesforce for full CRM integration and end to end visibility of your customer journeys.
  • Comprehensive Call Recording – Calls can be recorded inbound, outbound or internal. Callers can also be provided with the choice to opt out of their call being recorded however, the agent can still select to record their part of the call. Call recordings are stored in a secure, encrypted environment with other GDPR compliant features such as retention deletion, restricted user access and full user auditing.
  • Gold Standard Customer Service – Calls can be prioritised into VIP queues to be handled by skills ranked agents, based on either the customers telephone number or email to ensure they are provided with a tailored and premium service.
  • Flexible Reporting – The built in, comprehensive reporting tool which can be viewed within the portal enables reports to be scheduled and delivered to managers as and when they need them.
  • True Subscription Model – There are no financing costs, no major hardware investments, and no software to roll out. You simply need a Horizon Premium subscription and then either an agent or supervisor licence, Admin licences are provided free of charge.
  • Reduced TCO – There is no charge for terminating inbound calls like many other CCaaS platforms.
  • Reliable Distributed architecture – At least 99.9% uptime is expected with four Gamma data centres hosting the Horizon Contact service.
  • Agent Interface – Agents can view all the queues that they have been given access to view. Agents can take calls via a Horizon handset or via a softphone using the Horizon Contact portal.
  • Supervisor Interface – The Supervisor user has full agent functionality but can manage all agent users. Within the Horizon Contact Portal, the Supervisor’s main screen shows live data for both the queues and the agents that they manage.
  • Admin Interface – Horizon Contact is managed using its own web interface, which provides information and management control to authenticated operations users. The Administrator Portal part of the interface allows users who are logged in at the Administrator level to customise their Contact Centre features and functionality.
  • Wallboard – When an agent has classified an interaction, the classifications are logged and analysed by the Contact Centre for display via the wallboard and for inclusion in regular reports.

Discover Horizon Contact: Cloud Contact Centre

 

A male employee sat on the floor at home working on a laptop, with a young child in his lap. A male employee sat on the floor at home working on a laptop, with a young child in his lap.

Hybrid Working: High on the agenda for 70% of UK businesses

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

How businesses are shifting from forced ‘home working’ to planned ‘hybrid working’ strategies to underpin their future success

As the dust settles, a year of home working being the norm has enabled many businesses to gather valuable evidence from their teams and customers as to how successful they were during lockdown and plan effectively for what the return-to-work phase looks like.

Now employees have enjoyed more time and sanity from avoiding the rush hour commutes whilst gaining balance over workdays vs. friends, family and hobbies coupled with organisations seeing huge reductions in heating, lighting and office overheads, the big question is, what does the office of 2021 look like?

The simple fact is the office of 2021 will differ enormously from business to business. No longer does one size fit all.

The forced move to home working has driven many organisations to temporarily dip their toe in the water on their digital transformation journey and we have seen some businesses embrace it with open arms and some chomping at the bit to get back into the office as soon as possible. Whilst we completely appreciate that home working can’t work for some vertical sectors, for those that can, we would beg the question, why didn’t it work for you?

We are seeing many organisations starting to focus on cultivating a ‘hybrid’ workplace where employees remain productive and engaged, no matter what location they are working from. It might be that Peter in marketing is more productive working from home 3 days per week but 2 days he prefers to be in the office checking in with colleagues and focussing on team projects which balances his work with mental wellbeing and motivation. It might also be that with a strong ‘hybrid culture’ and the right technical strategy that organisations can start to attract employees from a wider talent pool or skill set.

Some key questions for organisations to consider in this landmark new phase are:

  1. During lockdown – did our employees remain productive and engaged?
  2. Were we able to maintain consistent and effective communication between employees and managers?
  3. Did we have the right tech tools for the job? Were they user friendly, flexible, reliable, secure and scalable?
  4. Were our customer service levels positively or negatively affected and what was the cause of any challenges? (we mention this one as over half of homeworkers during the pandemic had broadband issues with the service either cutting out or being too slow!!)
  5. Can we foster a hybrid culture within our business and what are the pros and cons?
  6. What key benefits can be incorporated into our strategic long-term business plans?
  7. How do we plan for future phases of the pandemic or similar events?
  8. Do we need help and advice as to what technology roadmap is right for our business and how we can best foster a successful hybrid workplace?

At Evoke, we treat every one of our customers uniquely. We have always done this whilst understanding and appreciating that one size certainly does not fit all.

Whilst we think our approach is still sound, we are also evolving with the times and have found that the pandemic has accelerated businesses into areas like business transformation and digital transformation which can often be daunting and complex topics. We have identified that getting these bits right for both business recovery and future success are fundamental areas where our current and new customers need our help. To that end, we are fully available for a discussion at any time on how we can help you to drive your business goals with the right underlying technical strategies.

Please speak to your Account Manager or a member of the Evoke team to discuss ‘Hybrid Working’ in more depth or please do request your free of charge audit of your existing services and digital transformation ideas so we can align and help you identify where efficiencies and improvements can be made. Contact us in the way that suits you on 0800 8403688, hello@evoketelecom.com or start a web chat.

A woman working at a laptop from her brightly coloured kitchen A woman working at a laptop from her brightly coloured kitchen

“Work in their shoes”: Setting the gold template for customer service

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

Only by working in your customers shoes can you deliver the levels of customer service they now expect

The post-pandemic customer emerges with completely new priorities and buying behaviours. Lockdown and forced ‘home working’ for many office workers has driven people to engage differently and digitally.

The new buzzwords for customer service are ‘contactable’ and ‘accountable’. With e-commerce booming and a world of choice available, just one bad experience can lead to the loss of a customer.

Ask yourself a simple question. Can my customers contact me using the method that they want to? Many people prefer to get in contact via web chat, IM or even where appropriate ‘self-serve’ which if it is seamless, effortless, and quick provides a win-win for both business and customer but, there are customers that still value telephone or email interaction and a human voice providing high levels of personalised expertise.

Let’s go one step further and look at buyer engagement and brand loyalty. How can you give your customers the warm feeling in 2021? How do you keep them coming back? Customers now expect the businesses they engage with to know their preferences and they need to feel confident in a world of increasing cyber and online crime that their data is stored sensitively and securely.

The gold customer service template can only be designed and achieved by “working in your customers shoes” and identifying how you can provide a prompt response or quick resolution to their query in the most effective way for them.

The Evoke team can work with you to build your gold customer service template and ensure that your communications and digital strategy is aligned with market demand and your business goals. Please speak to your Account Manager or a member of the Evoke team to discuss how you can achieve a gold template for your customer service levels in more depth. Contact us in whatever way you choose on 0800 8403688, hello@evoketelecom.com or simply start a web chat with us now.

A simple telecoms hack to help your marketing budget!

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog, Uncategorized.

As businesses look to grow their customer base as we all emerge from lockdown, telecoms could be the answer that provides that critical insight into how well your marketing spend is performing.
Generating new business enquiries

With 45% of businesses reporting turnover below what is normally expected, business growth and recovery is high on the agenda for post lockdown Britain.

However, despite many predictions and speculations, we are not crystal clear yet as to what ‘the new normal’ will really look like? How far will our businesses need to adapt and change in line with new consumer habits or changing market demands?

It is a fine balance between reinvigorating your market opportunities to drive that essential increase in sales and investing your marketing budget in the right areas to achieve the best return.

When you do make the decisions on how and where to invest your valuable time and money, how do you then measure success?

Do you currently have a way of identifying where a new inbound lead was generated from? Was it from an advert in a local magazine? An industry article? A radio ad? A social media post? A blog? Or even from a visit to your website?

There are many complex and often costly systems on the market that provide analytics and management information that can be used to predict success strategies. But these come at a price and greater the cost of the analysis, the more leads you must generate to cover your spend, right?

This is where we share our super simple telecoms hack of the month, ‘the inbound telephone number’.

Where did those enquiries come from?

Evoke Telecom can help you with your campaigns analysis by providing dedicated inbound telephone numbers. This can be per campaign, per medium, or even per publication.

As a result, our customers can easily see where their leads are being generated and how many prospective new customers are being attracted!

The inbound bill and associated analysis provides insightful key metrics such as:-

  • How quickly each campaign generated a response
  • How many total responses were generated
  • Identification of calling trends – most popular time of day/day of week
  • Whether prospects called from a landline or a mobile telephone
  • Average call length per campaign

Inbound numbers are a cost effective yet powerful solution that enables businesses to identify how successful a campaign has been. Also, how best to shape future campaigns using the valuable data and insight collected.

How can I find out more?

Would you like to know more about how inbound telephone numbers can drive that key critical insight and make your marketing spend go further? If so, then please talk to a member of our helpful team at Evoke Telecom for a no obligation discussion. You can contact us by email at hello@evoketelecom.com or why not pick up the phone and call our free of charge sales line on 0800 840 3688 . We can’t wait to help you.

 

Pictures courtesy of Andrea Piacquadio and Ivan Samkov (Pexel) 

fibre optic cables up close fibre optic cables up close

There’s light at the end of the fibre as Virtual1 connects with CityFibre

Written by Laura Swatton on . Posted in Blog.

We are so excited about 2021 in the Evoke offices! With a countrywide, full fibre gigabit broadband network more important than ever to support the UK’s post-Brexit and post-Covid-19 recovery, one of our key network partners, Virtual1 has announced a collaborative partnership with the third largest national digital infrastructure provider, CityFibre. This formidable partnership will enable us to serve our business customers with an increased portfolio of 100Mbps to 1Gbps full fibre Ethernet products in 28 cities, expanding as CityFibre continues its roll out.

The UK’s full fibre rollout and the 2025 PSTN switch off are the driving forces behind the most significant change to business connectivity in a generation where there are strict government targets in place to accelerate the delivery of gigabit capable broadband across the UK by 2025 (no coincidence that this is when the old digital network is due to be turned off!!).

Virtual1 founder and CEO Tom O’Hagan said:

“The partnership combines CityFibre’s growing UK coverage with the flexibility of Virtual1’s Software Defined Network to deliver the best of both worlds.”

Giving impetus to its rollout plans, CityFibre is now embarking on a recruitment plan that will include the identification and training of thousands of unemployed UK residents as well as new job opportunities for qualified and experienced construction and telecoms workers.

At Evoke, we really do see this as an extremely positive partnership and in real terms, this gives us great opportunity to provide our customers with the very best connectivity speeds through a solid and trusted network partner that is giving back to the community. Sustainability and support for local communities and industries closely aligns to our company values and ethos.

Please speak to your Account Manager or a member of the Evoke team to discuss superfast connectivity in more depth or please do request your free of charge audit of your existing services so we can help you identify where efficiencies and improvements can be made. Contact us on 0800 8403688 or hello@evoketelecom.com.