Is Your Contact Center Truly Redundant?</h1> <article> <h1>Is Your Contact Center Truly Redundant?</h1> <p>Guillaume Seynhaeve — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 05:30:00 GMT</p> <p>Over the weekend, the weather finally changed, with temperatures in the high 60’s on Saturday. It’s not something I generally get excited about, but after this year’s brutal winter I took advantage of the break from the cold to go on a long run with friends. It was on this run that someone asked me, “How is it that my home phone never goes down but that a number for one of Ashburn’s biggest data centers can, and recently did, with only a busy tone for those trying to get through?” Knowing what I do for a living, he went on to explain that one of the employees at the data center had been fired and chosen to turn off the switches before walking out, which brought the whole center to a standstill. In fact, not only was he able to bring down all of the managed hosted services, but the VOIP-based PBX system was also shutoff, which prevented the entire support staff from making or receiving calls. To make matters worse, every client who tried to call customer support heard nothing but a busy tone. Doesn’t help when one of those clients is the state government.</p> <p>Nice exit, right?!</p> <p></p> <p>Any company providing hosted services should have in place Internet redundancies, with switches housed in secure locations and in a such a manner that both the primary and backup cannot be turned off simultaneously (as was the case above). However, this simply establishes the very basic of security measures. In addition to Internet redundancies, all companies providing hosted services should have a partnership with a counterpart able to leverage the power of tier 1 carriers. With billions of dollars invested in building resilient infrastructures, such a resource can help prevent your clients from ever hearing that dreaded busy signal ever again. </p> <p>Here is how.</p> <p>When a customer signs up for inbound services, they either port over or purchase toll and/or non-toll free numbers as required. In the event the customer requires a new number, the carrier can supply the number from their own database or, if number porting is needed, have the opposing carrier complete the transfer. In either case, the number(s) are registered with the carrier. What is important to note, is that in the case of all major call center and VOIP-based PBX system providers today, the call center and carrier are both the carrier and the service provider. At 3CLogic, however, the carriers are independent entities. </p> <p>Why does this matter?</p> <p>When a call is made to a telephone-registered number, a call is routed to the carrier using an SMS database. The carrier then determines which customer/call center is configured for that number and sends the call. If the number is destined for a call center, then that application takes over the call and is likely routed in the following manner: <b>1) </b>VOIP Gateways <b>2)</b> SIP Routers <b>3)</b> IVR Services <b>4)</b> ACD Service <b>5)</b> Agent. Unfortunately, within traditional call centers, all of these services (with the exception of the agent) are performed on centralized servers, meaning that one flip-of-the-switch takes everything (and I mean all of it) down. In the case of 3CLogic, the separation of the call center solution and the carrier provides an added level of protection from such troubles. In this case, the Tier 1 carrier provides intelligent call routing on their own redundant VOIP gateway to ensure that a call is properly forwarded only if the downstream services are up (if not, calls are forwarded to backup numbers). In addition, the SIP routers, IVR, and ACD services are deployed within redundant centers on Amazon AWS to ensure both reliability and scalability. </p> <p>Put simply, all your eggs are not residing in one basket. The services are distributed and the responsibilities delegated in such a manner that a simple blow cannot take your entire company down. </p> <p>We all have bad days, but don’t let one flick of a swich facilitate how bad those days can be. Take a hard look at how redundant your system really is. You might be surprised. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>CEO Thoughts: Hate maintenance windows? So do we.</h1> <p>Guillaume Seynhaeve — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 15:45:00 GMT</p> <p>I am working with a mortgage broker to refinance my home. The mortgage broker uses a number of tools to communicate with his clients and seems to be pretty tech savvy. I found out that he uses Salesforce.com because he invited me to communicate with him using Chatter.</p> <p>In order to use Chatter you have to log into Salesforce.com and when I recently tried to log in, this is the screen that I saw. A notification that Salesforce.com would be down from 10pm to 2am starting on Saturday, March 1, 2014 for scheduled maintenance. Now I know most people are not going to be impacted by this off hours scheduled maintenance and could care less that they won’t get to use Salesforce.com on a Saturday night. But there is a bigger story here. For a number of years Salesforce.com has been trying to reduce its maintenance windows to minutes instead of hours. Needless to say I was surprised that even with all their might they still have such large maintenance windows.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"></p> <p>Now compare how Salesforce.com does its upgrades and maintenance to how 3CLogic does theirs. A bunch of smart engineers at 3CLogic figured out an innovative way to reduce maintenance windows to just minutes. This is because of the unique database design that 3CLogic uses which allows for the upgrade of individual tenants on a multi-tenant system. Because each tenant can have their own maintenance windows, the amount of data that needs to be backed up and restored during an upgrade is relatively small compared to the amount of data that would have to be backed up for every tenant on a server at the same time. So now 3CLogic’s customers can do scheduled maintenance windows when it is convenient for them. In effect we have eliminated scheduled maintenance windows. Each customer chooses when they want to be upgraded and they do so with a single mouse click which they control.</p> <p></p> <p>The same bunch of smart engineers further figured out that they don’t even need minutes to do maintenance. If we back up the tenant’s database on a hot standby server we can do upgrades with zero maintenance windows.</p> <p>It may not be important for Salesforce.com customers to have zero maintenance windows. 3CLogic’s customers are call centers and a number of them run 24X7 operations. It is critical for them that 3CLogic minimize or eliminate all scheduled maintenance windows. And as a cloud based call center provider, that’s what we do.</p> <p>Raj Sharma - CEO 3CLogic</p> <p> </p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e" id="hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span> </p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Amar's Alley: The Battle Between Contact Centers and Answering Machines</h1> <p>Guillaume Seynhaeve — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 14:40:00 GMT</p> <p>“Hi! you have reached blah blah blah, please leave your name and number and I will get back to you." Familiar? It should be….these words likely echo in your ears at some point everyday! Correction…this probably happens to you on almost every call! </p> <p>Allow me to provide you with an outside perspective from a member of the “old guard” (let’s just leave my age at that), who always jumps to answer a call, regardless of what’s going on and even if the number is unknown. In my younger days, we would run across the office floor, or down the flight of stairs at home to pick-up the phone, because we were taught that if a device rings, it's for a reason. Today, I am intrigued by how often I come across that same old message, “Hi! You have reached (blah blah blah blah), please leave your name…"</p> <p></p> <p>I am not exaggerating! Easily 8 out of 10 calls I make are never picked up on the first go. It is almost as if it’s a new fashion trend not to do so. I mean, there you are sitting, sipping your coffee and you hear your phone buzz. You want to pick it up, and you even see the name flashing, but if you do so (on the first go), you might not be considered one of those, "too busy and successful for anyone else types. So what do you do? Let it go to voicemail! Five minutes later you decide to call back. But, guess what? Now the other person returns the favor based on the same principles that kept you from answering your phone, and the vicious circle of phone tag begins! Having fun yet? </p> <p>Buy the most expensive phone, buy the best plans available, look for the best voice quality and customer service, discuss at length who a better provider is, and all you do is leave voicemails and return voicemails; only to leave another voicemail!! No wonder my kids' phone bills are so high! </p> <p>So, let’s put this in perspective as it relates to the contact center world; a world I’ve been associated with for quite some time providing state of the art, hosted contact center solutions to customers all across the United States and the rest of the world. In this business, you can’t afford to play phone tag. As “fun” as it may be in your private life, there is no room for such inefficiency in this one. Your agents expect to get ahold of someone and don’t have time to leave voicemails. That’s not what you pay them to do. </p> <p>So imagine a world without “Answering Machine Detection.” Scared? I would be. </p> <p>Luckily “Answering Machine Detection” is alive and well. More importantly ACCURATE “Answering Machine Detection” is alive and well. If not, your agents would “crave” to talk to a human, and your contact center business owner would be spending truck loads of money on your agents just to talk to machines. </p> <p>So, let’s do some simple math. An efficient Answering Machine Detection system/software can give you (this is based on my observation that 8 out of 10 calls I make are a currently a waste) the following: </p> <ul> <li>80% more connects</li> <li>80% more savings on agent costs</li> <li>80% increase in Sales </li> </ul> <p>Exaggeration? Hey! It's my math! </p> <p>So, a heavy wallet for you and happier Agents who interact with real beings! Sounds like a win-win to me. </p> <p>What do you think? </p> <p>Regards,</p> <p>Amar</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e" id="hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Make your cloud contact center a profit center....</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 17:50:00 GMT</p> <p>Contact center administrators have a lot on their plates. They have to stay on top of all of their agents and make sure everything is running smoothly every single day. With 24/7 support being a must in this day and age, most contact center administrators are not always working in their office or even at the call center. In some cases, the contact center agents are not even working together in a single call center. With 3CLogic, not only can agents sign in from anywhere that they have internet, administrators can log into the contact center portal online from any web browser. This way, administrators can check reports, adjust projects, assign leads, and more; from their smart phone or tablet, with no app needed. They simply log into the portal from any web browser of their choosing: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc.</p> <p>In an article at toptechnews.com, John Cray writes about three key areas that contact centers should focus on to turn the contact center into a true profit center. One of the three key areas to becoming a profit center is embracing customer and employee mobility. Cray writes that, “Mobile solutions also allow contact center supervisors to do their jobs without being tethered to workstations and to be more engaged with the struggles/challenges their subordinates face.”</p> <p></p> <p>Administrators also have the ability to listen, whisper, or barge-in on their agents’ calls. The listen feature allows them to listen to the call, whisper allows them to talk to their agent without the customer knowing and barge-in allows administrators to add themselves to the call and speak with both the agent and the customer. These are great tools to help out beginner agents and coach them up. 3CLogic also offers 100% call recording so administrators can evaluate and monitor their agents’ performance.</p> <p>3CLogic wants to make call center administrators’ jobs easier. With 3CLogic’s mobile access for administrators, 100% call recording, listen, barge-in and whisper features, and more; administrators have everything they need at their fingertips to transform their contact center to a profit center. </p> <p><a href="http://bit.ly/1e0WclE" title="Find the article here. " target="_self">Find the article here. </a></p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e" id="hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>3CLogic Contact Center Software: Always on, always innovating</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 14:00:00 GMT</p> <p></p> <p> </p> <p><span>Software continues to evolve every day, harnessing human creativity and technological innovation in a process that adapts to an ever changing environment. But as with all types of evolution, this process is not without its hiccups. This is specifically true when it comes to contact center software. Any flaws in a system’s development can have a direct impact on the success of that business. That being said, software upgrades are not a bad thing. Upgrades fix bugs, enhance existing tools, and add new ones, but upgrades can also be a double edged sword. How many times have you upgraded your smart-phone software and had problems? You may be happy with the overall upgrade, but some things don’t measure up. The same concept applies to contact center software.</span></p> <p><span><br></span></p> <p><span>3CLogic offers a free, quarterly upgrade to all of its clients. These upgrades add new features and functionality that we feel are important, or that our clients have requested. We always ask for feedback so that we can continually make our product better. We listen to our customers. Our clients’ needs play a big role in what features we add to our software upgrades. Now, I'm sure some of you are thinking that having four updates a year could potentially be harmful. That's four times that your business will be out of service. Wrong! 3CLogic has developed a maintenance free upgrade, meaning that it is automatically installed for you so you can continue business as usual. There is absolutely no downtime associated with our quarterly upgrades. </span></p> <p><span><a href="http://3clogic.com/products-overview/Why-3CLogic.html" target="_blank"></a><br></span></p> <p><span>Speaking of no downtime…<br> <br> One of the biggest reasons to move to the cloud is reliability. However, some cloud-based companies still use premise-based practices such as a centralized server architecture. If there is still one centralized server, being on the cloud has no effect on reliability. If your centralized server goes down, your entire business will be affected. That's why 3CLogic uses a unique, distributed grid system. The Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG) moves away from one centralized server and uses each PC’s power to create grid. This way, if one PC happens to go down, your entire call center doesn't go with it. Instead, the agent (who’s PC went down) can simply move to another PC and continue making or taking calls. Not only that, but 3CLogic is on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, so customers can take full advantage of Amazon’s disaster recovery and redundancy models. What does this mean to you? If one section of the cloud somehow went down, your service would be switched to another cloud, ensuring that your business has no downtime.</span></p> <p><span><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e" id="hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span><br></span></p> <p><span><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></span></p> <p><span><br></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Jay's Corner: Customer Service in Cloud Contact Centers</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:39:00 GMT</p> <p>Don't you hate it when you call a support line and have to wait on hold? Or even worse, you finally get on the phone with someone, but they cannot answer your question so you have to be transferred to someone else. I can recall a couple times where I was on the phone (or on hold, mostly) with my bank, as well as my television provider for an extended period of time. With my bank, I was continually transferred to different people to try and diagnose the problem; and then go ahead and fix it. I understand that some things take time because of the security measures they must take, but I shouldn’t have to free up my entire day to make one phone call. My conversation with Verizon Fios was similar. We were being charged for a package we didn’t subscribe to. It shouldn’t be that difficult to fix that problem. Still, I was sent to multiple different people to resolve a fairly simple issue.</p> <p></p> <p>You would think that with <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/Why-3CLogic.html" title="advanced technologies" target="_blank">advanced technologies</a>, customer service would be an easy thing for companies to excel at. You can now chat online with a customer, have an email dialogue, or you can have a good old fashioned phone call. Still, companies are neglecting their customer service call centers, but it should be their number one priority.</p> <p><a href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" title="3CLogic agrees" target="_self">3CLogic agrees</a>.</p> <p>Skills-based routing makes sure that all inbound calls go to the person most equipped to handle the question or request. IVR technology helps make that happen by allowing customers to type using the keypad on their phone. Then, once the customer is on the phone with the right person, the <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/crm-integration.html" title="CRM integration" target="_blank">CRM integration</a> really helps agents save time because everything they need is in one window, instead of forcing them to switch between multiple windows. This way, an issue is brought to the attention of the person who is best suited to handle it, and it can be resolved in a timely manner.</p> <p>3CLogic knows customer service. Our customer service and support is second to none. Having great reps certainly helps, but it also has to do with the software they use. We use our own software because it really does work. That’s why we are so confident that using 3CLogic can help your business do customer service the right way.</p> <p></p> <p>So whether you have a customer service call center, a software support call center, or anything in between: 3CLogic’s cloud contact center inbound solution can help you keep your customers happy and loyal to your company!</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Jay's Corner: Its trendy, trendy, trendy: 2014 Contact Center Trends</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 16:50:00 GMT</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>An article about contact center trends recently caught my eye. The article, found here at Nearshore Americas: <a href="http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/tech-trends-dominate-contact-center-industry-2014/">The Eight Most Influential Contact Center Trends</a>, hones in on eight contact center trends for 2014. However, I would like to focus on the six trends that I believe are most important.</p> <p>The first trend in the article is fitting in the cloud. Many contact centers have already moved to the cloud by using software solutions, but most are still premise-based. The cloud provides huge advantages for contact centers including scalability and speed of deployment. Security and reliability were once liabilities, but are becoming stronger on the cloud. Small and medium sized businesses are expected to move to the cloud. However, as the article states, large outsourced call centers will probably not make the change just yet.</p> <p></p> <p>Use of video, mobile apps, and social media are also featured in the article. These technologies have been in use for many years, and contact centers are finally catching up. Instructional videos are an easy way to inform an entire client base at once, instead of teaching individuals one by one. Social media is a huge part of the world we live in today. If your contact center is not using social media to reach customers or even just to deliver news, you are behind the times. Mobile apps have become the norm in the past few years. Anything you can think of, there is probably an app for it. The article says the new trend will be for mobile apps to enhance customer care, but I believe apps should also be used by administrators to enhance their reps’ performance.</p> <p>Something that surprised me was the virtual agent trend. This goes one step beyond a traditional IVR and gives the application its own persona and enables some conversational capabilities. Instead of waiting to go through the IVR and press a bunch of keys, a virtual agent would allow the customer to speak and have a conversation to take care of transactions or be routed to the correct place. The article notes Apple’s ‘SIRI’ as a turning point in using virtual agents, which are not brand new. </p> <p>The final trend I want to focus on is being an Omni-channel contact center. A multi-channel contact center utilizes text, chat, voice, email and more to interact with the customer. An Omni-channel center does the same, but to be an Omni-channel center you must excel in all of those areas. According to the article, Omni-channel is about ensuring a high-quality customer experience, regardless of how and where a customer chooses to interact with an organization. In addition, it ensures that data and context from previous contact are carried over to all channels to improve customer interaction. </p> <p>I think the biggest trend will be the first one listed in the article. Moving to the cloud is something all contact centers should consider. Many of the subsequent trends are already features in some cloud-based contact center software solutions (ahem, 3CLogic). Using video and social media, among other channels, to interact with customers is a must; and if you can use all these channels effectively, you will be an Omni-channel contact center. And that is the ultimate goal of most contact centers: to provide first-class customer service. These trends are just new ways to help achieve that goal.</p> <p>Gonzalez, Juan Manuel (2014, December) The Eight Most Influential Contact Center Trends, nearshoreamericas.com, <a href="http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/tech-trends-dominate-contact-center-industry-2014/">http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/tech-trends-dominate-contact-center-industry-2014/</a></p> <p> </p> <p>By Jay Sharma - 3CLogic Sales</p> <p> <span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e" id="hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=cc6a89d4-f886-4e85-b041-7a131807191e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576" id="hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=b4678dc3-1192-483a-82cb-2cf0d3c73576&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span> </article> <article> <h1>Jay's Corner: New Year's Resolutions and contact center software solutions</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 14:10:00 GMT</p> <p>It’s almost the New Year, so people are ready to start their yearly New Year’s Resolutions. These resolutions are usually an attempt to break a bad habit or reinvent oneself. But, what if it’s not you who needs to make a change this year? What if it’s your contact center software that needs a New Year’s Resolution? How will you know? I’m here to give you the tell-tale signs.</p> <p></p> <p>First of all, if your contact center software doesn’t integrate with your CRM software, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho, LeadMaster, CATSOne, or Infusionsoft, you might want to start looking for something new. A contact center solution with an integrated CRM can relieve many headaches and is less time-consuming than switching back and forth between windows. <b>Good news:</b> 3CLogic is a cloud-based contact center solution that is able to integrate with ANY CRM system you choose, even homegrown CRMs.</p> <p>Next, we can move on to the scalability of your contact center. At times like this, when demand can be high, you might need some more reps at the helm. If your contact center software can’t seamlessly scale up or down, you could be in big trouble. What do I mean by seamlessly? 3CLogic is able to scale your number of reps up or down in a matter of hours, even if you’re going from one to over a hundred reps!</p> <p>I know the Super Bowl had an outage, but why should you tolerate that for your business? The NFL can probably afford it; but if you can’t be contacted, customers can easily move on to the next brand or company. Thanks to our unique distributed grid architecture, Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG), 3CLogic is able to guarantee 100% uptime and availability to help ensure your success.</p> <p>Now, let’s talk about customer service. If your contact center software provider doesn’t have great customer support and service; how can you achieve that for your business, using their software? 3CLogic’s customer support is unmatched and can be reached at any time. The 24/7 support is located at our corporate office in Rockville, MD: here on the East Coast of the U.S.</p> <p></p> <p>Is your contact center solution really complete? If you don’t have different channels of communication, are you really a contact center or just a call center? With 3CLogic, communicate with customers via chat, email, text, fax, and social media. With all of these options at their fingertips, your reps can increase their inbound and outbound communication channels with customers.</p> <p>Does your contact center software allow you to check real-time reports whenever you want and wherever you are? This can be a great tool for administrators who have a lot on their plate. With 3CLogic, admins can view reports on-the-go whenever they have access to a web browser; with their iPad, Kindle, or smartphone. Additionally, they will have access to other admin features including listen, whisper, and barge-in. 3CLogic allows administrators to stay on top of their reps at all times. </p> <p>Finally, does your contact center solution have a lot of unnecessary system requirements? Do you have to be in the office to take care of business? With 3CLogic, administrators and reps can sign in from anywhere in the world as long as they have a PC, a headset, and an internet connection.</p> <p>It’s simple. Instead of making a resolution that you will only keep for a few weeks (or days), check out 3CLogic in 2014. You may never need a New Year’s Resolution again. </p> <p>By Jay Sharma - 3CLogic Sales</p> <p>Contact me with any questions or comments at jsharma@3clogic.com. Happy 2014!!!</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151" id="hs-cta-d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=d34edf9b-248c-4ee9-b13a-51c7b064c151&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Jay's Corner: What does V-TAG Mean to Your Contact Center?</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:20:00 GMT</p> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>What is V-TAG?</p> <p>The innovative, patent-pending, Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG) has set 3CLogic apart from other cloud-based contact center solutions. Without V-TAG, 3CLogic can’t guarantee 99.999% uptime. Without V-TAG, your reps will hear that “click” of the phone hanging up<br>more often, because of that pesky dialer delay. Without V-TAG, if that precious centralized server malfunctions for even a few minutes, say goodbye to those sales you were working so hard to make. Without V-TAG, keep trying to understand what the person on the other end of the phone is saying, with all that static. Just lie and say you are on the road, going through a tunnel, or maybe you can blame it on some bad weather. It’s not like your business relies on<br>these things to be successful….</p> <p>With 3CLogic and V-TAG; however, all of those problems are a thing of the past. Get better voice quality, no dialer delay and no single fail point. Not to mention infinite scalability and<br>reliable security. V-TAG harnesses the power of every users PC, which are estimated to be idle 85% of the day. Basically, V-TAG is working hard while you may be hardly working. What other contact centers can say that? So instead of driving around in that station wagon of a contact center solution, switch to 3CLogic and fly by in a Ferrari. Who knows, you might make enough sales to buy one, too.</p> <p>Jay Sharma - 3CLogic Sales Team</p> </article> <article> <h1>Bye-Bye Hackers: Protect your cloud contact center against the bad guys.</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:00:00 GMT</p> <p>With the growing number of machine-to machine devices being used by people as well as an increase in the amount of information being shared through the web and cloud, some have grown concerned about the protection of this information. Everyday there are many people attempting to hack into different systems to access information, so companies need to make sure their bases are covered in order for their customers have faith in them.</p> <p>The Cloud Security Alliance, also known as CSA, is a nonprofit organization that aims to promote best practices for security assurance within the cloud. They also exist to educate people on the uses of cloud computing. CSA recently announced its newest project, Software Defined Perimeter Initiative (SDP). SDP will allow for the creation of networks that are extremely resistant to attacks by using end-to-end network IP addresses. According to Saroj Kar from Cloud Times, this is necessary due to the growing number of machine-to-machine devices, which increase risk at these endpoints. Kar explains that the most important way to decrease this risk is to require people to undergo strict authentication procedures before accessing any information through these devices. SDP will ensure that both the providers and the customers are secure against attacks at any point through the system.</p> <p></p> <p>CSA’s new project, SDP, has very similar characteristics to programs that we at <a title="3CLogic" href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" target="_blank">3CLogic</a> have already put into action. We believe in adhering to the highest <a title="security" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/security.html" target="_blank">security</a> standard, which is why we follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). We also use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which provides secure access while maintaining confidentiality and integrity. Similar to the new CSA initiative, any request made to 3CLogic must satisfy strict authentication requirements to ensure the protection of our customers’ information. We also provide a unique technology that no one else in the industry can compete with; this is our Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG). <a title="V-TAG" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" target="_blank">V-TAG</a> provides our customers the option of transmitting and storing call recordings behind a secure firewall. These calls can be recorded locally and in a secure manner, right on an agent’s desktop.</p> <p></p> <p>Another issue that consistently comes up in the cloud security discussion is credit card protection. If a company does not provide a secure system of storing credit card information for its customers, no one will want to do business with them. We tackle this issue by masking credit card numbers, automatic recording stop when credit card information is being shared with agents, call transfers to an IVR for credit card input, and silencing of DTMF tones to prevent number identification. Our system is the best in its class, so your customers will never have to be uneasy about sharing their information with you. With <a title="3CLogic" href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" target="_blank">3CLogic</a>, you will never have to worry about security issues again; let us help you out with this one!</p> <p> </p> <p>Kar, Saroj. "CSA Defines Software Defined Perimeter to Secure Cloud Against</p> <p><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hackers." <em>CloudTimes</em>. CloudTimes, 27 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013<br> </p> </article> <article> <h1>SaaS Contact Center Software, the quick and dirty!</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:00:00 GMT</p> <p>So what is software-as-a-service (SaaS)?</p> <p>After being immersed in the contact center arena for quite some time, I have found that people are still having trouble grasping what software-as-a-service really is. Software-as-a-service, also known as SaaS, is an on demand software. The software is hosted in the cloud and a web browser acts as the medium for the customer to access it.</p> <p>Think of it like renting an apartment, as opposed to owning one. Your landlord or property management company handles all of the maintenance headaches such as plumbing issues, broken air conditioning units, and changing light bulbs, while you enjoy the benefits of living in the apartment. SaaS can be seen as the same thing. It allows the customer to enjoy the product without worrying about the behind the scenes maintenance including updates and fixes. The customer uses the software, but its ‘skeleton’ remains unseen.</p> <p></p> <p>With the emergence of the cloud, contact center software and premise based solutions are creating a hybrid technology. It has become a blend of an on-demand solution and a product. True SaaS solutions in the contact center world are beneficial to the client because the customer doesn’t have to manage the software or understand the technology to use it. Let’s face it, most consumers are experts on using the technology, but don’t understand why it does what it does. The key to having a successful solution is by providing the best technology and service to the user without asking them to do too much or worry about understanding the architecture. It’s quite simple, the better the technology, the less I have to understand.</p> <p>As I was getting coffee this morning, I told a co-worker about my short and sweet blog, he mentioned that 'saas' in Indian, means mother-in-law. Food for thought....</p> <p> </p> <p>See our contact center software in action!</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a" id="hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Can your contact center software keep up with customer demand?</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 06:17:00 GMT</p> <p>The holiday season is a busy time for both consumers and companies alike. People become concerned with shopping for the perfect gifts and making sure their holiday dinners are delicious and pulled together. They want to be able to get what they need, when they need it, without any difficulty. Because of this, companies have to make sure that their customer service and support is highly responsive. They also have to be sure that their system is scalable and can handle the increased activity during the busy holiday months.</p> <p></p> <p>I recently attempted to purchase merchandise from an online store, and needed a few questions answered before finalizing the order. When I called the customer service telephone line, my call was placed on hold for a lengthy amount of time. After ten minutes, I hung up, and ended up ordering the products from a different site. This is the exact situation that all companies hope to avoid, and it is important that they are prepared for the increased call volume and business during the holidays.</p> <p></p> <p>With <a title="3CLogic" href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" target="_blank">3CLogic</a>, your company will never have to worry about not being able to handle an increased call volume. Our software is able to tap into the idle power of your reps’ PCs to replace many of the functions traditionally addressed by centralized servers. As you add or remove reps, your capacity effortlessly expands or contracts. Also, our unique <a title="V-TAG" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" target="_blank">V-TAG</a> technology takes advantage of distributed servers and PCs, so if one PC or server malfunctions, the call is seamlessly moved to another.</p> <p></p> <p>3CLogic also uses a skills-based routing system that directs every inbound call to where it should go. The single user interface and <a title="CRM integration" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/crm-integration.html" target="_blank">CRM integration</a> that our software provides allows reps quick and easy access to all information relating to each caller, providing them the power to address each inquiry or issue on the spot. The holiday season will be a breeze with 3CLogic’s contact center solution on your side!</p> <p> </p> <p>Sign up for our free, live webinar with LeadMaster CRM on December 12th at 2pm (EST).</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a" id="hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=691de0b8-c8dc-49e4-9a4a-67160dd0996a&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Learn through our Webinars: CRM Integration with Contact Center Software</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 14:20:00 GMT</p> <p>Webinars (interactive online conferences), are a great way to learn about new software services. They essentially bring together people from all geographic locations into one workshop with real-time communication. Webinars are great options for companies that are based across the country, because it allows them to still receive the best quality information and demonstrations without having to travel. These web conferences allow for communication from both ends, so it is the next best thing to being in-person with someone.</p> <p></p> <p>At <a title="3CLogic" href="http://3clogic.com/" target="_blank">3CLogic</a>, we use webinars extensively to communicate and demonstrate our product to our customers. During these webinars, we can show you the latest features and updates with our software, discuss integration with your <a title="CRM software" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/crm-integration.html" target="_blank">CRM software</a>, and answer any questions you may have. No matter if you are a call-center software expert, or know nothing about such services, we will walk you through each and every step so that you leave the webinar well informed about our product.</p> <p>Last month, CATS Applicant Tracking System and 3CLogic held a webinar demonstrating their integration. CATS is the leading CRM for full-time recruiters and internal hiring staff alike. If you would like to see the webinar click the button below:</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e" id="hs-cta-4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=4f096f53-fd0a-479e-bce2-e6359e3d9c9e&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p></p> <p>On <a title="Thursday, December 5th at 2:00 p.m" href="http://www.3clogic.com/about/events-calendar.html" target="_blank">Thursday, December 5</a><sup><a title="Thursday, December 5th at 2:00 p.m" href="http://www.3clogic.com/about/events-calendar.html" target="_blank">th</a></sup><a title="Thursday, December 5th at 2:00 p.m" href="http://www.3clogic.com/about/events-calendar.html" target="_blank"> at 2:00 p.m</a>., we will be hosting a webinar on the seamless integration between 3CLogic’s contact center software and <a title="LeadMaster" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/crm-integration.html" target="_blank">LeadMaster</a> CRM. We will go over how 3CLogic provides comprehensive computer telephony capabilities for the LeadMaster system as well as the cost saving benefits gained by using the 3CLogic and LeadMaster contact center solution. Don’t miss out on this informative webinar; email David at <a href="mailto:drastatter@3clogic.com">drastatter@3clogic.com</a> or Derek at <a href="mailto:dbakker@3clogic.com">dbakker@3clogic.com</a> if you are interested. We hope to “see” you there!</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Bye-Bye Outages: 3CLogic's V-TAG Technology for your Contact Center.</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 16:00:00 GMT</p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">We have all experienced outages. They come out of nowhere, and change the entire course of our day. Whether it is your cell phone, internet, electricity, or your call center, it is a royal pain in the neck. While these outages may only last for a short period of time, they can prove to have costly effects on your day or business.</span></p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></p> <p>Last year, the electricity at my house went out for a week due to a (somewhat) minor storm. I live in a neighborhood with older, spread out houses and aboveground power lines. Our infrastructure is not great compared to newer developments in the area, which have underground power lines. During this time, I had a sick dog, a family member that had a series of job interviews lined up for the week, and an online class that I was taking that required me to access online materials and turn in assignments. This outage certainly rained on our parade and changed the entire course of our week. We had to quickly think on our feet to find a solution to the problems we were facing due to the outage. Should we have had a back-up plan due to the fact that we live in a neighborhood with older, aboveground power lines? Probably. It was too late to think this way, though, because the damage had already been done.</p> <p></p> <p>The good news with <a title="3CLogic’s" href="http://3clogic.com/" target="_blank">3CLogic’s</a> cloud-based contact center is that your company does not need a “back-up plan” when it comes to outages. Unlike our competitors, we <em>ensure</em> <a title="100% uptime" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/uptime.html" target="_blank">100% uptime</a>. Our highly redundant software architecture gives our customers peace of mind in knowing that their contact center is disaster-proof and reliable. With traditional, centralized servers, people are essentially putting all of their eggs into one basket (similar to my power-outage situation). With 3CLogic’s solution, there is no single point of failure, but a distributed system that provides multiple ways to continue functioning in the event of a crisis. Also, no other company in the industry has a solution quite like our <a title="V-TAG technology" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" target="_blank">V-TAG technology</a>. V-TAG ensures that if one PC is malfunctioning, the call will seamlessly move over to another without any downtime. Provide your company with the infrastructure and the software that will ensure uptime by using 3CLogic. You will never need to worry about the effects of an outage again, and can put your focus back to what matters most!</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae" id="hs-cta-2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=2fc74eef-f78b-400a-967e-733687c5cbae&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>Calling all Laggards!</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:25:00 GMT</p> <p>With the development of any new product or service, there are people who typically jump on the bandwagon right away, and there are others who are slower to adopt new innovations. Those who are quick to adopt these new technologies right away are known as innovators and early adopters. They tend to be less conservative, more risk-oriented, and opinion leaders. Then, there are those who are hesitant to adopt new products, known as the late majority or laggards. They tend to be more conservative, skeptical, and will only begin using a product if the majority is using it or if it has become mainstream. Every business or industry deals with this product adoption model to an extent, and it is becoming evident that this is the case with cloud-based technology.</p> <p></p> <p>Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting firm, recently conducted a series of interviews to find out more about adoption of cloud-based services. They found that industries such as media and retail tended to adopt cloud technologies sooner and more frequently than more conservative industries such as healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing. They attributed this in part to the fact that retail industries tend to be subject to seasonal fluctuations in business, something that cloud-based services are good at remedying. The conservative industries, that seem to be categorized as the “late majority” or “laggards”, tend to take their time adopting the technology and are hesitant to phase out their legacy systems.</p> <p></p> <p>All <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/industries-overview/index.html" title="industries" target="_blank">industries</a> can benefit from making the switch to cloud-based services. <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" title="3CLogic " target="_blank">3CLogic </a>prides itself in serving customers in various industries, including finance, real estate, insurance, E-commerce, healthcare, education, and non-profit. Cloud-based contact centers can assist healthcare professionals in improving patient care. They can also help financial based companies manage their customers with a <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/security.html" title="risk-free" target="_blank">risk-free</a> and secure platform, which is of great importance to them because of the risk that is already involved with that line of work. We cater to the needs of our diverse clients, making it an easy and stress-free transition for those who may be unfamiliar with cloud-based services. We understand how big of a switch it is for some industries and companies to switch from a premise-based solution to the cloud, so our team and customer service specialists are ready to work through any and all challenges or concerns. We want to see <em>everyone</em> move to the cloud, no matter what industry or stage of product adoption. Late majority and laggards, check out what we have to offer!</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span>Brandon, Jonathon. “Healthcare, financial services and manufacturing lagging in cloud adoption." </span><em>Business Cloud News</em>. Informa Telecoms & Media. 30 Oct. 2013. Web.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="apple-tab-span"> </span>1 Nov. 2013. </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2013/10/30/conservative-industries-lagging-in-cloud-adoption/">http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2013/10/30/conservative-industries-lagging-in-cloud-adoption/</a></p> </article> <article> <h1>Cutting Costs, One Customer at a Time</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:00:00 GMT</p> <p>Cutting costs and increasing efficiency: it’s what every business has strived to do for decades. Because of the most recent economic downturn, it has become a <em>priority</em> for businesses to follow this business model. Companies have been forced to close factories, initiate massive layoffs, and file for bankruptcy in order to stay afloat. Take, for instance, the airline industry. For the past few years, airlines have been struggling to make profits with such high variable costs, especially because people began traveling less. Airlines such as Southwest, one of the few profitable ones in the industry, recently redesigned the seating in their planes so that the chairs are lighter and smaller, thus allowing them to add a couple of extra rows of seats on the aircrafts. They have even started to overbook flights, banking on the fact that there may be some no-shows. While it may seem to some that this is a bad thing, it's helping them to keep their costs and prices down, and remain on top in their industry.</p> <p></p> <p>Is your business having trouble finding ways to cut costs without decreasing efficiency? Something you should consider is switching over to <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" title="cloud call center" target="_blank">cloud contact center</a> technology. Managing your customers can be an expensive and difficult feat. For some businesses, it involves large infrastructure costs including computers and telephones. Much of the time, this infrastructure is not even being used. Recent studies have indicated that the average call center agent’s PC is idle 85-90% of the time, which can be extremely costly and inefficient.</p> <p></p> <p>3CLogic provides customers with its unique <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" title="V-TAG" target="_blank">V-TAG</a> solution, leveraging the power of the idle PC to outperform many functions that were once performed by centralized servers. Because <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" title="3CLogic" target="_blank">3CLogic</a> is a SaaS contact center solution, you can forget about having to purchase telephones and expensive hardware. All that your agent needs is a headset and laptop, and they’re in business. Also, the cloud storage of customer information makes this form of contact center safe against outages, which is something that traditional call centers are vulnerable to. It is estimated that using 3CLogic’s cloud contact center software can end up saving businesses around 70% of what they were spending before on their contact center. If this does not incentivize you to make the switch, I am not sure what else will! Be proactive in cutting costs for your business and make the switch to the cloud!</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba" id="hs-cta-dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=dc58dbc4-254c-44ac-b5ec-62d2de3f98ba&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>What Customers Have Come to Expect</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 05:15:00 GMT</p> <p>In recent years, I feel as though my customer service expectations have risen tremendously. I am not completely sure why this is the case, but I know it has something to do with the technological advancements that our society has made. So many companies used to be able to get away with poor customer service because it was difficult for their customers to research them before hand, and harder for them to make the switch to a different company. Now, marketing is a two-way street; customers can post reviews on Facebook, Angie’s List, blogs and twitter regarding their experiences with companies. These customers can now project their opinions to thousands of people, if not more, and speak either highly or poorly of the companies with which they are doing business. Also, switching companies is now a matter of a quick and easy phone call. Companies can no longer get away with cutting any corners, and it has become a priority for many to re-vamp their customer service departments to ensure that they will not be brought down by negative reviews.</p> <p></p> <p>I bring this up because I recently had a bad experience with Verizon (shocker). My television service was not working and no channels were coming in. A message came up on the television providing me with a number to call about problems with my service. When I dialed in, the service rep that answered my call sounded dumbfounded when I mentioned that it was my television service that was out and not my telephone service. After dialing multiple extensions, speaking with five different employees, and waiting for twenty minutes, I <em>finally</em> got in touch with the right person who could help me. This experience that I had with Verizon left a bad taste in my mouth, and it got me thinking; poor and slow customer service is no longer an aspect that one must deal with when working with a company, but it is becoming <em>unacceptable</em>. I could easily rant about it on every form of social media and switch over to Comcast. Times are changing, and people are more engaged in the marketing process, so companies need to figure out ways to make things faster and simpler on their end to avoid people from ditching them altogether.</p> <p></p> <p><a title="3CLogic" href="http://www.3clogic.com/index.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">3CLogic</a> uses the most efficient technology to make sure that every <a title="inbound" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/inbound.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">inbound</a> call goes where it should be going on the first try (and not five times later). Our single user interface and <a title="CRM integration" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/inbound.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">CRM integration</a> capabilities ensure that reps will have quick and easy access to all information relating to each caller and will be able to address any issue on the spot. We also make it easy for you to assess your overall <a title="productivity" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/Why-3CLogic.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">productivity</a> by viewing reporting tools such as average call times and average hold times so that your company can be as efficient as possible. Do not let your company lose customers due to slow and inefficient service. 3CLogic can help ensure that your customers will have the most positive experience as possible, which is something that they have come to expect. </p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192" id="hs-cta-adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=adbfcfd8-7d8b-48c4-982e-b29f5b1a9192&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p></p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>The Rising Need for Security</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:00:00 GMT</p> <p>As technology has developed and become more advanced, security issues have become more prevalent year after year. Communities of hackers have generated to uncover issues with software that even the creators are not aware of. This is something that not only makes the customers uneasy, but also the companies involved in these security breaches. Often times, companies hear of these issues after much damage has been done; it is too late to fix what has occurred. A secure network/database is vital to the success of a business. It gives not only the business peace of mind, but also the customers in knowing that their information is secure.</p> <p></p> <p>Even the largest and most successful companies with unlimited resources have been having major security breaches in recent weeks. After the release of the iOS7 software on the new iPhone5s, customers became worried that hackers could steal their identity through the fingerprint unlocking system. It was also made known that Siri could give away personal information on the locked home screen, which generated some concern. In addition to Apple, Adobe has also been facing some security issues; it was just announced that hackers gained access to customer IDs and encrypted passwords of roughly 2.9 million customers, providing them with credit and debit card information. These types of issues are a company’s worst nightmare and cause customers to lose trust.</p> <p>Where is the good news in all of this? These major fails for some companies have caused others to focus heavily on security and make it virtually impossible for their software to be hacked. Any company that uses CRM software is always concerned that people may gain access to their customer information, which would be the downfall of their business. <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/Why-3CLogic.html" title="3CLogic" target="_blank">3CLogic</a> takes huge steps in avoiding such <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/security.html" title="security" target="_blank">security</a> breaches.</p> <p>To start, we are PCI DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), meaning that we adhere to the highest security standard. We also use a Security Sockets Layer, which requires anyone who is trying to access information through our site to adhere to a strict authentication requirement. 3CLogic also uses a unique <a href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" title="V-TAG (Virtual Telephony Application Grid)" target="_blank">V-TAG (Virtual Telephony Application Grid)</a> system that allows customers to record conversations locally and in a secure manner without having to outsource this action to another company, something that could make your business vulnerable to “the hack”. In regards to credit cards, 3CLogic keeps this information completely private by stopping recording as this information is being communicated. It instead transfers to an IVR for credit card input.</p> <p>Don’t allow your contact center software to be a victim like Apple and Adobe. Look into the security measures that your current contact center is using, and make sure that you are taking the right measures to protect your clients. With 3CLogic, you will have peace of mind knowing that you and your customers are protected. For more information, check out our website, <a href="https://twitter.com/3clogic" title="twitter" target="_blank">twitter</a>, and <a href="http://linkd.in/1a6sAD4" title="LinkedIn" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> to learn more about how we handle customer security. </p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c" id="hs-cta-320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=320998ba-fa31-4948-bd35-2ab9979e197c&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Contact Center Conversation and Vodka Sodas</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 16:10:00 GMT</p> <p><strong>A Quick Happy Hour Guide to Explaining What You Do for Newbies</strong></p> <p>The other day I was at a friend’s birthday happy hour. It was inevitable that people were going to ask me what I did for a living. If you asked me what <a title="contact center software " href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/index.html" target="_blank">contact center software </a>was a year ago I would probably give you an answer based on an educated guess. Now that I am immersed in this arena, I could tell you not only what it is, but how it works and how it is developed and implemented.</p> <p>So back to the happy hour….</p> <p>My two-minute pitch is that contact center software is like air. You don’t realize it’s there, but everyone uses it or interacts with it at some point in their life.</p> <p></p> <p>For example, we are all familiar with the “press 1 if you would like to speak to a customer service representative,” or “if you are an account member, press 2.” That contact center tool is called Interactive Voice Technology (IVR). Anytime you call a large sized company, such as an airline, a consumer goods provider (Amazon or EBay), or a credit institution you are<br>interacting with the customer representative and the software. But, there is a difference in what type of solution the rep is using.</p> <p>You probably won’t use this in your happy-hour discussion, but if you ‘wow’ people after your two-minute-pitch, you may need this for back up.</p> <p>Companies use a premise-based or (hosted) cloud-based contact center solution. There are hybrids, but we can get to that at another time. Let’s stick with these to keep things simple.</p> <p><b></b></p> <p><b></b> </p> <p><b>Premise Based</b></p> <p>A premise-based solution is simply a solution where everything is on site. It requires on-site servers, hardware, and operations personnel to maintain it. While this solution has been the norm for quite some time, it is now more costly and more cumbersome than other alternatives. The reason being, customer has to provide the services and maintenance for this option.</p> <p><b>Hosted</b></p> <p>This is becoming the norm, especially with cloud technology. Businesses, big and small, are finding that this works the best because the service provider takes care of everything. All they need is a headset, a computer, and an internet connection. All of the behind the scenes and brains of the system are handled by the provider, like 3CLogic.</p> <p>The cost is substantially lower because the servers are off site and the equipment is minimal. Upgrades and maintenance are all taken care of. However, if a customer chooses to have its private data on premise, it is possible to keep it there. With 3CLogic, you choose what date is pushed to the cloud.</p> <p><b>V-TAG</b></p> <p>Also known as, <a title="Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG), V-TAG " href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" target="_blank">Virtual Telephony Application Grid (V-TAG), V-TAG </a>is one of the elements that sets 3CLogic apart from other contact center solutions. Most contact center software<br>is based around a centralized server architecture.</p> <p>By centralizing resources, a single point of failure is created. So, a traditional centralized server architecture is vulnerable to a number of problems including (1) increased transaction wait times due to call state replication for fail-over protection, (2) increased computational and<br>memory requirements for the servers in the network, and (3) a bottleneck where all media and signaling traffic is concentrated into single point.</p> <p>V-TAG uses what is not being used, the reps’ PCs. With 3Clogic’s V-TAG technology, the reps’ PCs replace centralized servers and create a personalized network, which cumulatively delivers more scalability at a lower cost. Basically, 3CLogic has found a way to do more with less. This means that customers who use 3CLogic spend less and have less downtime because there is no strain on the centralized server.</p> <p>Okay, so now you have the quick and dirty so you can create your own two-minute-pitch as you are sipping a tasty beverage with your friends and someone asks, “So, what do you do?”</p> <p>Have any questions?</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815" id="hs-cta-bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=bbacbcd8-cbef-4285-a8ef-4e240eed0815&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Taking a Chance on Cloud Technology</h1> <p>Rachel Brink — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:43:00 GMT</p> <p>We as humans are all hesitant to adopt new things from time to time; we like to steer away from the unknown and stick with what we are used to. It is just human nature. While this may be a more comforting way for people to go about their day-to-day lives, there are so many missed opportunities that could arise. A couple examples come to mind of how this mind-set has led to disaster for different companies and individuals.</p> <p>Kodak, for example, was the first company to come up with the digital camera back in 1975, but failed to pursue the technology, figuring that it would be a flop. It wasn’t until 20 years later in 1995 that Kodak released it’s first digital camera, the DC40. This, unfortunately, did not work out for them, and they were forced to file for Bankruptcy in January of 2012. Had they adopted and pursued this new technology sooner, could Kodak have stayed on their feet? Could they have become the leader in the digital camera industry? We will never know, because they did not take a chance on this new technology that they had discovered.</p> <p>Where am I going with this and what does it have to do with cloud-based CRM solutions? I want more people to know about cloud-based services and how they can significantly improve every aspect of business. Companies should not miss out on this new technology. Not only does it cut business’s costs significantly based on infrastructure, but it also allows companies and individuals to access information whenever they want, wherever they want. 3CLogic has 100% uptime and allows companies to avoid outages and interruptions, which can prove to be extremely costly. In addition to this, the security measures that 3CLogic uses are incomparable to other companies in the industry. It uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which requires strict authentication to access data. Also, 3CLogic’s software is fully scalable so that your company will not be a victim of its own success.</p> <p>Even with all of these benefits, there are still companies that are hesitant to go the way of the cloud. It was recently discovered that 33% of C-level executives go against their corporate policies in order to use cloud services (Brandon 1). So why are companies so against using the cloud? Why are people still using expensive telephones and desktops to get in touch with customers? Because they are scared of the unknown. If your company is striving for efficiency, 3CLogic’s cloud solutions are the way to go. Be one of the leaders to adopt this new technology. Come out on top in whatever industry you are in, whether its E-commerce, or healthcare. I promise that you will not be disappointed, and the outcome will be well worth the switch.</p> <p> Want to see how 3CLogic can take you to the cloud?</p> <p><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df" id="hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> <p> http://www.businesscloudnews.com/2013/09/25/top-execs-should-act-as-catalyst-and-embrace-cloud-survey-says/</p> <p></p> </article> <article> <h1>PCI Compliance: The Vault in the cloud.</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 19:02:00 GMT</p> <p></p> <p>PCI Compliance and the Cloud</p> <p>Modern business technology is no longer confined to the 13-inch computer screen in front of employees, but extends far beyond to the clouds. As with most technological advancements, the convenience of cloud-based software accords with the possible vulnerability of a customer’s<br>valuable business information. More specifically, concerns are often raised in the software community of the privacy of client’s payment information. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a private information security standard for organizations that handle cardholder information for the major debit, credit, prepaid, e-purse, ATM, and POS cards.</p> <p><br>While there is currently no Federal PCI Compliance Law, many states are taking the necessary precautions to assure that any business that accepts payments is PCI Compliant, and this bars no exclusion to cloud based integration. However, through the dawdling process of state legislation, it may prove difficult for States to stay current on the ever-expanding technological<br>advancements of cloud-based software. Under the data security standard of PCI, there are twelve specific requirements to assure a business is complainant. These requirements are mandatory and vital to the success of businesses, especially those integrated with cloud solution software, such as 3CLogic. While a push is being made for Federal PCI Compliance laws, it is in the meantime up to individual software companies to assure the safety of their<br>customer's data.</p> <p> </p> <p>Madi Bakker for 3CLogic</p> <p> </p> <p>Want to find out more? Read one of our PCI compliance white papers, and learn how your contact center can be compliant. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a" id="hs-cta-80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=80deff90-eb87-4bd8-b986-94a714aeae9a&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> </article> <article> <h1>Grid Computing in a Contact Center...say what?!</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 17:36:00 GMT</p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><b><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Grid Architecture</span></b><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Grid computing is not a new concept, but it is only recently that it has been combined with <a title="Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)" href="http://www.3clogic.com/resources/glossary.html" target="_blank">Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)</a> technology to provide internet-based telecommunications services. This innovative technology can ensure a fully redundant system for greater reliability, unlike traditional models. <a title="Redundancy" href="http://www.3clogic.com/resources/glossary.html#" target="_blank">Redundancy</a> is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or failsafe. Full redundancy means that there is at least one idle back-up component for every active component of the system.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Traditional contact center software solutions, even cloud-based ones, use a centralized server model. The differences between this and grid computing are vast. In a system that operates on a centralized server, all calls come into that server and then are routed out to individual agents. This means that if that central server goes offline for any reason, so does your entire contact<br>center.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Grid architecture technology, such as 3CLogic's <a title="V-TAG" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/v-tag.html" target="_blank">V-TAG</a>,uses the combined power of all active individual agents’ PCs to route calls through the system. So, if one PC fails, calls are merely diverted to the others in the system, drastically reducing the chance of an outage even happening. Only grid architecture can offer full redundancy because it harnesses the idle power of agents' computers to continue operations.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span> </p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Want to see it in action? Check out our whiteboard video!</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span> </p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Disaster-Proof Your Cloud Contact Center to Weather any Storm!</h1> <p>Madeleine Coe — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 18:45:00 GMT</p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>If you’re not accessible to your customers at all times, especially in the case of a 24/7 contact center, you lose out on business. It's also frustrating to customers that want to get in contact with you and can’t because of maintenance outages for service upgrades, or server failure. If you want to run a successful contact center, you need a software solution with <a title="100% uptime" href="http://3clogic.com/products-overview/uptime.html" target="_blank">100% uptime</a>.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Many <a title="contact center software solutions" href="http://www.3clogic.com/products-overview/Why-3CLogic.html" target="_self">contact center software solutions</a> promise to provide 100% uptime, but not all of them can keep this promise. Even at best, a contact center solution will be able to provide 99.999% uptime because no system is entirely fail proof. Only some software companies are able to achieve this number, but because many contact center managers do not have an advanced understanding of the technology, it is often difficult to determine which solution will be able to<br>provide it.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>So, how can you tell which one will be reliable in a state of emergency?</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>A contact center solution that is cloud-based, provides maintenance free upgrades, and runs on grid computing principles could mean that your contact center would not only be able to<br>provide the highest level of disaster recovery, but it would also be highly disaster-resistant.</span><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'><br><br><b>Cloud-based Contact Center</b></span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Cloud-based contact centers are taking the market over from premise-based contact center solutions, and here’s why. When all data is stored in the cloud, if an issue happens on location at your contact center, that data is safe and secure because it is virtually hosted. Server failure or corruption becomes a non-issue because your data is safe in the cloud.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Investing in a contact center solution that is hosted through a <a title="public cloud " href="http://cloud.3clogic.com/blog/?Tag=public+cloud" target="_blank">public cloud</a> is especially important. A public cloud like <a title="Amazon’s (AWS)" href="http://aws.amazon.com/" target="_blank">Amazon’s (AWS)</a>, is more secure because of constant testing and funding for enhanced network security and reliability. Your contact center solution minimizes costs and maximizes data security by leasing a part of it for data storage.</span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>In the unlikely event that your contact center experiences failure with a cloud-based contact center, you will be able to access all of your data through another PC or service node. </span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span> </p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'>Want to find out more about uptime in your contact center? </span></p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'></span> </p> <p style="line-height: 145%;"><span style='color: black; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";'><span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df" id="hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></span></p> </article> <article> <h1>3CLogic’s Cloud Contact Center Software Upgrade Solution: Phoenix</h1> <p>David Rastatter — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 19:36:00 GMT</p> <p>One of the main culprits of downtime is when a cloud contact center software solution needs to upgrade. Just think about the number of times you have logged into iTunes or wanted to<br>open an app on your phone, only to realize you had to shut everything down in<br>order to get the latest version.</p> <p>This same upgrade process applies to cloud-based contact center software. Upgrades<br>are essential because they keep your contact center software current and innovative, and meet the specific needs of clients. Unfortunately, most upgrades require your contact center to be down from anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours. Imagine how much valuable customer interaction time and productivity is wasted.</p> <p>3CLogic’s new software upgrade solution, called Phoenix, allows 3CLogic Administrators and customers to upgrade specific call centers to newer versions of its software without updating other call centers that are on the same multi-tenant server. Using a GUI, Phoenix allows call centers to be updated by a predetermined date and time, set by the discretion of call center managers, with minimal to no downtime.</p> <p>If your contact center solution can offer software updates without interrupting operations, then this cutting-edge technology can place your contact center far ahead of the competition. </p> <p>To find out more about Phoenix or 3CLogic's cloud-based contact center software contact one of our team members at: 800 350 8656, or email us at <a href="mailto:dbakker@3clogic.com">dbakker@3clogic.com</a>.</p> <p> <span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df" id="hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=3a9e49ea-941b-4a96-b6b0-d7528ee349df&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span></p> </article> <article> <h1>Four Questions to Ask About Technical Customer Support in the Cloud</h1> <p>Madeleine Coe — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:47:00 GMT</p> <p>When it comes to finding a software solution for your cloud-based contact center, there are two very important things to consider. The first is obviously whether the solution or technology offering fits your business needs. The second is the much less obvious, but ultimately just as important. What does this company offer in terms of technical customer support services?</p> <p><br><b>What to Ask</b><br>You have the right to be delighted with your interactions with the customer service and technical support of a company. There are three questions you need to ask:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Is the customer support team accessible through multiple methods of contact at all times? Are they available 24 hours a day? Seven days a week?</p> </li> <li> <p>Are the support team members knowledgeable? Do they speak your language? Beyond being knowledgeable of their own systems, can they also simplify their explanations to walk you through your technical issues easily and patiently?</p> </li> <li> <p>Are they concerned with the quality of service that they are providing you? Do they check up on your level of satisfaction? Do they make surveys or a review forum easily accessible to you? Do you feel like you are building a relationship when you contact them or they reach out to you?</p> </li> </ol> <p>These questions cover the three main areas which customers or a business should be concerned with when dealing with technical customer support. It boils down to access and availability, actual helpfulness with a product or service issue; and, whether they are furthering a relationship with you.</p> <p><b>The Fourth Question</b></p> <p>There is also a fourth question, which I believe can make or break your relationship with the company. It affects your satisfaction with all aspects of their customer support. How does the company support their support team? In the back of our minds, there is the instilled thought that happy employees make happy customers. You’ve heard it before, but it needs to be an aspect which you actively pay attention to when seeking out business relationship. As a customer or business partner, you will want to work with a company that ensures that its customer service personnel is happy (not complacent) and has the support they need to do their job best.</p> <p><b>Supporting the Support Team</b></p> <p>Customer service is the front line in communication with the customer. How a company treats their customer service members determines how well the customer service team is going to treat you. It determines how well they are going to be able to help you with their technical problems. The ideal technical support member, usually a Tier2 level, is going to receive a great deal of training. They need to know every nook and cranny of the software their company offers, what causes any errors that may occur, and what strategies to employ when solving those errors or explaining solutions to contact center staff. Let's face it, most software is going to come with a few technical issues or bugs, and any user is going to commit user error at some point, no matter how tech-savvy you are.</p> <p>The customer service team also needs to be supported by the company structure and culture. Before joining 3CLogic in the tech world, I spent several years working in fashion retail, where I experienced the best and worst of customer service experience (and gained my sense of style). While working for a certain well-known high-end fashion specialty retailer, I encountered what they call an inverted-pyramid structure.</p> <p>Customers are the number one priority; the enormous roof of the pyramid. Customer service, support and sales members, the largest part of the company and the first to interact with the customer, are next. Managers are beneath them, supporting them, and the directors and CEO are at the very bottom, supporting the entire group.</p> <p>The ideal manager is there to support their team and act as a resource for them. If an employee has a question, they should feel welcomed. If a customer service or technical support member feels like they will be reprimanded for asking a question or that they will not receive any help from management, then they may not be able to best service a customer’s needs without that resource. A manager is not there to act as an overlord; however, overseeing the progress of an employee’s work and ensuring that a team is working together efficiently and resolving all issues is an important part of the role. A manager who listens and provides feedback is going to make their team happy.</p> <p><b>Being the Best, Not Just Good</b></p> <p>Every company should make it their priority to ensure their customer service team is the best, meaning the most helpful, the most efficient, and the most personable, that they can be. Heck, I gave up my window seat for one of our IT guys. Now he’s got a pleasant smile on his face while he assists a customer on the phone, watching squirrels chase each other through pine branches. It’s all in the name of providing excellent customer support. Customer service and technical support employees who love their job or take pride in their work are going to make you excited to deal with them even when resolving an issue.</p> <p>Honestly, companies that focus on supporting their customer service and technical support personnel, make a more lasting impression than companies with the most brilliant marketing strategies and media campaigns. This is because customer satisfaction is contagious. Word of mouth marketing is the most effective type and excellent customer service means that customers will not be able to shut up about their great experiences with a company.</p> <p>Remember that fashion specialty retailer? Hint: it starts with an N. They do no advertising other than in-store and by reaching out to customers; and, they have been successful in <em>expanding</em> their business since the early 1900’s even through economic recessions.</p> <p><b>It’s Up to You to Be Delighted</b></p> <p>Want to know how your relationship with a software solution company is going to play out? Check out their reviews. (Link to our reviews page) If they are not being commended for their customer support, then this is probably not going to be the company for you. Even the best technology is no good if you don’t have the support you need to use it.</p> <p>Aim for a software company whose technical customer support does not satisfy you, but instead delights you.</p> <p>Learn more about 3CLogic's contact center software. Feel free to contact any of our account reps. We are here for you!</p> <span class="hs-cta-wrapper" id="hs-cta-wrapper-d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900"> <span class="hs-cta-node hs-cta-d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900" id="hs-cta-d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900"> <a href="http://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/185039/d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900"></a> </span> <script type="text/javascript"> (function(){ var s='hubspotutk',r,c=((r=new RegExp('(^|; )'+s+'=([^;]*)').exec(document.cookie))?r[2]:''),w=window;w[s]=w[s]||c, hsjs=document.createElement("script"),el=document.getElementById("hs-cta-d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900"); hsjs.type = "text/javascript";hsjs.async = true; hsjs.src = "//cta-service-cms2.hubspot.com/cs/loader.js?pg=d40fd021-3349-42bd-8496-a0444642e900&pid=185039&hsutk=" + encodeURIComponent(c); (document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0]||document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0]).appendChild(hsjs); try{el.style.visibility="hidden";}catch(err){} setTimeout(function() {try{el.style.visibility="visible";}catch(err){}}, 2500); })(); </script> </span> </article> </main></body></html>