It's nice when timing works for you isn't it? As the year has moved on we have been lucky enough to see an increase in demand for our services and fortunately this has coincided with the arrival of the new Cisco technology. It has made a significant difference and improvement in our ability to service this demand.
The telecommunications platform is allowing us to service the influx of calls far more effectively. Different phone groupings have been set up to service particular requests, which has made the distribution and handling of calls far more effective. The platform also enables different destination specialists to engage with the customer on one call without all having to cram round a conference phone in the boardroom.
This has improved speed of response and quality of customer service resulting in increased sales and impact on the bottom line. These are just some examples of the improved phone system. But in short, its great news: it's working.
I am also enjoying some of the additional services such as 'Soft Phones'. Given that a large part of my job requires travel to exotic climes (it's a tough job I know) being able to be in regular, seamless contact has been a challenge in the past. It had made me reluctant to take business trips that I really needed to be on.
However, with the use of Cisco's 'Soft Phones' set up I have been able to receive calls on my laptop via my direct office line – so as far as clients know, they are effectively still calling me in the office. Moreover I can make internal calls to other people at Black Tomato from my laptop wherever I am in the world. The service is fantastic. It saves money and allows me to always be available to talk (except when I am hit by heavy jetlag).
And Webex has arrived. The technology that we believe will hugely enhance our levels of customer service kicks in within the next couple of weeks and we are marking its launch with a webinar. We will allow existing and potential customers to have a real time web session with me and my team. We will respond to their answers both with text and, more importantly, with a series of inspirational images and content. Straight to their desk tops and in real time. I believe this will be the first of a series of sessions and am looking forward to launching it. We will be letting people know when the first one is shortly and we can't wait to see the results.
So has it been worth it? Undoubtedly. Of course we knew about Cisco and the vast technology solutions and expertise that they have but had never known that it could be applied to an SME like ours.
We now know it can be and that it works. It has been a great project to be involved in and what's more exciting is that this is only the beginning of us feeling the impact of the benefits of the technology. We expect efficiencies and operational effectiveness to continue to improve throughout the year as it becomes more embedded within the business.
