Tom bounds over to say "hi" and hopes my meeting with Ben and Claire, who are leading the project at Black Tomato, goes well.
The phone system is in and the agents like it - the equipment has a cool look and feel, sound quality is great and voicemail is easy to use. It is also making an impact in the office. Less shouting and hollering, with the improved ability to move calls round the team.
So what's next? Ben and Claire want to do some simple things. Like conferencing, alternative day- and night-time responses, links to promos, hunt groups. It's all possible. It's just that they don't know it yet.
The 'gooey' (or is that GUI?) should help them work things out for themselves, but at this early stage they're not aware of the system's full potential. A spot of training will do the trick – and that's already in the diary. I'm sure when I next visit they'll be expert users.
There's also Webex, which has just been installed. There are high hopes here that this will replace rather cold customer email exchanges with a much richer experience.
We talk about next steps. My advice? Step on the gas a bit. There is lots of potential in the Cisco technology and lots of aspiration in Black Tomato. We need to put the two together over the next couple of weeks. This project should be much more than a technology refresh, but it won't happen on its own.
