Companies of all sizes are recognizing the vital role that the call center can play in delivering high levels of customer service. The call center is often the only point of interaction between the customer and the company, putting increased importance on the role that the center and its agents play in the overall corporate strategy. The challenge, however, is that smaller organizations often find it difficult to compete with their larger competitors in delivering service through the call center.

 

Fonality (News - Alert), a provider of open source telephony, has announced that more than 1,000 businesses are using its PBXxtra Call Center Edition software to deploy robust, enterprise-class call centers at a fraction of the price of traditional systems. As a result, these smaller companies are able to compete with larger contact centers. PBXtra Call Center Edition has been widely adopted by the Fonality customer base, with over 20,000 local and remote employees using the software every day.

 

In order to compete effectively in today’s marketplace, SMBs need call center capabilities. In the past, companies only had two options for a call center solution. They could either outsource call center operations to a third party, or force-fit a regular office phone system into a contact center that often resulted in an unprofessional service and a perception of being the company being smaller than it actually is.

 

The PBXtra Call Center Edition is positioned to provide SMBs with access to a robust call center solution that enables them to operate like a large call center with increased reporting efficiencies, remote access capabilities, and other advanced call center features — for a fraction of the price of a large center solution.

 

“Fonality heard from hundreds of small and mid-size companies that they needed advanced call center capabilities, even in offices as small as ten people,” said Chris Lyman, CEO of Fonality, in a statement.

“Before, these customers were told they were too small for a call center solution, or the prices were way out of their range. Fonality’s call center systems have leveled the playing field by providing a way for SMBs to compete with larger companies without breaking the bank,” Lyman added.

As a full-featured call center for SMBs, the PBXtra Call Center Edition supports agents working on premises, at home, or from any remote location. The solution also affords agents the flexibility to be part of distributed queues and still seamlessly communicate with associates over the company’s phone system.

PBXtra Call Center is specifically designed for companies with two to 200 agents and includes feature-rich call center capabilities, such as branch office agent sharing, on-the-fly recording, barging, monitoring, text whisper/coach, Web and phone agent log-on, real-time and historical graphical queues, and agent presence management.

Want to learn more about contact centers? Then be sure to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. The papers are authored by industry leaders, who, in turn, receive qualified sales leads from interested parties. Check here for the latest in CRM information.

 

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.