TEXT-2-AGENT Sending text and pictures to your call center?

Can you send a picture to your ShoreTel or CISCO Call Center

We have been integrating SMS to CISCO UCCX and ShoreTel Call Center deployments for customer service scenarios for some time.  The interface is very simple:  Login, pick a number from anywhere on the planet; assign a “keyword” and match it to an email address or list!   When someone text your “keyword” to your number, the text is converted to email and sent on to that address.   The email recipient can then hit reply and we convert the email back to SMS and forward it back to the original Cell phone.  Optionally, you can build a membership list with and auto response and the ability to send a bulk text to the list!

smsportal

What is new in Version 3.1

We have released Version 3.1 and it now makes it possible to send not only text (SMS), but pictures (MMS)to the “next available agent” in your Call Center.    The application now supports:

  • Inbound SMS to email Address based on “keyword” match with REPLY ability; – this enables you to use one number and many different keywords that point to different email addresses.  The recipient can hit reply like any other email and send a response back to the sender of the SMS, usually a client who has a cell phone!
  • Inbound MMS to default email address – enables a cell phone to send a photo or picture into the customer service organization which will route to the default email address.
  • Inbound SMS to outbound SMS; – Stealth mode, you can forward an incoming SMS to another SMS.
  • SMS to List based on “keyword” match – This enables you to build an SMS marketing list.   Each list is built by “keyword” match and you are able to send auto responds and “bulk” SMS
  • Outbound email to SMS;
  • Email to SMS – enables a customer service representative to send a text from an email client.   The address can be a keyword group list or an individual cell phone number.

Each transaction has a unique “ticket” number, all transactions are searchable, logged and archived for HIPPA and PIC compliance.

We are finding that Insurance, medical, auto and tech support applications in particular are receptive to the concept of enabling clients to send a picture by text to a customer service representative.

sms1

Want A demo?

We can easily set you up with a demo account. A basic single number solution with 500 SMS credits is about $25 a month!  Send the word “DEMO”   (all ONE word, watch that auto correct) to 424-348-4000 and include your email address for an example of how this could work on a ShoreTel ECC or CISCO UCCX; or just create an account!

Note – Your do NOT need a formal call center to implement this technology.   An email distribution list to customerservice@yourcompany.com works just as well!

Configuring Compliance Recording with CISCO Workforce Optimzaiton

For compliance will you Record Audio or Screen?

There are a range of products and services that can be used to “record” phone calls on a CISCO CUCM, UCCX and UCCE. These products range in sophistication from services that simply save a wav file of a recording which you can search for by time and date, to very sophisticated recorders with advanced index and search capabilities. Some products even include speech recognition functions that can be used to search files for a particular call or even handle a recording base on the audio content.  CISCO Workforce Optimization and Advanced Quality Management adds desktop screen recording and metrics that can also be used for evaluations and service observing.

All of these products have one characteristic in common; they require you to configure a recording capability in your CUCM to copy the media stream from the target source to the recording server. There are a number of options for doing this including SPAN recording and other options that require you to configure your Ethernet switches to accommodate the recording function.  The simplest method to copy media streams is to use the Built in Bridge or BiB of a CISCO phone.  Clearly this can only work for a specific set of CISCO phones, but most phones support this function.

General Recipe!

The following is a basic general recipe for setting up your CISCO CUCM for recording and identifies some of the decisions you have to make along the way.

  • Gateway or Phone;
  • Notification or not; Notify the caller, or the Agent or both?
  • Route Pattern for Recorder along with a Partition and Calling Search Space.
  • Create a Recording Profile;
  • SIP Trunk Setup between CUCM and Recording server; and options CUCM and Gateway;
  • Identify Users and add them to the proper CTI Recording and Monitoring Group;
    CTIPemissions
  • Enable BiB on the phone;
    BiB
  • Enable Recording on the DN;  Auto always or Selective and reference Recording Profile;

Basically you are creating a conference call between the “source media”, the CUCM and the Recording server.    The actual configuration has a lot of details and you will need to carefully consider each element, but the actual setup is routine for your average deployment engineer.   We summarized them below in video format.

You can also use CISCO XML services to enable SELECTIVE recording in which a phone is recorded only on the demand of the user.  This uses the Calabrio XML api and Phone Service option in CISCO.  This will enable the user to push RECORD, PAUSE, RESUME and STOP.  The second video walks you through the configuration options for that service.  This can also be deployed in Finesse as a desktop button!