Social CRM & Mobile Care

2013 is expected to be the year of two important technology trends: continuing the development of both social CRM, or the integration of social media and customer relationship management, and mobile CRM, or servicing customers on an ever-increasing array of mobile apps.

More and more Americans are carrying smartphones today, and increasingly, they expect to use this channel to contact the companies with which they do business. At the same time, customer expectations for superior customer service are increasing, and old-fashioned concepts like long hold times are rapidly disappearing (for companies that want to continue to be successful, in any case!).

More companies are avoiding keeping their customers on hold by turning to callback solutions that allow customers to schedule a time that is more convenient for them to receive a call from a contact center rather than waiting in long queues. The earliest iterations of this technology were accomplished via interactive voice response (IVR) solutions, or on websites. For a long time, however, the options for mobile customers were limited, unless the customer wished to interact with the IVR on their small smartphone screens.

Fast-forward to 2013, and callback solutions have met mobile apps. Hold Free Networks has introduced to the marketplace a way for companies to improve adoption and usage of mobile apps by adding customer service into the smartphone experience. Hold Free’s mobile callback solution leverages smartphone’s visual interfaces to offer dynamic menu choices and scheduling options, and to display estimated wait time for inbound customers.

It’s a way to make better use of customer self-service, lower the number of misdirected calls, and improve ratings for apps in app stores. Hold Free supplies client companies with lightweight widgets to embed in their iPhone and Android (News - Alert) apps, or allows companies to use their APIs to create their own applications.

The end result is a visually pleasing, easy-to-use smartphone app that that is graphically intuitive for customers to use. Allowing inbound customers to schedule their own callback times helps contact centers balance loads and mitigate call spikes, and it helps boost customer satisfaction by eliminating long wait times. The end result is a way to keep customers while at the same time lowering costs.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.