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When Click-to-CallBecomes Tap-to-Call

Shai Berger

June, 2011

What is click-to-call?

Browser X

C-to-Cprovider

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click!

2

ring!

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ring!4

A “clever hack” to initiate phone calls from web pages

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Why is it significant?

• Provides an easy platform for innovation.

• Works with any browser and phone.

• Does an “end-run” around telco gatekeeping.

Click-to-call+ Asterisk

+ low-cost termination explosion of “Voice 2.0” ideas

In the mid 2000’s:

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Memory lane

And elsewhere…

Lots of excitement!

At eComm 2008:

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Fonolo launches consumer service

• Automated mapping of phone menus.

• Free “Deep Dialing” service lets you skip the phone menu.

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C-to-C as used by companies…

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The downside

• Using of computer + phone is awkward.

• Strong motivation needed to get over that barrier• Cheaper LD• Call anonymously• Avoid phone menus / waiting on hold• Others?

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Then this happened…

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Or, more importantly, this…

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The smartphone

• Apple changed all the rules in the summer of 2008.

• Unleashed a flood of innovation in mobile apps.

• The end of telco gatekeeping.

• As for Voice 2.0… iPhone sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

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Click-to-call on the smartphone

• No longer the only way to access the voice channel.

• But still the easiest to implement.

• In fact… much easier than the old PC-Plus-phone approach.

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On the smartphone…

In other words…

“Non-native” calls can have a nearly first-class experience.

Click-to-call becomes tap-to-call

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Meanwhile, with click-to-call

• Its role as an alternate way to connect consumers and companies has continued to grow.

• We’ve learned a lot about how to make it work well.

• Business case now well established.

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Meanwhile, at the call center…

• Innovation plateaued a decade ago.• High degree of consumer dislike.• Anatomy of a call…

Call starts

Call ends

Agent answer

s

NavigatingWaitingon hold

Exchanginginfo

Discussing with agent

Pain points

The flaws

Experience marred by pain points:1. Navigation (phone menus)2. Waiting on hold3. Repeating information to agents

Key questions:4. How bad are these pain points?5. Why have they been so tough to fix?6. Can click-to-call plus smartphone be our

salvation?

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Navigation

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The navigation problem

• The keypad is inherently limited.

• We’re locked-in to a spec created in 1960!

• Decades of research and trials have squeezed as much out of it as possible.

• But still a very high rate of zero-outs and misnavigation.

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Queuing

• Everybody hates waiting on hold.• It’s a “lose-lose” approach to queuing.

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A better approach

• An obvious but elusive idea:“Call me back when an agent is ready.”

• This is “virtual queuing”.

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VQ: Why is it still so rare?

On premise equipment+

Call center integration=

A costly and time-consuming project

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Pre-call questions

“Can I have your customer ID?”

“Do you have a reference number?”

“Please read out the tracking code…”

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The current approach

Callers often have to repeat information.The “data pass-through” problem(“I already gave that info to your system!”)

Agent time wasted waiting for a caller to find information.Use the queuing time constructively

Agent time wasted trying to communicate data.“Was that 15 as in one-five or five-oh?”

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Call center integration is tough

Why? closed, proprietary infrastructure multi-site operations outsourced call centers organizational silos

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Solving the big flaws

What do we need to make it happen?• An open, popular platform• An interactive visual interface• Backwards compatibility• Easy call center integration

Phone menus Visual navigation

Waiting on hold Virtual Queuing

Repeating info Pre-call questions

We know the solutions:

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Where are we today?

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A rare example…

Group AMA (European insurance company)

(wow)

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The typical case

Most mobile apps miss the opportunity altogether...

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A breakthrough is needed

• An open, popular platform• An interactive visual interface• Backwards compatibility• Easy call center integration

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Fonolo on a website

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Integrated with mobile app

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Our approach to navigation

Fonolo takes the company's existing

phone-based process...

…and replaces it with an intelligent visual interface…

…presented on their web site or

mobile application.

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Our approach to queuing

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Our approach to pre-call questions

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Pain points… revisited

Call starts

Call ends

Agent answers

NavigatingWaitingon hold

Exchanginginfo

Discussing with agent

Visual UI +

Deep Dialing

Virtual queuing(Hold-for-Me)

Pre-call Q’sPost-call Survey

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Tying it all together

This is an opportunity to fix the long-standing flaws with the call center experience.

Click-to-call

Smartphones

A better call center

experience

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Tying it all together

Click-to-call

Smartphones

A better call center

experience

Happier customers

Lower cost-per-call

By fixing call center flaws, companies can get happier customers and lower cost-per-call.

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Thank you!

Shai Berger

@shaiberger