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Clickatell: Call Centers Say Yes to Clickatell SMS and Save Millions;
Company Releases New White Paper and Presents at Contact Centre World
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:20082008
Redwood City, CA -- Clickatell, leading global provider of mobile
messaging solutions, today announced its work with First National Bank
and Santam Insurance to raise customer satisfaction and reduce costs
through SMS within their respective call centers.
According to a 2008 Aberdeenstudysurveying 4,500 respondents - concerns
over a potential recession is a top-three business challenge for
companies this year; in another study, Aberdeen found that 88% of
best-in-class companies considered corporate profitability to be a key
metric driving the need to manage telecom costs - including in the call
center.
"We have all been there - we call for service only to be #134 in the
queue when we simply need a balance update or tracking number.
Consumers are increasingly mobile and interact with a myriad of
companies through call centers, often using their mobile phones - they
demand quick response times and easy to use systems," said Pieter de
Villiers, CEO of Clickatell. "SMS provides an easy to use mobile
solution that doesn't require long wait times or interactive voice
response systems. To better serve mobile customers and save money,
organizations with call centers should take advantage of text
messaging."
In this month's CRMBuyer, results from the recent Aberdeen study found
that 80% of best-in-class call centers are leveraging text messaging,
and also concluded that there is a marked difference in adoption in
non-best-in-class organizations which are not taking advantage of an
opportunity to add cost effective touch point between a given company's
expert resources and their customers through the use of text messaging.
Furthermore, the cost of using SMS for customer contact is proven to be
a fraction of the cost of live agent communications as well as
interactive voice response systems. UK-based call center analyst firm
ContactBabel reported thatlive-agent service calls average ~$12 per
call, while SMS costs pennies per message.SMS efficiently replaces the
need for live agents, as well as IVR systems, for many simple service
inquiries including order status, payment reminders, account activity
alerts, delivery notifications, security alerts, and more, allowing
live agents to spend time on dealing with more complex customer
inquiries.
SMS Raises Customer Satisfaction; Saves Millions
With SMS, customers can rely on immediate, cost-effective and reliable
text messages to be sent directly to mobile phones. In addition, SMS
enhances "anytime, anywhere" automated self-service, enabling call
center agents to reach customers and obtain real time responses from
anywhere in the world.
First National Bank Customers Prefer SMS
"Our customers prefer SMS - it saves them the trouble of having to dial
in to the call center or visit a branch to get the account information
they need. With SMS our customer gets convenience and FNB saves money.
In addition to delivering a better customer experience, SMS has also
greatly reduced call center costs associated with communicating routine
account information," explains Len Pienaar, chief executive of Mobile
and Transact Solutions for First National Bank, who implemented its
text-based inContact service in 2002 and has seen adoption achieve >80%
of its entire retail customer base. Clickatell currently manages the
SMS delivery for inContact in Namibia. "With the widespread use of
mobile phones and innate understanding of text combined with our
customers' desire to maintain active control of their finances, FNB's
inContact has provided our customers with the ability to take advantage
of their cell phone as a powerful banking tool."
Santam Insurance Sees Rapid SMS Adoption and Significant Cost Savings
"Interacting with customers through SMS costs a fraction of what a live
agent costs are - so the cost savings for us have been tremendous. And,
the communications are effective and pleasing to the customer which
helps our business," says Fanus Coetzee, head of Santam Insurance
Services Support, which has seen a 500% growth in SMS text
alertsduring claims processing which lead to significant cost
reductions in live agent query handling. "Organizations across all
industries should take full advantage of these cost savings by
implementing text-based call center services in any industry -
financial services or otherwise."
Text messaging can be easily integrated with any existing CRM or call
center solution. Clickatell's easy-to-use APIs and developer tools
provide one central point to quickly integrate new SMS capabilities
into existing or new offerings. Its two-way SMS functionality provides
a reply-path for customers to respond to call center messages. And, its
extensive work with the carriers over the past eight years means that
Clickatell can reach over 700 networks in more than 200 countries
around the world.
To learn more about how to implement cost effective text-based call
centers in any organization, Clickatell has published today a valuable
white paper titled "SMS in the Call Center: How Mobile Messaging Can
Increase Profits and Reduce Costs Immediately." To download, please
visit http://www.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=43328
Clickatell is at the Contact Centres World Africa 2008 Conference this
week in Johannesburgat the Sandton Convention Centre. Visit the
conference today at noon to hear Deon Van Heerden, Clickatell's
Director of the MEA region, present, "How SMS Can Enhance Your Call
Center's Service Offering."
About Clickatell
Clickatell enables businesses, governments and communities to leverage
the ubiquity of mobile messaging to inform, alert, notify, transact,
interact and share information. Delivering mobile messaging solutions
since 2000, Clickatell is a global leader in mobile communications
specializing in bulk messaging services and SMS gateway connectivity to
small, medium and large enterprises in a variety of vertical markets.
Clickatell's multi-modal capability and worldwide coverage gives
organizations the power to deliver any message to any device anywhere
in the world. Reaching more than 700 networks in more than 200
countries, Clickatell serves 8,300 customers including Barclays Bank,
BBC, Continental Airlines, CNN, First National Bank, Metropolitan Life,
Oracle, Shell, and other industry leaders. Clickatell products and
services increase customer acquisition, improve loyalty and build
trusted brands through direct, personal, easy, and immediate
communications. A Sequoia-backed company, Clickatell is headquartered
in Redwood City, CA, and has offices in South Africa. For more
information, please visit:
http://www.clickatell.com/central/campaigns/redir.php?cid=43326
CONTACT: Kelly Brieger, Press contact, Clickatell USA
Tel: +1 650 704 1748
e-mail: briegernet@sbcglobal.net
Nicola Hunt, Press contact, Clickatell SA
Tel: +27 21 910 7700
e-mail: nicola.hunt@clickatell.com
Elzaan Rohde, Press contact, Sentient SA
Tel: +27 21 422 4275
e-mail: elzaan@sentientcommunications.co.za
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information
provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to
info@m2.com)).
Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
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