Starting on July 16, 2022, dialing 988 will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The current Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available to people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, even after 988 is launched. Online chats providing support are also available.

Texting for support… The FCC is also expanding access by establishing the ability to text 988 to reach the Lifeline to better support at-risk communities, including youth and individuals with disabilities.

Veterans and service members may reach the Veterans Crisis Line by pressing 1 after dialing, chatting online at www.veteranscrisisline.net, or texting 838255.

The new FCC rules apply to all telecommunications carriers as well as all VoIP service providers in the United States and its major U.S. territories.

When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors who will listen, assess their problems, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

To learn more about the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration's 988 resources and information, visit: https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988

It happens… We make an online purchase and, rather than receiving an automatic confirmation, we get a notice that our order has been placed on hold. Suddenly, confidence turns to confusion. Unfortunately, this is where some companies trip up. They make it difficult for otherwise good customers to re-place their order, and the experience goes from bad to worse as customers face complicated IVRs, long hold times, and a merry-go-round of well-meaning agents who keep asking the same questions.

It’s well documented that poor customer experiences like this lead to lower customer satisfaction, lower sales, and, ultimately, customer defection. Just think of your own experiences. Maybe you were using an expired credit card, entered the wrong billing address, or had an unpaid balance from a previous order. Mistakes happen.

The problem in most cases isn’t bad people but bad processes. Regrettably, fixing the problem is usually placed squarely on the customer’s shoulders. They need to reach out to your customer service team, which means navigating your IVR system, speaking with an agent to triage the problem, being transferred to another agent who needs them to repeat everything they just told the previous agent, and waiting on hold while the new agent speaks with their manager or colleagues to resolve the issue. Uggh.

Now, let’s imagine a different scenario using Mitel’s Contact Center/CX solutions. Your customer - who we’ll call Gwen - receives a text that her order is on hold. Included in the text is a link she can click to initiate a call/text chat with a customer agent. She chooses text chat, and the Mitel solution quickly routes the message to the next available sales agent, Jim.

Jim gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account and sees that Finance has put a hold on the order. Jim also sees from his agent interface that his colleague in Finance, Mark, is available to handle the issue and transfers the message to him. Mark also gets a screen pop of Gwen’s account and sees that her order was placed on hold because of an outstanding account balance.

Mark texts Gwen back and offers to initiate a voice call to resolve the issue. Gwen accepts and the two are soon talking to resolve the issue. Gwen pays the outstanding balance, and the order hold is now lifted. Gwen gets a confirmation that her order is being shipped – all without requiring that Gwen do anything more than open a text message and click on a link.

So, you’re probably wondering how Mitel can tie all these touchpoints together? Mitel combines unified communications (UC) with contact center functionality into a single, seamless solution. Across your organization, customer data is readily available at the click of a button, intelligent call routing makes the right connections, and real-time visibility into presence status ensures that the “ball” moves swiftly and never gets dropped.

Ready to improve your customer experience? Contact us today: 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.

When not closely managed, cables can get out of control fast. Without rigid discipline, what may have started out tightly organized can quickly resemble vines taking over an ancient city.

It's hard to keep up, especially with your business moving at the speed of IT. But if your cable closet or server room has gotten a bit messy, CTS has decades of experience designing, installing, and supporting structured cabling infrastructure for our customers. We offer cabling solutions for voice and data within commercial, government, and non-profit environments.

We deploy tested and certified cable and wireless products from leading manufacturers to design and deliver our clients’ turnkey infrastructure solutions.

If you are expanding office space or moving to a new location, the best time to engage our services is before your building plans are finalized. We’ll work with your facilities professionals to ensure that all your infrastructure requirements are properly addressed.

Regain control of your IT environment and network connections. Contact CTS today at 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.

Many of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities that come with a hybrid workforce can be minimized with clear-cut policies, training, and IT support. These 9 best practices can prevent or at least minimize the threat of being exposed to a security breach.

1. Encrypt stored data – In case a device is stolen, you can avoid a disastrous data breach if the data on your device is encrypted. Make sure that remote workers are all using devices that are set to encrypt all stored data.

2. Enable email encryption – Emails are another point of vulnerability for remote workers. Just as you want to ensure that all stored data is encrypted, it’s also a good idea to encrypt the data attached to any email, as this will prevent an unintended recipient from viewing the information.

3. Don’t allow non-employees to access work devices – When it comes to cybersecurity, it’s important to keep as much control as possible over devices. Remote employees should never share their devices with non-employees.

4. Disable all external drives – USB thumb drives are some of the most popular vehicles for bad actors to use to install malware. These malicious actors would install malware onto 30 or 60 thumb drives and then distribute them where an unsuspecting worker would pick one up and, thinking it was theirs, plug it into their device. You should disable all external drives on work devices.

5. Implement password policies – Your employees may unknowingly invalidate several expensive security measures if they use weak or repetitive passwords. Make sure that your company has a password policy in place instructing employees to choose strong, unique passwords and to have different passwords for different applications. Work passwords should also be different from any personal passwords.

6. Keep employees away from nefarious websites – Torrent and pirated websites will obviously expose your business to a host of malware. Most companies have a prohibition against employees going to such sites on work devices. Blocking software and services can add another layer of protection.

7. Train employees to recognize signs of a breach and report immediately - The sooner your IT or security team finds out about a breach, the better the outlook will be. Train your employees to recognize the signs of a security breach and to report it as soon as possible to your IT or security team.

8. Avoid public Wi-Fi – Working out of a local café may seem idyllic but using their Wi-Fi can cause a host of problems. The lack of firewalls allows anyone using that network to easily hack into your company’s data. If you still want to work from a café, use a personal mobile hotspot or VPN.

9. Be aware of surroundings – Losing a laptop is bad enough, but if there is a data breach on top of that, it could be a catastrophe. Remind your remote workers not to be careless with their work laptops. If they happen to be working in a public space, they should remain alert. They should make sure that sightlines are blocked as they work, meaning, no one can sit behind them and watch/record everything they are doing.

Final Thoughts... Remote and hybrid work has become more appealing than ever to both employees and business owners, but security breaches can happen. If you implement best practices now, you and your team will be able to enjoy all the benefits of remote work with added peace of mind.

CTS offers industry-leading, HIPAA-compliant secure communications solutions. Contact us today to learn more about safeguarding your business communications: 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.

It’s not easy in these challenging times to keep your current Voice & IT systems running - let alone add new technology for more flexibility and mobility as you support your hybrid work arrangements.

To keep your business moving forward, you'll need easy-to-use collaboration tools - delivered on a reliable, secure Unified Communications platform. Getting access to these cloud-based tools begins with having the right local technology partner.

CTS supports the private and public sector. We deploy and support Voice, Data, and Video networks that connect your local and nationwide locations. We're proud of our track record serving clients and giving back to the community…

CTS is available to support your organization’s hybrid work initiatives with voice, data and video. Let’s map out a plan for your business… Contact us today: 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.

Tell us about it... Just mention, "Newsletter Referral Program" when you contact us – we'll take care of the rest. CTS rewards you with $250 when we get their business. And there's no paperwork hassle or hoops to jump through.

Contact us with your sales tip at: 800.787.4848 or jnolte@ctsmd.us.