In this year-end issue, TCI highlights technology solutions for better connecting your teams and your customers in 2024, all of which can improve organizational efficiencies, performance, and cost savings.

Contact me today to discuss how TCI’s products and services can help your organization get more out of its technology investments – now and in the future.

Tom Cornbrooks, President (703) 321-3030 cornbrookst@tcicomm.com

This is a big concern in virtually every industry, especially those where most interactions have gone digital to meet customer preferences for self-serve and engagement through the channels they prefer – at the time they want.

While this is convenient for customers, it has created significant operational and cybersecurity challenges for contact centers. To provide excellent customer service experiences, contact centers must authenticate a customer’s identity, address questions and concerns, and process transactions quickly and efficiently.

Throughout the process, customers must feel like every interaction is secure, and companies must ensure they protect customer privacy during and after a call. With the proper unified communications (UC) tools, organizations can streamline and secure all contact center conversations to meet omnichannel service expectations before, during, and after a customer connects with a live agent.

Large and small organizations are implementing digital transformation strategies designed to streamline contact center interactions. Since only some customers need the help of a contact center agent, these efforts are focused on automating processes with self-serve channels that lower costs. For example, chat and voice bots are being introduced to act as virtual agents, deliver services, promote new products, and provide personalized customer experiences — all without connecting the customer to an agent.

But regardless of which digital self-serve path is available, chances are that a caller will eventually want to go beyond simple questions to discuss a specific account. At that point, a live connection with an agent will be needed. When that happens, the agent must be assured of the caller’s identity before dealing with personal account information. While security questions were enough to protect the customer and the business in the past, today’s cybersecurity landscape is a lot more complicated. A disembodied voice on the other end of the line may not be who it claims to be.

Speech recognition systems can be integrated with existing UC platforms to add a layer of cybersecurity protection. These systems can identify the caller’s intent, authenticate the customer using voice biometrics, and then segment and route the call to the best agent to handle the request. With these digital workflows, companies can streamline the call management process and enable a more personalized interaction because the agent will spend less time authenticating the person on the other end of the call and more time dealing with the customer’s specific questions.

TCI offers contact center solutions that include an embedded, self-service Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with an optional speech recognition feature that enables authentication before an agent is connected. With our customized UC platforms, businesses get a complete communications, collaboration, and customer experience solution designed to maintain the security of contact center interactions for any organization.

Organizations that want additional cyber protection for contact center calls can opt for Interaction Recording (IR) to record all calls and then search for, play, and interrogate call recordings for security and privacy regulation compliance. Advanced speech analytics capabilities built into the system enable companies to analyze recordings for potential fraud, categorize calls as “high risk,” and then suggest countermeasures that can be taken to avoid losses.

TCI’s advanced solutions can be applied to support both centralized contact center operations and decentralized organizations with multiple branch offices that manage customer calls.

Of course, in addition to maintaining a high level of cyber protection for all contact center interactions, companies must also comply with data protection regulations designed to protect the privacy of customer data. The changing and complex regulations surrounding data privacy and security compliance have created another challenge for both centralized and decentralized operations.

TCI offers solutions built to protect personal data captured during a call by contact center agents either on an agent’s screen or a voice recording. For example, information collected by workflows can be masked to protect personal data as it is being collected. To control access to stored data, information required by the system to perform certain functions (name, phone number, email address, and voice and multimedia transcripts) can be automatically deleted when no longer required to provide service. Plus, multi-level security privileges can be applied to limit access to all data based on user profiles.

Ultimately, the cybersecurity protection that businesses build into their contact center processes should be seamless and efficient. Self-serve options should authenticate a customer’s identity before connecting to a live agent. Agents should be able to address customer questions and manage transactions quickly and efficiently without being bogged down by cybersecurity protocols. UC tools enable enterprises to achieve this level of protection without compromising omnichannel service objectives.

Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

TCI Host Service – Customized Contact Center, Team Collaboration & Business Communications

For a single, low monthly price, you can upgrade old phones to advanced mobile-enabled desktop phones and use Mitel’s award-winning capabilities to dramatically improve your Customer Experience.

There are several deployment models to choose from depending on your business’s unique situation, and you can shift from one approach to another over time. Managing a multi-site business? TCI Host can bring your offices closer together.

Whether you’re a small or big business, you can support omnichannel queues that let customers contact you the way they prefer. Track your customer contacts and get real-time metrics for informed decision-making and better team coaching.

Explore some of the Mitel-powered team-building and conferencing tools your users can tap into with their mobile or desktop phones…

With access to these Mitel-powered tools, your team’s work can be tackled on more devices from any location:

Our TCI Host Cloud Voice Service is all about flexibility

Add new cloud-based tools to your existing business phone system, and when you’re ready, migrate your entire platform to the cloud to reduce your overall telecom costs.

Schedule your TCI Host demo. Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

In the DC region’s highly competitive financial services industry, banks must ensure customers enjoy an easy and efficient experience at each journey stage. There’s simply too much risk that poor experiences will tarnish the bank’s reputation, turn away customers, and harm the bottom line.

Today’s communications solutions and technologies empower banks to break down unnecessary walls between their internal processes and customers. With these barriers removed, banks have new freedom to increase transparency, build trust, and foster personal experiences that help them earn customers for life.

To engage each customer more effectively in the right way at the right time, banks must seamlessly blend digital and human interactions. According to McKinsey & Company, banks that shifted to a more integrated, multimedia approach to customer communications have had convincing results, including:

Initiating a new loan application with a bank can be very intimidating for people, especially when it’s their first time making a significant purchase, such as a house. They’re unfamiliar with the bank’s processes or what will be required.

When customers can easily set up a new account online and apply for a mortgage in minutes, it helps alleviate stress. User-friendly online forms and virtual agents answering questions along the way can efficiently step customers through the application requirements.

To further accelerate the process, customers can upload supporting documents such as bank statements and identification documents without leaving the user interface.

Even with the most intuitive online forms, helpful virtual agents, and proactive communications, your customers sometimes need the reassurance and conversational exchanges that a person can best provide.

While AI is fast and helpful, customers want to communicate using their preferred media, which can mean connecting with a human. Collaboration apps put personalized text, voice, and video communications with bank agents at your customers’ fingertips.

A conversation may start with a voice or video call. Those communications can be followed up with text and email messages that provide additional support and links to more information.

As the loan application moves through the bank’s internal processes, it’s crucial to keep customers informed about its progress and help them take full advantage of technologies that further accelerate the process.

When customers instantly receive text or email notifications confirming their application has passed through each process stage, the bank builds confidence. When customers can track the status of their application in real-time through a secure online portal, that trust is further strengthened.

Providing support and guidance is essential. This support can include walking customers through the steps to provide electronic signatures and providing clear, easy-to-follow instructions to access the bank’s secure online portal.

Timely communications will help customers successfully navigate their digital interactions without a trip to the bank or triggering a delay in their application.

When banks and other financial institutions dramatically simplify their services, they eliminate many of the unknowns and fears around banking processes for their customers.

TCI takes the same approach when helping its local customers choose, deploy, and integrate the communications solutions and technologies needed to deliver exceptional banking services. It’s one key reason DC Metro banks and financial institutions trust TCI to help make their customer experience vision a reality.

Together with our Mitel-powered financial services solutions, TCI provides everything required to deliver the seamless, personalized customer experiences described above, including:

If your bank is looking for communications technology that will support your efforts to earn customers for life, contact TCI today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

As a local technology leader, TCI is committed to delivering the best HIPAA-compliant healthcare communications tools for your facility.

The entire healthcare industry underwent a rapid digital transformation due to the pandemic and continues to evolve as the world changes.

Telehealth, remote treatments, and virtual patient services have grown in popularity, enabling patients to receive care outside the traditional clinical environment.

Healthcare providers are embracing the latest communications technology to keep up with their patients’ evolving digital-first expectations – and many are already taking advantage of the Cloud to achieve healthcare benefits.

TCI deploys HIPAA-compliant Mitel solutions that empower your clinical staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more on critical care by supporting streamlined workflows, seamless file sharing, and API integration.

Innovations like AI-enabled automation, self-service tools, and virtual assistants will increase patient engagement, trust, and satisfaction with their healthcare experience.

To future-proof your healthcare communications, look for the deployment model – private, hybrid, or public Cloud - that best fits your clinical needs, data security requirements, and budget.

Contact your local TCI experts to learn more about migrating your healthcare communications to the Cloud: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

What technology and skill sets can you invest in today that can help your employees successfully meet the challenges of the future? Follow these five steps to engage your employees and ensure your business is ready for whatever comes next.

You and other decision-makers at your company have probably spent a lot of time asking yourselves big questions: How do we fulfill our mission statement? Who is our client base? Where are our growth opportunities? Much of the time these discussions occur behind closed doors, and while they’re important conversations to have, they’re not the only ones that should be happening.

Take time as you plan for 2024 to practice curiosity about your business on a granular level. Talk to your employees about their experiences and ask them for their thoughts. Often, those on the ground floor have the most interaction with your clients or know the smallest details that keep everything running. What works for them? What concerns do they have? What do they have to contribute and how can you facilitate that?

Begin these discussions with an open mind, asking new questions and understanding that you might not already know the answers. Explore avenues that might not be the most obvious. Try different ideas, and don’t be afraid to fail. Exercising genuine curiosity is an important leadership trait that takes practice but ultimately leads to exponential possibilities for growth.

This second tip builds on the first. Curiosity is the start of connecting with your workforce, but empathy puts it into action. Meeting Management software leader Zipdo reports that leaders showing compassion for work environment issues and staff well-being was essential in increasing motivation in 96% of employees.

The pandemic made it clear that work styles vary and what works for one person may be completely unproductive for another. When you begin to ask questions, be prepared for a variety of answers and know they might all be correct on some level.

One key aspect to maintaining your workers’ well-being is to meet them where they are. The last few years have been a wide-scale experiment in new styles of work. According to the Harvard Business Review, many companies recognized that personalized, non-traditional schedules and workplaces lead to increased productivity and happiness, with 58% of organizations having invested in their employee experience.

Allowing flexible workdays, recognizing progress, encouraging mental health, and sometimes simply listening, not only makes you a better leader but keeps your employees feeling fulfilled, healthy, and engaged.

Once you’ve worked to understand your employees’ needs, it’s time to come together and collaborate. It looks like non-traditional offices are here to stay, with a majority of people saying they want to work from home at least part of the time.

With blended workspaces blurring the line between in-person and remote, it’s essential to ensure everyone feels connected no matter where they are. Zippia found that “86% of employees in leadership positions blame lack of collaboration as the top reason for workplace failures” and that job satisfaction increased by 17% through collaboration.

Real-time communication is critical, whether you use chat, video conferences, phone calls, or email to keep up with projects. Using all-in-one tools and integrated collaboration software facilitates switching between modes of communication and promotes trust between colleagues, which encourages creativity, a sense of belonging, and that elusive authentic culture many employees value.

When the COVID-19 lockdowns first took effect, companies were thrust into the digital-first world, ready or not. Almost 3 years later, even the most self-identified “technology laggards” have gotten on board, with many workplaces experiencing significant increases in operational efficiencies.

Taking advantage of technology is no longer optional for companies. Investing in cloud storage, unified communications systems, and employee training is critical for success. Adopting the right technology can make or break the productivity of your workforce.

The final way to future-proof your workforce is something we’ve all been practicing for a while now - maintaining flexibility in the face of whatever comes next. Though it may be challenging, continue to embrace change and allow your company to grow and adapt.

Listening to your employees and recognizing that each of them has unique needs will not only make you a better leader, but it will help guide your business through whatever lies ahead. Meeting workers where they are reminds them that you care and encourages satisfaction. After all, a happy employee is more productive and dedicated to their job.

Technology has helped with this transition already and integrating it into your workflow will keep your employees engaged and your company successful. Using new tools instead of trying to force old ones to work will keep you connected and on top of your game.

2023 was a year of technological evolution for many companies, and 2024 will be the year to reap the rewards of that evolution.

No matter your needs, TCI can help you prepare for tomorrow. Call us today at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.