CTI Group has reaffirmed its commitment to the channel with a call to action, urging resellers to profit from the margin-making opportunities offered by dealer-friendly call logging and call recording products.
The current economic climate has forced many businesses to look for ways to quantify and control comms spend with a view to cut costs, meaning that they are more receptive to call logging tools. And with many comms resellers reshaping their strategy to adopt a sharper focus on selling into their existing customer base, call logging and call recording solutions offer a timely margin-making opportunity for them to nurture potential business and get closer to clients.
CTI Group's Head of Product and Marketing, Warren Drummond, believes that the current economic climate has swung attention onto improving the productivity and efficiency of transactions. He said: "Any size of organisation selling or giving advice over the phone - for example, travel agents, independent financial advisers or insurance brokers - could benefit from understanding call patterns and phone usage within their business to improve productivity and prevent unnecessary financial loss. However, small businesses need help in understanding not only the benefits of call management, but how easily this information can be accessed with the right software."
"It is essential that call logging products are offered. It could be the competitive advantage over other resellers"
Call logging solutions offer straightforward and accurate measurements of who is using the phone, when and for how long. And according to Drummond, selling call logging solutions with a telephone system could be likened to selling a car with a trip computer recording distance travelled, average speed, average fuel consumption, and displaying real time fuel consumption information. These insights allow the driver to rectify bad habits and make operational improvements. "As with all system sales, if an additional product is available to empower the customer to manage all associated future costs of that investment, it is essential that call logging solutions are offered at this opportunity. It could be the competitive advantage over other resellers," added Drummond.
Given the low market penetration of call logging and call recording solutions it could be said that these margin-rich ‘add-ons' are perceived to be too tricky for everyday comms dealer engineers. However, resellers can ‘easily add' call logging and call recording to their portfolio, says Drummond. "CTI Group has developed its product range at the lower end to give resellers avenues into the wider untapped smaller business market," added Drummond. "Products like Proteus Office and SmartRecord GO have been developed to appeal to the SME. They are easy to install, require low aftercare and there is support directly available from CTI Group. We have developed a range of tools with high end functionality and priced to give quick RoI, so that we can deliver customer and reseller satisfaction."
Many companies are taking a broader look at the way they conduct business, examining how they can improve their approach. This is the case not only for commercial businesses but also for public sector organisations, irrespective of size, says Drummond. "Call recording is being regarded more and more as a viable and effective way to address the level of service being provided over the line," he added. "Apart from the increasing number of companies who require call recording to comply with mounting regulation, more companies are using products such as SmartRecord GO as a defence against the growing claim culture. Customers need to be made aware that protection via call recording is available when purchasing systems."
Why call recording isn't a de facto sale is perhaps puzzling when products such as CTI Group's SmartRecord GO have been manufactured with the dealer in mind. "With SmartRecord GO, the set-up process takes less than 30 minutes," revealed Drummond. "Such technology/applications have been seen in the past as a ‘dark art', restricted to large companies with hundreds of lines installed by highly skilled engineers. But these new products help demystify such services, improving the productivity of communication systems of all sizes."
Call recording not only allows businesses to address where staff training is required, it also permits them to provide their customers with an enhanced service platform. "Once these benefits are truly understood, all involved in the process will reap the rewards," commented Drummond. "Our account team has been expanded and is focused on assisting the channel to make the most of these difficult times. We are encouraging the team to use this time and technology as an opportunity."
Other compelling components of the business case for call recording are the FSA standards coming into effect this month. They demand that UK financial institutions must record and store telephone conversations and electronic communications relating to client orders. "This kind of regulation will undoubtedly spur and increase demand for call recording solutions to be in place," added Drummond.
The recording of voice calls will become even more popular as hosted solutions gain a firmer foothold in the market, he claims. And as VoIP conversations become increasingly distributed, with soft phones on PCs or PDAs and peer-to-peer within an organisation, CTI Group is already seeing an increased demand from SMEs as well as the larger scale sites for the ability to monitor these kinds of calls. "To enable businesses to meet regulatory requirements and meet business goals CTI Group has invested heavily in hosted VoIP call recording technology," said Drummond. "We are ready to provide the UK and European market with appropriate solutions as demand for these kinds of services rises in the UK."
To find out more visit www.ctigroup.com