It’s easy to see the impact smartphones have had on the lives of Americans. We can take calls from anywhere, and even have advanced telephony features such as “follow me” and call-forwarding. We can access the Internet, make our entertainment mobile and stay in touch via social networks. We can also navigate, take and share photos and videos and purchase things from anywhere we happen to be (provided there’s a good cell phone signal, of course).

For enterprises, the smartphone revolution has been a mixed blessing. Yes, it helps with productivity for employees. It allows salespeople to have access to critical information wherever they are, interacting remotely with company applications. But it’s also the place where consumer smartphones meet enterprise customer support where the challenges are for businesses.

Since we do everything on our smartphones today, we also expect to be able to get real-time customer support over our phones. While most companies are aware that their customers are using smartphones, they may not be aware of how high customer expectations for the mobile channel are. Many companies offer a smartphone app, but they may not be giving it the kind of resources customers expect. A static or self-service only app will not do: there needs to be a designated group of human customer support personnel standing behind the app. This means adding real-time customer service options to your existing smartphone application, according to call center on-demand solutions provider Five9 (News - Alert).

This includes intelligent routing, messaging and chat, and voice of the customer (VOC) features so companies can listen and understand what it is their customers need and want, and understand how their smartphone app is working out, and what changes may need to be made.

This also makes self-service features more effective, eliminating misdirected interactions, and improving customer loyalty, says the company. The benefits are great. Not only will you better meet customer expectations, but you can reach customers in real-time and encourage them to return again and again.

“Adding useful, time-saving, and dignified touch points for your customers…translates into loyalty, increased retention, and lower operational costs for the enterprise,” says Five9 on the company Web site. “In addition, embedded customer experience analytics take the guesswork out of fine-tuning your app and deliver a tangible return on investment (ROI).”

For customers interested in including the important mobile commerce channel into their contact center organizations, Five9 offers Mobile Care, a cloud-based offering that requires no integration with or displacement of legacy contact center systems. It’s a way of providing customers with what they expect and demand, and getting the most out of it to improve the customer-facing organization as a whole.