November 25, 2008
Intreractive Intelligence Adds SMS to CIC
By Greg Galitzine, Group Editorial Director
Interactive Intelligence (News - Alert) announced it would add short message service as an additional media type to its all-in-one multi-channel contact center software suite, Customer Interaction Center or CIC.
The new SMS features are designed to help contact centers increase customer retention and satisfaction by enabling mobile customers to use SMS to communicate with the contact center; have those SMS messages routed, recorded, and reported on, the same way as other media types; enable contact center agents to reply using SMS; and enable notifications to customers to be sent via SMS.
CIC, which already includes the ability to manage calls, faxes, e-mail, and Web chats, will now include proactive “push” features that, for instance, enable a bank to send an SMS alert when checking account funds reach a customer-selected threshold.
CIC will also include routing features that will enable customers to send SMS messages, such as a request for a hotel confirmation number and address while traveling, which would then be routed, recorded and reported on the same way as any other interaction type.
“As the number of landlines in the United States has been surpassed by the number of mobile lines the customer care industry has struggled to keep pace with consumers who increasingly expect technologies such as SMS,” said Ken Landoline, vice president of research for Synergy (News - Alert) Research Group. “As the first to develop a Windows-based, all-in-one multi-channel contact center platform, Interactive Intelligence is in a prime position to maximize the value of SMS for contact centers and their customers.”
Interactive Intelligence plans to release its new SMS features by the end of Q4 2008. It will be offered through the company’s global channel of more than 300 resellers.
Greg Galitzine is editorial director for TMC’s (News - Alert) IP Communications suite of products, including TMCnet.com. To read more of Greg’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Greg Galitzine
