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What to Look for in a Secure Senior Living Community or Hotel UC Solution

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Caregiving, Hospitality and Security go hand in hand… Every resident in a Senior Living Community has unique needs, just as the hospitality industry strives to offer personalized experiences to every guest.

No business can afford to lose the confidence of its customers, but lost confidence comes at an even higher cost when families have placed their loved ones in your care – and every hotel guest expects to be as secure as they are in their homes.

Yet the reality is that senior living communities and hospitality providers have a lot to focus on behind the scenes to deliver that level of security.

  • Cybersecurity efforts include preventing data breaches from outside the corporate network (including data stored in the cloud) and protecting residents and guests from man-in-the-middle attacks and other forms of phishing and espionage when using the property’s Wi-Fi network.
  • Then there is the physical security of residents and guests, which can be enhanced through digital keycards and IP-based security cameras.
  • Real-time security during emergencies is another critical consideration, involving everything from real-time text alerts to ensuring that 911 services work in every room or location.
  • Finally, there is the simple right to private communications, from encrypted voice calls to messages immediately erased when a guest checks out of a hotel.

What to Look for in a Senior Living or Hospitality UC Solution

While no single vendor can address all security touchpoints, it’s essential to partner with providers that are vigilant in bringing the latest security technologies and compliance requirements to bear on their solutions.

When you choose unified communications (UC) and voice solutions, whether a single phone or a complete UC platform, you should be assured that those solutions meet the most stringent security standards for your industry:

  • The best solutions meet the compliance requirements for both Kari’s Law, which mandates that every multi-line telephone system (MLTS) can easily make 911 calls from any phone, and the Ray Baum Act, which ensures that location information such as room number is passed on to emergency dispatchers during a 911 call.
  • During emergencies, a mass notification messaging solution supporting real-time alerts via multiple possible outlets (desktop messaging, email, text, billboard signage, paging, voice-activated loudspeakers, mobile or SIP-DECT) keeps residents, guests, and staff safe and informed.
  • Details matter… Most cyberattacks and data breaches are the results of little things that were overlooked, from outdated software to setting up weak security passwords.

Residents and guests deserve great accommodations and excellent service. If they don’t feel safe, they won’t be comfortable, and they may not return.

Learn how Mitel solutions can provide your residents, guests, and staff with a comfortable, secure communications experience. Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Attn. DC Region Financial Services Firms: Check Out the 2023 eGuide to Improve Client Experience and Grow with UC

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TCI Serves Leading Banks and Credit Unions Across the DC Region

Financial organizations must innovate to compete, which is why you need to plan ahead – and stay ahead – of emerging technology trends.

Today’s unified communications technology can help your bank or credit union stay on top of customer demand, achieve compliance objectives, and help differentiate your organization in the marketplace.

In this guide, we provide valuable insights into successful Customer Experience and Unified Communications strategies that will enable you to deliver greater connection, personalization, and convenience.

Learn about…

  • Transformational UC and Setting Up for Success
  • Analyzing Insights to Keep Pace with Customer Demands
  • Connection is the key to Successful CX and EX
  • Applying UC to Financial Services: The Benefits to Users and Customers
  • Omnichannel Communications: Faster Decisions and Better CX
  • Back-Office Processes That Deliver Front-End Service
  • 2023 and Beyond: The Future of UC in Finance
  • Protect Your Future with the Right UC Investment

eGuide: Powering the Digital Journey with Mitel Financial Services Solutions

Let’s talk about new ways to serve your customers and compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Improve Your Technology Performance with High-Speed Cabling & Wireless Networks

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TCI has 40+ years of experience designing, building, and maintaining flexible cable and wireless infrastructures that support voice, data, video, security, and multimedia systems…

One-Stop-Shop for Cabling

  • Inside & Outside Cabling
  • Rack and Cabinet Layout, Design, Installation
  • Pathway and Conduit Design, Installation
  • Fiber Optic Design, Installation, Testing
  • Copper Design, Installation, Testing
  • CAD, Documentation, Labeling
  • Testing and Certification
  • Ongoing Support

And Wireless Solutions…

We extend your cable infrastructure with Secure Wi-Fi to allow your employees to work anywhere in your building or campus with convenient, worry-free access to the Internet or your local IT resources. Our Wireless team covers it all…

  • Wireless Site Surveys
  • Wireless Coverage RF Testing
  • Optimized Coverage Maps
  • Access Points | Placement and Cabling
  • Wireless Security
  • Testing and Certification

TCI Experts Manage All the Details

Whether you need to connect a new building, renovate a space, or bring more mobility to your business, TCI has the experience and expertise to deliver your cable and wireless projects on time and within budget.

Learn more about our network infrastructure solutions. Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

TCI’s Popular Cloud, On-Site or Hybrid Voice Subscription Supports Customized Communications and Improves Customer Experience

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Acquiring an enterprise-level phone system typically requires a hefty CAPEX investment or lease. But now TCI offers a budget-friendly way to simplify your Communication and Collaboration needs as a predictable OPEX subscription.

Why Subscribe to TCI Hosted Voice?

  • Only pay for the number of users you have now – scale up and down as needed
  • The latest software/security updates are included
  • Deployment flexibility – You can choose the best arrangement for your needs: On-Prem, Private Cloud, or Public Cloud
  • Choose your calling, collaboration, video, and contact center user features and permissions
  • Make budgeting predictable and reduce your upfront costs

TCI deploys the precise mix of communication, collaboration, and contact center applications you need – without the big upfront price tag.

  • No need to combine tools from multiple vendors – TCI delivers an end-to-end on-site phone and unified communications solution from a single provider.
  • Mobile-first IP Desktop Phones – we support a range of devices with exceptional HD audio quality, one-touch Bluetooth pairing, and seamless integration with your mobile phone.
  • Flexible, Easy-to-Manage Platform – Web-Based Management ensures administrators can deploy a multi-site solution from their web browser.

For more details on TCI’s Hosted Voice subscription plans, contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Excellent Voice Quality is Critical for Hybrid Work

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In our current ‘work from anywhere’ world, a good chunk of the population has come to rely on smartphone apps and softphones to stay connected. This means delivering the best Voice Quality (VQ) possible has never been more critical.

For IT teams, guessing the VQ user experience can be like flying in the dark. You think it is ok, but do you know how users are actually experiencing their VQ? If a user complains about VQ, can you quickly determine the root cause? Can you measure the severity and impact of that poor quality?

3 Reasons why delivering good VQ in a hybrid work world can be challenging…

1. Inconsistent Technology – With some employees working from home and others in the office, there can be inconsistencies in the technology used for communication, including several different platforms and devices. Add apps and softphones to the mix, and gaining visibility into performance takes a lot of work.

2. Connectivity Issues – Remote workers may experience connectivity issues due to poor internet connections, leading to delays or dropped calls, which can affect the quality of the call. Finding workarounds to poor performance is very common and can include dropping videos, not sharing, and even resorting to a cell phone to complete a call.

3. Lack of Environmental Control – When employees are in different locations, it can be challenging to control their work environment. For example, they may need access to high-quality microphones or headsets in certain situations. In other cases, the environment can be a challenge, from a noisy open workplace to parents working from home with children or a remote worker trying to take a meeting in a crowded coffee shop.

The consequence of all these issues is poorer interaction and an opportunity lost to close a ticket or make a deal properly. VQ is not only about user satisfaction or comfort but also about user productivity and business efficiency and success.

You can take steps to mitigate these challenges and improve the hybrid work VQ experience with Mitel’s MPA Tools…

  • Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA) – This fault and performance management solution proactively monitors and manages your entire network. Its deep analytics can help answer any question that you might have about overall performance and VQ. It can also quickly identify VQ and network quality concerns before business-affecting outages arise.
  • Extended VQ Monitoring for Quick Troubleshooting – MPA includes deep VQ cause visualization capabilities that include VQ correlation graphs that quickly point you toward the root cause of a problem, allowing you to spot trends. Detailed reports help quickly identify and assess VQ. Reports demonstrate performance and help with forecasting, planning, and load balancing. MPA also delivers detailed information that can be easily shared with key stakeholders, including in-depth reporting for softphone VQ in MPA Plus.
  • MPA Plus – This tier ensures that mobile and desktop MiCollab softphone VQ are captured in MPA. This data is fully integrated into the existing MPA VQ analysis and reports. MiCollab Mobile Clients (Android, iOS) and MiCollab Desktop Client (Windows or MAC) are supported. MPA includes VQ cause visualization trunk traffic and MiCollab audio, web, and video (AWV) utilization reports to beef up capacity for better performance. These reports are easily downloaded and shared, and you can also see usage reports for AWV.

Download the Mitel MPA Brochure here

Take the guesswork out of determining the VQ user experience… Overcome performance challenges with Mitel’s MPA Tools. Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

4 Call Center Agent Performance Metrics You Might Be Overlooking

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Transforming your call center into a thriving hub of customer satisfaction requires the right blend of efficient agents who can effortlessly meet customer needs. But have you considered the untapped power of agent performance metrics?

These four overlooked or, at the very least, underestimated metrics hold the key to unlocking a data-driven strategy that maximizes your agents’ contributions and revolutionizes your customer experience.

1. Average Hold Time

Average hold time is a crucial metric that measures the duration a call center agent keeps a customer on hold during an inbound call. Unsurprisingly, long hold times can swiftly lead to customer frustration and a diminished experience.

When assessing agent performance, it’s imperative to investigate their average hold time and identify any red flags. Elevated hold rates may indicate a need for assistance or additional training, struggles locating essential information to assist the customer, or delays caused by sluggish or limited technology. While some hold time is understandable, consistently high hold rates warrant a thorough evaluation.

Hold times significantly impact the overall average handling time of customer interactions, a vital key performance indicator (KPI) for evaluating the center’s operational performance. Excessive hold rates can disrupt a call center manager’s ability to appropriately staff their team and effectively develop agent schedules and forecasts. Call centers can enhance customer satisfaction and operational efficiency by addressing and optimizing hold times.

2. Answer Rate

Answer rate measures the percentage of calls an agent successfully answers out of the total number of calls they are presented with. It plays an important role in determining the overall service level of the call center and provides valuable insights into an agent’s accessibility compared to their teammates.

While a high answer rate indicates good availability, it’s important to note that accessibility alone doesn’t guarantee the effective resolution of customer issues in a timely or satisfactory manner. However, analyzing answer rates can shed light on agent activity. If agents are seen to be procrastinating or engaging in non-essential tasks, leading to delays in answering inbound customer calls, it presents clear opportunities for improvement and optimization. Call centers can enhance their overall performance by addressing these issues and providing a better customer experience.

3. Average After-Call Work Time (ACW)

A call center agent’s responsibilities continue after hanging up with a customer. They often must fill out necessary fields regarding the purpose of the customer’s call, how they handled the issue, and whether further assistance from a manager was required. This post-call work, known as After-Call Work (ACW), also includes the time agents must take a breath, refocus, and prepare for the next incoming call.

By monitoring ACW, team leaders can identify agents who complete post-call tasks exceptionally quickly or slowly. This analysis can reveal valuable insights, such as discovering individuals who have found more efficient ways to handle these tasks than their peers. On the other hand, extremely short ACW times might indicate that agents are not taking detailed notes or completing all necessary after-call activities.

Additionally, excessive ACW durations can signal that agents struggle with inputting information promptly or may even intentionally avoid taking customer calls. In such cases, it becomes crucial to reassess the approach to post-call work and explore strategies to lower the averages appropriately. This might involve automating specific post-call tasks or providing retraining opportunities to help agents work more efficiently. Call centers can enhance productivity and overall performance by optimizing the ACW process.

4. Transfer Rate

Transfer rate refers to the percentage of calls agents transfer to someone else within the organization. Typically, calls are transferred when the answering agent cannot fulfill the customer’s request due to a lack of training or access to the necessary tools.

Understanding the average transfer rate of your call center provides management with a valuable metric for evaluating individual agents. If an agent has a transfer rate significantly higher than the average, it warrants further investigation to determine the reasons behind this trend. It could indicate insufficient training or knowledge to address the specific needs of calls directed to their department.

Comparing an agent’s transfer rate to their average handle time is also helpful in assessing agent productivity. A high transfer rate and a low average handle time might suggest that the agent selectively chooses calls and transfers them to other teams instead of assisting the customer. Conversely, a high transfer rate and average handle time could indicate that an agent is struggling and would benefit from additional coaching and support.

By closely monitoring the transfer rate and its relationship to other performance metrics, call center managers can identify areas for improvement, optimize agent productivity, and ensure efficient handling of customer inquiries.

Transforming raw engagement data into actionable intelligence has never been more accessible and efficient.

TCI works with call center leaders like Mitel and Brightmetrics to empower you with the convenience and adaptability to analyze and explore your UC and contact center data, allowing you to gain deep insights into your agents’ strengths and areas for improvement.

By leveraging historical and real-time dashboards, you can access intuitive drag-and-drop tools to effortlessly visualize performance metrics, plan effective strategies, and enhance agent performance and customer experience with just a few simple clicks.

Brightmetrics analytics, when seamlessly integrated with Mitel-powered systems, allow TCI clients to maximize the value of their data and investments.

Are you ready to apply agent performance metrics to re-energize your call center? Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Want Faster Broadband Services for Less?

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Finding ways to improve high-speed connections for voice and data networking, while cutting costs, is important for the financial health and competitiveness of any business. One way to achieve fast results is to have the TCI team look over your provider’s bills and look for ways to optimize your services.

Our decades of industry experience with the leading carriers, cable companies, cloud providers, and manufacturers give our broadband experts an insider’s view to assist in sourcing best-fit solutions for your business.

As your advocate, we recommend the providers offering the best service with the best pricing. We lay out all the options so you can make a well-informed decision to meet your unique needs.

Based on our continuously updated knowledge of all the product and service offerings, here’s our approach…

  • Undertake a thorough review of your services, invoices, agreements, and providers.
  • Evaluate your spending, find better deals and service arrangements, and uncover savings.
  • Lay out all the alternatives and offer recommendations with a clear projection of your savings.
  • Implement your choices by acting as your agent to place orders with the service providers.
  • Track installation progress and manage escalations.
  • Provide a single point of contact for all your voice, data, and Internet needs.

Improve the financial health and competitiveness of your business by making sure you have the latest services, the most responsive support, and the best pricing.

Contact TCI at (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Keeping Up with the New Generations of Workers and the Electronic Workplace

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The Connected Generations

Millennials and Generation Z, born from the early 1980s to early 2010s, now represent a significant proportion of the workplace. These generations have grown up in a world where the internet, smart devices and instant connectivity are ubiquitous. They expect the same simple, connected communication platforms at work as they’ve been used to in other areas of their lives.

The frequency and preference of communication channels vary depending on the generation. Millennials, for example, often avoid face-to-face interactions in the workplace, with 55% preferring online messaging software and 28% choosing email to communicate. And for Gen Z, frequency is critical. Over 65% say they need regular feedback from their line manager to stay in their job. For business leaders and IT teams, it means finding a simple way to accommodate these diverse preferences to ensure maximum productivity and inclusion.

The Race to Stay Ahead

These changes have brought an influx of applications and communication channels, which can negatively impact productivity. Using disparate systems will slow down a business. When systems aren’t compatible, transferring data and knowledge from one program to another or person to another can be arduous. And for IT teams, staying on top of management and training to use the systems takes even longer.

Plus, employees are less than impressed with the daunting number of channels. Almost a quarter of IT professionals have found that the communication options available can overwhelm staff. It also makes tracking information harder and more time-consuming, forcing a long search across platforms to see the details needed. The solution is simple: implement one easy-to-use tool.

Today’s IT departments are under more pressure than ever. From the growing demands of the workforce to disparate systems, the current day-to-day workload is complex and time-consuming. TCI recommends exploring a solution that unifies communication into one platform across the whole business – simplifying life for your IT teams and the workforce.

Choose to Embrace the Future

TCI offers unified communications and collaboration solutions that support IT teams. We give you the power to choose which systems to make available and how to roll them out. Our flexible approach lets you choose on-prem, cloud, or hybrid, when to upgrade, and which systems to make available to which employees. We’ll work with you to uncover your unique business requirements before tailoring a solution to meet them.

Are you ready for the evolution of the electronic office? We’re here to help you drive your business forward.
Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

Contact Center Innovations… Transform Your Bank or Credit Union’s Customer & Employee Experience

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The two digital transformation opportunities that promise the most significant impact for banks and credit unions are reinventing their contact centers and branch and office operations. We’ll focus on how banks can capitalize on each opportunity with Mitel Financial Services Solutions.

Creating the Customer Experience of the Future

The role of a bank’s contact center is evolving from focusing on customer problem resolution to becoming a hub for comprehensive customer relationship management. For contact center managers, this transition requires that they meet new customer, management, and employee expectations.

  • Customers expect various services to be provided by knowledgeable agents who have the skills, product knowledge, and resources to identify the right solution for them and implement it efficiently.
  • Bank Management wants their contact center to deliver efficient, personalized service. They also need agents to possess product knowledge and telesales expertise to meet sales objectives. And they expect agents to accomplish both goals while ensuring every transaction mitigates potential fraud and meets security and compliance regulations.
  • Employees desire their contact center managers to empower them to successfully achieve these goals while providing them the flexibility to maintain a work/life balance. Like many businesses today, banks struggle with employee retention, putting two fundamental goals — customer service and compliance — at risk.

Call centers must rise to these new expectations quickly without increasing staff. Thankfully, they can count on TCI’s local expertise and Mitel’s technology to help meet everyone’s expectations.

Providing Personalized Service via Self-Serve Channels

Mitel’s MiContact Center Business is an omnichannel customer experience management platform that gives financial institutions the tools to deliver personalized service on a customer’s preferred channel, be it phone, email, SMS, Web chat, chat/voice bot, social media, etc.

Mitel Virtual Agent – a Google Cloud Contact Center AI-powered tool that works with MiContact Center Business – provides an informal chat or voice bot to act as a virtual agent, delivering services, promoting new products, and providing personalized customer experiences – all without human intervention.

Banks can also leverage Mitel’s self-service Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with their contact center with optional speech recognition that helps identify the customer’s intent, segment, authenticate, and route customers to the best agents to handle the request. Customers searching for simple information can find it by chatting with the virtual agent without speaking to live agents.

Integrating virtual assistants like PolyAI with Mitel’s MiContact Center Business personalizes the service, reduces call volumes, lowers call abandonment rates, and allows agents to dedicate their time to helping customers with more complex requests.

Empowering Call Center Agents with Up-to-Date Customer Intelligence

When you’re accountable for customer relationship management, context is everything. The better you understand a customer, the better you can meet their needs.

That’s why Mitel Contact Center and unified communications solutions integrate seamlessly with CRM solutions like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zendesk, ServiceNow, Freshdesk, Oracle, and SAP. While speaking to customers, agents can access CRM intelligence to understand their history, preferences, and buying behaviors. In addition, Mitel integrations with solutions like Jack Henry and Bankerv provide agents with CRM intelligence via screen pops that include member details, contact history, and recommended responses.

These CRM and digital banking integrations drive improvements in agent productivity and contact center metrics in two ways:

  • Agents can resolve customer issues faster, improving service quality and metrics like first–contact resolution, call transfer rates, and net promoter scores.
  • Agents can upsell and cross-sell products more effectively, improving sales per hour and net sales metrics.

Mitel’s MiContact Center Business supports customer-based routing to empower agent success further. If specific agents are better suited to handling certain customers and issues, customer-based routing automatically routes a caller to the agent best equipped to serve them.

And by providing every agent with Mitel’s MiVoice Business and collaboration tools, they can efficiently bring additional expertise to resolve complex issues. Agents can quickly search for available experts and collaborate with them in real-time via phone, messaging, or video. And if they need to transfer the customer to that expert, they can do so with the click of a button.

Schedule time with TCI’s local experts to learn how Mitel Financial Services Solutions can help your contact center thrive in the digital age, improve your bottom line, and adhere to security, compliance, and fraud mitigation requirements. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.
 

How RingCentral Provides Best-in-Class Cloud Voice Security for the Hybrid Work Environment

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During the turmoil of the last few years, businesses of all sizes scrambled to put in place flexible communications and collaboration tools to enable their employees to work from their homes or office. Many pieced together several applications for video conferencing, messaging, and telephony without considering the importance of a holistic security strategy.

Security is essential for UCaaS which spans the cloud provider hosting facility, network infrastructure, applications, and customer business processes. This affords IT departments peace of mind and enables them to focus on core business requirements rather than spending time creating and enforcing security policies across the UCaaS environment.

What Does Security with RingCentral MVP Look Like?

Maintaining customers’ trust in their data handling practices, demonstrating respect for data privacy, and arming customers with dynamic admin controls are top priorities at RingCentral and TCI.

The foundation of RingCentral MVP’s best-in-class security is its secure cloud platform with end-to-end encryption and a robust portfolio of security and compliance certifications.

RingCentral MVP offers compliance with global privacy laws and frameworks such as GDPR and HIPAA, stringent information security protection, and privacy and compliance controls to safeguard your business. Compliance with various industry regulatory standards includes STIR / SHAKEN, Kari’s Law, RAY BAUM’s Act, FINRA, HITRUST, and PCI.

The RingCentral MVP platform also puts a comprehensive set of administrative controls across video, message, and phone systems at your fingertips. You can require meeting attendees to authenticate, limit who can enable screen sharing, and require waiting rooms for your users to approve attendees who can join meetings.

For existing Mitel cloud communications customers, our partnership with RingCentral makes upgrading to the leading UCaaS platform a convenient, cost-effective, and secure business decision.

Arrange a meeting with our Cloud Voice Experts to discuss security and start your upgrade to the cloud. We’ll help you at each step of your journey to RingCentral MVP. Contact us today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.