Every day, millions of people make calls to large companies -- banks, airlines, mobile carriers, etc -- to speak to a customer service representative. For consumers, these calls amount to a dreaded chore and a considerable loss of time. For companies, these calls can translate into billions of dollars of annual operating costs.
As consumers, all of us are familiar with the flaws in the current system: Frustrating phone menus, waiting on hold, endless transfers between agents and repeating information you've already punched in.
And if your company has a call center, you're all too familiar with the consequences of these flaws: Longer, unresolved calls and declining goodwill from your customers. The former is a long-standing challenge; the latter seems to accelerate monthly as social media facilitates 'spreading the word' like never before.
As entrepreneurs who love a tough problem, we set out to fix this one. In 2007, we developed ground-breaking technology that automatically maps any set of phone menus. We started building a database of these phone menus, which has now grown to over 500 North American enterprises.
In 2008, we launched a consumer service that turns any phone menu into a visual interface, enabling callers to navigate those phone menus visually from their browser or mobile screen, select any point, and then be connected directly to the person they need. That service has since won many awards from the industry and accolades from the press. More importantly, it has routed millions of minutes of calls on behalf of consumers.
Along the way we learned a lot about connecting callers with companies. Consumers told us what frustrated them. Companies told us what features they would love to have. Companies also told us why, in so many cases, their hands are tied. So, in 2009 we created the Fonolo Enterprise Solution which takes a radically different approach from anything the industry has seen before. It is an approach that...