Time to move up?

If you are running a customer service operation, you have the challenge to manage all inbound requests (e.g. voice, chat, e-mail) efficiently, while keeping pace with the developments in communication technology. Customers are increasingly online with their mobile devices. Only one click is needed to set-up a call to one of your agents. Traditionally, such calls go through the networks of mobile operators. And if you are a customer-friendly business you probably let your customers contact you free of charge, right? However, that comes at a cost, especially when using toll-free numbers. Many mobile operators levy excessive mobile surcharges on such numbers to be paid for by…YOU!

Well, there is a way to bypass these mobile networks (and subsequent high costs) without limiting the accessibility of your customer service operations. Let’s dive into WebRTC as a solution that allows your customers to contact you ‘on the fly’ and free of charge, which is also friendly to your budget.

WebRTC stands for Web Real-Time Communications. It is an open-source web-based technology that enables people to directly communicate through web and mobile apps using audio or video. It works on any browser and device.

By clicking on a button, your customers will be able to call you for free (as with toll-free numbers). A new window will open automatically on whatever device they are using, connecting them straight to your call center, just like any other normal inbound call.

So how does this WebRTC work? On your websites and other media, you will have a ‘Click-to-Call’ button. When your customer clicks the button a connection is set up. Whether this is from a phone, tablet or laptop, your customer can call you directly through his device. From your call center agent’s perspective, there is actually no difference between handling a WebRTC or any other inbound call.

There are several advantages for you as a business:

• Save money from bypassing expensive mobile surcharges to your toll-free number
• Easy to scale across your online channels and geographically
• Relatively easy to implement by adding a pre-defined code/script
• Easy to integrate into your existing call center telephony infrastructure

Even more important: what’s the advantage for your customer? Clients will have more convenience:

• Call you with just one click – no need to dial a number
• Contact you from any device
• No need to install separate apps
• They remain on the website, which might be helpful for support during the call
• Free of charge (except for data usage)

It is expected that WebRTC will become a prominent technology to connect the ‘human voice’. In the USA, WebRTC is already commonly used by companies. As it is such a convenient new technology we are quite sure it will be adopted in the rest of the world too in the near future.

PS. In 2019 we launched Talk, a product based on WebRTC.