CallFire

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Text messaging has transformed the way people communicate. If you need any proof, check out the way it’s transformed fashion. One of this year’s Bloomingdale’s “Nifty Gifty” suggestions is a pair of gloves with the tips of the thumb and pointer finger cut off, so that these digits are unencumbered while texting.

But if you’re using SMS to market with customers, you want to be sure to be doing it effectively. In the video below, I discuss strategies, best practices, and compliance rules, and how CallFire helps manage the tough stuff for you. In the future, I’ll discuss creative ideas surrounding mobile marketing, and how you can leverage the power of CallFire to market your business effectively.

How has text marketing worked for you? Let us know.

by Natalia Klishina

Earlier this year Thomas Friedman published a column in The New York Times titled “Start-Ups, Not Bailouts.” In it, he argued that what America needs is more funding for start-ups and less bailouts for old, floundering enterprises. Why? Because the former, not the latter, are America’s future. Friedman quoted Robert Litan of the Kauffman Foundation, who said, “Between 1980 and 2005, virtually all net new jobs created in the U.S. were created by firms that were 5 years old or less… That is about 40 million jobs. That means the established firms created no new net jobs during that period.” Clearly, a large part of new jobs are in start-ups — which means that there is plenty of room for smart, innovative risk-takers in this market. If you need more proof, just take a look at this TMCnet article about IT job gains. According to the latest IT Employment Index from IT trade group TechServe Alliance, there were more than 10,000 new IT jobs in the month of October, reaching a total of 3,903,000. This is a 2.2% gain from the previous year, compared to a 0.6% total growth in the non-farm sector.

What does this have to do with CallFire? Well, CallFire is one of the companies contributing to this trend, growing aggressively in a market that seems to be stagnant. We have grown by 1076% between 2006 and 2009 and expanded our staff by nearly 30% in the last quarter alone — and we don’t plan to slow down.

Of course, we’re not hiring just anyone; in a small company, hiring the brightest talent is more important than ever. Just look at our new Marketing Director Kim Kohatsu, whose goal is to “develop the brand into something meaningful and indispensable to our customers.” And she is definitely more than ready to take on her role as our brand ambassador: Kim graduated as one of the top 12 Syracuse University Scholars with undergraduate degrees in Advertising, Political Science, and French; she then went on to receive a Masters of Science in Communication from VCU Brandcenter — the leading advertising program in the nation; she has won numerous regional, national, and even international advertising awards; she has worked for clients such as the California Avocado Commission, AAA, the Hilton Family of Hotels, American Career College, Goodwill, Pioneer, Yamaha, TollFreeForwarding.com, and many others. It’s people like her who have helped this company grow so quickly in the past, and that will propel it to become even bigger and more successful in the future.

So if you’re an ambitious, innovative thinker who wants to be part of such a quickly-growing company, join us. We’re currently looking for an API Developer/Engineer to help us develop our API’s and act as a bridge with third-party developers.

-by Jeff (Customer Support Engineer)

Such is the answer I got used to providing to the question, “What do you do?”  Well, how else do you explain product support and account management for an online sourcing / procurement / contract management solution?  That is the work I’ve been doing for the past six years, originally at the small private firm of Procuri, and then at Ariba after it acquired Procuri in 2007.  Now I begin a new adventure in the world of telephony / VoIP / Cloud IVRs.  So now when people ask me what I do, I’ll tell them…  Hmmmm.

Whatever you call it, it’s my job to learn new applications (which I love doing) and to find efficient ways to use them, so that when clients call in and ask questions, they can expect knowledgeable responses.  I also have a knack for calming the excited and anxious, so that any (gulp!) bugs that find their way into the software can be repaired.  I feel very fortunate to be in an environment where innovation and collaboration go hand in hand.

I am also waiting to file my dissertation at UCLA after a rather lengthy hiatus, which I believe makes my committee chair happier than me.  So if anyone is suffering from a bout of insomnia and is looking for a drug-free sleeping aid, take a gander at http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0601/spisak.htm.  OK, I wrote this article a decade ago and it is terribly dated, so please don’t judge me on this little jewel.  My real field of research interest is in the difference between terror and horror theory, especially in theatre, as it evolved from the French classical stage up through modern cinema.  It’s a “smart” way of saying that I like scary movies.

by Natalia Klishina

I was talking to someone at the Digital Family Reunion holiday party the other night, and he was really excited about how well his company was doing: they’d received impressive amounts of funding in the short time they’ve been in existence, and they just closed a really promising deal, which he has been instrumental in arranging. And then this person asked me something I was really glad to hear, “So where do you think we should start donating to?” It’s not something I hear all too often lately, and it really made me think back to what I have done, and am going to do, to give back.

When I was in high school, right about this time of year all the students would be involved in a holiday food drive – camping out local grocery stores, sending out letters to businesses, and donating money of their own. All the collected food was then provided to America’s Second Harvest (now Feeding America) and Samaritan House just in time for the holidays. In 2005, when I was actually there, we beat our old 1999 Guinness World Record by collecting 372,000 pounds of food. And the annual effort continues to this day.

You may say, “So what?” My point, and message, to anyone reading this blog is to urge you all to look at where you are today. If you’re in tech like I am, you’re probably very lucky to have a good job in a growing industry. So recession or not, there are millions of people in the world who deserve some help – and when is a better time to give than the holiday season? An American Red Cross survey found that despite the fact that 86% of respondents said their personal finances were not better than last year’s, 72% planned to donate the same or more than the previous year, so don’t let the recession be your excuse. Mark Zuckerberg – who’s only 26 — just pledged to charity at least half of his estimated $6.9 billion (probably much higher since Forbes last published its numbers) by signing onto Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge. Of course, we’re not all billionaires, but there are millions of us. Over 170 million Americans are expected to donate more than $48 billion this holiday season – with an average donation of $281, or an online donation of $378. But donations are still down from previous years, making conditions even worse for those depending on them.

I could tell you all about how one in eight people worldwide don’t even have access to safe drinking water, how 43.6 million people lived in poverty in 2009 (up from 39.8 million the previous year), how 14.6% of U.S. households were food insecure and faced hunger in 2008 (up from 11.1% the year before) – and so on and so forth. But I’m sure you’ve heard it all. So if you haven’t done so yet, it’s time to pick something to care about – whether it’s because you saw pictures of the starving children in Africa sent to your home, or watched Jack Black talking about saving the pandas. We all have our causes, both global and local.

To help you decide where and how to give this holiday season, here’s a short guide:

Pick a charity wisely.

There are plenty of resources online that can help you decide what charities will use your money effectively. One of my favorites is the American Institute of Philanthropy watch list. The AIP is an independent non-profit charity watchdog and information service that rates charities based on what percent of their budget goes towards actual programs, how much they spend on each dollar they raise, and how open their financial records are. They don’t list all charities, but you can order a sample copy of a full report from them for just $3. Another great resource is Charity Navigator, which will also give you information on local charities and chapters. If you have a finance or economics background, you can do your own research by using GuideStar, which will provide you with IRS Form 990 and 990EZ information from over 640,000 nonprofit organizations.

If you’re unsure about the charity, feel free to contact them.

If you didn’t see the information online, call and request written information. Also ask how much of your donation goes towards general administration and fund-raising, and how much goes towards actual services. According to the American Institute of Philanthropy, anything above 60% is reasonable for program spending, but most efficient charities can get to above 75%. Anything below 40% should not receive your money.

Keep taxes in mind.

Not all charities are eligible for tax-deductible contributions. “Tax exempt” means the charity doesn’t pay taxes and “tax deductible” means the donors can deduct contributions from your tax returns. If you’re not sure, request the charity’s tax exempt letter indicating its status with the IRS. Contributions are deductible in the year they are made, which means that if you donate now, you can file your donations on your 2010 tax returns.

Collect all your receipts.

Do not give cash and be sure to obtain a receipt for tax purposes (see above).

So whatever your interest — human rights, education, animal abuse, or any of a thousand different causes — take some time this holiday season to find a worthy charity and donate. For my part, I’m donating to Human Rights Watch and the local food bank.



At CallFire, we encourage all our employees to give back to their communities. For those of you who’ve followed our blog, you know we walked in Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes, for which two members of our team donated personally. And as we grow, we’re beginning to think about devoting a percent of CallFire equity and profits to nonprofit initiatives we believe in as a company. In the meantime, we’re operating through individual efforts and by helping nearly 500 nonprofits get out their message.

What CallFire can do for you this holiday season:

Non-profit organizations that contact the public to solicit charitable contributions are not required to access the National Do Not Call Registry. This means that if you are a non-profit trying to solicit donations by phone, you most likely do not have to obtain prior opt-in consent, making CallFire an almost limitless tool in your hands. You can create mass voice broadcasts to send out to thousands of people at once in order to let them know about who you are and what you do — and even give an option to “press 1″ to speak to a representative if they are interested in donating or learning more, making it simple and effortless for the donor. Or you can set up a call center and use CallFire’s power dialing technology to connect your agents (or volunteers) faster and more efficiently. The possibilities are truly endless, and they cost mere pennies — which can really help with that fund-raising to program spending ratio. CallFire even provides discounts to certain non-profit charitable organizations. So contact us today to see how CallFire can help you reach your goals by the end of this year.


I’ll leave you with some very wise words I read a long time ago:
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
~Dr. Seuss

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kim, and I’m the new Marketing Director at CallFire. I’m excited to join a team of such passionate and fun individuals. In my first week, I’ve already attended a networking event that we sponsored, exchanged a non-denominational Secret Santa gift, eaten really good “welcome to the team” pizza (with my favorite topping, sausage), helped decorate the Christmas tree, and—oh yeah—worked on new marketing initiatives for the company.

As part of my duties, I’ll also be the newest contributor to the CallFire blog. So if you’re new to Cloud Calling, we can take this adventure together. Feel free to leave any burning questions you may have about CallFire in the comments, because it will probably benefit both of us to know the answers

Before joining CallFire, I was an ad agency copywriter, a search marketing analyst, and even a Wheel of Fortune champion. Looking forward to seeing what the future brings…

The CallFire team is looking forward to the third annual Digital Family Reunion holiday party tomorrow! We’ve mostly been going to tech start-up events lately, so it’ll definitely be exciting to network with hundreds of people in all sort of industries — from media, to finance, to education. Digital Family has put together a great way for business and technology professionals to expand their connections in Southern California and “to make a positive impact both locally and globally.” We can’t wait to meet everyone at the party and see what sorts of great ideas we can come up with for 2011 and beyond.

Event info:
Wednesday, Dec. 8 at 6-11pm
Wokcano (1413 5th St., Santa Monica — walking distance from our office)

CallFire is actually doing something really cool for this event! Instead of sponsoring a showcase table, we’re offering to send out an SMS Blast to participants shortly before the event, with Google Maps directions and venue information — both as a reminder and as a resource. We thought it would be a great way of showcasing something very simple that you can set up in just a few moments with CallFire SMS Broadcasting. Keep us in mind for the next time you’re hosting an event!

It’s great to see Coloft on the list of sponsors again. Last time we saw them was for the TechZulu Spotlight: LA Tech event at UCLA we went to last month. Names and faces get very familiar in the small world of Los Angeles tech. I’m also hoping to meet some people from WITI — being a woman in technology myself. And speaking of making a positive impact globally, I’m surprised and excited to see Room to Read on the list of sponsors (I thought they were in San Francisco). If you don’t know about Room to Read, you certainly should find out more. It’s an international non-profit organization that works with local communities and organizations in developing countries all around the world to increase literacy rates among children and gender equality in education. If you agree that world change starts with educated children, check out their website and donate!

by Natalia Klishina


There has been a lot of talk lately about trying to balance the cost-effectiveness of an automated IVR system with the responsiveness of a live call center. Customer dissatisfaction has been growing at alarming rates in the last few years, with the American Management Association finding that 68% of clients cease doing business with a company because of bad service. And 20% of the population has stopped using a particular credit card because of the waits involved in its customer service phone lines. This numbers spikes to 26% for high-income customers that know they are of high value and can go elsewhere. And if people complain about credit card hotlines, they have probably never experienced the bloated monstrosities that are government organization IVRs. The DMV, the state department, the immigration and naturalization agencies — they all make you want to kill something. We’ve all had experiences with automated answering systems that have been burnt into our memory like some terrible nightmare. However, IVR systems don’t have to be like that. For some reason, we seem not to realize that live customer service can often be just as terrible as any machine. We’ve somehow deluded ourselves into thinking that human beings simply must provide a much better customer service experience. Sometimes this is true, but it also comes at a much higher cost — both to the company, and often to the consumer, as well.

Let’s look at a company that’s probably more known for its excellent customer service than an actual product: Zappos. Zappos hires thousands of real live human beings to answer their phones. They have no scripts, they have no time limits, they’ll even pretend to be your friend (and that’s something we’re all very used to and comfortable with here in LA). And Zappos does something very unique when hiring its agents. After a few weeks of immersive training, they all get offered $1,000 (on top of compensation for the amount of time they’ve worked) to QUIT. This number originally started out as $100, went up to $500, and is scheduled to eventually surpass $1,000. Here is where many of you are probably scratching your heads, but anyone with hiring or management experience might think, “That’s brilliant!” Why? Because it weeds out people for whom $1,000 is worth more than their commitment to the company, helping maintain an energetic, customer-service-oriented culture. (For those of you wondering, about 10% of new agents end up taking up Zappos on their offer.)

Unfortunately, we can’t all do this; it simply wouldn’t be cost-efficient for most companies. According to a psychologist at International Business Machines Corp., the average cost per contact between an agent and customer is between $3 and $9 (compared to 5-7 cents with an automated system), which adds up VERY fast. For a company like Zappos, whose whole reputation stands on the quality of its customer service, the benefits outweigh the costs, but that doesn’t extend to everyone else. For example, back in 2007 Wal-Mart tried to completely remove its customer service number from its website. After a sizable backlash, they settled for burying the number in a hard-to-find spot – à la Amazon’s strategy. This is actually a very popular approach amongst retailers these days. For them, the financial benefits of providing live customer service on a sufficient scale simply wouldn’t cover the costs. This is the point where a large proportion of the exasperated public starts shouting that companies should care more about their customers than about making money, and so on and so forth, perhaps with some choice expletives included. Let’s get real here, though. People don’t shop at Wal-Mart for its customer service; they shop there because it’s cheap. And one of the ways in which they can afford to be cheap is by cutting down on customer service costs. Unfortunately, this is the real world, and there are necessary trade-offs in it. Companies would simply go bankrupt if they didn’t care about costs – and then where would you get your $38 Wal-Mart Pre-Lit 6.5’ White Artificial Christmas Tree this holiday season?

So yes, automated IVR systems are necessary, but they are not a necessary evil. What people don’t seem to realize, is that these systems don’t have to lead to bad customer service. Columnist for TMCnet Tracey Schelmetic writes that one of the best customer service experiences she’s ever had involved calling an American Airlines toll-free lost luggage recovery line and dealing with a speech-recognition-enabled IVR. The system helped her locate her luggage when the live human beings working at American Airlines had lost it. The lesson here is that IVR doesn’t have to be unpleasant to deal with – IF designed right. This, of course, raises the obvious question: What tools might you use to design an IVR? (Like CallFire’s very own IVR Designer. And of course, How do you design it right?

1. First, know what the ultimate purpose of most IVR systems is: Provide answers to frequent questions (like location and hours of operation) and solutions to simple problems (like finding out account balances or the status of deliveries), and direct callers to the appropriate agent for anything really complex or fraught with emotion, i.e. conversations involving fraud, accidents, injuries, etc.
2. Don’t offer too many options, so that customers become annoyed. For most people, four is pretty much the limit before their memory gives out and they no longer know what option 1 was. If you find yourself using up all the digits, and then even creating subsets, your customers will probably either be silently crying in a corner, frothing at the mouth and screaming expletives, or kicking their puppy and/or kitten. In any case, they’ll probably swear to never resort to dealing with you again. Another suggestion here would be to let the customer know right away, “please listen to the following #__ options.” That way they can mentally prepare themselves. (This is something Asurion does that’s been well-received.)
3. Offer self-service capabilities online as much as possible. Have a visible and helpful FAQ section, simplify every process, make things idiot-proof, etc. The best customer service is sometimes eliminating a need for one.
4. Learn to plan for high-volume call spikes. If your IVR always says, “we are experiencing an unusually high level of calls,” then it is no longer unusual, is it? Hire more agents or look into contracted services that will take messages for your during these spikes.
5. Get outside (and inside) opinions on FAQs.  Talk to your agents and see what simple questions they’re always answering and would like to see automated. Talk to your customers and find out what they think. Get as much feedback as possible, analyze it, and use it to improve your system.
6. Use humor and a relaxed tone (if appropriate to your company). For example, Geek Squad used to have an IVR system that, after listing all the regular options, said, “press five to hear a PC that has stopped working being fired from a cannon into a lake full of hungry piranha fish.” When you pressed five, you would actually hear the simulated noises. It’s reminiscent of the Office Space scene where the evil printer finally meets its demise at the hands of Peter, Michael, Samir, and a baseball bat – and it’s also funny. It helps with some of that frustration that customers calling into Geek Squad are undoubtedly experiencing when their electronic equipment ceases to function right.
7. Along the lines of the above point, personalize your IVR system. Almost all businesses use some sort of IVR system, and yet almost none of them record creative messages that reflect the company culture or say something unusual and memorable. For businesses where a large proportion of customer contact is through a contact center, this is a crucial opportunity to affect brand perception. If humor is appropriate for your company, use it. If not, think of something else. For example, Novotel – a hotel all about the right kind of ambiance – would say, “Life is stressful enough. While you are waiting for an agent, take these few seconds to breathe deep, refocus, relax, refresh.” Corny? Maybe. Better than a generic message? Definitely.
8. Use great voice talent.  This may or may not come as news to you, but who voices your IVR really matters. When insurer Aflac replaced a “cold and inconsistent” voice with a middle-aged female voice that sounded much warmer and more conversational, it saw a rise in phone calls, but a drop in callers wanting to speak to a live agent. It also found in a survey that customer satisfaction amongst callers rose by 7%. Similarly, Asurion hired a female actress, coached her to inflect her speech the way that an experienced live agent would, and recorded her voice, resulting in a 5% increase in customer satisfaction and a reduced call time due to customers using the automated system before asking to be transferred.
9. Tailor IVR shortcuts for power users.  If you have high-priority customers who are important to the company for whatever reason, consider providing them with another phone number or transfer code. This may or may not align with your company values, but it is efficient.
10. And finally, ALWAYS provide the option to speak to a representative, or clearly state between which hours one will be available. A good idea would probably be to make pressing zero that option, as that’s the number most people associate with reaching a representative. Remember, making it too hard to reach live help is the #1 mistake companies make in introducing self-service.

So keep all these in mind and start building a more cost-effective, responsive IVR system today with CallFire’s Hosted IVR.

CallFire is hosting a Do-It-Yourself lead-generation webinar series for real estate businesses and agents on Tuesday, December 7th and Wednesday, December 8th. Both days, sessions will begin at 11:00am PST, and Tuesday’s session will be followed by a 12:00pm short session. One of CallFire’s experienced real estate consultants will show participants how to use Cloud Call Centers, Power Dialing, IVR, and Voice and SMS Broadcasts to broaden their reach quickly and simply.

The Tuesday 11:00am PST session will cover how to use Cloud Call Centers and Power Dialing. This includes instructions on how to create an easy-to-use virtual call center that will quickly connect agents to customers; You will also learn how to upload an Excel list of existing and potenctial customers, and how to monitor agents and hit customer contact and sales quotas.

The Tuesday 12:00pm PST session will cover Voice Broadcasting. This will include instructions on how to upload an Excel list of existing and potential customers, how to set up special event and appointment reminders, and how to let potential clients know about homes that would be a good fit for them.

The Wednesday 11:00am PST session will cover IVR (Interactive Voice Response). IVR can be used in conjunction with advertising to set up services such automated answering machines that allow callers to enter property numbers they are interested in, listen to further information about the property, and leave contact information for follow-up purposes.

To sign up, e-mail sales@callfire.com with “Real Estate Webinar” in the subject field, or sign in on our Webinar page on the day of, right before the webinars begin. Feel free to include any questions you want answered during the webinar in your e-mail. For more information, please call 877.897.FIRE.