CallFire

by Natalia Klishina

Call centers have increasingly transitioned to hiring at-home agents lately, with roughly 30% of U.S. centers utilizing remote agents already. Some predict this number will grow to 80% by 2013, which may be a bit steep, but the trend is clearly in that direction. Currently, there are 45 million Americans who telecommute to their jobs. Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, an American Psychologial Association (APA) analysis of 46 studies on telecommuting involving 12,833 employees comes out strongly in favor of the practice, calling it a “win-win” for both employees and employers. The employees are happy to not have to commute and the employers are happy to be getting better results and encountering lower costs.

We know that many of you still remain skeptical, but this is why you shouldn’t be.

You will not lose any control over your agents.

Yep, you read that right. Just because you cannot walk the floor and physically watch your agents doesn’t mean that you will lose any control. In fact, with CallFire’s monitoring capabilities and comprehensive reports, it’s even easier to keep track of your agents online than in person. You can see which agents are currently on the phone, how many calls each agent placed and their duration, and all the notes that they have input for each customer. Still feeling paranoid? You can listen in (or even barge in) on ongoing phone calls, or listen to call recordings at any time (included in the cost). Big Brother at his best.

You don’t have to worry about network security.

All your information is stored on our secure CallFire database, and you — the administrator — are the only one who has access to it. Your agents don’t have any of this information on their own computers, so you can sleep soundly.

Training & feedback is as easy as ever.

We’ve long since entered the Internet age, so there’s nothing you can’t do online. eLearning has become quite prevalent, and it provides a flexible schedule not just for your trainees, but also for you. You can sit down and create training materials and videos whenever it’s convenient for you. As for testing their effectiveness, with all the analytics and recordings right at your fingertips on your CallFire dashboard, seeing results and compiling evaluations is quick and simple. Then just jump on a conference line or a Skype call if you want to have a conversation with your agents.

If you’re still wondering why you should switch, here’s just a few reasons.

Lower costs

You don’t have to rent out real estate to house a call center, or buy all the equipment that’s necessary for it. Most at-home agents have the Internet and phone access required for the job. You’re also probably hiring most of these agents part time, not full time.

Higher productivity

For one, absenteesism and attrition rates decrease: A TelCoa study showed a decrease from 18% absenteesim for in-house agents to 7% for at-home agents; and employee attrition went from 53% to 39%.

On top of that, productivity has been shown to go up by anywhere near 15%. There are a myriad factors contributing to this: employees no longer have to spend time commuting or getting dressed for the office, weather and traffic aren’t issues, costs of fuel and vehicle maintenance are cut, and employees are generally more willing to work longer hours when at home.

Better Workers

At-home agents are of higher caliber: A Frost & Sullivan study found that the average at-home worker is over the age of 35 (vs. 23 for in-house). Also, 80% of at-home workers have some college experience (vs. 30% for in-house), 40% have management experience, and 30% are bilingual. A believer in equal-opportunity? Well, at-home workers are usually 50% male and 50% female.

Higher customer satisfaction

The same TelCoa study mentioned above also found that customers who spoke to at-home agents vs in-house agents were 12% more satisfied with the service. If your customers are happy, they’ll spend more, talk about you more, and generally make your life better.

By now, you should be convinced. The question then becomes not whether this is a good idea, but how to implement it. Here’s some quick advice.

1. Create virtual training materials, whether this be videos, PowerPoint presentations, interactive systems, or simple printable documents. Continue to edit and supplement these as time goes on. Set aside time for individual or group Q & A. Perhaps you may even want to go the route of on-site training if you still plan on all your agents being located in the same city.
2. Compile a list of technical demands: minimum connectivity, hardware and speed requirements, Internet and search engine familiarity, experience with SalesForce, etc. In general, at-home workers should possess higher IT skills than in-house agents.
3. Equipment: what do your agents need, what should they already have, and what are you willing to provide? With CallFire’s cloud call center, all any agent needs is an Internet connection and a phone line (this can even be a cell phone or Skype number).
4. Set clear expectations. How many hours a day do you expect home agents to be dialing? How often do you want them to report back to you? Let them know exactly what working from home means to you.
5. Create a communication structure. Every agent should know how to get in touch with you and be comfortable doing so if they need support. They should also feel like they are part of the company and its community, so make sure they’re included. This may involve occasional events if your agents are located in the same city, or it may be as simple as creating an online conversation forum if your agents are all over the country.
6. Plan out your agents’ schedules. Take advantage of the fact that some people may be willing to wake up and start working at 5am if that means they can end earlier. Also, keep in mind different time zones. This may mean that no one has to get up early or work late.

User Experience Designer wanted.  Check out our jobs page.

About You:
You enjoy working on interfaces that are seen & used by 10,000′s of people around the world. You thrive on designing products & interfaces in ways that are so useful they revolutionize industries. You are a one (wo)man shop that can dig into HTML and CSS to create multi-layer, gradient-laden, professional graphics using photoshop & ALSO create the cross-browser compatible CSS/DHTML/HTML5 driven-pages that house them. You want to change the world in a positive way, by designing for Good & Growth.

About CallFire:
CallFire allows people to build interactive phone systems. In minutes, users can create useful toll free hot-lines, send SMS notification & emergency response phone calls, and even setup cloud call centers with agents located anywhere in the world. CallFire’s text-to-speech engine lets you create database-driven appointment reminders, toll-free information hotlines & outbound power-dialing campaigns for pennies a call.

Salary Range:
$50-$100k + Performance bonuses, per experience.

The ideal candidate:
- You enjoy living in a world of usability optimization and wire-frames.
- You know what CTA and user-acquisition funnels are.
- You have helped develop websites from scratch and have beautiful examples to prove it.
- You believe you can affect our bottom line with elegant, intuitive UI design.
- Techies often call you a UX/UI-Ninja, “experience snob” or design freak.
- You can (by yourself) design simple, powerful interfaces while masking complex functionality.
- Able to design beautiful & information rich marketing UIs such as those on Acquisio, Adwords and CallFire.
- Experience with Photoshop, CSS, Java, GWT, and AJAX.
- Familiarity with HTML5 & Flash a plus.

To apply, e.mail JOBS – at – CALLFIRE – dot – COM with:
- A resume
- 3-5 links to your work
- Salary requirements

You asked for it, and it’s finally here. You can now prompt your CallFire account to automatically charge the credit card on file when your balance dips below a certain amount. You’ll get an e-mail each time an automatic payment is made. Set up automatic payments the same way you previously created low-balance e-mail notifications.

Step 1 – Log into your CallFire account and go to your Account Settings.

Step 2 – Scroll down to the last option and select “Automatically add $10.00 from my card ending in xxxx” in the drop-down menu. (The amount will default to the amount you last deposited.)

Enjoy!
The CallFire Team



/**
 * Serves to provide an excellent job experience in a talented and cutting edge environment.
 * <p>
 * Please check to see that qualifications match your skills and use the method shown in the
 * submitApplication function to apply.
 */
public class CallFireJob extends Startup implements CodeWarrior {

    public String getJobTitle() {
        return "API Developer / Engineer";
    }

    public String getCompanyUrl() {
        return "http://www.CallFire.com";
    }

    public String getCompanyInformation() {
        return "CallFire.com is a cloud telephony startup. " +
                "We’re dedicated to providing high-availability systems, " +
                "beautiful user interfaces, furious developer support and " +
                "unparalleled customer care. We are a unique group of " +
                "intellectuals with aspirations to truly change how companies " +
                "do business.";
    }

    public String getCompanyLocation() {
        return "3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA. Three blocks from the ocean.";
    }

    public String getQualifications() {
        return "Overview:  Great communicator and programmer needed for developing and supporting CallFire API's."
             + "Languages: Java, PHP, .Net "
             + "Skills:    SOAP, REST "
             + "Education: College";
    }

    public String getSalaryRange() {
        return "$60,000 - $90,000";
    }

    public String getBenefits() {
        return "Health, Dental and Profit Sharing.";
    }

    public String getCompanyAchievements() {
        return "INC 500, fastest growing companies #285.";
    }

    public String submitApplication(String contactEmail, String coverLetter, String resume) {
        Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(getMailProperties());
        MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage(session);
        try {
            message.addRecipient(Message.RecipientType.TO, new InternetAddress("jobs@callfire.com"));
            message.setFrom(new InternetAddress(contactEmail));
            message.setSubject("API Developer Job");
            message.setText(coverLetter + " " + resume);
            Transport.send(message);
        }
        catch (MessagingException ex) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to send e-mail");
        }
    }
}

by Jeff Spisak

You may have noticed that CallFire has recently changed its user interface. This was only the first step along the way as we implement new and exciting innovations in our application.

This first enhancement involves the main Campaign Dashboard page. Formerly, all inbound campaigns, including call forwarding numbers, were listed on the Campaign Dashboard. These have been moved exclusively to the My Numbers page (accessible by clicking the Numbers link in the top menu).

You’ll also see an announcement about this change written across the top of the Dashboard, with a quick link to the My Numbers page. It also contains a quick link to the Account Settings page, which you can also get to by clicking the Settings link. This is where you can switch back to the “classic” view, and your inbound campaigns will once again display on the Dashboard.

For now, let’s visit the My Numbers page by clicking on Numbers. Here we will find all of our forwarding numbers. Remember that you can reconfigure your number (change the forwarding number), as well as start and stop the campaign on this page. Tick the checkbox before the Tag name and then click the appropriate link.

Now if you’d like to go back to the former way of viewing things, when the inbound campaigns were listed on the Dashboard, click on over to your Account Settings, and change the option under View Inbound Campaigns to True.

When you get back to the Dashboard, both your inbound and outbound campaigns will be displayed, just like they used to be.

So the choice is yours. You may find it advantageous to keep the inbound campaigns on your Dashboard, especially if you are in the habit of copying inbound IVRs, as it is quick and easy to do this on the Dashboard. However, if you have a great many forwarding numbers that get in your way, you may want these to display only on the My Numbers page for clarity’s sake, in order to keep the Dashboard clean and tidy.

Vive la différence!

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Citibank announced yesterday that it’s closing its call center in Albuquerque. This cost-cutting measure could have been devastating for the area, already hard-hit by unemployment. But the move to homesourcing means that 700 employees can keep their pay and benefits the same, while continuing to answer Citibank’s calls. It’s unfortunate that 50 people will be laid off, but considering the alternative, it’s a smart move by Citi.

Consider these additional benefits:

• The average US call center employee commutes 24 miles a day. Over the course of a 50-week working year, those 6,000 miles amount to two TONS of CO2.

• A physical call center requires 130-200 square feet of space per agent. By homesourcing, a 100-seat call center saves 168,000 kilowatts of energy per year.

• Teleworking case studies, including Holland America Cruise Lines, show that allowing workers to report from home helps productivity go up and sick-leave go down. Employee retention and job satisfaction improve as well.

But you don’t have to have a 750-seat operation to benefit from a Cloud Call Center for outgoing calls or a Hosted IVR for incoming calls. These products are fully scalable, offer detailed reports, and increase efficiency for any size operation. Want to learn more? Join a weekly webinar and have all your questions answered.

by Natalia Klishina

Towards the end of 2010, CallFire was invited to try out the beta of Promoted Twitter. I had originally written a blog article explaining the service and reviewing it. Unfortunately, this article has been removed due to Twitter’s informing us that “during the beta rollout of [their] Promoted Products services, advertisers can’t blog about their experiences using the products.”

Here’s some information on what the service IS for those just researching the topic:

What is Promoted Twitter?

Promoted Twitter is a way for Twitter users to highlight their account or their tweets to the Twitter community — for a price, of course. There are essentially 3 categories this falls into: promoted accounts, promoted tweets, and promoted trends.

Promoted accounts:

Promoted accounts highlight your account as a whole to other users. This can be done through targeting specific keywords in people’s descriptions, or through relying on whatever algorithms Twitter uses to determine whom you’re relevant to (the details of this process still remain a mystery). The way this manifests is through the “Who to follow” suggestions all users see to the right of their feed. Your account will automatically be recommended to users likely to be interested in following you, but you can also add specific interests you want to target.

Promoted tweets:

Promoted tweets highlight not the account, but specific tweets posted by that account. This means that you must first organically post a tweet that includes the keyword or hashtag you want to target. If another user then searches for that keyword or hashtag, and if you are the highest bidder on that keyword or hashtag, one of the tweets you promoted under that campaign should show up at the top of that search. The tweet will have a yellow tag underneath it saying “Promoted by… .” Resonating Tweets will be automatically recommended to interested users in their timelines, but you can also add interests and search keywords for which your tweets will show up.

Promoted trends:

Promoted trends work essentially the same was as promoted tweets, except you also make the hashtag or keyword under which you promoted a tweet into a promoted trend. This then forces that hashtag or keyword into the “Trends” section, and your tweet will always appear at the top of that trend feed. I’ve seen some really creative ways of doing this, and it seems to work best when companies attach a promoted trend to a specific promotion or competition.

Analysis and results unavailable, as per Twitter’s request to be taken down. This post is in no way meant to be a reflection of our opinion of the service, just a summary of what it is.

by Kimberly Kohatsu

Yesterday, the CallFire team sponsored Twiistup 8, LA’s largest tech event. We met so many great people, heard inspiring presentations, and were proud to be among other Los Angeles startups making exciting things happen. As our newest team member Daniel said, “It’s incredible—Everyone here has a good idea.”

CallFire added to the Twiistup fun by holding a scavenger hunt for the chance to win an Xbox and Kinect. We advertised the first clue with posters throughout the venue.

People who texted in got a taste of CallFire’s SMS capabilities, along with their first clue. Our first participant had his answer (50 calls per minute) before registration had even begun!

Once hunters came to the table with the answer, they were handed a card with the second clue. It asked them about to identify one of our political Cloud Call Center clients that was featured in a CallFire case study.

As soon as the hunters had identified the client (Equality California), they were given their third clue, dubbed “the IVR challenge.” They were asked to call into a CallFire Hosted IVR and answer a series of multiple-choice questions. The number they called was a new 855 number, to which one of the hunters, Richard Rosen of FastCall411 happily remarked, “I’ve never called into an 855 number. I am an 855 virgin!” Of course, now he no longer is.

Once the hunter successfully completed the IVR challenge, they heard a message saying that for the last clue, follow CallFire on Twitter. Sometime between 3:00 and 3:30, the final clue would be revealed. Ben Tao of GeoDip set an alarm on his phone to be sure he remembered to check.

It must have paid off. Later that night, as the Twiistup party got underway, Ben’s name was drawn from all the participants, and he won the Xbox.

The CallFire scavenger hunt was great because at its core, it truly was an interactive demonstration of CallFire’s services. One participant told us that he definitely understood what CallFire does, but had fun learning about it along the way. I didn’t pay him to say that, but I didn’t really have to. There were a lot of CallFire goodies that we gave away at our table.

CallFire handed out t-shirts to everyone. Several people remarked how cool they were, and were impressed by the fact that they were American Apparel, not some no-name brand. (We don’t skimp at CallFire.) But that wasn’t all. We offered every participant a free CallFire toll-free number, with 1000 IVR minutes to try out the service. One attendee said, “I don’t want a shirt, give me the minutes!” Not that he had to choose.

On top of the shirts and the numbers, we also displayed frosted CallFire shot glasses, which were wildly popular. Asya Shein of Fusicology said, “That is genius!! I’ve been to a thousand of these events, and I have NEVER seen anyone do this! I’m never getting rid of this!”

The shot glasses got even more popular with the arrival of CallFire’s President, Komnieve Singh. Komnieve brought along a few tasty treats to enjoy inside the shot glasses.

To the far right of that photo is Patrick Vlaskovits, who was the main organizer of Twiistup. We want to thank Patrick for all his efforts, because the CallFire team got so much out of participating, made some awesome connections, and had an all-over good time.

And thanks to everyone who met with us, educated us, inspired us, and drank with us. CallFire loves you.

by Jeff Spisak

Call forwarding: you love it. So much so you’ve bought a forwarding number from CallFire: 555.123.4567. Now you want to use it, so you have it set up to forward to your business number, let’s say that is 444.123.4567. Everyone knows that you can add identifying tags to this on the My Numbers page, but what about the campaign dashboard? When you navigate to that page, all you see are the two numbers sans tags, as in our example below.  Can’t we make that more readable?

Yes, we can! It’s sort of round about, but it does work. Simply click the red stop button to halt the campaign for a minute.

Once the campaign stops and moves to the lower section of your dashboard, the pencil icon magically appears. Click it.

Enter the new campaign name (we’re using Denver) and click Set.

Click the green start arrow to restart your campaign.

And voilà!

Now instead of having to review campaign 555.123.4567 => 444.123.4567, it instead displays as campaign Denver. And that’s all she wrote!

by Jeff Spisak

So you’ve run a campaign and everything went swimmingly. Now you are ready to extract your data and review your findings. There’s just one problem: Excel pulls all your particular data and lumps it all in the same column. Isn’t there a way to make it more readable?

Take heart! The solution is simple and painless. First, let’s take a look at your spreadsheet. Your exported data will show up in a column titled “Extra Data,” where each piece of data that was formerly in its own column now occupies the same column, separated by commas. “Null” indicates the end of the list.

So let’s get this cleared up, and fast! First click the letter of the column containing the extra data (“P” in our example), and then choose the Text to Columns option in the Data menu. Depending on your version of Excel, this option will either be in a drop-down menu when you click Data, or else it will appear horizontally under the Data tab (as it does in this example).

Now when we click the Text to Column button, it opens up the Conversion Wizard. Most of the default options are the ones we want anyway, so just click Next for Step 1.

Now we get to Step 2, and we need to make one important change. Make sure that you change the Delimiter option. The default choice is “Tab,” but we want “Comma,” so that Excel will make a new column each time it sees a comma (see, the engineers didn’t put the commas in there by accident). So check Comma and click Next.

Step 3 looks intimidating! So we ignore it and click Finish.

Um, not sure why we see this. Just click OK.

And bingo! Everywhere we saw a comma, we now see a new column! Of course, you’ll probably have to rename “Extra Data” to something like “First Name,” then rename all the other columns so it makes sense, but that’s that!

And that’s all there is to it!