Hurricane Season: Are You Prepared?

Hurricane Season: Are You Prepared?

Right now, US disaster response teams are scrambling to find new ways to protect communities and businesses during hurricane season – and from the COVID-19 pandemic. Business continuity cannot persevere with outdated systems that don’t have the bandwidth to prepare their clients and employees with a scaled, immediate response when disaster unexpectedly strikes.

By implementing premium, trusted multi-channel communication and conference calling solutions, workflows will remain full speed ahead regardless of the severity of surrounding circumstances.

Weathering the Storm Through Communication

According to TIME, the 2020 hurricane season is already setting records for the earliest named Atlantic storms of their respective places in the alphabet. While tropical storms are flooding in faster than ever before and breaking 15-year-old records, early preparation for firms is key. It can be costly to rely on legacy systems that are not cloud-native and offer antiquated customer management methods of communication. To ensure productivity remains at optimal levels, firms need to employ a multi-faceted solution that offers fully-automated conference calling and large-scale operator-assisted virtual events.

CIA Omnigage’s Omnialert provides multi-channel blast communications, including email, voicemail and SMS. With the power of remote, cloud-based connectivity inherent to CIA Omnigage’s multi-channel communications platform, your firm has the ability to initiate notifications to your entire organization — no matter where they are — within seconds.

With operator-assisted conference calls, continuous, dedicated support is available to participants at all times to gather information and monitor sound quality. This fail-safe strategy assists callers in optimizing workflows and streamlining communication so that momentum is never lost and businesses can function effectively.

Information is Power

While natural disasters cannot be controlled, an abundance of caution can help save firms from going under during these turbulent times. A consistent, 360-degree experience for multi-channel communication engagement is one of the many reassuring benefits for firms. Disasters, from hurricanes to pandemics, should not eliminate consistent client contact and the opportunity for growth. 

Keeping in touch is critical during a crisis. Firms that embrace this ongoing digital transformation with new, innovative technologies that can easily share information and ensure close communication will be those seeing continued success. Peak natural disaster season is quickly approaching and securing communication precautions early will deliver better business results when the next storm hits.

The Importance of Secure Multi-Channel Communications in the Remote Work Era

The Importance of Secure Multi-Channel Communications in the Remote Work Era

With the first half of 2020 behind us, we find ourselves in the midst of a watershed moment in financial services. When approaching customer communication and data management, security has become the top priority for firms across the industry, with most accepting that remote working conditions will be the norm for the foreseeable future.

As we enter what we hope will be a less turbulent half of the year, companies will need to rely on proven multi-channel communication solutions to ensure that business initiatives and client interactions are seamless and, more importantly, in a secure environment. 

Entering Virtual Reality

One of the most palpable changes across the financial landscape has been the transition from in-person meetings and conferences to virtual interactions, which initially created several data security and compliance issues.

According to a recent Greenwich Associates study, nearly 60% of institutional investors believe that large in-person events and conferences will not resume until sometime in 2021. That means financial services firms will need to have the proper protocols in place for virtual corporate access roadshows, large-scale earnings season conference calls, and one-on-one communications with customers. Detailed and accurate reporting, audit trails, compliance workflows, and data integrity are some of the key areas that many firms will also need to address if they haven’t already.

Innovation in Cybersecurity and Communications Technology

In this new ecosystem of work habits and behaviors, multi-channel communication providers must adjust their solutions to address data security concerns and ensure that everything falls within compliance parameters. According to a recent research report by Celent, expectations for a flexible fintech solution have exponentially increased IT budgets and financial institutions are beginning to adjust accordingly as digital technology plays a more central role in business continuity. 

Over the past few months, there have been numerous stories of data breaches on unsecured conference calling solutions, partly because data has not been stored properly. Data gathered through voice, SMS, and email is often stored in a separate, standalone system, leaving information scattered across different locations. Not only does this increase the risk of losing data and creating more information disparities, but it also opens up the potential for more security liabilities.

While data breaches continue to make headlines regularly from popular and well-known multi-channel communication platforms, flexible, secure technology cannot become an afterthought.

Fostering a Productive Remote Workplace

During these times of uncertainty, technology should be a reliable constant. Having the right tools that can be deployed quickly can be the difference between a new client relationship and a lost one.

Since COVID-19’s emergence, cloud-based software platforms that provide integrated communication tools have experienced a drastic uptick in business, particularly those with virtual event-hosting capabilities. Multi-channel communications platforms are redefining the client-customer relationship by unifying CRM systems to optimize workflows and increase collaboration. 

Right now, businesses must focus on maximizing the functionality of their relationship management tools in the pursuit of generating high-value, long-standing relationships in a post-pandemic world. First-class support for inbound and outbound messaging has moved from a luxury to a necessity, and adopting an environment that puts this first will generate longer-term success and greater revenue opportunities. 

The Office of the Future

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to linger, the work from home lifestyle is becoming more commonplace. According to a survey from 451 Research combined with analysis from S&P Global Market Intelligence, two-thirds of polled businesses anticipate long-term work from home policies to continue in a post-pandemic world. The Coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that remote working policies can be effective and efficient with the right tools in place.

Our software development team has been taking advantage of distributed working for over five years. We utilize the same multi-channel tools for internal collaboration, such as daily stand-ups and email distribution, to communicate operational changes to customers. Multi-channel solutions keep momentum flowing, office culture alive, and above all else, bolsters productivity.

These past few months have been trying times for many businesses and workplace dynamics, but it doesn’t have to be. Outsourced technology that ensures business continuity can no longer be just a consideration. It will surprise you just how little you miss the office space when everything you need to communicate and work efficiently is found under the umbrella of one multi-channel communications solution. 

This article was originally featured in ValueWalk

Blast Voice Mail to the Rescue During Hurricane Season

Blast Voice Mail to the Rescue During Hurricane Season

With hurricane season ramping up and two Category 4-5 storms making landfall on the United States, many people in affected areas are dependent on supplies and instructions from emergency service organizations.  However, with millions of people often displaced or affected, this can be a challenge to first responders.

In these times of crisis, many have turned to Blast Voice Mail (BVM).  BVM gives companies the power to communicate with thousands of affected clients instantly.  In chaotic and stressful events as these, time is a valuable asset and BVM helps organize a safety action plan.  Since natural disasters are spontaneous and difficult to predict, emergency service organizations and construction companies must account for lots of moving parts.  With Blast Voice Mail, users can be sure to get their safety message across quickly and clearly, facilitating the complicated process.

Before and during disaster events, a serious problem is the tendency to underestimate the severity of an impending storm.  Using Blast Voice Mail versus email or SMS adds another layer of urgency and allows the caller to vocally convey the gravity of the situation to his/her recipients.  There is a higher probability that a voice message will succeed in its goal, and thus a better chance for people’s safety.

Using An Integrated Dialer As Your CRM

Using An Integrated Dialer As Your CRM

CIA Omnigage provides a one-stop-shop for all customer communication and CRM needs with their Integrated CRM Dialer.

CRM’s are a huge part of any company’s day-to-day operations.  However, the process of using one can become complex and inefficient.  Customers will use a calling service, and then record customer relations in a different CRM.

CIA Omnigage, however, diverges from the herd in this respect.  We provide a one-stop-shop for all customer communication and CRM needs.  With different features like our CIA portal for logging call information, we provide our customers with efficiency and convenience.

Using CIA as a CRM can be achieved in a few ways.  One way is through our note-taking feature on the Integrated CRM Dialer.  When making hundreds of calls, a client does not need to leave the page she is making calls from.  She simply clicks on the contact and takes notes about the call.  If the client did not answer, she can simply mark it as unanswered.

This note-taking feature of our Integrated CRM Dialer allows our customers to stay organized and keep track of their customer relationships under one platform.

To farther enhance the experience of a CRM with CIA, our Integrated CRM Dialer also saves all contact information in the CIA portal.  This ensures that an analyst will not lose track of new customers.  The Integrated CRM Dialer also helps improve customer relationships by allowing the analyst to easily put these contacts into groups.

These contacts will be key to an analyst and require no extra work of her.  All the information stays on the same platform, and the entire process remains simple and uniform.

Finally, CIA also offers a call record log with their Integrated CRM Dialer.  This allows our clients to see all calls they have made and judge their success rates.  It’s a vital piece of what makes CIA Omnigage’s Integrated CRM Dialer product an effective CRM.

CIA Omnigage’s products offer to click to dial services as well as an Integrated CRM features that make the company the top choice for Wall Street banks.  Our reliability and compliance have shined on Wall Street for nearly two decades.  Let us show you how an Integrated CRM Dialer can improve your results.

Using Blast Voice Mail In The Education Industry

Using Blast Voice Mail In The Education Industry

Solutions For The Education Industry

Communication within the education sector is unique in many ways. Outreach is needed for students, parents, faculty, and staff, with multiple messages and multiple audiences. Client Instant Access (CIA) offers a suite of services that provide telecommunication solutions to educators from elementary school to college.

School closures due to weather conditions are a constant challenge for school administrators. Leaders need to communicate with every single student and parent in a school district that classes are canceled. Blast Voicemail from the CIA provides a solution. Using a contact list consisting of every student’s home number, a principal or superintendent can easily record a voice message to deliver news to large numbers of people. Blast Voicemail’s success rate makes it the best solution.

Similarly, in universities, professors often need to cancel a class for various reasons.  In introductory courses with hundreds of students, this can prove to be a challenge. Again, Blast Voicemail can solve this problem, with an instant notification to students that class is canceled. Blast Voicemail is far more useful than simply sending out an email to students because rather than relying on people to check their emails, people receive an actual phone call. This increases the success rate.

Blast Voicemail can also be used to reach out to prospective students at universities. When high school students visit college, they schedule a tour and provide the admissions office their number. College visits are often done in large groups, and students and parents must be reminded of times, locations, and other information.  A great way to address this issue is to use Blast Voicemail an hour or so before the tour. This tactic increases retention and encourages students to get to their tours on time.

Finally, the education industry can adopt a conference calling to conduct college interviews. Often, students apply to colleges from out of state, and admission offices must make arrangements to screen potential applicants.  With conference calling, an admissions office worker, the applicant, and the interviewer (who can be employed at the university) can all easily converse and conduct an interview remotely.

Related Article: Keeping Alumni Connected