TCN Adds New Texting Feature to its Contact Center Platform

Short Message Service (SMS), often referenced as simply "text messaging", is quickly becoming a critical component of business communications strategies worldwide. Because of its simplicity, ease of use, and reach, SMS for business purposes has gained widespread acceptance.

TCN, a leading cloud-based call center technology provider, knows the value of quick, efficient, and simple communications. Thus, they have recently added a new feature to Platform 3.0, TCN’s contact center solution, that makes it easier for companies and their teams to deliver a richer experience for customers: the AgentSMS.

Text Messaging for Contact Centers

In today’s digital age, text messaging has not only become one of the most common methods of communication among the younger generation but is also now more prevalent among consumers and business customers. In fact, a survey by Pew Research Center found that mobile phone ownership among Americans has greatly increased--95% of Americans own cell phones, while 77% own smartphones. Texting also emerged as the most widely and frequently used app by the respondents, with 97% of respondents using it at least once a day.  With these numbers, it’s clear that text messaging has emerged to be one of the best ways for businesses to reach out to customers more effectively, thus, enhancing engagement and loyalty. And TCN’s AgentSMS feature, no doubt, can help businesses accomplish such goal.

“AgentSMS is a highly effective communications tool, and we are confident that it will help businesses communicate with their customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way,” said Terrel Bird, the CEO and co-founder of TCN, in a press release. “AgentSMS is just one more tool we’ve added to our comprehensive call center suite to enhance our services, and we are committed to providing the best cloud-based contact center technology to our customers around the world.”

AgentSMS was developed based on feedback from TCN customers. It is fully integrated with TCN Platform 3.0’s business intelligence (BI) suite and does not require the need for additional complicated hardware.

What Businesses Can Expect from AgentSMS

“As methods of interaction change among consumers, so should the channels of communication for those users,” said Mckay Bird, the Chief Marketing Officer of TCN. “TCN enhances the customer experience by creating more communication channel opportunities and equipping contact centers with the right tools to further empower both agents and consumers to seamlessly connect.” In addition to its pay-for-use pricing model and the ability to distribute business SMS both domestically and internationally, below are the key features that make AgentSMS a must-have tool for contact center agents and customer service professionals:

• Business Intelligence (BI) - TCN’s new SMS tool includes customized reporting features and data-driven feedback, which allows businesses to easily view and monitor the impact and progress of a campaign.
• No send limits - With AgentSMS, contact centers can send as many 160-character text messages as they like to customers around the globe. Businesses only pay for what they use, so it’s easy to keep track of and limit costs.
• SMS responses - This feature lets teams issue a call back number for each message sent. This enables recipients/business customers to get in touch directly to an agent via phone call.
• SMS codes - AgentSMS includes standard command codes (such as Stop, Yes, No, and Confirm) to enable quick responses to upcoming appointments and subscriptions.
• Omni-channel - TCN empowers contact centers to provide a true omnichannel customer engagement experience as it allows companies to incorporate voice, texting, and email campaigns into their contact center.
• Wide variety of applications - Contact centers can use AgentSMS for a wide variety of purposes, including overdue payment reminders, emergency alerts, general notification and reminders, marketing promotions, appointment confirmations, and more.

“Of all the commutation channels, SMS is the least intrusive. We view SMS as yet another tool that TCN has added to its comprehensive communication tool belt.  With SMS services, customers can fully optimize their communication outreach efforts via voice, text and email to personally connect with their customers. With the increased rise in mobile users, SMS, social media and email will continue to grow as the first channel of choice to get in contact with consumers,” shared Bird.

No updates or additional steps are required to take advantage of AgentSMS. TCN provides clients regular updates and feature releases to its Software-as-a-Service cloud-based platform, instantly.

TCN also guarantees that they take the security of their customers’ data seriously while it’s in transit, storage, or otherwise in TCN’s possession. Thus, all communication channels and data (not just SMS, but also voice and reporting) travel across TCN’s private and secure network. Additionally, TCN holds their vendors and partners to the same high-security standards to ensure that your data is always secure while working with TCN. To learn more about AgentSMS and how TCN is changing contact center operations worldwide, please visit TCN’s website.

About TCN

Established in 1999, TCN is a trusted provider of communications technology and solutions for the contact center industry. Their cost-effective cutting-edge solutions are trusted by enterprises, contact centers, BPOs, and collection agencies nationwide. These include Platform 3.0, their flagship product, and a range of other contact center tools such as Interactive Voice Messaging (IVM), Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), and Call Distribution.