Fonolo skips to market with “deep-dialing” for enterprises

Toronto-headquartered Fonolo, a subsidiary of privately-held FōnCloud Inc., has unveiled a hosted enterprise offering that incorporates “deep dialing” into a company’s own website, allowing users to skip phone menus and get to the right person. But one analyst says challenges remain in getting the business model right for prime time. “Fonolo has been at this a while, and doesn’t yet have an established business model – it’s difficult to monetize this,” says independent telecom analyst Jon Arnold of J Arnold & Associates, who also acts as an unpaid advisor to the company. With deep dialing, Fonolo rings the user’s phone and connects the two parties, whereupon callers can navigate a company’s phone menu visually and reach any point in that menu with a click. The company also has a free consumer service, but the real focus is on the enterprise. “The consumer service is not how we make money as a business – that’s more a showcase for the technology,” says Shai Berger, CEO and co-founder of Fonolo. “The main focus of the company is the corporate product, which allows people to use our technology to improve their customer service.” Other services include: "quick tones", which automatically enter account numbers; a new web-based call recording interface; and a call history function that keeps a log of all calls, thus making it easier to create and review recordings and call notes. Fonolo’s service is also designed to add value by reducing call-centre costs, which it can do without requiring any changes to a company’s existing IVR or call centre infrastructure. “A big inefficiency in call centres is missed navigation,” says Berger. “Customers get impatient and hit zero. Companies typically have about 30% of calls go astray. A visual approach reduces this number, and at a lower cost.” A company can add what is, in effect, a widget to their website, which can then provide visibility into the complete menu tree, allowing the customer to click at any point and gain access from their phone. This could feasibly save a lot of call centre person hours. “In the United States in 2006, over 243 billion minutes were spent talking to call centre agents,” says Berger, quoting data from UK-headquartered analyst firm ContactBabel. “The number is probably higher now. So, while we are seeing a declining cost for voice services and connectivity, the agent time is still there, and we haven’t done a very good job at optimizing that.” The 243-billion minute number is hard to swallow – that’s 462,000 people on the phone, 24/7, all year long. But ContactBabel stands by its analysis. “There are over three million contact centre positions in the US, so 462,000 man years is entirely feasible – 15% of each 24-hour period spent talking with customers is about right,” Steve Morrell, principal analyst with ContactBabel, tells Network Letter. “Big numbers, I know, but they stack up OK.” The question for Fonolo remains – how to crack into that lucrative enterprise market? “Free trials are often a part of an enterprise sales strategy,” says Berger. “We can set up a trial without requiring effort on the customer’s part – they can try it live from the beginning. We will be doing some deals directly, and exploring the channel. Logical partners are those already doing work on call centre optimization. It’s a vibrant ecosystem.” Given the numbers put out by ContactBabel, it makes sense that contact centre professionals are enticed by any application that can potentially reduce churn. “It looks like a really useful application, not just the deep dial, but also the call notes facility,” says Morrell. Berger emphasizes that this is more than deep dialing. “Fonolo is also integrated call history, recording, attaching notes, and quick tones automation,” he says. And Arnold adds that companies are starting to realize that Fonolo is a valuable branding opportunity for their call centres. “It can be a big money saver when you consider that it costs 20 to 30 cents a minute to host a toll free number.” Arnold says that Fonolo can offer deep dialing through direct subscription or incremental sales, or as an application that a business would run for itself. Consumers can also deep dial directly from Android-powered mobile phones, using the “Fonolo for Android” application. “We think that having a client on the mobile device makes it even more applicable, relevant, and handy,” says Berger. “We will have an iPhone application soon.” So far the response to the technology has been favourable. Fonolo has received numerous awards at telecom conferences, and was named one of the “Top 25 Canadian IT Up and Comers” from the Branham Group.

Fonolo skips to market with “deep-dialing” for enterprises

News | 07/22/2009 6:41 pm EDT

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