In December 2009, a company called Face It Corp. commissioned Opus Research to interpret results of a user survey designed to discover respondents attitudes toward a Web site and smartphone application that streamlines the process of contacting and interacting with their favorite businesses. The description of the application promised to “grab information you want or put you directly in touch with an operator at that company” without going through IVR systems or being kept on hold. It was a well-understood idea, thanks to initiatives by the likes of Lucyphone, Fonolo and Get2Human.

By September 2011, Face It was ready to come out from under the radar. Doing business as Hold-Free Networks, it experienced a highly successful launch at Demo Fall 2011. As CEO Lance Fried explained to us, the company followed a very structured launch cycle. We spent year one developing the software platform; year two launching the pilots and now, in year three, we’re live!” There are five pilots underway. They can’t be formally named yet but the company has been targeting airlines, insurance companies, financial institutions, technology companies and other companies whose high-volume contact centers are prone to putting inbound callers on hold or otherwise sending out the signal that “you’re call really isn’t that important to us.”

From Opus Research’s point of view, the application and platform offers significant elements of any large firm’s “mobile strategy” as well as initiatives to make customer care more conversational. It takes advantage of the data communications and processing features of a smartphone, tablet or other mobile devices to leverage the investment that firms have already made in information infrastructure that supports multi-channel contact centers which now embrace social media, inbound communications (toll-free, email, chat), outbound calling and social media. There are even plans to include biometric authentication (including voice biometrics) to provide strong authentication when a company needs assurance that the individual receiving an outbound call or alert is, indeed, the person whom the company intends to reach.

In addition to this advanced speaker verification, Hold-Free differentiates itself by providing a suite of services that major brands can offer that give greater degrees of control to their smartphone-toting clients. These include “intelligent call back,” giving a smartphone owner the ability to see when an agent or specialist will be available and scheduling a callback and “Secure Messaging” to deliver outbound messages or alerts according to an enterprise customer’s business rules.

Hold-Free’s offerings are “cloud-based.” Fees are charged based on usage on a “Software as a Service” basis. Sales efforts initially target large companies in North America. In addition to its selection for “launch” at Demo, Hold-Free earned the “Hottest in Show” award at the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) Enterprise & Applications Convention in San Diego last month.

Categories: Articles

Tags: customer care, smartphones, Contact Centers, mobile self service, conversational commerce