Jacada Bridges the Contact Center-Website Divide

Jacada has seen crazy strong adoption for its Visual IVR solution, and now it’s introducing a solution called SalesEngage that bridges the gap between companies’ contact centers and their websites.

That’s the word from David Holmes, Jacada’s AVP for omnichannel partners and strategic accounts.

The company pioneered the visual IVR space when it introduced its solution on this front four years ago, according to Holmes. Now Visual IVR is the biggest part of the Jacada pipeline, he said, adding that one of the world’s largest software companies uses Jacada Visual IVR.

The solution works like this. Callers using an 800 number are provided with the option of moving from the voice channel to a visual channel. That’s helpful to the businesses that provide this option, Holmes explained, because now they have a digital channel established with the customer, and thus can expand the way they can communicate with that customer – potentially leveraging video to show that customer how to fix something, or pushing the customer his or her bill so the company can point out something on that bill. However, if the customer is unable to find an answer using the Visual IVR, they have the option of returning to the voice channel and interfacing with an agent.

A large customer that just implemented the Jacada Visual IVR was able to get the solution up and running within eight weeks. Forty-five percent of its callers agreed to pivot to the digital channel. The company did end-of-interaction surveys which suggest a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate with the experience, said Holmes.

We’re seeing “the coming of age of Visual IVR,” he said. “We’re seeing it every day. Four years ago people didn’t understand it. Now they totally get the value proposition.”

As for Jacada’s SalesEngage solution, it monitors all website visitor activities. Then, if users want to call it provides a unique 800 number to use, those calls bypass the IVR, agents take the call, and the agents have visibility into all activities the customer just did on the website. SalesEngage also opens an Engagement Room so agents and callers can interact using voice, video, chat and can cobrowse. 

Holmes expects telcos to be the first adopters of SalesEngage, a SaaS-based solution which will be priced per agent seat.