With Call Centers Moving To Cloud, Appointment-Plus Anticipates Increased Demand for Scheduling Software

By Madhubanti Rudra, TMCnet Contributor

Appointment-Plus, a leading provider of online scheduling solutions for growing businesses, enterprises, higher education, government and logistics, proudly announced that its enterprise scheduling software has generated considerable interest in the call center industry.

According to a prediction by Gartner (News - Alert) Research, 75 percent of call centers are going to incorporate cloud technology into their operations by 2013. It is under this backdrop that Appointment-Plus enterprise scheduling software is increasingly being viewed as a solution for better managing customer service appointments and callbacks, according to the company.

The Gartner prediction and the increased interest in Appointment-Plus- both indicate toward a trend, in which increasing number of corporations, enterprise-level organizations, and large businesses are turning to Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) and cloud technology to ease up their Business Process Management (BPM) procedures. These in turn are creating increased demands for cloud-based solutions for call-center service providers such as West Corp., Convergys (News - Alert), Sitel Worldwide, and TeleTech Holdings. Of all cloud applications that call centers and customer service departments are deploying, the online scheduling software has generated maximum interest.

In this state of affairs, Appointment-Plus anticipates a bright future for its scheduling software. The software can provide a better alternative to the legacy BPM procedures through online customer self-scheduling of support/technical appointment calls, inquiries and callbacks, the company holds in a press release.

Designed for the enterprise-level organizations, corporations and large and medium-sized businesses the Appointment-Plus Scheduling Cloud Enterprise Solution

allows the self-scheduling of less urgent and in-depth inquiry appointments beforehand, thereby increasing agent utilization—a huge factor in reducing the overall cost of support—through callbacks during otherwise non-productive times.

The company simply steers customers to a “Book Now” button placed on a Web page, or supplies them with a URL back to their scheduler. The customer then selects a day or time for their callback and instantly schedules it.

Additionally, the system’s automated e-mail and text message reminders helps decrease the number of “no-shows” who miss their scheduled appointment calls, which furthers adds to the center’s or department’s efficiency.

When implemented at call centers and customer service departments, Appointment-Plus enterprise scheduler can have an immediate and positive impact in how inbound customer calls are managed, the company further claimed.

“Call centers and customer service departments play an integral role at corporations, enterprises and large businesses worldwide, but they can also be difficult to properly and effectively manage. Our online enterprise scheduler is the perfect solution to improve this important operational component,” CEO of Appointment-Plus Bob La Loggia noted in a statement.

The feature-rich Appointment-Plus also comes with an extensive collection of plug-ins, integrations and modules, which help businesses operate more efficiently and effectively. Among the items featured in its marketplace are syncs with QuickBooks, Google (News - Alert) Calendar, and e-marketing service providers Constant Contact, iContact, MailChimp and Vertical Response.