BVoIP has added “power dialer” functionality to its unified communications solution for MSPs.
The new feature is one of several recent enhancements to BVoIP’s 1Stream integration platform, all of which are part of the vendor’s ongoing emphasis on continuous incremental upgrades this year.
Available to users with an associated “power plan” subscription, BVoIP’s power dialer system lets sales teams and other people who regularly place large volumes of phone calls automatically dial numbers on a preset list. The system automatically plays a prerecorded voicemail message when no one answers, so the user can move on to the next call, and automatically records details about each call in the company’s CRM solution as well.
“You’ve done double the amount of work in the same amount of time,” says BVoIP CEO George Bardissi. Unlike most power dialer applications, he continues, BVoIP’s system lets companies employ several CRM solutions in a single campaign.
“You can pull multiple lists from multiple tools, and then the system will push all of the dispositions and notes and call data that we’ve collected as you were going through that process and push it back into the CRM that it came from,” he says.
According to Bardissi, power dialer software has traditionally been an option only for larger businesses. “Usually it was cost prohibitive to anybody that didn’t have big pockets,” he says. “It’s not that the need wasn’t there. It was that it just was too expensive.”
BVoIP has designed its system to fit SMB budgets, he continues, noting that unlike many power dialer solutions, BVoIP’s is a native component rather than an add-on from a third-party provider.
“It’s not a bolt-on. It’s built right into the application,” Bardissi says.
Also new to 1Stream is a Chrome browser extension that adds click-to-dial functionality to the Infusionsoft CRM system. BVoIP users already have click-to-dial functionality from within many CRM and PSA products via “pods” inserted directly within the application’s interface. “Not every CRM gives you that option, so in those cases we want to still give you that click-to-dial functionality, and this Chrome extension does the overlay within the browser,” Bardissi says.
A similar Chrome extension for Datto’s Autotask PSA system is set to arrive shortly.
Other recent updates to 1Stream include the ability to receive alerts inside the system any time critical parameters exceed preset thresholds. Companies can use the feature to ensure that both call center agents and their supervisors know immediately if a call queue has become overloaded, a particular call has been on hold too long, or a call has come in from an especially important client.
“These are the types of things that cause customer service issues,” Bardissi notes. At present, he adds, the feature supports a small handful of alert “triggers”, but more are in development.
Another new addition to 1Stream shows users an extensive history of past interactions with the person they’re speaking with, including phone calls, support tickets, sales opportunities, and more. A forthcoming version of that feature will let users click directly from any item on the list to the associated record in an outside CRM or PSA system.
1Stream users can also customize the solution’s ticket snapshot screen to mirror the fields they care about most when adding tickets in their PSA tool. “They can pick the fields that they want, they can adjust them, and then leave the other fields off that they don’t care about,” Bardissi says.
BVoIP declared 2020 the “the year of updates” in January. To date, the company has rolled out 77 enhancements, and Bardissi expects to maintain that pace through December.
“We’ve really, really adopted and live in the rapid release cycle,” he says. “We have a very long roadmap and we’re finally hitting our stride and trying to hammer through things.”
