In July of 1955, Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. At the time, Walt Disney, an enthusiastic futurist, said “Scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future.”
Startel started in 1980 just down the 5 freeway from Disneyland. It’s hard to know if the company name was influenced by the opening of Space Mountain just three years prior, but it reflects the passions of another notable futurist, Don Berry. From its start, Startel has been a company dedicated to looking to the future.
They’re founded on researching the new opportunities afforded to the communications industry by advances in technology, identifying which ones have the most long-term viability, and then putting those into customers’ hands. Part of that has always been helping customers understand—and even get excited about—what’s next.
StartelNow
Startel has a web-based agent interface, in beta, named StartelNow. This interface can be used by current customers with the CMC platform and is provided to them as part of their software assurance.
StartelNow is a platform where an agent anywhere in the world can log in from a website on any device with an internet connection and start handling interactions without any specialized training on software. Agents will not have to know special keystrokes to send an email or secure message to a client, and no one will need to teach them how to interpret complex relay instructions.
CMC RestAPI
Startel’s CMC RestAPI can improve agent efficiency by securely providing the data collected from callers directly to the applications clients use every day. Rather than the agent needing to learn the client’s specialized software to manually re-enter that information, the RestAPI allows automation to synchronize data behind the scenes without agent intervention.
This reduces the need for manual dispatching. Rather than agents making lots of quick decisions in real-time to ensure individual messages end up where they should be, make deliberate, focused decisions to redirect the flow of data en masse according to the client’s requests.
Beyond just the data collected from callers, the RestAPI can also retrieve call statistical data, manage clients’ on call schedules, or track agent status in real-time, as well as make that information available to customers to integrate with their own tools.
The capabilities of Startel’s CMC RestAPI are expanded even further through integration with Zapier. Zapier is a do-it-yourself solution that allows users to harness the power of the RestAPI without requiring expensive development or on-staff programmers. This web-based platform empowers that automation of work across more than 5,000 popular apps without writing a single line of code.
PocketVantage
Startel’s mobile app for Android and Apple devices is PocketVantage. This app provides clients a vantage point to view and update the on-call schedule, review and manage IntelliForms, and access their team’s contacts right from the convenience of their smartphone.
Users of the app can also be given access to update their own contact information or create their own status updates and emergency notifications that display right in the CMC flexible agent interface.
Flex
Startel developers continue to make this customizable agent interface more intuitive, which supports faster on-boarding, putting agents on the system quicker than ever before.
Flex can be adjusted to suit a contact center’s environment preferences. The screen can be designed to have a similar look and feel to an existing interface. Message forms, client information pages, on call schedule, and other elements can be moved to different areas of the screen.
The various elements can even be split into multiple windows so that the agent can better use a multi-monitor environment. Even further customization can be done by selecting different fonts and colors that can be saved as part of the agent layouts.
Startel’s agent scripting and scripted dispatching reduces the need for agents to read information or instructions, improve efficiency, and minimize errors.
Conclusion
Startel seeks to balance allocating customer resources today with the development of the solutions they’ll need tomorrow.
Since its founding in 1980, Startel has established a loyal customer base from a variety of industries, including contact centers, education, government, healthcare, insurance, telephone answering service, and utilities.
Today, Startel has customers in forty-five states across the United States, as well as Canada, Central America, New Zealand, and Switzerland. Customers depend on Startel’s solutions and services to increase business efficiencies, identify performance opportunities, and deliver quick, secure, and accurate communication 24/7/365.
To discover more about Startel, visit www.startel.com or call 800-782-7835.