As Demand for Its Workflow Software Continues to Grow, So Does Customer Direct

Press Release (ePRNews.com) - ST. LOUIS - Mar 09, 2017 - Customer Direct, the leader in Onshore, Outsourced, Live Agent Contact Center Services announced today its intent to bring to market by Q4 2017 the next generation of its proprietary customer workflow software previously reserved only for its contact center services clients. This commercial release will target the needs of company-operated contact centers that use phone, email, chat, sms, and social media to handle customer interactions. Since 1997, St. Louis, Missouri-based Customer Direct has provided multi-lingual Live Agents that deliver sales, customer care, technical, and back-office operations support via voice, chat, email, social media, and standard mail channels. Industries served throughout the U.S., and the world, include Hospitality, Retail / eCommerce, Healthcare, IT, and Publishing.

The proprietary customer workflow software that Customer Direct first developed internally in 2002 has been central to Customer Direct’s ability to provide the critical business intelligence its customers require to drive qualitative and quantitative results for their businesses.  Like the internal version, the cloud-based, platform agnostic commercial release will reduce contact center training costs, enhance agent productivity, increase consistency of service delivery by guiding the interactions through prescribed paths, and capture customer buying behavior data that is so vital in today’s highly competitive, omni-channel world.

“The hundreds of millions of customer interactions our software has captured since its original iteration has been fundamental to building a stronger and more successful relationship between Customer Direct, our clients, and their customers,” said Rob Nolan, President and CEO of Customer Direct. “The software is highly customizable depending on each unique client and their specific needs, with intuitive Agent-Customer Workflows through complex decision trees, Interaction Ticketing, Escalation Management, easy-to-access and context-sensitive help screens, Agent-Interaction Management, and Agent-Customer Interaction Reporting…all being created and generated from this one, web-based, software service.” Mr. Nolan continued, “And the data it is structured to capture and deliver information about customer interactions, in real-time, from any web browser… along with the way you can so easily get a new Agent up and running…is what really excites our clients. Customer interactions are laid out in an easy-to-digest, actionable story that helps our clients to better understand what’s working, what should be amplified, and where there are opportunities for course corrections.”

For years Customer Direct had considered licensing the software to other contact centers, but had kept its focus on building the outsourced services business. That changed in 2016, when Robert Nolan III joined the company and brought his extensive leadership, product development, design, and product marketing skills to the Customer Direct software development team. This third-generation Robert Nolan is now leading the effort to commercialize the company’s proprietary customer workflow software. To support this new effort, Customer Direct just added to its St. Ann offices in the newly revitalized Crossings at Northwest.  Already occupying the entire 11^th floor of the tower and much of the 10^th floor (in addition to its separate 4,200 sq. ft. facility in Arnold, MO), an additional 3,100 sq. ft. on the 10^th floor was just occupied by Customer Direct’s software development team bringing the company’s total footprint to 25,600 sq. ft.  And with that addition, the commercial software development and launch team now has the dedicated office space to support this new endeavor for the company.

“From the physical space to the furniture…or lack thereof…to the close proximity to our core business group, the new offices are designed as a canvas to allow the Makers, Creatives, and Problem Solvers we are adding to the team to invent and flourish while doing so,” said Mr. Nolan III. “The ability to walk down the hall and analyze how people use our internal product, gives us a testbed to quickly iterate on new ideas and create something uniquely powerful and needed.”

The product name of the commercial release is currently under wraps, but a “soft” preview of the product will be made at the Operations Summit (BOOTH #104) in Pittsburgh, PA later this month (March 28 – 29), with a subsequent demo planned for the Internet Retail Conference + Exhibition (IRCE) June 6 – 9 in Chicago. A Beta launch is scheduled for early Q3 this year, with a full launch planned for the latter part of Q4 2017.

###

About Customer Direct

Celebrating its 20^th Anniversary, St. Louis-based Customer Direct provides outsourced voice, email, and chat sales & support services. These services include central reservations sales & support, customer care, subscription sales, multi-tier technical support, and back-office fulfillment. Customer Direct serves domestic and international clients within industries such as Hospitality, Retail / eCommerce, Healthcare, IT, and Publishing.

For more information, contact Customer Direct at +1.800.332.3756 or sales@customerdirect.com. Or visit us at http://www.customerdirect.com.