Avaya Contact Center vs. Pendula

I would say well-suited for the everyday user, with the ability to use the products. I think it's really user-friendly in that way. The lack of education for the end users, maybe through some of our companies, makes it difficult. And the turnover.

Incentivized

We used Pendula as part of our re-engagement program. This was valuable, as we were able to connect with 40,000 or more names. Knowing that either a significant telesales team effort--too expensive and not enough people--would be implausible. We designed an interactive SMS journey that allowed us to begin the process of taking the 40.000 and discovering those who were willing to shop with us again automatically. We also found that promotions and blasts worked really well, were very easy to set up and run, and then the automation on the back to create the Salesforce opportunity. We have also engaged with custom objects and were able to trigger events on internal activities and sales status, such as shipping notifications.

• The app and the ability to use the "office" phone while on the road.
• There's an easy implementation and training process to get everyone on board quickly.
• Flexibility of transferring calls to different mediums - I can switch a phone call to a conference or patch in other parties with ease.

Incentivized

• EOFY campaigns that drove limited time, limited release offers. We could segment our targets and engage those most likely to respond well.
• Limited release wine offers, again targeting the right buyers, and then designing a series of interactions with them. This enabled sales reps to speak to those most warm.
• Customer re-engagement. We have very many historical customers. We were able to reach 30,000 or so people and then lead them through several steps towards re-engagement.
• Targeting smaller customer segments was made easy due to the deep integration with Salesforce. We could create campaigns to account owners of contacts that met criteria--which provided a deeply personal experience.

• Calls are automatically terminated at an agent and do not allow for the agent to "manually" answer the incoming call. This is very problematic as agents are not able to prepare properly for incoming calls. In addition, agents have stepped away from their desks and forgotten to put themselves in an away status, and calls have been directed to them, and they just sit there with no agent present. This is a very undesirable feature of the system.
• Password resets are extremely problematic and continuously cause problems for users. Agents are prompted to change their password upon expiry, and when they follow the instructions as outlined, it rarely works and ends up needing a full reset. The challenge questions are useless and do not work at all.
• Support can be a bit challenging as there are definite language barriers that have made both explaining the problem and understanding the recommended solution difficult.
• The system is sometimes unreliable and will randomly log agents out with no explanation. Agents are then advised by support to log out, clear cache, and log back in. This is not feasible in a busy call center.

Incentivized

• Navigating a variety of journeys can get tricky. They have been steadily improving the interface here.
• Managing launch times and turning campaigns on and off can be cumbersome.
• Naming, tagging, and cross-journey reporting would be great.

I am really not the decision maker on this subject but given the cost of the investment in Avaya, I do not see the company not renewing the use of Avaya. The new licensing model no longer requires expensive upgrades to stay current with new features added to the system and really helps with the cost of investment.

Incentivized

Avaya has versatility in calling, receiving, and configuring. Being able to have notion of location, exchange of messages. we could see supplier information and configure it to our liking. as it is practicality for configuration and manual handling. Interactive and easy to learn screen. Being able to generate call reports for analysis of service in others

Incentivized

I give it this rating because the support services of Avaya have proven to be reliable when needed. Great feedback for our queries has always been received from the support agents. 24/7 availability of support, which is very essential as our Call Center department also functions this way, therefore, the knowledge and technical support we require is always available to us.

No, everything was implemented by Avaya Support

Incentivized

Switched from Polycom to Avaya, although polycom worked well there were too many reoccuring connectivity issues and the turn around time for solving them was also too long. Avaya has fewer connectivity problems and their support is much better too. Pricing wise they were similar so we didn't have much to lose.

Incentivized

We found the user interface, the customer service, and the feature sets worked very well for us. Pricing was also affordable.

• Overall from a business objective standpoint, Avaya has to have had a positive impact on our Return on Investment. Its use in day-to-day operations has been beneficial to not only the company, but the business as well.
• Using the Avaya soft phones supplies a business or company a way to limit expenditures on the hard phones by allowing the use of Avaya soft phones. The equipment is no longer needed, save for headsets to be used with the application itself.
• Business objectives have to be just that, objectives. Economics begs for ways for a company to limit expenditures that may see little or no return. Avaya has tackled this issue and won!

Incentivized

• We were able to activate a large number of old customers
• We generated significant revenues and fast sales
• We have been able to run multichannel campaigns to great effect