Call Center Services

None of us can dispute the beauty of caller ID and its ability to incriminate the person who actually has the nerve to call us at our home at 9 p.m. on Monday while we were watching “The Bachelor.” Or the fact that the service can help us screen calls, like when Mom phones on a Saturday night.

But what about a service designed for enterprises, not the consumer, which not only displays a person’s telephone number and name, but their age range, company, and title as well? Fortunately for enterprises out there, WhitePages, the world's largest source for business and people, has created a new division WhitePages PRO – which has quickly become the largest online contact information database in North America with real-time access to records covering more than 90 percent of the U.S. adult population.

“We are pretty new to the whole space,” Alex Algard, founder and CEO of WhitePages PRO, told TMCnet at ITEXPO East 2012 today. “Our DNA historically has been more on the consumer side and data.”

“Even though the company has been around for a long time, we are kind of like the new kids on the block,” he added.

WhitePages, which was founded 10 years ago, is historically consumer oriented as a lot of people visit the site to find contact information about people and businesses. The site averages 30 million visitors per month. More recently, the company noted that its fastest growing business has been its mobile apps which make the phone experience better by providing free directory assistance and caller ID apps which identify inbound phone calls.

Recently, WhitePages began experiencing inbound interest from business customers who enjoyed the ID app and wondered if it could somehow be integrated into the business sector. Consequently, WhitePages PRO was formed, a new division that is focused on offering data and services to the enterprise.

“It’s about identifying callers,” Algard said. “We provide phone number intelligence and a 360-view of everything that is publically available about the calling party. That goes far beyond what telco caller ID provides, which is normally limited.”

Conversely, WhitePages PRO provides first and last names of not just the person who is primarily listed under the phone number, but all the other names associated with that number. Moreover, it includes information about the caller’s age, job title and CASS verified address.

One area of the industry this service can be particularly useful is in the call center environment as WhitePages PRO can not only help with call routing, which can be a very complicated process, but it can also shave seconds off a phone call that is often plagued by questions from customer service reps such as “How do you spell your last name again?”

WhitePages PRO can also help reps link the inbound call to the CRM so it can pull up account information and reduce the amount of data error.

“We are discovering new use cases every day,” Algard said. “Anyone who might want to learn more about who is calling them, we can help. It spans across retail, call centers, new innovative telephony companies, telephony hardware, and call center software.”

“As far as I know we are the only ones that play in this market,” he added.

One of the most unique facts about the service is that it includes landline and mobile phone numbers. This is particularly important since over 30 percent of people only have a cell phone nowadays. WhitePages PRO has access to 300 million phone numbers, 100 million of which are landline numbers.

While at ITEXPO (News - Alert) East this week, taking place from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 in Miami, Fla., WhitePages PRO is hoping to spread the word about its services as well as shed some light on how the cloud makes all of this possible.

In addition to exhibiting, Algard will be participating in a panel discussion on Thursday, Feb. 2, at 9 a.m. titled “Size Doesn't Matter - Leverage the Cloud to Deliver Enterprise-Class Technology within Contact Centers of all Scopes and Dimensions.” The session will focus on how smaller contact centers must be more creative to stay competitive, driving associate efficiency and customer loyalty from every possible angle, and making their needs more urgent, specific, and complex.

So what’s next for WhitePages PRO and what can we expect from the division in the coming years?

“Last year really was about building the foundation; we are really just getting started,” Algard said. “This is our second trade show. We are learning a lot just by talking to new and interesting customers.”

“Five years from now, I hope that we are serving most of the Fortune 500 companies and any type of customer that wants to learn more about who’s calling them,” he added. “I’m hoping it becomes one of the biggest businesses.”

To find out more about WhitePages PRO, visit the company at ITEXPO East 2012. To be held Jan. 31- Feb. 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Fla.  ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit WhitePages PRO in booth 531. For more information on ITEXPO registration click here.

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