Gina Gibson: Welcome to the Tech Matchmaker, the show where contact center challenges meet their perfect tech match. I'm your host, Gina Gibson, and in just 15 minutes, we serve up the smartest, coolest innovation shaking up the contact center industry. Whether you're searching for your next solution or just love staying ahead of the curve, we've got the insights to keep you in the know. Let's dive in and discover what's next. I promise you it's going to be fun. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Tech Matchmaker. I hope today's spotlight sparked some fresh ideas and real solutions for your contact center. Want to dive deeper into the tech we featured? Hit up the show notes for all the links and extras and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if there's a challenge you want us to tackle, don't be shy, reach out. I'll catch you soon with more innovation, more use cases and more ways to keep your business moving forward. Welcome everybody today we are chatting with Scott Swanson who's the VP of sales from SingleCom and we're going to be talking about the CCAS platform at SingleCom. So Scott with 28 years in sales why don't you take a moment and introduce yourself for us.
Scott Swanson: Well, first of all, it's a pleasure being here. Thank you so much, Gina, for having me on, And thank Ford. I can't thank you guys enough for allowing me to come here and share a little bit about SingleCom. I myself is, you know, like Gina said, about 28-year veteran in the contact center space. I started off originally building call centers, fixing them up, you know, that kind of stuff. was very fortunate to be a part of some good, good groups that...
Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next.
Scott Swanson: grew in size and then were acquired by other companies. So I had the benefit of a lot of that kind of touch point going forward. then when we started up SingleCom, I knew the principles that whole time and were working on some really great technology stuff and they really kind of attracted me ⁓ to they were doing. And I clients that I knew needed their technology. And we just kind of came together. So Mike Puccinelli and Kurt Mascoff and myself just said, hey, let's put this thing together. Let's figure out how we can make this thing work. we're all call center folks. the end, ⁓ know what call centers need because we've sweated it out at midnight. We've been there when things are going awry and you need help. We've been there. And so we knew there was got to be a better way ⁓ to about the CCAS And so that's what we went around to do is develop a new system was web oriented, number one, so complete web native, incorporated all the channels. So not just the voice channels, but also to the omni channels that were growing in need. And then of course, with the ⁓ AI ⁓ experiences too, we want to make sure that that was a part of our platform too. ⁓ So we're just, ⁓ again, just ⁓ CCAS provider. We're an adaptable system. We don't just say, here you go, it, leave it, ⁓ it. Some of the bigger folks, that's what their alternatives It's just like, hey, you take it or you leave it. With ours, it's highly customizable. We wanted to make sure that our system could adapt to the industry's changes and the needs of our customers. And that's important thing. The other thing think what we do really try to differentiate ourselves too is that we ⁓ really want be in support. We want to make sure that the needs of our clients are being met in a timely fashion. of our communications that are put towards us for any kind of resolutions or problems are to within five minutes. And that's an important driver for us. We wanted to make sure that that was happening all the We wanted to make sure our clients were being taken care of so they can take care of their customers.
Gina Gibson: That's excellent. And I think from a product standpoint, Scott, would you say that it's your support model that kind of sets your product apart in the market? Yeah, from the computer.
Scott Swanson: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. think, you again, you hit it, Gina, is that, you know, we really do put an emphasis in that, you know, we want to make sure, you know, again, adapting with technologies, you know, that's an important fact too, but we really do put a priority towards, you know, supporting our clients and making sure that their needs and their desires are being taken care of.
Gina Gibson: And day two is so important and you know, it's a lot of what we hear customers have issues with, right? Like the sales experience is great, the implementation might be a little bit rocky, but then day two, it's kind of like they're left hanging. So it's wonderful to hear you guys are focused on that. there, sorry, Scott, are there any unique features or aspects that your customers like consistently rave about other than your support?
Scott Swanson: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, good question on that one too. Of course, AI is always out there. It's really kind of a driving factor right now too. But I think in the earlier days, ⁓ customization is really what our clients really enjoyed. We put, let's say the autonomy into their hands, letting them develop and cultivate what they need for their clients rather than us assuming what they need. And so customization has been something that our clients really rave about. They're able to develop dynamic scripts. on the fly, know, no programmer dependent be able to put together these complex scripts and communication flows, ⁓ know, on their own and in more importantly in a timely manner to get helps their customers, you know, get that speed to market ⁓ So I know has been something. Yeah, that I know has been a very important factor for a lot of our clients, you know, and again, our evolution too, you know, we know what we know, we know we don't know, you know, we're able to adapt to those things as we come along.
Gina Gibson: Yeah, which is
Scott Swanson: our platform's open sourced. we can incorporate different kinds of technologies as they come along, or we've got our own engineers in house, ⁓ we're to build a lot of these things too. So our AI division is really kind of growing right now, and it's definitely out of demand from our clients. ⁓ So embraced what currently have on the platform that's native, but more importantly now ⁓ is they're advantage of some of the things that we're developing too from the AI standpoint, from automation. again, the multi-channel, driving that universal ⁓ seamless communications is really where we're
Gina Gibson: You share a quick success story with a squat from one of your customers.
Scott Swanson: Yeah, happy to. One that comes to mind is we have a pretty large insurance claims provider. They 24-7. They're handling real-time inquiries from policy holders, adjusters, vendors. ⁓ So it's just just the policy holders. ⁓ It's a multitude different factions that have to be involved in this. And it has to seamless communications. It has to have rapid response times. ⁓ And more importantly, it's got to be able to scale too, because we know tragic events happen. Those volumes are going to go up. When it's a little lesser, it's a little down. But uniting those channels together, those communication channels for this client in the insurance claims industry, was huge. Their challenges were were delays in claims during high peak volumes, missed dispatches for urgent on-site services. ⁓ limited visibility into agent responses, know, and reports across those channels, know, minimal workflows had to be, or, excuse me, manual workflows that had to be done to, know, get those claims and escalations to those resolutions. ⁓ And what we did is we provided them, again, a single platform that allowed all those communications to happen. So we incorporated not only our omni-channel capabilities, but a lot of our stuff from our telephone answering service disciplines, know, dispatch, know, on-call, those type of things. And so we were able to route these communications, you know, across these multichannels, route emails intelligently, you know, based on urgency, the dispatch, making sure that, you know, after our emergency claims were being triggered and dispatched properly, and more importantly, the responses to those things being recorded too. So we knew which ones were coming in and which ones were being fulfilled. you know, customize the scripting because again, you know, especially for policy holders, know, one size fits all. So you have to be adapted to that and, know, be really understanding. I mean, these people are under a lot of stress. you know, we have to have an ability to keep those agents, you know, on task and keep that continuity, but to take in, ⁓ you take in part that, you know, we're dealing with some human tragedies here too. ⁓ And allowing, you know, that to be multi branched and divisions that they go ahead and, you know, break down things in a human way will also get the job done. And the dashboards that came across on this ⁓ one the supervisor was able to clear visibility through to the agents of what they were doing and how they were handling all these solutions for them.
Gina Gibson: And you mentioned insurance, Scott, is there a particular vertical that you guys work best in or are you kind of agnostic that way?
Scott Swanson: Kind of agnostic to be honest with you Gina, we're not only, again, with the claims type of stuff too, but everything even from the sales side. We're really adept at that and our platform can really work for them then too. channels are changing as we know. It's just not picking up a phone and talking to people. As younger generation kind of grows into the more the mainstream. ⁓ they're more demanding on digital channels, know, and wanting to be able to communicate in the way they want to communicate with people, you know, whether it be through chat or through SMS or social platforms, you know, the messaging system. ⁓ to want a platform like SingleCom's that are to be able to adapt to those types of needs as it grows. And it's definitely growing right now. You know, my older days, you know, in my constant call center days, you know, I used to handle hundreds of thousands of phone calls. You know, those days are... kind of dissipated down. Now the demand is really again more towards those digital channels and communicating that way. So we always say and that's kind of how our platforms adapted is you know let your consumers and your customers communicate with you the way they want to communicate not the way you're trying to force them.
Gina Gibson: Yeah, absolutely. And Scott, just to wrap things up, I've always been a fan of James Lipton and so to end the podcast, they like to do three little quick rapid fires. What is your favorite word?
Scott Swanson: My favorite word would have to be hope. And not just kind of ethereal, you know, I hope things will change, I hope things will get better, but more in the principle that's like, know, if you're driving towards something, you know, you've got that hope. You you're gonna make some differences. And that's what I like about my job and what we do is we're really working and influencing people in the right ways. We want to be a good partner to them, so hopefully we're giving them hope too.
Gina Gibson: Awesome. And what's your least favorite word?
Scott Swanson: There's a lot of them. The one that comes to mind really right now, judgmental. I like I kind of the Ted Lasso philosophy as be curious, not judgmental. I think judgmental to connotes a closed mind and not open to ideas. And like I said, that's what I kind of pride myself in, especially I think my longevity in this industry is... ⁓ keeping open ideas. got 30 years almost in this industry and I'm still learning things. And so I to keep doing that. I want to keep on being open, not judgmental.
Gina Gibson: and what excites you the most about life?
Scott Swanson: You know, just what's next. I'm firm believer in change, you know, and I'm not resistant to it. I'm sitting there you know, pad down. like, ⁓ this is it. This is all I'm doing. You know, look forward to the next things in life and what's going to come next. so, you know, just try to live every day by that adage is like, know, do unto others as you do unto you and, you know, be to change.
Gina Gibson: And Scott, if somebody wants to more information about SingleCom, who should they reach out to?
Scott Swanson: You know, always feel free to reach out to me, but you my good friend, Ms. Gina Gibson here is also an outstanding resource too, so feel free to reach out to either one of us.
Gina Gibson: Scott, I can't thank you enough for sparing some time to be with us today and sharing all the great things that Singlecom is doing and especially the adoption into AEI and ⁓ learning more about your support team. So thank you so much for your time today.
Scott Swanson: Now again, thank you guys. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this podcast too. And yes folks, you know, we're, we're for real, both, you know, Gina and I deferringly believe is, you know, we can help you out. Just give us a call.
Scott Swanson: Well, first of all, it's a pleasure being here. Thank you so much, Gina, for having me on, And thank Ford. I can't thank you guys enough for allowing me to come here and share a little bit about SingleCom. I myself is, you know, like Gina said, about 28-year veteran in the contact center space. I started off originally building call centers, fixing them up, you know, that kind of stuff. was very fortunate to be a part of some good, good groups that...
Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next.
Scott Swanson: grew in size and then were acquired by other companies. So I had the benefit of a lot of that kind of touch point going forward. then when we started up SingleCom, I knew the principles that whole time and were working on some really great technology stuff and they really kind of attracted me ⁓ to they were doing. And I clients that I knew needed their technology. And we just kind of came together. So Mike Puccinelli and Kurt Mascoff and myself just said, hey, let's put this thing together. Let's figure out how we can make this thing work. we're all call center folks. the end, ⁓ know what call centers need because we've sweated it out at midnight. We've been there when things are going awry and you need help. We've been there. And so we knew there was got to be a better way ⁓ to about the CCAS And so that's what we went around to do is develop a new system was web oriented, number one, so complete web native, incorporated all the channels. So not just the voice channels, but also to the omni channels that were growing in need. And then of course, with the ⁓ AI ⁓ experiences too, we want to make sure that that was a part of our platform too. ⁓ So we're just, ⁓ again, just ⁓ CCAS provider. We're an adaptable system. We don't just say, here you go, it, leave it, ⁓ it. Some of the bigger folks, that's what their alternatives It's just like, hey, you take it or you leave it. With ours, it's highly customizable. We wanted to make sure that our system could adapt to the industry's changes and the needs of our customers. And that's important thing. The other thing think what we do really try to differentiate ourselves too is that we ⁓ really want be in support. We want to make sure that the needs of our clients are being met in a timely fashion. of our communications that are put towards us for any kind of resolutions or problems are to within five minutes. And that's an important driver for us. We wanted to make sure that that was happening all the We wanted to make sure our clients were being taken care of so they can take care of their customers.
Gina Gibson: That's excellent. And I think from a product standpoint, Scott, would you say that it's your support model that kind of sets your product apart in the market? Yeah, from the computer.
Scott Swanson: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. think, you again, you hit it, Gina, is that, you know, we really do put an emphasis in that, you know, we want to make sure, you know, again, adapting with technologies, you know, that's an important fact too, but we really do put a priority towards, you know, supporting our clients and making sure that their needs and their desires are being taken care of.
Gina Gibson: And day two is so important and you know, it's a lot of what we hear customers have issues with, right? Like the sales experience is great, the implementation might be a little bit rocky, but then day two, it's kind of like they're left hanging. So it's wonderful to hear you guys are focused on that. there, sorry, Scott, are there any unique features or aspects that your customers like consistently rave about other than your support?
Scott Swanson: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, good question on that one too. Of course, AI is always out there. It's really kind of a driving factor right now too. But I think in the earlier days, ⁓ customization is really what our clients really enjoyed. We put, let's say the autonomy into their hands, letting them develop and cultivate what they need for their clients rather than us assuming what they need. And so customization has been something that our clients really rave about. They're able to develop dynamic scripts. on the fly, know, no programmer dependent be able to put together these complex scripts and communication flows, ⁓ know, on their own and in more importantly in a timely manner to get helps their customers, you know, get that speed to market ⁓ So I know has been something. Yeah, that I know has been a very important factor for a lot of our clients, you know, and again, our evolution too, you know, we know what we know, we know we don't know, you know, we're able to adapt to those things as we come along.
Gina Gibson: Yeah, which is
Scott Swanson: our platform's open sourced. we can incorporate different kinds of technologies as they come along, or we've got our own engineers in house, ⁓ we're to build a lot of these things too. So our AI division is really kind of growing right now, and it's definitely out of demand from our clients. ⁓ So embraced what currently have on the platform that's native, but more importantly now ⁓ is they're advantage of some of the things that we're developing too from the AI standpoint, from automation. again, the multi-channel, driving that universal ⁓ seamless communications is really where we're
Gina Gibson: You share a quick success story with a squat from one of your customers.
Scott Swanson: Yeah, happy to. One that comes to mind is we have a pretty large insurance claims provider. They 24-7. They're handling real-time inquiries from policy holders, adjusters, vendors. ⁓ So it's just just the policy holders. ⁓ It's a multitude different factions that have to be involved in this. And it has to seamless communications. It has to have rapid response times. ⁓ And more importantly, it's got to be able to scale too, because we know tragic events happen. Those volumes are going to go up. When it's a little lesser, it's a little down. But uniting those channels together, those communication channels for this client in the insurance claims industry, was huge. Their challenges were were delays in claims during high peak volumes, missed dispatches for urgent on-site services. ⁓ limited visibility into agent responses, know, and reports across those channels, know, minimal workflows had to be, or, excuse me, manual workflows that had to be done to, know, get those claims and escalations to those resolutions. ⁓ And what we did is we provided them, again, a single platform that allowed all those communications to happen. So we incorporated not only our omni-channel capabilities, but a lot of our stuff from our telephone answering service disciplines, know, dispatch, know, on-call, those type of things. And so we were able to route these communications, you know, across these multichannels, route emails intelligently, you know, based on urgency, the dispatch, making sure that, you know, after our emergency claims were being triggered and dispatched properly, and more importantly, the responses to those things being recorded too. So we knew which ones were coming in and which ones were being fulfilled. you know, customize the scripting because again, you know, especially for policy holders, know, one size fits all. So you have to be adapted to that and, know, be really understanding. I mean, these people are under a lot of stress. you know, we have to have an ability to keep those agents, you know, on task and keep that continuity, but to take in, ⁓ you take in part that, you know, we're dealing with some human tragedies here too. ⁓ And allowing, you know, that to be multi branched and divisions that they go ahead and, you know, break down things in a human way will also get the job done. And the dashboards that came across on this ⁓ one the supervisor was able to clear visibility through to the agents of what they were doing and how they were handling all these solutions for them.
Gina Gibson: And you mentioned insurance, Scott, is there a particular vertical that you guys work best in or are you kind of agnostic that way?
Scott Swanson: Kind of agnostic to be honest with you Gina, we're not only, again, with the claims type of stuff too, but everything even from the sales side. We're really adept at that and our platform can really work for them then too. channels are changing as we know. It's just not picking up a phone and talking to people. As younger generation kind of grows into the more the mainstream. ⁓ they're more demanding on digital channels, know, and wanting to be able to communicate in the way they want to communicate with people, you know, whether it be through chat or through SMS or social platforms, you know, the messaging system. ⁓ to want a platform like SingleCom's that are to be able to adapt to those types of needs as it grows. And it's definitely growing right now. You know, my older days, you know, in my constant call center days, you know, I used to handle hundreds of thousands of phone calls. You know, those days are... kind of dissipated down. Now the demand is really again more towards those digital channels and communicating that way. So we always say and that's kind of how our platforms adapted is you know let your consumers and your customers communicate with you the way they want to communicate not the way you're trying to force them.
Gina Gibson: Yeah, absolutely. And Scott, just to wrap things up, I've always been a fan of James Lipton and so to end the podcast, they like to do three little quick rapid fires. What is your favorite word?
Scott Swanson: My favorite word would have to be hope. And not just kind of ethereal, you know, I hope things will change, I hope things will get better, but more in the principle that's like, know, if you're driving towards something, you know, you've got that hope. You you're gonna make some differences. And that's what I like about my job and what we do is we're really working and influencing people in the right ways. We want to be a good partner to them, so hopefully we're giving them hope too.
Gina Gibson: Awesome. And what's your least favorite word?
Scott Swanson: There's a lot of them. The one that comes to mind really right now, judgmental. I like I kind of the Ted Lasso philosophy as be curious, not judgmental. I think judgmental to connotes a closed mind and not open to ideas. And like I said, that's what I kind of pride myself in, especially I think my longevity in this industry is... ⁓ keeping open ideas. got 30 years almost in this industry and I'm still learning things. And so I to keep doing that. I want to keep on being open, not judgmental.
Gina Gibson: and what excites you the most about life?
Scott Swanson: You know, just what's next. I'm firm believer in change, you know, and I'm not resistant to it. I'm sitting there you know, pad down. like, ⁓ this is it. This is all I'm doing. You know, look forward to the next things in life and what's going to come next. so, you know, just try to live every day by that adage is like, know, do unto others as you do unto you and, you know, be to change.
Gina Gibson: And Scott, if somebody wants to more information about SingleCom, who should they reach out to?
Scott Swanson: You know, always feel free to reach out to me, but you my good friend, Ms. Gina Gibson here is also an outstanding resource too, so feel free to reach out to either one of us.
Gina Gibson: Scott, I can't thank you enough for sparing some time to be with us today and sharing all the great things that Singlecom is doing and especially the adoption into AEI and ⁓ learning more about your support team. So thank you so much for your time today.
Scott Swanson: Now again, thank you guys. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this podcast too. And yes folks, you know, we're, we're for real, both, you know, Gina and I deferringly believe is, you know, we can help you out. Just give us a call.
