Using Presence to Route
Communications
SIP is unique in its ability to make call routing decisions based
upon presence. As Part 2 explains in detail, presence enables
users to inform others of their status, availability, and how
they can be contacted — before a communication session
even begins. When integrated with telephony, a user can com-
municate status and availability to others through multiple
devices such as IP phones, cell phones, softphones, pagers,
video conferencing, e-mail, wireless devices, and even TDM
phones when tied into an intelligent IP PBX.
Part 3: How SIP Transforms User Communications
25
Presence means “being there”
for your customers
Every company wants to retain cus-
tomer loyalty through superior cus-
tomer service, but how can your
agents keep all of the info they need
for accurate responses? A credit card
company is especially under pressure
to perform 24/7 for helping customers
keep accurate tabs on transactions.
Imagine how SIP presence can help
in this scenario: A customer planning
a trip overseas calls his credit card
company with a complex question on
monetary conversion rate policies.
The call center agent checks her
“finance expert” presence tab and
sees that internal resident experts are
off the phone and available for con-
sultation. The agent clicks the IM tab
and is automatically routed to one of
the available experts for an instant
messaging session. The agent then
gets and quickly relays the expert’s
answer to the customer’s question.
Surprised at the quick response, the
customer then asks a question regard-
ing a disputed transaction with a
merchant. The call center agent brings
up the merchant information, which
displays the presence and availability
of the merchant’s call center agents for
phone calls or IM, and quickly identi-
fies an available agent who can look
up details of the transaction and send
it back via a Web-page push. The cus-
tomer, provided with this information,
now remembers not only the transac-
tion, but also leaves with a lasting
impression of the responsiveness and
expertise of the credit card company.
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