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Aurora Nguyen

Sirius is serious about providing superior customer service. One reason Sirius satellite users often pay for satellite radio is because they have no patience with commercials that you get with traditional radio. So having these same users wait 'on hold' listening to music-on-hold or audio promotions is not a good idea. Well, now Sirius customers and potential customers can now reach call center agents with one click - no phone menus, no waiting on hold, leveraging Fonolo's virtual queuing technology. Today, Fonolo announced today that Sirius Canada has signed an agreement to use Fonolo to improve the calling experience for its subscribers.

Fonolo's visual dialing solutions enable callers to connect directly to the right agents, bypassing phone menus and eliminating hold times. Apparently, Sirius in America had providing this service since October of 2010, which Fonolo claims contributed to a notable rise in caller satisfaction.

Here's an edited screenshot of the Sirius Canada website showing the Fonolo contact widget:

"Providing a satisfying experience to our subscribers is a top priority for Sirius," said Mark Morais, Director of Customer Operations for Sirius Canada. "Like most companies, we need a phone menu to direct callers to the right agent, but we know that customers often find this approach frustrating. Fonolo provides us with an easy way to give callers a much friendlier alternative to the phone menu. This helps us keep existing customers happy and streamlines the sign-up process for new customers."

Fonolo's web component can be found on several places on the Sirius website, most notably the "Contact Us" page (http://www.sirius.ca/en/contact). It presents consumers with several "call buttons" for common tasks, such as "activation" or "account management". After making a selection, the consumer receives a call back from Sirius when the appropriate agent is ready.

Sirius is using Fonolo's "Hold for Me" technology to eliminate hold times for its customers. According to Fonolo, Sirius is the first company to offer 'hold for me' to the general public.

"The idea of getting a call back when the next agent is ready has been a dream in the industry for decades," said Fonolo's Shai Berger. "While several "virtual queuing" solutions have been on the market for years, implementations are rare because they always require intense integration at the call center. Our "touch-less" approach is a major game-changer for the industry."

"Ease of deployment was a key component in our decision to implement Fonolo." said Morais. "We didn't have to install anything or change the way our agents work."

Tags: fonolo, radio, satellite, shai berger, sirius, sirius canada Related tags: sirius canada, virtual queuing, customer service, agent ready, phone menus, sirius