Name: Dana Hoffmann

Role: Engineering Manager

What do you do at Dialpad?

I am a software engineer and newly-minted manager on the Telephony Engineering

team. We take care

of everything infrastructure-related here at Dialpad, which means we’re responsible for building a robust and scalable network that lets users communicate from anywhere in the world.

Most of my work so far has been on the Google App Engine, including building the APIs that handle our internal number management, call setup, and so on. My immediate customers are all internal: product engineers who use our APIs, technical support reps, and other engineers on the team.

How did you get into your career?

I originally studied electrical engineering and physics. In my first engineering job out of university, I developed signal processing algorithms for ethernet modems, and implemented them in ASIC. When I was looking for a change, I joined a company that had a lot of its signal processing algorithms implemented in software. My hiring manager made a leap of faith and gave me a chance to become a legit software engineer. I discovered that I like the faster pace and the opportunity to make changes and add features without waiting for a full tape-out cycle.

What drew you to Dialpad?

I knew very little about Dialpad when I was first contacted by Marcus, our recruiter. But all the engineers I talked to during the phone screens and on-site interviews were raving about the company culture, the sense of ownership and autonomy they get. I got excited about working with this group of smart, driven people. The further I got in the hiring process, the more I wanted to be part of it!

What's been your favorite project and why?

One of the first areas I took ownership of, almost as soon as I joined, was the number management APIs and models that we maintain in our telephony infrastructure. Realizing we were missing some tools to help troubleshoot problems and minimize the amount of manual work required of telephony engineers, I went ahead and built those tools. I was given complete autonomy and encouraged to redesign the APIs used by the products, and make the telephony code more robust.

What's one thing people would be surprised to learn about being an engineer?

I think many people don’t realize what a significant part of the day-to-day work involves communication. Whether it’s collecting requirements from customers, collaborating with other engineers, interacting with QA, or writing documentation, good engineers don’t operate in a bubble — they really make use of those communication skills.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

Try to find a company that makes you excited. Keep challenging yourself and learning new things. Remember you’re in charge of your own career development, and make sure to step out of your comfort zone at least once in a while.

Interested in joining Dana’s team? We have openings across departments and offices from Vancouver to San Francisco! Take a look at our careers page below.

Challenge: User provisioning

The first item of business when onboarding your seasonal hires will be getting them the right access to tools and resources – quickly.

Solution: To make user provisioning as quick and safe as possible, we recommend integrating tools with a Single Sign-On (SSO) Solution that also supports System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM). Some of our favorites include Okta and OneLogin. These tools will also allow you to link SSO with your HR system to preset triggers for provisioning and de-provisioning based on contract start and end date.

Challenge: Traveling with company devices

More frequent travel and WFH days aren’t unusual during the holidays but it goes without saying that any time employees take company assets on personal trips, your company’s data is at risk for theft or loss.

Solution: We recommend taking a three-pronged approach to combating this seasonal security concern.

• Preventative control. Remind employees to stay vigilant when working remotely or taking company devices home. Share best practices and timely cybersecurity news via email newsletters or all-hands meetings to discourage use of company assets during personal travel.

• Detective control = Use access management proxies to track where users are logging in from and increase monitoring for geographic zones where users wouldn’t normally be.

• Corrective control = Lastly, ensure encryption and remote-wipe are turned on for all devices that store company data. In the event of a device being stolen or lost, this is the easiest way to correct the situation.

Challenge: Increased feature releases

Solution: Build automated security testing into your development lifecycle with linters and code security scanners. These will allow for security checks across your code deployments allowing for scale without manual intervention. Focus on security reviews by working with product teams to determine high-risk features and timelines for release. If resources are available, we recommend running pen tests with an internal red-team. Once releases go out, monitoring should continue for potential fraud and misuse.

Although these challenges are framed for seasonal changes, the solutions that are proposed are applicable for a successful security program year round. If you’re ramping up Dialpad usage for your team members during the holidays, check out our new integration with OneLogin and other SSO/SCIM solutions such as Okta to keep your business communications safe and secure!

Name: Laura Swinson

Role: Tech Lead of Growth

What do you do at Dialpad?

A better question would be what haven’t I done at Dialpad? I started out building account settings, promo codes, and checkout flows in Dialpad UberConference. Now as tech lead of the growth team I focus on driving user sign-ups, fighting fraud, and building the analytics tools we need to monitor both those things.

How did you get into your career?

My brother suggested I take a computer science class in college since I like math and logic puzzles. I took a non-major CS class the summer after my freshman year and really enjoyed it. My parents had always pushed me to major in something that had a career ‘attached’ to it so computer science was an easy choice.

What drew you to Dialpad?

The people. More specifically it was the pitch I got from co-founder Brian Peterson during my interview. I remember him being so excited about Dialpad’s technology and how the company was changing business communications. His energy and enthusiasm were so inspiring, and I’m happy to say he’s now my direct manager.

What's been your favorite project and why?

I really liked working on Dialpad Free. While we were building it we got to invent a new country: Dialpadistan. And when it launched, we had a billboard on the 101 that got a lot of attention. It also involved making changes to a lot of different parts of the Dialpad code, so I learned how a lot about porting numbers, caller ID, and how calls are made.

What's one thing you’ve learned about engineering since joining Dialpad?

The code builds on itself. If you don’t take the time to build something correctly from the beginning, adding new features in the future will take longer and longer. The code becomes very fragile because you have to make hacks instead of extending a good design.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

When I was first starting out I was nervous to change too much code. I thought I would break something, so I’d try to jam in a small change somewhere. That’s bad! Read all the code you can when you have your first few projects. If you understand how the existing system works, it will be so much easier to modify it and not create bugs.

Interested in joining Laura’s team? We have openings across departments and offices from Vancouver to San Francisco! Take a look at our careers page below.

Not only does it give you more flexibility. it's also generally more cost-effective. In fact, let's look at a few of these advantages in more detail.

5 key benefits of using cloud contact center software

1. $$$

On-prem technology vendors are notorious for nickel-and-diming businesses on installation costs, voice features, and integrations with other systems. Let’s face it—the hardware sitting in your closet isn’t doing your budget any favors. Need call recording? Connection to the PSTN? An integration with your CRM? No problem...as long as you’re willing to shell out some serious cash.

Cloud solutions on the other hand, require no hardware purchases, maintenance, or upgrades so your total cost of ownership (TCO) significantly decreases. Teams work from the devices you already own. CRMs are synced via APIs, and the money you used to spend on your IT closet goes right back into your business.

2. Scale at your own speed

While it’s not impossible to scale with on-prem solutions, the process is usually complicated and involves a lot of guesswork. Whether scheduling business around installation downtimes, calculating additional hardware costs, or simply trying to coordinate between your staff and your service vendors, there are a lot of unknown variables at play.

And that’s just for scaling up. If you ever have to scale your team down, for example during an off-season, you’ll be stuck with the unused hardware until you’re able to staff up again.

Scaling with the cloud is easy. You only pay for the licenses you need, when you need them, and the uptime is practically instant.

3. Your apps are better together

Why invest in a communications tool that makes it harder for you to actually get work done?

While there are on-prem call center platforms that integrate with tools like Salesforce or Zendesk, businesses are typically looking at high licensing fees and installation headaches.

Cloud contact center platforms are already ahead of the game when it comes to integrations. APIs make it possible for your cloud contact center to sync and pass data between Salesforce and Zendesk without any extra workarounds or paid add-ons (and in the case of Dialpad, many of your favorite apps are natively integrated right within your platform).

4. Mobility matters

One of the biggest downsides of being tethered to all the hardware that comes along with on-prem call centers is that it ties agents to desks and devices. So the idea of mobility, flexibility, or simply having the freedom to work in the best environment for your team’s productivity goes right out the window.

The beauty of the cloud is that it’s everywhere—literally. Calls ring out across all your connected devices. Not at your desk? No worries—take the call on your cell and then switch over to your laptop or desk phone in one click.

5. Happy agents, happy customers

If you’re an agent on a legacy system, chances are you’re juggling between answering calls, managing the call queue, taking notes, and logging tickets—all across different apps or platforms. And if you’re a customer on the other end of all that...well, it isn’t pretty.

With cloud-based call center solutions, agents aren’t scrambling to find the right answer or toggle between tabs since CRMs natively integrate with them. Everything is front and center, exactly when and where they need it. And on the customer's end, they gain a happier agent and an improved customer experience.

Better customer experiences are calling. It's time to answer on a platform that works like your team does—from anywhere, on any device.

Dialpad Ai Contact Center offer teams a better path to exceptional customer experiences with a completely hardware free, cloud-based platform that hosts voice calls, business text messaging, instant messaging, and contextual customer information all from the same, beautiful interface.

The Dialpad team has set up camp at booth #E9 at Google Next! Come grab a beer with us at the booth or catch Dialpad CEO, Craig Walker’s talk on filling in your IT stack with the Recommended for G Suite apps program— March 10, 2:40 PM–3:40 PM.

As the team behind Google Voice, the Dialpad troops are pretty excited about Google Next. Here’s a rundown of your need-to-know info on everything Google Cloud Platform, G Suite and Dialpad.

Google Next: Day 1 highlights

New security features

Underscoring that security is fundamental to the Google Cloud mission, yesterday’s keynote speaker Urs Hölzle, Google’s senior vice president of technical infrastructure, announced six new security features for Google Cloud Platform and G Suite.

“By baking security into everything we do and offering innovative capabilities that build upon this secure foundation, we create many different layers to prevent and defend against attacks and implement enterprise security policies so that our customers can feel confident partnering with us to achieve their business goals.”

- Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure, Google

Easy content migration

More and more IT leaders are buying into the G Suite vision and looking to future proof their organizations. While G Suite is lightning-fast and easy to implement, many legacy systems still contain content and documents essential to the business. Content migration is often referred to as the iceberg of implementation projects.

Google is tackling this head on with its recent acquisition of AppBridge, the enterprise grade G Suite migration tool that helps IT leaders achieve the goal of shifting from their on-premise, cloud-based and hybrid solutions, to Google Drive.

“With AppBridge, your organization can migrate files effortlessly to G Suite from your existing file servers or content management systems like SharePoint, or from many other cloud platforms you might be using. File permissions are also brought over when you migrate, which means your team's file access remains unchanged and your data stays safe.”

- Alex Vogenthaler, Group Product Manager, Google Drive

Future-proof your investment with G Suite + Dialpad

Dialpad is redefining voice for enterprise with scale, security, speed, and relentless innovation—all built on the Google Cloud Platform. Employing a microservices approach and utilizing WebRTC technology, we’re able to roll out new product enhancements every week without down time, and scale at an incredible speed. In other words, Dialpad is a perfect example of cloud-first architecture that, by leveraging Google technology, will always be ready for tomorrow at no extra cost to the customer.

G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Work) is one product suite to create, to collaborate, to share, to meet and connect, and it works from any device. It is a born-in-the-cloud suite of apps, including Gmail, Docs, Drive and Calendar, designed to make businesses more connected, so they can move faster and go bigger than the competition.

Dialpad compliments the G Suite mission beautifully and our customers constantly report huge productivity gains and even bigger cost reduction. For example, Percolate’s Director of IT, Kyle Jackson, saved 60% on his telephony bill while inspiring a motivated, work-from-anywhere culture by deploying Dialpad—in 24 hours with just two IT support staff.

The anywhere worker IT stack

Dialpad + G Suite across all devices

Dialpad is mobile-first and can be used across all devices. That means you have full flexibility to start or join video meetings and voice calls from any device, including Google’s Chromebooks or Android for Work-enabled devices where Dialpad has also built steely integrations.

Native integrations with G Suite

Built by the team behind Google Voice, Dialpad naturally has a suite of Google integrations up its sleeve ready to delight G Suite workforces. Some examples are:

• Employees can sign-in to Dialpad with their Google credentials using Google’s SSO saving time and headspace used looking for and remembering passwords
• Admins access their G Suite directory natively, making it dead-easy to spin up offices anywhere
• Contacts sync bi-directionally with G Suite so your address books are always up to date

Dialpad, the #1 cloud communications partner for G Suite

Today, Google has 15 partners included in the Recommended for G Suite program within 10 different categories ranging from Document Management Systems over CRM to UCaaS or Unified Communications, the category home to Dialpad (although we’re redefining this category as Modern Business Communications).

These categories were identified by Google because these solutions have the strongest demand from Google’s Enterprise customers who are serious about transitioning the business processes into the cloud.

“Our partners like Dialpad have gone the extra mile in building extremely robust integrations with a great user-friendly UI, and thus have strong momentum in the marketplace with customers of all sizes and across various regions. Dialpad really compliments G Suite.”

- Adam Massey, Director, Strategic Tech Partnerships, Google Cloud

1. Do you believe the 9-to-5 workday has changed in the last 25 years? If so, in what ways?

The 9-to-5 workday has dramatically changed over the past 25 years. The blue-collar workers who clocked in and out at company locations or factories are now commonly asked to do so with a mobile device or through some sort of geo-fence. Competitive cost pressures primarily drove this change as it simply costs too much to have workers report to a common work location.

In the white-collar world, the change is even more pronounced for the same reasons. Companies need to attract top minds and talent. Those individuals do not want to be limited to working at a set place for set hours.

The advent of mobile computing and the internet allowed employees to access information from anywhere. Plus, companies have more control as to how to secure their confidential information. Twenty-five years ago, taking work away from the office meant taking paper files and like materials. Now it can be digital. Workers can work anywhere at any time.

An excellent example is my current environment where I am authoring these responses: a county courthouse jury room. Years ago, this would have been a wasted day that could not be recouped. No longer.

The tipping point that allowed workers to truly work anywhere, anytime, at anytime, full capacity, was when the office phone became “mobile.” One-number-type services have been around for several years. Unified communications with real-time presence and full access to corporate telephony is truly coming into its own.

In fact, remote workers work more than eight hours a day in many cases. The time saved in commuting and stress levels makes the ROI easy to see for most employees.

2. Do you believe flex-time, i.e. allowing people to choose their own schedule, impacts productivity? If so, why?

Flex-time won’t enable productivity if the company does not provide the tools and the worker does not bring the discipline to make it so. A worker must have discipline to work during those times they are unsupervised. Providing them the opportunity does not ensure their success. Expectations must be set and mutually agreed upon.

At the same time, workers cannot be productive with flex hours if they cannot execute their role in “off” hours. A cashier at a grocery store cannot do their job in the middle of the night. On the other hand, knowledge workers like engineers, designers, sales and others can work any time.

Forward-thinking leaders are adapting to the world beyond the 9-to-5. Download our eBook to learn how.

3. Does enabling your employees to work from anywhere and at any time influence your IT decisions? If so, how?

An IT leader that does not factor in enabling employees should look for a different career path. Just-in-time manufacturing was the buzzword and all the rage in the 1990s. Operations managers who did not believe in the concept saw their companies disappear. IT leaders who do not plan how to ensure all employees can be productive when working remotely are making a strategic mistake they may not be able to recover from.

4. What technologies do you consider essential for working outside the traditional 9-5 hours?

It’s not a short list. While different roles require different tools, access to communications tools — meaning telephone, mobile computing, internet access, VPN capability and presence – must be at the top of the list for all roles. An employee who cannot communicate with co-workers, clients and partners will not be able to collaborate.

A department that can set up an employee to work remotely as if they are in the office will not have issues providing them access to the other necessary resources, such as CRM, inventory, shared templates, etc.

5. What advice would you give to other IT leaders who are looking to support a work from anywhere and anytime culture?

Employees embrace an anywhere, anytime culture that is collaborative and easy to work in. Overburdening employees with multiple security concerns, complex technologies, or proprietary systems that limit your options will demoralize them. Invest in employees and be open-minded.

Today’s workers don’t think twice about working from anywhere. D’Anna noted this when he found himself responding to these interview questions from jury duty, which in a different era would have brought work to a halt. Motivated to help their organizations reach new heights of creativity, productivity, and efficiency, IT leaders like D’Anna have increasingly opted to equip their organizations with cloud-first collaboration solutions—tools designed to empower the modern workforce.

To learn more about how and why IT leaders are ditching the 9-to-5 for more flexible ways of working, read our new ebook.

Meeting customer expectations hasn’t gotten any easier, especially with the rise of omnichannel customer service. Your customers expect you to have the right answer, right when they need it, and on the channel they prefer.

More and more, you only get one shot at a good first impression with customers. Here are five lines to avoid saying on your next support call, how to navigate around those uncomfortable moments, and suggestions to try next time.

DON'T SAY: "I'll have to put you on hold."

No one likes being told to wait. Especially customers. According to Harris Interactive, 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live agent. Putting customers on hold is about as old as the phone call itself (okay, maybe that’s not exactly true). But agents have good reason for the queue—sometimes you need a minute to pull up customer information or track down the right answer and placing a customer on hold buys you some breathing room.

SAY: "Do you mind if I put you on a [time frame] hold while I retrieve the information for you?"

This presents going on hold as a choice, rather than a directive. It also gives context as to why they’re being told to wait and how long they can expect to hold, if you can realistically offer that up. ICMI reports that 82% of consumers say the #1 factor that leads to a great customer service experience is having their issues resolved quickly, so when in doubt give them as much info up front before placing them on hold.

DON'T SAY: "You need to speak to someone else."

If there’s one thing customers hate more than being put on hold, it’s being tossed around like a frisbee. Don’t get us wrong—if another agent has the right answer, you should point your customers to them. But without context, your customer doesn’t know why they’re being transferred or how long they’ll be on hold while you track down the next agent.

SAY: "I'm not the best person to help you with this but my colleague [Name] is. Can I transfer you to them now?"

Being transparent about why the transfer is happening and what they can expect from their next interaction is key to making your customer feel at ease.

DON'T SAY: "I know it's a bad policy."

Oh man. Although you've probably intended to be empathetic here, what you’ve actually done is thrown your own team under the bus. While it is important to acknowledge your customer's feelings, you want to make sure you’re doing so without undercutting your products, services, or your brand. After all, not every customer is going to like every policy, especially when they’re not getting what they want.

SAY: "I'm very sorry about this. Is there any other way I can help?"

This signals that you understand your customer's frustration and you're willing to work with them to solve a portion of the problem. Remember, these conversations are tricky and don’t always end with happy customers. The best you can do is stay calm, polite, and straightforward.

DON'T SAY: "I can't help you with that."

This is all but asking for the pitchforks and torches. Even if it’s true, telling a customer that you can't help them is one of the worst things you can say during a support call.

SAY: "I'm sorry that I can't answer that for you. Is it okay if I do more research and follow up within [time frame]?"

This works for a few different reasons:

A. You’re being empathetic
B. You’re being honest
C. You’re offering a resolution and an expected outcome, within a specific time frame.

Setting expectations for customers and providing a follow up not only gives your customers peace of mind, it also shows them that you’re thoughtfully trying to resolve their problem.

DON'T SAY: "I promise...

Remember that old saying about writing checks you can’t cash? Making promises to customers isn't inherently bad, but you can run into some real trouble when you do it about things outside your control, like product release dates or policy changes. Not only does it come off as disingenuous, but it can end up making the whole team look bad if the promise doesn’t pan out.

SAY: [Use your best judgment]

This one’s tricky. Depending on what the customer is asking for, you may not be able to offer up any guarantees or timelines at all. Your best bet is to stay straightforward, polite, and transparent.

If it’s a request for a new feature, offer to take down the customer’s suggestion and follow up with your internal team. Or inform the customer of where they can go to learn more about upcoming features on your roadmap.

Practice makes perfect. Half of the battle is getting more experience navigating through these tough conversations. The other half is having the right tools to make conversations easier.

To learn more about how Dialpad can help your support team learn and grow from customer conversations, request a free trial below.

Dialpad is a business phone system natively integrated with G Suite and built to make you more productive, collaborative, and efficient. If you’re currently using G Suite for work, your ability to communicate and collaborate with colleagues just got a whole lot easier and cooler too, if you ask us.

Former Google Voice engineer extraordinaire and Dialpad Co-founder, Brian Peterson, shares his Top 5 reasons why you should activate the Dialpad Add-on in the G Suite Marketplace immediately. And then get back to work!

#1 Built for the anywhere worker

Whether you’re finalizing a project plan with a co-worker, or shooting the latest customer prospect list over to your boss, the ways in which we communicate with our colleagues have come a long way since email was a new and novel business communication tool in the '90s.

In March, Google Cloud announced it was integrating the power of productivity apps into Gmail with Add-ons, allowing users to access an app's functionality directly from Gmail in just one tap, no matter the device.

The Dialpad Add-on already makes it easier to collaborate in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides by offering integrated voice calling and instant messaging options on any device, anywhere, at any time.

When we learned we were chosen as one of a select group of ISVs granted early access to the Gmail Add-on Developer Program, our engineering team got really pumped up. We couldn’t wait to tinker with the APIs, and develop native enterprise workflows to unify two critical forms of communication - email and phone - within G Suite, ultimately bringing the Anywhere Worker to life within Gmail.

#2 Intuitive communications

Since Day One we’ve built Dialpad with you, the end user, in mind. Our goal was to create a communications platform that was simple by design, yet powerful in motion and easy to adopt by both a tech savvy millennial and a change-averse employee. I am 100% convinced we’ve created the most intuitive user interface for the #1 pure-cloud business communications solution on the planet. We can’t wait to see our intuitive navigation features come to life within Gmail, further enhancing the functionality and collaboration capabilities of an already dynamic email system.

#3 Native G Suite integration—on any device

By now you know that Dialpad offers native integrations with G Suite, making work more productive than ever before for G Suite users. Once you activate the Dialpad Add-on from the G Suite marketplace, the app is immediately available for use within the browser and across Android applications. Once activated, you can message or call colleagues, automatically view a list of your most recent email interactions, or save a new contact right from within Gmail. It’s seriously that easy - now you’re really in business!

#4 Dialpad is the only business phone system built on the Google Cloud Platform

Google is literally in our DNA. We built Dialpad on the Google Cloud Platform from the ground up, which enables us to provide the industry’s most scalable, reliable and modern business communication platform.

By utilizing state of the art open source technologies from Google, such as WebRTC, Dialpad can provide customers with the most innovate set of business communications features. Reliability, scalability and rapid deployment are core components of Google Cloud Platform’s innovation machine and have rubbed off on us here at Dialpad in a major way.

#5 We're the team that brought you Google Voice

In 2007 Craig Walker, our CEO, assembled a visionary team to build Google Voice and disrupt traditional phone companies by moving the original GrandCentral to Google and launching telephony in the cloud.

Ten years later, we’re back with a bold mission to disrupt the world of business communications forever and Kill the Desk Phone for good. What does this mean for Dialpad users? We’ve incorporated the lessons learned at Google - lightning fast innovation, massive scalability, intuitive design features - and firmly planted them at the center of everything we do at Dialpad.

G Suite is now Google Workspace

Whether screen sharing a board report or sending an instant message to your teammate, the ways in which we communicate with one another have come a long way since two cans and a string.

This past fall, Google announced that it was making a renewed effort towards their pledge of “helping people everywhere work and innovate together, so businesses can move faster and go bigger.”

Dialpad, created by the same team that built Google Voice, is the business communication system that moves with you, cutting the cord on your desk phone and offering you to the option to work from anywhere.

Thanks to Google’s Cloud Platform (which also powers Google Workspace) Dialpad is able to bring the power of voice to the tools your team uses every day like Salesforce, LinkedIn, and most importantly, productivity suites like Google Workspace.

Read on to learn more about how Second City’s move to the cloud saved their business after a devastating fire, and why you should be integrating with the only business phone system natively built for Google Workspace.

Simplified branding, renewed focus

The productivity suite includes popular business tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. These tools offer users real-time collaboration, with the ability to edit a doc or add a slide with team members live.

Google Workspace still includes these tools in addition to working on some new additions to the suite in the near future, with a specific focus on in-app integrations. All signs point towards Google’s renewed focus to streamline their productivity apps. Which means less pomp and circumstance and more pressure on single apps to do more for their users, especially when they’re on the move.

Why choose Google Workspace?

Hung up on making the switch? With Google Workspace, business owners can stay connected to their teams from anywhere in the world.

Since it's hosted on Google Cloud, all you need to access docs, slides, or calendar invites is an internet connection. That means that you can tackle work from Vancouver, the subway, downtown Tokyo, or your favorite coffee spot.

Most importantly, Google Workspace offers businesses all their team communication tools in one place. No more searching for that missing slide or the budget proposal. All of your communications are stored in one place, with easy access for your team to search, edit, and share.

Google Workspace gives Second City a second chance

There’s no question: implementing a new system to your team can be pretty painful. Plus it can be a big hit to your productivity.

That’s why the best systems out there work to integrate with the business tools that most companies use every day, drastically cutting down on time needed to train your team.

Take Second City. Their team needed to get up and running pronto after rebounding from a fire that burned through their data center.

With cloud-based collaboration software like Google Workspace and Dialpad, Second City was able to have their team up and running in just five business days. Talk about productive.

Google Workspace and the anywhere worker

At Dialpad we’re on a mission to unlock your employees’ full potential. Here’s the bad news: it’s being wasted behind those cubicle walls.

With cloud-based platforms like Google Workspace + Dialpad, your team gains more flexibility than ever before to work outside the office. After all, working remotely grew by almost 80% in the US between 2005 and 2012, according to Global Workplace Analytics.

That’s because the average employee is getting their best work done outside the office (and don’t think their managers aren’t noticing). In fact, 61% of employees we surveyed said they’d prefer to work outside of the office at least one full day per week.

If you’re asking more from your team, why restrict where they can get "more" done? Dialpad natively integrates with Google Workspace so your contacts' shared emails, docs, and events are all displayed on one interface.

And integrating with Google Workspace gives your entire team the ability to:

• View calendar events, shared docs, or recent emails from any device
• Pull up your entire company directory within seconds
• And more!

This is the era of the anywhere worker. Work is done over coffee, bus stops, and Uber rides. If your team is already able to use any device to answer emails, edit docs, or schedule meetings, shouldn’t they be able to do the same with their phone?

We don’t just empower your team to work from anywhere, we make it a whole lot easier to do it. Sync with your Google contacts, link up with Salesforce Leads, and even pair up Execs with Assistants. Do all this and more with Dialpad for Google Workspace.

On the IT side, we’re seeing today’s CIOs and CTOs partner with sales managers to adopt and implement those technologies that empower sales teams to work more efficiently. On the finance side, CFOs and controllers provide the counterbalance, seeking ways to reduce spending without affecting productivity.

We've got an on-demand 60-minute webinar with Google and Nucleus Research exploring both sides of the issue. Our speakers focus specifically on how you can maximize ROI leveraging Dialpad’s pure-cloud modern business communications solution. Join the webinar here.

In the era of anywhere sales, we expect on-the-go account executives to work as efficiently as representatives based at headquarters. Most organizations, for example, have by now adopted cloud-based CRM, allowing salespeople to update the systems while en route to meetings. Additionally, most reps have access to cloud collaboration tools that keep them in sync with colleagues and clients.

But modern sales teams still face considerable challenges—from prospecting to closing to account management—and it’s incumbent upon CIOs and CFOs to work with heads of sales in finding solutions. Done right, this partnership can make a big impact in terms of revenue generation by helping companies enable a more productive and tech-savvy salesforce.

Making that big impact will require acknowledging both the long-term trends transforming the workplace as well as new kinds of technologies enabling anywhere salespeople. The most relevant long-term trend is the rise of the anywhere worker: Dialpad’s recent survey The Era of the Anywhere Worker found that only 19% of employees work at a desk 40 or more hours per week. In that same spirit, a growing number of businesses have explored leaving behind the traditional 9-to-5 workday.

For those companies who have already adopted cloud-based CRM and productivity solutions, the next logical response to these trends requires a stronger commitment to the cloud-centric business model. In other words, it requires adoption of a cloud-based telephony solution.

Pure cloud communications doesn’t just make it easier for anywhere workers to stay connected; it also provides the essential glue between the organization’s existing cloud tools. In one clear case, pure-cloud integrations make it possible to automatically track and record critical information in CRM databases, minimizing salespeople's’ manual workload. At the same time, sales managers and CFOs can get a full line of sight into key activity metrics.

The most innovative organizations have discovered time and time again that cloud communication tools become even more useful when integrated with cloud communications, allowing not just easy access to documents, presentations, and spreadsheets, but also detailed context so salespeople can quickly find the right information at the right time.

One company, Qubit, considers Google Workspace, Salesforce, and Dialpad crucial to its daily activities:

Most important to the bottom line, integrated cloud systems allow both heads of finance and heads of IT to more easily monitor how much they’re really spending on telephony.

As part of the on-demand webinar, Nucleus Research unpacks the methodology behind its ROI calculator for Dialpad, revealing how organizations can track how the software benefits their overall revenue. Similarly, Google sheds light on the future of cloud productivity and illustrate the benefits of integrating Dialpad with Google Workspace.

Part 1: The Historical Telephone
Part 2: PSTN and Modern Telephony
Part 3: Internet and the Separation of Data & Voice
Part 4: The Future is Now

Today’s blog post gives a brief overview of the backend infrastructure that powers both Dialpad and Dialpad UberConference.

Broad overview

Within our infrastructure, there are lots of moving parts that work together to set up a single call. The diagram below boils it down to a few key components.

Definitions and a brief walkthrough of call setup:

Design Decisions

When designing our infrastructure, we’ve made a few key decisions to make our backend more reliable and easier to maintain.

This marks the end of our Life of a Call series—we hope you liked it! Get telephony, product, and news stories by subscribing to the blog below. Ready to take Dialpad for a spin?

Part 1: The Historical Telephone
Part 2: PSTN and Modern Telephony
Part 3: Internet and the Separation of Data and Voice

Today we look at where Dialpad fits in the telecom world.

The PBX

Traditionally, business communication was based on the paradigm of every person working out of a single, fixed cubicle. If you wanted to talk to someone in a different department on a different floor of the building, you picked up the desk phone and entered their extension to call.

A list of people and their associated extensions was right next to your phone. This list would have to be updated regularly if people joined or left the company. If you wanted to call a phone number outside the company you would have press "9" or another button to exit and then the external phone number. Similarly, a person from outside would call the company main line first and then the person's extension. Sometimes a receptionist might answer the call and transfer it to the correct person.

This is called a Private Branch Exchange, or PBX. The phrase 'branch exchange' is borrowed from descriptions of early telephone networks. It simply refers to the small group of interconnected telephones. 'Private' refers to the closed nature of this group to the rest of the telecom network.

Typically, a PBX was installed and maintained by the local telecom company. Sometimes it was included as part of the lease for the office building.

Challenges with PBX

The PBX paradigm is established and well-known to anyone who has ever worked in an office. However, with the introduction of the internet there have been several challenges to the dominance of the PBX. These problems are especially important to IT managers, whose job it is to make sure all employees have the tools to function and be productive.

The first challenge is the flexible employee. More and more employees are working from home, traveling for their job, and working non-standard hours. This is chipping away at the paradigm of one person in one cubicle from 9-5.

In addition, employees are using many different electronic devices — their smartphone, laptop, tablet, or personal computer. This can be by need if one device breaks down. It can also be by desire, as some employees want to bring their own devices to work. Although they may want to use the same physical device, it is still necessary and desirable to keep work and personal data separate.

Finally, the unity of voice and data through VoIP poses a challenge. Costs can be saved by using only one infrastructure instead of two. Yet VoIP may or may not have the same reliability as normal PSTN, and rolling out such a change across an entire organization is difficult.

Enter Dialpad

Dialpad is on a mission to make business communications accessible from any device, anywhere in the world. Our main products, Dialpad and Dialpad Meetings (formerly UberConference), are geared towards the Enterprise market as a single cloud-based platform to resolve the pain points that company "power communicators" often face.

Dialpad is the cloud-based PBX solution to your traditional PBX limitations. With Dialpad, the devices and systems your team uses every day are integrated right within a single platform.

Employees use their existing devices to carry on communications across Departments and Offices. Admins can easily scale and manage users from anywhere in the world right from our Admin portal.

Like most unified communications (UC) solutions, Dialpad also offers teams the ability to sync up with their productivity suite, whether it's Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

Where Dialpad solves the issue of mobility in the workplace, Dialpad Meetings tackles the job of simplifying the video conference call. Dialpad Meetings keeps its commitment to the anywhere worker movement, letting conference hosts launch a call from their customizable URL or right over their cell within seconds.

Dialpad's goal is to take advantage of all the cool and powerful features of browsers and smartphones, yet also retain the ease and reliability of a classic telephone conversation.

After all, voice is the first social network and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

That ends Part 4 of our series. In our fifth, and final part, we'll look at Dialpad's telephony infrastructure.

Part 1: The Historical Telephone
Part 2: PSTN and Modern Telephony

Today we're taking a look at the internet and the separation of data and voice.

Time division multiplexing and circuit switched networks

Traditional telephony across the PSTN (Publicly Switched Telephone Network) is based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). This refers to how users share large transmission lines for making long-distance calls. These large trunk lines handle multiple calls by giving each user a certain, very well-defined time slot to send their signal.

Each color represents a different channel that is assigned to single user. Dark shades are time slots that contain data. Light colors are time slots that are reserved but not being used.

Another key related concept is the Circuit Switched Network. While you are constantly sharing trunk lines with other people, in classic PSTN you always have a single unbroken line from telephone A to telephone B. This is same as the physical, electrical circuit in early 20th century telephone exchanges.

Packet switched networks

Packet switched networks (PSN) operate by a different paradigm. Networks that operate by this principle split the data stream into packets of a small, well-defined size. These packets are sent across the network, and it is left to the routers to choose the best path, based on which neighboring router is closest and available.

Packets usually travel the same path to their destination, but there is no guarantee or even an expectation that they will. Similarly, there is no guarantee that these packets will arrive at the destination at a given rate, at a given time, or even at all.

The PSN paradigm works well for computer files (images and HTML webpages), since it is not necessary that portions of a file all arrive at a certain time. A computer can simply store the packets as they arrive, and once the packets have all been received, reassemble the file.

There are several advantages of packet-switching over traditional circuit-switching. The first is efficiency. In traditional TDM, if no data is being sent (no one is speaking in a voice call), then there is a lot of unused capacity that the transmission line could have been using to send something else.

The second advantage is robustness. New routers can be easily installed on the network, and different paths can be taken if one router goes down. Furthermore, TDM requires very accurate clocks that are all synchronized together so that they know exactly which slot is assigned to which user. Otherwise, you could be pulling bits from the wrong slot and cause bit errors.

The unity of voice and data

A long-standing goal of the telecom industry is the unity of voice and data, which basically means transmitting both computer files and voice signals over the same wires.

Before, this was accomplished by keeping the basic PSTN infrastructure and placing data transmission on top of it. The technology to accomplish this is called Digital Subscriber Line or DSL. DSL uses the same lines as your telephone but transmits data over the higher level frequencies that can't be heard by the human ear.

The modern, or progressive, strategy is to emulate voice traffic over a PSN. This is known by the famous acronym VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol. Digitizing your voice occurs the same as in PSTN, but is transmitted over the networks in packets (PSN) rather than in dedicated time slots (TDM).

Again, VoIP allows voice, data, and video to all be transmitted over the same infrastructure, thus reducing maintenance and installation costs. In addition, telephone features such as voicemail and caller ID can be combined with software for a richer user experience.

Because packets are transmitted across the network in a "best-effort" manner, they are not guaranteed to arrive at a certain time, in a certain order, or even at all. Stated in slightly more technical wording, sometimes VoIP sometimes has problems with latency (arriving too slow), packet loss (not arriving at all), and jitter (arriving at irregular intervals).

Jitter can be reduced by buffering. That is, packets that coming in at random speeds are pushed on the top of a temporary buffer. They are then pulled from the bottom of the buffer at a regular rate for the voice engine. The delay introduced by this strategy is a compromise between latency and drop-off.

That ends Part 3. In Part 4, we'll take a look at where Dialpad fits in the world of Telecom.

Part 1: The Historical Telephone

Today we cover the key concepts of how traditional telephones work.

SS7 Signaling

As stated in our last post, you're sharing a lot of the telephone infrastructure with everyone else on the network. So when you pick up the phone, how does the network know that you want to use it? To put it in another way, how do you set up and tear down a call?

SS7, or Signaling System 7 is the answer to this. SS7 exchanges the control information associated with the call (caller number, callee number, billing information, etc.)

A key feature of SS7 is the use of CCS or Common Channel Signaling. With this method, a dedicated signaling channel is set up first and maintained alongside an active voice channel that carries the conversation.

SS7 is also related to the development of touch-tone phones, also called dual tone multi frequency or DTMF. These are of course, the numbers you press on your phone. Each number you press emits a combination of a high and low-frequency sine wave.

For the user, the touch tone interface allows for faster dialing than the rotary phone. From the design and engineering perspective, touch tone phones are more resistant to component failure/degradation than rotary phones, which have to sent out pulse signals at a well-defined rate to the switching infrastructure.

Digital vs analog

A final key feature developed in the 1970s is the analog to digital conversion of voice. Waves in the ocean, temperature gradients, and the volume of your voice are all continuous, analog signals. Early telephones transmitted your voice as an analog signal over electrical wires, resistors, and capacitors. Of course, there were no computer chips at the time.

But the problem with analog signals is interference or degradation as it is transmitted across the line. Digital signals degrade too, but as long as noise is within certain thresholds, the signal can be regenerated or created again. Noise in analog signals is additive and harder to correct.

How digitization works

To digitize your continuous audio analog signal, it is sampled at a certain rate to create a list of values. This list is also quantized, or constrained to a defined set of values. For example, 8.24764 is rounded to 8.25.

How fast should the sampling rate be in order recreate the voice signal from a list of values? That question is answered by the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem, a very important topic in signal processing. Put concisely, your sampling rate must be twice the maximum frequency you want to hear.

But what is the maximum frequency that we want to hear? Let's make a quick aside first. Humans can hear frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, but the range of the human voice is only from 300 Hz to 3400 Hz. In classic telephony, we extend the nominal human voice range out to 4 kHz since audio filters used in processing have a smooth and not a steep drop-off. The extra room also protects against interference from signals transmitting on adjacent frequency bands.

So putting the two concepts together (maximum frequency of 4 kHz, have to sample at twice that rate), your raw audio signal is sampled 8,000 times a second to get a list of 8,000 discrete values. This list of discrete values is what's actually transmitted over the PSTN network. Once the signal reaches the other end, a computer chip on the other person's phone rebuilds the signal because it knows what the original sampling rate was.

HD audio

The term HD audio or "Wideband Voice" refers to expanding the traditional 300-3400 Hz range of PSTN calls to 50-7000 Hz. This greater range allows for more harmonics of the human voice to come through and thus allow for clearer and improved call quality.

This ends Part 2 of our series. In Part 3, we'll discuss the internet and the separate of data + voice.

John Rector is a Dialpad co-founder and VP of Telephony and Mobile. Previously, John worked at Google as a Senior Software Engineer, building the telephony backend for Google Voice.

Today we look at telephones and networks from 1800 to the 1960s.

Invention of the telephone

Bell utters the famous words “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you” in March of 1876. The telephone was also developed independently by Antonio Meucci of Italy. Much historical controversy exists then and now over who deserves more credit. However, Bell was the first to patent, widely disseminate, and develop telephone technology in the United States.

Mesh networking

Bell's telephone was a point-to-point communicator. Think of it like a “tin can telephone”. This works fine for networks with only two or three users. But as the number of users grows, it quickly turns into a mesh network with way too many wires to build and maintain.

The answer is a central exchange. Everyone connects with one line to the exchange. When you want to talk to someone on the network you call the exchange, and the operator connects you with the right person.

Exchange at the center of the network

The first exchanges were manually operated. You lifted the receiver off a hook, and the operator asked you "Number, please". If the number was local, the operator connected you immediately. If the number was on another exchange (in a different region, or city) the operator put you on a trunk line to connect to that city's exchange. The operator there asked "Number please" and completed your call.

As the number of users grew and technology advanced, the switching technology changed as well. Early telephone numbers consisted of two letters and four numbers. The first two letters referred to the name of the local exchange (also called the central office). For example, TO-1234 referred to the "Townsend" exchange or "DU" for Dunkirk.

It was around the 1950s that letters were first mapped to digits in a way similar to what we see on today's dial pads (2 = ABC, 3 = DEF, etc). This coincided with the development of the rotary dial phone and the mechanical switch which eliminated the need for human operators.

That ends the first part of our series. In Part 2, we'll dive into the PSTN and Modern Telephony.

Brian Peterson is VP of Product Engineering and co-founder at Dialpad, specializing in web development, cloud services and databases. Before Dialpad, Brian was at Google for eight years, where he spent most of his time working on the Google Voice team and leading the transition of GrandCentral’s technology onto Google’s infrastructure.

We built both Dialpad Ai Meetings (formerly known as UberConference) and Dialpad on Google Cloud Platform using WebRTC. Our goal from the beginning was to bring innovation to some of the obvious problems with conference calls and phone systems, making them relevant and useful again. We wanted to develop our products for the way we work today—faster, more mobile, and across multiple platforms and devices. WebRTC helped us do that.

WebRTC is a free, open project that enables web browsers with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities.

Why is that cool?

It’s cool because it's a way to get very high-quality, secure VoIP to your browser (for free), without having to install any extra plug-in.

WebRTC uses the Opus Codec, which offers the best audio experience out there. Not only does it give your Dialpad calls HD audio, but it also handles dynamic network conditions by adjusting to the available bandwidth wherever you are.

Dialpad Meetings was one of the earliest WebRTC adopters, launching at Google I/O in 2013—just one week after Google released it. With WebRTC implemented, our users can connect to their calls in real-time without having to leave their browsers and even make international calls through the browser at no cost.

For similar reasons, Dialpad uses WebRTC for voice communication through your desktop. It’s available without any extra software across Windows, Mac, Chromebook, and even Linux, and because of its cross-platform capabilities, WebRTC allowed us to deploy the Dialpad native app instantaneously across all platforms, instead of having to build separately for each one. It allows for a more streamlined experience for developers, but also lets us roll out the app faster for users on any platform.

Because Dialpad is a Chrome web app, WebRTC is already built in and users only need to have Chrome to use it. Just like with Dialpad Meetings, it gives Dialpad users HD audio and lets them call internationally for free when making and answering calls from the desktop.

WebRTC is game changing, and it’s paving the way for whole new types of web applications like Dialpad and Dialpad Meetings. We do our best to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to advancing the quality and accessibility of our products, and as the WebRTC standard becomes available in more browsers, we plan to build accordingly.

So if you want to build a successful relationship with someone, meet them in person or pick up the phone. You’ll have an exchange you simply would not be able to have in a text. Especially when important business decisions are to be made, you want to speak live.

If you want to have a serious exchange of ideas, get advice, explore a new idea, or just get a better feel for what someone is thinking, a live conversation is the way to go.

Voice is different than other forms of communications. With social networking, email, and text, people can respond when it’s convenient. Sometimes that convenience is important—but there’s a tradeoff. Unlike the written word, voice obliges a real time response and creates a space to explore new things.

Small talk is a critical part of that exploration. You have no idea where small talk will lead. You might talk about places to live or travel. Maybe you learn your client likes to ski or golf—or just had their first child. You also learn things about their business you didn’t know before.

So the next time you want to share important details with someone, why not pick up the phone? You might be surprised by the results.

Connect everyone. Work anywhere.

Role: India Country Manager & Vice President of Engineering

What do you do at Dialpad?

I started my Dialpad journey in November 2018 when we kicked off operations in India. In this role, I’m focused heavily on scaling local operations,

hiring top talent, managing budgets, and navigating statutory requirements. I also facilitate collaboration between our dispersed engineering teams so that we’re all aligned and contributing to a common product vision. It’s a big responsibility, especially given Bangalore’s strategic importance to the company as a long-term center of platform development and innovation, but I’m well supported and having fun embracing the challenge!

How did you get into your career?

I had my first brush with software engineering in college when I enrolled in a course centering on real world engineering projects. I quickly developed an appreciation for the hands-on learning and team-oriented approach to the subject. Prior to this experience I didn’t have a clue about engineering but it gave me the confidence I needed to turn computer science into a career. When I graduated there was enough demand for engineers with my particular skill set and I rode the tide.

What drew you to Dialpad?

Right off the bat I was impressed by the leadership team’s track record of successful exits and their commitment to building a strong company culture based on doing the right thing. That alone was very convincing! I was also excited to learn about the company’s mission to integrate artificial intelligence with cloud-based business communications. I have no doubt this is where our industry is headed and it’s encouraging to know that we have both the vision and the execution plan to make it happen. Most of all I was attracted to the exciting opportunity and challenge of building our Bangalore team from the ground up.

What’s been your favorite project at Dialpad and why?

In my short time at Dialpad I’ve been on the front lines of many significant team changes and milestones, from legally registering the company in India to onboarding our first engineer. Spreading Dialpad’s brand awareness in Bangalore and hiring have been particularly enjoyable projects for me. We’re determined to get the best and brightest engineers on our team and it’s been amazing to see such a positive response from candidates.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

The three E’s: Education, Experience and Exposure.

Education provides a solid foundation for your future work, experience gives you a feel for the real world, and exposure to areas beyond your immediate role help you to think in all directions when dealing with a multi-dimensional problem. Once you master these E’s they’ll serve you the rest of your professional life!

Interested in joining our team in Bangalore? See our open positions below!

Name: Jon Araquistain

Role: Product Engineer

What do you do at Dialpad?

As a member of the Dialpad Ai Product Engineering team, I work on AI and machine learning features that enhance the Dialpad user experience. This includes translating product ideas and designs into new data models, writing APIs to facilitate communication with those models, and building out the interactions that take advantage of the new data in our core applications.

How did you get into your career?

It took me a long time to realize how much I truly love software engineering. I started out making websites for local bands and organizations when I was a teenager then stopped for a long time while I earned my BFA and tried to convince myself I wanted to be a graphic designer or 3D animator. Funny enough, my first design gig ended up having a large development component and from there I caught a break building the kind of web advertisements you wouldn’t want showing up on a work computer. As embarrassing as that sounds, it was my first full-time programming gig and exactly the springboard I needed to dive into my career.

What drew you to Dialpad?

My manager, TJ and I have known each other for years. We worked together at a previous company and after he joined Dialpad he was dead set on recruiting me too. This past March I was feeling ready for something new and TJ invited me to come meet with a couple other engineers on the team. We talked a lot about upcoming projects and the infinite supply of interesting and challenging problems to solve. I ended up applying and so far it’s been an amazing and wild ride!

What's been your favorite project and why?

So far, real-time recommendations has been my favorite project to work on. Going through the exercise of establishing a planning and workflow pipeline on something so complicated really sharpened my skills as an engineer. It’s also really cool conceptually and the type of feature that can be improved endlessly. I’m very much looking forward to how it evolves over time to best meet the needs of our customers.

What's one thing people would be surprised to learn about engineering?

That there’s far more to it than just writing code. The actual building and testing of the feature is the very last step in the process. Knowing the right questions to ask and discussions to have are crucial to delivering a successful and well-engineered result. I feel like a lot of people don’t give proper planning its due, and a lot of time the end product suffers for it. It’s also a much more social process than people might think. Some of the greatest growth as an engineer comes from sitting with your team and working on something together.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

Take a moment and reflect on what drives you. I’ve found that the most successful and fulfilled engineers are those who are most excited and passionate about it, regardless of work history or education. Also, it’s never too late to jump in. This is a rare field where the relevant degree is not a requirement and passionate self-taught people are equally welcome.

Interested in joining Jon’s team? We have openings across departments and offices from Vancouver to San Francisco! Take a look at our careers page below.

After being holistically evaluated by the Forbes judging panel on a combination of market leadership, estimated valuation, operating metrics, and people & culture, we placed 99th on the list—a debut ranking I am extremely proud of and that I know our team has worked hard to earn. There was a time not so long ago when cloud companies were treated with market skepticism and analyst gripe. The fact that the Forbes Cloud 100 list has “caught steam” and is in its third year is a sign to me of how far we’ve come as an industry.

When my co-founders and I started Dialpad in 2011, it was a pretty big gamble. We bet everything on the belief that even the largest companies would ultimately adopt the cloud for services like business communications, even at a time when most CIOs weren’t even trusting the cloud for their email. Had the chips fallen differently and the cloud not been proven to be enterprise ready, it would have materially changed the trajectory of our business. But work has and continues to move to the cloud. And today we’re not just killing it in our own space, we’re setting an example for future cloud leaders.

For those who like trivia, all 25 cloud IPOs and major cloud acquisitions over the last three years have been members of previous Cloud 100 lists. It’s not a stretch to imagine that the next wave of dominant public cloud companies will also come from this list. Our list. So congrats to everyone who was honored last night and congrats to the Dialpad team. Thank you for your late nights, big ideas and fearlessness even in the face of great risk.

Name: Natalie Owen

Role: Data Science Operations Manager

What do you do at Dialpad?

I’ve always been drawn to problem solving and taking on new challenges, so I wear a few different hats at Dialpad. Officially I’m the Data Science Operations Manager, which means I help the machine learning team organize their work, plan projects, coordinate with other teams within Dialpad and manage the performance and development of the operations team. But I’m also the acting team lead for Dialpad’s Kitchener-Waterloo office which Dialpad inherited after the TalkIQ acquisition. That entails ensuring everyone in the Kitchener-Waterloo office has what they need to do their jobs well and that we’re doing cool things outside the office like team bowling nights and happy hours.

How did you get into your career?

After falling out of love with the idea of being a full-time developer, I followed my passion for building smart working systems and processes into a quality assurance career. From there I realized that I had a great opportunity at the management level to improve the work life of my direct reports. I’d always been a big believer in servant leadership and letting people focus on what they’re good at to grow professionally. So I decided to transition into Operations Management, where I could help people remove barriers and improve processes full time. The best part is that I still get to use my computer science degree to better relate to and communicate with my teams on the day-to-day.

What drew you to Dialpad?

I became a Dialer after the acquisition of TalkIQ. I had started with them about 6 months prior to the announcement, and was excited about the opportunity to bring our real-time speech recognition and analytics technology to Dialpad’s much bigger customer base. So far everyone has been incredibly welcoming and enthusiastic about what we’re building together. And I look forward to helping the team use machine learning to refine and expand Dialpad Ai and solve more of our customers’ problems.

What's one thing people would be surprised to learn about machine learning?

People often wonder if machine learning will lead to an eventual Skynet situation. I love Terminator as much as the next person, but the answer is no. There’s a big difference between machine learning and true artificial intelligence. Computers aren’t capable of learning the way that humans do. My favourite example is that a child only needs to see one picture of a horse to be able to identify any other horse from any other angle; a computer shown the same image would only be able to identify another very similar image of a horse. They need much more data to make the same connections that our brains do intuitively.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

Always be open to learning. I don’t come from a data science background so I’ve had to learn a lot to be effective for my team. I regularly learn new things from people who report to me and I always aim to hire people smarter than I am. Also never be scared to ask questions or “look stupid.” If you leave your ego at the door and listen to the opinions and experiences of everyone you interact with (even the non-technical people), you will learn a lot and be able to help build better products for your customers.

Interested in joining Natalie's team? We have openings across departments and offices from Kitchener-Waterloo to San Francisco! Take a look at our careers page below.

If you know ICONIQ, then you know they’re one of the most impressive funds in the Valley. Their recent investments include Silicon Valley standouts like Robinhood, Snowflake Computing and Apptus, demonstrating a clear expertise in disrupting traditional markets with innovative technology. We’re thrilled to have them as our lead investor in this round, and to welcome founding partner, Will Griffith to our board.

So what’s next?

Growth. Lots of it. With fresh cash in the bank and ICONIQ Capital on board, we’re ready to take the business to the next level. In the coming weeks we’ll be doubling down on Dialpad Ai to complete our vision for great business communications. It’s already a core part of our Dialpad product, and soon it will be powering our standalone VoIP call center product for sales and support teams too.

As the frontline of managing customer interactions, we believe these groups have the most to gain from Dialpad's real-time artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities and can’t wait to make it an integral and accessible part of their digital customer experience strategies. We’ll also be increasing our total headcount by 50% and expanding our team’s global footprint in Asia and Western Europe to get Dialpad Ai into the hands of as many businesses as possible.

We realize this means we have our work cut out for us. Now that we’ve introduced real-time artificial intelligence technology to the UCaaS market, it won’t be long before some of our biggest competitors make their own bid at it. The pressure is on for us to deliver and there is little room for error in what comes next. But if I know my team, I know we’re ready. Besides, no one ever said pioneering the future of work would be easy.

We first met TalkIQ CEO, Dan O’Connell in our days at Google. Back then, Dan was working in the AdWords division alongside my co-founder Brian Peterson. In their short time together, the two developed an easy friendship and stayed in contact even after Brian and I both left Google to build Dialpad. This friendship would eventually be the key to bringing our future companies together, because as we were gathering our engineering team to build a world-class, business communications solution, another team led by Dan’s future partners, Jim Palmer and Etienne Manderscheid, was digging in on the puzzle of real-time natural language processing.

Whenever I tell this story I’m always struck by what a perfect match our two companies ended up being without even trying. We were both built cloud-first on the Google Cloud Platform. We both valued data and analytics as a means to transform business communications. We both invested early in a clean platform design and UI. Even our engineering cultures were the same. So when we found out from Dan that they were in the market for a telephony partner at the same time we were looking for an AI partner, we knew it had to be a sign. Marc Andreessen asking us, “Tell me why we aren't trying to buy this company?" only reinforced that this was meant to be.

Welcome to the era of smarter conversations

I’m pleased to announce that together with TalkIQ, Dialpad is delivering a brand new offering, Dialpad Ai, to help businesses take a smarter approach to understanding and acting on important customer conversations in real-time. Starting today, a beta version of Dialpad Ai will be available to all existing Dialpad customers to power:

• Real-time call transcription: Receive accurate, automatic voice transcriptions of any conversation in Dialpad, Dialpad Ai Contact Center, or conference calls on Dialpad without latency.

• Smart notes: Accelerate productivity by automatically capturing meeting notes from any conversation. Action items, follow-ups, and important moments are automatically captured and provided in a shareable call summary at the end of each call to help everyone save time and to improve follow up.

• Real-time sentiment analysis: Identify positive and negative intent signals in client conversations and calculate customer satisfaction scores for 100% of your calls. Assess account health, understand competition and glean customer insights on specific products, features and campaigns on a continual, per-call basis.

• Real-time coaching: Enable sales and support teams to increase efficiency and decrease ramp time by providing real-time recommendations to reps as conversations happen. Dialpad Ai can deliver real-time feedback and recommended responses to customer questions, removing “I don’t know moments” and reminding reps how to respond to questions about pricing, new features and the competition. Dialpad Ai drives consistency across inbound and outbound calls, while simultaneously equipping teams to be top performers.

By baking TalkIQ’s unmatched real-time speech recognition and natural language processing technology directly into our full product suite, no other stand alone AI or modern business communications provider has a solution as complete as Dialpad Ai.

So whether you’re looking to boost the effectiveness of your front-line teams, better understand the competition, assess customer account health or just free up employees to spend more time on the things that matter, there’s no limit to what Dialpad Ai can do for your business.

What were the early days of Dialpad like?

CW: Believe it or not our culture was pretty much the same as it is today. The biggest difference was our office and product. Back then we were working with 2,500 square feet in downtown Pleasanton and a confusing, visually funky v1 of Dialpad Meetings (formerly known as UberConference) that required a unique PIN for everybody we couldn't identify by caller ID.

BP: I remember we were releasing updates like crazy and always experimenting with different UX/UI and feature changes.

JR: We were super scrappy. Craig moves fast so we'd always have a hundred balls in the air and always be powering ahead.

What’s been the most challenging part of growing the business to where it is today?

CW: It turns out telecom is very complicated, particularly worldwide. Bringing on larger and larger customers with broader global needs was tricky at first.. But thankfully we had some experience from Google Voice and were able to do it well.

BP: For me it was the people management. When you start getting bigger your priority shifts from strictly building products to also building people and careers.

JR: Also figuring out the best way to communicate with each other. Craig standing up and saying, "Hey I think we need to do some Google Maps integration!" stopped scaling very quickly.

What's been your proudest moment?

CW: Winning TechCrunch Disrupt for Dialpad Meetings was a major early achievement. Outside of that, we're extremely proud to offer enterprise quality voice services worldwide.

BP: Seriously. Building a full fledged business cloud phone system with all the bells and whistles that's reliable worldwide, in as little time as we did, is practically unheard of. It's so technically difficult to do.

JR: I'd also add landing our first big customer, Motorola. Getting a real business to believe in us was incredible validation and motivation.

Is there anything you'd have done differently?

CW: We definitely wouldn't have spent as much time working on some of our other early projects.

BP: Agreed.

JR: And I'd have brought on all our great former co-workers sooner.

What have you learned from the last seven years?

CW: I've learned success is often out of your control. Starting Dialpad was a huge gamble. We essentially bet everything on the belief that most companies would start adopting cloud for services like business communications. Had we been wrong, it would have materially changed our entire business.

BP: I've learned the importance of personality-fit when building a team. Anyone can look good on paper but if they're just here for the perks they aren't going to be happy. Good engineers are passion-driven. They live and breathe the engineering mindset, regardless of free laundry or unlimited PTO.

JR: I've learned that no two customers will ever use our product the same way.

What's your best piece of advice for other startup founders and entrepreneurs?

CW: Get ready for the grind! We're seven years into the Dialpad story and it's amazing but it's truly a full time, day-in and day-out grind, particularly when you're successful.

BP: You need to have a really good team from the start. It's fine to be a sole founder but don't expect to get too far on an MBA and a good idea alone. You need engineers and designers to execute.

JR: And don't ever underestimate the value of building your professional network across business functions. Like Brian said, it'll pay off hugely when it's time to build out your company.

What do you look forward to in the next seven years?

CW: More and more companies using our products!

BP: Definitely looking forward to becoming a household name. It’s just a matter of time.

JR: Honestly, I can't wait for the next seven years of engineering challenges.

Dialpad provides modern business communications for the worker of the future. Our more than 50,000 customers love our products, and that love shows in our rapid revenue growth. Deloitte’s 2017 Technology Fast 500 award winners were selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2013 to 2016. Over that three-year period, our revenue grew 443 percent - that’s a lot of customer love.

The overall Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market, consisting of enterprise telephony and enterprise call center, is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 25% through 2021 according to Technovia. Our rate of revenue growth far surpassed the market due to delivering innovative products to customers in small businesses, mid-market and global enterprises, from a three person flower shop to global companies with tens of thousands of employees in more than 50 countries. This broad-based product/market fit is due to our founders and team building a product with incredible ease of use that starts with having a VoIP phone system in minutes with global enterprise scalability. Those two objectives are not easy and most companies can’t come close to hitting the bullseye. At Dialpad, we have hit the center of the target and continue to release new market-leading innovative features and products.

We accept our second Fast 500 award from Deloitte based on the hard work of our awesome employees, trust from premier investors and, most importantly, for the love shown us by our customers around the world who come in all shapes and sizes.

Just like in the US, where Dialpad is headquartered, we’ve put together a world-class team in our pursuit to kill the outdated desk phone. As of today, we’ve officially opened an office in downtown Vancouver and are currently recruiting for over 20 new full-time positions in marketing, product management, and engineering.

To kickstart recruiting efforts here in Canada, we are participating in Vancouver Startup Week’s Recruitment Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 26th from 6 to 9 pm. Come visit our booth and meet our VP of People, Tasha Liniger, and other all-star members of the Dialpad team. You’ll learn all about the “Death of the Desk Phone” movement and the career opportunities with Dialpad.

So how are we killing the desk phone? First, we’re innovators. We’ve got 48,000 customers around the world using Dialpad to enable seamless communications. Those companies are making it possible for their employees to work from anywhere and communicate seamlessly on the go. This movement is transforming communications for consumers, businesses and enterprise organizations everywhere.

What made me join Dialpad and lead the office here in Vancouver? First, the Vancouver office will account for roughly 20 percent of all Dialpad employees worldwide. How could I turn that down? We’ve already reallocated several senior software engineering and product management positions to establish a major presence here in B.C. This means we’re playing a significant part of the company’s growth and success.

We will be aggressive with our Vancouver expansion this year. When you think about it from a business perspective, we are in Vancouver for the right reasons. Canada has a favorable economic climate, friendly immigration policies and a highly educated and established workforce with more talent on the way. There are also other telecom companies established here in B.C, contributing to a competitive and thriving technology startup scene.

We’ve “planted our flag” in a new 4,800 square-foot office in the Bentall One Building, deep in the heart of Vancouver’s financial district. The office has stunning waterfront views and an easy commute from nearby residential areas. We have an “open work environment” and an established team of 20+ energetic and talented people, all with big ideas and the determination.

Another reason I love Dialpad—their flexible work week approach. Dialpad employees have the option of working from home two days a week, which, as a parent to two active young boys, is incredibly helpful. To say this perk is great for my marriage, children and overall work-life balance is an understatement. But the employee perks don’t stop there - Dialpad also offers on-site catered lunches, full benefits, two weeks paid vacation and several offsite events every year.

It’s also great that I get to work with two of my longtime friends in the telecom world. Dialpad’s co-founder, Craig Walker, started Google Voice when it was known as GrandCentral. I’ve known Craig as far back as when he, and Vincent Paquet, were at Yahoo! Voice. Craig and Vincent are two of the brightest and nicest guys in the industry, and the opportunity to help them build a disruptive communications company has been a professional dream come true.

Our engineering efforts are led by several seasoned cloud computing experts, including co-founders Brian Peterson and John Rector. Brian and John were the engineers behind successfully scaling Google Voice to handle hundreds of millions of users and millions of simultaneous calls.

In Vancouver, those efforts are being spearheaded by Joshua Chiet. Joshua is a long-term GrandCentral, Google and Youtube software engineer and one of Dialpad’s first employees.

Going full bore on Google’s Cloud Platform has given us the ability to integrate the power of voice, video, messaging and collaboration with the major productivity suites, CRM software, social networks, and the everyday tools people need to do their jobs. By building on Google’s platform, with native Microsoft 365 and Google integrations, Dialpad is a potent, pure cloud communications service with rapid deployment capabilities built at planet scale.

The bottom line—come join the Vancouver Dialpad team!

Jim hit the nail on the head in his introduction when he said:

Well said Jim.

This is exactly the message that Dialpad is spreading in our mission to revolutionize the way we communicate at work and help businesses everywhere kill the desk phone.

Craig puts it simply, saying, "If you’re moving your business to the cloud for email and everything else, your phone system should go with it.” Over 25,000 companies including Netflix, Uber, and Motorola Solutions have already eliminated desk phones in favor of empowering the anywhere worker in the cloud.

By embracing a cloud-first communications strategy, these enterprises have significantly reduced the IT resources associated with managing on-premises infrastructure.

But incredibly, many companies are still clinging to their legacy PBX systems and tying employees to desks—restricting productivity and even reducing happiness.

Craig goes on to dig deep into the ways Dialpad is driving positive change in workplaces, making workers’ lives easier and solving problems you didn’t even know you had! For example, one of the coolest features Dialpad offers is a voicemail transcription feature, in 80 different languages no less! No more wasting time listening to long messages and potentially missing important notes.

Watch the Mad Money interview for more insight into the communication revolution and how Dialpad can help you cut the cord and work from anywhere.

Empowering modern Japanese workers

The age of the Anywhere Worker is coming to Japan as more than 2,200 SoftBank sales reps begin to offer Dialpad to their customers. Softbank is the largest reseller of Google Workspace in the world, and with an ambitious and progressive outlook that mirrors our own, Dialpad could not be more thrilled to be working with Softbank exclusively for the next three years.

“In the rapidly-changing and ever-growing cloud market, the need for unified communications is especially high. We expect Dialpad to meet our customers’ needs as it seamlessly works with G Suite, which is used by many of our customers. SoftBank will work to expand the sales of Dialpad in the future as one of the core cloud services.”

Kunihiro Fujinaga, VP, Enterprise Business Strategy Division at SoftBank

Remote working and flexible hours are no longer perks reserved for the lucky few in Japan and around the world, but simply the reality of our always-on, mobile societies. With as much as 81% of workers spending time away from their desks during the working week, working on the go and communicating from anywhere is an absolute necessity for success.

It is no surprise, therefore, that 75% of employees prefer a mobile smartphone over a desk phone for business calls, often choosing their own devices over those provided by their workplace. With repercussions of this including security, privacy and financial issues, Dialpad founders realized it was time to get real with how we work and communicate today, kill the desk phone and create a business communication solution for tomorrow.

“It’s now clear that companies that remain tied to their old desk phones are falling further behind the competition every day. As we continue our global expansion, we are extremely pleased to be working with SoftBank, which has had extraordinary success taking cloud solutions like G Suite to market. With close to 100 million smartphone contracts in Japan, we are confident that Dialpad will become the standard business communications solution, empowering organisations and connecting workers across Japan.”
Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad.

Dialpad in Tokyo: Salesforce World Tour

To kick off the partnership with Softbank, Dialpad is landing in Tokyo today at the Salesforce World Tour. We invite you to stop by our booth on December 13th to be amongst the first in Japan to learn about the Death of the Desk Phone movement and what it means for your business.

Dialpad + Salesforce Lightning

This partnership empowers your Sales team to do what they do best by turning your favorite CRM into an enterprise-grade business phone system. With easy access to rich customer intelligence data and with and Google Workspace, never miss an opportunity as you close more deals, solve more tickets and collaborate more efficiently, from just about anywhere.

Research from Global Workplace Analytics shows employees at Fortune 1,000 companies are not at their desks 50 to 60 percent of the time. However, as we enter 2017, 25 percent of companies still have no flexible working program, nor do they plan to implement one anytime soon. So what’s the hold up in our ever-connected world?

In the face of organizational change, there is of course, a whole host of legitimate concerns for business leaders to consider. The executive board is right to question motives and bring up worst-case scenarios, but with the rise of the Anywhere Worker and the modern workforce, there is less cause for concern and more call for action.

So here are the most common misconceptions about flexible working as we hear them from our customers, coupled with evidence to debunk the myths and help drive your organizational decision making.

4 most common myths about flexible work

Myth #1: Productivity will drop

It may seem inevitable that allowing employees to “work from anywhere” invites them to take their chosen quota of duvet days and long weekends, ultimately decreasing productivity.

However, research has shown that having the ability to work from anywhere actually significantly boosts employee happiness (82.5 percent of respondents agree) and productivity (77.5 percent agree). It is no surprise that the happier your employees are, the more creative they can be (78.6 percent agree) but employee happiness also has a direct positive impact on the amount of work they get done each day.

Happy employees are, on average, 12 to 20 percent more productive than their unhappy counterparts, so we can comfortably attribute flexible working to driving up the value each employee brings to the business.

Myth #2: It's difficult To manage remote teams

Gone are the days when intranet security and shared drive access could ruin your day as a remote worker. Email attachments no longer get out of control and workers aren't weighed down by multiple mobile phones anymore. Today, there are much simpler ways to manage remote teams working outside of the office.

There is now an abundance of fantastic communication tools to enable your remote teams to collaborate seamlessly on projects. Cloud collaboration software for project management, conference calling, file sharing and sales means that your team can be proactive, connected and fully accountable wherever they are.

Myth #3: Technology overhaul is a huge project

No CIO wants to roll out a costly, time-consuming headache of a project, no matter the benefits it brings, and it may seem that moving to a flexible working model could be just that.

However, with the surge in fully cloud-based applications, that simply isn’t the case. These cloud-based solutions are typically very quick to roll out (we’re talking hours and days rather than months and years), and we’ve seen an increasing shift in the user interface towards a consumer product style. Applications are easy to use and far more beautiful than what we were previously used to at work (ahem, pre-Lightning Salesforce). This means your employees intuitively use these apps right away and can maximize their ROI.

Let’s not forget, pricing models are also increasingly more straightforward and easy to manage and scale. What’s not to like?

Myth #4: Loss of company culture

You probably have a People Ops team to answer to who are concerned about maintaining a robust, positive company culture when half of the employees are out of office at any given time. It’s understandable to have concerns about a decline in company culture when adopting a flexible work schedule because there will be far fewer times when the majority of a business or team are physically together. As more businesses are moving to flexible schedules, though, these concerns are becoming a thing of the past.

Healthy remote culture demands a positive and engaged workforce and again, with flexible working comes increased happiness and productivity from your employees. Voila! When workers are spending less time commuting and more time getting their stuff done, they are freed up to help out and talk to other teams, enjoy office activities, and simply might be more willing to spend their own social time with colleagues who they don’t see every day.

Company culture isn’t just about team building activities (although we all love away days and free food). Culture is about fostering a happy community of people who are empowered and inspired enough to dedicate a large part of their waking hours to achieving company goals. With 89 percent of people saying they prefer to work outside of the office at least one day per week, it is time to start connecting working outside of the office with a sense of community inside the office.

We’re thrilled to announce that Dialpad has been ranked 186th on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, and energy tech companies in North America.

We started Dialpad with a mission to kill the desk phone. Our software-first approach simplifies how workers connect and communicate with each other through voice calls, video conferencing, and instant + business text messaging.

Legacy and first-generation cloud communications players built around the desk phone are letting the anywhere worker and the modern enterprise down.

Deloitte’s ranking helps validate our vision of a pure-cloud solution that enables modern workers to be accessible from anywhere at any time on any device. This idea aligns with a growing demand from global enterprises for technologies that accommodate the needs of an increasingly distributed workforce.

Unlike PBX phone systems, Dialpad is hardware-free and deployed in minutes. Our rapid growth shows that this approach is working and that any business shifting to the cloud for email or documents must have a similar solution for voice communications.

We’re excited to continue championing this movement as we help IT leaders redefine what’s possible when employees are free to work from anywhere.

Is your company ready? Join the movement today.

The way people do business now has forced them to abandon (or downright ignore) the antiquated piece of hardware sitting on their desks. In the last year, one of the major things we’ve learned is that big enterprises want to have more productive employees, spend less on IT, and use fewer resources, but they aren’t well equipped where business communications is concerned. They’re stuck with aging, costly PBX systems that can’t bend and stretch to meet the needs of their modern workers. Then there are the smaller businesses that can’t find cost-effective, nimble solutions, so employees stick to their personal cell phone numbers instead. Unfortunately, first-generation cloud services did nothing but take the old, broken system and put it online.

We built Dialpad to be the solution to these problems that we’ve all faced. We felt it as a small startup when we first launched Dialpad Meetings (previously UberConference) in 2012, and felt it even more as we doubled in size last year.

Some of our team shared their favorite 2015 Dialpad moments with me:

“Kicking off a ‘Day in the Life.’ Every week, we're fortunate enough to hear one colleague share a small presentation about their background, interests, and what they do at Dialpad." - Blake Peterson, Web Engineer

“Dialpad saved me in Mexico City when I had to make a call and my carrier network had dropped. The call was crystal clear, even on the café’s slow wifi.”- Jerome Tavé, UX Designer

“Watching Motorola take the plunge and throw over 3,000 desk phones away. It’s awesome we were able help them move into the future and create a better workplace for their employees.”- Stephanie Graves, Sales Manager

“When we moved offices and all we had to do was walk across the street with our laptops. Once we connected to our new Wi-Fi, we had all our work tools right at our fingertips–even our phones.” - Whitney Clark, Visual Designer

As long as technology continues to have an influence on our lives and behavior outside of work, the nature of business will need to evolve with it. We’re pretty satisfied with where we are at this point in the game. We have our users to thank for how far we’ve come, but Dialpad will continue to adapt.

We’ve taken the feedback you’ve given us in just our first year and relentlessly built a service with the features that matter to you.

Dialpad milestones from 2015:

• Signing Motorola Solutions was our first big win. CIO Greg Meyers, an all-time-great IT hero, came in and moved every employee over to Google Apps across more than 40 offices worldwide. Motorola was embracing the cloud and looking for a cloud phone system that worked well with Google Apps and could scale multi-nationally. Meyers chose Dialpad, and we deployed the product to all Motorola US offices, onboarding 6,000+ seats, and making it the largest pure cloud voice deployment ever. In contrast, RingCentral, launched its business phone service 10 years ago, and lists its largest customer at 1,500 seats in its latest 10-Q filing with the SEC. This was a great validation of the solution we’ve built.

• Launching a Microsoft 365 integration and an open version of Dialpad to offer the product to everyone, regardless of which work productivity suite they use.
• Adding features much requested from our customers such as MMS and Dialpad-to-Dialpad video calling (with a lot more new features to come in 2016!).
• Opening up 7 data centers around the world to keep our customers better connected from anywhere.

We also gained some awesome new partners:

• Google: named one of only eight recommended applications for the Google Apps customer base, passing rigorous code and security reviews both by Google and third-party verification services in order to earn this distinction.

• Sprint: teamed to provide a single offering across all core business tools including email, collaboration, identity management and now a cloud-based phone system to complete the unified communications experience.
• Microsoft: we became a Silver Productivity Partner, addressing the growing demand among enterprise customers for cloud and hybrid deployments built on Microsoft Office 365.

Thank you Dialpad Customers

To our thousands of small and medium-sized business customers, and to our enterprise customers, too, thank you for your valuable feedback (we read all of it), beta testing new features, and spreading the word about Dialpad. You, too, are IT heroes. You have shaped our vision and are helping us bring companies and workers closer together.

- Craig, CEO at Dialpad

As a global, virtual company with remote workers and clients all over the world, we at Konsus (now known as Superside) conduct thousands of calls each month to every corner of the planet—often while on the go. We have conducted extensive due diligence on the plethora of solutions out there, and to us, Dialpad Meetings is the only product that reliably solves the three issues.

Here are 7 reasons we chose Dialpad Uberconference, aka. Dialpad Meetings—and what, in our opinion, makes Dialpad Meetings the superior conference calling solution for companies in the modern world:

#1. It's so easy to join a call

Unlike other online conference vendors that make you download apps and punch in lengthy PINs, with Dialpad Meetings, it actually feels like they want you to join the call! If you or others are joining a conference call, all you have to do is go to your meetings.dialpad.com/MyName URL on your computer or dial in from your phone—and there's also a handy app for those that want it.

#2 Phone dial-in

We love that Dialpad Meetings gives you the choice to call in by computer or by phone; great for calling on the go. For our particular setup at Konsus, everyone stores their Dialpad Meetings dial-in number on their phone with the conference pin included. e.g. If you are in the UK, you would store the UK dial in number: +442035141993,,415XXXXXX#. The “,,” means a three-second break and the numbers after is the Dialpad Meetings PIN which gets autodialed. Dial this and you are automatically connected to the conference.

In most of our countries of operation, calling with the phone is free. A lot of our clients and the businesses that we deal with are more traditional and prefer to dial in with a phone. It's super convenient to send this number to them.

#3 HD audio and auto-mute

Call quality has never been an issue when using Dialpad Meetings, even with a poor connection. Enabling auto-mute is a great way to boost sound quality when there are many participants dropping in and out of large meetings. Admins can also easily mute participants that have background noise.

#4 Screen sharing

A picture is worth a thousand words, and that goes for many of our needs as well. We use screen share on Dialpad Meetings every single day for a myriad of reasons: from onboarding clients to our website and discussing design projects with clients, to tech team collaboration meetings. It's easy to use and share screens, and doesn't slow down laptops or other running programs.

#5 Integrations

The LinkedIn integration allows us to see info about the person and company we are talking to live on the call. We book calls and update our sales database with the HubSpot integration, and our internal teams use Dialpad Meetings to dial in on group calls straight from Slack. It's refreshing to have a system that so easily plugs in to our daily work activities and the tools our team already use.

#6 Chat feature

Dialpad Meetings blends instant messaging and voice calling in a very nice way with a handy message bar right in the chat window. A lot of other solutions does this as well, but the UI in Dialpad Meetings is particularly sweet. You can even share files in the chat bar and we especially love the way you can preview the files collaboratively right there in the call.

#7 Google Calendar integration

Dialpad Meetings integrates nicely with Google Calendar and allows you to click ‘add conference call’ to any invite you send. This saves tons of time and avoids the very typical mistake of forgetting to attach a dial-in to a conference call. We've all done that!

About the author

Tarje Skarbøe is Director of Account Management at Konsus and uses Dialpad Meetings to conduct hundreds of calls with prospective customers all over the world.

Konsus, now known as Superside, is a platform that lets companies set up a dedicated support team in a few minutes. We cover six of the most frequent online work categories: Graphic Design, Web Design, PowerPoint, Data Entry, Research and Content Writing.

Web call history

We’ll cut right to the chase: pulling call logs is a pain. Downloading CSVs, searching through records, connecting the dots between different communication data points—it’s a lot. But when you need to understand where, when, and how communication is happening in your organization, there isn’t much choice. That’s why we built Web Call History. With this feature Dialpad admins can instantly pull and filter call logs across their entire team, all from a straightforward, visual dashboard.

Reporting capabilities include:

• Outbound call and inbound call logging

• Call status (Connected, Missed)

• Where calls came in vs where they ended up (including the person that answered)

• Links to download or play voicemails and call recordings

  

In-queue callback

Nobody like their coffee break or drive home interrupted by a follow-up call. Especially your customers.

With in-queue callback for Dialpad Support (now known as Ai Contact Center), your customers can now receive their callbacks when it’s convenient for them and when they’re more likely to pay attention, which means better customer service and a steady decrease in your abandoned and inbound call volume.

New integrations, just for you

Slack

• Stay in the loop by connecting your Slack channels to Dialpad departments and call centers

• Get Slack notifications for missed calls, voicemails, and connected calls, even the agent that took the call

• Available to Dialpad Talk (now known as Dialpad Voice) and Ai Contact Center Pro and Enterprise customers in the Slack App Directory

OneLogin

• Automate user provisioning and get back to your day with our OneLogin SCIM integration

• Partner with our SSO integration to ensure secure communications no matter where your team’s headed

• Available to Dialpad Voice Enterprise customers in the OneLogin Connector Catalogue

Google Calendar Add-On

• Schedule meetings and add details like dial-in options in one click to any Google Calendar event

• Available for Dialpad Meetings Free and Business customers in the Google Workplace Marketplace

What’s on deck

We believe that if there’s a better way work, it’s our responsibility to build it. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the great new features our team is working on releasing to you very soon!

• Improved voice transcription accuracy

• Better call routing for those ‘gone fishin’ moments

• Updates to call blocking that’ll stop spammers in their tracks

How? Through increased innovation. And that’s why we’re so excited to announce our newest partnership with OneLogin.

OneLogin + Dialpad: Better together

Together with OneLogin and Dialpad, teams stay connected and secure with an AI-powered, cloud phone system that’s anything but reactive.

With our latest integration, IT teams can not only support the onboarding and offboarding of employees, but also ensure that they’re they’re accessing Dialpad via secured single sign on (SSO). And with features like contact center sentiment analysis and call analytics, your sales, marketing, and support teams can finally get real customer insights on things like purchasing decisions, troubleshooting issues, and even competitive analysis—all in real-time.

Learn more

When it comes down to it, IT leaders should see themselves as the agents of change that they are—introducing a new wave of tech that delivers both inside and outside your organization.

To learn more about Dialpad and OneLogin, visit us in the OneLogin directory below.

Eight million people can’t be wrong.

The dynamics of the modern workforce—one that emphasizes automation and remote teams—helped usher Slack and similar apps into the limelight. Today, the cloud-based, instant messaging app offers teams a simple, user-friendly way to stay connected, share important updates, and integrate with their existing apps like Jira and Google Workspace.

Social collaboration in the modern workforce

When we consider that so many organizations are tackling complex issues that demand collaboration, it only makes sense why teams are finding cloud collaboration software a workplace necessity and not just a “nice-to-have”.

But don’t think the benefits stop at the employee level. Collaboration tools in the workforce can also lead to improved customer experiences, loswer overhead costs, and greater employee retention rates.

In other words, a win-win for employer and employee alike.

Slack + Dialpad: Where work happens

When your apps work together, great things happen. It’s why Dialpad partners with so many productivity apps like Google Workspace, Office 365, Salesforce, Zendesk, and now, Slack.

With Dialpad + Slack, teams can stay focused on their conversations in Slack without having to toggle between their internal messaging platform and business phone system.

Activities like missed calls, voicemails, voice transcriptions, even text messages can be pushed as notifications in Slack, so you and your team are never out of the loop when it comes to business communications, both in and outside the office.

How it works

To integrate Dialpad + Slack, you’ll just need to:

1. Have an existing Slack account

2. Have an existing Dialpad Pro or Enterprise account

You’ll be able to add Dialpad straight from the Slack App Directory. After that, just have your Dialpad Admin follow these steps to integrate and enable Slack across your Department or Call Centers.

At that point your team will receive notifications for any (or all) of the following notification types in your corresponding Slack channel:

• When a voice call is started, missed, or completed
• When a voicemail is received
• When a new visual voicemail is available
• When a text message is received

Ready to get work done from anywhere? Click the button below to learn more about our integration with Slack and how to enable for your team.

As we spent more time in the market, it became apparent that much of the market was gravitating to the idea of using speech recognition and other technologies to build a better tape recorder. You’d have a recording of your conversations, be able to review insights after the call, and play things back if you’d like. The processing was all done after the call ended, and took time to complete. The thing with the tape recorder approach is that we all know it’s valuable, but the challenge is finding time to review the tape. We recognized this perspective early on, and so we focused our efforts on building real-time features that didn’t require a tape, and didn’t require an individual’s time to analyze.

When you see real-time speech recognition coupled with real-time natural language processing for the first time, you can’t help but smile. It’s a seamless and mind-blowing experience (I say this with the experience of giving hundreds of demos to prospects, customers, and investors that have brought smiles, congratulations, and general bewilderment time and time again).

You quickly realize the technology enhances conversations in ways you never thought possible: it takes notes for you as a conversation happens, identifies and logs the key events and moments, provides recommendations to questions, and can even help ensure you’re staying on track. The opportunities to enhance both personal and business conversations with these features is near endless—and we couldn’t be more excited about what we’re building and bringing to life across all our products at Dialpad.

With Dialpad Ai, you don’t need to install any new software, or change any behaviors. Just make a call and let Dialpad Ai do the rest, in real-time.

If we've piqued your interest, you can learn more about Dialpad Ai here. It’s live, and you can start using it today. Also, check back next week to read Part II of this post where we’ll discuss how we’re bringing real-time features to sales and support conversations to help close more deals, reduce churn, and enhance customer relationships.

Reinvent the customer experience

Better customer experiences are calling. It's time to answer on a platform that combines voice calls, business text messaging, instant messaging, and contextual customer info on your existing devices.

Introducing Dialpad Ai Contact Center—a modern solution to better customer experiences. Whether you're fielding support calls or generating leads, Dialpad Ai Contact Center offers a beautifully intuitive interface that makes resolving tickets, closing opportunities, and connecting with customers that much better.

Dialpad Admins can:

• Route calls via Round Robin, Fixed Order, or Longest Idle
• Access real-time agent and queue dashboards
• Monitor, listen in, barge, or take over active calls

Interested in learning more? Catch up with our on-demand webinar from the link below.

Insights you can act on

Why add business apps if they can't talk to one another? With the Domo Connector and Quick Start App for Dialpad, Admins can now automatically import their Dialpad messaging and call analytics straight into Domo.

That means a more visual representation of your business' calls and messages plus the ability to dig in, customize, and share across your organization. And if you've connected datasets with Salesforce or Zendesk, you can mix and match these with Dialpad to get a fuller picture.

Empower agents from anywhere

Not only can agents view and log Zendesk tickets from their desktop apps (or straight from Zendesk) but now we've added the ability to create and log from your Android device.

iOS user? Don't worry, we're working on building this out for your devices too. For now, don't forget that calls answered on your iOS device can still be automatically logged to Zendesk.

Save it for later with flagged messages

We've all been there—someone says something important but you can't get to it right away. You don't want to lose it in the shuffle of conversation but leaving unread notifications on your app gives you anxiety (been there).

Now with message flagging, you can choose the specific message or messages that you want to save for later by simply selecting the flag icon when you see it appear in your conversation thread.

Flagged messages will automatically appear under Inbox > Flagged for you to review later. You'll even have the option to unflag them from your Inbox as well.

Thanks for tuning in! We’ll be back next month with more innovations and news to share. Don’t forget, we keep a weekly log of all the latest features hitting your platform on our Help Center.

Dialpad is more than a next generation business phone system. It’s an entirely new category of business communications that enables you to connect everyone and work anywhere.

Google Hangouts Chat: Intelligent communication for teams

Google Hangouts Chat is Google's latest venture into bridging the communication gap between teams. Built for the way you work (sound familiar?) it's a new approach to instant messaging. Teams can message, share content, and integrate third party integrations with tools like Zendesk, Box, and Asana to keep everyone in the loop, no matter where they're working.

And starting today, teams can now integrate Dialpad's bot with Hangouts Chat.

Some things are better together

Integrating Dialpad's bots into your Google Hangouts Chat is easy—just run a search for either @Dialpad to add them to your Hangouts sidebar. Once added, you'll have a number of different commands to use with your Dialpad bot like:

- Text John I'm running late
- Turn on DND
- Call Keith Messick

With these integrations, teams can ditch app swapping and focus on the conversation at hand (because isn't that what you're really after?).

Take care of business with Google + Dialpad

Google Hangouts Chat is just one way teams can take care of business by integrating G Suite + Dialpad. Take a look at some of the other ways we've partnered with Google to driver better conversations.

Gmail add-on

Our Gmail Add-On (now available in the G Suite Marketplace), is a more intuitive way to stay connected in Dialpad without having to switch windows, manage tabs, or lose productivity.

G Suite apps

Whether it’s displaying the latest shared emails, files, or upcoming events or automatically syncing your contacts, you're able to stay connected to home base no matter where work takes you.

G Suite directory

Automatically sync your company directory via G Suite so adding new users is as easy as clicking a button (no IT headaches required).

Thanks for tuning in! We’ll be back next month with more innovations and news to share. Don’t forget, we keep a weekly log of all the latest features hitting your platform on our Help Center.

Dialpad is more than a next generation business phone system; it’s an entirely new category of business communications that enables you to connect everyone and work anywhere.

Kill the phone bill

You don't need an office to change the world, just a voice. And now you have one.

Built for small teams, freelancers, and one-person shops, Dialpad offers small businesses a way to connect and collaborate on a cloud phone system.

Dialpad includes all the business features your team needs, like:

• Auto-attendant
• IVR
• Unlimited voicemail
• Transfer, Add Caller, Hold, Mute
• Video calling
• Conference calling
• Screen sharing
• Business text messaging (SMS/MMS)

You're in the business of building your business and a phone bill isn't going to help you get there. Ditch the price tags and opt for a business phone system that works like you do—from anywhere, on any device.

Raise the bar with enterprise single sign on (SSO)

As the #1 business communications for G Suite, we knew we needed an enterprise-level security standard to meet our customer's needs. And in August, we launched support for both Google’s enterprise-grade SAML Single Sign On and SCIM lifecycle management.

Security and accessibility are better together. And now Dialpad offers both from the same processes that already work for your Org: OpenID and SAML via Google.

Ditch bad meetings once and for all

We’ve all been there—the conference call from hell. It’s time to wave goodbye to bad meetings and hello to a platform that helps you collaborate from anywhere.

Dialpad Meetings is now live inside Dialpad, meaning it’s now easier than ever to sync with your team. Plus with real-time collaborations from Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets, your team can start adding productivity to their meeting agendas.

Gmail + Dialpad are better together

If your existing platforms don’t make each other better, what’s the point?

Our Gmail Add-On (now available in the G Suite Marketplace), is a more intuitive way to stay connected in Dialpad without having to switch windows, manage tabs, or lose productivity.

From launching a new Dialpad call straight from Gmail to displaying a quick rundown of call and messaging history, Gmail + Dialpad make it easier for you to stay productive, and focused, on the tasks at hand.

Need a helping hand? Introducing weekly Dialpad demos

Implementing a new system is hard enough. Trying to do it by yourself is even harder.

That's why we unrolled weekly live demos and Q&A sessions hosted by our product experts.

Whether you need help setting up new users, adding devices, or creating your IVR, our team is here to offer you the tips, tricks, and insights into getting the most out of your new business phone system.

Whether it was with voice calls, virtual meetings, instant messaging, we hope that this year's innovations helped your team do more, grow faster, and build stronger relationships in 2017.

From all of us at Dialpad, we sincerely hope you have a great holiday season and can't wait to share our latest innovations + news with you in 2018.

Dialpad is more than a next-generation business phone system - it’s an entirely new category of business communications that enables you to connect everyone and work anywhere. Sign up for a free trial of Dialpad today—productivity is waiting.

1. Video calling

Why is this cool?

While most products focus on video conferencing, it’s the support for one-to-one conversations that seem to be lacking.

And while we all can appreciate hopping on a Google Hangout for a quick video call, there’s something to be said for the importance of a face to face conversation—especially when that employee lives halfway across the globe.

And with HD quality, you’re able to focus on the actual conversation and not worry about glitchy tech or frozen screens.

How to get more out of this feature

Use video calling more! While your team may initially do some groaning (bad hair days be damned), it’ll make a big difference when it comes to building stronger connections with your team, both remote and local.

2. Call controls across all devices

Why is this cool?

With traditional PBX phone systems, your calls ended up being tied to a single “end point” (a techy name for a device). So if a call came into your desk phone, you’d be stuck using the call controls on that specific device (or in most cases, stuck with missing controls).

Who wants to be stuck in one place? Dialpad works across all your devices simultaneously, meaning that same call that came into your desk phone can be transferred, muted, even recorded, from your laptop or cell phone.

How to get more out of this feature

Download the Dialpad apps across all your favorite devices.

3. Dialpad web app

Why is this cool?

We’ve all been there before. You’re away from the office when suddenly you need to look up some message or forward over that last voicemail.

Now with the Dialpad web app, you can access your Dialpad desktop app simply by using a Chrome browser. Just type in dialpad.com/app and you’ll have access to all your contacts, messages, and calls.

How to get more out of this feature
Try it out the next time you’re traveling or visiting a remote office.

4. Custom ring durations

Why is this cool?

Who doesn’t want more customizable tools? With custom ring durations, Dialpad Admins can adjust how long (or short) a call rings out on their Main Line, Department, Room Phone, or Call Queue before routing to a secondary call handling option (like to a voicemail or to another Department).

It’s not just Admins, either. We added the ability for individual users to adjust ring durations on their direct lines plus the ability to route those calls, too.

How to get more out of this feature

Test out this feature on your direct line first to get an idea of how it works and what your call routing options are.

5. G Suite and Office 365 integrations

Why is this cool?

If your business apps don’t work together, what’s the point? Dialpad natively integrates with both G Suite and Office 365 to make it easier for your team to connect, communicate, and collaborate from a single platform.

Whether it’s displaying the latest shared emails, files, or upcoming events or automatically syncing your contacts, you're able to stay connected to home base no matter where work takes you.

How to get more out of this feature

Expand your contacts' profiles the next time you’re on your laptop or cell phone to pull up emails, files, and upcoming events.

Bonus: Weekly demos now available

Don't let deployment doubts keep you up at night. With our weekly demos our product experts will walk you through the ins and outs of Dialpad, highlighting the best practices for onboarding and team trainings.

Thanks for tuning in! We’ll be back next month with more innovations and news to share. Don’t forget, we keep a weekly log of all the latest features hitting your platform on our Help Center.

Dialpad is more than a next generation business phone system. It’s an entirely new category of business communications that enables you to connect everyone and work anywhere. Sign up for a free trial of Dialpad today—productivity is waiting.

Gmail + Dialpad are better together

If your existing platforms don’t make each other better, what’s the point? Introducing the Dialpad Gmail Add-On (now available in the G Suite Marketplace), a more intuitive way to stay connected in Dialpad without having to switch windows, manage tabs, or lose productivity.

From launching a voice call straight from Gmail to displaying a quick rundown of call, text, and instant messaging history, Gmail + Dialpad are making it easier for you to stay productive, and focused, on the tasks at hand.

Improved workflows for iOS and Android

We all know that productivity can strike from anywhere—bowling alley, 24 hour diner, even standing in line at TSA. The point is, productivity doesn’t discriminate and neither should your business phone app.

Whether you’re in front of your laptop, tablet, or mobile, you should have access to the tools that make you (and your ideas) better, stronger, and more focused.

Our latest mobile updates for both iOS and Android aim at accomplishing just that, from simplifying and improving search to adding the ability to log Salesforce activity in one tap.

Dialpad expands north and south: Vancouver + Austin offices

Our recent expansion announcements in both Vancouver and Austin have us pretty pumped—after all, how often do you get a chance to plant your flag in vibrant and growing downtown areas like Vancouver and Austin?

But what does that mean for Vancouver or Austin-based businesses, and more importantly, the workforces powering them?

For starters, businesses now have a choice. They’re not stuck with the same landline and telecom providers, pushing the same features and disconnected experience. We’re not interested in doing things simply because that’s the way they’ve always been done. Why mimic the past when you can reinvent the future?

Secondly, it’s about freeing your team to work where and when they’re most productive (and on the devices that work with them and not against).

Flip a call from desktop to mobile, log an opportunity in one click, automatically sync contacts across your devices—this is what your team wants today. They just need a platform that makes it easier to do it.

Need a helping hand? Weekly demos now available

We get it. Implementing a new system can have you feeling a little uneasy. Is everything really going to go as smoothly as promised? What about your user base? Will they adopt these changes quickly?

Don’t let deployment doubts keep you up at night. With our weekly demos, our product experts will walk you through the ins and outs of Dialpad, highlighting best practices for onboarding and team trainings.

And the best part? The whole session is only 15 minutes. You won’t even need to reheat your coffee. Talk about a win-win.

Polycom ordering now supported

Not ready to cut the cord on your desk phones just yet? For the desk phone faithfuls out there, we've has partnered with Polycom to give Dialpad Admins the option to order pre-provisioned Polycoms directly through Dialpad.

Why pre-provisioned? Because why should your team spend hours setting up hardware? Just plug in your Polycom, connect it to the internet, then assign it to your user or shared line. See? We can even make desk phones productive.

Thanks for tuning in! We’ll be back next month with more innovations and news to share. Don’t forget, we keep a weekly log of all the latest features hitting your platform on our Help Center.

Dialpad is more than a next generation business phone system; it’s an entirely new category of business communications that enables you to connect everyone and work anywhere.

“Alexa, add Vincent to the call.”

Dialpad just announced its integration with Alexa, the intelligent virtual assistant powering the Amazon Echo. This new capability means users have yet another way to use Dialpad to make and receive business voice calls, check messages, and access a variety of other features. Administrators can even use Alexa to track company-wide call analytics. To coincide with this announcement, Dialpad Cofounder, Brian Peterson, and Vincent Paquet, VP of Product explore their take on what this means for the future of business communications.

What’s possible with Alexa and Dialpad?

Brian Peterson: Using just your voice, you can now use Alexa to check your voicemail messages, track call analytics, initiate a call to any of your contacts, record a call, transfer a call, and so much more.

How does this push the boundaries of what’s possible for business communications in the modern workplace?

Brian: Being a pure cloud business phone system, Dialpad makes it easy for people to communicate via desktop, mobile, tablet—you name it. Integrating with Alexa, another cloud-connected device, takes business communications into the Internet of Things (IoT). Alexa is truly your personal assistant: instead of paging a person or pressing some complicated key combination on your desk phone, you just say “Alexa, transfer the call to the sales department.”

Vincent: I’d also add that integrating Alexa with Dialpad gives workers complete mobility to work from anywhere. Before you could technically take your calls from anywhere, but you still needed physical access to some endpoint, be it a laptop or smartphone. With Alexa we extend mobility to not just the last mile, but the last yard, so you can now make a call with Dialpad without even having physical access to any device.

What do you see in the near-future for virtual assistants like the Amazon Echo?

Brian: That’s definitely a hot topic right now in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Google has a competing “smart speaker” device called Google Home. Soon enough, you’re going to see text- and voice-based assistants across every device, extending the power of the cloud. No matter where you are, you’ll be able to control anything.

Vincent: If you think about it, voice recognition has been around for a long time. I had a cordless phone at home that I could talk to—that was 15 years ago. The critical difference now is that we have access to the cloud so there’s no limit to what you can do with these systems.

What makes you most excited about Dialpad’s integration with Alexa?

Brian: It’s amazing to think these AI assistants will be everywhere—on your devices, in your home, in your car. And Dialpad will fit right in perfectly. One app lets you order pizza from Domino’s, another app lets you play a song, and our app will be the nexus for your business calls and messages. We’re filling the void of communications in these new virtual assistants, connecting everyone to the global telephone network of billions of people around the world. That's what makes me passionate. There's nothing stopping you from using Dialpad wherever you happen to be.

Recently at SaaStr Annual ‘19, Dialpad Co-Founder and CEO, Craig Walker and CSO, Dan O’Connell sat down with Work-Bench General Partner, Jessica Lin to talk about the journey so far and and how we’ve been able to quickly convert newly acquired talent and tech into fast, scalable growth. Here are some of the highlights from the conversation.

Lin: When most people read your bio, Craig, they almost have to do a double take because you started a voice company that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005. Then you started another voice company which was acquired by Google in 2007. How many founders can say that they’ve personally started and sold two UCaaS companies?

Walker: Well I think it speaks to what a big opportunity UCaaS is and just how nascent the market was in ‘99 when we were first starting. When I was at Google Voice we wanted to give people a way to manage their communications, but we also wanted to make it much more than just a phone call. That’s the same philosophy we have at Dialpad. We’re always thinking about how to make the experience better before the call, on the call, and after the call by tying in a bunch of non-voice pieces.

Lin: So then you started your third UCaaS company, Dialpad, in 2011. You won TechCrunch Disrupt in 2012. And I’m sure you get asked this all the time but what made you want to start your third business phone company?

Walker: There was still so much to do! We had figured out how to make really high quality voice over IP calls and how to do a lot of really interesting features, but when you look at the enterprise voice space you realize the legacy versions of all of our products— Dialpad Meetings for video conferencing, Dialpad Voice for your cloud phone system replacement, Dialpad Ai Sales and Dialpad Ai Contact Center for call centers— are all pretty terrible. They’re expensive, complicated, end users don’t like to use them very much. And so it just looked like a massive opportunity.

Lin: So then let’s fast forward to 2017. You’ve been building Dialpad for roughly five years, you have some incredible VoIP technology, infrastructure, a phenomenal team, and you clearly saw again even more opportunity on top of this business phone layer. At the time, conversational AI was really heating up here in Silicon Valley. What were your thoughts when you started seeing other players in the space?

Walker: We had been interested in AI for a while. We were meeting with virtually every provider in the space and they all wanted to integrate with us so they could get access to the call data and be able to go do their magic. And basically everyone we met with had the approach of joining the call as an additional participant, recording the call, and sorting it all out afterwards. But when we met with TalkIQ they actually had a platform that we could integrate into or core telephony so that they could transcribe in real-time, get sentiment scores in real-time, and give conversation recommendations and insights in real-time. That felt much more compelling than any after the fact data.

Lin: So you had gotten together with TalkIQ from a licensing deal relationship. And then at some point you thought we’d like to be in an even closer relationship. We’d like to acquire them. Walk me through that thought process.

Walker: We were actually in a board meeting giving an update on our progressive and speaking to how this was going to be a completely differentiated product that set us apart from anyone in the space, and Marc Andreesen said “hey why don’t you just acquire those guys?” The board meeting ended at noon and I met with Dan for dinner that night.

O’Connell: It was super seamless. Our product teams were already onsite on a weekly basis. I had worked with Crag and his co-founder Brain Peterson at Google. When we were trying to figure out how to get on call paths he was the first person I called. Ultimately it came down to having two CEOs who really wanted this deal to happen.

Lin: And Dan, you joined TalkIQ in 2017 as CEO. Can you tell us a little bit more about the company, the product and where the technology was at that time?

O’Connell: When I joined we were only six people. We had raised $6M in seed, went through the process of raising our Series A led by Salesforce and Scale Ventures, and really it was off to the races from that. We were basically a startup trying to be three different startups at once: we were building our own telephony stack, our own speech recognition engine which was taking audio and transcribing it to text, and then our NLP on top of it. Those are three tough problems to figure out. So when the acquisition offer came, we didn’t try to shop it at all. We weren’t looking to sell the business. But we decided to do it because we viewed Dialpad as the most innovative business communications platform in the space. They had four different pillars we could go take our technology to. We resonated on how to build things, the vision, and most importantly our teams liked each other.

Lin: But as with any acquisition decision, there are going to be people who don’t agree or who feel differently. How were you able to get the whole TalkIQ team on board the Dialpad train?

O’Connell: Really it came down to having honest conversations with people and talking through their fears, or what they perceived to be the pluses and minuses. Will they have different managers? Will they still work on the same things? Will those things continue to be a priority? But something that Craig made very clear from the start was that anything my team was working on would be the number one priority. I think that’s what became very important for us. We weren’t gong through an acquisition where all of our jobs would change overnight and our work would be thrown out.

Lin: Which happens a lot!

O’Connell: Yes it does. So in that respect we’ve been super fortunate.

Lin: And what advice do you have for founders who may be looking to go out and acquire other startups themselves?

Walker: Look for synergy, shared values, and shared vision. That’s the approach we took and now nearly a year later we’ve retained almost everyone, the team continues to work well together, and the products are integrated really well.

Lin: I’ve heard a bit about this culture playbook. Would you be willing to share a few pages with us?

Walker: Every Friday we have an all-hands meeting to recap the week, what went well, what didn’t. We try to be as transparent as possible with employees so they trust us and we trust them. That lends itself to one of our core value which is to always do the right thing.

O’Connell: Another one of our values, which came from TalkIQ, is Karaoke State of Mind. The idea behind that is to have fun, own things, and not take yourself too seriously. Yes you want to drive accountability, yes you want to be a strong performer, but at the end of the day we’re not saving lives. We can loosen up, and I think people definitely appreciate that.

Lin: Final question, how are things going?

Walker: Things are going really well. It’s more than just bells and whistles or neat features. It’s being able to provide a worldwide, enterprise-grade platform that’s powered by AI so you can really start to understand this last offline data set without adding any more annual processes.

Experience Dialpad Ai's powerful, real-time insights for yourself by starting a free two-week trial at the link below.

At worst, a disastrous deal leads to wasted wasted time and money, a startup's two most precious resources. On the flip side, a strategic transaction can give a speed to market advantage over rivals or potentially let you run away with a new market. Take IBM’s recent purchase of RedHat to accelerate hybrid cloud adoption, or Salesforce’s acquisition of Mulesoft to coordinate, unlock, and integrate customer data better than any competitor.

But the M&A landscape is also littered with examples of failures...Google and Nest, Yahoo and Tumblr, eBay and Skype. I could go on.

As a former M&A attorney and serial SaaS founder myself, I’ve experienced acquisitions from every point of view. What I’ve learned is that true due diligence requires more than a scan through boxes of contracts and reviewing the balance sheet. In fact, the most successful deals take a combination of careful research, emotional intelligence, and attention to commonly overlooked details. So if an acquisition opportunity ever comes across your desk, make sure to consider the following before signing the dotted line.

Make sure you’re buying the core underlying technology (and the full rights to it), not just the company licensing the technology

In 2005, eBay spent $2.6 billion on Skype, which it hoped would increase sales on its platform by giving buyers and sellers an instant communications channel. When Skype failed to take off among eBay users, most people assumed that was the reason eBay put Skype for sale four years later (taking a $936 million write-down in the value). But there was a little known fact complicating the situation: The purchase didn’t include full ownership of Skype’s underlying technology—a mistake Microsoft was sure to avoid when it bought the company along with the IP a few years later.

Always always always check to make sure you have clean rights to the an acquisition target’s technology. I know the paperwork can be painful, but it will be so worth it in the end.

Communicate with all shareholders, even those with a small stake

When Yahoo was about to buy my first startup, Dialpad Communications, we met surprising resistance from an unlikely source. An investor, who had written off most of his stake in Dialpad many years earlier, thus indicating that the company was worth close to zero to him, suddenly had his own ideas. As the deal was about to close, I called him to say, “Great news! You’re about to make millions off of the investment you wrote off years ago. All you have to do is sign this paper.” I expected gratitude and cooperation, but apparently my lack of communication about the negotiation process was not appreciated, and the investor put a higher dollar value on his share. Looking back on it, I shouldn’t have expected champagne corks and flowers so soon. A deal isn’t over until the ink is dry.

Every M&A deal throws curveballs. You can mitigate the consequences someone else’s potentially irrational self-interest by having conversations early on. That way, you’ll buy yourself more time to negotiate tricky requests and help shareholders understand what they’re getting.

Don’t underestimate the value of chemistry and culture

Sometimes companies are so blinded by the potential for technology synergies and market growth from a merger that they fail to take into account something obvious: the people. One of the most notorious examples of a post-M&A culture misfit is the 2005 merger of Kansas-based Sprint and Nextel. Conservative Sprint executives clashed with scrappy Nextel personnel. A Nextel managers’ meeting illustrated the dynamic perfectly: The Nextel CEO wore khakis and shouted “Stick it to Verizon!,” while his Sprint counterpart, wearing a suit, gave a PowerPoint presentation. Lack of chemistry affected the ability to effectively integrate in other ways and ultimately forced the Sprint CEO to resign.

My current company, Dialpad (I bought back the name after selling Dialpad Communications to Yahoo! in 2005), recently acquired TalkIQ, a leader in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and our shared culture and values have been a key factor to the success of this deal. Months before the acquisition, we were working together as partners and during weekly engineering meetings we found the two teams naturally worked as one. This made sense, as TalkIQ’s CEO had worked side by side for years with my co-founder to oversee the massive growth of Google AdWords, remaining close friends after they left Google to pursue other career opportunities. You can’t put too fine a point on how important shared chemistry and culture are.

Good acquisitions aren’t easy to pull off. There are a host of things that lead to failure—financial losses, stock drops, lost market opportunities, fizzled dreams. Being prepared for all the possibilities, and knowing about the various snags that might arise, will increase the likelihood of a win.

With these capabilities, businesses will be able to react exponentially faster to the challenges and opportunities that arise during customer interactions. As the speech analytics market climbs past $2 billion, the application of these real-time features to support client-facing teams will be a key driver of growth.

Here at Dialpad, we’re excited to bring real-time speech technology to all of our products (some of which you can experience today).

Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out a host of new features designed to drive value for sales and support teams:

• Real-Time Recommendations
  Dialpad Ai delivers reminders and relevant information to reps and agents at the right time in the conversation resulting in fewer “I don’t know,” moments. If a prospect asks a new sales hire about pricing, or mentions a new competitor -- rather than having that rep stumble, Dialpad Ai will provide the information instantly.

• Live sentiment analysis
  Dialpad Ai’s streaming sentiment score provides managers with an aggregated view of every conversation happening across client facing teams. Instantly, at any point in time, managers can pinpoint trouble calls and opt to listen or barge in, with all the necessary context of the conversation.

• AI-generated call notes
  Using powerful automatic speech recognition and natural language processing, Dialpad Ai generates call summaries for employees to review at the end of every call (and will auto-save them into a CRM or other system of record if needed).
  

As you think about how speech analytics fits into your sales and support strategy, look into products that combine real-time capabilities with post call functionality.

Our belief is that real-time speech recognition and NLP innovates basic recording functionality in game-changing ways. Rather than spending your time reviewing your team’s game tape for insights, you can now leverage technology to proactively identify trends and share insights with your team -- saving everyone time.

If you’re curious to learn more about what we’re working on, pay us a visit at Dreamforce. We’ll be showing off our support and sales specific products, and also giving a few talks on the future of AI for client facing teams.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been at it for a while, properly navigating your early years as a business is critical to future growth and success. Here are our favorite resources to help you cut through the noise!

How-To Guides and Required Reading

If you’re relatively newer to your business venture, online how-to guides are a great resource to help you get started with customer acquisition, marketing, legal and more. A quick Google search will find you pretty much anything you’re looking for, but this is where we'd recommend starting!

Blogs

• How to Get Your First Customer, Entrepreneur
• Before You Hit Send, Consult Your Email Checklist, MailChimp
• The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business, Entrepreneur
• Outsourcing Marketing for Startups: 4 Key Areas to Consider, Agency Vista
  
• Outsourcing Software Development for Startups, YouTeam

Books

• Change by Design by Tim Brown
• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
• Originals by Adam Grant
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Podcasts*

• The Tim Ferriss Show
• The Foundation
• Mixergy Startup Stories
• This Week in Startups

*Okay these aren't exactly reading but sometimes it’s hard to find the time, you know?

Best small business tools with free trials

When you’re ready to start investing in business tools but money is tight, free trials are a great way to find out what works and what doesn’t. Cloud-based subscription services tend to offer the longest risk-free trials. Some of our favorites include:

Shopify

What: Website hosting and Ecommerce platform

Why: Easy to build websites and integrations.

Squarespace

What: Website hosting and Ecommerce platform

Why: Easy to build websites and integrations.

Mailchimp

What: Email and Marketing Automation

Why: Easy to use templates and analytics for even the most novice marketer.

Trello

What: Project management tool

Why: Helps you easily keep track of and prioritize projects as your team expands.

Slack

What: Collaboration tool

Why: Keeps your team connected across different offices and geographies.

Dialpad

What: Voice, video, messaging platform

Why: Allows you to work from any device, anywhere and includes a ton of integrations with other business critical tools like Gmail and O365. You get a dedicated phone number for your business, making your company look more professional than giving out your personal cell.

Dialpad Meetings

What: Conferencing tool

Why: Free and there’s no desktop application download required, even for first time users.

Hootsuite

What: Social media management platform

Why: Makes community management a snap

Tool Review Sites

If free trials aren’t really your style or you can’t find one for the specific tool you’re researching, another great way to make an evaluation is to consult review sites. These communities are where you’ll get the most candid feedback from users who’ve actually used the full paid version of the tool in question. We recommend:

• IT Kit
• Agency Vista Hub
• Capterra
• G2Crowd
• Trustpilot

Startup Support Communities

Speaking of communities, it’s hard being a small business owner! From late nights at the office, to being the CEO, CMO and HR exec all in one, driving your small business forward can often feel lonely. But it doesn't have to be! There are a variety of online and offline communities that offer support, advice and a little camaraderie when you need it. Check these out:

Online

• Quora
• Product Hunt
• Join groups on Facebook
• Slack Communities
• Officehours.io

In-Person

• Browse MeetUps in your area
• Eventbrite events in your area

There you have it! We hope you enjoy the resources on this list and share it with other entrepreneurs in your network. If you have any other favorite books, tools or communities you’d recommend, feel free to share them in the comments below!

A digital experience platform for the modern web, Qubit was founded by four ex-Googlers who understood the value of a dynamic work culture. Today, the company’s 300 employees, working in offices across the U.K., the U.S., Pakistan, France, and Germany, can connect and collaborate with each other easily thanks to their IT staff’s forward-thinking adoption of cloud-first collaboration software. We sat down with Kyle Eve (Head of IT, Qubit) to explore his perspective on the traditional 9-to-5, the work from anywhere movement and how flexibility drives productivity.

1. Do you believe the work-from-anywhere movement is changing the 9-to-5 workday?

Yes, I believe the 9-5 workday has definitely evolved over the last 25 years and it’s reflected in the way our own workplace operates. Here at Qubit’s headquarters, we have a culture where you’re free to sit and work from anywhere in the office. This really encourages people to intermingle, so different teams are constantly communicating with each other, even if they aren’t necessarily on the same projects. People gain a deeper understanding of how other teams operate, creating a stronger culture of collaboration.

To help create this type of workplace, we’re not limiting people to specific locations or specific times. If people are able to work remotely, they don’t necessarily have to stick to that 9-to-5 status quo.

2. Do you believe cloud tools like Google Workspace, Salesforce and Dialpad impact productivity and drive modern workers to change their schedules?

Because our founders came from Google, they already had an existing mindset about enabling people to choose their own best schedule for productivity. When they first founded the company in 2010, they were determined to bring that Google environment to Qubit. As a result, we have a very flexible work culture, in terms of both enabling people to work remotely and also allowing people to dictate the exact work style that’s best for them.

We’ve instilled a work-from-anywhere culture here at Qubit that resonates with our employees. A significant portion of our workforce is remote, so we use our IT infrastructure to bridge the gap between remote and local employees. By choosing the right cloud-based tools, we’re able to ensure that no matter where you are, you have the tools necessary to be productive.

3. Does enabling your employees to work from anywhere and at any time influence your it decisions? If so, how?

Our ultimate goal is flexibility. We don’t want to chain people to legacy hardware or a restrictive environment. Instead, we’re focused on enabling people to connect and collaborate from anywhere.

An example of this is our new hot-desking environment. Our employees are no longer assigned a specific office desk when they come onboard. They have the freedom to choose any desk when they come to work every day.

Our CEO was the one who first championed this initiative. The premise was simple—our entire infrastructure is cloud-based. As such, it no longer made sense to tie down employees to a specific desk or a specific mode of work.

We’re able to support this work-from-anywhere culture because of the pure-cloud IT stack we’ve built. Now, 100% of our employees are free to be productive no matter where they go.

4. What technologies do you consider essential for enabling anywhere, anytime work?

Here at Qubit, we use Google Workspace, Salesforce, and Dialpad. These tools are incredibly essential to our daily activities.

One of our most recent updates was switching to Dialpad's cloud phone system, and it’s been able to deeply integrate with Google Workspace and Salesforce. Before, when it came to legacy technology, we’d struggle with provisioning users, upgrading systems, and managing on-premise infrastructure. Now, since we’re able to connect all our essential tools in the cloud, it makes it much easier from an IT standpoint to manage and consolidate these systems.

As Kyle notes, the pure-cloud stack makes it possible for employees to collaborate on documents, update company-wide systems in real-time, and stay deeply connected no matter where they are in the world. Motivated to help their organizations reach new heights of creativity, productivity, and efficiency, IT leaders like Kyle have increasingly opted to equip their organizations with tools specifically designed to empower the modern remote workforce.

1. WHAT IS YOUR IT STRATEGY HERE AT HUGE?

Our goal is to deploy tools that empower our users to work from anywhere, on any device. We want to free employees from physical hardware, listen to their technology needs, and enable them to get work done as efficiently as possible—whether they’re here at HQ or working remotely.

My IT team consists of 20 people worldwide, based out of New York, Brazil, and Europe. Our strategy is hyper-focused on the user experience. When implementing new technology here at Huge, we look at return on investment, cost savings, and the ability to quickly ramp up users around the world.

We aim to bridge the gap between IT and the end user with tools that meet the expectations of our creatives. They’re always on the move, meeting with clients, and collaborating from various offices. The role of IT is to deploy platforms that enable a seamless flow of communication and productivity—no matter where work takes them.

2. HOW IS YOUR TEAM SUPPORTING THE ANYWHERE CREATIVE?

Our technology strategy and our enablement of the user revolves around removing friction wherever possible. We strive to advocate for them, to deploy tools that free them to communicate effortlessly from anywhere.

There are several challenges that go along with this mission. Every user has a different view on what they like to use and what tools they've used in the past. The key is understanding critical workflows, looking at their needs, and supporting them with the right technologies.

A user really just wants to work. It's our job to bridge IT gaps so they can create work faster. Enabling a creative culture from a technology perspective can be difficult. We have people that come from strong consumer technology backgrounds, and we need to figure out how to translate that mentality into safe, secure computing platforms. Cloud tools like Dialpad and G Suite help make this possible.

3. HOW DO YOU ENABLE A CONNECTED CULTURE THROUGH THE CLOUD?

All of our technologies, whether it be instant messaging, group chat, or online meetings, enable people to be always on, to respond to requests from anywhere in the world.

Building a connected culture requires a strong methodology and understanding of our user base: how they communicate, why they communicate, and the tools they're accustomed to using. Meshing those solutions together and providing a cohesive IT ecosystem is critical. By leveraging cloud-based collaboration software, we’re able to build an anywhere IT stack that accomplishes this.

4. WHAT ARE THE CRITICAL TOOLS IN YOUR ANYWHERE IT STACK?

As a global design agency, we rely on a number of technologies to make it easy for our creatives to connect and collaborate. From business text messaging, to voice calls, to file-sharing and virtual meetings—every business tool in our IT stack is built for scalability. As a result, we rely heavily on pure-cloud platforms like DropBox, Dialpad, and Google Workspace.

This couldn’t be more true for our sales team, who spends most of their day on the phone speaking with customers and prospects about how to modernize their business communications platform. Sales call reporting is crucial for this group of folks—they need to know right away where sales are coming from, what activities are closing deals, and what best practices they can share with the broader team in order to optimize call behavior. Then it occurred to us that practically every sales organization everywhere experiences this same need. Being the nimble team that we are, we thought we’d engineer an integration to do something about it!

Today we’re introducing a new two-part integration with our friends at Domo, the Domo Connector and the Domo QuickStart App, that will allow customers to easily understand and mine actionable insights from their call analytics inside Domo. Using the Domo Connector API, users will be able to pull 90-days worth of Dialpad analytics straight into Domo with the click of a button.

From there they’ll be able to turn on the Dialpad QuickStart App to visualize the analytics within a series of preset, ready-to-go Domo cards so you can get straight to the good stuff! These cards will include insights like average handle time, call quality, leaderboards, and more, and will be shareable across your sales team to keep reps both accountable and informed on performance.

Check out the link below to learn more.

It’s not about the product or even about price; it’s about the service they receive each time they come into contact with your business. Those that are delivering on these rising customer expectations are becoming beloved brands, while those that aren’t are quickly falling out of relevance. This new dynamic poses a significant threat to businesses that have never invested in or been able to afford traditional contact center software on top of their existing communications platform. But with the introduction of Dialpad's cloud contact center platform, our customers now have one platform for all their business communications needs.

Dialpad Ai Contact Center is a beautifully designed and intuitive solution that will provide contact center agents and reps the easy-to-use features they need to drive sales and improve the customer experience. Just like Dialpad's unified communications platform, our virtual call center solution is built entirely on the Google Cloud Platform guaranteeing Enterprise customers a 100% uptime SLA and the flexibility to scale up and down with business needs. It also integrates with CRM platforms like Zendesk and Salesforce, ensuring better collaboration and higher productivity among employees.

Take advantage of features such as:

• Intuitive, customizable controls that allow agents to view customer contact history through one platform view and quickly address questions or concerns.
• Intelligent call routing and call queuing that quickly connects callers with the appropriate agent.
• In-depth contact center analytics to give agents a complete, real-time view of the customer they are speaking to.
• Real-time alerts to notify contact center managers of key metrics like wait times, average speed to answer, and average handle time.
• Live coaching tools that allow supervisors to listen in and message agents with tips and best practices for handling escalated situations.

Dialpad Ai Contact Center makes it possible for businesses to service customers like never before, putting a better on-the-phone and digital customer experience well within reach when combined with all the great features you know and love from Dialpad. Whether resolving customer issues in contact centers, setting up a PIN-free sales call in Dialpad, or making notes to customer profiles in your favorite CRM, we’ve made it easier for you to focus on what's most important — fostering customer loyalty and business growth.

Effective immediately, you’ll be able to place calls and initiate conferences directly within the Hangouts Chat mobile and browser apps. You'll also be able to text, share conference call info and toggle Do Not Disturb and On Duty status for a completely seamless experience. We’re excited about this development not only because of its capacity to make team communication easier and more efficient but also because it has potential to bring teams together in a more meaningful and personal way.

Just think of all the times you’ve ever messaged with a coworker and spent minutes trying to explain something that could've been communicated in seconds on a call. Or the times you’ve misread humor or urgency because it “didn’t translate” via written text. Our integration solves that in a matter of clicks so you can get back to concentrating on the things that really matter without the interruption of looking for your cell or dialing out on a desk phone.

As always, it’s an honor to be chosen by the G Suite team as one of a select group of ISVs who are provided early access to the Hangouts Chat Developer Preview. As our services continue to grow together in the future, we plan to take even greater advantage of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to provide companies of all sizes a more tightly integrated business communications experience.

With this update, you’ll be able to join a video meeting and enjoy HD-quality audio from your Android smartphone or tablet. All you need is a stable WiFi or LTE/3G/4G connection, and the latest version of the Dialpad app for Android.

By taking advantage of this HD calling option, you can avoid using minutes from your mobile operator's voice calling plan. HD calling also provides a richer sounding audio experience—almost as if you and the other participants are actually in the same room. Lastly, in keeping with our commitment to making virtual meetings and collaboration simpler, the new HD calling option requires no setup. Simply choose the way you want to join the meeting, and we’ll handle the rest.

By the way, you’ll be able to decide whether you want to use HD calling or dial-in via your mobile network each time you join a conference call. You can select HD calling each time you join your own conference or if you’re a participant in someone else’s, as seen below.

For those times when your data connection isn’t strong enough or fast enough, the dial-in feature works just as it always has in the past.

By doing this, we’re enabling simple and secure access to Dialpad through the Okta Integration Network. And with this integration, Dialpad customers, partners and employees can all access their information using a cloud-first, mobile security perimeter, giving greater ease and simplicity to the anywhere worker.

The addition of Okta to our partner group mirrors our use of it here at Dialpad for the past few months. Back in August, we took part in Oktane 2017 in Las Vegas and got to really know the Okta team. Spending the kind of time with them that we did, convinced us that their approach to identity management was right in line with our strategy of making communications simplified.

We chose Okta as a result of the explosion in the number of services that cloud computing has brought about. One of the many unforeseen challenges that have arisen in this era of pure cloud business operations is the securing of personal and corporate information. It has also raised some concerns about what passes for adequate security protocols and protections.

With Okta we appreciated their agnostic approach to mobility in securing the organization’s devices that access its critical information and services. We realized that accomplishing this involved much more than just protecting sensitive data with a VPN, and minimizing risk by firewall management. IT management protocols now have to emulate dynamic ecosystem controls. That means it needs to come complete with heightened visibility into both network and cloud application authentication and securing identities is critical.

By participating in the Okta Integration Network, we now have a single sign-on experience for the entire company’s suite of cloud communications applications that works on all devices using Okta’s support of the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), an enterprise-grade security framework. Okta’s use of SAML provides a seamless SSO experience to a wide range of enterprise applications, including Dialpad, Salesforce, Google’s G Suite, Microsoft’s Office365, and many more.

For Dialpad and Okta customers, this means they are able to use the Okta Identity Cloud to quickly and securely access all versions of Dialpad’s applications deployed on MacOS and Windows, as well as with Dialpad’s mobile apps for iOS and Android. Our customers’ employees now enjoy a much better user experience, and have less frustration, because they can stop having to remember another password, and can seamlessly access our applications from anywhere and anytime.

We’re delighted to be a part of Okta’s family, and also thrilled to have them as part of ours!

Read about these enhancements and more in our summer product update. Remember, you can always take a look at our weekly release notes for more details.

Custom status updates

Dialpad lets you know if your peers are on a call, in a meeting, or on do not disturb. And now, employees can add custom info to their status like “Out of Office, back Tuesday”, or “Working from HQ” to provide more details.

Dialpad Tip: Use Command + Control + Space (on Mac OS 10.9+) or the Touch Keyboard (on Windows 8+) to add emojis to your messages and status updates.

Salesforce1 for Dialpad on iOS and Android

Sales teams are some of our biggest mobile users, so we’re excited to announce our new Salesforce1 integration, including:

• Make Dialpad calls from Salesforce1
• View Salesforce info in Dialpad on iOS and Android
• Takes notes and launch Salesforce1 from iOS and Android

Note: our Salesforce integration is available on Pro plans and above. View pricing.

New Dialpad guides

Need some help on-boarding employees to Dialpad? Check out our helpful guides on inviting your team, making your first call, or recording your voicemail.

Open Dialpad in your browser:

Dialpad desktop and web apps are the most convenient options for your everyday computer. But sometimes, when you’re on the go, you need to use a shared workspace. Now, you’re able to open Dialpad and place calls directly in your Chrome browser—no downloads required.

Mute group messages

Dialpad’s instant messaging is super useful for collaboration, sharing ideas, and general workplace bonding. But sometimes, you need quiet time to focus. Toggle group notifications on and off, so you can decide when and how you want to engage.

Do-not-disturb banner

Do not disturb is an awesome feature that blocks message notifications and phone calls during important meetings. But, sometimes people forget to turn it off and accidentally block incoming phone calls. We’ve now made it much more obvious when do not disturb is on, so you won’t forget.

Enjoy your summer of working from anywhere!

These updates have been released in July and are all live in Dialpad. Love Dialpad? Give us a friendly review on G2 Crowd.

Wish you had all these great features, but not a Dialpad customer yet?

On top of this, the average employee uses four to six different software tools for business communications, hindering overall growth and productivity. Between email, instant messaging, business texting, video conferencing and conference calls, people could use a little simplification!

Here are five ways to cut through the noise and simplify communication with Dialpad.

1. One-click access to popular business tools

There’s nothing worse than having too many windows open and struggling to find the right tab to get work done. Luckily, the Dialpad Everywhere mini-app makes productivity a breeze! This compact toolbar always floats on top of the applications you have open, giving you one-click access to call controls and integrations.

Another bonus? It’s customizable so your favorite workplace communication tools are always at your fingertips.

2. A smart assistant on every call

This year we launched Dialpad Ai, our artificial intelligence technology, as a standard feature in every Dialpad product. Think of it as a handy AI sidekick that makes work simpler by taking care of the little details that slow you down on calls.

Note-taking, real-time voice transcriptions, action item logging, call summaries, you name it and Dialpad Ai handles it automatically.

3. Flexibility to work whenever, wherever

Mobility matters! With Dialpad you have the flexibility to make and take business calls from wherever you are. You can also start a call from one device, say your desktop, and flip it seamlessly over to your mobile when you need to run to your next appointment. And did we mention you’ll have access to all of your call logs and chat history, shared documents and virtual meetings from any device and location too?

4. Integrations, integrations, integrations

When your business tools work together, great things happen. Information becomes contextualized, you become more productive and work gets so much simpler! Dialpad integrates with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Zendesk, Slack, and other popular business apps to take the hassle out of working between multiple tools.

5. PIN-less conferencing

That’s right. Your days of entering long meeting PINs are over! With Dialpad Meetings, you’ll be able to enjoy HD quality audio and full call control on both desktop and mobile devices, all without any PINS or any downloads. You can also use our integrations to launch your virtual meeting directly from Dialpad or Google Workspace.

We often hear feedback from customers saying that access to actionable analytics is a top priority, so our team has been hard at work on a major update to our call analytics platform. We’ve made it easier than ever to track, analyze and act on your data!

Here’s a summary of some of the most exciting things you’ll see:

• Filter and search your calls by sentiment, key moments, or keywords
• Automatically view call and Dialpad Ai data in one place
• Jump from analytics to call logs to dive into specific calls
• Know where and how often key moments occur across your organization, including pricing inquiries or positive sentiment

Heads up, if you’re not seeing some of these features, make sure you have Dialpad Ai turned on.

More call routing options with holiday hours

As a customer, there are few things worse than being bounced around from person to person trying to figure out who can help answer your question or solve your problem. That’s why call routing is a life saver when it comes to improving customer experiences. It’s there to make it easy for folks calling in to land in the right spot for support.

Our newest holiday hours routing feature allows admins to set routing rules for default holidays and create custom holidays with personalized routing options. What’s a custom holiday? Think company off sites or unexpected office closures.

Mute hold music in Dialpad Meetings

Had enough of listening to hold music while waiting for people to join a conference call? We hear you (pun fully intended). The first person to join the call can now opt to “mute” the hold music while waiting for everyone else.

What’s coming up:

Here’s a preview of a few of the updates coming your way soon!

• Skills-based routing
• CSAT scores and reporting for Dialpad Ai Contact Center
• Omnichannel customer service functionality
• Integration with Salesforce

But more importantly, we’re also here to announce some of our own news: as of today, Dialpad is officially opening the doors to our London office. This is the first office we’re opening in the EMEA region, and we can’t say enough about the team we’ve already begun building here and the opportunities for growth.

Specifically, the office will be focused on channel sales to capitalize on the incredible momentum we had in 2018 (289% channel revenue growth and 358% new channel customer growth YoY). Leading the charge as Channel Directors are two of the sharpest minds in the business: Jeremy Slater and Russel Bigg. Joining from Zoom, Jeremy will manage Sales and Indirect Partnerships in London. Russel, who led the channel team and partner ecosystem to 70% growth in 1 year at West Corporation, will build out Dialpad’s EMEA-specific partner program.

If you happen to be at UC Expo, too, come say “hi” — we’re at booth H124 in the UC Expo hall, and I’m speaking tomorrow (May 15th) at 2:30 pm about AI's role in the future of work. If you’re not here, don’t worry — we’ll raise a pint to all our amazing customers, partners and network friends who have made this expansion a reality.

For many of us, those repetitive tasks are just a part of our jobs: creating new support tickets, logging activities into a CRM, pulling reports on call volumes. No way to get around it.

Or is there?

With Zapier, there really can be a light at the end of the tunnel. Repetitive tasks, although important, can be draining not just on your time but your entire org—which can lead to dips in productivity and even worse, team morale.

Zapier helps automate the day to day, leaving your team with room to breathe, analyze, and think critically about their next step without worrying about creating that next ticket or sending that last email.

Zap your tasks and get more done

In a nutshell, Zapier is a tool that connects your existing apps so they can work together. Rather than having to wait on a developer to build an integration between your tools, Zapier does the job for you and even gives you the freedom to set up how the tools speak to one another.

And the best part? Not only is Zapier completely free, you don’t actually need to know anything about code to use it.

How does it work?

Zapier uses zaps to automate your workflows. Zaps happen between Triggers and Actions. So in the case of Dialpad, triggers can be things like:

• Call received
• Call placed
• Voicemail received
• Calls barged n
• Calls listened In

Whereas actions can be things like:

• Create a new ticket in Freshdesk
• Log to Copper CRM
• Create spreadsheet row in Google spreadsheet

For example, let’s say you’re managing a customer support team. You could set up a zap so that every time a contact center agent receives a voicemail, a new ticket is created in Freshdesk.

Where communication and productivity meet

Work is easier when your apps talk to each other. If you're a customer on our Pro or Enterprise plan, you'll automatically see Zapier added to your list of integrations under office settings.

Not a customer but interested in seeing it live in action? Reach out to us below to schedule a demo with our team.

In an effort to make conferencing a more enjoyable experience, our company’s former creative director and co-founder, Alex Cornell, composed and performed a catchy hold song. Dialpad’s “I’m on Hold” has since become a fan favorite and our “calling card,” if you will. That said, it’s been a while since we refreshed our music library and provided our customers with a fun new jam.

So today, we are pleased to announce our first-ever partnership with Potbelly Sandwich Shop, in honor of “Take Back The Lunch Break Day.” We are excited to introduce a new hold song for our users! By now you know us, and we weren’t about to release some teeny-bopper banger or a calming piece of Muzak. Instead, through the grand vision of Potbelly’s marketing team, we worked with internet sensation, DJ, and “Loop Daddy” Marc Rebillet to develop an original piece of music. And it does not suck.

In fact, listening to Marc’s song makes me want to schedule more virtual meetings. Just not during lunch.

Want to experience more of this goodness? Check out the song on YouTube or on SoundCloud, as well as hilarious additional on-hold tracks by Armchair Expert music director Bob Mervak and song-a-day YouTube star Jonathan Mann.

Like what you hear? Feel free to share on your social channels.

Getting hungry just thinking about it? First, get that lunch call rescheduled. Then, head to Potbelly for a Buy One, Get One Free sandwich on 6/20-6/21 to “Take Back The Lunch Break.”

Although exhibiting companies may have differed in the products and services offered to attendees, one question resonated across the board: how do we create memorable customer experiences?

Day 1 kicked off with some wonderful insights to answer that question from Nancy Brinker as part of CCWomen—a community for women in customer contact to build relationships, support and inspire one another. Nancy, who built a billion-dollar global network against breast cancer, shared leadership lessons around building a company, strengthening a team, and keeping your team energized. Her presentation was inspiring as were the other workshops throughout the day. I walked away with some great advice, including:

Be more convenient

When you offer less friction and more convenience to your customers, they reward you with their money and loyalty. Customers are looking for easier and seamless experiences, so when building your product or service strategy, always keep convenience top of mind. For instance, you may have a great product, but how long does it take to get customers up and running once they sign the contract? How easy do you make it for them to add new users, while keeping their budget in check? Straightforward pricing, and ease of administration and deployment are things we have focused on at Dialpad from day one, and our customers love us for it.

AI is here to stay

The future is now, and in the age of automation, customer experiences must be redefined. We all know AI is here to stay, but how can you actually use it to improve both agent productivity as well as customer satisfaction (CSAT)? At Dialpad, we personally believe that while it’s important to regularly perform post-call analysis so that you can shape your support strategy for the future, we also know that sometimes one bad customer experience is enough for a customer to be gone forever. From the day we designed Dialpad's cloud contact center platform, we knew we wanted to help our customers help their customers, not just after the fact, but in the moment when they actually need help. We do this with Dialpad Ai, our artificial intelligence, which does voice transcription, allows managers to view the live sentiment of a call so they can step in to assist their agents, as well as automated coaching features, which help agents with real-time recommendations for answers to certain questions, and guidance around how to better drive their conversations. This enables coaching at scale!

Company culture and employee engagement matter

Building a culture of happy employees drives happy customers for your business. It’s important to make employees feel not only engaged with your company and brand, but also connected to your customers and your mission. This isn’t a function that only customer-facing teams are responsible for—your culture should be built in a way where every employee keeps customer satisfaction at the forefront of every decision and every task that they perform.

We still crave human interactions

In a world of AI, self-service automation, and virtual assistants, people still want to talk to… Well, people. Human connection is what drives us, and most of us would still rather talk to a person than a machine. It’s important for organizations to find a balance between automating processes so they scale their customer service efforts efficiently, and ensuring customers still feel listened to and cared for.

At Dialpad, we have built our products with both productivity as well as meaningful customer interactions in mind, so agents can spend less time doing manual work, and more time having conversations and building great customer relationships.

This was a lot to think about and Day 2 was no less exciting with even more interesting topics to discuss—always with the customer at the center.

Customer service is the key to transforming your business

In the era of enterprise digital transformation, apps, and smartphones, customers’ expectations around customer service are higher than ever. They have options and they know it, too, which means that they are no longer willing to stick around with a business that isn’t responsive or efficient when they have a question or an issue that needs to be resolved.

These high expectations can be a problem for businesses not willing to quickly adapt and innovate, but represent a real advantage to businesses who have a sense of urgency and understand the importance of embracing change. At Dialpad, we’re proud to have some of the world’s most innovative companies in our customer portfolio, businesses who have embraced the cloud and artificial intelligence to ensure their customers’ experience isn’t only pleasant, but the best that it could be—and our commitment to them is to continue to push for innovation.

Stay curious and never stop learning about your customer

Do you really know your customer and what matters to them? Do you empower your agents to deliver personalized service and engage with customers in a way that will make the experience truly memorable? Most businesses will say yes, but few actually do it.

Mapping out the customer journey and shaping your strategy accordingly is important, but needs are always changing and evolving, so this work should be ongoing. At Dialpad, we understand the importance of helping our customers understand their customers, and giving them the tools to do so efficiently and at scale.

Our call analytics allow managers to spot keyword trends over time, see which topics are coming up the most, and view comprehensive call summaries complete with call transcriptions, key moments in the conversation and call recording, so they can always view the full picture and quickly turn insights into action.

Have empathy

Last, but definitely not least: don’t treat your customers as a transaction. Building great customer relationships may take time and effort, but it pays off. Be a customer champion and encourage every person in your organization to be one, too. Train your team to be empathetic, even when the situation is difficult or frustrating. Ask your supervisor to step in when your agent needs help (hey, we help with letting them know when).

Build a culture that's both employee- and customer-obsessed, and your customers will feel the difference—and may as well end up your customers for life.

10 sales presentation tips

1. Exude confidence

The most effective presentation is the one that you can give confidently.

Studies show it’s better to be confident than right. It’s a harsh idea to think about but one that plays a huge part in our day-to-day lives. There is nothing worse in any presentation than low energy, and low energy often comes from uncertainty. Projecting more confidence, whether it comes from your knowledge in the numbers or faith in the product, will undoubtedly help increase your sales.

Rehearse alone. But not too much. Make sure you understand the full scope of your talking points but don’t overanalyze or get caught up in specific verbiage.

Gut check from a friend. Have someone listen to your presentation and get their feedback.

Time yourself. Get a rough estimate of how long your presentation will take.

Less is more. Cut down any extra fluff and speak only on relevant and important ideas pertaining to the audience.

2. Presentations are not reports

Be an asset to the presentation

Build your sales presentation deck to enhance what you’re saying, not to give the audience a complete transcript of what you plan to say.

How do you know if you are providing value?

The presentation and the leave-behind should be different.

Customize your presentation. Find the factors of your product that the audience is most interested in and tailor the presentation to fulfill their needs.

3. Prepare accordingly

What does your audience expect to gain out of this meeting?

Know your audience and present yourself appropriately.

Know yourself: are you capable of delivering the necessary content?

If you present the same way each time, you’re not doing enough. Continue to adjust and enhance your presentations, take note of what went well, and fix the parts that need improvement.

4. Never assume the audience knows, or cares what you do

Try to understand things from their perspective

Always intro accordingly. Don’t hesitate to provide the audience with a refresher on yourself and/or the subject matter before you start your presentation.

There are typically new people in the room. Make sure everyone is briefed and up to date on the discussion.

Give the person an out if you aren’t on the same page. Establish the problem you are trying to solve and the challenges with it, and make sure everyone is on board with finding a solution together.

5. Phone vs. live presentation matters

Know the difference between an over-the-phone presentation versus a presentation in person

Include the audience. This is important for virtual and in-person sales presentations but especially for those given over the phone. Presenting via phone call creates a division in communication, and working to include the audience in the presentation as much as possible will go a long way in closing the sale.

For phone presentations, ask those on the call if they’re experiencing any lag. Doing this will ensure everyone will be able to hear your presentation as well as work to break down some of the barriers that come with non face-to-face interactions.

Stand up! Even if it’s just a phone call. We speak with more confidence and control while standing.

6. Don’t over-speak

“Don’t bore us, get to the chorus” - Tom Petty & Mike Campbell

Don’t lose your audience. Studies show attention from your audience significantly drops if presenters exceed 10 minutes of constant talking. Therefore, try to keep each presenter’s speaking time under that 10-minute mark.

Bring in other speakers early, spreading out the main talking points allows for a more conversation-based presentation among the group.

Different people connect better with different voices. Increase your chances of gaining a connection between presenter and viewer by including a variety of voices and opinions.

7. Take charge of your presentation

We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams - Willy Wonka

You tell the audience what’s important. While presenting, focus on the items you want your audience to focus on. This is why doing your research on the audience and creating a deck with them in mind is so important.

Don’t say sorry. Convey confidence throughout your presentation and never apologize for a minor error. Move past any mistakes you make and continue with the presentation. We all slip up sometimes, the audience will understand.

8. Make your presentation flow

Every slide shouldn’t feel like a new adventure

It’s a conversation. The best sales presentations are those in which the audience is most engaged. And the best way to get them engaged is to create an open dialogue throughout the presentation. Before any presentation, it’s good practice to tell the audience to stop you at any point and ask questions. By doing so, you can tailor your presentation to the items they are most interested in.

Know the next slide. Another way to increase presenter fluidity is to know what's coming before you even get there. Before you present, make sure you are able to jump to any slide and know what you just spoke on and what’s coming next.

Use verbal transitions. A great way to transition from one slide to the next is to pose a question at the end of one slide and then answer it on the next slide. Doing this blurs the borders between slides.

9. Dump the script

Know the ins and outs of the topic

Jump around. Moving around your deck and talking with little slide aide not only keeps the presentation light and interesting, but it also demonstrates your confidence in the subject.

Get them talking sooner. Turn your sales presentation into a discussion. The more your audience is asking questions, the more invested they are in the topic.

Don’t freak out about making it through your slides. The slides are simply there to help you present confidently. As long as you touch on everything that matters to you and matters to the audience, then presenting every slide isn’t necessary.

10. Don’t tell your audience why, show them

You’re in the change management business. Act accordingly.

Stories are remembered 22x more than facts alone. Demonstrate to your audience how you can solve their problems, and do so in a way that is easy to understand.

Don’t just depend on marketing. Tell the story of that last deal you closed. Explain what you were able to do for similar businesses and why what you are offering is better than your competitors.


Working to improve your sales presentations? Ditch the mirror and check out Dialpad Ai Sales Center! With Dialpad Ai Sales Center, you get real-time coaching, sentiment analysis, voice transcription, and post-call summaries (aka. gametapes) on every call.

With Dialpad Ai Contact Center, we built a better cloud contact center platform to improve the processes that lead to inefficient coaching and long agent ramp-up times, effectively addressing ever-increasing customer service expectations.

We were certain these platforms were going to change the way businesses communicate while making a significant positive impact to their bottom line—and we’ve seen this reflected in the success of our customers. But could we actually measure and quantify the impact we were making?

To answer that question, we commissioned a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting to examine the potential ROI enterprises can realize by deploying Dialpad within their organizations. The study involved interviewing an enterprise phone system customer who retired their legacy PBX system and deployed Dialpad Voice across their organization, and Dialpad Ai Contact Center within their teams.

The interviewed organization experienced benefits of $2.4M over three years versus a cost of $808,282, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.6M and an ROI of 202%. Scalability and reliability were also greatly improved along with increased employee satisfaction and productivity, higher customer satisfaction metrics, and more.

Here are some of the key quantified benefits:

Cost savings of nearly $300k per year

Prior to deploying Dialpad, the organization had an on-premises PBX system at each office location, each requiring separate software, maintenance, and labor. IT teams were required at each office location to manually fix the system if something wasn’t working. Now that costs associated with upkeep and maintaining this solution are no longer at play, the organization is able to save $300K a year on average.

Reduced deployment time by 90%

The organization was quickly expanding its presence internationally. But on-premise PBX deployments were becoming expensive, difficult, and time-consuming. Additional IT support was required for everything from working with international telephone vendors to individual employee provisioning. Dialpad helped facilitate their growth by eliminating scalability issues and supporting their international expansion with significant time and cost savings.

Decrease in new agent ramp-up time by 50%

Before Dialpad, it took the organization one month to get a new call center agent fully ramped up. Dialpad Ai Contact Center made it possible for new agents to listen in on calls with more experienced agents and for supervisors to offer real-time coaching to agents who need help. This reduced ramp-up time from one month to two weeks, resulting in increased agent productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and better coaching and management.

Other benefits included:

• Improved uptime of 99%, eliminating five downtime events per year from their previous PBX environment.
• Improved call center efficiency by 15% through CRM and productivity suite integrations, resulting in smoother workflows for their support team.
• Improved HR process of confirming interviews by 90% through Dialpad’s business text messaging capabilities, which allows for the HR team to quickly reach out to potential candidates to confirm their interview slots.
• Improved employee satisfaction from being in a more efficient environment, with the flexibility to work anytime, anywhere, and better serve their customers.

“Having Dialpad in place gives our employees a tool they can always trust and count on to always be available; that was very important to us” (SaaS Operations Engineer)

To find out how Dialpad can drive similar results for your organization, download the full study here.

As CIO of one of the world’s largest agricultural companies, Greg Meyers is the type of leader who gets it. As part of the next generation leading disruption, Greg identified and understood the need to take a nearly 20-year-old company into the next stage of digital transformation, helping keep Syngenta competitive in the modern world.

Syngenta came to us in search of a flexible and reliable communications platform to connect his 28k+ workers around the globe. He and his team realized a change was necessary - it was time for “the right solution for the right task.”

I met Greg when he joined Motorola Solutions as the CIO in 2014 and was looking to modernize the 90-year-old Fortune 500 company by bringing them to the cloud and focusing more on the future of work. As part of the process, he evaluated telephony solutions and pushed to move all core services to the cloud (email, documents, meetings, phones, etc.). As a result, Motorola Solutions became Dialpad’s first Fortune 500 customer.

A true partner through every step, from headquarters to numerous global locations, we supported thousands of users and helped to change the overall culture of the company. This success and our long-standing relationship played a large role when the time for change came for Syngenta.

For a high-growth, international company seeking a solution to benefit both customers and employees, working with Dialpad was an obvious solution. Our products allow their teams to connect from anywhere, on any device, providing seamless communication and collaboration across the organization. As the “work from anywhere” worker becomes the norm, Syngenta is planning ahead.

Last year, nearly one in four Americans performed some or all of their job remotely. To keep teams and/or individuals from becoming disparate pieces, business communications have become as important as our personal communication needs. People want an easy and reliable connection, no matter where they are. On the eve of a 5G evolution, we can expect to see increasingly high expectations for speed and consistency for talk, text and data. For a growing company like Syngenta, the ability to stay up to date and scale at the speed of business is a must. Dialpad helps that meet that requirement today, and well into tomorrow.

Then you've got the calls themselves—from the first hello, you have introductions, rapport building, practiced pitches, objections, rebuttals, and if you’re lucky, a follow-up meeting. But, unless you have an impeccable memory and excellent dictation skills, once that conversation ends there’s not much you can do with it. And if you apply that to several hundred or thousand calls, you start to see a pattern—there’s a lot of potentially valuable data that’s being burned into the ether.

That kind of information will not only help close more deals, it can also inform campaigns with the kind of customer insights that most marketers could only wish they had access to.

The good news? It’s very possible. And your Demand Generation team is going to love you for it. These are the people responsible for bringing an awareness to a product, filling the top of the funnel, and bringing those leads down into the bottom of it.

Using a modern VoIP phone system, you can get specific call analytics for conversations with prospects and customers, call recordings, voice transcriptions, keywords, sentiment analysis, and more. These data points reveal more about the prospect or customer and how the product is performing, than can be conveyed second-hand from sales reps—or even detected in the conversation, first hand.

Let’s break it down.

3 ways sales call data can transform demand gen

1. Keyword detection for stronger messaging

Demand Generation teams can pull call recordings and transcriptions to identify words that are said most often. These words can highlight how prospects and customers are talking about the product, and can be worked into marketing messaging for greater impact. Keywords can also reflect the names of new and existing competitors, which is priceless intel—especially in aggregate. Plus, using keywords gleaned from sales conversations into campaigns can help take the guesswork out of what type of language is compelling to prospects.

2. Sentiment analysis for campaign curation

A layer above keyword analysis is sentiment analysis, where mood and emotions are detected to create context. So while a prospect may be mentioning a certain product feature or competitor, context tells you if it’s in a positive or negative way. Are prospects praising how your product does something? Or are they telling you they prefer a competitor? That kind of insight gives your Demand Generation team the ability to create highly targeted campaigns.

3. Sales calling patterns for better internal alignment

Amazing things can happen when sales and marketing teams are working together and truly aligned. When analyzing the sales team’s calling patterns, recurring periods of downtime present great opportunities to meet up and make sure everyone’s on the same page.

The time can be used to generate new ideas, tackle shared obstacles, and reaffirm team goals. When you consider that these teams are targeting prospects from different communication channels and at different stages, this degree of alignment can tighten up the pitch on both sides of the equation.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Phone calls are still the leading business communication tool today. In fact, 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone. So, the data from those calls are without a doubt just as important.

Notable innovations in our products over the past year stem from the addition of built-in artificial intelligence capabilities. Real-time audio transcription and Dialpad Ai-created post-call summaries are now available across Dialpad’s Voice, Ai Contact Center, and Ai Sales products. Dialpad Ai adds robust AI and voice analytics capabilities to our broad portfolio of products.

Dialpad also takes pride in making our products simple to deploy and easy to use so that our customers have the best experience possible. Our strong telephony capabilities ensure that our users report good call quality and that installations are low-friction. Dialpad’s users report good customer service and support.

Dialpad is honored to be included in this year’s Magic Quadrant and to be recognized as a Visionary. Want to see our products in action? Click here to start your free trial!

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide, 30 July 2019, Daniel O'Connell, Megan Fernandez, Rafael Benitez, Christopher Trueman, Sebastian Hernandez

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

I’m Andrew, senior copywriter at Dialpad, and one of the 20 or so full time remote employees. I haven’t always worked remotely; I started my tenure in Dialpad’s Vancouver office in July of 2017, and moved to an island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada in December 2017.

The reason for the move was straightforward: Vancouver is beautiful, but it’s also one of the most expensive cities to live in the world. After a decade of calling the city home, I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't sustainable to live there anymore. I wanted to be somewhere I could plant more permanent roots. I knew Dialpad was where I wanted to work long-term, and they approved of the arrangement. So the stars aligned, and here I’ve been ever since.

A typical day

My workday starts a lot like yours. I’m out of bed, drinking coffee, and checking emails at 6:30. I’m showered and dressed by 7:30. And I’m at my desk by 8:30. The time I’d normally spend commuting is usually spent reading the news, Redditing, going for a walk, or a combination of the three. But instead of a crowded bus, sweaty bike ride, or staring infuriatingly at the same 50 feet of road for an hour every morning, I have a nice little mental buffer that makes for an always-pleasant start to my day.

After checking my calendar and taking care of basic administrative tasks, I’ll prioritize my workload for the day. To get my hands dirty in actual task work, I’ll typically warm up by editing any upcoming posts we have for the blog. Then move onto other one-off tasks that need my attention.

Post lunch, I’m back at the grind. My ability to focus is typically higher in the afternoon, so I’ll work on things that demand more concentration. I’ll dedicate a few hours to writing content for larger projects like product launches or campaigns. When time or weather allows, I’ll step outside for a walk to clear my head and keep my thinking fresh.

Throw in a meeting or two, and that encapsulates what most work days look like for me.

What makes working remotely work

It wasn’t long ago that working remotely was impossible for all but certain niche roles. Access to high speed internet changed that. I can now connect with coworkers around North America as quickly and seamlessly as I could if they were parked right next to me. Technology has not only made remote work possible, it’s made it relatively easy (from a practical standpoint—more on that later). These are some of the tools that make it all happen.

Tools

The cloud and all of the cloud collaboration software that comes with it has been huge. We really rely on instant messaging; it makes sharing documents and syncing on small things simple and fast. It’s the next best thing (and sometimes better than) walking up to someone’s desk to chat.

Asana is our weapon of choice for project management. It doesn’t matter where, when, or how I work; project stakeholders and collaborators have total visibility into what I’m working on, the progress I’ve made, and can access it all from one place. Little-to-no cat wrangling required.

Obviously, Dialpad is always at my side as my business phone number and business text messaging system. Because it lives on all of my devices, I’m easy to reach no matter where I am. So when those emergency conversations need to happen, they do. And that’s really important to me—if my team can’t physically see me, I want to make sure they always have a way to reach me. It’s my most important tether to my company—and largely what makes it possible to do what I do from where I do it.

Last but certainly not least is Dialpad Meetings. Being remote means lots of virtual meetings. Dialpad Meetings makes them frictionless. They’re easy to get into. The audio quality is clear. You can share your screen so presentations are easy to follow. And the HD video function makes it as close to being in the same room as technology currently allows. Dialpad's video conferencing is in the same platform where I make voice calls and send messages, which adds a layer of simplicity to my day. That may sound like a pitch, but it’s one I absolutely stand behind.

It’s important to note that it’s not just about the infrastructure or tools. Your team has to be on board, too. Given that Dialpad operates out of several countries with 20 remote workers to boot, we’ve created a culture of communication and have become quite effective at making the wheels turn simultaneously on different continents.

Travel

Fact: some meetings are better when they’re face-to-face. So a few times a year, Dialpad will fly me into the SF office for a few days for large project kickoffs, brainstorming projects, or larger company events. Being able to work together and collaborate in person is wonderful. But the larger takeaway for me is that I get to know and even bond with the people that I work with at a distance every day. Developing these relationships in person makes it so much easier to work together when you’re not sitting a few feet away.

Challenges

It would be dishonest to tell you that working remotely is easy—it’s not. Sure, the communication tools to do it are there. And being able to skip the commute and work from a couch is great. But it’s not everything. And to be successful at it, you need to address the difficulties that come with it.

Things move fast

This is more a byproduct of being a mature technology startup than being remote location. But when you’re physically separate from the day-to-day, you need to learn how to keep up. That means being prepared. It means asking questions. Sometimes seemingly stupid ones. Without total and absolute clarity about what’s required of you, you will trip (first-hand experience). And being remote isn’t a good excuse—it’s the worst excuse.

The water cooler

I’m currently writing this from our SF office. It’s 10:44 a.m. and I’ve already had three in-passing work-related conversations. This is the norm when you’re in an office, but rare when you’re not. Being remote, sometimes you miss out on important conversations that provide context to projects. You can mitigate this, again, by being prepared and asking questions. However, it’s a real drawback that simply comes with the territory. A simple fix: Have a virtual water cooler in your company's messaging platform.

Isolation

If you’d told me three years ago that working remotely can get lonely, I would have likely feigned agreement, secretly thought you were overstating the issue, and continued romanticizing the idea of being able to kick it in a pair of sweats from 9-5. The reality is that isolation is something that almost every remote worker will experience. The daily face-to-face interactions you have with your coworkers shouldn’t be taken for granted—they have a massive positive impact on your psyche that won’t notice until it’s gone.

I’ve been able to manage this a few different ways:

1. I’m vocal about it. When I’ve felt disconnected from projects, teams, or even the daily flow, I say so. Ignoring it improves nothing. And simply speaking about it makes the issue easier to identify and resolve.
2. I get out. It bears repeating. Going outside—even for just a short walk or a coffee—breaks up your day, puts you in front of something other than a computer screen, and keeps your thinking fresh. And when it comes to solving problems, occasionally removing yourself from them is just as important as attacking them head on.
3. I get social. It’s no surprise that, given the rise in popularity of remote workers, I know a few people in very similar arrangements. We often meet up for lunch or after work in the same way you would with your coworkers. While we may not have the same employers, our challenges are similar and sharing them is helpful.
4. I create structure. With the exception of commuting, I do the same things I would if I were going into an office every morning. I have an office with a door that I enter every morning and leave every night. It’s still work and should be treated as such.

What it all comes down to

In my experience, the pros vastly outweigh the cons. Dialpad has provided me with the tools, technology, and even cultural approach I need, not just to do my job, but to be truly engaged with it. Being a business communications provider, Dialpad’s remote workforce is very much part of our “dogfooding” process. But with more than 20 full-time remote employees, and the fact that I’ve been working remotely for more than a year-and-a-half, proves that distributed workforces work.

The formula for success isn’t a secret, or even difficult. Communication is key to everything—for both remote and in-office workers. Be transparent about issues as they arise. Be accessible and accountable at all times. And perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that results are what really matter.

Spam call blocking

We know spam calls are more than just an annoyance—they can be disruptive to your business and tie up your phone lines. To give our customers more control over how spammy calls are handled, we’ve developed a multi-layered approach to call blocking and spam prevention which lets users set specific settings for their direct user lines, including:

• Automatically blocking callers with high SPAM scores
• Full block (play “Number not in service” message)
• Straight to voicemail (no notification)
• Straight to voicemail (notification plus live, real-time voice transcription)
• IVR screening (“Please state your name and Dialpad will try to connect you”)

More call routing and transfer options

Ensuring customers are handled by the appropriate agents not only makes your team more efficient and productive, it also improves the overall customer experience. That’s why we’re developing new call routing and call transfer options, so your customers get their issues solved faster. Here are two ways we’ve made that easier:

• Skills based routing allows call centers to designate agents, as they become available, as specialists in certain products or issues to better handle specific conversations, instead of forcing customers to go through the queue before getting to the right agent.
• Warm transfers let agents contact and wait for the next agent to answer, then doing an introduction before handing off the call, so the next agent isn’t caught unprepared.

HubSpot integration

You can now keep up with all your recent HubSpot activity without having to leave the Dialpad app. This native integration with HubSpot improves user productivity by auto-logging both inbound calls and outbound calls to HubSpot and by giving users the ability to add call summaries, set call dispositions, and more.

Learn more about this recent integration here.

Dialpad Ai Sales: Officially launched!

In May we had our biggest product release with Dialpad Ai Sales—a real-time artificial intelligence solution for sales organizations. It’s the first true real-time speech recognition product on the market for sales teams, and can transcribe conversations, track customer sentiment, provide suggestions to questions and analyze conversations—all in real-time.

Some of the key benefits of Dialpad Ai Sales include:

• Business line on your personal device
• Voice calling, video conferencing, and business text messaging
• Fully integrated with your CRM
• Improved sales enablement
• Increased rep productivity
• Decreased ramp-up time
• Improved coaching effectiveness

Learn more about Dialpad Ai Sales.

Coming soon:

Here’s a preview of a few of the updates coming up next.

• CSAT (customer satisfaction) surveys for Dialpad Ai Contact Center, an automated way to collect customer satisfaction scores, post-call.
• Power dialer for Dialpad Ai Sales, an automated dialing system that allows reps to reach out to prospects more efficiently.
• Call dispositions, which lets call center and sales managers create custom call dispositions for agents and reps to apply to their calls.

Before transitioning to the cloud, there are a few things you should consider. After all, 70% of change programs are unsuccessful in obtaining their goals. Do it right the first time, and you’ll avoid common pitfalls like employee resistance and poor management support. These guidelines will make the move smoother for everyone.

1. Be transparent

Tell your workers that change is coming. Give them some background on the cloud and how the company will be adopting it. Be open with timelines and how the change may impact people’s roles. Provide a clear view of what workers can expect in the coming weeks and months. It also doesn’t hurt to focus on the positives—of which there are many.

2. Tell them why

Naturally, some will resist and even protest change simply because they’re used to doing a certain thing in a certain way. But people are far more receptive to change when they understand the reasons and motives for adopting it. Being clear about the larger reasons and goals will help get more people on board and improve adoption rates.

3. Embrace feedback

Your employees may have a few opinions—or a lot of them. It’s important that you listen to what they have to say, as well as acknowledge them so they feel included in the process. Often, this feedback can highlight potential issues in a new light, helping you address things before they become problematic. Your employees may also have strong, viable ideas that you haven’t already considered. This feedback can be collected informally, through 1:1 conversations. But you’ll likely get more honest and forthcoming responses through anonymous surveys.

4. Training can make or break you

Employee training before you complete your transition is absolutely necessary. Change takes time to adapt to, and if people feel rushed or confused it can quickly derail something that was supposed to create efficiencies. The primary mandate is to get everyone up to speed. But it’s also a great opportunity to shake out the bugs and address any unforeseen issues with processes that can create size-able issues down the road. This takes time and resources—and that’s where organizations tend to cut corners. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If you’re looking for a more strategic approach, create a pilot group to learn the system. You can choose certain individuals to represent larger groups or departments, and monitor how different roles adopt the processes. From here, you can adjust your training to see what areas need more attention.

5. Leadership is key

Before the trainings go live, it’s important to have all managers on board. They can answer questions, provide support where it’s needed, and make the process smooth at all levels. It’s important to keep in mind that some workers are more technologically savvy than others, which will make the transition different for everyone. Empathy and patience go a long way at this stage. Ultimately, success will come from keeping everyone motivated and supported during the transition.

Moving an important piece of software to the cloud is a process: it requires careful planning, thoughtful training, and strong execution. But it doesn’t end on go-live day. You’ll need to provide continuous support. Follow up with surveys to make sure there are no complications. Weekly and monthly meetings with departments to check in on processes and potential issues will ensure the transition continues to be successful long after the transition officially ends. And providing the time, resources, and support required is the key ingredient to making it happen. Preparing for the cloud may take time, but it’s time worth taking.

All joking aside, we know that IT is more than fixing printers and connecting wires. They’re the gatekeepers when it comes to standardizing how you work—vetting new platforms and vendors to make sure that they’re really delivering what they’ve promised (a tough enough job in itself). And when something goes off that shouldn’t or vice versa, it’s IT that’s up in the middle of the night figuring it out.

Automate with cloud apps

While we probably can’t solve for all the fires that IT puts out each day, we can (thanks to the cloud) help make them less frequent and less of a headache to put out. That’s because our native integration with Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory (AD) takes the heavy lifting out of user provisioning—every time a new user is created in Azure, they’ll automatically get their business number and access granted to them day one. In other words: less manual entry, happier IT teams. Talk about a win-win.

Introducing: Azure + Dialpad

Here’s how it works: an Azure admin simply downloads the Dialpad app straight from the AD marketplace to set up the sync between the two platforms. Once connected, admins can simply add users directly from Azure to assign them a license and business phone number.

Once assigned, users can log into the platform to start placing voice calls, coaching reps, or lending customers a supporting hand. Plus with role-based permissions, admins can select which specific users or groups have access to things like call recordings or voice analytics—all from a single click.

At the end of the day, anything that can help take some of the pressure off your IT team is a good thing, especially when that time can be better spent supporting your business’s needs.

That’s why Dialpad + Azure makes so much sense—one central place for IT to do their thing.

Plus with our native Microsoft integration, shared emails, events, and files are automatically displayed on your contact’s profile, whether you’re at your desk or on the road, so you’re never out of the loop of on your next call.

Feature highlights include:

• Up & Running: Thanks to the cloud, your apps can talk to one another (and even help each other out) to get tasks done a whole lot faster.
  
• Safe & Secure: Need to make a change to team credentials? Do it from a centralized portal that you’ve already built your user management strategy around.
  
• Nice & Easy: Available on the AD marketplace, syncing your Dialpad and Azure account happens in a few clicks and then, well, just works. Imagine that.

The Dialpad integration is available in the Azure marketplace to customers on the Dialpad Enterprise plan. Interested in learning more? Book a product tour.

However, I continue to find one thing missing from nearly every tech stack I’ve worked with. Voice. That’s right, the humble telephone.

Companies continue to invest heavily in email automation platforms, live chat, power dialers, and various other solutions. But when 92% of all customer interactions happen over the phone, according to Salesforce.com, telephony should be on every sales team's radar. By implementing a phone system purposefully built to enable sales, organizations can impact conversations in ways never before possible.

Create a better seller/buyer experience

Despite how often organizations are interacting with their customers over the phone, Salesforce research shows that 85% of customers reported being dissatisfied with their phone experience. Using a modern phone system that combines voice calls, business text messaging, and video conferencing into a single platform, organizations can create a streamlined experience for both buyers and sellers. In addition to this, many modern enterprise phone systems enable sales reps to work from anywhere, on any device—improving workflows and employee productivity.

Provide real-time coaching with AI-powered telephony

Sales AI is rapidly gaining traction. Not to replace sellers, but to help them be more effective. By implementing a telephony tool with AI, reps are provided with the guidance they need, when they need it. This can come in the form of live speech coaching, real-time recommendations that suggest the next best action, or in the moment, sentiment analysis that can let managers know if their presence is needed.

Sirius Decisions sees “AI exponentially increasing the impact sales operations has on sales results by enabling sales operations to finally provide sales reps at all levels with the sales intelligence they deserve to receive.”

Access to the last offline data-set: voice

Every member of your sales team is using the phone to interact with customers. Yet, many organizations aren’t investing in tools to help their teams make each conversation count. While organizations have been able to analyze text-based communications for insights and best practices, voice has always been a challenge. However, with real-time voice transcription and automatic CRM logging of sales activity (e.g., calls, meetings, emails, texts), this previously offline data-set is now available for the larger organization to access and analyze.

To help companies capture the insights that live in their conversations, Dialpad has built a dedicated communications platform for sales organizations that incorporates real-time recommendations, live coaching, call logging, and sentiment analysis. Now sales and marketing teams can see how pitches are resonating, uncover best practices, and better understand how buyers and sellers are interacting. The end result? Reps will get better at listening, better at overcoming objections, better at moving deals forward, and ultimately, better at closing them.

My 30-second highlights: Elizabeth Gilbert has some thoughts on the power of relaxation over hustling, Liz Simpson, the founder of Stimulyst, reminded us that people’s purchasing decisions are driven by emotions which they then justify with logic, and Dani Buckley, the General Manager at LeadG2 has four steps that allow her to create sales playbooks in under 30 minutes.

Check out the details below!

Session 1: Elizabeth Gilbert Keynote

I loved Liz Gilbert’s keynote. That woman is wickedly smart, relatable, and has a way of putting words to the human experience that makes you feel so seen and understood.

In her keynote, she spoke about how our culture promotes qualities like hustle and grit. The “go and DO ALL THE THINGS!” type of qualities that we hear about in the tech space all the time.

We’re so busy and so caught up in our pride of being busy, that we’re losing out on the magic of creativity in all aspects of our lives, including work.

She tossed out a suggestion to shake things up.

Instead of focusing so heavily on hustling, what if we all strived to be more relaxed?

She didn’t mean going to the spa every day or scheduling more massages (although, I’m not against that idea). Instead, she had us reflect on how we feel around someone who is relaxed.

When things go wrong you’re drawn to the person who is the most calm, no? Who do you want to listen to and follow? Who becomes a natural leader? The relaxed person.

The person in the room who is most relaxed has all the power.

Did you know that the most relaxed mare becomes the leader in a group of horses? And nobody approaches her without her consent? I didn’t. But that’s pretty amazing.

Liz gave the audience what she felt were the components to become relaxed, so we could all be more like the alpha mare.

1. Get clear on your priorities - what are they and who are they?
2. Enforce your boundaries - this is the only way you keep what’s sacred, sacred!
3. Embrace the mysticism of the universe - the belief that there are forces operating in the universe that you simply cannot explain. It’s those moments that remind us that no matter what’s going on, we’ll somehow all be ok.

That keynote was such a good reminder that no matter how busy our lives are, we have agency over deciding what we prioritize and how we spend our free time. And that there’s always room for creativity.

Session 2: Buyers Buy Outcomes: Why Your Sales Messaging & Process Attract Undesired, Price-Obsessed Customers

Liz Simpson, the founder of Stimulyst, reminded us that people’s purchasing decisions are driven by emotions which they then justify with logic. So, when we think about capturing our buyer's attention, we should be thinking about both mind share AND heart share.

Technology is not a strategy

Liz shared how so often she sees organizations struggling with attracting the wrong prospects and customers. The default reaction is often to turn to technology that’ll increase reach.

But, she makes a case that if you amplify a strategy that’s already attracting the wrong client, you’re just going to get more of the wrong client.

Technology can be a huge help, but you need to have a solid strategy in place that your tech stack helps support, not the other way around.

Speaking of which …

Be an Asprin, not a vitamin

When you have a migraine, you NEED to take something. A vitamin, on the other hand, is more of a nice to have. We know it’s important, we know we should take it, but we’ll probably forget every so often and we won’t notice the difference.

What is the costly problem your solution solves? What’s the urgency?

The number one thing buyers value is specialized expertise.

More than being simply understood, buyers are looking for someone who has deep domain expertise and is uniquely qualified to help them with their problem.

Liz points out that a critical mistake a lot of companies make is not having a sales messaging strategy that helps to very clearly communicate value and expertise.

Session 3: How to Build a Sales Play in 30 Minutes or Less

Dani Buckley, the General Manager at LeadG2 had a lot to say about the importance of sales playbooks. To level-set, she’s talking about helping salespeople get to the right step at the right time with the right person.

Her session shared a lot of examples of playbooks her team created for various stages of the sales cycle and virtually any scenario a salesperson encounters from what to do after they’ve presented and are waiting for a decision to upselling an existing client.

Here are the four steps she shared to building a sales play:

1. Figure out your who, what and when: Who is the buyer, what’s the challenge the rep is encountering with them, and when specifically in the sales cycle is it happening?
2. Outline the steps and cadence using best practices: What is your sales process? What expectations do you have of your salespeople for this specific stage?
3. Fill in the strategy, tactics, and resources for each step: What do you want your salesperson to know, use or share during each step?
4. Involve your salespeople: This seems like an obvious one but it’s so easy to skip this step. Dani’s advice? Don’t.

Here’s an example she showed us to give you an idea of what this could look like:

Just start

Dani shared how so often people get stuck in overthinking playbooks. They talk, analyze and plan for them, sometimes for months. Her advice was to stop waiting and just get started.

Start small, train your sales team, track adoption and continue analyzing and optimizing.

Dialpad at Inbound

This was our first year exhibiting at INBOUND. We were there to talk about our Dialpad Ai Sales product, a business phone system designed specifically for sales teams. We also recently launched a HubSpot integration, so the timing was perfect for us.

I’ve always thought of Inbound as an event for marketers so I wasn’t sure how many sales folks would be there and was surprised to encounter a number of sales leaders and AEs at our booth. Many of them were trying to find ways to better coach their teams, track outbound call center KPIs, and consolidate as much information in HubSpot as possible. Our team noticed that across the board, people were really curious about Dialpad Ai and how they can incorporate artificial intelligence into their sales process.

Big kudos to the HubSpot team for putting on a great event. Y’all ran a tight ship. Excited to see what next year brings!

I majored in Communication Studies with a minor in Business. Mostly looking for the quickest way out so I could start working on my career. With a lot of summer courses I was able to complete my degree in 3 years and started in management.

Where are you from?

A swampy town in Southeast Texas on the banks of the Neches River. Port Neches, TX! It’s closer to Louisiana than any other major Texas city.

What do you do at Dialpad?

I manage the outbound Business Development team for mid-market segment. We are paired 4:1 and directly support the mid-market AE teams for East, West, and Central territories.

How did you get into your career?

I was a BDR for years and realized the best part of my job was onboarding and training new team members for the role. I quickly became a team lead and started taking on more responsibilities. I took the leap with applying for a BDM position to continue my career. Since starting it’s been everything I imagined. Fast paced and always changing. Keeps you on your toes and ready for whatever happens next (because something is always happening). We’ve grown by 7 reps in my 2 months of being here and we don’t plan on slowing down.

What drew you to Dialpad?

I chose Dialpad for the possibilities. To me, Dialpad is a place I could see myself growing with a company that is on a fast track to changing how businesses use enterprise phone systems. It’s an exciting product that can actually better the way we communicate and scale businesses. I couldn’t help but think of the “what ifs” if I didn’t jump at the chance to be a part of something bigger than myself!

What’s been your favorite project at Dialpad and why?

Working with the Sales Directors on ways for our reps to work better together. Setting up structure around 1:1s and prospecting into accounts makes the relationship between BDR/AE a lot smoother with known expectations.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

Don’t give up! The BDR role is definitely a grind and often thankless when starting out. Be aware of your personal brand and know it will follow you through a company. Be eager to move up in your career but also master the BDR role (inbound and outbound) before expecting to get to the next level. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Don’t be afraid to JUMP! If the opportunity is there take it and don’t look back.

What 3 things are always on your desk and why?

Money tree: reminder me I growing all the time. My friend, Cory Smits, gave this to me as a parting gift. I ended up at Dialpad with him and he’s taught me everything I know!

Nail file: Help me think and keeps me from messing with my fingernails!

Foot Guy picture: This is a picture I received from a prospect in my first few months as a BDR. He’s a source of humor and reminds me that it's not that serious all the time!

Our Business Development team is growing! Learn more about the team and where you can make an impact.

What did you study in school? What was your major?

Mass Communication and Journalism at Arizona State.

Where are you from?

Seattle -> Phoenix -> Denver -> Atlanta -> Austin.

What do you do at Dialpad?

In short, I work with my Director and fellow Business Develop Manager to grow and develop BDRs to become successful sales reps. I help with the hiring, day-to-day development, on-going training and promotion preparation. I’m lucky where I walked in to a team of passionate reps who are hungry and motivated. They welcome the feedback and are directly impacted by the product we sell as they use the real-time coaching feature built into Dialpad. It makes my job easier to be able to hop on and listen to calls or to have them recorded and listen to it later. A BDR’s job is tough and my goal is to coach them how to do it well as it’s a skillset they’ll use for their entire sales career.

How did you get into your career?

I’ve been in tech for 9 years and have been a BDR, Account Executive and had a great mentor from a previous company who gave me a team lead position. I loved sitting with the team, strategizing on ways to get into accounts, share best practices and help with bringing on and training new team members. I knew then that developing others, as well as helping them get to their next career step, was a passion of mine. I shared that passion and was given an opportunity to lead a Business Development team in Austin.

What drew you to Dialpad?

I promise that these answers aren’t reviewed by my manager! My biggest draw was definitely the people and my direct manager. I knew I wanted to be in an environment that fostered creativity, welcomed input and was fast-paced. I get all of that at Dialpad and I get to work for someone who wants to mentor and develop myself to reach my career goals. The icing on top is that Dialpad is a product that I was able to picture myself using as a manager and a rep! The team is passionate about Dialpad because the product is ground-breaking and the only one of its kind on the market. I guess you can say that the leadership, culture, and product drew me to Dialpad and I’m glad it did!

What’s been your favorite project at Dialpad and why?

I’m about 3 weeks in but have hit the ground running! I’ve been asked to help with hiring our BDR team in the Philippines! This is great as we’ll have a hand in hiring for 24-hour sales support! I have the opportunity to interview these candidates and eventually work with our international team. It’s been a lot of fun to watch their video interviews and I get the chance to work with many different departments internally!

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out in your field?

Embrace change. Embrace the grind. Technology is ever-changing, so it makes sense that your environment changes as well. I learned early that I need to be comfortable with knowing that no two days will be the same. That’s a big reason I love this field! You’re given the freedom to run your day as you see fit in order to hit your goal. Sales and business development requires self-starters and people who can manage their time well. I learned that the days can be long, tough and frustrating, but the reward is high! If you don’t want every day to be the same, want to come in with a “work hard” attitude and can accept change, this is a great career field to be in!

What 3 things are always on your desk and why?

Water. My planner (Yes, I still write in a planner). More water. All are necessities to help me stay focused and hydrated.

Our Business Development team is growing! Learn more about the team and where you can make an impact.

First-timer's experience

NSBE’s Fall 2019 PDC was Dialpad’s first time attending. As such, we had a lot to learn about NSBE, the PDC event itself, the attendees, and where we fit in the mix of things.

While identifying and connecting with qualified candidates was our primary objective, we also wanted to provide value that would help attendees walk away with more knowledge about engineering in the tech space.

4 lessons learned

1. There are many tech companies committed to increasing diversity. During the career expo, we had a vendor booth among other tech companies like Amazon and Facebook.

2. Giving and getting the most value from a relationship with a professional organization such as NSBE takes time and participation. We continuously prepared our approach to the conference and how we would best serve those that attended.

3. We were surprised by the level of concentrated talent at this conference versus the ones that we have attended in the past. It’s important to be very clear on what types of engineers you are hiring for as an employer.

4. When you’re a sponsor, swag matters. We brought along standard conference swag such as pens, notebooks, but also brought our high-quality socks, imprinted with the Dialpad logo. Who knew these would be such a conversation piece?

Future plans

After participating in PDC and volunteering for a local NSBE chapter, we are committed to diving deeper into our relationship with NSBE through upcoming opportunities over the next year. We have been in touch with dozens of engineers that attended the conference with the hopes of turning them into Dialers in the near future.

Dialpad is growing! Learn more about the team and where you can make an impact!

Almost a year ago, we started that long—and sometimes perilous—journey of creating a new logo and new look. If you’re a CMO, you begin the process thinking that it’s your glory moment and then, somewhere along the way, wonder if you’re on a high-speed train headed for your own demise. In truth, for me, it’s one of the most intellectually interesting parts of the job—and in all seriousness—indubitably important to the company.

So, why’d we do it at Dialpad? We knew that our growth was strong. We knew that we were rapidly expanding market share. We knew that some of the world's most modern companies use Dialpad. However, our brand was starting to feel—not so modern. So we set out to create a look that reflected our continued commitment to giving customers the best possible business phone system on the market, while simultaneously emphasizing the continued relevance of conversation in an increasingly fractured and digitally disrupted world.

At Dialpad, we continue to believe that conversation is our most important form of human interaction and that communication is an art, one that requires our utmost concentration and a clear point of focus.

We wanted to develop a logo that reflected such a shift—away from a one-dimensional audio wave—to a new image that underscored more than just dial-tone; that the critical component is not just voice, but conversation. A smarter call doesn’t just come from a device. It comes from having context at your fingertips, whether that’s Salesforce notes, or whether that’s artificial intelligence features like voice transcription, natural language processing, and real-time assists for agents.

Our new look was created to merge the best of Dialpad’s technology with the essence of what makes us human: the power of shared conversation. So, thank you for continuing on this journey with us and be on the lookout for a continued rollout across our products.

So we wanted to take a moment to appreciate IT—to highlight some of the extremely important work they to make our day go smoothly. Because, frankly, without them, it wouldn’t.

5 ways IT teams make your job easier

1. Provisioning

You know when new employees come into the office on their first day have a desk, a computer, a working internet connection, an email address, a phone number, and everything they need to do their job? That’s provisioning. It’s a process that, depending on your role, can take weeks of planning and an airtight on-boarding process. And without that planning, it’s an absolute headache for everyone involved. So if you or someone on your team is ready to start killing it on day one, your IT team knows what they’re doing and you should buy them coffee sometime.

2. Hardware and software procurement

The amount of deliberation and consideration that goes into choosing the hardware and software you use on a daily basis would make most grown adults weep. There are technical requirements with endless feature list comparisons. Budget parameters which never seem to stretch far enough. Lifecycle planning and security concerns that force you to imagine and account for a seemingly endless number of possible threats. So next time you open your laptop, check your email, and start using the tools that you need to do your job, keep in mind that your IT team put a lot of thought into not only their IT strategy, but also every part of your workflow.

3. Phone Systems

For large global organizations especially, the enterprise phone system is an indispensable tool for so many different teams. If you’re using a modern one that’s based in the cloud, works on all of your devices, and doesn’t somehow call the accounting department every time you pick it up and start dialing, let IT know how much you appreciate it. They had the foresight to opt for one that isn’t stuck in a non-adjacent decade and that you actually want to use.

If you’re one of the unfortunate few that are still using an old desk phone, the good news is that IT probably hates it, too. It’s making their jobs harder. And there’s a good chance that you probably won’t be using it much longer. We have a really good recommendation if you’re interested.*

4. Security

Encryption. Protocol. Privacy. Compliance. Organizations quite literally live and die by the security measures they implement. Some organizations can weather massive penalties and loss of customer trust for security failings and the misuse of data, but most would not. So while it’s something we may not see the inner workings of very often, you can be guaranteed that someone in IT is sweating something security-related.

5. Networks

The thing that connects all the other things and keeps the information going in and out of our computers and phones throughout the building and beyond. It’s more or less keeping our businesses open. Setting up a network can be a Herculean task and maintaining it isn’t easy, either. It’s in a constant state of evolution. And when something goes wrong, your IT team can feel the collective eyes of the company burning a hole into the walls of their cubicles. So when your office network is working without issue, know that IT is firing on all cylinders to make that happen. They sweat so that we don’t have to.

We don’t recognize them enough, but IT people are absolutely integral to the proper functioning of any company. Their jobs are hard, require a tremendous amount of foresight and strategic thinking, and demand technical skills beyond most of our reach. Thank you, IT, for all the amazing work you do so that we can, too.

To provide a bit more context, G2 evaluates products and vendors based on customer reviews of the platform’s users as well as aggregated social, web, and employee data. This accumulation of feedback from real users offers an unbiased, comprehensive assessment of the product, differing from other reports based on the experience of an individual analyst. G2’s Grid Reports provide a quick overview of vendors in each category to help buyers easily identify the software that best fits the needs of their business and we are thrilled that our customers see value in Dialpad’s platform.

From SaaS companies to law firms and enterprises to startups, Dialpad supports thousands of organizations worldwide and our reviews showed that! The reviews came from customers in a wide variety of industries and sizes. But don’t take our word for it, here’s what our customers had to say about voice calls with Dialpad:

An enterprise customer in real estate wrote, “I enjoy that I’m able to call my clients who have overseas numbers, and the connection is extremely strong and clear when I’m talking.”

A CEO of a small computer software company commented, “It's just nice to have a dependable virtual phone line to use for your business. Added bonuses include business hours, routing rules, managing your team, etc. The setup is quick and simple, allowing you to focus on more important aspects of your business.”

Delivering the best product and customer experience is near and dear to Dialpad’s heart, and there is no better reward than reading all the glowing feedback and valuable suggestions from our beloved users.

According to the G2 report, Dialpad Talk’s HD phone calls and business text messaging are some of our highest rated features. Aside from unmatched mobility, flexibility, and security, the ease of use and simple setup are two specific G2 categories where Dialpad significantly outperformed other VoIP providers. These favorite features are reflected in our reviews as well:

“Dialpad is easy to use and intuitive. We started with Google Voice but moved to Dialpad to handle our business phone calls and texts in a more professional manner, and it works great!” -- Kevin, Director of Marketing and Operations

“Easy to use, easy to call people, amazing product. Being able to make calls on all devices and switching between devices is my favorite feature.” -- Justin, Sales Consultant

“Dialpad is very easy to use and I like how you don't need an actual desk phone since you can just use the app on your cell phone.” -- Margaret, Office Administrator

And that’s why we’ve rounded up the launches over the past year that helped make work... well, less work. From helping guide you towards the right answer to scaling your outbound sales teams, let’s take a look at the biggest updates that hit the Dialpad platform in 2019.

From cold call to closed call with Dialpad Ai Sales

Even closers need a little help getting there. So we built a phone system just for them—Dialpad Ai Sales—that combines all the core features that every rep needs to get the job done like reliable call quality and seamless instant messaging plus real-time coaching features for managers and AEs alike.

Take competitor mentions for instance: with Real-Time Assist, reps can have sales battle card pop-ups appear as soon as someone mentions your competitor without having to fumble for words.

JumpCrew slices sales cycle in half

Speaking of sales coaching, JumpCrew is a great example of how call center coaching, and doing it right when your reps need it, can make a huge impact.

With more than 400 employees, and sales making up over a third of their workforce, JumpCrew needed a reliable phone system to empower their teams to do what they do best: sell. As the company rapidly expanded over the past three years, the JumpCrew team set a lofty goal of hiring 100 sales reps in 100 days.

Take a look at how making the switch to Dialpad helped them bring everyone together, keep track of all those interactions, and ramp their reps at scale.

Actually do something with all that data

If there was a theme for 2019 across businesses, it had to be data. Tracking it, mining it, and for some...losing it. Whatever category you fell into, there’s no denying that businesses in 2020 are going to have to start using all that data to move forward.

So we looked at how we could help make that easier for customers and came up with a few different options. First, we revamped our call analytics platform. We made it more visually accessible and added search categories like call center stats on average hold times or CSAT survey responses.

Next, we gave you the ability to aggregate all the key moments happening across your business—competitor mentions, customer inquiries—and we made it searchable.

Better yet, we embedded the entire history of the interaction, including who handled the call, when it happened and what was said. Because how can you get any better, grow a team at scale, or know what your customers want if you can’t keep track because it happened over the phone? That’s where Dialpad Ai, our artificial intelligence, comes in to help surface the data you need to make those calls, whether you’re picking up the phone or managing someone who does.

No PINs or pens with Dialpad Meetings

With Dialpad Meetings, your 1:1s get a little more personality, thanks to HD video quality that lets you connect with your colleagues, prospects, and customers.

And since we already had Dialpad Ai, it only made sense to bring it over to video conferences too. No one wants to fill out meeting notes templates... like, literally no one. And with Dialpad Ai, you don’t have to. Your entire meeting is transcribed for you and surfaced after the call so there’s never a question of “what just happened?”

Bring it all together with business app integrations

When you can bring together your tools, good work turns great.

In 2019 we had the opportunity to partner with some amazing companies and products. Here are just a few highlights:

• Salesforce High Velocity allows you to automatically transition leads to the next step in your cadence after your call completes plus lets cadences be branched off based on the call disposition logged in Dialpad (learn more about running a high velocity sales team)
  
• Azure user provisioning (SCIM) to assign new Dialpad licenses from one central platform
  
• HubSpot gives managers and reps the ability to see the full picture of their interactions straight from inside HubSpot plus activity history within the sidebar of the Dialpad app (mobile and desktop)
  
• Zapier allows you to build time-saving workflows by letting your apps talk to each other

And that’s a wrap for 2019! To learn more about these features, check out our Help Center and/or reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager.

We’ll be back each month to highlight the previous month’s releases that help you connect, coach, collaborate, and work smarter plus best practices and success stories from customers like you. Until then, happy dialing!

But just because we know we should be doing something doesn’t make doing it any easier. And that’s where we can help. As a company that’s built a phone system for every sized business, we’ve learned (a lot) about workplace conversations and more importantly, how to have smarter ones.

Below, we’ll provide best practices for navigating those tough albeit important conversations, whether it’s having a 1:1 with your boss, cold calling into a prospect, or seeing eye to eye with a colleague.

Let’s look at six tips to having better conversations with your boss.

6 tips for communicating with your boss

1. Actually schedule a recurring 1:1 📆

If you don’t already have a recurring 1:1 scheduled with your manager, that’s got to be your first step. Having a dedicated spot on their calendar that’s just focused on you and making sure that both of you are on the same page is h-u-g-e.

There’s no way to have an effective conversation if both of you are completely in the dark of how the other is feeling. Recurring check-ins remove that cloud of doubt, keep you on task, and help establish a healthy working relationship.

2. Set an agenda 📝

If you’re already nervous about talking to your boss, walking into that conversation with absolutely no idea of what you’re going to say is a recipe for disappointment. Setting an agenda for the conversation helps establish expectations and gives your manager a heads up if the topic is going to require more people or resources to be meaningful.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few ideas:

• Your career plan
• Your goals for the quarter or year
• Feedback on where you can improve
• Team-related questions
• Company goals

3. Stick to your agenda (as best you can) ✅

So you’ve set an agenda and shared it with your manager—great. Setting an agenda is only half the task... Sticking to it is the real challenge.

Remember that the time you get with your manager is precious and limited so it is important to keep yourself on track. Plus, having agenda items makes it easier to come out of the meeting with actionable next steps. Speaking of which, if your boss isn’t in the same location as you, having a tool that automatically generates a call summary can be a game-changer to keeping you both aligned.

4. Be as transparent as possible 👀

Unless they somehow developed mind-reading powers overnight, your manager probably isn’t as tuned in to how you’re feeling as you might expect. Much like how you’re in your own head about your day to day activities, your manager is in the same boat—multiplied by however many direct reports they have. It doesn’t mean they don’t care: it means they’re busy.

So that means it’s on you to be upfront and honest about what’s going on, whether you’re hitting your goals or hitting a wall. And of course, every company and manager is going to have a different definition of “transparent” so you’ll have to gut check yourself before opening up but isn’t there some saying about a squeaky wheel?

Tip: If you haven’t already, learn your (and anyone you work with) communication style and personality profile to break down communication barriers and have more effective discussions.

5. Get comfortable asking for help 🤝

🎶Help, I need somebody / Help, not just anybody / Help, you know I need someone, help 🎶

Asking for help is crucial in both your personal and professional development. There’s not a single successful person that hasn’t asked for some help along the way. It’s not a sign of weakness, but it’s important to understand that no person is an island, and you still get to hold the trophy even if others helped you win the race.

One study at Cornell University found that compliance—the rate at which people provided help to strangers that asked for it—was an average of 48% higher than the help seekers had expected. And those are strangers.

Your manager’s job is literally to help you get better. But they can’t do anything if they don’t even know you need it.

6. Remember they’re human 👱‍♂️👩

Believe it or not, but your boss isn’t some hobgoblin or an infallible super-being. They’re just someone who’s tasked with doing a job. And unless you’ve managed people yourself, it can be hard to truly appreciate where they’re coming from all the time.

So if they forget a meeting (which they will) or let something slip that they were supposed to tackle (which they also will do), just keep in mind that 99% of the time it’s because they’re busy and not because they’re trying to sabotage your success.

It’s also important to remember that just like you, they also could be coming into the relationship a bit nervous about how to lead, how to handle the responsibility of someone else’s career path, and what their boss thinks of them. So breathe, remember they were once in your shoes, and just talk to them like they’re a person. Because they are—a person who really does want to help you.

No workplace conversation is completely out of your grasp. Most of the time, it just takes a bit of understanding and patience to strike the right chord. And while this sounds trite, practice really does make perfect. The more at-bats you have with everyone: your boss, your colleagues, your prospect—the better you can be at learning how to navigate those conversations and the kind of impact they can have on your career.

At Dialpad, we aim to not just connect people but also to share insights into how your conversations can shape the relationships you have with your colleagues, your managers, and your customers. To learn more about the ways Dialpad can help you learn more from your conversations, reach out to learn more!

What are filler words?

Every language has filler words; we use them every day in conversation. Some English examples are:

I’d love to go to the party tomorrow, but I, um, already have plans.¹

I want to make sure we’re, you know, on the same page and everything.

When you have work to do, it’s not always easy to, like, find the motivation to sit down and do it.

Google “filler words,” and you’ll be bombarded with blog posts, listicles, and editorials; none of them positive. We love to hate filler words.

And it’s true: we don’t want to hear them in speeches, scripts, or research papers. But, as a linguist, I hope you do use them in conversations. To understand why, let’s take a brief dive into some basic linguistics.

Form and function

You may have noticed that some of the examples above are words that also do other things in English—they only moonlight as filler words. For example, the word like does a lot of overtime:

I like cats. (verb)

That dog looks like a cloud. (preposition)

Like, the building is really old, is what I’m getting at. (particle)

My dog is, like, super needy. (discourse-marker)

And I was like, “Why would you do that?” (quotative)

This word has one form (like), but many functions. Linguists call this form-function asymmetry, and it happens in every language. All it means is that a given word or phrase can serve different purposes in different contexts.

So, obviously we can’t get rid of like entirely, because it serves many functions.

Filled pauses

The function that like and its ilk serve even in their capacity as filler words is also important.

Let’s return to this sentence:

My dog is, like, super needy.

Here, like’s function is to be a filled pause. Filled pauses are integral to spoken conversation: using one holds the floor for you to express yourself clearly and correctly. It usually tells the listener: I’m not finished my thought, hold on just a minute while I express it in the clearest way I can think of.

A filled pause can also emphasize the emotion or severity of what we’re about to say. For example:

Um, did you really just say that to me?

Here, the speaker is shocked and/or angry about what someone has just said. The um indicates that what was said was so inappropriate that the speaker needs a beat to process it.

Backchannels and affirmatives

Another type of filler word, the backchannel, is used mainly in interactional contexts. A backchannel’s function is to be used by the listener rather than the speaker, and it usually lets the speaker know: I’m paying attention to what you’ve said so far; please continue. For example:

Speaker 1: So what he said to me was that they were trying to find a distributor for the materials, someone who could get those out to us quickly, and then we would be able to create and ship the order.

Speaker 2: Uh-huh.

Speaker 1: So once we can find a distributor, we'll know how long it will take to deliver the materials, and we’ll let you know when the order would ship based on that info. Does that work for you?

Speaker 2: Yes. Thank you, please do keep me in the loop.

The backchannel uh-huh conveys important social and linguistic information to Speaker 1: it says that Speaker 2 understood them, and doesn’t want a turn speaking yet.

As if that weren’t enough, form-function asymmetry strikes again: Speaker 2 could have used uh-huh in their final utterance too:

Speaker 2: Uh-huh. Thank you, please do keep me in the loop.

This function of uh-huh isn’t exactly rare, either: in our own transcript data, at least 30% of the time a backchannel like uh-huh appeared in a transcript, it was actually being used to reply to a question in the affirmative. Of those that are used as affirmative responses, up to 65% of these occur with no other affirmative word in the preceding or following sentence—meaning that these words are the only indication that the speaker has responded “yes.”

People sometimes expect filler words

If you’re still on the fence about fillers, here’s another surprising fact: in some contexts, not using filler words actually makes people uncomfortable.

A major struggle faced by individuals on the Autism Spectrum is having verbal interactions with others—but it can be difficult to pinpoint what exactly is “awkward” or “different” about their speech. Recent findings provide a hint about what’s going on: people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to use fewer filler words in conversations than neurotypicals do. (This difference disappears when those with ASD are talking to someone they know is actually interested in having the conversation.) That is, not using enough filler words in a conversation makes the interaction sound strange to neurotypicals—even though we don’t consciously realize that’s what’s going on.

Why? The answer lies in the nature of a conversation: it’s interactional. That means we (usually) need to take conversational turns, we (usually) want people to understand what we’re saying, and we (usually) want them to feel good about their interactions with us. Filler words allow us to do all those things, and to do them without a lot of conscious thought.

That means that there can be consequences to not using filler words. For example, potential clients tend to think of a sales call (learn more about sales call reporting) as a conversation about your product meeting their needs. That means they’re expecting filler words; without them, the interaction might be interpreted as scripted or overly rehearsed. These words—be they filled pauses, backchannels, or other discourse markers—are part of what we expect in a conversational context. Remove them, and you’ve changed the context to a more formal, less interactional one.

So if you’re a conversational filler word fanatic, then like, just keep talking—or filling those pauses—the way you want.

Bio: Shayna is an NLP Engineer at Dialpad, where she analyzes everyday language as it relates to Dialpad Ai. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Toronto in 2017, with a focus on sociolinguistics and morphosyntax.

Footnotes

¹ All of the examples present in this post are fabricated, but are intended to represent natural language. We respect our clients’ privacy.

References & Further Reading

• Why We Use Discourse Markers and Filler Words Like ‘um,’ ‘like,’ ‘you know,’ and ‘er’
  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/um-like-filler-words-discourse-markers-why-use-er-you-know-a7665721.html
  
• Why Filler Words Like “Um” and “Ah” Are Actually Useful
  https://hbr.org/2019/08/why-filler-words-like-um-and-ah-are-actually-useful
• Pauses Can Make or Break a Conversation
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150930110555.htm
  
• The psychological reasons why we use filler words like 'um' and 'you know' in conversations
  https://www.businessinsider.com/psychological-reasons-we-use-filler-words-2017-4
• Brief Report: “Um” Fillers Distinguish Children With and Without ASD
  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10803-018-3736-1
• Uh and um in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders or Language Impairment
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958035/pdf/nihms730505.pdf
• When “Easy” Conversations Seem Harder: Filler Words and Social Context in Adults with ASD
  https://www.centerforautismresearch.org/when-%E2%80%9Ceasy%E2%80%9D-conversations-seem-harder-filler-words-and-social-context-adults-asd
  
• Researcher says Canadians don't really say eh that often, eh
  https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/jack-knox-researcher-says-canadians-don-t-really-say-eh-that-often-eh-1.20598223
  
• Like, don't blame 'like' on kids these days, says sociolinguist
  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/like-don-t-blame-like-on-kids-these-days-says-sociolinguist-1.3992564
  
• Why building customer relationships is so important
  https://www.klipfolio.com/blog/why-building-customer-relationships-is-so-important

This was Dialpad’s first year at the gathering, and we had some really fascinating conversations with IT leaders, CEOs and industry heads who are actively seeking a solution to their traditional business phone systems. At Dialpad, we like to say that we are in the early days of the telephone’s history, and it will be new technologies like Dialpad Ai—real-time coaching, voice transcription, and more—that will be the great differentiator for the most innovative companies. In the world of business text messaging and instant messaging, our most impactful customer experiences start with voice, making it more important than ever.

Here are our key learnings/takeaways from Silicon Slopes:

• Utah is the fastest growing state for new businesses, and the most successful businesses get there with the right tools to help them grow at the same pace.
• Silicon Slopes launched a Utah-only venture capital fund to help local startups.
• Political debates abounded at the event, event, featuring a mix of tech and policy.
• The intersection of tech and education was a highlight of the event, both from the speaking sessions and throughout the event’s expo hall, tech arcade, and VIP film screening with Sundance.

The Dialpad Takeaway: Silicon Slopes was an inspiring, valuable, and interesting experience. It was great to meet and share ideas with so many people in the same space and share how we can partner with companies such as JumpCrew and MarketStar to help them build their data driven sales teams.

And sure, part of it is to build better products but the other part of why we're always pushing ourselves is because we know that business comms is rife with challenges—from how to better handle your 1:1 with your boss to call center coaching.

But those are solvable problems and we want to be the ones that solve them. And while we're working to do just that, we get that not everyone will catch all the good stuff we're building.

So that's why we're kicking off this in case you missed it series to make sure that, well, you're not missing out. From giving you more power to customize when your phone rings to building a library of calls to help coach your team, let’s take a look at what hit your Dialpad platform in January.

Keep your greatest hits handy with playlists

Whether you’ve got sales reps that nail objection handling or a popular feature request coming into support, managers can now filter their team’s calls via keyword search and add them to a playlist to listen to later or share with others in their org.

Here’s how:

1. Navigate over to your call analytics view
2. Filter your search criteria by day, time, group, or even specific keyword said (think: competitor mentions or a product/service you offer)
3. Toggle over to call log to dive into all the calls that match including the person that made or received the call
4. Click on the call summary to expand it—which will give you not just the full voice transcript but also the ability to playback the audio (because what we say vs how we say it actually can be two different things)
5. Once you’ve nabbed the right call recording, just select the + icon in the list view to add it to an existing playlist or create a new one

Tip: Select Share on your call summary to snip your audio for just a portion of the call you need to share.

A better work/life balance with personal working hours

While we can’t help how many hours you work, we can help you manage your calls when you’re ready to call it a day with the Do-Not-Disturb feature and the ability to set personal working hours when you’re accepting new calls and when you aren’t.

And when you’re off hours, you can set up an auto-respond text (SMS) that can let people know when you’ll be back in the office or who they can contact while you’re out.

Expand your assistant's support with new permissions

If you’ve set up an exec-assist pairing in Dialpad before, you know that your assigned EA can do things like:

• Place or receive calls on the exec’s behalf
• Manage the exec’s inbox (new notifications and voicemails)

And that’s great but what happens if you need your EA to return a voicemail? If they can’t even access it well, that’s kind of a dead end. So we added the ability for executives to grant access to transcriptions, voicemails, and recordings. Plus we made some updates to the UI to give it a new look and feel ✨

Thanks for stopping by 👋. To learn more about these features, check out our Help Center and/or reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager.

We’ll be back each month to highlight the previous month’s releases that help you connect, coach, collaborate, and work smarter plus best practices and success stories from customers like you. Until then, happy dialing!

While the tide is turning, there is a reason why the vast majority of the workforce still contends with their commutes and heads into an office most days. As someone who has been a remote employee and managed remote teams over the last 15 years, here is a roadmap for actually becoming a successful remote worker.

6 tips for being a successful remote employee

1. Over-communicate (and then communicate some more)

There is no such thing as communicating too much when you work remotely. While I would never advocate for meetings just for the sake of meetings (a productivity killer if there ever was one) make sure that you have regularly scheduled 1:1s with your manager, skip level meetings with your functional leader, cross functional meetings with your counterparts, and catch-ups with your peers. Come prepared with a substantive agenda, but also with the intention to create your own “water cooler talk”. Like it or not, that is how information is shared, context around your business is learned, and connections are made. And often, it’s how visibility is ultimately gained.

2. The channel matters

Be available on every communication channel when you work remotely. If you aren’t, people will second guess your whereabouts and that is the single fastest way to lose credibility as a remote employee. But on top of just being available, understand how best to use different channels of communication for different purposes.

Communicating on chat and email are preferred for quick exchanges where context or nuance isn’t vital. For everything else, make sure you work for a company with a great business phone system and video conferencing solution. These are the tools you should use for your most important conversations: those that require creative iteration, group discussions, or even difficult exchanges.

3. Constantly drive alignment around scope and expectations

Subtle cues around your performance or expectations for your role can be missed if you’re not consistently face to face with your manager. Make sure you have the opportunity for these transparent and explicit conversations, and not just with the person directly managing you, but also with your group’s leader and your HR team. Ambiguity can be the downfall of many remote employees. A lack of clarity around your role or performance can make you anxious and your job untenable. For a remote employee, information is power, so be sure there is consensus around where you stand.

4. Don’t have a champion? Get some (including yourself)

Make it a point to find personal advocates at your company outside of your direct manager. Doing stretch projects for your executives, partnering with someone influential outside of your team on an assignment, or getting involved in special interest groups at work are just some ways to expand your network and gain visibility outside of your reporting structure. And don’t forget: the best advocate, and the single most informed person about your achievements, is you. If you’re not comfortable with evangelizing your contributions, they may be overlooked.

5. Whenever there’s a chance for face time, take it

Being a remote employee is great, but there is a reason why face time still exists. So when there are opportunities to come into the office or join your team at an offsite event, take it. If your company doesn’t offer the chance for face time, push to create the opportunity yourself. You, and your team, will be glad that you did.

6. Be available when others aren't

If there was only one tip I would give, this would be it. Being a remote employee may sometimes mean you have fewer opportunities to stand out, but you have more agility and flexibility than anyone else on the team. Use it to your advantage. Be available and respond during off hours when it’s important and works with your schedule. I’m not suggesting that remote employees be on call 24/7, but be strategic about how you use your time.

Check your email in the morning or in the evening when others are typically commuting, and if something needs doing, be the one to do it. You will literally be showing the business case for having remote employees, and you’ll be helping the team. This will help ensure your long term success and may just convince your organization to add more remote workers. And that's how remote work actually starts to work.

Dialpad for Startups covers the basics of business communication, with seamless and reliable voice calls, business text messaging, and video conferencing to leverage connections and expand customers. It’s ideal for supporting companies’ main phone number, sales and customer lines, instant messaging, and video calls.

The program also benefits startup partners like VCs, accelerators, incubators, and more, by allowing them to provide value beyond funding. Partners can empower startups with a video conferencing and cloud phone system—one that’s trusted by top investors and brands—that fuels productivity and growth while saving startups thousands as they grow.

We realized that some of our fastest growing customers were startups. In learning about their challenges and triumphs we discovered just how critical the need for effective and scalable business communication is from day one. They reinforced what we already knew—startups are hard! And we want to make the journey a little bit easier.

Funded startups (no required minimum) based in the U.S. or Canada with up to 25 employees qualify. And startups with over 25 employees can still take advantage of exclusive discounts—so all startups are encouraged to register. Applying for the program takes just minutes and once approved, startups can begin taking advantage of 10 free, lifelong seats of Dialpad Voice Pro (for business phone lines) and Dialpad Meetings Business (for video conferencing). As startups grow, discounts continue and companies that enter the program will never pay full price for any of our products, ever.

Even before we became Dialpad, our co-founders had a successful track record of starting and scaling businesses. So when they built Dialpad, they were sure to keep founders and startups in mind. “I know from experience that there are so many growing pains with building and scaling a company. It has always been my belief that your communications tools should not be one of them,” said Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad.

Founders and early employees have so much to tackle in the first months of building a company—product development, understanding market fit, acquiring customers, hiring talent—that they rarely think about their team communications tools. Time and again, we’ve seen the negative effects that can have on a company’s growth trajectory. Our hope is that Dialpad for Startups can help alter that perspective.

Learn more about Dialpad for Startups and apply to become a partner or customer at dialpad.com/startups

Read the press release here.

Why context switching is so bad for us

Where do we begin? For starters, the APA found that when we’re asked to context switch or take on more than one task at a time, we actually do worse at both tasks.

Some other supporting evidence of the real cost of context switching from Psychology Today:

• It takes you longer to complete the assigned tasks if you had to switch between them vs doing them one at a time
  
• The harder the task (i.e. more complex) the more errors you’re likely to make juggling between them
  
• Task-switching takes up 1/10 of a second but add that up in a single day and you’re looking at zapping up to 40% of your productivity

How (the right) tech can streamline your focus

Let’s admit it: workplace tech can be as much a blessing as it can be a curse. For starters, sometimes there’s just too much of it. On average, today’s worker is using an average of 9 different apps.

And while we get that some work really does require employees to juggle between multiple apps (anyone that’s ever worked in customer support knows what’s up), the point is that the right tech shouldn’t make you feel like you’re constantly jumping between apps or tasks.

Which brings us to our latest announcement: starting today, Dialpad + Front now work together to help make context switching, well, not a thing.

Dialpad + Front: An answer to context switching

With Dialpad + Front, teams can connect with customers without having to switch between apps (or even feel like they’re using more than one tool at a time).

Once your admin has added the Dialpad app to your Front account, simply select the Dialpad logo from your sidebar to be able to:

• Place or receive voice calls from inside Front
• Send or receive text messages
• See a history of all interactions, including voicemails and missed calls
• Toggle your do not disturb (DND) to route calls to voicemail

Interested in learning more? Click here to see it in action, learn more about support functionality, and get your FAQs answered.

Dialpad + Front: An answer to context switching

Dialpad + Front now work together to help make context switching, well, not a thing anymore. Teams can now connect their Front inbox + phone system without having to switch screens.

Available to download from the Front app store, the Dialpad integration allows you to:

• Place or receive calls from inside Front
• Send or receive text messages
• See a history of all customer interactions, including voicemails and missed calls
• Toggle your do not disturb (DND) to route calls to voicemail

Prioritizing your VIP customers

When VIPs call into your support team you want to make sure they get the treatment they deserve (and probably pay for). With Queue Prioritization, managers can create an ordered list of which Call Centers get first priority when calls come in.

🧠Did you know that you can create a label for phone #s assigned to your Call Centers and have that appear on the inbound call notification?

How Suite It Is: Google Workspace + Dialpad

Dialpad is now an available Google Workspace add-on; Dialpad is available for Gmail and Google Calendar users.

Dialpad for Gmail

Gives you the option to launch a Dialpad voice call or send a quick message from inside Gmail and to add your Dialpad video conference details to your next calendar invite. When you’re ready to hop into your meeting, just hit the Join Dialpad link.

But wait...there's more!

• We’ve made some improvements to both Android search results and your desktop app to make it easier to find what you’re looking for a bit easier
  
  
• Dialpad AI's contact center sentiment analysis triggers have gone through some re-working to be more accurate and capture those extreme moments (both positive and negative)
  
  
• We’ve made some tweaks to your transcriptions so we’re not including extra filler words like “um” or “uhs”
  
  
• Sales managers can now see when competitors defined in your company dictionary are mentioned on a call. Track mentions over time in your contact center analytics or drill down on a specific point in the call to learn about what your customers are saying
  
  
• Improvements to action item suggestions now help you focus on what's important to follow up on. Look out for moments in your call where a conversation around contacting, sending some information or setting up a meeting occurred

👋Thanks for stopping by! Interested in learning more about the above-mentioned features? Check out our help center to get your FAQs answered.

However, threats associated with the COVID-19 virus have many companies accelerating their plans for remote work and expanding existing policies or implementing an entirely new framework.

Dialpad and Dialpad Meetings were designed from the ground-up to allow great collaborative work to take place, no matter where a person happens to sit at any given moment. As powerful solutions like these have always been at the core of how work gets done at Dialpad, we asked a few of our employees to share their thoughts on what it means to thrive while working remotely.

They offered their advice on everything from the importance of setting up a desk by the window, to setting clear boundaries with your family, to using a cloud phone system to stay connected and productive.

5 remote work tips

Tip #1: Jenny Moody, a Dialpad Billing Support Manager, who works out of her home office in Haleiwa, Hawaii

“My big tip is to make sure to put in the hours. Just because you’re home, don’t get distracted with quick errands or chores--which never finish--and will be waiting for you after work. If I need to drop my kids off at school, l put in an extra half hour of work later in the day.

It’s also important to set expectations for the rest of your family. I tell them, if the door is closed, it means we need to be quiet and most likely I’m on a video meeting or conference call. My family knows not to barge in.

Our motto at Dialpad is Do the Right Thing. I make sure to tell my team members to be honest and have open communication. I feel trust is so important when you work remotely. Don't jeopardize the relationship with your team, your manager, or your company. You are being trusted, and it’s a privilege...And don’t get distracted by social media--that will also be waiting for you after work!”

Tip #2: Mike Kane, Dialpad VP of Channel Sales, who works out of his office in Los Angeles, CA

“Leverage video calls as often as you can, as it really does help you stay connected and present. You’re able to communicate non-verbally as well as pick up on non-verbal queues. You can read body language, facial expressions, etc… without it, remote working is more challenging.

I typically travel each week but try to reserve Mondays and Fridays to work from home. I like it because it has good lighting, which is critical for video. And good acoustics. You’re on video a lot so your webcam lighting is important. That’s why I sit by the window. 🙂

And when working remotely, it’s really important to have the same routine as you would heading into an office each day. Establish your work space, establish the same start time, dress as if you’re heading into an office.”

Tip #3: DJ Gillit, a Dialpad Enterprise Sales Engineering Manager, who works in his home office in Thompsons Station, TN

“Because there can be so many distractions when you work from home, it’s important to set goals and priorities for getting things done while also keeping regular working hours.

When I think about remote work, I often use the phrase, ‘Don’t work like cattle graze.’ You have to set clear boundaries. Work should not blend into family time and the rest of your life. Most mornings, I help my kids get ready for school. But at a certain point, I transition into work-mode. I go upstairs and close the door to my office. I’ve gotten everyone comfortable with pretending I’m not there.

It’s critical to stay focused and knock out your work. I also make a point of having workspace separate from the places in my house where I relax.”

Tip #4: Josh Hynes, a Dialpad Senior Product Designer, who works from home in Carlisle, PA

“If you’re making a transition from working in an office to working from home, have a dedicated space. That definitely helps with work-life balance. Don't try to do it at your kitchen table. When you work from home, you’re always overworking. So this helps you close the door and walk away.

It’s also important to make connections with people. Find other freelancers, remote workers, or contract workers who live in your area. Meet up with them--even if it's virtually. If you make that first transition to working from home, it’s a good habit to have initially. For me, it was a culture shock to go from being surrounded by people all the time--to suddenly not.”

Tip #5: Kareem Agha, a Dialpad Regional Sales Director, who works remotely in Boston

“I’ve been working remotely with Dialpad for three years now. I’ve gotten so used to it that it’s not really any different from working in an office. I always make sure to wake up at the same time--just like I did when I was commuting. I think it’s very important not to change that. Every morning, I have the same routine. I drink my coffee, start work at normal business hours, and then set a typical schedule for the day.

However, since I’m not in the office, and there isn’t a common meeting space, I find it’s really important to do something social. It could be going outside, exercising, or talking to a friend. If you just sit in your house all day, you can turn into a little bit of a hermit crab. For me, it's really important to still have personal connections even if you’re not physically going into an office.”

So bottom line, everyone is different when it comes to what helps them the most with concentration and efficiency, but here are some tips that our very own remote employees have found extremely beneficial. Other productivity tips you can try include taking breaks, decluttering your workspace, and saving your video calls for the afternoon.

We hope some of this can give you inspiration and help you maximize your productivity when you work from home!

Surveying a handful of leaders, we pulled together a collection of what we thought were the most resonating and thoughtful responses below:

1. How do you find and own your voice in the workplace?

“I've found that reminding myself of my self-worth and remaining true to myself allows others to believe in you, too. Your voice comes when the respect is earned.”

Kathy Glassey
Director of Renewable Services
Monster Franchising, LLC
Monster Tree Service, Inc.

"I listen and observe when I'm in a new workplace, team or project. I get the facts by asking direct questions to those involved and consider how they respond. It's not just about finding your voice, but learning how to fine tune it to communicate effectively with each individual.”

Wendy Meli
Information Systems Manager
Fattmerchant

“It can be tricky to find your voice, when you're the only female voice in the room! I've learned that having a point of view that is backed by data or facts is key. Opinions that I can bring to the table based on my unique role in the business can shape decisions, but there's an underlying trust that those opinions are shaped by both my experience in the role and connection to our customers.”

Rachel Hocevar
VP of Customer Success
Dialpad

2. What is the best piece of advice you've received to get your voice heard in the workplace?

“Be confident on the outside even when you might not feel it on the inside. Don't look for outside validation. You can be trusted. Share what is coming through and don't apologize. Ask yourself: Would a man be asking for permission to share or would they just lay it out there and move on if no one else likes or supports his thoughts or ideas? Speak up! We need more innovators, creatives, and leaders.”

Jennifer Martin
Business Coach & Transformational Vacation Leader
Zest Business Consulting

“Speak up even if you are being talked over. This will happen initially because people may not expect you to opine. Just because it may seem like you can't get a word in, don't stop trying.”

Lily Toy
General Counsel
Dialpad

“One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received was to remember that everyone “hears” differently so research and know your audience then tailor your message. You have to often use a mix of verbal, written, and visual communication tools to be “heard.” I also love this advice from Ruth Bader Ginsberg, ‘You can disagree without being disagreeable.’ ”

Donna Bland
President/CEO
Golden 1 Credit Union

3. What advice would you give others to find their voice in the workplace?

“Make a concerted effort to speak up, at least early on in your career. It may be intimidating but it gets easier with time. Also, support other women who own their voice (or are working on it). Nothing encourages others more than complimenting them for speaking up. If we all do this, we'll have more women owning their voice.”

Lily Toy
General Counsel
Dialpad

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Meaning, you know the solution for the squeak is grease, because it’s a wheel. It’s persistently letting it be known exactly what is needed. In other words, to get your voice found and heard you’re going to have to ask yourself the contextual questions: who, what, where, when, why...You have to make sure that you're concise so that people can understand and trust they need to listen to you more.”

Wendy Meli
Information Systems Manager
Fattmerchant

“Slow down and start paying attention to your inner dialogue. You already have a voice, you probably just aren't giving it the microphone. Let go of the need for perfection. I promise most people have a ton of lousy and mediocre ideas before they land the jackpot. Speak up. Be willing to be a role model for others who are too shy to share.”

Jennifer Martin
Business Coach & Transformational Vacation Leader
Zest Business Consulting

“I would advise others to choose their words carefully. Words really do matter. First seek to understand before asking to be understood. Remember that the quality of your work speaks volumes and that silence always says something. That can be good or bad depending on the situation so always listen to the silence. I would also advise others to use their voice to make a positive difference in the world.”

Donna Bland
President/CEO
Golden 1 Credit Union

4. How do you think we can continue to support women in the workplace?

“Have those honest conversations with somebody and encourage them to strive for their best.. Always give constructive feedback. I always think of: What was the highlight, how can we fix this, what can we do to make this better? Always give credit where it is due and encourage them to proudly take it!!”

Wendy Meli
Information Systems Manager
Fattmerchant

To all those who celebrate and support International Women’s Day, we hope that the journey towards finding and owning your unique voice never stops. With the right tools and some helpful career defining advice, we can all collectively work toward owning our voices in the workplace. We wanted to thank all the women and leaders who have taken their time to participate and share their thoughts. Happy International Women’s Day!

Fast forward two years. As we started hearing more about COVID-19 over the past couple weeks, we knew that we needed to quickly embrace our core company values, and use our own products, to assist our team of global employees and help them remotely. We formed an internal task force and implemented a series of proactive steps:

1) On March 5, we communicated to our global offices that we would be allowing all of our 450 employees to work from home until further notice, and in turn, the global People Experience team, made up of People & Recruiting Operations, People Programs, HR Business Partnerships, Recruiting, IT & Facilities, and Office Operations, coordinated the transition from an in-person experience to a remote experience for interviewing candidates, onboarding new hires, and creating a positive for experience for current employees.

2) We quickly worked to identify what was and wasn’t working. We knew that many of our employees and interviewing candidates weren’t used to a full-time remote environment. So, we relied heavily on Dialpad's video conferencing functionality to simulate all in-person experiences--from face-to-face interviews, new hire onboarding, collaboration within our teams and cross-functionally, virtual water coolers and lunches, and CEO-initiated virtual office hours. In addition, all Dialers have been relying heavily on the Dialpad's instant messaging and text messaging to share information like company-wide announcements, ongoing initiatives and day-to-day responsibilities.

3) On Friday, Dialpad announced that we are expanding our job postings from specific offices to a Work From Anywhere policy. So, from this point forward, all new candidates would have the ability to apply for a job--not from a specific location--but from anywhere in the world.

4) And finally, today we announced a partnership with Crosschq-- a leading provider of digital reference checking--to help companies remotely and reliably talk, text, and video chat with job candidates, maintaining in-depth and personal interactions and interviews. This is part of an effort to help companies confront a changing workforce and hiring landscape by also bringing in partners like Okta and Glassdoor.

In a time of uncertainty, here’s what we do know. Dialpad is a company for the future workplace, the virtual workplace, where we can create, impact, collaborate, and produce results from anywhere. Although we miss our daily in-person interactions, we will together make the impossible possible, in virtually emulating that Dialpad experience of “doing the right thing.”

Let’s connect. Let’s reach new potentials. Let’s succeed. Until next time… Cheers!

Check us out at: www.dialpad.com/careers/

After almost two weeks of our new policy, here’s a mini case study from the trenches. My thoughts on what’s worked and the unforeseen challenges to us implementing an entirely remote workforce overnight.

What I’ve learned:

• Cloud communications are ready for prime-time.
  If anything, the past few weeks have shown me that remote work and cloud telephony are ready for prime time. Whether you’re using Dialpad or one of our competitors, I think this ill-timed and unwelcome mandatory WFH crash course is showing us what cloud voice calls / video conferencing / text messaging / instant messaging can do. And, I think it will have profound impacts on how we approach and think about remote work and education in the weeks, months, and years to come.
• Define a purpose for each communication tool you use internally.
  We’re probably like many other companies out there. We have a bunch of different tools we use to communicate different things. We use email, we text, post to our Wiki, Dialpad messaging for quick issues, and so on. The chaos over the past 10 days has forced us to ensure that we have a specific use for each technology we use.
• Over communicate with your customers and act with goodwill in times of need.
  Terribly profound statement, I know. But we created an effective business continuity plan and communicated it widely to our customers who are dependent more than ever on our ability to run our business and services. We knew that our customers and employees needed reassurance that we were operating as usual--and that we were open for business. We sent out communications to customers to offer assistance and quickly offered free use of Dialpad Voice Pro and Dialpad Meetings Business to anyone who needed a remote work system over the next couple months. And then followed up with an offer to existing customers of Dialpad Meetings Free—expanding call duration and number of participants.
• Offer guidance on how to maintain the same level of productivity.
  I have never worked from home in my entire life. I like the routine of getting up, going to the gym, then heading into the office. This whole stay-at-home thing is my living nightmare. We recognized that some people would be good at navigating the ambiguity and others (like myself) less so. We shared advice to managers and employees on how to continue their day-to-day workflow: make sure video is always on during meetings, have regular check-ins with your teams and collaborators, regularly update your status (if you’re unavailable note it in our systems), and make sure to follow a “normal” workday routine.
• Light up some virtual drop-in office hours.
  Your runs for coffee with a coworker, or friend, are on hold for a bit--we responded by creating “Always-on” virtual meeting rooms. People can hop in and out when they want to have a bit of fun, casual conversation, or just catch up. It’s been a nice way to break things up, and provide a way for people to “run” into each other. And some of the best interactions have included our CEO Craig Walker dropping in.

This post will be part of an ongoing weekly update from the Dialpad executive team. It goes without saying, this is a difficult time for our employees and for all of us.

Here are 6 reasons startups need a cloud phone system as soon as they get up and running.

6 reasons why startups should look into a cloud phone system

1. Cost

Cloud-based phone systems are inexpensive—especially compared to traditional PBX systems that require regular hardware updates. The average business spends about 30% of its total IT budget on obsolete cloud PBX services like updating devices, installing new lines, and other maintenance items—while small businesses like Mediasmith choose cloud vendors and see savings of 30-90%.

2. Call quality and reliability

High-speed internet and wireless LTE/5G connectivity paired with modern voice technology (including traffic shaping, WebRTC, and HD calling) mean that cloud-based business communications are every bit as reliable as a PBX system. Additionally, modern technology is available today to enhance and control call quality across devices (see number 4). Read how startups like Jungle Disk switched to the cloud and solved for call quality.

3. Implementation and ease of administration

A cloud-based business phone enables admins to set up and manage everything in just a few clicks. Plus, adding or removing offices or licenses can happen in seconds. All this results in fewer internal support queries, freeing up more time for startups to focus on what matters: growing the business. See how Acquia recovered 66% of their IT team’s time back on the cloud.

4. Employee mobility

Who doesn't have a cell phone nowadays? Why not leverage that? VoIP phone system users have the ability to call, text, and have virtual meetings with colleagues from anywhere, on any device. Plus, users have the same reliability whether on a desk phone or cell phone when their system is powered by a cloud telephony vendor vs a carrier. That’s exactly why Drizly moved their system to the cloud—their teams wanted to work only from their cell phones.

5. Advanced features

Features powered by AI like automated note taking, real-time voice transcription, and call recording only exist on cloud-based small business phone services. Plus, they tend to make it easier to integrate data across all systems of productivity (email, calendar, CRM, and more). And for needs like international calling, call quality can actually be better on a cloud-based system. Read how Charity:Water scaled worldwide on the cloud.

6. Security

Because so many employees use personal phones, most businesses don’t realize how much data they are losing until it’s too late. Protect those conversations and keep contact info stored safely on a cloud phone system while still allowing employees to work how they want on mobile. A cloud phone provider should follow the various IT security standards, like ISO/IEC 38500 and X.509 certificates. Ensure your cloud provider takes all the necessary precautions to keep your business communications safe, with security features like customizable retention and data ownership.

But what happens when you suddenly don’t have the benefit of being there in person? How do you keep coaching when reps aren’t all in the same room? And how do you scale that effort effectively?

If you’ve found yourself coaching remotely for the first time, we’re here to help. Check out some remote coaching tips that can help guide you through this new territory.

What is remote sales coaching?

Remote sales coaching is when a manager of a sales team (can be SDRs, AEs, any kind of sales reps, really) is helping those sellers book more meetings, close more deals, and improve their performance overall—while working from home or outside the office. Unlike in-person sales coaching, there's a different set of challenges here because you're not face-to-face with your salespeople, nor can they sit beside a more seasoned sales rep to shadow them.

That being said, there are some useful tools and software that can replicate this kind of learning, even when you have a distributed team.

5 remote sales coaching tips

1. Gather up your ramping reps

Every closer needs a little help getting there. And while your newest reps are going to have to practice their pitch with a little trial by fire, it doesn’t mean you can’t still keep an eye on how it’s going.

Having a central place to keep tabs on their activity or even receive alerts when you need to step in, doesn’t just save your rep from possibly burning a bridge or sale but gives you a better idea of who requires more direct coaching vs who’s ready for primetime.

2. Scale your efforts to save yourself from burnout

As much as we’d like to think we’re built for juggling, real life isn’t some circus act. As a manager, your time is already stretched by demands from different areas of the business, not just your direct reps.

If you can find a way to scale your sales training efforts, do it. And whether that means asking more seasoned reps to pitch in or leveraging more modern methods (like automatically pushing recommendations to reps in real-time), you’re less likely to feel like you’re being stretched too thin. Believe us: your sanity will thank you for it.

But what does "scaling" actually mean here? For example, our sales team scales real-time coaching by using Dialpad's Real-time Assist (RTA) cards. These are essentially customized call pops with tailored notes on specific topics that automatically pop up on reps' screens when certain keywords are spoken:

This way, our managers don't have to personally coach every sales rep's call, but reps can still get the information they need to handle objections and other tricky questions from prospects.

3. Cover your bases (and rep activity) no matter the device

79% of reps use their personal cell phones for calls. Imagine the spike when they’re all suddenly working from home.

When you’re not in the office, it’s much harder to enforce the use of company-issued devices. And you can’t coach calls you can’t track. That’s where the beauty of mobile apps come into play, especially ones that can log activity to your CRM.

Modern cloud-based phone systems can route work calls to any device (or even handle them natively with apps), providing managers the same level of visibility, access, and control over calls on rep’s personal devices as that they’d have with calls coming in at the office.

This also means that sensitive information, like prospect or customer details, aren’t just out there without any way to reel it back in. Cue your IT manager and a big thumbs up.

4. Bring it all under one roof for smarter reporting

Absolutely no rep is interested in manual data entry. In fact, there’s a very good chance that your reps are doing everything in their power to avoid it.

Trying to change bad habits, especially when you’re not all in the same room, can be an almost impossible task… That is, without the right sales productivity tools and sales enablement tools working together.

Improved call reporting and being able to integrate your reps' sales engagement activity through a coaching platform or CRM is a huge win for everyone involved. Your reps will love the fact that they no longer have to think about it, and you can weigh in on the best next steps to progress deals when you’re all pulling from a single source of truth.

And, as a bonus, your boss (and their boss) will love that CRM adoption is up, data is reliable, and activities are easily trackable.

Dialpad Ai Sales Center, for example, has CRM integrations with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and more to automatically log activities and interactions for reps and reduce manual work:

5. Make time for 1:1s with video conferencing

One of the hardest parts of coaching remotely? Not getting that face time with your reps. Sure there’s email, text messaging, even a voice call….but it’s just not the same level of connection that you get when you’re face to face.

Luckily you can use free video meetings tools like Dialpad to still get the feeling of being in the same room with one another even when you’re not.

It supports our 1:1 meetings and team huddles, everyone feels like they’re still getting the time and attention they need from their managers to hit their monthly numbers:

Improve your remote sales coaching with Dialpad

Having to go from in-office to anywhere coaching may come with a few bumps along the way. And while you figure out what works for you and your team, having tech that you can count on is going to make that transition that much easier.

With Dialpad Ai Sales Center, our sales dialer and coaching platform, managers and reps benefit from an all-in-one platform that offers video conferencing, real-time coaching features, and reliable call quality no matter the device.

For those who need to stay connected to colleagues and communities, we made the decision, as a company, that it was critical to offer help where we could. Yesterday, Dialpad announced that Dialpad Talk Pro will be free to anyone in Australia and New Zealand who needs a remote work system over the next two months. This builds on a similar commitment that we made in North America and Japan earlier in March.

This was important to us because we knew that our phone system was easy to set-up. Companies can transition their workforce overnight--forwarding calls to personal devices or porting existing numbers into Dialpad. We also knew that many of our features could be especially helpful in this time: enabling medical providers to stay connected to patients; giving teachers the tools to stay connected to students and automatically transcribing those lessons; and helping businesses and support reps assist customers in need.

Dialpad is a company built on the premise that technology enables people to seamlessly work from anywhere, wherever a high-speed internet connection exists. The promise of a modern, mobile workforce is critical now and will continue to be more and more important in the coming years.

We are a global company, with offices around the world. For us, the ability to communicate, to engage in conversation, and to foster human connection is the essence of our business and the promise we make to our customers and communities. And we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe in this difficult time.

Up your outbound with local presence

Be honest: you see a number pop-up with some random area code... You answering that call? That’s what we thought. Which makes the job of the sales rep on the other side *that* much harder (and believe us, salespeople don’t need any more help in that area).

With local presence dialing, sales managers can assign out a bundle of area codes to their reps’ call center to match the numbers of the prospects their teams are calling into.

Managers can choose between a pack of numbers covering the top 100 metro areas, (around 80% of the US population) or the comprehensive pack which covers up to 98% of the US.

With Dialpad’s local presence, every call is tied back to the individual rep which means if a recipient ends up calling them back, we’ll automatically route it to the rep that made the call (and not just back to the general pool). And if they’re not available, we’ll route to the next available rep in the contact center.

*Local presence dialing is available on Dialpad Ai Sales plans and requires an additional purchase of local presence number bundles.

Capture the screen, coach the agent

When it comes to contact center coaching, we’ve got a number of options to make that easier (and more scalable) like sending push alerts when customer sentiment changes on calls to popping up Real-Time Assist cards based on keyword triggers.

And starting today, we’re adding a new ability to record your agent’s screen once their call connects.

The screen recording will be stored inside your Dialpad analytics call history tab and tied to your Dialpad Ai call transcription—which means you can easily toggle between what your agent said and what steps they actually took, giving managers the full picture of how and where they can offer up some tips for next time.

But wait! There’s more…

• With call analytics, managers can expand their search results to pull data on more than one user or group like a coaching group or call center
  
  
• Need a reminder of who said what when you’re on-the-go? Now you can with embedded call summaries for Android (don’t worry iOS, you’ve already got this)
  
  
• We nixed the trigger for “too many filler words” on your speech coaching pop-ups because after all... Filler words actually can be your friends
  
  
• Support agents can now access the dashboard (and all the call center KPIs that live inside it) for every call center they’ve been assigned. Admins can turn this on from their call center’s advanced settings
  
  
• We've added three new moments to your call summary to help you remember important dates (June 21), times (4:00 PM), and mentions of major currencies ($200)
  
  
• Got a due date on an action item? Now you can see it called out in your transcriptions and highlighted moments, making it easier than ever to hit your deadlines ✔️
  
  
• We’ve made some behind the scene changes to help improve the accuracy of your transcripts across all of our products

• Call Center admins will now automatically receive an emailed summary with key call metrics from the previous week 📈

Dialpad Meetings (formerly known as UberConference) was named one of the Top 50 Remote Tools while Dialpad was named one of the Top 50 Products for Sales.

Each year, G2 ranks the best software companies and products based on customer reviews from thousands of real users. With over 57,844 software companies on G2, we are honored to have been granted spots on two “Top 50” lists. Dialpad is dedicated to providing the best products and customer experience, so earning high praise from our users is the ultimate prize.

The Best Software Award lists are filled with exceptional products and we are happy to see some familiar faces, such as Okta and Clari. We like to keep good company and know that the power of our platform is amplified by partnering with fellow award winners.

Okta, #1 on the Best Remote Tools List

This leading identity and access management platform allows Dialpad admins to deploy in minutes, instead of weeks. Instantaneous deployment is even more critical as remote work continues to grow.

Google Drive, #10 on the Best Remote Tools List

Efficiency is the name of the game with our Google Workspace integration to create a powerful business communications hub. Users have access to all of the files, emails, and calendar events shared with your Dialpad contact. This allows them to focus on the conversion, rather than figuring out what was discussed on the last call.

Clari, #22 on the Best Products for Sales List

Clari wraps up all sales activity against an account into an easily digestible package. Dialpad calls, amongst many other signals, are logged and analyzed by an AI algorithm to predict whether or not a deal will close.

Salesforce CRM, #39 on the Best Products for Sales List

The Salesforce Dialpad integration turns the world’s most used CRM platform into an enterprise-grade phone system. Users have the ability to place and receive voice calls right inside the Salesforce while vital prospect and customer information is at their fingertips. This activity (including calls, text messages, transcripts, and call recordings) and call dispositions are logged within Salesforce for easy reference.

HubSpot CRM, #44 on the Best Products for Sales List

The power of HubSpot’s CRM platform combined with Dialpad’s modern phone system increases productivity and revenue for sales teams. Dialpad activities are synced to HubSpot records, so users see sales data alongside call activity for a more holistic view of their deals.

We feel lucky to be on a list with tools that pack such powerful punches. Discover how Dialpad can have an immediate impact on your organization.

Let’s take a closer look at what was released on the Dialpad platform in April.

Better together: Partner integrations

This past month we partnered with a number of different platforms to bring your conversations (and the good data inside them) online with the other tools your team uses to drive productivity, stay connected, and engage with prospects.

Salesforce High Velocity Sales: Improve reps’ productivity by allowing calls to be triggered from a cadence and by marking call tasks as complete after the call. Learn more.

Outreach: Click to call within Outreach to launch Dialpad Everywhere and automatically sync call data back to Outreach. With Dialpad Everywhere, you’ll also gain real-time transcriptions plus recommendations that pop open when keywords are triggered (like competitors or pricing questions).

Coaching center: A single view of rep activity ✔️

Dialpad's Coaching Center gives managers the ability to review rep's calls, filter by specific moments, and provide post-call coaching, all from a central platform.

Features include:

• Master list of reps’ calls
• Ability to filter by rep, disposition, moment, date/time, and more
• Jump into the call summary in one click

Paired with the new call summary revamp, coaches now have an easier place to review what was said, toggle over to review key moments that occurred, and even leave comments that stick to a specific moment during the conversation.

The coaching center is available on every Dialpad Ai Sales account. You’ll need to have coaching access to leverage the new feature (your Dialpad admin can grant you this access).

A new way to revisit calls

We know you hate taking notes. It’s okay, pretty much everyone does. So having something like Dialpad Ai capture them for you is really clutch.

But that’s only half of it—we wanted to make your call notes actionable, something you could come back as a resource not simply as a log of what was said.

With the new call summary view, you now have the means to do just that—with more space to read or search through your voice transcripts, playback audio, filter by a key moment, or even leave a comment at a specific moment during your call.

This new view is available on every Dialpad account regardless of plan type. Click into your View Summary link in your direct conversations to access or access it from your contact center analytics inside Dialpad.

But wait! There’s more…

• Buzzword Bingo—like regular bingo but more #business. To play, simply select the game icon from your Dialpad virtual meeting sidebar to expand the board (you can click the same icon to close it, too).
  
  
• Need a little help getting up to speed on your Dialpad products? Not sure what best practices to follow? Say no more! Here’s a list of recently published guides and key feature highlights to help pave the way:
  • Call quality tips
  • Analyzing your call analytics
  • Dialpad Voice tips for Users: Part 1 / Part 2
  • More on Dialpad Ai Sales
  • More on Dialpad Ai Contact Center

We’ll be back next month with new updates and resources to share. Until then, happy dialing!

1. CRM
2. Sales prospecting
3. Data/list services
4. Email engagement
5. Phone
6. Sales engagement

And let’s pretend that all six are different systems/platforms/vendors (because in most cases, they probably are). Toggling between screens or tabs, logging in and out of different apps...boy that sounds like fun. And even more so for the team responsible for vetting, buying, and deploying these tools (not to mention maintaining them when something goes wrong).

This all seems a little much, no?

The integrated tech stack

55% of sales executives say their sales apps are an obstacle to selling. Why? Well beyond having just too much of it, the tech you introduce into your stack shouldn’t just live in some silo—not if you expect your reps to actually use it.

Take your CRM—you know what the #1 adoption hurdle is with CRMs? Manual data entry. And there’s no good reason for that. Not when today’s tools can, through APIs, push customer data into your system—like what content they downloaded, what emails they engaged with, and how the last conversation you had shaped up.

And it’s those reasons (and then some) that we continually look for opportunities to partner and integrate with other tech platforms from CRMs to email to support desks. Which brings us to our latest announcement: starting today, Outreach + Dialpad now work together 💪.

Complete the sequence with Outreach + Dialpad

With Outreach + Dialpad, reps can initiate click to call straight from Outreach without having to toggle screens or lose focus.

Calls initiated or received inside of Outreach will pop up the Dialpad Everywhere widget—your “always on top” power dialer that includes quick access to:

• Call controls (record, mute, transfer, hang up)
• Integrations with CRMs, Help Desks, Email
  • Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Gmail, Microsoft 365
• Live call transcriptions (powered by Dialpad Ai)
• Recommendation cards for compete intel, FAQs, and more

When your call ends, call activity and data (ex: call recordings) will automatically be logged to your prospect’s account including the option to set the call disposition inside of Outreach.

The Dialpad app can be added in your Outreach settings and requires a Pro or Enterprise Dialpad plan type.

P.S. Did you know that we wrote an ebook on how to build an integrated tech stack that includes best practice tips, advice from the Head of Sales Tech @ MarketStar, and includes chapters from Outreach, Intercom, Clari, and Highspot? Well, now you do.

@Dialpad Meetings in MS Teams

There’s no question that Microsoft Teams bring a ton of value to their user base. One look at their active daily user count should answer that. Of course, there are always opportunities to partner with other platforms (like a cloud telephony solution, for example) to increase that value in new ways. And that’s where we fit in.

With Dialpad Meetings for Microsoft Teams, you can easily create a new meeting invite card.

Each meeting invite card includes details like:

• Organizer’s conference call URL & dial-in number information
• Invited participants
• Easy join option (click to join)

When your meeting wraps up, everything that was said including an entire call transcription (powered by Dialpad Ai), recording, and even action items are included for you—right inside your Teams channel. To access, simply navigate back to your channel or chat to view the call summary and links to the voice transcript and call recording.

Slack calling with Dialpad

If you’re an existing Dialpad customer, you may already be aware of our partnership with Slack which includes logging activities like voicemails received or calls answered from a group line back to a channel.

Starting today you can now use the calling functionality in Slack to power Dialpad phone calls between you and another colleague.

Just select the call icon inside your conversation view in Slack to place a call with Dialpad. Your colleague will need to have added their phone number for this to work but that’s easy enough by just editing your Slack profile.

And if you’ve already connected your Dialpad account to Slack, you’ll see an option from the Call drop-down menu to jump on a meeting instead.

But wait! There’s more…

• Enterprise plans can now manage room and phone extensions as well as proxy into their user’s accounts right from the admin portal.
  
• If you haven’t had a chance to check out our latest integration with Outreach, you can learn more about that here. And while we’re on the topic of sales productivity tools, our new coaching center makes it way easier for managers to review calls and leave feedback.

“I know from experience that there are so many growing pains with building and scaling a business. It has always been my belief that your communications tools should not be one of them,” said Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad.

That sentiment is shared among top investors—including Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Work-Bench Capital, Felicis Ventures, Amasia VC, and more. “Investors always try to offer their portfolio companies value,” says Rich Miner, former General Partner at Google Ventures and founder of Android. “That can be through funding, but it can also be by making them aware of programs like Dialpad for Startups which offers a reliable, scalable phone and conferencing system—at the best price possible.”

Entities that back startups, be they venture firms, incubators/accelerators, or advisors know that supporting their portfolio goes beyond just funding. Everything, from coaching on key factors like product market fit, to helping acquire talent, to advising on tech stack, goes a long way for early-stage founders and companies. “Many of the startups I advise tell me they wish they’d chosen solutions that were easier to scale,” says Wesley Chan, Managing Director & General Partner at Felicis Ventures, and founder of Google Analytics. “That’s why I recommend solutions like Dialpad that are dead simple to set up, integrate with, and scale long term.”

And while building and scaling a company is an ever-evolving challenge, switching from suboptimal solutions to those that are a better fit can happen at various stages of the journey. “One thing I am constantly seeing with startups is the need to go back and course correct once the business gains speed,” says Jonathan Lehr, Co-Founder & General Partner at Work-Bench Capital. “To build and maintain momentum, I recommend tools like Dialpad and believe that every startup should use them for their business communications.”

And as more companies transition to being partially or fully remote, the need to accommodate that change in the business communications landscape has become even more critical. “Remote work has always been a big part of the startup ecosystem, and even more so now,” says John Kim, Managing Partner at Amasia VC. “Having a reliable, mobile solution like Dialpad, which keeps teams connected through voice calls and video conferencing, is non-negotiable from your first employee to your 500th.”

Dialpad for Startups is proud to offer early-stage companies, and the entities that support them, best-in-class business communications starting at no cost. And as Marc Andreeseen, Co-Founder and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz puts it, “Every startup should use Dialpad and Dialpad UberConference.”*

*Dialpad UberConference is now Dialpad Meetings!

The program partners with VCs, incubators, accelerators, and advisors that support companies in their first few months. We recently partnered with UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck to make Dialpad for Startups an official program offering to the participants in their incubator and accelerator cohorts.

“We’ve been helping founders and early-stage companies innovate and reach their full potential since 2012,” said Jun Jiang, the Global Innovation Partner Program Manager of Berkeley SkyDeck. “And working with partners like Dialpad is a key way in which we’re able to help our startups succeed.”

When a startup gets accepted into one of SkyDeck’s programs, they are given a resource packet that lists all the exclusive offerings for founders. From there, the startups can choose which offerings they’d like to take advantage of to help grow their business. “Dialpad for Startups has been very helpful in providing local phone numbers for employees and interns,” said Steve Hwang, founder and CEO at Lunchable, a SkyDeck startup. “It adds a little more legitimacy when I provide a company phone number for the employees to use.”

Lunchable is one of the several startups from Berkeley SkyDeck that are currently enrolled in Dialpad for Startups and leveraging Dialpad to legitimize and expand their young companies. “The process of signing up for Dialpad for Startups was simple and I was able to easily add and assign phone numbers to my team.” said Hwang. “I also like the mobile app and how I can use it to make business calls on my Dialpad number, from my cell phone. The call quality is great too!”

We’re proud to empower the most promising entrepreneurs around today, from UC Berkeley SkyDeck and beyond. “It’s been great to offer Dialpad for Startups to our founders and have them take advantage of such a great resource.” said Jiang.

Visit Dialpad for Startups to become a partner of our program or to see if your startup qualifies.

Let’s take a closer look at what was released on the Dialpad platform in July.

Metrics front and center with custom wallboards

Support managers are strapped, let’s be honest. Not only are they responsible for coaching new agents, but they’re also pulling tickets for QA purposes, creating reports to share up the ladder, and ensuring that when customers contact their team, they don’t just get the answers to their questions but that they leave satisfied. That’s….a lot to juggle.

This is why we wanted to build a better (more scalable) way for managers to check their contact centers and ensure that the metrics they care about, like # of abandoned calls or # of agents available, were surfaced to them in a more comprehensive way.

With call center wallboards, users can pick and choose which metrics appear on their board. If you’ve set up call center alerts that also match the metrics you’re tracking on the wallboard, you’ll see an alert triggered right from this view. Project your wallboard with fullscreen mode and keep track of what’s happening, and where, in a larger format than your laptop screen.

A new look for video meetings and custom action items

Your meetings just got an upgrade. Join your next Dialpad virtual meeting and welcome a completely new layout that’s more dynamic, personal, and collaborative than before (oh yes, it’s possible). Join any video meeting to test out the new dynamic view or toggle between other available options.

And if you’re a UC Business user, you’ll notice a new button hanging out at the bottom corner of your conference call—custom action items.

With custom action items, meeting participants can keep track of next steps without having to interrupt the flow of conversation. Meeting participants can add action items and assign them to an individual during their active call which can be accessed in conference as well as in the post-call summary.

Track moments that matter

With Dialpad’s natively embedded artificial intelligence technology, sales and support teams are able to revisit their voice calls and see common business moments automatically highlighted inside of their transcripts—those could be things like “interesting question” or “manager attention.” And while those moments are important to keep track of, there was still this missing piece of customization. How do we build something that managers and users can use to keep track of moments that are more specific to their business, like when a specific competitor is mentioned or a promo offer is brought up?

Now with Custom Moments, users can do just that. Managers can add a custom moment to any call center to automatically track, capture, and receive alerts.

But wait! There’s more…

• We’ve added a new Dialpad Ai moment for contact centers—purpose of call—that will help identify exactly that. Think about combining this with a Custom Moment to dive into how effective certain campaigns are or promotional offers.
  
  
• Android users can now search through their call transcripts right inside the app without having to hop back on their laptops.
  
  
• Call center managers can now check off the option to allow agents to access the call center recording of the specific CC they’re assigned to (keep in mind this will apply to all agents on that specific CC).
  
  
• We updated how filters appear on the analytics portal so instead of scrolling down through the side drawer, all your filters are displayed at the top of your analytics view.

Today, it's possible to integrate new productivity tools into your business phone system to help you be more efficient during your workday. Companies that upgrade their communications systems with modern business phone apps and technology are more competitive — and less stressed.

There's a lot to learn about business phone integrations, with new apps gaining favor among experts. Still, some app integrations are proven to be valuable time-savers that can help professional teams with workflow and other business applications.

Dialpad, built on the Google Cloud Platform, provides comprehensive communication tools for businesses of all sizes around the world. With Dialpad, these apps can be seamlessly integrated into your daily workflow to help your team work smarter and get better results.

Salesforce

Sales is all about relationships — and Salesforce is the ultimate relationship tool. In the past, potential customers would have to track down a phone number and manually dial to connect with your sales team. What if they could click a number and be connected?

Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that's designed to streamline the communications process. With this app, your sales team can click-to-call, store information about potential customers, record service issues, manage marketing campaigns, and find new leads.

It's even possible to store social media information on your prospects so you can develop a database to understand your customers better. Not only can you refine your sales pitch messaging with Salesforce, but you can also make it easier to close the deal.

Microsoft 365

Many team members in modern companies work remotely, but that doesn't mean they don't need access to files, contact lists, event invitations, and emails. That's where Microsoft 365 comes in.

By integrating it into your business phone system, it's possible to access all of the information you need without endlessly toggling to different computer programs. Best of all, your contacts sync automatically, and you can easily share documents, emails, and calendar events through Dialpad with the entire team.

Google Workspace

Chances are, your business is already using a Google product in some way or another. Combining the Google Workspace productivity tools within your business communication platform makes everything easier.

Google Workspace is protected using single sign-on, so your team won't have to remember another password to share events, emails, documents, and contacts within departments. Plus, by integrating this app, you can also share calendars so that you'll know when your contacts are busy.

Zendesk

If your company uses a contact center for their customer service needs, you'll appreciate the organization and clarity from combining Zendesk with Dialpad. This system creates support tickets for incoming calls to resolve concerns quickly.

When a customer calls in, your team can start taking notes right away. Details about previous issues will appear immediately on the screen, saving time and headaches. Because the entire system is cloud-based, this work can be done from anywhere.

Zendesk also makes it simple to dig into call analytics to find ways to improve efficiency. You'll be able to look at metrics such as the average handle time, average speed to answer, the number of incoming calls, and more to help agents improve through coaching and reduce bottlenecks that can impact the bottom line.

Zapier

If your company has repetitive tasks, combining Zapier with Dialpad can allow you to automate some of the workflows. There are more than 1,500 different apps within the Zapier marketplace, making the workday simpler without knowing a single line of code.

For example, integrating this app with your communication system can automatically log inbound calls to Copper CRM. A voicemail you receive can immediately generate a new Helpdesk ticket. Or, for every recent call, you'll get a new row in Google Sheets.

You'll be able to turn business conversations into action steps, freeing your employees to focus on more critical tasks.

Clio

If your company happens to be a law firm, you've probably already heard about Clio. This cloud-based legal practice management software is designed to organize cases and enhance collaboration with clients.

Now imagine that you can access this system within your business communication system.

You'll no longer need to manually input data, which can save assistants a lot of time. Firms can benefit from real-time transcriptions and time-stamped call logs, so you'll know precisely when which items are being discussed. (Learn more about running a virtual law firm.)

Many other apps available

If you can imagine a way to improve your company's productivity and communications, it's likely there is an app for that. When you're able to integrate that app into your existing cloud-based business phone system, you can improve your team and your customers' overall experience.

Even with the technology available in today's app marketplace, you don't need a team of IT experts to handle the business phone integrations. Dialpad offers an open API that can ensure everything is synced up properly. Your team will not only be able to work from anywhere, but they can also perform all the tasks needed to push your company to more tremendous success.

“Today, only 1% of founders backed by venture capital in the United States are Black. This is appalling and shows how the odds are stacked against Black technologists and entrepreneurs. The onus is on us in the tech community to start evening the odds,” cites the mission statement of the #TechforBlackFounders program, founded by Michael Katz, CEO at mParticle, Coby Berman, Co-Founder at Radar and Will Crocker, VP of Customer & Partner Marketing at Braze.

Dialpad is proud to have been one of the first technology companies to join #TechforBlackFounders—a program providing concrete, long-lasting support to U.S.-based, early-stage startups led by Black founders, by offering completely free or heavily discounted software to help their businesses grow.

“At Dialpad, we strive to deliver the best possible diversity and inclusion experience to our own employees,” said Daryl Graves, Dialpad’s Director of Equity, Balance, and Belonging (EBB). “Participating in programs like Tech for Black Founders allows us to extend that same experience to groups outside our company.”

"Tech for Black Founders is a great program and definitely a move in the right direction,” said Niger Little-Poole, Founder & CTO at Constellation Analytics. “Raising capital is an active struggle for Black founders and opportunities to reduce capital expenditures absolutely helps. Brands participating in programs like these are more likely to gain my loyalty as a customer and retain my business as we scale." Niger is one of over two dozen Black founders that have taken advantage of Dialpad’s offering in the program in the first few weeks of launch.

Access to the offers in the program are reserved for U.S.-based companies led by one or more Black founders, that have raised less than $30M in venture capital, and have fewer than 150 employees. Founders are encouraged to apply personally and share how else their selected vendors can help them. The benefits of the program will be available to Black founders in perpetuity as long as they continue to meet the criteria listed.

"I had not heard of Dialpad or most of the vendors on TechforBlackFounders.com prior to seeing their offerings, but it was a driving factor for signing up. In the case of Dialpad, I feel like given the current times with COVID-19 we were looking for a more effective way to communicate without much contact and this was a perfect solution,” said Stephan Walters, Founder & CEO at Mako, another beneficiary of the program. “I definitely think the offering itself provides instant benefits towards Black startups because lowering expenses for small businesses definitely helps. But continuing to provide a two-way channel for feedback between vendors and Black startups is critical because the hurdles and struggles aren't just financial. Nonetheless, offers on TechforBlackFounders.com are definitely a step in the right direction."

Today, nearly 30 tech vendors have offers listed on TechforBlackFounders.com, and more are getting added every week. This “growth stack” empowers Black founders to scale their businesses in ways they may not otherwise have been able.

"I am already using or planning on implementing eight services offered on TechforBlackFounders.com. I can't speak for all founders, but it is definitely helpful for our pre-launch startup to have access to premium services. It's the same as capital to me." - Dennis Schultz, Founder & CEO at Paparazzme.

Update May 2021

In the last year, we’ve witnessed our country come together in amazing ways to create opportunity and equality for minority communities. And while there is still a long way to go, Dialpad is proud to share that since joining the #TechforBlackFounders initiative last summer we’ve been able to offer free business phone numbers and video conferencing to more than 50 Black founders through our Dialpad for Startups program.

Nenaji Agbolabori is the founder and CEO of GOBLAQ, a startup with a mission to help Black Owned Businesses gain access to cutting-edge tools to grow and scale, while creating relationships between loyal customers to help these businesses thrive. "I absolutely believe the tech for Black founders initiative is a step in the right direction,” he says. “Personally speaking, the program helped us access so many tools and resources to develop our platform. If it hadn't been for the Dialpad offer, for example, we would be worried securing business phone lines and conferencing."

Amber Anderson is the founder and Head of Strategy at Tote + Pears, a creative studio that offers insights and designs brand experiences for women and their families. “We love the way Dialpad and all of the organizations involved in tech for Black founders have rallied to support us and are very much appreciative of the effort,” she says. “It makes a world of difference. I'll never forget it!”

"Tech for Black Founders is an important program and Dialpad is proud to be supporting more than 50 businesses through the initiative," said Daryl Graves, Dialpad’s Director of Equity, Balance, and Belonging (EBB). "Now more than ever as companies begin to think about how to reopen, having an affordable and reliable communications solution can make a world of difference - and we are inspired by the work these founders are doing and thrilled to be a small part in helping them succeed."

A special thank you to several of Dialpad’s customers and partners who are also participating in #TechforBlackFounders: Stripe, Crunchbase, Airtable, Republic, Amplitude, AppsFlyer, Button, Automaton, Taplytics, Sourcepoint, Fluent, and Auth0. We applaud their commitment to doing their part to support Black founders.

If you’re a SaaS business that also wants to do your part, reach out to [email protected] to register your offer to Black founders.

Dialpad is one such company that completed an acquisition during these unprecedented times. Without being able to get in a room and hammer out the details, it took video and audio conferencing, virtual due-diligence and some humor to get it done. Following is a Q&A with our CEO Craig Walker on the major differences he saw and key takeaways from engaging in M&A remotely.

Q: First, give us a little background on your pre-startup life?

I like to refer to myself as a “recovering lawyer.” I started my professional life as a securities attorney in Palo Alto in the mid-90’s, when I worked on mergers and acquisitions, as well as public offerings and venture financings. One client was Cisco, which was doing a TON of acquisitions at the time, so I was able to get some great experience. After that, I became a venture capitalist. My team focused primarily on startups, investing in them or helping with IPO or M&A activity.

Q: How did you determine now was the time to acquire another company?

Dialpad has always been building toward a “work from anywhere” world. When the lockdown was mandated and non-essential workers were required to work from home, the ability to instantly connect over phone, messaging and video became business-critical. Video conferencing became the go-to method of communication, with people craving connection and collaboration with their teams no matter where they are located.

And, while a majority of businesses, like Google and Facebook, have said employees will continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future, eventually many workers will return to the office and they’ll want to continue to use the same conferencing services and workflows they’ve grown accustomed to while at home. This means businesses must continue to leverage video conferencing as a strategy for their ongoing digital transformation, providing workers with a seamless experience from their living rooms to meeting rooms located in the office. This demand accelerated our product roadmap and opened new possibilities for us.

I’ve known the Highfive team for quite a while, as many of us came from Google and started our companies around the same time. I kept my eye on them for years, so when we were thinking about what comes next for us, we realized Highfive’s best-in-class, in-room video conferencing solutions were an ideal match with Dialpad’s suite of products. Additionally, the number of very skilled engineers and business people at Highfive made an excellent complement to our team, from both a technology perspective, but also culturally, which is even more important for a successful merger. Once we saw this possibility, the leadership team at Dialpad did a ton of due diligence on Highfive’s culture and leadership, and even though we never met in person, we felt very comfortable that this would be a good match and the right timing.

Q: What considerations had to be made to perform virtual due-diligence?

The most important thing in any acquisition is the culture and the people. So, we really took the time to get to know everyone through extended video conferencing meetings in one-on-one and group sessions, as well as just communicating frequently with their team to see how they thought of things and how they looked at the market more generally. We also cared about how they respected each other, how they talked about each other, and how they have passion for what they were doing. All of those things came through clearly in our virtual meetings.

This was not a huge departure from how due diligence works in other situations. It's always very deliberate and detailed, with a number of steps and stages outlined to make sure you learn everything you can about a target company. We even had more conversations than we might have had if we relied only on in-person meetings. We were able to really dig in to see what everyone was thinking and how they may behave in the future as part of the team. One of the biggest things to look for is potential liabilities or unforeseen problems. By having these conversations over video conferencing it really eliminated distractions and strengthened focus.

Virtual due diligence gave us a great sense of Highfive’s culture and the various personalities of team members. I’m happy to say that we felt the strong connection and, even after closing the deal, we see this is a perfect combination of values and vision.

Q: How did you communicate? And how did you manage real-time challenges?

We communicated almost exclusively over either Highfive video or Dialpad, and via email, text messaging, and voice calls. By using real-time channels we were able to really get to know each other and quickly problem-solve or make adjustments. Everything was direct and immediate, so we could negotiate, solve differences of opinions and work through any issues as they arose. Communication was even better than in non-COVID times, and the only big difference was the stronger reliance on video communications.

Q: Did you think anything was lost by not “being in the room”?

Well, we did have one “room where it happened” moment during these discussions. One day, with our CRO and a co-founder, we drove down to meet with Highfive CEO Joe Manuele and other senior leaders from Joe’s team. The five of us practiced social distancing and wore masks, but it was nice to have that little bit of personal interaction. By that point, we were all comfortable with the connection we had made but it was nice to take it to the next level. Honestly, we barely discussed the deal and continued our conversations online over the following weeks, so it was not a necessity for the negotiation. It was just nice to have the one in-person interaction.

Q: How do you see M&A changing going forward?

The deals have gotten larger, nothing else has fundamentally changed. You’re either filling the product gap or hiring a great team, or some combination thereof. Communication is what will change. More and more companies are going to have to get familiar and comfortable with doing acquisitions in a world where you don't get to meet the people face to face. Similarly, all business is going to have to happen without in-people interactions for the foreseeable future. It will not always be like this but definitely the days of having to get on flights and go to far away cities and have dinner with different companies or potential partners of potential acquisition targets certainly won’t be required. We've proven this model can work and other companies embarking on an acquisition or any business decision while being remote can do so with confidence.

Q: Any final tips or lessons learned you can share?

I don't think it matters whether you have a virtual meeting or an in-person meeting. The single most important thing about making an acquisition successful is to have a really good cultural fit and a good shared vision around the opportunities available to both companies. It’s critical that you are really aligned on how you treat people and how your team can expect to be treated and if you can align on those weather in the virtual world or remotely, you will have a much greater chance of success. The only thing that this new normal of virtual creates is a little bit more work to get a stronger sense of someone’s personality over video by no longer having those in-person cues. But if you take the time to pay attention and to listen, you’ll barely notice a difference.

Let’s take a closer look at what Dialpad introduced in September.

Reports delivered on time, every time

Know the reports you always need? We’ll deliver them to your email without any extra work. Set the users or groups to target, and determine the metrics to include in each report. Seriously, that’s all. Tell us what you’re looking for, and Dialpad takes over to ensure scheduled reports are delivered on time, every time.

From call logs and voicemails to statistics and recordings, these reports surface useful data that drive decision-making: for example, gain an understanding for a call center’s average speed to answer, then modify its routing rules and hold queue to better handle inbound calls. As a result, you’ll enhance the customer experience after reviewing analytics on a regular basis.

Scheduled reports are delivered as frequently as necessary, even daily. Dialpad understands your workflow is different than anyone else’s, and that means you decide not only what goes into reports but also how often they’re delivered.

Streamlined call routing through APIs

Sales representatives engage with prospects for days, weeks, and sometimes months. With our new call routing APIs, a prospect connects directly to the same sales representative even if they call back on the main line.

Normally an IVR system accomplishes a similar goal, but it requires a few more steps from everyone involved. Call routing APIs, however, automatically route an inbound call to a department, call center, or user through a custom, third-party database.

Callers get in touch with the right team or person quickly, leading to meaningful conversations that elevate your business.

Collaborate using @Mentions in call review

Easily collaborate using @mentions and bring attention to key parts of a call. Now you’re able to tag others from your entire company and easily discuss recordings, moments, and transcripts powered by Dialpad Ai.

Once they’re tagged, users are alerted via email and Dialbot message. No need to reach out with a direct message and share a link. Dialpad immediately handles granting them access to the call review. Simply delete a comment that includes an @mention, and that specific user no longer has access.

But wait! There’s more…

• Available for our Dialpad Ai Contact Center and Dialpad Ai Sales customers, live coaching is expanded to include departments. Within Live Call View, department supervisors have the ability to listen in, barge, and take over their reps’ calls to ensure quality of service.

• We’ve made some minor design improvements to the Conversation View in Dialpad Ai Voice.

• Inform others how you prefer to be identified using pronouns in your Dialpad profile.

• Dialpad Ai Meeting settings are available in Dialpad as long as both accounts are linked, syncing changes made from either.

• Changes to Dialpad Ai Contact Center’s Service Level and Wait Time calculations, to bring them in-line with industry standards.

• We’ve made several updates to our mobile apps — you can now access custom moments from your call summary and view contact labels in your iOS search results. On the Android app, we’ve refreshed the incoming call screen.

Forward-thinking attorneys, office managers, and legal assistants have integrated technology into their practices by upgrading their phone services. Instead of relying on old-fashioned phone companies, many firms have implemented a cloud-based communication platform to improve their workflow capabilities.

A legal phone system helps offices run more smoothly and provides the features needed to improve client engagement and office management. This means having the ability to automate work, take on more clients, increase billable hours, and a range of other benefits that can aid both new and well-established firms work more efficiently and effectively.

By relying on a high-quality business phone system that integrates with Clio and other applications that your practice may use, it's possible for legal teams to seamlessly track every conversation with tools like Dialpad—regardless of the device used.

In this post, we'll cover the top 5 benefits of upgrading your law office phone system—and how to choose the right system for your virtual law office.

1. Transcribe and track conversations

When taking calls with existing or potential clients, you likely already take detailed notes. With a cloud-based communication system, you can automate note-taking and focus your attention on the conversations you have. Dialpad's native artificial intelligence technology can automatically transcribe your calls, with each speaker identified easily.

Each call is labeled with data like caller information, the time and date the conversation took place, and the parties involved. You can highlight action items within each transcription to share with your legal team, playback a recording of the call, or use a host of other built-in features to ensure no detail falls through the cracks when preparing for trial or negotiating a settlement. (Learn more about AI for lawyers.)

2. Flexible access outside the office

Legal teams have only a few options to manage their workload when outside their law office. Most attorneys have no problem sending emails or placing calls while remote but face challenges recording calls, transcribing calls, or logging conversations outside the office. With a cloud-based legal phone system, you'll have the ability to work from any device anywhere in the world.

If a client has a question while you're at court, legacy phone systems would require you to check voicemail when you're back in the office, take notes, manually send follow-up actions to support staff, and then remember to record the billable hour. (Burnout, anyone?)

VoIP phone systems that live in the cloud can automate all of this work, so you can focus instead on helping your clients.

3. Free up support staff

The ability to record calls goes beyond saving attorneys the time and effort of note-taking. With features like unlimited call recording, Dialpad frees up time for your legal team and support staff to do other, more critical tasks. Automated call transcriptions make recalling information much easier than listening to a lengthy recording.

Partners and other attorneys know that paralegals, legal assistants, and secretaries are the backbone of any stellar legal team. These non-lawyers are needed to complete many complex, time-sensitive action items that help a client's case. Still, often they must carry out the responsibilities of transcription and organizing communications as well. When they are freed from this through customer service automation, you can take on more clients, resolve cases more quickly, and improve your bottom line.

4. Analyze and integrate with case management software

What if your customer satisfaction team could measure the exact percentage of calls that end with a satisfied client? What if your office manager could track the number of calls each assistant receives and tie that back to the cases involved?

With the right legal phone system, you can log every call in an organized manner and track analytics on client touchpoints and inbound calls. Integrating with case management software like Clio lets you tie these analytics back to specific cases and clients. Calls can be sorted and filtered by case type, keyword, or time and date. You'll even be able to see who took the call.

5. Guarantee security and confidentiality

Whether the call is a one-on-one meeting with a client or a conference call with your legal team, case data, transcriptions, and recordings mustn't ever be seen by anyone not authorized. The best law office phone systems protect client data through enterprise-grade security and encryption.

If you need to share call recordings and automated transcriptions with your legal team members, that's also possible in a secure manner. What's more, if only select employees should have access to individual records, you can limit who will be able to see the information using a role-based access model. Your clients won't have to worry about confidentiality, and they'll be pleased with how easy it is to collaborate with your firm.

How to choose a phone system for your law firm

Not all communication tools are equal. Cloud-based phone systems are state-of-the-art, and can integrate smoothly with your operations and support internal processes rather than interrupt them.

Compare features, cost, security, flexibility, and reliability before choosing a phone system for your law firm. Be sure to look for the features your firm will need, whether that's HD audio recording or integrations with LawGro, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, CRM platforms, and so on. With the ease of native integrations, you should be able to implement secure sign-on and easy syncing of your directories, contacts, shared emails, events, and documents.

Be sure to select a modern business phone system with the flexibility to run on softphones, mobile devices, and computers. Attorneys and office staff should be able to easily flip a call between different devices if they ever need to step away from their desks.

Learn more about the best apps for lawyers in this guide penned by two former attorneys!

The best business phone system for law firms

Dialpad has a history of modernizing communication for some of the world's most innovative businesses. We provide modern business phone systems and communications technology to law firms around the world, like Coye Law Firm and Harrelson & Harrelson.

Using the right phone system lets you free both your attorneys and support staff to work on more impactful tasks. It also allows you to give consultations and schedule client meetings, even when you're away from the office.

Try Dialpad's communications platform for your law firm today!

Your front office must communicate effectively with both patients and insurance companies, and your doctors and office managers will need an easy way to contact staff and medical suppliers as required. Your phone service also needs to support critical considerations like HIPAA compliance and patient retention.

So, what exactly do you need from a business phone service? Here are a few things to look for when deciding on a healthcare phone system.

9 must-haves in a healthcare phone system

1. HIPAA-compliance

The most critical requirement of a phone system for the healthcare industry is compliance with HIPAA, or the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This law requires healthcare companies to guard the privacy of medical and billing information against data breaches and unauthorized access.

Before anything else, a business phone service provider must be willing and able to sign a Business Associate Agreement per HIPAA regulations. Doing so assures your clients that you take responsibility for the compliance of the video and voice platform.

After all, HIPAA doesn't apply only to hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers. It applies to third-party administrators and private vendors who access, collect, or transmit protected health information over the phone.

2. Security and access control

Compliance with HIPAA requires that all private information be locked, encrypted, and shielded from unauthorized changes and access. If changes are made, there must be an audit trail showing what was changed, when, and by whom.

Security is crucial, especially if you have team members working remotely. A cloud-based phone system is an excellent tool for remote work. However, it must still have an audit trail, backup capabilities, breach notifications, and encrypted transmission of voice commands.

Business phone security also requires personal or office authentication, transmission and workstation security, and device and media controls. Your security and management process should contain information about each of these points.

3. Call recording and logs

Call recordings and call logs are critical for ensuring accountability and information monitoring. A good cloud or VoIP phone system will give you both.

The right service can help you identify when various patients, doctors, hospital staff, and insurance companies call and return the call with a single click. If you track your call volumes and the originations, you can staff your offices more effectively as well.

Record calls for training and evaluating staff members on their phone etiquette and knowledge. You can also upload critical conversations to an electronic healthcare record for future reference and compliance purposes.

4. Transcription

Select a business phone solution that provides call summary and voice transcription. Patient records are most helpful when the information is provided in a format that can be quickly scanned before and during patient visits. When the transcription is part of the phone service, you can streamline your workflow and provide more personalized care for patients.

5. Efficiency and ease of use

Moving patients through a provider's office, keeping up with appointment bookings, and handling insurance and billing are challenges that many healthcare offices struggle to meet. Not only should your phone system not be an obstacle, but it should also actively help you manage your office with ease and efficiency.

6. Call handling

Patients call for appointments, to speak to a doctor, or to ask about billing and insurance. Pharmacies, insurance companies, other providers, and vendors are also on the line.

Transfer calls with one click to the appropriate party, no matter who they are. Look for easy transfer, call parking, and call delegation to handle call volumes at their highest.

• Call parking allows you to place callers on hold momentarily until another staff member picks up on another device.
• Call delegation will enable you to assign other team members to answer your incoming calls while otherwise engaged.
• Call transfer makes it easy to pass calls along to a doctor or another member of your team.
• Other services to look for include call waiting and caller ID, which helps your staff prioritize calls and hand them off to the proper person.
  

Learn more about healthcare contact center best practices.

7. Video calling

As telehealth services continue to grow, video calling is an absolute must. Patients are demanding efficient service and prefer to skip driving to the doctor's office if it isn't necessary.

Underserved and rural areas benefit highly from video calling. Virtual meetings, conference calling, and screen sharing features can let you give patients more variety in terms of possible communication channels.

Video conferencing encourages patients to sign up for the secure patient portal, where they can access lab results, send secure messages to their provider, track immunizations, and schedule appointments.

8. Flexibility and convenience

Cloud-based phone services give you the flexibility to take calls anywhere and the convenience to use your own devices. You can even make your smartphone HIPAA-compliant with a mobile encryption service. It encourages strong passwords and prevents access to sensitive applications and data. Also, set up the device to clear all information after a limited number of attempts to access it.

Another strength of cloud-based phone service is that it is always updated to the latest version, keeping your phones secure.

9. Patient experience

Your business phone service is often the first place your patients experience your services. A lousy patient experience results in low reviews and loss of revenue. Beyond ensuring everyone answers the phone professionally and courteously, you want to provide a pleasant experience in other ways:

10. Ability to reach a live human quickly

The most common complaint from patients is the inability to get to a human when faced with a phone menu. Ensure your business phone service allows patients to quickly reach a live person through a well-designed menu or an efficient live-answer plan.

Try Dialpad

Dialpad offers all the services above and many more, and is used by healthcare organizations like Fenway Health, Metropolitan Pediatrics, and more. We help you work securely, efficiently, and effectively, no matter where you are or what device you use. It takes less than five minutes to set up.

Select a business phone service for your healthcare organization that takes care of you while you take care of others.

Let’s take a closer look at what Dialpad introduced in October.

Closely track call center volume

Analytics reveal trends from every interaction, and Dialpad just rolled out Heatmaps and Concurrent Calls tabs. If you’re a Dialpad Ai Contact Center customer, use these chart types to group data by hour or day of the week.

In the Heatmaps tab, Dialpad surfaces call volume and wait times. Figure out when exactly you’ll need more agents available to answer calls, thus cutting down on lengthy wait times that often hurt customer satisfaction. Concurrent Calls, meanwhile, tracks how many calls are in progress at any one time. It’ll assist in contact center forecasting and aligning agent schedules to prepare for a large number of calls.

By understanding activity throughout a week, your call center is agile and optimized to handle calls as soon as they come in. Shorter wait times, happier customers — that’s a win for your business.

Filmstrip mode in Dialpad Meetings

Dialpad Meetings already offers useful video layouts such as Dynamic and Grid View, but maybe you’d like to see all participants while a screen share remains in focus.

Filmstrip displays every participant in addition to the screen share (or an active speaker) simultaneously. Participants appear at the top of a conference, and the screen share fills the rest of the space. So it’s easy to communicate during a presentation or while reviewing documents with team members, with conference controls always accessible along the bottom of the screen.

To switch to Filmstrip during an active conference call, press the spacebar on your keyboard and transition between video layouts.

Improve coaching and quality assurance

Contact center coaching in Dialpad just got even better. We know that our customers rely on Custom Moments and Real-Time Assist (RTA) cards, and our latest update to these features adds even more new templates.

Live coach automatically if an agent or customer discusses a replacement request, or receive an alert when a customer demands to speak to a manager. RTA cards are triggered by words and phrases unique, and they contain information that’ll get an agent through difficult questions quickly. If you’d like to analyze a call or simply recall key details after it finishes, create a Custom Moment and Dialpad Ai will comb through the entire conversation to pull highlights.

Custom Moments and RTA cards are created by you, and our templates offer a starting point to fit your needs.

Protect Personal Identifiable Information (PII)

Dialpad Ai detects personal identifiable information (PII) to warn users before sharing a call review outside your company. You’ll never want to compromise company or customer data, and this safeguard acts to shield PII from falling into the wrong hands.

But wait! There’s more…

• Dialpad Ai is live in the United Kingdom! We’ve launched a beta for Dialpad users in the United Kingdom to take advantage of real-time voice transcription, Custom Moments, and more.

• Play a busy signal or send a call straight to voicemail in your Dialpad profile’s call handling options.

Dialpad Ai will allow you to harness AI technology to analyze interactions between your agents and your customers. Know exactly what’s being said on calls to adjust your strategy. Empower your customers, and make them feel like knowledgeable experts on your business to serve themselves. Call volume may drop, and that reduces stress on your agents by avoiding a flood of inbound calls over simple questions.

Every call and interaction provides insights, but only if you can find them. Leverage Dialpad Ai to learn more about your customers and identify gaps that you can address right away.

Use call analytics and Dialpad Ai together to elevate your customer service:

• Identify gaps in training material
• Create relevant help resources
• Improve FAQs to answer real customer questions

Let’s explore how your business will benefit internally and externally with Dialpad Ai.

Identify gaps in training materials

Consider this scenario: a customer calls your call center asking for help with their account. Your agent goes through each step as trained, until arriving at the issue. Despite all your training, this is a situation the agent is unprepared for. What do you do? After all, this interaction will determine customer satisfaction that impacts your business directly.

With Dialpad Ai, you can identify this gap in training without needing to listen in on the call or take notes. Dialpad Ai automatically transcribes the call and sorts the details according to your moments, such as the purpose of the call or the overall sentiment felt by the caller. It’ll understand these metrics for every call, and over time analytics will reveal trends from interactions.

Dialpad Ai uncovers recurring problem areas, so you’ll be well-equipped to address them. Adjust training to ensure agents are prepared for a similar situation in the near future and create a real-time assist card in case anyone experiences a similar concern or difficulty during a call.

Create relevant help resources

Find out what customers are struggling with the most, and use Dialpad Ai’s insights to assemble customer-facing resources to help them. Is there a step in the ordering process that customers get stuck on? Are there issues in the product that customers call in to troubleshoot? Now you’re able to get in front of potential hiccups.

Dialpad Ai proactively realizes specific issues based on what customers are saying on calls. Get ahead of the game and work to address each issue as needed, designing a Help Center to offer step-by-step instructions and tips or tricks to empower customers in the journey with your business. In fact, a dedicated Help Center not only serves customers but also your own employees to stay on top of all features and updates.

Understand your customers’ issues to provide the best assistance possible, whether that’s through live agents in your call center or customer-facing resources such as a Help Center.

Improve FAQs to answer real customer questions

FAQs address the questions that customers are frequently asking. Often they’re written based on questions you predict your customers will have, but FAQs should be updated based on what customers are really asking.

Whether it’s unpredicted stumbling blocks or questions about a recent feature release, Dialpad Ai will capture what customers are asking so you can address these subjects in FAQs. Answers will exist outside your call center, and that means customers won’t inundate your agents with common or simple questions anymore.

Activate Dialpad Ai in your business today

Getting started with Dialpad Ai is easy. Use the Analytics keyword search or create a Custom Moment to see how specific topics of interest are trending. From there, you can dig in to see how your team handles these calls.

Is there a specific topic that is surfacing often? If so, consider creating more resources on your customer support pages to address the topic preemptively. You can also use this to reveal common questions to add to your FAQs. It can help reduce the number of calls to your call center and give your team more resources for addressing them effectively.

In addition, if you find that agents struggle on calls with some of these topics, you are now better equipped to help them. Consider creating new agent training materials for onboarding and continued learning, or create a real-time assist card to provide timely in-call assistance.

Beyond assisting customers, analytics can also be used to check for PII compliance. You can, for instance, filter for the ‘Email Address’ moment on the agent call side to see how often agents offer up a customer’s email address. Use this to remind agents not to share customer information before confirming that they are talking to the appropriate customer.

We’re constantly rolling out upgrades to Dialpad Ai. Let us know how you’re using Dialpad Ai in your business, and enroll in Dialpad’s Early Adopter Program to test new features before they’re widely available.

Today, we announced SoftBank joined our previous $100M Series-E funding round, led by OMERS Growth Equity, with an additional $10M investment. This new financing not only underpins our four-year partnership but also extends our footprint and supports a full product launch in Japan—including a Japanese version of Dialpad Ai. To date, our alliance with SoftBank has helped more than 1,000 customers and 50,000 users migrate to a cloud-based communication platform. Dialpad signups grew nearly 500% in 2020.

Transforming the future of work from anywhere

Dialpad and Softbank believe Dialpad Ai will revolutionize the future of work, and we’re only just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible. Kunihiro Fujinaga, Senior Vice President at SoftBank Corp.’s Enterprise Business Unit, explained in a press release that the vast majority of all (98%) voice calls are not digitized. Yet, speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities create more efficient workflows and allow users to glean meaningful insights from every conversation.

Dialpad Ai automates note taking and presents continuous data and insight in response to what’s happening during a meeting or call. In call centers, for example, agents receive recommended solutions, while, at the same time, managers monitor sentiment and discover trends the moment they start. In addition to Dialpad Ai, our partnership with SoftBank also brings Dialpad’s cloud contact center solution to Japan so customers can set up call centers remotely in a matter of minutes.

Helping navigate The New Normal

The pandemic revealed a gap in communication tools and remote work elevated the importance they play in ensuring business resilience and continuity. Our AI-powered unified platform for voice, video, and messaging empowers employees and enables the hybrid workforce—during unprecedented disruption and moving forward.

For example, in March 2020, as COVID-19 accelerated, and a state of emergency in Japan was imminent, human resources services provider Randstad’s branch offices were forced to close. Using Dialpad, the company’s operations were seamlessly switched to home immediately. Safety and security remain paramount, and our technology continues to enable employee flexibility and business continuity.

Dialpad + SoftBank = Better together

With $250 million in funding under our belt and the acquisition of Highfive in September, Dialpad is creating the future of work. The latest investment from SoftBank is a testament to our ability to meet the fast-growing demand for advanced, cloud communication tools in Japan.

Let’s close out 2020 with a look back at Dialpad's biggest moments.

✊🏽 The formation of our Equity, Balance, and Belonging Team! We understand the importance of inclusion and acceptance, so we created new events and programs to help create equity and a sense of belonging at Dialpad. Our first event was a screening of the award-winning film, Moonlight, followed by a discussion with the film’s producer, Andrew Hevia. This was the first initiative of many to come, and we’re excited to continue with similar events throughout 2021.

📈 We launched our Dialpad for Startups program and participated in #TechforBlackFounders. With this, we’ll be able to reach and help more startups, including those in need of an effective and scalable business communications platform and support and early-stage startups led by Black founders.

🎉 Dialpad was named the ‘Overall Remote Communication Solution of the Year’ in the 2020 RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards!

💻 We allowed companies around the world to transition to remote work by enabling them to set up users through free licenses and trials. This included offering Dialpad Voice and Dialpad UberConference (now known as Dialpad Meetings) Business versions to organizations of all sizes across North America without any additional costs, which helped make their transitions to remote work so much easier.

🌎 Dialers didn’t miss a beat, embracing the #WorkFromAnywhere mindset immediately. This sudden change provided us with key insights into the WFH experience, which our CRO, Dan O’Connell, highlighted in our blog.

🤝 Highfive joined our family and introduced more incredible cloud-based video conferencing features to the platform. Dialpad customers can connect rooms, interop with other video services, and get legacy device support all through the cloud.

🏦 Dialpad raised $100 million Series E funding, enabling us to continue innovating and meeting the rising demand for cloud communications tools on a single platform.

📞 Dialpad Ai Contact Center made its debut, providing call centers and agents around the world with the tools they need to make every call a triumph. Calls are powered by Dialpad's native artificial intelligence functionality, providing real-time feedback, coaching, and insights.

🗣 We got to see the power of Dialpad Ai amplify voices all over the world.

2020 appears vastly different than anyone expected, but Dialpad got through it as a team while helping other organizations do the same. We’re thankful for all our employees around the world who contributed to us achieving all these amazing milestones, and we look forward to growing and reaching new heights in the coming year. I can’t wait to see what’s next in 2021 as Dialpad, as well as our customers, take on a new year filled with motivation to thrive.

Learn more about Tasha, Morgan, Jason and Brian - and what they’re looking forward to accomplishing over the next year!

Tasha Liniger, Chief Human Resources Officer

Q: In your opinion, what is the most exciting thing about Dialpad?

A: That's easy: the people. I am blown away by the team we've built. I love connecting with Dialers I haven't met before. In my role, I have lots of opportunities to do that. I learn so much from everyone I meet, and always walk away from those meetings thinking "I am so excited they joined... they're going to do great things."

Q: What are you aiming to accomplish over the next year?

A: I’m at Dialpad to help the company scale globally. While that’s a huge undertaking itself, my main goal as we grow is to maintain the high bar that we have for talent while preserving the culture that we are all proud of.

Q: What is your remote worker tip for staying sane during the pandemic?

A: I'm a really early riser so it's been helpful to get my kids’ daily schedules set and meals prepped before I start work. No plan is ever foolproof but dedicating 30-45 minutes to organizing their days before they wake up has definitely helped to make my workday less chaotic. Besides that, I make sure I go outside to get fresh air and sunlight a few times a day. A quick walk around my neighborhood is the perfect stress reliever.

Q: Favorite thing to do outside of work?

A: I love hiking in the mountains near my house and playing tennis with my kids. Right now we are binge-watching Lost with our kids. It just blows my mind because my husband and I watched Lost together when we had our first son 15 years ago. How time flies!

Morgan Norman, Chief Marketing Officer

Q: In your opinion, what is the most exciting thing about Dialpad?

A: Dialpad has always attracted the smartest and brightest people hands down. Beyond that, I truly believe Dialpad has the product that will drive the best benefits to the market and to our customers — I’ve known this since my previous time at Dialpad. After being a part of 4 previous startups-to-unicorns, it is clear that this is the best product team I've ever met in my lifetime - and will probably ever meet.

Q: What are you aiming to accomplish over the next year?

A: We have an epic opportunity to help open back up America and the world with our technology. To do that we want the world to know there is a better way than old desk phones, and old software. I want to drive large-scale, global brand awareness for Dialpad and put us in a position to outgrow the competition. But beyond that, I’m here to bring together our amazing product with an unstoppable go-to-market engine. As part of that, I’ll ensure we continue our journey on designing for joy and happiness at every point of the customer lifecycle, which will create a healthier way to work for our customers, partners and Dialers.

Q: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only bring three things - what would they be and why?

A: Oh… you got me… The first thing that comes to mind is a Kindle, but unless I bring a solar panel, not sure how I’d charge it! The other things that come to mind are music and things that will keep my creativity flowing — a Japanese (shakuhachi). Maybe I pull a Tom Hanks and bring a volleyball I can paint.

Q: If you weren’t in marketing, what would you be doing?

A: My ultimate goal from here is pretty simple — it’s to open a wine bar and art gallery - so I’d say that. I’d love to host some good Thursday night gatherings, meet some truly interesting people and drink a lot of wine. Hopefully, the community can share a lifetime of laughs and stories.

Jason Yang, Chief Operating Officer

Q: In your opinion, what is the most exciting thing about Dialpad?

A: The culture is world-class. Dialpad has deep roots which make it possible to attract and retain the very best talent in the marketplace. I've worked at some great places, but Dialpad is truly amazing.

Q: What are you aiming to accomplish over the next year?

A: I want to help build Dialpad into the most innovative player in the UCaaS-CCaaS market by massively increasing awareness and equity of the Dialpad brand. I want to drive predictable, sustainable, and rapid growth.

Q: What is your remote worker tip for staying sane during the pandemic?

A: Set boundaries for work. When the day is done, leave the physical office space and go to another part of your home. Leave the work-thoughts behind and be mentally present with your family.

Q: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only bring three things - what would they be and why?

A: A bottle of rum, a pirate hat and a talking parrot. Might as well make the best of it!

Brian Peterson, Chief Technology Officer

Q: In your opinion, what is the most exciting thing about Dialpad?

A: Hands down the technology that we’ve developed. The complexity of what we have built over the past ten years - especially with the relatively small team that we had - is absolutely incredible. If you think about it, we’ve built a variety of technologies that companies typically specialize in - from our proprietary Dialpad Ai to the telephony backend, we’ve created a product that is completely unique and hard to replicate.

Q: What are you aiming to accomplish over the next year?

A: I want to unify our engineering team. At the moment, we have different teams working on different projects with their own concepts and processes. By bringing everyone together and focusing on alignment, it'll help us build solutions that are truly integrated, future-ready and meet the demand of a distributed global workforce.

Q: Favorite thing to do outside of work?

A: I like getting outdoors as much as I can, so when I’m not working you can typically find me at the beach surfing or playing soccer.

Q: What is your remote worker tip for staying sane during the pandemic?

Mix up your forms of communication. Don’t do just video meetings for everything and don’t just do text chat for everything either. People communicate in a lot of different ways and for different purposes. Not everything needs to be a meeting. Also, asynchronous text chat can wear on you as well. Sometimes it’s better to just quickly call the person and have a 5 minute conversation rather than back and forth for hours.

Q: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only bring three things - what would they be and why?

A: I should probably say some kinds of tools, but that’s too obvious and boring. Most people would pick a book since it’s one of the only forms of entertainment you could have. I don’t even play the guitar, but I would choose a guitar. No better time to learn than stuck on a deserted island and I think I’d get endless entertainment from it. I’d also bring a surfboard and maybe a spear for fishing, because that sounds like fun.

To read more about Dialpad’s new C-suite appointments, check out our press releases announcing Morgan and Tasha’s roles as well as Jason and Brian's.

Welcome to Work Beautifully, the new Dialpad podcast! Our first episode is one that startup founders won’t want to miss.

Join us as we chat with Jeff Erickson, Startup Advisor and Angel Investor, about everything founders need to know when starting their seed round funding. We’ll discuss:

• The most important things startup founders need to know

• When’s the right time to raise capital?

• How much should you raise?

• The best tools for finding investors

• Best practices for keeping investors informed and happy

• And much more!

Listen to the episode now!

Are you the founder of a startup? Check out the Dialpad for Good program to see if you can join our program which has already helped over 650 businesses.

Welcome to Work Beautifully, the Dialpad podcast! For episode 2, we’re continuing to bring you all the tips and advice that startup founders need to know.

This time, we’re joined by Jordan Jocius: eEntrepreneur, investor, and Co-Director at Founder Institute KW. Join us as we chat about Jordan’s experiences with startup founders and…

• The best sources for startup ideas

• The “leap of faith” founders must take to turn their ideas into reality

• Our favorite ways to find customers

• Setting goals and closing deals

• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

Are you the founder of a startup? Check out the Dialpad for Good program to see if you can join our program which has already helped over 650 businesses.

Welcome once again to Work Beautifully, the Dialpad Podcast! In episode 3 of our startup series, we’re looking at the importance of good design and how it will impact your startup and solutions.

We’re joined by Chase Denomme, Lead Designer at Disco.co. Have a listen and learn all about design for startups, like:

• Why design is so important for validating ideas
• What design mockups can add to your solutions
• When to update designs or move from mockups to prototypes
• Best practices and tools for gathering feedback and information
• Common missteps to avoid
  

Listen to the episode now!

Are you the founder of a startup? Check out the Dialpad for Good program to see if you can join our program which has already helped over 650 businesses.

Welcome back to Work Beautifully, the Dialpad Podcast! Episode 4 is our final episode of the startup series, and we’re bringing it home with Dialpad’s own Daryl Graves, Director of Equity, Balance, and Belonging (EBB).

Join us as we discuss the importance of having an inclusive work environment and how startups can make all their employees feel welcome and valued, including:

• Why Dialpad uses an EBB program
• Where to start with EBB?
• The key components for an EBB or DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) framework

Listen to the episode now!

Are you the founder of a startup? Check out the Dialpad for Good program to see if you can join our program which has already helped over 650 businesses.

Welcome back to “Work Beautifully,” the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’ll be bringing you the best insights, advice, and anecdotes from CIOs across industries.

This episode, we’re joined by Kim Verska, remote attorney and CIO of Culhane Meadows. Join us and get her thoughts on:

• Her unique journey to becoming a CIO
• Challenges CIOs face and what threats to watch out for
• Career advice for aspiring CIOs
• How the cloud is changing the game for law firms
• And more

Listen to the episode now!

Welcome back to “Work Beautifully,” the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re bringing you the best insights, advice, and anecdotes from CIOs across industries.

We sit down with Elaine Montilla, CIO of the CUNY Graduate Center. Join in as she shares her thoughts on everything from why public speaking is so important for CIOs to why diversity matters and what we can all do to help make tech more diverse.

Listen in and learn:

• Skills no CIO should be without (why is public speaking so important?)
• Her road to being a CIO and the challenges she faced
• The importance of minorities in tech and the obstacles that they face
• Advice for aspiring CIOs
• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

Welcome back to “Work Beautifully,” the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re bringing you the best insights, advice, and anecdotes from CIOs across a wide range of industries.

This episode, we sit down with Evan Wayne, Chief Information Officer of World Market (formerly known as Cost Plus), who shares his story and some tips for future CIOs.

Join us to learn about:

• How many hats a CIO has to wear each week

• His path from learning coding and marketing in high school to becoming a CIO

• The importance of communication and the future of hybrid work

• And more!
  

Listen to the episode now!

Cyber Security and putting people first with Dialpad CIO Prashanti Aduma

Welcome back to “Work Beautifully,” the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re bringing you the best insights, advice, and anecdotes from CIOs across industries.

This episode, we’re joined by Dialpad’s new CIO, Prashanti Aduma! We discuss her journey to becoming a CIO, the importance of empathy and empowering teams, and so much more—it’s a “must listen” for any aspiring CIO.

Join us to learn about:

• What skills and traits make for a great leader

• How she empowers her IT teams (and why that’s so important)

• How to address the cyber security issues today’s businesses face

• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

Welcome back to the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re talking all about artificial intelligence (AI)—how it works, how far it’s come, and what lies ahead.

This episode, we chat with Etienne Manderscheid, Dialpad’s Head of AI Research. We discuss one of the biggest topics in AI today: can AI truly be sentient and how AI can communicate intelligently.

Tune in and see:

• What sentience means when we talk about AI
• How AI communicates and learns what to says
• How Dialpad is using AI to predict customer satisfaction
• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

Welcome back to the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re talking all about artificial intelligence (AI)—how it works, how far it’s come, and what lies ahead.

This episode, we’re joined by Dialpad’s own Director of Machine Learning, Simon Corston-Oliver. Join us as we explore the intertwined history of AI and linguistics (it’s a lot older than you’d think), and what makes computational linguistics so important to AI’s development.

Tune in and see:

• Why you can’t have AI without linguistics
• How language, dialects, and regional phrases factor into AI models
• How to see through the hype around AI and spot the real deal (hint: look for real science, not just big claims)
• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

• Bias shows itself in data and patterns
• Diverse data helps overcome biases in AI
• Regulations and guidelines can help us ensure AI is used ethically
• And more!

Listen to the episode now!

Welcome back to the Dialpad podcast! This season, we’re talking all about artificial intelligence (AI)—how it works, how far it’s come, and what lies ahead.

In this episode, we answer the internet’s biggest questions about AI. Join us, along with Dialpad’s Manager of Speech Recognition, Jonas Robertson, as we take to Reddit to tell the people what they want to know, like:

• What should or shouldn’t you leave up to AI?
• What are the most impactful uses of AI?
• How are AI-generated images impacting artistic fields?
• And more!

Listen to the episode now!