The Evolution of Call Centers: From Humans to Hyper-Realistic AI

For decades, call centers have been the backbone of customer service, with millions of employees handling everything from tech support to sales. However, the industry is fraught with challenges—high turnover, repetitive tasks, and the ever-present pressure to cut costs. “Call center jobs have some of the highest turnover in the world. They are grueling, don’t pay well, and highly repetitive,” Bland AI’s CEO and Co-Founder Isaiah Granet points out. These issues have made call centers expensive to operate and difficult to staff effectively, leaving many businesses searching for alternatives.

Enter Bland AI, a platform designed to automate phone calls using AI agents that can mimic human interactions with uncanny realism. “Our mission is to fix the way businesses handle their phone communications,” says Granet. “The problem is that humans simply can’t work 24/7, handle millions of phone calls simultaneously, or be trained to a company’s exact liking down to its voice and behavior—but AI can, and at a fraction of the cost.”

What Makes Bland AI Different?

Bland AI is not the first company to venture into the realm of AI-driven customer service, but its approach is notably distinct. The platform allows enterprises to build, test, and deploy AI phone agents tailored to their specific needs. These agents can handle a wide array of tasks, from customer support to sales, and are capable of functioning in multiple languages. “Bland AI is reimagining how enterprises communicate,” notes Andy Vitus, Partner at Scale Venture Partners. “The Bland AI agents understand human emotion, speak any language, and represent a brand like a top employee.”

No shade to Bland themselves as they’re killing it and a pleasure to work with, but the fact is people don’t (yet) want to speak to an ai bot. I’d argue businesses in most cases are negatively impacting their brand if they’re relying on services such as these.

— Adam Sardo (@sardo_adam) September 1, 2024

One of the standout features of Bland AI is its Conversational Pathways, a proprietary programming language that prevents the AI from “hallucinating” or veering off into nonsensical responses. “Conversational Pathways is how I navigate a conversation,” explains a Bland AI demo agent. This system allows the AI to stay on track, providing consistent and reliable interactions regardless of what the customer says. Moreover, the platform offers full transparency with real-time logs and post-call analytics, enabling businesses to continually refine their AI agents.

The Impact on Business Operations

The potential benefits of Bland AI for businesses are substantial. By automating phone calls, companies can drastically reduce costs while increasing efficiency. “We’re trusted by Sears, Better.com, and other major enterprises to change the way they interact with their customers forever,” says Granet. These companies are already leveraging Bland AI to manage their call volume more effectively, extracting valuable insights from the detailed analytics provided by the platform.

For industries like healthcare, real estate, and logistics, where phone-based communication is critical, the ability to deploy AI agents that can handle complex interactions in real-time is a game-changer. “The Bland AI platform actively restricts the calls supported, ensuring that the AI phone call technology continues to benefit consumers, businesses, and society as a whole,” Granet reassures.

Ethical Concerns and the Human Element

Despite the efficiency and cost savings Bland AI promises, the technology has not been without its critics. Concerns about transparency, ethics, and the potential for misuse have been raised, particularly regarding the platform’s ability to create AI agents that can convincingly mimic human interactions. Wired magazine conducted tests that revealed Bland AI bots could be programmed to deny their true nature, leading to ethical questions about user manipulation.

Bland AI scores $16M to automate enterprise phone calls with agents

Is the end of the predominantly human-staffed call center nigh? Controversial San Francisco startup Bland AI, which seeks to automate enterprise phone calls with realistic-sounding AI agents that sometimes… pic.twitter.com/dplTIkqLtG

— EchoeWeb (@Echoeweb) August 31, 2024

“AI systems like Bland’s could blur the lines between human and machine, leading to a range of issues, from user manipulation to privacy concerns,” warns Jen Caltrider, director of the Mozilla Foundation’s Privacy Not Included research hub. These concerns are amplified by the fact that many users may not even realize they are speaking to an AI, which could erode trust in the companies that use such technology.

In response to these criticisms, Bland AI has emphasized its commitment to ethical practices. “We are making sure nothing unethical is happening,” states Michael Burke, Bland AI’s Head of Growth. The platform is designed for controlled enterprise environments, where the AI’s interactions are carefully monitored and audited to prevent any potential misuse.

The Future of Customer Service: A Blend of AI and Human Touch?

As Bland AI and similar platforms continue to evolve, the question of where humans fit into this new landscape becomes increasingly pertinent. While AI agents can handle many tasks, there are still scenarios where the human touch is irreplaceable. “When everything is equal, people will buy on price; when it is not, the opposite is true,” reflects Andy Reid, Chief Innovation Officer and AI Advocate. “We have to be very careful not to all become ‘bland’ with our approach to a great customer experience.”

The challenge for businesses will be finding the right balance between AI and human employees. While AI can handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks, human employees bring creativity, empathy, and critical thinking to the table—qualities that are essential for resolving complex issues and building long-term customer relationships. “The human cannot just expect AI to do everything; it requires thought and creativity to enable the experience with design,” Reid adds.

A New Era of Communication

Bland AI represents a significant step forward in the automation of customer service, offering businesses a way to streamline operations while maintaining high levels of interaction quality. However, the rise of AI-driven phone calls also raises important ethical questions and challenges businesses to carefully consider how they integrate this technology into their operations.

As AI continues to take over more aspects of customer communication, the role of human employees will inevitably change. The future of customer service may lie in a hybrid model, where AI handles routine tasks, allowing human employees to focus on more complex and emotionally nuanced interactions. “In the near future, almost all phone calls will be done with AI,” predicts Bland AI, but the extent to which this prediction becomes reality will depend on how businesses navigate the ethical and practical challenges that come with this new technology.

In the end, the success of AI in customer service will hinge not only on its technical capabilities but also on the thoughtfulness with which it is deployed. As Bland AI continues to develop its platform, the conversation around AI ethics, transparency, and the human element will only grow more urgent, shaping the future of customer communication for years to come.

According to CBS News, the attorneys general of 48 states and the District of Columbia have joined in the suit against Avid Telecom. The company is accused of ignoring the National Do Not Call Registry, making 7.5 billion calls to people on the registry.

“Defendants chose profit over running a business that conforms to state and federal law,” the lawsuit alleged. “Defendants could have chosen to implement effective and meaningful procedures to prevent—or even significantly mitigate—the perpetration of illegal behavior onto and across Avid Telecom’s network but chose not to do so,” the lawsuit said.

The company has fired back saying it has stayed within the law.

“While the company always prefers to work with regulators and law enforcement to address issues of concern, as necessary, the company will defend itself vigorously and vindicate its rights and reputation through the legal process,” Neil Ende, Avid Telecom’s outside legal counsel, said.

“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, Avid Telecom operates in a manner that is compliant with all applicable state and federal laws and regulations,” Ende added. “The company has never been found by any court or regulatory authority to have transmitted unlawful traffic and it is prepared to meet with the Attorneys General, as it has on many occasions in the past, to further demonstrate its good faith and lawful conduct.”

The attorneys general disagreed, saying the accused was guilty of harassment, threats, and scams.

“Every day, countless Arizona consumers are harassed and annoyed by a relentless barrage of unwanted robocalls – and in some instances these illegal calls threaten consumers with lawsuits and arrest,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release. “More disturbingly, many of these calls are scams designed to pressure frightened consumers, often senior citizens, into handing over their hard-earned money.”

Many of the world’s biggest tech companies are trying to get their employees to come back to the office in an effort to return to normal. According to a report by Bloomberg, Amazon is taking a different approach by encouraging its US call center employees to work from home. The outlet’s sources indicated the move is driven by the company’s desire to close some offices and save on real estate.

Read more: Amazon Raising Front-Line Worker Pay to an Average of $19 per Hour

While a company spokesperson did not comment on real estate plans, they confirmed the preference for remote work in some roles.

“We’re offering additional members of our customer service team the increased flexibility that comes with working virtually,” Amazon spokesman Brad Glasser told Bloomberg. “We’re working with employees to make sure their transition is seamless while continuing to prioritize best-in-class support for customers.”

Amazon’s approach is a refreshing alternative to Apple and Google. Both companies have upset employees by aggressively pushing them to return to the office. In contrast, Amazon appears to be acknowledging that some jobs don’t require in-person employees and can be done just as well remotely. Rather than something to avoid, Amazon appears to recognize that it can benefit from such a transition.

Cisco, Google, and Zoom are some of the bigger names in the contact center space, a segment of the industry that has become increasingly important in the wake of the pandemic. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the company lagged behind its rivals by not offering a comprehensive solution.

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, contact centers have grown more vital for managing the customer experience,” said Gregg Willsky, Principal Analyst at GlobalData. “However, despite the increasing importance of contact centers, true contact center capabilities had been missing from Microsoft’s unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) portfolio.”

According to GlobalData, that has changed with Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform, a solution that goes far beyond the limited abilities that existed in Dynamics 365.

“The greatest strengths of the Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform include omni-channel engagement, self-service capability, and the use of artificial intelligence,” Willsky continues. “To deliver the platform, Microsoft is partnering with a wide network of independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators, as well as leveraging several existing Microsoft tools including Dynamics 365, Teams, Power Platform, Azure, and Nuance.

“Despite these strengths, in the near term at least, Microsoft could struggle to gain traction in the contact center space. However, the multitude of installed Office and Teams users provides a lot of potential for the company’s presence in the market.”

Microsoft has already been making major headway in the cloud market, thanks in large part to the scope and breadth of the company’s services. With Digital Contact Center Platform, the company shores up a previously weak point in its portfolio of available services.

Five9 is a leading intelligent cloud contact center provider, making it natural fit for Zoom. Zoom’s roots were primarily in the enterprise before the pandemic made the company a household name and Five9 will help it bolster its services in that core market.

According to an SEC filing, Zoom was not alone in trying to acquire Five9, with another company also interested in a deal. While the filing doesn’t reveal who that company was, according to Business Insider, RBC analysts believe it was Salesforce.

Salesforce recently acquired Slack and has been very vocal in its goal of creating a “digital HQ” to help companies reinvent their productivity. Salesforce itself has been one of the most open in embracing hybrid and remote workflows, and clearly sees pandemic-fueled workplace changes as a long-term factor.

Given that Salesforce was not able to complete a deal with Five9, it will be interesting to see if the company tries to snap up one of its competitors.

The issue was first discovered by Lior Krolewicz, with Yael Consulting.

Last week I saw one of my client’s budget was overspending. Digging into the offending campaign, I found keywords that I never saw before. There was no record of these keywords even being added (in the change history) but here they were, overspending by 50% of my target budget.

After lengthy back-and-forth with Google, Krolewicz was pointed to the agency’s Auto Applied Recommendations Control Center, a new feature in beta. Krolewicz’s client had “Maximum Impact” selected. To make matters worse, Google does not show any changes it has made in the standard Google Ads interface.

In the FAQ section, Google attributes this to the feature still being in beta.

Why don’t I see any information about auto applied recommendations in my Google Ads account?

This feature is in the beta testing stage, and your Google Ads account has been selected to participate. To find more information and manage this feature, sign in to the auto applied recommendations control center.

Google Ads users should check their account to make sure they are are not being overcharged as a result of this beta feature.

TikTok has faced ongoing scrutiny over privacy concerns, with at least one lawsuit alleging the company secretly recorded videos and uploaded them to servers in China. Concerns over the app prompted the Department of Defense (DOD) to instruct all personnel to uninstall the app, and for Reddit’s CEO to label the social media app “fundamentally parasitic.”

In an effort to address concerns, including allegations it censors users, TikTok is launching its Transparency Center where outside experts will have “an opportunity to directly view how our teams at TikTok go about the day-to-day challenging, but critically important, work of moderating content on the platform.

“Through this direct observation of our Trust & Safety practices, experts will get a chance to evaluate our moderation systems, processes and policies in a holistic manner.”

Although the Transparency Center initially focuses on censorship, it will eventually help address other security and privacy concerns as well.

“The Transparency Center will open in early May with an initial focus on TikTok’s content moderation. Later, we will expand the Center to include insight into our source code, and our efforts around data privacy and security. This second phase of the initiative will be spearheaded by our newly appointed Chief Information Security Officer, Roland Cloutier, who starts with the company next month.”

The new chip is based on designs by Arm Holdings. Arm does not manufacture processors like Intel or AMD. Instead, the company designs chips and licenses their intellectual property (IP) to companies that want to use them. Client companies can even customize them, much as Apple has done, to meet specific needs or increase performance even more.

Sources told Reuters the new chip “will be at least 20% faster than Amazon’s first Arm-based chip, named Graviton, which was released last year as a low-cost option for easier computing tasks.

“The forthcoming Amazon chip is expected to use newer Arm technology, most likely Arm’s Neoverse N1 technology, one of the sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Another source familiar with the matter said the chip is expected to have at least 32 cores versus the Graviton’s 16.

“The new chip will also use a technology called a ‘fabric’ that will allow it to connect with other chips to speed up tasks like image recognition, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

“To take advantage of the new chip, cloud customers likely will need to use software written for Arm-based chips, which is less common than software for Intel and AMD chips.”

While it may be a challenge for Amazon to get cloud customers to switch software, if successful the move could improve Amazon’s bottom line. While Arm processors are generally not as fast as traditional chips, such as Intel’s or AMD’s, they provide much better power consumption and run cooler. These qualities are especially important in a data center, where tens of thousands of servers are housed. An Arm-based server can also be several times cheaper than a single Intel chip.

As Amazon continues developing their own custom chips, based on Arm’s IP, they will likely be able to customize them even more to meet their needs, much as Apple as down with iPhones and iPads.

Mike Manzione, CEO of Rakuten Super Logistics, discusses RSL’s plan to open six additional ecommerce fulfillment centers in 2019:

Retailers Must Locate Products Closer to Customers

Our continued expansion into major metropolitan markets is a commitment to our clients. We’re creating a network that provides our clients a greater choice and flexibility that aligns their customer base with their product. With the change to zone-based pricing for First Class Packages, all clients must reconsider how to locate their product closer to their customers.

By 2021, worldwide retail e-commerce sales are projected to be 4.9 trillion dollars (USD). At the same time, customers are demanding shorter shipping timelines. RSL is uniquely positioned as an industry leader with our nationwide network of fulfillment centers. With our increased major metropolitan presence, RSL will reduce ground transit delivery to within one day.

RSL To Open 6 New Ecommerce Fulfillment Centers

Houston and Los Angeles will be our first 2019 expansion markets. The new Houston facility will be strategic for our clients importing product and materials from all over the world – including Brazil and Germany. Los Angeles will be strategically located near the Port of Los Angeles, a major container port. The Los Angeles location will be instrumental for our clients that import product from Asia.

As a leader in the order fulfillment industry, RSL will also be employing state-of-the-art technology in all six new facilities. In 2018, RSL began deploying ‘order fulfillment robots’, developed by inVia Robotics, in its facilities nationwide and will be expanding with inVia’s automation technology in the new warehouses.

About Rakuten Super Logistics

RSL  Fulfillment Centers have been carefully managed from the ground up, to create unique, high-velocity operations:

• Maintain complete control of your fulfillment with a cloud-based fulfillment management system.
• Save on shipping costs and expedite shipment times with the 2-Day Delivery Network.
• Improve customer satisfaction and earn repeat business from shoppers.
• Focus on your business by partnering with the industry leader in eCommerce order fulfillment.

In fact, research has shown that content marketing through social media generates 3 times as many leads while costing 62 percent less than traditional marketing strategies. That’s largely due to an increase in consumers using platforms like Facebook to find the products and services they need.

Image source: Demand Metric

However, running a business and managing your Facebook Page takes a lot of time. You’ll need to post content consistently for it to be effective, and time is a luxury that a lot of business owners don’t have. Fortunately, automating your Page is a strategy you can use to save time and boost engagement.

Why Should You Automate Your Facebook Page

An active social media presence is a must for most businesses these days. And Facebook Pages are a great way to drive traffic to their website, build brand loyalty, and reach out to a targeted audience. All that for a relatively low price.

While Facebook Pages are a wonderful source of traffic, it’s hard work to acquire followers. It takes a lot of dedication and consistent posting of high-quality content to get results. However, posting frequently can have a big impact on your business. HubSpot research has shown that businesses that post 16 times or more in a month generate 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish less than four articles within the same period.

Image source: Hubspot

Automation allows you to get the benefits that come with posting to your Page regularly without making a big investment in time.

What Should You Automate

There are several things you’ll need to handle if you want to keep your Facebook Page active and your followers engaged. While some tasks should be done manually, others can be automated. Here are some tasks that you can leave to a third-party management tool:

• Scheduling the posting of content in advance

• Scheduling and managing the posting of evergreen content. Since this type of content remains relevant even 6 months to a year after being posted, you can recycle these posts. A good rule of thumb to follow is to repost your evergreen content once every 3 – 6 months.

• Sharing blog posts

• Optimizing the intervals between posts so you don’t flood friends and followers with too many updates

• Posting, sharing, and re-posting about an event or a Facebook contest. You can even post more often as the event or contest draws near.

Conversely, there are tasks or actions that you should avoid automating, like following or friending people or Pages, replying or commenting on posts, and sending Direct Messages. Not only is it obvious that you’re using a bot, but some people may find it annoying or insincere.

How to Automate a Facebook Page

You’ll want to aim for a balance between real interaction and automation when it comes to your Facebook Page. Here are three options that you can look into:

1. Developing a Regular Schedule for Your Facebook Posts

Unless you plan to never sleep, you won’t be able to monitor your Facebook Page 24/7. But plotting your Facebook posts weeks or months in advance will help maintain your presence on the platform. What’s more, you can design a schedule that’s optimized for engagement.

Research shows, the best times for posting on Facebook are on Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. and on Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. People tend to be more engaged with brands during these time frames.

Posting between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays also gives good results. Meanwhile, early mornings and evenings have the least consumer engagement.

2. Selecting a Good Bot

Bots are another automation option to consider. More brands are now using Facebook Messenger bots to help simplify communication between the company and consumers. These bots can reply to questions in real time, do upselling, and even help prospective clients make a purchase decision. The bots answers can also be customized to sound friendlier and more human. What’s more, the use of bots can lessen your employees’ workload, thus allowing them to be more productive at other tasks.

3. Hire a Social Media Manager

If running your business and managing your Facebook Page is starting to overwhelm you, then it might be time to consider hiring a virtual assistant or social media manager. Remember that successful business owners know when to ask for help. A reliable virtual assistant, along with a good scheduling tool, can do wonders in managing your page, building your presence on Facebook, and handling customer service. It will also give you time to focus on the essentials of growing your business.

Having an active Facebook Page is a useful marketing tool that shouldn’t be overlooked. Unfortunately, managing one can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Automating your Page by using a scheduling app or chatbots can save time while ensuring that you maintain a strong presence online. Just make sure that you still keep a personal or human touch to your interactions with your Page followers.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Reported incidents came from 183 countries, suggesting a widespread global problem. Of those who fell prey to the scam, roughly 15 percent lost money averaging between $200 and $400. There were cases of victims paying significantly more. In December 2017, Microsoft was notified of a tech support fraud in the Netherlands that resulted in the financial loss of €189,000, or about $109,000.

Called social engineering attacks, scammers use a variety of ways to initiate the fraud. Cybercriminals send phishing emails, display strategic online ads or full-screen error messages, install malware, or place unsolicited phone calls to convince victims that their systems or devices have been compromised.

Once victims contact the call center for help, a fake technical support specialist instructs them to install remote administration tools (RATs). This allows fraudsters to have complete control over the device and unrestricted access to sensitive information. They make changes inside the device and point out system errors to convince victims of the ‘problem’. This then prompts unsuspecting consumers to pay for the removal of fake or nonexistent malware.

According to Microsoft, the widespread problem is not limited to its platform but has affected users of MacOS, iOS, and Android systems as well. The FBI received 11,000 tech support fraud complaints in 2017 from 85 countries. Of these, claimed losses amounted to approximately $15 million, representing an 86 percent increase compared to prior year.  

The FBI also noticed an emerging trend: re-targeting past victims of tech support fraud. Scammers pose as government officials or law enforcement and offer assistance in recovering losses in exchange for fees. Other fraudsters act as collection services and threaten the victim with legal action for nonpayment of outstanding tech support fees. Some criminals use obtained personal information to commit additional fraud, such as unauthorized bank transfers or opening of new accounts for unlawful payments.  

Microsoft expressed concern over tech support scams that bypass secure platforms like Windows 10 easily and coerce users into giving unrestricted access to their devices. Because the problem is far-reaching, the company called for industry-wide collaboration and law enforcement partnership. Microsoft continues to form partnerships with web hosting providers, telecom networks, browser developers, antivirus solutions, and financial networks in detecting tech support scammers.  

The graphic below shows how the scam usual works.

Image via Microsoft cloud blog

Customers, on the other hand, can protect and empower themselves through education. Be wary of error or warning messages with phone numbers or emails with malicious attachments. Shut down your device once you receive a pop-up message or locked screen. If you have been a victim, notify your bank to reverse the charges and change all your passwords. Uninstall any application used during the tech support and run a virus scan for remaining malware.

[Featured image via Pixabay]

The social media giant initially opted to go with image ads. But with video ads proving to be better at conversions, Facebook Collection Ads were soon launched. Collections Ads appear on the user’s News Feed and can showcase a video, a photo, or a slideshow with four affiliated images.

Collection ads resemble a landing page. When users tap on the ad, they’ll be able to access a video or a fullscreen Canvas ad that shows more content. Businesses can pair their Collection Ads with other Canvas templates depending on their brand’s objective.

More importantly, these ads have proven to be very lucrative for businesses. One company reportedly earmarked $177,000 for a Collection Ads campaign and received $1.2 million in sales. Big name brands like Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger had also reduced the cost of their Facebook marketing campaigns by as much as 40% while seeing their sales ROI doubling or tripling.

This huge Facebook Ad experiment generated $1.1 Million. See this informative infographic exploring mobile-only Collection Ads. https://t.co/d0qV62tfB0 pic.twitter.com/2GMJFp7Fx7

— Team Delightful (@Delightful) December 28, 2017

Facebook has been particularly keen to point out how effective their ads have been for retailers during the recent holiday. The company reportedly saw mobile conversions rise to 64% on Cyber Monday last year. That was a major improvement from the 43% increase it had in 2016. Facebook says this boost in conversions is due to their Collection and Dynamic Ads.

While Facebook’s ad offerings were undoubtedly a big factor, several companies believe it’s not the only reason why their holiday campaigns were a success. One such company, Wayfair, revealed that it did use Facebook’s Dynamic Ads and acknowledged that it was partially responsible for the brand’s 53% sales growth during the Thanksgiving holiday. However, Wayfair’s vice president of marketing, Bob Sherwin, also pointed out that their brand also has a very strong and loyal customer base and that they are always in touch with their customers. Because of that, Wayfair has also made it a point to work with other social media platforms like Google and Pinterest.

There are many other companies who followed the same approach of using Facebook ads while also utilizing Instagram and other platforms. However, the majority also admit that Facebook Dynamic and Collection Ads did help in reaching more people during last year’s big shopping seasons.

Facebook is hoping that retailers and other businesses will utilize what they learned during the last major holiday and simulate it with their other ads.

Nada Stirratt, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions in North America, says marketers should think about how they can further use Facebook and sister company Instagram to drive in-store and online sales for the whole year.

Facebook is apparently hoping that video will play a bigger role in future ad campaigns. According to Stirratt, there’s a multitude of ways for companies to flex their creative muscles when using short-form video on mobile devices. Marketers would also do well to start thinking about video as more than just a branding tool. Video can also be a force to reckon with when it comes to merchandising.

[Featured image via YouTube]

“As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, we’ve been in ongoing conversations with a number of publishers about opportunities to extend the business value of Instant Articles. Across the board, publishers want to have more direct lines of communication with their readers and drive the conversions that matter to their business,” said Facebook Product Manager Josh Roberts.

Email Sign-up call-to-action unit: Readers share their email address and agree to receive email newsletter updates from a publisher. Flexible design options allow publishers to customize messaging and clearly represent their brand. What make this effective is that the reader’s email addresses is pre-populated in the sign-up so one click is all that is required.

Page Like call-to-action unit: Readers that Like the publisher’s Page are eligible to receive updates and posts from that publisher in News Feed.

According to the early results of the beta partners, the new CTA units have proven to be very successful:

“We currently use the Email call-to-action unit for Instant Articles to drive signups for our daily newsletter list. Over the past two months, the CTA has accounted for 41% of our total list growth. That is a meaningful number and we’re looking forward to partnering with Facebook to continue to grow the program from here.”

Chris Schieffer, Senior Product Manager at Slate

“Facebook Instant Articles is now one of our highest performing acquisition channels for driving email newsletter subscribers. Over the last three months, IA CTA’s generated 29% of the HuffPost Morning Email signups. We also found that signups acquired via Instant Articles are just as likely to stick around as signups obtained from our own sites. We’re excited to work with Facebook to figure out how to drive other actions that help us build deeper relationships with readers, like mobile app downloads.”

Mark Silverstein, Head of Business Development at The Huffington Post

New call-to-action units will be coming as Facebook looks to “drive deeper engagement and build relationships between publishers and their readers.”

AWS says that setting up Connect can be done in minutes with only a few clicks in the AWS Management Console. No specialized skills are needed to set up and operate Connect:

“Amazon Connect’s self-service graphical interface makes it easy for non-technical users to design contact flows, manage agents, and track performance metrics…The service also makes it possible to design contact flows that adapt the caller experience, changing based on information retrieved by Amazon Connect from AWS services, like Amazon Redshift, or third-party systems, like CRM or analytics solutions. “

Fees for the service are based on the number of customer minutes used and time spent on the phone. Calls cost $0.03 or $0.06 for toll free numbers. Amazon Connect offers direct inward dial (DID) numbers and toll-free numbers in the United States and 18 countries throughout Europe.

IDC estimates that worldwide contact center application software revenues were about $5.8 billion for on premises and $1.9 billion for public-cloud in 2016; by 2020, on-premises will be $5.5 billion and cloud will be $4.3 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of -0.8% for on-premises and 22.9% for the cloud over that time.

Account-level call extensions will start rolling out this week. These can be implemented across your entire account, instead of having to add them at the individual campaign and ad group levels.

Google also plans to offer automated call extensions over the coming months. With this feature AdWords will automatically set up call extensions from a prominent phone number on your landing page.

After starting testing last year, Google is rolling out a new look for call-only ads that feature business names in the headlines. Testing showed that business names in headlines helped brand awareness and delivered better calls. Here’s a screen shot of the new format:

To offer better understanding of click to call ad performance, Google is adding two additional columns to its reporting: “Phone Impressions” and “Phone Calls.”

These new call performance metrics will show opportunities to improve campaigns. Google says, “For example, consider using call-only ads on keywords with the highest phone-through rates, or decreasing wait times when you have customers on the phone to improve call conversion rates.”

What’s interesting is that the company is driving phone calls rather than clicks which are in turn driving in-home appointments which deliver huge sales.

“In the past we were never able to be in front of the consumer when they were actively searching for us,” Nasr said. “With Adwords we now have access to more products that funnel people to the phone.”

“Callers from paid search go into a priority 1 queue because they have higher intent and they’re a little more informed,” Nasr said. “The call center is really able to accommodate each of the calls to match the product the consumer is interested in.

Dan Williams, Chief Revenue Officer of 3 Day Blinds commented on why they use Google Adwords, “Google allowed us to use online solutions to build an offline relationship. Using mobile search to generate phone calls is specifically very important. More often than not the customer has questions that need to be answered and it just can’t be done online.”

Paid search phone calls accounted for 50% of 3 Day Blinds appointment volume according to Nasr. “Our call center is going to continue to grow and allow us to expand into markets that we have never been in, Nasr stated. “I don’t believe any company can do marketing without Google as part of the business.”

Check out the full video talk below:

The tool enables merchants to to export and submit product data in their own format, and use different rules to turn the data into product attributes and values that meet Google’s feed specification. Google says:

Map your column headers to the attribute names supported by Google Shopping. For example, if you have an existing feed with the unsupported column header “main title”, you can set up a rule in Merchant Center to have it recognized as the supported attribute name, “title”.

Populate missing attribute values with a fixed value, or with different values based on conditional criteria. For example, if the “condition” attribute is missing and you’re only selling new products, you can set up a rule to have this attribute automatically set to “new”.

After you specify rules, all uploads in the future will be processed accordingly. Feed Rules can also be used to organize data by implementing rules for custom labels or tagging products with shipping labels.

Google makes it clear that this is just an early version of Feed Rules, and that it will make improvements based on user feedback.

Image via Google

“If you use Skype online, whether it’s through Skype for Web, Outlook.com, Office Online or OneDrive, now it’s even easier to get in touch with anyone,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews.

No download is necessary. You don’t actually have to install a plugin. You can just sign in and click to start a call.

“We’re lucky to have so many industry-leading engineers within the Skype and Microsoft Edge teams,” the Skype team says in a blog post. “They have combined their knowledge to deliver the very best plugin free calling experience during this Preview period. Because the Skype and Microsoft Edge teams work so closely, it means you’ll be able to take advantage of plugin free calling in certain calling scenarios from Microsoft’s Edge browser first: All Skype one-to-one and group voice and video calls to and from Microsoft Edge browsers are plugin free; All Skype one-to-one calls from Microsoft Edge to the latest versions of Skype for Windows and Skype for Mac are plug in free.”

The roll-out is starting and should be complete by the end of April.

Images via Skype

Rolling Stone magazine recently reported that Phife Dawg – Malik Taylor in real life – died on Wednesday, March 23, of “complications resulting from diabetes.” He was 45 years old and had been struggling from Type 2 diabetes for many years, and even received a kidney transplant in 2008 courtesy of his wife.

Phife Dawg, founding member of @ATCQ, dead at 45: https://t.co/4oSvQowizw

— billboard (@billboard) March 23, 2016

Born to Trinidadian immigrants in 1970 in Queens, New York, Phife Dawg joined his former high school classmates, Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad to form the iconic hip-hop group, A Tribe Called Quest. While he didn’t get as much attention as his other co-members, Phife was anything but a supporting act. Known as the “Five Foot Assassin,” he joined ATCQ during a turning point in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when hip-hop was producing tracks that featured socially-conscious lyrics, Afrocentric ideas, and jazz sampling.

Questlove of The Roots was among the many hip-hop artists who paid their respects to the late rapper. In a lengthy tribute he posted on his Instagram page, Questlove made a touching account of how Phife Dawg influenced his music.

.@questlove remembers how Phife Dawg changed his life https://t.co/eVg5fvAxrd pic.twitter.com/XVUOAnPwHg

— SPIN (@SPINmagazine) March 23, 2016

“Riq & I had this moment a few times, but the look on our faces when we 1st heard “Buggin Out” was prolly Me & Tariq’s greatest “rewind selector!” moment in our friendship,” said Questlove of the moment he and Tariq Trotter listened to ATCQ’s The Low End Theory album.

Phife forever 1970-2016. 1991 in Sept I went to visit Tariq at Millersville U in the middle of PA (Lancaster). Miles Davis had just passed & I went on a binge to study his post jazz works. Went to Sound Of Market to purchase Nefertiti, In A Silent Way & Live Evil—the only non jazz purchase I made that day ironically was the most jazziest album in that collection: #TheLowEndTheory by @ATCQ. —it was raining that day so somehow the 1…2 punch of “Nefertiti”/”Fall” just had me in a trance that train trip—even though I suspected there was a possibility that Tribe could possibly have made a better album then their debut (the perfect @@@@@ mic Source rating would be on stands in a week so I was right)—but I knew I wanted to save that listening for when I got up to the campus w Riq.—so some 90mins later when I get to his dorm–we ripped that bad boy open (I can’t describe the frustration that was CD packaging in 1991, just imagine the anger that environmentalists feel when all that paper packaging in Beats headphone gets wasted—it’s like that)—the sign of a true classic is when a life memory is burnt in your head because of the first time you hear a song. —Riq & I had this moment a few times, but the look on our faces when we 1st heard “Buggin Out” was prolly Me & Tariq’s greatest “rewind selector!” moment in our friendship. (Back then every MC’s goal was to have that “rewind!!!” moment. As in to say something so incredible. Or to catch you by surprise that it makes you go “DAAAAAYUM!!!”& you listen over & over—Malik “Phife” Taylor’s verse was such a gauntlet/flag planting moment in hip hop. Every hip hop head was just…stunned HE. CAME. FOR. BLOOD & was taking NO prisoners on this album (or ever again) we just kept looking at the speaker on some disbelief old timey radio Suspense episode. & also at each other “Phife is KILLIN!”–by the time we got to “Scenario” I swear to god THAT was the moment I knew I wanted to make THIS type of music when I grew up–(yeah yeah dad I know: “go to Juilliard or Curtis to make a nice living at “real music”) but he didn’t know that Phife & his crew already wrote my destiny. I ain’t look back since. THANK YOU PHIFE!

A photo posted by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on Mar 23, 2016 at 1:49am PDT

Malik “Phife” Taylor’s verse was such a gauntlet/flag planting moment in hip hop. Every hip hop head was just…stunned HE. CAME. FOR. BLOOD & was taking NO prisoners on this album,” he continued.

Questlove Remembers Phife Dawg through This Track

Phife Dawg also featured in several classic, albeit overlooked guest appearances, including “Let the Horns Blow” by Chi-Ali, “Ghost Weed” by De La Soul, and “La Schmoove” by Fu-Schnickens.

Honored guests at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, like Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter, former president George W. Bush and Laura Bush, were treated to sweet eulogies from the Reagans’ children.

Those stories revolved, for the most part, around Nancy Reagan and her love story with the president.

However, one of Nancy Reagan’s surprising closest friends, Larry King, revealed a different side of her in a recent interview.

"Being first lady has taught me so much. Over those eight years in Washington, amid the exaggerated ups and downs of life at the White House, I found out what was really important to me. I learned how to serve. I grew, and I learned how, despite intense scrutiny and criticism, just to go on being myself – to let Nancy be Nancy. And for this, and for so many other things, I’ll always be grateful." – excerpt from Mrs. Reagan's book, "My Turn"

A photo posted by Ronald Reagan (@reaganfoundation) on Mar 10, 2016 at 9:24am PST

He said, “I was this Jewish kid from Brooklyn, she was this lady from Queens so there was a lot of New York in both of us.”

King shared a funny story that happened when he went to lunch with Ronald and Nancy Reagan one day.

He said, “We had a couple of interesting social events. I went with the former president and first lady to the Bel-Air Hotel to have lunch. When we got there, there was a wedding in progress.”

#Christmas #Morning #Kiss #RonaldReagan #NancyReagan

A photo posted by Ronald Reagan (@reaganfoundation) on Dec 25, 2015 at 8:42am PST

He continued, “As we were walking in, they were putting the wedding together. What got really interesting was, the president walked the bride down the aisle. I walked down with the father and Nancy was like the flower lady. It was really funny. Then we had lunch. I’m sure that will be a memory those people will never forget.”

“Nancy and I pray that peace and joy will reign in every home and every heart during this holy season. Merry Christmas, and may God's blessing be upon us all.” – Ronald Reagan #RonaldReagan #NancyReagan #ChristmasMessage #Peace #Love #Joy #Noel #MerryChristmas #ChristmasTree

A photo posted by Ronald Reagan (@reaganfoundation) on Dec 24, 2015 at 8:43am PST

No doubt. That was a wedding opportunity well-grabbed!

Larry King also revealed Nancy Reagan’s love for gossip of all kinds.

He said, “She wanted to know all the dirt about who’s with who and what’s with them, I didn’t know all this ‘in’ stuff but my wife did so they talked a lot. Nancy loved to hear all the latest, dish the dirt.”

What a fun peek at Nancy Reagan’s personality. What do you think about Nancy Reagan and her love for gossip?