eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Verizon Business, a unit of network operator Verizon Communications, announced expanded access to its customer portal, Verizon Enterprise Center (VEC), to small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). The company also expanded its set of automated customer-care capabilities, such as feature for trouble tickets that gives customers greater detail about the nature of the problem and the service being performed to fix it.
Due to the extended range of online tools available to SMB customers, the VEC’s full suite of services – including reviewing and paying all Verizon invoices, to checking on the status of a repair or order, to the use of network management tools and dashboards – is now available to these businesses. Verizon said three new VEC and eBonding features aim to make the online experience even more user-friendly and productive for businesses of all sizes.
Services include a “click-to-chat” help desk that allows customers to speak with a service representative and get answers to general or application-specific questions, a new billing-management tool prominently placed on the VEC dashboard that provides an integrated view of a customer’s network on a single screen, and can deliver up to seven billing summary reports and enable customers to view and sort expenses based on geography, currency, product and service, and a proactive delivery of alarms directly to a customer’s event monitor systems. This last feature’s functionality is made possible by integration of the VEC dashboard with Verizon’s eBonding services.
The VEC allows business customers to check the online the status of orders, review and pay bills (Verizon, getting into the “green” game also offers an environmentally-friendly paperless billing option), request new services, and monitor network service performance. Verizon also recently introduced the Verizon Enterprise Center Mobile service, which allows SMBs to receive and access information in near-real time on a mobile device.
“Our customers have told us they want flexibility in how they interact with us, whether by phone with their account team or through our sophisticated self-service applications,” said Verizon’s vice president of e-commerce and digital CRM, John Williamson. “We will continue to innovate and deliver advanced automated services that both simplify and add value to our customer relationships.”
Verizon Business also enhanced its eBonding service, which shares a common infrastructure with the VEC, allowing customers to directly access the company’s operational support systems to manage network issues, orders and inventory right from their desktop. For example, a new feature sends network alarms directly to customers, who can also retrieve the pertinent data. As noted above, previous customers had to go to the VEC Dashboard to view the alarms. Verizon said the eBonding service is primarily targeted at customers that would gain the most operational efficiencies from fully automating their services with the company.