NEW! Firefox 6, Google Voice, and Agent Goodies...

Firefox 6 is here! If you're a fan of the open-source web browser, your wait is over - or if you're like me, you were completely surprised that it's here. Why? Well, it hasn't been very long since the release of Firefox 5, so seeing a new browser within just a few months makes me wonder how much overtime those open-source programmers have been putting in.

The answer is simple: not much. Firefox 6 is part of a new "rapid deployment" process being used to push out full versions more rapidly than in the past. Innumerable blogs talk about how much "cooler" the new Firefox 6 is, but I downloaded a copy and didn't see much difference from version 5. So give it a try, but I wouldn't recommend getting too excited if you're already using FF5.

Google Voice! You can check your messages online, have them routed to different phones & locations, and best of all - you can get a cool phone number in a completely different part of the country! Basically, Google-Voice is a virtual-PBX system, which gives you a non-changing phone number that you can then transfer to other phones. If you change cell-phone providers or work from multiple locations this might help you out.

My case is a little different: tons of my customers are in California, and I'm near Seattle. I figured I'd save them some cash & give them a familiar number to call by getting one where many of them are, rather than having them dial halfway across the country to reach me.

I already had a Google account (required), so it only took me a few seconds to sign up for Google Voice. The hardest part was deciding how to pick a number. Google voice gives you that ability to bounce numbers back & forth between different devices & locations that makes it worth having if you're looking for a new number.

Team Callback! Speaking of phones, my new Team Callback project is almost finished. You can visit the site, but don't register quite yet. It's a lightweight "Social CRM" designed for short-term callback management. Unlike regular CRM's, which are big, unwieldy, and basically just dump your new leads on top of a big pile, Team Callback recognizes the fact that phone work is deadline-based & very time-sensitive.

Team Callback is built on the same rock-solid engine that we built Team Workflow on, primarily so that we can update both applications at once and pass along the cost savings to you (it starts at $20 a month).

The idea came to me while doing sales for the BPO Automation Group's Order Central product. A lot of agents had questions, and while I was on the phone with one person, another 3 calls would come in and go straight to message.

Plus, what happens when your line is busy? Your customers try other lines! So I had post-it notes from the front-desk, and all sorts of different little reminders to call people back. I put it all into an Excel spreadsheet, but then I ended up having trouble keeping track of who I'd actually called back.

Team Callback solves that problem: you enter new contacts/leads in the software, assign a deadline, and then simply update contact status as you call them. When they're "done", they get automatically archived. It's inexpensive, easy to use, and very intuitive...