This article originally appeared in the October 2012 issue of CUSTOMER
Selecting a restaurant based on past preferences, an advertisement, or a well-known brand can work out just fine. But acting on a recommendation from someone you know and trust can be your entrée into a new and wonderful experience. Word of mouth is also a pretty great way to find new solutions for your business.
The stakes are much higher in the latter case, of course. But getting a referral from a business that has already used a solution with such great success that it’s willing to recommend the product or service, and is able provide details on the user experience, can be invaluable.
Indeed, word of mouth has been the primary means by which customers have come to MEDIATEL DATA SRL over the past 16 years, says Dan Mazilu, the company’s general manager. That, he notes, signifies the high level of satisfaction among MEDIATEL DATA’s existing customers, which are driving these referrals.
“Our big ace in the hole is that we’re very professional and the product is very good,” Mazilu says.
Software company MEDIATEL DATA offers a variety of business communications products and services, which frequently run on hardware from strategic partner Dialogic (News - Alert). (In fact, the companies are so closely affiliated that MEDIATEL DATA’s website is www.dialogic.ro.)
Key among the MEDIATEL DATA offerings is Media Call Center.
“The product has everything included,” Mazilu explains.
By everything, he means inbound and outbound functionality, call and video recording, CRM, workforce management, supervisor real-time access to call center activity, support for unlimited supervisors free of charge, and predefined but customizable reports and monitoring tools. What’s more, unlike some competitors that charge extra for various features, MEDIATEL DATA delivers all of the above as part of its basic package.
The spark that led to the creation of Media Call Center emerged in the late 1990s when an American discovered the Bucharest, Romania-based company via the Internet. The gentleman, Francis Carmona from a telemarketing firm that served wireless companies, was looking for a dialer solution. MEDIATEL DATA built a dialer for him within a couple of days.
Carmona then asked for a call center solution. The company created that for him as well. Later on, as additional MEDIATEL DATA clients requested call center solutions, the company expanded the offering to support inbound calling, IVR, recording, and the additional features previously mentioned.
Today MEDIATEL DATA provides solutions to about 500 customers, whose deployments range in size from two to around 500 agents. These customers are all over the globe, including companies in Canada, Kuwait, Moldavia, Poland, Russia, and beyond. The company’s far-flung customer base is assisted by MEDIATEL DATA through local partners.
Mazilu emphasizes that all clients, regardless of their size, are significant to MEDIATEL DATA. But it’s worthy of note that the company provides call center solutions to such major entities as California-based debt recovery giant National Collection Agency Inc., The Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, and global research firm Synovate.
MEDIATEL DATA is able to compete against big names in the marketplace such as Avaya, Interactive Intelligence (News 
- Alert) and Vocal Call, Mazilu says, by delivering relatively low prices and high-quality, full-featured solutions. MEDIATEL DATA’s per-seat call center pricing is about a sixth the price of comparable solutions, he says, adding that it provides the supervisor seat for a one-time fee. The company also offers 24x7 support and maintenance contracts for its software solutions.
In another proof point as to the uniqueness of Media Call Center, MEDIATEL DATA is the recipient of the 2012 IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award from TMC (News - Alert) and Customer Interaction Solutions (now CUSTOMER) magazine.
“We were extremely pleased to receive this worldwide distinction from such a prestigious publication,” Mazilu said in accepting the award this summer. “This second award confirms the 16 years of research and development work by our team of high skilled specialists in computer software and telephony.”Rich Tehrani (News - Alert), CEO of TMC, in presenting MEDIATEL DATA with this accolade noted that technology is the key to the success of any contact center.
“This award program acknowledges the achievers in the advancement of contact center technology and distinguishes the best in the IP contact center technology,” said Tehrani. “TMC is pleased to honor MEDIATEL DATA with an IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Award for bringing superior, groundbreaking technologies to market while providing high quality and advanced applications.”
Edited by Brooke Neuman
