Timonium, MD – January 18th, 2016-- Helion Automotive Technologies, a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions, is now offering the Cisco® Unified Communications Platform (UCP) for auto dealers, an integrated phone and communications system designed to improve the customer experience and streamline phone processes. Cisco's UCP helps dealerships greatly reduce incidents of lost or dropped calls, placing customers on hold and routing customers to voice mails, which can lead to lost leads and sales.

"Dealerships have their own special needs when it comes to phone systems due to the hectic nature of the business, with employees often away from desks, engaged with other customers, in meetings and the physical distance between departments," said Erik Nachbahr, President of Helion Automotive Technologies. "Even dealerships with scrupulous processes and great personnel experience problems with their phone systems on a daily basis."

Cisco's UCP by Helion has several features that address dealerships' needs, including:

Jabber, a collaboration tool that enables instant communication between employees, is integrated with Microsoft's Active Directory, Exchange and Office. Jabber works across all devices, from mobile phones to PCs and tablets. Similar to an instant messaging tool, it allows personnel to send notifications, ask questions or check availability of employees, even if that employee is away from their desk or offsite.

"There's nothing more annoying to customers than being placed on hold or routed to voice mail when all they have is a very simple question they want answered," said Nachbahr. "Jabber helps to eliminate phone tag and greatly increases customer satisfaction."

For example, when a customer calls to speak with their service advisor and that advisor is busy, typically the customer would have to leave a voice mail and when the advisor is free the call is returned, sometimes resulting in another voice mail. With Jabber, the receptionist can simply message the advisor with "Mrs. Smith is on the phone, is her car ready?" If the advisor is with another customer and using a tablet, the message will pop up and he can simply respond with "ready in one hour," and that communication gets relayed back to the customer with no ensuing phone tag.

Cisco's UCP also features Single-Reach Number, allowing dealers to route all phone calls to employees regardless of whether they are on their desk phone or cell phones. This makes employees more reachable and also helps to protect customer data.

Currently most dealership employees have two phone numbers: their direct line based on their extension and their personal cell phone. Sometimes problems occur when dealership employees give cell numbers to customers or put them on a business card. Using personal cell numbers makes it easy for employees to obtain and store customer contact information. When employees go to work for competing dealerships, this increases the risk of customers being contacted and lured to purchase at competitive dealerships.

Using single-reach solves this problem and even when employees return customer calls using their cell phones, the single-reach number is displayed on the customer's phone, so the customer never has the employee's personal cell phone number.

Single-reach numbers also increase customer satisfaction because calls are more likely to be answered, as both the desk phone and cell phone of an employee rings when a call comes in. A mobility feature allows employees to easily switch calls from their desk phone to their cell phone and back again, with no interruption to the phone call. This means that if a customer calls to ask about a piece of inventory, a salesperson can simply click a button to transfer the call to a cell phone and walk out onto the lot.

Cisco's UCP by Helion offers advanced Call Flow capabilities, greatly reducing incidents of lost and dropped calls. Helion's IT consultants have years of retail automotive experience including mapping call flows specific to a dealership's needs and processes.

A call flow determines how calls get routed and includes rules such as how many times a person's phone rings, whether calls get routed back to the receptionist or into voice mail, what happens to calls after hours and more.

"A call flow that works for an insurance company or a manufacturing facility won't work in a dealership," said Nachbahr. "Our data from hundreds of dealerships gives us the knowledge and ability to create call flows for dealers that prevent customers from being sent into never-never land."

Cisco's UCP by Helion comes with responsive technical support and the proven reliability offered by industry-leading vendors.

"Cisco is the phone that the president answers and the military uses," said Nachbahr. "No other system offers the security, ease of use and advanced technology that Cisco offers."

For more information, contact Helion at 443-541-1500 or visit www.heliontechnologies.com.

About Helion Automotive Technologies

Helion...Putting Your Dealership in the FAST LANE! Helion Automotive Technologies is a leading IT solutions provider, providing auto dealers with faster, more efficient networks and secure data protection. From managed services to IT assistance and service desk help, Helion offers both short-term IT fixes and long-term planning so dealers can focus on what matters most: selling more cars. Helion has specialized in IT for more than ten years and works with 650+ auto dealers nationwide. Dealers can request a free assessment of their IT needs at www.heliontechnologies.com.