Unified Communications Featured Article

NORAD Knows When Santa Claus is Coming to Town

By Maurice Nagle
Web Editor

Tis the season of boys and girls around the globe on their best behavior, dancing sugar plums, Santa Claus and all the magic that is Christmas. As the calendar turns from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day and Jolly St. Nick circumnavigates the globe with his magic sleigh and reindeer anticipation for morning reaches a fever pitch for children of all ages.

Avaya (News - Alert) announced that this year it will be working with NORAD to track Santa as he spreads cheer around the world. Thousands of volunteers will man the phones for the 63^rd iteration of NORAD Tracks Santa with the expectation to surpass the record breaking volume from last year.  

“Each click, call, email, and social media post counts in a customer’s journey and each touch must be met with complete satisfaction no matter who or where,” said Jerry Dotson, VP, Avaya Government Solutions. “The capability to handle interactions across a variety of platforms makes for happier customers and constituents. Each interaction could be a child calling Santa to find out how far away he is, a solider sending holiday greetings to his family or a customer calling a bank’s call center agent to see if a check cleared–All interactions matter. We are proud to serve so many, including the NORAD Tracks Santa program.”

Tracking Santa is as easy as dialing 1-877 HI-NORAD. 2017 saw more than 125,000 calls come in over the 20-hr event, with more than 18 million people visiting the website, 1.5 million people asking Alexa and over 3 million taking Santa on the ‘NORAD Tracks Santa Claus App.

“We are hoping for another record setting year for NORAD Tracks Santa and a delightful experience for each and every caller and volunteer,” said Major Mark Lazane, NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager. “As we know each call matters, so we’re happy to have Avaya’s trusted technology behind us ensuring that we can support the hundreds of thousands of calls and interactions jammed into a short 24 hour period.”

Christmas Eve is one of the few nights of the year we can all wind back the clock and be children once again, experiencing the magic that is Christmas cheer and make sure to share goodwill with our fellow man.

Were you naughty or nice this year? He knows.