Top 10 Must-Have Features of Call Center Phone Systems

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 31, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Call centers have emerged as a key touchpoint for businesses in India. They enable establishing contact with customers, understanding their demands, and offer quick and efficient solutions.

Though a typical call center phone system’s setup reminds us of long call queues and frustrated customers, the modern-day industry has become increasingly streamlined. Backed by cloud-based call center phone systems, businesses can now offer contextual customer experiences in an organized manner. The global contact center market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% by 2030, reaching up to $148 Billion.

Why this rapid growth?

Call center phone systems come with a variety of cardinal features, helping businesses of all sizes communicate efficiently. Considering the rapid digitization of business communication services in recent time, companies are switching to call center phone systems faster than ever.

Must Have Call Center System Features You Need

Call-Center-System-Agent-Conversing-With-Customer — Smiling young african businessman call center agent wear wireless headset laugh at workplace, cheerful happy black male telemarketer operator have fun at work break in customer service support office

To ensure that your business meets customer expectations, here are the top 10 must have call center system features.

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems enable customers to navigate to the concerned customer service agent. The IVR system presents a set of options to the customer in the form of an in-call menu. The customer chooses the concerned department by hitting the corresponding button from the IVR in-call menu.

You can create an IVR flow that allows customers to:

Press 1 to get the latest product information
Press 2 to connect with the billing department
Press 3 to talk to a support agent

Acefone offers you a Multi-level IVR that presents a series of branched questions to understand the root of your concern before connecting you to an agent. Those questions help the IVR system determine whether the pre-defined answers will suffice, or the customer should be connected to an agent.

Automated Call Distribution

The Auto Call Distribution aids in routing incoming calls to the appropriate destination in a call center phone system. It intelligently routes calls based on set criteria such as caller ID, working hours, support level, and IVR selection.

The ACD systems acts as an equaliser for businesses aiming to balance workload among their agents. By implementing the ACD feature into your call center phone system, you prevent agents from performance burnout and maintain their productivity.

Call Monitoring

Call monitoring is crucial part of a call center phone system. It allows managers and supervisors to observe conversations in real time, utilising them as reference material to train recruits. It also allows stakeholders to monitor the department’s overall progress, track KPIs, and device strategies to improve customer experience.

Call monitoring in a vital call center system feature that involves call whispering and call barging. These two functionalities allow supervisors to jump on to live calls and assist in query resolution.

Call whispering allows supervisors to join and assist agents in providing a relevant solution without letting the customer know. On the contrary, call barging enables supervisors to take over the call and deliver a solution themselves.

Skill-based Routing

Customer service agents work based on their expertise. They are categorised depending on their experience, languages known, and skillset. Skill-based routing is a call center system feature that enables directing customers to the most appropriate customer service agent for specific instances.

Consider an example of a French-speaking customer who has contacted the call center for assistance about network issues. Connecting him with a non-technical Chinese speaking agent will result in poor customer experience. Skill-based routing eliminates such a scenario and empowers seamless routing.

Preview Dialers

Preview dialers in a call center phone system allow agents to review customer information before initiating calls manually. You’ll be surprised to know that sales agents spend almost 65% of their time on administrative work, sidelining their priority tasks. Preview dialers enable agents to dedicate their energy towards more ROI centric activities than administrative work.

They foster personalized interactions and ensures agents are well-prepared for each conversation. Preview dialers are particularly useful for handling complex or high value leads where customization and individual attention are essential.

Additionally, Preview Dialers offer flexibility and control to agents, empowering them to prioritize calls based on customer profiles and preferences. Such capabilities ultimately improve the call center’s overall efficiency and performance.

Customer-clicking-on-smiling-reaction — Businesswoman pressing smiley face emoticon on virtual touch screen. Customer service evaluation concept.

Live Call Transfer

The live call transfer feature is another handy tool for a call center phone system, enabling agents to transfer calls to other agents, supervisors, or an IVR without disconnecting.

To successfully transfer an ongoing call, the current agent takes the customer’s consent and initiates a call transfer request through the portal. The corresponding agent/ supervisor receives the request, given they are available. The current agent then briefs them about the case, while the customers wait on hold.

Post briefing the customer is then connected to the new agent/ supervisor and the call continues from there. The live transfer saves both parties abundant time as the customer needn’t connect over a new call to discuss their issues. It acts as a bridging tool in a call center system ensuring agents can provide the most relevant solution to customers.

Voicemail to Email

The use of Voicemail-to-email in call center phone system offers significant advantages for agents and contributes to departmental progress. Call center agents can receive voicemails directly in their email inbox, ensuring prompt responses to customer inquiries.

It comes handy when agents miss the customer’s initial call. This convenience and flexibility empower agents to stay connected and address customer needs from any location.

Acefone’s Voicemail-to-email feature facilitates efficient documentation and follow-up on customer cases. Agents can easily archive and review voicemail recordings for accurate tracking and query resolution.

Additionally, call center systems can leverage voicemail data for performance monitoring and analysis, driving consistent improvement in agent performance and overall departmental processes.

CRM Integration

Almost every call center phone system involves a CRM integration in place to help agents deliver personalised experiences. The technology provides agents with information like customer name, ticket type, chat transcripts etc.

Such vital information helps agents work in an efficient and organised manner and provide relevant solutions to customers, ensuring higher CSAT levels. Acefone offers CRM integration with a pool of industry leading platforms. Some of the call center phone system’s integrations include Microsoft Teams, Pipedrive, Zoho, Salesforce, and HubSpot.

Users can add any of the available integrations at Acefone with a simple toggle provided on the call center phone system’s portal. Once turned on, the integration becomes active and is ready for use across any of the user’s registered devices.

Real-Time Call Reporting

Real-time monitoring provides detailed insights into agent-customer interactions and several service level metrics. Some of these metrics include average call waiting time, maximum waiting time, average handling time, and the average number of agents available.

Real-time call monitoring helps stakeholders make informed decisions on par with the organisation’s objectives. The information can also be used to make strategic decisions, boost call center phone system efficiency, and customer experiences.

Reporting and Analytics

Call reporting capabilities help call center systems make data-driven decisions. It has a significant impact on the organisation as it enables supervisors to view performance levels on an intrinsic as well as overall depth. Managers and stakeholders can monitor agent performances, evaluate call quality, identify potential bottlenecks, and contribute towards the overall process improvement.

Acefone’s analytical data provides its users a closer look at their team’s workload and helps them identify deviations simultaneously. This call center system feature helps them make effective staffing decisions in the long run.

In a Nutshell

Call center phone systems are not restricted to features like call forwarding and recording. They have grown enormously by adopting state-of-the-art capabilities like real time analytics, auto dialers, IVR, live chat, and CRM integration.

These technological advancements have contributed immensely to the smooth functioning of call center systems. We hope the above-mentioned points provide a detailed view of a call center phone system’s capabilities and how they help in improving business efficiency.

If you find these features helpful and think that they might help you streamline your business communications, feel free to get in touch with our experts for a free trial.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

How To Create An Effective Business Continuity Plan?

Kritagya Pandey

Author

Operations

August 28, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina suddenly and strongly swept through American states, damaging everything in its course. Among the businesses affected was the law firm, Breazeale Sachse & Wilson LLP. They had faced considerable losses, including access to client and business data. The firm confirmed they had no data backup strategy, nor did they save the crucial data on a hard copy.

The hurricane compelled the law firm to shut its critical servers. Having realized the consequences of having no backup plan for operational inefficiencies, they learned an important lesson: Always have an effective business continuity plan and remote communication strategies in place.

Similarly, the recent global coronavirus outbreak has caused major inconvenience for huge corporates. Many business domains were either shut down or forced to operate at a lower efficiency. This setback was aggravated by the inability of businesses to quickly shift their services to the cloud for remote operations.

Since it is impossible to predict the occurrence of crises of any kind, it is imperative for companies to strategically implement a business continuity plan to prevent business disruptions and financial losses.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan contains a procedural set of actions created to maintain the workflow in an organisation. The plan complies and outlines the procedure that an organisation must follow to continue business operations in case of emergencies.

How to Create an Effective Business Continuity Plan?

As a business, your priority is to protect your profits and customer base even during a disaster. An effective business continuity plan would assess risks and devise potential recovery strategies.

Follow these steps to improve your continuity plans significantly:

1. Identify the Potential Risks

Business continuity planning begins with the assessment of all possible risks and threats. Enterprises and startups alike must conduct a financial risk analysis to ascertain the scale of disruption. Only then can you move on to mitigation.

You can’t find and eliminate all possible threats, but you can certainly plan out the risks according to several factors including geographical location.

2. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

BIA is simply an assessment of the potential impact of business risks. It includes collecting information on critical operations and supporting production applications.

You can use predictions, forecasts, mathematical data modeling, and analytics to identify the loopholes for modifying the recovery plan.

3. Choose a Business Continuity Team

A balanced and efficient team is essential to create an organised business continuity plan. Companies can consider two types of groups to begin with—a command and control team, and a task-oriented team.

The command team deals with disaster and recovery management, while the task-oriented team specialises in supply chain management, human resources, customer service, and IT management.

4. Develop a Recovery Strategy

Identify essential communication channels to convey important messages during emergencies. You also need to keep a note of relevant points for discussion to be able to hold effective and concise conversations.

Businesses must select a medium for notifying employees during non-working hours. Prepare a list of useful resources needed for alternate manufacturing, warehousing, and office space, computer hardware, operating systems, files, telephones, etc.

5. Conduct Disaster Decision Making

Determine teams according to the chain of events—before, during, and after the disaster. Companies must address the role and responsibilities of each team intimately. Define all tasks needed at each level like building evacuation, power backup issues, and communication to employees and authorities.

A list of information sources and storage locations also helps businesses locate data for disaster assessment, thereby facilitating the easy return to normal operations.

6. Identify Pain Points or Dependencies

Identifying loopholes is as important as identifying opportunities. You need to pinpoint any time-sensitive stipulations and also monitor the downtime. Develop testing conditions and procedures to formulate a business continuity plan.

Identify all possible pain points or resource dependencies. For this purpose, you can use methods like checklist list, parallel tests, and recovery tests.

Wrapping up

Time and again, we’ve realized that everything around us is completely unpredictable. The recent outbreak of the coronavirus, and the damage it has caused, has reinforced this reality. So what can you do? Simple: When life gives you lemons, you make some lemonade.

Your business has to be ever-prepared and equipped with resources to deal with any uncertainty. A proper business continuity plan not only mitigates financial risks but also saves companies from bearing catastrophic losses. At the same time, it ensures uninterrupted operations and a flawlessly uncompromised customer service experience.

For any further information on cloud-based communication solutions, reach out to our team at [email protected] and get equipped for any crises.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Kritagya Pandey

Author

Kritagya Pandey is a creative and technical content writer, editor, and strategist. She has been writing on customer experience, customer service, artificial intelligence, cloud communication, and more. She invests her time researching the current business, market trends, and studying about social media strategies.

Here’s What You Should Keep In Mind Before Buying A Cloud Phone System

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 26, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

As humans, we are always striving for more. And technology’s rapid pace suits us just fine, increasing everyone’s expectations. Businesses are no less; they are constantly looking for new ways to reach their customers and shifting to a hosted cloud phone system is the way forward.

Cloud-based phone system, in simple words, is a system located outside the company’s premises and promises added security and reliable communication.

Now, there are several perks associated with a hosted phone system, besides just the advantages of a cloud platform. But, before you invest in a system and move your telecommunication system to the cloud, you must consider a few factors.

Major Factors to Consider before Investing in a Cloud Phone System

1. Cost

Every new setup in your business brings extra expenditure. It is important to consider this cost in line with the budget of your business before investing. A multifaceted VoIP phone system might be expensive. Therefore, you must look at the charges, especially if you have recently started your business.

It is also advisable to consider long-term subscriptions—two-year or five-year plans are definitely more cost-efficient.

2. Hosting Provider

A business telephony service is all about hosting. It is the backbone of your new communication setup. Therefore, you need to know whether your service provider is credible and what products they offer.

How does your hosting provider manage its cloud network? This is the prime question that you should have an answer to before investing in a cloud-based phone system.

3. Security and Convenience

When running a business, security is always a concern. VoIP telephony has many advantages but running the company’s communication on the cloud can leave it vulnerable. If your call runs on a public network, you are at an even higher risk. Thus, there is a need for a detailed analysis before implementation.

Not only security but convenience might also be an issue with hosted phone systems. You want a system that requires the least maintenance and offers the highest quality calling so that you can concentrate on other important tasks. Hence, research well.

4. International Calls

If your call center deals with international calls, you have to be cautious while picking your cloud-based phone system. Choosing one that offers greater discounts on international call packages can help you save on heavy expenditure.

Make sure the provider you choose offers hassle-free services. You don’t want to troubleshoot or re-install associated software every now and then.

5. Customer Service

After-sale support is among the essential factors that you must look for in any hosted phone system. You can’t escape the fact that you may require assistance. Therefore, the support department should be proficient enough to assist you round the clock.

You need to pick a service provider that puts its customers above everything else, just the way you do for your callers. Your service provider should be quick to respond and address your issues in no-time. If you have a good local service provider, they could even provide offline assistance.

6. Service Integration

If you already have a steady workflow in your business, incorporating a new cloud business phone system may disrupt a few things. A good service provider will ensure a seamless transition, so you must pick wisely.

Invest in a system that offers the least disruption and is easily adaptable to your business functions in the long term.

7. Compatibility

If you already have a system in place, you can’t upgrade everything at the same time. Find out if your existing technology is compatible with the proposed cloud phone system. If you are thinking of integrating new technology with the old one in your company, it is important to ensure compatibility.

Often, businesses have machines for fax, credit card, and other digital functions that work through the Internet. Ask your service provider about these devices and integrations.

8. Customisation Needs

Every business has its own set of requirements. Choosing an expensive service provider won’t help if the service can’t be tailored to your needs. The ‘one-size-fits-all’ service might not work.

Your business has specific requirements from the phone system, which might not match others’. Hence, just like two businesses aren’t identical, the service of the cloud-based phone system shouldn’t be either. Look for a provider that offers customisable options and plans.

9. Your User’s Requirement

If you plan on investing in a new business phone system, but never ignore your employees’ requirements while making the decisions, then it will be a failure. A new system will change the way your employees operate so you need to make sure that they are comfortable with this new technology shift. It should be convenient for them first.

It is always good to analyse your employees’ feedback or complaints about the existing setup to understand their requirements. Keep in mind their expectations from the new phone system and align all the suggestions before you purchase one. After all, your employees are the ones who will operate the new system; consulting them is never a harm.

Summing up

There are many factors that you must inspect before purchasing a cloud phone system, ranging from software integration to finances, from compatibility to customer satisfaction and more.

A business phone system might be fruitful and have its own benefits, however, you need to find one which suits your business needs.

Acefone’s cloud phone system is the answer to all your queries and will put an end to your search. It is one of the best providers for hosted or business phone systems and does not compromise on quality or security.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Never Miss A Call Now With Cloud Phone System’s Voice To Email Feature

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 24, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Your VoIP phone system has plenty of handy features, but the voicemail to email tool stands out for its utility and simplicity. Not only does it help save time, but ensures that you never miss a message. This feature can be the difference between securing a sale and losing out to a competitor.

When it comes to utilising and running your business smoothly, voicemail to email is your right-hand man. The advantages of using it are endless.

#1 Never Miss a Call Again

Whether you’re a business owner or part of a busy sales team, let missed calls become a thing of the past.

Every voicemail message you receive to your phone will be forwarded as a sound file to your email address. This means that you can continue your work and listen to the voicemails later. Voicemails can be saved in your emails for as long as your provider allows. The tool eliminates any chance of messages being accidentally deleted or overwritten from your desk phone; these are saved for future retrieval.

Sometimes, a missed call can mean that your customer might move on to your competitor. However, a prompt callback will impress your customers and solve that issue immediately. Voicemail to email helps keep track of your messages and calls and ensures that you do not miss anything important.

#2 Deal with Customer Enquiries more Effectively

With customer voicemail saved on your email, it’s convenient for you to tend to their queries more quickly. Rather than going over the process again, you can straightaway share relevant information. This saves valuable time and you can simply call the customer back with a hassle-free solution.

If you find a message with an issue that you can’t solve, you can pass it on to the concerned department. Voicemail to email can be used as an alternative to time-consuming callbacks. While you should try to directly solve all queries, sometimes voicemail is an easier alternative. Customers can explain their issues in detail and you can come up with a better solution.

#3 Go where you are needed, not where your Phone Dictates

Voicemail to email allows your staff to keep a tab on multiple tasks at the same time, without the risk of you missing out on important calls or new leads. For smaller businesses that may be required to work in multiple departments, this comes as a boon. Agents are instantly notified every time they miss a call that is sent to their emails.

Your staff will no longer be chained to their desk phones. They are free to use any device and take their phones with them wherever they go, as long as there is a good Internet connection.

Timings are also more flexible, as customers have the option to leave a message should they wish to. Cloud-based phone systems give your business a professional edge by making customer service more flexible and efficient.

#4 Recordings are Securely Sent to your Email Address

With voicemail to email, your customer recordings are always secure. They get saved on email rather than a desk phone where it could be accidentally deleted. Your messages will not be missed out or intercepted by someone else. A poorly-protected voicemail could lead to an information breach too.

On a cloud phone system, your voicemails will be accessible only to you. If you accidentally delete an important message, you can simply restore it from your deleted files. You won’t run out of space either; your voicemails will always be available for future reference. And all this will be processed on your email server and be accessible from any device. All your voicemails will be safe and secure, ready for when you need them.

#5 Real-time Notifications

Voicemail to email notifications is sent immediately. Some providers send notifications at specific time periods during the day, leaving the customers and stakeholders waiting for hours. But that’s not very professional and only agitates the customers. By using voicemail to email on your cloud phone system, you can ensure that you are instantly notified of any voice messages and can deal with them as soon as you are free.

In many ways, voicemail to email can help businesses of all sizes keep up with customer enquiries and not fall behind in their follow up calls. This feature gives you a unique opportunity to impress customers and be more efficient in solving their problems. This boosts your reputation in customer experience.

If you would like to find out more about Acefone Cloud Phone System and its voicemail to email feature, call our expert team on 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

5 Benefits of Integrating Customer Support Suite With Business Phone System

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 21, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Your customer support suite and business phone system should seamlessly work together to help your agents deliver impeccable customer service. If, instead, they work independently, then you could be missing out on amazing benefits and features. You may lose out an opportunity for taking your customer service, and your business itself, to the next level.

In this article, we will go through some of the benefits of integrating your customer support suite with your business phone system.

1. Information at your Fingertips

Firstly, knowledge is power. So, when your customer service team is given all the information they need as soon as they pick up a call, you can rest assured that they have all the tools they need to deliver great service.

Integrating your customer support suite with your business phone system ensures that both systems are sharing information. Hence, when an agent picks up the phone, they will be able to access customers’ records quickly without having to log into a separate system. If the agent can access everything they need in one place, they will have more time to deal with the queries. When that happens, a quick resolution isn’t far behind.

Optimising call time enables agents to deal with each customer faster and with the same level of professionalism and efficiency. Therefore, they will also be able to take more calls and cut the average wait time. All of these improved services add up to enhanced customer experience and happy, loyal customers for your business!

Customers will also feel more valued if your agents can access the information they have previously collected to deliver a highly personalised service—taking into account specific needs of customers.

2. Store Call Recordings on Customer Files

Customer call recordings can be saved easily on a hosted phone system, and you can access the recording you need by searching the online portal. This enables you to keep accurate records of the conversations you have had with customers.

If you integrate both your customer support software and your business phone system, you can save call recordings under that customer’s account for easy access.

While dealing with a large number of calls, agents may forget part of an order or might be unsure of any specific instruction. The ability to pull up call recordings directly from their phone system allows agents to easily verify an order and ensure all the details are correct.

In the worst case scenario, where a misunderstanding between the customer and agent might lead to conflict, call recordings can be used to protect your staff and business. You can listen to exactly what has been said without relying on second hand accounts of the conversation which are often inaccurate.

Whatever may be the reason to find a particular call recording, with both systems integrated, you can find the audio file easily along with the rest of the customer’s data.

3. Save Money on Calls and Maintenance

Integrated systems mean more information and a better chance of solving any issues on the first call. This, in turn, will economise your expenditure on call costs, since otherwise agents might have had to call back customers in different parts of the world.

A hosted phone system will keep call costs to a minimum. However, unoptimised working hours could be costly to your business. Therefore, integrating your systems is a great way to help save time and money!

Your IT team will also benefit from your systems being integrated, since they will only have to maintain one system. This frees up their time to make improvements to your systems or focus on other areas. IT departments are vital to improving business operations generally, so saving their time is a great way to use their expertise more effectively and to keep maintenance costs down for your business.

4. Harness Detailed Customer Analytics for your Marketing Campaigns

Cloud phone system give you detailed information about your customers, including their calls to your business, notes that agents have made about their calls, and more. However, if you integrate your customer support suite with your business phone system, you can unlock even more analytics about your customers and their interactions with your business.

When integrated, you can pull detailed reports on customer behaviours and use these insights to create targeted marketing campaigns. For instance, if you find your customers are more likely to respond to direct sales calls, you can put those into place. You can also use customer behaviour analysis to modify email campaigns for busy customers.

Alternatively, you may consider using the analytics to optimise your spending. Custom phone numbers help you track the number of incoming calls from each campaign and figure out what works best for your business without wasting your marketing budget.

4. Increase Efficiency across your Business

Centralised information helps save time, while in-depth customer information helps to provide a better user experience. The combined effects of these benefits can be seen across your whole business—not only for your sales or customer service team.

By having everything at one place, it is easier to train staff on how to accurately create and maintain customer records. Human error can sometimes cause information loss or inaccuracies in the system, and this margin for error increases when you have multiple systems running at once. By integrating your phone system and customer service system you can lessen the room for error and enjoy the benefits of seamless customer interactions.

Inaccurate information or miscommunication can cost your business money in the form of compensation for irate customers, with the added cost of a damaged reputation.

Essentially, it is ideal to have a unified platform with access to all the information needed for the efficient running of your business. As the cherry on the cake, you save time and money in these difficult times!

Both the staff and customers will benefit from your data being organised in one, powerful system and this, in turn, will have a positive impact on your business’ finances.

To find out more about how we can help you run a more efficient business by integrating your customer support systems with your hosted phone system, call our experts today on 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Yukti Verma

Author

Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Retain Your Customers Using Cloud Communication Solutions

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 17, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Your sales department knows how hard it is to convert potential buyers into actual customers. Losing a business prospect is detrimental to business growth. However, losing a loyal customer is a crippling mistake that could essentially stagnate your business expansion.

According to the book Marketing Metrics, the success rate of selling to a new customer is merely 5-20% whereas it is 60-70% for an existing customer.

For the success of your business, it is crucial to formulate a robust customer retention strategy. Failing to do so would directly hamper your business growth.

This article will illustrate important tips to help business owners retain customers. Stay on the right track to unhampered growth without losing your valuable customers.

1. Understanding why Customers Leave

There can be various reasons for your business to lose loyal customers. Two primary reasons are:

65% to 70% of customers reported leaving a certain brand because they feel neglected.
Around 15% of existing customers leave a business because they are disappointed with the offerings and services.

Lack of proper communication between service providers and customers often triggers further dissatisfaction. This may convince your existing customers to switch their loyalty and opt for your competing brands instead.

Enhancing customer relationships and services is a quintessential step to retain customers.

2. Communication is the Key

It is important to establish connections and maintain a positive rapport with existing customers using easy communication channels. One has to explore reliable communication channels to reach out to customers and address their grievances better. The best way to achieve this is to opt for VoIP communication technologies.

These services allow you to enjoy the upper hand over those using traditional forms of telephony. Cloud solutions ease the process for existing customers to reach out to the concerned personnel.

You need to consider employing the latest technologies in call centers to improve the communication processes further. Some enterprises have their own team of in-house customer support. These organisations have to shape their business model accordingly to harness the benefits of smart VoIP communication technology.

3. Traditional Landline Systems are Outdated

Traditional forms of telephony (the analogue telephone network) are heavily dependent on wired circuits. The system operates by sending signals via an array of tangible interlinked switch boxes through copper wires. Understandably, they require complicated maintenance and can be highly time-consuming.

This system heavily restricts the scope and capabilities of business communications. It is also heavier on the pocket compared to the cost-effective VoIP systems. With analogue systems, there is also the added challenge of constant upgrading.

4. Why Consider VoIP for Better Communication?

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a modern telephony solution that relies solely on internet connections to communicate. In this system, the data is transferred digitally via either a wireless or a wired phone network.

Users can make calls through their smartphones, computers or VoIP enabled phones. Your business can get a competitive edge through:

Minimised call cost
Enhanced sound quality
And more reliability

As our society entered the internet age with gusto, cloud communication technology has sidelined traditional telephony systems across the globe. Its popularity is predicted to continue increasing due to its cost-effectiveness and easy accessibility.

The recent globalisation and digitisation trends followed in trade and commerce also propel VoIP’s popular usage. The cloud essentially enables customers to reach you in an easy and affordable manner.

Here are 5 tips to improve customer retention using cloud solutions:

1. Making Customer Retention Easier with Advanced VoIP

Using VoIP solutions, you can initiate and receive as many HD voice calls as your business needs, without having to worry about the bandwidth and budget. With easy installation possible in minutes, you can start using the set-up immediately, and on any internet-enabled device. You can also avail of any number of extensions to scale the service to your business needs.

VoIP can also be integrated with your CRM software, which allows easy collaboration across teams and offers various benefits for managing the business processes. Remember, the two primary reasons why customers switch to other brands are when they feel neglected and disappointed. Once you smoothen out communication blockages with the adoption of modern technologies, addressing customer grievances becomes easier.

2. SIP Trunking

SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol. These are basically virtual phone lines that help users carry out phone calls over the internet to anyone worldwide.

This consolidated and easy-to-manage communication system can reduce your costs significantly. It cuts down on expensive hardware investments. All the while, your callers can enjoy better call quality and reliable phone service.

3. Hosted PBX

Hosted PBX phone systems require no complicated or costly infrastructure. Moreover, there are no limitations on adding phone lines and extensions.

With your phone system moved to the cloud, there will be no lag in the response time and you can enjoy uninterrupted communication even during emergencies.

4. Free Phone Numbers

These free-to-dial numbers provide a highly productive business communication channel that can enhance customer experience, and consequently, customer retention. Customers can now call you from anywhere and at any time without incurring extra expenses.

You can choose easy-to-remember numbers to encourage customers to call you. Furthermore, if your business relocates, you need not change the number! The toll free number can be used anywhere in the country.

5. Quintessential Call Center Solutions

Needless to say, your customer retention goals will be easy to achieve with advanced call center solutions at your disposal. All-inclusive telecommunication solutions also include real-time visual call display and various predictive dialing features.

Better reach, high voice quality, and low latency guarantee high call success rates. Better customer retention becomes possible when communication is smoothened both ways.

Wrapping Up

Your dream of maximum customer retention is sure to become a reality if you embrace modernisation in business processes. It is imperative to implement the latest and smartest telecommunication technologies to strengthen your business communication.

Visit Acefone to try the top industry solutions for your business or talk to one of our experts at 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

All You Need To Know About Call Routing

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

August 14, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Keep the customer experience up and running even when you aren’t available by smartly routing calls to the most relevant agent. Call routing is a brilliant feature that comes complimentary with your hosted phone system.

It gives you the opportunity to make sure each call goes to the best-qualified department or agent. Additionally, this simple feature is powerful enough to change your customer experience in the long run.

In this article, we will explain how a simple feature can greatly affect your contact center and how you can use call routing to boost your customer service.

1. You can Direct Calls to the Right Department

When a customer calls you, they want to be directed to the right person as soon as possible. Once you have gained relevant information from a customer, you can then direct them to the needed department or agent using a sophisticated IVR menu.

Customers will be delighted that you are directing them to the right person, as they may be unsure of who to speak to, particularly if they are new customers. Call routing can help you deliver excellent customer service by easily putting calls through to the relevant department, as a longer wait time is likely to leave customers dissatisfied.

If an agent is unsure of a customer complaint or query, it is better to pass it onto someone who would be able to help them efficiently. This makes the customer confident in your service—a simple gesture that saves a lot of hassle while dealing with escalating customer queries or complaints as well.

2. It can Help get Customers to the Next Available Agent Quickly

Call routing will automatically send incoming calls to the next available agent. There is no manual element involved, therefore, calls will be connected quickly and efficiently without your agents taking any further action.

This means that customers will not experience long waiting times and in fact, will be pleased that their call is being dealt with efficiently. Moreover, as a manager, you will be able to see real-time data for your incoming calls and also add or remove agents as per the call flow.

3. You can use IVR Systems to Help Customers Select Who to be Routed to

IVR systems give customers the ability to route their own calls to the department they would like to speak to. It can be completely personalised according to your business needs, and can often save your agents time and effort in finding the right person to deal with a customer query.

4. It can give you the Best Possible Chances of Conversion

If a customer gets the information they need quickly and efficiently, they will be impressed with your service and would be more inclined to make a purchase. On the other hand, if they have to wait around, they might move to a competitor who can help them better. Therefore, one must not underestimate the power of a quick reply.

Call routing can greatly assist, as agents can immediately transfer calls internally to a more qualified agent or to someone who is better suited to answer their query. With IVR systems too, there are plenty of ways in which call routing can help increase customer satisfaction and therefore give you better chances of closing a sale.

5. Choose a Custom Number and Route the Calls to Local Agents

Custom numbers can help you create ties in local communities anywhere in the world. Furthermore, customers will feel much more comfortable calling a local number than an international one. When they do call your local number, you can choose where their calls are routed, either to the next available agent or to a locally-based agent.

This means you can have agents across multiple time zones, speaking multiple languages, and the customer can go straight to the most relevant person. It is the simplest way to open up your business to a global market!

6. Manage all Calls in your Online Portal

With hosted phone systems, business owners and managers have access to an online portal where they can control every aspect of their phone system. They can re-route calls to different agents based on priority, see exactly how long the wait times are and direct calls to the right department, all in just a few clicks.

If they find they are receiving more calls than what their agents can handle, they can simply add more remote agents to help deal with the call flow. Call routing can help managers successfully deal with incoming calls, ensuring excellent customer service.

Your customers will never have to jump in between agents for a resolution. The time saved by call routing can be used effectively by agents to undertake training or to deal with more calls. The choice is yours.

If you would like to find out more about call routing and how it can solve common business headaches, call our expert team on 1888-859-0450.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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Yukti Verma

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Yukti is a content marketing enthusiast with a soft spot for Saas. She loves weaving complicated concepts into simple stories. When not at work, she is found reading books or watching movies.

Autocorrect Your Auto Attendant Script: Some Dos and Don’ts

Acefone Editor

Author

IVR Service

August 10, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Welcome to Acefone Communications. For advice on auto attendant scripts, press 1. To talk to our customer service representative, press 2.

Now imagine this is what a customer hears when they call your business. These lines are read by a virtual receptionist, also known as an auto attendant (AA), who greets you and routes your call to the preferred agent or department. Accompanied with the IVR (interactive voice response) system, AA allows call forwarding to representatives based on keypad inputs.

Before we get to the dos and don’ts of an auto attendant script, let’s explore why you should be employing a digital operator in the first place:

Consider this—a high volume of calls is blowing up your phone lines. In the absence of digital assistance, you’re left with two options. First, to let the consumer suffer through the dial tone and music while they wait to be connected, and second, to hire several operators who would be responsible for multiple calls. Let’s face it, neither seems attractive.

However, with the introduction of a virtual receptionist, you can create a uniform greeting to welcome callers, while also saving money on staff recruitment and training.

Additionally, a human operator would have to manually deal with the spam calls that could have been easily navigated and filtered by the auto attendant. Furthermore, your customers are happier to have their calls picked up on the first ring. Gone are the days of counting rings while waiting for an executive to answer.

Since you can control the auto attendant script, you can plug in any basic information that you need to convey to your callers. If a majority of your calls are centered around the same query, you can simply put that information into the script and save your employees the hassle of having to explain it numerous times. This way, you also reduce repetitive calls.

Finally, the presence of this technology lends a professional look. When a digital receptionist greets a caller, the latter is instantly given the impression of a well-managed and technologically forward business. This is especially true in case your firm receives a call post work hour. Your virtual operator is functional 24×7, and can inform the consumer of your work timings, encouraging them to leave a message.

There are several merits of using an auto attendant, it’s important to know how to use this feature properly in order to reap the maximum benefits. The script is the make-or-break factor: a good one will leave consumers feeling satisfied, while a bad one can frustrate them. Here are some simple dos and don’ts to follow while constructing a script for your auto attendant:

What to do when creating an auto attendant script?

As mentioned above, your digital receptionist is only as good as its script. Do the following to make a strong first impression on a caller:

Welcome your clients with a warm greeting and identify your company’s name at the beginning of the script; first-time callers would require a confirmation. In this beginning portion, you can also include any warnings or additional information. For example, currently, retail outlets are warning their callers of delays in delivery due to COVID-19.

Keep your script short and sweet. Nobody enjoys listening to, or can even keep track of, a long recording of several departments to contact. Cap your script to a concise 30 seconds. Narrow down your options to a handful, or else the consumer might lose interest or randomly press numbers to speed up the process. IVR systems are built to ease communication, not complicate it further.

Hire a professional to record the message that the auto attendant will play. Computer-generated voice messages tend to sound robotic. Not only can they detach the consumer from the experience, but they may also give a lazy and impersonal vibe. A professional, on the other hand, will be able to relay emotions as you’d like. A closer representation of an actual conversation through a human voice can ease the consumers.

Ensure that the most frequently utilized options are announced before the less commonly chosen ones. For example, if the status of a delivery is the most sought-after query for a retail website, then that should be the first option given by the auto attendant.

On the contrary, given the option of talking to a sales executive at the end of the list. If it’s provided too early in the script, people might not be patient enough to listen to any other option that might be more suited to their needs.

What to avoid when scripting for an auto attendant?

While we have understood what must be done to improve upon your scripts, there also needs to be a discussion about what to avoid maintaining a healthy brand image:

Do not cut the call on the customer if their response is slightly delayed. Customers sometimes require more time to reply when asked to provide details, perhaps of credit/debit cards, or if the script is too long. Hanging up on the consumer can frustrate them and leave them with a sour opinion of your company—not to forget, you’re cutting away a potential sale.

Choices must stay limited. Do not offer more than six options; the customer can then comprehend every single one of them, instead of getting lost in a flurry of words.

Do not bombard your clients with your website information when they connect to your IVR system. A subtle mention should be enough. Many companies tend to constantly plug in their website or slogan while the consumer is on hold, which can really get annoying.

As mentioned earlier, keep it short. Do not spend too much time on the greeting. A 3-4 liner is more than enough. Auto attendants that go on about the company relentlessly defeat the purpose of quick and satisfactory customer service.

Conclusion

IVR has become an integral feature in contact centers around the world. Auto attendants allow you to greet consumers and help them navigate the IVR system. Using the right words and techniques to communicate in this step is vital, considering this is the first impression any caller will have of your business. The more complex your script becomes, the less the likelihood of its success. However, keeping things short and organised will put your best foot forward for the customers. You can follow very easy steps to put forward a hgh-quality virtual receptionist service.

Introduce auto attendants through IVR in your organization from Acefone and enjoy the benefits of cost-effective, consistent, and efficient virtual operators.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

Write an email to

[email protected]

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Acefone Editor

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Acefone provides a broad range of cloud communication services to businesses of all sizes, which includes Hosted Phone Systems, Free Phone Numbers, and Cloud Contact Center Solutions. Being the UK's leading provider of VoIP service provider, we always strive to provide excellent customer service and high-quality custom solutions to our customers.

Toll Free Numbers Cost Callers Nothing, So Here’s a Free Guide [Infographic]

Acefone Editor

Author

Toll Free Numbers

August 7, 2020

8 mins read eye

Table of content

What did advertisements look like when you were a child? Perhaps that famous actor, or those two dogs dancing, or even that touching tale of mother and child? If not the visuals, we bet you can still hear the jingles play in the back of your head.

At the same time, remember numbers like Airtel 121 or Vodafone 141 that were often advertised at the end of these jingles? Sure, these are easy-to-recall numbers, but that’s always the case with toll free numbers—just like nostalgia-evoking jingle music, these digits always remain with you. Be it today or a decade later.

This is, of course, only a small way in which toll free numbers can be beneficial to your organization. Before we jump to the details, let us go through the basics:

why you need a toll free number

What is a Toll Free Number?

We all know about the 1800 numbers we often find on television advertisements or billboards. However, not many of us know of their function. 1800 or toll free numbers are contacts that can be used by consumers to call a company (helpdesk, sales team, etc.) without any charge. To be clear, the cost of the call does not vanish but is simply transferred to the receiver instead.

1800 numbers have been an important invention in the telecom industry as they eased communication between the consumers and organizations by incentivizing the former. Customers now communicate more frequently with companies. Not only is the call free of charge but the number is easy to remember and associate with a brand. Furthermore, it makes any company look larger than it is and more professional.

What is a Vanity Number?

There’s no doubt that toll free numbers are easy to remember. However, if you wish to take the recall value up a notch, you should try a vanity number. A vanity number refers to an 1800 toll free number followed by letters or words (corresponding to the Dialpad) that can be easily associated with your brand. You can also include your brand name in your vanity number. For example, Acefone may favour a 1800-SVTL (1800-7885) number as opposed to any generic combination.

Vanity numbers can be tailored and, thus, have an extremely high recall value. They can be memorized in seconds and give your brand a competitive edge.

Now that we have covered the basics and benefits, let’s look at some applications of a toll free number and how a single contact can change corporate and public communication:

How can a Toll Free Number help?

To recap the earlier points, toll free numbers are easy to remember, possess high recall value, can separate your business from the competition, and ease the communication between you and your customers.

In addition to this, you can purchase separate extensions to your 1800 number for different departments. This will ensure that there is first-point query resolution and increase customer satisfaction. The different extensions can also be used for various marketing campaigns. With this arrangement, you can monitor the statistics of individual endeavors.

To understand this better, let’s take the example of a beauty cream. One brand may pick a certain strategy to advertise on the television, and a different strategy to advertise on the radio. This way, they are able to reach varied audiences. Once the campaigns have run, the company can analyze how much engagement each medium got through the call responses they receive. This will enlighten the company as to which platform is the most profitable and where they should increase or decrease their budget.

As per Finances Online, 70% of customers call businesses after a Google search and 50% are frustrated by lack of calling options. Using a toll free number, you can have a uniform contact that can be advertised on every platform, including search engines. This increases connectivity with your consumers.

Toll free numbers combined with an IVR system (interactive voice response, which adds an automated call menu) also allow you to reroute your consumer calls to any preferred department or agent. This reduces wait times and increases efficiency in customer service. After all, for basic queries and simple routing, you don’t need human representatives when an IVR can do the job.

Many TV shows and brands even use toll free numbers for voting and survey purposes.

There are clearly several applications of 1800 numbers. So, the question remains, how does one acquire this number?

How to get a Toll Free Number?

First, you must consider certain necessities of your company and the features that a 1800 number service provides:

How many minutes of calls does your company receive every month? This value determines what sort of service is preferable for your establishment. Some companies may provide cheaper plans and then demand a high fee for going over the limit. To avoid exorbitant overage charges, you must research your incoming calls and choose a plan accordingly.

Does your customer contact require its own voicemail storage? Some toll free number providers enable you with separate storage for your customer voicemail. This may be a better option as it helps you separate your corporate and personal voicemails from the public ones. The organization of your voicemails can save you time and effort in the long run.

How can you block spam callers? A toll free number provider will extend the feature of blocklists. You can add spam numbers on this list to prevent them from contacting your agents and wasting their time. These calls can increase the workload on representatives and add to the wait time. Hence, eliminating them is highly beneficial for your company.

How can you track missed calls? Missed calls are lost opportunities. A lack of response can leave consumers with a bitter opinion of your company. Your toll free number provider should offer you an SMS alert service so you can monitor these missed calls and consider further actions.

What is the process after someone dials the contact? Using IVR integration and a monitoring dashboard, you are in control of the route that every call follows. Using keyboard input, the IVR system will reroute their call to the best-suited agent. You can monitor these statistics and the representatives’ performance using the monitoring dashboard.

Once you have understood the features and considered the requirements of your organization, you must compare different toll free number service providers. Plans and features vary from one provider to another. With Acefone, you can access all the above-mentioned benefits and more. While comparing providers, make sure you consider their fees, the monthly minutes, the features provided, and the numbers available. You must also keep in mind the quality of service they will provide later. Reviews are a great way of judging your compatibility with a toll free number provider.

Choosing a contact is a careful practice. You must decide whether you prefer to own a general number or a vanity one. The latter may sound more flashy but is not required for every business. Your number will be the representative of your business communication once you’ve purchased it. Hence, make sure it is ideal for your business—easy to memorize and associate with your brand.

Even if you move office spaces across the country, you need not change the number. Most providers offer high scalability that enables you to relocate or expand your business anytime you like.

Congratulations! You now own a 1800 number for your organization. You can start your marketing campaigns and see the boosted productivity for yourself.

Conclusion

Good communication is the foundation of every good relationship, even if it is just a corporate one. Toll free numbers allow you to engage in seamless communication with your consumers and encourage the latter to initiate the conversation. Buying a toll free number may sound complicated, however, it is a quick process. Once you have identified your company needs, you can procure a contact that is ideal in terms of features and services. Equip yourself with a memorable toll free number and become business-ready for ease in communication and analytics.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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Acefone Editor

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A Toll-tally Inclusive Guide to Setting Up Toll Free Number Solutions

Acefone Editor

Author

Contact Center

8 mins read eye

Table of content

This is the ‘Customer is King’ era.

Consumer experience is no longer limited to the purchase itself.

With the advent of the Internet, communication channels have grown exponentially—we have emails, messaging apps, social media platforms, chatbots, and more. However, one form of communication has maintained its reign over these years: the telephone. Telephonic conversations are still extremely popular among clients for query resolution.

According to the Delhi School of Internet Marketing, 75% of consumers consider calling to be the best way to get a quick response. Many consumers in India are still dependent on telephonic conversations to solve queries, which is why companies must innovate and improve their customer service tools.

Industries have tried to innovate their contact centres over the years. Some such innovations include cloud solutions, IVR, multi-media representation, and voice broadcasting systems. However, one of the most popular introductions has undeniably been toll free number solutions. These numbers usually start with ‘1800’ and allow consumers to contact the company for no charge.

Naturally, customers prefer the option to call you for free. However, there are several other incentives organisations to set up toll free number solutions.

Before getting onto the simple set-up process, let’s take a look at the purpose they serve as well as their advantages:

What are toll free number solutions?

You may be familiar with 1800 numbers often shown on company advertisements. These numbers act as virtual contacts which consumers can connect to without any charge. So when a client calls the organisation using a toll free number, the call charge is transferred to the company instead. The pure economics of the system is enough to make the option popular.

However, these numbers not only relieve clients of charges but are also a simpler way of connecting to a company. A single 1800 number can be attached to several extensions as per your requirement, making your company’s contact easy to remember. In fact, organisations are known to associate a jingle with their numbers to make the experience memorable.

Features and benefits of toll free number solutions

Having understood the basics of TFN solutions, their immense popularity makes much more sense. Additionally, there are several other benefits of investing in these numbers:

1. Brand Representation

Toll free numbers are easy to remember and are often well-known representations of the company. Clients instinctively associate your brand with the number they come across in campaigns or advertisements.

2. No Confusion

Since the number is consistent across channels, customers don’t need to search for different contact details. They can remember a single number to communicate with the organisation efficiently.

3. International Calls

Before toll-free solutions were introduced, customers were often hesitant to contact international organisations due to exorbitant charges. However, since these numbers do not cost much, customers are now communicating with brands across the world more frequently.

4. Mobility

Locations have no bearing on the ownership of toll free numbers. This means that if you decide to relocate all your operations to the other side of the world, you can still hold on to the same number without worrying about going through the process of setting up again.

5. Interactive Voice Response

TFN solutions can be connected to interactive voice responses (IVR). When a customer calls your number, they are greeted with a message and their call gets routed to a suitable agent based on their inputs. First-contact query resolution is more feasible due to this set-up.

How can you set up toll free number solutions?

TFN solutions can be purchased from telecom providers or cloud-based service providers like Acefone. With the latter, you receive several additional benefits, and a chance to expand your customer service applications and features.

A prerequisite for purchasing telephony solutions is that you consider the needs of your company and the options in the market. Let’s distinguish between a local number and a toll free number:

A local number refers to a contact that is based in a certain location. This number is prefixed by the standard code of that town or city and isn’t free for the consumer. A toll free number is virtual and can be connected from anywhere. The former is better when you have multiple offices in varied locations and wish to connect to local consumers. The latter, however, is ideal for a unified contact centre that deals with all your customer support. It is also imperative to estimate your budget and whether you wish to own an international solution.

Once you’ve decided to opt for toll-free solutions, the rest of the process is smooth sailing. Follow these simple steps for making the purchase:

Visit a cloud telephony provider’s website (like Acefone).
Select the toll free number solutions option and begin the registration service.
Complete your KYC (Know Your Customer) authorisation for safety purposes.
Choose a payment option.
Finally, you can select a toll free number of your choice.
(This step is important and we suggest you pay close attention to the contact you choose. You can also opt for set vanity numbers or create your own.)

Once you have selected your service and paid for it, you’re all set!

It’s an easy and swift process, and now you can empower your customer service with a multitude of features. Ease the communication between your organisation and your consumers, and increase brand loyalty with these solutions.

Summary

Toll free number solutions can be used by several industries—banks, businesses, contact centres, educational institutes, etc. These numbers are easy to remember and have great recall value. Customers do not incur any charges and thus, are inclined to use this option, while their installation is simple and efficient. Consider cloud-based solutions for your brand, which are loaded with features to support the customer experience.

Try out a toll free number from Acefone now and smoothen your communication process for both parties.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

1888-859-0450

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