A Comprehensive Guide To Business Phone Numbers

Yukti Verma

Author

Contact Center

January 31, 2023

8 mins read eye

Table of content

In any business ecosystem, be it a startup, SMB or a large enterprise, customers are the most important. What makes them stay isn’t just what you sell, but the experience they have buying from you. According to a study, 49% of your customers might leave you after a single bad experience. Good customer experience starts with one crucial step: being able to reach you.

While you are always available for your customers, they need a way to contact you easily and efficiently. This is where business phone numbers can help.

Let’s understand more about business numbers and how you can leverage them to improve operational efficiency.

What is a business phone number?

A business phone number is a virtual phone line that makes internet-based calls. It is an umbrella term for various kinds of numbers—for instance, toll free, local, and vanity numbers—all serving different purposes. As these numbers are digital, you can add extensions, collect data, and access various calling features at the click of a button.

Your business can have multiple phone system service to cater to clients in different parts of the world. There are three major types of business phone numbers, all explained in detail ahead.

How do business phone numbers work?

A business phone number uses a technology called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to make calls over the internet. Instead of using traditional phone cables, VoIP calls are converted from audio signals to data packets and then back to audio signals at the other end. This method of communication is faster, smoother, and more cost-effective.

Agents can answer and address caller concerns from anywhere in the world with an internet connection and a smart device like a phone or computer. The system includes inbuilt call management features such as recording customer calls, transferring calls to other agents, and seeking help from managers if necessary. You can learn more about contact centers in our guide here.

Types of business phone numbers

Business phone numbers can be broadly classified into three different types: Local numbers, toll free numbers and vanity numbers.

Local phone numbers

Local phone numbers allow you to call the residents of a particular area using a number with a local area code. This can be done from anywhere in the world. These numbers are primarily used by small businesses and startups hoping to appeal to a specific location.

Callers can identify these numbers by their area codes; a person is more likely to answer a call from a local area code.

Local numbers are great for developing personal connections with local audiences and enhancing your presence. They allow you to penetrate deeper into the markets and develop new customer relations.

Toll free numbers

As the name suggests, a toll free number, also known as 1800 number, allows customers to call without paying a fee. Instead, the business is billed for both incoming and outgoing calls.

Toll free numbers are an asset that take your customer support to the next level and give your business a competitive edge. Deploying these tools makes you appear more professional and credible to prospects. You could be a homegrown startup, working from a garage, and still offer enterprise-level customer service with the help of toll-free numbers.

When integrated with the cloud, toll free numbers allow you to deliver round-the-clock service, improve client retention and boost sales—all without burning a hole in your pocket. There is a lot more a toll-free number can do for you, which you can learn better and quicker through our FREE infographic.

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Vanity phone numbers

A vanity phone number is a custom phone number that consists of an easy-to-remember numeric sequence, which makes a business stand out. It can also include letters that represent a product or service.

While they may appear alpha-numeric, vanity phone numbers are plain numbers that can be easily dialed on a number pad. For example, a florist can choose 1-800-FLOWERS as their vanity number, where the term ‘FLOWERS’ represents the classic dial-pad digits corresponding to each letter (1800-3569377).

Likewise, you can select a number combination that defines your brand. This way, the customers will easily associate the number with your business while connecting.

Why should I invest in a business phone number?

As a small to medium-sized business, you may be looking for ways to diversify and expand your reach. Business phone numbers are becoming increasingly popular with firms of all sizes, as they allow for total accessibility to customers around the world.

Moreover, they are cost-efficient. According to a study, using VoIP can lower costs by 45% compared to traditional phones. Hence, by adopting a business phone number, you can stay a step ahead of your competition while not burning a hole in your pocket.

Here are a few more reasons you should invest in business phone numbers:

1. Better call management

When solving a customer’s problem, you might sometimes need to use multiple channels. Failing to do that might result in disappointment. According to McKinsey, around 86% of customers expect calls to shift seamlessly between channels.

A business phone number ensures seamless call management and omnichannel interaction. Hence, if you need to send a text to the customer while on call, you can do it seamlessly without having to drop the quality.

Moreover, you can create a system to collect and analyze data for valuable insights like caller demographics, average handling time, and abandonment rate.

Call transfer

With business phone numbers, you can save your customers from the trouble of jumping agent to agent for a query. Simply redirect the call, internally. In other words, you can transfer the customer to a relevant department or agent to increase first call resolution and boost satisfaction.

Call routing

Make sure your customers never stay on hold for too long with smart call routing that works as per your configuration. You can set different call routing strategies like simultaneous ringing, round robin and order-by, helping you manage call volumes better.

Call queuing

With increased call volumes, place incoming calls in a pleasant queue. Ensure that you get the person waiting for the longest time on call first, and then follow the sequence. Furthermore, you can program your call queue to play music or pre-recorded promotional messages for your callers while they wait via a feature known as music on hold.

Call analytics

With detailed analytics, you can optimize your call management and make strategic decisions regarding agents’ performances. You can analyze call volumes, average handling time, track answered and unanswered calls, and train your staff to give better results.

This also benefits your employees, helping them learn more about themselves and hone their customer management skills. You can read about how business phone numbers improve customer service here.

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2. Branding

Business phone numbers are unique to you. When you promote your number on various marketing platforms, your customers relate the number to your brand. It helps your business stand out from the competition and assures customers that they will be provided with a solution when they contact you.

A toll free number, for example, can help a freelancer stay more organized and come across as more professional. It can even assist a small business by helping them expand reach, improve credibility and boost customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, you can expect more leads when people are able to remember and recall your contact numbers easily.

3. No need for any additional hardware or software

Operating a business phone number requires nothing more than an internet connection and a smartphone, tablet, or computer. These numbers are part of a cloud-based communication system, thus providing the advantages of the cloud. You can access centralized information and are also offered capabilities of data backup and disaster recovery. Furthermore, your business will benefit from the robust cloud infrastructure and maximum uptime. These factors contribute towards delivering better customer experiences.

4. Easy onboarding and set up

Getting a business phone number for your business is as easy as pie. All you have to do is find a reliable service provider, choose your desired number, purchase, and voila!

The setting up itself only takes minutes. It’s only a matter of downloading a softphone, getting credentials for the login portal (which is an online link), and connecting headphones to your device.

5. Portability

Businesses are not static. Companies can change their office spaces or move to a different city or location based on their growth path. With traditional phone systems, this move can be tedious. However, as business phone numbers are cloud-based, these problems are not your concern.

Even if you choose to relocate your business to another location, you can maintain the same number. Even if you switch your service provider, you can retain the same number via easy number porting. This capability ensures that your customers need not remember different numbers or face inconveniences due to a change in your contact center’s location. You can learn more about number porting here.

6. Higher customer satisfaction and confidence

A business phone number is like a doctor. Always available for your customers, to listen to them and provide quick and accurate solutions.

The number lets customers call your business for any issues they might face. This builds a sense of comfort in the minds of your customers as they feel they can reach out to your business at any time, from any place. We’ve explained how free phone numbers improve customer service here.

7. Automated processes

Business phone numbers are designed to increase the call inflow to your business. This might seem overwhelming to small businesses.

However, businesses can automate inbound call processes with modern tools like auto-attendants, virtual receptionists, and intelligent IVR systems, which most cloud communication providers offer. These tools not only save agents time but also save a lot of money for your business.

8. Enhanced reach

Since you can set up a business phone number for any country, building a global presence becomes as easy as pi. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big company or a small one.

You stay in touch with existing customers and enable customers from new regions to reach out to you without any costs. This way, you can easily inculcate a larger-than-life image of the brand.

9. Affordability

With zero infrastructural cost and no requirement beyond a device and Internet connection, you never have to spend much for a business phone number.

These low costs are a result of the cloud. Cloud communications transmit calls over the Internet, allowing you to reduce your calling costs drastically. You don’t even need to invest in regular maintenance and updates—your service provider does it all.

10. Scalability

The biggest concern small businesses have during their growth phase is staying connected with the influx of new customers. With a business phone number, this concern is a thing of the past.

All you have to do is inform your service provider and they will provide you with more extensions. Furthermore, you may scale back to the original number after your demand has been met. This will ensure that you can scale up and down your resources while being on budget.

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What is included with a business phone number?

Apart from being a means to stay in touch with customers and build a brand, using a business phone number can also make running your business easier and help improve your customer experience strategy.

Here are some of the features which do that:

Interactive voice response (IVR)

Business phone numbers come with Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR allows customers to navigate through a pre-recorded menu via corresponding options on their dial-pad. The option selection directs the customer to the appropriate department or live agent. This helps save time by routing the customer call to the right person. You can learn more about the benefits of an IVR for your number here.

Call recording

Call recording is important to track and monitor calls. It helps stakeholders get a hold on the quality of calls. It also helps identify weaker areas that agents may need to be trained in.

Moreover, recorded calls act as a source of knowledge for new agents. They can obtain real-time experience about the nature of calls without actually hitting the work floor. This helps improve their exposure resulting in a better quality of customer service.

Call groups

Call groups allow you to organize certain extensions (for instance, all extensions in the sales department) under the same group. These groups can be used for internal communication or for external communication with customers or clients. Call groups can be configured to provide a level of redundancy, ensuring that calls are answered even when a specific employee is unavailable.

They groups can be accessed better using different types of call transfers, such as warm transfers, where an agent briefs a colleague before transferring the call, or cold transfers, where the caller is redirected to a colleague without any context.

Call whisper

The call whisper feature helps you and your managers ensure quality interactions by discretely offering verbal advice to your agents during a live support call.

Deliver quick query resolutions and provide real-time training. With a manager’s help, agents rule out call escalations and keep customers happy with quick resolutions. Finally, this also helps you analyze every agent performance first-hand by listening to their interactions.

Call barging

With this feature, managers can intervene during customer interactions to offer advice to agents or resolutions to customers. This helps drive your business’ reputation by enhancing first call resolution and reducing escalations. It also helps save your agents’ time when they are struggling and to Train them in real time by informing them of crucial insights.

Finally, this feature helps your managers give actionable feedback that closes deals.

Scheduled callbacks

Scheduled callbacks help you eliminate long call queues and ease call traffic by allowing callers to schedule a callback appointment. Your customers can set up appointments for their preferred timings and ease the call traffic on the system.

This way, your agents can also prepare themselves with the client’s history and context before reverting, and deliver personalized service, helping you enhance customer satisfaction and first call resolution metrics.

Live dashboard

A live dashboard helps your supervisors have an overview of all the calls being made. This helps them intervene with the call barge or call whisper features, track agent progress, efficiency and activity which you can then use to modify your sales and marketing strategies.

Top use cases of a business phone number

While highlighting the benefits of business phone numbers is essential to building a strong case for its deployment, one must also understand where they can be used in business communications.

Customer support

This use case is one of the most popular and widely used. Businesses want to provide their customers with a good experience. While some may think that the duty of a business ends when a customer has made a purchase, it is actually where the relationship starts.

Great customer support is made possible with a successful IVR, as defined above. However, you also need a reliable number with at least a 99.99% uptime guarantee to call back your customers efficiently. Business Phone Numbers make that happen.

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Outbound sales

Using an automated dialer for outbound sales will optimize agent productivity and ensure that you only reach out to the leads that matter.

Auto dialers can dial numbers from a pre-uploaded contact list, load call data and ensure leads for your agents. It also identifies unproductive signals like busy tones, misdialed numbers, voicemails, etc., and routes only answered calls. The unsuccessful calls are scheduled for later. This means, your agents are engaged only in meaningful tasks, increasing operational efficiency.

This makes communication significantly easier, increases agent productivity and ultimately leads to a better customer experience.

Customer information

With a business phone number, callers have an incentive to reach out to you for all sorts of information—product details, price, availability, or even exciting business opportunities.

Without customers having to spend any money to call your business, they are more inclined just to pick up the phone and contact you.

Marketing

Business phone numbers can be a game changer in your marketing campaign. You can assign different numbers to various campaigns: for instance, mention a particular number on each billboard in an area to calculate the success of your campaign.

For outbound campaigns as well, you can assign different numbers for each area you are cold calling. Below are some more ways in which a business phone number can add to your marketing process.

Virtual assistance

A business phone number works even after you do. With a virtual assistant customers can still be heard when you or your agents are unavailable.

Virtual assistants can also promote self-help for the customers. They can be programmed with a list of FAQs and the simple touch of a number on the dial-pad will allow the customer to resolve minor issues without the need of a service agent. They can also redirect the customer to the right department, eliminating the need for an additional agent to do so, while also saving valuable time on both ends.

These are just a few of the many ways in which business phone numbers help your marketing campaign. You can read more on virtual assistants here.

How to choose the right business phone number provider

The market is full of service providers, offering numbers and plans locally as well as internationally. It can be confusing to choose the provider with the best connectivity and price point. Here are a few points you can keep in mind when selecting one.

What kind of number do you want?

All different types of numbers have their set of benefits. When you are deciding between them, you should first consider the specific requirements of your business. Decide what image you want your business to showcase. Do you want to be portrayed as an international brand with local availability or as a local business that has emerged strong enough to have a global presence? Do you want something catchy and unique with letters involved? These factors will help you decide the type of phone number that’s best for your business.

What is your budget?

Your budget is obviously an important factor when you consider anything for your business. Check with all prospective providers about the plans they can offer you. Often, you can reach out and get a better understanding. For instance, at Acefone, we provide plans tailor-made for different business sizes, so you only pay for what you need.

What call management features do they offer?

Businesses cannot boost customer communication without using a business phone number solution that comes with robust call management features. Numbers these days come with an all-in-one call management suite. Check if the suite enables your customer care team to transfer, route, and forward the incoming calls in a number of ways.

It is also good to select a system where managers can monitor and evaluate ongoing customer interactions using the call tracking dashboard provided by the business phone number solution. Call management solutions make the running of your business so much easier.

We’ve explained it for you in this FREE infographic you can download.

Can you track missed and unanswered calls?

As noted earlier, many customers call a business directly when they are ready to make a purchase and transaction. Hence, businesses must treat every missed call or unanswered call as a lost sales opportunity. While comparing business phone numbers, one must check if they come with options to track every missed call and unanswered calls. Acefone’s business phone number solutions can track every missed or unanswered call by sending SMS alerts and notifications immediately and automatically.

Do they generate real-time reports?

In the age of multi-channel customer communication, no business can deliver superior customer service and improve customer satisfaction without analyzing call statistics.

A business phone number solution enables owners to assess customer interaction by providing a call tracking dashboard. They also help managers collect real-time call information by generating push reports. The push reports help managers to boost customer service experience by gaining informational insights.

How is the customer support?

The quality of business phone numbers differs across providers. It is important for businesses to opt for a provider who guarantees 99.99% uptime. They also need to check if the provider offers the post-purchase assistance required to configure and use the number effortlessly. At the same time, the provider must enable businesses to deliver customer service 24 hours a day by providing uninterrupted live assistance through multiple communication channels—emails, chat and telephone.

Top 5 business phone number providers

Now you have a better understanding of what business phone numbers are, their benefits, and how to select the right provider.

Here is a list of 5 top providers you can consider for your company:

Acefone

Acefone is a pioneering cloud telephony solution provider offering a comprehensive, economical and feature-rich VoIP calling services for business. The solution is entrusted by over 5000 enterprises, SMBs and small businesses across the globe.

Popular Features

Cloud phone system
Toll-free, local, and vanity numbers
Call recording
Voice/SMS API solution
Live-call monitoring
Inbound and outbound contact centers
Smart, multi-level IVR
Call analytics

Pricing

Business: $14.99 per user, per month
Premium: $16.99 per user, per month (3 users minimum) Compare plans

Free Trial

Available on all plans (Get yours now)

Ringcentral

RingCentral provides cloud-based business phone systems with unlimited calling plans, and messaging with a web portal and mobile app. They cater to businesses of all sizes seeking to improve communication infrastructure.

Popular Features

Cloud phone system
IVR
Click to Call
Virtual Number
Internet fax and voice, text
Call recording

Pricing

Core: $20 per user, per month
Advanced: $25 per user, per month
Ultra: $35 per user, per month

Free Trial

Available for 14 days

Nextiva

Nextiva is a cloud-based business phone system provider with key features like unlimited calling, and integrated messaging for streamlined communication. Nextiva’s solution is available on the web and mobile app, allowing employees to stay connected on the go.

Popular Features

VoIP calling
IVR
Call center solution
Call recording
Voicemail to email

Pricing

Essential: $18.95
Professional: $22.95
Enterprise: $32.95

Free Trail

Not Available

Vonage

Vonage offers phone and video calling over the internet (VoIP) for businesses and residential usage. The platform combines calls, texts, and video chats into one platform. Vonage also provides a central management console with integrations to other business tools, features like internet calling, and tools to track and analyze your calls.

Popular Features

Business phone app
Smart Numbers
Call recording
Call tagging
Call monitoring

Pricing

Mobile: $13.99 per month, per line
Premium: $20.99 per month, per line
Advanced: $27.99 per month, per line

Free Trial

Not Available

Ooma

Ooma is a smart, cloud-based telephony software for business and residential use. Their core offering, Ooma Telo, allows users to make unlimited nationwide calls and keep their existing phone number (for a fee) after a one-time device purchase. Ooma also provides a mobile app for making calls on the go and offers international calling plans.

Popular Features

SMS messaging
Software phone
Ring groups
Voicemail to email transcription
Call monitoring
Toll-free number

Pricing

Essentials: $19.95 per user, per month
Office Pro: $24.95 per user, per month
Ooma Office Pro Plus: $29.95per user, per month

Free Trial

Available

Conclusion

Business phone numbers can leave a positive mark on your business. When coupled with advanced features like IVRs, call recording, and appropriate call routing, these numbers can improve your credibility and brand outreach. With the abovementioned list, you can analyze the features offered by various industry-leading providers and find the right fit for your business.

If you are interested in discussing more about your company’s need for business phone numbers, talk to the experts at Acefone.

With Acefone’s services, you and your customers don’t have to worry about anything more than dialing the number, answering the phone and attending to their concerns. We’ll take care of the rest. With 99.99% uptime and reasonable plans, Acefone has your back.

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.

Contact Centers vs Call Centers — Which Is Better And Why?

Ritwik Raj

Author

Contact Center

January 19, 2023

8 mins read eye

Table of content

You probably recall hearing the term ‘call center’ from before you first heard the term ‘contact center’. We don’t blame you—both are often used interchangeably. However, contact center solutions not only evolve from call centers, but reimagine customer service and outbound sales.

At their core, call centers deal with customer queries via calls, while contact centers use multiple channels such as voice, text, email, and video to do the same. But there is more to this differentiation than the latter’s ability to go beyond voice calling—in today’s time, customer success can is highly dependent on having a multi-channel presence; in other words, you must be everywhere your customer is.

Hence, with this article, we aim to not only highlight the differences between both set-ups but also tell you why contact centers are irreplaceable in today’s times, and call centers are—for a lack of a better term—redundant.

First, let’s understand how call centers and contact centers operate.

What is a call center?

Gartner states, “A call center is a group or department where employees receive and make high volumes of telephone calls. They can have internal customers or external customers.” In functional terms, these departments present employees with a helpdesk and callers with a helpline.

Agents addressing customer queries via incoming calls form an inbound call center, and those engaging with sales activities form an outbound call center. Depending on its size, a call center can be strictly inbound, outbound, or hybrid. A hybrid call center sees agents attend incoming as well as outgoing calls daily.

Apart from their function, there is another factor that helps classify call centers better—their location.

In-house call centers

These are on-premise departments where agents sit together with dedicated hardware and software to handle customer calls.

Virtual call centers

Virtual call centers have agents working from remote locations with the help of an internet-enabled device and calling software.

What is a contact center?

Contact centers, as mentioned above, are evolved versions of call centers that operate over multiple channels. They also offer many more features and assure high customizability.

They work on the latest VoIP or Voice-over Internet Protocol technology. As the name suggests, VoIP allows you to make calls over the Internet. Learn more about VoIP systems in this guide.

While calling remains a significant communication platform for customers, contact centers also include other mediums such as SMS, chat, video, and emails, often on a unified platform. This aspect makes contact centers more suitable for customer services. However, you can still use them for sales and technical support. According to Time Doctor, an increasing number of people prefer using multiple channels such as social media, email, calls, and chat to communicate with brands.

Like their predecessors, contact centers can be classified into different groups such as inbound contact center, outbound contact center, hybrid, in-house and virtual.

Despite these centers being feature-rich and technologically advanced, their digital nature makes them cheaper to build and maintain for providers and cost you much less to deploy.

If you want to read more about how call centers evolved into modern-day contact centers, you can find it in our Complete Guide to Contact Centers and Running Them Successfully.

Key differences between call centers and contact centers

Now that we’ve briefly discussed their similarities and history, we can get down to the main agenda of this blog—how contact centers are better than call centers. To identify that, we look at their differences given below:

1. Narrow vs. in-depth customer data

Due to call centers being restricted to a single channel for customer interaction, the data they gather is limited. They may use speech analysis to understand the customer’s preferences and emotions, but it won’t be enough. Contact centers, however, provide omnichannel support and gather data from multiple platforms for a deeper understanding of the customer’s preferences.

2. Traditional vs VoIP calling

Traditional calling systems, which most call centers deploy, fall behind in providing top-notch calling experiences as compared to VoIP. The traditional system restricts calling to a single device (for instance, a landline), while VoIP calling lets you make calls from any device. All it takes is an active internet connection and a portal login.

3. Rigidity in features vs. customizability

Contact centers offer much more customizability than traditional call centers. Traditional communication systems are often limited because any modification requires expensive hardware changes. On the contrary, VoIP systems offer many features that you can pick with a single click. For instance, at Acefone you can choose from 65+ customizable features that constantly update and witness additions.

You can also check out those features on our website by clicking here.

Why are companies switching to contact center solutions?

Why Contact Centers Are Better

Drew Kraus, the VP Analyst at Gartner Customer Service & Support, says, “Contact center as a service (CCaaS) is a growth market; The technology offers greater software agility with a tower cost of ownership, making it a key area of investment in innovation and customer service applications that surpasses the offers of legacy premises-based or server technology.”

If you’re still not convinced whether you should use contact centers, here are a few benefits that will help you decide.

Cost effective

Contact center solutions come at cost-effective rates compared to call center phone systems. To set up a contact center system, the only investment you need is a device and a VoIP-enabled calling solution. You save money on hardware installation, excessive hiring, and infrastructure maintenance.

Scalability

Any changes you wish to make to your calling solution can be made with a few clicks. If you need more extensions or user logins, you can simply ask your provider to include them in your subscription. You can add more agents to the system instantly if you experience a rapid increase in your daily calls.

Unified view

A key benefit of using a contact center solution is that it gives you access to all data on one platform. The calling portal showcases customer information from multiple channels on one dashboard.

Future proof

Google says, “Moving to the cloud is giving organizations of all shapes and sizes the ability to move faster, be more agile, and innovate their businesses.” That’s true for cloud solutions of all sizes—any technological innovation in the cloud telephony space will be a part of your solution sooner rather than later. This way, always rest assured of better automation, productivity, and reliability.

Agent productivity

Contact center solutions make it easy for agents to deal with higher call volumes without getting overwhelmed and still provide meaningful solutions. With features such as call recording, call barging, call transferring, and live call monitoring, managers can supervise agents more efficiently and help them reach their goals faster.

Top 5 contact center features

Contact Center Must Have Features

VoIP offers endless features that enrich your contact center solutions. Therefore, we came up with a list of critical ones every contact center must have to function optimally.

IVR

An interactive voice response or IVR system is highly critical for inbound calling. It is a calling menu that lets the caller route themselves to the right agent by navigating through the given options. Any inbound contact center is incomplete without an IVR.

Call monitoring and supervision

Contact center solutions often provide both bird’s-eye and detailed live monitoring of calls and other channels. It is possible to view what agents are up to via a live dashboard, while call detail records or CDR help supervisors gauge an agent’s performance.

Similarly, features such as automatic call distribution (ACD), access management, ring groups, conference calling, and blind call monitoring help supervisors assist agents.

Integrations

Top contact centers solutions allow telephony integration with CRM and helpdesk tools, which helps teams deliver personalized experiences and manage customer information across platforms. You can integrate Acefone’s contact center solution with 20+ popular CRM integrations for better lead management.

Automated dialers

Automated dialers help your agents focus on the most important aspect of any business—customers. They reduce any time wasted on manually dialing numbers and switching between calls.

These dialers are programmed to identify genuine calls. They also monitor operator availability and route calls accordingly to minimize call-drop rates.

At Acefone, we offer two types of predictive dialers—ratio dialers and preview dialers. You can get in touch with our experts and to know more about them,

Calling analytics

Calling analytics provide detailed insights about the quality of service, average and max call waiting time, average handling time, and the average number of agents available. This helps stakeholders make informed decisions in alignment with the organization’s objectives.

The takeaway

While call centers focus on sales, contact centers are the go-to option for overall customer services as they provide better agent assistance and analyses.

Investing in a cloud contact center, however, is a wiser decision for overall productivity. You get an omnichannel solution for smoother communication with access to 75+ customizable and future-proof features. Scaling a contact center solution is also easier as it doesn’t require adding any expensive hardware. You can even add and remove agents from the dashboard with a few clicks. Thus, getting a contact center solution for your business can yield better ROI as compared to a call center solution and later upgrading it.

Visit our homepage to learn more about the contact center Acefone provides. You can also get in touch with an expert at 1888-859-0450 or [email protected].

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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Ritwik Raj

Author

Ritwik is a fitness enthusiast with a bachelor’s degree in computer applications. He discovered his passion for storytelling while writing articles for his fitness blog. After which, he decided to switch to full-time writing, exploring his capabilities as a professional writer. He is now practicing his skills as a senior content writer at Acefone Software pvt ltd. to bring words to life.

The key to good CX is to use your data well: Alan Pennington

Shrishti Mathew

Author

Expert Opinion

December 13, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Data can be a very useful tool. But in the field of CX, when used well, data can be a game changer. It can help bridge that very vital gap between a business and their customers. This is something Alan Pennington, deputy chairman of SuiteCX, a US-based CX software company knows very well.

His specialty lies in advising FTSE 100 & Fortune 250 companies on assessing, measuring and re-designing their customer experience. Pennington was one of the first pioneers of good CX, seeing that there were ways to attract customers but none to keep them happy.

“Back around the turn of the century CX was just in its infancy, it was dominated by research businesses that told you the problems with your customer service,” he said. “But not how to fix them. Advertising agencies were creating amazing campaigns to build demand, but creating expectations that could not be delivered by the operation.”

According to him, there was a big gap in the market for a firm to take the research and advertising data and translate that into deliverable experiences.

“While it is true that just because there is a gap in the market it does not necessarily mean there is market in the gap, fortunately, our hunch turned out to be true,” he said.

He has since gathered two decades of experience in CX, working across the world for top companies. We asked him for some quick advice he could give us from his vast repertoire.

What strategies do you follow while creating a business plan for the operations group?

I focus on real-time in-year deliverables where we can engage as many individuals a possible across functions and where we can demonstrate line of sight business along with measurable improvements. I make sure to focus on the quarter ahead but with an eye on the longer-term cumulative goal. Ensure that your deliverables are customer-outcome focused.

So, start with what you want to achieve, by when, then create the plan of actions.

Based on your experience, what are some common mistakes that businesses make that hinder their customer service?

Many believe that CX is very complicated, that it is an expensive undertaking and that it is a project. In reality it is a never ending journey of changes and adjustments.

They spend too much time fixing recurring problems rather than redesigning the experience based on the known issues. Data, information and research are too often used as reasons not to act. The phrase, “we need more data” means it is not turned into actionable change; too many times the default is to create a huge program and then to wait for the 2-3 years it might take to deliver on that.

In the meantime the world has changed, you need to make hundreds of tiny changes that require little or no governance. When it is a collective cross functional approach making lots of tiny changes that will really evolve your CX/EX to the next level, in the words of Nike “Just Do It!”

How do you implement your strategy at the ground-level, when dealing with a frustrated customer for example?

I take them back to basics. I destroy the often-held myths that hold leaders back from fully embracing the huge commercial wins available from integrating CX/EX as PART and only part of their business strategy and business solution toolkit.

By doing this I give people the confidence that they can succeed, then I go ahead and prove it to them. Now you have a fully engaged sponsor.

Remember that CX is not an input, it is the output of activities inside your company. We are in the memories business in CX, and this is about designing positive ones, attention to detail is critical to success. Remember customer centricity is rarely if ever the answer, it is about dialing up the CX component of your business strategy to the right level for your brand position.

Acefone’s contact center solutions allow for you to collect and access all the data you need. Our manager portal allows for managers to listen in on calls, advise the agent privately and get downloadable data on agent performance. Furthermore, the system can be tailor-made for your needs, your customers and your agents. Call us today to get a free trial and plans starting as low as $19.99.

15-day free trial

About the expert:

Alan Pennington is a CX expert and one of the world’s Top 25 Global CX Thought Leaders and Influencers for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

He began his career at the Royal Mail where he was retail director and eventually became commercial director of its subsidiary call center business. He was then managing director of UK-based management consulting firm, Mulberry, after which he began freelance, working across the world with companies like Emirates, Vodafone, Reed Elsevier, City & Guilds, British Council and Aviva. Currently, he sits on the board of SuiteCX in an advisory role.

His specialties are customer experience management, CX strategy, CX team development, education and deployment, CX experience design and measurement, CX organizational design, CX coaching and Advisory.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

Give us a call on

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Shrishti Mathew

Author

Shrishti Mathew is Acefone’s assistant content editor. After three degrees and a year in journalism, she moved into tech marketing. When she isn’t writing, you can find her reading, sleeping or trying out a new recipe.

Fulfilling a customer’s needs also depends on the process: Carsten Ley

Shrishti Mathew

Author

Operations

December 12, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

An idea is only as good as its execution. The same can be said for implementing a CX strategy, right from the first idea to an agent’s interaction with a customer. Managing the project is as important as the concept and ensures a good finished product, which in this case is the customer’s experience.

We spoke to Carsten Ley, expert extraordinaire in project management, change management, business transformation and customer experience. After leading large-scale project implementation across Europe, Latin-America and Southeast Asia for companies like Deloitte, Volkswagen, Rolls-Royce and Lazada, Ley founded a management consulting firm of his own to take his method to others.

His firm, Asia PMO, focuses on helping companies efficiently implement company objectives, build a team-oriented environment, get clients quickly and improve customer experience. Ley is now passing his knowledge on as a certified project management professional, public speaker and podcaster. He is also an internationally known keynote speaker, management trainer and coach.

We sat with him to pick his brain and get some of his top tips on customer experience and strategy, a subject for which he was elected as one of the Top 150+ Global Customer Experience Thought Leaders and Influencers of 2020.

Fulfill your customer needs flawlessly

Ley believes that when it comes to customer experience, there is no room for error. One must anticipate the needs and issues of consulting customers based on experience and advise them before things get urgent. However, in the event that this hasn’t happened yet, he has a step-by-step method.

“First you need to listen and understand the underlying frustration,” says Ley. “Fix the issue as soon as possible personally, and then make sure that a similar issue will not occur within the organization again.”

Develop a good CX strategy

Ley also attributes good customer experience to good CX strategy. He believes that companies, especially startups, should build their teams, products, services and processes with future customers in mind.

However, the pandemic with its requirements of social distancing and no contact eliminated the possibility of a human touch as we knew it. Ley believes that despite these circumstances, adding any sort of personal touch to an automated process is a huge plus.

Apart from customer centricity, Ley is also a proponent of developing a great employee experience and keeping up with new technologies and communication channels.

“It is very important especially for frontline and customer-facing employees to have them (customers) in a situation in which they feel good and empowered to fully focus on customers,” he says. He believes that CX professionals should never stay the same and keep reinventing themselves to stay up to date

Personalize the situation even when automated

One of Ley’s most important rules of thumb is to remember that while AI makes lives significantly easier, one must still do their best to give their customers exactly what they want and need.

“Automate with personalization,” he says. “Do not forget that you deal with individuals who have different journey and communication needs.”

With Acefone’s contact center, you can use the best of AI to design CX that is unique to your customers. Using the manager’s portal, your managers can ensure that every customer has the best experience they can have with your company. Call us now for a free trial and plans starting as low as $19.99.

15-day free trial

About the expert

Carsten Ley is the founder of Asia PMO, a management consulting firm specializing in project management, experience management and business management. With over two decades of experience in the field, Ley is also a keynote speaker, giving talks on the above subjects across the world. Ley is based in Vietnam from where he runs his firm.

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Shrishti Mathew

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How VoIP can give SMBs an edge over your competitors

Shrishti Mathew

Author

Small Business

November 17, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Introduction

Your business is your baby. You made it, built it, helped it grow and gave it all your time and effort. Your baby is now an SMB with a sizeable workforce.

Now you’re looking to scale. While you find markets, managers and investors, we know you’re going to want efficient communication processes in place as the next step in your business’s growth.

What if we told you that you could kill two birds with one stone: improve your team’s communication system while also improving your customer experience and retention?

With a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication system, you can streamline all your business’ communication needs, give your customers better service and make room for expanding your business. All your communication is done over the Internet via a convenient digital portal supported across devices.

The technology is timesaving, easy to use, great for a hybrid work system, and customisable to your needs and operations set up.

According to TechCo, small businesses that secure VoIP phone service save 40% on local calls and 90% on international calls. They also have the added bonus of saving 30% on teleconferencing by integrating VoIP.

What’s the technology behind VoIP?

VoIP introduces a revolutionary new way of communicating. Instead of using voip standard PSTN lines and bulky hardware, VoIP zooms your voice calls across the Internet. The result is a faster, smoother and much cheaper communication system between towns, cities and even countries.

The software was so revolutionary, the world decided to do away with PSTNs altogether, something Forbes predicted in 2018, adding that by 2025, it is likely that AI chatbots will do 95% of customer interactions over the phone. According to Gartner, 50% of IT leaders ceased purchasing on-premise communications in 2018. You can learn more about that and how to prepare for the future here.

Still confused about the benefits of cloud-based VoIP over PSTN? Then check out the infographic below.

Learn why you should shift to modern VoIP sooner rather than later

How does it work?

Like its name, Voice-over Internet Protocol, VoIP functions over the Internet. In this system, voice is transmitted using small data packets. These data packets travel between the caller and the VoIP phone provider in the minimum possible time. They are then converted back to audio signals for the agent to listen to.

To break this down, when one of your customers makes a call, their phone connects to the switch or the router in their Local Area Network (LAN), wherever that may be. When you choose to connect over to a particular number, the request is sent over to your IP provider. Your VoIP provider then establishes the connection between the other party and your number by exchanging data packets. Your VoIP phone then converts these signals into a voice that you can hear.

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Types of VoIP systems

VoIP systems may be broadly classified into two types based on where the equipment is maintained, whether they require staff and how much labour goes into the maintenance of the software. While both are helpful, it is best to read more to determine which system would suit you best.

On-premise VoIP systems

As the name suggests, on-premise VoIP phone system are those that are maintained within the premises of the workplaces. This includes everything—be it infrastructure or technical equipment.

On-premise solutions give managers complete control and supervision of data, but this comes with several limitations:

As the technology is located on physical servers usually at one place, any loss of data can be catastrophic.
Any changes in technology will require a technical team with the right expertise.
The possibility of work from home is minimised as the infrastructure is only accessible in office.

Hosted VoIP systems

Hosted VoIP systems on the other hand, are provided by service providers specialising in this arena. According to Persistence Market Research, there has been an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.8% between 2016-2024 in the hosted VoIP market.

Hosted VoIP systems have the advantage of not requiring much maintenance. You need not worry about the technical or infrastructural setup. All you will need to do is provide your list of requirements to your service provider and sit back.

Furthermore, the need to maintain a dedicated team for the VoIP systems is also eliminated. All your system upgrades and patch management are completely taken care of by your service provider.

You can go into detail about the differences between the two systems here.

Why do you need to invest in a VoIP system?

Investments are big decisions, especially in a growing business. We’ve been there and know how important it is, which is why we’ll begin with this: it is cheaper.

VoIP phone systems offer services for a fraction of the cost of legacy phones. Using the Internet, VoIP has made it cheaper for calls to be made across locations by removing the need for installing and maintaining any form of hardware. Microsoft reports that 82% of businesses have seen cost reductions as a result of moving to cloud-based operations.

Secondly, VoIP systems can be customised to the last detail and can be made to suit any industry. From connecting to businesses and customers across the globe, to tracking the inbound and outbound calling activities of a call center with in-depth reports, modern phone systems now offer features specifically tailored to businesses of all sizes. You can have a system that caters to both your employees as well as your customers, improving customer experience and retention.

Security is a top priority in any business and another factor that makes VoIP systems so much better. With widespread movements against phone giants over privacy concerns, a VoIP or business phone system is built for trust and security.

It comes with multiple data centers across different locations with backups, which means your data is more secure; along with 256-bit encryption, which makes it impossible for hackers and malicious actors to infiltrate your data.

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You also get to have more control over your own security. VoIP portal access can be assigned and limits can be set, so that the right employees only access what they need to.

Taking advantage of the cloud, service providers offer guaranteed protection to all your communications and regularly update security patches. You can read more about how it works and how we make your data secure here.

The most obvious reason to choose a VoIP system is that its flexible. Businesses can access their phone system portals on smart devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops from anywhere in the world with just an Internet connection. With most Internet-enabled devices already a part of almost all organisations, businesses don’t need to invest in additional infrastructure.

Additionally, VoIP provides for scalability. Businesses can add lines to their VoIP phone systems with a click of a button. This allows for easier entry to new markets and lets businesses scale up (or down) on their own time frames.

Finally, the software is tech-forward, which means that even years after the technology has existed, its digital nature will let it grow and adapt to changing technology and markets.

We understand that this is a lot of information. If you need further convincing, you can read this.

When should you consider using a VoIP system?

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We know you do your research before making any major changes, which is why we thought we’d start by linking you to a quick guide that will bust some VoIP myths for you. But here are a few points to keep in mind when considering a VoIP system.

Do you offer work from home to your employees?

The primary advantage of VoIP systems has been connectivity even when working remotely, something COVID-19 forced us to do. Read more about the role of VoIP during the pandemic here.

According to McKinsey, 58% of Americans work from home at least once a week. So, if you have moved your employees to a remote working ecosystem or a hybrid environment, a VoIP can make your life much easier, staying connected and efficient. Even if your work demands your employees to stay on the field while remaining connected and updated, a VoIP can still help.

Do you have a global presence?

If you operate across countries, you know as well as we do how important it is to maintain a local presence. Furthermore, your customers are more likely to communicate with someone who is nearer to them. Check if your provider offers local numbers in the regions you operate in.

What is your budget and does it cover the cost of installation?

Every service provider offers different types of packages. While a few may provide their equipment, others may leave it to you to choose one from a retailer.

Points to consider are:

The monthly charge

How much will you have to pay every month per extension or agent? Does it fit your budget? There are many service providers out there and it is important to do your research to find one your budget can accommodate.

Any additional or hidden charges

While you will have to make a basic monthly payment, you may incur additional charges depending on any features you choose and a possible initial installation fee. This is something you must ask about. At Acefone, to avoid such confusion, we provide a detailed breakdown of your charges.

Will training be included in the package?

While a VoIP is easy to use, depending on the existing skills of your staff, you may or may not want training included in your package. It is important to evaluate the skills of your staff beforehand so you know exactly what you need.

What kind of equipment will be provided?

We have already discussed the different kinds of VoIP systems. There are a few minor features that you may have to invest in like headsets. Check what comes with the package and what you need to invest in before agreeing to any plan.

What features are they offering with plans?

A VoIP system can come with a number of features. Make sure to find out each and every feature your provider offers along with their costs if any, so as to get the full benefit of this technology.

Are the plans customisable?

Customisability is the beauty of VoIP. Be sure to find a provider who can customize your system to YOUR needs. There is no point investing in technology unless it makes your workflow that much more efficient, which is why it is important to keep the same in mind for VoIP to ensure that you get the most out of it.

What does the migration process look like?

The typical migration process will include software installation, sourcing of phones, number porting, connecting the phones, and porting the phones.

Though this migration process should be done with minimal or no downtime, it is best to understand and learn the intricacies of the migration process from your service provider to avoid any inconveniences.

What does the final list of features contain?

Business VoIP systems come with several features. Consider reviewing them and choosing the ones you will need for your business. Here are some that are perfect for SMBs looking to improve their sales and support processes.

Features info

What is your network bandwidth like?

A strong network connection and bandwidth is the base for a seamlessly performing VoIP system. Check if your existing network connectivity will suffice or if you will need to upgrade your bandwidth and Internet connection.

Some providers even offer HD calls on low bandwidth. Look for providers that offer better communication regardless of your Internet speed.

Does it come with inbuilt security?

With cyber threats and attacks on the rise, it is pivotal that your telephony system is upgraded and patched regularly. You should discuss with your provider about compliance-related issues and ensure that your system is protected from malicious activity. Look for features like two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption. We put together a list of dos and don’ts for the same.

Do they have alternate power plans?

Make sure that your service provider has an alternate power plan in place. This will help in the case of a power outage. They may provide you with a mobile app or any other alternate source of electricity to have your system up and going even during a power shut down.

Check if they offer 24×7 support

Support is critical when you’re working remotely and checking your providers’ uptime and a support system is imperative. This varies across providers, but it is something that should be emphasized. Acefone for example offers 24×7 support, a SPOC and agents on call.

Acefone’s VoIP plan for you

At Acefone, we offer plans catered to every business requirement. We understand various use cases and priorities, so we’ve built you a table that will help you decide which Acefone plan to go for.

To know more, check out our plans here.

Size of your team (agents with extensions)	Your requirements	Your key priority	The plan you need
0-5	– Setting up a helpline – Equipping agents with calling capabilities	Cost saving	Acefone’s basic plan – Includes one UK number – Unlimited inbound minutes – 24/7/365 customer support
5-50	– Optimising Communication – Streamlining processes – Internal collaboration	Client retention	Acefone’s business plan – 1,000 outbound minutes – Call transfer – Real-time call monitoring
50+	– Global Communication and collaboration – Integrating communications with various SaaS apps	Brand building	Acefone’s premium plan – Unlimited outbound minutes – Unlimited audio conferencing – Call recording

Benefits of VoIP phone systems

Now that you’re convinced about the viability of cloud phone systems, you must wonder—will it really suit my business, with its niche operation style and specific industry? Is it worth all this brouhaha? We’ve already told you that it can help make your business easier to run and efficient, but it can do so much more than that across industries.

Interactive voice response

Cloud phones come with easily-programmable interactive voice response (IVR) menus. These are virtual receptionists that existed even in the traditional telephony era, but can now be easily configured by anyone using an online portal. No technical expertise required. Read here to learn how they can benefit small as well as large businesses.

Great numbers

You can also customise your number and make it either regional, national or free phone to attract customers and put across whatever message you want to your customers. You no longer need to be located at a particular location for a regional number, but simply let the cloud provider know what area code should prefix your digits.

These are just a few of the many features a VoIP system can offer you. You can read more about it and how it helps any sort of enterprise.

Make calls anywhere, anytime, from any device

Cloud telephony frees you from the restrictions of a traditional phone system. Whether you use a mobile, tablet, desktop, laptop or all of these devices; you can switch your calls seamlessly with no interruption to whichever device you need and can take your phone system anywhere.

Employees can make and take calls on the move, allowing them to freely go where they need to go without losing out on leads or enquiries. This has been especially beneficial for businesses that rely on high levels of logistics like the shipping industry.

With VoIP phone systems, your business is free to do what you do best, and your phone system will move with you.

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Expand your business worldwide

Businesses in today’s hyper-connected world need to expand beyond their regional boundaries. Cloud-based VoIP systems make this arduous task as simple as pie. With just a few clicks, organisations can add or remove extensions allowing them to scale up (or down) at their will. As you grow, you can build a local presence, no matter where you are. With a VoIP, you can get numbers local to the markets you cater to from anywhere in the world. For example, you can run a business based out of the UK and cater to customers in the States.

Monitor staff from anywhere

With Acefone’s easy-to-use online portal, you will have full control over everything on your phone system. The online portal gives you access to detailed analytics on call costs, call time, waiting time, number of calls per agent and much more. With the hybrid work model becoming more of a norm, VoIP systems make it much easier for the workforce to balance work and personal lives while making it easier for managers to monitor them. Here’s how it can help with ed-tech

This means that you can manage your team if you are not in the same country or even continent. Furthermore, you can use it to gain valuable insights and sync your sales and support teams for better customer experience.

These tools are invaluable for business owners and can be the key to ensuring you have highly trained, effective staff serving your customers; plus, with conference calling you can ensure the team is on the same page.

A phone system that grows with you

With lots of extra features at your fingertips and the added flexibility of your phone system, the business is sure to start growing. VoIP phone systems will not hold you back and allow you to add as many extensions as you need to your phone system.

This gives you the chance to hire as many agents as you need to keep up with customer demand – which is particularly useful in peak sales seasons. This doesn’t only apply to large scale operations. VoIP systems are very helpful for small businesses too!

Once the rush is over, you can remove these lines easily and can, therefore, take advantage of the ability to hire temporary workers to get you through the rush. Apart from agents, a VoIP system also has a high capacity for data and can be customized to your data requirements.

A traditional phone system requires a lot of work to add and remove lines. With a VoIP phone system, however, this can be done in a few simple clicks and you can start monitoring the flow of calls through your business immediately through the online portal.

Ready to enter the world of VoIP? Before taking the plunge, go through this infographic that highlights how to pick the right VoIP provider for your business.

Still unsure about VoIP? This infographic will convince you otherwise

The Future of VoIP

Like your business, VoIP is also software that is growing and has a long way to go. We have already explained the issues with a PSTN system and why it became unsustainable before being gradually phased out (You can read more about that here). The advantage of VoIP is its minimal hardware and that the software can keep updating, not different from your cellphone. Furthermore, VoIP is multichannel and omnichannel software, customisable to the size of your business. Think of it as a set of building blocks that can be scaled up and down at your convenience.

A VoIP system will never get old as it continues to update on its own. You won’t have to spend on a completely new communication system a few years down the line. However, you will possibly have to replace your earphones!

The Acefone guarantee

Most of the above-mentioned issues are often what hold back businesses from adopting cloud technologies. However, with Acefone, we assure that your experience is as seamless as possible.

Our services use high-end encryption software so you never have to worry about losing your valuable company information. Moreover, with our refined VoIP technology, your business can experience true HD calls as our VoIP systems are multi-channel. Our systems work even on low bandwidth and come with 99.99% uptime along with a 24×7 support system to cater to every small need.

In conclusion

VoIP has changed the way businesses communicate with their customers and employees. It has eliminated the need for bulky, space-consuming hardware and has turned communication into a seamless process so that you can focus more on running your business and staying connected with your customers.

You are the focus of a VoIP system. It is built for you and according to the needs of your business and employees, something you can change with your business’ changing needs and with the changing world.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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Shrishti Mathew

Author

A Complete Guide to Contact Centers and Running Them Successfully

Ritwik Raj

Author

Contact Center

November 15, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Remember the 2006 Hollywood film Outsourced? The protagonist Todd flew all the way from the US to a small town in India to set up a call center for his company.

This was pretty much how things worked back in the early 2000s—while globalisation had enabled multinational corporations to take advantage of lower wages in countries like India, a sizeable managerial workforce had to be shipped out as expats to get the job done. From setting up the infrastructure to training agents, there was no real remote alternative.

Today’s Todds, however, needn’t even leave their desks: digital-era technology lets you set up and run modern-day call centers remotely from anywhere on the globe. Bye-bye, expat culture. Hello, VoIP-enabled contact centers.

It makes sense for businesses of all sizes to switch to a cloud-based contact center given the popularity they have gained recently. The global contact center market is valued at $339.4 billion and is expected to reach a whopping $496 billion by 2027.

From call centers to contact centers

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Call centers have existed since the 1900s. During their heyday, telephone operators had only one goal: to sell. These operators or ‘early’ agents were given a list of numbers to cold-call, hoping to strike a deal.

Thus, the earliest call centers were strictly outbound. Things however changed with the invention of the toll-free number. These numbers were programmed to not cost the caller a penny, inviting more inbound calls. With this, the scope of call centers expanded beyond outbound sales to include support and inbound sales.

Things remained this way until the Internet revolution, when for the first time call centers faced obsoletion. Traditional centers were limited to on-premise operations and defined by heavy infrastructure.

They could in no way keep up with the pace at which companies were expanding in the new world. Offices had to multiply fast. People were shifting to smartphones and laptops, which traditional centers didn’t directly support.

This gave rise to modern-day call centers that existed entirely on the cloud, ran on any device, and could be easily operated via a portal: contact centers.

Soon enough, contact centers become the preferred customer support and sales apparatus for businesses. The pandemic was the final step in this transition.

Today’s contact centers provide omnichannel communication to customers, empowering them to reach out to businesses using email, chat, SMS, calls, social media, etc. Businesses, similarly, benefit from the large number of features contact centers offer at a cost-effective rate.

Learn more: Why contact centers are so important for today’s businesses

Different types of contact centers

Inbound & outbound

Inbound contact centers are designed to receive incoming communications from customers and potential leads. They mainly provide support to individuals who engage with your business, i.e., those who have purchased a product or service from your company.

At the same time, they can be used as an effective inbound sales tool. For instance, companies can promote offers on different channels such as their website or landing page, and list a toll-free number for lead inquiries.

Furthermore, inbound contact centers are equipped to handle all sorts of customer queries, ranging from setting up the product to issues arising through daily usage.

Outbound contact centers focus on reaching out to customers—both current and prospective—via numerous channels. These can include promotional calls for deals and offers, broadcast SMSs for announcements and survey links, chat support, etc.

With the increased use of data analytics to drive business decisions, outbound centers are also now using their services for feedback and customer surveys. Agents ask customers about their experience, where they got to know about the product, and whether they’re living up to the market standards or not.

Finally, outbound contact centers are tailor-made to handle outbound marketing campaigns. 62% of marketers say their company’s outbound marketing efforts are effective. This is achieved by launching systematic campaigns that use a mix of mediums to reach customers, give them relevant offers, and reduce steps for them to respond to us.

Multichannel & omnichannel

Multichannel contact centers, as the name suggests, use a flurry of mediums to;

Get in touch with customers
Let your customers get in touch with you

With customers using an average of 3-4 channels to interact with companies, a multichannel center is a must. Multichannel contact centers provide support via calls, SMS, social media, mobile apps, website portals, chatbots, and more.

If you’re new in the market and looking to establish a presence, we suggest investing in a multichannel contact center. Your competitors may not exploit multiple mediums right from the start, so you can gain quite the advantage through this endeavour.

Omnichannel contact centers are similar to multichannel contact centers. They, however, have managed to combine all communication channels into a unified platform. This unification makes it easier for contact centers to make customer experiences more personalised. This helps immensely with customer retention.

Learn more: How an omnichannel contact center provides better customer services to SMBs & large enterprises?

The case against traditional call centers

We’ve spoken in brief about the advantages of modern contact centers over traditional call centers, but many companies continue to operate with a traditional setup mainly due to these reasons:

Traditional contact centers keep infrastructure and employees in one place. This assures better control.
These centers don’t rely on the Internet, so they are not prone to security and data breaches.
They have negligible call lags and offer higher quality calls.

With the advancement in modern contact centers, however, many of these issues have been addressed. For instance, modern centers let supervisors, managers, and agents access the same portal for operations and analytics. This assures great control, as everything has one digital address.

At the same time, to operate traditional centers, you have to start from scratch—assembling a team, buying the technology, training the agents, etc.

Modern virtual contact centers are equipped with all the security provisions you need, be it 256-bit industry-grade security or antivirus protection at all levels. There are even multiple data centers where your data is backed up. At a traditional call center, on the other hand, all your data is present in one place and any calamity can result in its destruction.

Most modern contact centers promise a minimum of 99.99% uptime and can transport the highest quality calls via VoIP.

Put simply, cloud contact centers are the go-to solution for SMBs. Not only do you save costs, your systems will always be up-to-date with the latest software and technologies.

Learn more: On-Premise Contact Center Vs Cloud Contact Center—Here’s What Works Best For You

Why does your business need contact centers?

Every mid-sized business that has a product or service to sell needs a contact center. Let’s look into why you should consider getting one for your business.

Your customer service can be better

While IVRs pre-date modern contact centers, only contact centers allow you to easily build and modify them online, usually through a simple ‘IVR builder’ present in your portal.

Intelligent IVRs aren’t the only way contact centers assure better customer service: From supervisors being able to easily whisper information to agents mid-customer-call, to call recordings that a manager can access anytime, there are no roadblocks to better customer care.

The tools used in contact centers allow you to store customer information that equips you with all you need to boost conversations. As per Zippia, 77% customers appreciate a business that takes customer service seriously—contact centers will ensure you do that.

Which is why Acefone’s cloud contact center can be a perfect fit for your business. Apart from the above-mentioned benefits, you get enterprise-grade encryption, affordable plans, and 70+ industry-leading and customisable features that you can handpick for your business.

You can save costs

We’ve already established how contact centers today only require a stable Internet connection and a device, such as a computer or phone, to work. This makes them independent of the complex machinery, physical servers, and hardphones that traditional call centers require. So you needn’t invest much in infrastructure and hardware set-up.

In fact, the onboarding experience simply implies remote installation of the software on your device and aligning your current tools and hardware with the contact center. Together, these processes make contact centers affordable for all business sizes.

You can build a global presence

Remember the Outsourced example we gave above? Now imagine this: You could be a company located in the US that wants to build a presence in India. So, you hire a group of agents and a manager in India, all of whom are equipped with laptops. Then, give you them a contact center solution and a ‘softphone’ app that they can easily set up on their devices.

The softphone will let them make calls anywhere in the world. Thereon, you forward support calls and ensure that your customers are always looked after.

You can repeat this process and set up a contact center anywhere in the world, complete with local numbers that give you a local presence.

You can boost customer loyalty

With better and more intuitive customer care, expect your customers to stay. Did you know 94% customers are willing to buy from you again if they have a positive experience with your brand?

A business with better customer experience will retain clients for longer and build a high degree of customer loyalty.

Read what a customer experience expert we interviewed had to say about this.

You can stay updated with the latest technology

Contact centers are based on cloud technology. This means any upgrade or change in technology will simply require a software update. The technology improves day-by-day, without any charges for the updates.

Contact centers, due to their digital nature, can easily be integrated with other SaaS tools such as CRMs and helpdesk apps. Some of these include Pipedrive, Zendesk, ZohoCRM, and Hubspot. Acefone supports them and many more integrations.

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Top 6 features every contact center needs

Every contact center provider will offer you many features with your solution—but how will you prioritise these? Hence, we have gathered a list of must-have features for contact centers that SMBs can benefit from.

Interactive voice response

An interactive voice response system or IVR is critical to all inbound processes. It refers to a pre-recorded calling menu that a user can interact with as soon as they call you. This menu helps them link to different departments with ease, access self-service queries, and even make requests. No inbound contact center is complete without a calling menu.

Here’s how it works: You open the IVR builder tool that most contact center providers include with their portal. You then upload a script, complete with recordings and instructions. For instance, press ‘1’ to get latest product information, ‘2’ to connect with the billing department, and 3 to talk to a support agent directly. You can even add on-hold music.

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Multi-device support

Portability is critical these days, even for sales and support agents, many of whom are constantly on the move. With most companies introducing hybrid work for their employees, agents need to be able to work as efficiently from their homes as they do in the office.

The best contact center providers will always have apps that support calling and other features across devices such as smartphones, tablets and desktops. Equally important are custom apps catered to each device and the possibility to shift between devices even during live calls via features such as call flipping.

Call features

As per this article, 59% callers prefer to discuss their concerns over live calls over other mediums. Therefore, ensure that your contact center solution offers sufficient calling tools and features to make your callers’ experience better. Some relevant features include call recording, live call transfer, call whispering, call barging, and skill-based routing.

Call recording lets you re-listen to key points from customer conversations, gauge how your agents performed and strategise improvements accordingly. Live call transfer allows agents to transfer calls to supervisors and other agents. Call whispering is a vital feature that lets managers make suggestions to agents during live calls without the caller being aware of it.

Predictive dialers

Predictive dialers ensure you do not have to waste time calling clients and potential leads manually.

You simply upload a contact list to the dialer tool and wait as the tool calls multiple numbers for you, as per your configuration. The dialer is programmed to identify genuine calls and avoid missed, spam, and busy calls. Only when a genuine connection has been made, will the call be forwarded to the agent.

Dialers also monitor operator availability and route calls accordingly. They help you minimise call drop rates.

At Acefone, we offer two types of predictive dialers—ratio dialers and preview dialers. To know more about them, get in touch with our experts.

Automatic call distribution

This feature lets you route calls to the appropriate department or agent, which reduces your customer wait time and encourages first-call resolution. Top contact center providers have various ACD strategies and techniques in place for you to exploit.

For instance, if a customer calls to complain about a product, they get directed to an agent in the product support department. If callers have billing issues, they’re routed to the accounts department, and waiting calls are connected to idle agents.

Reporting and analytics

While many provide analytics and data reporting, the best providers let you customise data and present it as convenient graphs and tables. They also provide a vast array of performance indicators for your supervisors to access.

Your managers and stakeholders can monitor agent performance, evaluate call quality, identify hiccups, and contribute towards the overall improvement of processes via reporting and analytics.

You will also find a list of key performance indicators that Acefone provides later on in this article.

Learn everything you need to start a successful contact centre

Top 6 factors that constitute a successful contact center

It’s one thing to have a contact center, and another to run it successfully. Therefore, we came up with a list of factors that are critical for the success of your contact center.

Always. Stay. Updated.

Empower your agents with the latest software and tools, but do not be resistant to new updates and technology changes. Thanks to VoIP, keeping up with upgrades and the latest software becomes easy, and these updates will always help your agents communicate better. You can update every tool and extension with only a few clicks, or enable auto-updates.

Unified communication

Unified communication allows agents to manage and switch between multiple channels through a single cloud-based platform. This way, customers can get in touch with your company easily, and you can reply to them there and then.

Learn more: Why you should integrate UCaaS and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) into your business

Customer centricity

Customer centricity is all about putting your customers first. Use analytics, tools, integrations, and the various features your contact center provides to constantly improve services for your customers. Gather customer insight and feedback, and use them to understand their pain points and design processes accordingly.

Better trained agents

Your agents form the bridge between you and your customers, and a contact center is only as successful as its agents. You must ensure they have enough training so that they can service clients better and convert more leads.

Great management

Teams can work more efficiently with optimal supervision and goals in sight. Use the live dashboard to keep track of your contact center. See what your agents are up to by accessing call recordings, and be present for them via features like whisper, barge, and call tracking.

Setting goals

Contact centers offer plenty of reports and analytical features that let you keep track of performance on all levels. You can set goals using those analytical inputs, which are important for agents as they provide them a plan of action.

By setting goals, you can also reward agents and give them something to work towards. Some of the more agent-centric indicators include first-call resolution, average handling time, and customer satisfaction score.

Check out these latest contact centre trends to gain a competitive edge

How to recruit the right contact center agents

There is no magic to contact centers. They are as much susceptible to failure as other solutions are, so it is critical to have the right team working towards the right goal. Here are some things to keep in mind while hiring your agents.

Ideal agent profile

Begin with creating an ideal agent profile, consisting of key skills and attributes that your contact center needs. To identify those, you can study your current top-performing agents and note their best skills and attributes.

Communication skills

Your agents should be able to communicate well with customers over every channel—be it voice, chat, or SMS. This is irrespective of whichever channel your center deals with. Some of the key communication skills that agents must possess are active listening, empathy, compassion, and confidence.

Pre-employment Assessments

Once you know which skills you’re looking for, adequately assess those skills by including relevant questionnaires and tests in your recruitment process. These assessments can include tests that evaluate the candidates’ technical skills, temperament, and social skills.

How to measure your agents’ performance

Today’s cloud contact centers present an array of key performance indicators and analytics that managers can use to track and improve their contact center’s performance. These metrics help businesses define and stick to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Keep in mind the below mentioned indicators; over 65% of our clients use these for their benefit:

First-Call Resolution (FCR)

Customers don’t like to call multiple times for the same query. Hence, a high fist-call resolution rate is a great indicator for the efficiency of your contact center.

Abandoned call rates

Customer calls that disconnect before being answered are always a bad sign for a contact center. This can mean your center has an inefficient call management system, leading to long queues and hold times for customers.

Average handling Time (AHT)

Customers like quick resolution to their issues. But, call center agents can take a long time to assist them. Thus, tracking the call time of individual agents can help improve overall efficiency.

Call transfer rate

Customers can get frustrated repeating the same issues to different service agents. More than 80% customers prefer to speak to a single agent to resolve their issues. Thus, contact center agents must be trained to handle queries efficiently and transfer calls only when needed.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

A good CSAT score can help you get great word-of-mouth from existing customers. It lets customers rate their experience and contact centers to improve their services using these metrics.

What is the future of contact centers?

The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot of business operations. What was done merely three years ago is now seen as the older way of doing things. This is true in the case of contact centers too.

Contact centers are going virtual

Thanks to the cloud, businesses could quickly get back on track after the world had gone into strict quarantine. And despite being confined indoors for over a year, they did not lose out on productivity.

In fact, studies have now listed several jobs that can completely go remote, while the others can opt for hybrid working. One such is the role of contact center agents.

As traditional communication methods fall flat when compared to the cloud, businesses are beginning to take note. Rather than setting up clunky, traditional offices, the future represents a more ergonomic space for these agents.

Moreover, with cloud services becoming industry standards, switching to a virtual contact center is only a matter of time.

Self-service will continue to rise

A study in the Harvard Business Review discovered that “across industries, 81% of all customers attempt to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live representative.”

This continues to align with the increasing demand of self-service options by customers. These include AI-enabled chatbots for quick FAQs, IVR systems with voice recognition software to assist in all sorts of customer queries, and many more.

Man-machine-mix

While automation has swept across almost every industry, contact centers have always been wary of complete automation. This is because, when it comes to quality service, the human touch still reigns supreme. But, the advantages and benefits of automated tools cannot be ignored. Thus, while automation is ‘in’ right now, the hybrid model of man and machine for contact centers is gaining popularity too.

In conclusion

With this guide, we covered the fundamentals of contact centers to help you set up your first contact center with ease. It covers their evolution from traditional call centers to contact centers, their importance for today’s businesses, features, ability to track performance, and plenty more.

The bottom-line is, to be able to run a contact center successfully, you must focus on three key aspects: your team, the service, and customer experience. If these things are central to your process, there is no way a contact center will fail you.

If you have any further questions, you can always connect with our experts by clicking here.

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Expert Opinion: Deirdre Martin on how happy employees are key to happy customers

Ritwik Raj

Author

Expert Opinion

July 25, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

In a world where technology is becoming increasingly affordable, customer experience is one of the biggest differentiators among SaaS players.

There is one thing, however, that most tech companies miss: If your employees are disgruntled or poorly looked after, they will never be able to keep your customers happy. Reasserting this belief, CX expert Deirdre Martin says, “Employees are assets of a business and their performance determines how well the customer experience is going to be.”

This is just one of the many insights that Martin—who is also a renowned author and founder of the CX Creators group—shared. Read on to find excerpts from our interaction that are sure to help you address your CX concerns.

What is the first step to a flawless customer experience strategy?

The best way to make your customers feel more valued is to get to know them better. It allows you to have a better understanding of their lives and their problems. You can use that knowledge to align your services and objectives with the client’s needs and enhance their experience with your business.

When you have clarity on your ideal customer’s pain points, problems, goals, needs, desires, typical behaviour and so on, and when you can visualise what their idea of success is, you will then be better able to build a brand that customers will flock towards.

Suggest three tips for businesses to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations.

Get feedback from customers to know whether you’re meeting their expectations or not. Use metrics and insights to gain that feedback and work on the lagging areas.
Listen to employee complaints as importantly as customer complaints and take action, especially on those (complaints) that overlap with each other.
Personalising services lets you connect with customers on a stronger level. It establishes two-way communication, which benefits both of you remarkably.

Please share some insights that helped you enhance first-call resolution in your business journey.

I believe that helping staff with active listening and empathy skills will help in any situation.

Once the employees have been supported in this way, and a policy has been put in place around what constitutes a complaint, the front line staff should be empowered to offer instant resolution to customers. Be that monetary refunds, goodwill gestures, or some other quick-win that will satisfy the customer.

Here are a few pitfalls that can frustrate customers:

Passing them to different agents
Making unfulfilled promises
Having the customers repeat their problems
Robot-like messages with no human essence

Can you share a few CX lessons you learnt while co-authoring the book Customer Experience 4?

I came across a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum in October of 2020, the results of which surprised me. 94% of the survey respondents (organisations) stated that they expected employees to pick up soft skills on the job.

This came as a surprise to me, because whilst I knew this to be true for small business owners, many larger organisations have the means and know-how to educate and support their employees. The very fact that they don’t use their means and know-how indicates that these organisations brand’s values are not reflective of their brand’s culture and reality.

The companies that have the best leaders tend to be known as the companies that deliver the best customer experiences.

What advice would you like to give to businesses for running a successful call center?

The best advice to run a successful call center is to help your employees and they will help your business. Give them a voice and listen actively to what they say.

Your employees are as important to you as your customers. They are the bridge that connects you to your customers and help you get acquainted with their needs.

Spend more time on coming up with ways to enhance the employees’ experience in the company. Work with your employees to improve their soft skills, confidence, mindfulness, and empathy. This practice gradually leads to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty.

A key skill which employees must work on is active listening. It not only enhances their connection with the customers, but also makes the customers feel more valued.

How can businesses optimise cross-functional collaboration in their workplaces?

Something that I would have advocated for during my banking career was for people to spend a day in the life of another within the organisation. This can help with:

Identifying ways to collaborate with colleagues to better serve clients
Creating a positive culture by assisting others from different departments
Understanding the pressures, processes and systems available to those in other departments

It’s helpful to bring the concerned stakeholders together while working on the customer experience strategy. This inclusion is bound to bring different perspectives on how to formulate the best strategy. Collaborations like this help cross-functional departments create seamless journeys.

What’s your take on improving customer response time to win customers?

With the current advancements in technology, the audience has an abundance of options to choose from. This makes the first step of putting a foot in the door of the customer’s mind a difficult task.

Additionally, people are less patient now with significantly reduced attention spans. Studies show that the average person today has an attention span of only 8.25 seconds!

This means that any customer interaction—whether it’s answering calls, responding to emails or chats—needs to be done instantly.

My team and I won customers in the bank over the years when other institutions were less responsive. I also believe that customer response times can be managed by communicating clearly with customers at the outset of a relationship.

Any strategies for businesses to improve the hybrid work culture?

Businesses that are working on a hybrid model currently should focus on improving their communication—both, internally and externally. Resolving employee issues must be given equal importance than those of customers. If there are businesses that haven’t yet worked on this, now is the time.

The second step is to ensure that employees are provided with adequate support to deal with customers when working from home. Be it tools, software, accessories or equipment that allow employees to interact better with customers.

For more information on how you can utilise the power of the cloud to enhance your customer’s experience, write to us at [email protected] or call us at 1888-859-0450 .

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Why is Effective Communication Important?

Yukti Verma

Author

Customer Service

April 7, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Communication plays a crucial role in our personal and professional lives.

It is a fundamental social skill that helps us build and enhance relationships with friends, colleagues, and family members by helping us express our messages and ideas.

In the workplace environment, good communication also helps minimise errors and optimise productivity. Poor communication, on the other hand, results in employees doubting their skills and abilities in the organisation.

In fact, communication is an art. It comes naturally to some, while others struggle to articulate their thoughts and feelings in a conversation.

One can miss out on their dream job, struggle to progress in their career, and lose potential customers and substantial deals due to poor communication skills.

This blog will help you gain a better understanding of effective communication and its importance in a working environment.

What is effective communication?

Effective communication is vital for the success of a business irrespective of its size and domain.

It refers to the process of exchanging ideas, thoughts, and information in such a way that is understood by both—the sender and the receiver.

Effective professional communication includes explaining the company policies to your clients and answering their queries about your products and services.

It improves the relationship between a company and its clients, increases employee engagement, and enhances the overall efficiency of the team.

In simpler terms, the ability to get your message across is the difference between closing a deal and missing out on lucrative business opportunities.

Additionally, effective communication also plays a significant role in a remote working environment. When employees understand their roles clearly, it results in improved performance.

Therefore, management must ensure seamless communication internally to keep all the employees on the same page.

The importance of effective communication

Communication, whether written or oral, plays a vital role in the development of an organisation. It helps you attain your business goals, understand your employees better and perform basic management functions, such as planning, organising, and motivating.

It allows you to facilitate healthy relationships among your team members, provide constructive feedback and increase loyalty towards the organisation.

Thus, management must encourage its employees to adopt good communication habits to boost team spirit and build camaraderie.

Here are some ways effective communication can enhance your workplace environment and help your business thrive:

Improved team building

Honest communication among employees helps build a solid team. In fact, open communication between staff and managers creates a positive work environment and boosts everyone’s morale.

Good communication strengthens relationships, encourages fruitful brainstorming sessions and creates a sense of belonging among employees. It keeps their spirits high, which helps them resolve issues faster and more efficiently.

On the other hand, ineffective communication leads to confusion, misunderstanding and affects teamwork. Thus, the management should listen carefully, mindfully deliver their message and practise ways to communicate effectively.

In simpler terms, when employees are on the same page and have clarity about their work, they go the extra mile to achieve company goals and don’t let you down.

Resolved problems and mistakes

A clash of opinions is inevitable in a working environment, given personality, cultural or linguistic differences between coworkers. Employees may be burdened by an overwhelming workload or frustrated due to personal concerns.

But long-term misunderstandings can be avoided with effective communication.

Effective communication is not just about who is right and wrong. It’s about having an open and honest conversation to ensure everyone’s ideas are heard and needs are met.

On the other hand, displaying a lack of enthusiasm, disrespecting co-workers and seniors, and communicating vague guidelines and instructions comprise poor communication. These create silos and friction between colleagues. And siloed working results in reduced efficiency and collaboration, ultimately hampering the growth of the organisation.

Management can avoid these issues by assigning a mediator who can help with conflict resolution. Another way is to have one-on-one conversations with the parties involved.

Team building exercises like role reversal and identifying points of agreement and disagreement can also help.

A better work atmosphere

Effective communication plays a crucial role in creating a healthy work environment for everyone in the company. It promotes a two-way flow of information between employees and management, which in turn eliminates confusion and frustration.

When employees are allowed to communicate their problems to the management without any fear, they receive effective solutions. This enhances their job satisfaction and performance.

And when managers clearly communicate the business’ targets to their team members, everyone is able to come together and achieve the common goal.

Therefore, expectations must be clearly laid out and leaders must avoid information overload to reduce uncertainty and ensure that everyone understands what is expected from them individually and collectively.

To effectively do so, leaders must connect and engage with colleagues and subordinates regularly. Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas and give feedback on processes to improve systems. Additionally, managers can organise group activities, workshops, team lunches and run employee satisfaction surveys.

They should also discuss employees’ professional ambitions and endeavour to align individual goals with the company’s goals.

Along with that, managers can attempt to learn more about their team members’ skills and past work experiences. They may discover that their colleagues can actually wear multiple hats at work.

For instance, let’s say that you hire a customer service representative. But when you have an open conversation with them, you learn that they have extensive marketing experience as well. In such a scenario, you can encourage your employee to handle different responsibilities and even take an internal transfer into another department if they are interested in the profile.

Effective communication will help you create a balanced work environment and ensure all employees feel comfortable and satisfied with their work.

Amps up productivity

Effective communication leaves little room for misunderstanding. It helps build good work relationships, improves time management, enhances productivity and fosters staff cooperation.

Open conversations allow managers to assign employees tasks based on their talent, identifying which employee would be best suited for the job. Doing so will improve team efficacy and employees will take accountability for their work.

For instance, if one of your employees is well-versed with Microsoft Excel, you can ask them to manage spreadsheets. This will help you get work done faster but will also keep your team’s morale up since you won’t have assigned the task to a team member who doesn’t enjoy working with the tool.

Additionally, in a work environment where everyone can express themselves freely and share their opinions, employees tend to suggest out-of-the-box ideas.

All you need to do is cultivate an environment wherein employees feel confident offering innovative solutions without worrying about unhealthy criticism. Encourage them to challenge each other’s ideas and co-develop strategies to refine operations.

Better yet, reward successful innovative ideas by sharing them on social networking sites like Linkedin.

Excellent communication ensures that your employees are aware of their roles and responsibilities. It allows them to be proactive in their work and encourages them to push the boundaries when it comes to their contributions.

Satisfied and happy employees are the best brand ambassadors any organisation can have.

Remember, if your employees can transparently communicate and feel they can grow and flourish, your company will witness growth, both internally and with its customers.

After all, a team that feels good delivers better results.

Conclusion

Communication at the workplace is not a one-way street going from top to bottom. It’s more than that water-cooler gossip, fun work memos, and office banter. It includes clarity, consistency, and commitment to be effective.

And effective communication is the backbone of businesses irrespective of their scale and size. If you can interact freely, honestly and openly with your colleagues, you will promote trust and loyalty amongst your employees.

Thus, shift your focus to building good relationships with your employees. Take measures that enhance the overall efficiency and productivity of your organisation.

At Acefone, we help you build strategies and deploy solutions that can redefine communication at your organisation internally and externally. Contact us at 1888-859-0450 or drop an email at [email protected]!.

If you're interested in improving your business communication solution

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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.

Create a Virtual Contact Center for Healthcare Organisations

Saurabh Sharma

Author

Business Communications

March 7, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

The COVID-19 pandemic put a massive strain on healthcare organisations across the globe. Patients or not, people were concerned about the availability of professional help and medical resources.

The panic led to an influx in inbound queries, which, coupled with social distancing and lockdown norms, became quite the challenge for customer support agents working in the healthcare industry.

To successfully cater to people’s queries and concerns, healthcare organisations had to shift their support operations to a virtual contact center.

What are virtual contact centers?

A virtual contact center is a solution that allows customer service representatives to operate from different locations, as opposed to working from a single site.

Since it runs over the Internet, a virtual contact center allows agents to work remotely and handle customer issues via multiple channels like phone, chat, email, etc.

Working in a virtual environment ensures safety, increased agents’ productivity, and elevated customer satisfaction levels.

Patients no longer want to wait in lines for medical processes such as booking appointments, collecting their diagnostic reports, and so on; they expect robust and contactless methods of instant care.

This is where virtual contact centers come into the picture—they help healthcare service providers offer quick and seamless services.

Moreover, these contact centers allow healthcare institutions to be there for their clients much after billing. Patients can receive post-treatment medical care like contactless medicines, online appointments, and teleconsultations.

So, without further ado, let’s understand how a virtual contact center helps healthcare providers communicate with their patients effectively.

Tips for virtual contact centers in the healthcare industry

Virtual contact centers can be tweaked to cater to the needs of various industries.

Some tips that virtual contact centers in the healthcare industry can follow are:

Implementation of new workflow processes to prioritise COVID-19 emergency calls over other medical inquiries
Introduction of COVID-19 related scripts to accurately route medical questions to relevant departments
Allowing agents to handle increased call volume and collaborate with other departments with the help of cloud-powered tools
Making agents aware of their key performance metrics to enhance their performance
Development of an internal website that query resolution with the help of chatbots and frequently asked questions

Challenges for the healthcare industry

Healthcare organisations face different challenges every day. From the lack of adequate medical equipment and a weakened workforce to emergency cases, new curveballs in the form of new variants—there’s much for them to tackle.

Given below are some obstacles they commonly face.

Booking appointments

The uncertainty regarding the pandemic and its symptoms meant people were booking appointments even for illnesses like the seasonal flu, stomach infections, etc.

Due to the increase in queries, patients had to wait in long call queues to connect with agents. As a result, they disconnected the call without interacting with the agent, resulting in a high call abandonment rate.

Emergency calls

The surge in COVID-19 cases and a workforce shortage created a lack of emergency services such as ambulances. People had to call up multiple healthcare providers before they could book an ambulance for themselves or their loved ones.

This resulted in delayed service, accelerating the urgency of treatment.

Report collection

Since people couldn’t and didn’t want to venture out, they could not collect their diagnostic reports on time. Not only did this delay their treatment, but it also turned into a logistical issue for those working at laboratories.

Patient experience

Healthcare organisations found it difficult to attract and retain patients. Contemporary patients demand a streamlined self-service experience to complete simple tasks independently, such as downloading immunisation records, paying their bills, checking their account status, etc.

Instead, traditional healthcare delivery methods require people to physically visit centers to collect their reports, receive diagnoses, and the likes.

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How virtual contact centers can help the healthcare industry

Virtual contact centers provide the necessary tools and features to help healthcare providers deliver better patient experiences. Some of these are:

Real-time tracking

The real-time location system (RTLS) feature provides immediate tracking and management of medical equipment, staff and ambulance. It ensures patients reach the hospital in time, avoiding any serious medical problem.

For instance, when a patient dials an emergency number, they are redirected to the nearest local driver in their region with the help of location-based routing.

The real-time location service promotes patient safety and reduces hospital-acquired infections within facilities. It also helps locate healthcare staff in hospitals when a patient or other staff member requires assistance during an emergency.

Moreover, RTLS also helps track the physical movement of patients who have dementia and Alzheimer’s to ensure their safety.

In-app integration

Integrating contact center solutions with the management system allows people to book appointments from within the app.

Patients no longer need to seek manual support or wait on hold to fix a consultation slot with a doctor. They can now do it from the comfort of their home with just a few clicks.

Furthermore, the integration allows you to create patient IDs and keep track of their history, assigned doctor, and consultation time.

With the help of patient profiles, you can send timely alerts and reminders for medicines, blood tests, etc. These alerts and reminders can often be a lifesaver for patients with chronic issues.

Report alerts

The best way to enhance a patient’s experience is by improving communication and reducing their workload.

Offer omnichannel communication by sending e-reports to your patients via email, messaging apps or simple SMSes. Allow patients to view their test results and reports online and save them the hassle of coming to the hospital physically.

In simpler terms, report alerts enable you to reach patients outside of the hospital environment personally.

Securing patient records

Data breaches are a very common phenomenon in the modern world. But, healthcare systems cannot afford to let patient data be at risk as they would have to pay a hefty penalty for violating compliance standards.

Security compliance can help organisations save valuable patient records and information from data theft.

Therefore, medical organisations must invest in security measures to remove the threat of ransomware attacks and data breaches and protect sensitive patient data.

You can also integrate CRM software into your system to access the patient data and history at your convenience.

Engagement after treatment

A patient’s journey does not end once they pay the bills and get discharged from the hospital. Sending timely reminders for regular checkups and health tips via emails, SMSes etc., can help bolster doctor-patient relationships.

Such reminders also help patients look after their health and take necessary precautions.

Conclusion

Virtual contact centers help healthcare organisations form personalised relationships and improve customer satisfaction levels.

They also help heathcare providers work remotely and provide excellent features and services to patients.

Furthermore, omnichannel platforms help providers communicate with patients via different channels. They also simplify tasks like booking an appointment, collecting reports, sending reminders, etc.

To know more, get on a call with our experts at 1888-859-0450 or drop an email at [email protected].

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Saurabh Sharma

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Saurabh is a content writer at Acefone. He is a fan of standup comedy, football, and Hindu mythology. He is fond of travelling to unexplored places, meeting new people, and having newer experiences that enrich his soul. Connect with him on Linkedin

Business Texting Etiquette – 10 Proven Tips for Leaving Great Impressions

Acefone Editor

Author

Business Communications

March 1, 2022

8 mins read eye

Table of content

Texting came into our lives with the advent of cellular phones over two decades ago. It remained a convenient way to communicate between friends, family, and acquaintances for quite a while.

Over a period of time, however, businesses began to uncover the benefits of simpler and faster communication through instant messaging. Mass messaging became the first real deployment of texting by businesses.

Today, texting is the preferred way of communication for businesses due to a variety of customer engagement options, from marketing to customer support.

In addition, with collaborative work across geographies becoming a reality, messaging has become a tremendous enabling tool for internal communication as well.

Texting in business environments has many benefits. Before diving deeper into how to drive professionalism in this space, let us review these advantages.

Benefits of business texting

Some merits may be seen as common knowledge and are often taken for granted in today’s connected world.

Yet some businesses still do not have a policy around the use of instant messaging in their communication model. It is crucial that businesses implement some guidelines before they adopt texting:

Always available

Texting is not necessarily dependent on an active Internet connection. Hence, it is always available for both the team members as well as customers.

Customer experience

Speed and personal touch are both inherent to texting, and they both convey a sense of professionalism. The sense of personal touch brings a sense of being looked after.

Recipients, including customers, tend to read and respond to messages faster than emails. Speed translates into responsiveness and adds to a better experience for sure.

Privacy

Texts are more likely to be delivered to the recipient only.

And there are a plethora of situations where privacy matters, such as when sending an OTP, or when banks send you an update on your account. Texting becomes the preferred choice of communication in many such instances.

Ease of use

Some forms of communication are not age-friendly. For example, a section of the population may find the use of email rather difficult or effort-intensive

On the other hand, texts are basic. With the advent of voice-to-text and vice versa, this mode of communication has become easier than ever.

Low on costs

Texting is inexpensive. For all the benefits it offers and the costs at which it comes, the value proposition of business texting becomes rather alluring.

While reviewing the benefits, it is also pertinent to note that the form and flavor of messaging in professional environments are very different from personal messages.

This is why it is essential to know and implement the right texting ways. Else, it is easy to flounder on the basic etiquettes that are so important.

Incorrectly drafted messages can be annoying for the recipient and could even be misinterpreted. And all this may actually be happening unintentionally without the sender ever realising the errors in following the basic etiquettes.

Let us look at the proven rules of etiquette, the best practices, and also some common errors that should never creep into a business text.

Rules for professional etiquette

The rules are relatively straightforward and simple. Most of these fall into one of the two buckets – things to do, and things to avoid. The rules and tips compiled below are not in any order of priority; each of them is important.

Be sure that texting is appropriate

Remember that texting is not the go-to mode of communication for everything and every time, especially with customers. It is suitable for short updates, time-bound messages, or crisp text-based information. Texting is an absolute no for conversations or discussions, sharing of confidential information or even sharing big news.

Before initiating a business text, it may be a good idea to evaluate whether a phone call or an email would be a better way to communicate the information. After all, each mode of communication has its benefits. While this is a subjective topic, viewing it from a customer’s perspective can help.

Seek permission

Asking for consent from a customer is considered polite. Permission opens the door for a healthy conversation. Keep in mind that messaging without consent is considered spamming.

Many countries around the world have regulations and frameworks to protect their citizens from unwarranted messages flooding their inboxes. Hence, it is also a legal obligation to seek consent. Such consent can range from a customer sharing his number to receive information to explicit written consent. When in doubt, seek guidance from the manager or advice from your legal counsel.

Identify yourself

Everyone receives messages from unknown numbers, and most may be wary of even opening a message from an unidentifiable source. So, until your number is known to the recipient or you are using a cloud-based solution where your number is your identity, it is important to identify yourself in the message to ensure that the communication gets delivered. As a business, it is advisable to use dedicated cloud-based numbers that are inherently identifiable by the recipient. Such numbers are available from cloud service providers.

Like consent, many countries have regulations on the sender’s identity as part of compliance mechanisms. Again, when in doubt, seek guidance from your manager or advice from legal counsel.

Use a greeting or a salutation

A greeting with a salutation is always polite and is inherently endearing. We use them during face to face communication as well as over phone calls, so why not in texting. Addressing the customer by name is also a good idea for personalisation.

State the reason for the message upfront

Every business communication has a reason and an objective. It is a good idea to state the reason upfront. Whether the message is about a status update, a task completion, a request for an appointment or whatever it might be, mentioning the reason underscores the relevance of the message.

Always remember that short is sweet

Long and winding texts can be confusing and annoying. It is best to be straightforward with the content and communicate it in as few words or lines as possible. The recipient does not have the patience to scroll through to get to the point.

‘No more than one’ is another key element to keep in mind for messages that contain a call to action. It is easier to precipitate action from the recipient when there is a single call to action.

Check grammar and use a professional tone

It is best to stick to a professional approach in language and tone. So remember—no use of modern slang or emoticons. These are best left to personal texting. Even the use of capitals in words can be seen as threatening and are absolutely avoidable.

In addition, wrong punctuations and incorrect grammar are completely avoidable. They may generate a sense of fraudulent spam in the recipient or worse, have lent a negative perception towards your business.

As a bottom line, always remember that each communication has implications for the sender’s image and for the business. To reiterate the point, always keep it safe.

Always stick to business hours

Most people like to draw a line between work and personal time. And a message received at odd hours can be seen as intrusive and annoying. It is best to stick to socially acceptable norms and text only during business hours. When communicating with people in different time zones, it is a good idea to be mindful of the business hours of the recipient. Texting may not be the best option in cases of emergencies anyway.

The objective of business texting is to add to customer experience positively. Messaging at the wrong hours is certainly counterproductive.

Be responsive

The core reason for the wide adoption of texting in business is speed. And speed should work both ways. When there is a query from a customer, it needs to be responded to quickly, in the shortest time possible.

Being responsive adds to a sense of gratification in the customer and adds to their experience. From this perspective, each query is an opportunity that should never be allowed to slip.

Respect customer choice

Respecting the other person’s choice is exceptionally relevant to personal and professional engagements.

In a business environment, customers have the choice and retain the option to exercise their choice at all times. Therefore, if a customer opts out of receiving promotional texts, it has to be respected at all costs.

It is evident that some rules of etiquette detailed above are common courtesy while others are professional courtesy.

Still, just knowing them or listing them down somewhere is not going to be enough.

The key lies in the broad adoption of these in everyday behaviour and communication. Let us review the next steps towards implementation.

From rule book to implementation

The cornerstone to appropriate implementation is comprehensive awareness. Everyone in the team needs to know the rules and their relevance to efficient business communication.

Some of the best practices around awareness are:

Create a business etiquette policy

To underline the importance that your business lends to excellence in business texting, it is a good idea to articulate a policy around the same. The policy needs to be shared with each employee. Better still, employees should be encouraged to acknowledge their understanding, or the lack thereof, of the policy.

Communicate the policy

All businesses have their own internal communication systems—from placards in the shop or office floors, physical notice boards, digital boards, and email to intranets.

Together with other important policies like quality or customer orientation, this policy should also be available everywhere for viewing or referencing.

Conduct orientations and trainings

Most good businesses lay strong emphasis on talent development. They have a defined roadmap that details everything, from new employee orientations to regular training.

We also know that employee mannerisms in customer engagements have a direct bearing on the brand image of any business.

It is always a good idea to consistently reinforce the importance of professional business texting and go through the right way to text as a refresher.

Hence, training in rules around etiquette in business texting needs to be a part of all regular training programs.

Enable teams to manage crises

Despite driving sensitivity and all the training, there could always be a situation when something goes wrong.

For example, a batch of messages may go out with incorrect information.

How to recover from such instances is another element that needs to get addressed in the training module.

So, to recover from an embarrassing instance without dishonesty is a learning that is as important as knowing how to do it right in the first place.

Final words

While texting comes naturally to most people on this planet, there indeed are differences in personal and business texting.

In the modern world, texting has proliferated in business environments for its benefits. Hence, it becomes crucial to define certain rules of engagement for this mode of communication.

There are etiquettes, rules, and best practices that need to be followed when it comes to engaging with customers or even internal team members. And it is crucial to train employees on these.

After all, the way our employees communicate through texts reflects on the image of the business.

This needs to be done, and there will never be a better time than now.

At Acefone, we assist businesses in elevating their communications to the next level and building strong customer relationships. To know more, get in touch with our experts at 1888-859-0450 or send an email at [email protected].

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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.

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