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Effective Ways to Leverage Outbound IVR in the Call Center

Posted on: October 3rd, 2019 by Elemér Erdősi No Comments

Have you ever asked your customers what the first thing is that comes to their minds when they think of IVR systems?

Well, the bad news is that it’s probably the vision of never-ending calls, with an automated system playing annoying music in the background until they get transferred to a live agent.

The good news is that these days, thanks to rapidly advancing technology solutions, an IVR system can be used for a lot more than just routing callers’ incoming queries.

IVR technology can now also be used for outbound purposes as well, a well-constructed outbound IVR allowing companies to excel at some of the most important customer service activities.

Check out my article and find out what the most effective ways are to use an outbound IVR system in the call center!

Outbound IVR surveys

As we all know, customer feedback is vital to any business. On one hand, by collecting customer feedback, you can communicate that your customers’ opinions matters to you. On the other hand, customer reviews contain some of the most valuable information you can gather about your product, allowing you to improve your processes in the long run. After all, it is customers who use your products, isn’t it?

When it comes to collecting feedback, companies often send out mass SMS messages with a link that directs customers to a survey they can fill out. And while this is one way of collecting customer feedback, why not instead simply give your customers a call and ask them directly for their opinion?

An outbound IVR can be used to proactively reach out to a large number of customers and conduct a survey with them over the phone. Customers can either use their dial pad to type their message or simply say their opinion out loud while the IVR system records it, and using speech-to-text these voice responses can be also saved as a text.

Luckily, outbound IVR survey calls can be personalized as well. By leveraging text to speech technology, for example, you can address your customers by name and further personalize the message by providing additional personal details in the conversation.

IVR for debt collection

One thing is certain, debt collection companies receive a lot of payment promises. There’s only one problem: these promises are not usually kept. When this happens, debt collectors have no other choice but to repeatedly call back customers and remind them of their outstanding debts. And of course, it is costly allocating some of your resources to repeatedly remind the same customers of their debts.

So, have you thought about launching an outbound IVR campaign that uses a recorded message to notify customers of their outstanding debts and due dates? For example, VCC Live’s outbound IVR feature can calculate and subsequently let customers know how many days are left until they need to settle their debts.

And if you want to kill two birds with one stone, you can even offer your customers the option of being transferred to a live agent or self-service to pay their debts during a call. How amazing is that?

Telesales and lead generation

Outbound IVR systems can also be used for telesales and lead generation purposes. Most companies have at least a few databases with extremely cold contacts who almost never pick up their phone.

Allocating members of your workforce to repeatedly call numbers that are unavailable for the majority of the time is unlikely to bring any return to your business. And this is where an outbound IVR campaign comes in handy: you can launch an outbound IVR campaign specifically for your cold contacts, and if any of those customers pick up, they can be automatically transferred to a live agent. By doing this, you can make the most of your cold contacts without having to waste your expensive workforce on them.

Furthermore, it is the main goal of any telesales department to prospect for qualified leads. Finding these qualified leads, however, takes a lot of cold calling, which is again very costly. An outbound IVR system, on the other hand, can greatly improve your lead conversion process by pre-qualifying interest.

In other words, you can start automated cold calls, play messages regarding your product, and then offer customers an option to be transferred to a live agent if they are interested.

Mass notifications with outbound IVR

Outages and service interruptions can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. In such cases, you’ll need to notify hundreds or even thousands of customers about the interruptions within the shortest possible time period.

But handling mass notifications in a call center greatly reduces productivity, as agents end up dealing with the notifications rather than handling customer queries. However, one effective way to easily communicate such interruptions with your customers is by sending out mass notifications through an outbound IVR.

Again, you can personalize your mass notifications by using a combination of pre-recorded audio and text-to-speech technology.

Of course, with an outbound IVR, you can communicate other important messages as well, such as letting your customers know of unexpected changes in your business, driving them towards last-minute sales, or reminding them of an upcoming appointment with your company.

Outbound IVR systems can be greatly beneficial for any call center that deals with outbound customer activities. Make sure you also leverage it!

The Benefits of Computer Telephony Integration in the Call Center

Posted on: September 26th, 2019 by dorarapcsak No Comments

Exceptional customer service is the backbone to any company, as it paves the way for significant business growth.

Considering the increasing demands of today’s customers, however, providing an exceptional customer experience is no small feat.

Luckily, rapidly advancing technology tools are here to help out. Computer telephony integration, in particular, is a technology that helps call center agents to win the battle for customers. Check out how below!

What is Computer Telephony Integration?

Computer Telephony Integration, or CTI, is a technology that allows computers to interact with telephony systems and forms of digital communication. A CTI system can handle both incoming and outgoing communications such as phone calls, SMS, email, fax and video chat, and route them to the appropriate person or device.

A Cost-Effective Solution

Call centers managers are always on the lookout for cheaper solutions for their call center. And a computer telephony integration system is one tool that allows call centers to help cut their expenses.

A CTI system doesn’t require a PBX and key system telephones, meaning that agents only need their computer in order to be able to work. By adopting a CTI system, you can forget about the costly purchasing, maintaining and replacing of physical hardware solutions.

CTI systems also support remote work: a VoIP system, for example, matches a session to every agent, so agents can use different computers remotely from home, allowing the call center to significantly reduce costs related to office space and IT infrastructure.

As such, computer telephony integration is not only more cost-effective but is also highly flexible, enabling call centers to easily scale up by hiring remote agents when it’s needed.

Improved Agent Productivity

A CTI system allows agents to take and receive calls on their computer with a single click, saving significant time in picking up phones. Agents can also leverage call control functions, including call answer, call hold, hang up call transfer and call mute on a single screen, without having to switch between applications and leave their desks while on the phone.

Furthermore, good-quality CTI systems come with handy features that enable call centers to improve their productivity. The “interactive voice response” feature, for example, filters customers and route them to the most skilled agent, boosting first call resolution and customer experience. And features such as “click-to-call” allow agents to start a call without having to dial a number.

Last but not least, the fact that a lot of customer information is available even before a call begins (more on this below) means that call duration times can be reduced, as agents do not have to start calls with questions they already have the answers to.

Provides Valuable Customer Information

They say you need to know your customers in order to be able to provide them with outstanding customer experience. It’s no surprise, therefore, that collecting customer data is now crucial for any call center that strives to shine in the long run.

With computer telephony integration, agents can assess all customer information they have from a single platform, making customer interaction far more efficient.

Important customer information such as name, company and previous interactions or purchases can be made available to agents, allowing them to add personalization to customer interactions.

Furthermore, CTI not only helps make your agents’ jobs easier, but also makes your call center supervisors’ job easier as well, as it supports call monitoring, call recording and real-time statistics.

Amongst other things, supervisors can track agents’ performance and even use call monitoring to assist them in real-time if necessary.

Moving forward in our ever-competitive business environment is a major challenge. But if you leverage CTI technology, you’ll be able to take customer excellence in the call center a step further.

How Customer Service Automation Is Revolutionizing Contact Centers

Posted on: August 28th, 2019 by dorarapcsak No Comments

In today’s CX-driven world, customers can choose from a number of platforms when they want to communicate with your customer service team. As a result, businesses receive inbound conversations on far more channels than they used to.

It’s clear that your agent team on its own would struggle to respond to all of these incoming conversations that your business receives. However, by automating some of your processes you’ll be able to handle thousands of conversations simultaneously across all channels while keeping customers satisfied.

Implementing customer service automation processes in the call center has many advantages. Here are the top benefits!

Increase your productivity

Just because your agents are on the phone all day long, it doesn’t mean they are making productive calls or being efficient. Many call centers still rely on manual dialers, with agents having to dial numbers themselves. And many of these calls end up lost on answering machines, or with agents waiting too long for a customer to pick up.

Customer service automation can greatly benefit your call center’s productivity. With a predictive dialer, for example, you can automate your dialing process and thus potentially double your efficiency by reaching as many customers as possible.

Indeed, one major advantage of predictive dialers is that they can greatly enhance agent efficiency. Firstly, by relying on a predictive dialer, agents save time as they no longer need to manually dial numbers. Secondly, when an agent finishes their current call, a predictive dialer already has the next call ringing and ready to handle.

Furthermore, you can also provide automated responses to the most recurring customer queries, and thus free up your agents from typing out the same response multiple times a day. In fact, automating some of your workflows can potentially add up to hours of saved time per day.

Deliver better customer experience

Let’s face it, customers rarely look forward to contacting customer service lines. Having to contact a company’s customer service several times, and then being put on hold for several minutes, is clearly a frustrating customer experience.

With proper customer service automation processes, however, customer issues can be easily resolved without them (and you!) having lengthy and inefficient phone calls with customers.

Amongst other things, skills-based routing is a technique being increasingly used to direct customers to an appropriate agent by routing incoming calls to specific agents based on the service requested. As a result, customer experience greatly improves as agents are not only actively talking to customers but are also resolving their issues at potentially the highest level of efficiency.

It is also worth considering that it is increasingly common for companies to use automation tools such as an IVR system to handle their customer service traffic more effectively. However, voice-based IVR systems often mean customers calls take longer than expected, and actually don’t bring the results customers are looking for. So, if you want to unlock the full potential of IVR systems then make sure you opt for a visual IVR. Visual IVRs allow customers to use touch-screen menus to find the answers they’re looking for, instead of waiting for traditional IVR systems as they read out every option.

Lower your costs

As we all know, lowering costs is the number one priority in any call center. Saving costs by reducing staff numbers, however, is a gamble that is not worth taking, as during peak times it may actually end up costing you more in terms of poor service.

In contrast, customer service automation will allow you to cut costs by reducing the amount of labor used on individual tasks, rather than your number of agents. By automating some of your processes, you’ll not only be able to free up your agents from repetitive, low-value activities but also reduce the number of customer calls your call center receives. And, most automation tools are available on a subscription basis, allowing you to only pay for what you use and also easily scale up based on your needs.

So, for example, if your call center receives a lot of repetitive questions, you can assess your calls and automate the repetitive ones, for example, using an IVR feature. The more calls your IVR system can handle the more money you can save on your workforce.

Reduce your agent workload

Handling low-value repetitive tasks, such as answering the most commonly-asked questions a company receives, is a nightmare for any call center agent, a soul-sucking activity which can easily result in them burning out. This is definitely one area where customer service automation can help.

Chatbots, for example, can carry out many kinds of repetitive tasks on behalf of call center agents. In recent years, chat solutions have become massively popular in the call center industry, allowing call centers to reduce agent workload and letting agents focus on higher-value activities.

Another great customer service automation tool is customer self-service. The benefits of self-service are obvious: if your customers can resolve simple queries themselves, this will allow your customer service agents to use the resulting additional time to handle more complex issues. The result will be significantly-reduced customer service call volumes, and so substantially reduced agent workloads.

Customer service automation is more than just about offering customers a more convenient experience. It enhances productivity and quality, while also allowing you to better manage your resources. Make sure to leverage it in order to get the most out of your customer service interactions!

How to Create a Forum to Promote Your Products

Posted on: May 15th, 2019 by Péter Krisán No Comments

In today’s world, e-commerce is more important than ever, and there are dozens of online channels you can use to promote your products. While it’s true that the more channels you use, the wider the audience you can reach, in fact, focusing your promotions on your true target audience is just as crucial as reaching a broad audience.

In a previous article, we already talked about the benefits of building an online community, and arguably a forum is your best option when trying to build an online community for your business.

Whether you are considering setting up a forum for your business or just wondering how a forum can be your business’ next promotion channel, here are some practical tips (and steps) on how to get started!

What is a Forum and What Are Its Benefits?

An internet forum is an online discussion site where people with common interests can participate in open conversations. Registered forum users can initiate new conversations on a specific topic by creating threads, and others can post questions or replies within the thread.

You may not think so, but an online forum has a number of benefits for business. Amongst other things, an online forum allows you to build relationships, earn trust, establish credibility, and even help promote your products to a community that is already interested in topics relevant to your business.

Tip #1 — Choose a Suitable Forum Solution

Once you decided to create a forum, you need to decide how you want to set up your site, technology-wise.

You can purchase forum software and host it on your own server, use a forum website service, or a website platform with a forum plugin. However, each option has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some options, while very customizable, are more complicated to set up, requiring server and coding knowledge. Other options are easy to implement, but are limited in terms of customization.

In brief: Find a forum solution that best suits your requirements, and is flexible enough to be future-proof in terms of customizability and functionality.

Tip #2 — Have Some Rules in Place When Create a Forum

In a forum where people are allowed to express their opinions, —which is why we love forums, right?— it’s probably a good idea to have some rules in place.

So you should create Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, outlining the terms when using your forum. Terms may include what activities are forbidden (e.g., self-promotion, using discriminatory or offensive language), what restrictions are placed on new users (e.g., new users cannot send direct messages), how certain users are rewarded (e.g., gaining badges for posting frequently), or what the consequences of violating the rules are (e.g., temporary restriction).

Whatever rules you have, make sure that new users are fully informed of them when signing up, and that the terms are easily accessible to every user.

In brief: It’s your forum, so you write the rules (literally). A forum is not an uncontrolled discussion environment – you own it, and as such, you are responsible for what goes on in it.

Tip #3 — Choose Interesting Topics (And Choose Wisely!)

A conversation is no fun without topics to talk about. So, before launching your forum, initially create a few threads that can help generate new conversations or keep existing conversations going.

For starters, you should definitely create some generic threads related to your business, so your forum can start growing. You should also open a few topics that are more specific to certain subjects, such as a complex issue or a controversial topic. This is a great opportunity for you to start conversations about your product, allowing your customers to become your brand advocates.

Your business forum can also be the perfect place for your clients to provide feedback on your products, so giving you ideas for future developments, as well as spreading the word about your products to others — sounds like a great promotion opportunity, right?

In brief: Creating generic topics can help your forum grow. More specific topics can attract potential core forum users and help your forum become a valuable information source while also promoting your products. And feedback-focused topics are great for consumer research purposes, while also letting users provide help and support to each other for your products.

Tip #4 — Breathe Life Into Your Forum

No matter how interesting your topics are, an uninhabited forum probably won’t be attractive to many users.

If you have a previously-established online community (e.g., on social networks or a subscription list), make sure you invite them to your new forum. An already-existing community can help breathe life into your new forum, potentially become your forum’s loyal members and helping invite other users to the discussion.

Additionally, an existing user base can help your forum grow and generate content for your website.

In brief: Empty forums are not cool. Make sure you let your existing online community from various social platforms know about your new forum — not only will they liven up the site, but they will also generate content for your website that will attract even more users to your newly-launched forum.

Tip #5 — Moderate Forum Conversations

As soon as your forum starts growing, you will quickly find out that moderating posts can be quite a challenge.

So, as well as you and other co-workers moderating posts, you might want to ask other forum members to join the moderators’ team in exchange for some small compensation.

Moderator tasks can include responsibilities such as reviewing posts to check they meet community guidelines, reviewing posts that were reported, approving new members’ profiles, or banning abusive users. Last but not least, welcoming new users, responding to other forum users’ questions, or keeping conversations going can be rewarding tasks as well.

In brief: You should definitely keep an eye (or more) on conversations in your forum. Not only you can prevent conversations being, well, too unmoderated, but showing that the forum is being actively kept taken care of is a sign of a healthy, vibrant forum community.

Tip #6 — Promote Your Products on Your Forum

In fact, on a well-established business forum, you don’t have to do much to promote your products. The forum itself promotes your products, or more precisely, the community on the forum do.

When a potential buyer searches the internet for your product, chances are they will run into your forum and find some valuable information about your product that will be key to their decision. Because existing customers’ reviews really do matter a lot. In addition, the more topics the user base creates, the higher the possibility of people finding your product when searching the web for related keywords.

In brief: Reviews and opinions spread fast on the internet—so do good product reviews. And if a forum gives the impression to a potential buyer that the community behind the product is trustworthy, then they will have the same impression about the product, too.

Takeaways

It’s no doubt that a business forum can be a very powerful tool in your long-term marketing strategy.

Because a forum is great for consumer research purposes. A forum community creates content for your website and provide product support for your products. And the majority of forum users are tech-savvy and are usually open to making purchases online. So, I guess it’s time to create a forum, right?

Do you have any success stories about promoting a product on a forum? What you think makes for a great forum community? Let us know about your experiences or thoughts in the comment section below!

Pro Tips to Have a Better Customer Self-Service Portal

Posted on: April 26th, 2019 by dorarapcsak No Comments

With consumer behavior developing as it is, customers need answers quickly, demand personalized support experience, and are willing to solve their issues themselves.

That’s why, every year, customer self-service is getting more and more popular. Setting up a self-service portal is a major step towards a fully modernized customer service. But as we know, there’s always room for improvement.

So, here are some handy tips and tricks to have a better customer self-service portal. Check them out and step up your game!

Highlight the most frequent questions

A customer self-service portal needs to contain all the information your customers might possibly look for. Of course, the more information the easier it is to get lost.

Your customers, however, should be able to quickly find the answers to their questions in your customer self-service portal, without looking too hard. So, why not add an FAQ section to your portal?

An FAQ has two major benefits: on one hand, it saves the customers time and effort, which they’ll most probably appreciate. On the other hand, it saves time and effort for your agents as well.

Add visuals to your customer self-service portal

Images and videos can deliver a message much faster than any other way, so it’s no surprise that visual content has started to dominate our lives.

Would you rather watch a 3-minute video or read a 6-page long support material? Most customers would go for the first option! As such, make sure to add visual elements to your customer self-service portal in order to help customers better understand your support material.

By creating screenshots and how-to videos, for example, you can walk your customers through important issues, while conveying instructions in a straightforward and easy-to-understand way.

Make it easy to access a live agent

When setting up a customer self-service portal, one major goal is to reduce call volumes by allowing customers to perform routine tasks without interacting with a call center agent.

But even if you have the most comprehensive self-service portal, your customers might get stuck and need to talk to a live agent at a certain point. And since they have already spent some time trying to solve their issue, they will want to be transferred to a live agent as soon as possible without any hassle.

Therefore, in order to sustain high customer satisfaction, you’ll need to make it easy for your customers to move from self-service to live agent-assisted service. Implementing, a one-click solution, for example, that takes customers directly to a live agent can be a great way of transferring to assisted service.

Assess Your Self-Service Portal – and Improve

So, you finally finished building your customer self-service portal. However, the job isn’t over. Once your customers start to use it, it’s essential that you continue to keep an eye on it.

These days, data is everywhere, you just need to make good use of it. So, after you set up your self-service portal, make sure to start measuring its effectiveness. Amongst other things, a reduced call volume will indicate that you successfully managed to ease up your customer service lines by directing some of your customers to your self-service portal.

Last but not least, don’t forget to ask customers for feedback. After all, it is they who use your self-service portal in the first place.

Key Features to Look for in Your Sales Software

Posted on: April 2nd, 2019 by Attila Szűcs No Comments

Satisfied customers, satisfied agents and satisfied management – for me, that’s the Holy Trinity of Sales.

Sales is vitally important for the success of any business. But selling in 2019 is definitely more challenging than it was in, say, the 1990s.

Customer expectations have changed, and sales departments have had to change with them. Gone are the days when companies can focus their sales strategy solely on cold calls. And although calls are still an important part of any sales cycle, in our tech-dominated world your company also needs to rely on comprehensive sales software in order to reap success.

Below, I’ve outlined the key features that any sales software you use should definitely have. Check them out and you’ll soon start to be selling more effectively in 2019!

Up-to-date Database

Besides having the right attitude and receiving high-quality sales training, your sales agents will also need certain technology tools in order to sell effectively. An accurate and up-to-date database is, without doubt, one of those tools.

In fact, an accurate database is a prerequisite if you want to successfully manage sales campaigns. Leveraging an up-to-date database will not only allow you to better understand your customers’ behavior and needs but also help you provide your customers with a more personalized experience, thus increasing your up- and cross-sell rates.

Therefore, I suggest you always choose a sales software solution that either comes with built-in databases or can be integrated with any other database.

Killer Sales Script

As I’m sure you will know, call center scripts are written scripts that call center agents refer to and read from when on the phone with a customer. When used properly, they can greatly help your agents provide a seamless customer experience and sell more effectively. When written poorly, however, they can easily turn your customer experience into a nightmare and even reduce your sales performance levels.

Building powerful scripts is not always easy, and often requires significant time and resources. Even worse, if you hire a third party to build your sales scripts, the process can take up to several weeks. And, of course, time is money for any business.

So, make sure to choose a comprehensive sales software solution that comes with an easy-to-use script editor, allowing you to build and customize your own scripts in the blink of an eye.

With VCC Live®’s system, for example, instead of hiring a third party, you can quickly and easily build your own scripts by using an intuitive drag-and-drop editing interface. You’ll see it makes all the difference!

Predictive Dialer

One thing is certain, running a call center is extremely costly. But with the right tools, you can easily turn your call center into a profit center, rather than a cost center. One tool that will definitely help you do this is having a predictive dialer feature in your sales software.

The golden principle of sales is simple: the more people you reach, the more you can sell. Predictive dialers use statistical data to help predict how many numbers need to be dialed at any one time, so that every agent is always in an active call, and as a result, outbound dialing rates are substantially sped up.

VCC Live®’s intelligent predictive dialer, for example, can allow your agents to spend up to 40-45 minutes per hour in active talk with customers, enabling you to significantly increase the possibility of making more sales. Impressive, right?

Furthermore, our intelligent predictive dialer monitors activity during specific periods and automatically sets its parameters based on historical data available from those periods. Feedback from our customers shows that utilizing our predictive dialer results in, on average, an overall 30% increase in sales performance.

Effective Integration

There’s no doubt that embracing new technologies during the customer journey is essential to meeting customer needs. But if you ask me, without integration, there is no digital transformation.

Most companies use several technology solutions on a daily basis, and it is integration that helps keep their customer data consistent and up-to-date throughout all their systems. It is also integration that allows agents to use one single platform during customer interactions, instead of switching from one system to another.

If your systems are not integrated, your agents will have no choice but to switch from one system to another during customer interactions. Needless to say, making your agents navigate between several systems will hurt your team’s productivity, and consequently their sales performance.

On the other hand, with system integration, your agents will be able to access all necessary customer information on a single platform, allowing them to provide customers with personalized up- and cross-sell offers.

Based on my experience, I would say it is crucial for any business to choose a sales software solution that is able to integrate with other tools. VCC Live®’s system, for example, can be integrated with a great number of tools, such as CRMs, workforce and workflow management systems, including Zapier, Salesforce, Facebook Messenger , MS products, and so on.

Data Analytics

Having access to limitless information certainly led to new challenges (just think of the increasing number of cyberattacks), but at the same time, it also created new opportunities for businesses to make good use of the great amount of data they gather.

And how can you make good use of this data? By measuring everything, of course.

Applying data analytics to measure data can play a key role in increasing your sales performance. It’s logical if you think about it: your best chance of selling your product or services is if you understand which offers are most relevant to your customers.

By using data analytics, you’ll be able to examine patterns, such as purchase history, in a customer’s past behavior, and then identify their preferences and needs. Such information will, without doubt, help your agents cross- or up-sell products that are the most relevant to your customers.

Luckily, these days, comprehensive software solutions come with intelligent reporting tools such as real-time statistics, dashboards and wallboards to measure customer data and KPIs.

In particular, by measuring your KPIs, you can structure your workforce management based on identified peak and idle times. As such, in peak times, you can allocate more agents to take care of incoming calls, while in idle times your agents can initiate outbound campaigns.

So, these are the features that I believe are the most important ones to consider when buying a sales software. Now that you know what to look for, there’s no reason for you not to choose a comprehensive technology solution that will help your sales numbers skyrocket!

Your Call Center Needs a Predictive Dialer. Here’s Why!

Posted on: March 27th, 2019 by dorarapcsak No Comments

When it comes to sales, reaching the maximum amount of potential customers is vital for the success of any business.

However, many call centers still rely on manual dialers, with call center agents having to dial numbers themselves. And many of these calls end up lost on answering machines, or with agents waiting too long a time for a customer to pick up.

Under such circumstances, how many productive calls do agents make in a single day? Needless to say, not many…

Luckily, technology, in the form of predictive dialers, is here to help again. Predictive dialers are intelligent outbound call processing and managing systems that use statistical data to help predict how many numbers need to be dialed at any one time, thus making sure that every agent is always in an active call.

Below, we’ve outlined why call centers need to rely on this technology. Make sure to read on!

Increased Talk Time

It’s simple: when it comes to selling, the more you can talk, the more chances you have to make a sale.

Predictive dialers work by dialing numbers while agents are still in a call, often initiating more calls than the number of available free agents. By the time an agent finishes a call, the predictive dialer has already dialed the next number. As a result, agents are able to spend as much time as possible talking to customers.

VCC Live®’s intelligent predictive dialer, for example, can allow your agents to spend up to 40 minutes per hour in active talk with customers, thus enabling you to interact with customers more effectively.

Increased Sales Numbers

Since predictive dialers significantly increase average talk time, agents have the opportunity to go the extra time to make more sales.

Furthermore, a predictive dialer will also allow your agents to get the most of the increased talk time by keeping customer data update.

In particular, predictive dialers can offer the ultimate in efficiency when integrated with other systems, such as a CRM. With CRM integration, an intelligent dialer can determine the best time to call customers by creating call-back lists with preferred calling times. When the time comes, the dialer automatically starts the call, while also supporting the agent with relevant information from the customer’s purchase history.

As a result, agents can reach customers at the right time with the right message, thus increasing overall sales rates.

Increased Agent Efficiency

One major advantage of predictive dialers is that they can greatly enhance agent efficiency.

Firstly, by relying on a predictive dialer, agents save time as they no longer need to manually dial numbers.

Secondly, once an agent finishes their current call, the predictive dialer already has the next call ringing and ready to handle. As such, the average waiting time agents spend between two calls is reduced to only a few seconds.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

These days, customer satisfaction is the lifeblood of any business. And luckily, as well as helping your agents, predictive dialers can also help you keep your customers satisfied.

Using unique algorithms, a predictive dialer can collect and store valuable customer data. And so, as well as your customers being contacted at their preferred time, your agents will also be able to offer them products or services that are actually relevant to the customer.

And as customers highly appreciate a company going the extra mile to keep track of their history and provide them with personalized offers, you can be sure that it will increase their satisfaction and loyalty to your brand.

All You Need to Know About SIP Technology in Call Centers

Posted on: February 22nd, 2019 by Dr. Gábor Fehér No Comments

These days most call centers use VoIP technology to connect their calls via the Internet. In order to leverage VoIP, however, businesses need to establish connections with their providers in order to create endpoints that can communicate with each other. And to establish these connections, SIP technology is needed.

In this article, I’ll not only introduce SIP technology to you but also show you how your call center can benefit from using it. So, let’s dive in and find out all you need to know about SIP!

What is SIP technology?

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) technology defines the messages that are sent between endpoints, while also dictating establishment, termination and other essential elements of a call. It can be used to transmit information between two or more endpoints.

In addition to phone calls, SIP can also be used to set up video, instant messaging, media distribution and other applications, supporting the ever-more popular omnichannel communication trend.

Not surprisingly, SIP technology is an ideal solution for call centers, and an increasing amount of call centers now rely on this technology in order to handle their customer communication.

So far, so good, but what are the actual benefits of SIP technology for call centers?

Cost-effective

First things first: SIP technology is cost-effective. In fact, SIP has great potential for call centers, as instead of relying on physical wires, it can simply use VoIP technology, which is easier and cheaper.

In particular, SIP eliminates the need for expensive call center desk phones by reducing both space requirements and the cost of equipment necessary for physical hardware solutions.

Furthermore, while most traditional phone calls are charged on a per-minute basis, with some SIP solutions available on the market you may even be able to pay a monthly fixed fee for the system. Sounds better, right?

Flexible

When it comes to running a call center, peak periods are a major part of the deal. As I’m sure you’re aware, during peak periods you either act quickly and scale up your business or potentially face a large number of angry customers.

One major advantage of SIP technology in call centers is that the solution is flexible and agile. As with cloud solutions, it is quick and easy to setup. In addition, once your SIP connection is in place, you’ll be able to quickly adjust capacity by adding new features through simple software updates rather than expensive and time-consuming hardware upgrades.

Furthermore, traditional phone lines are normally sold in batches and must be ordered well in advance of when they are required. SIP connections, on the other hand, can normally be ordered individually and accessed almost immediately, allowing call center managers to quickly upscale when needed, and only pay for the extra capacity that is required at any specific moment. Also, when you’re moving your business, it is significantly easier and quicker to move SIP connections than physical wires.

Ideal for remote working

Relying on remote agents is highly beneficial for call centers in terms of productivity, operations, and cost-effectiveness. And as SIP technology enables communication over the internet via computer and mobile devices, it allows call centers to utilize home-based agents.

As a result, call centers that leverage SIP connections can not only save on costs such as IT facilities and utility costs but can also access a global pool of high-quality talent unlimited by geographical factors.

This allows call centers to offer solutions covering wider geographies, taking advantage of native labor pools, specific agent skills and multiple time zones.

Security and data privacy

Security and data privacy remains one of the biggest issues in telecommunications. And with cybercriminals becoming more and more advanced, call centers need to be able to rely on 100% secure technology solutions in order to protect their data.

The truth is that any device that uses SIP technology (and which is thus connected to a public network) has the potential to become a major target for cybercriminals. SIP technology, however, is based on encryption (SIP-TLS) and authentication protocols that are able to address possible frauds and cyber-attacks. But they will only be effective if your call center has strong security policies in place.

However, by relying on encryption and endpoint authentication, and by also ‘fencing’ your network infrastructure with SBC (session border controller) technology, you’ll be able to successfully secure your SIP networks.

Convenience

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of speed and convenience in effective customer service today. And SIP technology has a number of specific benefits that allow businesses to provide convenient support to their customers.

What’s really important about SIP is that the technology isn’t just about voice communication: it can handle sessions covering a variety of media, such as voice, video and chat, and so support omnichannel-based contact center activity. With SIP you really can do everything using one system.

Furthermore, SIP technology, through its ability to support multichannel IP communications, makes it possible for call center agents to set up innovative services such as a click-to-call button on their website or a voice-enhanced e-commerce experience.

With SIP technology, call centers can simply do things better, faster and cheaper, providing services that will drive customer satisfaction and agent effectiveness to a whole new level.