Understand Everything About Call Center Software with this Guide

With various technologies in hand, almost everything is automated. And this everything includes call center service too. With the right software at hand, it becomes quite easy to set up a call center on cloud without any hassle.

But what is this call center software? What is a cloud call center setup? And you may have many other questions lingering in your mind. This blog is going to address all of them. Make sure to read till the end to know everything about virtual call center software.

• What is a call center software?
• Different type of call centers
• IVR
• Queue Management
• Call Routing
• Voice mail box
• Call Distribution Method
• Agent CTI
• What is Cloud Telephony?
• Features of Call Center Software
• Benefits of call center software
• What is an On-Premise Contact Center?
• What is a Virtual Number? How does it Work?
• Types of Virtual Numbers  
• Wrapping it Up

 

What is a Call Center Software?

A call center solution can also be termed as call center software. It is a program that will help organizations in landing large volumes of calls be it inbound or outbound. With this software, organizations can route these calls to the desired numbers, trigger the pre-recorded messages, record calls, gather customer information, and conduct various other actions with ease.

The new generation of consumers are expecting a lot when it comes to support from the organizations. They are expecting the calls to be answered in very little time and want executives to solve their issues even quicker.

With the proper cloud call center software in place, the agents will get to meet all of these requirements with minimal effort. All they have to do here is to understand the features and benefits of the software and how they can make the most out of it.

The best thing about this call center solution is that you can integrate it with multiple channels-

• Live chat
• Email
• Social media
• SMS messaging

Once the software is integrated with different channels, customers can contact the call center directly by clicking on the number shared with them.

 

Different Types of Call Centers

Call centers offer a wide range of services and different call centers are providing various types of services. It is important to understand which type of call center offers what service. You should be aware of the strengths of each of these to pick the best one out of them for your company.                

Inbound Call Center:

Inbound call center services, as the name suggests provides incoming call services to the companies. This service is useful to the already existing customers, new customers, or even for the staff of an organization. There is a multitude of services that companies can provide using this inbound calling feature.                                                                                                                             

Some of such services are

• Order Processing: Clients can call an organization and place an order for their products. The executives can then process these orders and provide them with various other products as needed along with recording the order information and collecting payments.
• Offer Help Desk Support: This is another important application of inbound calls. When a customer has an issue with the product or service, has any query related to them, then they can get on a call with a representative and sort out the issue. They can also call in service requests if needed.
• For Logistic Services: Customers can contact logistics companies to know where their parcel is when they can get it and monitor the shipping. This is an added advantage with the inbound calls.
• Addressing the Calls: A call center can work as an answering service where representatives will take the calls from customers, know the issue and then transfer the call to the respective department where experts will solve the problem.
• Emergency Response: These are the helplines that customers can contact whenever there is an emergency. For example, ambulance services, hospitals, police officers, etc.

Outbound Calls

Outbound calls are an effective and affordable way to reach out to your prospective customers. You can get your representatives to get on the call with the leads and market your product or service to them.

The common application for outbound call centers are

• Expand the Sales Reach: The executive can reach out to your already existing customer to know about the feedback of your product or they can reach out to the potential customers to know whether they are interested in your product or not.
• Sell the Product/Service: You can hire marketing professionals who will reach out to the provided leads that are gathered with marketing techniques. They will pitch various products or services that the company is dealing with and build a sales funnel.
• EMI Reminder: This service is especially for banking, fintech, and financial service providers. They can get their executives to reach out to the customers who have existing loans and remind them about the pending EMI.

These are just some of the services. There are many more that executives can do with outbound calling features.

Non-Voice Process

The customer service process isn’t limited to calls alone. There are various other forms of communication and interactions that can be done with the customers. Most modern-day call centers are offering communication, emails, faxes, and various other services for clients across the world.

Omnichannel Call Center

Customers love having a personalized experience. You can offer this using an omnichannel call center. These contact centers use all the channels that are available to communicate with the customers. With people expecting a customized and better experience, providing them with an omni channel services is always a good idea.

Virtual Call Centers

Pandemic has changed the way the world is working right now. Many organizations have opted for a virtual working environment. With virtual call center software, it becomes quite easy and simple for organizations to handle calls from anywhere at any time.

This virtual call center is quite affordable as there are no operational costs that the company has to bear. Companies can mint more profits this way.

 

IVR

IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response. It is a self-help feature that is provided for customers.

Multi level IVR system is a self service feature that is meant for customers. In this IVR, there are different levels that customers will be choosing to get their issue resolved.

For example, If a customer calls a bank service center, they will get a welcome message followed by options. If customer wants to talk to the agent, they have to click that particular number and the call will be redirected to the agent. The IVR service providers will enable this multilevel IVR option and add as many levels as you want.

Likewise, the organizations can set up multi level IVR options according to their requirement and customers as well.

DTMF

DTMF plays a major role in IVR. DTMF stands for dual tone multi-frequency. In IVR, customers have to click on certain numbers to select the preceding options. Each of these numbers present on a handset has different sound frequencies.

IVR listens to these sounds and understand the commands given by users. There are a total of eight different tones and each of these tones have two different keys. In the handsets, the keys ranging from 0 to 9 are used along with the symbols * and #.  Once you decide the menu for these numbers, the IVR service provider will take care of assigning the keys and organizing the system.

 

Queue Management

The queue management helps in reducing the customer wait time and makes sure that the work load is distributed in a proper way among the agents. Although the call center software helps in making customer service even easier, there are times when the call center agents are stuck with calls and cannot take more calls at that particular moment.

During those times, the queue management will come in handy. The calls are set in queue and as soon as an agent is available, the call will be redirected to that agent.

Automated Call Centers

Automated call centers will help in reducing the call management cost with the help of computer-based systems. These computer-based systems will take care of many caller responsibilities. When it comes to automated call centers, the manpower requirement is less compared to normal call center companies.

These centers just need an operator who will take care of the systems. The automated call center is used mostly for

• Managing the Voice Mails: Companies enable this voice mail system to take messages from anyone who calls in. The automated call center will receive all of these messages on behalf of the company.
• Interactive Voice Responders: Interactive Voice Responders is in short termed as IVR. When a customer calls a company, the IVR will offer them a menu, and depending upon their selection next discussion will go on. The calls are routed to executives whenever needed or customers can solve their issues with the help of IVR itself. IVR service providers offer different types of features with the service.
• Schedule Reminders: The companies can use this automated call service to call customers and remind them about their schedules, appointments, etc.

 

Call Routing

Call routing is a proper process where the calls are routed to particular agents according to the preset rules. In any call center organization, there will be multiple agents who work on taking the calls. When any customer places an inbound call, that call will be routed to the agents according to the already set rules.

The call attributed is provided by the organization and according to it calls will be distributed. There are different types of call routing

•  Skill-based Routing

•  Language-based routing

• Tertiary Based routing

•  Time and date based routing

• Priority Based routing

 

Voice Mail Box

IVR service providers will help you with a voice mailbox system. It is not possible for the agents to stay available to take calls all the time. In such situations, the voice mailbox is something that will come in handy. Whenever a customer calls your organization up and if no one is available, they can just leave a voicemail.

These voice mails will be stored in the cloud and you can access it whenever you want to.

 

Call Distribution Method

The call center software will provide automatic call center distribution service to its users. With this, the calls will be distributed among agents in an simple yet effective manner. When large volumes of inbound calls are being made to an organization, it is important to assess and distribute the calls to agents according to their availability.

With Office24by7 CRM, the reporting managers will have complete control over this call distribution method and they can choose the right method that will suit their requirement.

• Liner call distribution
• Round robin distribution
• Uniform call distribution

 

Agent CTI

The agent CTI is one of the best features of Office24by7. This CTI can help in placing automatic calls, taking action on the leads according to call response, record the calls. The supervisors can listen to the calls, interact with customers if they want to when call is going on or whisper to the agent alone without customer knowing. There are multitude of customizable features available in this Agent CTI.

 

What is Cloud Telephony?

Lately, everything is moving to the cloud then why not your PBX system? Yes, cloud telephony means hosting your PBX on the cloud itself. The service will be based on VoIP. Cloud telephony is quite flexible and can scale along with your business without any hassle.

No matter how you are expanding, be it opening new offices in different locations, expanding your in-house teams, or hiring remote workers, you can do everything with ease using cloud telephony. The entire expansion is effortless and quite affordable as you don’t need separate hardware for hosting.

Cloud telephony is a part of UCaaS. UCaaS stands for Unified Communications as a Service. It is a model which brings various collaboration tools and communication systems together. You can connect your phone system with other messaging services, video meetings, CRM, and many more.

With this communication model, you can connect with your teams, communicate with them, and make employees more focused. Cloud telephony works with the help of the internet. Whenever you place a call, it is routed to the required number by your service provider.

The analog signals are converted into digital packets, and then they are transmitted via your internet connection. You can connect a desk phone, mobile or a softphone, any preferred device of your choice. Apart from helping organizations with internal communication, businesses use it for making inbound and outbound calls too.

The entire communication system runs on the cloud and you will have a dashboard with complete control over the phone numbers, adding new users, call forwarding, and more. Cloud telephony services are opted by many organizations because of the flexibility they offer.

 

Features of Cloud Telephony Services

Cloud Telephony comes in handy for businesses in more than one way. Apart from lowering business costs, its amazing features can help businesses thrive. Here are some of the most important features of cloud telephony services.

Call Forwarding

This is a very important feature in the business. You can eliminate all the missed call situations with this one call forwarding feature. If a customer calls you on one number and the agents are not available in the office, in a general scenario the call will be registered as a missed call. But with this call forwarding feature, the call will be redirected to the required number. This way you won’t miss any call from hereafter.

Checking Live Calls

It is important for you to know with whom your agents are speaking, how many incoming and outgoing calls are active at present, and many more. All of this is possible with the live call option. This way you will get to know which of your agents are engaged on calls and who is free.

There will be a clear dashboard that will provide you with all of the details that you need to know. The agents that are idle, calls that are unanswered, answered calls, and many more.

Listen to the Calls

The reporting manager or team lead can hear the live calls. They can whisper to their agents without letting the caller on the other side know and also can directly speak to the callers whenever there is a necessity.

Queueing the Calls

It happens rarely for some businesses and often for others. The influx of calls increases and with all the agents being busy, it becomes tough for companies to answer all the calls. In such situations, the companies can place these calls in a queue and play some pleasant music.

The agents will also be notified about the calls that are in queue so that they can wrap up the call quickly. If the call queue is long and agents are all occupied, the calls can be redirected to voicemail where customers will let you know about their query and your agents can answer it whenever they are done with the calls.

Call Conferencing

For any business, communication is the key. With a remote workforce, staying in touch with all of the employees is not an easy task. However, you will have the call conference feature in cloud telephony services and you can make the most out of this. With one platform you can talk to all of your employees without any hassle.

Interactive Voice Response System

IVR service is a great option for all inbound calls. It provides a one-on-one option for customers, they can interact directly with computers with voice configuration and with DTMF inputs. The callers can route themselves with an intelligent routing system at their convenience.

You can start with a welcome message followed by queue management, automatic call distribution, and many more.

Apart from this, there are some repetitive tasks that customers can do by themselves. For example, they can book a demo, change their password, and many more with the help of an IVR call. You can contact IVR service providers to avail all of these features.

Sticky Agent

Customer interactions, be it on phone, are quite similar to face-to-face interactions. In most situations, your customers get accustomed to one agent and they prefer to interact with them given that the agent knows the history of the customer and has a fair idea about them.

With cloud telephony, the organization can allot sticky agents to customers. This way whenever that particular customer calls, it will be automatically redirected to their agent only.

Call Recording

Call recording is one such feature that companies often overlook. With call recording, the companies can understand what customers are expecting from their end. Apart from this, they will always have a repository of conversations that happened which may come in handy in the future.

Analytics and Reporting

With call analytics and reporting in hand, companies can analyze and understand agents’ performance. The details of each and every call, dropped calls, agent call logs, connected and missed calls, everything will be available in one place. All of these will be put in a comparison table which will make it easy for the manager to see.

The best part about this is the caller database will be automatically generated and integrated with the CRM if you are using any.

Integrations

Having different platforms for your support tickets, customer calls and lead information can be tiring for businesses. However, culminating all of them in one place will ease things. With cloud telephony, you can integrate all of these services in one place. With APIs, you can integrate different tools and make customer service even easier, better, and more efficient.

Blended Call Center

Some businesses have different teams for their inbound and outbound calls. There is a myriad of reasons for this. In such cases, the blended call center is something that companies can make the most out of.

With this, you can have both inbound and outbound call features in one place itself. The agents can actively receive calls from customers on one hand and approach the prospective leads on the other.

Easy Transfer of Calls

There are at times when your agents are stuck while answering customers. When an agent is talking to a customer on call, there is no time to pause and frame answers. If they don’t have a proper idea about the issue raised by the customer, agents can transfer it to the right people who have all the necessary information required.

With cloud telephony, agents can transfer the calls with just a click making it easy for both customers and agents.

 

Benefits of Adopting Cloud Telephony

Before the pandemic, cloud telephony was an underdog with very few people knowing and adopting it. But things changed in 2020 and people started realizing the importance of this technology. It brings a lot of benefits to the table and we are going to cover them in this section.

Control the Business Communications Efficiently

Even now, most of the support calls land directly to the desk phones only. There are various ways customers can contact a business and resolve their issues but most of the customers prefer to call.

This is the reason why businesses should have better control over communication. With cloud telephony, you will get this control. You will get information on all the calls, be it inbound or outbound, the call recordings and logs. This will help in improving the business communication in your organization.

Simpler than the PBX System

The PBX system has been incorporated in the offices for some decades now and people got used to it. However, the setup and maintenance of this entire system is so tiring. The tangled wires, telephones, routers, and whatnot have been a hassle to work with.

You can eliminate all of it by just switching to the cloud telephony service. All you need is an internet connection and you set it up with the existing mobile devices or landlines. The entire setup won’t even take up more than an hour of your time.

The best part about this is that you can integrate it with other tools and software with ease. If you are using a CRM already, you can integrate both of them using APIs. Apart from that, the reporting managers can add or remove agents on the go as and when they seem fit.

Completely Mobile and Flexible

Mobility and flexibility are the two things that modern-day businesses need and you will get both of them with the cloud telephony system. With this technology, businesses can let their employees work from anywhere at any time while staying in touch with them whenever required and them being accountable for the work.

This will reduce the operational costs drastically for an organization.

Cost-Effective

This is the expansion of the last point in the earlier benefit. Every company aims at reducing its operational costs and there is no doubt about it. Cloud telephony services will help cut down the business costs on a large scale. You do not have to worry about purchasing any infrastructure.

Apart from that, you don’t have to worry about installation and maintenance costs either. Everything can be done through a laptop, tab or just a mobile too. This way there is a massive reduction in the entire business costs of an organization.

Notable Business Features

It is important for every business to constantly evolve and become better. The one thing that is needed for this is insights. Cloud telephony service will help in gathering these insights. The software will generate real-time analytics along with bulk SMS automation, post-call surveys, call schedulers, and various other features.

With this automation of reporting, various monotonous works are automated making it easy for the employees.

It Isn’t Just Calls Anymore

Cloud telephony goes beyond the calls. It supports various marketing initiatives like SMS marketing, missed call campaigns, etc.

Better Visibility

Cloud telephony service is quite efficient in capturing operational data like call volumes, call timings, the response time of each agent, call durations, various channels related to inbound calls, the average number of calls each of your agents is making in a day, call recordings, etc.

The reporting manager can take all of these into consideration while making any decision. They can also monitor the employees at every step, train them according to the requirement, and maintain records for future reference as well.

All of these are stored directly in the cloud and can be automatically accessed from anywhere with an internet connection and a mobile or laptop.

Resilient Phone Service

In case there are floods or an earthquake in your business area, the desktops and hardware systems will be destroyed or at least affected. Wiring will be damaged which also hampers communication. This will lead to loss of data, affect the entire communication system, etc.

But if you opt for a cloud telephony service, all of your data is stored in the cloud and won’t be affected despite what happens to any of your hardware devices. Moreover, you can access the data and make calls using any device. All you need is a proper internet connection.

Cloud telephony is quite reliable and resilient.

Completely Scalable According to Business Requirements

Any organization owner would want to scale and become bigger, better at the business. When a business grows, the manpower grows, the equipment required for them will also grow and all in all scaling would come at a cost.

However, with cloud telephony, scaling your agents and increasing business operations on the communication end is simpler. You can just add another user to your software and continue the business operations as usual.

 

What is an On-Premise Contact Center?

On-Premise as the name suggests will be operated in a particular business area alone. The companies have to invest in hardware and software which will be located in one place and must be operated from there itself. These on-premise contact centers are also called legacy contact centers.

These contact centers are based on platforms provided by Avaya, Cisco, and Genesys. All of these platforms are completely inflexible. However, there are various companies to date that are relying on these types of contact centers alone.

The on-premise contact centers are outdated technology and are not suitable for disruptive changes in customer behavior. The setup of an on-premise contact center takes 7-24 months and any up-gradation of systems will take 9-12 months.

Most of these contact centers are now running on outdated data and technology. This impacts the overall performance of an organization. Because of various drawbacks that are present in on-premise contact centers, organizations are moving towards the cloud.

 

Difference between Cloud and On-premise Voice Services

Cloud and On-Premise voice services have their own set of advantages and setbacks. It is important for you to understand all of these before making a decision for your business. Here we are listing out all the key differences that are present between both of them.

Deployment

• On-Premise: In an on-premise voice service, the hardware and software are deployed in the client’s premises. The organization will have to bear the entire setup cost and are responsible for the maintenance. This can be quite hectic and organizations should have a team of experts available all the time.
• Cloud: There are different types of cloud setups- private, shared, hybrid, etc. All of these are preferable for businesses according to the requirement. Businesses should just pay and access these resources at any given time.

Control

• On-Premise: In an on-premise setup the organization will have control over all the data. It can be for good or worse. This is the reason why most of the organizations that are highly regulated and have privacy concerns are hesitating to move to the cloud.
• Cloud: In the cloud, there has always been a struggle to understand who will have control over the data. Even vendors are troubled with this question. Although there are encryption and third-party keys that are available, relying on them alone is not easy. Apart from this if there is any downtime of the cloud due to any situation, it can become a hassle.

Cost

• On-Premise: The organizations are responsible for all the ongoing costs that are related to hardware, software, space, and power consumption. The cost has always been a big drawback on-premise setup.
• Cloud: The businesses that opt for cloud telephony should spend money on the resources that they are using and nothing else. They don’t have to worry about maintenance or any other issue. The pricing can decrease or increase, depending on the usage of resources.

Security

• On-Premise: There are some businesses that deal with extra-sensitive information and need high-end security. For such companies, an on-premise setup offers great security compared to the cloud. Here they have the entire data stored in their device which cannot be accessed by any third party person without permission.
• Cloud: The cloud setup has some security issues no matter how effective the encryptions are. There are so many instances where a lot of data has been leaked and put into the public domain. Although the IT people are struggling to protect data, there is still no guarantee for complete security in cloud yet.

Scalability:

• On-Premise: In an on-premise setup, scalability is not easy. Adding extra devices, deploying software, etc. is going to consume a lot of time and comes at a heavy price too.
• Cloud: Scalability is a great advantage when it comes to the cloud. Businesses can just use extra resources and pay for it. The setup is so simple and efficient.

 

What is a Virtual Number? How does it work?

Virtual phone numbers aren’t limited to a fixed location. With this number, users can connect to anyone at any time with the help of VoIP. Users can deploy desk phones, softphones, mobile, etc. for communication.

The virtual number acts as a mask for the original phone number and businesses can use it to receive both inbound as well as outbound call center. They provide great anonymity despite looking like a real number.

Let us take an example of Office24by7 virtual number India. We give you a number with a prefix of either Hyderabad, Bangalore, or Mumbai. All of our numbers look like landline numbers and you can market these numbers for communication purposes. By having the local prefix, companies can use our toll-free virtual number to reach out to customers with outbound calling services.

Working of a Virtual Number

Now that you know what a virtual number is, let us see how it works. The virtual numbers don’t have any SIM or wired connection. They are provided by the operator in the cloud and when a customer contacts this number, the call will land in the preexisting mobile/telephone number. This is the reason why the virtual number can also be called cloud telephony.

The virtual numbers don’t need any specific device to receive calls. The calls can be rerouted to any required number and agents can lift the call without any hassle.

VoIP plays an important role in this. VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. This service makes it easy for everyone to make calls with the help of the internet. This service is quite resilient and unless the internet goes down, there is no other way for the number to not work.

Advantages of Virtual Number

Virtual phone numbers have so many benefits. In this section, we are going to list out all of these advantages in detail.

Maintain Privacy

Not everyone would be fine to get in touch with customers using their personal number. There are instances where contacting customers from personal numbers has created some issues for the agents too. With a virtual number, all such issues can be toppled.

The fact that this virtual number will route calls directly to personal numbers but still the person on the opposite side won’t be able to see it is a great feature. It eliminates various kinds of issues and maintains a good level of privacy among customers, agents and managers.

Sync Communication

The amazing advantage of virtual numbers is that you can sync the number with any device that you prefer and are reachable. You can communicate using any of the internet-enabled devices with ease. With so many people working out of the office, having a virtual number will make communication uninterrupted.

Affordable Option

Saving money is one of the top priorities for any business. Having virtual numbers can help businesses with cost-cutting and also makes it easy for them to scale and grow. With an online number available, there is no need for companies to invest in expensive hardware. All of these make virtual number service a go-to option for organizations.

 

Types of Virtual Numbers

Right now in India, there are four types of virtual phone numbers India available- landline number, mobile number, toll-free and local number.

Landline Number

The virtual landline numbers are quite similar to the usual landline numbers with an eight-digit number with STD code as a prefix. This number is used for intra-organization communication. Most of the small businesses also opt for this virtual landline number as their official contact number.

Mobile Number

This is a ten-digit number that actually looks like a mobile number. Most of the field agents have this number to contact their customers. One thing about these virtual numbers is that they must be integrated with a CRM to use them.

Toll-Free Number

The toll-free number is a free calling number for customers and businesses incur the costs. Businesses incorporate this toll-free number when they need customers to contact them. The virtual toll-free number will be attached to multiple channels so that any agent who is not on call can respond to customers without making them wait in a queue.

Local Number

Virtual local numbers are another great option that companies can make the most of. Most people are skeptical when they receive calls from new numbers but that won’t be the case when they see the STD code of their locality. With virtual number India, you can get a local number visible on the customer screen.

 

Wrapping it Up

In this article, we have covered all the required details related to the call center on the cloud. Most businesses are moving to the cloud because of the flexibility and resilience it is offering. However, when you are making such a huge shift, it is important to make sure that all the bases are covered.

When talking about bases, we are talking about all the required features, security, data accessibility, and ease of operation. You can get every one of these with Office24by7. There is no denial in saying that communication is the key for every organization. Be it internal communication, or external, an organization requires proper communication setup and Office24by7 is here to offer the same. There is no denial in saying that Office24by7 is one of the best cloud telephony and IVR service providers.

With different cost-effective packages, you can enable the transformation without burning a hole in your pocket. If you are looking for a great product with amazing after-sales support, then Office24by7 is the only thing you need.

I know, this has interested you and it is time to know more. You can contact us on +91 7097171717 or drop an email at sales@office24by7.com.

 

Frequently Asked Questions