5 Call Center Features You Can Move to the Cloud

It’s becoming increasingly clear that cloud-based PBX systems can provide call centers with the most versatile, seamless and cost-effective approach to optimum customer care and continuous operational improvement of the call center. A cloud-based call center system provides freedom from costly and rigid on-premise hardware by replacing it with a system that can be infinitely customizable by almost anyone to meet evolving needs in the following ways:

• Customizable call routing via optimized call flow and queuing ensures quick, efficient and seamless customer connections to the right agent or departmental target.
• Intuitive reporting and monitoring functionality to improve call flow, agent training and UX for agents and customers based on defined KPIs.
• Management of multiple phone numbers for seamless and universal caller connection to agents or departments from callers across the country or globe.

The key in simplifying the customer journey through call center system setup is developing the most effective yet succinct call flow possible.

In this article, we'll explore five call center features you can manage more efficiently and effectively with a VoIP system. 

Related: Customize Your Caller ID Display Name

The Auto Attendant / Phone Menu

As the first point of contact for callers the phone menu is a key part of determining how the customer experience will unfold. To best control that experience requires you to have a clear understanding of the customer base to create the best possible customer experience.

Menu options set the stage for the customer journey in the best way possible when they have some/all of the following attributes:

• A concise greeting and list of menu options that still provides all necessary information for the caller to pick the right option.
• Language options to funnel callers to the appropriate team.
• Options to repeat the menu and return to the prior menu. 

With a VoIP phone system, menu options can be easily changed at a moment’s notice based on changing business options, schedules, geography, and marketing/sales campaigns. These changes can be done remotely and go live instantly. 

After the caller chooses the menu options that best suits their needs, call routing must be instantaneous and transparent on the surface while facilitating what may be complex routing protocols on the back end. That takes us to the next element - call routing. 

Call Routing Automation & Rules 

Call routing determines where to route the call based on the caller's selection or based on your preset routing rules. This can be an automatic process based on chosen menu options and a host of internal policy rules based on IVR responses that identify the caller, their need, available agents, time of day and more.

Call routing can be based on a host of factors including business hours and agent scheduling among others. With an online VoIP management system like Telzio, you can easily implement schedules and ranking order for which agent or group of agents should receive calls and in what priority. Any changes go live instantly, and you can set preferences such as: 

• Call distrbution - call all agents at the same time, or in order listed 
• Time out - length of time the call attempts an agent before moving onto the next 
• Grace  period - length of time before an agent receives another call after ending a previous call
  
  

Queueing Callers On Hold 

Call queues enables you to organize agents into specific queues based on defined logic and route callers into the queues that will best respond to their needs. An inbound call center queue system must be capable of easily programming, monitoring and changing the following parameters:

• High volume of simultaneous calls on a single line
• Custom hold music and announcements
• Call routing order / prioritizing agents
• Maximum hold time
• Announcing hold time to agents
• Ability to log in and out of queues

All of these features are easily administered and changeable in real time in a visually intuitive dashboard that can only be possible with a cloud-based PBX system like Telzio. This wealth of functionality that can be easily changed becomes even more powerful when you have metrics to measure call center performance. 

Live Call Data & Call Monitoring 

Cloud based call center tools enable immediate, real time acccess to performance metrics. Rather than waiting for a call log report at the end of the month, call center managers can view this information as they are happening. Live call center tools include: 

• Live call monitoring with call whisper capabilities for supervisor agent coaching without the caller hearing.
• Live call monitoring with call barge capabilities to interact with caller and agent to handle complex issues in real time.
• Live call reporting to view activity on queues and agents in real time.

While having a 360-degree view of all call center functions and control via an intuitive dashboard is key to continuous improvement, it must be backed by analytics that measures results against KPIs for call center improvement.

Call Center Analytics

The pursuit of continuous improvement requires that a call center be capable of analyzing its performance through hard data available at any given moment. Telzio's call analytics provides instant data that can be filtered by dates/numbers/queues, with a list of pertinent call center metrics about calls, queues, and users, including: 

• Number of inbound/outbound calls
• Average hold time 
• Most active users 
• Average call duration
• Missed calls
• Number of abandoned calls 
• Number of calls that exceeded the hold time 
• Number of calls abandoned by the caller 

See a list of call center metrics available on Telzio's Dashboard. 

Simplifying Inbound Call Center Setup & Management

Even though a call center configuration is based on numerous factors that appear to create a complex structure, the process itself does not have to be complex. By utilizing an end-to-end, cloud-based PBX system as the foundation, businesses can use customer knowledge to set up the system via the dashboard to configure, administrate, monitor and adjust their call center’s functionality.

The right system and provider choice ensures that the business has a system that can be easily adapted and customized in real time to deliver an optimum customer and agent experience as the business and customer needs evolve over time. Learn more about Telzio's cloud based call center platform at telzio.com. 

Related: Add Custom Annoucements to Your Phone System