Best Call Center Software

Customer experience is more important than ever to survive in today’s business environment and customer support is an extremely important part of that. While there are so many methods to provide customer support in this digital age, a survey by Deloitte found that most people still prefer being assisted over a call.

Over the years, call centers have been helping businesses gain a competitive edge and helping them deliver a great customer experience. During the course of this article, we will discuss call center software, its functionalities, and its value-addition, so you can choose the right one from so many call center solution providers that are available.

Who uses Call Center Software?

Consumers today expect a whole lot more from customer service than they did five years earlier. They want their calls handled quickly, they want self-service options, they expect agents to help them out, and they don't want to be bothered by long waits.

Call center software can be used to help your agents meet customer expectations with minimum effort. The key is understanding what features and benefits call center software can offer, and then deciding which ones are most important for your business.

When to Choose a Call Center Software?

Before you choose a call center platform, you need to ask what information you need to capture. With so many call center software solutions in the market that come with so many features, here are some questions that you may want to ask before you make a choice:

• What are the channels that are used by my customers?

• What knowledge will I require and how will it be stored?

• Do I have a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution in place?

• If I need to offer segmented service, how will I route my calls?

• How will all my systems work together? What will the user interface be like?

These questions may help you determine whether you must opt for stand-alone call center software or contact center software with an integrated call center so that you make the right choice to support your growth. Ideally, a call center management system should be scalable, reasonably priced, and support the way you conduct your business seamlessly.

Types of Call Center Software

1. On-Premise Call Center Platform

On-premise phone systems require you to install phone hardware or software on your local premises. They are typically landline phone systems with local routing servers installed in your office. These systems can be controlled with legacy hardware and software. They involve considerable initial investment. They are not easily scalable and are vulnerable to the risk of a single point of failure.

2. Cloud-Based/Hosted Call Center Software

With cloud-based call center software, you do not need to purchase and maintain phone servers and other hardware and software. All you need is a headset. Since the solution is hosted on the cloud, it can be scaled easily in multiple locations. There is no single point of failure.

Since the data is hosted in the cloud, it remains secure. It does not require a huge initial investment as you are generally required to pay-per-user and receive access to your virtual cloud-hosted call center software.

3. Inbound Call Center Software

Typically used by B2B or SaaS organizations, if your incoming calls comprise 70% or more of the total calls, you will need an inbound call center software that has extensive routing capabilities.

4. Outbound Call Center Software

Outbound Call Center Software When at least 70% of the calls are initiated from your end, which is mostly the case with banking, financial services, and insurance sectors, you will need an outbound call center software that can help a set of agents manage a large number of prospects, enabling you to call as many people as possible in the shortest timeframe.

Features of Call Center Software

1. Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

Incessant call transfers can irritate any caller. With the ACD feature, inbound calls are automatically routed to employees who are skilled enough to handle the call. Also, when calls are automatically routed to the right person, less time is wasted and more calls can be attended to.

This can be especially helpful in emergency routing situations in the healthcare sector. It can also enable preferred agent routing so that callers are instantly connected to the same person they had spoken to previously.

2. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

The CTI feature in the call center management system integrates computer and phone technology to improve productivity. CTI finds applications in phone call controls, and phone number dialing and can also integrate business applications. It enables agents to manage and track call activity as quickly as possible.

It can integrate with CRM applications and can effortlessly document data and retrieve it when it is needed the most. Not just CRM applications, CTI can integrate with ticketing systems and service desk systems, and also those that support chat and email messaging.

3. Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

IVR software features include speech recognition, text-to-speech, and personalization tools. They can automatically greet customers and collect information and provide an appropriate response. This feature in call center platforms can automate frequent and repetitive tasks.

They allow customers to self-serve. They can be used to conduct post-call surveys and routing calls to the right person efficiently.

4. Predictive Dialer

Predictive dialers automatically dial phone numbers from a list, screen for busy signals, voicemails, answering machines, fax machines, and disconnected numbers, and even automatically connect answered calls to the first available agent.

It can also use algorithms to predict agent availability and how long it takes for a call to be answered and adjusts the dialing speed accordingly. In other words, this call center management system feature saves time and money, increases the call connect ratio, and improves sales revenue.

5. Call Center Monitoring

As the name suggests, the call monitoring feature in call center solutions lets managers/supervisors monitor calls for training and quality purposes. It can also facilitate metrics and reporting for quality assurance programs and initiatives. It can be used to improve performance and train new agents. Here are some of its tools:

• Listening: Managers can silently listen to calls when they are taking place. They can do so without the caller and the agent’s knowledge.

• Coaching: There are two types of coaching modes and both can be used as part of onboarding, training, and performance management.

  • Whisper: Managers can speak to the agent without the caller hearing the conversation.

  • Barge: Managers can join a call that is already in progress. This helps when calls have to be escalated or when a caller becomes abusive.

• Recording: Calls can be recorded and reviewed for agent training, quality assurance, and compliance. This enables spot QA checks, training related to situation handling, and also managing performances.

6. Call Accounting Software

Call accounting applications to use tools that collect, monitor, and analyze telecommunication data to track and report expenses correctly. It captures, records, and costs telephone usage events. They can iron out any cost discrepancies and resolve billing disputes with carriers. Such call center systems can detect outbound and inbound calls, call ring-outs, call routings, abandoned calls, and other activities.

7. Call Analytics

The analytics and reporting capabilities of call center software can provide business heads, managers, and supervisors with details reports on a variety of metrics related to agent performance, call volume, campaign success, and caller demographics.

Insightful information can be obtained about customer experience and agent performance on a real-time basis. They can be used to make long-term and short-term strategic business decisions.

Here are some examples:

I) Customer Experience Reports:

Data is collected via post-call surveys. Things like call length, hold time and escalations can be tracked. Detailed customer experience reports can inform hiring and staffing decisions and prevent.

II) Agent Performance Reports

Metrics such as call volume, call time, compliance scoring, first call resolution rate, and more can be tracked and reported to inform an agent’s performance management process.

III) Real-time Analytics

Real-time analytics include but are not limited to queue information, agent interaction data, customer status, and agent wait and idle times. They enable managers and agent team leaders to track call center activity and pivot as needed to keep up with fluctuating needs.

8. Video Chat

A video call software enables face-to-face engagement. The agent and the caller can see each other’s expressions and body language, which enhances the effectiveness of what is being communicated. With the help of call center management software, callers can see that an agent is genuinely trying to provide assistance and agents can tailor/her communication to suit the caller’s demeanor.

Callers can show a defective product and request a solution, furnish proof of purchase instantly as the call is in progress. Agents can show callers how a product works or how it can be fixed. Live video chats can create a compelling experience for callers. They have a better chance of securing customer satisfaction than audio calls.

9. Live Chat

Live chat features can also enhance the performance of your call center software. Customers who visit your website have an immediate or convenient option of using the live chat option as opposed to dialing the helpline and being put in a queue. Basic and typical queries can be addressed immediately over chat, which leaves agents with more time to handle more specific issues and does not clog the phone lines unnecessarily. 

The chat log can be exchanged so that customers can go back and refer to it whenever he or she likes. Live chat also allows you to handle multiple queries at one time. It also enables you to transfer the customer query/issue to a skilled agent right from the start.

Telephonic calls reduce which also means smaller bills from the carrier. Customer complaints and queries can be handled from any part of the world, on the go and even round the clock. Live chat nowadays can also translate languages so that you can provide multilingual support.

10. Blacklisting

To ensure maximum conversions, it is imperative that agents focus on as many genuine inquiries as possible in a limited amount of time. Blacklisting can block spam numbers and bots so that agents do not waste their time on them.

11. Forward-to-Phone

Some business processes need you to provide customer support even beyond office hours. The Forward-To-Phone feature enables your agents to respond to calls even when they are not in the office.

12. Queue Call-back

Queue Call-back feature in call center solutions can help manage customer call traffic during peak hours. Not all customers are patient enough to wait in a queue to speak to an agent. With queue call-back, you can give customers the option of requesting a call back instead of waiting in a queue.

13. Disposition Codes

Callers can be tagged, labeled, or assigned a code such as ‘Not interested’, ‘Transferred to IT support’, ‘Refunded’, and so on using call center software. These codes can be attached to the caller’s profile so that the agents know exactly how to deal with them even when they may have not interacted with the caller previously.

14. Voicemail, Transcription, and Notifications

The voicemail feature in the call center management system allows callers to leave a message for the agent/department or organization when they are not available. Some call center software solutions even transcribe voicemail and store it in the caller’s activity feed.

15. Call Masking

Call center operations are often outsourced. This sometimes makes customers doubt the agent’s ability to be able to provide proper support. You can mask your outgoing caller ID so that your business appears local even when you are managing a global team.

16. Omnichannel Support

Customers have so many channels today at their disposal and expect service in more channels than they did earlier. They require voice and digital, self-service and agent-assisted, inbound, and outbound channels. Most call center solutions today empower your agents to use any channel that may lead to First Contact Resolution. It’s all about reducing customer effort.

Conclusion

Therefore, call center software solutions can help businesses improve customer service, save cost and gain valuable insights into call center performance. The various tools and features that we discussed, such as ACD, IVR, and CTI, call monitoring and analytics, and reporting, all work together to help call centers succeed and stay competitive.

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