Inside Virtual Call Center

Building or choosing call center software can be a very difficult task because there are many different types of virtual call centers and call center features to choose from. Most call center companies have the basic services, such as IVR and predictive dialing, but there are several other features that are essential to a call center. It is important to check that the company you are considering hiring offers those features. Here are five necessary features that you need to look for when choosing call center software.

1. Call Center Analytics

Simple data reports and charts do not suffice if your company needs comprehensive information about how your company is doing and what you can change to make it better. There are interactive tools that can process and analyze data, allowing users to identify issues faster, measure performance, and make the right decisions related to their business. These advanced tools have dashboards and visualization features so users can compare data, interpret information, and look at brief overviews. Also, users can monitor trends, KYIs, and performance issues. Call center analytics are so much more than the typical reporting services.

2. Workforce Management

Agents are the most expensive resource for a company and managing them is extremely important. Optimizing an agent’s performance is key to increasing a company’s revenue and reducing operating costs. Workforce management integrated with a call center allows administrators to view and manage agent’s availability and performance variables. Admins can also analyze call patterns to forecast future call volume, create work schedules based on the forecasted call volumes, and generate reports that display schedule changes.

3. Call Recording

Call recording is a very useful call center feature because companies can extract a lot of useful information from recorded calls between agents and customers. Businesses can improve customer service by measuring performance and working with agents on their phone decorum. Also, they can follow up on legal issues because today there are many corporate governance policies that companies have to be aware of. Call recording is a helpful feature of call center software.

4. Compliance Management

There are many regulatory laws for call centers and the failure to comply with these laws could lead to litigation and a decrease in customers. Investing in a call center with compliance management features is well worth it to avoid complicated legal situations. They help you make intelligent decisions and follow the law. For example, there is a global list of Do Not Call numbers and there are certain HIPPA and PCI Security Standard requirements. Compliance management will help ensure that data is stored and sent safely and that dial settings comply with the specific requirements.

5. Script & Call Flow Designer

The process of collecting and organizing information is time-consuming and can be complicated. A script designer makes sure that all information is retrieved and put away in the database where it belongs. It also validates data and makes sure that it is entered correctly. Also, the script and call flow designer facilitates individual script settings for each particular campaign.

So, when your company decides that it needs call center software- check its features before you make a purchase. Make sure the call center software comes with more than the basic IVR and dialing abilities. The five listed above are important and essential and sure to save your company a lot of time, money, and effort.

Technorati Tags: call center analytics, Call Center Software, call recording, compliance management, script and call flow designer, Virtual Call Center, workforce management

Last week, CallFire announced the launch of their new SMS text messaging product. It is a part of CallFire’s call center, as it complements its Interactive Voice Response and Voice Broadcast features. The SMS text messaging capabilities allows CallFire customers to engage their callers or customers in a whole new way.

CallFire’s SMS Text Messaging service is easy to use. Users just need to upload their list of targeted customers to CallFire’s platform along with the message that they want to send. Users can send up to 160 characters per message, and they can forward the message to one or thousands of clients. This is an easy and advanced way to reach a lot of people. CallFire users can avoid abandoned or missed calls because text messages are a foolproof way to make sure that their message gets through.

CallFire’s SMS features are ideal for many different types of companies or individuals. The SMS service could be useful for pharmacists who want to send refill reminders to their customers. Professors could send homework assignments or reminders to their students. Marketers could even send prize information to contest winners via text message. CallFire will even send users delivery reports and analytics so that companies can evaluate how many people they reach out to and whether or not the text messaging service works well for them. Users can even upload the CallFire reports or messages to their computers using Excel.

Text messaging services have grown over the last couple of years. SMS text messaging has become a necessity for many phone users. It is an easy way to reach out to a large group of people, in a low-cost and low hassle way.

CallFire’s SMS messaging service is pay-as-you-go, at 3 cents a message. There are no setup or startup fees. Users can send as many text messages as they want. Read more about CallFire’s SMS product on their website.

Technorati Tags: CallFire, sms text messaging

For growing businesses, call centers rapidly become a necessity. If your staff cannot handle excessive amounts of calls and you do not want to lose that large portion of your customer base, look into implementing call center services. Call centers ensure that customers are satisfied and that all calls are taken in a timely manner. Call centers help businesses grow without requiring a lot of money or extra staff members.

Here are five major benefits of deploying a call center:

1. Increase Customer Satisfaction

Customers will be more satisfied because there will be a shorter wait time to speak to an agent. Call Centers route calls to the appropriate agent and ensure that agents do not have to handle abandoned calls, which saves time. This allows for them to talk to more customers in one day than they normally would. Also, for companies who make frequent outgoing calls, call centers can help increase agents’ dialing efficiency by automatically dialing the numbers in the call center system, avoiding blocked numbers or dead end calls. This helps agents reach and help more customers.

2. Increase Efficiency

Whether there is an influx of ingoing calls or outgoing calls, call centers help agents handle them. The number of calls that businesses can handle when they deploy a call center dramatically increases. Most call centers offer a predictive dialer for outgoing calls or an interactive voice response (IVR) menu for ingoing calls. IVR provides callers with a list of options, gathers information, and allows callers to be routed to the correct agent. Also, agents are presented with the information that the customer provided to the virtual voice response menu. This allows them to provide a personal service to the customer and it saves time because they do not have to sit on the phone and gather the information themselves.

3. Save Money

Most call centers are inexpensive and pay-as-you-go. This allows users to cancel the plan whenever they want to. Businesses do not have to hire new employees to handle the extra calls because the call center helps direct the calls. This, in addition to the increased revenue from the augmentation in helped customers can greatly escalate business profits.

4. Find Ways to Improve with Statistics

Call centers track the number of calls businesses make and receive every day. These data statistics help businesses evaluate their service, progress, and how they can improve. Certain patterns can show companies where they went wrong or right so that they can change their protocol for the future.

5. Ameliorate Overall Communication

Call centers can process forms of communication other than live calls. Call centers can process emails, instant messages, and even web conferencing calls. They help businesses avoid neglected emails. Call centers will instantly increase customer satisfaction while taking some pressure off of the employees to check all the different ways that customers contact them.

There are so many benefits of call centers for growing companies. Here are some recommended call center companies that are worth looking into if your business is considering deploying call center software.

• Call Fire
• Five9
• VoIP
• CosmoCom
• Contactual
• Transera
• VIP Desk
• Telemarketing from Home

Read about the specific features that each company’s call center software has to offer to determine which one fits your company best. You can find this information on the Virtual Call Center Blog or on each company’s website.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, Call Center Benefits

CallFire.com, a voice over IP (VoIP) developer and virtual call center provider, recently released their newest product, the Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR). IVR is a feature of advanced cloud-based virtual call center systems that eliminates the need for agents to do time-consuming tasks. It serves as a virtual receptionist and can handle thousands of calls at one time.

There are many advanced features of CallFire’s IVR system, including realistic ‘Text to Speech’, where the system can read text. This feature is useful for menu options and the virtual receptionist who speaks to the caller before they are transferred to an agent. CallFire’s Text to Speech option can even be used for outbound calls if companies want to send messages to callers. It can also send appointment reminders or survey previous callers. The press menu feature, which allows agents to gather information about a caller through key presses before they ever speak, is a feature of CallFire’s IVR. IVR can also transfer calls to specific agents, which saves time because callers are routed to the appropriate agent to handle their inquiries. If callers hang up, the calls are disconnected so that agents do not have to waste their time on abandoned calls. Users can even record their calls with CallFire’s IVR if they press the pound button before speaking.

CallFire’s advanced IVR system saves time, money, and prevents hassle. Agents do not have to waste their time gathering information from customers or transferring them to other agents because the IVR system directs callers to the appropriate person. CallFire’s IVR is very easy to customize because it has an IVR designer, which has a user friendly interface so agents can monitor past calls or change settings for future ones.

CallFire’s Customizable IVR Designer

While IVRs are generally used for larger companies, CallFire’s IVR is targeted for smaller to mid-size businesses. It is an easy to use system, where no programming skills are required. CallFire’s IVR is pay-as-you-go, at 5 cents per minute, so there are no installation or monthly fees. There is no minimum or contract, so users can stop using the service whenever they want. Hosted IVR services can be deployed in as little as a few minutes. You can sign up for a free trial on CallFire.com to see how it works for your company.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, CallFire, hosted interactive voice response, interactive voice response, IVR, text to speech, Virtual Call Center Features

With the airline industry continuing to post slumping sales figures, airlines need to come up with new ways to draw in and keep customers. With notoriously inefficient and confusing customer service provided by airline industries, improvement within customer service could be vital towards attracting and maintaining loyal customers.

Continental Airlines acted upon this perceived weakness in the airline industry by introducing its new Virtual Expert technology. With this solution, customers have around the clock support which allows easy interaction with customers in order to satisfy all customer inquiries that may come up. With this new technology, booking a flight has never been easier as all questions are quickly and easily answered by a qualified call center agent.

Customers would never know that there isn’t a human responding on the other line. This advanced technology has a programmed robot on the other line that is designed to emulate the voice of an actual human. With speech recognition as well as chat capabilities, this advanced robot can handle a vast majority of customer questions and provide quick and efficient customer service.

This Virtual Expert can handle a majority of the questions asked by Continental Airlines customers. With this new technology, customers are quickly satisfied as their questions are rapidly answered. Continental continues to maintain an advantage in the customer service arena over its other competitors as they continue to innovate and strive to provide the best service for its loyal customers.

Technorati Tags: Call Automation, Call Center, Customer Service, Customer Support

Omega Direct Response has announced that it has chosen Five9 as its virtual call center software provider. Five9 will implement its virtual call center suite in Omega Direct offices worldwide. The newest release of Five9 Virtual Call Center added a number of new features such as improved predictive dialing as well as IVR and call routing. In addition, a number of other improvements to its existing virtual call center software have made Five9 a much more attractive option for prospective customers. 

Five9 Virtual Call Center offers a number of features that enhance both outbound and inbound campaigns for businesses. Omega decided on Five9 due to its multilingual capabilities which are vital to the work Omega does. Omega has a number of company offices that use a variety of different languages and finding a solution that can fit into that business model was very important to Omega. In implementing Five9’s new software, Omega now has a step up on the rest of the competition.

For more information regarding this new partnership, you can read the full article found here.

Technorati Tags: Virtual Call Center, Virtual Call Center Features, Virtual Call Center Software

OAISYS has announced the released of its newest version of Tracer Software. Tracer Software is a technology that can greatly benefit a company’s call center. Some features of Tracer technology include call recording, call storing, telephone playbacks, and more. The newest release has a number of new features and functions that should provide a company with more options and a much easier time to use. Some of these new features including easier to use interfaces as well as more powerfull call management and recording tools.

The Benefits of deploying a technology for your call center can be great. In addition to provide call logs and records for a company’s calls, you can track employee performance. This should greatly improve productivity and customer service of the call center as employees know that their moves are being tracked and calls are being recorded.

For more information on this new technology, you can read the full article found here.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, Call Center Management, Call Center Technology, Call Tracking, Virtual Call Center

PanTerra Networks released its new Virtual Call Center Solution today, which should mainly beneift SMBS, providing SMBs with a number of useful tools that should benefit its agents. Some of the useful features in Panterra’s New Call Center Suite include the ability for the system to handle higher volumes and tools that improve support.

PanTerra’s WorkSuite Call Center should provide companies with a flexible and affordable solution that fulfills many company needs which should allow them to provide quality service and support to improve customer satisfaction. This new Virtual Call Center Solution provides the reliability and efficiency companies need to succeed. The ease of deployment and easy integration also provides companies with all the more reason to invest in this new call center solution.

A variety of new features also allow more control over call center agents as well as easier monitoring of call center agent effectiveness. Also, with various reporting and data tools, call centers can easily see what tactics are working and which ones that need to be improved.

For more information regarding the release of PanTerra’s New Virtual Call Center Solution, you can read the article found here.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, SaaS Virtual Call Center, Virtual Call Center

Aastra, a provider of communications technology in Europe, has released a smart routing feature which should help companies provide better customer service to its clients. In releasing this, Aastra allows companies to be more client focused. It enables Aastra to communicate with clients in a variety of ways, dependent on the customer’s preference of communication.

Contact Centers have been growing all over the world and with this growth comes the requirement to be more efficient in handling customer calls. However, the solution is not so simple as customers have the expectations of better customer service as well as short wait times. Aastra’s call center solution helps solve many of these problems and improves call center agent productivity while also improving the quality of service provided.

With the integration of a variety of call center systems into one simplified system, companies are able to access all pertinent information easily. This allows companies to efficiently run their call centers as well as manage them properly. Aastra’s continued innovation in the call center arena is allowing companies to benefit as newly released features help companies perform more efficiently.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, Contact Center, Virtual Call Center, Virtual Contact Center

The needs of SMBs are often different from those of larger companies. With these different needs in mind, it becomes critical to choose the right call center solution without purchasing unnecessary extras which may end up costing the company more money.

Some helpful tips for small companies when choosing Call Center Software is to consider many factors.

Does the call center solution integrate well with your other business applications?

Is the Call Center technology scalable with the growth of your business?

How easily is the Call Center system deployed and how much support does the company offer?

These are some simple questions SMBs should ask themselves when considering different call center solutions. It is important to find a solution that fits company needs now as well as preparing for company needs in the future. Making the right call center decision is a challenging task and with the huge variety and wise scope of call center technologies out there, it can seem nearly impossible. But, understanding the needs of the company can be very important in choosing the right contact center solution.

Technorati Tags: Call Center, Call Center Solution, Contact Center, Virtual Call Center