Top 10 call centre phone system feature to use in 2021

Introduction

Communication is key to success. This age-old saying has remained the backbone of business growth. Irrespective of the levels at which talks are happening, magic brews over the interaction of voices. This is as true for top leadership having conferences as for the employees conducting sales calls or consumer service calls. Human touch has always been the core driving force. Over the last decade, technology has grown rapidly. This has led to a boom in business scenarios. Automation has taken over a vast stretch of job processes. Simple things like grievances handling are being done by bots and automated calls. In many sectors this has led to declining productivity, sales figures have gone down and so has the level of consumer satisfaction. A recent study by Microsoft shows that 44% of the participants still prefer phone or voice as their primary customer service channel. Moreover, another such report by PWC suggests that 75% of people want human interaction for customer support.
Call centres special-purpose offices that are built to handle a large volume of phone calls. Call centres typically handle customer service, support, telemarketing, telesales and collections functions. Call centres range from very small informal operations to massive, highly optimized sites with hundreds or even thousands of agents. To manage all these functions and maximize productivity, call centres use specialized phone systems.
In this blog, we will learn about the top 10 best features to look out for while getting a call centre phone system-

• Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
• Call recording and Monitoring
• Call whispering & live coaching
• Call Parking
• Call centre analytics
• CRM integrations
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
• Omnichannel Support
• Power dialers
• Skill-based routing

Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)

ACD enhances the call handling capacity of the call centre. It makes sure no call is missed or left on hold for a longer duration. Automatic call distribution (ACD) is an essential feature in a call centre that routes inbound calls to employees based on predetermined factors. These factors can be based on time zone, agent availability, and skill set. ACD improves call centre’s workflows.
ACD helps inbound calls reach the right person. Hence, decreasing the number of call transfers and reroutes. This ultimately leads to satisfied consumers.

Call recording and Monitoring

Listening to and recording conversations is a common practice, which is why the phone system that calls centres use should be able to record phone calls. These recordings can be useful for training purposes. They can also help in increasing productivity and customer satisfaction. Monitoring lets you listen in on calls as they happen or listen to recordings of calls that have already happened. This empowers to track agent performance and inform the training, guidance, and resources provided to the team in the future.

Call whispering & live coaching

Many times agents need help, from price negotiations to quality control and onboarding or when dealing with a difficult customer on the phone. During such a crucial time having some backup from the manager can save the day. Some advanced call monitoring systems also provide managers with the access to interact with the caller or agent. Managers can talk to the employee, assist the agent in live calls, or take over the call altogether. With live coaching functionality, a third party can secretly join your conversation and offer support.

Call Parking

Call parking is the option when all available agents are currently busy. Call parking puts a phone call on hold until another agent is available to continue the conversation. Call parking is a better alternative than asking consumers to call back. Not all call centre software solutions provide this feature so having such features will provide you with an edge over your competitors.

Call centre analytics

To understand the impact and optimize your operations, one must be able to monitor and measure metrics. The analytic tools of call centre software allow to measure and track analytics. It can improve team performance and make data-driven changes to workflow. This allows advanced analytics and life feed monitoring to track everything in real-time. This feature helps in determining the marketing techniques that are boosting sales. Most analytics features empower you to filter data to find the detailed insights and periods you’re looking to capture. These insights can help you make better staffing, scheduling, and processing decisions. Leading services collect data, such as total call volume, average call time, survey scores, and wait times. They’ll output this data in the form of charts and graphs to help in spotting anomalies and opportunities.

CRM integrations

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the software that allows businesses or other organizations to manage interactions with customers. The software typically uses data analysis to study large amounts of information. Call centre software should be able to seamlessly integrate with your CRMs and helpdesks. integration of CRM with call centre software helps teams to work faster, better, and more efficiently. It allows call centre tools to talk to each other. That’s why having powerful but simple integrations can contribute to improved team performance.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Interactive voice response (IVR) automatically greets callers and receives voice input to help them find assistance quickly. IVR can also bypass the need for human intervention by providing answers to frequently asked questions. IVR is one of the fundamentals of call centre phone system features. Some Cloud-based services provide custom greetings or auto-attendants. Auto-attendants allow users to input responses manually via the keypad.

Omnichannel Support

Many consumers are open about talking over the phone. Therefore alongside oral phone conversation, chats and email services are used frequently to handle consumer relations and sales. That is why it is crucial to offer a variety of support channels according to customers’ needs. Omnichannel support is a standard feature of most phone services, but the channel flexibility varies. Accommodating the audience and letting them opt for the method of redressal in whatever way suits them best is vital for driving customer satisfaction.

Power dialers

On average an agent gets to dial thousands of calls in a week. Manually dial the phone number for this task can take a huge amount of time. A power dialer automatically dials stored phone numbers from a selected list. New calls can only be made once the current one has ended. This eases the task on consumers and helps all centres to target a higher number of clients.

Skill-based routing

Skill-based routing is a must-have feature for any call centre software. Everyone benefits from automatic call routing because it saves time and resources. One can connect its IVR to call routing and distribution using some software. With this configuration, the caller is presented with several options until they are connected with the most helpful agent.

Conclusion

Around 66% of call centre businesses are looking forward to investing in advanced analytics to provide better customer service. Moving to a Cloud-based call centre phone system brings substantial savings for businesses. It allows you to automate multichannel customer support and self-service options. Achieving your consumer satisfaction goals is possible if you can ensure that your agents consistently provide excellent customer service. To be sure about it, make certain that the telephone solution you choose will assist in business growth. Perennials are the best Cloud Telephony feature provider in Chennai. We have expertise in providing the best call centre solutions to our clients. Our dedicated team makes sure your Call centre is up and running around the clock. If you want all the call centre software functions listed above, Contact us so we can prepare you for the future.