Why outsource customer services, tech support and outbound telemarketing to a call center when you don&#;t have to? Bring it all in-house instead. You can invest in user-friendly, state-of-the-art call center software for your business from as little as $20 per month per user.
ITNIOTECH are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.
With it, you can create great customer experiences, as inbound calls and messages go to the right staff member quickly. Your business will become more efficient, too, since the cost of dealing with inquiries and making outbound cold calls is less. We look at the key things to consider when choosing software for your company, the top features you need and how to find the best call center solution for your business.
Editor&#;s Note: Looking for a call center software? Use the questionnaire below to have our vendor partners provide you with information from a variety of vendors for free:
Follow these four steps to make sure you get the best software for your company at the most competitive price.
You&#;ll be paying anywhere from $4,500 a year to $100,000 or more for larger teams. Call center software is a significant investment in your future.
You need to decide which features will deliver a competitive advantage for your business. Prioritize those that help agents answer the faster and get customers&#; problems solved quickly. If you run outbound telemarketing as well, call center software can improve results dramatically.
Don&#;t overpay by choosing features you don&#;t really need.
Did You Know?
Did you knowFor your agents to be able to receive inbound calls and make outbound calls from call center software, make sure you ask your vendor if their system includes &#;call blending.&#;
When speaking with vendors, make sure you tell them exactly what you want your system to do. That way, they&#;ll be able to inform you if their system has the features you actually require.
Ask for a free demo. Ask the rep to take you through the software and how it works. This is the ideal opportunity for them to show how easy or hard it is to use the features you want.
Many call center software providers offer a free trial allowing you access to their platform from a limited number of points. Trials are generally limited to making and receiving calls from a handful of numbers, although you&#;ll get a chance to familiarize yourself with the operating dashboards.
It&#;s a good idea to make sure to involve your supervisors and agents in the free trial, too. This way, they get a chance to try the system and assess how intuitive it is.
Take some time to compare the products. You&#;ll want to look at the price quotes provided to see which product best fits your budget. Also, look at the features to make sure that the product you choose meets your call center demands.
There are dozens of call center software providers serving a rapidly growing number of American businesses. Keep an eye out for the following five features when choosing call center software.
There are two types of call center infrastructure: on-premises and cloud-based. The type of infrastructure determines the type of call center software you&#;ll have.
For an on-premises solution, you&#;ll need to install a private branch exchange (PBX) connected by cable that runs to compatible equipment in your office. Your telecommunications company will also need to route the right number of lines to your office from the local exchange.
In most cases, you&#;ll need to guess how many lines you&#;ll need for the coming three to five years and commit to them. If you find that you underestimate your requirements, you might have to buy or rent a brand-new PBX in the event the initial one lacks the necessary capacity. If you overestimate how many lines you need, you&#;ll be contractually obliged to keep making payments on all of them.
Your technology company or installer generally will provide you with software specific to your PBX.
Cloud-based call center infrastructure uses the internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It doesn&#;t require the upfront investment in hardware nor does it require your telecommunications company to run extra circuits from the exchange.
All you need is a fast-enough connection to the internet to get started. You may need to purchase headsets with microphones to plug into desktops, laptops and other devices to make calls. Alternatively, you can buy specialist VoIP phones for your new system instead.
As it&#;s internet-based, in many cases, you can be up and running with your system on the same day. You can add or remove lines instantaneously via your vendor&#;s online dashboard. VoIP-based call center providers charge per user or line per month. If you do need to reduce capacity, many will only charge you for that surplus until the end of the billing month. However, it&#;s always a good idea to check each provider&#;s terms and conditions for confirmation of this.
Cloud-based call center software is supplied with your VoIP system by your provider.
Bottom Line
Bottom lineMany of the top business systems offer options for contact center services.
In addition to the lower cost, more businesses now use cloud-based systems than on-premises systems because high-speed broadband digital subscriber line connections are widely available. [Related article: Best Internet Service Providers]
That&#;s not the only reason though. It&#;s much harder and more expensive to integrate on-premises call center software with other business-critical apps, such as the following:
In contrast, cloud-based call center software and app providers work closely together to ensure ongoing app integration. Where there is no native integration, you can use application programming interfaces and software development kits to get your apps talking to one another.
On-premises software is complex, and staff will need training on how to use it. Meanwhile, cloud-based call center software is much easier because they&#;re built from the ground up to be as easy to use as cell apps.
Both have learning curves, though.
Want more information on Cloud Call Center? Feel free to contact us.
When choosing call center software, select a vendor offering the level of customer and technical support you need. It&#;s much faster and less stressful to have someone either walk you through a problem over the or join on a video call to take you step by step through what you want to do.
Check for opening hours of each provider&#;s customer and technical support teams.
FYI
Did you knowIf you prefer to speak with someone on the when you need help, make sure a prospective provider offers this before signing up. Many providers insist you open an online ticket system instead, which means they&#;ll call you back when it&#;s convenient for them.
Both types of call center systems are prone to disruption. On-premises systems can be affected by outages at the exchange, computer malfunctions, software programming errors and not being switched off properly. Cloud-based systems can also be affected by computer malfunctions and internet outages.
Please note that it can take from an hour or two up to a few days to get an on-premises system working again depending on the nature of the faults.
With cloud-based call center software, problem resolution generally is much faster because your provider hosts the software at their premises.
With an on-premises system, additional costs may stem from the following:
With a cloud-based system, you&#;ll need to pay a charge per user each month, which will vary on the features individual users have. You&#;ll also need equipment to make and receive calls that connect to your IT network, desktops and laptops. This can either be simple headsets with microphones or specialist VoIP phones.
Try not to be too driven by price when selecting call center software. Be prepared to spend those extra few dollars per user monthly &#; especially if the features your company gets access to mean you have a much greater chance of getting the outcomes you want.
Given businesses&#; preference for cloud-based call center software, we&#;ll be focusing on this for the rest of this article.
What features do cloud-based call center software platforms offer that might be of use to you?
In addition to inbound and outbound calls, call center software can now carry:
So, with modern call center software, you can communicate with customers and prospects on the platforms they use from one central dashboard.
Call centers substantially cut down waiting time for customers, particularly those driven by interactive voice response (IVR) systems. IVR systems present a spoken menu of options customers calling in can choose from.
Many packages allow you to track in real time how many people are waiting in the queue and which agents are available to take calls and messages. You can also run historical reports on teams and agents to reward the best performers and identify training needs, if necessary.
Tip
Bottom lineDo you want to stop customers hanging on the for an answer? Then find a vendor offering a queue callback. When your caller leaves their number with your IVR system, they keep their place in the queue. When it&#;s their turn, the software calls them back and connects them to sales, customer service or technical support.
Supervisors and managers are the people in your business who drive the use of your call center software. They should be able to configure the system as easily as possible in order to hit the targets you set for them.
Many software platforms feature extra tools, such as workforce management apps, to help supervisors and managers improve their overall performance. Workforce management apps anticipate expected demand for sales, customer service and technical support based on historical and wider data. This helps supervisors ensure they have the staff with the correct skills for shifts as well as the right number of staff.
Supervisors can also choose how calls are routed. Many call center software packages now offer, for example, skills-based routing. On each agent&#;s system profile, a supervisor can add the tasks they&#;re best at helping customers with. When a call or message comes in, the software sends the customer to the person most likely to resolve their issue within one call.
Call center software packages also allow you to listen or connect directly into live calls to help agents if they&#;re struggling or in training. They also record all interactions (, SMS, and so on) for later inspection so that supervisors can include that in reviews and agent training sessions.
When choosing a system, make sure it&#;s easy for your agents to use as well. Popular features include:
Getting the right call center software for your business doesn&#;t need to be complicated. Go to each vendor on your short list for a quote. Ensure each knows they are not the only vendor in the process when you get in touch. Don&#;t be concerned about using a quote from one supplier to persuade another supplier to compete against it.
The same goes for commitment. If one vendor is offering a 12-month contract but a competitor is offering a 30-day contract, you give them the chance to compete on that as well.
By integrating call center software with your other business apps, you unlock new opportunities for efficiency and growth. Do your due diligence to give yourself the best chance of choosing the right system at a manageable price for your company.
Kimberlee Leonard and Larry Alton contributed to the reporting and writing in this article.
3. Verify that they have the right people and resources to handle your customer service and support. &#;This means that the outsourcing provider&#;s staff skill set should meet your requirements as well as those needed by your customers,&#; explains Michael Mills, senior vice president, Global Sales and Solutions, CGS, a provider of call center outsourcing and business solutions. &#;These requirements can be technology certifications, language proficiency or prerequisite experience in your particular field.&#;
Also &#;consider how they [the people interacting with your customers] would fit into your organization as a whole,&#; says Rich Weborg, CEO, OneReach, a provider of custom voice and SMS applications. &#;You&#;re outsourcing an important part of your company, so you need to ask yourself, &#;Do they represent our brand well? Do they do a good job of managing their own people and customers alike?&#;&#;
To determine this, ask to meet with or observe some of the people who would be servicing your account &#; and &#;interview the team leaders you would have on your account,&#; advises John Stieger, CMO, Wilke Global, a provider of customer service software. &#;As the day-to-day supervisors and coaches of the people actually talking to your customers they are the leaders who will make the greatest difference for your customers.&#;
For more information, please visit API Providers.