All call centres regardless of on-site or cloud-based will need to have this two software known as CRM (customer relationship management) and a calling software to run the operation smoothly. There are many features of a calling software and in this article, we will discuss what the purpose of the calling software is and its functions in the call centre environment.
In general, a calling software for the call centre requires the telephony system which can be either a physical phone or a softphone which use the computer as the medium. ACDs (Automatic call distributor) is part of the telephony system that helps the call agent to route incoming calls to the selected call agents and also used to records the incoming or outgoing call records for monitoring and using data for training and reference purpose.
IVR (Interactive voice response) is another common calling software feature that is used as a telephony menu system to identify, segments the types of call and routes the callers to the most suitable agent according to their skill set or to the selected departments. Other features included call back service and pre-recorded messages to provide additional information to the caller.
Last but not least, skill-based routing is a feature in the calling software that the call centre managers or the person-in-charge will optimize the service for their customers by using the IVR to route the calls to the specific agents or departments according to the skill-set, language, expertise, and other relevant requirements. Skill-based routing is not only effective but efficient in ensuring that the callers are routed to the most suitable agents to assist them on the phone.
Currently, there is two types of call centre software which is On-premise and Cloud-based call centre software. On-premise also was known as an on-site call centre has software solutions, calling software, hardware and other related infrastructure which is installed in the office commonly called customer service or sales department. The hardware and software are usually maintained by either the in-house IT person or a third party service provider. While the advantage of using an on-site call centre software is easy to control and maintaining the systems, data and the workforce. The disadvantage will be the cost to purchase the equipment, cost of hiring the call agents and management and the required office space to station the call centre.
As for the cloud-based or hosted call centre software, it is a calling software that is usually hosted off-site and can be easily accessed via the network connection which may or may not require the internet. The advantage of using this calling software is cheaper in cost than the On-premise type as the organization does not need to invest in buying the infrastructure to support the software as the hosted calling software is cloud-based and supported by the service provider. The company also have the option to hire home-based call agents without the need to have a physical office for the call centre. But the few drawbacks for using the cloud-based calling software is that most of these hosted software solutions in the market have limited options to allow integration or customizations of the software and often require upgrading whenever the latest version of the calling software is updated by the service provider.
Although hosted call centre software might not have the same level of security and privacy as compared to the on-site calling software but lately more and more service providers have calling software that provided high levels of security and privacy protection.
Regardless of which calling software the company use for their call centre’s operation, it is necessary to have a business plan to determine what type of call centre to invest in by looking on several factors such as the nature of the business, financial budgets and so on.