Regardless of how large or small your company is, people will want to contact you in a number of ways. Most customers expect to hear and have a person respond to them on the other side of the line; as some become frustrated at a fully automated system that prevents them from hearing that real live person. In most cases there is a way to reach a person immediately through the system which is a good thing.
Having a good customer service representative (CSR) is great, but having a great telephone system that can help your customers reach those CSR’s is even better. Having just the right system can help your business and thereby your staff operate at a peak performance level.
One technology that companies are utilizing now is called Voice Over Internet Protocol or VoIP, it is a flexible organizational structure for telephones, that directs calls over the internet. Many companies and small businesses use it to better help their clients/customers/patrons when they call for help. There are many uses a VoIP system can provide that will help a business provide better service to their customers.
You will save money!
Yes one use of a VoIP is saving money, and everyone business likes to save money. Typically using a VoIP to route calls is less costly than using conventional phone lines as you have less physical phone lines to pay for.
You are able to keep control of calls.
With a VoIP system any calls that come in or go out of your business you will have control of. You will know the who, how long and how many of each call that has come in. Even if there have been any calls that went unanswered as well. There are some systems that let you have call monitoring as well, which is very useful for Quality Assurance.
Ensure each and every call gets answered!
No company likes to look at their call logs and see unanswered calls in the list, with a VoIP system you can ensure that this doesn’t happen. Using a call forwarding type system, the calls will continue to be forwarded through the system until an agent picks up the line. What this means is that if that agents a, b and c are busy then the call is forwarded on to each subsequent agent till one answers. This keeps all agents busy and lowers down time for them.
You can now offer 24/7 Service to your customers
Since our culture is becoming more and more round the clock, working not just weekdays but weekends as well as holidays. CSRs are expected to pick up 24/7 if needed, this is a great convenience to your customers. The impressive tools that a VoIP can offer with forwarding make it so much easier for a company to offer this round the clock service as incoming calls can be routed to any of your CSR teams anywhere in the world at any time of day.
Personalization for each CSR
Customization for each of your CSRs is another great feature of VoIP’s. If the CS us away from their desk, say at lunch or a doctor’s appointment then their calls can be routed to an agent that knows the cases they have been working on and can help work them. For instance if a customer calls in with a problem on their TV that has happened before and Julie has helped them, if she is not at her desk, the call can be routed to Ben who is familiar with that case. Ben can then help the customer get the TV working again, and hopefully resolve the issue so it doesn’t happen again, or he relay any information that Julie has found out as well about the problem.
Lower the cost of any call-backs
When your CSRs need to call customers back doing so through a VoIP is cheaper, than through conventional phone lines. With a VoIP call back system in use for your agents then you have a low-cost form of preserving your great customer service standards.
Expanding to Work From Home Agents
With a VoIP you can expand to having agents that work from home, as you can have calls forwarded to these agents phones. Ensuring that each of your calls are answered more quickly as you have not only in house agents, but ones working from home as well.
Consistently have a local phone number
You may be located in Georgia, but have agents located all over the world, your customers do not have to know that. With a VoIP system your customers call in and are routed to an agent no matter where they are located. Having a local number for a customer to call makes them feel more at home. They can be anywhere in the world and call a local number. Even if you are in Georgia and they are living in the UK they can call a number local to them and a agent will answer.
There are many more uses and applications that a VoIP has available for businesses, talking with a provider will give your company insight as to what they are and to what is the best for your business.
