The Call Center
The ability to customize communication solutions is crucial for meeting business needs, and an internal VoIP system is one of the most popular technologies in information technology, providing scalable solutions that meet the requirements of companies. Among the most prominent features of a VoIP system are the call center capabilities, allowing businesses to create a dedicated contact center to enhance customer service.
The UCM series of IP PBX devices from Grandstream come with integrated call center features that help businesses efficiently and effectively manage contact centers.
In this article, we will review the key call center features in the UCM series and how to make the most of them.
What is a Call Center?
A call center is a set of technologies designed to manage telephone calls effectively. This system primarily relies on the use of both telephone and the Internet, enabling businesses to deliver exceptional customer service. The call center system includes a variety of features such as auto-attendants, call recording, and call distribution, allowing employees to quickly and efficiently meet customer needs.
The call center system enhances the customer experience by organizing and directing incoming calls to the right employees. It can be used in a variety of industries, including finance, e-commerce, and technical support.
The call center system is capable of handling large volumes of calls at the same time, helping companies improve productivity and reduce waiting times.
The call center system is a vital tool for business success in the digital age, as it helps companies build strong customer relationships and ensure customer satisfaction. By leveraging the advanced features of the call center system, companies can improve customer interactions and service performance.
Features of the Call Center
Queue Management
Queue management is one of the fundamental components of every call center system, consisting of incoming calls, employees, call distribution strategy, and hold music or announcements. Calls or callers are placed in a queue, where specialized personnel answer the calls.
The distribution of incoming calls among employees depends on the applied queue strategy. While callers wait in the queue, hold music or announcements can be played to fill the waiting time. The UCM series supports six different call center queue strategies for companies to choose from:
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Ring All: Calls all available employees at the same time until someone answers.
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Linear Sequential: Calls employees in a specific order.
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Least Answered: Directs the call to the person who hasn't answered for the longest.
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Least Busy: Directs the call to the person who has completed the fewest calls.
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Random: Calls a random person.
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Rotation: Calls employees based on a rotation schedule.
The UCM series includes a "Virtual Queue" feature, allowing callers to opt for a callback instead of waiting in the queue. After a certain waiting time, the caller is given the option to remain in the queue or leave a number for a callback later without losing their queue position.
The system will automatically contact the caller when their turn comes in the queue. This feature helps reduce long waiting times during peak hours, improving the overall customer experience. Additionally, the call center system provides a feature for announcing the caller's queue position, so they know where they stand in the queue.
Monitoring Features
The call center system supports monitoring features, allowing supervisors or coordinators to assist employees during a call through a "Listen In" feature. Supervisors can listen in on both parties during an active call in a silent mode, or use "Whisper" to hear both parties without the other party knowing.
The "Join" feature lets supervisors listen in on and talk to all parties in an active call, just like a three-way conference call. These features help train employees practically while allowing management to supervise employee performance during calls.
The call center system also includes integrated queue statistics for measuring performance and evaluating employees. These data can be analyzed separately for each queue or on the system as a whole.
Managers and supervisors use this information to improve daily operations within the call center, including information about call distribution, login and logout records, start and end times, and virtual queue information.
Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI)
Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) refers to any technology or solution that allows integration between telephone networks and computers. This feature is a crucial part of call center solutions, giving employees more flexibility when dealing with a large volume of calls.
Employees can perform most call control functions on their computers with just a few clicks.
Grandstream solutions are designed to ease the workload by using the GS Affinity application and web-based control panel. The UCM series provides a simple and easy way for employees to use the control panel to monitor live queues and perform various operations including:
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List of Pending Calls
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List of Active Calls
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Controlling Ongoing Calls
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Status of Employees
Employees can access the live queue control panel through the user portal, logging into the web user interface using their extension number and password.
Each user can log in to their user portal account and access the live queue control panel, where they can control their calls and status.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an essential part of business operations, and the UCM system supports this by providing access to stored contact information in customer records. The system also allows integration with popular CRM tools, such as:
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Sugar CRM
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ZOHO CRM
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Salesforce
When using the GS Affinity application with the UCM system, employees can retrieve contact information during calls, contributing to an exceptional call center experience for customers.
This allows employees to know customer details before or during calls, improving call center performance by enhancing service quality and customer satisfaction.
Furthermore, this integration facilitates collecting and analyzing customer data, enabling companies to understand customer behavior and optimize their marketing strategies.
CRM is not just a tool; it's a crucial component for improving customer experience within a call center system and ensuring business success.
Automatic Response and Call Recording
The UCM system from Grandstream supports an integrated IVR (Interactive Voice Response) unit for customizing the caller experience in the call center. Users can create up to 5 levels of IVR, giving callers the ability to select predefined options.
All IVR settings can be managed via the call features menu in the user interface, allowing users to record custom messages, choose language, and set up allow/block lists. Calls can also be directed to appropriate departments or individuals without requiring direct employee interaction.
Call recording is a fundamental part of any call center system, and the UCM system supports call recording either automatically or through codes. This feature allows managers to retain a record of all calls within the queue system for monitoring, statistics, and educational purposes.
The system will automatically record calls once the automatic recording feature under the specific queue is enabled in the WAV format, making it easy to access, download, and evaluate.
These features enhance the effectiveness of operations within the call center, contributing to improved service quality and customer experience.
IP PBX System
The IP PBX system is a modern telephone management system based on Internet Protocol (IP), enabling companies to make and receive calls over the Internet instead of traditional networks. This system is an advanced replacement for traditional systems, as it converts calls into digital signals sent over the Internet, providing high flexibility and lower operating costs.
The main features of an IP PBX include the ability to integrate voice and video services, messaging, and even virtual meetings.
The system can be customized to meet company needs, creating a flexible and scalable system that grows with the business. IP PBX also improves efficiency; it offers features such as call forwarding, call recording, and IVR systems for managing incoming calls efficiently, making it particularly suitable for call center applications.
Conclusion
The call center system is one of the vital tools that helps companies achieve customer satisfaction and improve their experience. With the advent of technology and the rise of advanced communication systems like IP PBX, businesses can now manage their calls more efficiently, reduce waiting times, and provide necessary support on time.
The call center system acts as a communication bridge between companies and their customers, helping build strong relationships and increasing confidence in the services provided, enabling companies to improve performance and service levels, putting them in a competitive position to meet market demands.