Contact Center Features for Phone Systems

Implementing a new contact center phone system for a contact center operation can result in lower costs, increased efficiency, and improved customer relationships. Ever-changing technologies continue to bring better features and lower costs. When the time comes for your company to either install a new phone system or upgrade an existing one, a good understanding of the available features of some basic contact center phone systems for contact center operations will help the decision-making process.

The purpose of a contact center phone system for a contact center is to handle inbound and outbound calls for sales, customer service, and customer support. The features needed in a contact center phone systems vary based on the size of the company, its customer base, and whether the contact center is located on a company premise or is extended to allow remote workforce access.

Most businesses tend to use either inbound or outbound services most heavily, although some may use both. For example, a bank or other financial services company would tend to use inbound services to take applications or service customers. A telemarketing company would be mostly outbound call focused, to contact potential customers. A product sales company may use both heavily: inbound to service customers, and outbound to drive sales.

Contact center's phone systems can be built and run on a company premise, or they can be Internet-based using technologies such as a VoIP PBX, which allows remote employee access. Many businesses also outsource their entire contact center operations to professional Contact center phone systems companies, which specialize in handling inbound and outbound calls for several simultaneous companies and their customers.

The features available on contact center phone systems are rich and varied. Some of the major features include:

• Single Inbound Toll-Free Number: contact center phone system allows customers and prospects to call a single number, which dramatically increases efficiency and lowers marketing costs.
• Automatic Queuing, Distribution, Routing and Forwarding: contact centers' phone systems software can automatically queue incoming calls, distribute them among representatives based on skills, forward, and otherwise intelligently adjust call distribution based on a wide range of parameters (volume, customer support contracts, product, etc.).
• Call Monitoring: Allows supervisors to listen in on calls to improve quality and performance.
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Routes contact center phone system calls based on customer voice recognition.
• Automatic Dialing: Dials numbers for contact center agents based on tables, caller ID, or other previously defined rules.
• Predictive Dialing: An evolution of contact center phone system automatic dialing, which uses algorithms to monitor calls, predict the availability of contact centers phone systems agents/sales representatives, determine how parties will answer, connect sales representatives to prospects, deal with unanswered calls, and perform other intelligent call automation services.
• Call Recording: Records and stores audio files of conversations with customers for quality, legal and regulatory compliance purposes.
• Call Scripting and Instructions: Prompts contact center phone system agents with customer responses and actions, based on previously defined rules.
• Analytics and Other Reporting: Detailed, intelligent reporting is available in contact center phone systems, which can be used to measure contact center agent performance, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiencies.
• Workforce Management: Adjusts contact center phone system agent schedules based on information gathered by the contact center phone systems such as changing skills, performance targets, and call patterns.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration: Contact center phone systems can provide their own CRM software, or integrate with existing CRM systems, giving contact center agents a 360-degree view of a customer.
• Self-Service via the Internet: This allows customers to browse a knowledge base of possible solutions, potentially eliminating the need for support calls.
• Survey Capabilities: This allows customers to rate their contact centers' phone systems experience, which provides important performance improvement data.

A new contact center phone system in a contact center environment can provide the tools to improve the customer experience, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. These tools continue to improve rapidly.

1. Better Performance of Customer Service Agents - contact center phone systems enable customer service agents to have better performance as they can keep track of all communications with a customer in one place. This way, they can quickly identify and resolve any issues the customer is having.
2. Increased Customer Satisfaction- contact center phone systems help businesses increase customer satisfaction by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
3. Improved Sales and Marketing Efforts- contact center phone systems make it easier for businesses to track sales and marketing efforts. This information can be used to improve future campaigns and target new customers.
4. Reduced Operating Costs- contact center phone systems can help businesses reduce their operating costs by eliminating the need for multiple phone lines and other hardware. This can save businesses money on their monthly phone bills.
5. Increased Productivity- contact center phone systems can help businesses increase their productivity by allowing them to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
6. Improved Customer Retention- contact center phone systems can help businesses improve their customer retention rates by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
7. Higher Quality Leads- contact center phone systems can help businesses generate higher quality leads by providing them with the ability to track sales and marketing efforts. This information can be used to improve future campaigns and target new customers.
8. Increased Efficiency- contact center phone systems can help businesses increase their efficiency by eliminating the need for multiple phone lines and other hardware. This can save businesses money on their monthly phone bills.
9. Enhanced Communication- contact center phone systems can help businesses enhance their communication by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
10. Decreased Hold Times- contact center phone systems can help businesses decrease their hold times by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
11. Increased First Call Resolution Rates- contact center phone systems can help businesses increase their first call resolution rates by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.
12. Reduced Abandonment Rates- contact center phone systems can help businesses reduce their abandonment rates by providing them with the ability to handle more calls in a shorter amount of time. This results in fewer customers waiting on hold and shorter wait times for those who do have to wait.