Finding the Right Balance in VoIP for the Call Center

It’s the job of any company that hopes to succeed to make it easier for customers to do business with it. Since the majority of customers still prefer the telephone to all other channels, a company’s telephony system might be considered its most important tool for supporting customers. Unfortunately, too many companies are still overly casual about the quality of their telephone support, and this can lead to poor customer service.

The move to business voice over IP (VoIP) was once considered a cost-saving move for call centers and other business functions, and it certainly is. But there are also the features to consider…features customers have come to expect today. Many of today’s complete cloud-based VoIP solutions offer considerably more than just cost savings. They offer advanced call management that is virtually impossible with traditional telephony, allowing companies to service all manner of customers via a variety of channels.

Features such as music on hold, call recording, conference bridges, low-cost toll-free numbers, unlimited calling and free number porting can allow a company to build a call center from scratch in a remarkably short amount of time. It can also help a company build a virtual call center environment in which agents can be located anywhere in the state, the country or the world, and companies can quickly bring on extra agent capacity during times of high call volume or seasonal business spikes.

Another important feature a good business VoIP system can offer a contact center is the ability to grow, change and adapt. Customers expect that the quality of support offered to them will suit their needs, and their needs are ever-changing. (And expectations increase each year.)

In a recent blog post, Nextiva’s Micah Solomon noted that was a groundbreaking improvement in customer convenience last year is ho-hum today; what was timely last week feels as slow now as a dial-up modem.

“A masterful company understands this and adapts and retools continually,” he wrote. “For instance, a retail chain could have a simply stated goal as follows for each new location: “Make this store better than the last one we opened.” This simple approach is an optimal way to improve with every store opening and also avoid endless second-guessing and regrets about past shortfalls.”

The same approach should apply in the contact center. At the same time, companies need to strike a balance and not be overwhelmed with new features that customers may not need. Solomon calls it “gilding the lily,” or spending effort improving something that’s already perfect.

“In customer interactions, lily-gilding takes the form of fancying up your offering beyond what your customers are interested in (or interested in paying for),” wrote Solomon. “This has both obvious and hidden costs. The hidden costs include excess features that can make your offering less attractive by complicating it for customers or implying to customers that they’re paying for something they don’t need.”

As with any business function, a good balance has to be struck between innovation and the ease of doing business that customers expect. Knowing one’s customers in order to provide them with what they want is critical. 

Edited by Alisen Downey