While November brings with it one of the biggest opportunities around to make sales and boost businesses to profitability—the holiday shopping season—it also brings with it some distinct challenges. Particularly the levels of incoming calls seen to a business' call center. With that influx of incoming calls requires certain changes to best accommodate said influx, but what's the best way to do that? Thankfully, there are several ways to manage that influx thanks to some specific tactics in the call routing field, which Contact Centres recently examined in greater detail.
First, there's calling line identity (CLI) routing. Using CLI routing allows call centers to issue a specific priority to certain callers, for instance, those calling from a certain location or even from a certain number, allowing for priority service for VIP customers, or for even geography-specific responses. Using a dialed-number priority system, meanwhile, allows businesses to engineer certain responses to certain customer actions; calling a certain number—one featured in advertising, for example—or working through a specific sequence in a phone tree to reach a clear conclusion is also possible.
From there, some businesses instead turn to skills-based routing, in which specific calls that often come through an interactive voice response (IVR) system are sent to specific sub-departments with specific skills. Others look to routing based on the caller's behavior; if a number calls the tech support system frequently, perhaps it's immediately routed there, or the routing is dependent on the caller's response to an ad much the same way dialed-number priority works.
Some businesses allow the agents to handle inbound calls, either through transfers or through three way conferencing, allowing the agents to do the routing based on needs on the ground. Other businesses might instead choose to tie the routing into database lookups or even offline file uploading, like placing orders previously or making calls from the same number repeatedly. There are other options as well, ranging from routing calls based specifically on geography to ratio distribution—making sure calls received are in line with the capabilities of the call center in question. Some call centers don't even bother with routing incoming calls at all. Instead, such centers offer automated callback scheduling systems, allowing the caller the option to get a call back at a later time, or at least noting how long the caller is expected to be on hold. We have video on this and a variety of subjects on hand at this link.
Many of these strategies can be put into play with the use of a cloud-based call management system's call routing capabilities, a development that will no doubt prove welcome for businesses eager to help manage the flock of incoming callers that a business is more likely to receive at this time of year. There are other tools on hand to manage that increased call volume as well; the use of an IVR system does more than provide skills-based routing; an IVR can offer a way to route simpler calls to static sources of information—store hours, billing amounts due, and so on—and leave the human element to tackle the more complex calls, freeing up valuable time that can be put into handling the incoming calls. There's also the option to simply expand using a cloud-based system and a bring your own device (BYOD) philosophy. There are always options to be had in the call center, and the better these are put to work, the more success the call center will have overall.
Edited by Alisen Downey