The costs associated with delivering quality customer care can be significant for even the small business. Staying in touch with the customer base, offering the latest solutions and products and implementing powerful marketing strategies are all key to the success of the business. Any solution that can reduce the financial burden while helping the organization to reach the right level in quality customer care is worth considering.
This is the perfect opportunity to consider the VoIP call center. VoIP enables organizations to streamline the costs associated with staying connected to their customer base while still maintaining the necessary channels to support these efforts. When selecting the right solution for the call center, however, there are a few questions that the buyer should ask.
First, the buyer should ask about the real startup costs, including setup fees, activation costs and equipment costs. Understanding exactly what is included on the startup bill is essential to the cost benefits business case and must be considered before implementation. It’s just as important to ask about termination costs if the provider and the business don’t mesh once the system is in place.
The buyer should also ask about the minimum ongoing costs, such as taxes and any costs associated with E911. Even free services may incur a cost that a provider may not immediately make known. It’s important to know before making a decision if current phones will be used on the new system or if the VoIP call center must replace all phones.
Likewise, the buyer needs to inquire about the compatibility between the phone and the mobile app and if fax capabilities are available. It’s common for the business to still need fax machines and older technology doesn’t always integrate well with VoIP. The buyer should also determine what other devices he or she can use on the system and whether or not it will support a bring your own device (BYOD) initiative.
The availability of tech support is also key as the VoIP call center must often rely on solutions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. At the same time, it’s important to ask about the frequency of server crashes and the redundancies already in place to support users when it occurs. If numbers must be ported, the amount of time it takes to complete the porting process has to be known.
The good news for the organization seeking to implement VoIP is there are a number of providers offering solid solutions that perform well in the market. If the answers to these questions satisfy the buyer, they’re well on their way to a successful implementation and operation on a cost efficient and effective platform.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey