Frequently asked questions

Agent

What is an Agent – What Do Virtual Agents Do – Call Center Agents

What Is an Agent?  :An agent refers to a person who works as a customer service representative (aka agent) in a call center or contact center. Agents are employed to deliver customer care and assistance to callers or customers via phones and computers.  

 What Is a Virtual Agent? 

​A computer may serve in the role of an agent. Virtual agents: 

• • Are programmed to deliver customer service
  • Utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)
  • May use natural language processing (NPL) to converse
  • Support other agents in contact center work 

 

Agent Group

What is an Agent Group – Benefits of Agent Groups – How to Group Call Center Agents

In a contact center or call center, an agent group refers to teams of agents that share similar skill sets or who handle specific types of customer issues. Agent groups improve contact center efficiency and streamline organization. Most contact center software offers the capacity to set agent groups and custom agent roles. Customer contacts can then be automatically routed to agent groups based on set criteria.  

Benefits of Using Agent Groups 

• Here are some benefits to using agent groups: 
• Enables skills-based routing 
• Improves call center efficiency 
• Allows agents to focus on a specific area 

• Organizes the contact center according to skill, function, or expertise
  

Agent Status

What is An Agent Status – Types of Agent Statuses in Call Centers

In a call center or contact center, agent status refers to the current work mode of an agent at any given time during a shift. Agent status enables contact centers to determine which agents can receive calls, the current call volume/agent load in the contact center, and to track individual agent performance. Administrators also measure overall agent status to monitor contact center performance and staffing levels.

Types of Agent Status in Call Centers

There are various benefits of chat: 

• Available/unavailable
• Busy
• After call work

• Off-phone work
  

Application Programming Interface (API)

What is an API – Application Programming Interface – Purpose of an APIWhat is an Application Template – Software Application Templates – Benefits of Application Templates

What Is An Application Programming Interface (API)?  

An application programming interface (API) is a software intermediary that enables two software applications to communicate with each other and share functionality. APIs are used to integrate software so that they may share data or work within each other’s interface. 

How Developers Use APIs

• Developers use APIs to:  
• Connect software and applications so programs can “talk” to one another 
• Develop workflows by integrating systems so data does not have to be entered more than once 

• Foster and create new functionality by integrating two or more applications
  

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Contact Centers - 

How Conversational AI Transforms The Contact Center
Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most transformational technologies shaping the contact center in this world. It provides customers with a pleasant, effective, self-service experience, while freeing up live agents to focus on higher value work.

The technology is not new – AI has been around for decades – but Conversational AI has been gaining momentum because processing and storage have gotten dramatically less expensive along with useful data becoming more widely and deeply available.

Machine Learning (ML) is the part of AI that enables data-rich customer experiences. It’s algorithms uncover the patterns in massive amounts of data to learn and predict outcomes, and continuously improve over time. With science and computing power advancing dramatically, ML has greatly improved over the last several years.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is another part of AI that allows computers to interact with human dialogue, whether spoken or written. NLP and speech recognition allow people to engage in a natural conversation to resolve the customer’s issue. Like ML, there has been an improvement in delivering exceptional accuracy over the last few years.

Conversational AI In The Contact Center
A very large percentage of customer contacts involve transmitting routine information that is little more than a listen-search-retrieve activity (e.g., where is my order, is this in stock, what is my account balance). Contextual information, such as verifying caller identity or finding open orders, also adds time to finding a resolution for each engagement.

This is precisely the kind of task that can now be readily automated, freeing up live agents to handle higher-value interactions, improving their effectiveness and resulting in more revenue.

Virtual agents improve outcomes by quickly moving customers through the process to identify and resolve the reason for their call. And it creates a real-time environment of rich data for analyzing trends and identifying emerging opportunities and problems, while better recording and understanding customer interactions.

A Five9 Virtual Agent is about 10% the cost of a live agent, available 24/7, speaks 120 different languages, provides 100% accurate information, and can effectively read customer sentiment so calls can be escalated to Tier 2 support when necessary.

From IVR to IVA
Conversational AI and IVAs are a significant step up from Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology, where customers are limited by a press-key or voice-response matrix. Whether through voice or chatbot, this newer form of AI allows the customer to directly ask a question or present their problem immediately with the system. When the query cannot be resolved, the matter is seamlessly escalated to a live agent.

Using Conversational AI as Tier 1 support in the call and contact center provides many advantages. To cite just a few, this lets you:

Reduce labor costs by automating repetitive tasks
Scale on-demand to respond to more requests across more channels
Connect via voice, SMS, speech-to-text, and chatbot
Provide 100% call acceptance 24/7 with polite and correctly informed interactions
Enable in-call sentiment analysis, with automatic escalation where appropriate
Execute more informed escalations, with intelligent routing to the best Tier 2 person
Increase agent job satisfaction by eliminating many routine interactions
Accommodate callers in hundreds of different languages
Remain ADA and/or HIPAA compliant by collecting sensitive data without revealing that information to human agents
Access more robust metrics and reporting

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

What is Asynchronous Transfer Mode – What is ATM in Call Centers – What is ATM Used For:

What Is Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)? 

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) refers to a telecommunications standard for digital transmission of various types of traffic. It was developed in the 1980s to meet the needs of the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network to integrate telecommunication networks. ATM handles traditional and high-throughput data traffic, including real-time, low-latency like voice and video. Part of a wide-area network (WAN), ATM switches and transmits information via fixed-sized cells.  

What Is ATM Used For?  

ATM is used to support a wide range of communications services such as:  

• Data
• Video
• Images

• Voice
  

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

What Is ACD in Call Centers - What Is An Automatic Call DistributorWhat is An Automatic Call Dialer - What is An ACD in Call Centers

What Is an Automated Call Dialer? 

Auto dialers make automated calls to customers, either to provide a recorded message or connect them to an agent.

An automated call dialer (ACD) is a function that automatically dials customer phone numbers and can deliver an automated message or connect the number to an agent once it’s answered. Automated call dialers are used primarily in outbound contact centers, typically for sales. 

Automated Call Dialers Regulations

Businesses in the United States that use automated call dialers must comply with certain regulations:

• The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), is a federal law that regulates the use of auto dialers for telemarketing purposes
• Under TCPA, businesses must obtain prior, express written consent from consumers before making auto-dialed calls or sending automated messages to cell phones

• Businesses must use automated call dialers for appropriate uses only
  

Automatic Number Identification (ANI)

What is an Automatic Number Identification – ANI in Call Centers – ANI in ACD

What Is An Automatic Number Identification (ANI)? 

An automatic number identification (ANI) is telecommunications technology used in contact centers that automatically identifies the caller's phone number. Originally designed to help with billing for toll-free numbers, ANI is now used more commonly as part of automatic call distribution (ACD) systems that manage inbound calls and route them to agents. ANI is similar to caller ID but uses different technology.  

Reasons Call Centers Use ANI 

Call centers may use ANI for several reasons:  

• To identify inbound callers 
• To track inbound toll-free callers 
• To deliver customer info to agents 

• To provide more personalized service
  

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

What is Automatic Speech Recognition – Purpose of ASR in Call Centers – What is ASR

What Is Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)? 

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) is technology that uses machine learning and natural language processing to convert spoken words into text. In a contact center, ASR is used for a variety of customer and agent interactions.  

Automatic Speech Recognition Uses 

There are numerous use cases for automatic speech recognition:  

• Interactive voice response and call routing 
• Automated call summaries 
• Automated call transcripts 
• Speech analytics 

• Voice biometrics
  

Average Speed of Answer

What is Average Speed of Answer – ASA in Call Centers – Benefits of Measuring ASA

What Is Average Speed of Answer (ASA)?

In a contact center or call center, supervisors monitor and track the average speed of answer (or ASA) to determine the amount of time required for the call center to answer a customer call or message. This metric includes hold time and queue time, but does not include IVR or call routing time. Contact centers want low ASAs which means customers are being responded to quickly.

Benefits of Measuring Average Speed of Answer

Call centers track average speed of answer to help them determine:

• Whether they are appropriately staffed
• How well their IVR is routing calls
• Agent performance

• Reasons for call abandonment
  

Average Waiting Time (AWT)

What is Average Waiting Time – What is AWT in Call Centers – Contact Center AWT

What Is Average Waiting Time (AWT)?

In a contact center, average waiting time (AWT) refers to the average wait time. It is also known as the average speed of answer (ASA). This metric measures the average time it takes for an agent to answer customer calls that have been placed in a queue. The longer customers wait (longer AWT), the more likely call centers will experience high call abandonment rates.

What Average Waiting Time (AWT) Means

Call centers use AWT to determine:

How long customers are having to wait on hold

• Agent performance
• Staffing requirements

• The need for automation to scale
  

Blocked Call

What is a Blocked Call – Call Center Blocked Calls – Reasons for Blocked Calls

A callback is a request by a customer to have a customer service agent call them back. It is often part of a queue callback feature, where customers are provided the option to have an agent return their call – in the order it was received – rather than wait on hold on the phone. Requesting a callback is typically simple, involving a single button click once a customer is in the traditional phone queue. 

Benefits of Callback 

There are multiple benefits to callback: 

• Improves customer experience
• Eliminates the need for customers to wait on hold

• Frees up customers while waiting to talk to an agent
  

BPO Call Center

What is a BPO Call Center – Business Process Outsourcer Call Center – BPO in Call Centers

What Is A BPO Call Center? 

A BPO call center is a business process outsourcer call center. This means that a company provides call center services to other companies in lieu of those companies having their own call centers. By outsourcing their call center, companies can save money and gain more scalability. Business process outsourcers develop high degrees of expertise, but companies may forfeit some control over their customer experience when using a BPO.  

Benefits of Using A BPO Call Center 

There are several benefits to using a BPO call center: 

• Cost savings from outsourcing  
• Easy to scale without hiring 
• Capacity to cover more time zones 

• Access to call center expertise
  

Call Back

What is a Callback – What is a Callback in a Call Center – Benefits of a Callback

What is A Callback?

A callback is a request by a customer to have a customer service agent call them back. It is often part of a queue callback feature, where customers are provided the option to have an agent return their call – in the order it was received – rather than wait on hold on the phone. Requesting a callback is typically simple, involving a single button click once a customer is in the traditional phone queue. 

Benefits of Callback 

There are multiple benefits to callback: 

• Improves customer experience
• Eliminates the need for customers to wait on hold

• Frees up customers while waiting to talk to an agent
  

Call Center Jobs

What is a Call Center Job – What Do Call Center Agents Do – Types of Call Center Jobs

What Is A Call Center Job?  

A call center job is typically known as a customer service representative or agent. However, there are numerous positions in call centers (also known as contact centers). Agents interact with customers via phone or digital channels to solve issues or provide assistance with tasks. Call centers employ people and virtual AI agents to deliver a hybrid of human and automated support services to customers.  

Types of Call Center Jobs 

There are numerous call center jobs including:  

• Customer service representative or agent 
• Call center supervisor or manager 
• Call center trainer  
• Call center IT professionals 

• Call center data analyst
  

Call Center Representative

What Is a Call Center Representative – Contact Center Representative - Call Center Representative Jobs

What Is A Call Center Representative?  

A call center representative is a contact center term for employees who interact with customers or prospects via phone, email, SMS, or chat. Call center representatives are often called agents. They are typically located either in a central contact center location or as a virtual call center where they work remotely. Call center representatives serve in various capacities and are important to delivering a positive customer experience.  

Types of Call Center Representative Jobs 

Call center representatives may serve in a variety of functions:  

• Customer support or service 
• Technical help desk 
• Sales  

• Member/patient services
  

Call Centers

Are Call Centers Still Around – Call Center Industries – What are Call Centers

Are Call Centers Still Around?

Call centers, also known as contact centers, are still a primary function for businesses and organizations to provide customer service and support. Like the call centers of the past, today’s call centers are a blend of onsite physical locations where agents work alongside each other and remote call centers, where agents work from home. The advent of cloud contact center software has enabled many call centers to take a primarily remote approach, saving the cost of real estate and broadening their talent pool of available agents.   

Use Cases for Call Centers

Call centers are used for various business reasons: 

• Traditional customer service
• IT helpdesks
• Healthcare patient support services
• Financial services and banking support services

• Transportation and hospitality reservations
  

Are Call Centers Still Useful – Do Businesses Still Need Call Centers – Purpose of Call Centers

Do You Still Need A Call Center?

If organizations want to provide a centralized support function to customers, then a call center is one of the best avenues to deliver that service. While many call centers operate remotely today, they function as one unit, with infrastructure, training, management, and policies that help create a unified, consistent customer experience.  

Business Purposes of Call Centers

Call centers serve multiple purposes for an organization:

• Mitigate customer turnover by resolving customer issues
• Restore customer loyalty through a positive resolution

• Generate revenue via cross-selling/upselling solutions
  

Call Center Customer Care - Benefits Of Quality Customer Service

Why Your Call Center Needs Customer Care And Service?

Delivering positive customer experiences should be a top priority for any call center. According to RingCentral, a customer care call center is a centralized department designed to handle phone calls from current and potential customers. In today’s day and age, customers have high expectations for companies. Even one poor experience can mean losing their business altogether.

Let’s look at a few reasons why customer care and service is important for any call center:

Customer Retention

Within the last year, data shows that customers are, as stated above, less likely to continue business with a company if they previously had a poor customer service experience. Accordingly, to the Five9 Customer Service Index 2021, 72% of customers surveyed reported they are somewhat or very unlikely to continue doing business with a company after a poor customer service experience. The idea that great customer care and service leads to increased brand loyalty is not a new concept, making it crucial that companies focus on delivering the highest quality of customer care and service.

Employee Retention

Great customer service and high employee retention go together. Another point of frustration for customers is when they are transferred multiple times to different agents. This could happen for a couple reasons. One reason could be that the right solutions are not in place, specifically a lack of a workforce management solution to ensure agents with the right skillset are working at the right times for this scenario.

Great customer experiences will also come naturally when employees are treated fairly in addition to implementing the right solutions that allows scheduling the right agents with qualified skillsets during high volume hours. Additionally, this provides agents with tools that make their work more automated to reduce their stress, and therefore, increases their likelihood to stay with the company. When treated fairly and equipped with the right training and technology to ensure their success, they can deliver better service.

More Profit Margins

According to GrooveHQ, 84% of organizations working to improve customer service report an increase in revenue. Additionally, Oracle states 74% of consumers say they have spent more with a company because of a history of positive customer service experiences. You might not think call centers can be a profit generating organization. However, great customer service experiences can translate into an increase in your organization’s profit margins.

Call Center Self Service – What is Self Service – Contact Center Self Service

What Is Self Service?

In customer service and contact centers, self-service refers to systems and processes that enable customers to resolve their own issues, without the assistance of a human agent. This may include interactive voice response (IVRs), knowledge base articles, and AI bots or virtual agents that help customers resolve simple, transactional issues.  

Benefits of Self-Service 

Self-service provides numerous benefits to customers and contact centers: 

• Reduces or eliminates wait time 
• Provides customers fast, easy solutions 
• Frees agents to focus on more complex issues 

• Reduces contact center costs
  

The History of Call Centers – Origin of Call Centers – When Did Contact Centers Begin

The History of Call Centers

Call centers date back to the 1960s, when Private Automated Business Exchange (PABX) was installed in the UK-based Birmingham Press and Mail to have rows of agents receiving customer calls. In the early 1970s, telephone booking systems were patented, and telephone headsets became popular based on televised NASA events.  

Key Highlights of Call Center History

Call centers have continually evolved across the decades:

• 1970s: Call center technology used for telephone sales, reservations, and banking services
• 1980s: Toll-free numbers increased agent efficiency and call volumes
• 1990s: Call centers became contact centers using multiple methods of communication
• 2000s: The internet brought more computerization and automation
• 2010s: The cloud developed along with mobile wireless technology modernizing call centers 

• 2020s: Artificial intelligence (AI) tools and virtual agents assist agents and provide expanded customer support
  

What is A Call Center Service Level - Service Levels in Call Centers – Call Center SLA

What Is A Service Level?  

A service level refers to the services provided to a customer within a certain period. Service levels are categorized and measured to track performance. In a call center, service level refers to the percentage of calls answered within a specific time frame.  

Impacts of Contact Center Service Level 

The service level, or SLA, provides important information about a contact center’s performance, such as:  

• Percentage of calls answered within a certain time reveals data about efficiency, agent responsiveness, and performance 
• Low service levels may indicate long wait times, poor customer experience, and technology or training gaps 

• High service levels may indicate efficient automation, minimal wait times, and customer satisfaction
  

What is A Call Center – Benefits of A Call Center – Call Center Issue Resolution

What Is A Call Center? 

A call center is a dedicated department that handles customer service or help desk issue resolution for customers by phone. Today, call centers are typically contact centers since they handle multiple channels of communication, i.e., email, SMS, chat, etc. However, voice-only call centers still exist.  

Benefits of Call Centers 

There are several benefits to running a call center:

• Human or virtual agents provide voice interactions with customers, often a preferred communication method 
• Customers can access assistance via an IVR recorded self-service system or by communicating with an agent 

• Businesses know they are providing high touch customer service, often relevant in specialized fields like healthcare and finance
  

What is an Incoming Call – Incoming Call Center – Types of Incoming Calls

What Is An Incoming Call?  In a call center, an incoming call is a call placed by a customer or potential customer and answered by a customer service agent. Some call centers or contact centers are primarily inbound call-focused, while others are outbound-focused or a blend of both.  

Types of Incoming Calls 

There are multiple types of incoming calls, including: 

• Customer service requests 
• Appointment scheduling 
• Account inquiries 

• Bill payment
  

Call Failed

Why Does My Phone Say Call Failed – Reason for Call Failed on Phones

Why Does My Phone Say Call Failed?  

When a call does not make it through to the intended recipient, it may show up on the display as call failed. The recipient may not be accepting incoming calls.  

Reasons for Failed Calls 

There can be numerous reasons for failed calls, including:  

• Signal dropped 
• Recipient is not accepting calls 
• Callers number may be blocked 

• Call routing or other software dropped the call
  

Call Forwarding

What is Call Forwarding – Benefits of Call Forwarding – Call Forwarding on Cell Phones

What is Call Forwarding?

Call forwarding is a feature of telephone systems that enables an inbound call to be redirected to another phone number or destination such as voicemail. Developed before the advent of mobile phones by Ernest J. Bonanno, call forwarding initially allowed people who were not present at their landline location to receive calls at another location. Call forwarding is a feature still offered by telecommunications companies. 

Benefits of Call Forwarding

There are multiple benefits to call forwarding: 

• Customers can reach an answering service after regular business hours
• No customer is left unanswered

• Third-party experts can receive calls when needed   

What is Call Forwarding – Benefits of Call Forwarding – Purpose of Call Forwarding in Call Centers

What is Call Forwarding?

Call forwarding is the ability to have incoming calls automatically transferred to another phone number without the call having to be answered. For example, businesses that answer their own phones during business hours, may engage call forwarding to an answering service after hours, so that calls continue to be answered.  

Reasons to Use Call Forwarding

There are several common reasons to use call forwarding:  

• When a party is not present or does not want to receive calls 
• When the recipient is not available for a specified time, but wants calls answered 
• When calls need to be answered by a third party with more authority or expertise 

• To provide information or context for callers at any time
  

Call ID

What Is Call ID – Phone Number Caller ID - Reasons to Use Caller ID

What Is Call ID? 

Call ID or caller ID is a phone service feature that enables phone subscribers to have incoming call numbers identified before they answer the phone. Call ID is provided by the phone carrier. Phone subscribers may choose to mask their numbers from caller ID.  

Reasons to Use Call ID 

Phone subscribers may choose to use call ID for a number of reasons:

• To know who is calling before answering 
• To screen for unwanted calls 
• To have a list of “Recent” calls 

• To be selective in which calls they answer
  

Call Management System

What is a Call Management System – Call Routing Software – Benefits of Call Center CMS

What Is a Call Management System (CMS)? 

In a contact center, a call management system is used to provide real-time and historical reporting. Management uses this data to measure contact center performance and individual agent performance. Contact centers rely on data analytics to help track and determine appropriate staffing, key performance indicators, minimize costs, leverage resources, and improve processes. Note: Some contact centers use the term CMS to refer to their call routing optimization system.  

Benefits of Call Management Systems 

There are a variety of benefits to call management systems:  

• Provides a comprehensive view of the contact center performance  
• Enables managers to monitor agent performance  

• Tracks key call center metrics in one place
  

Call Recording

What is Call Recording – Call Recording in Call Centers – Benefits of Recording a Call

What is Call Recording?

In a contact center or customer service center, a call recording refers to the procedure of recording a conversation between a customer service agent and a customer. Call recording is always done with the consent of the customer.  

Purposes of Call Recording

Contact centers use call recording to:  

• Evaluate agent interactions for quality assurance 
• Monitor agent adherence to scripts and protocols 
• Coach agents on areas for improvement 

• Collect customer and/or call center data
  

What is A Spam Call – Call Center Spam Calls – Types of Spam Calls

What Is A Spam Call?  

A spam call refers to any unwanted call made to a vast amount of people, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, and fraud. Carriers attempt to flag and block incoming spam calls; however, spammers often use tactics to try to bypass detection. Callers may block spam calls that they receive.  

Is Caller ID Spoofing Different Than Spam?  

Caller ID spoofing is a tactic of spammers that involves:  

• Intentionally changing the Caller ID to mask the actual number 
• Spoofed numbers that often look familiar or legitimate 

• Spoofing is illegal if the intent is to defraud; it is legal if there is a legitimate reason to hide info, such as by a law enforcement agency
  

Call Routing

What is Automatic Call Routing – What are Call Routing Systems in Call Centers

What Is Call Routing? 

A way for calls to be automatically routed to the most appropriate resource before the call is answered.

Call routing is a feature of call management systems that enable calls to be automatically routed to specific endpoints or people based on pre-determined rules and criteria. Call routing takes place before the call is answered.  

Benefits of Call Routing in Call Centers

There are numerous benefits of call routing: 

• Reduce call hold times
• Ensure calls are answered by agents with the skills or expertise needed to support the customer

• Leverage all available agents, including back-up agents, during high call volume periods
  

What is Call Routing – Automatic Call Routing – Benefits of Call Routing

What Is Call Routing? 

Call routing is a way for calls to be automatically routed to the most appropriate resource before the call is answered. This process automatically places incoming calls into a company’s queue, then distributes the callers to specific people or groups in a call center based on predetermined rules and criteria. 

Benefits of Call Routing 

There are numerous advantages to using call routing:  

• To reduce call hold times 
• To ensure calls are answered by agents with the skills or expertise needed to resolve the issue 

• To leverage all available agents during high volume periods
  

Call Screening

What is Call Screening – Call Center Call Screening – Benefits of Call Screening

What Is Call Screening?  

Call screening refers to the process of vetting calls to determine if the call is to be answered, rejected, or sent to voicemail. Call screening utilizes caller ID to reveal the caller’s name and number. Contact centers making outbound calls often have calls rejected by customers during call screening. Spam callers may mask caller IDs or use localized numbers to try to convince recipients to answer their calls. Call screening helps people manage their communications.  

Benefits of Call Screening 

There are several benefits to call screening:  

• Avoid unwanted calls 
• Eliminate time wasted on spam or unqualified calls 

• Triage calls that need to be answered in real-time vs responded to later
  

Call Transfer

What Is a Call Transfer - How Do Call Transfers Work in a Call Center

What Is A Call Transfer?  

In a contact center, a call transfer is when an agent switches a call from one endpoint to another, for example, to another agent, a supervisor, or a subject matter expert. Call transfers can also be done automatically through an IVR or IVA. Call directories may also enable customers to select the party they wish to speak with and be routed to that endpoint.  

Benefits of Call Transfer

There are several benefits to call transfer: 

• Calls are answered rather than going to a voicemail 
• Customers do not have to dial more numbers to reach another party 

• Customer issues are resolved faster by transferring to an expert
  

What is a Cold Transfer – Disadvantages of Cold Transfers – Cold Transfer in a Call Center

What Is A Cold Transfer?  

A cold transfer refers to transferring a call to another person without providing that person with any context about the call.  

Disadvantages of Cold Transfers 

In a call center, cold transfers can have negative impacts:

• Callers must repeat their information when transferred 
• The person answering the transferred call may not be the right contact and will need to transfer the call again 
• Poor customer experience 

• Lack of customer information continuity
  

What Is A Warm Transfer in A Call Center – Meaning of A Warm Transfer – Contact Center Warm Transfer

What Is A Warm Transfer? 

In a contact center, a warm transfer refers to when an agent transfers a call to another employee but passes on the customer information first, so the customer does not have to repeat their story.  

Benefits of A Warm Transfer 

Contact and call centers conduct warm transfers to:  

• Improve the customer experience by not requiring customers to repeat their info 
• Make transfers easier and smoother

• Ensure the employee receiving the transferred call has the expertise needed to resolve the issue
  

Call Volume

What is Call Volume – Value of Call Volume Data – Call Volume in Call Centers

What Is Call Volume?  

In a contact center, call volume refers to a metric that measures the number of incoming calls during a set amount of time. This number sets a baseline for other call center metrics and helps measure agent efficiency.  

What Call Volume Can Reveal 

Call volume is used to gauge several important call center metrics:  

• Number of calls handled by agent or automated system per a given timeframe 
• Agent effectiveness  
• Staffing levels 

• Abandonment rate
  

Call Waiting

What Is Call Waiting – Benefit of Call Waiting – Call Waiting in Call Centers

What is Call Waiting?

Call waiting is a feature of telephone services that enables a user to receive a second call while already in an existing call, put the first caller on hold, or switch back and forth between the two calls. Some telephone providers combine this feature with others such as call forwarding or conferencing.

Benefits of Call Waiting

Call waiting enables users to: 

• Not miss phone calls while on the phone
• Have the option to choose to answer the second incoming call or defer it to voicemail

• Be alerted to incoming calls
  

Calling List

What is a Calling List – Purpose of a Calling List in Call Centers

What Is a Calling List?

In an outbound contact center or call center, a calling list is a collection of contact records that agents or automated dialers will attempt to call. Calling lists may be autogenerated from customer relationship management (CRM) systems or other databases. Calling lists need to be maintained for accuracy. Customers and prospects can request to be removed from a calling list or if they place their number on the Do Not Call Registry in the US.

How Call Centers Use Calling Lists

Call centers and contact centers use calling lists for:

• Placing outbound calls to prospects or customers
• Automating calls to deliver reminders or important updates to customers

• Tracking customers that want to be removed from the list
  

Calls

What is a Long Call in Call Centers – Finding Long Call Issues in Call Centers

What Is A Long Call?  

In a contact center, a long call refers to any call that lasts 30 minutes or longer. Call centers measure their average call duration to work toward optimizing call duration and resolution times. Long calls indicate that there are inefficiencies in the contact center system, processes, or technology.  

What Causes Long Calls?  

Long calls may have a variety of reasons, but these are the most common:  

• The agent has difficulty accessing the customer’s information, history, or account data because core systems are not integrated 
• There are issues with routing that causes the caller to be transferred to multiple agents or departments 

• Agents are not supported with sufficient data and training to quickly provide responses
  

What is A Short Call in A Call Center – Contact Center Short Call

What Is A Short Call? 

In a contact center, a short call refers to customer interactions less than 10 seconds long. While this may sound like a positive thing, short calls often are red flags for ineffective agent performance. Short Call reports are often included in modern contact center software platforms.  

What Short Calls May Signify 

A short call may indicate several prominent issues:

• Customer frustration that leads them to hang up quickly 
• Agents answering high volume of calls but disconnecting without a customer resolution 

• Ineffective KPIs that focus on quantity of calls answered
  

What Is A Silenced Call – Purpose of Silenced Calls – Silent Phone Calls

What Is A Silenced Call?  

Silent calls are calls from unknown numbers that do not ring, but are sent to voicemail or end without an interaction. Numbers that have been previously contacted are not silenced. Silent calls are a feature in call settings.  

Reasons for Silence Calls 

Phone subscribers may experience silence unknown callers for several reasons:  

• To avoid being disrupted by unknown calls 
• To know that a ringtone signals only known callers 

• By mistake, as contact center software may perceive a person answering for an answer-machine, and cut off the call without relaying information
  

What is An Outgoing Call – Contact Center Outgoing Call – Outgoing Call Center

What Is An Outgoing Call?  

An outgoing call is a call placed from a call center or contact center agent to a customer. Outgoing calls are also known as outbound calls. Outgoing calls may be dialed by a human agent or run as robocalls, conducted by a bot.  

Reasons for Outgoing Calls 

Call centers may make outgoing calls for several reasons:  

• For sales promotions 
• To provide customers with important data 
• For account payment reminders 

• For polls, surveys, and data gathering
  

What Is the Difference Between a Hot Call and a Cold Call – Hot Call in Call Centers – Cold Call in Call Centers

What Is the Difference Between a Hot Call and a Cold Call?  

In telemarketing, a hot call refers to a call placed to a contact who has shown a high level of interest in a product or service. A cold call is a call made to a contact who has not expressed any interest in the product or service and may not know the brand. Cold calling is often a form of outbound lead generation.  

What’s Better? Hot or Cold Calling?  

There are different reasons to use cold vs hot calling:  

• Whether a call is cold or hot depends on the degree of existing relationship with the contact 
• Cold calls introduce your brand via a human interaction, but are often seen as unwanted spam calls 

• Hot calls often signify the contact’s strong intention to buy and can be more productive since the contact already knows your brand
  

Calls in Queue

What is a Calls in Queue – Call Center Queues – Phone Queue in Contact Center

What Are Calls in Queue? 

In a contact center, calls in queue refers to a line of callers waiting for an agent to answer their call. Customers are automatically placed in a queue when they agree to hold for the next available agent. Similarly, with queue callback, customers may opt to have the agent return their call without losing their place in line.  

Benefits Of Having Calls in Queue 

Here are some of the benefits of queues:  

• To answer callers in the order they are received 
• To maintain an orderly workflow 
• To organize call center work 

• To route calls effectively
  

Cancelled Call

What Does a Cancelled Call Mean – Reasons for Cancelled Calls – What Do Cancelled Calls Prevent

What Does A Cancelled Call Mean?

A canceled call means a call that is placed but instantly terminated without connecting. It does not connect and will not appear in “missed calls”. In call centers that place outbound calls, canceled calls prevent agents from connecting with the intended party.  

Reasons for Canceled Calls

There are several potential reasons for canceled calls:  

• The phone may be turned off 
• There may be connectivity issues 
• The number is not receiving inbound calls 

• The number that is calling has been blocked
  

Carrier

What Is a Carrier - What Are Phone Carriers

What Is a Carrier?  

A carrier is a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that offers telecommunications circuits and service. Examples of carriers include AT&T and Verizon. Carriers may be local telephone companies or national, offering a range of telephone and internet services. Carriers are responsible for the infrastructure needed to support landline phone service.  

What Is a Mobile Carrier? 

A mobile carrier is also known as a wireless service provider.

• Provides wireless telephone services 
• Is responsible for the infrastructure and network needed for mobile or cell service 

• Is the service that texting or SMS messaging is sent through
  

What is A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier – What is CLEC in IT

What Is A Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC)? 

A competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) is a telecommunications provider or carrier that competes with established carriers (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC), following the 1996 Telecommunications Act that removed prohibitions on competitive local service.  

What CLECs Do 

A competitive local exchange carrier:  

• Competes with local exchange carriers (LEC) 
• May have its equipment connected to the LEC 
• Often has more competitive pricing for consumers 

• Typically builds its own fiber networks and offers cloud-based services
  

Centralized Exchange (Centrex)

What is a Phone Service Centralized Exchange – Benefits of Centrex – Centrex in Telecommunications

What Is a Centralized Exchange?  

In telecommunications, a centralized exchange (more commonly known as Centrex) provides the benefits of a private branch exchange (PBX) except the equipment is located and managed at the phone provider’s building and not at the business’s location. Centrex offers businesses a convenient way to access sophisticated managed phone services; however today, many companies are moving to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based communications.  

Benefits of Centralized Exchange (Centrex) 

Companies benefit from Centrex because they:  

• Do not have to house or manage telephone control equipment on site 
• Can easily subscribe to advanced phone features as needed 

• Enjoy a fully managed service by the phone provider
  

Chat

What Is a Chat - What Is a Customer Service Chat

What Is Chat?

In a call center, a chat is two-way communication exchanged via text between the customer and contact center representative or agent. Chat via text enables customers and agents to communicate live or asynchronously, meaning they may begin a conversation and continue it at different time intervals, without losing context.  

Benefits of Chat

There are various benefits of chat: 

• Convenience without losing connection or context
• Enables agents to serve more than one customer at a time
• Customers are able to communicate on their time schedule

• Reduced operational costs for contact centers
  

Chat Server

What is a Chat Server – Benefits of Chat Servers in Call Centers

What Is a Chat Server?

A chat server is an application that manages and maintains real-time chat communication. It receives and sends chat messages. In the contact center, chat servers enable agents to use webchat to engage with customers. Contact centers may also use chatbots to facilitate self-service options. Popular contact center platforms often offer chat server functionality. XMPP and IRC are common chat server protocols.

Benefits of Chat Servers in Contact Centers

Chat servers in contact center software offer several benefits:

• Ability to chat with customers via web or apps
• Self-service option via chatbots or agents

• Improved omnichannel support experience
  

Chat Support

Call Center Chat Support Benefits - Should You Provide Chat Support For Your Call Center

Should Your Contact Center Platform Provide Chat Support?

Our recent Five9 Customer Service Index 2021 surveyed consumers about their communications channel preferences when contacting a business. Turns out that voice is still king with 51% of respondents indicating using phone as their preferred contact channel. Email came in second, with 23%, and chat third at 17%. For younger customers, chat is increasingly preferred. Many contact centers are deploying chat in response to increasing demand from their customers.

Key Features Of Call Center Chat Software

Here are some key features you should look for when considering chat vendors:

• Seamless transition to voice – chat is good for a wide range of customer interactions, but some issues may be more complex and better handled with a phone call. It should be easy to escalate an on-going chat interaction to voice with no more than a single click to place an outbound call to a customer.
• Unified messaging interface – originally “chat” meant web-based chat software. Today however, there are many other message-based communication options like SMS/text and social messaging apps. Agents should be presented messaging interactions within a single unified interface, as opposed to dealing with different interfaces for each messaging source. Unification makes it easier for agents to interact with customers and doesn’t require how to use multiple interfaces.

• Seamless transitions to live agents from chatbots – chatbots can handle a wide range of interactions but there are times when customers need to work with a live agent, either in chat or on the phone. When this occurs, it should be easy to do. More importantly, the context of customer interactions should be provided to agents they are transferred to avoid the need to start over or repeat information already provided.

Benefits Of Call Center Chat Software

Sometimes it just isn’t practical to pick up a phone and call a business. You may be in a noisy environment or in need of some privacy. Supporting call center chat provides a great option for this. It’s a better option than email in many instances due to the real-time nature of a live chat interaction.

A blog post from Zendesk has shown that chat also has a very high level of customer satisfaction of 85%, second only to voice at 91%. Links embedded in a web page or smartphone app make it easy to initiate a chat interaction, reducing customer effort.

Finally, live chat has a lower cost per interaction than voice, especially when agents handle multiple customer interactions at a time. This serves to make agents’ work more interesting, which leads to higher agent satisfaction.

Once live chat has been implemented, there may be options for deploying automated chatbots. This can create a new digital workforce for your operation that supplements your live agents. Recent technology advances in artificial intelligence have greatly expanded the use cases, along with their results. Chatbots are always on and available 24/7 and are significantly less costly than live agents.

Chatbots

Benefits Of Cloud IVR - What Is Cloud Based IVR - How Interactive Voice Recognition Improves CX

Why Call Centers Need Conversational AI and Chatbots

There are endless opportunities to grow a business no matter what industry it is in, and streamlining automation is one place to start. Conversational AI has the ability to dramatically streamline automation, starting with chatbots. Let’s take a look at how AI and chatbots are needed to accelerate that 

Improved Customer And Live Agent Satisfaction

Intelligent virtual agents are a great way to take care of simple tasks like verifying an account number or providing an account balance. By automating routine inquiries, live agents have more time to respond to more complex scenarios that require a thought process and a human touch that includes relating to what a customer is going through. It leads to less burnout and turnover rate for live agents and a higher satisfaction for customers.

Increased Productivity

Since chatbots have already collected and analyzed initial information on a call, they can offer live agents additional tips and guidance through the use of conversational AI and knowledge articles during their conversation with customers.

Additionally, larger knowledge bases can be applied for more detailed queries. Five9 facilitates the chatbot, the live agent and the customer working together to resolve questions and achieve the desired results a lot sooner than what would have been otherwise.

Save Time And Money

Chatbots require less time and money for this part of a call center’s operation, which can then be reinvested into other parts of a call center and overall business.

For example, one of the world’s most recognized retailers is using IVAs to handle the customer returns process by verifying the order details (order date, product number, cost) at the outset of the call and determining if the customer would like to exchange or return the item. This prequalifies the return and makes efficient use of time and energy before the need for a live agent. If the customer does wish to speak with a live agent, the IVA shares the call information with the live agent so the customer doesn’t need to restate their order details.

Circuit Switching

What Is Circuit Switching – Telecommunications Circuit Switching

What Is Circuit Switching?

Part of network configurations in voice phone service, circuit switching refers to a physical path used and dedicated to a single connection between two endpoints for the call. It enables continuous connections for long periods of time and is part of how landlines work.  

Examples of Circuit Switching

In telecommunications, circuit switching is used for the following:  

• Long-distance communication, where continuous connection is needed over long periods of time 
• Data center networks, where circuit switching helps scale and optimize communication and bandwidth 

• Dial-up internet over a public switched network, where Internet Protocol (IP) data packets are carried over the network
  

Class of Service

What is Class of Service – CoS for Telephones - Class of Service Examples for Telephone

What Is a Class of Service? 

In IT, a class of service (CoS) is networking method of managing traffic by grouping various types of traffic by similarity and then prioritizing each type as a class with its own level of network service priority. In landline telephone systems, CoS defines permissions that an extension may have on a PBX so that companies can manage various options on groups of extensions. 

Class of Service Examples for Telephone 

Here are some examples of CoS in voice services: 

• Extending voicemail message retention to some users 
• Forwarding calls to cell phones 
• Limiting calls to within the office 

• Defining lines as inbound or outbound only
  

Cloud Contact Center

What is a Cloud Contact Center – Cloud Based Call Center - Cloud-Based Software Systems

What Is A Cloud Contact Center? 

A cloud contact center refers to call centers that use cloud-based contact center software also known as CCaaS (contact center as a service). Cloud contact centers enable call centers to integrate with other cloud-based software systems, support remote work, and reduce contact center operational costs. Today’s cloud contact centers also facilitate AI features, such as intelligent virtual agents, conversational AI, and agent assist applications.  

Benefits of Cloud Contact Centers 

Cloud contact centers offer several benefits:  

• Modern, intuitive interface 
• Easy integration into other cloud software 
• Access anywhere with internet 
• Supports remote work 

• Low code/no code customization
  

Compliance

What Is Compliance In Contact & Call Centers - Purpose Of Call Center Compliance

What Is Compliance? 

Compliance is conforming with regulations and protocols that are mandated by a governing authority, such as a government agency, regulatory body, or a business’s own policies. Companies with call centers can be in or out of compliance, depending on the degree to which they adhere to the regulation.  

How Is Compliance Measured? 

Call centers or contact centers are required to measure compliance. 

• Audits of records and data, such as logs and call transcripts, are used to evaluate compliance 
• Finance, healthcare, transportation, and government are more highly regulated 
• Most regulatory bodies impute fines or penalties for compliance failure  

• Noncompliant security and privacy regulations increase risk for cyberattacks   
  

Computer Technology Integration

Three Benefits Telephony Integration Benefits - Purpose Of Computer Telephony

Three Reasons Why You Need Computer Telephony Integration

Call and contact centers are the new front door to businesses. The ability to provide exceptional service is needed to attract new customers and also keep existing customers happy. As they call in, agents must have an understanding of who the customer is to provide a more personalized experience.

After your customer initiates a phone call, Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) provides agents a specific screen displaying customer data, purchase history, and information from previous interactions – all delivered before the arrival of the interaction to the agent desktop or a customer relationship management (CRM) environment.

Now that you understand what CTI is, let’s look at 3 reasons why it is vital:

Improves Customer Service Experience

Issue: Calling into the call or contact center tends to be associated with a negative stigma. First, going through an interactive voice response (IVR), listening to the prompts. Then, dialing a certain number or speaking to the machine regarding your issue. This is something many of us experience and often takes multiple minutes just to get to a live agent. Once you finally get to an agent, you often must repeat your personal information as if the company does not know who you are. Not a great experience.

Solution: With CTI, an automated screen pop is displayed identifying who the customer is based on your phone number along with additional detailed information such as address, email, company, etc.). Now the agent can make the interaction more personal as the agent desktop or CRM system provides additional information on the customer.

Enables Personalized Interactions

Issue: Navigating through the agent desktop or CRM system can be difficult for agents to multitask when speaking with a customer on the phone causing them to be very distracted and unproductive. This would then affect average handle times to go longer than needed.

Solution: With CTI, this allows the agent to get right to the root cause of the call and less time figuring out who the customer is, which directly reduces average handle times (AHT). The faster the agents have the right information, the quicker customers’ issues are resolved allowing agents to provide more support during calls.

Enables Personalized Interactions

Issue: Customers’ expectations continue to rise. Companies must continue to look at ways to improve the customer service experience as more personalized experiences are expected.

Solution: With an automated screen displaying to your agents, customers are greeted with more personalized experience. Knowing exactly who the customer is and why they are calling helps agents understand and provide the empathy needed to improve the customer experience.

With an automated screen displaying to your agents, customers are greeted with more personalized experience. Knowing exactly who the customer is and why they are calling helps agents understand and provide the empathy needed to improve the customer experience.

Consultation Call

What is a Consultation Call – Call Center Consultation Calls – Purpose of Consultation Calls

What Is A Consultation Call?  

In a contact center or call center, a consultation call refers to when an agent transfers a call or calls another agent for more information during a customer contact. Technically, a consultation call is a call from a local directory number made to another local directory number during inbound, outbound, or internal calls. Consultation calls can be made without actual consultation happening; they may be transfers.  

Reasons Call Centers Make Consultation Calls 

Here are some reasons agents make consultation calls:  

• To transfer the customer to another agent 
• To discuss a customer issue with another agent 

• To add a party to a conference call
  

Contact Center

Benefits Of Cloud Based Contact Center - How To Improve Contact Center Productivity

How Cloud Based Call And Contact Center Software Platforms Improve Productivity

Call center platforms are becoming more and more sophisticated, yet becoming simpler to use at the same time. It is common knowledge that in life, every precious moment counts and this is no different for a company’s productivity and profits. Let’s take a look at how call center platforms can improve productivity.

Automation

Having too many applications open at the same time to accomplish different task types is overwhelming and frustrating for your employees. This also affects customer experiences. Having a single cloud based platform that streamlines and automates some of your call center’s needs including dialing and call recording reduces the negative feelings that can happen on both sides.

This is where Five9’s Intelligent Contact Center fills this need, which features the ability to automatically route interactions to the right agent. It also engages your customers using the channel that they prefer, which could SMS, email, and/or live chat.

Communications and CRM Integration

Most customer’s experiences with call centers usually are not good. Building on having 1 call center platform, another pain point can be how well this solution can integrate with existing communications and CRM software.

It has telephony solutions with CRM integrations ready for Microsoft Team, Zoom, Salesforce, Oracle, and Zendesk that are seamless to setup. This gives your organization a competitive advantage by being able to maximize existing investments.

Workforce Optimization And Management

From features such as performance management, interaction recording, and analytics, having a single platform that optimizes how your company manages its workforce can really make or break a company in the long-term.

Five9 has the ability to deliver and install the right WFO solution that will make it easy to maintain and upgrade over time. The Workforce Optimization (WFO) Calculator can also show your company it’s potential savings from a financial standpoint.

With these benefits, your employees will have a higher satisfaction rate that reduces turnover. Additionally, customers will have an even perception of your current products and services that will keep them coming back for more!

Ready to make your move to a cloud based platform?

Five9 offers a call center platform that offers a variety of cloud based solutions that your company has been looking for.

What is a Contact Center – Features of Contact Centers – Contact Center Services

What Is A Contact Center? 

A contact center is a customer service center that handles multiple communication channels, such as phone, email, chat, or text messaging. Contact centers developed when call centers expanded to more channels than phone. Modern contact centers use cloud contact center software to operate.  

Features of Contact Centers 

Contact centers typically have similar features:  

• Provides a range of communication channels for customers to choose from 
• Serves as the central hub for customer engagement communication 
• Can be onsite, remote, or hybrid workstyles 

• Is a primary owner of the customer experience
  

CRM Software Integrations

Three Ways Your Call Center Automates With CRM Software Integrations

Customers continue to expect a personalized and seamless experience during their interactions with your business. With call centers being the front door to your business, customer loyalty and revenue is on the line more than ever when interacting with your customer service organization.

However, the call center platform is often deployed in silos and doesn't have a way to easily interact with CRM systems. Efficiency suffers when agents must work across several systems with agents navigating two different environments to find the relevant customer data. This leaves agents without the relevant customer data to use while interacting with customers to deliver great customer experiences.

This is where a seamless integration between CRM software and call center systems can provide the automation your agents need to create an experience that feels effortless and adequate to the customer. Here are 3 ways your call center can automate processes utilizing a CRM software integration.

1. Intelligent Routing

Improve customer experiences with intelligent routing to effectively prioritize and route calls and voicemails to the right agent at the right time using information obtained from an integrated IVR or IVA and the CRM system. The automation between your call center and CRM integration happens on the back-end to communicate and utilize the data to intelligently route the interaction accordingly.

For example, with skills-based routing and customer information from the Five9 and CRM software integration, customer intent is determined and routes the customer to the right resource to help them continue their customer journey. Understanding who the customer is and why they are calling is a vital piece of the puzzle but adding in the automation of routing to the right resources can help provide a seamless customer experience.

2. Data Rich Screen Pops

Live agents are often left with minimal information about a customer prior to picking up a call and even asking customers to repeat information they have just said to an IVR or IVA. This sets the tone for an unpleasant experience as customers are left wondering why they gave their information during the beginning of the interaction, only to repeat it again to a live agent.

With data rich screen pops, this automation gives agents a complete picture of each problem before they engage the customer. The information is not only gathered from the IVR or IVA but also the customer's entire contact history at the agent's fingertips so they can better understand the customer's needs and better fulfill their expectations.

3. Intelligent Virtual Agents

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) are automated, self-service applications that you can offer to your customers. They offer capabilities that are similar to human service and support agents in your call center. Utilizing a virtual agent can offer a wide variety of self-service capabilities, using speech recognition and text-to-speech in hundreds of languages and a wide variety of voices. With the data captured from the IVA, it will automatically feed the information to the live agent as it is transferred and can even store that information into your CRM database.

or example, using this to process payments for all kinds of services, including renewing drivers' licenses and paying fees. By automating payment processing, you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars each month in labor costs while ensuring that payment processing complies with PCI-DSS regulations.

As your call center looks for more ways to automate processes, utilizing these 3 ways can not only make the job easier for your agents but also puts more focus back on the customer. The more tedious and mundane tasks are handled through automation to help agents focus on bigger tasks at hand – to deliver great customer service experiences.

CRM Solutions

Benefits Of CRM For Call Centers - CRM User Interface For Call Centers

Why Your Call Center Needs An Integrated CRM Solution

While customers continue to expect a personalized and seamless experience during their interactions with your business and call centers are becoming the new front door for that. Customer loyalty and revenue is on the line more than ever when interacting with your customer service organization. Call centers are expected to know who the customer is, why they are calling, and do so in an efficient manner.

Technology needs to consistently evolve over time. This includes call centers being integrated with CRM solutions to gain a customer insight such as what are their past purchases, behaviors, or even if they are contacting your business for the same reason a second time? With both of these being separate solutions, integrating the two together can provide exactly what your automated and human agents need to provide a more personalized, seamless experience. 

Let's take a look at a few reasons on how it can help improve your business.

Seamless, Unified User Interface

When all human agents must work across several different systems, productivity is limited. The best agents gravitate to and remain at companies where it’s simple for them to deliver outstanding customer experiences. Seamless integrations between CRM and call center systems including having a unified user interface (UI) that handles chats, emails, and calls, gives live agents easy access to the relevant customer data that helps them create an experience that feels effortless and adequate to the customer.

Access To Customer Data

In general, we tend to do better when we are prepared for things. For live agents specifically, that goes with understanding:

• Who is the customer?
• Why are they contacting your business?
• What did the customer journey look like up to this point?
• Did they call about a similar issue before and are experiencing the same frustration?

Understanding what the customer has gone through will help set the tone for the rest of the interaction.

With automated screen pops, agents are provided all the necessary information to provide a more personalized customer service experience. This gives the agent a view of what’s going on with the customer, past interactions, purchased products or services, and other information before they begin the interaction.

Improves the Customer Experience

In a customer’s journey, once they have exhausted all their options with an automated agent, they resort to talking to a live agent. When a call center is integrated with a CRM solution, live agents have the tools that provide the information they need to improve the experience for customers. Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than having to repeat information while having to contact your business for a second or third time regarding the same issue. They are also looking for quick and easy answers to their problems. Customers aren’t looking for a backstory, they simply want whatever it is that will address their specific issue.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

What is Customer Relationship Management – What is CRM in Call Centers – CRM for Customer Service

What Is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? 

A centralized record that keeps track of all customer contact information and engagement history with the company.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business process that involves centralizing all customer contact information and data on customer interactions and purchase history with the business. This data is compiled in a customer relationship management system, such as Salesforce.  

Historically, CRM data has been hindered by manual data entry and the failure of employees to keep customer records up to date. Today, AI automation enables much of the data to be entered automatically during customer interactions by phone, email, and chat. The accuracy of CRM data is essential to provide seamless customer experiences in sales and customer support.  

How Contact Centers Use a CRM

Contact center agents rely on CRM data to: 

• Pull up customer information and interaction history
• Record their current interaction in the customer account

• Ensure that everyone interacting with the customer has the same customer data 
  

Customer Service

How to Improve Call Center Customer Service – Ways to Improve Call Center CX

How to Improve Call Center Customer Service 

Businesses often wonder how to improve call center customer service. The answer to that is complex, but it consists of addressing several key aspects, such as agent training, automation, technology, processes, and key call center performance metrics. Each area must be seen through the lens of its impact on customer experience and agent experience. The first step for many businesses is to upgrade to a cloud-based contact center platform.  

Key Steps to Improve Call Center Customer Service 

Focus on the following to improve call center customer service:  

• Modernize your technology infrastructure 
• Move to cloud-based platforms 
• Deploy automation where it will provide greatest value (i.e., call deflection, self-service) 
• Leverage intelligent virtual agents to scale 

• Train agents on empathy and complex issue resolution
  

Dialing Plans

What are Dialing Plans – Purpose of Dial Plans – Ways to Use Dial Plans

What Are Dialing Plans?

Dialing plans are dial plans for landlines or VoIP that determine a pattern of digits people can dial to make calls inside or outside the business. For example, dialing “9” to place external calls is an external dial plan. Using extension numbers within a business is an example of an internal dial plan. Dial plans are also used to create automated menu prompts in interactive voice response systems.

Ways to Use Dialing Plans

Here are some ways businesses use dialing plans:

• To route calls in an automated menu system
• To set distinct extension numbers as the “face” of the organization

• To create groups of extension numbers for specified departments
  

Digital Workforce

Digital Workforce Definition And Features - What Is A Digital Workforce

The Features And Benefits Of A Digital Workforce

One of the outcomes of COVID-19 was a surge in the volume of inbound and outbound service requests to call centers around the world, made more challenging by a labor shortage that has yet to be resolved.

At the same time, the definition of customer needs and service have been changing. Customers are now expecting a new kind of service experience, one that immediately answers their questions and solves their problems.

As a result, customers of all ages say they now prefer to complete their request with an AI chatbot, without ever having to speak with a live agent. This explains the rise in digital workforce solutions and why AI and intelligent automation are increasingly being adopted in contact centers to augment and scale the performance of human agents.

The Features Of The Digital Workforce

Digital workforce platforms can be built on a variety of solutions. Our version is built for Conversational AI upon two core apps, Intelligent Virtual Agent and Agent Assist. They both share components including AI chatbots and NLP and are powered by Google, Amazon Web Services, and IBM Watson.

Now that you know the core apps, let’s take a look at some of their features:

IVAs

• Provide self-service; can escalate to live agents as necessary
• Can message live agents for approvals
• Can take over calls sent from live agents
• Assist agents during calls
• Work across voice, SMS, chatbot, and mobile apps
• Become persistent throughout the customer journey

• Can pass context (key value pairs) in the SIP header between VCC and Studio

Agent Assist

• Helps agents focus on the customer by providing automatic transcriptions and call summaries
• Provides automated real-time coaching
• Real-time call transcription
• Saves agents time on after-call work
• VCC can pass context to the agent (in the form of screen pop)

• Uses Workforce Automation to perform actions during a call

Benefits Of The Digital Workforce

Digital workforce platforms can streamline your call and contact center in many ways. here are some benefits at a glance:

Increased Automation

• IVAs automate tasks, reducing labor cost​s
• NLP enables more tasks to be automated​

Improved CX

• Gives consumers the conversational experience they expect​
• Reduces frustration and effort​

• Seamlessly hands off calls from self-service to live agent​ and back as needed

Supports Compliance

• Receive PCI-DSS payments and provide HIPAA-compliant health information​

Greater Agent Productivity

• Workforce automation can automate about 45% of an agent’s day-to-day administrative tasks (logging calls, sending customer follow-ups, preparing call summaries, etc.).
• Coaches agents during calls, reducing AHT and increasing upsell.​

• Provides after-call analytics.

Your AI and Automation Expert

We are ready to provide expert guidance and answers as you consider whether to augment your live agents with intelligent virtual agents. Our team can work with you on:

• Which conversations, tasks and processes should be automated – and which should not.
• Building and deploying your own IVAs using the Five9 Inference Studio code-free platform.
• Onboarding your digital workforce and integrating it into your forecasting plans, skills queues, and workflows.
• Customer journeys across virtual and live support channels and how to break down silos for a seamless, omnichannel experience.
• Aligning your strategy with KPIs such as call deflection, average handle time, customer effort score, and CSAT, to set you up for quick ROI wins.
• Implementing a plan that you can continue building on as new AI and automation capabilities become available.

• Reducing the amount of time it takes to deploy NLP applications.
  

Direct Inward Dialing (DID)

What is Direct Inward Dialing – How Does Direct Inward Dialing Work – What is DID in Call Centers

What is Direct Inward Dialing?

Direct Inward Dialing (DID) is a feature of telecommunication systems that enables businesses to assign virtual phone numbers to employees or departments without having to have separate physical phone lines for each.  

Reasons to Use Direct Inward Dialing

There are several purposes for DID, it:  

• Provides a shortcut for customers to be able to reach their intended party faster 
• Eliminates the need for customers to wade through directories or the main telephone system 

• Reduces caller frustration as they can bypass the main phone system to reach recipients
  

Dispositions

What Are Dispositions – Purpose of Call Center Dispositions – Contact Center Dispositions

What are Dispositions?

In contact centers, dispositions are labels or tags assigned by either agents or the system to their completed customer interactions. Disposition tags help categorize call outcomes and help contact centers track call outcomes in their metrics.

Purposes of Dispositions

There are several reasons to use dispositions: 

• Provide information on the outcome of an interaction
• Trigger other actions such as a callback, Do Not Call list, etc.

• Enable categorizing and tracking metrics for customer issues
  

Do Not Call Registry

How to Check if a Number is On the Do Not Call List – Verify When a Call Was Registered on a DNC Registry

How To Check If a Number Is on the Do Not Call List 

Contact centers often place calls to potential or existing customers. However, if these customers have registered their number with the U.S. National Do Not Call Registry and have not opted-in to having the business contact them, it is illegal to call them. Contact centers must verify that numbers are not on the list.  

How to Check if a Number Is on the Do Not Call List 

There are several ways to check if a number is on the Do Not Call (DNC) Registry:  

• Manually check a number by visiting the official National Do Not Call Registry website 
• Utilize a bulk scrubbing service to scrub large contact lists 
• Deploy compliance software that automatically includes DNC checks 
• Use APIs to integrate modern contact center software with the DNC database 

• Maintain contact center databases by checking numbers against the DNC list
  

Do Not Disturb (DND)

What Is Do Not Disturb – DND – Do Not Call for Phones

What Is Do Not Disturb (DND)?  

Do Not Disturb is a feature that can be activated on a phone line extension so that calls do not ring through, this is part of private branch exchange (PBX) functionality. If DND is available, it may include directing the call to a preassigned extension (call forwarding), busy signal, DND signal, or a voicemail message generated by the telephone switch. Do Not Disturb is a privacy feature.  

Benefits of Do Not Disturb (DND)

There are multiple benefits of Do Not Disturb. 

• Participants can be undisturbed during meetings 
• If forwarded, calls are still answered when the recipient is not available 

• Periods of time can be blocked as unavailable for other priorities
  

What to Do if You Are on the Do Not Call List and Still Get Calls – Purpose of Do Not Call Registry

What to Do if You Are on the Do Not Call List but Still Get Calls? 

The Do Not Call Registry is a United States Federal Trade Commission program that disallows telemarketers from making calls to phone subscribers that sign up for the list. If a subscriber receives an unwanted call after being on the list for 31 days or more, it should be reported to the FTC.  

Tips to Stop Unwanted Calls 

Here are action steps to take to help stop unwanted calls:  

• Be aware that the Do Not Call Registry does not block callers; scammers choose to disregard it to place illegal calls
• Screen calls with caller ID 
• Hang up without answering and do not respond to robocalls and spam calls 

• Block the number and report it as spam
  

Dumb Switch

What is a Dumb Switch – What is an Unmanaged Switch – Benefits of Dumb Switches

What Is A Dumb Switch? 

A dumb switch, also known as an unmanaged switch, is a simple switch that does not have remote configuration, management, or monitoring capabilities. Dumb switches enable plug-and-play functionality and do not require any configuration. By contrast, managed switches are configurable, which means they can be customized and provide a range of performance data. Contact centers use unmanaged switches to facilitate plug-and-play devices in their networks.  

Benefits of Dumb Switches 

There are several benefits to using dumb switches: 

• Easy plug-and-play device functionality 
• Eliminates configuration 
• Reduces complexity 

• Offers less expensive option for connectivity switching
  

Erlang

What is Erlang – What is Erlang Used for – Erlang Programming Language

What Is Erlang? 

A computer programming language used in telecommunications, wireless, and internet infrastructures.

Erlang is an open source computer programming language and runtime environment. Open Telecom Platform (OTP) is a large collection of libraries for Erlang to perform in. According to Erlang.org, most projects using Erlang are actually using Erlang/OTP.  

How Erlang Is Used

Major telecommunications and internet providers use Erlang in:

• VoIP services
• Back-end chat features
• Advanced call control services
• Messaging

• Interactive voice response (IVR) systems 
  

Estimated Wait Time (EWT)

What is EWT in Call Centers – Estimated Wait Times – Why Businesses Should Measure EWT

What Is an Estimated Wait Time (EWT)?

In a contact center, an estimated wait time (EWT) refers to a metric that determines how long a caller is anticipated to wait in queue before an agent answers the call. Some contact centers measure this by looking at how long a customer has been waiting in a queue and the average time to answer for the last 15 minutes. EWT is often communicated to customers so they know how long they may be on hold.

Reasons to Measure Estimated Wait Time (EWT)

Call centers use EWT to:

• Manage wait time expectations
• Give customers the choice to wait or request a call back

• Gauge call center performance
  

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSMC)

What is a Global System for Mobile Communication – GSM in Call Centers – What is GSMC

What Is A Global System for Mobile Communication (GSMC)? 

The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is a European standard for telecommunications used for 2G digital cellular networks. It sets the protocols for mobile phones and devices. In the 2010s, it became a global standard for cellular communication until 2G networks were replaced by 3G. It is no longer in service, but the acronym GSM continues to be used to refer to G mobile phone technologies.  

What Replaced the GSMC? 

Originally a replacement for 1G analog systems, the GSM was replaced by:  

• 3GPP 
• 3G UMTS 
• 4G LTE Advanced   

• 5G
  

Handling Time

What is Handling Time – Handle Time in Call Centers – Measuring Handling Time

What Is Handling Time?  

Handling time, more commonly known as handle time, is a contact center metric used to measure how long a customer service agent is engaged with a customer. This metric includes talk time, hold time, and after-contact work needed to resolve the issue. Contact centers and call centers measure the average handle time to track agent performance and contact center performance.  

Benefits of Measuring Handling Time 

There are several benefits for contact centers to monitor their handling time:  

• Gauge how easily agents can resolve issues 
• Understand how long customers are engaged with the call center 

• Identify areas to improve efficiency or training
  

In Call for Call Centers

What Does In Call Mean for Call Centers – What is an In Call in Contact Centers

What Is “In Call” for Call Centers?  

In a contact or call center, “in call” refers to the state of an agent being in a call interaction with a customer. It can be used to refer to an agent’s current work status or used as a contact center performance metric. The “in call” metric refers to the total number of phone-skilled agents engaged in a call during a certain timeframe. This metric helps contact centers evaluate agent performance in real-time and historical reporting.  

Reasons to Measure “In Call” 

There are several reasons to measure ‘in call’ as part of contact center metrics: 

• Evaluates percentage of agents actively assisting customers on the phone 
• Helps determine staffing needs when compared with call wait times 

• Can be part of average handle time when measuring how long agents are in call
  

Incoming Call

What is An Incoming Call – Inbound Call Center – Incoming Call in Call Center

What is An Inbound Call? 

An incoming call, also known as an inbound call, is a phone call that comes from an outside source and is received or answered by the contact center. These calls are often from customers or other stakeholders that are seeking support.  Many contact centers focus on incoming calls, which means their agents receive calls from customers rather than place calls. Some contact centers handle outbound calls, such as sales agents making cold calls, or are segregated into teams that handle inbound or outbound calls.  

Common Types of Incoming Calls

Contact centers often receive incoming calls related to:  

• Customer service requests 
• Returns processing 
• Account assistance 
• Technical support 

• Payment processing
  

What is An Outbound Call – Call Center Outbound Calls – Inbound or Outbound Call Strategies

What Is An Outbound Call?  

An outbound call refers to calls that originate in the contact center to reach customers or prospects. Agents place calls to a list of numbers, or the contact center may use robocalling to automatically deliver outbound messages, such as account status updates or payment overdue notices. Call centers may handle inbound and outbound or be dedicated to one or the other.  

Purposes of Outbound Calls 

Outbound calls are placed for a variety of reasons:  

• Sales, promotions, returning requests for contact 
• Surveys, political polls, advertising 

• Account updates, reminders, or other informational purposes
  

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

What is ISDN – Integrated Services Digital Network - Benefits of ISDN

What Is An Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)? 

An integrated services digital network (ISDN) is a circuit-switched telephone system that can transmit voice, data, and video over digital lines. It was created to migrate landline technology to digital and provides the “dial-up” service used for non-broadband internet connections. ISDN offers more speed and reliability compared to traditional connections. Today, broadband internet lines like DSL, WAN, and cable have mostly replaced ISDN.  

Benefits of ISDN 

Here are some of the benefits of an ISDN:  

• Supports high-speed internet when DSL or cable is not available 
• Can be used as a failsafe for DSL/WAN lines 

• Can connect devices and enable them to work over a single line
  

Intelligent Routing

What is Intelligent Routing – What is Skills Based Routing – Benefits of Intelligent Routing

What Is Intelligent Routing?

In a contact center or call center, intelligent routing (or skills-based routing) refers to using automated call routing technology to direct inbound calls to agents with the best skills or expertise to resolve customer issues. Intelligent routing improves efficiency, leverages agent skill sets, and delivers a better customer experience. Intelligent routing may be used for phone, email, messaging, chat, and interactive voice response channels.

Benefits of Using Intelligent Routing

There are numerous benefits to intelligent routing:

• Improves customer experience
• Ensures customers get the right help
• Drives call center efficiency

• Improves first call resolution rates
  

Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA)

Benefits Of IVA In Call Centers - Benefits Of An IVA In Business

Why You Need IVAs For Your Call and Contact Center?

An intelligent virtual agent (IVA) is an AI-powered application that allows businesses to deliver intuitive resolutions for common questions across voice and digital channels. Contact centers are increasingly adopting IVAs as they offer significant business value. According to a report from Deloitte, the global conversational AI market including IVAs, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22% during 2020–25.

Let’s take a look at the reasons for having an IVA in your call center.

Do IA Chatbots Provide A Good User Experience?

Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant have heightened the level of customer expectations. Today, when customers interact with companies, they expect human-like yet effortless automated conversations similar to these smart devices. IVAs use the latest speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and natural language processing (NLP) technologies, allowing customers to talk naturally.

Customers no longer have to listen to irrelevant, long IVR menus or use touch-tone inputs that accept a limited response set. Instead, customers speak naturally and respond to open-ended answers. They also understand customers accurately by using intent prediction and sentiment analysis, providing a superior customer experience.

What Are the Benefits of Intelligent Virtual Agents in Call Centers?

After rejecting self-service for years, customers now prefer it. According to a report from Harvard Business Review, 81% of all customers attempt to take care of their needs themselves before reaching out to a live agent. Natural language responses power IVAs dramatically to simplify complex interactions, making it easier for customers. Businesses are empowered to boost customer satisfaction as they provide faster resolutions without human interventions.

For simple tasks like ‘I want to make a loan payment,” this can quickly and accurately be conducted without escalating to an agent. IVAs are also equipped to support advanced use cases involving multi-turn conversations such as booking a ride or ordering a pizza with toppings.

Automate More Tasks

Building on the increasing demand for self-service, businesses can now increase the percentage of tasks that can be automated. All company and industry sizes in different verticals can quickly build automated workflows for tasks like appointment booking and reminders, reset passwords, lookup orders, process payments, order / status / account checks, answering FAQs, outbound notifications, and much more.

Companies may start deploying IVAs to handle relatively basic tasks and then grow to automate more complicated tasks later. This also minimizes escalations to live agents.

By off-loading common, repetitive, and sometimes mundane tasks to an IVA, live agents are provided the opportunity to handle more fulfilling, high-value tasks that can benefit their human growth. This continually challenges agents to tap into their knowledge and skills to help customers leading to a better customer and agent experience.

Respond Efficiently On A 24/7 Basis

Most customer-centric companies know that providing uninterrupted 24/7 customer service can be a crucial differentiator. This leads to a better customer experience and drives customer loyalty and retention. However, providing around-the-clock support can be challenging for any business. Employing enough staff for round-the-clock shifts might require businesses to outsource to other call centers in other time zones or provide limited hours. With IVAs, companies can meet the customer demand for constant availability and resolve customer issues without delays. A retailer, for example, can dynamically add virtual agents during the holidays, when there’s a big sale, or if there is a product recall.

Provide Omnichannel Experience

IVA platforms use common AI models to build, manage and deploy across multiple channels, driving consistent experience. Users can build content for one channel and reuse it across voice, chatbot, SMS & mobile messaging apps.

Increase TCPA Compliance

Virtual agents can collect and process sensitive health data or sensitive credit card information without the potential for live agents compromising the data. That offers the highest level of security, and for many customers, the highest level of comfort.

Reduce Service Costs

Using live agents to do repetitive tasks is not a cost-effective approach. Enabling organizations to significantly decrease support costs with IVAs is substantially less expensive than live agents with costs being 10% of hiring. Also when needed, intelligent virtual agents can also effectively route customers to the right agents using natural call steering, reducing the costs of incorrect transfers.

Competitive Advantage

Adopting an IVA-enabled automation strategy increasingly provides a competitive advantage as you provide what customers are demanding, increase your service levels, and on top of all that, lower your costs.

What Are Intelligent Virtual Agents - Benefits Of Intelligent Virtual Agents

What Are Intelligent Virtual Agents?

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) are automated, self-service applications that use advanced conversational AI technology to deliver intuitive resolutions for common questions across voice and digital channels. It provides intelligent automation that deflects routine and repetitive conversations handled by live agents, freeing them to provide value where they are needed most.

IVAs have a wide variety of features, including speech recognition, natural language processing with text-to-speech, voice biometrics, transcription, and API integration. Always working and constantly learning new skills, they can also work on tasks across different channels, while performing back-office functions as well as react to changes in real-time.

IVAs offer capabilities that are similar to human service and support agents. They can also automate common tasks such as authenticating callers with voice biometrics, process PCI-compliant payments, look up orders, survey customers and answer all kinds of questions over the phone, web, or SMS. Many organizations also use them to provide call routing, appointment scheduling, office hours, direction.

Intention Analysis

IVAs understands the tone and intentions of customers. Therefore, they can recognize and predict various intents when customers interact, all in real-time with tailored responses.

Human-Life Automated Conversations

IVAs leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP), making it easier for customers to get support through the automated system. NLP dramatically simplifies the complexity of the interaction, while increasing the percentage of inquiries that can be automated. In addition, this lets you eliminate complex IVR menus and go beyond speech-enabled, directed dialog systems. This makes the user experience more conversational while enabling businesses to automate tasks that were previously too cumbersome to be handled using speech recognition.

When a live agent is needed, context such as customer identity, intent, and other CRM data can be used for routing to the right individual.

IVAs can also leverage Advanced Speech Recognition (ASR) to easily interact with customers regardless of grammar, accents, and background noise alongside text-to-speech in various languages with hundreds of different voices that sound lifelike. IVAs can also send text messages in different languages, providing a two-way multilingual chat interface.

Efficient Business Operation

Businesses find enormous value in IVAs as they solve key business problems:

Consumers are becoming more demanding. They now expect an immediate service response anytime, anywhere, and on any channel. They’re also looking for self-service options that enable them to solve problems without speaking to a live agent - and customers almost always prefer an Intelligent Virtual Agent over waiting for a live agent.

By off-loading common, repetitive, and sometimes mundane tasks to an IVA, agents are provided the opportunity to handle more fulfilling, high-value requests for assistance. In addition, these tasks continually challenge agents and tap into their knowledge and skills to help customers leading to a better customer and agent experience. What separates Intelligent Virtual Agents is that they never rest or take a vacation—and they’re substantially less expensive than live agents.

Improved Customer Experience

Improved Agent Experience

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Benefits Of Cloud IVR - What Is Cloud Based IVR - How Interactive Voice Recognition Improves CX

IVR Integration for Call Centers

The ability to provide consistent, exceptional customer service is always top of mind for any contact center. In today’s day and age, the faster a customer can get answers to their question, the more likely they’ll have a positive customer experience. Whether a customer wants to speak to a specific department or learn important company information, contact centers must provide customers with efficient options to get the answers they need.

Cloud IVR Integration, or interactive voice response, does just that. It is an automated voice system that takes the information provided by the customer on an inbound call and directs the call to the appropriate agent. IVR saves time for both contact center agents and customers.

Now that you understand what Cloud IVR Integration is, let’s look at a few reasons why it’s essential for every inbound call center: or interactive voice response, does just that. It is an automated voice system that takes the information provided by the customer on an inbound call and directs the call to the appropriate agent. IVR saves time for both contact center agents and customers.

Available 24/7

It’s difficult to ensure agents are always available to answer customer calls. Agents could be experiencing high call volumes, on their breaks, or even clocked out for the day. Luckily, this solution is available 24/7. If a customer wants to call during off hours, they’ll still hear a professional message from the company and, in some cases, receive automated ways to resolve their issue.

Increased First Call Resolution

Nothing is more frustrating for customers than having to make multiple calls to get answers. Giving customers the option to choose, like dialing a number to speak to a specific department, helps customers get in contact with the appropriate resource fast. For common questions like store hours, automated messages can also provide answers to questions without the help of a live agent.

Cost-Effective

This powerful tool is making contact centers more cost effective by allowing more calls during peak hours. Before, if there were large call volumes, contact centers only had the option of hiring more agents. This means increased costs. Now, answers to general customer questions can be included in IVR’s automated messages, while more complicated questions can be routed to the right agents.

Automatic Updates

Before cloud technology, making changes to a contact center meant a lot of manual work including updating complicated phone trees and directories. This can be extremely time consuming and leaves room for human error and could cost call centers thousands considering how misrouted calls can lead to a poor customer experience. Cloud IVR integration is a great way to replace this manual process. Whenever a supervisor wants to make a change to the system, the updates are automatically synced. This means no more wasted time and potential errors when updating contact center phone trees.

Cloud IVR integration will only continue to evolve and exceed customer expectations by providing an efficient way for customers to get the information they need.

What Does IVR Stand for in Call Centers – Purpose of IVR – IVR in Contact Centers

What Does IVR Stand for in Call Centers? 

An IVR refers to an interactive voice response system, used by companies to provide automated options to customers when they phone the business or customer support. An IVR offers a pre-recorded message with touch-tone or voice response options to select where the customer would like the call to be routed. IVRs are commonly used to triage phone calls and as a first step in self-service customer care.  

Benefits of an IVR 

Contact centers and businesses experience several benefits from IVRs:  

• Improves call routing accuracy 
• Automates messages and directs customers to the right department 
• Automates and scales call answering 

• When connected to an intelligent virtual agent, provides self-service resolution
  

What is IVR in Call Centers – Interactive Voice Response System

What Is Interactive Voice Response (IVR)? 

Interactive voice response (IVR) is an automated system that enables callers to access information from pre-recorded messages or options. An IVR enables contact centers to automatically route calls, or resolve simple issues, by having callers choose or state the option that best suits their needs. Advanced IVRs use natural language processing and speech recognition to use conversation rather than touch tone dialing.  

Benefits of an IVR 

Call center and contact center customers benefit from IVRs in several ways:  

Speeds up call routing as callers choose from a selection of options, or state their need 

Enables self-service options, as recorded IVR messages can direct callers to knowledge base or other resources 

Reduces wait times and improves self-service resolution rates

Internet Telephony

What is Internet Telephony – Types of Internet Telephony - Definition of Internet Telephony

What Is Internet Telephony?  

Internet Telephony is a term that refers to all types of phone related communications that enable calls and data to be transmitted via the Internet, instead of through traditional landlines.   

Types of Internet Telephony 

There are multiple types of internet telephony:

• Calls, faxes, SMS, voicemail, video calls, text 
• Voice over IP (VoIP) 
• Cloud calling 

• Wi-Fi calling
  

Listen In

What is A Listen In – Types of Call Center Call Monitoring – Call Center Quality Control

What Is A “Listen In”? 

In a contact center, a “listen in” refers to a technology feature that enables supervisors to listen in to an agent-customer phone interaction. Supervisors may do this to conduct a quality assurance check, to coach an agent during a call, to participate in the call if needed, or to silently evaluate calls. Listen in is part of call monitoring features in modern contact center platforms.  

Benefits of “Listen In” in Call Monitoring 

There are several benefits to having supervisors listen in to calls:  

• Improves agent performance 
• Helps provide support to new agents 

• Provides the ability to have a supervisor included in and intervene in complex calls
  

Missed Calls

What are Missed Calls – Call Center Missed Calls – Missing Calls in Contact Centers

What Are Missed Calls?  

In a contact center, missed calls refer to calls that ring at least once and are either accidentally rejected by agents or go unanswered. By contrast, abandoned calls are intentionally ended by customers. Missed calls are a negative occurrence and can indicate contact center or agent inefficiency. Contact centers track missed calls as a metric to evaluate individual agent performance and system-wide processes.  

Reasons for Missed Calls 

There can be multiple reasons for missed calls:  

• Technical errors in automated systems 
• Agent mistakes with equipment 
• Higher call volume than agent capacity 

• Ineffective call routing
  

Network Operations Center (NOC)

What is a Network Operations Center – NOC in Call Centers – Purpose of NOC in Contact Centers

What is A Network Operations Center? 

A network operations center (NOC) is a centralized place where IT teams monitor and administer network infrastructure for the enterprise. Network specialists working with call centers and other industries are responsible for ensuring that the infrastructure remains compliant with company IT policies to maintain consistency.   

Purpose of a NOC

Employees within a NOC typically:  

• Provide remote administration and tech support 
• Enforce policies 
• Monitor and enforce security rules 

• Ensure compliance across business-owned tech devices
  

No Caller ID

How to Call Back No Caller ID – Purpose of No Caller ID – No Caller ID in Call Centers

How to Call Back No Caller ID?

“How to call back no caller ID” is a popular search, and there’s an easy answer. To call back the last private number that called you – whether you answered it or not -- simply dial *69 and it will dial it back. It will also unmask the number, if it’s been blocked from caller ID. A call with no caller ID indicates that the caller has purposely blocked their information from appearing during outbound calls. A caller ID is the phone number displayed of an incoming caller and is important for companies with call centers.  

Reasons to Dial *69

You may dial *69 for a variety of purposes:  

• To identify calls that appear as “private” 
• To return calls or screen unidentified calls 

• To call back an unknown number you suspect is a scam
  

Not Ready

What is Not Ready – Call Center Not Ready – Why Call Centers Monitor Not Ready

What Is “Not Ready”? 

In a contact center, the term “not ready” refers to a reason code that agents use to indicate they are not available to receive a new customer engagement via email, SMS, chat, or phone. Agents are logged into the automatic call distributor (ACD) but are not available yet to handle interactions assigned by ACD. Agents may be doing after-call work or handling non-ACD interactions. Supervisors track Not Ready codes as part of performance evaluation.  

Tracking Agent "Not Ready"

Supervisors track "Not Ready" codes to help evaluate:  

• Amount of time agents spend in Not Ready status per channel 
• Monitor the percentage of calls made and received by agents while in Not Ready state 

• Analyze call volume vs staffing levels at certain periods of time
  

Post-Pandemic

What Is An Omnichannel Call Center - The Post-Pandemic Shopper

The Post-Pandemic Shopper

The landscape of retail has changed. The new normal is built around the post-pandemic shopper who demands new “convenience touchpoints” that are different from how we engaged before. The mentality is meet these needs or lose your customer base.

The Omnichannel Retail Contact Center & Social Shopping

There are a few options to approach this. One method is using omnichannel contact center software. According to a McKinsey survey, 75% of Americans changed their shopping behavior when COVID-19 began, stating around 40 percent say they have changed brands, with the level of brand switching doubling in 2020 compared to 2019.

As retailers follow customers into the social space, the core idea behind social shopping is that individuals are influenced by their friends’ purchases and recommendations, while everyone shops from the comfort of their own homes.

So how should businesses reimagine the customer approach to retail, especially in the world of e-commerce? Let’s start with the rise of social shopping.

More and more, we see greater integration between social platforms and e-commerce. With technologies like ShopShops and TalkShopLive, almost anyone – from influencers to shop owners to amateur enthusiasts – can be show hosts. Brands and retailers have been pivoting to join this movement. This creates a virtual shopping experience that can be shared together by a social network of friends via TikTok, Instagram Live, and Facebook Live.

Shoppers can share, recommend, suggest, and comment on products or services with others via social media networks.

Power Dialing

What is Power Dialing – Power Dialers in Call Centers- Benefits of Power Dialers

What Is A Power Dialer?  

In a contact center or call center, power dialing refers to an automatic power dialer that calls a list of phone numbers one after another. The power dialer detects if the line is busy, disconnected, or there is no answer and will dial the next number on the list. Agents wait to hear someone pick up the phone and then can engage with the customer or prospect.  

Benefits of Power Dialers 

Contact centers experience several benefits by using power dialers:  

• Improves agent efficiency 
• Reduces time between calls 
• Eliminates manual dialing 

• Decreases dropped calls
  

Predictive Dialer

How To Use A Salesforce Dialer - Utilize Salesforce With Predictive Dialers

How a Predictive Dialer Can Integrate with Salesforce

There are a range of dialer strategies for inbound, outbound, and blended contact centers. There's the power dialer that automatically dials a fixed ratio of calls per agent; the more dynamic progressive dialer that automatically adjusts the number of calls per agent based on answer rate and availability; preview dialing, typically used in contact centers where agents need time to familiarize themselves with the context of the customer relationship before dialing; and the predictive dialer, the most sophisticated of the strategies, that anticipates agent availability and dials proactively.

Prepackaged Salesforce Integration

As it is best suited for large teams, a predictive dialer builds on the progressive dialer by dialing in advance before a live agent is available. Its advanced algorithms can predict when a live agent will become available and adjust call rates to ensure there is a new customer on the phone when ready. It consistently minimizes the time spent dialing numbers and waiting for no-answers, and increases the amount of time spent talking to real prospects and customers.

Most predictive dialers offer ready-to-go integration with Salesforce and other leading CRM providers including Oracle, Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics, and ServiceNow.

Browser plug-ins can also empower your salespeople, service representatives, and contact center agents inside a single Salesforce desktop.

Let's take a closer look at the features of a predictive dialer including:

• On-Screen Customer Details
• Instant screen pops provide agents with customer details and history from corresponding Salesforce records prior to accepting the interaction. Agents know who they're talking to, can greet a customer by name, and are ready to move the conversation forward without wasting time on preliminaries or switching screens.
• Campaign And List Integration
• Integrate Salesforce campaigns, calling lists, and Five9 predictive dialing to boost sales leads and conversion rates.
• Powerful Interaction Routing
• This type of technology lets you prioritize and route inbound calls and voicemails to the right agent at the right time.
• Automatic Interaction Logs
• Save call logs automatically when a conversation ends, ensuring that every interaction is stored in the system of record. Five9 helps keep your teams synced on all customer and prospect communication.
• Agent Interaction Control
• Empower agents with rich interaction handling for chats, emails, and calls such as recording, parking, cold or warm transfers and conferences, click-to-dial and more - all from within a single Salesforce desktop.

Scaling With Ease

With the right hose to set up and use on-demand, it will allow adding more seats easily as your business grows.

Having the right partner to provide users with the guidance and resources they need to get started is crucial to having seamless integration and management of your predictive dialer into Salesforce.

What is Predictive Dialing – What is A Predictive Dialer – Predictive Dialers in Call Centers

What Is Predictive Dialing?  

Predictive dialing uses automation to call a list of phone numbers and then connect answered calls to a customer service agent. In the contact center, this saves agents from making outbound calls and frees them to focus on responding to answered calls only.  

Benefits of Predictive Dialing 

There are a variety of benefits of predictive dialing:

• Saves agents from rote work 
• Reduces wasted time on unanswered calls 
• Frees agents to focus on answered calls 

• Improves agent efficiency
  

Preview Dialer

What is a Preview Dialer – Automated Dialing System – Benefits of Call Center Dialing Systems

What Is A Preview Dialer?

A preview dialer is an automated dialing system that sends a contact record to agents to review before placing an outbound call. This allows agents to review information about the prospect/customer before making the call so they can be more prepared for the interaction. Preview dialers eliminate the need for agents to do their own research into customer accounts before making calls.

Benefits of Using a Preview Dialer

Here are some benefits to using a preview dialer: 

• Improves interactions with customers
• Increases number of calls agents can make
• Reduces dropped calls

• Improves agent efficiency
  

Progressive Dialer

What is a Progressive Dialer – Progressive Call Dialer Software – Benefits of a Progressive Dialer

What Is a Progressive Dialer?  

A progressive dialer is an automated dialing system that places outbound calls for agents in a contact center. Progressive dialers work by dialing the next number on a call list after a set interval or as soon as an agent finishes a call. Managers set the length of the interval between automated dialing. Agents may manually initiate calls sooner or wait for the system to dial the call for them.  

Benefits of a Progressive Dialer 

There are several benefits to using a progressive dialer: 

• Creates a consistent pace 
• Reduces wasted time 
• Improves agent productivity 

• Increases efficiency
  

Progressive Dialing

What is a Progressive Dialer – Progressive Dialing in Call Centers - Benefits of Progressive Dialers

What Is Progressive Dialing? 

Progressive dialing is a contact center term that refers to using a progressive dialer system to automatically place outbound calls for agents. Once an agent finishes one call, the progressive dialer places the next one. Contact centers or call centers use progressive dialers when the nature of calls are similar and it makes sense to have the system maintain a steady dialing rate.  

Benefits of Using Progressive Dialing 

There are several benefits to using progressive dialing:  

• Improves agent productivity 
• Reduces call wait times 

• Eliminates the option for agents to cherry pick calls
  

Public Switched Telephone Network

What is the Public Switched Telephone Network – Facts About PSTN - What is a PSTN

What Is a Publicly Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)? 

The publicly switched telephone network (PSTN) is comprised of the world’s telephone infrastructure, including telephone lines, switching centers, fiber optic cables, cellular networks, satellites, and cable systems. It is a hard-wired landline telephone system, and it ensures that calls placed on phones move through the network to reach their recipients. Today, people may use PSTN for communications or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which is communications based on internet connections.  

Key Facts About the PSTN 

Here are some key facts about PSTN:  

• Originated in the late 1800s 
• Consists primarily of underground copper wires hardwired from homes and businesses to switching locations 
• Originally, telephone operators had to make switches manually by connecting wires 
• Fiber-optic cables now connect thousands of calls on a shared line 

• PTSN converts sound waves into electrical waves and then back to sound waves – within seconds
  

Quality Assurance (QA)

What is Call Center Quality Assurance – How to Improve Quality Assurance in Call Centers

What Is Call Center Quality Assurance?  

Call center quality assurance refers to the process of checking agent-customer interactions to ensure that agents are delivering a positive customer experience. This process may involve a call center manager or agent supervisor reviewing call recordings or chat transcripts, monitoring for script adherence, and evaluating how effectively and efficiently the customer was assisted. Call centers often deploy measures like call recordings and automated transcripts to help in the quality assurance review process.  

Benefits of Call Center Quality Assurance 

Call centers that check for quality assurance experience several benefits:  

• Improved customer experience 
• More precise agent coaching 
• Faster improvement on problem areas 

• Verifiable record of agent-customer transactions
  

Queue

What Is a Phone Queue - What Is A Queue In Call Centers

What Is a Queue?  

A queue in a call center refers to the order that customers contact customer service and wait in “line” for an agent to respond to their call or message. The call queue is the holding point for interactions waiting to be answered by an agent.  

What Is Queue Callback?  

During high call volumes, some contact centers enable a feature called queue callback: 

• Callers may opt for an agent to call them back 
• Calls are returned in the order they were received 

• Customers do not have to wait on the phone rather than wait on hold

 

What is a Virtual Queue – Call Center Virtual Queues – Purpose of Virtual Queues

What Is A Virtual Queue? 

In a call center, a virtual queue helps to eliminate hold times by allowing callers to choose to hang up and have an agent call them when it is their turn in queue. It uses an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) to hold queued calls until an agent is available.  

Advantages of A Virtual Queue 

There are numerous advantages of using virtual queues: 

• Can eliminate hold times 
• Callers do not lose their place in line 
• Callers do not need to be tied to the phone while waiting for customer service 

• Improves the customer experience
  

Real Time Text

What Does an RTT Call Mean – Real Time Text Calls – What is RTT Calling

What Is Real-Time Text (RTT) Calls?  

Real-time text (RTT) is a paid telecommunications feature for deaf or hearing-impaired users on smartphones. RTT enables users to type and read text during a phone conversation, in real time without having to click send. It avoids the delays of traditional text messaging. RTT replaces traditional TTY devices.  

How Does an RTT Call Work?  

RTT calls are an accessibility feature in smartphones:  

• To place RTT calls, turn the feature on in settings 
• Incoming RTT calls are automatically received in the United States 
• RTT calls include an audio stream that can be muted 

• RTT can be used to contact 911 when speaking is not possible
  

Reason Code

What is a Reason Code in Call Centers – Benefits of Using Call Center Reason Codes

What Is A Reason Code?  

In a contact center, a reason code is a numeric code used to signal an agent’s current work status. Agent supervisors can track these codes to know current agent availability and to evaluate agent performance. Reason codes are usually configured by system administrators and customized to the contact center’s preferences. They connect to the automatic call distributor (ACD) to indicate the types of calls agents are handling in real-time.  

Benefits of Using Reason Codes 

Contact centers and call centers alike benefit from using reason codes:  

• Helps to track trends in individual and overall agent status 
• Indicates and records the types of calls agents are handling 

• Provides granular tracking for call center performance
  

Received Call

What is a Received Call – Types of Received Calls – Inbound Calls in Call Centers

What Is A Received Call?

In a contact center or call center, an inbound call is often referred to as a received call. This is a call made by a customer that is answered by a customer service representative. Received calls are measured to determine the average call volume; this metric helps inform call center management of staffing and performance issues. Call centers with high levels of received calls may need to automate to scale service.

Types of Received Calls

There are multiple types of received calls, including:

• Customer service inquiries
• Technical support
• Account inquiries

• Appointment scheduling
  

Remote Agent

What is a Remote Agent – Call Center Remote Agents - Benefits of Employing Remote Agents

What Is A Remote Agent? 

A remote agent is a contact center customer service representative who works from home or in a location not owned by the company. Remote agents operate with company-owned equipment, such as computers and headsets, and are connected to the contact center via the internet. Cloud-based contact center software enables remote agents to work from anywhere. Many contact centers have a 100% remote work policy.  

Benefits of Employing Remote Agents: 

There are many benefits of having remote agents:  

• Recruit agents to work from any geography 
• Reduce overhead costs 
• Cover more time zones 

• Improve agent morale
  

Remote Procedure Call

What is a Remote Procedure Call – RPC in Call Centers – Architectural Styles in API Design

What is A Remote Procedure Call?

A remote procedure call (RPC) is an architectural style in API (application programming interface) design. It is used in building distributed client-server-based applications. Software developers use previously developed components (or third-party ones) to perform functions, so they do not have to rewrite the code every time.  

Uses for RPC APIs

Developers use RPC APIs for a variety of purposes:  

• To call remote functions in external servers as if they were their own 
• To add functionality by remotely calling these functions on other servers 

• To connect to other software or share functionality through integration
  

Response Time

What is Average Handle Time – What is AHT in Call Centers – Customer Service AHT

What Is Average Handle Time?  

A key metric that shows the average amount of time agents spend assisting customers.  

Average handle time (AHT) is a metric used by contact centers to measure how long each agent spends interacting with a customer. It typically includes conversation time, hold time, and any after-call work required. Average handle time is measured by tallying up the total conversation, hold, and follow-up time, then dividing it by the total number of calls in a certain period, for example, per shift or per day. 

Purposes of Average Handle Time

AHT is used for multiple purposes in a contact center: 

• As a key performance indicator (KPI) to gauge overall contact center performance
• To gauge the number of transactions they can handle in a given amount of time

• To measure agent and software efficiency 
  

What is Response Time – What is Response Time in Call Centers – Benefits of a Good Response Time

What Is Response Time?  

Response time in a contact center or call center refers to how long it will take an agent to respond to incoming customer interactions, by phone, email, chat, or text. Contact centers measure response time to gauge agent and call center performance, as well as their customer experience metrics.  

Benefits of A Good Response Time

Here are some important benefits a good response time can provide in a call center:  

• Long response times reveal inefficiencies in technology, processes, or agent performance 
• Reducing response time, then putting customers on lengthy holds does not improve customer satisfaction 

• Virtual agents can answer every call within a pre-determined timeline, which improves response time significantly
  

Restricted Call

What is a Restricted Call – Purpose of Restricted Calls – Restricted Calls in Call Centers

What is A Restricted Call?

A restricted call is when someone wishes their number to be blocked from being revealed through caller ID, and so they restrict it from caller ID identification. Incoming restricted number calls do not reveal the phone number. Official businesses with call centers typically do not use restricted calls when making outbound calls.  

Important Facts About Restricted Calls

Here are some things to know:  

• You cannot call a restricted number directly 
• Scammers often use restricted calls to hide their numbers 

• Restricted calls are generally not traceable without law enforcement involvement
  

Robocall

What is a Robocall – Call Center Robocalls – Purpose of Robocalls

What Is A Robocall?

A robocall is a phone call placed by an automated dialer to deliver a recorded message. Robocalls may be legitimate if placed to customers that have opted-in or given consent to receive these calls – for example, as automated reminders of bills due or upcoming appointments. There are robocall blockers and lookup databases to allow customers to opt out of campaigns and remove themselves from future robocallers. 

Various Use Cases for Robocalls

Robocalls can be used for a variety of purposes:  

• As part of political campaigns, telemarketing, and scams 
• As legitimate ways to inform customers of important information 

• As surveys, informational ads, and promotions
  

Screen Pop

What is a Screen Pop – Pop Up Chat for Call Centers – Types of Screen Pops

What Is A Screen Pop?  

In a contact center, a screen pop refers to a feature where an application is integrated into another system and delivers a pop-up window (like a chat box) to deliver additional information or functionality. Contact centers use screen pops to provide data to agents during calls, such as customer information from their customer relationship management (CRM) system so that agents have the customer account available during calls.  

Typical Screen Pop Use Cases 

Contact centers use screen pops for multiple purposes:  

• Caller ID data 
• Customer CRM data 
• Self-service history via IVR or IVA 
• Recommendations for agent actions 

• Knowledge Base articles and suggestions
  

Short Message Service (SMS)

What is SMS – Benefits of a Short Messaging Service in Contact Centers – Contact Center SMS Messaging

What Is A Short Message Service (SMS)? 

Short Message Service is more commonly called SMS and refers to text messaging services in phone, internet, and mobile systems. SMS is also often called texting, usually on mobile phones and devices to communicate short messages. SMS is used for personal and increasingly for business communication. It is becoming a common channel for contact centers to provide convenient, asynchronous communication with customers.  

Benefits of SMS in Contact Centers 

There are several benefits to using SMS in contact centers:  

• Customers can respond at their leisure  
• Customers do not have to wait on hold 

• SMS messages are not lost, unlike chat bots embedded in webpages
  

Skills Based Routing (SBR)

What is Skills Based Routing – SBR in Call Centers – Benefits of Skill Based Routing

What Is Skills-Based Routing (SBR)? 

In a contact center or call center, skills-based routing (SBR) is also known as intelligent routing. It refers to the practice of using technology to direct calls to agents based on that agent’s skills or expertise. The goal of skills-based routing is to connect the customer to agents that can provide the best support and improve call center efficiency. Skills-based routing may be part of an interactive voice response system.  

Benefits of Skills-Based Routing (SBR) 

There are numerous benefits to using skills-based routing:  

• Deliver better customer experiences 
• Improve first contact resolution rates 
• Drive call center efficiency 

• Leverage agent skills and expertise
  

Softswitch

What is a Softswitch – Softswitches for VoIP – How Does a Softswitch Work

What Is a Softswitch? 

In Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) networks or Time-Division Multiplex (TDM) networks, a softswitch is a software-based switching solution used to make, maintain, route, and end either call or streaming sessions. A softswitch uses software on standard hardware to control calls or streaming, rather than dedicated switching hardware. For network infrastructure using all-IP and only VoIP calls, a softswitch can be virtualized and run on general-purpose hardware with Ethernet connections.  

Key Facts About a Softswitch 

Here are some facts about softswitches:  

• Only applies to Next Generation Network (NGN) architecture 
• Combines a call agent and call feature server for call control, routing, signaling 

• Uses an access gateway or media gateway for media streams
  

Speech Recognition

Text To Speech – Call Center TTS – What is TTS

What Is Text-to-Speech (TTS)?

Text-to-speech (TTS) is a form of technology that uses artificial intelligence to enable computers to read digital text out loud, mimicking the sound of a human voice. TTS uses natural language processing (NLP) to make it sound more fluent and human-like. TTS is part of conversational AI in the contact center.  

How Call Centers Use Text-to-Speech 

Call and Contact centers may use TTS to facilitate self-service to customers in the following ways:  

• As the “voice” in interactive voice response recorded messages 
• For multi-language translation 

• For post-call surveys and outbound auto dialer calls
  

What Is Speech Recognition – Speech to Text in Call Centers – Contact Center Speech Recognition

What is Speech Recognition?

Speech recognition, or speech-to-text, is an automated process where a computer system can convert a person’s words into an action, such as text or a computer command. In phone interactions with call routing, it eliminates the need for callers to press options on their phone to route their call.

Benefits of Speech Recognition

There are several benefits to speech recognition in the contact center: 

• Automatically transcribes customer service agent interactions with customers
• Saves agents from manual notetaking

• Improves accuracy of recordkeeping
  

Talk Time

Talk Time in Call Centers – Average Talk Time – Benefits of Measuring Call Time

What Is Talk Time? 

In a contact center, talk time refers to the length of time agents talk with customers during a phone interaction. It is typically measured by an automatic call distributor (ACD). Talk time may be a key performance indicator used to measure contact center and agent performance. It is gauged as average talk time and is used to determine if agents are spending too much or too little time with customers.  

Benefits of Measuring Talk Time 

There are a variety of benefits to monitoring talk time:  

• Evaluate agent efficiency  
• Improve service level achievement 

• Discover coaching opportunities
  

Teleworking

What is Teleworking – Benefits of Teleworking – What is Telecommuting

What is Teleworking?

Teleworking is another term for telecommuting, when a person works remotely from a non-corporate owned location. “Tele” refers to “at a distance”. While teleworking is not new, since the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have switched to a primarily remote working strategy. Teleworking requires cloud-based technology; in contact centers this includes cloud-based contact center software and telecommunications hardware. 

Benefits of Teleworking in the Contact Center

Contact centers use teleworking for multiple reasons:  

• To expand their talent pool across geographies 
• To reduce office overhead expenses 

• To provide more flexibility in scheduling agent shifts 
  

Third Party

What Is A Third Party – What Is Third Party Technology – Third Parties in Businesses

What Is a Third Party?  

A third party refers to another business or entity that provides additional services, outside the scope of the contact center, but often in partnership with it. A third party provider often provides complimentary services or products that either enhance the customer experience, or provides support to the business so it can offer a broader range of services. A third party on a phone call may also refer to just that, bringing in another call to join the current call between two people.  

Examples of a Third Party

A third party may refer to various scenarios: 

• In business, a third party provides additional services to joint customers 
• In technology, a third party may be another software or tech provider 

• In groups, a third party is another person added to an existing two
  

Toll Free Number

What Is a Toll-Free Number – Purpose of Toll-Free Numbers – Business Toll-Free Numbers

What is A Toll-Free Number?

A toll-free number is a phone number that can be dialed using a pre-specific three-digit code from landlines with no charge to the person calling. Toll-free numbers are billed for all the incoming calls they receive.

Benefits of Toll-Free Numbers

Businesses that offer toll-free numbers experience several benefits: 

• Save customers the cost of long-distance charges
• Improve customer access to customer service

• Enable callers to more conveniently call customer service lines
  

Unified Communication As A Service (UCaaS)

Three Benefits of Unified Communications - Why Unified Communications Is So Important

Three Benefits Of Unified Communication As A Service

The world of Unified Communications As A Service has seen a massive uptick over the last couple years as companies continue shifting to become more agile to accommodate today’s work environments. With employees working from anywhere, the technology needs to be able to handle that agility as well. While telephony continues to be an important option in communication, officer workers must also have options to utilize chat, email, video conferencing, file sharing and other ways to collaborate.

Companies can utilize a UCaaS solution to benefit their contact center in these 3 ways:

• Real-Time Collaboration
• Remote Work Environment
• Cloud-Based Technology

1. Real-Time Collaboration

Customers are contacting your business and are expecting quick answers. Office workers do not necessarily have all of those answers from general knowledge articles and need assistance from others within the organization for more complex issues.

For a variety of scenarios, the ability for several office workers to collaborate in real-time would empower your organization by encouraging collaboration as a collective and allow customers to feel that they are getting the answers they need in an organized fashion.

2. Remote Work Environment

As companies switch to handle the “new normal”, collaboration is still one of the biggest question marks. How can employees continue to provide a level of excellence for their customers with the challenges of being a remote workforce? That’s where utilizing Unified Communications As A Service comes into play.

Users of Microsoft Teams averaged a total of 2.7 billion minutes each day in April of 2020, which was a 200 percent increase from the 900 million that it recorded just a month prior!

This will only continue to increase as the remote work environment doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon which would also decrease organizational costs such as monthly lease payments for an office space.

3. Cloud-Based Technology

Cloud adoption has significantly increased over the past year as companies continue to adopt a remote workforce. According to Allstream, 67% of organizations are moving significant portions of their UCaaS solution to the cloud, which has been long overdue. Benefits of being cloud-based far surpass the scope of on-premise solutions such as reducing IT costs and the ability to efficiently go-live with even more functionality including widely used integrations without the need for long hours of setup.

What Is UCaaS - What Is Unified Communication As A Service; Providers & Features

What Is Unified Communications As A Service?

Unified Communications As A Service (UCaaS) has drastically increased in popularity in recent years as companies shift their work environments remote. A cloud-based software as a service typically offers features such as:

A cloud-based software as a service typically offers features such as:

• Voice
• Telephony
• Video Meetings
• Messaging
• Presence Status

Companies can utilize a UCaaS solution to meet their business needs including:

Eliminate their need to maintain and upkeep

• A single solution for internal collaboration
• Improve efficiency with a seamless solution
• Cloud-Based Advantage

The key advantages of being cloud-based is the ability to leave it all up to the service provider to maintain the solution. With on-premise solutions, large teams are required to maintain it and often takes weeks, if not months, to make the smallest of changes. And let’s not forget making upgrades which only takes a fraction of the time in the cloud. In the event of a natural disaster or something that is out of the hands of a business, utilizing a cloud-based solution allows just that. The flexibility, reliability, and adaptability of cloud solutions far surpass those of on premises.

Collaboration Efficiency

Unified Communications As A Service steps it up to a whole new level. With a single system to support communication efforts, this improves collaboration within the whole organization. With the ability to utilize messaging, video, and telephony all in one system it directly streamlines communication. Employees can utilize one single solution instead of navigating applications for each method of communication. No more having to juggle multiple windows or applications just to find help within your organization.

Unified Integration

The world of CCaaS and UCaaS is at a crossroads and the need to integrate the two solutions is here. Having fully integrated CCaaS and UCaaS solutions grants the ability to bridge the gap between contact center agents and subject matter experts in real time.

Leading UC solutions include:

• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom Phone
• RingCentral

Whether you have a contact center solution already, utilizing 1 of these solutions can help create a seamless experience not only for your agents but also for the customer experience.

Workforce Solutions Contact Center Benefits - How To Utilize Workforce Communications

How Digital Workforce Solutions Work with Call Centers and Unified Communications

AI and automation can assist live agents in providing a fast and easy customer service experience, while reducing costs in the contact center.

Sounds too good to be true? Let’s learn how a digital workforce can provide a solutions for call centers with unified communications which include:

• Automating routine customer interactions with conversational AI
• Automatically transcribing calls and coaching agents, reducing call time
• Eliminating time-consuming manual processes

A digital workforce is always on and ready to go, 24x7, and speaks over 100 different languages. Amidst increasing volume in the call center, customers want to connect with your organization day and night, weekday or weekend, across their preferred communication channel, whether that’s on the phone, live chat, social media, SMS, or email.

Consumers have grown accustomed to using voice to activate everything from the TV to our own personal virtual assistants, and now increasingly they prefer to have self-service options when contacting a business.

Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA) offer capabilities that are similar to human service and support agents – they just never rest or take a vacation – and they cost substantially less. IVAs help you automate routine and repetitive tasks, freeing live agents to focus on higher value work that might require deeper knowledge or empathy. When a live agent is needed, there’s a smooth handoff of the call, along with a history of the interaction.

UCaaS and CCaaS Integration

It’s challenging to route incoming customer inquiries from multiple channels to the best resource that will quickly resolve the call. Meanwhile, the ongoing labor shortage makes finding, training, and retaining professional staff difficult and time-consuming.

That’s why the time is right for digital workforce solutions that integrate with unified communications to provide a truly seamless customer experience. When CCaaS and UCaaS are integrated, you gain the ability to bridge the gap between contact center agents and subject matter experts in real time.

Simply put, this translates into better first-call resolution and lower average handle times.

What does it take to integrate CCaaS and UCaaS solutions? If you are still on an on-premises solution, moving the call center to the cloud is a vital first step. Cloud-based solutions offer benefits that far surpass the scope of on-premises solutions such as the ability to quickly, easily, and reliably deploy, generally with more functionality.

The next step is choosing the right UC provider. Five9 customers primarily work with UC leaders like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and RingCentral. There isn’t necessarily an ideal solution among the UC vendors; it is more a matter of your individual requirements and your environment.

Virtual Board

What is a Virtual Board – Online Whiteboards - Ways to Use Virtual Boards

What Is a Virtual Board? 

A virtual board is an online whiteboard that lets users draw, paint, or annotate alone or in shared groups via their screens. Virtual boards may be used in business meetings, virtual meetings, or on individual computers. Virtual boards use either touch or a stylus in a WYSIWYG manner. Virtual boards may be used in videoconferencing or as a shared app that lets employees share notes, files, images, and ideas.  

Ways to Use Virtual Boards 

Here are ways people may use virtual boards: 

• To collaborate on ideas 
• To share meeting notes 
• To brainstorm 

• To store and view team files
  

Virtual Call

What is a Virtual Call – Benefits of Virtual Calls – Companies that Use Virtual Calls

What Is A Virtual Call?  

A virtual call refers to calls placed using an application such as Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, or FaceTime. It enables callers to communicate via the Internet in a call or video call manner, on a digital device.  

Benefits of Virtual Calls 

There are several benefits of virtual calls:

• Freedom to communicate in a call like way without having a phone 
• Capacity to use audio and/or video during the call 
• May have multiple participants in the call 

• Available anywhere there is an Internet connection
  

Virtual Call Center (VCC)

What is a VCC in Call Centers – Benefits of Virtual Call Centers – Purpose of VCCs

What Is A Virtual Call Center? 

A virtual call center (VCC) is a contact center that utilizes cloud-based technology platforms to operate on a remote basis. Agents work from home or in groups in remote offices, across various geographies. They are not located in one central location. During the pandemic, many companies moved to virtual call centers and remained remote due to its many benefits.  

Benefits of Virtual Call Centers 

Virtual call centers offer numerous benefits:  

• Reduced overhead/operational costs 
• Access to larger talent pools 
• Flexible workstyles 

• Can cover more time zones
  

What Is a Virtual Call Center - Virtual Contact Center - What is a VCC

What is A Virtual Call Center? 
A virtual call center (VCC) is a contact center or call center that operates with remotely based customer service agents. Agents are dispersed geographically, and teams are managed remotely. VCCs have become a popular strategy since the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Benefits of a VCC 
Contact centers experience several benefits when using a VCC: 

Lowers operational costs 
Provides access to a wider agent talent pool 
Enables customer service across multiple time zones 
Gives agents more flexibility in scheduling shifts

Virtual Contact Center

What is a Virtual Contact Center – VCC Solutions - Virtual Contact Center Software

Virtual Hold

What is a Virtual Hold – Queue Callbacks – Call Center Virtual Holds

Virtual Hold Technology

What is VHT in Call Centers - Virtual Hold Technology – Benefits of VHT

Voice Response Unit (VRU)

What is VRU in Call Centers – Voice Response Unit – Benefits of VRU

VoIP

What is VoIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol – VoIP in Call Centers

Workforce Management (WFM)

What is Workforce Management – What is WFM in Call Centers

Workforce Optimization (WFO)