When running a business, you might need an efficient call routing system. It will help your agents to manage calls even when the call volume is high. It directs the call to the right agent at the right time and improves the overall customer experience by shortening the waiting time.
Let’s dive deeper to understand what is call routing, how it works and how it can benefit your business.
What Is Call Routing
Call routing is a call management process that automatically answers calls and distributes them to an individual agent or a group of people based on set rules and criteria. It is also known as automatic call distribution(ACD). A call routing software tracks and captures all the call data and automatically gathers all the eligible call recipients. Call routing is a feature of cloud phones that offers an efficient call flow in your system according to predetermined rules. A call can be routed to the queue for various reasons such as language preference of the caller, time of the day, specific department requested, and call volume. Through a call routing system, you can connect to every customer or client and increase productivity.
How Does Call Routing Work?
Call routing in call centres occur in different ways. The method of call routing differs, but all follow similar steps. Here are the necessary steps on which a call routing system works.
- Qualification Phase
The first step in the call routing process is sending a call to a specific tool called interactive voice response tool (IVR). An IVR system has automated questions and answers and helps you find out the call’s purpose.
- Queueing Phase
After getting the caller’s response, the IVR system transfer calls the automatic call distributor for queueing. A call is queued based on waiting time, skill and the query. You can set criteria to prioritize specific calls.
- Call Transferring
The next and final step in call routing is to transfer the call to a team member or agent that is best suited for a specific call. Just like the call queuing method, call distribution also occurred according to set rules.
Types Of Call Routing Strategies
There are several call routing methods that are used in call centres. However, the most popular methods include time-based, skill-based, geographic, value-based, and campaign-based routing.
- Time-Based Routing
In time-based routing, a call is routed to the representatives based on the time of the day when they call. This strategy helps your business to connect to your customers 24 hours of the day.
- Skill Based Routing
In a skill-based routing strategy, a call is transferred to an agent that has the right skills and matches the caller’s requirements. It helps callers to reach the most appropriate agent without wasting time. For example, if a caller wants to know about a specific product, the call is transferred to an expert who has knowledge of the product. This strategy helps you make a long relationship with your customers and lowers customers’ chances of being frustrated.
- Geographic Routing
Geographic Routing strategy allows customers to connect to the organisations’ local offices through a universal phone number. This type of call routing is automatically done by detecting the caller’s GPs location or the zip code that the caller used to enter the IVR. Geographic routing helps organizations to offer local services and connect callers to the alternative office if the agent is not available at the primary office.
- Value-Based Routing
The modern call centres or voip companies use a value-based call routing strategy. It is also known as smart routing. In this type, a customer is assigned to queues based on the known or perceived value of the customer. The customer’s value is analyzed on demographics such as age, income, and actions they have taken on previous visits. Value-based routing can help you to reduce customer frustration and protect current revenue streams. However, this strategy is based on prediction, so there are chances that the call is routed to the wrong agent.
- Campaign-Based Routing
This type of routing provides customers with a unique telephone number through which they can respond to marketing campaigns. These numbers are used for specific campaigns and can alert the agents what the call is about. This routing method helps a company to track the efficiency of its marketing efforts. This type of routing is more useful to route sales calls and close the revenue opportunities.
Benefits Of Call Routing
Call routing software is very beneficial for your business phone system or call centre. It reduces the waiting time and makes sure that your customers get a quick solution to their problems. Moreover, call routing helps to maximize the productivity of your business.
Here are some common benefits of having a call routing system.
- Strong Customer Relationship
The primary goal of a contact centre is to resolve customer’s issues. An intelligent call routing system helps improve customer satisfaction by directing their calls to the right agent at the right time. Furthermore, it lessens the hold times and calls routing to appropriate agents to provide quick solutions to customers’ issues. Eventually, you can make a positive impact on your business and a better customer agent relationship.
- Balance Workload
Another advantage of call routing is that it helps you to manage your workforce. It prevents your team member from being overwhelmed when several inbound calls are received simultaneously. So, your team member can focus on customer support and productivity. The skill-based routing can improve performance because, with this strategy, your agents will deal with the issue in which they are skilled. Also, call routing helps businesses to keep in contact with the customer 24/7 and lead towards massive revenue growth.