beyond the cloud: the next generation of virtual call centers

eBook

WHITE PAPER

The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud

The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 2

© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 867-0704 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog

Executive Summary

2

CEOs and customer service executives understand the

value of offering a world-class call center. It’s often the first

contact a customer has with an organization, and it plays

a major role in establishing customer loyalty. But these

executives also understand the need to keep customer

support costs down.

It’s these two opposing forces that are driving call center

technology to continuously evolve to meet customer

demand. One major step in this evolution occurred with the

advent of hardware-free cloud-based virtual call centers,

which were less expensive to deploy and maintain than on-

premise, hardware-based solutions.

And recently the call center has taken another step

forward in its evolution by integrating cloud-based virtual

call center functionality with other technologies. This new

hardware-free integrated virtual call center brings together

interactive voice response (IVR), CRM integration, help desk

integration, automated call distribution, call routing, and call

recording to take customer support to the next level.

This white paper highlights how the different parts that

make up the new integrated virtual call center work together

to provide a superior level of service. It also explains how

voice-based marketing automation technology brings them

all together in one solution.


3The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 33

What Is A Virtual Call Center?

3333333

A hardware-free virtual call center is a cloud-based SaaS

(software-as-a-service) model that enables your staff to

answer customer calls at anytime, from any phone, at any

location. Virtual call centers use automatic call distribution

(ACD) to transfer incoming calls to a group of agent phones

– whether they are in your office, working remotely, or both.

Users can set up their virtual call center ACD system with

custom on-hold messaging and specified wait times for

callers waiting in a queue. With a virtual call center, you can

view average caller wait times and statistics about agent

performance while recording every call for reference.

Small businesses became the early adopters of hardware-

free virtual call centers when they realized that this

cloud technology eliminated the need for an on-premise

center. With the availability of virtual call centers, smaller

businesses could save on the costs of expensive hardware

and equipment while allowing agents to work from any

location.

Enterprise businesses began implementing virtual call

centers next, in the early majority. Large businesses often

maintain their physical location and implement a hardware-

free virtual call center for several reasons:

• Easy implementation without the assistance of IT staff

• Advanced reporting capabilities that improve agent productivity

• Automatic software and systems updates

• Ability to quickly set up multiple virtualized centers

• Flexible, easily updatable software for specific business requirements

• Utilize VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phones



But IVRs have become increasingly more sophisticated.

Now they can be used to provide callers with information

and services they previously had to wait for a live agent to

receive, such as:

• Account and billing info

• Order renewals

• Order status updates

• Changes to contact information

• Payment collections

Automating this functionality with an intelligent IVR enables

customers to serve themselves quickly and saves your

agents for more detailed support calls.

Also, where IVRs used to require a programmer and a help

desk ticket to update, they can now be updated quickly by

anyone. This means that companies can continually update

their IVRs to reflect customer feedback and changes in

business processes.

4

While moving from an on-premise to a hardware-free virtual

call center is an excellent way to cut costs, it is only the first

step in implementing first-class customer service. The next

step is integrating the call center with other internal systems

and complementary technologies. Having these parts all work

together seamlessly speeds up agent efficiency, improves

customer service levels, and cuts operating costs.

Below is a list of the important pieces that make up the

modern integrated virtual call center.

Inbound IVR for Managing Calls

Inbound IVR (interactive voice response) is nothing new for

the call center—companies have been setting up inbound

IVRs as their virtual receptionist for years. IVRs are the

automated menu that customers interact with when they

call a business: rather than having a live agent answer every

phone call, the IVR can pick up the phone and route the call

to the correct department.

The Integrated Virtual Call Center: Taking the Next Step



You can also schedule an outbound IVR to go out after a

certain number of days. This IVR will call the customers

and ask them questions that enable you to measure their

satisfaction with the support they received. Knowledge

is power, and knowing how satisfied (or dissatisfied) your

customers are with your support team helps you to improve

your service.

5

Another way to improve efficiency with IVR is by creating

a menu that can gather customer information. You can

set up an IVR that asks questions about customer name,

organization, product/service they are interested in, support

requests, etc. The customer can interact with the menu to

answer the questions. By using a series of automated IVR

questions, you can determine a customer’s needs up front

and then route the call to an agent accordingly.

Before the agent speaks with the customer, the agent

receives a “whisper” message containing the name of the

customer recorded in the IVR menu. This enables the agent

to respond directly to the caller’s needs, and provides

the customer with a feeling of personalization. The more

information your agents have about their callers, the more

successful they will be in providing superior assistance.

Outbound IVR for Customer Phone Surveys

You can also configure your virtual call center to use

outbound IVRs to conduct post-support surveys. After your

customer has completed a phone call with your support

team, the IVR can immediately transfer the call to a short

1-2 question survey to ensure the customer was pleased

with the service. If they express dissatisfaction, you can

transfer them directly to a manager to remedy the issue.

As you plan your IVR phone survey, it’s important to keep the questions simple (to respect the taker’s time) yet informative, so you get meaningful data.

Try these out:

• How satisfied are you with the service you received?

• How satisfied are you with your interactions with our representative?

• How satisfied are you with our company overall?

• How likely are you to use our service again?

• How likely are you to recommend our company to others?

IVR phone surveys also have capabilities that enable you to ask

open-ended questions and questions with multiple choices.

A Short IVR Phone Survey Goes a Long Way

Collect Customer Information with Your IVR



Virtual call centers can be integrated with CRM systems,

such as Salesforce.com, to maintain a database of

customer information and requests. Just as your agents can

receive “whisper” messages with customer name, they can

also receive detailed account information on their desktop

panel when a call comes in.

Figure 1. Agent Panel

6

Not only does this information give your agents the opportunity to

provide personalized customer support, it also benefits your entire

company by integrating your systems to maintain an accurate

record of every phone call and customer request. When an existing

customer calls your business, their information will pop up on your

agent’s desktop. See Figure 1 for an example of an agent screen for

an incoming call from an existing account in Salesforce.com.

Any unanswered calls will have a new case automatically created

in your CRM to ensure you never miss a customer support request.

If the unanswered caller ID matches a contact, the case will be

associated with that contact. If the number is unknown, a new

contact will be created.

Figure 2. Salesforce cases from phone calls

CRM Integration for Personalized Customer Service



Customer Support Help Desk IntegrationYour business receives tens, hundreds, maybe even

thousands of support calls on a weekly basis. This call

volume can be a lot to manage. But if your support team

is taking too long to respond to customer requests, you’ll

never be able to provide superior quality customer service.

By integrating your virtual call center with your customer

support help desk, such as Zendesk, you can turn every

phone call into an actionable, organized support ticket.

For each customer support call, a ticket will be created

automatically in your help desk. If you’ve already integrated

with your CRM, a detailed email can be automatically sent

to your customer after they’ve submitted their request. This

integration enables you to serve more customers with voice-

based tools that help you shorten response time.

VIP and Emergency Support

Businesses that receive a high volume of support calls

can set up custom rules that place VIP customers and

emergency requests at the top of your support team queue.

The faster your support team is able to respond to and

resolve support requests, the more satisfied your customers

are going to be.

FundNET Systems Uses an Integrated Virtual Call Center to Automate Client Interaction

FundNET Systems wanted an automated way to increase client support. They also needed to ensure that all support requests received via phone were automatically entered and tracked in Zendesk, the company’s help desk software.

Ifbyphone’s solution was ideal because:

1. When clients call FundNet, Ifbyphone transcribes the voicemail and logs it as a Zendesk support ticket.

2. The client automatically receives an email confirming the support request that includes the transcription and a link to the audio recording.

By using Ifbyphone, FundNET reduced their phone support costs by almost 80 percent while adding substantial functionality. Now, all of FundNET’s phone support requests are automatically logged in Zendesk. Because Zendesk is also integrated with FundNET’s CRM system, FundNET now has end-to-end visibility of client requests throughout all key systems.



Automated call distribution technology enables your

business to maintain flexibility by using any phone to

answer customer calls. Inbound phone calls that reach your

virtual call center can be distributed to an office phone,

home phone, cell phone, or even Skype.

With call routing, your company can direct incoming phone

calls according to your own rules:

• Route by schedule: You can create custom routing based on your office hours, the time zones of your customers, weekends, holidays, and more.

• Route by agent: Want your best agents to receive the highest call volume? Ensure that your best performing sales reps or customer service reps receive the most calls by routing incoming calls to agents via percentage.

• Route by geography: If your business has multiple locations in various geographical regions, set up incoming phone calls to be routed to the nearest store location. By detecting area code or zip code of the call, the caller can be routed to a location close to them.

• Route between multiple call centers: Set up multiple call centers and route call flow to respective centers based on caller information, distribution schedules, and location.

• Route by number: Screen incoming calls and set up custom routing and queuing rules for specific phone numbers.

• Route based on IVR menu responses: Many businesses use this option to score leads and then have them passed off to a qualified agent to nurture the lead.

Conditional Call Routing

Minimize the risk of important calls going unanswered by

implementing conditional and selective phone call routing.

Use this type of forwarding to route incoming calls to

different types of phones (cell phone, work phone, home

phone, etc.) and agents based on various schedules.

• Ring an agent’s home, work, and cell phone simultaneously to ensure that the call is answered, whether the agent is working from home or travelling.

• Ring agent phones in a specific order; such as work phone first, cell phone second, home phone third.

• Ring several agent phone numbers at the same time: the first agent who answers gets the call, even if they are working from home.

• Forward calls to various agents based on your office

schedule.

With virtual call center conditional call routing, prospects,

customers, and staff can reach agents at any time on any

phone, regardless of their location.

Customizable Call Distribution and Routing



With web-based voice reports, you can monitor the success of your agents in real time, online, at any time. Use the agent

activity report to view call data for your various agents. This report can be sorted by date or campaign, and it shows the

number of outbound and inbound calls an agent handled and how long the call lasted:

Figure 3. Agent Activity Report

Real-Time Web Reporting



Use the call distributor summary report for a breakdown on how incoming calls were handled. How many calls were

answered? How many times did the call hang up and how long into the phone call? What was the average time a

customer waited to speak with an agent?

Figure 4. Call Distributor Summary Report

Call Distrubutor Summary



Use the call distributor agent modes report to see exactly what your agents were doing all day. This report shows the

number of hours your agent spent busy on incoming calls, outbound calls, on breaks, lunch, etc. Also view what time they

opened their agent panel in the morning and what time they closed it in the evening.

Figure 5. Call Distributor Agent Modes Report

Call Distributor Agent Modes



Call recording enables you to monitor the interactions

between your customers and representatives. You gain

valuable insight into what are callers’ most frequent questions,

recurring issues, and greatest areas of need. You can also use

call recording to monitor your agents’ productivity and quality

of support. If you have doubts about a certain agent, listen to

their recorded calls for insight.

Voice-Based Marketing Automation Makes It EasyThe primary reason virtual call centers are now so easily

made to be interactive is the recent availability of voice-based

marketing automation technology. Previously, on-premise

call centers required full assistance for setup, updating, and

maintenance from an IT department. They lacked the ability

to integrate with IVR, CRMs, and ticketing systems.

Now, with voice-based marketing automation tools you

can integrate a hardware-free virtual call center with your

CRM and help desk. This is what enables your IVR to gather

customer information and display it on your agent screens, as

well as what automatically creates support tickets in your help

desk. This technology also enables advanced automated call

distribution, routing, recording, and reporting.

Call Recording to Monitor and Improve Performance

10 Questions to Ask Your Virtual Call Center Provider

1. Can I customize the on-hold experience for my customers?

2. Can my agents receive calls from any location on any type of phone? Even Skype?

3. Can I set up schedules based on my individual agents?

4. How can my agents receive caller information before answering the phone call?

5. Can I access call reports and records online, at any time?

6. Does your service offer call recording and transcription?

7. Are there any setup fees or contracts?

8. Am I able to transfer callers to another agent, department, or IVR?

9. Do you charge per-agent or per-seat fees?

10. What kind of support do you offer?



Conclusion

Next Steps

Call Ifbyphone today at (855) 867-0704 to learn how an integrated virtual call center will help your business provide exceptional customer support. You can also learn how successful customer support teams are using interactive virtual call centers at www.ifbyphone.com

Integrated virtual call centers are the next step in the

evolution of customer support. The integrations with

technologies like IVR, CRM, help desk systems are

making it easier for businesses to provide world-class

customer service. The customer support established

with hardware free, integrated virtual call centers has

helped businesses of every size cut support costs and

build profitable, loyal customer bases.

About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice

conversations with your customers and prospects.

These conversations cannot be managed using marketing

automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s

voice-based marketing automation platform, catching

these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom

of your net – leads and information fall out.

The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service

applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,

hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all

sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone, including

direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and

lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.

www.ifbyphone.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone

800-568-1121

300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor

Chicago, IL 60606

About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice

conversations with your customers and prospects.

These conversations cannot be managed using marketing

automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s

voice-based marketing automation platform, catching

these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom

of your net – leads and information fall out.

The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service

applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,

hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all

sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone, including

direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and

lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.

www.ifbyphone.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone

Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone

(855) 867-0704

300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor

Chicago, IL 60606

beyond the cloud: the next generation of virtual call centers

Business

generation of virtual

hardwarefree virtual

hardware free virtual

virtual receptionist

availability of virtual

center technology

center work

center functionality