virtual call centre

8/18/2019 Virtual Call Centre

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Virtual Call Centre

Virtual Call Center

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Easy Office Phone offers a powerful, user-friendly Virtual Call Center solution (also called

Hosted Call Center). With its robust feature set, intuitie web interface and detailed reportin! and

trac"in!, our solutions are a perfect fit for both in-house and outsourced irtual call center

applications.

We#re also able to offer inte!ration between our serice and popular C$% software such as

&ales'orce, %icrosoft ynaics and &u!arC$%. &trealine your call center deployent with

clic"-to-dial fro your C$%, screen pops, conference callin!, and ore.

*his pa!e will wal" you throu!h our speciali+ed irtual call center serice and how it can a"eyour deployent wor" ore efficiently for you. t will also sere as a prier if you#re new to the

topic you can learn about the process of settin! up a irtual call center, see an eaple of irtual

call center desi!n, and brush up on your call center terinolo!y.

What is a Virtual Call Center?Defnition rom Wikipedia: A call center or call centre is a centralized ofce used

or the purpose o receiving and transmitting a large volume o requests by

telephone.

Simply put, a virtual call center is a group of sta who make and/or receive a large

volume of incoming and/or outgoing calls, typically for a focused business

application. For eample, many virtual call centers provide technical or product

support. !thers are focused on generating sales" still others may include medical

call centers managing patients, or centers acting on behalf of charitable

organi#ations to solicit donations.

$ %irtual &all &enter, or 'osted &all &enter, is very similar in concept to a traditional

call center con(guration, but has some important advantages.

Firstly, a virtual call center does not have to be in a )centrali#ed o*ce) as the above

de(nition states. $lthough this is certainly one possible con(guration, it is not

re+uired. With our 'osted - echnology, your virtual call center agents can be

decentrali#ed and physically far apart, but still integrated seamlessly into one

system using our virtual call center software.

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Virtual Call Center Advantages he web0based nature of our %irtual &all &enter service allows for a great deal of

1eibility and customi#ability on the 1y. With 2asy !*ce hone, virtual call centers

can be rapidly deployed, scaled, and modi(ed to meet your speci(c needs.

&all centers are by nature comple operations. 3anagers must oversee multiple

agents, ensure that the constant volume of calls is answered, and still be

accountable to their supervisors.

2asy !*ce hone makes virtual call center operation simple while giving managers

all of the power and (ne0grained control they need. We also oer end0users control

over their own settings, such as signing themselves in and out of call +ueues. his

distinction in access levels means that your virtual call center deployment en4oys

greater security 0 you can choose which level of access you wish to grant to your

sta.

See below for some illustrated eamples of how we can streamline your virtual call

center operations and help ensure that all your employees work e*ciently while

remaining highly accountable.

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Call Queues - the core o an eective Virtual Call Center

$ny virtual call center consisting of more than two or three employees almost

certainly needs a call +ueue system to manage incoming calls. &all +ueues allow

virtual call center employees to e*ciently deal with incoming calls by intelligently

connecting customers to agents who are available and 5optionally6 not ringing

employees who are currently engaged in a call and helping other customers. $gents

are also able to sign themselves in and out of +ueues and set their status to )!n

-reak) so that all agents and managers know that the particular agent is not

currently available to take calls.

hrough our virtual call center software, you can create multiple call +ueues and

assign agents 5members6 to one or more of them. 7ou8re able to manage any +ueueby adding or removing agents at any time. See screenshot below for an eample.

his company runs a lawn and garden products website and has set up multiple

+ueues within their virtual call center to answer calls for product in+uiries, sales

+uestions, support and more.

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/n eaple of a copany usin! ultiple 0ueues to ana!e their calls for arious departents.

While waiting for an operator, your customers hear the music of your choice. 7ou

can also play custom on0hold promotional messages informing your customers of

the products and services you oer and the bene(ts of dealing with your company.

!n0hold music is highly customi#able 0 you can supply your own pre0recorded sound

(les, then upload and manage them at any time through our web0based virtual call

center software.

&hoose whether the system will announce estimated hold time / position and how

fre+uently it will do so.

o assure your customers that their call will be attended to, you can choose to have

the system announce an estimated hold time / position and how fre+uently to

announce it 5see screenshot above6.

!ur virtual call center management software also allows you to specify a number of

important overall settings, such as call distribution strategy. $ strategy is essentially

a )pattern) for receiving incoming calls and passing them to call +ueue members.

For eample, the simplest and most automatic call distribution strategy is to )9ing

$ll,) which simply means that all agents will be called simultaneously when an

incoming call to the virtual call center arrives in the +ueue. he )9ound 9obin)

strategy will ring the whole group, but do it in se+uence rather than simultaneously.

)9andom) does eactly what its name suggests. here are more strategies and we

invite you to eplore our software to (nd the one that8s perfect for your own virtual

call center.

o further with customi#ing your +ueue con(guration 0 2asy !*ce hone lets you

set the following options to optimi#e your +ueues for your speci(c business

application.


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• arget service levels: a reporting feature that lets virtual call center managersset targets for how +uickly calls should ideally be answered, and checks howfre+uently in practice those targets are being met

• $gent timeouts: 5how long to ring each agent before moving to the net

• 9ing or ;o oin when empty: ;etermines whether callers are able to 4oin a +ueue thathas no agents currently available

• ?eave when empty: ;etermines whether callers who are waiting in a +ueueshould be forced to leave when the last available agent departs the +ueueand there are no agents left in the virtual call center

See screenshot below for illustrated eample.

Set a number of powerful top0level options for your +ueue5s6.

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Virtual Call Center Tracking and Reorting Tools$re you responsible for managing your company8s virtual call center@ Af so, you8ll be

pleased to know that 2asy !*ce hone oers you a comprehensive set of data

tracking and reporting tools.

Af you 4ust need to +uickly track the current status of your +ueues, simply hover

your mouse over the +ueue name and you8ll see a snapshot of the +ueue8s current

status, including a list of agents in the +ueue, when they last took a call, how many

calls they8ve taken total, and more. See screenshot below.

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See all your call +ueues at a glance and the status of each agent in the +ueue.

7ou can also get a more detailed breakdown of each +ueue showing statistics such

as active calls and recently completed calls, with data on entrance time, caller A;,

wait time, and much more.

o see your virtual call center8s detailed statistics over time, use our powerful

9eporting interface. &hoose a start date, specify a +ueue or number of +ueues, and

choose whether you want an hourly report structure, and your data is presented in

seconds. he data is etremely granular and allows you to immediately identify the

following important criteria:

• 'ow many calls came into your virtual call center

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'ow many of those calls were handled by agents

• 'ow many were abandoned

• $verage hold time before an agent answers

• he average and longest times before an agent answered a call

• 'ow long the average caller waits before giving up

• otal time your agents spent on the phone

• ...and much moreB

7ou can create customi#ed reports by (ltering data based on criteria such as:

• 2tension/$gent

• &all type


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options for what will happen to calls that go unanswered for a certain periodof time.

• Agent# he term )agent) simply refers to sta who serve in virtual call centercapacities.

• Agent Timeout# $ (gure, typically epressed in seconds, that determineshow long the call +ueue will attempt to ring a given agent before giving upand moving to another agent in the +ueue.

• A$A# $verage speed to $nswer. his (gure represents an average of the waittime before calls are answered.

• %andled# When your agents accept an incoming call, that call is consideredto be 'andled.

• &dle# his state simply means that the agent is not currently handling any

calls, and is available to do so.

• 'oin (hen )mt!# Set this value to allow or disallow callers to enter yourcall +ueues when no agents are available to handle calls. Af you areconcerned about callers waiting only to reali#e that no agents are available,you might wish to set this value to )


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center reporting tools allow managers to track how well the goals are beingmet.

• Total talk time# he sum of the time that all agents spent speaking toprospects/customers. his (gure refers only to actual conversation time" holdtime is not part of the calculation.

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