3 Must Have Features of Call Center Software
Posted on 06. Apr, 2010
Call centers are improving their efficiencies with new tools that make interactions between their agents and customers more fulfilling. Since they are your interface with your customers, it is only right that you get the best solution to manage this part of your business. Customer satisfaction depends a lot on how call centers handle your customers’ problems and their performance, in turn, depends on the effectiveness of their tools. Therefore, you need the best call center software to keep your customers happy.
There are many call center software options and all of them have overlapping functions. In most of them, the basic functions work but integrating and implementing the most important features in a simple interface can be difficult. However, some features are so important that the software you pick should correctly implement them.
The first of these features is automatic call distribution (ACD). This helps distribute incoming calls so you can spread the call load. Sometimes, some agents have long queues waiting on them while other agents are free. ACD reassigns waiting users from these queues to the free agents. However, the system does not arbitrarily move callers to agents. Rather, it matches the skill levels of agents with the needs of the waiting customers and how long they’ve been waiting.
Another important feature is interactive voice response (IVR). This engages callers as they wait in the queue. Sometimes, IVR is pre-loaded with basic information that the caller can request and get while waiting. The information given by the IVR is what some callers actually want and interacting with the IVR will be the end of the session for them.
The third important feature is called contact management. This is a database containing all the information needed by your agents to resolve all issues and attend to all enquiries. This database resides on a central intranet server that agents can query. The information contained therein will include a list of all orders received from all customers, and details of all previous interactions had with all customers. Agents can use this feature to check on a delivery status, take orders, process complaints, schedule appointments and answer billing inquiries.
These features are essential in the call center software you use. They provide the most important functions needed for your agents to guarantee customer satisfaction, because customers like to be well attended to and they like to get their problems solved as quickly as possible.