by Mario Cuello, CEO, Epygi
The approach of businesses and industries and how they manage their call center needs change greatly over time. For example, many telecommunications manufacturers used to focus on large call centers, but today, small call centers are becoming much more important. Small-to-medium sized call centers “comprise 95 percent of all the world’s call centers and employ over half of all agents” (Small Call Centers Challenges and Opportunities, 2008). As a result of businesses having multi-site offices to keep up with high demand, smaller call centers are now being built. Each call center’s overall business has increased, and their technology needs to be updated as well. The PELORUS Group, a leader in identifying trends in the marketplace, has collected research which reveals that only 40 percent of call centers with fewer than 150 agents have a modern quality monitoring system and fewer than 20 percent use workforce management software. It is clear that many call centers are not taking full advantage of their agents and the technology available to administrators.
With the Internet becoming such a vital component of today’s society, customers have the same expectations for small businesses as they do for large ones. Therefore, the small business call centers need to make sure their technology stays relevant and satisfies their customers. Immediate access to agents for support or sales needs is required. Leveraging some of these new applications to integrate the web into a basic call center can provide a valuable extension of the call center’s services.
The standard hunt groups and simultaneous call distribution are not sufficient enough for a call center environment anymore. Advanced methods of call distribution are required, such as Skills Based Routing or Least Active Agent. Another key advantage is grouping of the agent, which allows call centers to logically group resources together to clearly define responsibilities and expertise of the agents. These groupings can include agents at one location or across multiple sites, all servicing the same customer base.
The Quadro IP PBX line allows small and medium businesses to have an affordable option to create a call center. The Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is unique because of its customization options and the Statistics Monitoring and Reporting (SMR) tool, which displays the call activity and trends analysis. This software can be used on Windows applications for easy viewing of real-time activity. Equally important is the flexibility of any solution to work with third-party tools. The Epygi solution offers a full XML Application Programming Interface (API) granting other reporting and analysis tools access to all the call data.
Call center environments are now able to configure smart call queuing and call handling. With the addition of the ACD on the larger Epygi IP PBX products, customers can further improve how they do business. The ACD feature provides the necessary tools whether it is for a small group of office members to service a sales telephone number or a diverse small enterprise supporting multiple business functions.
With modern technology, call centers will not only increase sales and reduce costs, but also improve employees’ efficiency and customer relationships. It will be easier for managers to know when the slower hours are so that employee breaks can be scheduled. It will also be easier for employees to transfer calls in order to help customers in their particular area of expertise. Epygi’s Quadro line of IP PBXs provide a solution for call centers, as well as providing their staff the ability to keep in touch whether they are onsite, in a remote location or on the move. All of Epygi’s software and IP PBXs are designed for call centers at a cost-effective price point.
Even though society is becoming more digital with social media and the Internet, customers still expect live, unparalleled customer service to go along with the products and services they buy. As a result, call centers must be equipped to handle many phone calls to aid their customers and ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
