Phone Call Routing and Messaging

Call routing and messaging are two of the most important features of a business phone system. They help customers get the information they need from a sales or support representative quickly and easily. They also reduce abandon rates and queue times by automatically distributing calls according to your organization’s rules.

Routing is the process of sending calls based Phone call routing and messaging on preset criteria, thereby reducing the number of calls that enter the queue and increasing the amount of time that they can be answered. It’s a critical component of customer service and helps ensure that the right people receive incoming calls, which is crucial for keeping customers satisfied.

Incoming calls are routed to the appropriate agent or group of agents based on their location, skill, and other criteria. These criteria include the type of query, the number of agents available, and waiting time. Once all incoming calls have been assigned, they are sent to the call center’s automatic call distributor (ACD), which queues them until the agent is free to answer the call.

Personalized call routing is a great way to increase customer satisfaction and make the experience more personal. It can also help teams avoid excessive stress and fatigue from rushing through high volume of calls and not providing customers with excellent service.

IVR: Interactive voice response is a powerful tool that allows callers to access information through text-to-speech or pre-recorded messages. It can also be used to determine the best agent to handle a specific request, minimizing customer frustration and increasing productivity. IVR routing can be configured with various intelligent call routing features, including directing calls to a consultant who speaks a certain language and prioritizing VIP customers.

Percentage-based routing is another method of distributing calls across teams based on their size. This feature allows you to set a percentage of your calls for each team, which can be useful for businesses with large, distributed teams or those that have offices in different countries.

Geographic routing is a popular method of distributing calls based on the geographical location of the caller. This allows your local customer care agents to provide personalized service and connect callers with the local office that best serves their needs.

Automated routing can be configured to follow a variety of criteria, including the time of day, the area code or calling code of the caller, and the specific caller’s phone number. The auto-attendant system can then determine which agents are available to handle the call based on their skill, availability, and waiting time.

Custom call routing is another option for directing inbound calls. This feature is a great way to customize the phone menu and provide customers with a customized call flow, based on their caller ID and other unique characteristics, such as language preference. It’s also a great way to eliminate the need for an auto-attendant by replacing it with a customized IVR tree.

Alternatively, your company can use round-robin call routing to evenly distribute calls between team members. This feature is ideal for larger companies that have numerous team members answering calls daily.