Call Center Technology

Call center technology includes a combination of telephony hardware and software that allow inbound and outbound calls. A Call department within a larger business organization or a complete business organization in its own right. It houses telephony equipment, microcomputers and computer servers that are linked to the corporate network.

Conventionally, center are run using Private Branch Exchange (PBX) equipment that provide services like automatic call distribution, skills-based routing and interactive voice response. We have agents who accept inbound calls from customers and make outbound calls to customers.

Innovation and creativity in this industry has resulted in more advanced technologies that have helped in making the process more efficient.

These technologies include Computer Telephony integration (CTI) which has helped centers in linking voice and data pathways so as to manage calls more effectively to increase productivity.

Call-Center Must-haves

In order for a call technology to be operational, there are essential technologies it must have in additional to the PBX equipment. The type of technology required is dependent on factors such as the size of the center, its location and the supported channels. The following technologies are very essential to a call technology:

1. Customer Relationship Management programs

This application allows calls to be directed to the appropriate agents. This ensures that high value clients are attended to by skilled agents while ensuring all the other calls are directed to the next available agent to cut down waiting time. This software also allows supervision of agents so as to ensure maximum productivity. This program can be used for recording specific customer requests and the measures taken to deal with them. This information is available whenever the customer calls again.

2. Dialers and Automatic Call Distributors

Automatic call distributors are crucial to a center as they process incoming calls and direct them to the most suitable personnel while dialers are mostly used for outgoing calls so as to place calls. Nowadays, advancement in technology has resulted to predictive dialers that are more efficient than the traditional dialers as they are intuitive. Examples of popular dialers are Avaya predictive dialers, Agent dialers, Blue Strip dialers etc.

3. Interactive Voice Response systems

Some of systems are designed to have voice recognition capacities and are able to respond to the customer depending on his needs. For instance, a caller can interact with this system and be guided on performing certain simple tasks. This system is a self-service tool offered to customers.

4. Workforce Management Software

These applications are used in anticipating the quantity of work to be dealt with. It assist managers in recruiting an appropriate number of agents to meet the expected needs in view of the agent leaves, impromptu sicknesses, training classes etc.

5. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

This call-center-technology provides an interface which links Automatic call distributors or dialers to the servicing applications like the CRM programs. This technology helps in translating the customer information into a visible form that can be displayed on the screen. It helps to minimize the time wasted in searching information manually.

There are many other technologies that are used to increase productivity. Basically, these are the basic technologies any reputable call-centers should have. These ensure that customers are fully satisfied and the agents are very productive.