Sarv Blog » Cloud IVR

How does ACD work?

Sarv — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 10:35:05 +0000

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is an important feature in setting up a call center. It is responsible for managing queues and responsibly allocating all incoming calls to appropriate staff agents. If you are in the customer support area, you may have already heard of ACD. In fact, the most common question in any sales team is how is the working of ACD.

Automatic call divider is a type of call forwarding on preset factors. When a customer calls, IVR first gathers the customer’s information and intentions. It then directs the customer to an agent with the appropriate skills on the information gathered.

How does automatic call distribution work?

Automatic call distribution is set up in three steps. Each step helps to direct the client to the right agents, separating this function from the usual PBX setup. The three steps involved are:

Caller ID collection
Call queue
Call forwarding

As the name suggests, first collection of customer’s information, then the customer is queued, and finally the call is routed to an available agent.

Caller ID collection:

As a customer of any brand, we’ve heard the word: Press 1 for product issues. Press 2 for a billing issue. This is the IVR that collects relevant information about the customer. Smart IVRs recognize a phone number and run it in a database to identify the customer and their preferred language. In other cases, customers will be asked to verify their information by entering their number or account ID.

When this is done, the IVR will ask what the customer wants and which internal department it is. ACD will play with this data to route the call to the most capable agent.

Call queue:

The volume of calls in the increased contact center is obviously high. It is possible that two or more customers need help returning money at the same time. In this case, ACD creates a queue based on the number of agents available.

This means that the order is on some other factor. That are:

Waiting time
Customer request
Agent status
Agent performance

There are many other factors a mentor can add to this when creating a campaign. Sometimes ACDs are configured to prioritize VIP clients as well. All of these micro-customizations for your campaign are possible to create the perfect queue for your contact center.

Call forwarding:

The most important step in the ACD structure is call forwarding. This is where magic happens. The automatic call distribution feature can now be used to direct calls to your agents according to your preferences. At the end of the routing, you can assign agents according to your internal parameters. For example, if your boss wants to reduce incoming calls, most calls will only be routed to experienced employees. Or, more calls can be routed to agents with shorter average handling times and so on.

What are the different types of call distribution?

Calls can be distributed according to the tutor’s preferences. In fact, some popular types of distribution modules are used. Distributing this type of call is often focused on increasing agent productivity or supporting any particular campaign.

Round-Robin distribution:

We are quite familiar with the ring-robin format. Similarly, arrangements of the agents is done in numerical order and then distributes the calls accordingly. Last agent answers the call, then the next caller redirects to the first agent. This happens in a cycle and is also called Rotary Call Distribution.

Simultaneous call distribution:

This is a circular method designed to reduce customer waiting time. ACD rings all agent phones at once until one of them answers. If the agent answers, a second call is immediately sent to the remaining available agents.

Call time allocation:

The aim of this model is a fair distribution of the workload between the agents, while also increasing their productivity. The next call is made to the agent with the lowest talk time. This is done to ensure that each agent is equally productive.

Skill-based routing:

IVR earlier asked for language preference where we have been queuing for skill-based routing. Based on your inputs, ACD will determine your needs and direct you to the most appropriate agent.

Agents evaluate proactively on the basis of a number of factors. Such as language choice, language skills, response time, expertise and average call handling time. Prior to routing, ACD prioritizes agents whose scores meet customer needs.

Each contact center manager can do an internal survey and figure out what skills are important to the brand. Based on these, prioritize important factors and evaluate your agents accordingly. This allows the customer to reach the most capable agent who can help him.

ACD manages all important call center reports, from call detail reports, logout reports, to queue reports, and more. Really, this is the heart of the call center platform.

Conclusion:

ACDs are essential for a clogged contact center environment. Referring customers to the appropriate department saves talk time, credit and other resources. Therefore, it is recommended to study thoroughly how ACDs work. How to integrate them with multiple contact center tools, such as voicemail, callback, CTI, or CRM. For more information on ACDs, book a call back with experts of Sarv.

The post How does ACD work? appeared first on Sarv Blog.

Text-to-Speech – A New Power for Cloud Call Centers

Sarv — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 12:03:00 +0000

Customer experience isn’t an expense. Managing customer experience only bolsters your brand. Stan Phelps

Improving customer experience is a significant and essential part of every business. Especially businesses that are directly serving the customers and solving their problems. For any solution, human interaction is necessary, and nowadays, human interaction is digitized with the advancement of technology.

If you are into the contact centers business, you must have come across various technological features to enhance customer experience.

One of the latest advanced features to be elaborated here is Text-to-Speech (TTS).

TTS Matter in Cloud Contact Center

The TTS is a speech synthesis technology that transforms written text into spoken words at the critical time of interaction or self-service communication. It can be used for any industry and situation where audio is the best option. Just for your information, customers expect to use a voice interface in 70% of service interactions by 2023.

TTS doesn’t depend on pre-recorded audio, and you don’t need to prepare a script for its use in a call center. TTS ‘synthesizes’ the word/words typed, reducing the burden and enhancing call productivity.

The TTS concept was introduced specifically for the visually impaired to help them understand, for example, website content. You can incorporate the TTS API into websites and applications. In call centers, interactive voice response (IVR) systems use TTS to support users/customers with the information asked.

How are Contact Centers Using TTS?

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Text to Speech plugin in IVR will allow call flows to be configured using DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) keypress options. TTS can help contact centers conduct surveys, bringing higher customer response rates when compared to email, SMS, etc.

Outbound Dialing

For outbound calls, TTS will be perfect – it will ensure a swift response, automating the redundant process of dialing thousands or even millions of calls per day. TTS will help organizations let customers know about payment reminders, promotional offers, appointment times, etc.

SMS Marketing Campaigns

TTS amplifies SMS campaigns’ reach as the technology works in concert with characters limitations, country-specific regulations, etc. With TTS, make a text note, which can be turned into a call and can be connected globally.

Support Many Languages

Your contact reach expands with TTS as it allows contact centers to use multiple languages across different countries. The message can simply be translated into a specific language(s), eliminating the need to add one or more humans to speak for that particular language.

Economical

With the help of Text to Speech, contact centers can reduce their operational costs by up to 70%, reports research. This is because of a decline in manual intrusion by automating the dialing procedure and call chart with TTS.

Keeping Human Touch

Personalization is ensured with TTS as it makes the typical phone call seem more human and interactive. The technology has gone past the robotic experience, adding more customer experience.

Text to Speech Must be Integrated

Following the data of Understood, the hearing and reading words or texts through TTS can improve word recognition, increase alternativeness, strengthen comprehension, and correct errors. TTS comes with various features, leaving a positive and innovative mark for the organization. To further guide you, here are the additional benefits of TTS:-

Enhanced Learning

Text to Speech can lead to learning as it can help in improving comprehension, vocabulary, skills, and confidence.

Mobility & Freedom

The digital content can be turned into multimedia, giving a customer a vast experience. It can help people tackle reading assignments without having to actually look at the pages.

Enhance Branding

TTS across platforms can strengthen a brand’s identity. You can customize voice as per the department like customers can connect with sales or support separately.

Power of Text to Speech

The capabilities of TTS are increasing day by day, and here’s how it will expand the horizon of cloud contact centers.

Better Accuracy

The accuracy rate of TTS is pretty impressive in English, and there’s likely see a word error rate (WER). However, TTS is trying to achieve that 100% accuracy in other languages, which will help organizations further broaden global reach.

Language-Centric Model

Now, everyone knows about the ‘personal dictionary’ that adds the new word when typing on mobile or other devices. TTS is becoming more and more customer-language-centric, using customer data to make decisions.

How Sarv’s Text to Speech can Help?

Look for game-changing speech analytics that will not only reduce risk but also coach agents. Text to Speech can be very beneficial, and our next-generation platform will allow seamless integration with CRM and workforce optimization capabilities. The agent will deliver exceptional service leading to a better customer experience while reducing compliance risk. We offer support to all types and sizes of businesses from learning to marketing, everything.

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Cloud Contact Center Trends for the Year 2022 – Ready, Steady, Go!

Sarv — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 12:22:26 +0000

There was a sudden shift in needs and priorities between 2020-21 due to Coronavirus. It might be a hassle to describe how customer service exercised from the past two years as many experienced an eventful, innovative, and challenging time. New year – 2022 will soon knock on doors with fresh trends and opportunities. The contact center industry will also explore trends focusing on developing efficiency, cost-savings, improved customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), etc.

Leaders have to double down on CX and technological innovations in order to move ahead of traditional contact center models. Prior knowledge of the topics will increase customer journey, customer demand for immediate support. To stay ahead of competitors and help organizations gain long-term stability in 2022, check out these trends.

Trends to Look for in 2022

The call center experienced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the study of Harvard Business Review, difficult calls surged by 50% during the pandemic. The escalation call rate increased by 68% as the service representatives were not equipped wholly with advanced technology. Additionally, the hold time was increased by 34% due to escalation and manual routing.

Trend #1 – Enhanced Customer Intelligence

Customer intelligence helps organizations create effective ways to interact and interface with customers, building meaningful business relationships. A call center leader has various responsibilities – performance metrics, customer feedback, etc., but with the help of intelligence, they get all relevant information in front of their screen. Similarly, customers seek information as delivered in social media communications.

The process of automation, AI learning, messaging, and cloud-based systems are becoming a necessity. Digital transformation holds the strength to interpret caller emotion and provide relevant, real-time advice to agents. Predictions and optimizations in a fraction of time can assist agents in tedious parts of their work, adding quality to customer interactions.

Trend #2 – Rise of Virtual-based Contact Centers

The hybrid work model is a work from home (WFH) and work from office (WFO) combination. Do you know only 10% of contact center executives reported no remote work options? Most of the contact centers have given 10-40% of their agents work from home facility, a flexible working arrangement. The leaders will now require preparations for any emergency.

The coming year will see the rise of virtual-based contact centers and the support of third parties for management. However, the major challenge for remote call centers may be maintenance and investment in robust security protocols. Virtual/remote working options with flexible staffing models will maximize work diversification.

Trend #3 – Investment in Work Environment

The working process of contact centers are different, but at one point, they face a labor shortage. Investment in the work environment and agent engagement will help in overcoming attrition. Focusing on and addressing agents’ pain points is part of the investment. To increase productivity, offer competitive compensation and benefits, flexible shifts, and creative workspaces.

‘Happy frontline leads to a happy enterprise.’

For smooth working of the organization, leaders must be aware of the agent’s stress points and take essential steps. The agents stress more about the complex customer calls and massive calls volume, affecting the workforce. Later monitor the impact of all changes by simply measuring the KPIs like agent attrition and CSAT.

Trend #4 – Expansion of CX Self-Service

The essentiality of self-service heightened after the sudden growth of emergency issues, including the pandemic. The number of deflecting call volumes also improves with smart IVRs, online FAQs, automated chatbots, and enhanced knowledge bases. With this, agents are stress-free from invaluable work and can focus on other crucial tasks.

Customers will get relevant information on time with the same units of labor. Service capacity will expand even without forcing everyone in the organization into the voice channel. As per the studies, around 91% of customers prefer self-service options for their problems to other communication modes.

Trends #5 – Speech Interfaces Integration

The use of voice to control computers, devices, virtual assistance, and IVR systems are more commonplace now. It enables people to interact with a voice application by giving commands and asking questions. Call centers are advancing voice applications by fusing speech recognition into interactive voice response (IVR systems).

Integration of Speech Interface will give callers the benefit of sorting their queries irrespective of devices. It is slowly taking a substantial part in the contact center industry, following its benefits of supercharging the agents to provide top-notch customer support. It will reach the target audience and close the door of confusion with appropriate instructions to respond.

Looking Forward

The future of contact centers is heading in a positive direction, and it is plausible that the organizations are migrating to the cloud. Now, the managers will strive to bridge any gaps in 2022 and beyond. Also, to recover from the impact of COVID-19. The trends highlighted are an overview of how things will unfold in the upcoming year. Companies must figure out how to align their business with trends and evolve with technology.

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How IVR Solutions Can Benefit Small Businesses?

Sarv — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 10:13:59 +0000

IVR or Interactive Voice Response can be the ideal solution for many businesses. If your business calls for availability round the clock, the IVR can be the best replacement for a human voice receptionist. A small business often does not have the budget for 24-hours active customer support.

Also, what about clients who try to reach out beyond office hours? IVR is an effective solution in such a situation as well.

Besides managing the client queries, IVR also has several other advantages when integrated with CRM and other contact center systems.

Should you invest in an IVR System- is it worth it?

Let’s delve deeper into the ways IVR Can transform the growth of small businesses.

Speedy call tracking

The IVR can quickly direct your callers efficiently, thus reducing the call hold time. Establish a professional image of the business through automated technology implementation. There will be an automatic call distribution feature that will transfer the call instantly to the correct department.

The call representative and salespersons can take up more calls in less time. So, there will be better client retention. Also, they will be able to focus on other aspects of the business.

Minimized human errors

Any small business finds it difficult to recruit more than one receptionist due to the low budget. Also, it is difficult for one customer representative to attend to all the customer queries at a time. It will become a burdensome responsibility for one agent to answer all the calls.

Eventually, this would lead to more human errors. The most sound solution to all these problems is using the IVR system that runs with an automated system. Such a system is capable of taking a high volume of calls 24*7.

Streamlining Sales

It is much easier to finalize sales using IVR solutions. When you can get faster orders, you also have greater inbound call capacity. This way, you can process a higher number of orders daily.

Productivity of the business increases through such systems. As a result, there is a significant rise in your sales revenue. The sales workflow is also improved. Thus, a small business gets a better opportunity to grow.

Business appears more professional

A proper IVR solution gives an impression of professionalism to potential clients. Many huge business giants implement such automation, and clients tend to rely more upon it when they feel your business approach is equally professional.

This is a way to project a bigger image of your business. As a result, more finalized deals will be coming your way, enabling consistent growth for the business.

Inbound call capacity improved

What is better than improving your INBOUND LEADS capacity?

With the help of IVR direct callers, answering more calls simultaneously gets easier, irrespective of the volume of the calls. It helps the customers to self-serve, which often helps to sort out their queries even before they connect with the call representatives of the company. The customer has to wait till the support executive has finished assisting the previous client otherwise.

In case the call is busy, the IVR system directs the call to another agent. Thus, the call gets transferred at a higher volume to the available customer representatives.

Better scope for personalized service

Personalization is another important feature of an interactive voice response system. It helps in maintaining a better relationship and communication between the company and the customers.

One unique feature of the service is personalized greetings. It makes the customers feel more valued. The program uses the personal data of the customer to recognize and appropriately interact with them. Also, there are options provided for various languages so that customers belonging to any region can speak freely in their mother tongue.

These qualities enhance the relationship with the customer and also help in the progression of global marketing.

Lesser abandonment

With an advanced IVR solution, completing the transactions and query solutions gets quicker. Thus, the number of customers hanging up on you and abandoning the transaction gets reduced too.

Small businesses that have a smaller number of human resources particularly face such troubles. Frustrated customers hanging up because they have to wait too long for the agent to answer also diminishes the brand reputation over time.

Building trust and brand image

A small business relies greatly on its brand image and gaining the trust of their customer. Building a powerful brand image is possible using the IVR system and it is not possible if you are using a regular phone system. The IVR system uses a professional tone while greeting a caller that portrays a professional image of the company.

Let’s Sum Up-

There’s nothing more precious than time, and why waste it on tasks that can be automated? Do NOT consider the IVR System as an expense. It will be more of an INVESTMENT that enhances your business productivity. Consider the return on investment and invest in a robust IVR System like the one SARV offers.

With our optimized IVR Service, you can build your brand image while seamlessly connecting with your customers.

The result you get because of the implementation of the IVR System can help the business in the long run. It is wise to consider such a system for your business due to the benefits shared above.

Got any more queries? Shoot us an email or talk to our experts for guidance on how IVR System can help you boost sales.

The post How IVR Solutions Can Benefit Small Businesses? appeared first on Sarv Blog.

Skill-Based Routing To Make Your Call Center Productive

Sarv — Tue, 23 Nov 2021 12:21:04 +0000

Although there are many contenders for modern call center solutions, skill-based call forwarding must be one of the key solutions. With the help of skill-based call forwarding, the future of call forwarding is here.

Skill-based routing is a feature of a cloud phone that analyzes customer data when a call arrives and automatically directs the caller to the agent with the best skills to resolve the issue.

This feature prevents unnecessary call transfer between agents and improves customer satisfaction.

The scenario for skills-based routing is quite different. After the customer calls, the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system determines the caller’s requirements based on voice or keypad inputs. Then the call is directed to the most appropriate agent.

Skill-based routing is a comprehensive intelligent call forwarding system. It identifies the skills required by the customer and matches them to the agent who has those skills. Of course, agents can have a variety of skills and be trained in a number of areas. This information can be entered into customer relationship management (CRM) and IVR systems for efficient routing.

Although call center analysis helps you predict the volume of calls to some extent, there are times, such as during the holidays, when the call center is congested and callers have to wait before they are called.

In this situation, the Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) route calls are answered at the earliest. The priority for call centers is always to answer calls as quickly as possible.

Skill-based routing compared to more traditional routing methods

Queue-based routing

The most basic call forwarding system is queuing. In this system, the caller hears a version of this message: “All our leaders are busy now. Your call will be answered shortly. Thank you for your patience. “

Basically, your call queue is behind the customers who called the call center before you. In queue-based routing, customer calls are queued one after the other. It can be based on language preferences or desired service, and so on. But in essence, calls are only queued.

Skill-based routing also assesses the skills needed to handle a particular call and sends the call to an agent who has the right skills and can answer the call. With skill-based routing, you can configure various parameters to direct the customer to the best possible agent.

ACD routing

The ACD system uses the power of automation to provide the caller with quick service support without regard to agent skills. In the case of ACD, there is always the possibility that the agent will not be able to resolve the request and the call will have to be routed to a more suitable agent, which will lead to a longer waiting time.

ACD has its own typical call distribution rules, such as caller ID, call traffic, and so on. Technology is really at the heart of call center operations. It works in parallel with the cloud phone system and IVR to route calls correctly.

Skill-based routing, which takes into account customer requirements and the skills of available agents, can be expected for a while, but the problem is likely to be resolved after the call is initiated.

Skill-based routing is essentially a more advanced version of ACD.

The pros and cons of different call forwarding systems should be considered when purchasing call forwarding systems from a call center.

With skill-based routing, the customer doesn’t have to figure out who would be the best agent or department to talk to. The IVR system does this for the client.

How does skill-based routing benefit your call center?

A good skill-based routing system can direct a call to the best possible agent. If you offer multi-channel support, this may not be limited to calling representatives. In fact, you are using a larger pool of talent. This avoids repeated transfers and improves the customer experience.

Measurable benefits of skills – based routing

Here you may ask: does skill-based routing really change that much?

Here are some ways in which it is hugely useful:

Skill-based routing improves first call resolution, reduces first response time and average processing time (AHT), and increases agent productivity. It also frees leading managers to focus on more critical tasks.
With skill-based routing, call center agents can support customers more effectively because they only receive calls that they can handle. This is great for agent morale. They can also deepen their skills in the process.
Because skill-based routing is customizable, it can be updated as requirements change to help streamline your workflows.
Skill-based routing doesn’t just benefit the call center. The customer also gets a better experience, which increases customer retention and increases loyalty.

Conclusion: The future of skill-based routing

Like all modern call center solutions, skill-based routing is evolving rapidly to be ready for the future. Newer call forwarding techniques, such as intelligent routing and contextual routing, are emerging at the forefront of innovation as a direct successor to skill-based routing.

Contextual routing uses the information available to the call center to route calls in an appropriate manner. The caller may have a simple query, but long negative feedback, for example. In this case, it directs the call to a more experienced agent.

Intelligent routing uses the power of artificial intelligence to direct callers and offers many benefits. It provides real-time customer information to support agents, improving the quality of follow-up conversations.

Businesses can further personalize their customer experience by integrating skills-based routing with their CRM. In this way, customers are not only referred to the most suitable agents, but also representatives have direct access to customer profiles, including the history of previous communications.

The post Skill-Based Routing To Make Your Call Center Productive appeared first on Sarv Blog.

Transforming Customer Experience With IVR Technology

Sarv — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 09:54:49 +0000

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is a mechanism that facilitates you to engage with consumers using recorded voice messages to automate your incoming calls. There are several benefits of an IVR software solution for different industries. Transforming business is easy now!

For example, a banking IVR can be used by customers to know their bank balance while freeing the customer service executive time to manage critical queries. By answering simple questions of customers, banks can generate more leads. It allows them to manage several calls, offer personalized service to the customers and operate 24/7.

An IVR solution helps increase customer care productivity, handle incoming calls efficiently, make customer care services faster, and boost customer satisfaction.

If IVR Solution is set up correctly, it can enhance your customer service. Wanna know how IVR Technology can help you boost your growth and customer experience? Dive into the article that answers all your queries.

An IVR System or automated voice allows businesses to service high call requests at a lower cost. It can greet customers like a human agent and resolve their queries without transferring the call to a customer care agent.

Calls are transferred to customer care agents only when the caller requires further assistance. It provides the callers with an option to self-serve while making the whole process automatic. You can even customize your IVR flow and message according to callers’ area, banking history, or other relevant factors.

How IVR Works and Helps In Transforming

IVR works with DTMF, voice recognition, and Artificial intelligence. IVR helps customer care service operators handle a large number of queries and resolve them. A database is also needed to pull information about customers, products, and services.

Artificial intelligence also helps in the process of extracting information from databases and servers. This entire process takes place in the cloud and gets executed within a few seconds.

The company decides the menu that lists all the frequently needed services by the customers.

By pressing different buttons, customers can avail themselves of additional assistance. Each menu item further has a sub-menu. If the customer is disappointed, then the customer care agent handles queries in the final stage. IVR makes the process simpler and efficient.

The customer isn’t needed to be put on hold multiple times, and the business doesn’t have to attend long conversations over calls. A win-win situation for both the consumer and the service provider.

Services Offered By IVR

IVR offers many services to customers. The benefits are designed to answer all kinds of queries the customer might have. IVR provides an automatic process that filters calls. It offers many services even without taking help of any agent.

Callers can access information anytime they want or when the customer care agent is busy handling other calls. It’s like a perfect voice mail that offers additional benefits and answers questions.

For an IVR system to be effective, the menu has to be crafted smartly and appropriately. Only then it can answer customer queries precisely.

Enhanced Customer Services by AI

Modern IVR systems allow biometric capabilities that will recognize customers, and they’re automatic. Do you know that most customers prefer not to speak with agents as it takes a lot of time to get answers to simple questions? So why not leverage the power of IVR Solution to enhance your customer experience?

Multi-language support

IVR offers multi-language support and customers can get details in their preferred language. Multi-language support allows the company to reach a large customer base.

FAQ calls

Most of the queries are simple. It can provide all of this information quickly if the right menu is created. Well-detailed pre-recorded answers can help customers in solving common issues. IVR precise answers compared to agents. The agent may not know about the query, and it takes them some time to handle it.

Feedback

Customer feedback is also critical for a business to improve and assess its performance. Service can be done through IVR, and the input can be gathered in a short time. If detected, it can be resolved quickly.

It is much easier than support agents talking to customers and collecting back from each customer which is too time-consuming. IVR can make their job hassle-free.

Payments of Bills

Customers don’t need the help of an agent to pay bills. Bill payment is one area where IVR is efficient; not only does this remove the agent’s burden, but it also saves the customer’s time.

The agent has to find the payment details and check the customer’s history and account. Credit/debit card details have to be read and typed by the agents. Then the payment will get processed.

All this takes a lot of time that can be easily saved. The customer care centers can then focus on queries that are tough and need to be handled manually.

Wrapping Up

Interactive Voice Response(IVR) is one of the effective methods to automate the process in a call center without reducing work efficiency or affecting customer experience. Don’t stress your agents in answering the mundane user queries and let the IVR help you in saving your precious time. Don’t wait to invest in a solid IVR system and automate calls that don’t require the assistance of a live call center worker.

Still confused about how an IVR system can boost your business productivity? Fret not!! Call Sarv’s customer support team and get all your queries resolved. Get free quotation for your customized requirements and automate your call now!!

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Cloud Telephony Disrupting HR Operations for the Better

Sarv — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 07:43:01 +0000

No matter what you want to call it – teleworking, teleworking or teleworking – teleworking has expanded in recent years. And this is what we now see as a “new normality.”

Remote working has proven to be a vital strategy for business continuity. The resilience of teleworking has made organizations successful in remote environments.

Understanding the concept of teleworking is quite simple; however, creating a similar policy is not. Many companies simply applied the same principles to their telecommuters as physical setup in the office.

Although existing remote work policies are also part of the equation, teleworkers need more weight to create an effective approach.

Just as most employees are telecommuting for the first time, this is the first time their managers can lead a telecommuting. It is therefore essential for employees to have a video conferencing platform so that they can connect and consider how teleworking can create isolation among employees.

New HR Environment with Cloud Telephony

To manage this and a high-stress work environment, the HR manager must keep them happy, healthy, and ultimately productive. Cloud phone services help with high-quality human resource management and help the human resources department easily achieve its goals.

Let’s understand how cloud services simplify staffing.

Automated recruitment

Each organization has a set of standards and prerequisites that a candidate must meet in order to apply for a job. The human resources department usually spends a lot of time and money screening candidates. Would it not make sense to introduce a system that automatically filters out these candidates and then decides whether further screening is needed?

Cloud-based telephony solutions, such as outbound IVR or voice transmission, minimize human effort and automate the initial process of listing candidates. The solution that you get then communicates with them through DTMF inputs, such as keyboard inputs, by asking a set of predefined questions. The answers are then stored in a system that can be accessed through a user-friendly portal.

This solution transcends geographical boundaries and the HR department can conduct the first rounds easily by phone. The physical presence of your team is only necessary after the candidate has cleaned the first round.

Effective boarding

Hiring new employees and introducing the company culture is the most important step in making them comfortable. There are some emails to be sent, some hierarchical communication and clear expectations that need to be set. A unified communications service, or UCaaS, helps to break down barriers and provides a good overview at a glance.

UCaaS is a combination of tools consisting of unified platforms and allows employees to access everything from one place.

Employee involvement

Effective and efficient internal communication is crucial for the company’s success and a comfortable working environment. With UCaaS, you can keep everyone up to date with the right information and ensure seamless two-way communication.

> Call forwarding: With the introduction of cloud-based telephony solutions, such as toll-free numbers or virtual phone numbers, HR managers can set up an internal communication system. This solution is easily accessible to employees to contact each other or senior management at any time.

> Voice transfers: another function for moving between employees and employees. This is useful when dealing with topics or events. In addition, call forwarding is also convenient for connecting teams in different geographical locations.

> Voice transmission: Another cloud phone solution is voice transmission, which can be used to delineate company-wide information for your employees without human effort and high cost.

Regardless of your work culture – whether inside or outside the office – your employees need reliable tools to ensure collaboration.

Employee feedback

Employees feel valued and are part of their family when they know communication is smooth and they can communicate at any time without hindrance.

When an organization strives to listen to its employees, it encourages strong communication. Listening to these concerns and problems ensures that employees do not feel isolated and rejected at such times.

Creating a UCaaS system with inbound calling tools, such as a toll-free business number, to record employee feedback can be fruitful.

In addition, it can be integrated with the staff ticket system to resolve these complaints and feedback. This allows employees to check their problems and progress in real time.

Ice Breaking sessions

Nowadays, it is important to communicate with employees more than ever before, and personnel officers do not leave a stone unturned. After creating a strong internal communication system, HR can use UCaaS to organize fun activities and interactive sessions to break the ice and lose monotony.

The HR department can create chat threads where employees can contact each other informally to discuss their favorite shows or current affairs. UCaaS helps you keep a tab on these conversations and communicate better with your employees through integrated communication systems.

In conclusion

If you plan to move from a traditional phone service to a cloud-based one and give your HR department the right tools, UCaaS is the best solution.

You can expect a significant improvement in employee involvement and thus an incredible increase in employees.

We have outlined just a few of the ways in which cloud solutions are the future of employee engagement, but there are still many. The best part? You can easily get the system up and running in just a few minutes.

The post Cloud Telephony Disrupting HR Operations for the Better appeared first on Sarv Blog.

Understanding Virtual Phone System

Sarv — Mon, 31 May 2021 09:19:57 +0000

A virtual phone system allows your agents to make and receive calls from your office, home, or even while traveling. This enables users to use their laptop, mobile device, or any Internet-connected device for phone operations.

As for the supervisory authorities that have to monitor the call center’s operations, the virtual telephone system provides a real-time overview of the leading call metrics. In fact, your supervisors do not have to be in the exact physical location as the agents (telephone team members) they are monitoring. With a powerful virtual phone system, you can manage a truly virtual call center.

Benefits to Using a Virtual Phone System:

You don’t have to invest in phone hardware to manage incoming and outgoing calls. The Internet is used as a transmission medium that makes your company’s telephone system universally accessible and manageable.

Old-fashioned telephone systems are not compatible with this new normality. Crew members are not in the office receiving calls and do not necessarily need access to a landline.

So, can you run your business through a cloud-based phone system? Is the setup too complicated? What features should I look for? We will cover all of these and more in this comprehensive guide.

Easy Setup

One of the main advantages of a virtual telephone system is that it is easy to set up and use.

Traditional telephone systems are difficult to configure. You will have to wait for the installer to work on the wires and holes throughout the office. During this time, your team will not be able to make or receive phone calls. Can you afford to stop the business?

The virtual phone system works wherever you have a high-speed Internet connection. Because your phone’s hardware is optional, you can get started right away. And when you get your VoIP phones, you just need to plug them in. That is all.

Sarv’s VoIP phone service is ideal for remote workers and the office. You can configure it yourself without the need for IT – it’s that easy.

Lower Costs

Too often, companies pay for solutions and do not make full use of them. This results in a lot of waste. The virtual phone system allows you to choose the right combination of features and lines that suits you.

Sarv’s virtual telephone system offers a direct replacement for several business applications from day one. Remember that you save up to 65% compared to traditional phone systems. Built-in features save you even more. Reduce costs with the following additional features:

Keep your music and convenience messages
Automatic call forwarding according to business hours
Divert calls to different phone extensions and locations
Detailed call logs with incoming and outgoing call trends
Managed caller ID to keep your mobile number private
Recording of calls for staff training

All these features make a virtual phone system a great option for any business.

Flexible Device Options

Wired phone systems require your team to make calls through a landline. Let’s leave it at that. Voice over IP allows your team to communicate from a variety of devices.

Virtual telephone systems adopt open universal standards. This interoperability means you can receive calls from any IP-based device, not just a landline. Exemplary devices include:

Desktop or laptop phones
iPads and tablets
Conference telephones
Android or iOS apps
Cordless VoIP Phones

These standards allow you to mix the proper hardware for your person. The board has different needs than the support person.

Smart Call Forwarding

You can easily handle incoming phone calls and direct them to the right people. If your team can only be reached via mobile phone, you already know how frustrating it is to transfer calls. Virtual service providers eliminate this hassle.

First, you can forward business phone calls to your primary number through an auto attendant. This feature allows callers to select the department or person they want to reach.

Second, you can set up automatic call forwarding according to business hours. If you have an autoresponder, you can customize it in your schedule with a friendly and understandable interface.

Third, your team checks their availability. Users can adjust their forwarding or send callers to voicemail. This precise control over telephone services increases customer satisfaction and sales.

Strong Analysis and Reporting

Which days of the week are the busiest? What does the call volume look like during the holidays? Do we need to hire more representatives? These questions can only be answered through real-time call analysis and reporting.

These dashboards help you manage the number of calls and link them to business results. Historically, only company-sized organizations had these opportunities. Small businesses can now use analysis to scale.

Virtual telephone systems make this information easy and accessible. This is important if you manage call center representatives.

And the best part: you can view real-time reports and call analysis via an Internet connection on any device.

How to set up a virtual phone system?

Setting up this system is easy and can be done in just four steps:

Choose a business phone plan.
Assign your phone numbers.
Save your phone greetings.
Start making and answering calls.

The way it works has changed. Even if everyone gets back to the office, do you want to go back to a limited, outdated phone system? Not likely.

Privacy is at the heart of the virtual telephone system. Your employees can hide their caller ID to make and receive business calls without disclosing cell phone numbers. In addition, it encrypts telephone calls for maximum VoIP security.

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The post Understanding Virtual Phone System appeared first on Sarv Blog.

IVR Surveys to Bind Your Team Together

Sarv — Sat, 01 May 2021 04:40:22 +0000

The IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system is an automated customer service solution that uses pre-recorded responses to meet the caller’s needs – ideal for your incoming call centers.

As a business owner or part of senior management, it is important to make sure you communicate with employees on a regular basis. You need to not only monitor and support them professionally but also better understand what your team needs to promote a healthy work culture.

Not sure how you can do this when your team is scattered across a city or country without plans to continue working in the office?

Sending an email is fine, but have you heard of IVR voice polls?

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is a cloud communication feature where an automated system communicates with people using voice and touch technology. It can be used to gather feedback, consumer experience as well as employee feedback.

Read on to learn more about IVR voice interviews and how they can help you work remotely effortlessly!

Timely Check-in:

Understandably, managers may not register with their team members daily, especially for a larger group.

However, setting up Sarv’s IVR voice survey can be very helpful here. The survey results could help the leader share the team with people who seem to be fine and directly support those seeking help.

Survey questions can be used to determine motivation, moods, feedback on support, and more. It could also ask employees for suggestions to make the teleworking experience more convenient.

Smooth Communication:

Because people work from home, they automatically do multiple tasks. Whether it’s juggling homework or problems with children and family while working full time, office hours are sure to be filled with interruptions. This has caused people to work on very different schedules, and so a simple task like scheduling a meeting or conference call can be a headache.

These complications can be easily resolved by conducting a survey and asking people to dedicate a certain amount of day to meetings or collaboration. Conducting a structured survey also allows your employees to plan around and choose time periods.

Team Tying:

A large part of working in an office is the work culture. While focusing on work is important, it is just as essential to ensure that your employees have fun and are busy with their work. It helps you increase productivity, keep employees longer, and make your business a great place to work.

Creating this culture and relationship with your employee takes time, care, and planned effort. Just as your staff team planned festivities and helped staff relax, it is just as important to do it virtually.

Use the IVR voice survey to understand and plan virtual activities. You can give your employees various options in which they would like to participate virtually, collaborate to plan the festival, and even invite suggestions on how to celebrate the day when everyone returns to the office.

Safety First:

Thanks to technology and the availability of the Internet, employees from different cities can work together without any problems.

As an organization with multiple departments and a growing staff, it would be difficult to collect this data over the phone. Doing this via email would be a long and tedious process for employees.

IVR voice interviews allow questions to be tailored to the parameters you want to consider, and employees can answer during multitasking, saving time.

Better Governance:

As a business owner or manager, it can be challenging to monitor team goals and performance. Even if you have a lot of data to map them, you can still do a lot with a large team.

You can create structures where the team conducts a weekly survey, highlighting the week’s highs and lows, goals, deadlines. These surveys may also include a question where the employee can share potential complaints or ask for suggestions for better work.

An IVR voice interview is beneficial if you want your employees to think about their own performance and answer questions before evaluating or conducting a performance meeting.

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In Short:

IVR voice polling is a simple, convenient, and cloud-based feature that should not be missed, especially when fighting the brutal consequences of a pandemic.

These surveys can ensure your ongoing communication with employees, meeting their needs, and creating the perfect telecommuting system. This will be especially useful in the coming months, as it will ensure that the transition from remote to actual office equipment is smooth and easy for all parties.

The post IVR Surveys to Bind Your Team Together appeared first on Sarv Blog.

How Can IVR Miraculously Increase Productivity of Your Call Center?

Sarv — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 06:28:04 +0000

IVR (Interactive Virtual Receptionist) refers to the interaction of human and computer telephonically. Every call center, big or small, requires a number of employees who could attend the callers.

IVR basically serves this business need of the call center. It acts as an auto attendant who redirects the callers by simply pressing a button.

Time has come when you have to give up traditional methods and need to adopt the latest technology. As a call center, the one major step you must take is to switch to IVR technology.

Switching to IVR can do wonder to your business. This is a way to beat the competition or at least you may not lack behind. It can save you precious time and money of course and you would never ever miss out any lead due to its 24X7 availability. This simply turns out to increase the productivity of the call centers.

Let’s check out its effectiveness one by one:

Your one and only obedient employee

Call centers require a good number of staff members which majorly consists of the attendees. The attendees need to be trained first to be answerable to the caller’s query.

Most of the training he himself gets while attending the callers practically. But then too it might be possible that the person may not completely solve the caller’s query and that could be really annoying.

The best alternative could be IVR. at the initial phase, you need to add the commands as per your customer’s requirement. But once you are done with it then you just have to sit back and relax. Your IVR will never go out of the path without your instruction. Its one-time effort and lifetime relaxation.

This is how it is going to work:

Conveyable:

Hiring an attendee who could convey the things to the caller appropriately is a tedious task to do. Even if you feel that you succeed but then too there might be possible that callers may face language issue, less clarity and the conversation may even turn into arguments.

And moreover, you can’t keep a check on the quality of attendees every time. At times they may also be lazy to convey the callers and hence they may not be able to satisfy them. This issue doesn’t arise in case of IVR.

As you already know what information will be conveyed to the callers and how it will be carried on. So you don’t need to worry about checking and refining the caller’s experience again and again.

Also Read: – Virtual Receptionist give your Business a Big Voice

Professionalism:

Imagine someone gives a call to your company and finds a virtual receptionist on the other side. Can you wonder what a brilliant impact it can give for your company?

The caller would find it very professional way to solve his/query. It will make a good image of your company in front of them. Not just the callers, but you yourself would feel great to provide such services.

Also, the interaction will be so appropriate that the callers would like to avail your services as the customer support would be so great.

Learn More: Cloud-Based Services And: Top Reasons Why your Business Need IVR

Systematic:

This is the most beneficial factor if you adopt cloud IVR technology. You can add a set of instructions for the callers in such a way that it will make it easier for them to get through the call. They simply have to follow or answer as per their requirement and get their query solved.

No individual person can ever do this as systematically as a virtual receptionist could do. Even if you hire a good number of smart professionals then too you couldn’t expect them to be as systematic as a cloud IVR system.

This helps to build a good customer relation because it leaves a good impact on their mind.

Budget-friendly:

Imagine your call center business is increasing day by day due to good connections. But this would also mean that you may need more and more attendees as well to support the callers.

You would have to increase your expenses in order to increase the assets. This simply means that you need to invest more money that would contribute to the growth and income from the call center.

So what could be the best alternative to solve this issue and save your money? The answer is moving to IVR technology. Using IVR is way better than the increasing number of attendees as you won’t require to pay any extra amount and your work would be done, that too in a much better way.

Also Read: – How IVR can Target Different Sectors to Drive Best Results

Time-Saving:

TIME is MONEY!!! This old saying completely implies to all the businesses who want to grow day by day. Every business must be smart enough to find out the best possible ways that could make the best utilization of the time.

In a call center, you may be able to hire attendees but then what is the use them when you can use IVR for the same. Instead of hiring people to attend to your customers you can rather use their time to do other work and fasten up your growth.

Adopting cloud IVR system would save a lot of time. It would encourage you to focus on business growth rather than handling the existing scenario. All because you will have enough time for the same!

No matter how many resources you have but it’s all about how you use them to make it profitable. Saving manpower and utilising it in other ways can do wonder to your business. Think upon it!

Availability 24X7:

Suppose your customer calls up at 11:00 pm late at night and nobody is on the system to attend him/her. Isn’t that annoying? Well definitely Yes! The caller may get even more irritated if he needs to connect to you on an urgent basis and you are unavailable.

Studies say that 67% of the customers who are up with a query have low patience level and want to get their query solved at that moment itself. So how would handle them?

All you need to do is switch to IVR technology. IVR is workable 24X7 and is always available for your customer irrespective of the time.

This gesture will give a better customer experience. They will never hesitate to call you whenever they need.

Also Read: – Sarv a Single Seamless Unique Platform

Expansion of Resources not Required:

You can’t deny the fact that to expand the business you need to expand your resources as well. They both go side by side. But due to technology advancement, you can reach out many of your business needs if you utilize the existing ones and take over the new ones smartly.

IVR proves to be the best resource that you could have as it could save a lot of money that you might have wasted in hiring individuals to attend to your customers.

You can save the amount that you would have spent on buying manpower and further utilize that amount to expand other resources. Its one-time investment and long-term benefit.

We conclude that switching to cloud IVR system must be the next step of yours if you are running a call center! It is capable enough to improvise your call center business. Its trendy, reliable, effective and best option available in the market to meet your need!

The post How Can IVR Miraculously Increase Productivity of Your Call Center? appeared first on Sarv Blog.