Delighting Customers with Virtual Call Center Software
The word “routing” is used a lot in the context of virtual call center software and services. It is praised as a wonderful series of functions that improve the customer experience. But what exactly does it mean, and how can it help a call center? Let’s take a look at several different kinds of routing in action and pinpoint what it does to improve the customer experience.
1. Skill-Based Routing
Skill-based routing is an intuitive inbound feature designed to put a company’s best face forward. The general idea is that callers are routed to the agents who are best suited to field their requests or challenges. This tactic helps improve customer satisfaction by resolving calls more quickly and efficiently.
An example of this is in action would be if three customers phone in to a call center simultaneously about problems they’re experiencing with their K-Brand washing machines.
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a) One caller reports that the washer won’t turn on. This is a basic problem, and thus could be given to any agent with a working knowledge of K-Brand washers and dryers. The agent would begin with basic questions like “Is the washer plugged in?” and “Are your water faucets turned on?”
b) The second caller reports that there is an issue with the wash/rinse temperatures getting mixed up, and they haven’t found a solution after consulting with the troubleshooting section of the user manual. This is a more advanced problem, thus this call would be routed to an agent with a higher level of expertise in the technical components that make up the washing machines.
c) The third caller has the same issue as the second caller, but this user only speaks Spanish. Therefore this call would need to be routed to a Spanish-speaking agent with an advanced knowledge of the washers. With skill-based routing in place, agents are always utilized to the best of their abilities and customers are automatically routed to the right person.
2. Geographical Routing
For larger enterprises, individual call centers often field all calls within a specific region. Let’s just say that K-brand has five call centers spread around the major geographical regions of the United States: The West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
But what happens if one call center isn’t available for some reason, such as a power failure, a natural disaster or a building evacuation? In that instance, the calls could be routed to another region, so that callers would be unaffected by the situation affecting their region’s call center. Geographical routing guarantees that every customer’s call will be answered, regardless of circumstance.
3. Load-Balancing Routing
An extension of geographical routing, this is another form of routing that guarantees no single call center ever gets overwhelmed with calls.
Let’s say that a call center in the Midwest is unavailable due to a tornado alert. The calls that center would normally field could be routed to the four other call centers located around the country. However, if one of those centers is already running near full capacity, there “share” of those calls could be re-directed to the region with the most availability. Load balancing pays close attention to the availability of the call center. This benefits the agents and the customer.
In all ways, routing makes sure that customers have a more pleasant experience. They are connected to the people who can help them immediately. This reduces wait times, overall call times, and the frustrating process of being shuffled between agents. But this also works to the advantage of the call center by giving agents the right challenges and making sure that they never get too overwhelmed. In other words, properly-used routing is mutually beneficial.