Blog

24.08.2015
Włodzimierz Sumiński
Categories: contact center / call center, Multi-channel communication

Call routing – advanced solutions

Routing of incoming calls and redirecting them automatically to appropriate departments are today’s basis for efficient customer service. Thanks to special solutions, the major customers are served immediately, difficult problems are forwarded to the most competent agents straight away, and external consultants engage to provide support in case of long queues.

If you want to learn about basic call routing, read the post “Call Routing – How does it work?”. Described below are selected queue types which raise the quality and speed of customer service and improve the comfort of work.

How to make a call reach a suitable individual?

This is accomplished with the help of three routing tools, which can be used simultaneously:

1. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system

After hearing a welcoming message the customer is asked about the department he/she is calling to or about the matter he/she wants to discuss, and requested to select an appropriate digit on his/her telephone keypad, as assigned to a given department or a team of agents. (“For accounting department, press 1, for …”.) Then the call is diverted to an appropriate department and routed based on one of the following strategies: group-based, line-based, fewest calls, etc.

BENEFIT: The system replaces a receptionist and accelerates the directing of callers to appropriate departments.

2. Relationship maintenance mechanism

This type of routing is based on the caller number identification. If a number is recognised as belonging to a customer with whom a contact has already been made, the call will be redirected to an agent who talked with that customer during the most recent contact.

BENEFIT: The customer feels he is given special treatment – he/she has a dedicated advisor and, at the same, the service time is shorter because the agent usually remembers more details from the previous conversation.

3. Skills-based routing

This type of routing is based on the number identification. If a number is recognised as belonging to a customer with whom a contact has already been made, the database is automatically checked for the required service requirements that have been assigned to that record. This can be for example English-language service and/or the customer’s specific industry. The call from a given customer is redirected to agents identified with the same skills.

BENEFIT: It allows to avoid a situation where the customer presents his/her problem only to learn after a while that he/she has lost his/her time because he/she will be transferred to another person more competent in the indicated field, to whom the customer will have to explain the problem again (or, worse still, the customer will be asked to telephone a different number and/or at a different time).

The IVR system, relationship maintenance mechanism and skills-based routing can be used simultaneously, e.g. the customer is first connected to IVR, where he/she decides to which department he/she wants to be put through. If the customer contacted a given department in the past, then – thanks to the relationship maintenance mechanism – he/she is transferred to the agent with whom he/she talked previously. If the customer did not contact a given department previously but he/she is already in the database, the customer will be redirected to an agent with suitable competencies thanks to the skills-based routing.

How to ensure that calls from key customers are always answered immediately?

Simple solutions

Simple although not fully effective solutions are to provide VIPs with a special telephone number that is given priority by the system or redirect calls from such important customers to dedicated mobile telephone numbers based on the identification of the VIP numbers. These solutions are not fully satisfactory. In the first instance there is a risk that the customers who are not given the VIP helpline number might feel ill-treated. The problem with the latter case is that a ‘VIP call’ might not be answered at all because all agents are already engaged in conversations.

Profit-based routing

The database records are given weights, e.g. 1 – most important customers, 2 – important customers, 3 – other active customers, 4 – non-active customers. Number identification takes place for incoming calls. If a number is entered in the database, the system checks the weight assigned to it. The higher the weight, the shorter the call answer time.

Profit-based routing (PBR) is an enhanced version of the above-described skills-based routing. What sometimes becomes a problem with the skills-based routing is that a consultant who is the most competent in a given field gets ‘bombarded’ with calls, while other agents experience little activity. The most professional consultant talks almost incessantly, while other employees conduct few conversations.

In case of the profit-based routing, calls are primarily directed to the persons with the skill level closest to that required for a given contact. Then, among the group of such individuals, the calls concerning the most difficult matters or from the most important customers are routed to the most professional agents; those concerning medium-complex matters are routed to agents with average competencies; and the connections concerning simple matters or from the least promising customers – to the beginning agents. This guarantees that the best customers get the best service, while saving the time and energy of the best agents.

Remote work made easier

Thanks to the routing, one internal number can be used to connect a group of a given employee’s telephones, e.g. his/her company desk phone, company mobile phone, home-based phone, private mobile phone, or even the husband’s/wife’s mobile phone.

Depending on the strategy chosen, the incoming calls to company telephone numbers may be directed:

in the first place to the company desk telephone, then to the company mobile phone, then to the home-based phone and, finally, to the private mobile phone.
to all telephones simultaneously, e.g. when the call is from a very important customer. This allows to answer the first telephone which is close at hand and reduces the risk of the customer getting impatient and hanging up.

Emergency situations

When a queue of customers awaiting the connection becomes exceptionally long, a so-called overflow system can be employed. It diverts the calls with too long waiting times to the numbers of other departments or employees working remotely. They may not be as qualified as the agents to whom the calls were to be routed originally, but are able to answer basic enquiries and thus lessen the annoyance of the waiting customers.

The overflow queues are triggered in the situations, such as an unexpected absence of some agents or surprisingly high interest in promotional offers.

Systemising the multi-channel communication

What to answer first – an e-mail from the customer or a website contact form enquiry ? Routing on multi-channel communication platforms, such as Focus Contact Center, eliminates such dilemmas. Routing allows the setting of rules taking account of the type of channel (telephone, e-mail, website enquiry, chat). For example, the chat and e-mail agents will primarily be assigned chat enquiries. The agents who serve the telephone, e-mail and website channel may initially be assigned telephone calls, then the previous day’s website contact forms, then the previous day’s e-mails and, subsequently, the current day’s website contact forms and e-mails.

Would you like to discuss the best routing configuration for your company? Our experts are happy to answer any questions you may have.