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How to Improve Your IVR System

How to Improve Your IVR System

The use of special call center software is a must for modern businesses due to the diversity of opportunities related to the contact with customers via phone. If you are referring to the principle of “Everything that could be automated should be automated”, you know that for sure. There are multiple ideas which you can pick up and implement in your workflow in the field of phone communication practices and tools. IVR system which is also known as interactive voice response refers to these ideas too.

Even the classy form of that tool provides top-leveled efficiency for businesses, yet there is still something which can be improved to make its efficiency sky-high. What is it? We'll share some thoughts about it in our blog article.

The Essence of IVR: What Is It and How IVR Helps Businesses

There is one big question we should start with. What is IVR? This is a new-gen tool used in cloud phone systems for call centers.

Probably, you often face auto attendants or virtual call center consultants when you call some companies. They offer you to use their touch-tone menu to get the information you need or to contact the specialist you need. That was the previous generation of virtual helpers, yet time doesn't stand still and today, IVR provides higher efficiency than these tools due to an additional feature - speech recognition. This means that you can use the keypad or simply speak your query and the system will recognize it and respond subsequently.

If you ask what function have IVR systems, they may be listed as follows:

Informational. IVR provides customers with the basic information they are interested in. If your customers typically call you with some specific queries, that's up to you to use IVR to give them answers to these queries automatically instead of responding to each call manually.
Redirecting calls. That's in fact the role of an administrator or a secretary delegated to the automation. Your clients call you and with the help of an interactive helper, they can get in touch with a department or a specialist they need (just develop scenarios of redirection to sales reps, support team, billing department, etc.).
Mitigating human factors and reducing the load on employees. With the help of IVR, you can reduce the load on call center employees as the system will perform its functions for informing customers seamlessly.
Improving loyalty. If customers get required information or don't stay on hold for a long time, they understand that you value their time, and you are interested in them.

According to these functions, you may comprehend with ease how IVR helps businesses attract customers and retain them and what is a cloud phone system with IVR.

The Main Tech Solutions to Implement in Your IVR System

As the basic principle of how does IVR call flow work is maintaining scripts and scenarios and recognizing both client's speech and touch-tone actions, it provides a streamlined process of receiving customers calls. But there is no limit to perfection, and you can also use a couple of other tools from the toolset of the cloud phone system for call centers to make the efficiency sky-high and go ahead of competitors.

A Full-Fledged Call-Center Using Cloud Solutions

In IPTel, we recommend our clients apply call center solutions even in terms of small or medium-sized businesses. This is a prospective idea because you can reduce costs on your staff salaries, optimize the workflow, and improve customer service with them. Besides, the best software for call centers is scalable, it can be implemented quickly, and when it is a SaaS solution, it is cost-effective.

Using Auto-Dialer System for Your Customer Service Improvement

Auto dialer system is one more idea to use. It refers to the opportunity to inform your clients simultaneously about something. This can be alert messages or personal proposals which are made using the combo of auto dialer phone service and IVR. Instead of calling your customers manually, you use auto dialer software for business and IVR scripts which save you time and provide excellent efficiency.

The Idea of IVR Scenarios to Make Your Customers Sure You Are Interested in Them

Scenarios for IVR may also be diverse. You can apply some of them for business hours to redirect calls and manage communication with customers. And you can use special ones for informing and supporting customers in off hours. This helps to increase loyalty and improve customer retention results.

IVR Best Practice: Enjoy the Solutions by IPTel

As you can see, IVR software for business is a beneficial idea because of its features which make clients sure that you do care about them and provide them with the help and information they require. Besides its benefits, IVR can become even better! As practice makes perfect, IPTel offers you the most innovative solutions in the field of Interactive Voice Response.

You can improve the reputation of your company, work with customers loyalty, and get a higher response from the clientele with our SaaS solutions. We work individually and create a full-fledged ecosystem for each business where the most effective tools are combined to get the highest results. You can evaluate our call center solutions which include IVR scenarios, call-center cloud services, digital telephony tools for remote work, auto-dialing tools, and lots of other ideas customly selected for your business. Your IVR best practices are at your fingertips with us.

Our products

Auto dialer

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GBR 50.00

25.07.2023

Missed calls in Telegram: how to set up a message?

Setting Up Notifications About Missed Calls in Telegram: a Small Guide for Business

Almost every business deals with telephone conversations. Finding customers, informing them, working with partners and suppliers, all this is almost universally carried out using the phone. At the same time, many companies use entire departments for telephone sales, call centers, or hotline work. Therefore, telephony efficiency is a particularly vulnerable part of workflows. If you are investing resources in developing and attracting customers, and they go to competitors, it is worth checking whether all customers can get through to you. That's what missed call monitoring is for.

Today, technology allows you to avoid manual control and free up your time for other, more important tasks as you can receive notifications about missed calls in your company right in Telegram! Let's find out how to do it and what benefit you will get from this option.

Industry Standards: How to Control Missed Calls in Business

If we take the latest statistics, in a business, almost 11-12% of customer losses are due to missed calls. Literally, the client does not receive feedback the first time and chooses another company.

So far, the most popular methods of controlling missed calls are as follows:

Reports on missed calls and those that were not processed by employees.
Notifications about missed messages through communication channels such as e-mail and SMS.
Forwarding tools to reduce the likelihood of missed calls by transferring the call to a free employee.

Now you can add another handy tool to this list. Many managers and employees use instant messengers today, and Telegram is the most popular of them. Therefore, receiving messages about missed calls in Telegram is convenient and efficient.

The Benefits of This Solution

Instant ability to respond to a missed call. As soon as you receive a message, you can immediately call back and keep the client before they contact competitors.
Quick analytics of the efficiency of employees and departments. By the number of notifications about missed calls for each phone number, you can quickly conclude who loses more customers or takes a long time on the line.
Thanks to the integration with your software, you have advanced features. For example, by a message about a missed call, you can immediately go to the customer’s card and get information about it.

When using our solution to receive notifications via Telegram, you receive full information about the missed call, including waiting time and customer's card.

How It Works and What Is Needed for Integration

Firstly, you, of course, need the Telegram messenger itself. In it, messages will be sent to the chatbot. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

The principle of operation of automated notifications about missed calls is as follows:

A certain document is generated, where data on all calls will be received, and for missed calls, a request will be created to send a message to the chatbot.
In the campaign for which you want to receive messages, you need to create a script for sending messages according to a specific script.
Creation of a separate bot, for example, it can be a chatbot in Telegram, with limited access only for you, or a full-fledged channel with messages for all sales reps, so that they can process missed calls as quickly as possible.

Does it seem a bit difficult? Yes, but we are always in touch with you and ready to help with the connection. In addition, you can find out the details of the step-by-step connection of notifications using our functionality from this article (a link to the article you mentioned). In any case, our technical support is ready to help you connect and set up sending to your messenger.

30.07.2023

Innovative tools for call control

Let's increase sales with the help of speech recognition and analytics services

Modern technologies make it possible to simplify call control and improve the quality of work of employees responsible for ringing. Speech recognition and conversation analytics services are effective tools for business.

How was it before? It was necessary to listen to employees' calls, compile, and analyze call tables and keep reports on the results.

Today, all these routines can be easily translated into an automated mode! The speech recognition service instantly transcribes the conversation into a text format with high recognition accuracy. Transcribed text can be analyzed immediately and filters can be configured, and analytical reports can be generated.

This tool is a must-have for businesses that use:

Sales departments;
Customer support services;
Call centers;
Hotlines;
Telephone surveys.

The functionality of speech recognition and analysis tools that you will definitely appreciate

Increasing the level of sales, lead generation and the quality of the sales department.
Analytics of calls by a variety of indicators.
Work with the purity of the speech of operators (analysis of the frequency of mentioning parasitic words, stop phrases, tone of voice, and appeals to the client).
Monitoring compliance with call scripts.
Reducing the load on controlling departments (heads of the sales department, call center controllers, marketers).
Convenient database of phone calls and conversations: organized data storage with a convenient search function for a number of parameters.

Reasonable price and analytical tools as a gift!

The payback of speech recognition and analytics services is very fast. You pay for a toolkit that automates speech-to-text translation. Analytical tools are provided for free.

Speech recognition service in practice: how does it work?

The service operates in two modes. First: the recording starts at the moment the conversation starts. All the time the call lasts, the tool records and synchronously translates speech into text format. It is also possible that the manager selects the list of calls for recognition manually-then the selected entries are converted to text.
The automatic analysis function simultaneously activates the preset settings and analyzes the content of the conversation and speech parameters.
At the end of the conversation, the program automatically generates a call report based on the specified parameters.
You get a detailed report on each conversation and call evaluation. You can then customize reports for individual employees. There is also an option for managers to create their own checklists to evaluate each conversation and display averages for each employee further.

What does the speech recognition service analyze?

Cases of interruption by an employee of the client.
The execution order of scripts and scripts.
Violations in the form of stop words, “parasite” words, and obscene words.

Advantages of the service for CEOs and Sales Department Directors

Flexible tariff packages and bonuses in the form of analytical tools with a free period of use.
100+ countries of the world where the service works.
50+ languages for speech recognition.
Integration with your business software (CMS, CRM, call center software).
Quickly sending reports in a way convenient for you: by email, through internal communication channels, or in the service interface.

Advantages of the service for employees making calls

Ability to record conversations to resolve disputes.
Analysis of my own work to identify errors and improve efficiency.
No interference during phone calls: the service works without interfering with your work.

Advantages of the service for your company's customers

Improving the quality of customer service by analyzing the work of responsible employees.
More accurate information to customers and increase the level of telephone conversations.
Lower risks of facing incompetence, rudeness, or ignoring client requests.

Why is it important for businesses to use speech recognition and analytics tools?

With the help of automated speech recognition systems, it is easier for you to control responsible employees and the quality of their work.
Accurate reports and a detailed analysis of the work of each employee you will know exactly who is working with high efficiency and who is underperforming. This will motivate employees and distribute the workload.
Reputational benefits. You improve the quality of telephone service, identify errors and correct them quickly - your customers will thank you for it!
Savings on control measures. Automation takes the pressure off and reduces the number of hours spent on employees who were previously responsible for monitoring call quality.
Implementation of new scenarios and calling techniques. Do you want to analyze the effectiveness of a planned telephone campaign or customer conversation strategy? Speech recognition and analytics tools help you test new ideas and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

3 steps for a successful start

Register and connect cloud PBX.
Contact our company to connect the Speech to Text module. After that, the ability to convert conversations to text will be activated.
Get a conversation report in the Analytics section.

Summing up

The service of speech recognition and analysis of telephone conversations from our company is:

An opportunity to delegate tasks for listening to calls and evaluating performance. Time optimization and call control.
Working in most countries of the world is convenient for companies working with clients from different countries.
Customer support during the business hours.
Work in the cloud ecosystem - the ability to access the service from the office and out of it.

Modern technologies which can improve the efficiency of your business - these are speech recognition and analysis services.

31.10.2023

Analytics for Call Centers – Getting Data About Your Business for Its Improvement and Optimization

The main and the foremost thing each business owner needs to operate successfully is instant, relevant, and informative figures about the operation of their company. This refers to all processes in the company with call centers are predominantly in the focus. Are there ideas about getting this data from your call center staff? There are top-notch tech solutions to collect data and provide analytics in the form of evident reports. All you need to get it is special software for business which provides such opportunities instantly. Let's talk about which software for call center analytics may come in handy for businesses, which features are worth considering, and where to get such tools.

Common Call Center Analytics: What is Crucial to Measure

The first thing to consider is why you need analytics to manage a call center's work or departments which work with customers' calls. The fact is instant info about call activity is the basement for multiple decisions. Businesses can simply measure the following features when using it:

How many calls were received by your staff in a certain period?
How long an average call lasts.
Who among your specialists works efficiently and who skimps on their duties? Who is worth praising, whom to motivate, and whom to punish?
How call center's work impacts sales.

These features are not ultimate and in each business, and each owner can add to their list a couple more measures they need for successful development and optimization. You can get data about these features using special call center solutions which often are implemented in the form of a call center metrics dashboard in your software or as a cloud phone system for call centers' part.

What metrics and data are important to get from your call center software?

Real-time call queue data.
Information about each employee's efficiency in call center activity.
Wait timelines with their maximum and minimum wait time.
The number of missed calls or those which were abandoned due to long waiting.
Business day analytics about peak call time.
Average metrics about call time with an employee.

All this can come in handy to manage the work in your sales department or customer support service to optimize the load on each employee and redirect calls to more effective reps or less loaded specialists. Besides, common call center analytics can help businesses to decide on improvements, new tools which can be implemented in cloud phone for small and medium businesses to boost sales and engage more clients, and some HR solutions to optimize the working process in your call center.

Call Center Solutions for Getting Metrics and Reports

As usual, call center solutions provide business owners or call center supervisors with several standard reports included in the software analytic tools. This means that your call center software, IP PBX phone system, or a CRM you use have pre-installed tools to process information about calls and reps' activity. Yet, not all of them are convenient to analyze and provide instant updates of the info in a comprehensive form. Typically you get results in the form of a report which can be uploaded to Excel files and then processed additionally to get accurate numbers you can evaluate and use in decision-making routines.

The best software for call center provides expanded reports based on the main goals the business may pursue. What are these goals?

Improving the efficiency of the call center;
Assessing the current state to make quick decisions in call center management when the situation changes;
More complete loading of employees;
Planning and optimization of call center resources;
Assessing customer service levels by call center operators and their improvement;
Defining a strategy for growth and volume expansion.

To achieve these goals, you are welcome to use various kinds of software for monitoring call center analytics. The best idea today is to use cloud solutions and SaaS products in the field of digital telephony. Analytics provided by these tools has the following features:

You can get access to analytic tools from everywhere using a web browser.
These tools can be custom-tailored to provide you with the reports you need.
The tool works in real-time with instant changes detected.

So, you can get relevant info momentarily and track the tiniest problems with your call center operation to solve them instantly.

Precise Analytics Tools in IPTel's Software for Businesses

The last thing to consider in this article is where find to analytics for call center. We have a win-win solution you may appreciate. Our SaaS products in the field of digital telephony for businesses already have pre-installed analytic tools and adjustable reporting functions you can use. You can get access to them when you apply for our IP PBX for small businesses, call center cloud products for medium-sized and big enterprises, and in our CRM with integrated telephony. All products we offer are already equipped with monitoring and analytic tools which can be easily used in favor of your business development.

17.11.2023

Telephony Software for Businesses: What to Consider When Choosing Auto-Dialing Software

Modern business does not tolerate waiting, and this applies not only to the fight for customers and making important business decisions. Customer expectations regarding customer service are also becoming higher! Today, it is difficult to consider a successful business in which customers are forced to call the company for a long time, wait for an answer from employees, or get nervous because their issue takes too long to resolve. If this happens, the chances are much higher that the client will simply go to a faster competitor than show loyalty and obediently wait to be served.

The times of manual calls, requests to call back later, or dial the number of another employee have irrevocably sunk into oblivion. And thanks to digital telephony, you can forget about losing customers due to poor-quality telephone service. You just need to choose the right technology and its suppliers to get a reliable digital telephony tool for your needs. But let's take a closer look at how to do this in our article.

Tools and Technologies: What IP Telephony Offers to Businesses Today

Let's start with which technologies today help businesses maintain a high level of customer service in the telephony sector.

Auto-dialing is a function provided by special equipment or software for automatically dialling customer numbers from a database. If you have a database with customer/lead phone numbers, you can automate the calling process with this technology. The tool dials the client and, at the moment of connection, transfers the call either to a free operator from among the employees, or to an IVR - an interactive voice response tool. Using the auto-dialing function, you can evenly distribute the load on operators, and increase the speed of dialing and the number of calls to customers. In this case, the auto-dialing tool can use different algorithms, i.e., predictive, progressive, or previewing client data before connecting.
IVR or Interactive Voice Response is a tool for automating the delivery of information to clients. The voice assistant either responds to tone dialling according to a given algorithm or recognizes speech and reacts accordingly: transfers the call to the desired department, plays an information message, etc.

At the same time, auto-dialing and IVR tools can be provided in several form factors. For example, in the format of software that works using VoIP.

There is also a more convenient way to ensure the operation of auto-dialing by using not a software product installed on the company's computers, but SaaS solutions which provide software as a service remotely with access from any device.

Benefits of Using Auto-Dialing for Businesses

What makes an auto-dialing tool truly effective for running any business?

Increasing the efficiency of the call center or sales department. Automating customer dialling reduces dialling and answering time, and you can reach many more customers in a given time frame compared to manual calling.
Strengthening customer loyalty. The operator has the opportunity to learn more about the client even before starting a conversation with him, and this improves interaction and helps build strong connections between the client and the company, strengthening the client's loyalty, because he feels that the company is interested in him.
Increased sales. Call automation frees up your time to work more effectively with each client. You can concentrate on improving the quality of service and with this, sales increase comes.
Reduced downtime. Your call center operates without downtime, and there are no periods of excessive load, too. Auto-dialing allows you to effectively distribute time and calls between operators, and it calculates intervals to forward the call to a free employee.

What to Consider: What Auto-Dialing Functions Do Businesses Need?

Of course, the auto-dialing tool from different service providers may differ in its functionality. To get the most effective software for your purposes, please pay attention to the availability of the following useful functions in the selected software:

Integration with your CRM. CRM as a system for managing relationships with clients is a must for business. If you use a specific CRM, it's worth paying attention to how telephony integration is implemented with your tool. By the way, at IPTel, we offer a ready-to-use CRM with built-in telephony, including auto-dialing. This is a convenient solution for business, especially if you just want to start using CRM and are looking for a suitable option.
Answering machine detector. Why should you waste the operator's time on a call that was answered by an answering machine? The answering machine detection function will help to filter out such calls and not forward them to the operator. Similar functions can be used to filter calls to busy numbers and numbers that automatically turn on fax or voice mail.
Call forwarding is a function that allows the client to either leave a message to the company after the signal or select the desired department and contact its employees.
Remote access is an important function, especially if part of your team works remotely, and it is crucial for you that calls are forwarded on time and accurately not only within the office but also to remote operators.
Do-not-call-me lists. If you have clients who do not want to receive calls from you, all you need to do is use this feature to have the auto-dialer skip numbers from such a list.
Tools for collecting statistics and analytics. Built-in analytics tools allow you to quickly receive information about the work of the call center, call statistics and results in the form of clear reports.
Voice messages are another feature worth adding to your must-have list. Most auto-dialing tools provide the ability to include various voice messages to inform customers without involving operators.
Tools for managing your contact database. This is a function with which operators and responsible employees will be able to upload and download contact lists and change customer information to update it.

Of course, your business may not need all of these features. But the more of them are included in the capabilities of the selected auto-dialing tool, the better.

Tips for Choosing: What to Consider When Selecting Auto-Dialing Software from a Business Point of View

Firstly, the search for suitable software and a digital telephony auto-dialing service provider should begin with an audit of your business and setting goals. What should you take into account in this aspect?

Business size directly affects digital telephony needs. When selecting software, it is worth considering the size of the company, the number of operators who will work with calling customers, and their tasks. It-s one thing to look for a solution for a large call center that must handle hundreds of calls a day, and another thing is a small company that wants to improve and personalize customer service using digital telephony.
Type of dialing algorithms. As we mentioned above, auto-dialling can use different algorithms. And the choice of software depends, among other things, on which algorithm will be effective specifically for your business.
The specifics of your business and the purpose of using auto-dialer. This is a specification of what was discussed in the first paragraph. Do you want to increase the customer-oriented essence of the service using auto-dialing tools, or do you need to streamline the flow of calls, or, maybe, you are interested in both of them?

Evaluation of Digital Telephony and Auto-Dialing Service Providers

We have already mentioned what functions may be included in the auto-dialling service from a particular software provider. But they are not the only ones that play a role when you need to choose a tool to implement in your company.

What else is worth considering?

The price of the service. This is the cornerstone because no one wants to overpay! In this regard, it is worth considering the option of auto-dialer in the SaaS format. Then you will get the functions you need without additional costs for software maintenance, installation, and integration, and you will receive all the functionality based on a subscription according to a specific tariff plan.
Key functions and their usability. A good option will work flawlessly, and at the same time, its use will be intuitive for your employees.
Additional functions and the ability to enable/disable them. Time does not stand still, and you may need something more than the basic functionality of auto-dialing. It's better to anticipate this in advance and choose a service provider that can quickly add additional features and tools to scale your business.
Reviews from other clients. This is generally the most important criterion for evaluation. The experiences of other users will tell you much more than all the advertisements. A good rating and positive reviews from other companies are a sign that the service can be trusted.

Let's summarize. Auto-dialer is one of the most convenient and effective functions of modern digital telephony today. With its help, you can solve several problems at once, and optimize the work of your call center or departments responsible for communication with the client. Call automation is an opportunity to implement algorithms to work efficiently and improve customer service.

At the same time, auto-dialling tools can be different both from a technical point of view and from the point of view of the set of functions available in them. To make the right choice, it is worth considering both the internal needs and capabilities of your company, as well as external factors like the availability of basic and additional functions, the software, or service delivery model, the supplier's pricing policy, and reviews of its work from other clients. It is this kind of multifactor analysis that allows you to make the right choice and get a truly productive, reliable, and, at the same time, profitable tool for working with customer calls for your business.