The answering service desk is faced with a tough choice. Should they use desktop phones or softphones? That is the question that the call center units want to answer. There are pros and cons on both, and this makes the choice tougher. Softphones score high on flexibility and features. These phone answering devices are packed with the right kind of features and enhancements. It offers the telemarketing services with the right kind of technological back up. The onscreen control buttons are easy to use. You can make do with lower upfront hardware. Telemarketing agents can use them with laptops and other mobile devices as well.
Desktop phones may lack the frills of the softphones, but if you are looking for something reliable in the answering service desk, you should opt for them. These phones are better suited for phone answering systems when the question is about the voice quality and customer service experience. Desktop phones have the ability to offer the telemarketing agents a rare clarity in the kind of voice calls. Callers benefit from these desktop phones as well. They can hear the instructions clearly. Bad voice quality is often a reason why customer service receives flak. Desktop phones solve this problem to a large extent.
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Times have changed and so have the ways to do business. Even some time back, lead generation would mean that the call center agents would call the prospective customers and sell them products/services. With competition growing exponentially, customers are no longer aware of what is right for them. They need time to think and decide what they want. So the sales lead generation agents have to offer them that time. They have to make allowances for the customers to get back to them with their decision. This trend has opened up a whole new chapter in the BPO book. Business has become two-way.
The method is even more applicable for online lead generation. Here, the customers are checking up the brand/company online. The call center agents have no direct access to these users unless they call the answering service desk. In a way, the process is similar to pull marketing. When the customers find some interest in the brand or the product, they call the phone answering numbers provided on the website. The BPO agents taking the call provide them with the additional information and finally the sales cycle is complete. This form of lead generation puts the onus of the sale on the customer.
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There are certain distinct advantages of using the Interactive Voice Response system. You can be flexible with the choices that you offer, to begin with. Callers try out the IVR phone answering system when they have something definite on their minds. The BPO agents can fix the options that are most popular. A rough study of the callers’ demands at the inbound call center desk will tell you what they are looking for. During various stages of the project, the demands of the callers may change. That is when the flexibility with the IVR system comes to the fore. Agents can also rely on the IVR to receive every call and process them. It’s not always possible for the answering service agents to do so.
The IVR system is easy to maintain for a call center unit. Because there are no live agents involved, they do not have to go for any training or hiring! All the BPO units need to do is ensure that the callers are satisfied with the options that are available with the IVR. However, the answering service department has to take care that they are not putting up any irrelevant option on the IVR system. As it is, the callers have to wait a while and listen intently to use the right option. If you cramp things up, there will be a lot of dissatisfied callers that you have to deal with.
The world is moving so fast these days and the BPO is the sector where you can find those changes reflected like no other industry. The rising prominence of the emergency answering service has prompted some call centers in the USA to try out something different with their phone answering system. Just like the non-voice aspects of the call center are coming up from behind to overshadow the voice calls, it seems like some non-voice aspects are going to creep in to the inbound call center as well! These BPO service units will allow callers and other reporters to upload videos of emergency situations through mobile internet. Their videos will be streamed live at the inbound desk for better assessment of the situation.
Videos shot by citizens have been used by media networks for some time now. This is the first time that such a facility will be available for the emergency answering service. It will surely help the call center agents working at the inbound call center desk to offer proper help by intimating the authorities concerned. There will be lesser problems for the back-up to reach the location and act accordingly. The emergency call center services will be revolutionized with the introduction of this technology. But this is still in the nascent stages. BPO units are not prepared to support this as of now. But in the very recent future, your 911 calls can be accompanied by a video of what you are reporting about.
