10 Important Call Center Questions

Hosted VoIP Call Centers also known as Virtual Call Centers have become affordable to small businesses. The technology available today has evolved to the point that for a minimal upfront investment any company can have a Call Center that would have cost millions of dollars a few short years ago.

A VoIP Call Center is a telecommunications platform that allows businesses to effectively route phone calls to available agents. A Hosted Call Center makes it easy for businesses to configure inbound calls to a sales desk, a support hotline or help desk. Hosted Virtual Call Center software will even allow you to have Call Center Agents in multiple physical locations; these agents can even be home based agents.

A comprehensive sales and customer support system are a critical component for any business. It is not enough to provide a competitively priced quality product. It is absolutely essential that you provide your customers with a first-class service experience when doing business with your company – before, during and after the sale.

If this is your first time evaluating a Hosted Call Center solution, here are 10 important points to consider.

1 How does the pricing work?

A provider that charges you per-agent or per-seat is charging you even when your agent isn’t on the phone. With a provider that VoIP calling rates per minute used, you’ll only be paying for the service that you actually make use of.

2 What Hosted Call Center Features are available?

Good Contact Center solutions should give you fine grained control over every aspect of your call center. This is how your customers are going to experience your Call Center and it is vitally important that you provide a comfortable experience. You should be able to, for example, choose what music customers listen to while on hold, the maximum amount of time they’ll have to wait, and the number of callers in your queue.

3 Does the provider require specialized IP Phone sets?

Home-based employment is becoming increasingly popular. And for good reason: off-site workers are able to participate in their jobs without relocating or commuting. Tap into the possibilities of a workforce unrestricted by location by making sure that your ip call center allows agents to answer phones wherever they are, without needing to stay tied down to a specific piece of hardware. Virtual contact center software should empower agents in your office or across the nation.

4 How are incoming calls routed to agents?

The more information a call center agent has about a caller, the better. Ask the provider what information is available to the call center agent and how is that information provided. Many call center providers integration with CRM applications like Salesforce.com and Sugar CRM. This type of integration is very valuable as it allows your agents to see a history of the interaction with your customers.

5 Does your service offer Call Recording?

There’s no better way to monitor and review your call interactions than to have access to recordings and transcriptions of them. A small business phone service provider that makes this option available will allow you to give specific feedback to your agents by seeing exactly how they did and what can be improved.

6 Determine the capabilities of the call center supervisor

In order to manage the agents, the call center supervisors need up to the minute information about all aspects of the call center. This includes information about how the agents are performing as well as how long customers are waiting to speak to an agent. It is import that a call center solution provides effective real time call center reporting.

7 Do you offer the option to set schedules for individual agents?

Your Virtual Call Center is only as good as your scheduling options. By incorporating the schedules of individual call agents, you can ensure that calls are being routed to agents who are available to take the calls. Make your call queuing more efficient–which your customers will love–by using a precise schedule for each agent.

8 Is there a setup fee or long-term contract?

Fees vary widely among call center providers. A Hosted contact center solutions is a web-based technology that does not require the purchase of hardware or software. Many call center providers require a term contract because of the upfront expense they incur setting up and installing your service. This may be very valuable to you and you should not dismiss a provider because they require a fee or a term contract. It may end up saving you in the end. Rather than look for a no fee, no contract provider, look for a provider that offers some sort of guarantee.

9 Is IVR integration available? Can I transfer callers to another agent, call distributor, or IVR?

Your Virtual Call Center doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Or, at least, it shouldn’t. With Interactive Voice Response technology integration, you can make better use of your Call Center, allowing you transfer callers to another agent, department, post-call survey, or voice mail.

10 Determine the customer support policy

There is no system that is 100% fail proof. Determine what happens in the event of a system crash? Ask the vendor if they have redundant facilities. A hosted pbx providers with redundant facilities is less likely to have a significant outage than a provider that does not have redundant facilities. This will give you a better sense of how prepared the provider is for these situations.

Tell Us about Your Call Center Needs

AVAD Technologies is a leading business services VoIP provider in USA and business telephone companies of Hosted VoIP PBX phone service. With its cutting edge line of integrated voice/data solutions, AVAD Technologies provides complete VoIP configuration to cost-conscious, results-driven, value-oriented organizations. AvadTechnologies.com offers IP office manager, VoIP Services, voice over internet protocol providers and call centers solution for small business and large enterprise customers.

Check out also for: Call Center Software and call centers solution

Hosted VoIP Call Center is easily Within Reach of Small Businesses

AVAD’s Hosted VoIP Call Center supports both individual as well as distributed multi-site call centers to act as a single virtual call center, regardless of geographic location.

AVAD Hosted VoIP – Contact center solutions is comprised of features from the Hosted VoIP platform in addition to Agent and Supervisor client applications. These features, when configured to work in a complementary fashion, provide feature-rich VoIP Call Center solutions. In addition, the configuration options allow the solution to be implemented in a variety of ways.

Whether you are a startup call center with a few seats, or a large center with thousands of seats your call center will greatly benefit from AVAD Hosted VoIP – Virtual call centers solution. In operating a call center, two of the largest startup costs are the equipment and the Virtual Call Center software. By going with a Hosted VoIP Call Center model you greatly reduce the upfront financial requirements all while adding flexibility and advanced feature sets. With our Call Center Software you can host a call center from any location in the world.

AVAD Hosted VoIP – Virtual Call Center solution offer the Call Center analytics, quality monitoring, phone answering system, business phone solutions and agent performance management features that you will find in any multi-million dollar Contact Center system, all integrated and bundled in one solution. Our Inbound and Outbound Call Center Dialer features, coupled with latest technologies are helping companies of all sizes and across all industries increase service quality while reducing operating costs.

Build Your Own business hosted VoIP Call Center:

•    Simplified installation and maintenance.
•    No hardware required.
•    Easily add/remove agents.
•    Add an unlimited number of agents.
•    Agents can be located anywhere, including home based agents.
•    No hardware required, agents can use a soft phone.
•    Aggressive VoIP calling plans

Configurable Routing:

•    Enhanced Automated Call Distribution (ACD).
•    Route calls to any agent regardless of geographic location.
•    Customizable Periodic Comfort Message

Key Features:

•    Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
•    Enhanced ACD
•    Auto Attendant
•    Call Center Reporting
•    Music On Hold and Comfort Announcement
•    Monitoring and Recording

Improve Customer Service:

Ensure all incoming calls are serviced efficiently under any network condition and at any time.

Create Virtual Call Centers:

Establish call centers anywhere in the world, just with a broadband connection.

Follow-the-Sun Customer Care:

Offer 24x7x365 ubiquitous services with a single number for distributed call center locations.

Manage Calls Effectively:

Choose from a range of call distribution policies, including skills-based call distribution. Minimize Costs: Provide the option for agents to work remotely with access to all call features. Voice mail Transfer: Transfer calls directly to voice mail.

Tell Us about Your Call Center Needs

AVAD Technologies is a leading hosted VoIP call center provider in USA and small business phone service provider of Hosted VoIP PBX phone service. With its cutting edge line of integrated voice/data solutions, AVAD Technologies provides complete VoIP configuration to cost-conscious, results-driven, value-oriented organizations. AvadTechnologies.com offers IP office manager, VoIP Services, VoIP advantages and VoIP call center solutions for small business and large enterprise customers.

Check out for voice over internet protocol companies and VoIP international calling plans

Hosted or Premises VoIP?

By now, you have probably heard all of the hype about how Voice over IP can enhance your business, save you big money and solve the entire world’s problem. You may even have considered jumping in yourself.

Before you jump in and commit your company’s valuable resources, you need to have a clear understanding of how this technology works and even more importantly, how it can benefit your company.

Assuming you have decided business small VoIP is the right solution for your business, the next decision you will be faced with is; do you want to “Own” your VoIP phone system or do you want to “Rent” your VoIP phone system”?

The term used to describe “Owning” managed VoIP solutions is called “Premesis” VoIP or “Premesis Installation”. The term used to describe “Renting” a VoIP phone system is “Hosted VoIP”.

From a technology perspective, there is no difference in voice quality and reliability between a Premise Based VoIP service and a Hosted VoIP Service assuming these alternatives have comparable hardware, software and internet connections. In other words, an “Apples to Apples” comparison.

Hosted business hosted VoIP versus Premesis VoIP Considerations

Generally, it does not make economic sense to own your business services voip phone below a certain number of phone users in your organization. The cost of purchasing the VoIP hardware and small business phone service provider must be spread over a minimum number of users before it begins to make economic sense. A good rule of thumb is that you need 100 to 150 phone users before it becomes economically justified. In addition, the cost of implementing a Premise based VoIP solution requires a significant commitment of ongoing resources (Dedicated IT personel) to maintain the system once it is up and running.

Another significant expense that should be taken into consideration is the expense of setting up and maintaining a “Redundant” facility. If your phone system is “Mission Critical”, then you must have a back up in the event your primary facility becomes inoperable. This means you will need to have 2 of everything (2 sets of servers, 2 broadband connections etc) in separate locations in case the primary location becomes inoperable.

The primary non-economic reason for choosing a Premises Based VoIP solution is if your company has specific applications, such as a CRM application, that requires customization and integration with your phone system. Generally, Hosted VoIP phone system allows less customization than Premise Based VoIP solutions. Custom applications also require an additional commitment of staffing resources.

Hosted VoIP PBX phone service and VoIP Allows You to Focus on Your “Core” Business

A VoIP PBX Installation frees your company from the burden of managing the infrastructure and security of the locations that house your system. When you are free from managing these non-core activities, you have more time and energy to focus on your primary or “Core” activities.

The monthly cost of operating voip business solutions is generally higher than the monthly cost to operate a Premesis VoIP system. The primary reason for this is that in a Hosted system, you pay per user per month where as in a Premesis solution after amortization costs of the software you pay only for actual usage. Most analysis’s we have seen favor the economics of a Premesis solution starting in year 5. A big reason for this is that after year 5 the hardware and software have been fully amortized.

Do what you do best and outsource the rest!

Conclusion: Voice over internet protocol services or Premesis VoIP

If you haven’t noticed, we have not focused this article on money as primary criteria for choosing one solution over the other. The reason is simple, if you are like most companies, your telecommunications solution is a mission critical component of the success or failure of your company. It does not matter what the cost of a solution is, if that solution does not help your organization meet its objectives, the cost of a particular solution or the potential savings of that solution is irrelevant.

Only after you have determined that a particular solution satisfies your needs should cost come into play. Your phone system is central to the long run health of your organization and deserves careful analysis and planning.

With that said, the choice between a Hosted VoIP solution and a Premesis VoIP for call center solutions should be based on the specific circumstances of your company. If your company requires customization and integration with applications such as a CRM, then a Premesis business voice services is most likely going to be what is needed. If on the other hand, customization is not needed, then a Hosted VoIP solution is probably going to be the most appropriate solution.

Tell Us About Your Business VoIP Needs

Get started with AVAD today. To learn more about AVAD Technologies voice over internet protocol providers please calls (800) 733-4136, or visits us on the web at AvadTechnologies.com

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