Virtual Call Center
A virtual call center is a call center in which the organization’s representatives are geographically dispersed, rather than being situated at workstations in a building operated by the organization. Virtual call center employees may be situated in groups in a number of smaller centers, but most often they work from their own homes. This is an attractive arrangement for many employees: the hours are often flexible, and there’s no dress code or commute. For the organization, the virtual call center model saves housing and equipment costs and can lead to lower employee turnover rates, which tend to be high for physical call centers.
Switching to a virtual call center model can be very beneficial.
Why should I have a Virtual Call Center?
1.Cut Costs
Operating a virtual call center is, in many cases, less expensive and more cost-effective than running a centrally located center. This is because; once the system is in place, the coordination and administration associated with running a large office is eliminated. Workers can get right to work and more energy overall can be devoted to the real task at hand: providing excellent customer service.
2. Increase Efficiency
Quality call center agents have one thing in mind each day: get down to the work of doing their jobs. Empowering agents, through a virtual call center, to work remotely from home or a location near their home, cuts down on the time and energy agents spend each day not working, but getting to and from work. This means agents can, in a nutshell, be more efficient and give the company they work for more value.
As mentioned above, running a virtual call center is, in many cases, simply more efficient than requiring all agents to report to a central location to do their jobs. Plus, a virtual call center lets companies efficiently stagger agents in different time zones to respond to variations in call volume, without having to coordinate several centers around the country. Talk about efficiency
3. Improve Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
Customers, quite simply, want to talk to call center agents who are friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. They also want to have their questions addressed in a timely manner, preferably through first call resolution. How can a virtual call center help make all this possible? By helping ensure that the best agent to answer a given question is available when he or she is needed. Setting up a virtual call center gives companies a new level of flexibility to hire the best agents; agents who may have specialized knowledge or live in advantageous time zones, but would not be able to report to the central office.
4. Disaster Recovery Planning
Redundancy is a key word in emergency preparedness: there must be backup systems in place in the event that the primary one is compromised or taken out of commission. Putting all the eggs in one basket, as it were, by centralizing all call center agents in the same building is a somewhat dangerous proposition. What happens if there is a fire in that building, or a terrorist attack, or a hurricane, or some other event that necessitates evacuation? How will customers be served if agents can’t get to the phone to answer calls?
The answer is a virtual call center. In this scenario, agents are geographically dispersed so that, even if some agents in a particular region are unable to work (for example, because of a power outage) the entire operation doesn’t come to a standstill. Instead, additional agents in unaffected areas can be called upon to keep things running.
BENEFITS
- IT infrastructure investment is significantly reduced.
- IT personnel and resources can be centralized for maximum benefit
- Back up, redundancy and fail over solutions can be significantly reduced in both scope and cost.
- Your top personnel can handle supervision and control of all campaign data and call flow.
- International call centers can make phone calls within the United States greatly reducing toll costs.
- Home-based remote virtual call center agents can also be deployed within a virtual call center environment although having a virtual call center is not necessary to be able to implement remote call center
EXAMPLE
One example: ABC Company went to a virtual call center model in 2000. That year, 30% more inquiry calls were converted to orders, employee turnover decreased 88%, and 90% fewer calls had to be escalated (transferred to a higher-level employee), compared to The previous year. For companies whose business is highly seasonal, the virtual model also means that they don’t have to maintain large facilities year-round. ABC, for example, requires over 400 customer support employees in their busy Christmas season, but only about 25 the rest of the year.
With a Virtual Call Center system, you can route incoming calls to any type of phone, anywhere. This lets your employees work from the office, from home, work sites, or on the road. Try doing that with a typical small business PBX.
You can greet your callers with a custom, professional business greeting every time they call. They’ll know your company is a real, solid business. And advanced features like Intelligent Routing queuing will handle the calls efficiently, ensuring minimum wait times and correct routing.
With no hardware or software to buy or maintain (except phones) , you save cost in many ways. There is no big capital outlay for a new system. You don’t have to hire and train someone to do phone support. You get all the high-end features you need without paying extra. And you don’t need to hire a receptionist to answer incoming calls. Our small business phone system does it for you.
Our solution is an outstanding solution for virtual call centers because it lets your workers take business calls anywhere. You can populate your call center with home or remote workers and integrate workers that travel or work from branch offices. Virtual Call Center System offers a wide variety of sophisticated capabilities that are absolutely essential to the success of a call center.
Other enhanced options for Virtual Call Centers
- ACD queue for Inbound Service
- Auto Dialer for Outbound Service
- Web Based CRM Application
- Customized Call Detail Reports
- IVR & Database Integration
- Call Recording
- Call Filtering
- Call Monitoring
- Fax to Email Service
