What IVR means and 7 benefits of using it

In Neotel we offer only the best services in Telephony for companies. And one for which our clients ask us the most is the IVR service.

Benefits of IVR:

Customer service 24 x 7: Use automated support and eliminate the need to have agents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Save time: Reduce the waiting time of the customer’s call and transfer with the appropriate agent.
Increase professionalism: Pre-write your messages and greetings using IVR to reflect a great first impression, consistency and professionalism.
Increase the resolution of the first contact: Increase the resolution of the first contact by automatically directing callers to the agent who is most capable of meeting their needs.
Improve business efficiency and agent performance: Connect to the right agents to attend each call and make use of the advantages of integrated CRM to improve agent productivity.
Lower cost per call: reduce the volume of calls per agent, labor costs and the general cost per call by automating the processes and outgoing and incoming calls.
Increase the efficiency of customer service and customer satisfaction: Provide customers with an easy way to serve customers.

An IVR or Interactive Voice Response is a Telephony-oriented technology that interacts with callers, understands the reason for the call and collects their information, and directs them to the most appropriate agent. Allows call centers to reduce costs, improve customer service and increase business efficiency in a simple way.

Today, companies and call contact centers take advantage of Neotel’s IVR to automate tasks and increase agent productivity and profitability.

If you have a secure call center that is already aware of the advantages of IVR. If you are not yet working with an IVR, from here we recommend you contact our team so that we can advise you and without any commitment.

Do you already work in a 100% scalable Contact Center?

A contact center in the cloud allows us, among many other features, to save recordings, have total control over calls and agents, obtain advanced statistics and reports in real time, control waiting queues, conduct inbound and outbound campaigns. calls, etc.

Another advantage is that being a 100% work system in the cloud, we can hire the best agents regardless of where they are, thus promoting teleworking.

Contact centers that are scalable offer maximum flexibility to their administrators. A company could be that it needs to expand or decrease, according to the needs. When working in a call center in the cloud the peace of mind is that we are aware that we have this possibility to reduce and increase our customer service center at our whim and in a much easier way than if it were a contact center traditional.

Neotel has been providing services to companies that want to install their own call center in the cloud for more than 15 years. With the Neotel cloud call center, the entire infrastructure is hosted within Neotel (cloud). So expanding or reducing our number of agents does not mean a great economic investment.

On the other hand, companies that still refuse to migrate their business to the cloud are tied to the limitations of the company that provides the service, so changing the size of their call center may result very expensive.

The on premise solutions (physically hosted where the client is) are usually much more expensive, limited and for any change that needs to be made, we will have to depend on the specialized technicians who logically have to pay as well.

The contact center or call center is one of the most important assets for any business since it is the communication channel for / with its clients. Neotel is the leading company in the Telecommunications sector and has the most extensive experience in installing a contact center in the cloud. If you wish you can contact Neotel now and we are happy to answer your questions.

The 5 main differences between a physical PBX and a virtual PBX

There are many companies that, with the desire to improve call management and customer service, see the need for a new PBX, and hesitate between the option of investing in a physical PBX or hiring a virtual PBX service.

1.- Unique features and functionalities

Today, technological advances in the cloud have meant that virtual PBXs (or PBXs in the cloud) have features that physical PBXs, due to their technical characteristics, cannot offer. A very good example is the integration of fixed and mobile telephony offered by Neotel in its virtual PBX service, with the possibility of integrating the company’s telephony in the user’s cell phone, so that employees can answer calls received by their fixed extension from the cell phone at any time and place, as well as make calls using the flat rate of the PBX, and access the control panel of the functionalities of their fixed extension from the mobile or smartphone. Virtual PBX services such as Neotel’s provide the company with additional benefits to those offered by physical PBXs, such as greater efficiency and productivity for mobile users, as well as other personal benefits derived from fixed-mobile integration, highly valued by employees.

Scalability

On the other hand, in the case of companies that grow in terms of branches, if they decide to opt for a physical PBX, each branch must have its own equipment and infrastructure, thus multiplying the purchase, maintenance and updating costs by the number of branches the company has. However, by contracting a virtual PBX service, adding or deleting a branch is easy, fast and economical, and the multi-site company would have a single PBX for all branches, achieving a unification of communications, an optimization of the infrastructure and obtaining significant savings on the telephone bill.

When purchasing a physical PBX, one of the parameters to choose is its capacity, i.e. the maximum number of lines and extensions it can cover. Thus, companies that purchased a physical PBX when they had 50 employees and one year later are forced to reduce the number of employees to 25, find themselves paying for and amortizing a PBX with a greater capacity than their needs. The same happens the other way around, if when you buy the PBX your company has 5 employees, and after a while you have 10, you will need to acquire a PBX with a higher capacity, when you have not yet finished paying and amortizing the previous one. This does not happen with virtual PBXs. Companies can increase or decrease the number of contracted seats by simply making a phone call to the customer service department of the company providing the service. In this way the monthly fee is always 100% adjusted to the needs and dimensions of the company and you will never pay more for something you do not use.

3.- Partial solution or integral solution

The companies that provide cloud communications, especially focused on the professional segment, offer integral solutions by means of which, through the payment of a single monthly fee, companies contract the set of services they need from a single provider. In this way, the company providing the cloud service performs an efficient and intelligent management of communications, and the customer can completely forget about worrying and focus solely on enjoying them.

4.- Start-up and maintenance

In the case of physical PBXs, both the start-up and maintenance of the equipment requires highly specialized personnel, so that, in addition to the initial investment that usually includes the purchase and installation of the equipment, a monthly maintenance fee must be paid to an external company for the management of this infrastructure, to make changes and modifications to the configuration necessary for the customer, to update the equipment with new software versions when the manufacturer requires it, to expand the features requested by the customer, to resolve breakdowns and incidents, etc. … and this also involves considerable and often unpredictable annual costs. Virtual PBXs, on the other hand, being a managed service, lack all the aforementioned costs, since it is the company providing the service that is responsible for installing, maintaining and updating the platform.

5.- Buying a physical PBX or hiring a virtual PBX?

Companies that decide to purchase a physical PBX must make a significant economic outlay, since a physical PBX implies the purchase of hardware, and therefore, the amortization of the investment.

What benefits does an international virtual number bring to my business and how to get one?

The subscription price of a virtual international number depends on the VoIP operator with whom it is under contract and the country. It does not cost a virtual international number of one country as much as another.

If you want to know the price to rent a virtual international number for a specific country, contact us now

Benefits of Using Virtual International Numbers

Virtual international numbers bring many benefits to businesses, the most important of which is to increase sales in countries where you want to open a market.

1. Reduce call costs for the company

Companies that typically make calls to other countries generally save a lot of money when they switch to IP telephony. IP telephony operators generally have much lower rates.

Virtual international numbers operate over VoIP (VoIP) and serve both to make and broadcast calls.

2. Reduce costs for the customer

The cost of calling another country means that companies do not want to open their markets abroad. With a virtual international number, it is no longer a problem. You can make and receive calls with any country at a much cheaper price.

3. Increase phone contacts

If phone calls play an important role in your business, entering other international markets can be the big push you are looking for. Hiring a virtual international number will help that.

Customers are much more likely to call a local number than a number from another country for one simple reason: calling another country can be very expensive!

4. Inspire confidence

By using a country phone number, you trust your potential customers. Customers are more likely to contact a local business.

5. Propose a local image

When a customer is considering hiring a product or service, seeing that there is a local phone number in many situations gives them peace of mind. Thinking that you are dealing with a local business always inspires more confidence.

6. Increase sales

The increase in sales in this country is the most important benefit of all this list.

Normally these virtual international numbers are usually used by a softphone or IP phone.

With Neotel you and your company can operate, physically from Spain, but with numbers from any country.

Virtual international numbers operate over the Internet instead of cables.

If you want to enter a virtual international number, contact Neotel now and we will set up your international international number

Build trust in customers outside of Spain, get a local image, sell more, etc. These are just a few of the goals that are achieved by contracting a virtual international number with Neotel.

What is VoIP (Voice over IP) and how does it work?

When hiring a supplier of switchboards, the ideal for the customer is to test the operation of this before having to pay anything. At Neotel, all our customers receive a test of our PBX via VoIP for 1 month. What are you waiting for to contact Neotel?

How VoIP telephony works

The main advantage of VoIP telephony is that with this it is no longer necessary for workers to be physically located in the same place. With VoIP telephony our employees can carry out their work from anywhere in the world, just as if they were in the same physical space.

On the other hand, thanks to the possibility of obtaining a geographical number, with VoIP telephony the worker can be found in any country in the world and when he makes a call, a telephone with a prefix of the same country will appear on the recipient’s screen. him, giving with this an image of closeness.

In addition, we must emphasize that this type of Telephony services are always cheaper for companies than using traditional and old telephony.

Benefits of VoIP calls

To be able to make calls with Voice over IP all we need is an Internet connection.

The main difference with traditional telephony is that, with the Voice of IP, communications are transmitted over the Internet, and not through telephone cables.

With this article we hope that the differences and advantages of Voice over IP with respect to traditional telephony have become clearer. More and more companies are migrating their old and expensive Telephony systems with Neotel. If you need to resolve any doubts about the rates of contracting Voz IP with Neotel, call us now and we will be happy to assist you.

Neotel promotes its program for VoIP / IP Telephony partners (distributors)

Those interested in receiving very attractive commissions reselling IP Telephony and VoIP services, now have it easier than ever, thanks to the Distributors program that Neotel promotes.

The products of the company Neotel help companies around the world with their communications systems.

The good news here for the clients that hire this type of services with Neotel is that in no case there is permanence in the hiring so the companies are free to leave whenever they wish.

Neotel has been working in the Telephony sector since 2001.

Now with this new functionality of Neotel it is easy to generate revenue using all the infrastructure and platform that the company puts at the disposal of its Distributors. IP Telephony has been implanted in our lives in a very progressive way, and it does not seem that it will leave in the short term.

Become an Official Neotel Distributor

The VoIP technology has been established in companies that deal with Customer Service in a massive way, as an essential tool.

This technology, being virtual, implies a series of advantages, with savings being the main one for companies.

Note the great popularity of Neotel.

The quality of the service oriented to the client. Experience of a call center

In most cases, the first contacts that take place between companies and customers are made through the virtual switchboard of an external call center. In addition to its integration – in the case of sales orientation – with a technological CRM program; The staff and software of a call center, has to be oriented to a satisfactory attention to the final client.

As a result, this type of industry has developed a working methodology absolutely focused on offering the highest quality.

Customer service: a main source of losses or profits of the company.

Service guidelines or how they serve their customers.

It is useless for your virtual switchboard to pass thousands of calls or for the data to be coldly entered into a CRM program or any other call center software. There are 4 aspects in which a call center must pay maximum attention to satisfy a total commitment to quality.

In the first place, it is obvious that they have to know the profile, what the client needs and their needs. Only then will they be able to evaluate the correct answer to the need. Orienting any type of company to the satisfaction of the client is the first step towards success. Without this magic wand, no company can achieve success.

Although as a consumer you can have your own opinion about it, there is no doubt that another of the traditional activities of a call center, conducting satisfaction surveys, are a great source of information. They give rise to high-value information and not only for the detection of dissatisfied customers, but also to know what is done well and can be applied successfully in the future.

The permanent supervision of processes, on the other hand, is important to continuously verify that it operates according to the established service protocols. A random supervision of the cases attended, such as that used in call centers, can be an ideal complement to check the quality of the service offered by the corresponding service in other industries.

The last aspect, especially taken into account by the call centers, is not to be obvious, it is fulfilled in 100% of the cases: the adequate treatment of the client. Being nice, offering a personalized and educated attention is an aspect neglected by many that should be the norm of each house.

The impact of the first call on customer satisfaction

It is possible that when talking with a customer service center, we ask ourselves what is the way that companies have to evaluate the attention and work of the operators. It seems logical that after investing in sophisticated CRM, call center software or a virtual switchboard, it is necessary that a company dedicated to massive call traffic, consider some indicators when evaluating their work and that of employees. So. How do they do that?

The resolution of the first call.

Numerous investigations related to the call center market reveal that no other indicator has a greater impact on customer satisfaction than this so-called «first call resolution» or «FCR.» And it is precisely thanks to these call center software, CRM or to its virtual switchboard, as it is possible to collect enough data for its evaluation.

The resolution of the first call is neither more nor less than the ability to resolve any concern, doubt or any result assimilable to that in the first telephone contact, the final customer has achieved what he was looking for.

The same studies show that each percentage point of success in this first call directly represents a percentage point in the perception of customer satisfaction.

Additional advantages

The increase in satisfaction is not the only benefit of a call center focused on the first call resolution. In addition to this, call centers with a high success rate in this task undoubtedly achieve much lower operating costs. Since not solve initially will generate a certain number of repetitions of calls, companies will be doubling or tripling the number of operators, use of their virtual switchboard and VoIP costs or they will be losing additional customer service opportunities.

But this successful first call will also have benefits for the company’s own workers. We all know how annoying it can be to work with a dissatisfied client. By avoiding frequent calls from frustrated clients due to the initial non-resolution of their need, job satisfaction rates increase significantly, resulting in an exponential success of agents, supervisors and the entire operation.

How satisfaction is valued: adopting the right approach.

Although we have already seen that it should be taken into account to consider a call resolved, it should be noted that not all companies adopt a similar approach. Some of them program their CRMs or establish their indicators considering that the simple need of transferring that first call or subsequent follow-up work can be considered a success.

However, although it may seem like a solid approach to measuring quality, it may be incomplete by not taking into account something essential: the customer’s own satisfaction.

Post-call surveys, by phone call or email should be the icing on the cake in these situations. At the end of the day, in these technological times, it is still applicable that the customer always -or almost- is right.

Multichannel communication – what does it mean?

One of the major changes that has led to the expansion of the Internet, recently assisted by the boom in mobile telephony, is the expansion of multichannel communications. This technology has been a revolution in communication with the customer and the mass call centers, achieving a fundamental change in their structures. So the call center software, the modern CRM programs or the virtual switchboard with which many of these centers operate, have had to adapt to these demands.

Many companies were realizing that they could not rely solely on voice communications to interact with customers. They needed to do it, how and when the client chose.

The multichannel. Just a fad?

Although many might think so, from the moment that this «fashion» began in the early 2000s with the emergence of mass videos and chat, it has proven to be a very long-term trend and a revolution in the conception of marketing and customer relations.

The traditional call centers have had to evolve forced by this situation. Currently a CRM, the call center software or the virtual switchboard must be able to serve customers, not only by voice. The electronic mail, the SMS, chats, social networks or interaction with web pages have become part of an industry traditionally focused on telephone communications.

The movement towards the multichannel is not only an indicator that clients need to be cared for at an individualized level. They also expect quick action. Thirty years ago, companies had at least one day to respond and customers felt that their expectations were being met, however, today these same clients are barely willing to wait a few seconds for their questions to be answered and for any means by which they decide to interact.

Thus, for many marketing experts, the multichannel movement is a new phase in the world of Internet Marketing. In the first place, we started by creating websites in a customer’s conscience, secondly, by allowing «self-service» in stores and Internet sales. the third evolution, it was assumed by mobile devices and smartphones. In this fourth phase, which is still underway, customers are allowed to communicate in the way they prefer from their mobile device, or computer through web, social network, or run with companies. This requires a real-time interaction that must be met by the companies.

Thus, it is no longer necessary just a large call center equipped with a virtual switchboard or a CRM. All this call center software and the philosophy of it, must be capable of evolving towards the new demands of customers and companies.

Any industry that continues to think that it can relate to its customers in a conventional way, should think twice before downplaying the multichannel movement. The market evolves and who does not do it with it will be condemned to its extinction. It will not be because of lack of precedents.

The five key technologies in customer service

Long before the invention of the virtual switchboard, the Internet, the CRM or the modern call center software, there were other technologies that made the massive call service market reach its current status.

Some of them are in retreat, while others, invented 60 years ago are still topical. Let’s know them.

The tone dialing

Many still remember dial telephones, those in which a wheel had to be rotated to make them operate, however the technology that allows the operation of a virtual switchboard – tone dialing – was introduced in 1963 by Bell. A year later the Western Electric 1500 was the first phone on the market, which allowed to dial by buttons. Of course, they did not include the symbol of the pillow or star.

The toll-free numbers

In Spain known as 900 lines, without which more than one virtual switchboard would be without work, were invented in 1967 by a scientist from the company AT & T as an excellent formula to market the products. The airlines and American florists of the 1980s came to add more than 3 billion free calls annually. Soon this hit became international.

Private exchange exchanges

Nowadays, the PBX-type virtual switchboard, the private exchange exchanges -the PBXs «were one of the first computerized evolutions of the conventional switchboard. Essentially they were mini-switches that allowed to route calls to the companies in two ways: manual, which still required an operator for the exchange or automated, which already allowed the switchboard to route the call by itself without having to request the operator the connection with an extension. This latest technology became one of the secret sauces of the first call centers.

Interactive voice responses (IVR)

Perhaps, the most essential technology in the software and the operation of the modern call center, were used for the first time in the banking machines of 1970 to verify the balances of the clients. Soon they became really popular as a means to route customer service calls. Nowadays, they are able to recognize what a customer says on the phone and act according to their request. If you have ever talked to a speaker who asked you what you wanted to do when calling a customer service center, it was an IVR working in conjunction with the virtual switchboard.

Short Message Services (SMS)

Invented in 1992 to operate with the first mobile phones based on GSM technologies, they had to spend more than two decades compared to the previous technologies listed for their introduction. However, its appearance meant a before and after in mass call and communication systems, allowing very fast transmission of information and facilitating public attention. They also produced a fundamental change in the philosophy of customer service, from being reactive -the company communicated with the client at the request of the same- to predictive -the company requests an action from the customer-. This small big change may have gone unnoticed by many, and you may think it is not very important. The marketing experts and the business figures associated with this change between reaction and prediction say the opposite: it has exponentially increased the turnover of the companies that use this technology.