The Ultimate Guide To Better Business Call Management

When it comes to providing a high-quality and relevant customer experience, call management is one of the most important processes you shouldn’t neglect. It ensures that customers and prospects receive prompt, satisfactory, and round-the-clock responses to their phone calls.

In addition, call management includes keeping up with callers to ensure that the relationship between you and your customers will continue. It also ensures they get the essential products, services, and information they need.

From small old-fashioned businesses to giant eCommerce, every successful company takes call management thoughtfully and sternly. This is because how they handle customer and client calls may significantly affect customer expectations, customer experiences, and brand image.

The emotions that may build up in the process will determine whether your business gets to keep the clients or lose them to the intense competition. Don’t worry, though, as this article has got you covered.

This ultimate guide has everything you need to know to ensure better business call management, from basic definitions to best practices, so stay tuned.

What Is Call Management?

Call management is the process most organizations and businesses use to track and manage incoming phone calls. It ensures that customers receive satisfactory and on-time responses and feedback to their calls and keeps track of callers to foster customer relationships and improve customer retention rate.

An essential part of call management is ensuring that you’re using cost-effective and reliable solutions. If your company is looking for an affordable and easy way to set up phone numbers for local calls, it’s in your best interest to seek help from phone call forwarding specialists. For example, if your target market is located in Canada, you can get a Canadian phone number to establish a strong local presence.

You may need an effective and efficient call management system if you’re using a call center solution to execute your day-to-day operations. This will help you handle, track, and collect data from incoming calls. Likewise, it will help you deal with scam calls accordingly.

Besides, a successful call management system will help your business manage customer calls efficiently to provide positive and relevant customer experiences and reach beyond customer expectations.

What Is A Call Management System?

The main purpose of a call management system is to ensure that call volumes are under control and managed effectively. Usually, it’s a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)-based software solution, so some features and elements may vary accordingly.

The primary function of a VoIP software solution is to route multiple calls using telephone-based systems according to the parameters given. This will help your business effectively handle and monitor outbound and inbound calls.

If you’re looking for a reliable software solution, you may visit Drop Cowboy or your local provider for more information and to help you set up a fully functional system.

What Are The Features You Need For An Effective Call Management?

Consider the features of a call management software solution when looking for one. By doing so, you’ll be able to execute the best call management practices efficiently.

Here are the features you might want to look for:

– Real-Time Reporting: This feature lets you see and evaluate how your agents are performing. It allows you to check the quality of calls, the number of calls made and received, the average handling time, and other factors. You may visit Power Dialer to learn more about this feature.

– Automated Call Distribution (ACD): This feature allows you to redirect calls automatically to responsible agents and departments based on the specified criteria. Additionally, this will help your team handle large volumes of calls so they won’t be overwhelmed while providing excellent customer service.

– Call Recording: As the name implies, it allows you to record every call performed. You can use these recordings to analyze and evaluate your team’s performance. It also includes other details, such as time and date, calling number, and call duration.

– Call Tracking: This feature provides short information about the caller. This is used alongside ACD to redirect calls based on customer data, allowing your teams to provide a personalized customer experience.

– Call Queues: This feature allows callers to be in a queue until an agent is available to take the call. It comes with a dashboard that lets agents make decisions based on the information provided in real time.

– Call Monitoring: This feature allows managers and supervisors to listen to an ongoing call without the agent’s knowledge. It helps them understand how their agents are performing so they can create better training programs and one-on-one coaching sessions to improve their abilities.

– Interactive Voice Response (IVR): IVR is an automated tool that interacts with customers, collects their information, and offers them a choice selection. Its functions will vary depending on the caller’s response, whether through voice or keypad input.

– Call Control Service: Also known as call processing, this feature redirects calls to their proper destinations. It also refers to simultaneous call functionalities, such as transfer, mute, hold, etc. Most call control features can be integrated into browsers, allowing agents to control multiple calls at the touch of a button.

These features are crucial and fundamental to the call management system. So, if some companies fail to provide these, it’s time to leave and look for other software providers. You wouldn’t want to waste your time, money, and energy on something that won’t work.

What Are The Best Practices For A Better Business Call Management System?

You should understand that having a powerful call management solution is just 50% of the requirements needed to provide an excellent customer experience through calls. The other 50% is how your business handles the system.

You may have the most powerful software in the market, but you may still not get the expected results if you lack efforts to leverage your call management.

The following are some of the best and most effective practices you can implement immediately to improve your call management.

1. Answer As Quickly As Possible

When you hear the phone ring, ensure that it gets picked up as soon as possible. Ideally, wait for at least three rings to ensure the line won’t get disconnected. Doing so will make the caller feel you’re prepared to offer your services and speak with them.

However, make sure not to use any filler words, such as ‘ummm,’ ‘ahhh,’ and other meaningless sounds. They’re one of the biggest no-nos when answering phone calls because they’ll make you look like someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

When answering customer calls, show that you’re competent and confident. You want your clients to feel they’re making the right decision to call you.

To make this happen, ensure that your agents are well informed and updated about your marketing efforts and that they can answer all the questions customers may ask gracefully.

Moreover, avoid eating when answering phone calls. Chewing sounds are not pleasing to hear. They’re here for your services, not to listen to any ASMR sounds.

  2.Qualify The Caller

When answering the call, you must build the caller’s requirements and get their contact information before going further. This will help you make follow-up calls, especially if the concern hasn’t been addressed on the first call.

In addition, try not to open up a new discussion unrelated to the caller’s concern or issue. If they try to ask for a product or service that you don’t sell, raise the inquiry and find out more about it.

You may also use this opportunity to sway the caller’s interest. Introduce similar products you offer, then draw their attention to it by presenting some facts and how it can benefit them.

However, be careful when sharing information and always remember not to divulge anything the caller does not request.

  3.Use A Natural Tone Of Voice

Speaking in a natural tone of voice is critical to keeping your customers engaged. Even if you don’t see each other face to face, they’ll know from your voice if there’s something wrong on the other end of the line. Hence, it’s essential to clear your mind before answering a call.

A call may also come when you’re extremely busy, but that’s not a reason to rush the call. Note that the customer approached you, so don’t turn them off with a hassled voice.

Therefore, when the phone starts to ring, drop everything and take the call professionally and calmly. If you do, expect more positive and much better outcomes.

If you want to improve your tone of voice, you may use the call recording feature of your call management software. Then, listen to your recording and identify the potential bottlenecks that prevent you from communicating effectively. This will help you learn from your mistakes and avoid making them again.

  4.Avoid Putting Calls On Hold

Putting your customers on hold should be your last option unless necessary because this makes callers feel unwanted. If you have no choice but to put your customers on hold to attend to their concerns, make sure to follow the basic etiquette of putting client calls on hold:

• Explain why you must put them on hold and ensure they understand your reasons well.
• Ask them for their contact information just in case the line gets cut off. This will help you call them back and follow up on some details.
• Promise to return after a couple of minutes. Yet if the delay will take much longer than expected, ask for their contact information and a time when they’re free to take your call.
• If the delay takes more time than anticipated, return to your caller and give an update about what’s happening. In this way, they won’t feel abandoned. It’s best to offer them a callback to avoid keeping them on hold for a long time.
• When you return, ensure you apologize for the inconvenience and for making them wait too long, even if it’s only for a minute.
• Be thankful for the caller for being patient during the call despite being put on hold.

  4.Prepare Yourself For Well-Informed Prospects

These days, more people are becoming well informed about their buying choices. They search the internet to learn more about the products they want before calling you. Thus, prepare to answer their queries as they’re one of the most difficult prospects to convert.

Furthermore, if you don’t have the product they asked for due to stock issues, try to sway their interest in similar product alternatives. It’s also better to ask them some questions and drive them to a product you have in stock instead of letting them go dismayed.

  5.Make Your Callers Feel Important

It will be undoubtedly challenging to grow a business without customers. That’s why making every caller feel appreciated and valued is vital to the success of a business. This will make them trust your brand, refer more friends, and keep repeating orders.

Here are some tips to help you make your callers feel valued:

• Thank Them: Customers are the lifeblood of a company, so it’s only proper to thank them for their unwavering contributions. You may offer them discounts, exclusive deals, freebies, and more before you end the call to show how you value them.
• Be Consistent: Make sure to give every customer, even those first-time callers, an excellent customer experience and follow it up with much better customer service. Customers feel valued when they’re given consistent responses.
• Listen To Them: Never cut them off or make unnecessary assumptions while talking. While you may hear similar experiences or queries, treat every call as unique. Listen well to their stories and respond appropriately.
• Be Proactive: When customers call, they expect something from you. Thus, they may get frustrated if they hear nothing from you, making them feel like they’ve entered a black hole. By giving them an update, you show them how eager you are to help them, and they appreciate that.
• Personalize Every Call: Give your customers a human touch by making them feel like every call they make with you is tailored to their needs. Personalized calls often make customers feel valued and appreciated.

Final Words

Call management is the process of handling incoming client calls to give your customers the best experience and service they can get. To improve your call management strategy, you have to focus on two things: the software solution and the best practices.

When looking for a call management software solution, ensure it has all the features you need to handle, track, and collect data from every incoming call effectively. For best practices, you may refer to the discussion above for some tips to help you handle each call accordingly.

Use this ultimate guide until you achieve better business call management.