If you are in the telecom sector you know the unique challenges organizations in the industry face. Apart from the complex technical issues, managing service requests, or equipping your employees with the right skills and expertise, there is one more huge challenge. That is the sheer volume of calls a telecom company receives every day.
Some industries receive huge call volume during certain peak seasons such as festivals, a particular time of the year, or new launches of products or services, but that’s not the case with telecom companies. The call volume in the sector remains high during the entire year.
Now in such a situation, can telecom companies do something to handle the massive call volumes? The answer is, yes! They can leverage Automated Call Distribution (ACD) to streamline all incoming calls and make sure that they are routed to the right agents.
An ACD is a feature in call center software that automatically distributes incoming calls to the most appropriate agent or department based on pre-defined criteria such as callers’ inputs in Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, caller ID, or the availability and skill set of the agent.
This blog post discusses the role ACD systems play in handling high call volumes and routing all incoming calls efficiently to available agents with the right skill and expertise to resolve their issues and queries. Read on and thank us later.
How ACD Systems Enhance Efficiency of Telecom Call Centers?
ACD systems play a huge role in enhancing the efficiency of a telecom company. Here are some ways ACD systems enable telecom firms to streamline their calls and route all incoming calls to the right agents.
1. Improved Call Handling
Improvement of call handling and efficiency is the biggest advantage of ACD systems. By streamlining call routing based on factors such as callers’ IVR input and agent availability, ACD systems eliminate the need for manual intervention. Most importantly, the incoming calls do not only get routed faster to the available agents but the ones with the right skills and expertise to resolve the query or issue. And that takes us to the second benefit.
2. High FCR Rate
ACD has a direct effect on a telecom company’s first call resolution (FCR) rate. When all incoming calls get directed to the right departments as well as agents with the right expertise and skills to resolve the queries and issues, the company will naturally have a high FCR rate. Combining advanced IVR with ACD systems provides telecom companies with a massive advantage. By leveraging the right ACD systems, telecom companies can enhance their FCR rate by leaps and bounds.
3. Superior Agent Productivity
Would you be surprised to know that telecom companies can enhance agents’ productivity by leveraging the right ACD systems? Just come to think of it; when the incoming calls get routed to the agents with the right skills and expertise, then agents take far less time to resolve callers’ queries and issues. When every agent manages to save even a minute or two in every call, the time saved throughout the day is substantial. They can do many important and high-value tasks during the time saved such as organizing, up-skilling themselves, and solving more complex issues. To quote the legendary inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin, “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”
4. Scalability
ACD systems are highly scalable. Let’s discuss more about it. We already know that ACD systems can effortlessly handle huge call volume by routing incoming calls efficiently based on predetermined criteria such as skills, availability, or priority. And they manage to do that due to their robust architecture and flexible configuration options. Apart from that ACD systems seamlessly integrate with other communication channels such as text messages, instant messages, emails, chat, and social media. By doing so, they expand a business’s capacity to handle incoming communication across all channels. The superior scalability not only enhances a telecom company’s operational efficiency but it also ensures a superior customer experience.
5. Enhanced Customer Experience
We closed the previous point by explaining how ACD systems’ scalability provides superior customer experience. But various other aspects of ACD systems improve customer experience. Let’s discuss those one by one. With the improvement in an organization’s FCR rate, its customer experience is also bound to improve. The second factor is reduced wait times. ACD systems considerably trim down wait times and that results in a positive customer experience. Last but not the least, agents’ productivity. A study also found a direct relationship between agent productivity and customer experience. It revealed how a telecom company of international repute enhanced agent productivity by 20 percent and augmented customer experience.
6. Reduced Wait Times
A majority of organizations aim for an average wait time between 30 seconds to two minutes. Some organizations aim for a much lower wait time as they know that very few callers are willing to wait even for half a minute before their call gets connected to an agent. According to a study by Call Centre Helper, the call center industry standard is to answer 80 percent of calls in 20 seconds or less. That’s where sophisticated ACD systems can be of immense benefit. When ACD systems route incoming calls to the available agents, the wait times of agents are drastically reduced.
7. Data-Driven Insights
Having access to the right data and insights is crucial for telecom companies to manage their operations effectively. When telecom organizations have the right data and insights, they are better equipped to track call metrics, agent performance, and customer trends to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. Sophisticated ACD systems provide valuable real-time analytics and reporting capabilities.
Finally, It May Be Concluded
Leveraging the right ACD systems is not just about managing calls—it’s about transforming customer experiences and driving excellence in telecom call centers. As the telecommunications industry continues to evolve, ACD systems will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of customer interaction and service delivery.
If you are in the telecom sector, you can manage high call volumes, deliver superior service, and stay competitive in a dynamic market by handpicking the right ACD systems. That’s why you must be extremely careful and choosy while selecting call center software for your business.
