Customer Service Goes Marching On
It’s March and time to think about spring-cleaning projects. Why not your phone system? If you haven’t taken advantage of all of the great call center features available on your PBX, now could be the time to think about it. The return of investment on customer service can be extraordinary.
A phone system outfitted with call center features can dramatically increase your business’ customer service proficiency. Set up a well-polished interface that incoming customers interact with, and then direct those incoming calls to the appropriate channels. Agent and queue management tools make sure your business can more than adequately tackle every situation.
The 3CX and Switchvox phone systems offer similar call center features one two very different platforms. 3CX is a software-based PBX, whereas Switchvox is available as either a hardware or cloud-based solution.
Popular Features
Let’s briefly explore some features shared by 3CX Phone System Pro and Switchvox.
An IVR “Interactive Voice Response” or Auto Attendant
This feature can be set up in a variety of ways. One of the most widely used purposes of an IVR or Auto Attendant is to route incoming calls to the appropriate department without having a receptionist do it. Callers can be prompted to, for example, dial 1 to pay or view a bill, dial 2 to contact technical support, dial 3 to talk to customer service, etc…
Hunt Groups
A hunt group is how an incoming call is directed through a series of phones in your office. If your office has ten or so phones, you can assign three or four of them (or any number of phones you choose) per hunt group. This hunt group can tell the phones to ring in a certain order, all at once or in any other available method.
Music on Hold
While incoming callers are waiting in the queue for the next available agent, the phone system can play a song or message. Upload an mp3 file or record a customized message. Anything you can do to thank waiting callers for their patience.
Real-Time Queue and Agent Statistics
See who’s waiting in the queue, how long they have been waiting, and other vital statistics. Also check out what your agents are up to, like log in and log out events, and average call time.
Listen, Whisper and Barge
The listen-in option lets you listen to a conversation between an agent and a caller. The whisper option is perfect for training a new agent, giving the trainer or an administrator the power to speak to the agent without the caller hearing it. Or set up an impromptu 3-way conference and jump into the conversation with the barge-in option.
3CX Call Center & Customer Service Features
The “Pro” version, or “3CX Phone System Pro,” contains all of 3CX’s call center features. This software-based PBX is available in a standard version that can be later upgraded to the pro version, or the entire pro version can be purchased to replace your existing PBX.
An advantage of 3CX is its software-based architecture. This allows the phone system to offer unlimited lines or extensions. The only restriction is whether your hardware or infrastructure can support the lines, or how many telephony endpoints you actually have.
Switchvox Call Center & Customer Service Features
Check out Switchvox’s “Customer Service Tools” to view what this phone system can offer. This hardware-based PBX is restricted to support a certain number of users, but it is entirely scalable and available in two different forms.
Choose a premise-based PBX, with the hardware on-site in your business. Or choose a cloud-based or hosted PBX, with the hardware off-site at Digium’s data center. Scale the hardware to support more lines and extensions through available licenses.
Both solutions, 3CX and Switchvox, can bring to your business a whole new level of customer service telephony. Other features include setting up remote agents, routing calls to mobile devices, voicemail options, Microsoft Exchange integration and more. Build and command a smarter call center solution.