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Well-designed and efficient calls flows can help your business offer uninterrupted and reliable service when your customers need it the most. We’ve put together 6 call flow templates and examples to help you understand the different ways your business can manage incoming calls.

Creating the Right Call Flows for Your Business

In order to create efficient call flows within your business phone system, you first need to understand how a call flow works.

A call flow is a map of what happens to a customer call made to your business phone system. In other words, when a customer calls your business, how does the call move within the system? You want calls to move in an efficient way that helps the customer. This means fewer interruptions, less wait times, and accurate routing.

The purpose of call flows: to help the customers resolve their questions or queries quickly and in the easiest way possible.

It is important to pay attention to how calls flow within your business so that you can improve caller experience and provide better customer service to your customers.

What to Keep in Mind When Creating Custom Call Flows

How you set up your call flows depends on why people call your business. So, before you get started, you need to first identify what callers need from your business and how you intend to offer that.

Most call flows are simple and follow a standard structure. For example, if you have customers calling only for customer support, then your call flow is simple:

But if you have people calling for different reasons, you might need to create an IVR menu with options and a flow for each option:

A call coming into your business can move down different routes based on what your caller needs and what your business wants to provide over the phone. Here is an example of some call flow options available:

But this structure may be limiting for companies with more complicated communication systems, such as international companies and businesses with remote, distributed teams.

However, advanced cloud telephony tools and call routing techniques give businesses more options and flexibility to improve caller experience. These features let you add different call flow and routing rules to a business phone line so you can help callers reach the right department sooner.

You can use a call flow builder to control better how calls flow within your system.

6 Call Flow Templates to Help You Set Up Your Business Communication System

As we mentioned earlier, how you set up your call flows determines how customers interact with your business, which in turn improves customer satisfaction rates.

Let’s look at 6 call flow templates that can help with efficient call management:

1. Standard call flows
2. IVR user menu
3. Time-based routing
4. Geographic call routing
5. Holiday call routing
6. Advanced routing systems

1. Standard Call Flows

A standard call flow is a basic, simple, and straightforward flow structure. Here, your business may only have one business phone number and want to use phone support for customer service and sales.

You can set up the call flow to send the caller to either your main office or customer support center, where they interact with an agent. You may also only need someone to transfer the caller to the right department within the company. And if your teams are busy, you can set a backup that sends the caller to your voicemail box.

Use cases: Companies with small in-house and in-office teams (solopreneurs, start-ups) or small-to-medium-sized businesses.

2. IVR / Voice Menu

If you have to route calls to 2 or more departments and across locations, then you will need a more complex call flow with an IVR menu. An IVR system is an automated interactive voice response system that answers the call, welcomes the callers, determines the purpose of the call, and transfers them to the appropriate department or person.

You can set up the call flow to start with the IVR greeting, followed by menu options such as press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer support, and so on. Then, based on the caller’s input (the number they press), they will branch out into the next part of the call flow.

In the below example, the IVR call flow is set up as:

• To make appointments, press 1 > send call to the main office > if call fails to connect (line is busy), send calls to remote office as per time of day (TOD) routing rules
• For customer service, press 2 > send call to offshore call center
• For company hours and location information, press 3 > play pre-recorded message (announcement) with updated hours and location
• To leave a voicemail, press 4 > play pre-recorded voicemail message (after-hours message) and send voicemail to designated email.

This way, callers can choose the help they need, and be transferred to the right person or message.

Use cases: Companies with global customers or local and remote teams spread across different locations.

3. Time-Based Routing

Businesses that have customers and teams spread across different locations and time zones will need to route calls from one location to the other effectively. These businesses might have different phone numbers for the countries or regions where they offer services and support. And you do not want your customers calling the wrong number or calling during off-hours and not getting support.

This is where time-based routing (also known as time of day routing) comes into play. You can use time-based routing to route calls to different locations and numbers based on the time the call comes in. Let’s work this through an example:

Your company’s main customer service is located in the US in the Eastern Standard Time EST (GMT-4). But you have customers in other US time zones such as Central Standard Time CST (GMT-5), Mountain Standard Time MST (GMT-7), and Pacific Standard Time PST (GMT-7).

If customers from these time zones call during their business hours, your customer service team might receive calls outside of their working hours. What happens to these calls? You have a couple of options. You can hire remote agents who handle calls made during off-hours. You can then forward incoming calls during those times to your remote agent list. Or, you can send those calls straight to voicemail with a message “Sorry, we’re closed for today but please leave a voicemail and we will get back to you soon.”

This way, customers calling at any time can still get some form of support.

You can use this type of routing to adopt a follow the sun support model and offer 24/7 uninterrupted service.

Use cases: Companies with global customers or local and remote teams spread across different locations.

4. Caller ID Routing / Geographic Call Routing

Caller ID routing (also known as geographic call routing, location-based routing, and geo-routing) routes calls based on the caller’s location and caller ID. Businesses with global coverage will find this feature and call flow template helpful in organizing their calls effectively.

With caller ID routing, you can decide what happens to customers calling from specific countries, cities, or regions. In the below example, we demonstrate what happens to calls coming in from different countries:

• Calls with an Indian caller ID (dialing code +91) > send the calls to the APAC office
• Calls with an Australian caller ID (dialing code +61) > send the calls to the Australian office
• Calls with an UK caller ID (dialing code +44) > send the calls to the UK office
• Calls with an US caller ID (dialing code +1) > send the calls to the US office

And for all calls, if the call fails to connect (i.e. lines or agents are busy), we play a pre-recorded voicemail message (after-hours / busy message) and send voicemail to the team’s email.

This way, callers get support in a time zone and even language they prefer.

Use cases: Companies with global customers or local and remote teams spread across different locations.

5. Holiday Schedules and Routing

Holiday call routing lets your business create holiday schedules and call flows. In other words, you decide what happens to your calls when your teams are on holiday. This can be national holidays observed by countries or a particular employee’s vacation.

Each provider has this set up differently. With Global Call Forwarding, you start by creating holiday lists and schedules where you want specific call routing rules to apply. Then, you use our time of day routing feature, to decide what happens to calls within that particular holiday list.

In the below example, we create two holiday lists:
Summer hours (specific hours during specific time of the year)
National holidays (US-based national holidays).

Then, we decide what happens to the calls that come during the summer hours or national holidays. We can either route calls to:

• Remote offices open during the summer hours
• Agents in other countries who do not observe national holidays
• Pre-recorded voice message informing them about the online knowledge base or support center
• Voicemail

With this call flow, customers who need help even during a holiday can quickly get the support they need.

Use cases: Companies with global customers or local and remote teams spread across different locations.

6. Advanced Routing Systems

You can add advanced routing features to any of the above call flows. These features work alongside hunt groups or call groups. In other words, you can decide what happens once a call connects to a particular department or group.

You start with creating a group or list for each team or department — separate groups for each department or remote teams. Each group will have a series of numbers or phone lines, both in-house and remote. And then, you set call forwarding rules for that team.

Here are the top advanced call routing solutions:

• Sequential call flows — Incoming calls move down a predetermined list of available agents or employees. Every new call starts from the top of the line.
• Round robin — Incoming calls also move down a predetermined list but every new call goes to the next person in line.
• Simultaneous ring — Incoming calls ring on multiple phones and lines, which is everyone within a hunt group.

Adding these routing rules will help your teams manage incoming calls effectively and provide support quickly and accurately.

Improve Call Management with Call Flows

Ready to think about your business’ call flows and where you can improve call management? Start here! Global Call Forwarding has a call flow builder tool that can help you visualize and design realistic call flows (simple or complicated) to support your virtual phone system. Speak with our representatives or chat with them online to learn more!

Looking for a new business call forwarding service? While there are many call forwarding services in the market, you need to choose one that meets your communications needs and fits your IT budget.

Here we compare 11 best call forwarding services, so you know where to start when choosing a provider in 2024.

Choosing the Right Call Forwarding Service

Call forwarding is a cloud telephony solution that lets users automatically forward incoming calls to a different number, phone line, or location of choice. This enables employees and distributed teams to answer calls from any location or device and stay connected.

Call forwarding services give businesses the ability to communicate across geographical borders while expanding their reach and connecting with new customers.

What to Look for Business Call Forwarding Services

Choosing a call forwarding service can prove tricky when you are not entirely familiar with how the service works and what makes it reliable.

So, what makes a good business call forwarding service? Here are the top forwarding features to look for in your new call forwarding provider:

• International call forwarding
• Advanced call routing
• Call groups or hunt groups
• Follow the sun routing
• Find-me follow-me routing
• Business phone automation
• Forward-to-device
• VoIP/SIP forwarding
• Number porting

Note that most call forwarding features come free within a plan. So, watch for providers that attempt to charge highly for basic forwarding features.

How to Compare Best Call Forwarding Services

Since there are many call forwarding services out there, you need a system to determine which one works best for your business communication needs. When comparing the best call forwarding services for small business, consider the following:

• Geographical coverage: If you have teams and customers in different locations, you need to ensure your service provider has reliable coverage and geographical numbers in those areas.
• Pricing and subscription: Monthly fee for your number (if buying a new number) and forwarding service. This may include monthly calling minutes or talk time.
• Forwarding rates: This is the additional rate per minute for forwarding a call. It is not included in your monthly calling minutes and is typically a small additional charge.
• Feature set: The suite of features and tools offered.
• Setup fees: Additional charges to set up your forwarding system.

11 Best Call Forwarding Services for Business

Here we list the 11 best call forwarding services for businesses with information about features and pricing so that you can make an informed decision:

• Global Call Forwarding
• Grasshopper
• GoTo
• Talkdesk
• Google Voice
• Dialpad
• Freedomvoice
• Talkroute
• Ringcentral
• Numberbarn
• 800.com

*Note: Costs mentioned in this article are current at the time of publishing and may be subject to changes.

Choosing Global Call Forwarding

Part of reviewing best call forwarding services is to reach out to their teams and understand how exactly they can help your business run efficiently. To learn more about the international call forwarding service offered by Global Call Forwarding, speak with our experts today! Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with us online.

As a business, one of your primary goals is to make people comfortable with your products and services, staff, and company. And part of creating that environment of comfort and reliability is making it easy for them to connect with you.

This is why it is crucial to effectively manage incoming calls. A caller waiting in line for an hour or lost within an automated menu will lead to a disgruntled and unsatisfied customer. And your business cannot afford that.

You can avoid this by preparing for it. How? Create custom and efficient call flows to help callers move down the call flow process and arrive at the right destination.

Understanding Your Business’ Call Flow

Taking time to understand your business’ call flow can help you manage incoming calls more smoothly and improve caller experience. But how?

First, let’s start with: What is a call flow?

A call flow is a map or diagram of how incoming calls will be managed once they enter your business phone system. In other words, a call flow details what happens when a customer or prospect calls your business and how they move down the call process to the right person for assistance.

This process or flow varies based on what options a business wants to offer its callers. For example, are people calling only for customer support, or are they looking for more departments? Do you have multiple offices to route calls to? Do you need to route phone calls based on the caller’s location?

A call flow can help you map out the most effective way calls should move within the system so that your callers have the best experience.

What is the Purpose of a Call Flow?

The main purpose of designing a call flow is to manage incoming calls effectively by helping callers reach the right individual or department and get assistance quickly.

Customers calling a business do not want to be waiting in a call queue for a long time, and they definitely do not want to be bounced around from one department to another to resolve an issue. They want quick service with accurate information. It is your responsibility, as a business, to have the right tools in place to give them this uninterrupted and reliable service.

Mapping out your call flows will help you create an efficient call management system that works for both your business and your customers.

What Does a Call Flow Contain?

A call flow contains a variety of actions and interactions that decide how a call is handled. A call flow builder (cloud telephony feature) will let you control these actions and triggers so that you can create custom call flows for different business numbers and lines. Most call flows contain the following actions and interactions:

• Announcements
• Automated and attended call transfers
• IVR menus
• Advanced routing features
• Send calls to voicemail
• Send faxes to emails, etc.

You can use these different call flow features and triggers to design call flows that let your business offer reliable customer service, no matter where your teams or customers are located.

Related: 9 Benefits of Advanced Call Routing

What Steps are Included in a Call Flow?

When you start to design a call flow, you need to consider the following steps to determine how calls will move within your phone system:

1. Different phone numbers and lines involved
2. What happens when the line connects? Will callers hear an announcement or welcome message or an IVR menu with input options for different departments and scenarios?
3. What will the caller be required to do after the welcome message or IVR message?
4. Which options will be made available to the caller? Examples: speak with an employee, verify identity, activate/renew a service, leave a voicemail, etc.
5. Do you need any advanced routing systems in place? Geo-routing, time-based routing, round robin call routing, etc.
6. What departments will be included in the call flow? And what happens if the caller needs a department not listed or if they enter the wrong number?
7. What should happen if one of the options or triggers fails? Example: What if the desired team is busy and no one answers the phone for 5 minutes?

Here’s an example of steps included in a call flow:

Not sure where to start? Check out these call flow templates before you start mapping your own call flows.

Building Call Flows to enhance Caller Experience

Use the Global Call Forwarding call flow designer and IVR manager to create custom call flows for your virtual phone system. We provide this feature for free with our cloud phone number plans. Browse through our features or speak with our experts to learn more! Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with us online.