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21st December 2020 blog, Call Center

7 Useful Tips for Creating a Call Center Scorecard

18th December 2020 blog, Call Center

16 Tips to Ensure Outstanding Call Center Etiquette

Guide to call center offshoring and business process outsourcing (BPO)

10th December 2020 blog, Call Center, Call Management

Your Complete Guide to Call Center Offshoring & BPO

An image showing a chief customer officer performing the duties of her role.

9th December 2020 blog, Business Insights

What Is a Chief Customer Officer and What Do They Do?

3rd December 2020 blog, Business Phone Numbers

14 Reasons to Choose Global Call Forwarding

30th November 2020 blog, Call Management

Softphone vs. Desk Phone: 6 Reasons to Use a Softphone

18th November 2020 blog, Customer Service

Building a Robust Customer-First Strategy for 2025

16th November 2020 blog, Call Management

What is Virtual Voicemail & How Does It Work?

6th November 2020 blog, Call Management

5 Ways to Leverage Time-Based Routing for Global Expansion

7 Useful Tips for Creating a Call Center Scorecard

Nadine Sampson 21st December 2020 blog, Call Center

Call center scorecards are quality monitoring tools that help you test and analyze call center and agent performance. By doing so, managers can identify areas for improvement and success. Here we look at 7 useful tips for creating a call center scorecard and what you need to focus on. We even include a downloadable evaluation form below!

How to Create a Call Center Scorecard: 7 Tips + Evaluation Form

First, what is a call center scorecard? And why do you need one? Call center scorecards are a great tool used by many call centers when conducting performance analysis. You can track and measure call center metrics, agent responses, and phone interactions, as well as conversions. Here are 7 tips to help you create an ideal scorecard:

1. Define the Purpose of the Scorecard and How it will be Used

First, you must decide and be clear on the purpose of your scorecard. What elements do you want to include? How often will you utilize the scorecards? How will you collect information about agent performance? What parameters and metrics will agents be scored on? Additionally, is every parameter equally important? Defining the purpose and the various elements that the agents will be tested on can help aid in quick and accurate analysis.

2. List Down Parameters that will be Assessed

Part of using a call center scorecard is testing your agents on various parameters that help you and them understand what they are doing well and where they can improve. Some parameters to consider include:

Greetings: Agent greeted customers politely and with a clear introduction of the company and themselves.
Script adherence: With outbound sales calls, agent followed the script naturally and paused for customer questions or concerns.
Account and identity verification: With inbound calls, agent verified the caller’s information and identity to find their account and gather information about the customer’s past interactions.
Customer service quality: Ability to clearly determine the caller’s needs, provide accurate and useful assistance
End-of-call protocol: After resolving the issue, agent must ask if there is anything else they can assist the caller with.

3. Define and Note Different Call Center Metrics

Next, you might consider including certain call center metrics that apply to your particular business. Call center metrics or KPIs assess how a call center is performing. They also help managers understand how individual agents are performing. For example, which agents resolve calls quickly and accurately or which spend too long on calls, and so on. Most call centers use call center software and call analytics to track and measure relevant metrics. You may want to consider including the following on your scorecard:

Average time in queue
Response time
Average speed of answer
Average handle time
First call resolution rate
Customer satisfaction rate
Occupancy rate
Agent absenteeism

4. Include Different Types of Customer Interaction

Often, phone conversations might be the most common communication method for your call center. However, more recently, call centers have been striving to offer multi-channel or omnichannel customer support. If your call center offers more than one channel of customer interaction, then you should measure performance on each different channel. As such, try to include different types of customer interaction (live chat, email, video, etc.) used often in your call center in your scorecard.

5. Focus on Various Skills

Depending on the type of center you run, your agents may need to multitask using multiple skills. For example, you may have agents on both phone and live chat duty simultaneously. Or, agents may need to research solutions while managing the conversation and documenting each part of the conversation.

Different departments require different skills. Customer service will need to look at knowledge bases or support documents to provide help. Reception will need to ensure the customer arrives at the right department quickly. Sales needs to make pitches using customer data and personalization.

6. Monitor, Collect Data, & Refine

Since the purpose of a call center scorecard is to collect data and measure how your business and agents are performing, these scorecards need to be monitored regularly. By monitoring on a regular basis, you will not only gain insight into how well or badly your agents are doing, but also what elements or parameters are worth measuring and which ones are not useful.

Then, you can make the necessary adjustments and refine your scorecard for functionality and accuracy. Additionally, you can make necessary changes to improve agent and call center performance.

7. Treat Your Agents as Humans, Not Robots

Finally, remember that your agents are humans and not customer service robots. As such, set realistic goals and expectations when creating and monitoring your call center scorecard. Be flexible and leave room for error. Provide sufficient training materials so agents can continue to do better.

Evaluate Performance with an Effective Call Center Scorecard

Designing a call center scorecard takes time and refinement. Get started now by developing your own scorecard or using online templates and tailoring them to your needs. There are many resources available for tracking, measuring, and improving productivity. Take steps in the right direction and watch the efficiency grow in your call center.

Downloadable Call Center Scorecard Templates

Ready to get started? Then, grab our call center scorecard templates below, share them with your managers, and start evaluating your call center’s performance! We have scorecard templates for Outbound Sales calls, Inbound Sales calls, Customer and Technical Support calls, and Chat support.

Download Your Free Call Center Scorecard Templates

CC Scorecard download

16 Tips to Ensure Outstanding Call Center Etiquette

Nadine Sampson 18th December 2020 blog, Call Center

Effective and excellent call center etiquette can go a long way in securing valuable customers and leads. However, you may have noticed that the rules are constantly changing. In this post, we detail the dos and don’ts of call center etiquette and how you can offer an outstanding call center experience. Read on to learn more!

Top Tips for Excellent Call Center Etiquette

How call center agents conduct themselves during calls can determine customer satisfaction and retention. Poor etiquette leads to bad customer service and low caller satisfaction. Call center etiquette can be divided into four different phases of the call such as:

Answering the call.
Speaking to customers and identifying issues.
Transferring customers to another agent or supervisor.
Ending the call.

In each of these phases, you must demonstrate professionalism, concern, and a desire to genuinely assist your caller. We’ll look at each of these phases individually and the different aspects to keep in mind to ensure you are providing outstanding call center etiquette. Learn more about promising customer service tips here.

When Answering the Call

The speed at which you answer the call as well as your tone can determine how the rest of the call goes. If you take too long or answer the call in a rushed manner, callers will immediately be put off. Keep these tips in mind as well:

1. Answer the Call Promptly
Customers do not like to be kept waiting when they are trying to reach customer support. Always answer the call on the second or third ring. Any longer than that, they may feel frustrated and abandon the call. Additionally, if it is too hard to reach your business time and time again, that customer will likely switch over to a competitor instead.

2. Greet with a Friendly Tone
Always greet callers with a positive attitude. Callers can sense your inflection on the phone. Smiling while you’re on a call is an old trick that conveys a friendly tone through the phone. Starting a call with a positive attitude encourages the same from the caller on the other line.

If someone is distraught about their product and in need of help, your positivity will help ease their frustrations because they will know by your tone that you are eager to help. You do not need to go overboard with this. A simple greeting like “Hello, you’ve reached (name of company) my name is ___, how can I help you today?” will suffice.

Identifying the Issue

Next up is taking the time to listen to your caller and identify the issue. This means you should key into their emotions and being empathetic while clearly understanding what the problem is. After all, if you do not know what is concerning them, you may not be able to help effectively.

3. Adopt Active Listening
Let them explain and describe the issue to you before you repeat it. Nothing frustrates a customer more than an employee that is not paying attention to them and seems in a rush to finish the call. Take time to understand where they are coming from and what the problem is. Reinforce your understanding by showing you have heard their situation and are working on a resolution.

4. Identify the Issue
Once you think you have a good handle over what the issue is, confirm it with them. Reiterate the problem as best as you understand it. Something like, “So, from what you are telling me, I understand that you are having an issue with . . .” or “. . . that you would like to . . .” This will help you ensure you have thoroughly understood the issue and will also demonstrate to the caller that you have been paying attention.

5. Be Patient and Helpful
Always be patient. Whether they are taking too long to explain the problem or are repeating themselves, your patience will determine whether this customer returns or not. When a client calls a company, it is more than likely to resolve an issue. Patiently listen to them. If you are unable to help them, transfer them to the correct department.

Transferring the Call or Placing the Caller on Hold

Most callers do not enjoy being placed on hold or transferred to another employee. Unfortunately, at times, it is necessary to transfer the call to someone who can handle it better or place them on hold so you can find the right information and help them better. Here are rules to observe when transferring a call or placing it on hold:

6. Determine Who to Transfer to
Again, listening intently to what their needs are will help you determine what department to send them to. After all, customers will only get more agitated if they need support but you sent them to sales.

7. Explain Why They Need to be Transferred
Most callers do not like to be bounced around. However, sometimes it is inevitable, especially if they reached the wrong department, to begin with. Explain to your caller why they need to be transferred to another department or employee.

8. During the Transfer
When you transfer a phone call, make sure that there is someone in that department available to take the call. Stay on the phone with your caller until someone answers and then you can introduce the caller to this new department. Do not abandon your caller till they have someone who can take care of them.

9. Ask Before Placing on Hold
Before you put someone on hold, ask them for their permission. Instead of saying “I’m going to put you on hold now” or nothing at all, say “Would it be alright if I put you on hold for a brief moment?” Then wait for an answer.

10. Use The Hold Button Appropriately
Make sure you and your teams know how to use the hold button so there is no confusion. For example, when you place someone on hold while you speak to another customer, the person on hold should not hear you speaking with the other customer or hear employees in the background. Hold music or a custom message can be played when they are on hold, instead.

11. Do Not Place Callers on Hold for Too Long
Do not leave someone on hold for a long time. If they are waiting to speak to someone in particular who is not available, inform them that they will be waiting for a certain period of time. If the wait exceeds 2-5 minutes, check in to let them know you have not forgotten about them but are taking longer to find what they need. If they do not want to stay on hold for long, encourage them to call back later or offer to call them when you have the information or person available.

call center software — Source: Stockphoto.com O#100053743383

Ending the Call

The last part of maintaining good call center etiquette focuses on how to end a call. This largely depends on how the call went. Were you able to resolve everything or is a follow-up required?

12. End The Call Politely

Always aim to end the call on a “high note.” If something needs your attention right away, offer to call the person back and let them know you will finish the conversation after you have dealt with this urgent matter.

When the conversation has come to a natural end, ask them if there is anything else you can do for them. If yes, proceed to assist. If no, thank them for their call. An example of a good way to end a phone call is, “Thank you so much for calling (company) today, I hope you enjoy your weekend.” Or, “It was a pleasure speaking with you, I’m glad that we could help you out today. Have a wonderful rest of your day.”

Additionally, if your company asks for surveys post calls, ask your caller if they would be interested in participating in a brief survey. And respect their wishes, whichever way they lean.

Do not rush them off the phone, and always wait for the customer to hang up before you hang up.

13. Offer Follow-Up Information
Alternatively, if a follow-up is required, let them know how to expect it. Will you send an email or phone call reminder? Should they call you back instead of your company contacting them? Either way, make sure that you have the information they need when the follow-up occurs.

Additional Call Center Etiquette

In addition to the above points, there are some other aspects of call center etiquette to pay attention to, such as call management and training.

14. Training Employees and Agents
So that agents know what they are supposed to do and how to best help customers, they need to be trained well. This includes:

- Training new employees, even those that come with experience
- Offering refresher courses and workshops to current employees periodically
- Using call recording to record and review interactions
- Conduct regular performance analysis
- Provide access to seminars and training programs

15. Making a Call
Employees should be trained to make calls professionally. Be sure to introduce yourself and the reason for your call right away. Provide them with all the necessary details at the beginning of the call.

Leaving a voicemail is similar to making a call. Even with the voicemail, introduce yourself and explain the reason for your call. Also include contact details such as a phone number and, if needed, a time frame for them to call you back.

16. Forward Your Phone To Voicemail
If you are out of your office, send all incoming phone calls immediately to your voicemail so that the caller knows that you are unavailable. Having a caller sit through 20 rings before realizing that you’re not going to answer is impolite and leaves the caller with a negative feeling. Your voicemail should state who you are and when you will be back. An instant and informative voicemail saves the caller time and allows them the option of leaving a message or calling back at a more convenient time.

Offer Better Customer Service with the Right Etiquette

If you don’t try to do the best you can, chances are, you will miss the buck. To gain new customers and convert them into regulars and to treat your regulars like royalty, your call center etiquette needs to be on-point. Make the necessary changes, implement a strategy for continuous education, and watch as your business grows!

Your Complete Guide to Call Center Offshoring & BPO

Beny Mouen 10th December 2020 blog, Call Center, Call Management

What are the advantages of outsourcing your communication needs? Do the advantages outweigh the cons? Learn everything you need to know about call center offshoring & BPO services.

Call Center Offshoring & BPO Explained

Businesses can save money by outsourcing their business processes to an offshore call center. Call center offshoring — also known as call center outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO) — can help you delegate certain sales and customer service duties.

Why Do Businesses Outsource Processes?

From large enterprises to small businesses, companies across the board have outsourced (some, if not all) of their services to BPOs. And the main reason for this is to reduce costs. With call center outsourcing, you send out customer service and sales processes, which gives your business more time to focus on developing customer-focused products and services. So, not only do you save on the cost of running a sales and customer service department, you make more space for business development.

How Does an Offshore Call Center Work?

An offshore call center takes on some business processes such as customer service, lead generation, technical support, and human resource management. As such, they work to bring on new clients and retain existing ones.

These call centers are well-equipped to handle customer inquiries and concerns. And they have the most advanced software and tools that support call management, performance monitoring, data security, and more.

What Services Does a Call Center BPO Offer?

Businesses in almost every industry are outsourcing various processes to offshore call centers. These industries include business services, healthcare, retail, e-commerce, telecom, banking, and more. The plethora of services covered by offshore call centers has, in fact, led to subspecialties such as:

Customer service & lead generation — Which focuses primarily on generating sales for a business and offering customer support services. As part of the lead generation process, agents contact prospects and leads on a predetermined list provided by the business. Some call center outsourcing services may even help with the creation of lead lists through market research. As part of the customer support service, agents answer calls made to business clients and offer troubleshooting help, resolutions, and more.
Customer interaction — Oversees a company’s communication channels such as email, phone conversations, voicemail, and social media; appointment-setting and scheduling services; marketing and telemarketing services; order and payment processing; customer support and customer success; customer feedback, and more.
Travel & tourism — Focuses on offering support and itinerary-planning services to travelers. Works with local and international tourism companies for deals and promotions.
Financial services — Focuses on finance and banking-related services such as payment processing; activation of services; collection; billing and counting services; general accounting, bookkeeping for small business, auditing, and more.
IT and software-focused — Offers technical support; technology-related troubleshooting; offshore software product development; implementation services; IT helpdesk, and more.
Virtual assistants — Acts as a cost-effective resource to help you grow your business, by managing incoming calls and providing customer support.

Pros & Cons of Call Center Offshoring

So, should your business take advantage of call center offshoring & BPO services? Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of using an outsourcing service.

Pros of Using a Call Center BPO

1. Lower communication-related costs

Sending your business processes offshore can help reduce or eliminate costs related to business communication or running a call center. Since you do not need a comprehensive team of sales agents and customer service reps and managers, you can save on hiring costs as well.

2. Lower staffing issues

Your BPO will be responsible for hiring, training, and managing agents and reps. You won’t have to worry about conducting performance analysis or scheduling agents, or managing call center agents. This can save you time and money.

3. Better call management

Offshore call centers come equipped with advanced call center software and tools. This ranges from call management features to call recording and analytics. With these services, you can often get better customer support and learn how to appease customers better. Additionally, you can handle high call volumes or high periods of call traffic by outsourcing to your call center BPO from time to time.

4. Better business continuity

Virtual call centers can have multiple geographic locations spread across the globe. This can help your business offer 24/7 customer support in regional languages and time zones.

Cons of Call Center Offshoring & BPO

1. Lack of company knowledge

When you outsource business needs, not every agent may be thoroughly schooled in your company’s mission, values, and product education. As such, they may not be able to provide the level or standard of service your business promises.

2. Less control over business functions

When outsourcing, you give control of basic and core services to agents and employees you have not worked with. Additionally, it may be hard to track and monitor each agent representing your business for quality assurance.

3. Decreased customer satisfaction

Usually, agents and reps from a call center BPO don’t offer the same personalized service as your business would. Customers realizing this may be less satisfied with the service they have received and may seek better service elsewhere.

Choosing Between BPO and KPO

The terms BPO and KPOs are often used interchangeably. However, these two types of outsourcing services differ in a variety of ways. In this section, we will discuss Knowledge Process Outsourcing services (KPOs) and the differences between KPOs and BPOs.

KPO: Definition and Types

What is a KPO? Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is the outsourcing of information-related processes. KPOs are considered an extension of BPOs and require more complex skills outsourcing business processes. Knowledge process outsourcing services include specialized expertise and advanced technical skills. Common types of KPOs include:

Market Research
Business Research
Legal Services
Medical Services
Accounting & Financial Consulting
R&D
Content Development & Design
Data Analysis
Corporate Training
Education and Learning Solutions

Benefits of KPOs

A company may choose to use a KPO to handle high-level, complex tasks instead of hiring in-house employees to handle those tasks. KPOs are built to handle such tasks and provide expertise, making them a reliable source. Here are the benefits of using knowledge process outsourcing services:

1. Cost-effective & scalable

KPOs can help your business reduce costs in a number of ways. Get access to expert services at reasonable rates while increasing profits. Cut down on infrastructure and operating costs, and increase or reduce staff as needed. Overall, using KPOs make for a cost-effective solution.

2. Access to experienced professionals

Your business does not have to take on hiring and training experts for different internal functions. Instead, you can spend time focusing on core services like product development and sales while outsourcing other services to a KPO. This also helps reduce the cost of recruiting and training new employees.

3. Low asset & equipment investment

When outsourcing services to a KPO, you can save on office space and equipment costs. No need for extra hardware or high investment in real estate and tech equipment.

4. Better use of resources

Additionally, you can utilize your own resources in other activities or processes when you outsource certain services. For instance, you may invest in workflow automation to support your employees’ productivity and efficiency, or chatbot services to boost your customer service efforts.

BPO vs. KPO

So, what is the difference between BPO and KPO? Here are some key differences:

Skills needed: BPOs are less complex and require low-level skills, while KPOs are more complex and need analytic and technical skills.

Level of expertise needed: Employees working at a business process outsourcing service need basic professional expertise, while those at a knowledge process outsourcing service need advanced and specialized expertise.

Types of tasks: BPOs focus on administrative tasks while KPOs focus on analytic and more complex tasks.

Offerings: BPOs are all about efficiency and streamlining processes; based on a set process and rules. KPOs provide professional expertise and knowledge.

Day-to-day: Call center BPO employees may have a standard, monotonous routine designed to reach targets. KPO employees, on the other hand, offer specialized insights (such as forecasts) and may work directly with the client.

Related: Call Center Trends [2024]

Is Call Center Offshoring Right for You?

Depending on the size and needs of your business, a combination of onshore call center and offshore call center services may be a better choice. This way, you still have control over your own call center. Additionally, you can take advantage of virtual call center software to utilize the same tools and technologies that call centers use. And you will have the backup support of offshore centers as well. To learn more, speak with our experts at 1 (888) 908 6171.

What Is a Chief Customer Officer and What Do They Do?

Nadine Sampson 9th December 2020 blog, Business Insights

Looking for your next job in customer service management? A Chief Customer Officer (CCO) might be your calling. In this post, we look at what a CCO does and how to become one successfully.

Chief Customer Officer (CCO): Job Description

A Chief Customer Officer, also known as a Chief Client Officer, is the executive responsible for an organization’s relationships with their customers. The CCO is responsible mainly for developing and implementing a customer-first strategy for the business they work for.

This means that CCOs influence various departments and functions within the business such as:

Customer Success
Customer Service
Technical Support
Customer Marketing
Customer Retention
Customer Expansion
Onboarding

The main goal of a Chief Customer Officer is to increase customer satisfaction and lifetime value. To do so, a CCO should have on-field experience as well as practical and technical knowledge of how things work in their industry. A CCO is usually responsible for five key metrics:

Revenue Retention — calculated by subtracting lost revenue, known as revenue churn, from total revenue in a certain time period.
Customer Lifetime Value – the revenue that a business can expect from a single customer account.
Customer Health Score – a high score indicates that a positive outcome is likely.
Net Promoter Score – the percentage of customers that are likely to recommend your company.
Renewal Rate – the percentage of revenue that was renewed in a certain time period.

What do CCOs Do?

Since the end goal is to improve customer success, a Chief Customer Officer might dabble in many aspects of a business’s functions. These may include:

Working with developers to create new products
Managing customer-facing employees
Overseeing customer marketing efforts
Encouraging customer service and customer success managers
Working closely with customer service reps

Chief Customer Officer vs Chief Commercial Officer

There are differences between Chief Client Officers and Chief Commercial Officers. The first major difference is that Chief Commercial Officers are in charge of the entire customer-facing operation. This includes marketing, sales, customer success, and technical support. Chief Customer Officers, on the other hand, deal solely with existing customers. This includes customer success and support.

Another major difference between Customer Officers and Commercial Officers is related to the size of an organization. Chief Commercial Officers exist primarily in larger B2B organizations. On the contrary, organizations of all sizes and types are likely to have Customer Officers. So, the two roles are quite different.

Organizational Structure

In most organizations, Chief Client Officers are part of the c-suite. This means that they report directly to the CEO. In other organizations, the Chief Client Officer reports to the Chief Customer Officer, who reports to the CEO. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to customer management.

Objectives of a Chief Customer Officer

Since Chief Customer Officers work closely with all departments of a business, they need to establish clear targets and standards to achieve their goals. Some targets a CCO should aspire to include:

1. Setting Clear and Practical Goals
Unclear or unrealistic goals will lead to high expectations and low results. It is therefore important to set practical goals and ensure your teams understand what these goals are and how to achieve them. You may even choose to work with them closely and outline successful strategies they can adopt to reach their goals.

2. Encourage and Motivate Teams
Instead of ruling with fear, it is advisable to use positive reinforcement and incentives to encourage and motivate your teams. A team fearful of failing and struggling to approach its superiors for help will not lead to good results. Provide training, educational materials, workshops, and make yourself reachable and approachable.

3. Be Aware and Present
Show up. If you are not present and there for your employees, you will not be aware of their challenges, what they are struggling with, or what is happening in your company. And without this information, you won’t be able to create a healthy and supportive working atmosphere. A healthy and supportive workforce leads to happier customers.

4. Focus on Financial Targets
Lastly, focus on achieving financial targets such as the Gross Retention Number, Net Retention Number, and Services Gross Margin.

How to Become a Chief Customer Officer

As with every job, becoming a CCO means getting your priorities right and fitting the bill. Here are some things to keep in mind when developing your profile:

Be customer-centric and customer-focused
Position yourself to work with front-line teams
Collaborate with teams as often as possible
Place importance on customer feedback
Demonstrate effective conflict resolution skills

There are many job boards where you can apply to become a Chief Customer Officer: Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor are among the most popular.

The Career Path of a Chief Customer Officer

The career progression of a chief customer officer involves a number of customer-facing roles. These roles can include being a customer support representative, a customer success manager, VP of support, and much more. However, some CCOs will assume the role without prior customer-facing experience, but with extensive business experience.

What is the Salary of a Chief Client Officer?

According to Salary.com, the average salary of a chief client officer or chief customer officer in 2024 ranges from $205,600 and $268,200. The job is well paid due to its importance.

CCOs Lead to Good Customer Management

The main goal of a Chief Customer Officer is to improve the way a business interacts with its customers. This ranges from product development to marketing to customer success strategies. If being a CCO is your calling, then it may be time to get the wheels moving in that direction and develop a strong foundation. Good luck!

14 Reasons to Choose Global Call Forwarding

Luke Genoyer 3rd December 2020 blog, Business Phone Numbers

Global Call Forwarding is a leading provider of telecommunications solutions for global businesses of all sizes.

Why should you choose us for your communication needs? Read on to learn more.

14 Reasons Global Call Forwarding is Right for Your Business

There are a number of factors that you need to consider when evaluating a business phone service. Here are 14 reasons why Global Call Forwarding is the best provider:

1. Proven Telecom Experience

United World Telecom (UWT) was founded in 1996. Global Call Forwarding was launched as a UWT brand in 2007.

We have more than 20 years of proven telecom experience and some of the most knowledgeable experts in this industry.

Our experience helps us provide solutions to companies’ biggest telecom challenges. More than 2,000 multinational organizations depend on our high-availability telecom network that has multiple layers of redundancy.

2. Competitive Pricing

Our pricing is straightforward without any hidden fees. We strive to bring you best-in-class solutions and service at competitive rates. Our numbers come loaded with advanced features that are included with the service.

We have 5 virtual number plans with included minutes and an additional per-minute rate. All taxes and other fees are included in the monthly rates that you see.

We also provide itemized invoices and full call detail records. Everything on your invoice will be clearly detailed. We’re really easy to get in touch with if you have questions.

3. Crystal-Clear Call Quality

Crystal-clear voice is crucial for customer satisfaction.

We never compromise on call quality. Instead, our partnerships with local and regional telecom operators enable us to deliver enterprise-grade voice at competitive rates.

Global Call Forwarding will help you ensure that your business phone calls sound perfect.

4. 24/7 Support & Dedicated Account Management

Real people. Real service.

We’re a US-based company with a regional office in APAC.

You can call us any time you need help. The direct phone number of your account manager is provided to you upon account activation.

24-hour customer support is available through our support ticketing system. We also have a live chat on our website and a Knowledge Base for self-service.

5. Huge Inventory of Local & Toll-Free Numbers Worldwide

Global Call Forwarding has the world’s largest coverage of international toll-free and local phone numbers available from many of the 195 countries worldwide.

No matter where you need a phone number, we’ve got you covered.

6. Advanced Service Features

Close relationships with our customers over the years have helped us create solutions to some of the most common problems facing businesses today.

Our most popular call forwarding features include time-based routing, simultaneous ring, IVR (i.e. “press 1 for sales, press 2 for support”), virtual voicemail. We also offer premium services such as hosted call recording and outbound calling.

All virtual phone number features can be managed in real-time through an online portal.

7. Easy-to-Use

We provide an easy-to-use virtual phone solution that can help you enhance business communications. There’s no programming required to use our service, but an API is available if you want to integrate with your other business tools.

Manage all number settings easily online or by contacting your account manager.

8. Outstanding Customer Reviews

We put our customers first. Go read our Google reviews or Global Call Forwarding reviews on G2 and you’ll see that our customers love doing business with us.

We work hard every day to add value to our customers and provide an outstanding experience.

9. Cost-Effective Alternative to Legacy Telecom Carriers

Legacy telecom companies tend to have higher rates and lower response times. This is because they work with thousands of employees across various locations and departments, which leads to higher overhead and operational expenses. Unfortunately, customers bear the brunt of these expenses. Global Call Forwarding, on the other hand, provides high-quality service for lower, competitive rates. Our customers only pay for the service they need and nothing else. Our customers have saved on business communication costs by switching from a legacy carrier to our service.

10. Dependable & Diverse Team

Over the years, people from more than 20 different countries have worked here. This is especially important because we operate on a global scale. Everyone brings a unique skillset and personality to the team. A lot of the Global Call Forwarding team is also active on LinkedIn!

We have fluent English, Spanish, and French speakers and natives.

11. International Footprint

We have a strong international footprint with global infrastructure and points of presence worldwide. We’re running 24/7.

12. There’s No Commitment

New business customers can get a 15-day free trial to test the quality of our service.

After the free trial, your service is month-to-month.

13. Easy Scaling

It’s extremely easy to add and remove phone numbers from your account.

We aim to provide fast phone number provisioning, which is very important in today’s remote work environment.

14. Stay Connected from Anywhere

Our service makes it possible for anyone to make and receive phone calls anywhere in the world. This can help you capitalize on outsourcing and global expansion opportunities for your business.

Try Global Call Forwarding Today!

If all the above reasons sound good to you, why not give us a try? You can start with a free trial to see how our service fits your needs. If you want to learn more, call us and talk to one of our experts. We look forward to hearing from you!

Softphone vs. Desk Phone: 6 Reasons to Use a Softphone

Meryl D'Sa-Wilson 30th November 2020 blog, Call Management

A softphone has all the functions and features of a desk phone, except it works on any device of your choice and in any location. Softphones provide flexibility and mobility without increasing your business expenses. So, why are softphones superior? Read on to learn more.

Why Use a Softphone Instead of a Desk Phone

A softphone is a software-based communication application used to make telephone calls over the internet. You can download it on any device (computer, tablet, smartphone). Some softphones are desktop applications that run on Mac and Windows devices. Other softphones are web-based and accessible through web browsers or smartphone apps for iOS and Android devices.

You can get a softphone through a business phone service provider or through third-party softphone apps. It is recommended, however, to get the one your provider offers as that would typically work best with your phone service.

Let’s look at how a softphone works better than a desk phone:

1. Quick and Easy Set-up

Softphones are easy to set-up and use. To set up your softphone, you will need a link or mobile app and login credentials given by your provider. You can then use this link on compatible browsers or download the app. Then, you type in your login credentials and you now have access to your softphone on any device.

You do not need any extra equipment — such as a specific type of desk phone — or additional configuration needs to make your softphone work. You can use softphones on existing devices and, therefore, there is no need to purchase a new phone.

2. Take Your Business With You

The best part about using softphones is that they work in the cloud. This means that you do not need to carry your office desk phone with you when you travel for business. You can simply access your phone service account via your softphone on any device and in any location. All that is required is a stable internet or WiFi connection.

Softphones help remote team management. Whether your employees travel for work or your teams work remotely, they can stay connected and reachable on their business line through their laptops or smartphones.

3. Answer Calls from Any Device and Keep Personal Numbers Private

When you use a softphone from your personal device, the thought usually is that your personal cell number or home number will be displayed on outgoing calls. However, that is not the case. The point of a softphone is to let you use your business phone line from any location or device.

As such, you can mask your personal number and instead display your business number when making a call. Furthermore, incoming calls made to your business number will forward to your softphone on your personal device without your number being made public.

4. Check Business Voicemail and Update Contacts On-The-Go

With the growth of softphones as a common business communication tool, providers have worked on making these software-based tools more efficient and useful. This has led to softphones having numerous features besides just a dialpad. These include:

Adding and updating contact information
Updating call notes
Having access to contact history and interactions
Easy call transfers with access to the office directory
Virtual voicemail forwarding
Customizable caller ID that lets you choose which business number to display
Making outbound calls to any location in the world with international business numbers
Having access to call reports and activity logs
Viewing other active users
In-network calls

With these features, users are working in sync with other employees to maintain continuity and productivity.

5. Less Equipment Needed in the Office

Since a softphone can be used on any device, your office doesn’t need to invest in top-quality desk phones. In fact, if your business has a BYOD policy, employees can simply use their own devices to make and receive calls, even within the office. This saves your business considerable communication-related costs as you do not need to purchase new equipment.\

6. Host Voice and Video Conference Calls

Some softphones also offer voice and video conference calling capabilities. This further encourages collaboration and helps with business meetings, sales pitches, and more.

Time to Get Your Business a Softphone?

A softphone simplifies the process of making and receiving business calls by enabling employees to stay connected no matter where they are or what devices they are using. Get a softphone today to streamline your calling process and improve office efficiency. To learn more, call us at 1 (888) 908 6171.

Building a Robust Customer-First Strategy for 2025

Meryl D'Sa-Wilson 18th November 2020 blog, Customer Service

A customer-first strategy can help your business enhance customer experience, increase customer retention, and boost employee productivity. An effective strategy is designed to focus on the customer and develop strong customer relations. Happy customers lead to happy businesses, after all.

What is a Customer-First Strategy?

A customer-first strategy is a business plan that revolves around the success of your customers. It focuses on the customer and improving the customer experience. Such an approach looks at the situation of your target customer and identifies ways to make their experience with your company and your product better. If customers are unhappy with your service or cannot relate to your product, then there is no reason for them to do business with you. They will take their money elsewhere.

This includes addressing the following points:

What are the expectations of your customer?
How can you make life easier for your customers?
What are the common issues your customers are looking to solve?
How is your customer’s team set up?
How can you improve your customers’ experiences by leveraging customer stories from the past?

Besides focusing on your customers, an effective customer-first strategy will also focus on employee needs. After all, your employees will be interacting with your customers or creating products and services for them. If your employees feel undervalued, they will not put 100% into satisfying your customers.

Why You Must Put Your Customers First

Any business that relies on recurring revenue must put its customers first. Improved engagement and the quality of customer interactions will drive sales down the line. We all know that happy customers spend more and are more likely to refer your business to others.

A customer-first approach that focuses on solving customers’ problems will improve the longevity of your business.

How Do You Put the Customer First?

So, what do you need to focus on to create a customer-first strategy that will be successful and draw more customers to your business?

Customer expectations — What is your target customer expecting from your service? High quality, quick response time, multichannel support, etc.?
Customer preferences — Do customers prefer self-service options or assisted customer support? Do they look for product information and reviews on social media? Would they prefer multichannel support and not just voice calls?
Customer experience when interacting with your brand — How and where are customers interacting with your business? How can this interaction be improved to their satisfaction?
Customer’s situation — How is your customer’s business set up? What essentials do they need? How can your business help?
Employee experiences — How can you improve the experience of your employees so that they do their job well and treat customers with care?
Common issues customers want solved — What issues are they looking to resolve with your product? How can you market your product to that end?

How to Establish an Effective Customer-First Strategy

An effective customer strategy usually consists of two initiatives: customer-focused and employee-focused. You will need to pay attention to the needs and expectations of both your customers and employees so you can put your customers first.

Here are some ways to create a customer-first strategy that boosts business growth:

1. Know Your Target Audience and Customer Base

The most important part of creating a customer-centric strategy includes understanding your target audience and your existing customer base. If you don’t know who you are selling to or have a good idea of their situation and needs, you will not be able to provide them with a useful and helpful product.

Conduct market research for new customers and target audiences to gain insight into their needs, expectations, and preferences. Collect feedback from current customers to understand what you can do to improve their experience.

2. Build a Buyer Persona for Your Product

If you haven’t yet, it is extremely crucial to create personas depending on your customer. This step should occur when you create your business plan.

A buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer or target audience. This persona is created by including your target customer’s demographic, career, job position, personal interests, and so on. Create a buyer persona through market research and collecting data about individuals within your target audience range.

Creating customer personas helps you get into the mindset of your audience, their needs, demands, expectations, preferences, and so on. This can further help you serve them better.

3. Study Customer Behaviors, Preferences, and Needs

To execute a customer-first strategy, your business needs to work closely with its customers. How else will you learn what they need and the best ways to help them? By paying attention to their needs, you can:

Offer better, more wholesome products
Become more accessible through multichannel support
Understand when and where they are interacting with your brand to optimize marketing efforts
Customize and personalize customer support and sales efforts

All of these steps can help you develop stronger customer relationships and encourage these customers to continue doing business with your company. This will help you retain more high-quality accounts. It’s essential to study your customers so that you can proactively respond to their needs.

Start by tracking customer metrics such as lifetime value (LTV), customer retention, satisfaction, and net promoter score. Ensure that all departments (especially sales, operations, and support) have access to this data. Your business can then start building an incredible overall customer experience.

By failing to understand the needs of your customer base, you might not be able to guide customers along the right journey. In addition, you might not be able to solve their problems quickly.

4. Focus on Improving Employee Experience

While the term “customer-first strategy” naturally implies a focus on customers, remember that customers interact the most with your employees. Specifically, your customer support and sales teams. Overburdened and stressed-out employees will not make a good impression on customers and sales leads.

Employee experience (EX) must be considered as part of your customer strategy. The value of a great employee experience is immense! As such, your employees need to be treated well and provided with the right business tools so they can do their jobs effectively.

EX means taking key steps towards improving the collective experience of your employees. You may consider popular incentives such as remote work and perks. Additionally, you can provide employees with training materials and courses to continue to better their skills and talents. Above all, you should allow for growth within the company. This helps lower employee turnover rates and ensure productive employees but also save.

Working on your business’ EX means creating a stable and healthy work environment. Happier employees have more pleasant customer interactions, which in turn drives customer success.

5. Make Your Business Easily Reachable

Part of a strong customer-first strategy is being accessible and reachable to your customers no matter where they are. No customer should have to pass through hoops or wait for days to get support. You must have enough customer service and technical support reps to satisfy customer needs. Furthermore, be active on multiple channels such as phone, email, live chat, social media, video. This ensures that you are always reachable.

If you are running an international business, it is important to have strong global communication. Consider subscribing to an international call forwarding service. Such a service will route calls to your team anywhere in the world. This gives your customers a free or inexpensive way to call your business, irrespective of physical distance.

Being reachable and providing quick responses will increase customer trust in your business and improve customer success. Here at Global Call Forwarding, we can help get you set up with a reliable and well-functioning business phone system for round-the-clock support.

6. Collect Feedback & Grow

Finally, collect feedback from customers regularly. You can use surveys to understand where your business is succeeding and what problems you can solve for customers in the future. Then, brainstorm and apply practical solutions to key issues. A strategy that puts your customers first will make your business a better place to be.

Draw in More Customers in 2025 with a Customer-Centric Strategy

How can Global Call Forwarding help? Check out this list of great customer service tips. Implement the above tips to build and execute an effective customer-first strategy that proves helpful for your customers and employees.

Speak with our experts to see what tools and services are available to help your business focus on customer experience. Call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 or chat with us online today!

What is Virtual Voicemail & How Does It Work?

Nadine Sampson 16th November 2020 blog, Call Management

When looking for a convenient way to manage your phone calls, you may have come across the term “virtual voicemail” or “cloud voicemail.” But how does it work and what are the benefits of using an online voicemail service? Read on to learn more.

Virtual Voicemail: Definition & Benefits

Voicemail is a virtual number feature that enables users to receive voicemails online in the form of an email address. Virtual voicemails — also known as cloud voicemail or hosted voicemail — are stored in the cloud. By doing so, you and your teams can access voicemails from your phone, work computer, or laptop and store them for future use.

1. Get Voicemails the Way You Want it

So, how does virtual voicemail work? There are a few different ways hosted voicemail functions. However the most common is the email forwarding feature. This feature forwards voicemails directly to your email or even two email addresses listed on your account.

Users that have access to these emails can access the voicemail through their email inbox on their phone, office computer, home laptop, etc. Some providers not only forward the voicemail to the inbox but also provide a transcript or voicemail preview. This is also known as transcription.

Visual voicemail lets you “see” voicemail messages so that you can identify and focus on messages with the highest priority. Not all voicemails may be important. Scanning them can help you prioritize your actions.

2. Access Voicemails Anywhere

Most businesses struggle with voicemails as they receive hundreds of messages per day along with the regular call traffic. However, customers who leave voicemails usually have a sole purpose. Most likely, it is because they have an important issue or inquiry. Losing these messages or not paying equal attention to them may cost you valuable customers.

By using a virtual voicemail feature, ensure that your team can access important and urgent voicemails from anywhere. Cloud voicemails come with an audio attachment and transcript or preview. This lets your team know what the message is about and determine how quickly they need to respond.

3. Utilize Cloud Storage

A voicemail inbox can only store so many messages at a time. However, if your business has been operating for years and has long-term customers, then you will want to save any and all documentation of customer interaction.

Here is where cloud storage proves useful. Save your virtual voicemail messages online and store them for longer periods of time. Additionally, since they are stored in the cloud, if your device or equipment changes, you will still have access to these messages.

Get Voicemail to Email with Global Call Forwarding

Global Call Forwarding’s Voicemail to Email feature lets you access and manage voicemail messages when it is most convenient for you. Additionally, by going virtual, you can enable customers to interact with your business 24/7. This is because their voicemail gets forwarded to your email where there is no limit. Get voicemail to email with any of our virtual phone number plans and adjust settings through your control panel to suit your individual needs. Sign up today on our homepage or call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 to learn more!

5 Ways to Leverage Time-Based Routing for Global Expansion

Beny Mouen 6th November 2020 blog, Call Management

Improve your business’ reach and connect with more customers globally with time-based routing. Use this feature to make your business more accessible and to conduct operations in a flexible and reliable manner.

5 Ways to Use Time-Based Routing to Grow Globally

Time-based routing — also known as time of day routing — is a call routing or forwarding feature based on the time customers or business contacts call your business. You can set various call forwarding rules to best suit your business’ communication needs.

For example, with time of day routing, you can forward incoming calls during specific times of the day or days of the week to different numbers, lines, or devices. And so, send incoming calls during specific time periods to your satellite office, home phone, VoIP number, voicemail, or smartphone.

Here are 5 ways you can use time of day routing for global expansion.

1. Expand to New Regions & Time Zones

Part of running an international company or expanding globally means that your business will have customers in different regions and time zones. This means that you need to be available for sales and customer support during these regions’ peak hours. Which, for some companies, depending on their global reach, means being available at all hours.

Time-based routing can help you route calls to satellite offices in these regions during their peak hours and then back to another location during their peak hours. This way, your business is available for its clientele whenever they need you.

2. BPO & Off-Shore Team Management

Most businesses that want to expand their reach globally choose business process outsourcing or BPOs to conduct standard business princesses and functions and ensure the continuity of operations overseas. Generally, these services include:

Sales and lead generation
Customer service
Accounting and payroll
Human resources

With time of day routing, you can have better control over your BPO and off-shore team management. For instance, have calls routed to these services during specific times of the day when the call traffic at your business is high or during off-hours.

3. Remote & Distributed Team Management

Time of day routing is also useful for businesses that have remote workers and distributed teams. Call management is made easy with this feature as you can have calls sent to these remote workers no matter where they are located.

Additionally, you can easily add or remove users to/ from specific ring groups. You can manage and keep track of your distributed teams with this simple functionality.

4. Flexibility for Entrepreneurs & Solopreneurs

Solopreneurs and small business owners need good call management to ensure they are not overwhelmed by customer calls. For this reason, time-based routing can help entrepreneurs decide which times to be active via phone and when to let calls go to voicemail or outsourcing services.

Maybe a tech solopreneur wants to accept calls only between 12 pm and 2:30 pm. For the rest of the day, calls can be forwarded to voicemail or remote offices, as needed. This way, time-based routing ensures business owners more flexibility so they can continue to focus on the product and service development or marketing efforts.

5. Work from Anywhere!

Lastly, time of day routing frees users to work from anywhere. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure or need to relocate, etc., simply have incoming calls sent to your location during time periods convenient for both you and your customers.

Leverage Time-Based Routing And Succeed Globally

If you are ready to expand globally with convenience and ease, time of day routing can be a highly beneficial tool. Get time-based routing when you sign up for any virtual phone number plan with Global Call Forwarding. You can set and adjust time of day settings for your calls as and when needed. Everything can be managed through your online control panel and go into effect immediately. Sign up on our website or call us today to learn more!