Call Center Archives

Home » Archive by category 'Call Center' (Page 2)

France Phone Number Guide: An Explainer

Vasudha 25th June 2025 blog, Business Phone Numbers

A France phone number is a cost-effective way of growing in or entering the thriving French market. You can build and foster relationships with current and potential clients. Plus, receive …Read More »

Global Call Forwarding Opens New Office in Brazil to Accelerate Product Innovation and Strengthen Regional Support

Luke Genoyer 23rd June 2025 Business Insights, Press

The new hub will focus on IT development, technical support, and customer success in response to growing demand from Brazil and South America. DELRAY BEACH, FL, June 2025 – Global …Read More »

Global Call Forwarding Inaugura Novo Escritório no Brasil para Impulsionar Inovação e Reforçar Suporte Regional

Luke Genoyer 23rd June 2025 Business Insights, Press

O novo hub será focado em TI, suporte técnico e sucesso do cliente, atendendo à crescente demanda no Brasil e em outros mercados sul-americanos. SÃO PAULO, BRASIL – 16 de …Read More »

02 Numbers – the Gold Standard for Bangkok Businesses

Luke Genoyer 28th May 2025 blog, Business Phone Numbers

02 phone numbers for businesses in Bangkok

A few years ago, at iFX Expo Asia, I had several conversations with sales and support leaders from Hong Kong and Malaysia-based forex companies. They were curious about Bangkok 02 …Read More »

How to Add Global Coverage to Your Business Phone System

Luke Genoyer 24th May 2025 blog, Business Phone Numbers

Today’s most competitive businesses aren’t just thinking local — they’re building for global. From APAC to the Middle East and Africa, the opportunity to scale customer support and sales reach …Read More »

How to Manage Global Voice: 10 Tips

Gulme Pal 28th April 2025 blog, Cloud Telephony

Tips for managing a global voice network

Expanding your business globally is exciting, but staying connected across borders is an entirely different challenge. Managing voice communication across time zones, underdeveloped in-country telecom infrastructures, and complicated regional regulations …Read More »

Advanced Call Center Technologies for Sales and Support

Meryl D'Sa-Wilson 5th December 2019 blog, Call Center, Sales Management

As 2019 comes to an end, it is time to review and explore advanced call center technologies that are becoming more popular for sales and support. These technologies and tools help centers drive traffic and work through leads and calls effectively. Some companies have already started investing in advanced tech and more relevant features. Read on for the latest advanced call center tech many companies are considering.

Technologies Used by Call Centers

Call centers assist companies in telemarketing and sales efforts, tech and customer support, and making reservations and appointments. They, therefore, require different kinds of technology to support the work they do. These technologies help centers and employees sort through calls and information, keep and maintain records, and increase customer interaction. Oftentimes, it is through call centers that customers interact with a company. Thus, it becomes important for these centers to utilize tech and tools to their advantage in order to improve customer relations. Let’s have a look at some of the advanced call center technologies available and understand why centers are gravitating toward them.

Virtual Offices With Cloud Communications

Remote call center agents and customer service agents are on the rise. Companies are hiring more and more remote agents in an effort to expand their business without increasing costs. These agents can work from across the world, making it easier for companies to tap into those consumer markets. Having remote agents and a virtual office enables seamless team communications and also ensures that customers can always reach your business.

Advanced Call Center Technologies for Sales and Support — Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#166648450 ID#92821256

How to Start Using Cloud Communication

The first step to adopting cloud communications is by getting a virtual phone number. This can be a local or international toll free number based on your requirements. Phone service providers like Global Call Forwarding can help you with a variety of virtual numbers. These include local and international virtual numbers, direct inward calling (DID) numbers, or international toll free service (ITFS) numbers. You can also benefit from additional features like rollover numbers, outbound calling, call forwarding, and so on.

Call Center Analytics

Companies are increasingly investing in various software and applications that provide call analytics and reports. These reports provide statistics about the number and types of calls made, what day/time is most preferred, etc. Likewise, such data provides insight into understanding customer preferences and the target demographic. They help predict customer engagement and improve call center quality assurance (QA). They are also used for evaluating agents’ performances by studying average speed to answer calls, hold times, customer satisfaction ratings, and call recordings. Then, if necessary, agents can be re-trained to help them perform better.

Multichannel Communication Lines

Opening more channels of communication — calls, emails, and text messages — between your business and its customers is essential. The more channels, the more likely customers will interact with your company. There seems to be a growing demand for texting or instant messaging services for call centers. Text message outreach makes it possible for agents to reach customers through yet another path. Most people prefer texting or emailing over phone calls and so, this feature will enable ease of communication on the customer’s part.

Other Innovative Features To Note

Besides the above-mentioned trends, some of the advanced call center technologies also include features and tools to improve customer service. These features help reduce agents’ workload as well as time that may be lost by prioritizing and distributing calls. Keep reading to learn more about these features and how they can be of benefit to your business.

Self-Serving Troubleshooting and Solutions: Today’s customers often want to resolve their customer service issues on their own. For this reason, many companies are looking into self-serving options such as displaying problem-solving information and FAQs on websites.

Callback Features: A new feature gaining attention is the Click to Call feature for customers to request callbacks. Global Call Forwarding has a similar feature called CallMe Click, a widget placed on the business’ website. Customers who visit your website can click on the button, fill in their contact information, and automatically receive a call from your company.

Predictive Dialing: Another popular feature, predictive dialing, is programmed to automatically dial a set list of numbers. When a call is answered, it is switched to a representative. These dialers can also screen for voicemails and busy signals and use statistics to predict the best call times.

Staying Up To Date

Now that you are up to speed on the advanced call center software available, it’s time to see what you can use for your company. Get your business a phone system that helps you conduct call center QA and also make you more accessible to your customers. Check out Global Call Forwarding’s rates and plans today. Invest in an easy-to-use phone service aimed at improving your customer relations. Happy customers make for a happy business!

Call Center QA: Effective Quality Assurance Strategies

Meryl D'Sa-Wilson 5th December 2019 blog, Call Center

When running a call center, it is important to pay attention to Call Center Quality Assurance (QA). Call Center QA is a process that focuses on and ensures customer service and interactions are aligned with business goals. QA is customer-centric. That is, it is concerned with understanding customer issues and concerns, improving customer experience, and improving communication. QA is typically conducted by identifying ideal customer service agent behavior. Maintaining a good schedule and interacting in a professional tone are just a few ways to achieve good customer service.

Call Center QA

It is best to look at QA as an on-going process. This way, customer service agents or representatives will be motivated to always be on their best and most efficient behavior. Representatives should be made aware that their calls, emails, and chats are being recorded. This is important because these are the most crucial areas of customer communication that affect the business.

Essential QA Strategies

There are different ways to ensure good customer service practices benefit your company. Analyzing call and customer metrics include monitoring average response times, call logs, handling times, customer ratings, etc. You can determine QA data through assessments made by team leaders.

Call Center QA Effective Quality Assurance Strategies — Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#166638900 ID#25727499

Training and Motivating Your Agents

You should make call recording a significant part of the supervisory process. This way, you can review calls with customer service agents and help them identify areas to improve. Here you can also encourage and acknowledge their strengths, keeping them content and motivated to continue their good work. Additionally, knowing their calls are being recorded will give them an incentive to do a commendable job.

Appointment setters are responsible for contacting leads to generate appointments. Essentially, the company suffers if the appointment setter is unable to do their job. So, how do you make sure that appointment setters do a good job? Train them to learn the script and sound excited about the product they are offering. It is important that they are knowledgeable of the product so they can efficiently answer customer questions. Additionally, they should have the ability to listen to their customers’ doubts and queries. This way, they can make the customer feel heard and respected. Finally, they should send email confirmations with important details immediately after phone conversations.

Another way to train your agents is through evaluation. Evaluating agents will ensure they understand what is expected of them and are able to meet your standards. When assessing an agent’s interaction with a customer, using a Call Center QA Form will help you judge important elements. Here are some examples of assessment questions:

Did the agent greet the customer?
Did the agent ask questions to understand the customer’s needs?
Did the agent answer the customer’s questions accurately?
Did the agent follow protocol?
Did the agent display a professional, yet empathetic manner?

With questions like these, one can evaluate the agent’s strengths and weaknesses, and rectify areas that need refinement.

Utilizing Customer Feedback

Customer service feedback provides companies with a good idea of the customer’s perspective. With such feedback, companies can understand what they are doing well and which areas need improvement. To improve call center productivity, use recordings to compile data to set future goals and develop more effective approaches. Here, you can also identify frequently asked questions and develop customized messages to save time. Using an interactive voice menu can also answer questions by letting customers select a number to hear frequently asked questions. Such interactive voice responses (IVRs) can be set up by your virtual phone number provider and they are highly customizable.

You can also utilize call recordings to learn more about your customers and their preferences. For instance, how do they respond to certain questions? Why do they prefer one product over the other? What issues or concerns do they have? Are they asking for a product or service your company doesn’t offer and should you consider investing in it?

Consider Virtual Phone Numbers For Your Call Center

In conclusion, virtual call center software solutions focus on increasing productivity and reducing time spent on answering calls. Virtual numbers also make it easy to facilitate remote agents. Therefore, enabling you to host your call center from anywhere. Global Call Forwarding provides virtual phone numbers with additional features such as call recording, call transfer, IVR, customized greetings, and more. Call Global Call Forwarding 1-888-908-6171 for help with your call center QA today!

Work From Home Call Centers You Can Apply For Now

Meryl D'Sa-Wilson 4th November 2019 blog, Call Center

Tired of working out of an office every day from 9-5? Well, you’re not the only one. Certainly, the regular day job is not for everyone. Believe it or not, 9-5 burnout is a real thing. Many people are starting to consider work-from-home options. Likewise, many of these jobs are generally well-paying and offer flexibility. As a result, you can find remote opportunities from a variety of industries and job types. These range from freelance creative services to customer service to lower-level management opportunities. In this vein, let’s look at the benefits of working from home and which work-from-home call centers are hiring.

Benefits of Remote Work

There are countless benefits of remote working. Likewise, these jobs may be full- or part-time and usually allow employees some flexibility in terms of hours worked. Above all, working from home eliminates the need to travel to the office. Therefore, saving on travel time and cost. Additionally, remote jobs also let you juggle two-three different jobs, adding some variety to your work life. These are all reasons why many people are switching to work-from-home jobs, aimed at reducing various stress levels. In other words, when you choose a remote job, you can take more control over your work-life balance.

Virtual Call Centers

Virtual call center jobs can be done remotely from one’s home or office space near the home using voice over internet protocol. Most often, these jobs focus on technical support, customer service, sales, appointment settings, and reservations and ticketing services. So, these work from home call centers are always looking for call center agents, customer service agents, and appointment setters. Likewise, for those interested in landing one of these jobs, it’s important to know that there are two typical paths to obtaining them. First, businesses either hire companies for their own needs or secondly, they may contract with business process outsourcing firms (BPOs).

Work From Home Call Centers Looking to Hire

Accolade Support

About the company: New Mexico-based, brick-and-mortar call center company
Industry: Customer contact BPO
Position type: Independent contractor
Duration/hours: Full-time, part-time
Pay Rate: about $10/hour
How to apply?: On their careers website https://www.accoladesupport.com/agent-application.html

Amazon

About the company: Seattle-based e-commerce giant operating in many countries around the globe
Industry: E-commerce business
Position type: Employee
Duration/hours: Part-time
Pay Rate: about $10-12/hour
How to apply?: Sort through virtual opportunities on their careers website https://www.amazon.jobs/en

Work From Home Call Centers You Can Apply For Now — Source: Depositphotos.com Lic#163588836 ID#55236183

Apple at Home

About the company: Apple at Home is the tech giant, Apple’s work-at-home call center program
Industry: Technology
Position type: Employee
Duration/Hours: Part-time with the possibility of full-time during busy periods
Pay Rate: Varies based on the position
How to apply?: On their careers website https://www.apple.com/careers/us/aha.html

Enterprise

About the company: Parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alamo Rent-A-Car, and National Car Rental
Industry: Car rental
Position type: Employee
Duration/Hours: Full-time
Pay Rate: about $12.50/hour, French/Spanish-speaking agents make more
How to apply?: Keyword “work from home” search on their career website https://careers.enterprise.com/

Hilton Hotels

About the company: Hilton at Home program provides work-at-home opportunities for reservation and customer service agents
Industry: Hotels and hospitality
Position type: Employee
Duration/Hours: Full-time and part-time
Pay Rate: about $9.70-14/hour
How to apply?: Check the “work from home” box next to remote jobs on their careers website https://jobs.hilton.com/us/en

U-Haul

About the company: DIY moving company
Industry: Transport
Position type: Employee
Duration/hours: Part-time
Pay Rate: $7.50-14/hour
How to apply?: Search for “work from home” on their careers website https://jobs.uhaul.com/

Ver-a-Fast

About the company: Provides subscription verification services for newspapers and telemarketing services for other industries
Industry: Call center verification
Position type: Independent contractor
Duration/Hours: Part-time
Pay Rate: Varies on base pay and incentives
How to apply?: On their careers website

Working Solutions

About the company: BPO providing tech support, sales, ticketing, and customer services
Industry: Call center
Position type: Independent contractor
Duration/Hours: Temporary, project basis
Pay Rate: $7.20-30/hour
How to apply?: On their careers website https://workingsolutions.com/careers/

Virtual Numbers When Working From Home

Some of these companies provide the required equipment, while others do not. However, some companies also provide benefits and incentives where you can get more out of the job. While some experience in these fields is required, some companies also provide paid training. So, if you’re interested, you may find a great opportunity to invest your time into. To keep the communication open and available, freelance or remote workers may also want to consider getting a virtual phone number to handle their business and work calls. Global Call Forwarding provides virtual phone solutions to keep your work and personal life separate.

Make Your Work Life More Engaging

The bottom line is, if you’re interested in finding a work-from-home call center position, there are a good number of opportunities out there. As a result, you can gain a better work-life balance. Additionally, the benefits of less cost of travel, more flexibility, and decent pay are among the greatest deciding factors for those who opt to ditch the office and work from home. Above all, if you’re willing to do the work of researching and applying, you have a great shot at securing a work from home call center job. What more can you ask for? Let freedom boost your creativity!

The Daily Challenges of Being a Call Center Agent

Magaly Fuentes 19th September 2019 blog, Call Center

Customer service is a central part of any organization. The quality of service provided is undoubtedly a direct contributor to the overall success of a company. This means more companies are investing in call centers to handle their communication needs. With technological advances, virtual call center software has evolved. The daily challenges of being a call center agent have also changed. Having a good grasp on these changes helps in being prepared to overcome the challenges. This type of preparation ultimately contributes to the overall success of the organization. Let’s discuss some of these challenges to get a better understanding of how to manage them.

Customers Express Interest Only to Opt-Out Later On

A call center agent may spend a lot of time on the phone with a customer going over the details of products and services. A customer may express a lot of interest and this motivates the call center agent to continue to invest time. Later on, however, the customer may change their mind and opt-out of purchasing the product or service. When a sale falls through, it affects the productivity of the call agent in numbers and in the resources spent through their time.

The best way to convert leads to sales is to follow up regularly. Stay in touch with those who have expressed interest while communicating your value. Establishing this rapport and reminding them of the value of what your offerings is the best way to increase sales.

Not Knowing the Answer to a Question

Call center agents undergo extensive training. There is still the possibility that a customer is going to ask a question they do not know the answer to. If a call center agent does not know the answer to something, they should bring an expert into the conversation or make sure they call the customer back as soon as possible with an answer.

Managing a Never-Ending Queue of Calls

A call center agent will have what seems like a never-ending queue of calls, especially during peak business hours. This may mean long hold times for customers. Customers can become frustrated with long wait times.

A business owner manages this issue by having FAQ pages, DIY instructions, and tutorials on the company website. A call center agent can utilize self-service options and a callback option to better deal with heavy call volumes.

Transferring Calls

A call center agent will need to transfer calls from time to time. This may mean transferring to a different department and this could upset the customer. Being personalized and specific when transferring a call will help to ease a customer’s concerns. Also, making it a point that it is in their best interests in order to get them the best answer to their query really helps as well.

The daily challenges of being a call center agent. — Source: DepositPhotos.com – O#: 174295982ID#27446420

Adapting to New Technology

A call center agent will have to adapt to new technology from time to time. The environment is extremely dynamic and this presents challenges. Especially when trying to simultaneously manage productivity.

A business owner must introduce training courses to help familiarize agents with any new technology. This is the best way to allow the call center agent to grasp the full potential of the new technology rapidly and efficiently. This will then translate to higher productivity in the workplace.

Virtual phone numbers are a perfect example of new technology that has been introduced in relation to an inbound call center. Virtual phone numbers are relatively easy to adapt t and are beneficial to the company as well as call center agents. Introductions tools like these help companies to stay ahead of their competitors.

Understanding Customers and Dealing With Various Situations

A call center agent acts as a representative of the brand. This necessitates that call center agents operate within certain constraints. This can present challenges as some customers are expressive and very easy to read and others are not. Dealing with customers who are upset is also a challenge, as is dealing with unexpected issues without clear solutions.

The call center agent should always remain patient, calm and courteous. A business owner must also have a uniform process for dealing with a customer that is upset or an issue that is unexpected. That may mean simply going to a supervisor for their suggestion before moving forward with scripted best practices.

Want to Overcome the Challenges of Being a Call Center Agent?

The daily challenges of being a call center agent certainly require preparation for. Agents require training in areas such as communication, marketing strategies, and cultural phone etiquette. Ongoing training to manage the path in adjusting to new technologies is also crucial. Managing time, staying cool under pressure, and the prioritization of goals are also very helpful. Call center performance management is a critical piece of the puzzle in the success of a business. With the right personnel in place, as well as the right call center technology and training, call centers can help a company soar far ahead of the competition.

Improve Your Call Center Productivity With Call Recording

Global Call Forwarding 19th March 2019 blog, Call Center

Improving call center productivity will require knowing your employees and customers on a deeper level. You may have customer service employees on payroll, but are they well-trained? Maybe they are, but their experience may be in a field completely unrelated to your business. At the same time, some team members might want additional training and input, but may be afraid to ask directly.

Whatever the case may be, business owners can use call recording to break the ice with employees while helping them to better assist customers. Caller behavior can also be complex, but it’s equally important to understand caller preferences.

Consider these four additional benefits as you focus on maximizing your productivity and achieving set goals at your call center.

Motivate Employees

Make call recording part of the training process and review calls with employees on an individual basis. As you discuss methods of improvement, acknowledge their strengths and contributions. This will inspire confidence and paint a clearer picture of how to communicate with customers.

There’s another benefit that’s often forgotten when you improve your call center productivity with call recording. As employees strive to be better, knowing that their calls are being recorded encourages staff to give it their all and do a commendable job.

Micromanagement tends to have a negative impact on employees, but when call recording is part of the supervisory process, it eliminates the tension that can build when managers are directly questioning and overseeing employees.

Learn More About Your Callers

How do customers respond when asked specific questions? What is their reason for choosing specific products more frequently than others? These are the types of questions to consider as you perfect your business strategy because you’ll want to ensure that you’re attracting your target callers and properly connecting with them over the phone.

If you want to improve call center productivity with call recording, use the recordings to compile data that will answer a lot of the questions that will help you to set future sales goals and craft more efficient approaches when speaking on the phone.

Answer Frequently Asked Questions

You can improve your call center productivity with call recording because the recordings can be used to create customized greetings and voice menus that give callers the answers they need.
There are frequently asked questions at every call center. Knowing what those questions are in advance will increase productivity by saving time. Use the playback from recorded calls to find the most frequently asked questions. Then, find the best way to answer those questions automatically.

Responses to frequently asked questions can be posted as information on your website and answered in customized messages that customers will hear while on hold. However, these aren’t the only options. Another approach would be to have an interactive voice menu that allows callers to select a number to hear the answers to frequently asked question such as operating hours and extension information to reach specific departments.

Know that as you work to improve your call center productivity with call recording, setting up an automated system isn’t complicated when using virtual phone numbers. Much of the process can be self-guided. Your virtual phone number provider can also walk you through the setup process from start to finish if you need assistance, or the process can be completed for you upon request.

While some business owners believe that pre-recorded menus are too impersonal, the contrary is often true. Automated options and responses are valued by customers because many callers don’t want to wait to connect with someone just to ask a basic question.

Note The Length of Calls

One of the biggest things call center supervisors must recognize when analyzing call center productivity is how long it takes before the call ends favorably. This information is critical because it will help employees who may be struggling to build relationships with callers. When you improve your call center productivity with call recording, it removes much of the guesswork involved with selling techniques and interacting with customers.

As most call center professionals know, working at a call center does not mean simply taking phone calls. There are other strategies that employees should be implementing to ensure that their time is utilized wisely during their shift. Decreasing the amount of time it takes to end a phone call with positive results gives employees the time they need to handle other tasks.

In Conclusion

Using virtual phone numbers to operate and grow your business will provide numerous advantages for internal business operations and callers. Furthermore, you can vastly improve your call center productivity with call recording.

Managing or working at a call center isn’t an easy task, but it doesn’t have to be difficult if you use the right tools. Knowing the right ways to improve call center productivity while having a well-organized business structure can make the job easier for managers and employees.

Call centers operate for a variety of reasons, but their common focus is attracting new callers and maintaining customer loyalty. By increasing productivity, callers will have a more favorable experience when dialing into your caller center without a long wait or confusing process.