Call Management

Most customers still prefer using phone calls to resolve any service issues or questions. In fact, more than 40% of consumers favor calling a business over digital channels like email.

Since outbound and inbound phone calls aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, it’s helpful for service and support teams to know the basics of inbound calling. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

The Fundamentals of Inbound Calling

So, what exactly is an inbound call? “Inbound” refers to the way the call travels.

An inbound call is an incoming call. They occur when your business receives a call from a prospect or customer. In contrast, an outbound call is when your business calls the customer.

Since consumers initiate inbound calls, your business and teams don’t know the reason for the call until it is answered. So, your team has to react to the customer’s request – often referred to as reactive support.

There are different reasons why customers may call a business. Common types of inbound calls include:

• Product or tech support
• Inquiries or general questions
• Inbound sales
• Renewals and upgrades
• Complaints
• Billing and order updates

Additionally, inbound call performance is typically measured through metrics like first call resolution, average handle time (AHT), hold times, abandonment rate, and, of course, caller experience.

Methods and Software for Handling Inbound Calls

Inbound calling is generally handled by call centers, receptionists, support teams, and so on. The way your business approaches incoming calls depends on your company’s size, average number of calls, and your frequent call types.

Here are some options for handling inbound calls:

Inbound Call Handling Methods

• In-house call centers – With this method, your staff directly handles all inbound calls on location. This may look different depending on your company’s size. For example, small businesses use help desks, receptionists, or a small team of support reps. Larger corporations, however, have an entire team or in-house call centers for inbound services.
• Outsourced contact centers – You can also choose to outsource your inbound services. In other words, a third-party contact center (outside of your business’ location) handles your inbound calls for you.

Management Software for Inbound Calling

• Call Routing Strategies – These strategies allow your business to route incoming calls to different numbers and locations based on your preset routing rules.
• Advanced IVR (Auto-Attendant) – Interactive Voice Response (IVR) automatically answers incoming calls, greets callers, identifies their requests, and routes them to the appropriate destination.
• Call Flow Builder – With this tool, you can build custom inbound call flows for your contact center, giving you complete control over the way calls travel through your system.

How to Build an Inbound Calling Strategy

You can maximize your system’s efficiency and take caller experience to the next level with an effective strategy. But how does one build a strong inbound calling strategy? Let’s take a look.

1. Focus on the caller’s experience – A positive caller experience leads to increased sales, referrals, and consumer lifetime value (CLV). So, it’s important to deliver customer-centric support through a well-designed and consistent system.

Start by considering the customers’ pain points and conducting market research. Then, design your phone system to efficiently assist callers with their top requests and train employees to handle recurring issues.

2. Use the right technology – When choosing inbound calling tools, consider your communication goals, budget, and the number of concurrent calls.

Most inbound services use cloud telephony for their business calls. This is because cloud phone services deliver higher flexibility, better voice quality, and more cost savings. Many services also come with useful features like advanced IVR, auto-attendant, and call routing to streamline incoming call management and reduce wait times.

Other inbound teams use CRM software integrations to track the customer’s history with the business. This way, you provide personalized support for each customer.

3. Empower your employees – An excellent inbound strategy all comes down to the service you provide callers. Sure, technology and customer-centric methods make it easier, but ultimately it is up to the support your team provides.

So, it’s essential to train and empower your employees to make decisions and develop practical solutions. And you can use tools like call recording to train agents or for quality assurance.

4. Analyze your inbound calls – Once you’ve implemented your strategy, continue to track its progress and make changes where necessary. You can use features like inbound call detail records or call analytics to access vital call metrics.

Tips for an Effective Inbound Calling Service

In addition to a well-organized strategy, it’s helpful to know some industry tips for a successful inbound calling service. Here are our top tips:

• Set up inbound phone numbers

With global inbound numbers like international toll-free services (ITFS), you provide customers with a simple and free way to call your business. This encourages consumers to contact your business and helps establish a professional image. You can get phone numbers in your company’s target countries to provide support to international clientele.

• Provide omnichannel and 24/7 support

Although phone service remains a popular support channel, not all customers want to communicate over the phone. Some may prefer channels like live chats, text, or email. So, consider offering multiple contact methods for customers. Omnichannel support not only fulfills the customer’s contact needs, but also allows your business to provide cost-effective, tailored support.

And with AI and call routing strategies, you can offer 24/7 customer support. For instance, chatbots provide quick answers at any time, while Follow-the-Sun routing models ensure callers receive support regardless of time. So, your business is always accessible to customers.

• Offer self-service options and resources

Help customers solve their own problems and save time by providing self-service options and resources. You can set up self-service options for callers using an advanced IVR. Using IVR, callers can find answers to questions, pay balances, sign up for renewals, and more – without the help of a live representative. Additionally, prepare online resources like FAQ pages or knowledge bases for those customers who prefer self-service.

• Track customer satisfaction

To evaluate your service and satisfaction levels, distribute surveys and ask for customer feedback. This way, you know exactly what’s working and what’s not, directly from the customer. With this data, you can improve your inbound service and further maximize the customer’s experience.

9 Benefits of a Strong Inbound Strategy

With the strategies and tips listed above, your business ensures that customers get the best service possible when they call. As a matter of fact, a strong inbound calling strategy is just as beneficial for customers as it is for all businesses – small or large. So, let’s dive into the benefits.

• Strengthen customer satisfaction
• Increase inbound sales
• Drive business growth
• Boost employee productivity
• Reduce wait times
• Offer accessible, 24/7 global support
• Improve caller experience
• Enhance customer lifetime value (CLV)

Inbound Calling with Global Call Forwarding

Global Call Forwarding provides high-quality inbound services and international business phone numbers in over 160 countries. With our cloud-based solutions, you can access advanced communication tools and features to support your inbound calling efforts.

To learn more about our inbound services and how we can help your business manage calls more effectively, chat with us online or call us at +1 (561) 908-6171.

Hosted IVR solutions help businesses automate call processes and manage their phone system effectively. In fact, it offers many benefits to any business – regardless of what industry your company falls under. And it is entirely customizable to your individual communication needs. As such, there are many reasons companies look into getting a hosted IVR. Let’s take a look.

Hosted IVR for Every Business

Whether you’re running a small business or a large corporation, hosted IVR helps improve the efficiency of your communication system. IVR is a highly adaptable solution that is perfect for managing call flows and high call volumes.

Streamline Your Business Phone System
1. Easy to Set Up and Use
2. Manage Your IVR From Anywhere
3. Use Hosted IVR to Reduce Business Costs
4. Balance Your Team’s Workload and Increase Productivity

Customize Business Voice Messaging
5. Customize to Match Your Business Model
6. Strengthen Your Brand Identity
7. Cater to All of Your Audience Segments with Multi-level IVR

Optimize Call Management
8. Automate Call Processes & Offer Self Service Options
9. Address Fluctuating Call Volumes & Avoid Missed Calls
10. Increase First Call Resolution Rates

Improve Brand Reliability and Trust
11. Remain Accessible at All Time
12. Improve Caller Experience

Recapping the Basics of Hosted IVR

Before we get into all the reasons to use a hosted IVR, let’s recap the basics of this tool.

Hosted IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a cloud-based communication tool for effective call distribution.

Other names for this tool include advanced IVR, cloud IVR, or auto-attendant. When customers call your business, an IVR automatically answers them and assists callers through interactive menu options.

Callers respond to these options either verbally or using their keypad. Based on their input, the caller is then delivered to their desired destination. This ensures that each caller reaches the appropriate agent or department.

Since this is a hosted feature, your business does not have to worry about maintaining or updating IVR software. That is taken care of by your provider. You simply design the call flows you need in an easy-to-use IVR editor or call flow designer accessible from your online portal.

12 Reasons to Use Hosted IVR

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive deeper into the 12 reasons your business should use a hosted IVR solution.

Streamline Your Business Phone System

1. Easy to Set Up and Use

Cloud IVRs do not require a complicated setup, since you don’t need bulky hardware or additional software. To access this communication tool, you’ll need a trusted IVR provider, a network connection, and an internet-enabled device.

Then, simply log into your provider’s online portal and start designing efficient call flows. Additionally, you can modify your hosted IVR at any point, and these changes apply immediately. This flexible solution makes it easy to address your business’ evolving needs.

2. Manage Your IVR From Anywhere

Since IVR systems come with most virtual phone services, you get a single, centralized call control platform to easily control your phone system. And this is accessible from any device, making it possible to manage your system from any location and at any time. So if you manage remote or international teams, advanced IVRs can connect and support all of your staff – even at the same time.

3. Use Hosted IVR to Reduce Business Costs

Advanced IVR systems help companies reduce overhead costs by eliminating the need for additional personnel. Since a cloud IVR automatically answers and routes calls, receptionists are no longer a business necessity. And with self-service options and efficient call flows, you can operate with an essential team of agents.

An IVR system also helps lower your business’ average handling times (AHT) – requiring less labor per call. In many cases, a cloud-based IVR handles caller requests by itself, bypassing human representatives altogether. According to an IVR study, one financial institution saved around $100 million annually with IVR compared to the cost of handling calls with just live agents.

Not only does this tool deliver significant cost savings, but it is also highly affordable on its own. Virtual IVR rates are typically cheaper than any on-premise call management setups– as it requires no maintenance or extra equipment.

Ultimately, the cost of an IVR system depends on which provider you choose. Most providers grant users access to hosted IVR features with business phone number plans, SIP trunks, and so on. So, it’s important to research providers that fit both your communication and budget needs.

4. Optimize Your Team’s Workload and Increase Productivity

Given that IVR systems efficiently manage and distribute calls, it frees up agents to focus on complex cases that need a human touch. You can set up call groups and other call distribution methods to optimize your employee’s workload. This way, work is divided equally among teams, and no one on your team experiences burnout. (We’ll dive into call groups more below.)

Since callers reach the most qualified agent for their issue, your team can handle queries quickly and proficiently. Thus, decreasing average handling time (AHT) in the process. And with skill-based routing strategies, agents receive cases matching their specific skill set – allowing them to perform better and feel more confident.

Customize Business Voice Messaging

5. Customize to Match Your Business Model

Whether in the marketing industry or healthcare field, hosted IVR works for every business model. This is because these systems are completely customizable to your specific communication needs.

Many advanced IVRs include custom phone tree designers and call flow builders. These editors give you more control over how callers move through your system.

Additionally, a cloud IVR enables you to configure routing and forwarding strategies that are tailored to your framework. These tools allow businesses to optimize the call process, efficiently distribute calls to specific teams, and improve the caller’s experience.

Here’s a snapshot of IVR’s top routing capabilities:

• Time of Day – routes calls to another destination based on time
• Holiday – route or forward inbound calls during holidays or an entire holiday season
• Caller ID – route and prioritize calls based on the caller ID
• Location – route to a nearby office based on the caller’s phone number and area code

On top of that, IVRs offer customizable greetings, voicemails, and other voice messaging. Using this feature, your business can promote new products, inform callers about any business continuity issues due to disasters, and much more.

6. Strengthen Your Brand Identity

Anytime and any place you communicate with customers, it reflects your brand’s identity. So, your IVR gives your business another opportunity to create a strong, professional, and consistent image for your business.

With hosted IVR’s custom greetings, voicemails, and prompts, you can create messaging that reflects your business’ personality. This brings life to your IVR system and helps strengthen your brand’s identity – improving the connection between customers and your brand.

7. Cater to All of Your Audience Segments with Multi-level IVR

Using a multi-level IVR setup, you can appeal to multiple audience segments. A multi-level IVR presents callers with a first set of menu options and then moves them to the next set of prompts based on their responses. This is very useful for businesses trying to address a range of caller needs.

Optimize Call Management

8. Automate Call Processes & Offer Self Service Options

With a cloud-based IVR, you can automate tedious processes like answering and transferring calls. Automating phone system processes saves time and money for your business. It also cuts out time-consuming, repetitive tasks for your agents. So, they can work on more complicated tasks or customer requests.

Additionally, it reliably transfers calls every time. This means callers no longer waste time jumping from department to department to find the right agent. Instead, the IVR seamlessly and consistently forwards calls to the appropriate destination every time – increasing customer satisfaction and employee productivity.

An intelligent, automated system like an advanced IVR often supports self-service abilities. This allows customers to complete simple tasks or access basic information – without speaking with an agent. Self-service options reduce hold times, call volumes, and your team’s workload.

So, what type of self-service options should you include in your IVR? Here are some ideas:

• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Company information like hours of operation
• Troubleshooting instructions for common problems
• Bill pay or basic customer account management
• Simple upgrade or renewal purchases

9. Address Fluctuating Call Volumes & Avoid Missed Calls

Designed to manage fluctuating call volumes, hosted IVRs help businesses reduce call queues and wait times for callers. It’s able to handle multiple calls at once, effectively organizing, prioritizing, and distributing them. And since it accurately routes callers, transfer errors also go down – saving time for both customers and agents.

Consider establishing call groups (or ring groups) that trigger when callers select a specific menu option. The system then rings your preset group of lines, either simultaneously or sequentially. This cloud IVR capability helps businesses effectively distribute calls and eliminate the percentage of unanswered calls.

You can also utilize callback capabilities and set up failover options like Find Me Follow Me and Failover Forwarding. So, if your teams get swamped, you can manage a volume surge by redirecting calls to backup destinations. Similarly, if your teams are working on low capacity, callers can leave a voicemail or use self-service options. This way, you can also reduce the number of missed calls and you no longer have to worry about missing important business calls or potential sales. And the best part is that this works for both a high and normal call volume.

10. Increase First Call Resolution Rates

IVR systems accurately direct callers to the right representative or department every time. This means caller requests are solved quickly and efficiently. As such, there’s no need for callers to keep calling for the same issue. This eliminates repeat callers and significantly increases your business’ first call resolution rates – saving your business time and money.

Improve Brand Reliability and Trust

11. Remain Accessible at All Times

Since hosted IVR is an automated system, it answers calls, takes messages, and assists callers even after regular business hours. In other words, you manage incoming calls at any time. This ensures that customers receive consistent, reliable service – especially if they’re located in a different time zone.

Self-service capabilities and routing strategies – like Time of Day or location-based routing – also help your business remain accessible. With these techniques, you can tell IVR to send after-hours calls to different destinations. This enables your business to provide 24/7 global customer service using a Follow the Sun model. And callers get the support they need at the time most convenient to them.

12. Improve Caller Experience

Cloud-based IVRs quickly answer all your incoming calls and professionally greet all your customers – giving them a great first impression. They accurately and seamlessly guide callers through your system, so callers don’t waste time repeating their requests. Instead, IVRs help by reducing the customers’ time and effort on the phone.

Your IVR system’s main design should prioritize the caller’s experience and remove any roadblocks they might encounter. With all the features hosted IVRs offer, your business can enhance the caller’s experience by:

• Lowering wait times
• Reducing call abandonment rates
• Solving their issues quickly
• Providing consistent and reliable service
• Offering 24/7 follow the sun customer support
• Eliminating ignored or missed calls
• Decreasing customer effort

When you deliver a quality experience to your customers, you further the chances of retaining current customers and increasing customer lifetime value (CLV). By doing so, you drive growth – making it easier to stand out from the competition and scale your business.

Manage Calls More Effectively with Hosted IVR

After everything that’s been discussed, it’s easy to see how a hosted IVR system helps businesses manage calls more effectively. It allows you to gain greater control over how calls travel through your system and how they are distributed. So, the overall functionality of your business phone network increases. And as it offers many customizable capabilities, an IVR streamlines the efforts of both your reps and customers – leading to a more effective, well-organized service.

As you can see, hosted IVR delivers many benefits for businesses looking to improve their phone system’s functionality. And with a trusted provider like Global Call Forwarding, you can start building a better phone system today.

Get Advanced IVR with any virtual phone number plan from Global Call Forwarding. Sign up online or speak with our customer service representatives today at +1 (561) 908-6171.

An effective call flow creates a domino effect for your business. Your caller’s experience and satisfaction, first call resolution rates, and distribution methods all improve. Meanwhile, your hold times, abandonment rates, and missed calls decrease.

But, how do you achieve an effective call management system? Enter: call groups.

Understanding Call Groups and How They Work

A call group is a management feature that routes incoming calls to a specific “group” of phone lines based on your preset rules.

This is also referred to as a ring group. You can configure this feature to include particular agents, departments, or multiple teams.

So, how does this feature work? Call groups typically trigger when callers dial a specific number or select a particular IVR menu option. Group members receive inbound calls based on the ringing strategy you set up (more on that later).

If no one is available or the call goes unanswered, you can direct the call from there. Possible end destinations include your voicemail, a backup team, or even rerouting back to your IVR menu.

Call Groups vs. Hunt Groups

The term “hunt group” also comes up when talking about ring and call groups. However, this strategy differs from the others as it “hunts” for an available agent by ringing lines one after another.

On the other hand, ring and call groups offer multiple ringing strategies. So, you can customize it to fit your team’s needs.

Why Are Call Groups Important to Your Business?

Call groups streamline your business phone system by effectively distributing incoming calls across your teams. So, your customers get support faster and reach the agent most qualified to help them – even during a call volume surge. Additionally, your employees experience a balanced workload and equal opportunity at high-quality leads. And that’s not all!

Let’s look at 9 major benefits of using ring groups:

1. Reduce call abandonment rates
2. Better call distribution and even workload among agents
3. Lower hold times
4. Eliminate the chance of missed calls
5. Improve call management, especially for high call volumes
6. Enhance customer satisfaction
7. Increase first call resolution rates
8. Ensure calls are prioritized equally
9. Boost employee productivity

Call Group Ringing Strategies

Ringing strategies determine the order in which call group members receive incoming calls. In most cases, these methods help lower wait times, avoid missed calls, and distribute calls effectively among your teams. There are 4 types of ringing categories available.

Let’s take a look:

• Simultaneous Ringing – When a call comes in, this strategy rings all grouped agents at the same time. The ringing stops once the call is answered. Simultaneous ringing allows staff to address calls as they arrive.

• Sequential Ringing – Known as sequential forwarding, this strategy rings grouped lines one right after another. So, if Agent A doesn’t answer or is helping another caller, the call moves to the next agent (Agent B) in your predetermined sequence. You can decide how much time the call rings for each agent before moving on to the next.

• Cyclic Ring Pattern – Also called round-robin routing or rollover ringing, cyclic ringing distributes calls equally across your groups. This strategy starts by ringing Agent A and moves on to Agent B if this rep is busy. The cyclic pattern will continue down your list and then cycle back to Agent A until the call is answered. This guarantees that workload distribution is proportionate since each member receives the same amount of calls.

• Random Ring Pattern – As the name suggests, this strategy randomly rings lines within a call group. With this method, you don’t have to worry about creating preset ringing rules or agent hierarchies. You just input your call group phone lines and you’re ready to go.

5 Call Group Use Cases

Most businesses create ring groups for their sales, support, IT, or accounting teams to serve customers better. Since this is a highly customizable call management solution, your setup may look different. It all depends on your business communication needs. Here are some ways your teams can use call groups:

1. Connect your teams – Whether you manage local, global, or remote teams, use this feature to connect teams and agents across multiple locations.

2. Establish backup teams – In case of high call volumes, create a backup team for overflow management. This ensures that no call goes unanswered, even if all other agents are unavailable.

3. Distribute based on experience – Consider delivering calls to the most experienced agents first. Or, flip the script and direct calls to those with the least experience for more hands-on training.

4. Encourage healthy team competition – Distribute sales calls simultaneously to incentivize your team and encourage fast response rates. Whoever answers first gets the sale! But give team members a chance to opt-out if they want.

5. Manage calls after business hours – Handle after-hours or holiday calls by forwarding them to alternate call groups.

How to Plan Out Effective Call Groups

Now that we’ve covered all the foundational information. Let’s get into how to successfully organize and configure ring groups as well as best practices for each. This way, you can gain the most benefits from this feature.

Step 1: Categorize your Staff

Think about how you’d like to organize your call groups. Do you want to divide groups by department, skill, location, or time zone? Agents can even belong to multiple ring groups. For example, Agent A is located in California and is a support team rep specializing in IT troubleshooting. So, you could include Agent A in 3 groups – the support team, West Coast time zone team, and IT troubleshooting team.

Best Practices
• Consider each agent’s level of expertise
• Opt for smaller, niche ring groups over one large unit

Step 2: Determine Your Distribution Method

Set up groups to receive calls from specific phone numbers or IVR menu inputs. Then, decide on your ringing strategy and the ringing order of each call group. For instance, if you decide on a sequential or cyclic approach, which agent will the system ring first? You can distribute calls based on availability, productivity, seniority, expertise, etc.

Best Practices
• Keep ring times between transfers short
• Pick a ringing strategy and order that speaks to your team’s strengths

Step 3: Establish Failover Strategies

If your business experiences high call volume influxes, your call groups may be flooded with calls. It’s essential to plan VoIP failover and overflow strategies if no one in a group is available. Some failover options include forwarding calls to a backup team or voicemail, providing callers with a callback option, or redirecting the call back to the IVR menu. This helps keep caller frustration low and reduces call abandonment caused by long wait times.

Best Practices
• Identify potential call flow problems, plan failover techniques accordingly
• List all available backup options (offshore call center, remote team, etc.), so you can utilize them fully

How to Set Up Call Groups with Global Call Forwarding

Once you sign up for our service, you can easily set up call groups in our online Control Panel. Here’s how to set up a call group within your Global Call Forwarding account:

1. Log in to your Control Panel.
2. Choose a phone service line and click on Settings.
3. Select Call Forwarding from the horizontal menu and click Advanced Routing.
4. Click on the orange Go to Rules button.
5. Click the green Create a New Rule button. Add the description and select your desired days and times.
6. Select Forward All Calls and add your preferred call group phone numbers.
7. Then, choose your ring strategy under the Call Method section, either Sequential, Simultaneous, or Random.
8. Click Save Rule.

Optimize your Incoming Call Flow with Call Groups

Choosing the right provider for your business’ communication needs makes all the difference when it comes to call management. Global Call Forwarding can help you optimize your incoming call flow through our online control panel.

Want to learn more about call groups from Global Call Forwarding? Speak with our representatives today or contact your account manager. Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with us online!

When purchasing cloud services online, you might come across numbers like 99.999% uptime or 99.9% uptime. And as far as uptime goes, “99 point anything” should seem reliable enough. After all, it’s so close to 100%, so how much can it really be lacking? And what do those extra nines mean?

It’s a lot more than we think. To put it in perspective, 99.9% adds up to more than 8 hours of downtime a year, while 99.99999% adds up to only 3.15 seconds a year. Let that sink in for a minute.

Depending on your business, you may need a high-availability setup with little to no downtime. To determine what that looks like, we put together a guide to high-availability infrastructure to help you understand the specific differences between three 9s, four 9s, and five 9s.

Let’s dive in!

Understanding the 9s: Three 9s vs Four 9s vs Five 9s

Most service providers — including telecom providers — guarantee a certain percentage of uptime. This is also known as a Service Level Agreement (SLA). Uptime refers to the time a machine or system is in operation and actively working. Downtime, then, is when the machine or system is inactive or unavailable for use.

Downtimes can occur for a few different reasons:

• Electricity or internet outages
• Moving devices and equipment around
• Devices or equipment break down
• Natural disasters
• Updates and maintenance
• Hacking or cyberattacks, and so on.

And if you don’t have a valid disaster recovery plan in place, downtime can lead to significant service interruptions. This means your teams cannot complete tasks or communicate with each other. When your business is not accessible, you will lose out on providing reliable customer service.

To combat this issue and reduce potential downtime, it is recommended that businesses build voice redundancy (failover and backups) into their systems. One way to do this is by incorporating high-availability infrastructure and services.

What is a High-Availability Infrastructure?

High-availability infrastructure is designed to provide a level of operational performance and uptime that is higher than normal within a set time period. In simpler terms, high availability (HA) creates reliable systems that continue to operate with little to no downtime.

What does this look like?

A high-availability infrastructure is created by using clusters of servers — with failover options in place — to monitor each other. This way, if one server fails, the backup server will activate. It restarts applications that were active on the failed server and gets everything up and running again.

Basics of High-Availability Infrastructure

One of the foundations of creating high availability is eliminating single points of failure — an element of the system that, if it fails, causes everything in the system to fail.

To eliminate various single points of failure, most high-availability architecture look something like this at the base level:

• Traffic load is balanced between multiple servers with a load balancer. This way, when one server is offline, traffic is sent through the other server.
• Two load balancers provide additional support. This way, if one load balancer fails, traffic can failover to the other one.
• Since failover to a load balancer involves a Domain Name System (DNS) change, you may experience downtime. Solve this by adding a tool for rapid IP remapping. An Elastic IP can easily balance traffic between load balancers.

Understanding the 9s: Three 9s vs Four 9s vs Five 9s Uptime

So, what do the 9s have to do with anything? The 9s determine the amount of availability. In other words, three 9s availability or five 9s availability is the percentage of time a network or service is accessible to a user in a given period, usually a year.

During that period, your service will experience high uptime, while the remaining 0.0001% is the downtime you may experience.

Here’s a table comparing the different uptime percentages and how much downtime you might experience:

99.9% vs 99.99% vs 99.999% Uptime: What Does Your Business Need?

Now, 100% uptime is rare with complex systems. So, most services — cloud services in particular — will offer between 99% and 100% uptime.

Shouldn’t 99.9% uptime be enough?

In theory, yes, 99.9% uptime should be reliable enough. But as you can see above, it will still lead to about 3 days of downtime a year and almost a full day (21 hrs) per quarter.

But the uptime your business requires depends on your systems and service demands. So, the real question is…

How much downtime can you afford?

And can you add additional failover options in place to make up for that downtime? When deciding what high-availability infrastructure should look like for your business, consider these questions:

• How will my customers react if my service is down for 5 – 10 minutes? 1 – 3 hours? 12 hours to a full day?
• What percent of revenue will my business lose at those same intervals?
• Can I afford the costs of complex infrastructure?
• How does the value compare to the risks that come with additional complexity?
• Do I have the right people working to manage and scale the project?
• Do we have an updated incident management process and a disaster plan for when systems are down?

What 99.999% uptime means for your business?

The industry recognizes 99.9% and above as good and reliable uptime. But when you compare 99.9% vs 99.999% — it is safe to say that anything above the five 9s (99.999%) is excellent uptime and availability. This is because the most downtime you will experience in a year is a meager 5 mins.

How Do You Achieve a High-Availability Business Phone System?

There are 2 ways to create a high-availability infrastructure for your business phone system with high uptime:

1. Choose the right providers

Find a provider that has high availability or multiple layers of redundancy built into their systems.

When choosing a cloud telephony provider, ask about:

• Network reliability
• Failover capabilities
• How they prevent network interruptions
• Global voice coverage
• What happens if their service fails, and so on.

2. Set up redundancy in-house

Build geo-redundancy into your VoIP system and set up failover capabilities. Some ways to do this include:

• Add mission-critical applications and services within your network.
• Ask your in-house IT and operation teams to manage backup solutions, such as using additional hardware and equipment to mirror main systems.
• Buy equipment that is easy to use, repair, and update.
• Organize teams, agents, and call groups to function as backups.
• Automate wherever possible and monitor quality and performance.
• Consider hosting systems and teams in multiple geographic locations.
• Use advanced call routing strategies to forward calls to secondary destinations if the primary destination is unavailable. Failover forwarding, sequential ring, and simultaneous ringing will help you achieve this.
• Test backup and disaster recovery plans.

How Can Global Call Forwarding Help?

Global Call Forwarding offers 99.999% uptime through our high-availability and highly-redundant global network. We can maintain this level of availability and reliability because of a few different reasons:

• Multiple geo-redundant data centers spread globally
• Decades of industry expertise
• Long-term relationships built with local and global Tier-1 carriers, and more.

Find out if we are a good fit for your business by speaking with our telecom experts. Call us +1 (561) 908-6171 at or chat with us online today!

The Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) market has seen explosive growth since 2020.

Dozens of new industry use cases emerged as a global pandemic forced businesses to shift away from in-person communication toward digital interactions.

As a result, IT departments now require more easily maintained, customizable, and reliable network systems to power business communications. So, many IT infrastructure professionals are turning to CPaaS.

But what does CPaaS mean in layman’s terms? And how can your business use a CPaaS platform and APIs to improve communications in 2022?

CPaaS Definition

CPaaS stands for Communications Platform as a Service. It’s a platform that enables businesses to add real-time communications (like voice, video, and SMS) to their applications.

A communications platform is made up of several key components:

• Voice, video, and messaging features
• Cloud-based delivery model
• Fully programmable and customizable communications APIs

The acronym might sound confusing, but CPaaS is basically just a set of communications APIs offered as a service.

In layman’s terms, CPaaS is a set of programming rules that allows businesses to program voice, video, and messaging functionality.

Developers can use these rules to add and remove communications features as they see fit.

With a CPaaS platform, there is no need for companies to build their own networks and backend voice infrastructure. They can just tap into a reliable, prebuilt network.

What is a CPaaS Provider?

A CPaaS provider offers application programming interfaces (APIs), code snippets, and web interfaces for businesses to add real-time communications channels to programs.

Essentially, CPaaS providers serve up cloud-based platforms for businesses to set up a complete cloud phone system with all the necessary bells and whistles.

Developers can choose from a range of features like voice, video, SMS, fax, and more to add to their communications systems. You can add these features through an online portal or via code.

CPaaS providers continue to improve their APIs, product documentation, and in some cases, software development kits. They also provide support and product documentation to ease the development process.

Types of CPaaS Providers

There are different types of CPaaS providers that you can choose from, depending on the needs of your business.

API Providers

These are pure software companies that leverage other telecommunications networks. They’re a great choice for businesses with simple telecom requirements that just need to deploy a solution quickly. But they’re not ideal when you need to achieve massive scale or build highly customized features.

API Providers that are also Network Owners

Another type of CPaaS provider is the telecom network owners that built APIs to complement their proprietary networks. This is an ideal CPaaS provider as you can use their networks and APIs to tap into large-scale and low costs.

The Big Telecom Giants

You’ve probably heard of the legacy telecom companies like AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc. They provide voice services and phone numbers. But, they’re not technically considered CPaaS providers.

How Big is the CPaaS Market?

CPaaS was a $5.9 billion market in 2020. It’s projected to surpass $17 billion by 2024. Obviously, the CPaaS market is already massive and growing quickly.

As enterprises transform their digital infrastructure and migrate operations to the cloud, this market is expected to grow.

However, the market is fragmented with a few major players dominating the market.

How Does CPaaS Work?

Communications APIs are at the heart of any CPaaS.

APIs are intermediaries that allow different applications to communicate with each other. In the case of CPaaS, your business would use these APIs to connect your software and applications with our backend telecommunications network.

To take full advantage of CPaaS, you would need developers with experience using APIs. You also need software and business systems that are capable of interacting with API endpoints.

However, CPaaS can also work through an online interface for businesses that don’t have developer resources. They can access communications features and implement those features with no-code or low-code.

CPaaS Examples

Here are the most common examples of CPaaS.

• View available phone numbers and order numbers through an API or web interface.
• Synchronize call detail records and recordings from a CPaaS provider with your own business systems via API.
• Dialing a phone number and making a call through a softphone or PBX.

A good CPaaS solution should help you fulfill the communications needs of your business through:

• Product and API documentation.
• Code samples.
• Code libraries for various platforms and languages.
• Software Development Kits (SDKs)
• Developer and customer support

Before choosing a provider, you’ll want to see real-life examples, API documentation, potential use cases, and a demo of how it works. This will help make sure you have the right solution.

Key Functions of CPaaS

We explained how CPaaS works above, but it’s important to get a better idea of its key functions. Here are some of the key functions and features you can access with CPaaS:

Outbound calls

Businesses can use CPaaS to access outbound calling and outbound call center functionality. CPaaS providers offer various APIs that enable outbound calling through business applications.

Essentially, your developers would embed code into your apps and business systems for calls.

Click-to-call is one of the major functions in this regard. With CPaaS, you would have the ability to make outbound calls, either by clicking on a phone number or clicking a call icon.

Inbound call routing

Inbound call routing is one of the main CPaaS features. With CPaaS, you can access virtual number inventories and provision numbers instantly.

Also, you can use CPaaS to customize how inbound calls are routed within your business. If you want to divert calls to a voicemail after-hours or ring multiple users at once, CPaaS makes that possible.

WebRTC calling

WebRTC is a newer technology that enables real-time communications over a web browser. CPaaS lets you tap into the power of WebRTC to receive and make calls over the internet.

Number masking

Number masking is a common CPaaS feature. Basically, you can hide or “mask” your caller ID to keep users’ identities secret. Ride-sharing and delivery apps use number masking, but many sales and customer support teams also mask their calls to increase response rates.

SMS & MMS

SMS is one of the key CPaaS features. The communications APIs can enable SMS and MMS to be embedded within your business tools. This makes omnichannel communication with your customers possible.

With this omnichannel functionality, employees and users can collaborate with each other and communicate with customers however they choose.

Video

CPaaS enables developers to embed video into their applications and software programs. Users can initiate video chats through native applications.

Not all providers offer video through their communications platform. But video is becoming more important as businesses transition to remote work and telecommunications.

Social media messaging

Social media is a preferred communication channel among younger generations. It’s great for customer engagement.

With CPaaS, your business can build multi-channel customer experiences on social media. For example, you can use social to chat with customers, send files, and check message receipts.

Benefits of Communication Platforms as a Service

CPaaS offers many advantages that make it a preferred choice among modern businesses.

For one, businesses that leverage CPaaS don’t need to build their own backend VoIP infrastructure. Instead, they can tap into an existing high-availability network maintained by their CPaaS provider.

As a result, the startup costs are much lower and less development-intensive.

Second, CPaaS lets you scale up and down as needed. You can add or remove phone numbers and communications features through your code. Compared to managing physical telecom hardware, CPaaS is much easier.

Finally, CPaaS uses a cloud-based delivery model that is highly redundant and incredibly reliable. You’ll never have to worry about major outages and downtime.

Common Use Cases

CPaaS has tons of use cases across a myriad of industries. The potential to enhance your business communications is practically limitless.

Some of the common use industries include contact centers, hospitals, educational institutions, and financial services companies.

CPaaS vs UCaaS vs CCaaS

In the last 20 years, Software as a Service (SaaS) has become increasingly popular as a software delivery model. SaaS is centrally-hosted software that is licensed on a subscription basis.

Along with the increasing popularity of SaaS, Communications as a Service (CaaS) has emerged as a popular option. Rather than businesses building their own communications systems from scratch and hosting their own infrastructure, they can tap into an existing communications platform on a subscription basis.

Some popular types of communications as a service are CPaaS, UCaas, and CCaaS.

This jargon might seem confusing, but it can be summarized pretty easily:

• UCaaS is a one-stop platform that is mainly designed for internal collaboration. Everything, from video conferencing to voice and SMS, is pre-built inside a single environment.
• CCaaS stands for contact center as a service. It is intended for businesses to communicate with their customers and provide support.
• CPaaS lets businesses pick and choose which communications features they want. Developers can integrate cloud telephony and message into their existing applications a-la-carte.

Related: CCaaS versus CPaaS: What’s the Difference?

Talk to one of our telecom experts today or give us a call to learn more about CPaaS.

Locked in a low-quality toll-free service provider? Tired of paying high monthly bills? Want to add advanced call management features to your phone system? Thankfully, you’re not stuck with your provider.

With toll-free number porting, you can switch providers while keeping your number.

How?

Here’s an in-depth guide to everything you need to know about porting toll-free numbers to a new service.

Porting Toll-Free Numbers

Porting your toll-free number to a new service provider is a simple and quick process. You can switch providers to take advantage of a better and more reliable toll-free service. In this toll-free number porting guide, we will go over:

• What is Toll-Free Number Porting?
• Reasons to Port Your Toll-Free Number to Another Service
• How Does Number Porting Work?
• How Long Does it Take to Port a Toll-Free Number?
• Toll-Free Number Porting Requirements
• Potential Issues with Number Porting
• How to Port Your Toll-Free Number?

What is Toll-Free Number Porting?

Number porting is a cloud phone service solution that lets you move or port your number from one service to another. You can use number porting to switch from an old service provider to a new one while keeping the same phone number.

So, can toll-free numbers be ported?

Yes! You can port your business toll-free number from your existing provider to a new toll-free service provider – without changing the number. This type of VoIP porting lets you upgrade your service without purchasing a new number while adding advanced functionality.

Related: What is a Toll-Free Number?

Reasons to Port Your Toll-Free Number to Another Service

With toll-free number porting, you can get out of long-term contracts with low-quality or high-cost services. Additionally, as your business grows, you may need to scale your communications. Porting lets you choose a new and improved toll-free service provider with added communication functionality and features.

Here are the top benefits of porting your toll-free numbers and situations where you may need to switch to a new provider:

• Stuck in long-term commitments with low value
• Low voice and audio quality
• High monthly bills
• Lack of reliable and responsive customer and technical support
• Add more global coverage with an international phone service provider
• Moving or relocating offices to a new city or region
• Network connectivity issues leading to a high number of dropped calls
• Transition to cloud communication
• Need for advanced call management features to support growing business communication needs
• Consolidation of services to centralize business communication
• Need for a reliable, flexible, and scalable phone solution

How Does Number Porting Work?

To port your toll-free number, you must find the right toll-free service provider. Most cloud phone service providers offer toll-free number porting. You simply fill in a porting request and provide the necessary information.

Then, your new and old phone service providers will work together to port your phone number without any service interruptions.

Note: You should wait for a successful transition to your new service provider before canceling your old service (ending your existing contract).

Related: 9 Best US Toll-Free Number Providers in 2022

How Long Does it Take to Port a Toll-Free Number?

Number porting can take up to 2-4 weeks, but the process is faster in some cases. This usually depends on a few factors such as the country of the number needed, type of number, current provider, and the status of the number.

Our team always works as hard as possible to get numbers ported in the shortest possible time.

Toll-Free Number Porting Requirements

To port your toll-free number, you need to provide your new toll-free service provider with some crucial information. Here are the requirements for porting toll-free numbers:

• Account number and passcode – associated with your account.
  List of all phone numbers – Includes all numbers and extensions your business would like to port to the new service.
• Letter of Authorization (LOA) – Gives your new toll-free service provider permission to act on your behalf when communicating with your old provider. This letter usually contains crucial information about who can make decisions regarding your number(s).
• Old provider and account number – Enables the two providers to communicate and work together to complete the process.
• Copy of current phone bill – Includes necessary information (name and address registered with the current provider) about your existing phone plan. This also serves as proof of ownership of the number.

Check out the FCC’s number porting checklist to prepare for the porting process.

Toll-Free Number Porting Rules

According to the FCC porting rules, carriers and providers:

• Must port a number upon receiving a valid request.
• May not refuse to port a number.
• Can charge for porting services.Can charge an early termination fee, especially for long-term customers.
• May refuse to port if the customer has not paid for porting.

Potential Issues with Number Porting

Some roadblocks that may impact the number porting process include:

1. Number isn’t portable

These issues may interrupt the porting process:

• The number is no longer in service — Your phone number isn’t active or has been terminated.
• Incomplete rate center / no coverage — Your new toll-free provider doesn’t have coverage in your area.
• No interconnect agreement — Your new provider does not have an agreement with the old carrier holding the number.

If you experience any of these issues during your porting process, you may need to find an alternative solution. An alternative solution would be to get a new toll-free number. Work with your toll-free service provider to find a more suitable solution.

2. Easily fixable issues

These issues may delay the porting process, but can be resolved:

• Incorrect name and address — Contact information needed to prove ownership is incorrect.
• Phone number was not found — Phone number entered incorrectly due to user error.
• Porting a toll-free number — Toll-free numbers take longer to port, depending on the provider.
• Limited porting options — Countries may have limitations on number porting.

Related: 5 Phone Number Porting Myths Debunked

How to Transfer a Toll-Free Number?

Here’s how to transfer your number to a new toll-free service:

1. In most cases, you submit a porting request with requested documentation to your new toll-free service provider.
2. The new provider reaches out to your old carrier.
3. The old carrier confirms your identity to the new provider.
4. The new provider notifies the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC).
5. NPAC creates a pending port and notifies the old provider.
6. The new provider asks NPAC to activate the port.
7. Upon activation, the port is broadcasted to the telecom industry network.
8. Your new service will be activated.
9. You can then terminate your old account.

How to Port Your Toll-Free Number to Global Call Forwarding

You can port multiple numbers to the Global Call Forwarding network. Our process is simple and quick. Start by submitting a porting request, and a customer service representative will be in touch with you within 24 hours.

Here’s how to port a toll-free number with Global Call Forwarding:

1. Check the Portability of your Numbers
You can keep your existing phone number if you remain in the same geographic area. But this is not always the case, so it is best to check whether your numbers are portable. We will also review the portability of your numbers for you. Call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 or submit a request.

2. Send us your Latest Invoice
Send us a copy of your latest invoice that includes your name, address, account number, and phone numbers.

3. Wait for the Transfer
The transfer may take a few days to a few weeks, depending on the number’s country. Keep your old service active during this transition period.

4. No Interruption of Service
Continue running your business with no service interruptions during the transfer of numbers.

5. Cancel your Previous Provider
Once your toll-free number has been ported to Global Call Forwarding, you can cancel your account with your old provider.

Switch to Global Call Forwarding

Ready to port your toll-free number to the Global Call Forwarding network? We are here to help you improve your business communication system. Call us at +1 (561) 908-6171 or chat with our experts!

Simple call routing strategies are a thing of the past in successful business phone networks. These strategies have become outdated as they often generated long wait times, multiple transfers, and overall caller frustration.

However, your business and teams can tackle these challenges head-on with an intelligent call routing solution. Smart call routing brings accuracy, responsiveness, and new functionality to your phone system. Let’s look at what this service is, how it works, and what it can do for your company.

Intelligent Call Routing For Your Business

Effective communication between businesses and consumers is essential in a customer’s lifetime. When customers contact your company, you want them to reach the best person or department to satisfy their needs. Smart call routing is an affordable cloud communication solution that helps direct callers to the right employee, leading to better call management.

In this short guide, we will go over:

• Definition and Features
• Benefits of Intelligent Call Routing
• Common Use Cases
• Smart Call Routing Best Practices

What is Smart Call Routing?

Smart or intelligent call routing systems receive incoming calls, gather information from or about the caller, and route them to the appropriate agent or department. Some intelligent routing services even help users complete simple tasks or answer frequently asked questions. This service feature helps streamline the caller’s experience by eliminating unnecessary transfers.

Some providers have a smart call routing package ready to use upon activation. Others have call routing services with access to customizable, advanced features. When applied to your system, features like Interactive Voice Response (IVR) make your routing intelligent. This type of routing strategy is also known as IVR call routing.

How Does Intelligent Call Routing Work?

Intelligent phone call routing works alongside your cloud phone system to effectively manage inbound calls. Once a call comes in, the system automatically redirects callers to the correct department based on collected caller information.

The system gathers this information by asking callers to select an option from the preset menu concerning the intent of the call. Users make their desired selection by dialing the appropriate keypad number or speaking their answer. The caller’s input then determines the routing destination.

In other cases, the system routes the caller based on the caller ID and the account attached to that phone number. There are a few different ways to employ intelligent call routing; you’ll need to work with your cloud phone service provider to understand available options.

Specific destinations and how your incoming calls move through your phone system depend on the routing rules you create. You can easily input new rules and manage your call flow using your provider’s online platform or contacting them directly. Your preset rules define your phone systems:

• Menu prompts and options
• Routing destinations based on caller input
• Alternate routing destinations or failover forwarding
• Ring times and strategies
• Advanced routing strategies like holiday routing and more.

Advanced Features for Intelligent Call Routing

As mentioned earlier, some providers offer access to advanced features that transform your regular IVR call routing system into an intelligent one. This allows businesses with evolving needs to customize call management setups and scale as necessary. Or, if you have an existing system in place (such as PBX), this is an easy way to increase functionality.

So, what types of features contribute to a smart call routing system?

Here are a few that come in handy:

• Advanced IVR (Auto-Attendant) – With this feature, an automated voice automatically answers inbound calls and communicates with callers. It provides general information, instructions, and menu options. Advanced IVR is capable of organizing, prioritizing, and transferring incoming calls to boost your system’s proficiency. And, you can design your IVR system from the ground up to fit your business needs.
• Customized Greetings, Voicemails, and Prompts – These customization tools allow you to upload greetings and personalize your phone system. It is useful for instructions, menu prompts, branding, and promotions. Even more so, it impacts the customer’s initial impression of your company and your quality of service.
• Ring Groups (also Hunt Groups) – This advanced feature lets you ring several lines among your departments, teams, or agents. With the ring group model, you can either ring all users at the same time (simultaneously) or in a specific order (sequentially). This strategy helps your teams never miss calls by distributing them effectively.
• Call Flow Builder – A call flow designer is an interactive tool that allows you to create custom call flows. So, you have complete control over the call process and how it travels through your system. A well-structured call flow design helps improve caller experience and streamlines your communications.

Related: 6 Call Flow Templates for Efficient Business Communication

All of these features and more (like different routing strategies) help increase your network’s functionality and make smart call routing possible.

11 Benefits of Using IVR Call Routing

Smart routing is a popular solution for companies of all sizes that want to improve their phone system’s efficiency and overall performance. With a streamlined solution like IVR call routing, you can accurately distribute and route calls among your teams and deliver quick assistance to callers. This is beneficial for both your agents and customers, as it saves both parties time.

Let’s dig into all the benefits this feature offers:

• Decrease call duration and wait times
• Improve caller experience
• Improve first call resolution (FCR)
• Boost employee productivity
• Manage this feature from any location
• Reduce costs
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Better call reliability
• Enhance network proficiency and functionality
• Easy to set up
• Never miss an important call

Intelligent Call Routing Use Cases

All types of businesses and teams can use smart call routing to efficiently manage inbound calls. So, to give you a better understanding of how companies and teams use IVR call routing, let’s go over some use cases:

• Businesses with high-call volumes – Intelligent routing helps businesses manage high-call volumes. It increases accuracy and handling capacity by routing callers to the correct agent or department. This way, callers avoid excessive wait times, multiple transfers, and repetitive explanations – which would otherwise lead to frustration and customer dissatisfaction. Instead, IVR call routing connects callers with the agent best-suited for their request the first time around. And in the process, it boosts your first call resolution rates and gradually reduces your call queue.

• Call centers – Maximizes a service center’s efficiency through call center IVR strategies and automation. Auto-attendants route callers to their chosen agent or department, significantly reducing hold times. Agents can then solve the customer’s issue and quickly move on to the next caller. So, your team’s productivity and customer satisfaction increases while your call handling times decrease.

• Sales and support teams – Some intelligent phone routing systems give you access to caller information like demographics or previous call history. Your system can then match reps with callers based on this data, resulting in better customer service.

• Remote teams – Whether you have a remote branch or your team works from home, intelligent call routing helps connect your teams – no matter their location. This is because the feature uses remote call forwarding to automatically route calls to any device. You can also use this as a failover forwarding technique. All you have to do is set it up in your service’s control panel.

Best Practices for IVR Call Routing

Here are some things to pay attention to when implementing IVR call routing into your phone system:

• Map out your call flow or phone tree before inputting it into your system.
• Keep IVR menu options short and simple. Avoid overloading callers with options.
• Prioritize menu options based on common call topics or requests.
• Consider your caller’s intent when creating your routing rules and call flow.
• Don’t rely too heavily on phone system automation. Leave room for personalization.
• Opt for a human voice when creating your menu, prompts, greetings, etc.
• Monitor your network’s progress using system analytics.
• Ask for customer feedback with phone surveys.

Ready to Add Smart Call Routing to Your Setup?

Global Call Forwarding offers intelligent call routing features with each of our phone number plans. To learn more about the benefits of advanced call routing or how to set up this service, call us at (561) 908-6171. Want to see it in action? Request a demo or chat with us online.