Call Management

The holidays are just around the corner. In many countries, they’ve already begun! As we move into the second half of the year filled with celebrations and festivals, you need to prepare your business for the holidays in a way that keeps both customers and employees happy.

How to Make Your Business Holiday-Ready

The holiday season makes for the most profitable time of the year (for most businesses) and brings you the opportunity to bring new customers on board. As we move into the holiday season, it helps to prepare beforehand and get your affairs in order.

Here are 6 ways to prepare your business for the holidays:

1. Plan your marketing and promotions
2. Establish vacation policies
3. Create call flows with holiday schedules
4. Hire and train seasonal workers
5. Take care of things you’ve been putting off
6. Update your website for the holidays

1. Plan Your Marketing and Promotions

The first step is to get your marketing plans and promotions in place. Use data gathered over the last year to determine what worked best for your customer profiles and what they now expect from your business. Some areas to get started:

• Holiday content marketing — Put out relevant content for your customers about how they might use your product or service during the holidays (knowledge base, how-to guides, etc.)
• Holiday promotions — Run special offers and deals for the holidays to bring in more customers
• Updated company contact information — Reassure existing customers that your business will be reachable during the holidays and provide them with resources for off-hours assistance (chatbots, online ticketing and support center, etc.)

Plan your holiday marketing strategy to keep customers happy and maintain business continuity during the holidays.

2. Establish Vacation Policies

This is one of the most important policies to have in the workplace. If you don’t have one, now is the time to write it. And if you do have one, it might be worth reviewing and/or updating it, if necessary.

A vacation policy guides employees and teams on how to take time off during major national holidays. You may base your vacation policy on a first-come, first-served or seniority basis, and you can even offer employees who choose to work on the holidays a reward for their time.

Establishing these guidelines beforehand will ensure you offer a fair vacation policy with clear expectations.

3. Create Call Flows With Holiday Schedules

Your business might have specific holiday schedules not just during the holiday season but throughout the year. It could be employees taking vacation and time off or your whole business taking a day or two off for national and public holidays.

It’s a good idea to create call flows for your holiday schedules to determine what happens to incoming calls during these days. Holiday call routing lets you route incoming calls during specific holiday schedules to different phone numbers or locations. You can add special holiday greetings and voice messages with updated company information that callers will hear before they are routed to a satellite office, remote workers, or voicemail.

Check out our guide on how to set up holiday routing with Global Call Forwarding.

4. Hire and Train Seasonal Workers

You may need to hire extra staff to work during the holidays. This could be on-site seasonal staff or remote customer service staff to ease the burden on full-time employees. Without proper training, your seasonal team may prove more burdensome than helpful. This is why it’s essential to hire early and spend enough time training them properly.

5. Take Care of Things You’ve Been Putting Off

At the beginning of every year, we think of new ways to improve how customers interact with our business to increase sales and customer satisfaction. If your teams drew up such plans but haven’t implemented them yet, now is a good time to get things moving. As they say, “just in time for the holiday rush!”

6. Update Your Website for the Holidays

Lastly, make necessary updates and changes to your website and test to make sure it functions properly. Your website should run smoothly — especially the product, pricing, checkout, and payment pages — so that it can properly handle existing and new customer traffic.

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

As you prepare your business for the holidays, don’t forget to get into the holiday spirit and celebrate with your teams, in whatever capacity is appropriate. This is a time to take a step back after weeks of preparing and be present in the moment.

Need a call routing solution for the upcoming holiday season? Chat with our representatives online or call us at +1 (561) 908-6171. Happy holidays!

Are your sales and customer support teams struggling with high call volume? Do they need to manage incoming calls from different locations? Is bad call handling leading to a dip in sales?

These are a few situations where effective call management can improve the productivity of your teams while also enhancing caller experience.

Call Management: Definition, Features, Benefits

What is call management? Call management is the process of managing inbound and outbound calls with the help of technology and systems.

By managing calls effectively, your business reduces the time spent on waiting in a call queue, dealing with the wrong department, or overburdening agents in a particular location.

Businesses can use call management software and technology to improve the way callers interact with their teams and improve efficiency and productivity. How? In this article, we will go over:

• What is Call Management, and Why is it Important?
• How Does Call Management Software Work?
• Call Management Features and Tools
• Benefits of Using a Call Management Software
• How to Improve Call Management for Business
• Choosing a Good Service Provider

What is Call Management?

Call management refers to handling incoming calls using technology and call center solutions to route them effectively. You can use call management software to intentionally decide how incoming calls will be handled in your business.

For example, your business might offer customer support for different regions and therefore have regional support centers. Call handling can determine the best way to handle these calls either by advanced routing or by using an automated call distributor.

Why is Call Management Important?

Most customers will hang up and cut off a call after just 0-5 minutes. One of the most common customer complaints is waiting in a call queue for long periods and dealing with a confusing automated voice system.

Customers who struggle to get support will find a new company with better customer service options. And your business will lose a valuable sale and customer. Part of building strong customer relationships is to make your business’ support team accessible and responsive. Customers need to know that your business and employees are reliable; this will make them comfortable doing business with you.

How Does Call Management Software Work?

Call management software comes with various tools and features to help you organize your call flows and manage the way callers interact with your business. You can get such software and features from a cloud phone service provider like Global Call Forwarding. These features are customizable and can be personalized to meet your business communication needs. And since they work over the cloud (using VoIP technology), you can use and manage them from any location.

Call Management Features and Tools

So, what to look for in a call management system? Each provider offers different features and tools within their call management solution. Here are the top features to look for:

• International Call Forwarding — Forward incoming calls to any location anywhere in the world.
• Advanced Call Routing — Route calls using predetermined rules and routing strategies.
  • Time-based Routing — Route calls based on the time of day the call comes in.
  • Geographic Call Routing — Route calls based on the caller’s location.
  • Sequential Forwarding — Send incoming calls down a line group, starting with the first person in line each time.
  • Round Robin Call Routing — Send incoming calls to a hunt group and the next person in line.
  • Holiday Call Routing — Use holiday schedules to route calls to different locations during holidays.
  • Simultaneous Ringing — Ring multiple phones with one number
  • Call Transfer — Manual call transfer.
• Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) — Automated call distributor that routes calls to the right department based on predetermined rules.
• Call Flow Builder — Create custom call flows to handle inbound call volumes.
• Advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) — Automated voice response system to interact with callers and help them reach the right department.
• Hosted Call Recording — Record inbound and outbound calls and store them
• Call Tracking — Track where your calls are coming from (locations, campaigns, etc.)
• Call Detail Records and Monitoring — Information of all inbound and outbound calls to help calculate KPIs and metrics.
• CRM and Helpdesk Integrations — Integrate and connect different systems and applications to create one centralized business communication system.
• Softphones — Web-based phone application to let users place calls from any location and device.

Check out all the features offered by Global Call Forwarding.

8 Benefits of Using a Call Management Software

So, what can call management software do for your business?

1. Better management and handling of incoming calls
2. Improved caller experience with efficient call flows
3. Access to call handling features and tools
4. Reduced number of lost or abandoned calls
5. Access to analytics and reports
6. Improved employee performance
7. Low costs and increased productivity
8. Better customer service overall

How to Improve Call Management for Business

Whether your business experiences consistent high call traffic or fluctuating call volumes, you can use various call features and tools to manage your traffic better and improve caller experience. Here are some key tips to improving call handling for your business:

1. Integrate call features (routing, IVR, etc.) into your existing phone system
2. Use call tracking and call records to understand when and where your calls come from
3. Identify key high call volume periods (certain hours of the day, holidays, seasons, etc.)
4. Build custom call flows and map out how calls should optimally move within your system (check out our call flow templates for ideas)
5. Use advanced call routing to handle incoming call volumes.

Choosing a Good Service Provider

How to choose the right phone service provider for your call management needs? Research and compare. Look at what different cloud phone service providers have to offer and reach out to their representatives to learn more. Look for:

• Variety of features to meet your needs
• Easy to use service (request a demo)
• Reasonable and competitive prices
• Accessible and responsive customer support.

Want to learn more about call management features offered by Global Call Forwarding? Chat with our experts online or request a demo today!

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

Creating the Right Call Flows for Your Business

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

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

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

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

What to Keep in Mind When Creating Custom Call Flows

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Standard Call Flows

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

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

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

2. IVR / Voice Menu

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Time-Based Routing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Caller ID Routing / Geographic Call Routing

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

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

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

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

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

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

5. Holiday Schedules and Routing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6. Advanced Routing Systems

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

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

Here are the top advanced call routing solutions:

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

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

Improve Call Management with Call Flows

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

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

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

Choosing the Right Call Forwarding Service

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

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

What to Look for Business Call Forwarding Services

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

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

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

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

How to Compare Best Call Forwarding Services

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

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

11 Best Call Forwarding Services for Business

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

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

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

Choosing Global Call Forwarding

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

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

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

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

Understanding Your Business’ Call Flow

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

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

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

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

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

What is the Purpose of a Call Flow?

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

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

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

What Does a Call Flow Contain?

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

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

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

Related: 9 Benefits of Advanced Call Routing

What Steps are Included in a Call Flow?

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

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

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

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

Building Call Flows to enhance Caller Experience

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

Phone number masking is a popular cloud communication feature being used by companies around the world for various reasons. In this post, we will go through different examples of number masking in use. In other words, how are companies using this service, and how do they benefit from it?

But first, we need to understand what number masking is and how it works.

Let’s dive in.

What is Number Masking?

Number masking, also known as call masking, is a VoIP feature that allows you to hide or “mask” your phone number. You can choose to completely hide the number from displaying on caller IDs or replace it with a different number, which is called caller ID override.

How Does a Number Masking Solution Work?

Once subscribed to a cloud phone service provider, you can set up call masking within their features. This will let you hide or display another phone number in place of your original or personal number. Then, when you call someone, they will see your masked number and won’t be privy to the actual number.

You can set up phone number masking in a few ways:

• Connecting our phone numbers to your PBX system
• Changing your outbound caller ID through the GCF control panel or account dashboard
• Changing your caller ID through the softphone app

You can get a call masking service from a cloud phone number provider like Global Call Forwarding that has the capability to hide or display specific phone numbers.

If you have a phone number plan with Global Call Forwarding, you can update your caller ID and use call masking in all three ways mentioned above.

Note: FCC rules prohibit anyone from using phone number masking with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongly obtain anything of value. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrong.

Who Uses Masked Numbers? Use Cases

Why use a masked number? From individuals to businesses, many different users would want to mask their number and avoid displaying their original phone number. Here are some use cases of number masking:

1. Remote Teams

Number masking comes in handy when your employees work remotely and need to make customer calls from their own phones. By masking their phone number, they can protect their personal information and make calls from the business number instead. This way, they appear professional and maintain credibility when calling customers.

2. Global Reach

Like with remote teams, global teams can use call masking when placing calls to customers in different regions and countries. Here, instead of hiding the number, they can show a local phone number that your business owns for a particular region or country. For example, an employee in the US calling a customer in Mexico can override the caller ID to display a local Mexico phone number instead of their personal US number. Customers are more likely to answer when they see calls coming from a local caller ID.

3. Vendor-Buyer Interactions

When managing vendor and buyer interactions — such as with a delivery service or online marketplace — it is essential to track leads and maintain excellent customer service. And part of this is facilitating vendor-buyer relationships in a comfortable and secure manner.

Masking the phone numbers of your vendors and customers ensures their privacy and protection. They can contact each other during the time of the order and not outside of that. This makes sure no one is bothered on their personal line outside of the business interaction.

You can use number masking to manage vendor-buyer interactions and driver-customer communication. Some common examples for where number masking proves helpful:

• Ride sharing apps like Uber, Lyft
• Delivery services like Doordash, Uber Eats, FedEX
• Online marketplaces like Etsy, Amazon
• Pet sitting like Rover, Spruce
• Other services like TaskRabbit, ChoreRelief

Number Masking Solution from Global Call Forwarding

You can get phone number masking with our Outbound Calling software. Simply add this service to your existing phone plan or purchase a phone plan with us.

Check our pricing page for more details, or talk to an expert today!

The growth rate for call centers and contact centers continues to rise, with more businesses looking to outsource their sales and customer service. And with advancements in telecommunications and global telephony, it is easier than ever to increase profits and revenue with a contact center.

But this is harder to achieve with outdated and vulnerable technology. With the right legacy contact center modernization, you can transform your contact center into a customer experience center.

What is Legacy Contact Center Transformation?

Legacy contact center transformation or modernization is the process of replacing or modernizing legacy phone systems and contact center technologies with new, modern ones. For most businesses, this might mean switching over to a cloud-based contact center software or using contact center as a service (CCaaS).

When you upgrade or transform your contact center, you set your company and your employees up for success. This is because you use modern technology to improve quality and scalability. And you pay for the contact center tech you need with flexible terms.

Need for Legacy Contact Center Transformation

The primary purpose of a contact center is to offer customer service and sales support to different businesses. As your contact center adds on new clients and companies, you will need advanced technology to support your teams.

For example, you may onboard clients from different countries or who have customers spread across globally. In this circumstance, you will need to provide customer service and sales globally. Legacy systems may support global coverage, but they are not as cost-effective as cloud-based solutions built for virtual and global scalability. The same goes for contact centers that want to offer remote or hybrid work capabilities. Cloud-based solutions are easier to manage than traditional legacy systems.

With legacy systems, you will:

• Need to purchase, install, and maintain heavy-duty hardware
• Run your contact center on outdated technology
• Enter long-term contracts and overpay for basic, essential services
• Lack flexibility and scalability to support your remote, flexible, and global teams

This is why many businesses are gradually switching to cloud communications solutions.

What Does Contact Center Modernization Look Like

With legacy contact center transformation, you open up new avenues of growth and modernization within your business.

Advanced and cloud-based technology
Cloud contact center solutions come equipped with modern features and tools to help your teams do their jobs well. Use SIP trunking to make high-quality voice calls and route calls automatically to the correct department or employee based on preset rules. Forward calls internationally without paying high international calling rates.

Local, remote, and global teams
You have the opportunity to bring in advanced technology and features to support your local, remote, and global teams. You can offer services in neighboring countries as well as remote locations without increasing your budget. This lets you offer your customers more varied solutions.

Benefits of Contact Center Modernization

So, why do you need to transform your contact center? Here are some key benefits of investing in legacy contact center transformation for your company:

1. Newer systems come with advanced features and improved functionality
Use fast and updated technology to offer high-quality service. Gain access to multiple advanced and premium features and functionality to manage your contact center as you want to.

2. Easier to install and maintain
A cloud-based contact center is quick to set up and does not require additional hardware or software to run. You can, therefore, get your teams up and running with little to no downtime, whether they work in-office or remotely. Additionally, you do not have to worry about maintaining and updating your contact center tech as the provider takes care of those factors.

3. Enterprise-grade security and reliability
Since they are not always updated with modern security measures, legacy systems have security vulnerabilities that leave them prone to cyberattacks. But with new technology and software, you can expect improved security and encryption that will keep your contact center and customer data safe.

4. Unlimited scalability to let your contact center grow efficiently
Modern contact center solutions are designed to help your business grow easily without incurring more expenses. This means that you do not need to buy additional services or equipment to add new lines, support larger call volumes, or offer services in different regions. You simply add them to your existing system and not worry about downtime. Adding them to the existing system lets you control all communications in one place through one provider instead of dealing with multiple service providers.

5. Reduce contact center costs
By bundling contact center technologies, you can save on hardware and software costs. Additionally, your business can save on the high cost of dealing with cyberattacks and retrieving lost data with increased security.

Cloud contact center providers will also help you expand your reach beyond geographic borders with low-cost local and international toll free numbers and international call forwarding. This means you can scale your business easily without crossing your budget.

6. Access to integrations
In the name of efficiency, modern phone system solutions let you integrate your business communication system with other business tools so that your users can access all important information in one place. This enables them to be more productive and efficient and leads your contact center to drive desired results.

7. Set your staff up for success
Your teams can use various features to create a custom phone system that works best for your needs. Modern contact center solutions help them do their jobs without any hiccups or issues. Through this, you can support your local, remote, and international team with the right technology and resources.

How to Transition from a Legacy Contact Center

According to a recent report, nearly all IT buyers and decision-makers plan to modernize IT infrastructure to increase operational efficiency. However, IT teams face increased pressure to strike the perfect balance between supporting key services, aligning with the budget, and setting up a foundation that is forever-scalable. And so, a lot goes into deciding how to modernize your legacy infrastructure.

To transform your contact center into one that supports your employees and customers effectively, you first need to develop a plan of action. This entails how you will modernize your system, what provider you choose, and when you will begin the process.

1. Consider Important Factors

Before you set out to transform your legacy contact center, you first need to consider a few key factors:

1. Workload and IT architecture — What is your current communication infrastructure? What areas can benefit from modernization? Audit existing technologies, software, hardware, location of teams, and so on. This will help you determine each department’s value and functionality and how you can use modernization to improve ROI.

2. Operational changes — Next, look at your existing workflow. Where can you optimize processes and productivity? What new technology do you need to achieve these changes? Get feedback from your teams and employees to determine how you can use modernization to help them become more efficient.

3. Finances — Then, evaluate your budget. How much can you spend on this upgrade? You will notice that upgrading your contact center will prove cost-effective in the long run, when compared to using legacy systems. But it is a good idea to keep track of what needs to be updated and what takes priority within the budget.

4. Security and reliability — Next, what security measures do you want your communication infrastructure to have? How does your new provider protect from data loss and cyberattacks? Discuss with your internal IT team to understand what to expect from your new contact center technology.

5. Prepare for possible downtime — Finally, you will need to plan for possible costly downtime and impacts on business continuity. You can discuss a timeline of the upgrade with your IT team and contact center provider to get an idea of how long the process will take and how you can prepare for any disasters and upgrade smoothly.

2. Choose a Cloud Contact Center Provider

The next step is to research and find a cloud contact center provider to help you achieve your modernization goals. Use your audit to identify the changes, features, and technology you need from your new contact center.

Then shop around to see what most providers offer. Compare different providers based on:

• Features and services they offer,
• Extent of global reach,
• Pricing options and flexibility,
• Contact center migration process,
• Responsive customer service and technical support,
• Customer reviews and testimonials.

Then, analyze each provider and decide on one that fits your needs and budget.

3. Weigh Your Options

Next, consider how you will conduct the digital transformation. Will you switch over entirely or in parts? This again warrants a conversation with your provider and internal IT team; together, you will have to determine the best solution for your setup.

1. Complete Replacement
Migrate in a single move. All solutions, telephony, and agents are moved over to the new system at the same time.

Pro tip: Use this solution if your current systems need an urgent upgrade or you want to consolidate multiple vendors into one platform.

2. Phased Migration
Migrate one solution at a time. You may first migrate telephony (inbound and outbound voice), then digital services (email and live chat), and then self-service (knowledge base and automation), or in an order that works for you.

3. Phased Telephony
Switch in parts. Some agents continue to use the legacy system and solutions while others switch over to the new setup. Then, once the others have successfully switched over, the rest of the agents can switch over too.

Pro tip: Use phased migration if you are not ready to switch over completely and don’t want to risk costly downtime or losing data.

4. Begin Your Contact Center Migration

Once you’ve settled on a provider and a migration plan, you can start the process of transforming your contact center. Prepare your employees by informing them of upcoming changes and training that may be required. Create guides and tutorials that will help them onboard quickly. Let them know what the disaster and backup plan entails and who to reach out to if something fails.

Transforming Legacy Systems with Global Call Forwarding

Global Call Forwarding is a cloud-based global telephony provider that provides businesses with phone system solutions. We can help you get cloud contact center solutions and create a phone system that is flexible, scalable, and efficient. Want to learn more? Speak with our telecom experts today, or chat with us online!

With any business move, you want to plan and prepare effectively so that you can make the right decision. Similarly, before you set out to offer 24/7 global customer support, you need to consider a few factors from deciding your customer support infrastructure to finding a global telephony provider.

Here is a detailed guide for businesses preparing to expand internationally and offer global customer support.

Gearing Up to Offer 24/7 Global Customer Support

In this guide to offering global customer support, we will cover the basics of providing global customer support:

1. Does Your Business Need to Offer Global Customer Support?
2. Benefits of 24/7 Customer Service
3. How Can Your Business Offer 24/7 Support?
4. 9 Things You Need to Do Before Providing Global Customer Support

Does Your Business Need to Offer Global Customer Support?

The short answer is — it depends on your company and business goals. Does your company plan to expand internationally? Do you have customers in multiple countries spread across the globe? Do you want to offer more responsive and 24/7 customer support?

Global customer support is a way of offering 24/7 customer service by positioning your support teams globally. This way, you can access a broader customer base, establish a local presence in target markets, and increase international sales.

Benefits of 24/7 Customer Service

So, why should your business consider offering global customer support and technical support?

1. Get more global customers
2. Expand global reach and coverage
3. Add new markets and regions to your business’ customer base
4. Meet rising customer expectations
5. Balance the workload across multiple support teams
6. Retain more customers by offering responsive support
7. Increase revenue and sales

How Can Your Business Offer 24/7 Support?

There are a few different ways your business can offer global 24/7 customer support:

1. Phone support — Routing inbound calls to customer support agents wherever they are located.
2. Email and ticketing software — One of the most popular 24/7 support options to help customers report an issue and receive automated responses till a customer support agent is available for assistance.
3. Live chat and chatbots — Offer troubleshooting support via chat, answer simple requests, and collect customer data.
4. Self-service support — Offer Knowledge Base and support articles, FAQs, and tutorials that answer common questions and resolve issues without live interaction.
5. Automated support — Includes AI chatbots, interactive voice response (IVR systems), email automation, and so on.

However, what you offer depends on your resources and budget. You may find phone service providers or customer service solutions that offer a bundle of these services together for discounted rates. Consider your options before making a decision.

9 Things You Need to Do Before Providing Global Customer Support

There are a couple of things you need to watch for before you set out to offer 24/7 global customer support — from finding new technology to using automation to streamline business processes.

Here are 9 factors to consider if you want to offer 24/7 global support:

1. Decide How Your Business Will Offer Global Global Support

The first thing you need to consider while preparing your business for global support is to decide how you will offer service and assistance internationally. Depending on your resources and budget, you can find a global customer support solution that allows you to reach a wider audience and increase international sales.

The most common setup for international customer support is offering global voice support accompanied by email, live chat, and self-service support. But you can configure your setup to meet your business needs and goals. Here are some ways you can offer support:

1. Phone calls with in-house customer service agents with advanced routing
2. Outsourcing customer support calls to call centers and contact centers
3. Live chat and chatbots
4. Email support and ticketing
5. Video support and conferencing
6. Social media management
7. Self-service support

2. Choosing a Global Telephony Provider

Next, you need to find a global telephony provider who can support voice and business communication requirements. Determine the different factors your business needs to offer global customer support efficiently. Then, look for a provider with solutions that help your employees accomplish these goals. Some features and services to look for in a global telephony provider include:

• Voice coverage in target countries and regions.
• Cloud phone numbers such as local and toll free numbers from countries worldwide.
• Advanced call routing and international call forwarding.
• Cloud IVR or auto-attendants.
• Support for other communication channels such as email, voicemail, text messaging, fax, etc.
• API to integrate into your existing system.
• Softphones to let users make and receive calls from any location or device.
• 24/7 technical and customer support.

These aside, you can get access to other premium services and tools. Review what different providers have to offer so you can find the right fit for your business.

3. Choosing Between On-Premise Support vs. Call Center Outsourcing

At this point, you will also need to decide whether you want to run this on-premise with cloud call center technology or outsource to an omnichannel call center.

On-Premise Cloud Call Center Software

Cloud call center software comes equipped with various features and tools that help you offer global customer support from your headquarters, satellite offices, and remote agents. Your business can adopt a follow the sun support model by routing calls to employees in different regions.

In other words, with cloud-based software, you can hire employees in multiple locations and connect them to your centralized hub. You do not need additional services for these employees. Simply route calls to different locations during different hours. This gives you more flexibility and control over your customer support.

Additionally, since most providers offer different pricing options, you can choose one that works well within your budget. This way, you can cut down on outsourcing calls by managing everything with in-house and remote teams.

Call Center Outsourcing

Call center offshoring companies specialize in customer support and have access to the technology to offer quality service. So, if you don’t want the hassle of running your own call center, you can outsource to centers offering global and multichannel support. This can prove beneficial to your business if you do not have the infrastructure to support global teams.

Related: Top 16 BPO Call Centers in the United States

4. Plan for the Costs of Running a 24/7 Support Service

Next, you need to pay attention to the costs of running a 24/7 global support service. This varies based on a few different factors:

• The areas and regions you want to cover
• On-premise cloud call center software:
  • • Number of users (in-house and remote)
  • Call center software costs + additional premium services ($15-$100 per month)
  • Any equipment, if needed, such as desk phones, headsets, etc.
  • Staffing and training costs ($15-$25 per hr)
• Call center outsourcing costs ($25-100 per hour per agent)
• Additional services such as creating a knowledge base and online support center for customers and agents.

Shop around to see where you might be able to cut down costs. For example, you can have your company’s in-house content team work on the knowledge base and support center. Or, you can use a provider that offers multiple services and equipment under one discounted price and that covers a large global network. Speak with different providers to understand what options you have available to accommodate your business needs and decide accordingly.

5. Position Teams in New Markets

Once you have the plan and technology to support your global customer service, you can start placing teams in new regions and markets. You can do this cost-effectively by opening up small satellite offices or hiring remote agents. Then, you can integrate these users into your centralized hub.

It is important to create a process for how exactly your business will offer global customer support. Think about:

• What call routing strategies you will use and how calls will be routed,
• What other communication channels will these teams have access to,
• How will agents report to their managers,
• What skills and experience do you need your agents to have,
• What customer relationship management (CRM) software will you use to record customer interactions and information, and so on.

6. Set Up Call Forwarding and Advanced Routing

Next, set up call routing and forwarding rules. Cloud-based phone service providers will offer advanced call routing that allows your business to route calls based on different predetermined and custom rules. You can set and adjust these rules to match your customer support infrastructure. Here are some common call routing strategies:

• Time-based routing — Routes calls to specific locations or lines based on the time the call comes in.
• Geographic call routing or georouting — Routes calls to specific locations or numbers based on the caller’s location.
• Skill-based routing — Forwards calls to the right department or agent based on certain skills such as language or departmental knowledge.
• Simultaneous ringing — Enables multiple phones to ring at the same time when a call comes in.
• Sequential forwarding — Routes calls down a predetermined list of users.

7. Hire Employees with the Necessary Skills

Hire the right employees to represent your company. This means paying attention to different cultures, customs, and languages for the regions you offer services. You want to find agents who can speak multiple languages, are culturally sensitive, and practice international phone etiquette. Whether you hire locally or outsource to a BPO, you want to ensure they represent your company and brand appropriately. Conducting training sessions and refreshing company values and missions is a good way to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Related: How to Create a CX Strategy for Global Customer Support

8. Build a Self-Service Support Center Accessible Online

Next, you should also prepare a knowledge base or support center online to make it easy for customers and agents to get help and support. This can be filled with FAQs, how-to guides, tutorials and webinars, articles, troubleshooting help, and more.

It is a good idea to have one that your customers can access through your website and another available internally for your agents. This way, customers can get help for quick and straightforward problems while agents have access to support information for more complex issues.

9. Create Efficient Processes with Automation

Lastly, you may want to consider using automation and AI tools to automate your processes and make your teams more efficient. You could use an interactive voice response system (IVR) or auto-attendant to route calls based on your predetermined rules automatically. You could also set automated responses to trigger when customers send emails, submit query forms, submit a ticket, and so on. Another common use of AI is to have a chatbot assist web visitors in getting answers, submitting tickets, etc.

How Can Global Call Forwarding Help?

Global Call Forwarding is a global telephony provider that offers various cloud communication solutions — from international phone numbers to advanced call routing. You can customize your business communication system to create one that is compatible with your global customer service. Call us to learn more about our services or chat with us online! We can help you reach your customers no matter where they are!

Looking to transition to cloud communications? Cloud contact center solutions are designed to help businesses with effective call management, call monitoring and analytics, global expansion, and more.

Understand what a cloud contact center solution is, how it works, and how it can benefit your business.

How Do Cloud Contact Centers Work?

First, what is a cloud contact center?

What is a Cloud Contact Center? A cloud contact center is a comprehensive set of cloud-based tools and services for business communication. These tools can be used by contact centers and service teams in medium-large organizations that need multiple communication channels, advanced call management, remote communication management, reports and analytics.

They are also known as cloud-based contact centers, virtual call centers, and cloud call centers.

A cloud contact center offers various cloud-based solutions for phone service that offer more control over business communications. With these solutions, you can manage your calls and agents, conduct performance analysis by tracking data and metrics, and improve overall customer satisfaction.

These contact centers work over the cloud; that is, they need an internet connection. This allows businesses to access and use cloud contact center features from any location, enabling remote work and global expansion.

Choosing Between Cloud-Based Contact Centers and Traditional Contact Centers

Which is more suitable for your business call center software? To make a decision, you first need to understand what each type entails and the service and costs of each. Let’s look at the difference between a cloud-based contact center and on-premise software:

Cloud Contact Center: Top Features

Cloud-based contact centers come with various features, tools, and services designed for call management and customer support. You can customize and personalize these features to meet your business’ exact needs. Here are the top features of a cloud-based contact center:

Access to Cloud Phone Numbers

Choose from a large inventory of cloud phone numbers available from around the world. These numbers give callers (your customers) a chance to call for free or local calling rates, even if they are located in different countries. This is because of international call forwarding (more on that below).

Global Call Forwarding offers virtual phone numbers from more than 160 countries around the world. You can get:

• Toll-free numbers
• International toll-free numbers (ITFS numbers)
• Local phone numbers
• Mobile numbers (for certain countries).

Buy cloud phone numbers for your contact center and offer global customer support over the phone. Customers from other countries can call your business without worrying about paying high long-distance calling fees.

International Call Forwarding

An international call forwarding service lets businesses forward or re-route incoming international calls to any location in the world. For example, your company is headquartered in New York, but you have a large client base in Mexico. Your Mexican customers can call your Mexico toll-free number, and you can have these calls forwarded to headquarters in the US. This way, customers get to contact you for free, and you get the call where your customer support teams are located. And no one pays international calling rates!

Advanced Call Routing

An advanced call routing feature offers you multiple ways and strategies to forward inbound calls. You can set rules beforehand to manage incoming calls during specific times or heavy traffic periods. You can have calls routed to different locations, offices, and employees. Or have calls ring on multiple devices simultaneously or run through a set sequence. There is a lot to play around with—the key is to identify what routing strategy works best for your business. Here are some key call routing strategies:

• Time-based routing
• Geo routing
• Skill-based routing
• Simultaneous ring
• Sequential forwarding
• Holiday rules

Learn about the benefits of advanced call routing for your contact center.

Hosted Call Recording

Use a cloud call center recording software to record incoming and outgoing calls. No additional recording software or equipment is needed. You can save these recordings on your computer or in the cloud for future reference. There are many benefits of recording business calls; these include:

• Easy record-keeping
• Monitoring quality assurance
• Studying customer preferences and behaviors
• Protecting from liabilities and misunderstandings
• Recording important transactions
• Conducting employee or agent performance analysis
• Adhering to compliance requirements in specific industries and sectors, and so on.

Cloud IVR System

An interactive voice response system or IVR lets you introduce automation within your customer service efforts. The automated voice system answers incoming calls, identifies the purpose of the call, and proceeds to assist the caller. It may provide the caller with a menu of options, pre-recorded messages packed with helpful information, or transfer the caller to the correct department or agent.

You can get a highly customizable IVR system — like the one at Global Call Forwarding — to manage and route calls effectively. Set up rules for routing and forwarding. Add custom greetings and messages to highlight company updates, new hours, new products, service issues, etc.

Outbound Calling

Customers are less likely to answer out-of-state or international calls with caller IDs they don’t recognize. You can use an outbound calling service to increase global coverage and make your customers comfortable answering your call. This is a turnkey solution to help businesses make long-distance and international calls with custom caller IDs.

Softphone Apps

A softphone — also known as a contact center dialer — is an app you can download on your phone or desktop and use as a dialer. You can make and receive business calls with your business phone number instead of your personal number. Softphones are designed to help you make calls, update contact history, access voicemail, transfer calls to other employees, and more, all from the comfort of your devices.

Check out our GCF softphone and how it can help your employees connect from any location and maintain business continuity.

Automated Callback Options

Automated callback options make it easy for your business to connect with customers who cannot easily reach you. These may be customers in remote locations or web visitors who would benefit from your business calling them instead of waiting in long call queues.

Global Call Forwarding offers two types of automated callback services — CallMe Click and CallMe Trigger — to help you connect with your international customers. Customers either submit a short form on your website (CallMe Click) or call a trigger number (CallMe Trigger) to receive an immediate callback from your business.

With our high-availability network and global coverage, you can convert more prospects and web visitors into customers. Reduce friction and improve customer experience by making your business more accessible to interested customers.

5 Benefits of Cloud Contact Centers

There are reasons why companies (small and large) are moving their communications to the cloud — from reducing costs to getting access to better and more advanced services. So, how can your business benefit from a cloud contact center solution?

1. Improved Call Management

With various cloud communication tools, you can design and control the way incoming calls come into your business. You can route calls in a way that works best for your needs. During high traffic periods, you can set up call forwarding rules as backups if your main office is busy.

Or, you may route calls to specific locations and regions to meet your customers’ preferences (language, time zone, culture, etc). Try out different routing strategies to find one that supports your business’ call needs.

2. Increased Global Coverage

Virtual phone numbers make it easy to connect with global customers for low calling rates. By getting access to cloud phone numbers from more than 160 countries worldwide, you can take your business to new markets and increase your global coverage. And your business does not need to be in these regions to do business in them.

Additionally, when you use local and toll-free numbers, you allow customers to call your business for free or local calling rates, even if your business is located internationally. All of this makes your business more reachable to global customers and increases your international sales.

3. Workforce Flexibility

By using cloud contact center solutions, your business can open up to remote working and telecommuting options. You don’t need to stick to hiring and working within your geographical boundaries. Look for and hire talent in other countries and keep remote teams connected efficiently with virtual communication tools.

4. Scalability and Growth Support

The best part about cloud contact center solutions is that you can grow your business at your own pace. As you grow, you can add or remove additional lines and services to meet your needs. Get new numbers for new markets. Adjust call forwarding and routing rules to align with your customer support goals. Pay only for what you need and when you need it.

4. Uninterrupted Business Continuity

When you experience a power or internet outage or your office is affected by a disaster, a cloud phone system can prove useful. You can route calls to another office location, remote employees, or to your smartphone instead. This way, business can continue without interruption.

5. Low Costs for High Quality

Finally, by switching to the cloud, your company can cut down tremendously on communication-related costs. This is because you don’t need additional or special equipment to run a cloud contact center software. And since you can enter new countries and regions virtually, you do not need to open multiple office locations.

Another advantage is that you can access multiple communication tools within this one software. So, you do not need to subscribe to multiple services for your business communication needs.

Need Cloud-Based Phone Solutions?

Get cloud contact center solutions for your business today! Speak with our experts to understand how our features and services can support your communication needs. Call us at 1 (888) 908 6171 or chat with us online!