What Is Call Routing + 5 Main Benefits Of The Feature

What Is Call Routing

It’s great to always get what you want in your life. Imagine the situation when you sit in a restaurant with your partner and it’s time to make an order.

The menu is quite long, but you can’t find the meal that you exactly want at the particular moment. You are craving some unusual combination of tastes.

But there’s no problem – a waiter tells you that the restaurant has always wanted to try something else and even brought your favorite ham serrano straight from Spain two days ago.

So, without any objections, your wishes are fulfilled. Let’s go one step further – you wait only for 5 minutes and you are served with the meal of your dreams.

5 minutes was enough to have it cooked and seasoned perfectly.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Believe me or not, this a bit utopian vision is close to the way call routing works. It is another chapter of facilitating and cheering our lives on all fronts.

The idea is simple – you have some problem with products or services and you come up with a specific question. And you get the clear response straight ahead.

All you need to do is to call the customer service of the given company. Then, a system connects you with the right department immediately. And this is when you get an exact answer to your question with no waste of time.

That’s how it works – long story short.

But let’s leave the short version only for the introduction.

In this article, I’m going to take the idea of call routing a bit further. You’ll get a comprehensive set of information about this helpful feature.

First, you’ll get a more specific definition of it. You’ll learn what the term ‘call routing’ actually means and how does it work from a technical perspective.

When you get it, we’ll move straight to all the importance and benefits coming from using this feature in your business. It’s always great to know what’s waiting for you if you do everything right.

To wrap up the article, you’ll be provided with an example of a customer service platform that offers well-working call routing along with multiple other features.

So, dear call routing, I wish you to guide me to your definition. Click – here it comes!

Table of contents:

  1. What is call routing
  2. How call routing works
  3. 5 main benefits of call routing
  4. How to get a call routing for your business
  5. Being curious works in your favor

What is call routing

Call routing is the effect of years of development of the communication between companies and their customers. Let’s get on Delorean and refresh how it all began.

Once upon a time, receptionists or agents were sitting in the call center. You called the company, stated your problem, and a receiver of your call linked you with the right, qualified person hired in a given department.

Everything lasted for so long, that in the end, you may have looked like that.

Luckily enough, the technology was constantly improving. After some tries, we finally realized that no human is necessary to serve the customer when he starts an inbound call.

There appear call routing systems, also called automatic call distributors (ACD). As you can imagine, they are made to connect you with the right department automatically.

As soon as you start a call, you’ll hear some basic questions recorded through a voice-over. All you need to do is to answer them respectively by hitting the right buttons on the keypad of your phone.

After this simple process, the call routing system redirects you wherever you want.

Do you have some sales objections? Here comes a quality salesperson to help you.

Maybe you have some problems with the performance of your application? Then, you’ll be linked with the support immediately.

As the phone remains the favorite device used by customers to solve their problems, such facilitation is something extremely valuable. It is created to improve customer satisfaction and the effectiveness of your sales and support.

So, the whole process has developed to the point that you might start to feel like David Hasselhoff, also known as Knight Rider.

Fantastic perspective, isn’t it?

How call routing works

We know the general idea of call routing. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper into the technological side of this feature.

Asking Freddie Mercury’s question, it’s not a fantasy, it’s real life. It begins with a recognition of the caller’s intentions.

The most common way to do so is interactive voice response (IVR). This is what I mentioned earlier – a customer is guided by recorded messages.

He or she presses the right buttons to connect with the chosen department. If you want to know more about IVR from a technological perspective, click here as we have the whole article about this feature.

Call routing might be managed in another way. Some well-developed CRM tools can identify the reason for a customer’s call only by some data stored in the system.

For example, a call history indicates that a customer is well-known for having technical difficulties. Then, it’s much easier to connect him with the right person in your organization.

What is more important, it’s a system that recognizes demographics, statistics, etc. After that, a caller is bound to reach the type of customer service he’s aiming for.

Both methods are proven to make the call routing work perfectly. It’s up to you to choose the one that is affordable and effective for your business.

5 main benefits of call routing

As we already know what call routing is, let’s focus on the advantages of launching this feature. Here we go!

Professional customer service

Let’s face the truth – with call routing the chances that your customer will not be satisfied with the quality of your service are rather low.

Why?

He indicates what are the reasons for his call. The call routing system connects him automatically with the person who specializes in a given field of your activity.

If only there was a TV trivia show with questions about, let’s say, your product, he would nail it and win the fortune. This is why he’s well-prepared to find an effective solution to every single problem from your customers.

And you don’t need to worry about any misunderstandings – the system does it all for you, your customers will always reach the right department.

So, all you have to do is to activate the well-working machine!

Shorter wait time

Don’t fool ourselves – when a receptionist or call center agent distributes the calls, it affects your customer service performance. It’s nobody’s fault – we’re all just human beings.

This is how it looks like.

Customer calls during peak hours. An agent receives the call, does an interview to define the problem correctly, and then connects a caller with the right department.

Everything lasts a few minutes. During that time, 10 other customers call with their issues. They are held on the line, become frustrated, finally decide to hang up.

It’s hard for them to avoid the impression that they’ve just experienced an act of poor customer service.

Call routing is the solution that eliminates this problem.

The initial part is done by the system, so the customer calls the right person immediately. There’s no need to listen to phone signals, often supported by annoying music.

The process is clear – a customer calls, he chooses the right number on his keypad (optionally) and he talks with a well-qualified worker, who is ready to help him.

Quick and easy, isn’t it?

Customer feels appreciated

Call routing is the solution that guarantees you that your brand will be recognized as a customer-oriented one. Without a doubt, that’s the basis of success.

Look at it – a customer gets exactly what he wants with a little effort – all he needs to do is to call you. The system and your workmates do the rest for him.

The reaction can be only positive – your customers know they can count on you any time they want.

This is how good word of mouth about your services is shared. You can expect more and more potential customers to come to your door.

With quality customer service, you are always there to say hello!

Your co-workers get work comfort

OK, we already know that call routing works perfectly for your customers. Now it’s time to break on through to the other side.

You can’t forget that this solution has a positive impact on your workmates, too.

Nobody’s questioning their skills – they know how to handle the calls, they are qualified in their range of activities, it’s great to have them aboard.

However, they could be frustrated easily just like customers. Considering older solutions, you couldn’t rule out human errors.

It means that they can often mistakenly answer the phone from the wrong customer. By that, I mean they can be exposed to solving issues that don’t concern them directly.

Even with well-developed skills in call handling, it may turn into a problem.

Such situations result in many ways, most of which harm your brand recognition.

Your co-workers might try to help without being qualified enough in a particular subject. They might also walk through your office and try to hand the phone to the right person.

Whatever it is, it can only end up with a huge mess.

Both sides might suffer from it – your co-worker is put in an uncomfortable position and consequently, he cannot provide the right service. As you can imagine, it doesn’t work well for customer experience, too.

This is why call routing is necessary – your workmates always talk with the right customers, they can do their best.

What is more, if they know the customer, they can switch to a warm calling attitude easily.

Growing widespread job satisfaction is a natural consequence of it.

Productivity and efficiency

An increase in productivity is a result of all mentioned benefits of call routing. Look at it.

Customers don’t wait on the phone line – the whole process of starting a call is quick and smooth.

As soon as they reach the right agent, they are served professionally. Your co-workers are prepared to answer all the questions as problems are always related to their field of activity.

And it goes on, and on, and on. No matter your industry, with call routing you install a flawless assembly line for your customer service.

You can always check it out by analyzing the number of calls during a day and how many problems were solved at once. I’m sure that with call routing these numbers are going to boost.

And the good news – if you’re productive and efficient, the people are likely to come back. 93% of asked customers declare to do another purchase after having excellent customer service.

So, the stakes are high and you have everything to grab it all!

How to get a call routing for your business

Currently, you can find some platforms that offer call routing, more frequently via the interactive voice response (IVR).

However, Channels is a data-driven phone system that can be considered as the one that covers both solutions.

First, it’s mentioned IVR – you can record the message and apply it to your service. Customers will always be able to click some buttons on their keypad and call the requested department of your business.

The second way is visible in the term “data-driven”. It’s because the call center agents can see important customer details before a call.

By that, I mean the name, purchase history, etc. With this information, the agent won’t waste any time for a long interview about the reason for a call.

He’ll get down to business at once. There’s no better way to satisfy your customer.

These are two features that cover the call routing in Channels. But it’s just a starting point!

Your customers won’t need a phone device to call your company thanks to the Web Call. They can click on the button on your website and start the call immediately via their Web browser.

It works as a Mobile App, too. You are able to talk to your customers from anywhere. It works perfectly for the dynamic style of life and work.

There’s also a strong group of SMS fans. Channels offers a two-way SMS helpline to activate. Enable your customers to write you and respond to them quickly the same way.

Feel free to use integrations with platforms like Shopify, Magento, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Zapier, Zendesk, and more.

Plus, choose the type of phone number that covers the profile of your company. The offer includes the ones like international, toll-free, 800, virtual, and more.

Don’t wait and give a breath of freshness to your customer service!

Get Channels for free now.

Try both ways of comfortable call routing along with the variety of features.

Right now, Channels offers you a 7-day free trial during which you’ll get full access to the software, a free phone number, and a few $$$ so you can fully test it out! No credit card is required.

What’s stopping you?

Being curious works in your favor

In most cases, being nosy isn’t a vital trait of character. When it comes to customer service, the image is quite the opposite.

Let’s make it clear – we don’t encourage you to ask your customer about political views, financial situations, or family relationships.

It’s enough when you let him reveal the reason for his call. What is most important, you don’t need to hit him with a storm of questions personally.

Call routing is the feature that does everything for you. It covers the initial part of the conversation, eliminates any misunderstandings, and allows you to provide unique customer service.

In this article, you’ve learned what call routing is and how does it work precisely.

More than that, I’ve introduced you to the 5 main benefits of introducing this solution to your business.

To sum it up, it’s safe to say that it works perfectly for both sides of customer service – your customer and the agent who answers his call.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If not, don’t hesitate to improve your customer service more than ever!