21 Jul Improving your Call Distribution with Nautilus Contact Center Solution
As a contact center, your primary goal is to provide effective solutions as quickly and efficiently as possible. In order to achieve this, having a system in place that allows for quick and timely call distribution takes utmost priority! Before we go any further, let’s go over a few things first.
Some key definitions
Call distribution refers to the process of assigning calls to the proper agents. This is an integral statistic that is tracked to measure the performance of a call/contact center.
Call Routing allows you to maximize your call distribution by directing calls to the proper team. This allows you to better assist customers and achieve call resolution faster!
Call Queueing is another key feature contact centers have that allows calls to assigned to the next available agent. It works in line with other call features like the one below.
IVR (Integrated Voice Response) is another feature that allows for customers to proactively procure solutions that are relevant to them. The best case scenario is one where a caller resolves issues without talking to an agent.
How call distribution affects your business
Regardless of your business’ call drivers, the effects of an efficient call distribution system cannot be understated. It dictates everything from your business profits, your operational efficiencies, and overall quality of life in the call center.
When calls aren’t routed to the right agents or queues, customers are likely to be unhappy. This can result to them dropping off a call, calling back again (and thus wasting time), or you losing their business for good.
For larger call centers, this is remedied by having individual queues for every client or call driver. They also are likely to have super agents, which are call center agents trained to handle everything from customer service, sales, and even complex tech support. For smaller companies, however, cross-skilling might not be an option. So how should they cope instead?
Using Nautilus’ Contact Center Solution to improve call distribution
We at Nautilus designed our software to be a one-stop-shop for any starting or established contact center. All the tools you need are there for you; it’s only a matter of finding them and maximizing their usage. Let’s go over the different features available to you:
- Integrated Voice Response— our built-in IVR feature is completely customizable and easy to use. You can set-up appropriate queue distributions, call routing, and similar self-service options according to your needs. The results from an effective IVR setup are two-pronged: calls are directed to the right queue, and you’re creating call deflection.
- Call Routing — Route calls to the proper queue to maximize your team’s efficiency and to better reach first call resolution. Having this in place is integral for you to reach customer success!
- Skill-based routing — Route calls to queues with specialized skills like Support, Billing, and IT. This greatly utilizes your team’s skills without wasting valuable time and resources.
Nautilus Reporting Portal
Another major feature that we integrated into our Contact Center Solution is our Reporting Portal. All calls made on Nautilus are automatically recorded and saved on the cloud. These data reflect on our Reporting Portal in real time, giving you the power to analyze your contact center’s performance on the fly.
Accurately reading and analyzing the data presented on your reports is a major step towards improving your call distribution. Refer to the screenshot below:
Nautilus’ Distribution Summary page allows you to view data from any queue and date range. In the image above, we’ve tabulated calls from this year. It shows the total number of calls, the ones answered, the ones abandoned, the answer rate, average talk time, and service level agreements.
Using the Distribution Summary Page
The way to analyze this information from our Reporting Portal is to match certain data with each other.
- The first step is to compare the number of total calls against the ones that were answered. If there’s a disparity there, it likely means that you don’t have enough agents to handle the calls as they are likely to be engaged. This could be remedied by hiring more staff or offering self-service solutions instead.
- There’s also the matter of the abandoned calls. This measure goes hand-in-hand with your service level agreement, another factor you need to look into. Are calls being answered past the SLA? If so, your team is likely to be engaged in calls already and that eventually causes calls to unanswered and callers hanging up. In both cases, hiring more staff can help remedy this.
- Average talk time should also give you more insight into your call distribution. Are your agents on a call longer than usual? This is a good opportunity to look at your call drivers. It could mean that your agents might be handling inquiries that they aren’t quite adept at, and could be better trained at it. Lowering your average talk time lets your agents handle more calls, and should help decrease the amount of abandoned ones.
Conclusion
Improving your call distribution is just one of the ways to reach customer success and maximizing business efficiency. The tips we offered above are just a few ways for you to use the tools we provide, but the way you analyze your data should reflect your needs. Is hiring more staff the only solution? Most likely not, and training the staff you have to be more efficient at their roles is the better and more cost-effective solution. Should you look at offering specialized roles for your agents? Again, it depends on your needs and your staffing options.
Nautilus offers a wide range of tools like our IVR and call routing, both of which are designed to achieve call deflection. With an IVR, you can set up self-service options. You’d be surprised by how many customers would rather not talk to an agent when dealing with a simple inquiry! This saves both the caller and the company precious time and resources. Call routing, on the other hand, lets customers choose and get their inquiries go the right queue. Both solutions are fantastic for getting resolution faster!
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