Is Hosted PBX a savior to the present day call center industry?
Published on 21 August 13
Aditi1
The importance of customer service in today’s business world
Customer service is an upcoming competitive battlefield of today’s business world. Business strategy has changed through the ages. Earlier, business organizations focused a major part of their attention on the effective sales of their products or services. Now, the scenario has changed. Customer satisfaction is the next benchmark for business. If customer queries are resolved smartly in minimum amount of time, it greatly adds to customer satisfaction. To meet such level of customer satisfaction, telephony forms the major front-line and at the same time, one of the largest areas of capital expense. Business organizations in the stage of infancy plan to invest effectively so as to utilize the resources efficiently and increase their Return-on-Investment.
The spread of call center business in different world economies
Customer service is gaining huge momentum in today’s business world. Every business economy including coordinated economy, liberal market economy and industrialized economy has been keen on providing impressive customer services to users and increasing their brand awareness through appreciation and recommendation by the clients.
Letting clients know that they are important
Customer service is a valuable asset to business organizations and it is essential for the delivery of high end communication satisfaction to your clients. A centralized solution to all customer problems is essential in order to win over the trust and loyalty of customers. It is your actions that change the customer mindset about your products or services. Timely response in an effective manner, dedicated handling of customer calls, reducing the average hold duration, lively greeting and direction of calls through a channel to the desired destination at one go is all that is expected of an ideal customer service provider. “What is it that can fulfill all requirements?†The answer is quite simple. It is telephony that hitches your wagon to the stars. It is a communication bridge that nullifies the communication gap between the clients and service providers. Thus, a strong communication channel is what is required to suffice the present day communication requisites.
Telephony marks a difference
According to a recent survey, it has been estimated that companies that focus their attention on simplifying customer interaction through a better telephonic interface are likely to achieve around 86% hike in the sales of their products or services and 115% hike in customer recommendation of your product or service. A better communication interface also tends to gain 96% of the customer likelihood to listen to the customer care executives and take a greater interest to look into the services offered.
Telecommunication through the ages
The history of telephony can be traced back to the time when communication was channeled through a wired structure. The traditional PSTN telephone systems were the very first means of calling. This wired structure facilitates the transfer of information through analog signals. This means of telephony involves great expenditure since hardcore wired connection needs to be established and the transmission of analog signal takes place through a circuit-switched network.
The next generation of telephony was marked with the invention of traditional PBX system that involved the use of internet based communication technology for the first time. This system was massive and occupied huge space in office. Though this system supported business functionality effectively, this massive system required huge amount of revenue to set up and run. Apart from its size, the other problem with this system was its maintenance. There were loads of tangled wires and one single problem would take hours to resolve due to the complex infrastructure.
The large size of traditional PBX system had made it difficult for most of the business firms to support such a system. To overcome this issue, IP PBX system was invented. This system was a compact refinement of the traditional PBX system. Its capability to interoperate with the existing infrastructure of business firms has made it stand out in terms of technology. This structure, though compact required a lot of space and effort to install, configure and maintain.
The major drawback of massive infrastructure and expense was a major hurdle in the path of PBX adoption by the small and medium scale business organizations. This hurdle formed the major cause of the conception of the idea of a hosted solution. Hosted PBX is more of a concept rather than a system. This is basically IP PBX equipment that is maintained by a provider and provided to the clients as a service thereby eliminating the requirement to setup and maintain the system at the location of the user. This system has thus evolved as a blessing especially for small business firms and aims to encompass the entire arena of business communication.
Steps to build an eternal bond with customers
Requirement Analysis Phase
Effective planning is the key to successful implementation. Before opting for a structured channel to deliver your services, you need to analyze your requirements. It is your business needs that guide your path to effective decision making. There are a number of questions that you need to answer before proceeding to the next step:-·
-· What is the number of extensions that you would require for your call center?
-· Do you want this service to be spread to more than one location?
-· Do you require mobile workforce to operate remotely?
-· What is the current bandwidth that your system offers?
-· What is the level of network load?
-· How much do you plan to invest in your communication infrastructure?
-· What is the estimated calling time in terms of both inbound and outbound calls?
Communication infrastructure- A major question
The present day scenario states that a considerable part of business growth depends on the communication infrastructure supporting it. The channel that bridges the communication gap between the customers and the company thus holds great importance for your business. So, it becomes essential for your business to be backed with the latest communication technology that strengthens the backbone of your business. When setting up this system, the major question that pops up in your mind is the communication infrastructure- Hosted or premise based?
Since this is a critical decision, a great deal of real-time analysis and survey needs to be done. A comparative analysis of both the hosted and on-premise systems has been displayed below:
| Category | Hosted PBX | On-Premise PBX |
| Capital Expenses | No upfront costs as most of the PBX hardware is set up and maintained by hosted service provider | Capital investment is high due to the purchase, installation and configuration of the system |
| Operational Expenses | No operational expenses are involved since complete support is provided by the service provider | You may have to set up a professional team to deal with the technical issues that arise in the system |
| Scalability | You can pay as you grow and change business requirements as per business demand | You will have to purchase a fixed infrastructure no matter how much of it you need to utilize |
| Office Space | This system is not maintained at your office premise and hence, occupies no office space | Since all hardware is yours, it will occupy a corner of your office |
| Upgrades | Keeping the PBX system up-to-date is the responsibility of the service provider | You will have to perform regular updates in order to keep the system updated with the latest technological and functional advancements |
| Wear and Tear | If the system wears out, the service provider has to deal with the issues and provide you services with a new effective system | You will have to bear the expenses and get the system repaired in case of hardware wearing out |
The above comparison gives the general idea of both the premise-based and Hosted PBX systems. Since this choice is a one-time decision that can either bring great benefits or put you in debts, one cannot base one’s decision on theoretical facts. Thus, a thorough real-time analysis of the two products needs to be considered before actually making your choice.
A statistical comparison of business profitability with on-premise and off-premise PBX system
The graph below shows apples to apples comparison of the reduction of customer complaints and change in support costs when using on-premise and off-premise systems. This analysis presents statistics over a period of twelve months for most of the business firms with optimal usage of their communication interface.
The most essential activity in providing customer services has always been the timely response of customer queries so as to reduce customer complaints. The above graph shows the reduction in costs and customer complaints through the use of Hosted PBX and thus, depicts that a hosted solution provides a better resolution of customer problems.
Customer Satisfaction
The integration of telephony with cloud has resulted in the generation of greater revenue, better quality of services and an increased level of client satisfaction by resolving customer queries in a timely fashion. The better and more timely the response are, the better will be the level of customer satisfaction and thus, the better will be the customer recommendation of your services.
The benefits of choosing Hosted PBX
Hosted PBX enables a proper alignment of your communication culture and technology so as to provide you with an integrated work environment that offers strong resistance in surpassing the business competition. The exquisite features of this system also help you gain a number of bottom-line benefits which include:
- Enjoy mobile access to communication
Sky is not the limit. This communication interface liberates users from the bonds of physical presence. Now, it is no longer mandatory to remain at your desk all the time. Employee productivity decreases if their movements are constrained. This new hosted communication infrastructure facilitates the flow of communication through a wireless infrastructure thereby offering you the mobility to access business conversations from anytime, anywhere. Now, you do not need to worry about missing out business opportunities or customer queries in case your employees are not on their desk. Calls can be transferred to their personal numbers so that they may be able to answer business calls from anywhere. Thus, this mobile workforce tends to provide you with better business profitability.
- Pay for what you use
Call centers in their budding stage might not have massive requirements. It may be possible that their requirements are not so extensive. Buying a fixed slot for a small requirement leads to under-utilization of resources. Hosted PBX offers you the option of “MADâ€
M- Modify
A-Add
D-Delete
So, this system offers you a constraint-free communication environment that facilitates easy alteration of your call center requirements. So, you can set up a call center of any size and increase requirements in the future. The cost of each new component will remain constant no matter how large you grow. So, you can decide the pace of your growth and pay exactly for what you use.
- A secure and reliable communication solution
VOIP as a communication technology creates an impression of doubt in the minds of business firms involved in the transmission of sensitive information. This is due to the chances of internet threats and attacks that are quite probable to occur in packet-switched telephony. To safeguard against such threats, Hosted PBX VOIP employs the strongest compression and encryption algorithms. Serious security steps are undertaken to prevent the breach of any of the five pillars of security which include confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, availability and non-repudiation. Call centers need to ensure that the system does not suffer from any attack or threat so that they can continue with constraint-free delivery of services.
- Create a distinguished image
Call centers deal in the sales or technical troubleshooting of a product or service. If the customer queries are resolved in an efficiently in a timely fashion, it builds a better impression in the minds of the customers and thus, your business brand gets a better place in the customer’s psychology. The better your brand image, the better will be your business sales and thus, the better will be the chances of becoming a distinguished power in the corporate world. Your services will build your professional image. With the help of the exquisite features of this hosted communication solution, you can establish a distinguished professional image for your business.
A real-time analysis of the various benefits of a hosted communication solution is shown by the graph below:
The outstanding features of Hosted PBX that strengthen your communication channel
Business PBX inculcates a new communication culture in your business organization through its exquisite features. These features introduce unmatched flexibility in your telephonic infrastructure. The features that enrich your business communication include:
-· Call Hunt: This feature of Hosted PBX systems enables calls to ring in a certain round-robin fashion in which the priority of the numbers can be pre-determined. The number of rings on each number can also be set as per your business requirements. Every call holds great importance. Your call center aims at serving customers round the clock without missing out any business call. This feature ensures that all your calls are answered in time and that the probability of calls being answered efficiently is increased.
-· Call Parking: Park your calls and answer them from a different phone. This is a feature that enables you to transfer your call from your desk phone to your cell phone if you have to leave your desk due to important reasons. So, you can continue conversation from wherever you are without letting your clients wait for your call at a later point of time. This call center solution helps you take your calls wherever you go and thus, improves employee productivity by making their movements flexible.
-· Interactive Voice Response and Automatic Call Distribution: Desk to desk transfer of phone calls frustrates the callers since they have to explain the same situation to various persons over and over again. This feature offers a platform where users can choose from a pre-defined menu. It offers double sided benefits since it greets the customers well and saves time and effort of both the caller and the employees receiving the call. A very important factor is courtesy in greeting your clients. This feature provides a user-friendly platform to greet users well.
-· Direct Inward Dialing: DIDs may be referred to as local numbers that offer you a global presence. Often customers wish to have a local service provider. To build trust amongst your customers about your presence in that location, you can get a local number and use that number to communicate no matter where you are.
-· Voicemail: In case of call overhead, if your customers are not able to contact you after holding the call, they always have the option to leave you a voicemail. So, this feature can help prevent the loss of a potential business opportunity. Call centers need this feature in order to provide services to customers even after missing out their calls. This makes your customers feel that they are important to you.
-· Voice Recording: This is a very important feature of call centers since a log of calls needs to be maintained in order to assess call quality by the managers at a later point of time. This feature is of importance to the internal functionality of a call center since the administrators can notice any defects in the calls made.
Present day call center features market analysis
The worldwide call center analysis shows the graphical insight of various features of Hosted PBX systems that are most widely used in cloud based calling business today. This graph shows that these features of hosted solution have become an indispensable component of the corporate world today. The dependence of customer care business on this hosted solution has outgrown through the years and it now forms the major part of the business market.
A recent analysis predicts that if this is the rate of usage and dependence of business firms on Hosted PBX solutions, this market is bound to increase at an annual rate of around 12%.
Conclusion
The advantages of making a switch to a cloud based communication solution have been compelling. The aim is to provide the target clients with perfect services that satisfy them completely. The value of time and money together with the ease to perform tasks and satisfy customers guides your decision to cloud-transition. Hosted PBX systems leverage technology in a way that makes it incredibly easy to resolve customer queries and provide the users with satisfactory results in a short span of time.
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Yes, Hosted PBX is very important in the present day call center. Hosted PBX is a technology which allows small and medium-sized businesses to have a sophisticated telephone system without the investment in telephone equipment. We at ozonetel Systems provide a cloud PBX Business Phone System. Visit our website link for more information: http://www.ozonetel.com/Cloud-PBX-System-for-Businesses.html