As companies have grown bigger and bigger, it is no longer adequate to have a few operators available to handle incoming calls and support questions. Most large, modern corporations now have what are called call centers, which handle both inbound and outbound calls. Contact centers are another offshoot of this, where emails, faxes, and letters are processed and handled. On the incoming side, a call center handles calls for product inquires, sales and support, and account management. On the outbound side, call center handle tasks like in-house sales, telemarketing, surveying, and bill collection. A modern call center is complex and difficult to manage, requiring a combination of telephones, computers, software, and humans to make it run efficiently. Guiding the whole process is the call center software, which connects callers, via networks, computers, and software, to operators, and vice versa. In this guide, we will take a look at some of the top call center software solutions, and find out what makes up a good call center software package.
Components of Call Center Software
Getting into the world of call center software requires knowledge of some of the lingo involved. Some of the main acronyms are:
CTI - computer telephony integration
ACD - automatic call distribution
BTTC - Best Time to Call
IVR - interactive voice response
ATT - average talk time
CPH - Calls per hour
ACW - after call work
PD - predictive dialing
IVR, or interactive voice response, is something most of us have heard when dialing a corporate number - a computer might ask you to make a selection by saying "1", "2" or some other menu command, or might ask you to say your account number. Pre-recorded voice prompts and caller voice input interact to navigate the preliminary maze of menus. Ideally, companies would like incoming queries to be handled completely automatically, with no human intervention. This is why most call centers for credit cards offer automated links to account balances, payment due dates, mailing addresses, etc -- these common questions and answers often don't need a live operator to handle.
Predictive dialing is used on the outbound side of a call center, allowing agents to place and complete 2-3X more calls than they could on their own. A predictive dialing solution makes outbound calls, monitoring when someone picks up, and then quickly routs them to an available agent. By tracking agent calls and timing their connection to live respondents, the system attempts to avoid the usual downtime associated with dialing and waiting for someone to answer. You've experienced these system when you phone rings, you pick it up, you say hello, and there is silence for a second or two and someone suddenly comes on the line and says "Hello, Mr. so-and-so..". A good predictive dialer system provides operators with data screens so they can quickly gather the background information they need for the call. A call management software system combines all these various components into one integrated system than can interact with your phone network, computer network, customer database, and CRM system.
Finding the Best Call Center Software Packages
Buying a call center software solution is a major investment for most companies, both from a monetary standpoint and a business standpoint, committing their company to that system for some time. One of the leaders in call center software is Stratasoft (Stratasoft.com). They have provided call center management software solutions to over 20,000 users since 1995. Their leading product is called StrataDial.VC2 - Virtual Contact Center. They target customers with needs in charity and fundraising, real estate, debt collection, health care, government, insurance, telemarketing, travel and resorts, banking and financial services, eCommerce, and transportation. StrataDial.VC2 includes a built-in component for inbound ACD, much like PBXs offer. With roll-over ACD groups, auto-attendants, screen-pops, intelligent routing, it offers all the features most companies need for managing their call centers. The IVR portion can collect data from prompts and route callers accordingly, and calls can be transferred both within the call center and to offsite numbers. This call center software package runs on the Windows platform. From their website: "StrataDial®VC2 incorporates all the essential functionality required by today's leading contact centers while remaining unrivaled in terms of features, flexibility and affordability. The StrataDial®.VC2 virtual call center software suite includes an advanced predictive dialer, inbound ACD, auto dialer, call blending, IVR, home-based agents, email messaging, quality monitoring, flexible script designer and digital recording to name just a few features." You can get a demo or request sales information at their website.
Amcat (Amcat.com) is another leading provider of call center software. Their main product is the Amcat Contact Center Suite, which increases call center productivity through:
predictive dialing
self service IVR
CTI intelligent screen pops
inbound call management via ACD
workforce management
digital recording
The software suite is component based, so you can purchase only the components you need for your business, with the flexibility to add additional units at a later time (for example, add fax capabilities, or VOIP). Amcat Software runs on Windows platform servers, using standards like Microsoft.NET and SQL and Oracle databases. The user interface is a simple to use Windows application. They've been providing solutions to customers since 1990 and have a good reputation in the call center marketplace. In fact, over 90% of their customers rate their service and support as "excellent".
If you want to check out a larger listing of all the top call center software companies, you can also drop by Capterra.com/call-center-solutions. They provide an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of enterprise software, and they include a complete listing of other call center software makers like Contactual, Telax, Rightnow, Numara, Cincom, CrossTec, Call Center Development Services, InVision Software, Customer Expressions, netSuite, Call Recording Solutions, Genticity, etc.
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