Hosted VoIP For Call Centers: Top Five Benefits
According to data from Infonetics, the hosted VoIP and UC market is set to reach $18 billion by 2018, with hosted VoIP services making inroads across businesses and call centers of all sizes, and “more companies evaluating and choosing providers” than ever before. Yet what’s driving this adoption? Here are the top five benefits of going hosted for call centers:
Pay Less
It’s possible for call centers to save a significant amount of money by leveraging hosted VoIP services instead of traditional packet-switched telephone networks (PSTNs). Why? Because PSTNs are billed minute to minute, while hosted plans typically offer a set monthly fee plus small charges for extras such as long-distance calls or specific features. In addition, going hosted lets a call center run lean on infrastructure since all back-end installation and maintenance rest with the provider. This also means deployment time is almost negligible, helping to minimize spend from day one.
Talk More
As noted by Tech Republic, another big benefit for call centers using hosted VoIP is the ability to empower conference calls. Most businesses know that unlike traditional PSTN solutions, it’s possible to connect more than two or three people on the same call but often overlooked is the fact that VoIP solutions can be used to create “conference floor monitors” which manage invitations, requests to speak and can even mute users on demand.
Scale as Needed
Scalability is also key for call centers, especially when companies are expanding into new markets or enjoying periods of unexpected growth. Hosted VoIP solutions make it possible to add single lines, multiple features or tap new bandwidth on demand. What’s more, companies can scale both ways; expand when needed and then reduce the size of your hosted infrastructure when it’s no longer required. Cloud-based VoIP services also come with the benefit of utilization reports which detail everything from call duration to destination, cost and total bandwidth used, helping to minimize cost overruns and streamline operations.
Move on Demand
Another big benefit for call centers? Hosted VoIP solutions allow calls to be directed to any device or multiple devices on demand. The Huffington Post notes that you can have calls sent straight to voicemail, ring on more than one device at the same time, or “follow” a particular employee throughout his/her day. It’s now possible to precisely describe the behavior of calls; after two rings at a certain phone, for example, calls can be shunted to a mobile device and then eventually routed to voicemail. Simply put, hosted options give call centers total control over what calls come in, where they go and how they’re handled.
Port as Needed
The last big benefit for call centers when it comes to hosted VoIP? Portability. First, it’s possible to transcribe voicemails, making them more portable as emails or text messages. Decision makers still get the pertinent information they require and can listen to the full voicemail on demand but aren’t bogged down listening to the entire recording to pick a single piece of relevant data. It’s also possible to make almost any device apart of the VoIP ecosystem, allowing users to make any conversation portable. Phone battery running low or desktop out of commission? Laptops and tablets can be used as stand-in connections with access to all the same features.
Call centers are the front lines of communication for many businesses. Hosted VoIP offers a way to streamline consumer access and employee response by lowering total costs, empowering calls and offering scalability, movement and portability on demand.
Sheldon Smith is a Senior Product Manager at XO Communications. XO Communications, XO.com, is a telecommunications services provider that offers unified communications services and various cloud services. Sheldon has over 10 years of department and process management experience.