Back to Basics: Call Centre Software

It’s back to school season for many around the country. So, there’s no better time to get a refresher on a key term in the customer experience industry: call centre software.

In this blog, we’ll dig into some basic details about modern call centre software, including functionality, essential features and benefits, setup and deployment, and cost.

Nearly 3 million customer service jobs exist in the US. Call centre software isn’t industry specific. Companies across industries, such as healthcare, financial services, eCommerce, retail, technology, business process outsourcing, business services and more, use call centre phone systems.

And there are many components that go into making customer service experiences excel for businesses of all sizes. One of these components is having reliable, secure and a best-in-class call center software solution.

What Is Call Centre Software?

While “call centre software” is a common term, it’s often unclear what modern call centre software entails. Call centre software is a program that handles inbound/outbound phone calls, usually relating to a company’s products or services.

Many of these calls can be handled by IVR systems that allow callers to serve themselves by quickly accessing certain information. Other callers require the assistance of a human agent to answer their questions or address their specific needs.

Today, modern call centre software responds in real time across channels, orchestrating between customer service agents, your website, social media, live chat and messaging channels.

In most call centres, they first receive a call from a customer. These calls usually are made directly to a centre using a toll-free number or by connecting across digital channels via web chat, social messaging or email.

If it’s a customer service issue or another inquiry, the assigned call centre agent speaks to the caller and identifies the problem. The agent can either solve the issue or direct the caller to another department.

When certain issues can’t be cleared up in a single call, a call centre software agent might have to follow up later. This means a call centre will return a call to the customer in the future. Essentially, call centre software helps customer service representatives stay organised, escalate issues, archive common resolutions or set reminders.

Why Use Call Centre Software?

Any business with a high volume of outgoing or incoming phone calls can use contact centre software to simultaneously improve the quality of their phone support service and decrease ongoing operating costs. For example, automating most or all of the processes of call handling will significantly reduce the frequency and impact of human errors.

Call centre software is a great way to streamline your customer service. You can also reach customers and prospects with outbound sales calls.

Different Types of Call Centre Solutions

Inbound and outbound call centres
Two main types of call centres are used today: inbound call centres and outbound call centres. And some call centres handle both inbound and outbound responsibilities.

Inbound call centre software better aids call centre agents from a specific company or organisation in answering common questions or concerns. These solutions often are associated with customer service and general inquiries about a certain business.

Outbound call centre software better aids groups of agents who make calls on behalf of an organisation. This can range from proactive scheduling calls to telemarketing calls to collections calls.

Hosted, cloud-based, and on-premises call centres

A hosted contact centre allows an organisation to offer a comprehensive call centre customer service experience — without having to buy most of the hardware, software and other infrastructure needed to set up an on-premises hosting infrastructure. It’s a remote version of a physical call centre.

The main physical server hardware for both inbound and outbound communications between you and your customers is hosted and located elsewhere on a service provider’s dedicated back-end system. This configuration saves your company money, space and time/maintenance costs.

A cloud-based call centre is a customer experience solution that integrates multiple touchpoints, including voice, text, social media and the web. Then it makes them accessible via an internet server.

You can access a cloud contact centre from virtually anywhere, completely removing the need for increased physical infrastructure while meeting the evolving demands of today’s customer communication preferences.

There are several benefits to cloud call centre software, including: 

• Reduced operational costs and improved ROI
• Improve scalability and flexibility to meet changing business needs
• Enables a remote and flexible workforce, which can improve employee satisfaction and engagement

An on-premises call centre is a contact centre that’s located and runs out of the company’s physical space. There are many benefits to having a dedicated on-premises call centre. But for on-premises centres to run smoothly, they require call centre software to help manage inquiries and improve the overall customer service experience.

What’s the Difference Between a Call Centre and a Contact Centre Solution?

This is a trick question because the term “call centre” and “contact centre” should be interchangeable.

In the past, a legacy call centre solution only had to support customers by phone. But, with today’s customers expecting seamless omnichannel support, a simple phone system won’t cut it. You need to be ready to respond, in real time, on your customers’ channels of choice, including your website, social media channels and apps.

Essential Call Centre Software Features

Call centre software helps companies create customer and agent experiences that effortlessly blend automation and human resources. Knowing your consumers and engaging with them when it matters on their customer journeys is key to delivering superior customer service experiences. Here are some other core features to look for in a top-tier call centre software:

Analytics and reporting: Empower your contact centre with easy-to-use analytics tools that provide relevant data. The right call centre analytics help you unlock customer interaction insights, which makes it easier to deliver omnichannel customer experiences.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive routing: Make your agents’ jobs easier, boost revenue and increase customer loyalty with AI and predictive routing. Look for features with bots and automation tools so customers can self-serve or are routed to the right agent, when they need to speak with an agent.

Customer journey management: Contact centre journey management capabilities help to deliver frictionless experiences, at scale, to every customer. The right solution will harness the power of journey analytics, data management and orchestration to better manage, measure and optimise the end-to-end customer journey.

Digital customer engagement: Contact centre software that supports digital channels is a must in today’s experience economy. Don’t make your customers wait on hold to reach you. Give them easy, seamless communication on the channels they prefer. Look for an all-in-one suite of digital capabilities — enhanced with bots and predictive AI — so employees and customers can engage in conversations across chat, email, text and social media channels.

Integrations: Third-party customer experience service tools can help enhance your call centre software solution. Be sure your call centre software allows for integrations with third-party applications that maximise your investments; integrate existing technologies and the skilled employees who use them.

Workforce engagement management (WEM): Creating great employee experiences has never been more important in a modern call centre. Look for software features that drive employee retention and satisfaction with a unified workforce optimisation tool. Give your customer service team the tools, support and growth opportunities they need to love what they do.

Voice services: The voice channel isn’t going away anytime soon. With voice and telephony services, you can be there for customers who prefer phone-based support. Look for voice services that work for your business, including interactive voice response (IVR) and automatic call distribution (ACD) features.

How Does Call Centre Software Work?

How you get your call centre software up and running will vary depending on which call centre software vendor you choose and what type of call centre you’re deploying. For instance, cloud call centre software can be deployed in minutes, with zero up-front capital investment.

A good first step is to sign up for a free-trial period or demo with a reputable call centre software vendor to familiarise yourself with their setup process. Typically, the vendor will help get your business phone number transferred and then integrate the software with the tools your business already uses. This could include your help desk, CRM system, digital channels and more.

How Much Does Call Centre Software Cost?

All good things must come to an end — even free trials. So, the bad news is that if you want a quality call centre software solution, it won’t be free forever. But the good news, by the end of the free-trial period or demo, you should have a good idea if that call centre software meets all your company’s needs.

Different call centre software vendors have different pricing structures and ways to charge: subscription-based fees, number of agent seats required, number of calls per month. Some also offer ala carte options or add-on features for additional fees.

No matter which configuration your company uses, be sure the call centre vendor you choose is transparent about their pricing model before moving forward. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. You can often customise features in call centre software, which will affect pricing. So, it’s best to speak with a sales representative to get you the best price to meet your specific business needs.

How Much Does a Call Centre Call Cost?

The cost of a single call depends on many factors and can range from as little as $5 per call to $25 per call. Much of that variation depends on your agents’ skill sets and how long it takes to resolve your customers’ problems.

The biggest cost for any call centre is payroll for your agents. So, it’s important to equip them with technology that makes them as efficient as possible. Other ways to improve costs in the call centre include quality management features that improve agent effectiveness; schedule and forecasting optimisation to make the best use of your talent; employee engagement features that let your agents continuously improve their performance. Additionally, many businesses offer digital and self-service options to further improve the bottom line.