Within the UK, many of us will have come into contact with some variety of a call centre at some point in time, whether it be through making a call out to a call centre in order to speak to their insurance provider or bank for example, or perhaps they would have received a cold call from a call centre trying to sell them something. What many people don't realise is the history behind the call centres, and how their presence within the UK has fundamentally changed over time. Read more
A PBX is an abbreviation of Private Branch Exchange, which is essentially a piece of hardware that is used to provide a business telephone system. A PBX will allow a business to deliver voice and video over an internal network, in addition to offering a variety of call management features. An IP (Internet Protocol) based PBX simply describes the mechanism for connection. Instead of connecting to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network via ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), the connection is achieved via SIP. Read more
Call recording is a call management feature that allows both inbound and outbound telephone calls to be recorded, and stored on a server for retrieval at a later date. Call recording is of critical importance to all call centres as it represents the only real way of confirming what was said or agreed, and by whom during a telephone call. Furthermore, it is an essential for every contact centre to record calls as it is the only real way of monitoring and correcting the performance of call centre agents. In some business sectors, it is a legal or industry requirement that all calls are recorded. For the reasons outlined above, it is difficult to imagine a situation where a call centre wouldn't record their calls - the only real question is whether to use a premise or hosted solution. Read more
TPS is an abbreviation for the Telephone Preference Service, which is a free service that gives individuals the opportunity to register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls. It is unlawful under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations (PECR), for companies to make direct marketing calls to individuals that have registered with the Telephone Preference Service. These regulations are enforced by the Information Commissioner, who has the power impose sanctions on a contact centre for serious breaches of PECR. Read more
Upon starting a new business, it is often difficult to determine how people are going to get in touch with you. It is also hard to foresee what your potential new customers may want to discuss, or how many people will call you. Read more
IP telephony (Internet Protocol telephony) uses the internet to deliver calls as packets of data on shared lines. Also know as VOIP it is the real-time transmission of voice signals over the internet or private data network. Read more
Automatic Call Distribution can be summarised as a portfolio of call management features that work seamlessly to deliver inbound calls to the call centre agent that is best placed to deal with the call. When you consider the costs associated with the operation of a contact centre within a very competitive marketplace, it is of critical importance to maximise the efficiency of the contact centre. The summaries below provide an indication of the type of Automatic Call Distribution features are available in the marketplace today, along with the type of efficiency savings that contact centres can expect to make by using them. Read more
Outbound contact centres rely heavily on dialler technology to significantly increase their operational efficiency, and the most commonly used dialler in modern call centres is the Predictive Dialler. Read more
The profile of your customers is of significant importance when considering the best time of day at which to try and contact them. We are all individuals that have individual circumstances, and there will never be a situation where a contact centre could gather information on an individual that would guarantee that they would be available to pick up a call at a particular time, however, it is possible to use information that is readily available to profile customers into groups in order to understand when it is more likely that an individual will pick up a call. A campaign manager really cannot afford to neglect the importance of considering the calling profile of a customer, because doing so can make such a difference to campaign success. Read more
