Technology terms and definitions can be notoriously confusing, convoluted, and difficult to truly understand for the average person. This is definitely true for the term unified communications. Search the internet for the term unified communications, and you will discover that there are many different definitions that are radically different. Unified communications is a term that is difficult to define, but in practice in encompasses the principle of bringing different technologies together on one device or system. Read more
CDR or 'Call Detail Records' are historic call statistics that can be retrieved on a regular basis to assist in analysing the efficiency of a call centre and its campaigns. The information that can be obtained from CDRs has the potential to be a key factor in making call centre agents more adept at handling calls. Subsequently this can only improve the productivity of a call centre overall. Read more
For many individuals, the inconvenience and nuisance caused by unsolicited telephone calls forces them into a situation where they feel it is necessary to investigate measures that will enable them to prevent calls of this nature being made to them. The only real option an individual has of taking action in order to stop unsolicited calls being made through to them is to register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Read more
SIP is an acronym for Session Initiation Protocol. SIP can be described as a signalling protocol that is used for controlling communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP). Examples of the types of communications sessions controlled by SIP include voice and video calls, instant messaging, and online games. The SIP protocol can be used for creating, terminating, and modifying sessions that can consist of several media streams. Read more
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a free service that allows individuals to officially register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls. It is also possible for corporate entities to register their wish not to receive unsolicited sales and marketing calls by registering with the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Once registered to either of these services, it is a legal requirement for contact centres not to contact anybody registered with the TPS or CTPS. Read more
Social media is a term used to define the concept of the creation and exchange of user generated content via web based and mobile technologies. It is almost impossible to ignore the significant impact that social media has had on the every day lives of a large percentage of the worldwide population. Social media allows people to communicate in ways that have never truly been leveraged successfully by contact centres, however, based on some recent trends, this could all be about to change. Read more
An IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Menu is an inbound call management feature that allows an organisation to automatically filter their inbound calls to the call centre agents that are best equipped to deal with a specific customer query. This is achieved by playing an announcement message to the caller, which provides them with a number of options, and also instructions on how to choose a specific option. For example: Read more
The operational costs of a modern day call centre are significant, which means that the serious impact of any interruption of the day to day running of a call centre cannot be overstated. There are no interruptions that are more significant to any call centre than telecommunications problems, or a telecommunications outage. In short, if your agents can't make calls, they can't make sales, which will cause your organisation to hemorrhage money for the duration of the problem. Due to the significant impact that telecommunications issues can have, it is always important to question how resilient your telecommunications network is. Below are just some of the things you need to consider. Read more
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
