The Software That Drives a Successful Call Center

A call center requires a lot of moving pieces. What is needed for a successful call center? To start, agents need tools that enable them to make and receive calls as efficiently as possible. But that’s just the beginning; they also need quick access to customer data, playbooks, and scripts to communicate effectively. Administrators, too, need solutions for monitoring calls, auditing, and tracking trends.

Fortunately, businesses aren’t in this alone. There are different kinds of call center software and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions that empower call centers to provide top-tier service to customers and prospects.

What Systems Do Call Centers Use?

There are two main categories of software that a successful call center uses: call routing software and CRM solutions. What is the difference between a CRM and call center software?

• Call routing software allows agents to track, send, and receive customer calls and other forms of communication.

• CRMs, on the other hand, enable businesses to record and maintain data about customer interactions.

In short, both of these tools are critical to a successful call center. When used in tandem, these tools empower agents — and any other customer-facing employees — to communicate with customers, access real-time data, track pertinent information, and gain insight into the overall health of the relationship.

Let’s look at each of these essential call center solutions in more detail.

Call Routing Software

At a high level, call routing software enables agents to process both inbound and outbound calls. Some call center solutions even offer additional functionality for other kinds of communication, like email, instant messaging, or other non-voice communications. For this reason, it’s critical to look into all of the different options available to find one that best suits the needs of your business and your customers.

In general, you can categorize the types of call center software or call center systems in several different ways:

• Inbound vs. Outbound vs. Hybrid: While some call center software is designed to handle specifically inbound or outbound calls exclusively, others take a hybrid approach by offering features and functionality to support both.

• On-Premises vs. Cloud-Hosted vs. Cloud-Native: Legacy call center software tends to be hosted on-premises, which requires the use of costly hardware. Newer cloud-hosted (traditional applications migrated to the cloud) and even cloud-native solutions (applications created in the cloud that leverage the full power of cloud opportunities) allow businesses to host — or host and run — their call center operations totally online. These newer options offer significant advantages, like scalability and flexibility.

• VoIP vs. UC: Some call routing software solutions, like those powered by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), let customers and agents make voice calls. Unified Communications (UC) platforms add additional features like instant messaging, website chat, and video calls into the mix to provide more comprehensive functionality.

• Multichannel vs. Omnichannel: Customers want to interact with businesses in different channels. Both multichannel and omnichannel will get the job done, but in distinct ways. In a multichannel solution, the channels are siloed, and this disconnection can force agents to work harder to find customer information and provide smooth support. In contrast, an omnichannel solution provides an integrated, consistent customer experience across all channels.

With capabilities for inbound and outbound calls, Vonage Business Communications allows agents to communicate anytime, anywhere. Offering more than 50 business communications features, including auto attendants, call queues, call monitoring, and call recording, Vonage helps take call center operations to the next level.

Call Center CRM Software

What Is CRM Software?

A CRM isn't exclusive to call centers — it’s a solution used by teams like sales, marketing, customer experience, and operations to record and analyze various aspects of the customer relationship. Still, having a comprehensive CRM solution is critical to enabling call center agents to provide top-tier service.

Benefits of CRM Software

CRMs allow agents to view, track, and manage customer interactions and insights within a single source of truth. Having all of this information gathered in one place streamlines call center management and operations, making it quick and easy for any agent to access the data they need about a given account. This, in turn, helps them provide memorable, personalized experiences for each customer — something that can help businesses outshine their competition and drive customer loyalty.

Features to Look For

The best call center software solutions will integrate with CRM platforms, which makes data sharing and transferring between digital infrastructure completely seamless. Vonage Business Communications, for example, integrates with big-name CRMs like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Zendesk and more to truly streamline operations. In fact, you can even integrate with other business applications, like Slack and G Suite, to make it simple for agents to connect, collaborate, and access everything they need.

From Call Queue to Call Recording, Virtual Receptionist to Call Park, Vonage offers a wealth of unified communications features that can help you build the call center that works best for you, your agents, and your customers.