Understanding the Basics: What Does Call Routing Mean?

Want to have a better call routing system for your business’s communication and enhance your customer calling experience? Then, this blog is for you.

Integrated call routing system in your business phone and upgrade your business communication, providing better customer support and calling experience. Manage your workflow of agents and enhance their productivity.

Read till the end to understand what call routing is, types of call routing, benefits, and best practices of adding call routing to your business. So, let’s get started!

Definition of Call Routing

Call routing is a call management system feature that distributes inbound calls automatically based on a predefined set of rules and guidelines. Call routing places the incoming calls on a queue and routes them to a specific person who can provide immediate support.

Based on predetermined rules and criteria of the inbound callers and interaction with the IVR system, calls are connected to the best available agent or the agent with the skillset who can solve the caller’s issues, eliminating the need to call transfer or hold and providing excellent customer support. The call routing system is also called ACD( Automatic Call Distribution)as it automatically distributes inbound calls.

Call routing occurs before a caller on the receiver’s end picks up. A call is routed based on the user’s request or attribute details like call volume, language preference, agent availability, time, and department requested.         

Types of Call Routing

Effective call routing is key to enhancing customer interaction and experience. Since there are various call-routing methods available. Choose what kind of call routing your business requires and look for providers who address your needs. This is a crucial moment, so choose wisely and Make sure your call flow is planned out in advance for delivering excellent customer call routing.

Here are some types of call routing:

Skills-Based Routing

With the information provided by the customer Via the IVR system, connect the customer’s call with the agents who have related skill set, qualifications, and training according to the customer’s issue and provide the best assistance to the customer. For instance, if the customer from Mexico is calling for support, assist the agent who has the skill of speaking the Mexican language for a better customer experience 

 Least Occupied Routing

Least occupied routing is routing the incoming calls to the agent who is less engaged, idle, or available. Here, the call is routed to the agent with the lowest talk time and the least interaction with the customer on the particular day. This helps balance the agents’ burden with most calls and minimizes their pressure, crucial to delivering excellent customer service and support.

Round Robin Routing

Round-robin routing is a call routing technique where the income calls are evenly distributed among the available agents. This type of call routing is used to handle large call volumes with many agents. Here, incoming calls are routed to the next available agent in chronological order based on the agent’s skill and availability.

Time-Based Routing

Time-based routing is the type of call routing where the calls are routed to the agent based on the time of day. It is also called schedule-based routing. During regular business hours, the calls are routed to the leading customer service team, but when the shift is over, and the customers need support after business hours, the call is routed to the support team of the night shift, ensuring 24/7 availability. This routing helps businesses provide better customer service and manage resources and call volumes.

Predictive Behavioral Routing

Predictive behavioral routing routes the call to the most suitable agent based on the caller’s past interaction, preference, real-time interaction, and analyzing customer historical data. It is also called intelligent routing, as it uses Artificial Intelligence(AI) to route the call to the best available agent who can handle the customer’s issues and provide better solutions by analyzing the interaction and queries. This helps to provide better customer satisfaction, allocate resources better, and reduce call handling time.

 How Does Call Routing Work?

When a customer performs a call, the business responds with an automated system like Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which consists of a menu option of what services the caller wants, and then the call is directed to the specific available agent according to the response to solve the customer’s issues. For call routing, these components are crucial, and they are:

Call Origin: Identify the phone number or identity of the caller. It is necessary to track the call and ensure it is routed correctly.

Call Destination: A telephone number identifying the department or agent to whom the call should be directed. The caller must be connected with the person or team best equipped to assist them.

Routing Logic: The rules define how calls are routed from the origin to the destination. There are several factors to consider here, such as the location of the caller, the issue they are experiencing, and the availability of the agent.

Call Routing Rules: The criteria that are used to implement routing logic. For example, a call routing rule might specify that all calls from customers in the United States should be routed to agents in the United States.

Benefits of Effective Call Routing

Well-executed call routing streamlines the business process workflow of agents and improves customer satisfaction. Along with that, call routing comes with many benefits some of the benefits are: 

Lower abandonment rates

With a well-executed call-routing phone system, businesses can minimize abandonment rates. Abandonment calls lead to customer dissatisfaction and frustration and creates a negative profile of the organization. So, having a sound call routing system helps to reduce wait time missed calls and connect customers right away to the right agent, increasing customer satisfaction and calling experiences.

Prioritizing important calls

In this competitive business era, losing a business call is a significant risk for any business. An effective call routing system ensures you don’t miss or leave important calls unanswered. A call routing system can integrate with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which helps to identify the essential calls and timely answer the call.  

Improved customer experience

Having an excellent call-routing phone system helps to maximize customer experience and satisfaction. Call routing helps to improve CX as it helps callers connect to the right agent who can solve their issues with first-call resolution and provide excellent service and support. Nevertheless, Call routing benefits the calling operation of businesses by ensuring quick and efficient call handling. More efficient workflow

Efficient Workflow 

With a call routing system, every available agent will be productive. There will be an even workload distribution among the agents and less pressure. With automation and integration tools, it provides a higher calling experience, customer satisfaction and helps to manage large call volume easily without leaving any call unanswered. By doing this, leaders can ensure they have the appropriate staffing levels to meet customer demands while minimizing idle time.

 Challenges in Call Routing

During call routing, there are some challenges and difficulties that might hamper the calling experience and lead to unsatisfied customers and frustration. Some of the challenges are:

Complex Routing Rule: While routing calls, managing the complex routing rules can be challenging. For call routing, several factors, like customer demographics, agent skills, product types, or time of day, should be considered, so sometimes managing call routing can be an issue.

Real-time routing: Real-time routing is essential for businesses to manage workload among the agents and deliver excellent customer service. Real-time routing can be challenging for businesses as call routing relies on factors like customer demand, agent availability, and workload, which are inconsistent.

Scalability Issues:  Scalability is also one of the challenges in call routing because as the business expands, the volume of inbound calls also increases. So, meeting the customer needs with an existing routing system can be an issue with the same number of agents 

Quality of Service (QoS): Maintaining top-notch quality while calling is necessary in modern business communication. So, managing issues like call drops, missed calls, wait times, and call abandonment rates can be challenging to deliver excellent CX that meets the customer’s demands.

Best Practices in Call Routing

Here are some best practices in call routing :

Clear Call Routing Strategy: The Routing system should be clear and straightforward. A complex routing strategy creates confusion for inbound callers, which can be frustrating. Connect inbound callers to the right agent who can solve the caller’s issue without any complex routing method.

 Regular Monitoring and Optimization: Monitor and optimize the call routing system regularly to stay up to date with changing market conditions and customer needs. Identify areas for improvement by regularly monitoring customer feedback and usage trends. Make necessary adjustments to the call routing system based on the evaluation of its performance to enhance customer satisfaction and calling experience

Integration with Customer Data: Integrate your call routing system with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to provide better information about the callers and a better calling experience and support. With the caller’s details, preferences, and call history in  the CRM software business can provide customized service and customer satisfaction.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR): Set up an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for your phone system for menu options. Using the information from the inbound caller, we can direct the call to the right agent. This IVR system reduces call wait time and enhances customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

To sum up, for delivering excellent customer experience and enhancing business communication, having a systematic call routing is essential for businesses of any size. Not only does it ease the process of connecting to the appropriate agent directly, but it helps you minimize wait time, lower the abandonment rate, solve issues quickly, and ensure that you never miss a call or an unanswered call again, which is very useful for retaining customers, maintaining a solid relationship, and eliminating customer dissatisfaction.

Moreover, well-executed call routing aids businesses in managing their workflow, optimizing their resources, tracking customers’ calls, analyzing calling trends, and providing first-call resolution and top-notch calling experience, which is crucial for businesses today. So, hurry up and upgrade your business phone system with call routing to stay competitive and provide an excellent calling experience.

FAQs

What are the three concepts to call routing?

The concepts of call routing are:

Packet forwarding: The process of moving packets between segments of a network. A router determines the best routing path for a packet by looking at the packet’s destination IP address and using its routing map.

Routing map: This is a data structure that stores information about the topology of a network, as well as the best paths to reach different destinations. Using routing maps, routers forward packets to their destinations.

Routing protocol: Routing protocols describe how routers exchange information about the topology of a network and the best paths to reach different destinations.

What does call routing mean?

Call routing is a call management system feature that distributes inbound calls automatically based on a predefined set of rules and guidelines. Call routing means routing the incoming call to the available agent to deliver better support.

What is advanced call routing?

Advanced call routing is a telecommunications feature that helps businesses to manage incoming phone calls intelligently. Additionally, it enables customized routing based on various criteria, including caller location, time of day, or preferences, ensuring that calls are directed to the most appropriate department or agent.

What is live call routing?

Live routing is a process used in customer service that routes the calls to the appropriate agent based on their problems in real time. Live routing improves customer satisfaction by improving first-call resolution and personalized experience. Moreover, it minimizes the need for manual routing and transfers and reduces wait times.