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.

An integrated call routing system in your business phone can upgrade your business communication, providing better customer support and a better calling experience. It can also help you manage your agents’ workflow and enhance their productivity.

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

What is Call Routing?

Call routing is a call management feature that directs calls based on pre-set routing rules. These rules are based on factors like time of day, agent availability, or department needed. Automated call routing helps manage incoming calls and ensures the right team receives each request.

Based on the 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. This eliminates the need to call, transfer, or hold and provides 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 various call routing methods are 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 to deliver excellent customer call routing.

Here are some types of call routing:

1. Skills-Based Routing

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

2. Least Occupied Routing

This method routes calls to agents who have taken the fewest calls in a given period. It helps reduce idle time and keeps all agents engaged. This also spreads out the workload and supports workforce management. When call volumes rise, this method ensures that resources are used evenly and efficiently.

3. Round Robin Routing

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

4. Time-Based Routing

Time-based routing sends calls to different teams depending on the time of day or business hours. During regular business hours, calls go to the main team. After hours, calls are forwarded to night shift agents or voicemail. This supports consistent service and ensures no incoming calls are missed. It also aligns with operating schedules.

5. Predictive Behavioral Routing

This routing method analyzes past caller interactions and directs calls to agents who are more likely to resolve the issue. This data can include previous calls, purchase history, or account activity. By using customer behavior insights, this routing strategy improves service quality and reduces call handling time.

How Does Call Routing Work?

When a customer makes a call, the business phone system usually responds with an automated call menu. This is often done using an IVR system that presents a list of service options. Once the caller selects an option, the system uses routing rules to direct the call to the right agent.

Several components help routing systems work properly:

• Call Origin: The system identifies the caller’s phone number or location. This helps in routing calls based on region or caller type. It also supports tracking and proper call forwarding.
• Call Destination: This is the endpoint to which the call is routed. It could be a specific agent or department. Routing calls to the correct destination ensures faster support.
• Routing Logic: This method determines how calls are routed. It considers factors like the time of day, agent availability, and caller needs. The logic supports efficient call routing and smart call distribution.
• Routing Rules: These are the exact situations in which the logic is used. For example, calls from particular countries may be routed to language-specific groups. These rules make the routing strategy more specific and improve the efficiency of the overall call management process.

Benefits of Effective Call Routing

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

A. 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 create a negative profile of the organization.

So, a sound call routing system helps reduce wait time and missed calls and connects customers right away to the right agent, increasing customer satisfaction and calling experiences.

B. 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 essential calls and answer them.

C. 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 businesses’ calling operations by ensuring quick and efficient call handling.

D. Efficient Workflow

With a call routing system, every available agent will be productive. The workload will be distributed evenly among the agents, and there will be less pressure. Automation and integration tools provide a higher calling experience and customer satisfaction.

It helps manage large call volumes easily without leaving any calls 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, some challenges and difficulties might hamper the calling experience and lead to unsatisfied customers and frustration. Some of the challenges are:

• Complex Routing Rule: Managing complex routing rules can be challenging. Several factors, like customer demographics, agent skills, product types, or time of day, should be considered when routing calls, so sometimes, managing call routing can be an issue.
• Real-time routing: Real-time routing is essential for businesses to manage agents ‘ workloads and deliver excellent customer service. However, it can be challenging for firms as call routing relies on inconsistent factors like customer demand, agent availability, and workload.
• 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 (quality of service): 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 :

I. Clear Call Routing Strategy

The Routing system should be clear and straightforward. A complex routing strategy can confuse 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.

II. Regular Monitoring and Optimization

Monitor and optimize the call routing system regularly to stay current with changing market conditions and customer needs. Identify areas for improvement by regularly monitoring customer feedback and usage trends. Based on the evaluation of its performance, make necessary adjustments to the call routing system to enhance customer satisfaction and the calling experience.

III. 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, businesses can provide customized service and customer satisfaction.

IV. 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.

Final Words

To sum up, for delivering an 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 of routing?

Call origin, call destination, and routing logic.

What does call routing mean?

The process that directs inbound calls to the right agent or department.

What is advanced call routing?

It uses intelligent routing methods like skill-based and predictive routing.

What is live call routing?

It directs calls in real time based on caller input and availability.