The year 2020 has only shown us the importance of having effective communication systems even during tough times to manage almost everything.
Similarly, for a business to run smoothly and efficiently, it needs to rely on a customer support team that further relies on a virtual business phone system. A virtual business phone system allows businesses to have their customer support team located anywhere. Thanks to modern technology these systems use to make or receive calls, unlike the older more conventional phone systems. A stable internet connection is all that is required, and your business is good to go to provide quality customer support.
Even with the modern business communication systems in place, rapid development and modifications are happening regularly. A call center software would be one such example to put forward where the utilization of its benefits is enhancing so many aspects of the call center industry. Now, something that every call center agents are very familiar with is ACD, a term given for automatic call distribution.
Here in this article, we have decided to throw some light on this topic. With that, we are also going to understand what automatic call distribution is in the first place, along with the automated call distribution segment and how it works.
Understanding Automatic Call Distribution
The Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) stands to be an incredible technology within the telecommunications technology to facilitate an answer to calls and then route them to their specific departments. The routing of the calls is governed by pre-determined distribution rules according to an inbound call center. Thereby streamlining communications to the business by reducing the risk of overloading of calls during peak business hours. This also implies that a call center running an automatic call distribution system doesn’t have to make their customers wait in ques for long hours or in the worst-case scenario, getting them stuck in a constant loop.
For most of the companies handling thousands of business calls every day, it becomes quite a tedious task to get over with. Hence, the call centers must be equipped with some kind of filtering system that could ease a little bit of this huge task. Automated call distributor steps in here and does the job quite brilliantly.
Difference Between ACD and IVR
Most of your reading this would be having one question in your mind, and that is what makes an IVR different from an ACD then?
In most case scenarios, IVR or an interactive voice response system route calls or provide necessary information based on the selection of the caller. The process doesn’t require the attention of a call center operator and tasks like updating personal details, paying bills, retrieving passwords, happen without the intervention of call center agents.
Whereas on the other side, automated call distribution typically works on the pre-determining routing rules of the calls according to a business’s specific requirements. For instance, and in the case of automatic call distribution, a call landing after work hours or during public holidays are automatically sent over to the voice mailbox. While again, on the other hand, priority-based calls that require the immediate attention of a customer executive is forwarded to agents who will be able to attend the call at that point of time.
Moreover, even though both IVR and ACD’s functions are quite similar to each other, both are exclusive for the primary functions they deliver. However, advancement in today’s cloud communication technologies allows them to be work together in pairs.
Few Benefits of Automatic Call Distribution
- Fast and Prompt Call Response Time: The most immediate benefit a call center receives after employing call distribution system in their centers are instant responses to inbound calls. This system not only can respond quickly to a customer calling the center but also intelligently route them to their specific agents. The same even helps the call center to save on valuable operational time spent. Hence, improving customer satisfaction is a mandate with ACD.
- Increases Productivity: The automatic call distribution system connects a customer with their respective queries to only the agents who are trained in that specific area of support. The same implies that the agent will only receive calls for which they have received exceptional training. Thus, agents get to handle customer queries and solve their issues faster and more efficiently.
- Reduction in Operational Cost: Many call centers run business phone systems charging them as per-minute basis. Now, if the ACD has the capability to route calls in an efficient manner and that too faster, the cost on a few extra minutes spent on a call will come down drastically.
- Makes your Brand Look More Professional: When a customer reaches your call center regarding their particular queries and find out that your business is incorporating such an innovative system, they are bound to give your company all the stars it deserves. At the same time, employing such a system evolves the professionalism of the business and takes it a notch up.
- Cloud-based Solutions: Nowadays, most of the virtual business phone systems company levy an ACD with its call center software itself. Let us consider the example of CallHippo. Their excellent user interface with a neat dashboard can incorporate an automatic call distribution system over the cloud. Additionally, easy integration with most of the CRMs makes the call centers benefit greatly from an ACD.
Best Business Phone Systems with Automatic Call Distribution
- CallHippo
When it comes to reviewing CallHippo, users have always left happy experiences with the service provider. This top VoIP service provider has an excellent virtual phone system to offer businesses of any scale. The service provider themselves even have a great fleet of customer support executives. Setting up their phone system at your office is going to be hassle-free as well. Automatic call distribution can be availed from CallHippo with their premium plans.
- 8×8
Another great call center software can be 8×8. Their phone systems even entertain video conferencing for large groups. With easy call routing and forwarding facilities, 8×8 can be a reliable name to trust for your business’s call center. Also, with automatic call distribution available from the service provider, there is nothing to worry about.
- RingCentral
Another great service provider for business phone systems would be RingCentral. Their automatic call distribution software is very effective. CRM integrations with the service provider’s call center software will result in faster call routing and lesser wait times.
To Sum Up
So as you witnessed it yourself, and as we promised to share every detail about automatic call distribution, you by now have realized how important the same could be for your business. Yet, we are going to say it once again that ACD is a mandatory requirement in every call center providing customer support these days. Feel free to reach us with any additional queries.
