Category: Blog

When researching business phone service or VoIP providers, you will come across the term CTI or computer telephony integration. Here we explain what computer telephony integration or CTI software is and how businesses can use this technology to streamline business communication and increase agent productivity.

Computer Telephony Integration: What is CTI Software?

In simple terms, CTI is a technology that connects computers and telephony. Computer telephony integration or CTI technology enables computers to interact with telephones or perform telephone functions like placing and routing calls.

A CTI software is designed to streamline contact center operations and improve agent performance and productivity. Mostly used in call centers, CTI software can also be used in businesses of various sizes that have a steady stream of call traffic.

CTI Functions

So, what can your business use computer telephony integration for? There are many functions for CTI technology — here are some ways to use this technology:

1. Make phone calls from your computer at the click of a button.
2. Identify callers by matching the incoming phone number to a database of customer records.
3. Route and transfer calls through advanced routing and self-service options such as IVR.
4. Display customer information on agents’ screens before they take the call, also known as screen popping.
5. Access to call logs, reporting, and recording functions.
6. Access to manual and automatic dialing options such as click-to-call, autodialers, and softphones.
7. Conduct basic phone controls such as answer, transfer, conference, hold, etc.

Computer Telephony Integration Applications

What are some common applications of computer telephony integration technology and what businesses can take advantage of this software? Some computer telephony integration applications include:

• Call and contact centers
• Business with distributed teams and remote employees
• Business process outsourcing (BPO)
• Small-to-large businesses with high call traffic (fluctuating and consistent)
• Businesses with multiple offices and customer service locations spread geographically
• Companies with global coverage and international clientele

5 Benefits of Using CTI Software for Business Communication

How can your business use CTI and benefit from this type of VoIP integration?

1. Place Calls With Any Device

The main attraction and benefit of using CTI software is that users do not need telephones or desk phones to make and receive business calls. Instead, they can simply click to call through their computers or laptops using headsets. This helps cut down costs on additional equipment needed.

2. Caller Authentication Through Integrations

Computer telephony integration technology easily integrates with most CRMs, further simplifying and streamlining agent processes. The CTI preemptively identifies the caller by screening the phone number or email address through the customer database and then displaying the information on the agent’s computer screen. This is also known as screen popping or screen pop. By automatically authenticating the customer, the agent is prepared to offer fast service.

Additionally, depending on the type of CRM used, call records may be automatically added to the customer’s record for data analysis in your call center. Think: call history, call detail records, transcripts, metrics, and other important caller information.

3. Advanced Call Routing Options

Another key feature of CTI software is providing call routing and transfer. With computer telephony integration technology, your business can route and manage calls more effectively. You can use an interactive voice response system or automatic call distributor to route calls automatically based on predetermined rules.

To do this, design and create an easy-to-use and informative IVR system. When callers call your business, they will be presented with menu options and prompted to speak or push buttons for further options or to be transferred to the right department. Based on their input, they will be assisted or transferred to the appropriate department. Some ways to route calls include:

• Caller input — Callers indicate what they need through the IVR menu
• Caller history — Based on the caller’s previous interactions with the business
• Agent availability — Routes to the next available agent or employee
• Location-based routing — Based on the location of the caller
• Time-based routing — Based on the time of day of the call
• Skill-based routing — Based on the skill or expertise needed (for example, language preferences)
• Department needed — Callers indicate what department they need

These call routing options help with call management so your callers get to the right agent and receive assistance as quickly as possible. You can reduce wait times and frustration related to being routed to the wrong person or department.

4. Collaboration Tools

Besides making it easy for customers to connect with your business, CTI technology also supports in-house collaboration through:

• Voice and video conferencing
• Call whisper and call barging
• Warm call transfer
• Call monitoring
• Call recording

With these training and collaboration tools, teams can work together and managers or supervisors can listen in on calls and provide coaching.

5. Unified Communication Tools

Finally, along with phone calls, CTI software can also be used to receive faxes and emails. This makes it a UCaaS trend that lets you access all you need about a customer and their history with your company.

Want to Learn More About Advanced Telephony?

Our telecom experts can help you find the right business communication set-up for your company. Call us at 1 (877) 898 8646 or chat with us online to learn more!

Running a contact center comes with many overhead costs, leading you to charge more from your customers than needed to sustain your business. Thankfully, there are many different ways you can reduce contact center costs and optimize your spending.

Let’s first identify where you can save costs and then go over the different ways to cut down.

How to Save Money on Your Contact Center?

From needing office space to using various software, contact center costs can quickly rise up. This is especially true if you run an in-house or on-premise contact center and offer customers an array of solutions. You will need advanced technology and software to offer those solutions, and those costs can slowly creep up. So, what is your contact center spending on the most?

Contact Center Costs

Before you identify ways to cut down on costs, you need to review where your contact center is spending its money. This may be different for different types of contact centers (on-premise, in-house, or cloud contact centers) but generally speaking, here is where most contact center costs lie:

• Office space,
• Office equipment and hardware — desks, chairs, computers, desk phones, headsets, and so on,
• Contact center software,
• CRM and customer service solutions,
• Salaries, benefits, and hiring costs.

Now, you pin down areas where you can reduce contact center costs. For instance, you need to hire quality customer services and sales representatives, so that may not be the best place to get stingy. However, you can cut down the amount of office equipment and software needed by finding providers that offer packages and combined services.

For example, you might find a phone service provider that lets you make and receive business calls from a computer, removing the need for a desk phone. Similarly, if you hire remote agents, then you can cut down on the need for more office space and computers by having these employees use remote phone systems.

Reduce Contact Center Costs in 5 Ways

So, what can you do to save money on your contact center? The solutions listed below are suggestions for new processes and technologies. Not all of these solutions will work for your exact business needs. Evaluate your current options and make a decision accordingly.

Here are 5 ways to reduce contact center costs without compromising on the quality of service:

1. Take Your Contact Center to the Cloud with VoIP

If you run an in-house or premise contact center, the first step to reducing costs is moving to the cloud. Switching to a cloud VoIP communication system can drastically bring down the amount your center spends on core telephony services.

Cloud VoIP services have monthly subscriptions that can easily be scaled or canceled as needed. Additionally, these subscriptions come packed with features, services, and integrations that let you expand your offerings without needing to purchase additional services.

One such example is the softphone offered by United World Telecom. This softphone can be downloaded on computers and smartphones as an app or web browsers as an extension. By doing so, users can make and receive calls through the business phone number from any device. This cuts down the need to purchase high-quality and feature-filled desk phones.

2. Consider BYOC & SIP Trunking Services

Bring your own carrier (BYOC) enables organizations to add their own carrier or SIP trunking provider to their communication or CCaaS system. SIP trunking is a bundled telephony solution that gives you access to multiple cloud phone lines in one trunk.

BYOC and SIP trunking, together, make a quality cloud-based contact center solution that brings more flexibility, scalability, and control over your communication system. By mixing your suppliers and choosing ones that you want, you can:

• • Add new markets by choosing providers that have access to global regions and countries.
  • Customize and control call routing and forwarding.
  • Avoid regulatory and quality issues.
  • Reduce costs spent on high-priced carriers that offer little-to-no flexibility and control.

Related: The Complete Guide to Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)

3. Hire Remote Agents

Next, you want to consider hiring remote and distributed teams. Remote employees can stay connected and do their jobs effectively through your cloud communication solution and cloud-based CRM. By doing so, you can save on office space and equipment costs.

With advanced call center software, you can monitor agents on call and even join these calls silently. This way, remote agents don’t work in isolation, and you can track their progress through reports and metrics.

Additionally, with remote agents and international call routing, you can offer 24/7 support for customers who call outside the 9-5 workday. This way, you don’t pay your regular employees overtime or have employees work in shifts. You just forward incoming calls to the few remote agents working outside of office hours. This way, your contact center continues to offer services even when most businesses are closed.

4. Consolidate Services into One Platform

Another benefit of using a cloud communication service is bringing all your services to one platform. With Unified Communications (UCaaS), you can access your contact center’s communications, data, reports, and management systems, all in one place. By consolidating services into one platform, your contact center can have:

• • Improved collaboration and business continuity.
  • Low communication- and IT-related costs.
  • Easy management of remote teams.
  • Improved customer and caller experience.

Want to learn more about unified communications? Check out our UCaaS guide for business.

5. Utilize Automation and APIs

Communication and customer service automation can help you reduce contact center costs quite dramatically. Using APIs and automation features, you can save time and money on manually completing tasks and moving processes along.

One example is to use an automated voice response system (IVR) to answer common questions asked by callers. This reduces the number of calls coming to agents and gives them space to work on more complex calls. Similarly, you can even have the auto-attendant route calls to the right department based on caller input, saving costs on hiring an operator or receptionist.

Reduce Contact Center Costs Try United World Telecom’s Cloud Phone Service

With United World Telecom’s phone service solution, contact centers have access to a full suite of business phone services for reasonable prices. We offer five different plans so that you can choose one that works best for your contact center. Additionally, you do not need to get into long-term contracts with us. Use your service on a month-to-month basis and cancel whenever you need to. Give us a try! Speak with a representative to learn more about what we offer and how we can help your contact center save money!