We have all heard the phrase “early bird catches the worm”. It sure is true, especially when it comes to sales in our fast-paced, technology-driven world today. Businesses often strive to respond to prospects and customers as quickly as possible to prevent lead wastage, especially high-quality leads from inbound calls.
But businesses are managed by humans, humans who are not designed for 24/7 activities.
So, how can businesses achieve their ideal response time as a means to improving customer satisfaction while caring for the wellbeing of their employees?
In this post, we’ll define time-based routing and show a few ways how you can use it to enhance your caller experience.
What is Time-Based Routing?
As the name suggests, time-based routing enables businesses to route inbound calls based on the time of the day and/or day of the week. It is ideal for businesses that need to ensure staff adhere to a schedule, change answer points throughout the day, or want to make sure prospects and customers are managed appropriately after hours.
How is Time-Based Routing Done?
Time-Based Routing can be done based on:
Time & Day
Route after-work calls to an offshore team or to your virtual mobile number. Alternatively, if you’re the kind who prefers to respond on the next business day, (we totally understand!), you can always choose to route calls to an Interactive Voice Recording or an automated message to inform callers of your business hours.
Time-based routing also plays a key role when your team works on a rotation basis. Configure different answer points based on your team’s schedule. This allows calls to be connected to those who are working (we’re pretty sure they are more likely to respond immediately than those who are watching a Netflix show) and provide some uninterrupted time off for those who are not.
Special events
What does an apparel brand that has a fashion show, a developer that has a new project launch, and an automobile distributor that has a car show have in common? Their sales team is probably occupied with building new and growing pre-existing client relationships.
In come loads of calls on the same day, requesting for info about the event or enquiring about your product or service. We wouldn’t want these to go unanswered, do we?
Direct all inbound calls when the event is happening with time-based routing to your admin or support team for the day. No swapping of phones or moving of desk needed. All you’ve got to do is simply change the answer point to the relevant phone number and set the timeframe for your configuration. Go ahead and join the event knowing that your calls are in good hands!
National holidays
Holidays are a great time to be spending with loved ones. It’s also a time where many get to do the things they weren’t able to do during work hours. Be it shopping for a new phone, researching insurance plans or scheduling for a massage; customers call at a time convenient to them.
Businesses on the other hand may be closed, have shorter operation hours or operate at a smaller capacity. With time-based routing and a pre-recorded message, you can easily keep your customers informed of the changes and direct them to the working team for the day.
Getting started with Time-Based Routing
Within the AVANSER environment, this feature is programmable down to half-hour periods. In addition, you can preset the configurations 365 days in advance so you never have to worry about it. To kickstart this process,
- Confirm your company’s calendar and the holidays observed.
- Arrange your team’s work schedule (if needed).
- List down the phone numbers that will be used for answer points.
When you’re ready to take advantage of this feature, email the above details to support@avanser.com.my. From then on, sit back and relax. Let the routing do its job, connecting callers to the right person at the right time!
