If you're like most businesses today the phone is still a central part of sales, marketing and support processes. While the promise of a phone-free enterprise might be appealing to some, it's hard to deny the connection that results from use of the phone and the value it provides - and it keeps getting better.
CallTrackingMetrics, for example, recently released an enhancement to its call tracking system that will provide a rather innovative (and much smarter, really) way to route inbound phone calls throughout the business. The new Smart Routing feature allows businesses to route calls based on the website activity associated with the caller, the caller's history (e.g., their buying history), or their demographic profile.
The possibilities in terms of efficiency and an improved customer experience are immense. Calls from people who have visited particular pages of a businesses website, for example, could be routed to a certain group of agents with expertise in that area. Or, callers with a particular demographic profile, such as a household income range, marital status, gender or age range may be routed to agents best suited for those callers (e.g., those with higher incomes receive preferential treatment). CallTrackingMetrics is using NextCaller, a Caller ID database, to provide demographic information for callers in real-time. Businesses will also have the ability to create custom fields (such as account ID, campaigns, product categories etc) and use them as triggers to route calls to the appropriate agent.
The Smart Routing enhancements help customers through increased conversions, customer satisfaction and more efficient processes for their call centers. Consistent with CallTrackingMetrics's other routing options, Smart Routing has a simple rules-based interface allowing users to set up custom configurations and change them at any time.
According to Todd Fisher, CEO of CallTrackingMetrics: "The bar continues to get higher as callers are busier, savvier and are expecting a high level of service immediately. Not only does the phone need to be answered quickly, it needs to be answered by the agent who is best poised to help the customer."
CallTrackingMetrics has other routing options such as the ability to route calls based on the caller's location as well as to route callers to agents dynamically using weightings based on agent skill, call caps and availability through their Call Queue service.
