Toll Free Numbers

Consumers are used to being offered 1-800 numbers to dial. Because these phone numbers are toll free for the caller they are appealing to customers. 1-800 numbers are an effective for any remote sales businesses to get people to call them.

Toll free numbers are set up to charge the called party, not the calling party, for the placed call. This added cost of the phone call is offset by the benefits of toll free telephone numbers, especially if the business has some way to directly monetize incoming calls.

Using one or more toll free numbers increases company visibility, and encourages customers to call. This benefit is one of the most obvious returns to establish such a number. Toll free numbers can also increase company efficiency, and there are numerous telephony software solutions that have been designed to help remote sales teams to do this.

One such software solution is a lead management CRM. By linking inbound toll free calls to the CRM, relevant, real time information on the caller will automatically be captured and updated in the CRM’s database. These leads can be saved as future prospects for phone or email campaigns.

Another piece of telephony software that helps sales reps capitalize on toll free numbers is inbound-outbound call blending telephony. With this, sales reps may make outbound calls while they wait to receive an inbound call. The use of a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) system blending can additionally enhance call blending. These CTI solutions often involve pop-ups or pop-screens, windows that open automatically when the inbound call is answered. This immediately displays all relevant information and allows the sales rep to easy update the contacts data in the CRM.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is another business solution that increases the effectiveness of toll free calls. ACD software is known as call routing software, and it automatically forwards incoming calls to the best available agent. Individual agents can be specified as the primary agent for individual toll free numbers or geographic locations. If preferred agents are not available, incoming calls can then be routed to a designated fail-over destination. This could be the company’s general telephone line, an internal messaging system, or a private cell phone.

The implementation of a toll free number can be the added incentive a potential customer needs to call a business they have not contacted before. These telephony pieces of telephony software gives sales representatives the tools they need to make these calls even more profitable.

Contact Managers, what can they do?

Any sales team that sales remotely depends on fresh leads and contacts. A contact manager system keeps all of these leads in order and keeps sales reps selling.

Contact manager systems organize and control all of the tasks and processes associated with creating, contacting, and selling to leads. These systems, which are also called customer relationship managers or CRMs, start their job with lead capturing. A third party lead generation company is certainly one location that a contact manager can upload lead information from. Another productive source of leads is the company website. Contact managers can be programmed to gather information from web forms filled out and submitted on the internet. The information on these web forms are gathered and stored within the CRM and that lead is then qualified based on the information available.

A contact manager system organizes contacts into three separate categories (sometimes referred to as “buckets”). The contacts with in these three categories – leads, prospects, and customers – can have specific tasks assigned to them, or these contacts can be split into smaller groups within their category. Using a CRM a sales representative can interact with a whole group of contacts at once, such as sending them all an identical email or fax message.

Contact managers act as calendars to keep track of meetings or call-back appointments with contacts. Syncing with email systems like Microsoft Outlook and reminding agents of important meetings is only the beginning of what a CRM can accomplish.

Contact managers are the central piece of software that supports many of the other telephony software that allows call centers to function. Power dialers pull lists of leads from the CRM and upload all important data from a call there. Automatic call distribution, or ACD, routes inbound phone calls to the best available agent that is free when the call is received. Contact managers can also be the most reliable basis for business reporting. The real time analytics that a contact manager calculates allows for an accurate interpretation of data to show the underlying trends of the current sales market.

Contact managers also aid sales agents in fulfilling the needs of their contacts. One way that a customer relationship management system does this is with its prewritten email templates and voice messages. These emails or voice messages can be left by the CRM whenever the need arises, stopping the sales agent from wasting calling time in order to send emails to clients and contacts. A contact manager helps with all parts of inside sales.

Automatic Call Distribution and what it can do for your business

Inside sales operations spend a most of their time calling people, at least that’s what they should be doing. These outbound calls are often what receive the single greatest amount of a sales representative’s time. Inbound calls are usually more valuable than the individual outbound calls because they can represent existing clients or those contacts who are actively seeking out a company’s product or service.

There are telephony software solutions that increase the efficiency of receiving these inbound calls regardless of whether an inside sales business uses in-house agents or if those agents work remotely. One of these solutions is ACD, or Automatic Call Distribution. The purpose of this telephony tool is not only to allow sales agents to receive inbound calls, but also to route those calls to the right personnel automatically.

ACD call routing works well in combination with toll free phone numbers. Managers of the system can establish which toll free numbers should be answered by which sales representatives. This can be determined by which geographic location the toll free number is advertised in, by which department that toll free number is associated with, or any other delineation. By automatically routing calls based on which sales agents can best responds instantly improves customer relations. In the event that there are no designated sales reps that call is not dropped. Instead, the Automatic Call Distribution system can be directed to route that incoming call to a fail–over number. This fail-over number could be anything from the general office line to voice messaging systems. ACD could even route the call through to one of the agents’ personal cell phones. There is no need for any inbound call to be unanswered or dropped when using ACD call routing.

This telephony solution often offers many quality control features. Usually this includes the option to record calls being completed. These recordings can be stored along with every other bit of data associated with a particular caller. These calls can be retrieved and played back if ever the need arises.

All of this makes it faster and easier to connect incoming calls to the right people. By decreasing customer wait time ACD raises customer satisfaction. When this is linked to an outbound dialer all agents that receive inbound calls can also be actively making outbound calls. ACD removes the slow, down times that can occur in a business day, generating the greatest amount of calls made and sales closed.

Use telephony software to make remote sales profitable

Telephony software grants the ability to effectively accomplish many of the different tasks within a business that sales remotely. By combining the different telephony software solutions out there any company can dramatically improve how they accomplish sales tasks.

All sorts of good telephony software and solutions are used for lead management. This includes: power or predictive dialers, blended inbound call routing, voice messaging, faxing and emailing. A suite of these tools is able to fully track the metrics and analytics involved in tracking contacts, qualifying leads, and all the other tasks associated with sales lead tracking. Above and beyond simply tracking sales, these telephony tools increases the number of calls, contacts, faxes, emails, leads, follow-ups, proposals, and closes. These tools help you increase sales.

The reason telephony software solutions are able to increase sales is because they increase the number of quality interactions a lead has with the company.

Beginning with lead generation, potential clients are given a unique experience when a company is utilizing telephony lead management solutions. Any web form submitted by an interested lead automatically gets converted into a lead. This lead is then qualified, and routed through to the telephone dialer. Within minutes of that lead first submitting the request online a live sales agent is on the phone with them. In addition to the speed of this routing, new leads are assigned to the sales agent that has been identified as the best one for those types of calls. This assignment may be based on such things as which web form is submitted, or the area or zip code of the new lead.

This automatic call routing is designed to blend perfectly with outbound calling. The newly created lead will be held until the current outbound call is complete, and then be pushed through to the sales rep. This allows sales professionals to be engaged in outbound calling while waiting for new leads to generate and not to worry that new leads will be missed or current calls will be interrupted. Also, inbound calls are routed to these same sales reps allowing sales professionals the ability to use their time as effectively as possible.

Once a call is answered, the sales agent has many telephone software solutions at his disposal. Email and faxes can be sent instantly from the dialer interface. Often sales agents spend 5 or 6 hours a day on the phone, and a huge 2 to 3 hours following through on those calls by sending emails or faxes with additional information. Email or fax software solutions shorten those 2 to 3 hours to minutes.

Telephony software solutions continue to aid in the sales process on through closing the deal and following up with repeat customers in the future. With so many different business tools available it is worth the time and attention to research the options.

How voice messaging systems work together

Voice messaging software solutions provide remarkable time saving solutions for remote sales professionals.

A voice broadcast system is one voice messaging tool that vastly increases the speed at which a sales rep can reach a large audience. With voice broadcasting a prerecorded message is automatically sent out to those on the call list. This frees the agent from making each of those calls individually.

One criticism of voice messaging systems, like broadcast systems, is that they lack the personal feeling that customers like to experience. IVR call routing is one solution for those contacts that are interested in a businesses product or service, but do not want to deal solely with a computer voice message.

IVR stands for Interactive Voice Response. An interactive voice response system provides all of the functions traditional reserved for touch tone menus. These include the users response to a recorded menu or survey. When the contact desired to respond to what was said over the telephone, a push on one of the number pads conveyed the message. Instead, an IVR listens for the responses a contact will give vocally, and reacts accordingly, including transferring the lead to a live sales agent. Other options that the listener may choose would be to have a fax or email message automatically sent to them, or to be removed from the call list.

An interactive voice response system is not only beneficial when broadcasting voice messages, but can also be helpful when used for inbound calls. Specifically inbound toll free numbers can be set up to transfer callers to the IVR system. Automated responses to common questions can be prerecorded, freeing up sales agents from needing to respond to the same inquiries time and again. Alternatively an IVR may be set up to direct the caller to whichever department they need to reach. This option eliminates a good portion of the work a secretary or telephone operator may need to do in a large organization.

Voice broadcasting and IVR systems both become more efficient when coupled with an ACD call routing system. The ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) routes whatever call is received to the best available sales agent. As contacts opt to talk to a live agent as opposed to working with the recorded messaging system, the ACD will connect them to the best sales rep for their call. All of these options serve to increase productivity without decreasing any of the personal aspect of sales that lead to conversions.

How can the use of Toll Free Numbers help telesales?

800 telephone numbers have become a staple in the business world. An 800 number is a toll free phone number, meaning the called party is charged for the call instead of the calling party. This allows customers to call the businesses and organizations they do business with without being charged extra for the communication. Businesses should consider the implementation of toll free numbers when they make a profit from the call in other ways. These profits include collecting fees for technical support, making a sale during the call, or seeing an enhancement in sales because of the implementation of the toll free number.

Including one or more toll free telephone numbers increases company visibility and productivity. There are numerous telephony software solutions that have been designed to help remote sales teams use tool free numbers most effectively.

By linking inbound toll free calls to a lead management CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) incoming calls can be captured. This means that the most relevant, real time information on the caller will immediately and automatically be updated into the CRM. These leads are saved as future prospects for call or email campaigns.

Inbound/outbound call blending telephony software allows sales agents to “double up” on both duties. These sales reps may make outbound calls while they wait to receive an inbound call. This call blending can be additionally enhanced by the use of a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) system. These solutions often involve pop-ups or pop-screens, windows that open automatically when the inbound call is answered. This immediately displays all relevant information and allows the sales rep to easy update the contacts data in the CRM.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) is another business solution that increases the effectiveness of toll free calls. ACD software is known as call routing software, and it automatically forwards incoming calls to the best available agent. Individual agents can be specified as the primary agent for individual toll free numbers or geographic locations. If preferred agents are not available, incoming calls can then be routed to a designated fail-over destination. This could be the company’s general telephone line, an internal messaging system, or a private cell phone.

With the analytic capabilities of an industry standard CRM, an added toll free number can be used to quickly track the progress of a new marketing strategy. The amount of time each call is left on hold and the length of each call can also be monitored and be used to create service standards for inbound calls. Toll free telephony software creates many opportunities to increase customer satisfaction and sales.

ACD Call Routing

We all want phone calls to be flooding into our call centers. An ACD will help you be organized and efficient when that happens as your agents handling the calls will automatically be routed calls that they can best handle.

ACD stands for Automatic Call Distributor. ACD call routing is when the ACD transfers incoming calls to the appropriate employee for the task. ACD call routing is ideal for offices handling a large volume of calls, especially when callers do not need to talk to a specific employee but require attention by any of multiple persons at the soonest possible opportunity.

To help match which available agent should take any particular call the ACD call routing system reviews that customers credentials. Sometimes a simple interactive voice response system may retrieve additional data from the customer for the ACD. Alternatively the ACD can be programmed to recognize different toll free numbers, and direct customers to the appropriate employees based on that. A third alternative is that an ACD may be connected with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In this arrangement the ACD will route calls based on key information and also relay this information to the answering agent.

ACDs can work equally well with both in-house call centers and remote inbound call agents. Automatic call distribution will increase the rate of response to incoming calls and productivity no matter which set up is used to organize call agents. Better response times lead to improved customer satisfaction by limiting the time each customer waits for service and by giving inbound agents higher levels of responsiveness to each caller.

Automatic call distributors often contain software that monitor reporting and performance data. Records of call time and volume provide insight to managers about a business's performance. Tracking which toll free numbers are called the most allows an organization to refine and reevaluate marketing plans and current campaigns. Call recording options provide quality control as well as tools for valuable training for current and future employees.

The ability to blend inbound calls with outbound calls is also a task a good ACD call routing system can accomplish. This allows an agent to be free to make outbound calls while waiting to receive inbound calls. This is especially useful at increasing efficiency during non-peak shifts or down times in caller volume.

By subscribing with a hosted ACD call routing system provider your resources are expanded. Additional hold capacity without having to pay for more T1s or local lines is an example. Instead your ACD's host can hold those calls that you during those times of peak inbound call volume, and patch them through with your ACD call routing system as inbound call agents become available.