Call routing services enable your business to efficiently manage inbound calls by directing customers to the proper department. A call routing service can dramatically improve customer service by helping to handle the call load, significantly reducing the amount of time customers spend waiting on hold, as well as the number of times a customer is transferred to another representative. A call forwarding service makes it easy to receive business calls from anywhere at anytime, which is great for a mobile business or for times when you need to be out of your office. There are also call center routing services available for outbound business calls, which are particularly useful for telemarketing.

There are a number of factors to consider when selecting call routing services. Types and styles, as well as other resources to help you choose the right services and features for routing calls in your business, can be found below.

1. Determine which type of hosting best fits your business needs.

2. Choose either skill-based or conditional telephone call routing, depending on your business and industry.

3. Consider the available options for free call routing.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Decide if you want a call routing service that is locally hosted or vendor hosted

Locally hosted services are managed in-house. This means your business is responsible for installing the call routing software and managing all aspects of the service on your own business servers. Vendor hosted services are managed by the vendor on their servers, and you access the routing service through a secure log-in.

I recommend: Call Center Software World has some very comprehensive facts about the differences between local and application hosting options. The website provides information that will help you determine which type of hosting is right for your business. BuyerZone.com offers a comparison between locally-hosted IVR and hosted IVR solutions, as well as more information on choosing the best hosting option for your business.

Select either conditional or intelligent call routing services

Conditional routing follows set parameters to transfer calls to the first available representative. Skill-based or intelligent routing uses advanced programming based on information, such as skill set and language, to direct a customer to the representative who will most likely be able to help them.

I recommend: Duo Software explains the different routing methods for automatic call distribution (ACD) systems extensively. EasyIVR.com features more information about the different features of a complete ACD system and using intelligent interactive voice response (IVR) routing.

Explore free call routing options for your business

There are options available for phone call routing even if you are running a small business with no budget.

I recommend: AstBill features a free platform for routing business calls. The software also has billing capabilities. My SIP Switch offers a free routing service for VoIP systems which essentially makes your business phone service as accessible as email.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Virtual PBX offers custom call routing and tracking and is scalable to accommodate any size business.

Communications is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the business world – especially if you operate a call center. A call routing service makes sure that your customers are connected to the right people. Call forwarding services can optimize the effectiveness of any call center environment and reduce wait times significantly.

Advanced call routing systems offer so much to your business in terms of features, but your customers benefit as well. The system creates a simple and efficient way for them to contact you. This means better customer service increasing the number of calls that are answered. Whether you own a large corporation or a small company consisting of one person a phone and a switchboard, you can find a call forwarding service available to custom fit your needs. This guide will:

1. Help you determine the best call center routing systems for your business.

2. Help you choose custom call routing features for your call system.

3. Explain how call routing services can work with your computer to create integrated solutions for your business.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose the best call routing services that will work for your individual circumstances

You'll have to research the different call routing services available. The more you know the more money you will save by shopping around.

I recommend: Contact companies like RingCentral and Call-Center-Tech to purchase a call forwarding service and call routing software for your business.

Consider integrated call routing services that work in conjunction with your computer system

This type of system is a great idea if you have a technical business and like to stay cutting edge when it come to technology. These systems can act as complete call center routing service and will work with your email and website.

I recommend: High tech businesses need a competitive edge as they work to meet the needs of their customers. A telephone call routing system from a consultant like Virtusa can easily be integrated with other high tech office equipment. They even offer call routing software programs like Unified Threat Management which includes an intrusion detection and prevention system as well as a firewall and virtual private network services designed to protect incoming and outgoing calls with very few performance problems.

Choose custom call routing services that have advanced features

You can purchase advanced features for call routing services that determine where calls are routed. For instance, you can program the system to route callers who have been holding for extended periods of time to a call center agent with the shortest talk time. You can even program different call routing patterns for different times of the day.

I recommend: AltiGen Communications call routing service system has all of these features and more.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Choose a call routing system that is easy to understand, set up and use to start routing calls for you business, and the customer who will be calling your business.

Call routing services are essential for creating a successful call center business. There are many types of call routing services to choose from, and the right one for any business will provide the tools to make a call center efficient and helpful to the callers. Some call routing services also use voice recognition technology for additional caller assistance. This allows information to be collected and used to route the call to a representative with the best skills to assist the caller.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Skills based routing (SBR)

Skills based routing assigns calls to call center representatives based on an evaluation of their skills to help the caller rather than the availability of the next representative.

I recommend: ComTek International outlines the key features and benefits of using a skills based call routing system.

Day of the week routing

Day of week routing sends calls to a specific destination based on the day of the week to assist customers when regular call center representatives are not available.

I recommend: Trans Nexus provides information on the advantages of using day of the week and time of the day routing services for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call systems.

Conditional routing

Conditional routing is a method of call distribution that routes calls based on specific variables such as office hours.

I recommend: 4 Tel Group provides a description of a number of types of call routing services, including conditional routing services based on time of the day, day of the week and other distribution methods.

Session initiation protocol (SIP)

Session initiation protocol is a signaling protocol used with telephony and Voice over Internet Protocol systems. SIP can be used in VoIP systems for call routing, but SIP works with email and other networking services.

I recommend: Cisco provides an overview of SIP technology and a list of SIP products that can be integrated for business solutions.

Interactive voice response unit (IVR) routing system

An interactive voice response routing system allows direct calls to accept and interpret information from the caller's touch tone actions or voice recognition of the caller.

I recommend: Telesmart provides information on an inbound IRV service and the businesses where this service is used.

Automatic call distribution

Automatic call distribution (ACD) is the system used in many call centers to provide the best routing services to fit the needs of the consumer.

I recommend: Easy IVR provides information on ACD systems and how different types of routing work in different situations.