How do you measure better voice calling?
The PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) has been around since the commercialisation of the telephone in 1876, albeit with upgrades! Refinements such as ringing (the first ones didn’t ring, a caller needed to whistle…), exchanges and pulse dialling were introduced up until the 1980s, when going digital became firmly signposted on the technology roadmap.
Since then, large parts of the voice calling network have migrated from analogue PSTN technology to the digital VoIP (Voice over IP) system, integrating it with the Internet.
Evolution of the species: From Call Centre to Contact Centre
Before the arrival of ‘convergence’ (the merging of voice with data, which is the underlying technology principle of VoIP) call centres were just that – they were usually limited to only handling inbound telephone inquiries. However, the arrival of VoIP and the swathe of related digital communication technologies that followed enabled many different media channels to be centralised, and the contact centre began to evolve.
Faxes (remember those?), snailmail, email, website inquiry forms, and a host of social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as voice calls, can now be cleared through one place, centralised through contact centre operations. Typically an appropriate CRM software platform is used to track all touch points with customers. Essentially, today’s contact centres sit at the centre of customer relationship management for both inbound and outbound activities, playing a pivotal role in executing a successful business strategy for many companies and organisations.
VoIP’s advantages
As would be expected, as a more recent technology VoIP’s digital contact centre voice call technology is better than that of older PSTN-based call centres. But how do we measure superiority to assert that VoIP is better? Here are some key advantages of VoIP over PSTN:
- Call quality – One of the key characteristics of VoIP voice calling is the full bandwidth digital call quality that produces crystal clear sound. PSTN is susceptible to noise and the frequencies reproduced could be limited by microphone and earpiece technology, leading to muffled sound lacking top-end sparkle, preventing nuances in speech from being properly picked up.
- Limitless scalability – VoIP has the capability to be almost infinitely scalable – without renumbering the entire telephone system (again!) And within a business, using VoIP provides a virtual PBX – a software equivalent of a hardware Private Branch Exchange or switchboard – enabling the addition of additional system users effortlessly.
- Richer features – VoIP opens the door to a host of enhanced features made possible by digital technologies. Automated call handling, routing inbound calls to other numbers, and voicemail are all familiar, as are call recording and monitoring. Enabling seamless hybrid working, allowing remote workers to be available as if they were in the office, was a very useful feature during the Covid lockdowns.
- Any device, anywhere – Unlike the PSTN and hardware PBX, a VOIP user is not tied to a physical line, so a user can be equipped with any compatible device anywhere in the world, connected to the Internet.
Quvu’s VoIP contact centre advantages
However, beyond the basic superiority of VoIP, Quvu adds a whole new layer of capability to managing relationships with customers by providing specialised tools specifically for the contact centre. Here are some of the most powerful features and benefits:
- Call Recording – Capture voice call interactions accurately, and retain them in the cloud for up to six years. Resolve disputes, ensure regulatory obligations are met, such as a verbal agreement with Ts & Cs, and identify the training needs of agents.
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – Greet customers with automatic call answering to pick up calls using recorded voice messages. Save agent time and provide a great customer experience by letting callers navigate to the department or person they need to contact by using the number pad on their calling device.
- CRM Software Integration – Truly integrates with CRM software to provide viewing customer information and updating records directly in the CRM database through the Quvu Agent Console. Uses CRM information to drive outbound campaigns.
- Queue Management – Instantly re-organise contact centre teams to match the workflow. Queue Management is where your resourcing comes together with the activity of your contact centre agents, allowing you to allocate your people to specific call queues. Be more agile with Quvu. Respond to demand fluctuation by optimising allocation of the workforce.
- Consoles for Roles – Quvu provides a console for the typical roles of contact centre teams. Seeing all the contact centre’s features is unnecessary for most users, so Agent, Admin, Supervisor and Compliance consoles provide users in each role with access to the parts of the system needed to be focused and productive. It’s permission based, which is excellent for supporting security.
You can see all of Quvu’s features for Configuration, Decision Support, Customer Experience and Campaign Success at a glance here.
The superiority of Quvu VoIP voice call solutions
Just as with many other competing technologies, the quality of VoIP contact centre solutions from different service providers is variable. However, Quvu has some special attributes and characteristics that underscore its superiority and market-leading position.
VoIP services can use low-cost digital technologies and routing, impacting quality and reliability. Think of cheap overseas call services – typically to developing nations – where infrastructure is not as advanced. However, Quvu doesn’t cut corners. We’ve built a private VoIP contact centre solution that delivers the high value that businesses need – fully featured and reliable, at a fair price.
- Fast, ‘white glove’ service and support – At Quvu we developed our VoIP platform from the ground up, avoiding licensing charges for proprietary technologies. Our own highly skilled team of software developers and systems engineers and administrators continuously monitor our services, anticipate problems and rectify them before your call or service quality is impacted. We don’t have to escalate to ‘someone else’ – we built it, we know how it works, we know how to fix it, and quickly.
- High resilience infrastructure – the quality and reliability of Quvu voice call services are underpinned by our resilient infrastructure. We own and manage our hosting across infrastructure in Ireland and UK datacentres. This gives us more control to guarantee service availability. Automated failover means that if one site fails, service is automatically switched over to another datacentre, preventing lengthy service disruptions.
- Built for mission-critical B2B operations – Today’s business world moves fast. With automated trading driving markets around the world, change can happen at the speed of a signal down a cable – about 1/100th the speed of light. Businesses need to be agile and responsive to rapid change that may bring both challenges and opportunities. The Quvu VoIP voice contact centre solution is built to meet the demands of today’s businesses.
Is your company ready for the Quvu VoIP contact centre?
Don’t miss out on the advantages of the best value VoIP solution on the market.
Quvu VoIP contact centre features, services and support don’t just boost efficiency and productivity. They make it easy for you to provide great customer experiences that help grow your business.
Book a personalised demo to see what Quvu can do for your contact centre.
Simply call us on 03333 4455 90 or email sales@quvu.ie