In recent years, the incursion of Virtual Call Centers, displacing more and more traditional ones, is already a fact. Still, we know what a Virtual Call Center is, how it works, the technology it is based on, and all its benefits. We’ll tell you everything.
A Virtual Call Center is a call center whose infrastructure is hosted on the Internet, so it works through this connection, or as it is commonly said, it is hosted in the Cloud, hence the adjective virtual. This makes it easier for your telemarketers or commercials to work remotely.
This system has many benefits and can help a lot to manage calls in a company and ultimately to many departments and the general productivity of a company.
How A Virtual Call Center Works
As we already know today, all data and information infrastructure that can be accessed and managed from a secure Internet connection, that is, hosted in the Cloud, improves and optimizes the productivity and management of companies at all levels, commercial, administration, etc., reducing investment and expense and most importantly, improving the quality of customer or user service. In this way, telemarketing strategies are much more effective and agile, which causes an increase in sales and customer loyalty, critical points in any company or business.
All this makes Virtual Call Centers critical systems for the profitability and benefits of any company since it supports the most important department, which is sales.
A virtual Call Contact makes it possible to have all the software and data infrastructure required and managed by said Call Center or Call Center in the Cloud or through an Internet connection, thus making the calls much more efficient. Operators avoid infrastructures and added costs in hardware, such as servers or central, thus optimizing agents’ work and avoiding costly investments in hardware infrastructures that are now replaced by terminals (computers) connected to the network.
Since virtual call centers do not require a physical location, they often use cloud-based VoIP Software.
Until the arrival of call centers in the Cloud, to acquire and manage a Call Center, it was necessary to make a substantial investment in hardware, specific software, telephone lines and configurations in addition to a high cost in administration and support for call center, which implied that the contact center was not a system available to all companies.
Currently, the incursion of virtual call centers has meant that all types of companies can have this robust, reliable and efficient system.
Traditional Call Center vs. Virtual Call Center
To better understand the general operation of a Virtual Call Center, we must be clear about the fundamental concepts of a Traditional Call Center.
What Is A Call Center?
The main objective of a Call Center, in general, is to serve many clients with few agents or telemarketers. In a Call Center, telephone calls are answered. On the other hand, many other channels are attended in a Contact Center, such as chat, video, social networks, etc. The operation and objective are very similar, being two highly optimized and productive systems.
In a Call Center, customers call a telephone. While the calls are coming in, they are assigned to the agents or teleoperators that are free and assigned to the service they are asking for. So that the calls for a specific service will be posted until all the agents that cover said service is busy.
If the calls exceed the number of available agents, they go to the waiting queue, when the customer usually hears a piece of music or message on hold. In FIFO (First In, First Out) telephone queues, users are served in the order they arrive.
An unlimited number of calls can be put on hold, but in practice, there are usually two limits:
- Number of telephone lines assigned to that service
- A limited number so that there is no bounce rate and the customer hangs up unsatisfied
Usually, the proportion of total calls concerning the number of telemarketers is generally at least 1 to one with five times. However, this can change. When sizing the number of agents needed to attend a call, it is usually taken into account. Sing correctly.
This operation corresponds to the Traditional Call Center teams, which work through telephone lines in offices, where the Call Center teams are located, and the positions of employees or telemarketers.
Agents usually work assigned shifts and register their entry in an application so that it is possible to control what hours the operational employee has been and how many calls have been made on their work shift, among other vital data.
What Is A Virtual Call Center
The main difference between the Virtual Call Center and the Traditional one is that the agents or telemarketers do not need to be in an office to carry out their work, since it can be done in the same way, with all the functions and more remotely, for which avoids the cost of physical jobs or offices, among other added fees.
In a Virtual Call Center, the software and telephone equipment is not installed in the office but rather are accessed through an Internet connection since they are hosted in the Cloud, in a data center prepared for it.
In this way, telemarketers can quickly and safely connect to the system remotely, at home or wherever they are.
Today, this is the solution chosen by the best companies since it avoids many costs and speeds up management, obtaining the same results since everything is controlled through access programs, call control, and other recorded information.
Incorporating a Call Center or Virtual Contact Center is very cheap, paying a monthly fee depending on the number of users or agents and contracted services.
Advantages and Benefits of a Virtual Call Center
We have already seen the most important advantages or public benefits of a Virtual Contact Center.
We see one by one the advantages of a compared to the traditional model:
No Geographic Restrictions
With a virtual Contact Center, you can have telemarketers spread worldwide, working remotely in an agile, simple and effective way. This allows the ease and flexibility of hiring, choosing the best applicants, even at an international level, according to the language required for each service.
It also allows a permanent service in all time slots, which is very important and beneficial for commercial attention and technical incidents. You can extend your business hours and even offer a Call Center service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In addition, it has been demonstrated and experienced that these systems increase the quality of the service since it is possible to do without templates of people who do not speak the language well, attending the staff from their own homes.
Most of the time, local service provides a better experience for the user, which translates into higher sales and customer loyalty.
Less Initial Expense
The virtual system allows a significant reduction in costs and initial investment since office rental can be dispensed with in addition to the cost of hardware and software for a Traditional Call Center.
Virtual call center software avoids the need for all the hardware and many expenses associated with on-site employees. The software that can be accessed and used through an internet connection, since it is hosted in the Cloud, is paid for through monthly subscriptions. This allows costs to be eliminated and adapts to the company’s needs at all times since it is scalable up and down, depending on the time of year.
Greater Mobility and Stability
The Virtual Call Center system allows employees to work remotely, this facilitates their work since they do not have to travel, so there is no loss of time or delays, while employees work with less stress.
Traditional call centers have a particular reputation for their high rates of staff replacement and employee attrition. The reduction of stress and overwhelm and the improvement of working conditions provided by a Virtual Call Contact reduces this problem significantly, which means that the motivation of the workers is more significant, so the customer service and the quality of their work improve substantially.
Benefits For The Environment
But suppose the benefits that we have named are not few. In that case, a call center in the Cloud is more ecological, contributing to the improvement of the environment. It eliminates commutes, physical offices and hardware, reducing environmental impact.
A virtual call center software works in the Cloud, which has many positive effects on the environment. the virtualization of data and software implies the elimination of hardware and paper and, therefore, beneficial energy savings for the planet.