How Call Centres are making use of VoIP

The number of businesses who use VoIP systems has increased rapidly over recent years. Due to the very nature of what they do call centres can particularly benefit from VoIP because of the cost savings on offer. This article looks into how VoIP usage has increased and why call centres, in particular, are opting for VoIP.

In most cases the aims of a business comes down to two things; offering the best service possible to their customers while making the biggest profit they can. An important part of making a profit is not over spending and saving money wherever possible. For call centres saving money on calls can make a big different to their profit margins.

What are Call Centres?

A call centre is essentially a centralised office used for making and receiving calls. Amongst other things companies use call centres for marketing calls, contacting customers, sales and receiving calls from customers and potential customers. The main overheads are rent, wages/salaries, utility bills and, of course, the cost of calls. While paying the bills and paying staff, like any other business, cannot be avoided, money can be saved on calls. VoIP has made these potential savings more significant.

VoIP and Cost Savings

In many instances cost savings has been the primary reason for both people and businesses using VoIP services. Individuals have made use of this technology by making personal calls over a VoIP platform, with Skype being the best know example. International call and video calls via such a platform have become extremely common. These are significantly cheaper with VoIP than with a traditional phone system and can even be free.

Businesses have also been making use of these cost savings, but by using very different services. The free services individuals use to call relatives abroad, for example, are cheap but quality can be an issue (although it has improved). While this may not be a major issue when making personal calls it is not acceptable for a business. Businesses will generally use more advanced, integrated business VoIP systems. They are more expensive but still offer cost savings compared to traditional phone systems. Due to the cost savings and improving quality the number of businesses using VoIP as their main business phone system is continually increasing.

Call Centres & VoIP

Call centres have been able to make particularly good use of VoIP services. Due to the sheer number of calls that go through a call centre, any cost savings in this area make a huge difference to their overheads and, therefore, to their profits.

VoIP has been used by call centres in one form or another for some time. In the past there were certain criticisms for this due to quality issues. A good internet connection is required, which in the past wasn’t always something that could be relied upon. Any internet inference leads to call interference, which was deemed unacceptable by many, leading to criticisms of call centres. This limited the numbers wishing to adopt VoIP; while they could save money the services they were offering was being negatively impacted.

As quality has improved this has become less of a factor. Call centres can still save money but it doesn’t have to lead to a lesser service. As a result more and more call centres are using VoIP with this trend likely to continue in the future. It is no longer seen as a risk and call centres can be confident it will help them deliver a good quality service.

Andrew Marshall ©