Call Management

Call management is a software-based application that monitors all calls within an organisation and provides management reports to show where costs can be attributed. Call management is not a new concept, yet one that many people have never explored to its full potential.

Historically used to just allocate call costs across departments, or as a means to verify a phone bill at the end of the month, call management can be a fundamental component to every organisation’s communication’s set-up, to ensure equipment and lines are being used effectively, costs minimised and usage optimised.

For example, Sales Managers can use standard reports to generate management information on how their sales team is performing on the telephone, Internet and email. How many contacts each salesperson is making to their client, or prospect, base is a good indication of activity – and this can be done on either a named customer or geographical basis, or both.

In a professional services-based organisation, this also means that where time is billed to a client, you will have accurate reports from which to generate invoices.

Managers running an inbound sales operation need to know that calls are being answered quickly and dealt with efficiently call management software will generate this information for you and automatically deliver the reports when you want them. Time to answer calls is critical; if callers have to wait too long to be answered, they can always ring off and buy elsewhere. Here call management will provide you a list of ‘lost calls' and average time to answer. What's more you can have this on an hourly, daily or weekly basis – you decide. And if the measurement is that critical, why not have the bad news emailed to you as it happens so that you can take corrective action. Think of the payback in increased sales and productivity.

Marketing managers can identify the impact of their sales promotion programs almost in real time. Say you place an advert announcing a special offer with a unique number for customers to call. Call management will tell you how many calls you received on that number by the hour, or any other time period you care to specify.

Call management has therefore become a strategic business tool, enabling organisations of all shapes and sizes to address their regulatory and business demands. Just take a moment to think how your business could benefit by analysing the interactions and transactions that go on every day between your staff, customers and partners.

Imagine also being able to integrate call recording capabilities with call cost analysis and management information tools, to see just how much time and money each of your customers is costing you in support and then measure that against their sales turnover. Alternatively, use this feature to monitor the success of outbound sales and marketing campaigns.