IP Connections
A new tool for small business
Hosted VoIP call centers help SMBs avoid the upfront costs for equipment and software.
by Kent Hellebust
Voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) has received continued
attention for its increasing penetration of
the business telecommunications marketplace.
While the attributes of VoIP-lower cost,
enhanced features, greater network
flexibility-are responsible for this
increased usage, these same attributes have
disproportionate advantages for certain
vertical markets and industries. One of
these is the small and medium business (SMB)
call center market.
The traditional approach
to customer service has been the use of call
centers-groups of employees answering calls
from customers asking for assistance. The
three most significant costs of this
solution are the staffs themselves, the cost
of purchasing and installing a call center
phone system and related software and
applications, and the ongoing telephone
usage costs associated with the customer
calls.
Due to the inherent
expense of the call center solution, and
particularly the setup costs associated with
equipment and software, smaller companies
often choose to either do without a
competitive customer call center or to
outsource the function to offshore
facilities. This outsourcing approach has a
number of drawbacks-the personnel at the
offshore firm do not know the products and
services as well as a call center staffed
with company employees, education and
language skills vary, and the SMB is only
one of many clients, with each client paying
for support for different products and
services. The net effect is that the SMB
loses control over the quality of its
customer care in the interest of controlling
costs.
When the hosted VoIP phone service is packaged with a hosted call center application suite, the SMB can further reduce costs.
Hosted VoIP applications
and services offer SMBs a way to alleviate
this problem. With hosted VoIP, SMBs avoid
the setup expense of buying and installing a
phone system for their call centers. Even a
basic phone system, with the minimum
necessary capacity and features for a small
call center, can cost from $5,000 to
$25,000. A hosted VoIP service package can
eliminate this upfront cost.
In addition to this
initial capital savings, the SMB can reduce
ongoing monthly telephony costs by 30
percent to 40 percent of what they would
otherwise pay. For a five- to 10-person call
center, this can range from $1,000 to $5,000
in monthly savings.
A well-established hosted
VoIP network services provider will offer,
in addition, an array of business
communication services, including digital or
analog, local, long-distance, toll-free and
international calling, as well as enhanced
features such as fax mailboxes, unified
messaging and follow-me services.
Finally, when the hosted
VoIP phone service is packaged with a hosted
call center application suite, the SMB can
further reduce costs. These application
suites eliminate the need for hardware and
software upfront costs, and enable small
organizations to operate virtual contact
centers with agents working from home and/or
multiple sites.
These application suites
can unify customer communications from
phone, voice mail, e-mail and Web channels
into one routing, queuing and tracking
system for maximum staff efficiency.
The SMB should shop carefully for a
reputable hosted VoIP provider, as the
transition from traditional telephony to
VoIP requires some expertise and
professional service support from the hosted
provider. SMBs interested in transitioning
their call centers to a hosted VoIP solution
will also want to look for a provider that
will offer professional service support
without hidden fees.
Kent Hellebust is the chief marketing officer of AccessLine Communications,
a division of Telanetix. Telanetix is an Internet protocol solutions provider offering telepresence and voice-over-IP services. The company'
s telepresence offering creates interactive meeting environments that incorporate voice, video and data from multiple locations into a single environment.
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