Call Center Phone System: 8 Features to Look for

How to Choose a Phone System For Call Center

The idea of upgrading to a new call center phone system can be daunting. Having dedicated call teams, like sales and support, whose entire jobs revolve around inbound and outbound calls adds a new level of complexity to your migration plan and places additional importance on the ongoing system maintenance required. Selecting a call center phone system that is easy to configure and maintain will save you a lot of headaches and wasted time in the future.

Call center phone system features can make the difference between a positive or poor customer experience. Enabling your customer service team with a phone system for call center that sets them up for success will not only increase customer satisfaction, but employee satisfaction saving you on training and other turnover costs. 

It’s a no-brainer to find the best phone system call center solution, but with the market continuing to expand, the options can be overwhelming. If you are searching for a new phone system for a call center and want to be confident that you are purchasing one that is easy to maintain, here are eight call center system features to look for:

1. Setting up new users on a call center phone system takes minutes, not hours

Being able to add new phone system users quickly helps to minimize downtime during the initial call center phone system upgrade, and it also reduces the number of IT resources required each time a new employee is hired. Onboarding employees should not be a burden on your IT team. Look for a call center phone system with a browser-based admin portal that allows you to log in from anywhere and quickly select the options you need. Some phone systems, like Switchvox, even allow you to create templates for the different types of users, such as sales reps, customer service agents, or administrative assistants, which help to speed up the user creation process by only showing the options that are relevant to that specific user type. Also, choosing IP phones that offer plug-and-play deployment with your call center phone system will drastically reduce the time it takes to set up a new user.

2. Remote and mobile workers are included in the call center phone system directory

Today, many employees are choosing to work outside the office walls. While this trend has been growing for years, several call center phone system features are still not equipped to gracefully handle these types of employees. Look for a phone system for call centers that includes all employees in one directory regardless of their location and that offers a mobile app. These two attributes will give you one central location for you to manage all users as well as a seamless user experience for employees and a united front for callers.   

3. Employees use the same password with phone system for call centers as other business systems

Any seasoned IT admin knows that system password management can be a hassle. Employees oftentimes forget their passwords and need them to be reset. Or, they write passwords down,  exposing themselves and the company to security issues and other risky, time-consuming scenarios. To avoid these types of hassles, look for a call center phone system with an integrated centralized security solution, such as Microsoft Active Directory or LDAP. This will allow employees to use the same password for both their phone system portal and other business systems, giving them one less password to remember and you one less password to maintain.

4. Automatic backups can be scheduled for call center system features

Many organizations require their systems to be backed up on a regular basis, including their phone system. As you know, having to remember and schedule manual backups can be an unreliable process that often results in undesirable consequences. Look for a call center phone system that allows you to set up an automated backup schedule to the FTP server of your choice and that allows you to create immediate backups when needed.

5. Call Center Phone System logs and reports are easily generated

As organizations evolve, so do their telephony needs. Being able to quickly analyze usage trends and historical data will allow you to understand how employees are using the phone system and any problems callers may be experiencing. Look for a call center phone system that gives you easy access to call logs and allows you create reports as needed or on a scheduled basis. This will allow you to make data-driven decisions about your phone system.

6. Call center managers can make changes to a call center phone system without IT’s help

Call center managers are continually working to improve the caller experience. This requires tweaks and changes on a regular basis that could quickly become time-consuming for IT staff members. While the IT team should make big changes to a phone system, look for a call center phone system that enables contact center managers to update call queues, IVRs, greetings, and other configurations easily and without your help.

7. The entire call center phone system is from one vendor

It is important to determine whether a call center phone system manufacturer provides only some or all of the components necessary for your call center –  the PBX, the IP phones, and the connectivity you need, such as VoIP gateways and SIP trunking services. Selecting a vendor that provides one, a complete solution can make it easier to pinpoint the problem if anything ever goes wrong because all components are housed under one support umbrella. And, it can speed up the time to deployment because you only interface with one vendor, and all of the components are guaranteed to work together. Look for a call center phone system manufacturer who offers an end-to-end solution that seamlessly integrates together.

8. Around-the-clock technical support is available

Many contact centers have dedicated call teams working 24×7. If you are offering customer service at midnight, look for a phone system vendor who also offers support at that time. If something goes wrong with your phone system in the middle of the night, you can’t wait until the next morning to resolve the issue without serious impacts on your business. You should be able to rely on your manufacturer to provide you with the assistance you need to keep your call teams going even in the early morning hours.

Next Steps

If you’re looking for a call center phone system with advanced features that is easy-to-maintain, check out Switchvox now.