VoIP call screening makes it easy for agents to decide to accept, decline, forward the call to another agent or department, or leave the call to voicemail. It’s the process of identifying an incoming caller and determining how best to respond to that call.
Caller identification process; provides the caller's name, phone number, and sometimes geographic location. It also lets you know when a likely spam caller is on the line.
Advanced call screening connects callers to an automated virtual attendant that asks them to state their name and the primary reason for their call. That helps agents to know exactly who is on the other line and decide which action to take. Agents can use call forwarding to send the caller to a more qualified or less busy agent, depending on their identity and response. Whether the first agent answers or forwards the call to another team member, the caller will be connected to the best agent possible to assist them with the issue.
Call Screening Features to Look For
It's crucial that you research a potential provider's available call screening features when looking for the best phone service for your company. Standard Caller ID helps employees avoid unwanted calls. But an advanced virtual office phone system provides advanced call forwarding, routing and answering rules.
Automatic call screening tools can decline robocalls, permanently block a telemarketer’s or robocall number and follow predetermined unknown call settings when agents receive an inbound call from an unknown number or blocked number. You should know what qualifications you need for having better business communication inside and outside the company.
Call Routing
Call routing connects an incoming caller to an appropriate agent or department without putting them on hold. When customers call, they choose from a series of menu options that are read by a virtual assistant. Predetermined answering rules follow a call path based on the caller's response. Intelligent call routing software is also used to direct calls after business hours or on holidays.
Remote Call Forwarding
Remote call forwarding connects incoming callers to appropriate agents by forwarding business calls to additional phone numbers aside from the agent's office desk phone. If an agent works from home or on the road, incoming calls to the landline phone in his office are transferred to their smartphone after a certain number of phone rings. If the agent does not answer their smartphone, the call can be transferred to their home office line, an additional virtual phone number or forwarded to another agent. Each agent can determine their own call path, allowing greater flexibility and faster customer service.
Call Blocking
Call blocking allows agents to block calls from certain phone numbers, area codes, and zip codes. With the anonymous call rejection feature, you can block incoming calls that do not provide caller ID information. Automatic identification features block incoming calls from known telemarketing numbers. Businesses who want to reserve certain phone lines only for a smaller list of phone numbers can also create an allowed caller list that blocks all other incoming calls.
Apart from simply blocking the number, you can also choose to play an automated prepared message to the blocked numbers. Depending on the message, this reduces the chance of redialing and also prevents the caller from knowing that it has been blocked.
Do Not Disturb
The "Do Not Disturb" feature automatically forwards calls to voicemail or other agents for a set period of time. So when an agent doesn't want to receive calls for a few hours, they can stop calls without blocking them completely. Once the agents are available for calls again, they can simply turn off the Do Not Disturb.
Text-to-Speech Messaging
Text-to-speech messaging is a basic business phone feature that allows agents to send a default or customized message to incoming callers when they are unable to answer the phone. The message is read aloud to the caller via text-to-speech technology. Messages can offer estimated wait times, provide additional communication methods or deliver personalized information to the caller.
Automatic Callback
Automated customer callbacks allow inbound callers to schedule their preferred callback time either later in the day or in the same week. These callbacks give your customers an option other than just leaving a voice message. It saves serious of time besides providing convenience to your customers. It's important to make customers feel like they have a priority and reassure them that someone will get back to them when considering that around 70% of first-time callers will never bother to call back.
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