If you feel that answering phone calls in the office is a burden, it may be a good time to consider a phone answering system.

In the past, telephony systems were recognized as being used in departments that receive a large amount of calls, such as call centers, but now many systems for general offices have been released.

In this article, we will introduce the merits of introducing a telephone support system in the office and recommended systems.

There is an urgent need to introduce a telephone response system

Due to the promotion of work style reform, more and more companies are introducing telework and working from home.

At the same time, the issue of “how to respond to phone calls to the company” also arose.

Every time a phone call comes in, the staff at work picks up the phone, contacts the person in charge of telework, and the person in charge calls back from the mobile phone. It takes a long time and is inefficient.

Also, if the number of absent members increases due to telework, the staff who are working at the office will be busy answering the phone.

As long as you receive a call to your company’s landline, you can’t avoid “going to work to answer the phone” .

Therefore, I would like to recommend the introduction of a telephone support system.

The telephone response system, which controls incoming calls, acts as an agent for answering calls, and forwards calls to a designated number, is an epoch-making service that breaks the stereotype that “fixed-line phones cannot be answered unless you are at the office.”

It also solves the worries of telephone staff, such as “I have to answer calls outside of my charge” and “I have a lot of sales calls and it’s a burden on my work.”

Benefits of introducing the system

Introducing the merits of introducing a telephone response system and automating the primary response to telephone calls.

You can reduce the burden of answering the phone

Unless you are in a department that specializes in receiving calls, such as a call center, few departments have dedicated staff for receiving calls.

In a situation where each person has their own work to do and when they receive a phone call, they have to stop and answer the phone.

It’s all the more so if the person in charge is often absent and you’re responding to it.

If you can use a telephone response system to sort and forward incoming calls according to the department in charge or business, you can narrow down the calls you have to take to the minimum range, such as to yourself or to your department.

Prevent loss of opportunity after hours

It is difficult to judge how far we will respond to calls outside business hours.

Even if you are not obliged to answer the phone after hours, there are many cases where you answer the phone when it rings. Also, I am worried that I might miss the chance to receive an order if the phone is not connected.

In such a case, there is a method to entrust the call answering service to the outside business hours.

Choose a service that suits your purpose, such as an automated voice guide for business hours or a service that leaves a message.

You won’t have to worry about lost opportunities, and you can protect your employees’ work-life balance.

Shut out sales calls and nuisance calls

It is not uncommon for employees to be annoyed by how to respond to sales calls that come in while they are at work.

Sales calls are unexpectedly time consuming if they come in without considering our convenience and we respond politely. Even if you want to finish it early, you can’t cut it unilaterally, and it’s stressful.

The telephone response system is also effective in repelling sales calls and nuisance calls. If you are freed from answering unrelated phone calls, it will lead to an increase in work efficiency .

What is a system that automates phone calls?

In departments such as representative phones and call centers where calls for all kinds of matters are concentrated, it would not be enough if all calls were answered directly by operators.

Therefore, in order to improve response efficiency, systems that automate telephone response have been used for some time.

IVR

IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is an automated voice response system used for answering calls.

When an incoming call comes in, an automatic voice will play, and if you perform a push operation according to the guidance, the call will be transferred to the department in charge.

Using automated voice for primary phone calls has the following advantages:

• Minimize incoming calls to departments in charge
• Filter out unnecessary calls such as sales calls
• Embody customer wishes by answering voice questions with number selection
• Frequently asked questions and standard responses can be completed with voice guidance

CTI

CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) is a technology that integrates and manages computers and telephones.

By connecting business computers and telephones, it is possible to link incoming calls with external systems such as CRM (customer management system) and SFA (sales support tool), and accumulate and analyze data by linking incoming calls with customer information. becomes possible.

There are many cases where it is linked with the aforementioned IVR.

Inbound CTI

The inbound type is a CTI system specialized for receiving power.

In departments such as call centers and customer support that receive a large number of calls, in order to increase the efficiency of responding to calls and increase customer satisfaction, it is possible to sort incoming calls by automatic voice and display the customer information of the caller on the screen. The ability to do so has become essential.

• Pop-up (calls customer information from the caller number and displays it on the computer screen)
• Call recording (recording for improving response quality and avoiding trouble)
• ACD (automatically distribute incoming calls to operators)
• Monitoring (function for administrators to understand and manage call history and operating status of operators)

Outbound CTI

CTI that specializes in outbound business such as telephone sales and tele appointments is called outbound type.

It is used to make calls more efficient and increase the closing rate by automating the call work of the inside sales department and connecting only calls that have been answered to the operator.

• Auto call (automatic call to the number registered in the list, and call the next number if there is no response for a certain period of time)
• Predictive calling (system automatically dials multiple lines and connects only answered calls to an operator)
• Preview call (displays customer information and then calls when an operator clicks)

Attention to services in which AI performs power receiving work

Even in general offices that do not receive as many calls as call centers, the demand for telephone response systems is increasing as a countermeasure against telework.

AI (artificial intelligence), which is being introduced as a means of addressing labor shortages and realizing work style reforms, is attracting attention .

AI is good at judging and classifying new data using learned data and past cases, and its use in telephone response systems is increasing.

What AI can do

There are five major areas where AI excels:

• voice recognition
• image recognition
• natural language processing
• Inference/Prediction
• machine control

In this article, we will explain the essential functions of telephone systems, voice recognition and natural language processing .

voice recognition

A function that recognizes human voices and converts them into text data.

Analyzes the sound waveform and assigns the characters of the set language.

natural language processing

This is a function that processes characters converted into text by speech recognition as language.

In speech recognition, what used to be a list of characters is converted into words → sentences. This technology makes it possible to understand and interact with speech as meaningful words.

What is an AI phone compatible system?

When you receive a call, AI will speak to you as a first responder.

AI recognizes the words of the other party, converts them into text data, performs language processing, responds according to set conditions, and transfers calls.

Currently, the main response is according to the scenario

With current technology, AI has not reached the level where free conversation is possible.

It is possible to perform processing according to the scenario for standard answers such as “yes” and “no” , as well as answers prepared in advance such as “department name”, “person in charge”, and “number” .

For this reason, if the conditions of the prepared scenario are not met, or if the customer’s answer is not recognized, an operator can be contacted, so that even irregular matters can be dealt with without omission.

Difference from IVR

In the IVR, an automated voice is played, and the customer answers with a number from among the prepared options.In some cases, the desired option may not appear until you listen to the long guidance to the end.

Also, if you make a mistake and go to another option, you can’t go back and have to call back.

Since the AI ​​phone-compatible system speaks with the customer and recognizes their utterances, it eliminates the possibility of “there is no applicable option” or “I made a wrong choice” , and the range of answers is expanded.

However, AI may not be able to recognize answers outside the scenario, so it is necessary to devise ways to guide the answer to a scenario that fits the scenario, such as “Please answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No'” or “Please tell me the name of the person in charge.” is.

Shut out after-hours and sales calls with Canario!

NEC Networks & System Integration’s Canario is a service that uses AI to provide primary support for office telephone calls.

If you register the person in charge and contact information, AI recognizes the other party’s speech and automatically transfers the call to the person in charge.

Shut out unnecessary calls and only talk to the people you really need.

If you can’t respond, AI will keep the message, convert it to text data and send it to the person in charge.

Even outside business hours, AI is taking care of the phone number, so it is safe.

Article Summary

• There is an urgent need to introduce a telephone response system as a countermeasure against telework
• The telephone response system reduces the burden on staff and covers after-hours support
• Introduction of the system is also effective against sales calls
• AI phone support system is recommended for office phone support

NEC Networks & System Integration’s Canario is recommended if you want to get rid of unnecessary phone calls and focus on the calls you really need.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information about our services or materials.