Optimising your customers experience with time of day routing

The telecommunication industry is developing at an ever increasing pace and as a result consumers now have access to advanced telephone systems with innovative features and a wider breadth of choice.

Consumers have the opportunity to use non-geographic numbers available on a national basis whatever your location. A multiple choice of numbers are available to businesses and organisations around the UK with inbuilt call management options like voice2mail, inbound call tracking, reports, statistics and of course time of day routing.

So how can time of day routing help your business?

Many of UK business and organisations span across multiple sites in different regions and locations. With time of day routing you can forward calls to another location or office outside of your normal business hours. For example, if your standard business hours are 9am-5pm, you can programme the system so that incoming calls are routed seamlessly to another location at the time you specify. There is a large choice of numbers available such as 0800, 0808, 0844, 0845 and 0870 numbers and they can all facilitate time of day routing.

The flexibility of time of day routing is attractive to organisations with multiple sites, such as retailers with regional distribution centres. However this system is also suitable for small business users who need the flexibility to remain mobile, visit off-site locations, such as stakeholder offices, but still remain 100% in contact and available for customer enquiries. Calls can be diverted to mobile and landline numbers so you can take a vacation and not have to worry about missing out on customer enquiries. This powerful facility will ensure you do not miss the vital customer contact which is a key element to the continuity and success of your business.

There are a variety of service providers, such as Number Supermarket, who can offer non-geographic phone numbers which will incorporate these enhanced features and benefits such as time of day routing on any 0808 number purchased through the site. By being consistently available to your customers companies will benefit from improvements in customer service delivery and customer relations management (CRM). This will naturally help foster a better and more effective relationship with your customer base. It is simple to execute time of day routing, once you know the times and locations you wish to re-route, you can plan the system accordingly. Not only are you enhancing customer relations, the business is able to flex and support enhanced marketing efforts, increased sales leads, and promote your businesses competitive offering.

Some businesses have taken a team approach to manage inbound calls by assembling a team of agents who can filter and direct calls so that the customer is channelled to the right department or person. Equally should you wish to flex your team response and availability to cover holiday periods or sickness, again, time of day routing gives you the power to act accordingly. Further there are times when call volumes are at their highest whereupon the business can flex resource, with time of day routing, to ensure that all incoming calls are dealt with at the same level of competence and attention. This will help maintain call response statistics and eliminate the chances of missing calls. When a customer feels confident and comfortable that they will receive a high standard of attention they are more likely to recommend your company to colleagues and peers, thus enhancing the business brand image and status in the marketplace. Time of day routing will give you the confidence in your business that your customers are being well served and that you are maximising call leads and opportunities.