What connection does a startup need?

When you start your business, you have to do at the same time thousands of things: development, marketing, sales, service ...

The question arises - how to carry out work on each of these areas as efficiently as possible, what technologies from those that are already used in the market, apply. Are the latest developments available to you and how much effort will their implementation take?

I propose to evaluate the 13 most necessary functions of modern PBXs, and the advantages that IP telephony gives to a start-up company.
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We, at Sipuni.com , daily communicate with new companies that “in 7-10 days” expect to receive a certificate of registration - OGRN and TIN. Future directors or IT specialists ask a lot about telephony capabilities. The functions below reflect the real needs of young companies. These functions are now the easiest to implement in IP PBX using IP communication.

1. Voice menu (IVR or auto attendant).

The most popular option in modern PBX. Competently composed voice menu increases customer loyalty and speeds up his access to receiving the necessary company services or necessary employees. Used to distribute incoming call flow at no additional cost to the company.

The client will independently determine what information he wants to receive and with which department to contact. While the standard file with the list of items is being played, the subscriber can enter the internal number of the employee or make a quick selection of one of the menu items without listening to the end. The voice menu reduces the burden on the secretary - if there is one. And allows you to do without it. It is a reflection of the basic services of the company and is designed to answer customer questions "independently."

A modern voice menu can contain any subitems from 1 to infinity and have many levels. Multi-level voice menus in particular are used for automatic polling services and autoinformers. They can be used to tell more about their services to those who call better and will be told what they will read.

The voice menu can be short and facilitate the path to the employee, often immediately offering quick choices, such as Beeline :

Welcome to Beeline!
If you are already a customer, click 1.
To find out about our offers, click 2.
What to do in case of loss or theft of the phone, press 3.
To connect with a specialist, press 0.
To start this message, press 9.

or it can be long and specially delaying in order to have a greater effect on the client. An interesting example is the studio of Artemy Lebedev:

Hello! You called the best studio in the world, Lebedev Studio!
Extension numbers are dialed in tone mode.
Shop 2.
Ordering websites, corporate identity and industrial design, 3.
At the secretary, 0.
At the fax, 9.
All employees have personal extension numbers that they will say in a personal conversation.
It is worth noting that Lebedev's studio is not just the best studio. She is immaculate, flawless, matchless, priceless, brilliant, brilliant, gorgeous, outstanding, high-standard, worthy, precious, unique, enviable, wonderful, noble, golden, perfect, chosen, amazing, high-quality, classy, ​​crown, luxury, world-class, powerful, uncommon, indelible, extraordinary, unique, inimitable, unsurpassed, incomparable, incomparable, stunned, exemplary, selective, excellent, stunning, stunning, oh # @ nnya, first-class, first-rate I am first-class, first-class, positive, exponential, full-fledged, positive, commendable, excellent, beautiful, stunning, perfect, standing, amazing, breathtaking, good, valuable, wonderful, bright studio Lebedev.
All the best!

2. Call processing scripts (incoming and outgoing scripts)

The script describes the sequence of actions (route) to process the call and consists of functions performed sequentially or in parallel. The scenario can be minimal (with one action - for example, redirection to a number), or of unlimited length, with hundreds of functions. The script is activated when it is called, at a third-party event or by time.
Incoming scripts describe incoming call routes when a call comes from an external number. Outgoing scenarios describe outgoing call routes for calls beginning with extension numbers.

It is important that you have a script customization mechanism and each time you can make the call processing appropriate to the requirements of your company.

Need to immediately contact the customer? Remove the greeting and voice menu and send a call to all employees.

If you need to delay the client while your employees are talking on the phone, we set the queue in the script and notify the client about the waiting time.

3. Queue and response time determination by the operator

A typical situation: a customer dials a company number, but it is at this time that all your employees are busy. It is now accepted to notify the client about how much he will have to wait for an answer and there are all available tools for this.
Today, two orientation systems are practiced on the market: by the number of calls to the caller, and by the approximate waiting time.
The first mode is accurate, but does not provide real information for the client.
The second is inaccurate, but satisfies the client’s need for determining the waiting time. Usually the maximum approximation to accuracy is achieved in several ways:
• determination of the average duration of negotiations for a specified period of time (usually in the last 24 hours),
• periodic clarification of the remaining waiting time for the client (the operator will respond within 5 minutes ... the operator will respond within 2 minutes ...).

As a rule, if the predicted waiting time is higher than what is comfortable for the customer, he can simply call back later. Or you can ask him to leave his phone number, but this is another function.

4. Record conversations

The function records conversations and saves for further listening and downloading.
Record can be made both on internal local, and on the external virtual carrier. Recorded messages can be accessed via the PBX web interface, ftp server, can be sent by e-mail.

The recording function is very useful for monitoring the quality of work of employees, for investigating incidents, for clarifying information, if something is not remembered.

For example, during a call, an employee recorded a phone number with an error. In order to check the number, it is enough for him to enter his personal account, find the necessary conversation and listen to it.

5. Music instead of beeps

Instead of the classic beep, the caller loses any melody. In this case, "the tube is not removed," and therefore the money is not written off. For corporate clients, it is used to form a specific caller.

For example, in Qiwi, when calling the number 8-800, “music instead of beeps” all Moscow subscribers sends to re-dial the city number.

An example of creating the appropriate mood - when calling a child taxi service, it is logical to put a child song instead of beeps.

6. Voice dialing

The function recognizes the voice message from the caller and returns the value as text to the PBX for further processing. Used to enhance interactivity and service convenience provided by the company. Increases the speed of selecting the desired option from a large number of alternatives (for example, when choosing the right pharmacy point for the named metro station).
This is still controversial, but nonetheless a modern function that will show the manufacturability of your company. But it can also be used for outgoing calls with regular counterparties: pick up the phone and say the name of the supplier - the system connects.
A good example is using Raiffeisenbank:

Hello, you are welcomed by Raiffeisenbank . To switch to tone mode, press the * key.

For your convenience, the system suggests using voice commands . Please avoid extraneous sounds.

To block a card or access to the Raiffeisen-Connect system, press 1 or say “blocking”.
If you want a cash loan or credit card, press 0.
To get information on your card or other products of yours, assign a pin code or reset your password in Raffazen-Connect, press 2 or say "my products".
To get information about the nearest branches, ATMs, exchange rates, methods of depositing and terms of transfer, press 3 or say “information”.
For advice on products and services offered by the bank, press 4 or say “consultation”.

To listen to the available options again, press 5 or stay on the line to connect with a specialist.

7. Multichannel

Multi-channel allows you to take on one number more than one call, which provides free dialing to the company. After receipt, the call can be directed to the operator or queued to wait for a response.

If the call is received on a device that supports multi-channel mode (for example, an IP phone), the employee can put the first call on hold, and take the second, maybe even the third one.

8. ICM - Intellectual contact manager

The Intelligent Contact Management function remembers who was talking to whom. With the next incoming client call, she connects him with the employee with whom the client has already spoken, which saves both the time of the client and the company. The settings of the function allow you to limit the time for which the call history is analyzed, or to enter into its memory the correspondence of the client number and the employee's internal number.

When a company is small and CRM is not used yet, this feature saves the client time when re-contacting. Often, the client is not expecting, mechanically, asks to “switch” him to an employee with whom he already speaks.

9. Assessment of the quality of work

The option starts a voice message - a request after a conversation with the operator to stay on the line and by pressing the corresponding button on the phone to assess the degree of satisfaction with the solution to the client’s problem. After the choice made by the client, a voice message is played, in which the company thanks for the help in improving the quality of service.

The function can be used by a young company to monitor the quality of work of employees, and together with the ability to listen to records of negotiations, it allows to establish the true reasons for customer dissatisfaction (is it really the operator’s fault or instruction for the operator needs to be improved or the operator is not provided with competent access to the client base, etc. etc.) and, accordingly, optimize business processes.
In addition, using this option increases customer loyalty and reduces tensions in a conflict situation: the client understands that his opinion is important for the company, and he can really influence something, and a negatively tuned client will press the button with the minimum value and thus spill out part of your annoyance.

10. Statistics

Call statistics stores and provides a history of all calls made: incoming, outgoing, internal.
In addition to controlling the volume and cost of communication, statistics allows you to monitor the activity of employees, keep records of missed calls, assess the load and respond in time to a decrease or increase in activity.

Filters allow you to sort data by time, directions, internal subscribers, etc ... For example, you can display all missed calls from yesterday or sort all calls from St. Petersburg, you can estimate the load of a specific employee.

Statistics should be monitored by the supervisor and then optimized call processing scenarios.

11. Select the outgoing line when calling

The main percentage of the cost of corporate telephony is the cost of outgoing communication. It is likely that your business will also call a lot. Therefore, the ability to configure not only incoming, but also outgoing calls is very important.

The logic is simple: if a significant portion of calls are made to several regions (for example, to St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar), you can use IP telephony when making these calls and connect an outgoing operator who has the lowest cost of calls in this direction. Often this is the local telecom operator of that region.

Your employees can use this feature in two ways:
• transparent - switching the outgoing line is configured automatically: when an employee dials the subscriber's number (for example, 812), the system itself selects a specific operator by city code (St. Petersburg)
• manually - to switch to the zone of a specific operator, a short prefix code is dialed in front of the subscriber number (accordingly, all employees are notified which codes should be used for calls to certain regions).

All conditions are configured in outgoing communication schemes.

12. Integration with CRM

This item should be started when the number of customers begins to increase significantly. Integration allows you to organize the joint work of PBX and CRM: events, calls, contacts, history.

For example, when an incoming call is received on an employee’s phone at the same time on his work computer, the CRM pops up a window with customer information, a history of relationships with him and other information. At the same time, the phone displays the client's name obtained from CRM. And by the client number in the system card, you can click, and the call will be initiated without dialing on the employee’s phone.

There are many CRMs offering integration, you need to evaluate exactly how your business needs it.

13. Receive fax by email

This is certainly a tribute to the older generation and the usual regime. But nowhere to go - the fax must be received and sent. But the fax is received immediately by e-mail, there is no need to purchase a fax machine and connect it.

For example, a fax is received at number +7 (499) 647-47-47 and a fax is sent to fax@sipuni.com. Sending a fax comes from a personal account by loading a document (any format), entering a number and pressing the “send” button. The whole story is stored in your personal PBX account.