Skills-based routing in Hosted ACD systems

Today’s sophisticated ACD systems have a skill based routing system via which inbound calls are routed based on the type of service requested, ensuring that calls go to proper agents with the skills to provide the highest quality of service to the caller.

With an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) System, a call center or a small business can distribute incoming calls according to skill groups they define. Moreover, the incoming call routing schedule can be set according to the caller id. Depending on previously available information of the caller, call routing decisions based on that information can be made. An intelligent ACD system routes the caller to the right call representative and gives him the right information within no time. Skills-based routing is the method of routing the calls to the representatives that possess the most sufficient set of skills required for the service. Using skill-based routing, calls are delivered to a particular operator, or group of operators, based on the callers demand and urgency. The ACD includes a system monitor that lets supervisors to pass-on a call to another operator.

Hosted PBX systems in spite of their lower cost do feature ACD systems boasting skill based routing. This kind of low-cost system is a good alternative for the call centers that really want to take the advantages of Skills-Based Routing, but at the minimum cost. Hosted ACD systems ensure better use of call center resources. Administrators can rank employees in ACD queues according to their work skill, or by the priority the call agents should possess in answering calls. You either can assign the rank of the most skilled agents to the highest level, or minimize the ranking for those with minor skills. When a call arrives, the hosted ACD system knows which agents are already engaged in a call, and the incoming call is routed automatically to the top ranked available agent. This ensures that the most skilled agents take the most important calls.

Hosted ACDs maintain a multi-tier support system. Call agent available in the first station will direct queries from the callers to appropriate department and provide general information. If a caller needs more support the call is forwarded to the available second station to determine the caller’s issues. The caller is then forwarded to the next available station comprised with skilled professionals and technical support employees, if he/she requires more support. ACD Group efficiently hand-over these type of call distribution among the call representatives.

The introduction of skills-based routing in ACD systems has given call center supervisors powerful capabilities to route inbound calls to the available call representative with the most adequate skills, in order to handle each calls efficiently

This article has been published by AccessDirect, providers of Hosted PBX phone System featuring ACD system, Auto Attendant, Voice Mail, email fax service, follow me call forwarding, answering service, virtual receptionist, and business voicemail. We also provide virtual phone numbers, local numbers, toll free 800 numbers, New York 212 numbers, and Virtual Los Angeles numbers. Visit us at www.messagingservice.com.