How Call Routing and Auto Attendants Improve Customer Experience
Anyone dealing with the customer service line has experienced it: you need a response to a simple question, but the call reaches the wrong person, and you spend several minutes being transferred and waiting on hold before speaking to someone who can help. This kind of interaction not only wastes both customers’ and team members’ time, but also creates a poor first impression and can lead to missed opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and lost revenue for the business. It’s critical to ensure that callers reach the right person quickly to avoid this.
Call routing and auto attendants solve this problem by automatically directing inbound calls to the right destination. It helps businesses reduce missed calls, improve response times, and provide more efficient communication. It creates a professional image from the moment the customer calls.
What is call routing and how does it work?
Call routing is a set of features that automatically directs incoming phone calls based on a set of rules you define, which improves the customer service experience. Instead of every call ringing a single phone or relying on someone who manually transfers the calls, the phone system itself sends each call to the most appropriate person or team. Call routing works really well for a small business with few support agents as it decreases average call time for the customer and helps to avoid the situation when every team member is busy when a new call comes in.
Call routing can be configured based on:
- The time of day/day of the week
- The caller's menu selection
- Staff availability
- Caller ID
Some of the most common call routing methods include:
Time conditions
Calls are directed differently depending on the hours you set. For example, calls received during the business hours go directly to the support team, while after-hours calls are sent to voicemail or an emergency contact. Time-based call routing can help a lot with processing the calls in accordance with your business needs.
IVR or menu-based routing
An Interactive Voice Response (IVR), also known as an Auto Attendant, allows callers to choose from different menu options. Customers need to press a certain button to select the relevant team. It can be 1 for Sales, 2 for Support, 3 for Accounts, etc. The system automatically routes the call based on the caller's selection.
Skills-based routing
Skills-based routing sends calls to the staff member or department best qualified to help in this situation. For example, technical enquiries can go directly to the tech support staff while billing questions are routed to accounts.
This is particularly valuable for businesses with multiple departments or a wide range of inquiries customers typically call with.
Ring groups
Ring groups allow multiple phones to ring at the same time or in a specific order. The first available team member answers the call, helping reduce missed calls and improving response times.
Caller ID Based Routing
Calls can be routed based on the caller's number prefix: callers from 02 numbers can be directed to a Brisbane office, while callers from 03 numbers can be sent to the Melbourne team.
This may help with connecting the customer with staff familiar with their local region.
What is an Auto Attendant (IVR)?
An auto attendant is the recorded greeting and menu system that answers incoming calls instead of a receptionist. The system greets callers and guides them to the correct destination automatically until they can speak with the relevant team member.
If you use VoiPline as your VoIP provider, creating an auto attendant is simple. The customer portal has an intuitive drag-and-drop voice menu builder, allowing you to create and update VoIP auto attendant setup without technical expertise. You can add different menu options to your IVR, which can be linked to ring groups, particular agents or voicemail. You can also modify your call routing configuration whenever your business needs change.
How call routing and auto attendants (IVR) improve customer experience
An effective phone system does much more than answering calls. It helps customers get assistance quickly while making your business appear more organised and professional. It also reduces the number of missed calls, connects customers to the right person faster and provides a more efficient customer experience.
Fewer missed calls
Small businesses without a large team may have many missed calls, as some staff members are already on another call or unavailable for other reasons. Ring groups solve this by allowing multiple phones to ring simultaneously. If one person can’t answer the call, another team member can take it immediately.
If call volumes are high, call queues ensure that callers remain in line rather than hearing a busy signal. Customers know their call is soon to be answered while the team works through the calls in order.
Callers reach the right person first time
Manual transfers cause delays for both customers and staff and increase the likelihood of transferring a call to the wrong or unavailable person. Menu-based routing allows callers to select the department they need immediately without an unnecessary transfer. This feature improves both customer experience by connecting callers directly with staff members who can resolve their inquiry, and company productivity as other staff members aren’t interrupted with calls for a different department.
Skills-based routing especially benefits larger teams as they typically have targeted training programs that allow agents to specialise and become highly proficient in specific areas instead of covering the majority of the possible inquiries.
Professional image for small businesses
A well-designed IVR can make a small business with a couple of agents sound like a much larger organisation: professional greeting, clearly organised menu options and efficient call handling create a highly professional image. Apart from that, custom greetings also provide important information such as business hours, special announcements, and other details, making it more convenient to notify clients right when they call instead of having to answer multiple calls with the same simple questions.
After-hours and overflow routing
Customers don't always call during your business hours. Time-based routing automatically adjusts how calls are handled based on the day and time. For example, during office hours calls can go to staff members, but after hours they can be directed to voicemail, a recorded information announcement or an emergency or mobile number.
Routing rules also allow the call flow to change for weekends, public holidays or business closures, so the customers always receive an appropriate response and relevant information.
Setting up call routing in VoiPline
Configuring call routing in VoiPline is straightforward by design, and it doesn't require any specific technical knowledge.
The configuration process includes the following steps:
- Log in to the VoiPline customer portal.
- Open the PBX tab.
- Use the drag-and-drop call flow objects (like voice menu, ring group, time condition, voicemail, etc) to create your routing logic: drag required objects to the main screen and link them together according to the desired call flow order.
- Apply configuration to save the changes.
As your business grows and your call structure needs to be adjusted, you can easily change your call routing in the PBX without setting it up from scratch.
In addition, VoiPline Queue Wallboard provides managers with real-time visibility into live call queues, allowing them to monitor waiting callers, agent availability and queue performance.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between an auto attendant (IVR) and a call queue?
An auto attendant answers incoming calls with a greeting and menu options, allowing calls to be routed to the appropriate destination. A call queue places them in line until the next available staff member from the relevant team can answer.
Can I set up different routing for weekends?
Yes. You can configure time-based routing to create different call flows for weekdays, weekends, public holidays or even specific dates and times
How many menu options should my auto attendant have?
The menu setup depends on your business needs, but generally it’s more efficient to keep menus simple, as too many choices can frustrate callers and increase the call abandonment rate. It’s also less likely for a customer to select the wrong option if the list of options is short and clear. If more specific answers are needed from the caller, you can set up an additional auto attendant object to flow into with a new set of options to choose from.
Does call routing work on mobile?
Yes. Calls can be routed to a VoIP desk phone or a softphone app, which can be installed on your PC or smartphone. Calls can also be routed to an external number, including Mobile.
How does VoiPline's auto attendant differ from a basic answering service?
A basic answering service typically just answers calls or records messages. VoiPline's auto attendant routes calls using custom-made call flows: calls can go to different ring groups, queues, voicemail, time-based routing, etc. It’s also easily adjustable through a drag-and-drop interface. This provides a far more flexible and professional solution that is easy to scale as your business grows or changes.