Having call management on your business line makes sure you offer the greatest service to potential customers.

Having just bought a memorable phone number that allows people to find my business. What I hadn’t realised or at that time know was all of the call management systems that you could choose from a provider. I thought it would be worth providing some clarity on the massive minefield that is Call management.

So to start with what is call management?
Systems that you set in place to deal with calls that arrive into your organisation and works with them in a way set out by you is what call management means. The variety of ways your phone calls can be dealt with are huge but here is a variety of market standard systems.

Web management – what this lets you do is log into a computer anywhere on the planet and read, change, listen to and redirect the phone calls that are coming into your organisation. Brilliant if you move around a lot and need to be kept up to date with the most recent happenings in your organisation.

A Time/Date plan – allows you to arrange how your system handles calls at certain times of the day. For example directing calls to the workplace from 9am to 5 pm, your mobile phone from 5pm to 7pm and then voicemail from 7pm till 9am the following morning. You can arrange this for whatever time you need and can be a customer saver if used correctly.

Call divert – The majority of memorable numbers 0800, 03, 0845 etc will let you direct incoming phone calls to that number or any other number which makes sure you never have to miss a phone call whatever the circumstances. Can be very useful particularly as part of a business continuity plan all of your equipment may have gone into temporary storage but you can still receive your calls and direct it to new site accommodation until you have the disaster sorted out.

Voicemail to email – makes sure that if it is of real necessity you get calls that arrive into the organisation that you can go into any internet café any where in the world and listen to your phone calls. Don’t forget though that if you are abroad and have just looked at your mail that ringing a client up direct may cost you quite a bit.

Welcome message – A welcome greeting is just what it says on the jar letting the person ringing know they have got in touch with the right number and getting across your professionalism. First impressions are important in business.

Call Queue – “I’m sorry the member of the team you have called Is busy you are number 20 in the queue”, not the message you want to hear but allows you to make a decision that the person you are ringing is unable to speak to you straight away and that you can either hold the line or leave a voicemail. This kind of management can help filter important and less important calls and also gives you access to a captive audience when it comes to marketing.

Caller options – The sort of phone system that is automated but puts the caller in the driving seat, “press 1 for accounts, 2 for juggling department” etc. Each option can be broken down into other options allowing the customer to get through to exactly who they need.

Hunt group – A hunt group is really useful as it lets you direct calls to different people that could deal with the types of questions that would be arriving in on that line. Very useful if you have a big team and need specific individuals to answer calls, will route to number 1, then number 2, then mobile 3, then voicemail. Helps ensure that clients don’t get pushed to the wrong individuals and get passed around from pillar to post.

Geographic call routing – This is a useful little system for individuals that work within a network of offices or franchises across the country as It will redirect to the office nearest to the client that is dialing.

As with any systems make sure you have a clear idea what you need to get out of your call management, in that way you don’t spend more than you need to. Most organisations are pleased to talk through your needs and provide what you want if possible. Sit down and put down what your organisation will need before you spend out, call management is brilliant if used correctly get as much advise as you can, hopefully this has been of benefit.

Call Management lets you look after your clients phone calls.