Cloud Telephony Meaning
Conventional Business telephone system uses PBX for Call distribution in our office. Primarily in Cloud telephony solution PBX system is hosted in some data center. It also means that PBX is no longer in office (in premise) but it uses cloud computing for managing business calls.
Cloud Telephony can be used for incoming as well as outgoing calls. But in India, it is used primarily for Incoming calls.
All the calls are routed through Cloud Servers. Premium features like IVR, Call recording are easily available to everybody without investment in costly equipment.
The biggest advantages of Cloud Telephony services are Call Recording, IVR, Consolidated reporting, Number masking etc.
How Cloud Telephony System Works?
The customer is not calling your office lines or your mobiles directly. But they call one published number, which is actually a Cloud Telephony number. Basically, the entire business phone system gets migrated to Cloud communications.
Cloud Telephony is one of the best customer experience tools used in today’s world. Small offices, multiple branches, contact centers, and call center all use Cloud Telephony.
Components of Cloud Telephony & Flow of Calls
- Published phone number (Incoming)
- This can be a Mobile number or a Toll-Free number. This is the number where your customers call.
- Actually, both these numbers are virtual numbers. This number is used to just forward the incoming calls to one of the PRI lines in the data center (cloud).
- The third option can be a PRI number from the Cloud setup. However, this is very seldom used.
- Cloud Telephony Servers with lots of PRI lines (process)
- These cloud-based servers are capable of Call recording, IVR, reporting, API and lots of other functionalities.
- This is typically hosted in some reliable Data-Centers. These data centers have good infrastructure and redundant connectivity.
- The calls to the published number actually get forwarded to these PRI lines.
- The Call distribution is done either based on some rules predefined or on the basis of Caller Input for the IVR.
- There can be one more way of call distribution which based on real-time CRM lookup.
- Eg: You have two separate teams for regular customers and platinum customers.
- When the calls come, Telephony server checks with your CRM whether the caller is a regular customer or Platinum customer.
- Calls are routed to the respective team accordingly.
- Extensions or landing numbers or Agent Numbers (landing the calls)
- These are the numbers where the call actually lands. These are also called Agent Numbers.
- These numbers can be mobile numbers of your Team Members or your office land-line numbers.
- Cloud Telephony providers like Enjay also provide Hunting number facility. If one Agent is not available, the system will dial another number.
The flow of Incoming Calls.
- Your customers calls on the Published Number.
- The call is forwarded to the PRI lines on Cloud Telephony Server.
- Servers will play the IVR if it is configured that way.
- Then the Server calls Agents (or extensions), according to Call Distribution logic. Eg:
- According to selection in the IVR by the caller
- According to pre-set Call Distribution logic done on the cloud server.
- Connects the Caller and the Agent.
- While doing all these things:
- Call gets recorded
- Telephony API communicates with your CRM (if required).
- After the call, you get SMS notification.
Flow of Outgoing Calls.
Outgoing is less frequently used in Cloud Telephony. One of the reason is that it requires two calls. This makes it costly for outgoing calls. Secondly, it is little slower a process.
Further, Outgoing calls are generally done from a software like CRM (or a dialer).
- Agent Clicks on the dial icon on the CRM software.
- CRM software sends API signal to Cloud Telephony Servers.
- The Server calls Agent first.
- When Agent picks up the call, the server dials the Customer.
- Both are bridged.
Benefits of Cloud Telephony
- Call Distribution
- The incoming calls can be distributed based on skills, or round robin or based on free/busy.
- Multilevel IVR
- Create a grand impression of your company by greeting your incoming callers with a meaningful IVR. This also helps in better call distribution based on the option selected by the caller.
- Call Recording
- All the calls are recorded by default. Call recording has many advantages like Quality control, Training purpose, Proof of commitment, dispute resolution.
- Number Masking.
- The number of the caller is not displayed to the Agent. The agent sees the number of Cloud Telephony provider.
- This makes sure that you always own the customer, no matter who is providing the service.
- No hardware required.
- Absolutely ZERO installation at your place. Just subscribe to the service and start enjoying the benefits.
- Detailed reporting for all the calls.
- Agents call reports. Calls held versus not held. Duration of calls. Agents with maximum calls and maximum call time. There is no limit to the kind of reporting that you can schedule as an email to yourself.
- Time-based call routing.
- Office hours and after office hours can have different treatment for the calls. Eg: in office hours you route the calls to agents and after office hours you may just play an IVR and call that caller next day.
- Alternatively, different Agents can be defined for different time periods.
- Easy to setup
- Instant setup and hassle-free configuration. Since Enjay offers everything unlimited, you don’t need to worry about the bills.
- Scalable
- You add more agents or add more branches. No problem, Cloud telephony can handle changes in scale with a breeze
- Reliable
- Cloud Telephony is based on cloud services. As such chances of failure are far less as compared to in-house EPABX.
I found one successful example of this truth through this blog. I am going to use such information now. Cloud phone Systems
I got some valuable points through this blog. Fortinet Partner Brisbane