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Call routing is an indispensable part of improving call center operations and customer experience. It expedites phone-based customer support by connecting callers to agents with proper product knowledge and customer service skills.

In this article, we define call routing, explain how it benefits call centers, explore popular routing strategies, and highlight best practices for successful call routing.

 

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What Is Call Routing?

Call routing is business phone system feature that automatically directs inbound callers to the best agent or call queue according to predefined custom rules, current call center conditions, and the caller’s IVR input. Automated call routing eliminates manual call transfers and holds, reduces agent idle time, and increases first call resolution rates.

The primary goal of call routing is to instantly connect callers to the best available agent–one with the skills and training required to assist the customer with their specific issue.To make this happen, admins can employ a variety of call routing strategies, like creating ring groups of multiple agents from the same department or setting business hour routing rules.

If no agents are available at the time of the customer’s call, callers are routed to call queues or voicemail boxes. Customers may also be prompted to schedule an automated callback, a popular alternative to waiting on hold.

Call routing rules and strategies are influenced by factors like:

  • Current or predicted call volumes
  • Customer sentiment and intent
  • Agent availability, schedules, and business hours
  • An agent’s skillset, job title/department, and language(s) spoken
  • Existing customer relationships, account value, and call priority
  • AI-powered algorithms

 

Call routing often eliminates the need to transfer callers or place them on hold, instantly connecting the customer to the best available agent instead.

However, the ultimate goal of call routing is to determine which representative is most likely–based on their availability, job title, and skillset–to provide the highest quality of customer support and, ideally, completely resolve the customer’s issue on the first call.

 

How Does Call Routing Work?

Call routing works by determining caller intent, sending callers to the correct queues based on caller input, pre-established rules, and routing strategies, then directing those callers to the best available agent.

The call routing process consists of three main steps:

  1. Qualification
  2. Queuing
  3. Distribution

what-is-acd

 

Step One: Call Qualification

The first step in routing business calls is to collect and analyze customer data to determine the caller’s intent.

In some cases, the caller’s intent is determined by the specific business phone number or extension dialed.

But most of the time, the reason for the customer’s call–as well as additional key customer data–is determined based on the customer’s input into the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

The IVR system (sometimes called an auto attendant) automatically plays a series of pre-recorded prompts, greetings, and call menu options, which customers respond to via speech or dial pad input. Common examples of IVR prompts include “To report your card as lost or stolen, please press 2,” or “To speak to the billing department, say ‘billing.’”

 

Step Two: Call Queuing 

The next phase in the call routing process is the call queuing stage.

Here, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) analyzes customer IVR input, contact information, and other key data, routing calls to the ideal queue based on pre-established rules and caller needs/intent.

IVR input can be analyzed via Speech Recognition, Natural Language Processing, or Conversational AI.

The Automatic Call Distributor routes calls to specific queues based on pre-set call rules, selected routing options, and criteria like call flow paths, agent availability, current call volumes, and more.

 

Step Three: Call Distribution

The Call Distribution phase, the last step of call routing service, directs calls from call queues to individual agents.

As with the Call Queuing phase, call handling and distribution is determined by pre-established calling rules, agent availability and skill sets, and customer data stored in your CRM solution.

This ensures that the caller will be connected to the ideal agent for their unique issue.

 

Different Types of Call Routing

Implementing a variety of call routing strategies decreases hold times, increases first call resolution rates, and evenly distributes the workload among available agents. Most importantly, effective call routing ensures customers get accurate, current, and personalized support from the representative they speak to.

While popular call management features like simultaneous ringing, ring groups, and call forwarding increase the likelihood of connecting callers with a live agent, the below call routing strategies optimize the entire call queuing and distribution processes, leading to happier agents and customers.

  • Skills-Based RoutingSkills-based routing uses information the customer provides the IVR system to connect them to agents with the relevant skill set, training, or qualifications to provide the best assistance. For example, if a customer has a question about an unfamiliar account charge, skills-based routing ensures their call is routed to an agent in the billing department, not an HR representative without access to customer accounts.
  • Least Occupied Routing: Least occupied routing, sometimes called most idle routing, connects an inbound call to the agent that has taken the fewest number of calls–or has the lowest talk time–that day. This is especially helpful for customer service and support departments, as it prevents individual team members from getting overburdened with calls.
  • Round Robin Routing: Round robin routing evenly distributes inbound calls among agents. If agents A, B, and C are all on deck to answer calls, the first call goes to agent A. Once agent A has taken a call, the next call will go to agent B, and then agent C. This prevents agent A from being “first in line” to receive every call.
  • Predictive Behavioral RoutingPredictive behavioral routing (also called intelligent call routing) uses live and historical call center data to connect the caller to not just the best available agent, but the best available agent that the caller is the most likely to prefer according to customer and agent behavioral analysis. This routing strategy uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a routing algorithm based on factors like the caller’s account history, personality and communication preferences, prior support interactions, and more.
  • Time-Based Routing: Time-based routing (also called schedule-based or time of day routing) routes calls based on the agent’s time-zone or business hours. It’s especially popular with global and geographically diverse call centers, as it prevents agents from receiving customer calls at 2:00 AM their time or outside their scheduled work hours.
  • Sequential Routing: Also called fixed order routing, sequential routing directs calls according to a list-based order that begins with the same agent, regardless of other agent activity or skill sets. For example, if agents A, B, and C are all taking calls, agent A will accept the first call, but will also be the first responder for second, third, fourth, etc. calls. Agents B and C will only take calls if agent A is busy or if agent A transfers a call to them.
  • VIP Routing: VIP routing (also called relationship-based routing) lets businesses prioritize important, high-value clients by automatically pushing them to the front of the call queue.
  • Language-Based Routing: Language-based routing directs callers to agents that are fluent in their preferred language, an ideal option for international businesses.

Call Routing

 

Advanced Call Routing Features

In addition to the different call routing strategies mentioned above, today’s call center solutions include advanced call management features that improve the routing process and increase first call resolution rates.

These features include:

  • Ring Groups: Admins can create custom ring groups of several agents with similar skills, schedules, performance scores, language abilities, or other criteria. This increases the likelihood that the caller will connect to a live agent and reduces the number of follow-up calls. Call blasting (simultaenous ring) calls all ring group members at the same time
  • Omnichannel Routing: Omnichannel routing, a standard contact center feature, routes customer service requests to available agents acros voice and digital channels. Adding additional communication channels, like website chat messaging or SMS texting, reduces customer wait times and shortens average handle times.
  • Intelligent Call Routing: A more advanced version of skills-based routing, intelligent call routing leverages AI to route callers to the ideal agent based on customer sentiment, conversation history, CSAT scores, and other custom KPIs
  • Remote Call Forwarding: If no agents are available at the time of a customer’s call, remote call forwarding automatically forwards the inbound call to additional phone numbers for the ideal agent. These numbers can include in-office alternative numbers, as well as remote options like agent cell phone and home phone numbers
  • Scheduling and Forecasting: Forecasting tools use algorithms and historical call center data to create and automatically assign suggested agent schedules, optimizing available team members to shorten hold times. Real-time adherence monitoring, agent-facing shift budding tools, automated PTO approvals, and live schedule adjustments further improve the process

 

The Benefits of Call Routing

Properly-executed call routing streamlines and simplifies business processes and workflows for callers, managers, and call center agents.

Some call routing benefits are obvious, like higher customer satisfaction levels, reduced customer wait times, and increased productivity thanks to agentless automation.

Additional call routing benefits for large and small businesses include:

 

A Better Customer Experience

48% of consumers cite long hold times as the most frustrating part of the customer support experience, with 25% cite frequent call transfers as a major annoyance.[*]

Call routing dramatically reduces call hold times by instantly connecting callers to an avilable agent or letting them schedule a callback. Because call routing connects customers to qualified agents the first time, call transfers and escalations aren’t necessary.

Call routing also prevents customers from having to repeat themselves to multiple agents–something 33% of consumers say degrades the overall customer experience.[*] Call routing enables 24/7 customer self-service via  IVR and IVA, sharing customer IVR input with agents before connecting the caller.

More Balanced Agent Workloads

The average call center has an annual agent turnover rate of 30-45%--one of the highest in any industry.[*] High agent attrition increases call center operating expenses and costs hundreds of hours in employee training.

Call routing takes a variety of factors into account when directing calls: agent schedules and statuses, average idle time and talk time, and more. This helps to prevent agent bunrout, increasing agent retenion rates and boosting employee engagement.

Plus, less exhausted agents provide higher quality customer service and support.

Specific routing strategies, like round robin routing, diffuses tension between agents by evenly distributing calls between sales team reps. This way, everyone has an equal chance of closing a deal or scoring a new lead.

 

Lower Operating Costs

Call routing doesn’t just help call centers lower the cost of high agent attrition. It also shortens call times and average handle times, reducing the cost per call. Plus, because call routing optimizes available agents, business owners can avoid hiring additional agents to manage peak call times.

Call routing’s biggest impact on operating costs comes in the form of increased customer retention.

52% of customers will switch to a competitor after just one negative experience with your company.[*] While customer acquisition costs have always been high, new research shows the costs of onboarding a new customer has skyrocketed to 25 times the cost of customer retention.[*]

Effective call routing strategies keep customers happy and eliminate some of the biggest customer pain points like multiple callbacks, repetition, and uninformed agents.

 

Decreased Call Abandonment 

83% of customers expect to speak to an agent immediately when they contact customer support.[*]. If customers can’t connect to a live agent quickly and easily, most of them will just hang up, increasing your call abandonment rate.

Call routing directly addresses the causes of high call abandonment, including excessive call hold times and call transfers. It also lowers your contact centerr’s missed call ratio by optimizing available agents.

 

Improved FCR 

Because routing connects callers to both available and relevant, qualified agents, it’s much more likely the customer’s issue will be entirely resolved during the initial conversation–meaning higher first call resolution rates.

A 1% improvement in FCR increases customer satisfaction rates by 1%, and employee satisfaction rates by up to 5%.[*]

 

Call Routing Best Practices

Essential call routing best practices to implement in your business phone system include:

  • Keep IVR prompts brief and straightforward, direct callers to additional IVR submenus as opposed to including unnecessary details in the call menu greeting
  • Provide callers with estimated wait times and queue position updates when placed on hold, enable customer callbacks
  • Continually optimize your call routing strategies by reviewing customer surveys and feedback, call center metrics and KPIs, current business needs, employee performance, and call recordings/transcripts
  • Always provide customers with the option to be transferred to a live agent when interacting with an IVR or IVA system
  • Use Workforce Optimization and Management features like trend forecasting, predictive analytics, and automated agent scheduling tools to prepare for busy seasons and peak call volume periods
  • Frequently update call menus to reflect holiday operating hours, annual sales or events, or even quality assurance/reputation management issues like product recalls
  • Consider creating standalone local or toll-free business phone numbers for your busiest departments
  • Invest in a CRM software that lets agents keep and access detailed customer account information, conversation history, agent notes, and more to personalize and improve customer service calls

 

Implementing an effective call routing system ensures customers get quality assistance quickly, prevents agents from getting overwhelmed, and frees up time to focus on more pressing projects.

In addition to call routing, take advantage of other cloud-based contact center and call center software features designed to improve your call handling process, like push notifications, shared voicemail boxes, and AI-powered Agent Assistance.

 

FAQs

Below, we’ve answered some of the most common call routing questions.