What Is Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
Communication in businesses is critical. That is why every organization is in the run to improve the communication channels within its companies. The improvements are aimed at reducing costs as well as ensuring that the correct information reaches its destination on time.
The advancing technology in the communication world offers multiple communication solutions. So, it’s up to you to choose a solution that perfectly fits your company’s needs.
CTI, a.k.a computer telephony integration, simply links a call center’s telephone system to a business application. This move offers a business more control over call management. The computer telephony integration technology does not require that agents have a physical phone. Instead, they can handle all their phone functions on personal computers using on-screen controls available for telephony functions such as answering calls, disconnecting calls, transferring calls, putting callers on hold, etc.
It’s true; CTI connects phones to computers and allows them to interact. It will put data at call control at the fingertips of agents. It integrates with CRMs while creating a link between the caller and information in the CRM – customer relationship management. This makes them efficient at delivering services.
Beyond placing phone control to the agent interface, computer telephony allows the capabilities at the core of an effective call center. This includes:
- Call routing: with computer telephony integration, all call routing is data-directed and is performed by the automatic call distributor. The technology gathers data from incoming calls and an organization’s systems like a customer relationship management system to route calls to an agent who can skillfully handle the caller’s queries.
- Enhanced reporting: with CTI, you can get better quality reports because the technology enables matching phone data with data from other business systems. This leads to the creation of comprehensive reports.
- Also, computer telephony integration has excellent application at a micro-level and supervisor desktops where it is used to improve customer experience and improve agents’ efficiency. For example:
- Screen pops: computer telephony integration enables the integration of phone systems with CRM applications. So, when agents answer inbound calls, the telephony system matches the caller’s contact information (phone number, email address) with the customer database and then automatically presents the information from the CRM application to the agent.
- Call monitoring: supervisors can easily monitor calls, i.e., they can listen to live calls and offer assistance where needed.
- Automatic record creation: integrating the CTI with CRM means that agents can add call records to a customer CRM record automatically. Besides, it offers links to call recordings.
So, suppose you want to deliver an excellent customer experience, as well as allow agents to personalize contacts and offer quick access to customer history. In that case, computer telephony integration is the right solution. Beyond that, it automates several tasks; thus, improving efficiency.
The standard computer telephony integration technology applications include:
- Call and contact centers
- Business with remote employees and distributed teams
- Companies with global coverage and international clientele
- BPO – Business process outsourcing
- Businesses (Small-to-large) with high call traffic both consistent and fluctuating
- Companies with multiple offices alongside customer service locations spread geographically
Other benefits of employing CTI are:
- Improved call center agent productivity – provides all the needed information under one application
- Integrates seamlessly with other applications such as Automatic Number Identification, Interactive Voice Response, and routing applications
- Reduced cost – calls can be costly for businesses, and call centers handle many calls. CTI allows handling many calls in a short time frame. Reducing call handling time reduces time writing on the queue, which saves money.