Category Archive

VoIP is an acronym that sounds weird at first—“vŏy’p”—but is actually fairly straightforward in application. It stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, which, in the simplest of terms, means the type of phone service that works over an internet connection. To be clear, VoIP is the prevailing method of internet telephony that floated to the surface after around 20 years of a varied succession of attempts to make internet calls accessible to consumers, and I am admittedly glancing over many stages of its development. This type of phone connection has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its low cost to the user and its versatility for business, as well as personal use. It’s possible that you have used a VoIP connection without even realizing it. Have you ever used Skype? That’s a VoIP call—and in fact, they’re one of the companies who made it famous. VoIP phones have …

Though the connection is virtually instantaneous when you call someone, there is a surprising number of operations that have to take place before the call completes. Each of these operations is vital, sometimes quite complex, and they all happen in a fraction of a second. In this article, we will explore one type of call that, if you’re a Talkroute user, you’re probably very familiar with—an outgoing call from your Talkroute mobile app. Using your cell phone as a business line. As one of our specialties at Talkroute, the system makes it easy for business owners who have a cell phone that doubles as a business phone. The mobile app was created so that you are the only one who knows that you’re calling from a mobile phone. To your customers, you could be sitting at a desk in your office, wielding the handset attached to your corded desk phone—which …

Managing and transferring customer calls is a vital aspect of customer service. Not only do you have to provide helpful and accurate information to assist customers on the phone, but you have to make sure that, if you must transfer the call, that it actually gets through to the next agent and that the customer is taken care of throughout the process. The following are some points (obvious as they may seem) that will help you and your team to provide great customer service, even during a transfer. #1 Don’t hang up. On behalf of those of us who have been dropped by an agent while waiting on hold, please avoid this at all costs. Not only will it infuriate your caller, but if they hear a dial tone instead of being successfully transferred, you might have just lost this person’s business. It seems to me that while most of …

  This post will start with a few quick rules-of-thumb to help you create a professional and effective call menu. If you don’t have time for my rhetoric, then please feel free to skip down to the good stuff.   When labeling menu options, be concise and get to the point. Like a voicemail greeting, a good menu prompt immediately tells the caller where this option will send them and quickly states what number they should press.   Don’t be afraid to add more specific options, rather than fewer, general options. Most people are willing to wait just a little bit longer for the right prompt, and even if you only have 2 agents, you can break the menu into a bunch of specific departments and route multiple options to the same agent.   Use a calm and even tone. In the same way that callers on hold react better …

There are a many elements that make your virtual phone system work, and one that is frequently taken for granted is your cell phone. Since Talkroute connects calls over the network that your phone already uses, it is a vital aspect of that system. The system usually works so seamlessly that it seems to happen like magic, but the truth is, we all know that sometimes the mobile network drops your call like a bad habit. Instant Gratification There is an invisible framework of connectivity that covers the entire country and plays an integral part in most of our lives—the mobile network, or cellular network. When we place a call from a cell phone, we are instantaneously connected to someone else, sometimes on the other side of the country, or even the world. Let’s take a look at how a call gets dropped, and what is responsible for it. There …

Do you remember when you bought a new cell phone, opened the box, and discovered a new pamphlet that warned you about the possible health risk associated with EMF radiation? Many people would probably throw this away, if they even noticed it at all, and the industry was well-aware of that. Even to this day, there’s not much of a buzz about the disconcerting risks connected with using electrical and wireless devices. When you saw the pamphlet about EMF waves, you were probably alarmed for a moment and quickly forgot about it because, after all, how could these devices be produced and sold on a massive scale if it was that dangerous? But the fact is that EMF radiation is suspected to be dangerous, and experts are now making a new push to raise awareness about the health risks of using wireless devices. History of EMF In 1830, English Physicist …

Have you ever wondered why you hear music or informational messages while you’re on hold? The reason is to give callers something to listen to while they’re waiting, right? Well, yes, but music and messages on hold were deliberately designed, based on the psychological reactions of people when they are placed on hold. To check out Talkroute’s on-hold features, click here In this article, we will examine how callers respond to being placed on hold and the reasons they react in a variety of ways. The mind of a customer works in interesting ways, but it works in predictable ways, too, which is why businesses are able to create hold programs that create the best environment for callers, if they must wait. Here’s how it works. The subject matter, research, and many of the terms detailed in this article are chiefly derived from the report, “The Psychology of Telephone ‘On …

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network)—The world’s collection of interconnected, voice-oriented public telephone networks, both commercial and government-owned. Whenever you say “landline”, you are referring to a phone line that uses the PSTN. The PSTN is an invaluable infrastructure, and it’s not going to be replaced anytime soon. Even though the telecommunications industry has made a few leaps over the past few decades, the wireless network still can’t provide the kind of coverage provided by the PSTN. In fact, wireless networks depend on it to fill in its gaps in coverage to complete calls. There’s Nothing Like the Original Have you ever wondered how your calls are connected? Well, it’s a little more complicated than it used to be, but the old system is still very much in use. The original PSTN, or POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) is exactly what you think it is: Copper wires, underground and overhead, that …