Skill-Based Routing: Best Practices to Drive Call Center Success

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Nothing frustrates customers more than being passed around from one sales or support agent to the next having to repeat their concern over and over again. With the benefit of skill-based routing, you can leave that issue in the past.

There are a variety of ways to set up a phone system to route customer calls. Skill-based routing (SBR) is a feature of modern phone systems that will help improve your first-call resolution rates and ensure a good customer experience at every touch point.

Quick links

• What Is Skill-Based Routing?

• Skill-Based Routing vs. Queue-Based Routing

• Skill-Based Routing vs. ACD Routing

• What Is Automatic Call Distributor Routing?

• How Does Skill-Based Call Routing Work?

• The Benefits of Skill-Based Routing

• 15 Factors to Consider When Selecting an IVR System

• How Omni-Channel Routing Improves the Customer Experience

What Is Skill-Based Routing?

Skill-based routing, also called skill-based distribution, is a modern phone system feature that picks up on customer data during incoming calls and automatically assigns them to agents with the skills needed to address their concerns. With skill-based routing, call transferring can be prevented and customers receive the help they need in their first call. All that makes for a good customer experience.

Imagine the following scenario. One of your best customers has a complex billing question. To compound the issue, your customer’s first language is Spanish. The support agent that answers the phone realizes the customer needs to speak with a Spanish-speaking support agent and transfers the call. The Spanish-speaking support agent has expertise in ordering parts but knows little about billing, so the calls transfer to the billing department. The billing specialist that receives the call only speaks English and finally transfers the call to a Spanish-speaking billing specialist. The customer finally gets answers after the third transfer. It’s not the best customer service. Far from it!

Now imagine a different scenario. The customer calls in and is walked through a series of automated voice prompts that determine their requirements. Based on their choices, the customer’s call gets routed to a Spanish-speaking billing specialist from the start. That’s the value of skills-based routing.

With skills-based routing, you get the benefit of intelligent routing. The system looks at the skills that a customer needs and matches them to an available agent that has the skill set to meet the customer’s needs. As in the example above, you can set up rules for agents that have multiple skills or those who are cross-trained in different areas.

Skill-Based Routing vs. Queue-Based Routing

Call center analytics will help you predict call volume to some degree. No matter how well you staff your call center, there are bound to be times that customers have to wait on hold a bit. An automatic call distribution system routes calls so they can be answered at the earliest possible time.

One of the most basic call routing systems is queue-based routing. You’ve probably been on hold at one time or another and heard a recording that said something along the lines of, “All of our agents are currently busy. Please hold and the next available agent will be with you.”

What’s happening behind the scenes is that your call is queued up and waiting in line behind the callers that dialed in before you. Others will undoubtedly be queued up behind you. Queue-based routing sends calls to one particular queue. For example, your call might be sent to a queue where your call will be answered in your preferred language or to a particular service level. The main thing is that a call only gets assigned to one queue.

By contrast, skills-based routing is more sophisticated. It evaluates the skills that are necessary to resolve calls and routes calls to sales or support agents that have the appropriate skill level and are available to take the call. With skills-based routing, you can set up rules for languages, skills, and other appropriate parameters to get your customers to the best agent to help them quickly.

Skill-Based Routing vs. ACD Routing

Normal ACD routing and skills-based routing both operate according to rules, but there are differences between them.

Simply put, normal ACD routing leverages automation to get calls to a sales or support agent quickly, without considering the agent’s skills needed for the call. This opens up your business to risk as you may have to transfer or else wait for a callback.

On the other hand, with a skills-based routing system, the callers might have to wait a bit longer, but there’s a good chance that whoever answers their call will be able to help them in short order.

This is an important consideration when you’re deciding which features of a cloud-based phone system you need to drive call center success. As an example, when a customer calls a health facility, there are many different medical departments and many different administrative departments. With a skills-based routing system, customers can speak to the radiology unit’s billing department their preferred language without the need for a call transfer. The skills-based routing system does all the work.

What Is Automatic Call Distributor Routing?

ACD, or automatic call distribution, is a telephony software system that distributes incoming calls to the first available sales or support agent or to a specific department.

The idea behind ACD is to solve the problem of managing and distributing large volumes of calls in a contact center. Like all call routing systems, ACD has call distribution rules. Routing works according to things like:

• Time of day

• Call traffic

• Caller ID

An ACD works in conjunction with a cloud-based phone system and interactive voice response (IVR) system to route inbound calls to someone that can help the caller. An ACD is a central component of a call center and it’s a key factor in improving the customer experience.

How Does Skill-Based Call Routing Work?

Skill-based routing is an enhancement to ACD. It works a bit differently than a normal ACD routing system. In an ACD system, you would send calls to the first available sales or support agent. Skill-based call routing ensures callers speak to the most appropriate agent based on their needs.

What makes skill-based routing so beneficial? Consider that technology has made communication easier than ever before, resulting in higher expectations of customer service. Also, consider that products have become more complex and services are more comprehensive than they used to be. As a result, small businesses have needed to expand their contact centers to meet the growing needs of customers.

With skill-based routing, the system looks at an incoming call and decides which sales or support agents can help the customer based on which number the customer called, the caller’s identity, and choices the caller made using the IVR system.

The right system ensures customers speak to a skilled and well-trained sales or support rep to immediately provide good customer support. This replaces the need for multiple transfers if the agent someone gets in touch with does not have the necessary skillset.

The Benefits of Skill-Based Routing

Does skill-based routing really make that much of a difference? The answer is an easy “yes” when you consider the benefits of quickly getting calls to available agents with the right skills in short order.

Here’s what you can expect with skill-based routing:

1. Sales and support reps can be more focused and intentional in their approach to sales and customer support. They only get calls from customers they can help. When they get a call, it’s “go-time”! They can get right down to the business of helping the customer without giving a second thought to rerouting the call. Not only does skill-based routing serve customers well, but it also helps sales and support reps fine-tune their skills.

2. Skill-based routing streamlines communication, decreases first response time, improves your first call resolution rates, and maximizes productivity.

3. Ticketing is simpler and easier to manage with skill-based routing. It’s easier to categorize and assign tickets which will save your employees hours of time. The software automatically keeps track of which employees have specific skills.

4. Having the ability to customize routing rules allows you to set up efficient workflows and adjust them as your needs change.

5. Enhanced productivity, increased efficiency, and greater customization and personalization are the foundation of providing a good customer experience.

15 Factors to Consider When Selecting an IVR System

Let’s look at 18 factors to consider when selecting an effective IVR system to ensure you have a winning skill-based routing strategy:

1. Queue notifications. Updates customers about where they are in the queue and their estimated wait time.

2. Multiple hold messages. Avoids repetition and boredom.

3. Queue opt-out. Provides customers with a seamless way to opt-out of the queue.

4. Adjustable music-to-message ratio. Provides the right balance of music and messaging.

5. CRM integration. Gives sales and support agents lots of data.

6. Voice activation (think Alexa and Siri). Smoothes out interactions and provides convenience for customers.

7. Specific messaging. Automates greetings based on past interactions with recordings like, “Is this about your New York hotel reservation?”

8. Automatic callback. Automatically calls customers back when a sales or support agent is available.

9. Reporting tools. Provides a granular view of IVR interactions and dropout rates at various stages of the customer journey.

10. Personalized IVR messaging. Allows you to customize messages to proactively inform customers of problems and when you expect to resolve them.

11. SMS capability. Allows customers to opt-in for SMS updates and push notifications.

12. Call flow customization. Allows you to integrate other tools to customize call flows.

13. Call deflection. Allows you to deflect calls to other channels like SMS or live chat.

14. IVR command optimization. Prioritizes the most popular options for new callers.

15. Context preservation. Preserves the context of conversations when switching channels or when a customer requires a call back.

How Omni-Channel Routing Improves the Customer Experience

Phone calls, texts, chats, and emails are the communication norms of today. An omni-channel approach to marketing, selling, and customer support creates a consistent, cohesive experience for your customers and that spells customer satisfaction.

With the benefit of omni-channel capability, your business can:

• Deliver consistent messaging

• Respond quickly

• Respond accurately and appropriately

• Personalize interactions

• Engage reliably, transparently, and seamlessly

• Proactively meet customer needs on any channel and device

Aircall makes it easier than ever to install and implement a versatile cloud-based phone system with omni-channel routing capabilities. It features not only skill-based routing, but all the routing features you need such as IVR, queue callback, time-based routing, voicemail, insight cards, and much more. Aircall is a cost-effective way for small businesses to operate an effective contact center that delivers the best possible customer experience.

Published on April 21, 2021.