VoIP Information for Training

You have a choice, thanks to technological advancements in networking, and for those you reading this, especially for the feature rich hardware and software of Cisco. Your telephone calls can be made with little or no involvement of your telephone company. In years past, you had to purchase telephone service in the form of lines and numbers to enable your organization to communicate via voice and fax. If you were an organization of any meaningful size, the cost of these lines may have been quite prohibitive. All of this is possible by the convergence of voice and data over the same network.

The Benefits to Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP)

Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) is one of the newest technologies in the call center. It uses the Internet to transfer voice. In a VoIP call, voice is broken and compacted into little packets of data and transmitted over Internet Protocol (IP) line, just like other Internet transmissions. When the data reaches the recipient, it is opened and reassembled as voice. Callers are able to make VoIP calls from their computers if they have the software that converts voice into data. Voice is digitized on the customer's computer before it is sent to your center. Your center does not need to purchase hardware units to support VoIP. The only products needed are speakers and a microphone, or an average headset. To receive VoIP calls, you need the same software the callers or telecom companies are using. Without this software, the voice data cannot be reassembled. This technology enables:

Agents to handle VoIP calls like telephone calls

VoIP are handled like any other calls. Agents will have to learn how to deal with callers who are looking at the center's Web site, but otherwise they will not have to be retrained to handle them.

Callers to talk to agents while viewing a Web site

Customers usually have to disconnect their Internet access to make phone calls. With VoIP, callers can view your Web site while talking on the phone. This is useful when callers want guidance through the complex information on your Web site.

Callers to contact you by another venue

Like Web chat or e-mail, VoIP gives customers another way to contact your organization. In an era that promotes customer service above all else, the more contact options you can give your clients, the more satisfied they will be.

Your center to minimize costs

Since VoIP do not require you to purchase any new hardware, the service is virtually free. Your center usually pays a month fee for Internet access. This fee is all VoIP would cost. With VoIP, you reduce the cost of toll-free lines and telecom services, without having to purchase new hardware.

Voice-over-Internet Protocol provides inexpensive call handling. It gives callers another way to contact your company and allows you to guide your customers through your web site. VoIP technology is another way to improve your center's efficiency, customer satisfaction, and enables you to decrease your costs without sacrificing quality service.

Currently there is a disadvantage with this process. Although VoIP calls are relatively inexpensive, there is a Quality of Service (QoS) issue when using it. Since the compressing and decompressing of the voice into data takes time, there are gaps of silence in a VoIP conversation. However, technology is rapidly improving. Soon VoIP transmissions will sound the same as high quality telephone conversations.