Ifbyphone unveils virtual call center service

CHICAGO, US: Ifbyphone has introduced Call Distributor, a service that enables small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) to create virtual call centers, complete with advanced automated call handling that enables customers to instantly route inbound calls to any phone, anywhere.

With the new Call Distributor service, SMBs pay only for the minutes consumed, avoid long-term agreements and will not incur any capital expense as the Ifbyphone service eliminates the need to purchase expensive new business telephone equipment and software.

Ifbyphone’s Call Distributor also provides call center operators an array of additional call routing options, including the ability to expand their workforce to tap into the growing home-based agent segment by sending inbound calls to any phone.

“The days of SMBs missing customer calls and losing business because they don’t have access to an expensive PBX or a call center, like Fortune 500 companies have, are over,” said Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro. “With Call Distributor, any business can now have a flexible call center service option that provides advanced call handling capabilities with central management to workers anywhere, using any existing phone.”

Call Distributor also includes several capabilities beyond advanced call routing, including interactive voice response and call queuing, both of which save time, reduce costs and create efficiencies and have been designed into Call Distributor to help SMBs thrive in today’s economy. All Call Distributor capabilities are instantly available to anyone on any phone eliminating the need for agents to use phones physically connected to dedicated systems, or a specific type of phone such as a traditional landline, VoIP phone or software client-based endpoint such as a PC or smartphone.

Call Distributor includes the following capabilities:

* Agents are defined as available based on a schedule, a web interface or via a phone call from any phone;

* Complete queue size and wait time control;

* Support for customer-supplied audio prompts, queue messages and music on hold;

* Callers may choose to leave a queue at any time and are routed to voice mail or an IVR application according to a web-based configuration;

* A complete web-based agent dashboard with call notification which includes reverse lookups, integration with Salesforce.com and customer data options;

A sophisticated, web-based management dashboard, which displays agent status, call statistics, calls in queue and supports the transmission of messages to agents.

Consistent with Ifbyphone’s innovative service and feature model, SMBs pay only for actual minutes used as opposed to the expensive, commonplace practices of charging per-agent or per-seat license and/or fees for agent idle time. The virtual approach is in stark contrast to traditional call centers which use expensive PBX/ACD or key telephone systems to distribute calls to onsite agents in a central facility.

“Whether they’re considered big regional companies with multiple locations, or the popular sandwich shop around the corner at lunchtime, businesses of all sizes need high-power, low-cost, web-based and configurable tools for optimally managing their call volume,” explained Shapiro. “This is an essential business function because lost calls mean lost revenue.”

Call Distributor is just one component of a family of advanced telephone applications which all work with any phone. These applications include: virtual phone numbers with advanced routing, Hosted IVR, Voice Broadcasting, Call Tracking, Find Me, Click-to-Call, Google Analytics Integration and more.