CEOs and customer service executives understand the value of offering a world-class call center. It’s often the first contact a customer has with an organization, and it plays a major role in establishing customer loyalty. But these executives also understand the need to keep customer support costs down. It’s these two opposing forces that are driving call center technology to continuously evolve to meet customer demand. One major step in this evolution occurred with the advent of hardware-free cloud-based virtual call centers, which were less expensive to deploy and maintain than on- premise, hardware-based solutions. And recently the call center has taken another step forward in its evolution by integrating cloud-based virtual call center functionality with other technologies. This new hardware-free integrated virtual call center brings together interactive voice response (IVR), CRM integration, help desk integration, automated call distribution, call routing, and call recording to take customer support to the next level. This white paper highlights how the different parts that make up the new integrated virtual call center work together to provide a superior level of service. It also explains how voice-based marketing automation technology brings them all together in one solution.

1. eBook
WHITE PAPER
The Next Generation
of Virtual Call Centers:
Beyond the Cloud

2. The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 2
© 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 867-0704 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
Executive Summary
2
CEOs and customer service executives understand the
value of offering a world-class call center. It’s often the first
contact a customer has with an organization, and it plays
a major role in establishing customer loyalty. But these
executives also understand the need to keep customer
support costs down.
It’s these two opposing forces that are driving call center
technology to continuously evolve to meet customer
demand. One major step in this evolution occurred with the
advent of hardware-free cloud-based virtual call centers,
which were less expensive to deploy and maintain than on-
premise, hardware-based solutions.
And recently the call center has taken another step
forward in its evolution by integrating cloud-based virtual
call center functionality with other technologies. This new
hardware-free integrated virtual call center brings together
interactive voice response (IVR), CRM integration, help desk
integration, automated call distribution, call routing, and call
recording to take customer support to the next level.
This white paper highlights how the different parts that
make up the new integrated virtual call center work together
to provide a superior level of service. It also explains how
voice-based marketing automation technology brings them
all together in one solution.

3. © 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 867-0704 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
3The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 33
What Is A Virtual Call Center?
3333333
A hardware-free virtual call center is a cloud-based SaaS
(software-as-a-service) model that enables your staff to
answer customer calls at anytime, from any phone, at any
location. Virtual call centers use automatic call distribution
(ACD) to transfer incoming calls to a group of agent phones
– whether they are in your office, working remotely, or both.
Users can set up their virtual call center ACD system with
custom on-hold messaging and specified wait times for
callers waiting in a queue. With a virtual call center, you can
view average caller wait times and statistics about agent
performance while recording every call for reference.
Small businesses became the early adopters of hardware-
free virtual call centers when they realized that this
cloud technology eliminated the need for an on-premise
center. With the availability of virtual call centers, smaller
businesses could save on the costs of expensive hardware
and equipment while allowing agents to work from any
location.
Enterprise businesses began implementing virtual call
centers next, in the early majority. Large businesses often
maintain their physical location and implement a hardware-
free virtual call center for several reasons:
• Easy implementation without the assistance of IT staff
• Advanced reporting capabilities that improve agent
productivity
• Automatic software and systems updates
• Ability to quickly set up multiple virtualized centers
• Flexible, easily updatable software for specific business
requirements
• Utilize VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) phones

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4The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 44444
But IVRs have become increasingly more sophisticated.
Now they can be used to provide callers with information
and services they previously had to wait for a live agent to
receive, such as:
• Account and billing info
• Order renewals
• Order status updates
• Changes to contact information
• Payment collections
Automating this functionality with an intelligent IVR enables
customers to serve themselves quickly and saves your
agents for more detailed support calls.
Also, where IVRs used to require a programmer and a help
desk ticket to update, they can now be updated quickly by
anyone. This means that companies can continually update
their IVRs to reflect customer feedback and changes in
business processes.
4
While moving from an on-premise to a hardware-free virtual
call center is an excellent way to cut costs, it is only the first
step in implementing first-class customer service. The next
step is integrating the call center with other internal systems
and complementary technologies. Having these parts all work
together seamlessly speeds up agent efficiency, improves
customer service levels, and cuts operating costs.
Below is a list of the important pieces that make up the
modern integrated virtual call center.
Inbound IVR for Managing Calls
Inbound IVR (interactive voice response) is nothing new for
the call center—companies have been setting up inbound
IVRs as their virtual receptionist for years. IVRs are the
automated menu that customers interact with when they
call a business: rather than having a live agent answer every
phone call, the IVR can pick up the phone and route the call
to the correct department.
The Integrated Virtual Call Center: Taking the Next Step

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5The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 5
You can also schedule an outbound IVR to go out after a
certain number of days. This IVR will call the customers
and ask them questions that enable you to measure their
satisfaction with the support they received. Knowledge
is power, and knowing how satisfied (or dissatisfied) your
customers are with your support team helps you to improve
your service.
5
Another way to improve efficiency with IVR is by creating
a menu that can gather customer information. You can
set up an IVR that asks questions about customer name,
organization, product/service they are interested in, support
requests, etc. The customer can interact with the menu to
answer the questions. By using a series of automated IVR
questions, you can determine a customer’s needs up front
and then route the call to an agent accordingly.
Before the agent speaks with the customer, the agent
receives a “whisper” message containing the name of the
customer recorded in the IVR menu. This enables the agent
to respond directly to the caller’s needs, and provides
the customer with a feeling of personalization. The more
information your agents have about their callers, the more
successful they will be in providing superior assistance.
Outbound IVR for Customer Phone
Surveys
You can also configure your virtual call center to use
outbound IVRs to conduct post-support surveys. After your
customer has completed a phone call with your support
team, the IVR can immediately transfer the call to a short
1-2 question survey to ensure the customer was pleased
with the service. If they express dissatisfaction, you can
transfer them directly to a manager to remedy the issue.
As you plan your IVR phone survey, it’s important to
keep the questions simple (to respect the taker’s
time) yet informative, so you get meaningful data.
Try these out:
• How satisfied are you with the service you received?
• How satisfied are you with your interactions with our
representative?
• How satisfied are you with our company overall?
• How likely are you to use our service again?
• How likely are you to recommend our company to
others?
IVR phone surveys also have capabilities that enable you to ask
open-ended questions and questions with multiple choices.
A Short IVR Phone Survey
Goes a Long Way
Collect Customer Information with
Your IVR

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6The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 6
Virtual call centers can be integrated with CRM systems,
such as Salesforce.com, to maintain a database of
customer information and requests. Just as your agents can
receive “whisper” messages with customer name, they can
also receive detailed account information on their desktop
panel when a call comes in.
Figure 1. Agent Panel
6
Not only does this information give your agents the opportunity to
provide personalized customer support, it also benefits your entire
company by integrating your systems to maintain an accurate
record of every phone call and customer request. When an existing
customer calls your business, their information will pop up on your
agent’s desktop. See Figure 1 for an example of an agent screen for
an incoming call from an existing account in Salesforce.com.
Any unanswered calls will have a new case automatically created
in your CRM to ensure you never miss a customer support request.
If the unanswered caller ID matches a contact, the case will be
associated with that contact. If the number is unknown, a new
contact will be created.
Figure 2. Salesforce cases from phone calls
CRM Integration for Personalized
Customer Service

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7The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 77
Customer Support Help Desk Integration
Your business receives tens, hundreds, maybe even
thousands of support calls on a weekly basis. This call
volume can be a lot to manage. But if your support team
is taking too long to respond to customer requests, you’ll
never be able to provide superior quality customer service.
By integrating your virtual call center with your customer
support help desk, such as Zendesk, you can turn every
phone call into an actionable, organized support ticket.
For each customer support call, a ticket will be created
automatically in your help desk. If you’ve already integrated
with your CRM, a detailed email can be automatically sent
to your customer after they’ve submitted their request. This
integration enables you to serve more customers with voice-
based tools that help you shorten response time.
VIP and Emergency Support
Businesses that receive a high volume of support calls
can set up custom rules that place VIP customers and
emergency requests at the top of your support team queue.
The faster your support team is able to respond to and
resolve support requests, the more satisfied your customers
are going to be.
FundNET Systems Uses an
Integrated Virtual Call Center to
Automate Client Interaction
FundNET Systems wanted an automated way to increase
client support. They also needed to ensure that all support
requests received via phone were automatically entered
and tracked in Zendesk, the company’s help desk software.
Ifbyphone’s solution was ideal because:
1. When clients call FundNet, Ifbyphone transcribes the
voicemail and logs it as a Zendesk support ticket.
2. The client automatically receives an email confirming
the support request that includes the transcription and a
link to the audio recording.
By using Ifbyphone, FundNET reduced their phone support
costs by almost 80 percent while adding substantial
functionality. Now, all of FundNET’s phone support requests
are automatically logged in Zendesk. Because Zendesk is
also integrated with FundNET’s CRM system, FundNET now
has end-to-end visibility of client requests throughout all
key systems.

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8The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 89
Automated call distribution technology enables your
business to maintain flexibility by using any phone to
answer customer calls. Inbound phone calls that reach your
virtual call center can be distributed to an office phone,
home phone, cell phone, or even Skype.
With call routing, your company can direct incoming phone
calls according to your own rules:
• Route by schedule: You can create custom routing
based on your office hours, the time zones of your
customers, weekends, holidays, and more.
• Route by agent: Want your best agents to receive the
highest call volume? Ensure that your best performing
sales reps or customer service reps receive the most calls
by routing incoming calls to agents via percentage.
• Route by geography: If your business has multiple
locations in various geographical regions, set up
incoming phone calls to be routed to the nearest store
location. By detecting area code or zip code of the call,
the caller can be routed to a location close to them.
• Route between multiple call centers: Set up multiple
call centers and route call flow to respective centers
based on caller information, distribution schedules, and
location.
• Route by number: Screen incoming calls and set up
custom routing and queuing rules for specific phone
numbers.
• Route based on IVR menu responses: Many
businesses use this option to score leads and then have
them passed off to a qualified agent to nurture the lead.
Conditional Call Routing
Minimize the risk of important calls going unanswered by
implementing conditional and selective phone call routing.
Use this type of forwarding to route incoming calls to
different types of phones (cell phone, work phone, home
phone, etc.) and agents based on various schedules.
• Ring an agent’s home, work, and cell phone
simultaneously to ensure that the call is answered,
whether the agent is working from home or travelling.
• Ring agent phones in a specific order; such as work
phone first, cell phone second, home phone third.
• Ring several agent phone numbers at the same time: the
first agent who answers gets the call, even if they are
working from home.
• Forward calls to various agents based on your office
schedule.
With virtual call center conditional call routing, prospects,
customers, and staff can reach agents at any time on any
phone, regardless of their location.
Customizable Call Distribution and Routing

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9The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 910
With web-based voice reports, you can monitor the success of your agents in real time, online, at any time. Use the agent
activity report to view call data for your various agents. This report can be sorted by date or campaign, and it shows the
number of outbound and inbound calls an agent handled and how long the call lasted:
Figure 3. Agent Activity Report
Real-Time Web Reporting

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10The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 1011
Use the call distributor summary report for a breakdown on how incoming calls were handled. How many calls were
answered? How many times did the call hang up and how long into the phone call? What was the average time a
customer waited to speak with an agent?
Figure 4. Call Distributor Summary Report
Call Distrubutor Summary

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11The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 1112
Use the call distributor agent modes report to see exactly what your agents were doing all day. This report shows the
number of hours your agent spent busy on incoming calls, outbound calls, on breaks, lunch, etc. Also view what time they
opened their agent panel in the morning and what time they closed it in the evening.
Figure 5. Call Distributor Agent Modes Report
Call Distributor Agent Modes

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12The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 1213
Call recording enables you to monitor the interactions
between your customers and representatives. You gain
valuable insight into what are callers’ most frequent questions,
recurring issues, and greatest areas of need. You can also use
call recording to monitor your agents’ productivity and quality
of support. If you have doubts about a certain agent, listen to
their recorded calls for insight.
Voice-Based Marketing
Automation Makes It Easy
The primary reason virtual call centers are now so easily
made to be interactive is the recent availability of voice-based
marketing automation technology. Previously, on-premise
call centers required full assistance for setup, updating, and
maintenance from an IT department. They lacked the ability
to integrate with IVR, CRMs, and ticketing systems.
Now, with voice-based marketing automation tools you
can integrate a hardware-free virtual call center with your
CRM and help desk. This is what enables your IVR to gather
customer information and display it on your agent screens, as
well as what automatically creates support tickets in your help
desk. This technology also enables advanced automated call
distribution, routing, recording, and reporting.
Call Recording to Monitor and
Improve Performance
10 Questions to Ask Your Virtual
Call Center Provider
1. Can I customize the on-hold experience for my
customers?
2. Can my agents receive calls from any location on any
type of phone? Even Skype?
3. Can I set up schedules based on my individual
agents?
4. How can my agents receive caller information before
answering the phone call?
5. Can I access call reports and records online, at any
time?
6. Does your service offer call recording and
transcription?
7. Are there any setup fees or contracts?
8. Am I able to transfer callers to another agent,
department, or IVR?
9. Do you charge per-agent or per-seat fees?
10. What kind of support do you offer?

13. © 2013 Ifbyphone, Inc. | (855) 867-0704 | www.ifbyphone.com | twitter.com/Ifbyphone | Ifbyphone.com/blog
13The Next Generation of Virtual Call Centers: Beyond the Cloud 1314
Conclusion
Next Steps
Call Ifbyphone today at (855) 867-0704 to learn how
an integrated virtual call center will help your business
provide exceptional customer support. You can also
learn how successful customer support teams are using
interactive virtual call centers at www.ifbyphone.com
Integrated virtual call centers are the next step in the
evolution of customer support. The integrations with
technologies like IVR, CRM, help desk systems are
making it easier for businesses to provide world-class
customer service. The customer support established
with hardware free, integrated virtual call centers has
helped businesses of every size cut support costs and
build profitable, loyal customer bases.

14. About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice
conversations with your customers and prospects.
These conversations cannot be managed using marketing
automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s
voice-based marketing automation platform, catching
these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom
of your net – leads and information fall out.
The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service
applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,
hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all
sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone, including
direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and
lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.
www.ifbyphone.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone
800-568-1121
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606
About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone manages, measures, and automates voice
conversations with your customers and prospects.
These conversations cannot be managed using marketing
automation or CRM software alone. Without Ifbyphone’s
voice-based marketing automation platform, catching
these interactions is like fishing with a hole in the bottom
of your net – leads and information fall out.
The Ifbyphone suite is a set of software-as-a-service
applications including ad tracking, lead distribution,
hosted IVR, and voice broadcasting. Companies of all
sizes and across all industries use Ifbyphone, including
direct response, health care, real estate, home services, and
lead generation. Learn more at www.ifbyphone.com.
www.ifbyphone.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifbyphone
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ifbyphone
(855) 867-0704
300 West Adams Street, 9th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606