What Is Skill-Based Routing And How It Helps Business?

What is Skilled Based Routing

These days customers are fortunate to have ease of buying or booking almost everything with just a few clicks on their smartphone. And when they get stuck somewhere, and they find any confusion with the product or services, they expect a similar experience with the customer service process. 

According to research and it is evident also that most the customer uses the platform where the issues get resolved quickly and hassle-free. Organizations that don’t meet the expectation of their customers in order to save some extra money gradually the business starts losing their customers. 

Business that wants to provide the best services to their customers in order to satisfy the customer but couldn’t find the loophole where their services are lacking. Well, the lower-hanging fruit lies within your call centre. Implementing an intelligent routing system that can connect your VIP or essential customer to the right agent will increase your customer satisfaction rate, even if it can boost the speed of sales or inbound sales. 

What Is Skill-Based Routing?

Skill-based routing is one type of routing method done in call centers. With the help of skill-based call routing, businesses can direct customers to the right agent who is capable of handling the request. It is also called advanced routing. Before routing calls through ACD software (Auto-Call Distribution Software), skills-based call distribution improves the client experience within the business’s IVR system.

Along with this helpful feature that can increase the customer satisfaction rate, skill-based routing is easy to set up. In order to set up skill-based routing, all you have to do is define your preferred tags and assign those skills to agents. That’s it, now the phone system will automatically route the calls to the best-fit agent based on their skill attributes, but not limited to:

  • Language
  • Department
  • Product/Service Expertise
  • Customer Size
  • Customer Industry
  • Social Media
  • Geography

Provide High-Class Experience With VIP Routing Features:

These days customers are not loyal to any particular business; they define a company based on its quality of service, which means routing should be prioritized for keeping the customers happy and satisfied. 

This technique is called VIP routing; it is just a subset of skills-based routing. It can customize to provide customized services to the most important or VIP customers. Businesses can help their customer directly connect with the right agent. This system ensures that your high-paying clients and customers are getting high-class services.

After setting up the call flow, all you need to do is tag your high-paying customers as VIPs and set your agents’ specialization or capabilities so that system can directly route the call to the most eligible agent. It is one of the easy to boost your customer satisfaction rate by surprising your clients or customers by giving them the best possible service. 

Why Businesses Should Use Skill-Based Routing To Increase Their Revenue

Well, skill-based routing is an ultimate solution in order to provide world-class customer service to your new, retuning and VIP clients or customers. Along with a boost in a business’s customer satisfaction score, skills-based routing software provides your call center managers with the detailed dashboards and analytics system they need, along with Call Management Systems, to make real-time, data-driven decisions.

This information will assist them in effortlessly routing your clients or customers to the most appropriate agents. They will be able to improve customer experience and create more revenue by measuring the success of such interactions.

Improving the Matrix of customer Service

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): You may improve customer satisfaction by ensuring that problems are handled only by the most highly qualified agents for the task.

First-Call Resolution (FCR): FCR is based on the ability of an agent’s first call resolution when the customer calls the organization for the first time. 

Service Level: The percentage of calls answered within a certain length of time is referred to as the service level. Customers are directed to an agent with the appropriate abilities and competence using skills-based routing. As a result, you will have fewer call transfers and hold-ups, which will improve your overall customer service levels.

Average Handle Time (AHT): AHT is the average time of the whole call interaction, from call initiation through post-call work. When clients or customers are routed to the agents who can best handle their enquiries, teams may cut overall handling times while maintaining or ramping up to the 80/20 rule.

Increase Average Order Value & Lifetime Value: Providing your agents with specific training helps them to become subject matter experts. They will be able to recommend upgrades, unique packages, and other incentives that will enhance your VIP customers’ experiences with your institution as they listen to their demands. Of course, this might result in a longer LTV for that tourist.

Optimization of Workforce

There is a high potential for improving your call center with skill-based routing. Workforce advantages range from personnel to communications to cost reductions.

Boosts agents’ performance: Higher productivity implies less time spent on call transfers, acquiring consumer information, and post-calling activity.

Employee Satisfaction: Skill assignments allow your employees to advance in their careers. Employees are happier and retain more agents when they have more possibilities to progress in their professions. Not to mention, assisting clients who are competent to assist results in easier encounters and the development of long-term, profitable connections. Customer satisfaction equals agent satisfaction!

Reduced Operational Costs: Statistics suggest that providing better customer service can lead to increased income. In fact, prioritizing customer service may help organizations increase revenue by 4% to 8%. Not to mention that when your staff are satisfied, you save money via lower turnover, and faster call resolution equals more consumers to interact with.

How Skill-Based Routing Helps In Various Industries

Features like skill-based routing can be beneficial for many industries such as the hotel industry, travel, sales-based business and more. Here are some valuable examples to help you see the possibilities for your unique sector to give you a big picture of what this tool can offer you:

Hotel Industry 

Industries like hotels are the ones who see the drastic upliftment in their sales and profits by using a skill-based routing system. Customer loyalty is essential for any business to survive , especially in the hotel sector. Loyalty members book over 60% of room nights at big hotel companies. Keeping your VIP clients pleased is so critical to your bottom line. Here’s an example of why VIP routing may be helpful.

Travel Industry

The travel industry is another sector that gets tremendous benefits from using skill-based routing. Let’s assume that a Tamil-speaking couple calls up your call centre to make adjustments to their upcoming honeymoon in Kashmir. While you have already planned everything but they are hoping that you’ll help them in rescheduling everything. 

You’ve assigned the following talents to your staff in your phone system:

Agent 1: English, Tamil, Telugu, Bookings & Customer Service

Agent 2: English, Hindi, Tamil, Loyalty Rewards & Travel Credits

Agent 3: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, French, Travel Emergencies 

When the couple calls, they are sent to Agent 1 so that they may amend their booking with an expert and talk with someone who is fluent in Tamil.

Airlines

When international travellers want to book, cancel, or enquire about their upcoming flight, they need to talk with a live person who can talk and resolve their issue in their native language. 

With this kind of seamless experience, a customer gets satisfied and increases the CX. 

Sales Based Business

There are many sales-based businesses that can use a skill-based routing to increase their sales and profits. Up-selling is the most significant opportunity with skill-based routing. Generally, people call when they have a complaint, when to know about the product, want to upgrade or have any confusion. With all these things, an IVR system with skill-based routing features is a one-stop solution. 

Skills-Based Routing vs Other Routing Rules

When it comes to your contact center, you may utilize a variety of queue-based call routing rules to link your consumers with an agent. All have a place and a reason inside a company’s phone system, so why are travel and hospitality companies looking towards skills-based routing to provide a better visitor experience? We’ll examine and contrast which call routing approach is optimal in the sections below.

Without a skills-based routing setup, you may compromise your guests’ experience. If a caller is sent to an agent who is unable to handle their query, the customer’s dissatisfaction will increase, and they will likely go to an opponent. The correct cloud communications provider can assist you in streamlining your lines in order to enhance satisfaction and income.

Set Customer Skill According To User Data 

An excellent place to start with a skills-based routing setup is using your own customer data. If your Call Center Software has been linked with your business technology like CRM, you could check some common touchpoints:

  • The most frequently asked questions at your organization
  • What cities do visitors usually call from?
  • What languages do your customers speak?
  • Which departments receive the most incoming call requests?

Once you’ve identified commonalities among your customers or clients, prioritize the abilities your contact center workers require to improve customer care.

Improve the distribution of your agents and IVRs

Next, you’ll want to assess your agents’ skill levels so that you can properly optimize distribution. Your call center management may wish to have agents fill out a questionnaire, survey or even have interviews to drill down on the sorts of abilities and competency levels your agents possess.

Once that’s done, organize and prioritize those talents in the queue. For example, if you see a pattern of north Indian customers calling with billing issues, make sure that those calls are directed to Hindi-speaking employees with billing knowledge.

Furthermore, you’ll want to verify that your national or international IVR system is aligned and configured to meet the demands of your clients or customers. An IVR system must-haves are:

  • Personalized greetings for efficient and precise department routing
  • International routing ensures that your clients reach the appropriate representatives at all times.
  • Custom routing that combines your IVR and ACD to provide the most efficient experience for your calls.
  • Analytics to guarantee that you are successfully measuring routing and agent performance.

Without these capabilities, your customers or clients may encounter inefficient routing flows and perplexing menu alternatives, which may compromise your benchmarks and degrade their incoming call experience.

Have An Onsite Quality Management

Finally, make sure to track the performance of your skills-based routing through quality management in order to optimize your contact center operations in the future.

SAN Softwares has a SanCCS contact center solution that includes a comprehensive array of reporting and analytics tools and dashboards to provide a comprehensive view of call routing methods and agent performance. You may use these tools to:

  • Run real-time and historical data on total calls, average conversation duration, and call outcomes by team or agent in a matter of seconds.
  • Analyze the effect of IVR on your call analytics.
  • Send team members automatic performance reports.
  • To verify that you are meeting and surpassing client expectations, compare your call center performance to your company service level agreement.
  • Provide your managers with call monitoring and real-time analytics dashboards to give agents the information they need for constant coaching.

Wrapping up

Skills-based routing is an excellent option for sales-driven companies seeking for a simple, quick-win solution to improve customer service and satisfy loyal clients or customers.

Customer service is a big revenue generator; therefore, timely calls and a direct channel of communication to agents who are most qualified to handle particular issues and queries are crucial to your client’s experience with your brand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Skill-Based Routing is a system that directs incoming calls or messages to the most qualified agent based on specific skills, ensuring that customer inquiries are handled by agents with the appropriate expertise. 
Yes, SBR in SanCCS is highly scalable, making it a great solution for businesses of all sizes. As the business grows, more skills and agents can be added to the system without disruption 
Yes, SBR connects customers with the right agents from the beginning, reducing the time spent on unnecessary transfers and ensuring that issues are resolved more quickly. 
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