In the digital landscape and modern business world, VoIP has become an important part of any company. Consciously or unknowingly, all businesses are using VoIP based communication tools, regardless of the size and industry of the company. This makes the importance of custom VoIP development paramount. There are several applications of tailored VoIP solutions in a business. Certainly, it can improve outcomes for sales, customer care, marketing, rebranding, and several other business aspects with its powerful and smart features and applications. Therefore, custom solutions have made their way to all different VoIP solutions like a multi tenant IP PBX, call center software, fax server solution, calling card solution, and more.
As stated earlier, the customization of a VoIP solution can help in making the system more personalized to meet business specific goals. Moreover, it can improve the results of different business campaigns. In this blog post, we will discuss how custom development will result in transformative advantages in your customer care campaigns and improve overall customer engagement.
So, without any further delay, let’s jump into this interesting topic that will give you valuable insights to use the power of VoIP and personalization to augment your customer engagement in real time.
1. What is VoIP?
Generally, everyone is aware of this term as it is most widely used across industries to meet the communication and collaboration needs of a business. To give a quick idea, voice is a phenomenon that uses digital signals and transmits them on the internet lines to make transmission of voice, video, data, and multimedia possible. Moreover, it establishes a connection between two endpoints to ensure that two parties can have a two-way conversation.
Essentially, VoIP was used for cheap international calling facilities. For example, according to a statistical result shared at Techopedia, businesses can reduce international calling expenses by up to 90% (Source). However, over time, VoIP technology has gone through several advancements. As a result, we have several advanced and smart features integrated into VoIP based communication tools. Moreover, we have numerous advantages of using this technology for calling and other forms of communication. In short, VoIP is a modern way of making calls with rich and unified communication features.
2. What is VoIP Software Development?
Independently, VoIP cannot make calls. However, it just gives the foundation to make solutions that can let users enjoy several communication and collaboration features. Therefore, VoIP development is the process of using building blocks available in VoIP technology to build an exclusive tool to meet the predefined communication needs of a business.
For example, call center solutions are a specific type of solutions that are used to augment the operational efficiency and benefits of call centers. The development process to build this solution will ensure the development of all fundamental features to build an exclusive solution with a predefined range of features that meet all requirements of a call center.
3. What is Custom VoIP Software Development?
Simply put, custom VoIP development is the process of developing a VoIP solution with custom requirements. Firstly, it may or may not follow the traditional approach of software development using VoIP technologies. Secondly, it may or may not have standard or smart features in the final product. Sounds confusing?
Let us simplify it for you.
Custom development is the process of gathering specific requirements from a company rather than following industry standards to devise a feature list for a product. Moreover, everything is tailored to meet the needs of a company investing in custom development, which includes:
- VoIP development technology stack
- Features
- Integrations
- Hosting Models
In short, custom development is the process of developing a tailored solution just for an organization to meet its specific needs. There are several advantages of using this type of solution and we will take use cases of customer care to make more concrete points to better understand this subject matter.
If you are interested in this industry of developing VoIP solutions, we recommend you read our blog post on trending topics in the VoIP custom software development industry. These trends will influence development processes and methodologies in the VoIP industry in 2024 and beyond. Therefore, it is a must read if you are associated with this phenomenon in any way.
4. Major Areas Empowered with a Tailored VoIP System
A tailored solution developed using custom development is personalized with the following driving factors:
- Business data
- Flow and behavior of customers
- Current and future requirements
Certainly, there can be more associated influences in the process such as trends. However, the above mentioned three are the major driving forces that define the bread and butter of the whole process.
Improve your customer service with our custom VoIP development solutions.
The tailored solution is built to meet the scale rate of the company. Moreover, it uses existing data to personalize algorithms to perform more context driven operations. As a result, it can augment the efficiency of all types of operations that are influenced by uninterruptible and quality communication.
To name a few, the custom solution will augment the functionality of the following business campaigns by offering well-defined insights from existing data and concrete future predictions:
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation (Cold, warm, and hot)
- Lead management (Sales and lead nurturing)
- Customer care and customer relationship management
- Reputation management
- Public relationship management
Certainly, we can talk about all these areas that are augmented by custom VoIP solutions. However, to give you a better understanding and detailed view, we will cover how custom development for any solution can improve customer engagement in real time in the subsequent segment.
5. Role of Custom VoIP Solution in Improving Customer Engagement
The role of a tailored VoIP solution, be it a call center software solution or an IP PBX system, is noteworthy in improving customer engagement. So, let’s delve deeper into better understanding.
5.1 Let Clients Choose their Favorite Mode of Communication
Traditionally, VoIP is used to support only voice based communications. In fact, that is the reason behind its name VoIP, which stands for voice over Internet protocol. However, traditional days are left behind. Unquestionably, VoIP is much more advanced now and supports unified communication channels and transmission of all types of communication packets over internet lines.
Of course, the phone is still an important mode of communication. According to the statistics shared by Salesforce, 76% of customer care agents still prefer phone calls to manage cases more interactively (Source). However, other communication channels have already taken their place in the communication industry. For example, millennials prefer chatting over instant messaging, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter direct messaging, and similar platforms. Likewise, different generations have different preferences for communication channels. Therefore, it is necessary to implement multiple communication channels into the VoIP solutions to let customers choose their favorite way to connect.
Fascinatingly, this can improve customer engagement drastically and improve other success metrics to benefit your business.
5.2 Provide Round-the-clock Assistance
Customers demand to interact as per their preference. It includes communication channels, as well as time availability. In other words, customers may like to connect for sales inquiries or product concerns as per their availability. However, it is not possible to keep businesses to keep agents available round the clock due to budget constraints. Therefore, you can use technology tools like AI-based assistants to let your tailored solution provide round-the-clock services. Moreover, you can also use smart algorithms like time condition based auto assistance or call routing to maximize customer engagement in real time and increase positive experience.
5.3 Add Automation to Manage Increasing Volume
The best way to engage clients is to attend to them immediately. Certainly, you might not have enough manpower to manage an immediate spike in the interactions. However, tailored call center solutions or other tools can help in managing this ordeal seamlessly. You can implement automation features during the custom development process to efficiently manage sudden increases in volume.
5.4 Put Data at the Core of Improvement
A custom solution can track custom data, too. As a result, you can derive insightful data from different sources in your business which is not possible with a traditional or conventional system. Firstly, analyze this data to make predictions and identify common improvement areas that can help you further augment customer engagements. Secondly, you can use AI tools to generate reports and predictions to derive this data to make better improvements.
As a result, you will have actionable insight to use for multiple purposes such as
- Personalize training sessions based on the performance of your campaigns
- Personalize training of your AI and ML algorithms to improve results
- Personalize customer journeys, call scripts, and other details to ensure you can extract maximum value
6. Tips to Maximize Customer Engagement with a Tailored VoIP Solution
You must have realized the value of a tailored solution that is built with smart practices of custom development. However, it is necessary to follow a methodical and strategic approach to extract the advantage of boosted customer engagement. Unquestionably, you need to have the right plan, team, and execution to take the real essence of custom development in bolstering results of customer care and engagement in real time.
Positively, we can help you with our years of experience in this industry by giving you an outline of the strategy you need.
6.1 Define Goals
You need to have an outline and details for it to be achievable. You need to know what value you are interested in extracting with custom development. For example, do you want to manage customer concerns accurately and fast to improve customer satisfaction to engage clients in real time? Or do you want to increase the first contact resolution rate? Or do you want a chance of cross selling?
Your goals will help your development partner to propose the following for effective custom software development in VoIP:
- Technology stack
- Feature list
- Integrations
- Trend implementations
- Product roadmap
6.2 Choose the Right Development Partner
Custom development is not a cakewalk. Even a VoIP development company with years of experience may fail in this job if they are not proficient in requirement gathering, analysis, and development. Certainly, there are several business and technical aspects involved that make this process more effective and result driven. Therefore, you must stay meticulous in the selection process. You must choose someone apt in custom development and not just software development.
6.3 Take Advantage of trends and Advanced Technologies
You must use robust technologies and future trends. Of course, this is the job of your development partner to make these suggestions. However, it is always advantageous to know technologies and trends to make more mindful decisions.
6.4 Monitor and Improve Constantly
Possibly, custom development is a one-time process to build a tailored solution for your business. However, it is not the full stop to innovation and improvements. Undoubtedly, customer behavior and demands change every now and then. Moreover, team behavior, technology trends, etc. also keep on changing. Therefore, it is recommended to keep a plan to monitor results and make small or big improvements to your product to stay ahead of the curve.
Concluding Note
In conclusion, custom development of a VoIP solution has several utilities. Specifically for customer care and engagement campaigns, you can do wonders with the right approach and partner. Therefore, to stay competitive and outshine major players in the industry, you must invest in the process of building a tailored solution that is personalized for your business. Don’t fall prey to saving costs for short term benefits. Take your vision to the next level to improve your results from day one with a competitive edge.
We can help you with our vast experience in custom VoIP development. To initiate a discussion on how we can help you, contact us now!
