Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is a strategic component of a contact centre: it is used to link the telephony system solutions i.e. ACD, IVR, call recording etc, to information held on a CRM database about the inbound caller or person called on an outbound campaign.
What is CTI?
Computer Telephony Integration allows the treatment of a telephone call to be changed depending on external influencers.
Convergence between telephony systems and computers is making CTI essential, and it enables such functionality as call recording, conferencing, screen popping*, call routing plans and multiple campaign scripting. The first two features are well-known.
* Screen popping refers to the functionality that allows the data relevant to an individual caller to be ‘popped’ onto the receiving agent's screen as the call is answered.
Efficiency via Automation
CTI solutions enable business to improve customer service, staff effectiveness, and can reduce costs. Efficiencies are introduced to the contact centre via intelligent call routing and dialling, PC based telephony with the automated display of information, and the integrated transfer of data and phone call.
IVR/CTI automated transactions and pre-recorded information allow inbound call centres to offload up to half of their call volume with the subsequent equivalent cost savings. With automated transactions taking around half the time of manual transactions, both agents and customers benefit from the incorporation of IVR/CTI.
Caller satisfaction is enhanced as time spent on the phone is reduced and automated systems can operate 24/7/365 providing flexibility for the customer.
Agent Screen Population
Dialled Number Identification (DNI) or Caller Line Identity (CLI) also enables Computer Telephony Integration applications to populate an agent's screen with pertinent data based on the number called or the originating number.
This can provide the agent with both caller details plus information that the caller is likely to seek, such as product details. Once the numbers are identified the CTI application extracts the relevant information from a database and displays it on the agent's screen.
As the above brief examples illustrate, CTI is of vital importance to almost all business telephone calls to Contact Centres, and desirable to enhance customer service for many other types of calls to businesses.
Until the introduction of Ultra’s network solutions, Computer Telephony Integration was a very expensive feature available only to the largest contact centres - it typically needed an IT team to get it integrated and working properly.
With Ultra’s network solutions, the end-user does not need to be technical and can do everything via secure network online connection themselves in real-time.
All
Ultra network solutions allow interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or coordinated. The following functions can be implemented using
CTI:
- Call information display on answer, with or without using calling line data
- Automatic dialling and computer controlled dialling i.e. predictive dialling, progressive and preview dialling
- Advanced functions such as call routing, reporting functions, automation of desktop activities, and multi-channel blending of phone, e-mail, and web requests – to name a few.
Existing contact centres can use our CTI solution to pre-process calls before delivery to their existing ACD hardware. However the Ultra network solutions includes a network ACD functionality and therefore all that is needed at the contact centre is a simple router for the calls – another direct cost saving of using the Ultra network solutions.
More information about Computer Telephony Integration