Using the voiceREACH whisper function for collections

If you're using voiceREACH to broadcast automated telephone calls to your debtors and are receiving allot of inbound transfers, it can sometimes be confusing for staff to handle these calls. The inbound transfers will appear to be just like any other inbound call, so a staff member answering that call won't know if the call is simply a debtor responding to a letter they received, or if the inbound caller is being transferred because of a voiceREACH call. This is where the whisper function can be very useful...

What is the "whisper" function?

The whisper function is a feature of voiceREACH that can notify the call centre staff member receiving the inbound transfer as to the nature of the call. This notification is very flexible in content, and can be setup to say virtually anything.

For example, when Joe Blogs receives a call from Company XYZ and he transfers to talk to a company representative, the staff member receiving Joe's call could hear the following "whisper" immediately before talking with Joe directly - "transferring Joe Blogs, account number 123456".

This notification helps the call centre staff to handle the inbound call because they know the origin of the call, the content of the call and also who they are talking to. That means they can quickly search the account number or name in their database, and have the caller's details in front of them in seconds.

Transfers must be answered promptly

The whisper works very well in call centres where all calls are answered promptly, however isn't ideal if callers are put on hold waiting to talk with an agent.

As the whipser is broadcast as soon as voiceREACH gets and off-hook from the call centre, this can sometimes result in the whisper being played to hold music! In the case where all lines are busy, and an inbound transfer is put on hold waiting for an available agent to answer the call, voiceREACH simply knows that it has got an off-hook (ie. the call has been answered) and automatically plays the whisper. This means that when an agent picks up the call from hold, they will have missed the whisper altogether.

Therefore, if your call centre is very busy, your staff can't rely on always hearing the whisper - all calls which are answered promptly (without going on hold) will hear the whisper, but others will not.