2. Call termination percentage
3. Cost
4. Does your carrier like call center traffic?
5. Number of simultaneous calls allowed
Let's discuss these in more detail. Some of these issues are intertwined where one has something to do with other. I will try to simplify this as much as possible.
1. Call routing:
Call routing is exactly what is sounds like. How do the calls get from point A to point B. Let's say you are making a call from New York to LA. If your call gets routed from NY to Chicago to Denver to LA, that is not a bad route and pretty direct. If your call is routed from NY to Miami to Houston to Montreal to Vancouver to Hawaii to LA, that is a pretty circuitous route. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. The reason for the crazy routes is something called least cost routing, meaning the carrier will route the traffic in a way where it costs the least. There are a couple of problems with LCR. First is the quality of the call. The longer the route, the higher the potential for data loss and data loss means poor call quality. The second issue is latency which is the time it takes to send the information or data. The longer it takes will result in latency issues where you will hear a very discernible delay in hearing the person on the other end. So basically you say hello and it takes a few seconds to hear the reply. That is a serious problem. The last thing you want is the end user complaining that they can't hear you.
The other problem with LCR is if the call will cost the carrier too much then they won't terminate the call. So lets say you are calling Bob Smith in Branson, Missouri and the local carrier there says it is going to cost 1.5 cents to terminate that call but the VOIP carrier is charging you 1 cent, they won't terminate the call. It doesn't make sense for the VOIP carrier to lose half a cent to terminate that call. Those numbers may be off a bit but hopefully you get the point. That is where point #2 above comes in.
2. Call termination percentage:
Every business owner wants to pay as little as possible for the best possible service. That is understood but the problem with finding the lowest rate in VOIP is that it is most often directly relates to quality. And when I say quality I am talking about routing and how many calls actually get terminated. We have had many wholesale VOIP providers where our rate averaged approximately.009 cents, just under a penny. The problem was that only 59-60% of the calls were terminated. Why? The local carrier charges too much to terminate the call so the VOIP provider chose not to terminate the call because of cost. Another issue is that you are loading data into your dialer which has a cost. If you are only able to dial 60% of your data, you are essentially paying for 40% of data that you will never be able to dial. A low termination rate increases your actual cost when factoring in data cost and reduces your calling universe. Let's say you are calling a certain demographic and it comprises 1 million people. In this example you would only be able to call 600k of those potential customers which affects the campaign in many ways.
Your goal should be to find a carrier that will terminate 90% of all calls. That is what we have been experiencing for over three months with our new carrier. From my experience it is impossible to terminate 100% of all calls. That is where the cost quality ratio is important. I feel that if I can get a rate of around 1.29 cents,with 6/6 billing, and 90% completion, then you have found a great carrier to partner with.
3. Cost:
Cost is very important because it affects the overall profitability of a campaign or call center. But the above factors must be considered when looking at a carrier. There are a few things to consider when choosing a carrier. Find one that does not use LCR(least cost routing) but uses premium routes where quality is the consideration not the cost. Second, find one that bills in 6/6 increments. That means 6 second start up, not 18 seconds or worse yet 30 seconds. That may not seem like a big issue but when you start dialing 10,000 answering machines a day you will be charged for 6 seconds not 18. Being charged 18 is 300% more than being charged for 6.
4. Does your VOIP carrier like call center traffic?
This is something rarely discussed but critical. If you can find a carrier that has all the above requirements but doesn't like call center traffic, you are nowhere. Carriers typically want calls to be of a certain length and they typically don't like what they refer to as short duration calls. Most call centers will have a ton of answering machines which are short duration calls. Because most of those will be in the 6 second billing category, your average call time will appear to be pretty short. Most companies don't like this traffic. If the call time is too short, it is highly likely they will shut you off immediately leaving you in a bind. Find a carrier that is OK with call center traffic.
5. Number of simultaneous calls per second:
This is the last but important point I will make. You have to make sure that the carrier can handle the amount of calls your dialer will make per second. We have had many instances where the carrier only allowed a certain number of simultaneous calls per second. The reason is these VOIP providers turned out to be resellers of a larger carrier. That carrier didn't like call center traffic. This reseller figured they could allow a certain number of simultaneous calls and blend it with their other traffic and nobody would notice. Because of their concern they wouldn't go above 10 per second. That was a huge concern when we had 20+ agents on the phone. Think about how many calls a dialer makes at any one time. If the carrier caps your per second limit, it will slow down your dialer. The dialer will have to wait for a line to open up in order to complete your call. You will notice your average wait time go up. We experienced an agent that would normally wait 3 seconds for a call have to wait 45 seconds largely because we were overwhelming the 10 calls per second allowed by the carrier. To simplify this picture a funnel. Your dialer wants to make a ton of calls but they put a restriction on how many you can make and everything bottlenecks. Deadly ingredient since one of your main goals is to make contacts, contacts, contacts.
I hope this helps and I hope I didn't overwhelm you with too many details. Everything mentioned above is what I experienced over three years trying to find a carrier to deliver what I needed. I finally found one that delivers everything mentioned above. For the first time in three years, dealing with VOIP carrier issues has not been a daily occurrence. It works exactly as we need it to so we can focus on growth.
Rob Labutis is an expert on many call center issues. To find out more about the best VOIP provider click here now!
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