Phone call screening: How to use it wisely for your business

Surveys, telemarketing calls and spam calls can overload a business’s telephone system. The solution to that is phone call screening, which will help you prioritise callers. By identifying callers in advance, phone call screening can optimise communication and improve productivity.

In this article, we’ll understand how phone call screening works, learn its benefits and discover the top phone call screening features you should look for.

What is call screening?

Phone call screening allows you to know who is calling you. This helps you decide how you want to respond to that particular call. Most people would have used caller identification but that’s only a part of phone call screening.

With caller identification, you can know the caller’s name and phone number. In some cases, you would also know their location. It will also show whether it’s a spam caller on the line. With all this information, the receiver can decide whether to answer the call, reject it, pass it to someone else, direct it to another department or let it go to voicemail.

The need for advanced phone call screening

But what if the call is from another business or residence with multiple people? How would you know which employee or individual is on the line? Or what if they use call masking? That’s where ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) can help you.

Advanced phone call screening uses an automated virtual attendant to ask a caller their name and if needed, the reason for their call. This helps agents know who’s calling them and for what purpose. They can then decide to answer the call or route it to a less busy or more qualified team member.

How call screening works

The information related to all phone users is stored in a database called Calling Name or CNAM. Whenever someone makes or receives a call, the caller’s and recipient’s CNAM services connect their numbers to the names in those databases. This is how phone call screening takes place.

On top of it, most telecom providers now have a list of telemarketing or cold-calling numbers marked as spam. Whenever any of these calls come in, the provider checks their number against its database. If it’s identified as from the database, the recipient will be shown a message that reads “Scam Likely” along with the usual caller ID.

Top call screening features to look for

More than caller identification, phone call screening can also give you these features that will benefit your business.

Call routing

With call routing, you can direct callers to agents who would be more suited to answer their calls. Through an IVR option, callers will be able to choose the one that best meets their requirements. This improves the quality of the response. Call routing also evenly distributes workload during peak hours.

Callback

Even with call routing, you could miss some calls, particularly during peak hours. But with callback, the software will automatically dial the caller once an agent is available. It will try it a few times until the caller is connected to the agent.

Call forwarding

What if an agent is away from their workstation or if the call has to reach an employee who’s travelling or is at home? Call forwarding can automatically direct calls to specified mobile phones or landlines to make sure that no call goes unanswered.

The benefits of call screening

Quick identification of callers. Phone call screening lets you know immediately who’s calling you. This helps agents decide whether they should answer or reject the call.

Fewer spam calls. With phone call screening, you can prevent spam calls from reaching your business number. If you decide to direct all unknown calls to voicemail, it will free up your agents’ time.

Increased productivity. With fewer spam calls or cold calls to attend, your agents can focus on customers’ problems and provide effective solutions. With call forwarding, you also get to improve productivity even when your team members aren’t in one place.

Greater customer satisfaction. Shorter wait times and longer and more focused interactions with agents will make your customers happy.

Fewer missed calls. With call forwarding and callback, you will reduce the number of missed calls to your business. More customers and marketing leads will be able to reach your number.

Use Chalkboard and put your customers first

You can use phone call screening and call masking to protect your business. But it may not be the best option for small businesses and startups. Chalkboard gives you a second line for work, which will help you separate your professional and personal communication. This also protects your private number from spammers and robocalls.

Moreover, Chalkboard also allows you to share your numbers. There will always be someone to take your customer’s calls and you won’t have to worry about callback, call routing or call forwarding.

Too busy to take a call? You can use auto-reply to send a pre-written message to the caller. Broadcast SMS and messaging unlock the power of conversational marketing for your business.

Download Chalkboard and try it now. It’s an easy-to-use and affordable virtual number designed to improve customer engagement.