Just about every Business VoIP provider these days makes it very simple to customize and tailor your phone lines through online management portals. When managers and administrators are incredibly busy and bogged down with other responsibilities, access to a quick view of what is going on in the office, and even out of the office, will be incredibly beneficial.
Utilizing these online management portals, users can add or drop lines, change extensions, play with different features and, more importantly, even access some very detailed call analytics and reporting logs. These call report logs are a great way to view call activity for a business, understand the direction that business is taking, or on a smaller scale understand which phone lines have a higher volume than others.
The Power of Tracking Your Data
With these call report logs, users can at a glance gain a wealth of information about their phone system and how it is being used in and out of the office. Managers can track metrics like the number of inbound and outbound calls, either from a specific date range or overall, the length of each individual call, how many calls are answered or missed, any voicemails that are left on your system, how many online faxes are sent or received and to where, as well as even access recordings of each individual call right in the same portal online.
With such a massive amount of information about your system, and how it is being used, available at the click of a button, understanding how to leverage this information to improve your bottom line in anyway can be an absolute game changer. These call report logs are a great way to view call activity for a business, understand the direction that business is taking, or on a smaller scale understand which phone lines have a higher volume than others. Call logs can even be used to measure progress and efficiency, helping managers recognize when they might need to grow or even scale down their teams.
Crucial Information To Keep An Eye On
Most call report logs will gather similar, straight forward calling information and offer similar data points to track. Depending on your provider, or specific service plan, the data points may differ slightly but should include most if not all of the common, more important pieces of information. For example, if your service does not include online faxing, then your logs of course will represent that.
- Call Logs: Of course, these logs will include a complete list of all and every call made with your phone system. These logs will track not only inbound and outbound calls, but sometimes even missed or answered calls as well. Users can look at an entire list of all calls ever made, or choose a specific date range to narrow down results.
- The Method of Contact: Starting with the basics, most if not every call report log will include an overall list of the transactions made on your system and how they were made. These reports will log all calls, faxes, international communications and business text messages if applicable.
- Who Is Being Contacted: Beyond just calls and faxes being made, these logs will usually include more in depth information to show what phone numbers are calling in, or being called out by your system. If your service includes online faxing, users can also monitor where faxes are being sent and received from.
- Track all phone activity: Users can narrow down these call reports to a specific phone line, and take a look an in-depth look at what numbers your phone lines are calling, what phone numbers are calling in, the length of each call, and even call volume to understand which line makes or receives the most calls in any given period of time.
- Manage and Listen To Recorded Phone Calls: Again, depending on your provider and level of service, call recording can often be turned on or off from these online management portals, and call reporting logs will even let users access the recording of each call right from the logs themselves. If you notice an agent had an incredibly long or short call, you can listen to the recording to see how that went.
In addition, some providers aim to make international calling simple and include unlimited international plans, while others will charge per minute based on a rate specific to each individual country. These rates and minutes used could be reflected in your call reporting logs based on what service level your business uses. Many online reporting logs also allow users to track their billing, manage features and other related expenses.
How can your team take advantage of this new data?
Call report logs will have a great benefit for any company that relies on their phone system for a large percentage of their communication. Many companies solely operate based on their communication with clients, customers and potential prospects. Depending on your business and specific use case, the most important factors to pay attention to may differ. Whether you run a contact or call center, the real power of these call reports is to have a watchful eye for your phone usage.
Sales:
If your company focuses on sales, a great use for call reporting logs would be to keep track of the frequency of calls, how many calls are made in a day, any downtime between calls, and of course the length of each calls. If you notice an agent makes a massive amount of calls per day, but they only last for 30 seconds at a time, this may give you a better understanding of how that agent is preforming.
Leveraging the information to understand how your employees are preforming can help a business best tailor its practices to improve in anyway possible. If outbound calls and high volume are your priority, keeping track of your system can call logs is a very helpful way to keep track of productivity and manage quotas to set more realistic goals.
Customer Service:
In a similar fashion to sales, utilizing an in depth look at your agents call activity will help your business tailor its practices to preform at the highest level of efficiency. Again it will depend on your specific use case, as quantity does not always equate to quality, but with the ability to track each individual phone line’s activity you can leverage that information to improve the bottom line.
If an agent is on the phone line for an unexpectedly short period of time for each call, and those numbers end up calling in again to speak with another agent, an administrator can then use that information to help improve training, or work with an individual agent to improve their efficiency.
General Use:
If your business does not rely on outside communications, inbound or outbound, like Sales and Customer Service, your team can still benefit greatly from understanding and using the data collected by these call reporting logs. Of course no one likes to micromanage and have a watchful eye over their shoulder, but with call reports it managers can take a deeper look at their worker’s activity, and learn more about their phone usage. If employees are on the phone for hours at a time with personal calls, productivity will take a clear hit – and the power of these reporting logs allows managers to take a closer look at this specific activity.
Beyond just phone call statistics, users can even take a look at billing, minutes used, most used features, as well as other expenses – even how many faxes are sent and to where. If your business makes a large number of international calls, these reporting logs will help gain a better understanding of what countries are contacted the most, and track the individual rates if your provider does not include international calling in a simple package.
With Call Logs, Managers Can:
Strategically Plan And Tailor Your Team
Track all of your transactions, calls, faxes, and any expenses, billing and overall business metrics. With a close eye on your call reports, its easy to keep track of the flow of your business and maintain expectations and ensure the highest level of efficiency.
Stay On Top of Your Data, Anytime and Anywhere
With the ability to log into web based portals from any internet connected device, even if you are out of the office or on the other side of the country, managers can stay on top of their business and their team’s activity with a watchful eye.
Many call logs even allow users to download their data in Microsoft Excel fire formats, and sometimes schedule email delivers of these call logs for offline access and even stronger analysis.
Sort Through Logs For Your Need
Users can sort through logs based on time, date range, or specific phone lines. With the ability to gain a wide overall perspective, or zoom into an incredibly specific range of metrics, managers can utilize this information on a wide company scale, or help manage one team or specific agent. Improve your bottom line with the ability to hone in on what road bumps will need to be smoothed out.
Your One Resource For All Your Calling Needs
With their online management portals and access to online call reporting logs, users can utilize this platform to not only gather and take a closer look at their statistics, but even act on them. With the ability to return or place calls directly from the web thanks to soft phones, any short or disconnected calls can quickly be recouped directly from your web browser. Call recordings are incredibly easy to access as well, right within the context of your call logs with all the necessary information available right away.
