Chapter 3 Summary

Telephone communication remains a vital channel between businesses and customers, with service desks using technologies from basic voicemail to advanced systems like VoIP, ACDs, and VRUs. Every customer call is an opportunity to reinforce organizational success, especially through key interactions like answering, messaging, and closing calls—even when handling unsupported products. To avoid frustrating customers, service desk professionals must manage hold times and transfers with empathy and a solid grasp of company procedures. Developing strong telephone skills requires ongoing effort, including self-study, feedback, and monitoring. Using scripts can help build consistency, while maintaining a positive attitude and self-care ensures lasting excellence in customer support.

 

Glossary

  • automatic number identification (ANI)
    A service provided by a long-distance service provider that discloses the telephone number of the person calling.
  • available state
    An ACD state that occurs when an analyst is ready to take calls.
  • cold transfer
    A way of transferring a telephone call when you stay on the line only long enough to ensure that the call has been transferred successfully.
  • computer telephony integration (CTI)
    The linking of computing technology with telephone technology to exchange information and increase productivity.
  • skills-based routing (SBR)
    An ACD feature that matches the requirements of an incoming call to the skill sets of available analysts or analyst groups; the ACD then distributes the call to the next available, appropriately qualified analyst.

Glossary continued

  • event-driven survey
    A customer satisfaction survey that asks customers for feedback on a single, recent service event.
  • hot transfer
    A way of transferring a telephone call when you stay on the linewith the customer and the service provider whom you are engaging in the call; also known as a conference call.
  • off-the-shelf
    A temporary way to circumvent or minimize the impact of an incident.
  • screen pop
    A CTI function that enables information about the caller to appear, or pop up, on an analyst’s monitor based on caller information captured by the telephone system and passed to a computer system.
  • voice response unit (VRU)
    A technology that integrates with another technology, such as a database or a network management system, to obtain information or to perform a function; also called an interactive voice response unit (IVRU).