What is “Call Barging”?

Upgrading to VoIP technology opens a whole new world of possibilities for businesses. VoIP features like voicemail and call hold are not new to users. Others like auto attendant were unaffordable for small or medium-sized businesses. Features like voicemail transcription or digital faxing from your inbox were not possible with the good old PSTN phones.

Sales and customer service organizations benefit even more by integrating the phones with CRM or helpdesk software. Sales departments and contact centers need specialized call features to manage the large volume of inbound and outbound calls effectively.

Features like caller monitoring and call barging are important tools for sales managers and call center supervisors. They can be useful for training, effective quality assurance, improving customer satisfaction and providing superior service for callers.

Listening, Whispering and Barging

Most people are familiar with the standard recording that comes on when users try to contact businesses, especially for support queries. The automated recording will state that the call may be monitored and recorded for quality or training purposes. Call monitoring is not an unusual feature by itself. It is available on a wide variety of telephony services and is not exclusive to VoIP.

However, VoIP technology allows users to go a few steps further. Managers and supervisors can monitor live calls as before. But they can also interact with either the agent or the customer in certain situations. On analog phone systems, sales or customer service calls are recorded for later review. You can then play them back to give feedback to agents. VoIP providers offered a few improvements to the process.

Call listening allows supervisors to monitor live calls without interference. You can make notes on the agent’s performance to offer feedback later on. Call whispering allows managers to talk to the agent without the customer being aware of what’s going on. It’s useful in situations where the agent is floundering or stumped by the customer’s query and you need to step in.

Call barging is the next step. Managers can jump into the call between the agent and customer and talk to both parties at the same time. You can instantly convert a two-way call into a conference call.

When Should You Barge in on Calls?

As a manager, it’s tempting to barge in on calls whenever an agent appears to be in trouble. However, not all callers will appreciate interruptions and some may even think it is intrusive. You also shouldn’t use call barging if you’re not adding value to the interaction between the support representative and the customer. Why barge in if you’re only reiterating the company policy? There’s no reason to interrupt unless you can do more to help the customer.

Call barging is useful when the agent is floundering with a particular issue or call. It is an effective tool when you are training new agents using practice calls with irate customers. Sometimes an upset caller asks to speak to a manager. Call barging can be useful for de-escalation when you don’t want to put the caller on hold for the time to transfer the call to your own line.

Benefits of Call Barging

New agents will appreciate the call barging feature since it gives them support when they need it. What’s the point of recording calls and providing feedback later on when you’ve already missed an opportunity to improve the customer experience? There is nothing worse for a manager than listening to a live call and being unable to interrupt or help.

Even experienced call-center agents can use support in certain situations like a new product launch or a promotional event. Sometimes a defect or bug is uncovered in a product and your call center will experience a flood of incoming calls. With call barging, you can ensure that callers get a consistent experience and the correct facts.

Call barging can also help you reduce call transfers and call hold times. Few customers appreciate being put on hold for several minutes while the agent transfers the call to someone else. It can also reduce miscommunication. The last thing you want to do with an angry caller is making them describe the same problem to different people. With call barging, the agent can explain the situation to the manager while the customer is listening.

Call barging is an excellent feature for managing a remote call-center workforce. It is hard enough to train agents when they’re sitting in front of you. But how do you handle issues when your agents are working from home or remote locations?Remote agents might not have access to the same resources that your on-premise teams use. In those situations, call barging will help you resolve issues.

How to use call barging feature in VoIPstudio

When a call is runing in VoIPstudio, the supervisor can enter an agent’s call from a desktop phone by dialing the intrusion prefix #44 followed by the agent’s extension. They can also do this from the VoIPstudio app as shown in this video:

1. From the supervisor’s contact panel, they can see the status of all agents.
2. Those agents who are in conversation will show a red phone icon.
3. We start the intrusion by clicking on the ear icon.
4. By default, the intrusion is initiated in mute mode.
5. The supervisor can switch to whisper mode, conference mode, or return to mute mode.

Call Barging Modes

• Mute mode allows listening to a call between a customer and an agent without joining the conversation. This feature is useful for quality control, taking notes, and discussing results with the agent once the call ends.
• Whisper mode allows the supervisor or manager to speak to the agent during the call without the customer hearing them. This feature is useful for guidance and training, as the supervisor or manager can provide guidance and feedback to the agent without interrupting the conversation.
• Conference mode allows the supervisor to join the conversation between the agent and the customer, making it a three-way call.

So there you have it. Call barging is an indispensable tool for supervisors managing sales or contact center teams. Try it today and see what you’ve been missing!