Call Accounting

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One of the best ways to quickly reduce your telephone costs and boost productivity is to implement call accounting software.  In order to choose the right software for your business you need to understand what type of telephone equipment you have and what your computer operating system is.  Most call accounting software programs will state if they are Windows or Mac based, and what other requirements are needed to run their software.

What Call Accounting Software Can Do For Your Organization

Call Accounting Software is used to collect and store information from a business telephone system.  It collects data from the call detail of each telephone extension and allows you to generate summary and detail reports.  Call detail can also be gathered from devices such as fax machines. 

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Call accounting by definition is a telecommunications software package or hardware system that will allow organizations to capture call detail records and figure the cost of telephone calls.  A call accounting system will detect and record information on incoming and outgoing calls, the calls that are abandoned, where the calls went to, where the calls came from, and many other options.

A call accounting system allows companies, hotels, call centers, schools, government offices, and many other organizations the ability to monitor the performance of their voice network.  Call accounting has the ability to provide very detailed reports to varying groups and departments within the organization.  These reports can be used to bill for communications services, to allocate expenses, and to even monitor for fraud and employee performance.    

There are many other reasons to utilize a call accounting system today.  These reasons include:

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Used to collect information from a business telephone system, the data call accounting systems provide comes from each phone extension’s call detail.  Call detail can also be gathered from devices such as fax machines. 

A business phone system might be a Voice over IP or VoIP gateway that serves several locations, or it could be a key telephone system with just a few lines and extensions.  Call accounting systems will also the mid to large sized PBXs.  A call accounting system can cover every extension and line that a company is responsible for, or it can be programmed to gather the data only on specific telephone extensions or when specific service lines are used to make a call.

With Telecommunications fraud on the rise call accounting systems can help alert you to each occurrence. See http://www.billingworld.com/articles/2004/07/telecom-fraud-on-the-rise.aspx for more information. 

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A local Customer Service Record or CSR is the internal local telephone company record of your account.  This record should accurately reflect what services, features, and other billing records for the lines and trunks you actually have in place.  While CSR is the most common term for this record, some Telco’s will call this a “PBX/Key/Multiline” record, or a “2733” record.  There are some Local Exchange Carriers, or LECS that call this a service record or billing services record. 

In Part 1 of this article a general explanation was given as to what information a CSR held and how your business might utilize the CSR to manage your local telecom expense.  Here is some additional information that will help you decipher the CSR once you get it.

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If you plan to complete an audit on your business telecommunications, it won’t be complete unless you do a thorough review of your local service records.  Those service records are commonly referred to as a CSR or Customer Service Record.  You must request a CSR from your local service provider.  If you have more than one location, or more than one local service provider to cover those locations, it will take several requests.  You’ll find that taking the time will be well worth the effort. 

What is a CSR?

A local CSR contains specific information concerning how your telephone records appear in the telephone company’s database.  The information contained in this record is how the local Telco computes your monthly bill.  This record contains information like how many local lines or trunks you have and the type of service. 

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For many companies, the products you sell or the services you provide are available from multiple sources.  Now more than ever, a strong loyalty between you and your customers is critical.  It is a widely known fact that the happier your customers are with your service, the less likely they will be to shop around the next time they need what you have to offer.  Plus, it takes more money and time to bring in a new customer, than it does to take care of an existing one. 

If your customers aren’t satisfied with your customer service, they will go somewhere else and it will cost you in revenue, and in dollars and time spent to replace them.  So what is the number one best practice for call centers that you can incorporate into your call center to ensure your organization offers the highest levels of customer satisfaction?

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Anytime a business adds new telecom equipment or services (like call accounting or call recording systems) to their company inventory it’s a good time to create a formal telephone policy.  If your company already has a written policy, then this is a good time to review that policy and make any needed changes based on new technology and your company’s requirements. 

Here are some examples of possible situations that impact your telephone bill and what you might include in a written telephone policy for your business. 

EMPLOYEE PERSONAL CALLS

ABC company recognizes that our employees occasionally need to make personal calls to family members, friends, or to take care of personal business during work hours.  We ask that you take care of those calls on your lunch or break and that you not misuse the telephone system with long duration calls or frequent calling.     

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Companies today simply can’t afford to pay for things they don’t need, pay more for services than they’ve agreed to, or reimburse customer disputed charges for services or goods ordered without specific verification of the dispute.  Yet companies often do these things simply because they don’t accurately audit their telecom expenses or utilize existing technology to combat incorrect invoices and customer requested charge backs.

It is important to realize that unless you actively manage your telecom assets…including compiling an inventory of equipment and contracts, and completing a monthly audit of bills and reports…you are probably paying for services you no longer need, are paying too much for those services, or have too many providers furnishing those services. 

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Call accounting systems help companies manage all the complex issues in regards to items like the telephone system performance, employee habits and productivity, and accurate chargeback of time and expense. 

Telephone System Performance

A call accounting system can not only record call specifics like originating and terminating party, length of call, and the expense—but it can also help you optimize your voice systems.  There are reporting options that allow you to view line and trunk usage.  This would show if there are times during the day, or days during the week where all trunks are being utilized. 

To find out more about our call accounting solutions, click here

With your new Call Accounting system in place it is important to take a few minutes and really consider how to get the most out of this technology.  This article will concentrate on different processes and procedures that will help you implement and utilize call accounting in your business. 

Tip Number One

The first tip has to do with time and responsibility.  One of the biggest mistakes companies make is putting call accounting into place without having a system administrator with clearly defined responsibilities and goals for utilizing the technology.