--- title: "Customer service" description: "Contact centre software with skills-based routing, queue callback, screen pop and a voice bot that escalates with full context." url: https://firetone.com.au/solutions/customer-service site: Firetone provider: RemotIQ Pty Ltd keywords: "contact centre software, customer service software, skills based routing, queue callback, screen pop, service level agreement, call deflection, IVR" --- # Get the caller to somebody who can actually help. Every inbound number becomes a campaign with its own IVR, queue behaviour, routing rules and SLA. Routine requests resolve without a person; everything else reaches an agent who already has the context. ## Hold time is a symptom, not the disease Every service operation is measured on wait time, and most attempts to improve it work on the queue: more agents, tighter schedules, a faster wrap target. Those help, and they run out quickly, because a large share of hold time is created before the queue by calls arriving in the wrong place. A caller who spends four minutes with the wrong team, gets transferred, and starts again has consumed eight minutes of capacity to receive one answer. Multiply that across a shift and the queue is long because the routing is wrong, not because the floor is too small. ## What happens to an inbound call ### 01. Intent is captured, not guessed The caller states the problem in natural speech rather than mapping it onto a numeric menu. ### 02. Routine requests resolve in place Balance enquiries, booking changes and delivery status are completed by the voice bot, including the data lookups they need. No queue, no agent. ### 03. Everything else routes on skill Language, product, account value and agent proficiency decide who receives the call. ### 04. Hold time becomes optional Callers are offered a callback that retains their queue position, so waiting is something they spend doing anything else. ### 05. The agent starts informed Screen pop opens the record before the agent speaks, carrying the IVR path, the bot transcript and the captured intent. ## Running the operation ### Visual IVR designer Menus, prompts, data dips and conditions on a canvas, published without a maintenance window. ### Skills and value routing Match on language, product, account value and proficiency instead of dealing calls round-robin. ### Queue callback Offer a call back instead of hold, with the caller's position in the queue preserved. ### Live wallboards Service level, longest wait and abandon rate per campaign, visible while the shift is running. ### Blended agents Move seats between inbound and outbound as volume shifts, inside one console. ### Per-campaign SLA Each published number carries its own staffing plan and SLA, reported against separately. ### Live sentiment escalation A call heading toward a complaint reaches a supervisor while it is still open. ### QA on every call All calls scored against your rubric rather than the small sample a team can listen to. ## What to measure, and what to be careful of Service level — the share of calls answered within a target time — remains the most useful single number, because it captures the caller's experience rather than the operation's convenience. It is worth reporting per campaign rather than in aggregate, since one well-staffed number can hide another that is failing. Abandon rate is the honest companion to it. A queue that looks healthy on service level while a fifth of callers hang up before being answered is not healthy; it has simply stopped counting the people it failed. Both are on the wallboard for that reason. ## The service desk and the phone system are the same system Inbound campaigns share extensions, hunt groups, presence and voicemail with the office PBX. An agent and a colleague in accounts are on one directory, so a transfer is a transfer rather than an external call, and presence is real across branches and remote desks. Voicemail left on any extension arrives as email with a transcript, a summary and a detected intent, which removes the other place service requests traditionally go to die. ## Customer service questions ### How is skills-based routing different from just queueing calls? A plain queue deals the next call to the next free agent. Skills-based routing matches on attributes — language, product knowledge, account value, proficiency — so the call reaches somebody equipped to resolve it first time. ### Does queue callback lose the caller's place? No. The position is retained and the system calls back when that position reaches the front. ### What can the voice bot actually resolve? Requests with a definite answer that the system can look up or change: balances, booking and appointment changes, delivery and order status, simple account updates. It performs the data lookups those need. ### Can we change the IVR flow without involving a vendor? Yes. The flow is built on a canvas — menus, prompts, data dips, conditions — and published without taking the number out of service. ## Keep reading - [IVR and voice bot](https://firetone.com.au/features/ivr-voice-bot) — The designer, routing rules and handoff thresholds in detail. - [Cloud PBX](https://firetone.com.au/features/cloud-pbx) — Extensions, hunt groups and voicemail behind the service desk. - [Reminders and notifications](https://firetone.com.au/solutions/reminders-notifications) — Reduce inbound volume by telling people before they have to ask.