The New Era Of CX Starts With A Smarter Hello
For Call Routing Optimization, Learn a Lesson from GPS
Nearly a quarter of businesses (24%) are using AI for call routing optimization, and another quarter are planning to follow suit. That's what my company learned when we surveyed customer experience leaders in a wide range of companies for The Leader's Guide to CX Trends in 2025.
There are two key lessons in this. First, any business not tapping into the potential of this technology will fall well behind its competitors. And second, among businesses that do adopt technologies for optimizing where calls are routed, the differentiation will lie in how well those systems perform.
Amid all of the potential of AI, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that consumers still like to call companies. Data compiled by CMSWire shows that customers prefer speaking by phone to a human for urgent and non-urgent issues; 61% of call center leaders say volumes have increased since 2021, despite the availability of self-service solutions and chatbots; and 71% expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. So not only is call center volume still very high, it's also facing a burden of higher-than-ever expectations.
Getting a caller to the right agent as quickly as possible is a must. Lots of tools claim to offer that capability. But they're not all created equal.
In a blog post, Ken McMahon with Nextiva provided a helpful analogy. 'You're running late for an appointment and need to get there as soon as possible,' he wrote. 'A basic GPS might simply provide you with the shortest route, regardless of traffic conditions… An advanced GPS, however, uses real-time traffic data to suggest the fastest route. It optimizes your journey by considering factors like traffic flow, road closures, and accidents. That's how intelligent call routing (ICR) works.'
What kind of information does a top-notch ICR system include? Obvious factors like the type of service needed, its level of complexity, and what kind of expertise may be relevant come into play. But so do many other factors that are less obvious.
A recent study published in the journal Frontiers of Computer Science reviewed a great deal of research around the characteristics that systems can pick up in order to route a call to the best possible agent. Ecaterina Coman of Transilvania University in Romania focused on businesses in which the initial call goes to an interactive voice system rather than a human agent. But intelligent call routing can also operate in the background when a person takes the initial call.
Researchers have found that 'the effectiveness of call routing to the agent can be improved if machine learning systems are implemented to obtain biometric data from the customer's voice, such as the caller's age, gender and emotional state,' she wrote.
Dramatically enhancing the customer experience
My team breaks down the process into a series of steps leveraging data, analytics, and automation. AI-powered intelligent call routing systems collecting caller input like account numbers, reasons for callings, location, account history, previous interactions and more. The system analyzes all this to understand the caller's intent and match it with predefined routing rules and agent capabilities.
This is where skill based routing comes into play. Software determines the unique combination of skills most likely to help provide what the caller is looking for. And because the organization measures employees' skill sets, it can determine who should take over the call. Of course, availability factors in as well. With all this information, intelligent call routing sends the call to the right person.
The process is designed to get callers' issues resolved with the highest possible success rates, dramatically enhancing CX.
Call routing optimization does not automatically require a whole new set of tools. These days, a unified customer experience management (UCXM) platform can include this functionality. By streamlining all communications into a single, AI-powered platform, organizations give everyone access to the information they need and maximize the information available for all parts of the customer journey to work in sync.
When people drive, they want to get to their destination as quickly as possible, with the smoothest, most comfortable ride. When they call a business, they want the same thing -- a quick, smooth experience, getting them where they were trying to go. With the best call routing optimization in place, organizations can make this happen, and pull ahead of the competition.
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