What is CTI?
CTI stands for Computer Telephony Integration and describes an existing connection between a computer and a telephone. This connection can be used from both sides, which means that the computer can communicate with the phone and vice versa.
The coupling of telephone and computer brings many advantages. For example, customers can be selected in the customer database or a CRM on the PC and then called directly with the click of a mouse. Looking at the interaction the other way around, the advantages of Computer Telephony Integration become even more obvious:
- Using features like automatic caller identification, you get the appropriate customer data from databases like a classic CRM (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and many more) directly on your screen when you call, thanks to a CTI interface.
- If a user misses a call, he can view this directly on his computer including all customer details and thus call the customer back immediately with a mouse click.
- Call forwarding – Automatically forward calls to a new destination or according to pre-defined criteria.
- Advanced call reporting features
- Integration of voice recordings
The described points are mostly executed automatically thanks to the CTI interface and predefined processes and make the daily work of employees who make a lot of phone calls much easier. The visual representation of the phone on your desktop is in most cases done via a softphone (click hereif you want to read our blog article “The most important advantages of softphones“).
Beyond these automatisms, CTI provides a basis for many other functions. Especially in combination with artificial intelligence based analysis tools like the link|that sentiment analysis, companies can gain a lot of insights for quality assurance and continuously improve their service.
The direct control possibilities via CTI features are also very large. Common CTI desktop features that we set up especially often for our customers:
- Dialog box – display with call information such as the number of the caller (ANI=Automatic Number Identification), dialed number (DNIS = Dialed Number Identification Service) and dialog box when the call is answered, with or without the connection data. This function is generally used to search for more detailed caller information using a business application.
- Dialing – Automatic dialing and computer-controlled dialing (Power Dialing, Preview Dialing, Predictive Dialing).
- Phone control – Includes call control (answer, hang up, hold, conference call, etc.) and feature control (DND (do not disturb), call forwarding, etc.).
- Call Transfer – Coordinated transfer of calls and data between two call parties (forwarding the dialog window with the call).
- Call Center – Allows users to log in as a call center agent and control their status as an agent (Ready, Busy, Not Ready, On Break, etc.).
If you have any further questions about the topic, or are interested in a CTI solution, we would be happy to hear from you and we can assist you.