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. This 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
These described points are mostly executed automatically thanks to the CTI interface and predefined processes. This makes the daily work of employees who make a lot of phone calls much easier.
CTI in action
You can also see a number of useful CTI features in this video. Here we have connected Sinch’s PBX with CTI in the background to add new features to the SAP Service Cloud:
Here you can already see some of our latest AI features.
CTI The requirement for good AI
Anyone who is still on the road today without a CTI solution can miss out on the opportunity to make meaningful use of new technologies. Only with a modern infrastructure with Voice over IP (VoIP) can data be prepared for the use of artificial intelligence. This results in many other advantages:
- Intelligent distribution (routing) of calls
- Automatic information and sensible use of waiting time (voice bots)
- Real-time support during calls
- Sentiment analysis to be able to analyze difficult moments in the teges business.
- Full texting of calls in real time and after the fact for further analysis.
Many of these benefits are essential for good customer service today.
All data and functions always within reach
With CTI, the use of classic telephones is still possible. However, these are usually replaced or supplemented by a digital telephone. The visual representation of the phone on your desktop is in most cases done via a softphone. More Information can be found here – “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 LinkThat 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.).
Discover CTI advantages
If you have any further questions or are interested in a CTI solution, don’t hesitate to get in touch! We are happy to hear from you.
You can find out more about CTI on our LinkThat CUBE page. If you want to learn more about AI features, you can also take a look at the LinkThat ECCO page.