Call Screening for Business Communication

When you think of call screening, you likely think about filtering out all the robocalls you receive on your personal phone. That’s not surprising since US consumers received over 50.3 billion robocalls in 2022. But call screening for business communications goes way beyond blocking robocalls. Screening incoming business calls can save time by routing calls to the right team member and improving customer experience.

So just what is call screening, and what are the best ways for businesses to utilize it?

Incoming call screening is the process of responding to calls based on who the caller is and the nature of their call. Historically, a live receptionist was responsible for screening and routing calls. But today there are a multitude of ways to automate call screening using widely available technology, both on your individual devices and business phone system.

Businesses should screen calls to streamline operations, optimize productivity, and ensure a positive customer experience. Each of your staff can only handle one call at a time. Call screening helps prioritize calls, filter out spam or robocalls, and route callers to the right agent. This saves time and prevents customers from getting frustrated by being transferred multiple times to accomplish their desired result.

There are many advantages of telephone call screening for businesses, including:

There are three elements involved in call screening:

There are multiple ways to automate these steps, which will depend on your phone device or business calling system.

There are a few useful strategies to screen calls on mobile devices, including:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems make telephone call screening easy. These platforms enable you to set up professional business features like a virtual receptionist, an auto-attendant (IVR), call routing, and business call screening. Using these features eliminates robocalls and reduces unnecessary or off-hours calls.

Effective call screening can be extremely beneficial for business efficiency and customer service; consider implementing these best practices when screening phone calls for your business:

If you have automated options for certain processes or a robust FAQ and knowledge base online, include this information in your business welcome greeting or include routing to pre-recorded information such as hour of operation. This will likely reduce call volume to your support staff and boost customer satisfaction.

This will prevent confusion and ensure calls are routed properly, to avoid frustration from excessive call transfers and customers needing to repeatedly explain their situation.

This allows for an even distribution of incoming calls between agents, prevents staff burnout, and reduces caller wait times.

Create an after hours message for when your business is closed and set up appropriate call routing for these times as well so no call is missed and customers know how to proceed.

Integrating your customer relationship management (CRM) platform with your phone system facilitates prioritizing calls and routing them accordingly. For example, you may have existing customers who pay for premium service. This allows incoming calls from existing customers’ phone numbers to be routed automatically to the correct department in a timely fashion.

Ensure that your calls are easily recognized and accepted when returning customer calls by setting up your outgoing caller ID information.

With LinkedPhone, it’s easy to screen incoming calls in a variety of ways including the use of a virtual receptionist, an IVR, and our business call screening feature. Of course, both a virtual receptionist and IVR can entirely block robocalls, but there are multiple features involved in leveraging these approaches, including:

Call menu options automatically complete an action based on the caller’s selection. For example, calls can be routed by simply asking callers to press 1 for store hours, press 2 for customer service, press 3 for billing questions, press 4 for voicemail, press 5 for company directory.

All devices linked to your business phone number ring only when you want them to, so you screen out all business-related calls during off hours with this feature. Simply configure your Virtual Receptionist to handle calls differently during business hours and non-business hours.

If you’re using your mobile device for business calls, LinkedPhone’s call screening feature makes it easy to differentiate between business calls and personal calls. Your phone will display the name of the caller and, if applicable, the call menu option selected. This gives you an idea of the nature of the call before answering.

A welcome greeting provides callers with essential information and directions. You can use this greeting to inform callers of automated or self-serve options including a robust FAQ or knowledge base on your website.

You can set up your LinkedPhone Virtual Receptionist to route business calls to mobile phones, office IP phones, and landlines. When routing calls to specific teams such as sales or service you have the option to have:

Then, if the entire team is busy, the caller can be placed in queue listening to hold music until a team member is available to assist them, and you can direct unanswered calls to voicemail after a designated amount of time.

Pre-recorded informational messages can be triggered by callers selecting options related to specific information such as business hours, office location, company website address, email, special sales, promotions, company events, or general updates about your business. This enables callers to get the desired information without taking up valuable staff time or needing to wait on hold.

Business voicemail is sent immediately to the LinkedPhone mobile app and to your email address. Voicemail transcription makes it faster and easier to screen voicemails and prioritize them accordingly.

A company directory is automatically created as you add team members in LinkedPhone. This directory is automatically maintained as you add or remove team members from the business. This enables callers to search for team members by name or extension.

These sub-menus enable callers to be routed to specific individuals or functions within a specific department and minimizes the need for call transfers.

Screening incoming calls for your business boosts productivity and improves the customer experience. With so many ways to screen phone calls, there’s no reason for anyone on your team to keep taking unwanted or unnecessary calls. Select the method that you like best, or use a combination of strategies which works best with your business phone system. Your customers and your staff will thank you.

Interested in trying our feature-rich call screening options? Start your 7-day free trial of LinkedPhone today!