Learn how call whispering can give your call center agents critical information to meet customer needs.
As anyone who’s ever worked in customer service could tell you, the more context you have about a customer’s needs, the better. Call whispering is a valuable feature call centers can use to help agents with that pain point.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss what call whispering is, how it works, and how your business can benefit from it. Keep reading to learn more.
Call whispering provides agents with important information before they answer an inbound call. With call whispering, agents can receive a display message, voice recording, or text-to-speech generated verbal message. That message can tell agents why a particular customer is calling. This information helps them better assist the customer and improve the overall experience.
Call whispering typically works in the following way:
Call whispering can be used for a variety of purposes, including to:
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Call whispering has several main benefits for businesses, including:
By providing agents with information about the caller before the call starts, call whispering can help agents provide a more personalized experience for the customer. Personalization is critical in a world where nearly 70% of customers expect brands to understand their needs.
Through more personalized experiences, call whispering can help businesses enhance customer satisfaction, leading to increased customer loyalty and retention.
Call whispering can help agents quickly identify the reason for the customer's call, allowing agents to address the issue more efficiently. In addition, by providing agents with more information about the customer's specific needs or interests before the call starts, agents spend less time hunting down background information in their notes or CRM.
With the ability to immediately understand what a customer is calling about, call whispering allows agents to address the customer's issue more quickly and effectively.
Additional information about a customer's needs and interests helps agents make more targeted product or service recommendations, increasing sales and revenue. In addition, call whispering can help agents tailor their conversations with customers based on the advertising campaigns they’re responding to, leading to more effective sales outcomes.
Call whispering is a valuable feature that can help improve the customer service experience, increase efficiency, and drive more sales. By providing agents with customer information—such as which campaign they’re responding to—before they start a conversation, businesses can ensure their call center is operating at peak efficiency and delivering the best possible customer experience.
To implement call whisper functionality, businesses should ensure their call center software has the necessary features and capabilities. They should also train their agents on how to effectively use call whispering and ensure they’re familiar with the specific advertising campaigns or promotions the business is running.
Telnyx’s contact center solutions can provide your business with the tools you need to communicate efficiently and effectively with your customers. With a global private network supported by over 15 points of presence (PoPs) and local numbers in over 140 countries, you can reliably reach your customers from anywhere. Finally, our Inbound Call Whisper tool can give your agents the information they need to meet your customers’ needs.
What is a call whisper message? Call whispering is a brief, private audio prompt played to the agent before or as a voice connection is established, and the caller cannot hear it. It typically shares source, intent, or instructions so agents start with context.
How does call whisper work in a contact center? An IVR or routing system detects the inbound path and, using call control, inserts a short audio prompt to the agent line just before connect. The system then bridges both parties and two-way voice begins without exposing the prompt to the caller.
Do customers hear the call whisper? No, the whisper plays only to the receiving agent’s device or softphone. The caller joins after the prompt or timeout, so they never hear it.
What are the benefits of call whisper for sales and customer support teams? Teams get faster resolution, better personalization, and fewer misroutes because inbound call whisper gives agents context at the outset. It can also improve routing accuracy when combined with campaign tags or CRM screen pops.
Is call whisper legal and compliant? In many regions, a whisper heard only by the agent is not subject to two-party recording consent, but local laws and sector rules still apply. Confirm requirements around announcements, consent, and data handling with your legal and compliance teams.
How is call whisper different from monitoring, barge, and coaching? A whisper is a pre-connect cue for the agent, while monitor, barge, and coach are supervisor modes used during an active conversation. Monitoring is silent listening, coaching lets a supervisor speak to the agent only, and barging joins audibly to all parties.
What should a call whisper include and how long should it be? Keep it under three seconds and include essentials like source, intent, and any required verification, for example “Google Ads lead. Billing question. Verify account ID.” Avoid sensitive data, unclear acronyms, and long prompts that delay the connection.
Contact Telnyx’s team of experts to learn how we can help you set your agents up for success.
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