If someone calls your business but isn’t immediately answered and doesn’t go to voicemail, the call probably went into a call queue. If you want those calls separated into distinct queues that are headed for different departments and agents, though, you’ll need to go one step further.

Call routing is the function that sorts calls based on caller input, placing them in different call queues with the intent of connecting them to the right agent for their particular concerns. You’re witnessing call routing in action wherever you hear, for instance, “press one for customer service.” 

In a nutshell, call routing is the process of parsing incoming calls, sorting them based on intent, need, and circumstance, and then placing them in the appropriate queue to hold for an available agent.

Read more: What is a Call Queue?

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What is VoIP call routing?

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) call routing is a process that directs incoming phone calls through a virtual phone system, allowing businesses to manage and distribute calls more efficiently. Instead of simply sending all calls to a single phone or department, VoIP call routing sorts calls based on predefined criteria, such as the caller’s input, time of day, or the caller’s geographic location. For example, when a customer calls and hears options like “press 1 for sales” or “press 2 for support,” that is call routing in action. It ensures the call reaches the correct agent or department, reducing wait times and enhancing the caller’s experience.

This process is highly customizable, enabling businesses to configure routing rules based on their specific needs. Advanced VoIP systems can integrate with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) tools, allowing even more dynamic interactions, such as gathering verbal inputs from callers or handling simple tasks like order placement or identity verification. This level of automation not only streamlines operations but also improves customer satisfaction by minimizing misdirected calls and providing a more responsive support system.

How does VoIP call routing work?

Ok, the way this question is phrased is a bit ambiguous, which means we can supply a few different answers depending on what you meant.

How are calls sorted?

You’ll define the sorting parameters yourself as part of the setup process. That said, there are some pretty universal buckets that are used for call queues:

  • The department the caller needs to speak to (finance, sales, technical support, etc.).
  • Time zones/time of day/location (calls are often distributed based on which open call center is closest).
  • Language (if you happen to serve more than one linguistic demographic).
  • Market segmentation (separate queues for different business relationships, like patients/doctors, insured/insurer, buying from/selling to, etc.).
  • Skill/authority (some calls need more in-depth support).

Sorting calls based on these kinds of characteristics is known as attribute-based routing. Which segmentation rules you end up using will be up to you, and there will likely be some common ones you don’t need (or uncommon ones that are a must for you). 

Read more: DialPad vs. RingCentral: Which is best?

How is this achieved?

By software wizardry, mostly. These days, a large contingent of businesses use VoIP (voice over internet protocol) for their telephone services, meaning calls are routed through a computer system. This allows for some impressive application-based gymnastics if you have it set up properly. 

Expert Tip

With older, more traditional phone systems, setting up the infrastructure was very involved, highly technical, and incredibly time-consuming. As organizations started to migrate over to VoIP, it made it easier to design and implement routing trees, even if it still required a high level of technical expertise. 

These days, though, many VoIP providers have interfaces more reminiscent of drag-and-drop website builders or email automation workflow tools. By templating things and implementing graphical interfaces, even non-IT staff can pretty easily outline routing flowcharts and implement them on their own.

As for how the system administers the parsing of calls, that’s a factor in whether your system relies on an auto attendant or an IVR (interactive voice response) for prompting and collecting input from callers. The former is more rigid and less capable. Auto attendants usually can only accept numerical inputs from keypad presses the caller makes in response to questions. It then uses these inputs to sort callers into the predetermined buckets.

IVR, on the other hand, can do quite a bit more; callers can state their issue verbally (with varying degrees of effectiveness), and the IVR can handle a number of simple tasks like taking payments, verifying identity, accepting orders, etc. With these more dynamic systems, more information can be gathered from the caller before the call is answered, making it easier to route it to the appropriate queue. 

Read more: VoIP vs. Landline: The Pros & Cons for Business

What does this look like for customers calling in?

From the customer’s perspective, this process is as follows:

  1. Call connects and enters the VoIP system, and is greeted by the auto attendant/IVR.
  2. Initial information is shared with the caller, and initial inputs are requested.
  3. Caller self-identifies as a top-level category, usually tied to particular departments or business relationships. 
  4. Additional subordinate sorting is applied if necessary, or automated self-help features are offered to potentially sidestep the need to route to a live agent.
  5. Caller lands in the destination queue, perhaps after hearing a prompt to opt for the callback option.
  6. The call is answered by a live agent, and things progress from there. 

Read more: Vonage vs RingCentral

Benefits and challenges of VoIP call routing

The biggest benefits of using VoIP to route calls to different queues are pretty self-evident. No business wants finance staff spending half their day answering calls that should be picked up by the support staff, and proper call routing minimizes that. 

With separate queues and separate staff answering each one, hold times tend to be a lot shorter. Callers get their answers faster. And workflow strain is dramatically reduced. 

That’s not to say the system is foolproof, though.

From the business’s perspective, impatient or inattentive callers may still end up in the wrong queues, slowing things down. Callers may attempt to intentionally sidestep the routing process by hitting the button that requests an operator. Callback options may go largely ignored by callers. And there’s always room for human error when it comes to caller inputs.

On the caller’s side, the call routing may feel needlessly complex or confusing. IVR systems may not make it clear what kind of input the caller should be providing. Lengthy messages or recursive menus intended to divert callers away from live agents may be frustrating and unhelpful roadblocks, especially for callers who know they need to speak to a human being to have their problem addressed. And callback options may inspire painfully little confidence that the callback will actually ever come. 

Best practices for VoIP call routing

While every system is different—and every business is different—we can recommend a few guidelines that should help maximize the benefits you reap from VoIP call routing.

Curate criteria for qualifying and distribution

You will have a better idea of what sorting system will be the most effective or helpful for your organization, so don’t just model your system after one used at a different company. Pick the buckets you use yourself, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments over time. 

Leverage data and analytics

If you’re already using a VoIP system, you’re likely already collecting a large amount of call data, and that can inform your decisions regarding routing attributes. If a large segment of calls are coming in about the same topic, need, or concern, that’s something you can account for. Add an explanation to the recorded greeting. Provide instructions, or dedicate a whole bucket to that one thing. You might even be able to add it as a function the IVR can handle, depending on what it is. Don’t let that data go to waste.

Read more: Nextiva vs RingCentral

Aim for simplicity

As mentioned above, customers want a less frustrating experience, rather than a more frustrating one, when they call into your business. However, a poorly implemented routing framework can feel very much like a step backward in customer experience. Put simply, the hold time isn’t the only metric worth tracking here. Callers may be expecting to wait in line for an open agent. 

What they don’t have a lot of patience for is when they feel like the “phone robots” are unnecessarily slowing them down. And heaven help you if they have to call in multiple times, only to wade through the tarpit that is a hedge-maze of an IVR routing tree. 

Revisit as needed

Again, you’re running this through a VoIP service, which means it’s all going through apps run on computers. That means you’re collecting data, and making changes is a lot easier than in decades past. So take a look at the trends you spot in the analytics, and make adjustments on a regular basis. It’s a nominal time investment for you, but will likely result in dramatic improvements for both your team’s effectiveness and the customers’ experience. 

Choosing a VoIP provider

When you’re scouting out a VoIP provider, especially with call routing in mind, you’ll want to be aware of at least three things. 

Your available tech expertise

This is true for just about every business software vertical, but there’s a sliding scale of capability and accessibility (in regards to low technical skill). A team with plenty of programming and/or IT skills to throw around will probably benefit from a tool that has a less rigid and templatized platform. It gives them the flexibility to build the plugins, integrations, custom functions, etc. they might need.

On the flip side, if you don’t have a lot of technical know-how to spare, you may be better served by the aforementioned drag-and-drop style interfaces. These tools may offer less freedom if you want to get under the hood. But if that’s outside your skill set, that might not be as big a priority as being able to assemble things yourself. 

Your customization requirements

Even with expertise set aside, some teams will have some very non-standard constraints, and not every provider is equipped to meet those needs. Some solutions will be aimed at a generalized market, while others will specialize in a narrower industry niche. And, in a few cases, you may get more mileage from retrofitting a general tool than with any of the ones ostensibly built with your use case in mind. 

Your existing tech stack

As ever, you’ll have to contend with the question as old as the internet: “Does it play well with my other toys?”

Integration, interoperability, and compatibility are all major concerns whenever your workflow depends on consistent and accurate exchange of information. Case in point: a lot of VoIP platforms and CRM platforms are designed to link up so that you can directly tie customer calls to customer accounts/profiles. Just don’t assume that the VoIP you’re looking at is capable of interfacing with your existing CRM by default. It’s a costly mistake, and double-checking costs you nothing. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

It’s pretty straightforward. Calls come in, the VoIP system qualifies callers based on your preset parameters. Then calls are dropped into the buckets for the appropriate queue, before being distributed to live agents.

Faster time-to-answer, faster caller resolutions, better customer experience, less workflow bottlenecking for your team—the list goes on.

This isn’t a question with a very strict definition, as it primarily depends on what criteria you use to qualify and sort calls. This can include characteristics like time zone/location, caller attributes, relationship-specific, and even AI-optimized routing.

This is a case of “related, but not synonymous.” IVR is a more evolved alternative to auto attendants, providing a greeting system capable of answering caller questions and interacting in more complex ways. Call routing is often used in conjunction but does not have to be, and some auto attendants leverage routing despite their simpler design.

Stephen Porritt Avatar
Stephen Porritt
Stephen Porritt is a frequent contributor to TechnologyAdvice. Stephen has covered a variety of topics over his career including CRM, Business Intelligence and Project Management. He has more than ten years of experience writing content in a variety of verticals. He does his best work when he’s clarifying complex subject matter, helping brands share their unique expertise, and cracking dad jokes.