In the general world of VoIP services, the focus has always been on bulk customers since traffic is money and business customers provide maximum traffic and revenues. The ongoing corona pandemic is likely to persist for some time and in its wake, it has introduced a Doppler shift in communications. The last mile customer gains in importance as more people work from home. In this context the class 5 softswitch becomes an important tool in the arsenal of VoIP service providers. It is not just voice; the VoIP class 5 softswitch software becomes a media conduit. It should have capability to handle lot more traffic and deliver seamless services. Now is the time to tap into and capture a growing retail VoIP market.
Reach out to individual customers with a host of professional level services
VoIP service providers have a great opportunity that the pandemic has opened up. Millions of professionals now work from home and use VoIP for collaboration and customer service. They expect professional level features like seamless connectivity, DID number if required, call forwarding, conference calling, voice mail and video conferencing. The last mile traffic has increased. As a VoIP service provider you can reach out to them directly and through a chain of resellers with the class 5 softswitch forming the core of your service.
If it is a legacy solution, it is time to upgrade to a more modern and powerful VoIP class 5 softswitch software for current and future increase in traffic.
The importance of white label software
You can reach out to only so many last mile customers. In many cases, users prefer a local service provider they know. This means you will want to have retailers in as many locations as possible, similar to outlets that provide a variety of mobile services. White label class 5 softswitch is advantageous:
- You can brand your business
- Your retailers can set up their individual brands
- You can set up currency, taxes, language and rates and so can downstream retailers
Integrated billing is important
Integrated billing and payment gateway is a desirable feature in class 5 softswitch. The way it works, billing directly ties to call records, recording call duration and rates immediately. You can tie it to CRM and set up the smart softswitch to send out payment reminders, payment confirmation and set up usage alerts for prepaid and postpaid customers.
Options for retail
Customers at the retail end have a variety of options to enjoy VoIP services.
- An individual with a PSTN line may get a PIN or PINless calling card, an ATA connector and use the standard telephone for the occasional long distance call.
- PIN to PIN balance transfer, international top up
- Desktop and mobility usage
- In recent times with the ongoing pandemic you have professionals as prepaid customers, a computer or laptop connected to the VoIP through broadband, making use of the service for calls, collaborative conferencing and video chat as well as for document exchanges and media exchange during such interactions.
- Small business users with a dozen or more users within the service.
Get a custom or white label solution that can offer all these types of services and take care of:
- Analog to digital conversion
- Support for media transcoding
- IVR
- PBX services
- Media streams
Quality of service is just as important as billing and revenues. Here again the softswitch plays a pivotal role and assures quality, provided you source it from the right vendor.
Quality of service
Since retail VoIP is now seeing an increase in number of professional users you will want the softswitch to handle any amount of traffic and scale up as the demand and traffic grows. Important considerations:
- Media transcoding, capability to handle any codec so that audio-video conferencing works smoothly
- Excellent audio clarity
- Activate or deactivate service modules on demand
You can only maintain quality of service and improve it when your softswitch also includes analytics and reporting module.
Analytics and reporting
At the very least any class 4 softswitch worth its name should have intelligent analytics in reporting in addition to a management console. This way you can:
Track performance and usage in real time
Find out information on calls, payments and routing and adjust parameters if required
Derive information on areas of service that can do with improvement, cut down loss making parts and focus on streamlining areas that are troublesome to users.
Vendor support
Since the last mile users are individuals in a majority of cases and may not have technical IT staff to resolve issues it is important to have vendor support. Your softswitch should operate flawlessly in the background with the vendor taking care of any issues to prevent interruptions or outages. In fact, even before you evaluate the VoIP class 5 softswitch Solution, evaluate the vendor first to know their service track record.