Telephone Answering Service Software

nCall – the definitive answering service software solution

nCall dedicated telephone answering service software has been used by successful inbound call centers, virtual receptions and business centres all over the world for the past 15 years. All the information your operators need to answer a call professionally is available immediately through clever client ‘popping’ and management tools.  

Combined with powerful messaging tools and billing schemes, nCall offers the complete answering service software package.

Key Features

  • In cloud or on-premise infrastructure supported.
  • Local or remote operators supported.
  • Fully scalable – from just 1 operator to over 100
  • Easy to use operator interface or ‘dashboard’
  • New operators can be taking calls professionally in just 15 minutes
  • Advanced and highly customizable message-taking tools
  • Many built-in analysis reports, with bespoke reports available
  • Custom form designer for specific clients’ complex needs
  • Automatic logging of calls for client billing reports
  • Any number of different billing schemes and charges
  • Unique settings for each client & contact
  • Compatible with the majority of telephone systems and VoIP solutions
  • Built-in softphone (optional)
  • Excellent customer support
  • Optional additional modules – including powerful REST API, client portal etc
  • Tried and tested – nCall has been widely used and enhanced for over 15 years

nCall Operator Dashboard

With less than 15 minutes training, a new operator can be answering calls thanks to the intuitive nCall operator dashboard:

Answering Service Software operator - dashboard view
Answering Service Software for TAS - interface details

Phone System Integration

The nCall client software integrates with VoIP (SIP) and TAPI based phone systems. This allows calls to fully handled (answered, transfer, held etc) from within the dashboard:  

Phone System Integration - Call Handling section showing mulitple calls being handled with Answer, Hold, Unhold, Transfer and Conference options

Answer, hold/unhold, end buttons apply to the active call. The operator can identify the active call via the vertical blue bar.  If a transfer (patch) call is in progress this is shown as part of the active call, with further buttons to allow hold/unhold, swap hold, transfer, conference and hang-up.  Via a right click further options are presented including record, pause recording and conference to an external call (dependent on the phone system in use).

 

Phone Systems supported

Many phone systems and VoIP Providers are supported by nCall. If your telecoms solution is not listed below, please contact us to arrange for an nCall trial licence to validate it with your system

 

Client Information

When a inbound call is received the appropriate client record pops into view.  This allows the operator to see the greeting they must say once they connected to the caller along with other general client level information: 

Answering Service Software client area, showing basic details about the client. Some elements marked in red as private, plenty of useful information for the operator

The greeting is fully configurable per DDI/DID, with automatic support for time of day and operator name insertion.

Private information that is not to be given to the caller can be set and is shown in red to the operator.  With in the client notes area links can be inserted to quickly take the operator to more relevant information if needed during the call. These can also include links to other contact’s in other clients.

 

Client Resource List

The information presented to the operator includes the client’s relevant contacts, quick links to forms and other resources that may be needed to handle the call.

Client Resource List - telephone answering service software operator dashboard showing client resource list e.g. contacts, relevant web links, local files, bookings etc

 

Contact Call Handling

The operator, having asserted who or what the caller is calling about, then selects the appropriate resource from this client list. Generally this will be a contact but could be a general enquiry or a specific booking for example. Having selected the resource the operator is presented with the next level of detail including the specific pre-programmed call handling actions for that resource:

Answering Service software package - operator dashboard showing the relevant call actions for the selected operator.  In this case transfer to mobile, complete a message taking form, or link to an alternative contact

The call handling options include transfer (blind or supervised) to the contact using one of their contact details (e.g. office number, mobile) or a specific number, or complete a (general or custom) message taking form or move the operator to another contact (which might be applicable if the first contact is away e.g. on a business trip as in this example).

 

Powerful Message Taking Features

nCall’s feature rich custom form designer allows message taking forms to be tailored for enquiry type to help guide the operator on the information that your customer wishes the operator to gather from the caller.  Via the custom forms the operator can maintain a natural conservation with the caller rather than being rigidly tided to a non-flexible script.  This helps maintain the callers feeling they are speaking with the client direct rather than a middle man.  If specific information must be gathered the relevant field has a pink background: 

Message handling allows the operator to gather the required information without the need for fixed restricted scripts.
An example nCall custom message taking form.

Once the operator completes the form and hits Save & Close their work is done and they can immediately move to the next call.  This is because the nCall suite will then deliver the message to the contact(s) according to how the client/contact wishes to received the message. This is defined by the business administrator/back office staff and means the operator does not need to care about message delivery.

 

Message Delivery Means 

nCall supports many different means to deliver the message to your client.  These include email, SMS, fax, secure online messages (via nCallOnline portal), 3rd party systems via the flexible Web Message action feature (e.g. Slack, MS Teams, FreeDesk, HubSpot etc etc).  

For SMS the following providers are fully supported:

  • 24x
  • 2SMS
  • AMD Telecom
  • Clickatel
  • Dynmark
  • Email to cell phone provider – if your contact’s SMS service provider offers this
  • Ez Texting
  • FareText
  • GFI Faxmaker Service
  • HTTP GET – a general option applicable to many SMS providers
  • Plivo
  • SMS via SNPP
  • Prompt Text
  • Text Magic
  • The SMS Works
  • Twillo
  • WhatsApp via Twillo

 

Operator Information & Focus

nCall’s built-in Home page gives the operator a one page overview of any information the business needs to share with them, any client news, lists of operator tasks and to dos and some stats specific to them.  Thanks to this Home page view the operators (whether office or remote) are kept up to date and focused so ensuring a smooth and efficient Telephone Answering Service business.

The nCall Answering Service Software helps keeps the operators informed and focused.


Data Analysis

nCall provides you with powerful reporting and statistical analysis features. The statistical analysis allows you to view some core stats of your call handling service operation in a graphical format.

Answering Service Software with built-in statistical and data analysis. This allows the supervisor to quickly visualize core stats e.g. daily call volume for a client or an operator.

For more detail analysis, we supply more than 30 reports. Including:

Report name Analysis
Average Call Handling Time Within Each Hour Of Each Week-day Lists the average time spent handling calls within each hour of each week day.
Clients Call Handling Time Per Month Reports on how many seconds were spent handling calls for each client in the period.
Non-phone call handling time Lists the total handling time for non-phone calls for each client during the selected period.
Clients Over Billing Call Allowance For those clients billed with an included call allowance, this report shows any clients who are over their included call allowance.
Client Chargeable Calls Per Month This report lists all the chargeable calls per month per client (per year). 
Pay Per Message Client Average Call Duration For all clients with a charge per call billing scheme, this report lists their average call handling duration in seconds.
Pay Per Minute Client Average Call Duration For all clients with a billing scheme that has a charge per minute value, this report gives the average call handling duration (in seconds).
Operators Call Statistics Shows detailed call handling statistics for each operator over the selected period.
Phone Minutes Per Hour Per Operator Reports on how many minutes in each hour over a specified period the operator was handling calls.

  All reported data is exportable to CSV for further analysis or visualization. The reporting feature can be further enhanced for your specific needs with a quick call to nSolve. 

 

Data Tools

All the data stored in nCall database is only accessible by you.  No one (including nSolve) has access to your data thereby helping to keep your data secure.  nCall has a built-in database backup tool, to ensure you can easily keep your data safe for disaster recovery. 

nCall comes with built-in support for easy data import from CSV files in any format e.g. a client might supply you with an updated contact list regularly, nCall will import this working out the differences automatically.  Data export to CSV and to a protected secure format for each transfer to another nCall system is also supported. 

Further data tools are supplied to help manage the database size and to meet GDPR/HIPAA requirements e.g. to remove or anonymize specific data if requested.

 

Administrative Configuration

Configuring nCall is performed via a user role protected access with in the nCall operator dashboard.  This allows you to define which of your colleagues have the ability to make back end administrative changes.

Answering Service Software - administrative configuration.

The configuration options include defining billing schemes, default message formatting, default message delivery methods, default greetings DID/DND number creation and assignment, client & contact status types etc.  Many of these settings can then be overridden at the client or individual contact level.  This gives you an easy to maintain system that is also flexible enough to cope with the most demanding client of yours.

 

 

Setup, Training and Support

All nCall installations come complete with full setup assistance and 7 hours training. This training, undertaken by our dedicated support engineer, will quickly bring you up to speed with nCall including teaching you best practices.  The training can be delivered to up to two persons, typically your supervisor or system administrator.  

Once up and running, we also provide a full support package including a dedicated support engineer, dedicated issue handling system, comprehensive context sensitive help documentation, FAQs, trouble-shooting guides and tutorial videos.  Finally you will also have access to our nCall user group to learn and share with other nCall users from across the globe.

 

Optional Modules

The core nCall system is very feature rich and will meet most users needs.  To extend the nCall call handling solution further we offer a number of optional extras.  These are not supplied in the core package to help keep the price low for the typical user.

Optional modules include:

  • Buzz Softphone – this richly featured SIP softphone fully integrates into nCall.  As well as the core features you’d expect of a telephone it also supports call recording options, conferencing options and can be used independently of nCall if needed.
  • nCall Online client portal – this SSL protected secure web server lets your clients and contacts receive secure messages, update their status, view general and specific reports including billing status etc.  The portal is fully brandable and configurable so you can control what features you expose to your clients this way.
  • Postcode Server – this module allows the operators to quickly obtain addresses from postcodes and also telephone number lookups.  It supports Australia and New Zealand AusPost data, UK postcode data from Arc en ceil and global data via the Google Maps API.
  • Transfer Monitor – via this module nCall can support charging for caller-contact talk time.  This module supports Avaya, Mitel, FreePBX and Splicecom SMDR/CDR records
  • nCall REST API – this powerful module gives you the ability to extend nCall to your whilst dreams via writing scripts in PHP, JS, Visual Basic etc.  Using the REST API module you can pull data from the database, amend data, create data and delete data.  

 

Feature List

Features

nCall purchase

nCall rental

Optional extra

TAPI enabled call handling (answer, hold, transfer etc.) x x  
Compatible with several VoIP phones x x  
Built-in softphone     x
Instant account ‘popping’ upon receiving call x x  
Advanced message taking tools x x  
Automatic call logging x x  
Custom message/order form designer x x  
Fully scalable – no user limit x x  
Bespoke settings per client x x  
Rich text note sections for clients and contacts x x  
Powerful database x x  
Can be used remotely via VPN x x  
Assign tasks x x  
Create reminders x x  
Generate billing reports x x  
Monitor call stats and analytics x x  
Built-in CRM tools x x  
Open external files and web-pages within the client x x  
Advanced contact searching x x  
Third-party integration via nCall API Server     x
Client data import     x
Branded client web portal     x
HIPAA compliant messaging integration     x
Postcode look-up (UK, US, Canada Australia)     x
Dedicated customer support 12 months included with first purchase Included with rental x
Access to customer-only web forum x x  
Regular updates and additional features 12 months included with first purchase Included with rental x
Software training services Two 3.5 hour training sessions. Two 3.5 hour training sessions. Advanced training is also available.
Install and setup service  One time setup required One time setup required   



IT Requirements

Operator PC requirements:
Each operator position requires a computer, can be a PC or a laptop running MS-Windows. A minimum specification would be:
Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 11
Disk drive: 16GB+
Memory: 2GB+
Display: 800 x 600 (a larger display or multiple displays will help the operator significantly)

Server requirements:
To share data between operators a computer must act as the server. A dedicated server maybe not be needed for less than 4 operators, since one of the operator’s computers will be able to run the server applications. For larger installation a dedicated server is recommended. This server can be installed in the office on the LAN or hosted on a server in the cloud.
Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 11, Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022
Disk drive: 16GB+
RAM: 8GB+

Internet service
An internet connection is required. This connection will be used for sending and receiving messages. For VoIP solutions the quality of the audio will be dependent on the speed and reliability of this connection. A suggested minimum bandwidth is 2-3Mbs per operator.

Remote operators:
To support remote operators a VPN connection to the nCall server is required.

 

FAQs

Why nCall? Who is nCall for? What is telephone answering service software? What else does nCall do apart from answer and transfer calls? Some of my operators work remotely – can they still use nCall?
These and many more frequently asked questions are answered here nCall FAQ

Pricing and next steps

With all of the above you can see nCall represents the best value tool in the TAS industry.  We offer outright purchase and rental options.  We also offer payment plans to help spread the initial costs.  To learn more about nCall’s pricing options, or to request our demo video or install a trial licence please complete this form:

 

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