Call routing strategies: how not to lose customers

• Understanding call routing — beyond the basics
• Why poor call routing costs money and customers
• Different ways to manage call routing
• Call routing strategies
• Key indicators to measure IVR performance — KPIs
• Why choose Megacall’s PBX

Many times, call routing is configured once and then left unchanged for a long time, and that’s a mistake. If we keep the same call routing setup from when we first started the business, at some point calls will begin to lose efficiency, because the business evolves: call volume may grow, new teams appear, or even new languages need to be supported. If call routing doesn’t adapt to all these changes, it creates friction in the system.

That’s why it’s important to regularly review that intelligent routing aligns with how teams are actually working at any given time. What worked a year ago is likely no longer sufficient today.

Understanding call routing — beyond the basics

Call routing is about deciding how we want communication to flow within a company. Not all calls are the same, and treating them as if they were is the first mistake. Some customers need technical support, others call about services, some have contacted before and expect not to start from scratch again, and intelligent routing responds accordingly to all these scenarios.

Beyond the basics, like directing the call to the first available agent, call routing can also rely on other data such as customer history, language, queue priority, and even real-time information about each team’s workload.

When does routing happen during a call?

If we have a PBX system configured with the goal of ensuring every call reaches the right destination, what happens is that as soon as a call comes in, the first thing activated is the IVR, which captures the customer’s intent, choosing an option.

From there, the system makes an initial decision. It can route the call directly to a department, or if no one is available, the call enters a queue. At this stage, elements like hold music, informational messages, or alternative options may come into play, or ultimately voicemail may be used.

While the customer is on hold, the system keeps working: it evaluates which agents become available and which routing rules apply depending on the configuration (priorities, schedules, customer type, etc.). This entire process happens in a matter of seconds, but it’s where the customer experience is truly determined.

Key points:

• A call routing system prevents some agents from being overloaded while others have low activity—that is, it distributes calls evenly.
• The system must be able to adapt to high call volume periods, such as campaigns, incidents, or seasonality, without affecting the customer experience.
• When the routing system (PBX) is connected to a CRM, agents can have context before answering.
• With IVR, we capture the customer’s intent, which determines where the call will be directed.

Why poor call routing costs money and customers

When a customer doesn’t reach the right person from the very beginning, everything takes longer than necessary. Resolution becomes more complicated, agents have to intervene multiple times on the same case, and workload increases in a completely unnecessary way. Even poor routing can generate missed calls because the system isn’t distributing the load properly. All of this leads to operational costs that are not always visible, but they are still there.

This is not only an internal problem; it is also an external one for the customer, who has to repeat the same information several times or go through different departments without getting a clear solution. At this point, the decision not to contact again—or to look for an alternative—is much more likely.

In fact, according to an Invoca* study, 76% of users would be willing to leave a company after just one poor phone call experience, and more than 60% say they would pay more for better customer service.

And why is it important to always adapt call routing to the business? According to a study by Analytics Call Tracking (2023), inbound call routing can reduce handling time by up to 50%, meaning fewer callbacks and lower customer abandonment rates, since customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company.

In short, routing is a factor that directly impacts company revenue and customer loyalty. Every poorly handled call is lost time, but it can also be a missed sale or a customer who never returns. That’s why reviewing and adapting intelligent routing should not be a one-off task, but a key part of how a company communicates with its customers.

*Source: Invoca 2024 — “See How Much Missed Sales Calls Cost Home Services Businesses”

Different ways to manage call routing

Call routing can be configured in different ways depending on the priority you want to focus on: speed, specialization, load balancing, or automation. From Megacall’s virtual PBX, we can define different types of call routing:

• In order routing. Here, calls are distributed in a fixed order among agents or teams, following a predefined list, whether or not the agent is available. If the first agent is not available, the call moves to the second agent in the list, and so on.
  This can be useful when we want to prioritize a specific person over others to handle calls—for example, making the most experienced agent the first option.
• Equally routing. Calls are distributed in a balanced and rotating way among all available agents. The idea is that no one continuously receives more volume than others. It works well when all agents can handle the same types of inquiries.
• Manual routing. Routing can be configured with a slider that controls call order. This can be useful when a more specific level of control or criteria is needed.
• Simultaneous routing. In this case, the call is sent to all available agents at the same time, and the first one to respond handles it. It is ideal when the priority is to minimize waiting time, such as in sales teams or fast-response customer service.
• Random routing. As the name suggests, calls are distributed without a specific order or pattern. It can be useful to balance workload without creating routines or bias in call assignment.
• AI-based routing. Incoming calls can be directed to a virtual agent connected to a PBX extension, which automatically handles customer inquiries. It can also manage call queues and transfer calls to a human agent when necessary.

Call routing strategies

Sometimes intelligent routing falls short of how the business has evolved. Schedules change, teams grow, new types of inquiries appear due to new services… and we fail to adapt the rules accordingly. This is where bottlenecks start to appear.

Applying a strategy means reviewing all of this and making decisions to meet the communication needs of the business. Here are some practical ways of handling call routing:

Time-based routing strategy

It is important to define routing rules not only for regular business hours, but also for after-hours, since customers don’t always care about office schedules and may call whenever an issue arises.

This helps keep the service active without relying on the same team at all times. For example, you can define different routes during and outside working hours, redirect calls to on-call staff, or activate specific messages.

With Megacall’s PBX you can:

• Set business hours from the IVR configuration.
• Add hold music when all agents are busy.
• Create independent routes outside business hours, such as connecting an AI agent to answer calls, redirecting to voicemail, or triggering another scenario.
• Configure exceptions such as national holidays.

Language-based routing strategy

If your business operates internationally or has customers who speak different languages, it makes sense for your IVR to adapt accordingly. In this case, callers are directed to a specific language-based flow, ensuring the first contact is in the correct language.

With Megacall’s PBX you can:

• Choose a virtual number from a specific country or location.
• Create an IVR menu in the desired service language.
• Combine it with an AI agent that can respond in the same language configured in the IVR.

Information-based routing strategy

Not all calls are first-time contacts with the company. Some callers have different intentions, and many are already existing customers. When the system has access to previous information -such as history, past interactions, or customer type- better decisions can be made from the start. For example, routing the call back to the same agent who previously handled the case.

With Megacall’s PBX you can:

• Set up an AI-powered IVR to identify call intent and route it accordingly.
• Integrate a CRM to access the full customer history for existing users or previous callers.

Key indicators to measure IVR performance — KPIs

It’s important to verify whether the entire call routing setup is working as it should. Having clear metrics allows us to see what’s actually happening in practice, understand the results we’re getting, and make more informed decisions: what to adjust, what to keep, and what to change within the call flow.

These are some of the most useful indicators for evaluating IVR and routing performance:

• Resolution rate: Measures how many calls are resolved on the first contact. It directly reflects whether routing is taking the customer to the right place from the start.
• Abandonment rate: Indicates how many customers hang up before being attended to. It is usually linked to long wait times or a poor IVR experience.
• Answered calls: Shows the percentage of incoming calls that are handled versus those that are missed. It helps us understand whether the team and the system can absorb demand.
• Average wait time: Measures how long a customer stays in the queue before speaking with an agent. The lower, the better the perceived service quality.
• Customer satisfaction: Can be measured through post-service surveys and is one of the key indicators reflecting the real user experience.

Why choose Megacall’s PBX

We’ve seen that call routing manages every interaction from the very first second, and we recommend choosing a tool that doesn’t complicate the process, one that makes it easy to configure and manage without friction.

In this sense, Megacall fits perfectly, as its PBX is designed so you can configure and adapt call routing without relying on complex or difficult processes. From simple call distribution options to a multi-level IVR menu and the integration of AI into extensions to handle calls in different ways.

It also allows you to add users and phone numbers -even from different countries- within the same account. And it’s one of the most affordable options available, since for just €2 per month (with annual billing and account balance), you can have a virtual number and all the benefits of a virtual PBX.