7 Benefits of Number Testing

Josh O’Farrell, Technical Content Writer at Spearline, shares the key benefits of testing toll and toll-free numbers

Often, companies are not aware that they need to test their numbers. They think that because they have network monitoring solutions in place, they don’t need to test the audio quality of their numbers.

Josh O’Farrell of Spearline has put together a list of some of the key benefits to an organization such as a contact centre of testing their overseas toll and toll-free numbers.

1. Identify issues with numbers before customers do

We live in a switching economy. Customers don’t call a second time to complain about a poor experience with a contact centre, they simply switch providers.

The Spearline platform generates alerts for every failure, which means organizations can resolve and fix the issue before customers are affected.

Each failure alert is verified by the Spearline testing support team, so their customers are assured every alert is genuine and actionable.

2. Verify that sales and support lines are operational

Your contact numbers are like the veins that feed the heart of your contact centre.

Without them, customers wouldn’t be able to get through. How do you verify that these numbers are operational and generating revenue on a continuous basis?

If even one of these numbers experiences downtime or audio quality issues, it may prevent a large number of customers from getting through, leading to frustration and potential loss of revenue.

Number testing ensures that you are alerted to any failures or issues in real time so you can resolve it before it affects the customer. What impact does a failed call have on your business?

3. Test end-to-end call flows

Organizations often monitor what’s happening on their own network infrastructure, but have no visibility of what is happening outside the network as calls are being passed through different carriers.

Poor audio quality being placed into an excellent network will still result in a poor audio experience.

Monitoring your toll and toll-free numbers gives you end-to-end network visibility, improves operational efficiency, builds real business insights and, ultimately, saves you money.

4. Replicate customer experience from the outside in

Ever wondered what kind of experience your customer is getting when they call your company and talk to your agents?

The Spearline platform records every test call so you have full visibility of the customer’s experience as well as how many calls are failing to get through due to connectivity or audio issues. Armed with these insights, you can make corrective decisions to your service.

5. Objective audio quality metric

One of the biggest problems with testing telecoms infrastructure is the availability of an objective metric to measure performance.

A lot of organizations use monitoring tools which look at certain network parameters such as bandwidth, packet loss, latency and jitter. Based on these parameters, they will assume a certain audio quality, generating a MOS score. These are misleading as they are analysing network details rather than audio characteristics.

Spearline’s in-country servers replicate the customer dial path and use tools which focus on audio characteristics such as audio sharpness, distortions, background noise, call volume and clipping.

The Spearline platform generates an industrial ITU standard PESQ score, which is an objective score of audio quality rather than the subjective MOS scoring.

6. Benchmark performance against country averages

Josh O’Farrell

Number testing allows you to make informed decisions about which carriers to use in each country. Audio quality, DTMF and CLI are tested on each of your routes to allow you to make an informed decision on how you route your calls.

7. Measure carrier performance

Knowledge is power!

Number testing provides you with the insights to manage ongoing carrier relationships and make key routing decisions based on audio quality data.

In digital networks, carriers have the ability to transcode audio from excellent quality codecs such as G711 to poorer quality codecs such as G729 or GSM.

The Spearline platform measures what codec is being provided by the carrier and ensures your carrier is delivering the service you are paying for!

To find out more, visit Spearline at: www.spearline.com

Author: Robyn Coppell