5 Ways to Optimise ASR To Grow Profitability

The space of Telecom carriers and VoIP operators is significantly smaller in the larger landscape of the business world. The telecom industry in itself is quite large in terms of revenue, valuation, impact and importance.

A peculiar characteristic of this industry is that it lacks in terms of the number of participants compared to other industries. This lack of competition equates to high complacency and running businesses based on legacy business principles.

For example, ask any VoIP operator or carrier about which is the best way to improve your bottom line and grow profits. The most common answer to this would be, “to gain more customers”.

While it works, this isn't the only option available to decision-makers. One can grow profits via efficiency gains and performance improvements too.

In this blog, we’ll take a look at what ASR is, why it is important and how you can grow profits by optimising your ASR.

What is Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR)?

The Answer Seizure Ratio (ASR) is the percentage of answered/connected calls compared to the number of total attempted calls. ASR is used as a performance indicator by carriers and VoIP operators alike.

For example, a VoIP operator attempts 300 calls and out of those, 125 connect successfully and are answered. In this scenario, the ASR will be calculated as below:

ASR = (number of answered calls / total call attempts) X 100 = (125 / 300) X 100 = (0.4166) X 100 ASR = 41.66%

An ASR of 80% and above is considered to be a healthy one in the industry. While this is a well-known fact, most carriers and operators do not have a strategy in place to ensure the ASR remains above this level.

Now that you know what ASR is, we can move forward and understand why it is so important for carriers and VoIP operators.

Why is ASR Important for Carriers and VoIP Operators?

There are two primary ways in which any business can grow and maximise its profits. The first way is to grow revenue by driving more sales. The second way is to reduce costs incurred in terms of production and business operations.

Carriers and VoIP operators at present, only focus on the first approach for growing profits. The second approach, though underutilised, can yield similar if not better results compared to the first approach.

So how does ASR fit into all of this? Glad you asked!

Let’s reconsider what ASR is. It's a performance metric that measures the proportion of answered/connected calls to the total number of calls attempted.

A carrier or VoIP operator generates revenue and thus profits, through calls that are answered. This means no revenue and thus profits are generated through the call attempts that are made.

Setting up a call is a function that bears costs. Thus, the VoIP operator or carrier bears the complete cost of every call attempted.

This is where ASR comes into the picture. Actively monitoring and optimising ASR would result in fewer failed attempts and thus a reduction in operational costs.

Wondering how one can optimise ASR? I’ll show X effective ways you can optimise ASR. Before we get to that point, let's learn why a low ASR is bad for your operations.

How Is Low ASR Harmful To Your VoIP Operations?

Now that you know that setting up a call involves a fixed cost, you know one way in which a low ASR is harmful to your business.

Let’s find out other ways in which a low ASR can be harmful to your VoIP Business.

Opportunity Cost

Setting up and breaking down a call does not only involve cost but also takes up precious time. All the time spent setting up and breaking down a failed call is time not spent handling successful calls and generating revenue.

Thus, a low ASR coupled with high call volumes can translate into significant cost overheads for your VoIP business. These unnecessary costs can easily erode your profits. This will also inhibit your ability to compete with others in the market.

Getting Flagged As Spam/Scam Caller By Caller ID Apps/Websites

A large number of attempts and only a small proportion of answered calls makes you stand out for all the wrong reasons. Caller ID Apps and websites are quick to notice this and will proceed to flag you as a spam/scam caller.

This in turn will result in your ASR getting further low as people will not answer your calls when the calls are labelled as spam/scams. This will add to your operational costs and negatively impact your profits.

Disciplinary Actions By Regulators

Telecom regulatory authorities such as FCC, Ofcom, TRAI, etc. are always on the lookout for irregular calling patterns.

A low ASR is a characteristic identifier of scam/spam callers. Thus, having a low ASR will put you on the radar of these regulatory authorities. While your traffic and operation may be genuine, you will still be subjected to investigations.

These investigations are disruptive to your operations. Plus, these authorities might even impose a fine on you for having a low ASR.

I hope, with that, you understand how important it is to monitor and optimise your ASR. Now, we can finally get to the part where I show you how to optimise ASR.

How to Optimise Your ASR To Grow Profits?

Most Carriers and VoIP operators may think that whether a person answers a call or not isn't something in their control. While this is correct to some extent, there are ways to maximise the chances of calls being answered.

Update and Clean Your Calling Lists Regularly

Similar to a mailing list, a calling list needs to be updated and cleaned regularly. A lot of phone numbers become invalid or go out of service for various reasons.

Having such numbers removed from your calling list will ensure you’re no longer calling numbers that no longer connect.

Some customers opt out of receiving calls or sign up for Do-Not-Call / Do-Not-Disturb List. Updating your calling list at regular intervals will ensure such numbers are removed from your list.

If one continues to call such numbers, not only will it negatively affect your ASR but will also attract fines from regulatory authorities.

Experiment With Your Timing

A lot of customers do not answer your call because they’re already occupied with some important work. This should clearly reflect in your SIP reply records. If your SIP response records show a significant proportion of 486 replies, this will help you a lot.

You can avoid such call failures by limiting the number of calls attempted during known peak business meeting hours, commute hours, etc.

You can further improve upon this by monitoring your ASR on an hourly basis. Adjusting the flow of calls based on the ASR patterns will help you maximise your ASR.

Analyse Your SIP Reply Records

Another valuable source of information that is often overlooked is the SIP reply records. Multiple factors result in a low ASR. Thankfully, all the possible causes can be identified through your SIP reply records.

Consider the above data representation as an example. We will consider the top three call failure-related SIP replies and try to ascertain the cause and work around a solution.

480 - Callee is Temporarily Unavailable

Chances are the person you’re calling is in the elevator, commuting through an area with no network coverage, has put his phone on flight mode or any other such possibilities.

486 - Callee is Busy

And

487 - Request has been terminated by BYE or CANCEL

As mentioned in the earlier example, chances are the callee may be occupied with some important work and wasn't able to answer your call or rejected the call.

Solution - You can experiment with the timing of your calls and see if it minimises the number of call attempts that return with the following SIP replies.

Educate Your Customers About Best VoIP/Dialing Practices

This is particularly applicable and useful for Carriers and UCaaS providers. As it’s your customers who generate the traffic, you have no direct control over it. Carrying bad/short ACD traffic isn't healthy for your bottom line.

Thus, there is a need for educating your customers about the best VoIP and dialling practices. This in turn will also benefit them as providing better service results in better profits.

Moreover, when the majority of your call attempts connect, you spend more time on calls than wasting time while waiting for calls to connect.

These gains in efficiency directly translate into cost savings for your customers and indirectly into improved profits for you.

So write articles, send infographics via email or opt for any other way in which you can train and help them improve.

Turn on ASR+ With ConnexCS

With ConnexCS, improving profitability is only a matter of switching on ASR+. A ConnexCS proprietary feature, ASR+ block all dialling attempts to known bad numbers.

What are these bad numbers exactly? Bad numbers are essentially the numbers that do not exist, are invalid, are no longer in operation or are unreachable.

By blocking any dialling attempts to such numbers, you can significantly improve your ASR and thus your profitability. ASR+ is an intelligent feature that analyses your traffic to determine which numbers are bad and are to be blocked.

This means the list of bad numbers is specific to your traffic and is updated regularly to ensure optimal ASR is attained and maintained.

Wrapping Up

ASR is an important performance metric for Carriers and VoIP operators. It's not only a good indicator of your operational performance but also ties directly into your profits.

Despite this, not many pay much attention to this metric and actively try to optimise it. This needs to change and we hope this article clearly highlighted the need for it.

You can follow the four effective ways to optimise your ASR or hop onto ConnexCS and switch on ASR+.

Turn on ASR+ for better profits!