Chances are your sales department uses customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage critical customer data and to streamline business processes. Now think of what CRM can do for your contact center agents when integrated with your existing contact center software. The possibilities are endless.
CRM helps track and manage customer information, while contact center software provides a communication path for companies to connect with their key consumers. While the systems are both centered on the customer, they are inherently different. Therefore, before you can fully grasp the benefits of CRM and contact center software integration, it’s important to understand their core differences.
Contact Center Software vs. CRM
Contact center software does more than route customer inquiries—such as phone calls, emails, texts and social posts—to the right resources. It tracks agent performance and important KPIs, and even allows managers to train agents directly from their desktop. What’s more, sophisticated contact center software captures critical voice of the customer data, which can be used to improve efficiencies across the enterprise. Most recently, cloud-based contact center software has gained favor among businesses looking to decrease costs.
As of September 2013, DMG estimates that more than 62 percent of organizations are using some type of cloud-based contact center solution as part of their operation. And approximately half of the organizations that are not yet using cloud-based contact center solutions plan to move in this direction in the next 18 months.
CRM software serves as the central nervous system for sales and marketing teams. The software allows businesses to gather, track and manage customer relationships. With CRM, departments can store contact information, accounts, leads and sales opportunities all in one centralized location. This gives both departments a holistic view of the customer enabling them to deliver better customer experiences, grow sales, decrease customer churn and increase profitability.
Two Tools that are Better Together
When married together, CRM and contact center software can enable businesses to soar to new heights. By rolling out such platforms, companies can ensure that their agents are given the ultimate customer service tool. Below are the chief benefits of such integration:
Better access to customer data
It’s simple; the more information you have about a caller the better. With integration, contact center agents have real-time access to a wide variety of customer data, including records of previous contacts and historical information, which allows them to better answer queries and offer more personalized service. The results: improved customer satisfaction and first call resolution.
Increased productivity and efficiency
In the contact center, it’s all about driving revenue while not breaking the bank. The longer an agent takes to pull up a customer’s information, the more frustrated the caller gets. With automatic CTI screen pops, agents have instant access to customer information which results in reduced call handling times. What’s more, managers are able to better address peak demands and allocate resources appropriately, which translates into dramatic cost savings. After all, the last thing you want is for your contact center to be seen as a “cost center.”
Superior customer service and retention
Today’s customers are tough; they have no qualms about ditching your company after experiencing bad service. Therefore, it’s important that the level of service you deliver is unprecedented. When offering more personalized interactions, better responsiveness from agents, and shorter wait times, customers will stick around from the long haul. They might even become your biggest cheerleader.
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