Call centers today have to compete in the arena of customer experience if they want their brand to prosper. Today’s customer service landscape has raised the bar to a very high mark, and customers are more savvy and expect more and more from companies. That’s why it’s crucial to understand the customer and have a good grasp of why each and every customer calls in.
That’s where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions come in. This contact center solution is there to help companies stay connected with their customers. It’s a technology that manages every aspect of your company’s relationship with its customers, both existing and potential customers in the future. Using a sophisticated array of tools to gather information, analyze trends and data, and provide instant contextual information to your agents, today’s CRM software makes a huge difference in your call center productivity and the customer experience.
Unify All Customer Data and Interactions in One Database
At its heart, CRM is a system that collates all customer information in one place. It’s a desktop software solution that serves as a client for your agents and employees, but one which interfaces with various backend systems and databases. Modern CRM systems can integrate into most existing contact center IT infrastructure, working even with older legacy systems.
In the past, it was common for contact center agents to have anywhere from 4 to 12 different systems open to get all the data they need to service a customer. Now, a CRM solution gets all that information and puts it in one place, with a modern interface that provides convenient prompts for each agent along with built-in knowledge bases with all the processes, training and data your agents need.
A CRM solution tracks each customer individually and looks up and retains all data and interactions with a customer. This includes:
purchase and service history
contact information
social media accounts
chat histories
ticket logs
All of this is collated in one place, improving call center productivity by reducing handling time and the amount of manual data entry required by agents and backend employees alike.
Better Customer Servicing
The centralized software tracks all interactions with each individual, giving agents a real-time snapshot of what is happening to each customer’s account. An agent can take a customer’s concern and quickly create tickets to share with other departments in the business. This makes tracking and resolution for each ticket effortless.
When the customer calls back, modern routing tools allow agents to pull up each customer’s case history in real-time with all the updates from each department that handled the issue, giving even frontline agents the ability to respond to escalated concerns.
With the complete log history, each department can resolve the concern no matter who took the call initially. You’ll also see the benefit of how agents won’t need to verify or re-clarify information from past interactions, as all the data is right there at their fingertips. This kind of reduced ticket resolution time helps keep customers happy as their concerns are handled swiftly throughout the different departments of your company.
Manage Customer Relationships
CRM software also gives rise to the possibility of proactively managing your relationship with a customer. You have all of the recorded interaction history with a customer, allowing you to build a profile of a customer’s interests and needs. This allows you to create a customized approach to each customer, such as adjusting the scripting for each agent in real-time when they talk or chat with a customer. Anyone in the call center can easily pull up a customer’s history, including:
Pre-sales queries
Return merchandise authorizations (RMAs)
Order processing
Customer support interactions
Goods and services suggestions
Post-sales services
Improve Marketing Interactions
One of the major benefits of CRM is the predictive analysis and insights it offers for each customer individually. Agents can have a sales pitch ready in real time for the relevant goods, products and services a customer may need. This can help with upselling products or offering retention services. All the information you have on a customer is up-to-date, telling you exactly what each customer needs; an important criteria for today’s sophisticated customers who demand the best customer experience.
All of this is important because the modern contact center today faces challenges that can make servicing hard for agents, resulting in dissatisfied customers. Customers are the lifeline of any business, and a good CRM solution can prevent common issues like:
Placing customers on hold for too long
Giving out inaccurate information
Transferring customers to different departments and having to re-explain everything from the start.
With a proper CRM solution, your agents can get it right from the start and ensure a smoother, world-class customer experience. And that’s what will really set you apart from other companies.