Call Center Software + CRM Integration Improves Productivity & Customer Satisfaction

Customers today expect a highly personalized experience when they interact with your business, and they want to get answers to their questions quickly. Are your business tools connected and seamlessly working together to provide that experience?

With businesses using on average 129 technologies within their operations, it’s easy to get distracted throughout the day with multiple open tabs and different workflow processes for capturing and passing information. Successful teams are finding ways to work smarter (and faster) by integrating their essential business tools, particularly call center software and CRM, empowering them to seamlessly work within a single platform.

With 91% of businesses relying on CRM systems, it’s no surprise that high-performing teams are bringing the two together to improve overall efficiency and customer satisfaction.

If you’re on the fence about the benefits of connecting these two technology powerhouses, keep reading!

What is CRM?

Arguably one of the most important technologies in your stack is CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management - a tool that acts as a repository for all of your customers’ key information.

This software helps companies identify ways to improve their customers’ needs and exceed expectations. When it’s properly connected with a reliable call center software, businesses are able to quickly see the payback in customer experience and agent productivity.

Inbound and outbound teams can easily manage their calls with contact information displayed directly into their softphone, as well as auto logging call details, purchases, chats, emails, and any other forms of communication online. Everything is all in one place, helping teams and managers work effectively in fast-paced environments.

CRM Software Tools

Whatever your needs are, there’s a CRM out there that can help improve your business relationships. It’s about staying connected to your customers, streamlining business processes, and increasing profitability over time. Here are some popular CRMs that are often integrated into call center software:

The decision is yours. Just make sure that your cloud communication provider can support the CRM you select. If they don’t, see if you can request it as a new integration!

The Advantages of CRM and Call Center Integrations

  1. Customer Information at Your Fingertips

Your agents can easily make or take calls, track, record, and audit communication logs all in one place. A CRM and virtual call center solution allows agents to see exactly who they’re talking to before answering a call.

Your CRM is a receptacle of knowledge, so use it to your advantage when dealing with customer questions or concerns. Look at it as a guide for customer retention, because when the customers are happy, you’re happy (and your agents stay motivated!).

  1. Eliminate the Busywork

Call centers run at a fast pace and require employees, technologies, and processes that can keep up. If your inbound or outbound support teams are constantly having to manually log activities into your CRM, precious time can be wasted.

With a call center and CRM integration in place, teams are able to move faster and remove the risk of human error. You’ll be able to sync notes and call data, connect transcripts and AI services so all past and present conversations are within reach and accurate, every time. By automatically logging activity, your team will be able to reduce average handling time and move through the call queue at an expedited pace.

  1. Boost Team Collaboration for the Greater Good

Your team doesn’t work in silos and neither should your tech stack. CRM and call center integrations can ensure your inbound and outbound call teams work smarter and more efficiently by making important customer information easily accessible.

By connecting the dots on historical customer data and new incoming conversations, agents are able to see a full picture of the customer journey - and in return, provide a personalized experience no matter who they’re speaking with.

Boost team collaboration by organizing, filtering and easily routing callers to the agents who are the best fit to answer their questions, enabling customers to get the information they seek quickly. By connecting your call center and CRM, managers can proactively monitor and share key service-level metrics across teams and departments in real-time.

Selecting the Right Call Center Software to Integrate with Your CRM

Many businesses likely have these two technologies in place. However, if you’re currently evaluating providers, make sure to consider these use-cases before making a final decision.

  1. Integrations. You probably use several technologies to run your business. Before deciding on a call center solution, make sure they have a robust selection of integrations that connect with your essential tools.
  2. Global Voice Coverage. If you have customers in different regions, make sure your call center provider has the track record of providing clear and reliable voice coverage. Take a look at the brands they work with and dig into their uptime metrics or the geographies they cover to make sure they’re someone who can grow with your business.
  3. Improving Service. If improving the customer experience is a top priority, then make sure your call center platform offers a suite of features that enhance how your agents interact with your customers. Some important features include:
    • Live Coaching. Ensure your customers are getting a consistent experience every time with Live Coaching features like monitoring, barge, and whisper. Features like this allow you to easily coach and train agents during live customer calls.
    • Softphone. It’s more important than ever to make sure your team can work remotely. WebRTC softphones enable your business to move away from hard phones and enjoy superior call quality from wherever your team is located.
    • IVR & ACD. Clear prompts can reduce the number of call transfers between agents and enhance self-services for callers.
    • Call Disposition. Agents can summarize calls and track outcomes with user-friendly labels and even automatically create tasks into other essential technologies so managers can evaluate call details in real-time.
  1. Comprehensive Analytics. Those managing inbound or outbound teams know first-hand how important it is to easily access performance metrics. As you select the right call center provider for your business, make sure they have the ability to clearly report on the service level KPIs that matter most. Whether it’s reducing call abandonment or improving first-call resolution rate, take the time to dig in and see sample reports or dashboards that you’ll be able to lean on.

A well-structured integration between your CRM and call center platform will amplify your team’s productivity and significantly increase customer satisfaction. Making sure your team can easily access customer details at any time, eliminating the need for manual data entry, and having the call center features to boost collaboration across your organization are critical pieces to delivering exceptional experiences that keep your customers coming back for more.