Contact Center Integrations: How to link these to your CRM

Contact center integrations are integral to your success. The success of your customer relationship depends on how frequently you reach out to them and how well you know them.

At the most basic level, businesses must know their customers’ names to personalize communication and have accurate contact details. 

In today’s world, one cannot expect customers to engage with an email that starts with “Dear sir/ma’am”. A report found that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions with companies. Hence, the need for integrating customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center software.

Contact center software

While businesses store data about customers in their CRM systems, different contact center software may be used for customer interactions across different channels.

Simply put, CRM and contact center integration map customer information with data from contact center interactions to build a complete view of the customer’s journey. 

For example, details of all phone calls made using the contact center software are automatically logged into the CRM system and made available to any agent contacting the person at a later date. 

It brings all your existing tools together and thus empowers your customer service agents to deliver better quality service.

What Does A Contact Center Software Do?

Contact center software acts as a central hub for all business communication across channels. You can make unlimited calls, integrate it with your CRM and other business tools, and get access to real-time analytics on team performance. It’s the ultimate tool for improving the quality of customer experiences. 

Cloud contact center software like Ringover has a range of useful features that can optimize operations:

• International numbers help strengthen the brand's local presence
• Automatic call distributors route incoming calls to agents based on customer issues, agent skill level, etc.
• An Interactive Voice Response system greets callers and aids in self-service transactions
• Workforce management applications automate facets of intraday management according to agent schedules
• Text messaging service personalizes SMS to each recipient and builds stronger connections
• Call recording facilities provide data for training and quality assessment while also complying with government regulations
• Reporting applications make it easier to keep an eye on key performance indices

What Is Email Integration In CRM?

Communication with customers is not limited to conversations on the phone. Almost one-third of all marketers send weekly emails in addition to using SMS for business. Email integration with CRM allows messages sent and received to be automatically captured and linked to account activities. 

So, when a customer is contacted, the calling agent can not only see the call communication history with the customer, but they can also see what emails have been exchanged during the customer’s journey with the brand.

Why CTI Is Vital In The Contact Center?

When you’re handling a large volume of calls, Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) becomes a vital part of your Contact Center software. This bridges computer programs and telecommunication networks so call center agents can make and receive calls using onscreen controls instead of phones. 

It also has many unique capabilities such as the use of artificial intelligence to route calls, call authentication and monitoring, IVR systems and so on. 

In addition, it also makes relevant customer information accessible on the same dashboard to make conversations more efficient. Agents can spend less time sifting through the database for information and give customers speedier resolutions.

What Are The Advantages Of Integrated Call Centers?

An integrated contact center solution creates seamless dataflow and gives your customer service agents the ability to personalize communication for an improved experience. Some of the benefits you can expect to experience are:

Better Collaboration For Increased Productivity

Integrating communication tools and contact center software improves internal operations. Agents can exchange messages with other agents and supervisors, reach out to subject matter experts for assistance and get support for issue escalation. 

For newly hired agents, it also minimizes training time and enables remote working. Empowering agents in this way improves productivity and satisfaction. In turn, this improves customer interactions

Omni-Channel Communication Management

Contact center integration improves communication across all channels. You can make and receive calls as well as use the mass texting service for outreach campaigns. Data about every interaction is stored centrally and linked to the customer profile to ensure that no message is missed out. 

This also minimizes the risk of sending duplicate emails. Call center agents handling incoming calls can refer to these interactions to get a better understanding of the customer’s requirements.

Create Cross-Selling Opportunities

In addition to resolving customer issues, call center agents dealing with inbound and outbound communication can use contact center integration to create upselling and cross-selling opportunities. 

Since all customer interaction data is linked to the CRM, latent demand can be better understood and leveraged to promote linked products and services. With time, this personalized service builds long-term brand loyalty.

Reduced Call Resolution Times

Access to information about customer details from the CRM system ensures that call center agents have adequate context for answering customer calls. It also helps route calls to the right agents and minimizes wait time on incoming calls. This paves the way for meaningful interactions and quicker query resolution.

Improved Customer Experience

A study found that 73% of consumers expect brands to understand their needs and personalize communication accordingly. CRM contact center integration makes this possible and gives calling agents valuable insights into the customer’s requirements and preferences. 

Each phone call, SMS and email can then be tailored to the customer’s profile to increase conversions and satisfaction rates.

Empower Your Contact Center

The future of contact centers is an automated one. CRM and contact center integration boost agent productivity while simultaneously enhancing the customer’s experience across touchpoints. 

The Ringover Contact center solution is the ideal solution required to unify communication and empower your call center to build a strong customer-centric brand image. As a cloud contact center, it requires no special equipment and can be installed in minutes. It’s time you try it out for yourself.

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