You've probably worked in at least one office with one (or ten) of those huge, three-drawer filing cabinets. We all liked to think they were organised but in reality, to find anything you had to spend ages sifting through hundreds of files to get to what you needed.
This is often how it feels when one of your agents is taking a phone call from a customer. Not only do they have to rummage through (albeit digital) files to find the right details, the customer on the other end of the line is usually already halfway through their query by the time your agent finds what they're looking for. There's a lot that could be missed!
This is just one scenario where CRM integration changes the game. Undoubtedly one of the greatest innovations of cloud telephony, this seemingly trivial feature can improve customer experience, benefit your staff and even save your business money:
1. Personalisation
With CRM integration, any incoming calls are automatically looked up so that the sales or support agent is immediately directed to the caller's profile. Not only can the agent see who is calling, but also where they're calling from and all their recent history, notes and account information. This means the agent has more time to focus on the prospect or customer, rather than spending time looking up all the relevant details. They can also use the available information to approach the caller from the right angle, personalising their key messaging from the second they pick up the phone.
2. Efficiency
The integration between your database and communications facilitates the ability to make outgoing calls or accept incoming calls with a single click. This helps high-volume environments turnaround calls quickly, with shorter exchanges and reduced queues.
The aforementioned information available on a caller's profile also allows incoming calls to be dealt with quickly, as less time is spent asking extraneous questions at the beginning of the call and the agent handling it can get straight down to business.
3. Automation
Sometimes, the most important information is the easiest to forget, like the date, time, length and quality of a call. This information feeds into how well you know your customers and their interaction with your business, helping your call-handling agents address queries quickly and accurately - so it's imperative to record it correctly.
With CRM integration, this information can automatically be entered into a caller's record. Not only does this save time, but it ensures accuracy and reduces the labour costs and lost data costs that can be associated with inputting and analysing data manually.
4. Analytics
CRM data is crucial to help your marketing department analyse customer behaviour, craft marketing personas and build effective marketing strategies. Access to CRM data also allows marketing departments to effectively assist salespeople in lead capture and conversion.
Integrating CRM data into your business phone system will let your marketing department test the effectiveness of different tactics and get an idea of what the customer experience is like at each stage of their relationship with your business.
5. Performance
Connecting call data with your CRM means you'll always have quantifiable data that will allow you to evaluate your workforce properly and objectively. This gives you more opportunities to improve and refine their skillsets to better serve your prospects and customers.
Additionally, we've already seen how CRM integration will simplify the jobs of your call handling agents. By eliminating trivial roadblocks like missing customer profiles or mis-dialing numbers, performance should significantly improve with immediate effect.
CRM integration is just one of many features that can bring huge benefits to your business, staff and customers. Just imagine what a full phone system can do!