“We can’t be the best, and we can’t be the cheapest, but we can definitely care the most,”
– These are the words of Wade Foster, the founder of Zapier, a popular workflow automation tool known for its exceptional customer service.
This thought-provoking quote highlights the importance of customer experience in building a successful business. Businesses relying heavily on call centers can improve customer experience by implementing CRM software.
In this post, we dive deep into call center CRM software and the top picks.
What is a Call Center CRM Software?
A call center CRM is software that helps agents manage and track customer interactions across multiple channels, such as phone calls, emails, and chats. They can access customer data and preferences in real-time from a centralized location to create a comprehensive picture of call details and history.
Why Do You Need a Call Center CRM?
A robust contact center CRM enables agents to adapt faster, act smart, and drive better outcomes.
Here’s how:
1. Plan New Strategies
A call center CRM software provides a 360-degree view of all customer data and interaction history in real-time.
This includes crucial metrics like call volume, case times, up-sell rates, and more, which can be analyzed to optimize performance while allowing managers to devise strategies to retain clients.
2. Evaluate Employee’s Performance
CRM software comes with features such as activity tracking, recorded calls, and sales reports that can help you understand how your team is performing. You can use these data to get insights into employee performance.
3. Get Data for Employee Training
Call center CRM software can help you create a standardized process for agent training. You can use the call recordings and chat history data to prepare new agents for critical situations.
4. Improve Operational Efficiency & Customer Experience
Customers expect instant replies and proactive service.
A good call center CRM tool can manage inbound calls and route them to respective departments. This ensures that the call is only answered by the right person from the right department, improving operational efficiency and reducing the customer’s waiting time.
Further, agents can also review the customer’s previous inquiries and all the details through a CRM, which can help offer a more personalized experience.
What Are the Must-Have Features of Call Center CRM Software?
If you are evaluating a call center CRM software, make sure it offers features like:
Centralized Dashboard
Customers expect less fuss and clear communication when they contact a call center. This can only happen when you have a centralized dashboard to display all relevant customer details and context.
A centralized dashboard that shows all the details can help agents learn about customers and their past interactions. This makes it easy for the agent to better serve the customer and offer a personalized experience.
Automated Call Routing & Escalation
An efficient CRM contact center will connect customers to the right agent based on availability, capability, and skills. This can prevent unnecessary call assignments and reduce caller wait time, preventing customers from being transferred to multiple agents. A good call management software will automatically serve customers in the queue with the highest priority first.
Activity-based Call Prioritization
During rush hours, the call center should be able to prioritize calls based on the customer’s activity. For example, serving a customer who has just added a product to a cart is more important than the one who is just browning the product page.
Your call center CRM software should be able to identify these signals and prioritize the inbound call flows.
Reporting & Analytics
Reporting and analytics are essential to help you evaluate your performance and make informed decisions based on the data collected. The CRM should offer real-time insights into how well the call center is performing. This includes the average call duration, average wait time, the number of calls, etc.
This information will give stakeholders an idea of the ongoing trends and help you make strategic decisions for the company’s growth.
Exotel provides an advanced reports and analytics dashboard to get detailed insights on your performance and identify areas of improvement. You can customize these reports for in-depth analysis and maximize productivity.
Omni-channel Support
An efficient call center CRM software can help you manage all your channels, such as calls, emails, and texts. The software records all interactions from the channels and stores them in a unified customer database so that agents can access customer interaction history.
For example, a customer may initiate an inquiry on a call but follow up on WhatsApp. The agent will have the full context of the customer’s complaint so they don’t have to repeat it when switching channels.
Chatbots & Virtual Assistants
They’re undeniably an inseparable part of the modern call center CRM software. Chatbots and virtual assistants help:
» Automate customer support
» Offer 24×7 service
» Handle high volumes
» Personalize interactions
They can also escalate the conversation to a human agent in certain conditions, improving call center efficiency and end-customer satisfaction.
Driving Monumental Call Center Results With Exotel
Exotel is a leading customer conversation platform that helps businesses by providing comprehensive and innovative communication solutions. It can easily integrate with your existing CRM and is focused on transforming the way organizations manage their customer interactions.
From small startups to large enterprises, Exotel offers a scalable solution that adapts to any business’s evolving needs. One feature that stands out is its support for multi-channel communication, where companies can effortlessly manage calls, texts and other channels from a single, centralized platform. Other notable features include seamless call recording and integration, advanced call routing and analytics, API integrations and more.
It’s highly scalable and trusted by businesses of all sizes and types. Try now !