Customize CRM For Higher Agent Productivity
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software was conceptualized and designed for the marketing and sales workforce. The software had the facility to store the detailed case history of the customers. This included information like when did the customer buy, what they bought, did they buy again etc. Also CRM stored all the payment related information, and made calculations much easier. Certainly the CRM helped tremendously in organizing all the data of marketing department, and increased the efficiency of all the sales and marketing professionals.
But when the same CRM was given to the contact centers, to be used by their agents, it led to inefficiency. The average handle time for each call went up. Now the agents required more time to verify the identity of the caller, to locate an answer of their problem and to finish their after call work.
The simple reason for this is that it was designed for the marketing staff and they did not need to access data in real time.
But a professional customer service agent wants to access the information urgently, while customer speaks on line. Both require a different kind of CRM with a different kind of functionality. Let's understand it through the metaphor of a cupboard. A marketing professional requires such a cupboard which has many lockers where each file of data is kept safely. While a customer service agent requires such a cupboard which has open shelves, and every file can be accessed within seconds.
Therefore it is important for the contact center to customize their CRM to make it convenient for their agents to perform their functions. The three key functions which the agents have to perform are:
Know the customer:
Whenever we call into a telemarketing call center Services, the first question that an agent asks is our name, and then our mother's name or our present address. This is done so that it can be verified that the caller is a customer, as per the company records also. So the moment the customer tells the name, the agent should be able to easily access all their records within the CRM by simply keying in their name.
Help the customer:
The various solutions to troubleshoot the problem of customers are provided to the agents whether as a hard copy script, or as a soft copy, on their system. These solutions can be made easily accessible by providing them on the CRM system as well.
Remember the customer:
The agents ought to know the previous case history of the customers who have already interacted once. Therefore after every call, the agents make some entries like the name, remarks etc. in a sheet, for future record. The CRM should make it easier for agents to perform this after call work easily and efficiently.
Therefore the clients prefer to offshore their work to such a call center outsourcing company which has customized CRM instead of the archaic version!
But when the same CRM was given to the contact centers, to be used by their agents, it led to inefficiency. The average handle time for each call went up. Now the agents required more time to verify the identity of the caller, to locate an answer of their problem and to finish their after call work.
The simple reason for this is that it was designed for the marketing staff and they did not need to access data in real time.
But a professional customer service agent wants to access the information urgently, while customer speaks on line. Both require a different kind of CRM with a different kind of functionality. Let's understand it through the metaphor of a cupboard. A marketing professional requires such a cupboard which has many lockers where each file of data is kept safely. While a customer service agent requires such a cupboard which has open shelves, and every file can be accessed within seconds.
Therefore it is important for the contact center to customize their CRM to make it convenient for their agents to perform their functions. The three key functions which the agents have to perform are:
Know the customer:
Whenever we call into a telemarketing call center Services, the first question that an agent asks is our name, and then our mother's name or our present address. This is done so that it can be verified that the caller is a customer, as per the company records also. So the moment the customer tells the name, the agent should be able to easily access all their records within the CRM by simply keying in their name.
Help the customer:
The various solutions to troubleshoot the problem of customers are provided to the agents whether as a hard copy script, or as a soft copy, on their system. These solutions can be made easily accessible by providing them on the CRM system as well.
Remember the customer:
The agents ought to know the previous case history of the customers who have already interacted once. Therefore after every call, the agents make some entries like the name, remarks etc. in a sheet, for future record. The CRM should make it easier for agents to perform this after call work easily and efficiently.
Therefore the clients prefer to offshore their work to such a call center outsourcing company which has customized CRM instead of the archaic version!