Over the course of the last five posts (The 5 Dangers of Not Having Call Recording, Event Management, Unhappy Customers, Unproductive Agents, Misunderstanding the Customer Voice) we have discussed how recording of interactions in public utilities organizations have played a significant role in ensuring that company policies, regulations, and best practices are achieved. Recordings of telecommunications and radio between agents and customers allow for positive improvement of agent and company performance over time.  

The benefits of call/interaction recording and consolidation to improve performance possess a common thread; having a single record of what was said or done. This blog post addresses how recording can help in situations when the defensive aspect of having to prove or disprove violations, and what error, if any, occurs.  

LIABILITY VERIFICATION 

When outages or other events occur, communication issues are often at the core of critical failures and sentinel events. Utility companies usually conduct post event debriefings to better understand how communications errors may have happened.  If calls and other interactions were recorded, the communications in question can be revisited and can determine if regulatory or policy violations occurred.  If violations did not occur, the recordings can be used as proof of compliance. 

Additionally, disputes often need to be resolved following an outage or other event. Everyone has their version of the event or issue, and providing the captured interaction and recorded information can provide proof in the dispute resolution process.  Having accurate records mitigates issues, saves time and money. 

Throughout this series of blogs, the advantages of a digital, integrated, and secure recording and interaction capture system have been outlined both for performance improvement and defensive purposes.  Altitude Enterprise Recording is instrumental for achieving the benefits noted throughout this series.   

Want to learn more about the benefits of interaction recording? Read article to see the

4 Reasons to invest in an interaction recording solution 

La entrada Dangers of not Having Call Recording in Utilities: Danger # 5 – Poor Liability Management  se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Contact centers are continually tasked with goals, key performance indicators, and regulations. Management often uses grading and scoring of agent interactions with customers to guide best practices and standards. Sometimes the chosen KPIs for agents focus on rigid quantitative parameters, and they discount the customer’s needs and journey, resulting in unsatisfactory customer service. 

In public utilities, contact center agents must be attuned to their internal and external customers to deliver optimal customer service. Recording interactions is a key tool to understanding the customer voice and to train agents to listen and respond.  

WHY ARE CUSTOMERS CONTACTING YOU? 

Various requests come into utilities contact centers both from external customers (billing, outages, service requests) and internal staff (procurement issues, logistics, project coordination). It is important that agents listen and understand what the customer is asking for. This can mean hearing subtle cues or following up with questions to clarify a point. Studying recorded calls or other interactions with a supervisor can greatly increase an agent’s skill in understanding the customer’s needs quickly.    

Are the Real Issues Being Resolved? 

There are times when a customer contacts an organization but may not themselves understand what they really need. If agents are not equipped to ask all the questions necessary to fully understand the customer’s journey, they may appear to help, but the issue will not be properly resolved. By recording and monitoring calls, both sides of the interaction can be reviewed. Careful examination of recorded calls can help train agents about how to fully understand the customer’s issues and take the appropriate actions right away.    

Are the Customers Satisfied? 

When customers are unhappy with the services they receive, they tend to spread the word. People are much more likely to broadcast complaints (Danger #2:Unhappy Customers) then they are to praise customer service. Acquiring a bad reputation for your company can be detrimental, and in addition to the business lost from dissatisfied customers themselves, potential customers may be steered away due to negative social media and reviews. By reviewing recorded calls and interactions that illustrate both satisfied and unsatisfied customers, the causes can be pinpointed. With this kind of coaching, agents will be better able to ensure that customers are truly satisfied at the end of the interaction.  

 Start using recording to understand customer voice TODAY!

La entrada Dangers of not Having Call Recording in Utilities: Danger #4 – Misunderstanding the Customer Voice se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Customer service agents in public utility companies are a crucial part of customer service experience. Agents’ ability to communicate and resolve customer issues is a core function of their job, and maintaining agent productivity is crucial to achieving goals and delivering high-quality service. When agents in the dispatch center and customer service are not meeting goals and productivity falls, company revenue and operations can suffer. Reviewing and tracking agent performance to uncover issues and providing the right training can correct unproductive work habits and behavior. Tracking and improving agent´s productivity can be readily accomplished with interaction recording and analysis.

KEEPING AGENTS PRODUCTIVE 

Promoting productivity in the contact or dispatch center can be accomplished by using a call recording and monitoring system that captures customer interactions and helps agents learn, grow, and develop a sense of accomplishment. This post examines three strategies that can boost agent productivity and promote best practices.  

Scripts 

A pre-written script can help guide the agent in preferred responses. A good customer service script will provide the agent with answers to commonly asked questions and responses to issues while they are engaged with a customer. Having the script in front of them can reduce time spent searching or asking a manager for answers. The customers will appreciate the efficiency, and more time will be available for the agent to help others. Listening to recorded calls is useful in writing a good script because real-life examples can be used, and they can generate ideas for realistic scenarios.   

Screen Capture 

By capturing images of the agent’s screen with the interactions, supervisors can review which applications the agent was using, and how they were being used. If the agent is found to be using an application to retrieve information in an inefficient manner, or is using an inappropriate one that wastes time, the supervisor can coach the agent on the best application and apply training on its use. This is a valuable method to improve process efficiency and workflow. 

PEER MENTORING 

Coaching or mentoring by peers in the contact center has proven to be a highly effective way to train newer agents, as well as retrain experienced ones. Typically, experienced agents that have been selected by management coach less experienced agents, which can involve listening to and evaluating recorded calls.  

Recorded interactions of peers can be used as examples – good or bad – to help train agents. The ability to listen to both sides of the calls helps to understand both agent and customer perspectives, and to teach correct responses. In addition, activities supporting the calls can be learned and practiced, such as looking up information for the customer. 

This method works well because both mentor and protégé usually enjoy the training. There is a positive social aspect which results in increased morale and motivation, as well as a sense of accomplishment for both the trainer and the trainee. Interaction playback with peer mentoring usually produces well-trained agents faster than other methods, resulting in more productive agents in less time. 

Would you like to know how call recording can improve agent productivity? 

We´ll tell you how!

La entrada Dangers of not Having Call Recording in Utilities: Danger #3 – Unproductive Agents se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Contact Center agents in public utility facilities engage in diverse and multi-faceted responsibilities. Agents communicate not only with external customers and associates but also internal employees. Internal staff have varying needs and can range from field engineers to equipment procurement to regulatory departments. Productive operations require agents to communicate appropriately with a positive attitude and follow through with their customers. 

If contact center operations fall short in any of these areas, customer dissatisfaction can result.  When customers are unhappy with the way they are treated, they can cause harm to the company that can result in a decline in sales revenue, deficient internal operations, service outages, and increased safety risk. 

Bad customer service experience complaints reach over twice as many people as do praises for good experiences. Often the company is the last to find out that their customers are not happy with customer service. Surveys show that for every customer who bothers to complain, 26 others remain silent.  

Common Factors Causing Unhappy Customers: 

• Long wait times – holding for an agent, transfers, and not offering callbacks 
• No resolution in the first call – if an issue cannot be resolved on the first call, more time is required for the customer  

• Agent post-call activities –  some systems require agents to spend more time after the call to resolve issues, resulting in decreased agent availability 
• High handling time – spending too much time with a customer without achieving results   
• Tone of agent – agents with an unpleasant tone can cause the caller to feel put off and unimportant  
• Not understanding the customer’s needs – the agent may not ask questions that underlie the issue, and may fail to take the right actions to help the customer  

Poor Customer Service is Fixable 

Fortunately, creating a top-notch contact center is readily achievable with the right tools in place. Proper training is one aspect that greatly improves the quality and performance of customer service agents, and this will in turn raise customer satisfaction. 7 of 10 customers in the U.S. have stated that they would spend more with companies they feel provide excellent customer service. 

The first step is to record all interactions in your contact center. This includes calls, emails, texts, IMs, radio, and other communications. A recording system that provides quick and easy retrieval of any interaction for analysis makes agent training efficient and rewarding. The system should also include quality assurance assessment, with customizable grading forms that allow supervisors to assign scores and grades to agents’ interactions. When agents can hear and see playbacks of their interactions (guided by their supervisors), it helps them to better understand the direction for improvement, and allows them to take control of their performance.  

For example, an agent may be unaware that they sound unfriendly on the phone and fail to close the call with a call to action, but hearing themselves would allow them to pinpoint the issues and enable them to make positive changes. 

Measuring Performance  

With call recording and quality assurance tools, you can measure the results of multiple agents or interactions. A good application should have the ability to easily generate reports for the groups you choose to look at. You may want to examine all agents or select sub-sets based on your parameters, compare performance at various times and dates to look for changes, and more. 

The Altitude Enterprise Recorder platform with Quality Assurance includes all the features discussed above, including customizable grading forms and scoring, quick report generation and analysis. Armed with this powerful tool, your agents can be coached to achieve high-level performance, and in turn improve customer satisfaction. 

How to use call recording in utilities to improve customer service?

Give us a call and we´ll tell you!

La entrada Dangers of not Having Call Recording in Utilities: Danger # 2 – Unhappy Customers se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Events happen. Whether inclement weather, sudden surges caused by widespread use of AC during a heat wave, or routine maintenance servicing gone wrong, there will be times when customers will be without the reliable service that they expect. Public utilities responses to untimely events must comply with company policies, safety requirements, customer expectations, and telecommunications regulations. One way to ensure that the companies are in compliance with policies and regulations is to record all telecommunication interactions.

POLICY ADHERENCE 

Utility companies have policies in place to ensure that customers receive current and accurate information regarding an event, and they use various methods to communicate this information to the customer. Recording of these communications ensures that policies are adhered to and that they can be used for training and improvement towards best practices. 

DISPATCH COMMUNICATIONS 

Recording of dispatch communications is also another important aspect of event management.  Outages rarely follow an established or prescribed routine, and thus exercising flexibility and responsiveness is necessary. However, it is also essential that safety requirements are maintained, and all team members are well–informed and communicating throughout the event. Recording these communications can be used for post-event quality audit and proof of compliance.

CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS 

During outage events, customers are naturally unhappy due to the inconveniences; however, customers often feel more comfortable when the agent supplies current and reliable information and is attentive to them. Recording allows for review of agent/customer conversations to determine tone, as well as to review the agent’s adherence to policies. Quality Audits can be used for training and future improvement of customer interactions.

INDUSTRY REGULATIONS 

Regulations regarding communications with customers is outlined under the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).  Recordings can be used to review compliance with TCPA and can be used for training to ensure future compliance. 

CALL RECORDING IMPROVES EVENT MANAGEMENT 

Events will happen and recording interactions during them can help track any repercussions. These factors include adherence to company policies, meeting safety requirements, exceeding customer expectations, and compliance with telecommunications regulations. During an event, having recording capability enables improved management of the event and establishes enhanced performance for future events.  Do you want to know how?

Talk to us!

La entrada Dangers of Not Having Call Recording in Utilities: Danger #1 – Event Management and Safety Tracking se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

As Utilities make strides in improving their operations and the customer experience, the need for tracking and recording all interactions is increasing.  Keeping track of communications in utilities contact or dispatch centers is important for ensuring that policies, procedures, best practices, and regulatory requirements are met. Interaction recording and capture is instrumental for avoiding 5 pitfalls that may result from not having a recording capability. 

Utilities with recording capabilities in their contact and dispatch centers have come to realize that they can avoid the following dangers: 

1. No event management or safety tracking – Recording of internal and external communications during an event (e.g. outage) provides insight into how to follow best practices
2. Unhappy customers  – Recording improves training which in turn creates better interactions with customers
3. Unproductive agents – Recording pinpoints best practices and can lead to process improvement, which can help to empower and motivate agents
4. Misunderstanding the customer voice – Recording ensures that the customer’s voice and issues are properly understood through careful review, and their issues can be correctly addressed
5. Poor liability management – Communications are critical for events and service outages; having recordings ensures that information is properly disseminated, and dispute resolution is possible

This is first in a series over the next few weeks in which we will be digging deeper into each one of these dangers.

Interaction recording can be a great benefit to your company!

Want to know how?

La entrada Five Dangers of Not Having Call Recording in Public Utilities se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Cloud technology solutions are one of the major trends in almost all industries. They provide multiple benefits  and simplify digital transformation processes. They have become essential in the Contact Center sector, since they allow efficient storage of thousands of pieces of data that are generated ever day as well as easy access to the data. In fact, up to 88.8% of customers agree that Contact Center solutions in the cloud allowed them to reduce costs, among other benefits. 

In the last few years, Cloud technology is a concept on the agenda of decision makers as a turning point on their work processes. These technologies are now a reality in which more companies, regardless of the sector are investing, due to the benefits they provide. 

Customer service departments are no strangers to this change, since they generate and process  large amounts of information. This is why they are adapting their software to run their activity on cloud. 

According to a study conducted by Markets and Markets, the Contact Center market on the cloud was valued at 5.73 billion dollars in 2016 and it is expected to reach 20.93 billion dollars in 2022, experiencing an annual growth rate of 25.2%. 

Benefits of using cloud solutions 

Cost savings

For small and medium-sized companies this is the most important benefit due to the significant expenses required by previous solutions. Cloud solutions do not require any initial investment or hardware (except PC and headphones) reducing the need for IT personnel. 

Simple management

Cloud solutions enable a simple management of the Contact Center platform without the need of IT . In addition, the company will always have the latest software version compliant with data protection regulations. DNCLs (Do Not Call Lists) can be uploaded  and changed in real-time. 

Flexibility

Flexible subscription models allow the expansion or reduction of the Contact Center platform according to each company’s specific needs, eliminating the costs of non-used licenses during low season or easily increasing during peak season. 

Mobility

Cloud solutions do not require a contact center in each business location. In addition, employees may work remotely with no need for a new telephony of hardware systems.

Multiple applications: Cloud solutions allow the integration of numerous applications and functionalities, facilitating user access. Altitude Software’s application marketplace, Altitude Xperience Hub, enhances the ecosystem of products and solutions to providing greater value for customers. 

Innovating for the best customer experience 

Altitude Software, true to its commitment in offering innovative products,  provides cloud technology  contact center solutions, to help companies consolidate data efficiently and improve the relationship with their customers. 

Companies using Altitude Xperience cloud platform can benefit from multiple functionalities, such as Xperience Router. It allows simple and fast configuration of routing scripts, with options such as conveying personalized messages while customers wait for an agent or offering a call back if the waiting time is too long. 

The GDPR Portal is another innovative application included in the cloud platform,  enabling GDPR compliance when managing personal customer data. All data is centralized in a single directory, simplifying its organization by categories, as required by the legislation as for audit purposes. 

Cloud platforms allow companies to address customer queries through different channels in a single virtual desktop,  improving agent efficiency and offering a 360-degree view of the Customer Journey.

CIOs must take advantage of cloud solutions benefits, such as recording calls to have greater control over the service quality and to help agents improve their work, establishing KPIs and viewing global results in real time. 

Customer Service is essential for companies who put their customers in the center, and therefore the innovation in this sector is key to guarantee its quality. The adoption of new trends and the benefits offered by cloud technologies represent a change that allows us to easily adapt to the customer´s needs and requirements. 

Find out how your business can benefit from a cloud solution!

La entrada Yes! A cloud contact center is the right move to your business se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

A cloud contact center is the meeting place between customers and your company. This touchpoint forms a vital layer of your business. It does not just create first impressions. It also helps to organize employee-customer relationships and provides in-depth insights that will help you grow into the future. With a contact center housed in the cloud, growth is just clicks away.

First things first, though: What is a cloud contact center?

To answer this question, it’s helpful to know some history. After all, the way contact centers look and act has changed significantly in just the past few decades.

In the ’50s and ’60s, contact centers were simply a switchboard or a team of secretaries with Rolodexes. When the computer became appropriate for business, contact centers morphed into software solutions that offered a kind of online address book. More recently, workplaces have adopted “on premise” solutions where customer data resides within the organization. The latest iteration of contact center software involves the cloud , and it has taken the concept of customer-company engagement to an entirely new level.

By giving teams the ability to connect with customers easily and rapidly as the business scales, employees can foster customer relationships seamlessly. But while a cloud contact center’s benefits do outweigh those of an “on premise” contact center, some might worry about cloud-based software compromising the security of sensitive data.

Why You Should Not Fear the Cloud

The business world has already adopted cloud software in many realms. McAfee’s “Navigating a Cloudy Sky” study noted that 97% of organizations already use cloud services in some capacity. And as customers continue to join the cloud, the pressure to apply it to more areas of the business will only grow.

For professionals who still have one foot in the analog realm, though, leaping into a cloud-based contact center solution provides several practical and mental challenges. People often imagine the cloud as a vast, amorphous, and impersonal space. Because clouds managed by technology giants such as Google and Microsoft incorporate so many people’s data, they worry that theirs will be lost or mishandled.

The Security Question

It’s the question of security that causes many teams to delay their adoption of cloud contact center software. The same McAfee report also notes that only 69% of business leaders actually trust the public cloud to protect their sensitive data. This is a rational concern. They see media coverage of security breaches and cyber attacks and imagine that these problems go hand in hand with life in the cloud — but that is not necessarily true.

For instance, consider the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, where hackers demanded ransom in exchange for the safety of targets’ sensitive files and data. Although this attack was terrifying for everyone involved, it did not target cloud users. Instead, the hackers simply attached to any storage drives mapped to a letter — think “C:/” or “D:/” — and this ended up affecting more than 200,000 users across the globe.

For this reason, one could argue that being on the cloud offers a protective layer that traditional solutions don’t. Because companies must manage “on premise” systems themselves, the margin for human error is huge. Those who look after information technology within organizations aren’t necessarily trained in data security, and they might not know how to handle these kinds of issues.

On the other hand, cloud data is stored on servers external to your company and is managed by experts who deal solely with this data. Because of this, cloud providers can spot, diagnose, and solve incidents and vulnerabilities before they cause problems for the end user — which can also help you save time, money, and manpower in the long run.

3 Benefits of Shifting Your Contact Center to the Cloud

Now that we’ve address some potential fears, what about the other cloud contact center benefits? Here some of the best reasons to employ cloud-based software for your contact engagement:

1. You will avoid the initial implementation barriers

Implementing traditional contact center software is a costly commitment, as it requires companies to set up a huge, complicated investment of resources upfront. Data is stored on-site in servers, which requires a lot of energy and supervision. This kind of investment usually requires a full IT team to get things up and moving.

With a cloud-based solution, there are no barriers to entry. Simply entrust your data to an external expert and access it via the internet — no IT team necessary. The ease of implementation means your employees can focus on pressing business tasks, rather than fumbling through the fussy first stages of implementing the software.

2. It is highly scalable

Scaling up with an “on premise” solution poses significant challenges. Each level of evolution requires careful planning and reinvestment, which carries a high degree of risk should you need to scale back again. With cloud-based software, you are free to scale up or down according to how your business is growing and changing — all without jeopardizing the investment you’ve already made.

During peak business seasons, you will be free to take on extra resources and pay for them only as you need them — not to mention scale right back down when it’s best for business. Most providers allow you to purchase a package that leaves room for growth in a much more affordable way.

3. The cloud evolves — and it takes your company with it

Besides scaling up your contact engagement center without the hang-ups, the cloud offers you ongoing updates on functionality. If your cloud provider evolves to enhance the user experience, for example, that set of new functionalities is yours without needing to install, understand, or invest in it. This is a valuable benefit you just won’t get with “on premise” software.

Make no mistake: Cloud-based contact center services are the way of the future. A contact center is the vital link between your company and your customers. Place that link in safe hands by entrusting it to a cloud contact center provider, and you will gain the power to scale with ease.

Miguel Noronha is executive vice president of Portugal, North America, United Kingdom, and global accounts at Altitude Software, a global provider of contact center solutions. Noronha has been with Altitude for 20 years and has gained vast experience through his positions as senior consultant, project manager, and director. He is dedicated to helping organizations unify all customer interactions and become more customer-centric.

La entrada 3 Ways A Cloud Contact Center Can Help Your Company Grow se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

“Silicon 

According to him, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an illusion, it doesn’t exist and it never will. What exists is software code written by humans to exploit other humans”.  Say what? Exploitation? Sorry but no, it’s quite the opposite. 

AI is a reality, not an illusion and it is revolutionizing the customer service industry to simplify humans’ lives and improve companies’ business results.  As the world shifts gears from social media towards messaging apps, it’s time to bring down the misconceptions of AI and chatbots and point out what great opportunity it is for businesses. 

Chatbots are dummy 

There is a general understanding that chatbots are just dummy machines that do not understand user’s intent and never get the answers right. These may be true allegations, but it doesn’t have to be that way. AI technology, such as Natural Language Processing (NPS) and Machine Learning, enables chatbot training to recognize and process user intent and provide contextual, custom answers to customer queries. It´s all a question of how well the bot is trained and how good is the continuous learning process. When it gets to a point where the conversation is not going anywhere, the chat bot can transfer the interaction to an agent, to ensure that the customer is handled properly. 

It’s true that chatbots are not able to understand human emotions and they don’t have a personality, but they can help to deliver a great customer experience. An insurance company wouldn´t have a chatbot handle critical problems, such as a line to report home damages caused by wildfires, as that requires for sympathy and empathy; but they can certainly use a chatbot for new policy suggestions. An AI chatbot can understand customer needs and suggest the most appropriate policy. 

 Chat bots will replace humans and take over their jobs 

“AI will be a net job creator starting in 2020 … AI will automate 1.8 million people out of work, but it will create 2.3 million jobs” Gartner 

Chatbots will never replace humans. What they do is, using AI, take care of monotonous, repetitive, time consuming tasks, optimizing human potential in a smart and efficient manner. Chatbots help businesses to give their customers quick and consistent answers to FAQs or other simple queries; reducing the workload of human resources, leaving them free to focus on other complex and important tasks. AI and chatbots are changing how we work and shifting human responsibilities towards more specialized content. AI helps humans to do their jobs more effectively, rather than being a threat. A chatbot can help a human, but not replace a human. Yes, they can be used to engage customers, but ultimately, if there is any requirement for critical thinking or emotional intelligence, humans must come to the rescue to ensure the best customer service. 

  Chatbots only serve for simple transactions and pulling simple data 

Most people think that the purpose of chatbots is to chat with customers when there are no human agents available to do so. It can’t be farther from reality as chat bots can handle most requests from the most varied types. Business as diverse as H&M personal shopper, financial advisor for important banking institutions, or Svenson hair clinics benefit from an AI chatbot to improve their business results. As can more traditional sector, such as medicine. AI technology already uses algorithms to diagnose diseases, make recommendations about treatments, and even have robots to perform surgeries. 

A study by PWC states that in the next five years AI chatbots will be interacting with customers in the following business sectors: 

Chatbots are here to disrupt, in a good way, how we interact with services from any industry, as they have the power to deliver the most excellent customer service and business results. 

Chatbots support only text messages 

Not really. It’s true that text-based messaging, with more than 3 billion active users on the 4 top messaging Apps, paved the road for the acceptance of chatbots, but voice is a more natural way of conversation. Both bot types allow customers to accomplish a task and both are powered by NLP to process interactions in an intelligent way.  Moreover, text based chatbots can support voice, through the use of text to speech technology, to transform voice into a text message. Businesses can also use chatbots to transfer documents and other media with customers. 

Chatbots are only for big companies 

This is probably the biggest misconception about chatbots. If configured correctly, they can deliver an outstanding service and modernize small businesses. They can provide service 24*7, allowing the business to run non stop at no additional cost. Customer satisfaction is crucial to the success of all businesses, this is even more true for small companies. The fact that chatbots offer real help in real time, highly increase customer satisfaction and engagement and customer retention.  

AI and cloud technology make chatbots a must have feature for businesses of any size. They are crucial to provide an engaging customer experience for all sectors. There is a task for every bot, from answering simple questions and queries to using natural language to reminding patients of the healthcare sector to take their medicine. Don’t miss the AI hype and empower your business with a chatbot. I promise you won’t regret it!  

La entrada AI and chatbots: an illusion, evil, or a revolution? se publicó primero en Altitude Software.

Consumers are all too familiar with the customer service call routine. They call in with questions and are met with representatives who then put them on hold in order to patch in others who can better assist them. This process continues until they finally connect with the right agents—which can feel like eternity, especially for callers who need fast, simple answers.

This, unfortunately, is a frequent occurrence, and the culprit is often siloed buyer information. So how can you break this cycle? The solution lies in combining all customer data into a single CRM database that minimizes friction and maximizes positive engagement.

The Relationship Between Data Consolidation and CRM

By funneling all customer information into a rich database, companies can simplify interactions—both for the people they serve and the ones they employ.

A consolidated CRM data strategy can help foster a dynamic contact engagement center. In this new system, agents have access to any customer data they might need. For example, do you want to know a customer’s contact preferences? With a centralized data management system, that information is stored on a platform along with the last time that customer made a purchase or emailed you about an issue.

Having historical activity in one centralized data center allows you to get a 360-degree view of your customers. Rather than having to study different databases to understand a customer’s requirements or predict future behavior, team members can pull those insights from a single source. This can lead to more confident problem-solving because teammates know where to find the answer to just about any question—from billing to customer care.

In a consolidated CRM database, every record is automatically stored and immediately available. This approach negates the need for service representatives to sift through program after program. Instead of pulling up different screens and keeping customers on the line, agents can rapidly navigate one database while still getting the most relevant real-time data.

The Advantages of a Centralized Database

Some of the benefits of a well-designed CRM data strategy are obvious. Others are less apparent at first—but have fantastic long-term effects. A centralized database does the following:

1. Fosters multichannel communications. Customers want access to different channels at different times. On Mondays, Jill might prefer to use her email at work. During Ted’s Friday lunch hour, he needs to speak with someone over the phone. And over the weekend, Samantha chats with a bot from her recliner.

A centralized data center can simplify all these touchpoints by giving customers the freedom to access the information they need, regardless of which channel they choose. This will also allow for the contact center to have an omnichannel view of the customer — meaning that you won’t lose any valuable information when customers inevitably transition to different channels. This level of consistency improves vendor confidence tremendously.

2. Helps save customers’ time. You’d be hard-pressed to find a customer who doesn’t want his or her concern resolved quickly. By housing all customer information in one spot, you enable representatives to locate data faster and find better solutions. Additionally, a consolidated database can solve problems that might creep up mid-conversation. For instance, if a customer needs to update a credit card number or asks about a recent payment, having a centralized hub allows representatives to pull that information quickly and use it to better service the customer.

3. Enables cross-selling and upselling. As team members get used to having a wealth of buyer knowledge at their fingertips, they can cross-sell and upsell customers. Centralized CRM databases allow agents to notice trends and recommend solutions in real time.

For example, let’s say a customer calls in to discuss one product, but over the course of the conversation, the agent realizes that a different product from your company’s suite of offerings would better serve the customer’s needs. Armed with the customer’s past behaviors, geographic location, and other important data, the agent can make an informed recommendation.

4. Boosts employee morale. Your employees probably hate scrambling to find information just as much as your customers hate waiting for it. When they can more efficiently help others, agents feel empowered and engaged. Unsurprisingly, this leads to employees feeling more fulfilled at work, which can positively impact your bottom line, overall productivity, and sales numbers.

Technological advancements allow organizations the chance to level up their customer service and sales games like never before. Explore the possibility of instituting a consolidated contact engagement center at your organization. You could end up disrupting the competition while building a reputation for truly exceptional customer interactions and lightning-fast resolution delivery.

Miguel Noronha is executive vice president of Portugal, North America, United Kingdom, and global accounts at Altitude Software, a global provider of contact center solutions. Noronha has been with Altitude for 20 years and has gained vast experience through his positions as senior consultant, project manager, and director. He is dedicated to helping organizations unify all customer interactions and become more customer-centric.

La entrada Contact Engagement Centers make more sense se publicó primero en Altitude Software.