Business conglomerates well and truly understand the fact that customer relationship management, popularly known as CRM is a significant part of call center operations. But what needs to be understood is that there is a visible difference between being able to manage a customer and leveraging the benefits of a proficient CRM. Call centers need to integrate CRM by merging various verticals like customer service, sales and marketing which can play a pivotal role in reducing the cost of their operations.
Let us now examine some of the key pointers in detail.
- First point of contact
It has come across as a well-established fact that in the case of most of the customers, an inbound call center is their first point of contact with the brand they have invested in. Many large and small business units opt for technical support outsourcingfor this purpose. This is primarily because of the fact that companies truly believe that the executives to whom their customers speak to will pave the way for a future relationship between the organization and customer. It is not only important to make sure that the call center is able to create the much needed good impression in the very first go but also important to resolve the customer queries in their very first interaction.
First call resolution is a statistic that has become a norm and is no longer an exception while trying to evaluate the efficiency of an inbound call center. At the same time, it is also important to understand that in some cases, the information provided by the customers is full of errors or is spread across different verticals of an organization, so it might not be possible for executives to fulfill the requirements of such customers in the very first time.
- Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management software was devised to help in coordinating information among different verticals. It helps an executive on call in gauging the customer’s history so that he/she gets a hint of how he can resolve a customer query. It also plays a huge role in fulfilling customers’ expectations. Companies opt for a professional technical support outsourcingagency because their customers expect the executives to know about all their interactions with the company. But CRM is much more than improving the stats of improving our first call resolution, but it actually acts as a proficient integrator of information among different verticals. This will surely lead to reduction in call center costs.
- Packaged solutions
As we have come across the fact that the customers expect the call center executives to have all their information at just a click of the mouse, it should also be noted that the majority of the customers do not know how to differentiate between service, marketing and sales. So, if a technical support outsourcing agency is able to handle all the three verticals, it would certainly enhance the customer experience and would lead to a long-term relationship with the brand. In fact, it would also lead to a personalized relationship and familiarity with some of the call center executives and the customer.
As all the customer relationships will be handled by one call center, then the call center can be restructured so that each vertical can handle a diverse set of customers. For example, all the big shot corporate clients can be handled by a few set of executives and the normal customer can be handled by another set of executives who have mastered the art in their domain. The call center can also be structured so that different executives get to handle specific product lines. Then some customers always tend to interact with a small set of executives whether the call is about any of the concerned verticals.
Thus, we can conclude from the above discussion that call center costs can be reduced radically with a proficient customer relationship management as call center executives will be able to handle the wide-array of customer needs in just one call. Such executives will not only lead to improved sales but will also be able to fulfill the requirements of customers with a feasible service solution. But the final decision lies with the organization if they want to handle it internally or opt for a professional technical support outsourcingservices by a certified call center.
