Access to information is the most important aspect of a customer relationship management (CRM) system. It helps your company track and assess success metrics, and pain points. CRM information can gauge the progress of employees by capturing and comparing the performance, speed and schedule of call center agents.
To make improvements to the return on investment (ROI) of your CRM, step back and take a top-down look at the habits of your contact center. Here are 10 tips that will help walk you through identifying and executing on ROI goals.
- Collaborate on your endgame. Coordinate input from marketing, sales, finance, executives and any other relevant departments to establish goals that accurately reflect success for the entire company.
- Synthesize your data. Once you have a view of what success looks like, figure out what data within your CRM can be used to calculate a quantitative metric for each goal.
- Train your agents. Ensure your agents are aware of and trained to use the information you have for each customer. Collecting data isn’t beneficial unless your front-line employees know how it’s used within the business.
- Continuously update statistics on your sales data. How long is the service cycle? How many tickets do you typically have in your queue? How many follow-up calls are made? Having detailed knowledge of your service pipeline will enable better planning of both staff and resources.
- Design a streamlined workflow for your contact center agents. Watch for typical patterns in calls and see where clicks can be saved, or where frequently needed information can be made more easily accessible. The CRM should amalgamate data from all channels and provide an understanding into the customer’s whole story.
- Identify the CRM super powers that will help you boost performance. Technologies like computer telephony integration (CTI) integrate seamlessly with your CRM and arm agents with tools like click-to-dial, screen pop and call logging – saving valuable time and money.
- Listen to your callers. There are many options available for gathering feedback from customers. Understanding their history with you may be an eye-opener.
- Listen to your agents. Monitor a percentage of calls to ensure agents are meeting the quality of service goals you expect. Identify the tips and trick of high performing agents to share with the rest of the team.
- Monitor industry standards and benchmarks. How are the leaders in your industry performing? Customer expectations are rising and it’s important to keep up with their demands and with what competitors are providing.
- Share results. Clarify the data insights you’ve gathered on call center efficiency and performance and share them with everyone from your agents to your executives. Everyone will know what goals they’re striving for and what to focus on. Plus improvement ideas can can come from all levels of your business. Once everyone knows what results they’re achieving, they may have thoughts on how to innovate processes or what tools are needed to reach even higher levels of service.
I hope these tips help you improve your customer service and the ROI of your contact center.