Call Center CRM

Hisense CIO Stephen Green: From the perspective of operators B

2002 Join

Hisense

The Stephen Green has now promoted from head of information technology for the company’s vice president and CIO, and served as a subsidiary of Hisense subordinate 4 chairman. Stephen Green is an out of “returnees”, who has worked at the University of Southern California, the Federal Environmental Protection, Environmental Protection Department of the Government, Maryland, Lockheed – Martin, DigexInc. The world’s communications companies. He led the development of over JPMORGAN, BERKELY Bank, Standard & Poor’s and other large financial institutions, e-commerce projects. In early 2002, Mr Green at an international conference on the experience of the original Hisense president, current chairman Zhou Houjian Hisense. Some conversation, Shandong Stephen Green sees this home business vitality, and he gave up after years of working hard in the United States owned everything: cars, houses, and people to be envious of the social status, decided to return to join the Hisense.

Orderly development of information

2003, the newly joined Hisense’s Stephen Green is facing an arduous task, leading the IT department staff to achieve the company telephone, video and data triple play. At that time, the country does not triple-play business, Hisense wants to do the first person to eat crab. First half of 2003, Mr. Green led the team planning the entire triple-play of the project, and ultimately successful completion of this project. Triple-play realization of business development for the Hisense provided a lot of support, the most obvious manifestation is the cost of network usage down.

Triple play also makes Hisense’s work efficiency, before the implementation of marketing plans in order to better sales staff meeting every day together, or open conference call, but personnel are clustered together should be very difficult, there are some problems by telephone and can not explain. Triple play, the Hisense sales staff every day to sell video conferencing, which Hisense business growth was greatly facilitated. Triple Play The most important role is to Hisense’s ERP, CRM and other core business systems, the provision of basic conditions. “If there are no triple-play, no special network, it is impossible to achieve the core ERP business systems development. As telephone, video conferencing, ERP systems, CRM systems are the backbone of our walk.” In this regard, Stephen Green is quite proud of.

With triple-play basis, second half of 2003, Mr. Green led the team began to do ERP systems. After 5 years, Hisense Group has been

TV

Plate,

Air conditioning

Plate to complete the ERP system implementation. “Because we are a subsidiary of the Group’s too much, a total of 100. The ERP system also achieve full coverage, so progress on the implementation of the slower.” Mr Green told reporters, now, Stephen Green is leading the team

Refrigerator

Plate ERP system implementation, the implementation is expected to complete the first half of 2009. The implementation of ERP systems have been completed, a subsidiary had been effective. It makes the internal management of Hisense more standardized and institutionalized, but also makes the financial sector have dramatically reduced the workload of reconciliation. In addition, ERP has increased internal sales orders Hisense efficiency, achieve process reengineering, reducing operating costs within Hisense.

CRM system is more important Hisense another system has been implemented. Second half of 2003, Mr. Green led the company’s information technology department started the construction of call centers. “Because CRM systems and call center is a large system of two projects, while the call center system is based CRM system.” Mid-2006, in the call center after implementation of the system, Mr Green has led the team to start a CRM system implementation, and in early 2008 for all business segments in the group to complete full implementation. Now, Hisense total of seven call centers, more than 1,000 seats. Moreover, Hisense’s CRM system has 15,000 access lines, covering the country, which can be made in time to meet customer needs.

5 Customer Experience Management Myths

As customer experience management (CEM) continues to gain importance in the minds of today’s CEOs, more and more companies are taking on customer experience management projects to improve customer satisfaction, develop better customer insights, nurture customer loyalty and advocacy, and improve customer lifetime value. The rapid rise to the top echelons of strategic priority has brought an unfortunate side affect; numerous customer experience management myths have begun to form due to a flood of conflicting definitions, perspectives and over-hyped promises.

For any company seeking to establish or improve its customer experience management capabilities, it’s important to dispel these myths once and for all.

Myth #1: Net Promoter Score (NPS) is the Only Metric You Need

The customer experience can be broad, long running, it can span channels, and is influenced by any combination of internal and external factors. Attempting to measure it effectively with a single metric such as customer satisfaction or net promoter score is overly simplistic and risky. Effectively managing the customer experience requires effective measurement and management of a portfolio of metrics that will provide a true measure of what is – or is not – working.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer advocacy that was the centerpiece of Fred Reichheld’s 2006 book titled ‘The Ultimate Question.’ The net promoter score is calculated by taking the percent of customers who are promoters less the percent of customer who are detractors. Obviously, the higher the resulting number – the better.

While the net promoter score is an effective measure of overall customer advocacy, it will not address all of your potential customer experience management questions. Here’s why:

1. Customer advocacy – or net promoter score – measures only one dimension of the customer experience. Focusing only on a single metric such as net promoter score means ignoring equally important dimensions such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. An effective and comprehensive customer experience program must take all of these dimensions into consideration.

2. The net promoter score is only an aggregated measure of the total customer experience. However, the number of factors and touch points that contribute to the overall customer experience can be numerous. Focusing only on an aggregate metric without understanding or managing the contributing factors can yield unpredictable results. Companies seeking to improve their overall customer experience must focus on managing and measuring the underlying events that contribute to an exceptional customer experience.

3. The net promoter score does not necessarily equate to customer action. For example, for every customer that says they would “definitely recommend” the company in a customer survey may not make any actual recommendations. Companies seeking to realize tangible results will need to correlate their NPS ratings with other key business metrics such as new customer additions, increase in profitability, or changes in market share.

While NPS is an important customer experience metric, companies that are looking to establish or improve their customer experience capabilities will need to identify a more robust set of metrics that will measure all dimensions of the customer experience lifecycle.

Myth #2: Customer Experience is Just a New Term for Customer Service

Customer service just doesn’t measure up to the customer experience. Make no mistake, customer service is as important as ever; delivering great customer service is one of the most tangible and visible methods for improving customer satisfaction. Customer service, however, represents only a small fraction of the overall customer experience. Companies that talk themselves into a false sense of accomplishment by focusing only on customer service are missing the bigger picture; customer experience encompasses much more that just customer service.

While customer service is important, focusing solely on customer service misses the mark on the bigger picture. Here’s why:

1. Customer service often represents only a subset of potential touch points: a receptionist, a call center representative, or a restaurant waiter or waitress. Each touch point does provide a significant contribution to how each customer is treated. Even the best customer service, however, won’t rectify an otherwise flawed customer experience. In contrast, the customer experience is broad and encompasses all touch points that can extend from the customer’s first impression to their ultimate defection.

2. Customer service often refers to human interaction with the customer. While human interaction is critical, consumers are increasingly utilizing self-service alternatives via the internet, automated telephone response systems, and kiosks. According to a study by Pew Internet Study, 73% of adult Americans use the internet, a touch point dimension that continues to grow steadily. Customer experience initiatives must consider all touch points and channels in order to grasp the end-to-end scope of the customer experience process.

While customer service is an important component of the overall customer experience, companies that are looking to establish or improve their customer experience capabilities should define their customer experience more broadly; the customer experience should be defined as an end-to-end process that begins with customer attraction, flows through interaction, and ends with cultivation – where the process starts over.

Myth #3: Each Channel Should Have A Unique Customer Experience

Thanks to technology and multiple points of presence, business just keeps getting more complex. Innovations in technology have brought new channels such as the call center, Internet, and now mobile channels in many industries. Many businesses, anxious to stay in the game, jump in with new channel offerings without an integrated view of the customer.

Granted, each channel has unique characteristics and can be used in different ways and for different purposes by the customer. Treating each channel experience as unique and independent, however, is a recipe for disaster. Each channel may indeed be different; the customer experience shouldn’t be.

Ever since the day that Ray Kroc began expanding the McDonald’s empire, he set the standard for consistency across each and every location. No matter where you are in the world, the McDonald’s experience is the same. Ray Kroc’s formula for consistency should be a blueprint for any business operating in a multi-channel environment today. Managing each channel as unique and different shouldn’t be. Here’s why:

1. Customers are increasingly expecting multiple channel options. According to a Sterling Commerce Study, 80% of customers surveyed feel it is important to have a choice of shopping across multiple channels when choosing a retailer. Businesses with only a single channel option, or channels which are discrete and disconnected, will likely miss the boat.

2. Customers expect the customer experience to be the same across channels. According to a survey conducted by Tealeaf, 85% of adults expect their online service levels to be the same as offline, an increase of 3% from the prior year. Providing inconsistency across channels will only contribute to customer frustration or confusion.

3. Customers will likely switch channels. As the number of channels available to the customer continues to grow, so too does the challenge of providing seamless cross-channel integration. A customer experience that begins in one channel should transfer seamlessly and be continued in another without interruption. Lack of consistency across channels will only detract from the overall customer experience.

While each business channel has unique characteristics and can be used in different ways and for different purposes by the customer, each channel experience should not be designed or managed independently. Companies that are seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should focus on cross-channel consistency and seamless channel handoffs regardless of the customer experience scenario. Simply put, maintaining discrete channels with separate customer experiences won’t cut it for today’s demanding customers.

Myth #4: A Centralized Customer Database Provides a 360-degree View of the Customer

Establishing a 360-degree view of the customer has long been the holy grail of any CRM program. Many companies consolidate their multiple customer databases into a centralized customer database and declare victory. Although establishing a single customer database is foundational to a 360-degree view of the customer, a customer database alone often won’t provide your company with a complete view of the customer. Here’s why:

1. A centralized customer database often contains only basic or static data including name, address, account number, demographic and profile information. Although this core information is critical, it often won’t provide historical information regarding transactions or changes to address, account, or profile information. Without historical information, it’s difficult to get a complete picture of the customer.

2. Customer interactions can take place in many forms, at multiple locations, and across multiple channels. Unless the customer database is specifically designed to store interactions, you’ll be missing an important element of your customer’s behaviors.

3. Customer databases are often designed to support operational activities such as transaction processing, order management, and billing. Operational databases often lack robust customer analytics that are necessary to unlock the secrets of the customer experience.

4. Customer feedback is often collected and managed separately from customer information. As a result, correlating customer sentiment to specific customers or customer segments can be difficult.

Although a centralized customer database is foundational to a 360-degree view of the customer, a database alone won’t provide the complete picture. Companies that are seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should look beyond customer databases to more robust data warehousing capabilities that include a view of historical changes, transactions, interactions, and feedback that can provide a complete 360-degree view of the customer.

Myth #5: CRM Software = Customer Experience Solution

As CRM concepts have matured, the hype-engines have been thrust into overdrive. The resulting marketing can make it difficult to differentiate between CRM and CEM. But make no mistake; Customer Experience Management is much different that Customer Relationship Management. Choosing a CRM software solution to solve your customer experience issues can miss the mark. Here’s why:

1. CRM software is typically more functional (rather than process-centric) in nature. Many CRM systems are designed to provide specific point solutions to support CRM functions such as call center support, eCommerce, marketing automation, or loyalty reward management. While each point solution often works well, CRM software solutions alone won’t enable or help to manage the end-to-end nature of the customer experience process.

2. CRM software is limited to the reach of its technology and can’t support or influence all touch points. While CRM software has come a long way over the past decade, there are still customer experience touch points that can’t be directly influenced or managed by CRM software. Touch points such as employee interactions, aspects of direct marketing, and third-party touch points may have a significant impact on the customer experience but may not be supported by CRM software.

3. CRM software is often implemented as a best-of-breed solution and lacks the level of enterprise-wide integration necessary to develop and manage a true 360-degree view of the customer. CRM software solutions are great at managing customer information. The view of the customer can limited, however, if a complete set of customer interactions, behaviors, or preferences aren’t properly captured and analyzed. Interactions such as inbound and outbound communications, campaigns, or customer care interactions are often not tracked and managed by CRM solutions. CRM solution alone won’t solve this problem; businesses must take the steps to engrain CEM concepts throughout all touch points in their enterprise.

4. CRM solutions provide a limited set of customer experience metrics. While CRM solutions often provide key functional metrics, they are often transaction in nature and won’t provide a comprehensive set of metrics necessary to analyze, measure, and manage the end-to-end customer experience.

While CRM software is an important first step for any business seeking to improve their customer relationships, it is not a surrogate for Customer Experience Management. Companies that are seeking to establish or improve their total customer experience should look beyond CRM software solutions and seek customer experience solutions that augment CRM software. CEM specific capabilities should include business process management, sophisticated customer experience analytics, and enterprise-wide visibility to customer interactions that span the total customer experience.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management

“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately, it takes a lifetime to master.”

– Philip Kotler

Introduction

In today’s competitive business customer is the king and important member who is said to contribute towards the overall success of a business enterprise. Identifying and building a strong relationship with the loyal customers is always a competitive advantage to every business enterprise in form of saving cost on promotions and sales expenses in finding new customers. The concept of customer relationship management is powerful and dynamic in modern marketing scenario.

Meaning of CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the systematic process of managing detailed information about the loyal customers to build a continuous business relationship for the overall long run success of business enterprise.

Understanding the concept of CRM

CRM helps the business to provide better service ti its customers with new market offerings of products and services integrated with adequate marketing communication to a target group of loyal high value customers.CRM reduces the company’s eager search for new customers in the market for its product and helps to concentrate on its existing customers which builds brand loyalty for their products and services.

Creating a strong connection with loyal customers is a strategic key to a long term marketing success .For establishing a profitable business a company need not always search for new customers in a short span of time in its target market the company should always look forward to meet the changing needs of the existing customers, the satisfied customer will always add word of mouth which is powerful tool for gaining wide acceptance and popularity for the product or service. For example: airline services of jet airways, Vodafone teleservices, etc.

Here are few tips for building a strong business relationship with your loyal customers:

Ø Maintaining a customer profile: Customer  profiling enables the company’s marketing department to list out consumer’s likes and dislikes, where can be a target market can be established, how to provide  innovate products and services to retain the existing customers,etc.
Ø Reducing customer defection: A group of professionals can be chosen and provided appropriate training to build a friendly relationship with high value customers to cater their regular changing needs.
Ø Encouraging cross selling and up selling: A marketer may encourage a customer to buy a product which is related to similar brand offered by company to market or a complementary product.
Ø Profiling competitor’s strengths and weakness: Identifying competitor’s strengths and weakness of market offerings to similar target customers of one which the company intends to do will allow the company to devise intelligence/audit system that can maintain the track record of competitors in the market.
Ø Maintaining good call center management and auto response system: A company having a good call center management team and best manager’s may always provide assistance to customers against regular queries and problems.
Ø Customer relationship analysis (CRA): A company can choose actual process of collecting and analyzing data about its customer in order to better understanding about their marketing efforts to improve the sales and render customer service and reduce costs.

Case study

Bharti Tele-Ventures is one of India’s leading private sector telecom operators. Its cellular business, AirTel, is a leading mobile telephony brand. Like any telco, Bharti considers information technology a key business enabler. “For telecom, IT is like bread and butter. We believe it plays two significant roles-it works as a support system, and it can also be a business driver. Thus IT is very important to us,” says Amrita Gangotra, vice president of Information Technology at Bharti. It had a WAN in place with a mix of leased lines and E1 and E3 lines. The company also has an extranet in place through which it extends different applications to its dealers and partners. “We have an extremely large infrastructure based on products from multiple vendors,” says Gangotra. This includes a range of high-end servers from Sun and HP. “In the telecom business volumes are very large. We have millions of records and we process them every day, so for us storage is in terabytes,” she adds.
Bharti also has a storage area network (SAN) in place. The main data centre is located in Gurgaon, Haryana. As far as software is concerned, some of the applications that are running on its network are billing, fraud management, revenue assurance and data warehousing. They also have some internal-facing applications like Oracle Financial and Oracle HRMS.

The case for CRM

Initially, when Bharti started operations, the whole system was run manually. “At that point of time only 40 percent of our customer issues were getting resolved-this has now gone up to about 90 percent,” reveals Gangotra.
“It is vital for us to manage the expectations of our customers and provide them with innovative products and services in a manner which makes them loyal,” explains Gangotra. To achieve this, Bharti needed the right tools. “It is this need that made us opt for a CRM (customer relationship management) solution,” she says.

Cherrypicking a solution

Today Bharti is using the Oracle CRM platform. “As part of our vision, we intend to provide AirTel services anywhere and at any time. A customer should get the same quality of service no matter which of our call centres he contacts. This has been our vision, and because of that we have gone in for a centralized application like CRM,” Gangotra adds.
Before choosing its CRM tool, Bharti evaluated many options. It considered factors like proper workflow automation, facilitation of knowledge sharing, and integration with the billing system. After a thorough evaluation exercise, it decided to go ahead with the Oracle CRM platform.

Roll it

After starting its services in Delhi, Bharti acquired many circles and sought new licences in other circles; whenever they got a new license, they implemented the CRM tool immediately. But they had to put in a migration strategy in those acquired circles which had an existing subscriber base. “The migration had to be done in such a manner that the existing customer base did not suffer; we have already completed this in 14 of the 15 circles that we operate in,” says Gangotra. The goal was that all the circles would go live by the first quarter of 2004.
The biggest challenge for Bharti was to have a unified process in place. Once this was done they faced the challenge of imparting training. “When you go in for such a large-scale implementation you will definitely have problems,” says Gangotra. “We also had certain technical difficulties during implementation, but we were able to overcome them.”
The CRM strategy at Airtel revolves around two aspects: operational CRM and analytical CRM. The first is about helping their call centres in the workflow part, helping them in their day-to-day activities. The second provides staff with the required information on customers; this is used for business development activities. Together they help Bharti provide better services to its customers.

Tailor-made schemes

Gangotra says it is important to understand and segregate customer needs depending on the product and services he is buying. “One of the primary things that we have done in this solution is the segmentation of customers. With this, AirTel is now able to give its customers more value for money,” she says. With the help of CRM, they are able to provide customers different schemes and services depending on airtime usage. If the customer is a heavy user then they have some specific schemes; for normal users they have other schemes. Apart from this, they have also managed to segregate their workflow with the help of the CRM tool.

Source: http://casestudy.co.in/

Summary

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the systematic process of managing detailed information about the loyal customers to build a continuous business relationship for the overall long run success of business enterprise. Understanding and identifying the area for its successful implementation provides a competitive advantage for every business enterprise in the long run of the business with its marketing strategies the success story of Bharti Airtel is a live example of corporate success and best management practices and corporate heights of achievement.

Key words:

Customer profiling, customer defection, cross selling and up selling, customer     relationship analysis, call center management and auto response system.

Pradeep Raj.S

MBA Student

Bangalore, India

Email: Pradeepraj1@live.com

A Review Of The Marketing Support Network

Marketing Support Network has it’s roots in their parent company Management Services Group, Inc., founded in 1982. MSN is a marketing company, focused on customer support services, directly to clients and to advertising agencies and consultants for their clients. The target audience tends to cater to the fast mover types, eager and serious about getting an Internet Business off the ground quick and that demand major presence.

With close to 25 years of service to hundreds of corporations and organizations, both big and small, Marketing Support Network offers customized solutions that are flexible in handling marketing, call centers, CRM, and a variety of other projects and company needs.

Marketing Support Network offers small and large businesses, their inbound and out bound call center services.

This total call center experience provides professional state of the art support, from up-selling and cross-selling services, to order taking, inquiry handling, tech support, appointment setting, lead generation, customer surveys, market research and many more areas for total support in these fields.

CRM consulting is a big part of Marketing Support Network. They provide ACT! software services with experienced certified consultants by Sage, makers of the software. Their consultants can organize, provide training and support to ensure success.

A consultant is self-employed or works for a consultancy firm, usually with multiple and changing clients. Clients have access to deeper levels of data than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and to purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired. As times change, so does the way consulting firms work. In addition to providing advice, IT consultancies often implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on businesses’ behalf.

Often a consultant provides expertise to clients who require a particular type of knowledge or service for a specific period of time, thus providing an economy to the client. In other situations, companies implementing a major project may need additional experienced staff to assist with increased work during that period.

Marketing Support Network offers complete systems to each business, to run the day, to day business functions of customer service, shipping, marketing, management and sales. These systems that MSN provides are fully customizable to each business.

Marketing Support Network also offers services in data processing, data development and management, customer relationship management, lead management, lead generation, membership services, subscription services, sales services, management consulting as well as marketing and Internet marketing consulting.

Are you looking for a fantastic freelancing opportunity? Every now and then, you may stumble upon an opportunity that seems too good to be true – and it usually is. Other times, you may find what looks like a good solid project lead and it turns out to be nothing like you thought. There are thousands of different Internet Marketing Businesses you can start today. You just need to know how to search out the legtimate ones. This is where Marketing Support Network can help.

Marketing Support Network truly offers a total package for every business need, large or small. They have helped many companies and organizations with their needs, by providing their professional service packages, designed for success.

Bytesflow Technology Solutions (BTS)

Bytesflow Technology Solutions (BTS) is an Information Technology company that offers technology-based services for organizations across the world. We tower over all other IT solution providers in our commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction.
Our proficiency lies in providing cost-effective and customized IT applications that meets the technology needs of clients. Our focus on technology and process innovation makes us a strategic technology partner who will give you the edge. With our services we have helped several clients generate a high return on investment and garner more market share.

Bytesflow Offers Domain registration , Web Hosting, Website Design & Website Development Company Specializing in PHP Web Development, ASP.Net Web Development, AJAX Programming, E-Commerce Web Development, Custom programmed Content Management system & E-Commerce Solutions/ Open source Customized Content Management System & E-Commerce Solutions, Web 2.0 Designing software development, Portal Development, Web Servers , Multimedia Services, Web Application Development, Search engine optimization( SEO Service or Optimization Services) Internet Applications, Application Development Company from Chennai India.

Bytesflow Support Center CRM solutions helps you to:

Gather information about prospects and customers Leverage the information to develop customized campaigns, products and services Personalize service to customers Support the marketing, sales, delivery and service processes with integrated services

Bytesflow Manufacturing ERP is a fully integrated business solution that gives organizations complete control over planning and management of all facets of operations, including accounting, manufacturing and distribution. With access to easy-to-view, real-time information, Bytesflow Manufacturing ERP  responds rapidly to circumstances, reacting quickly to customer demands, reducing operating costs through streamlined processes and outpaces competition. Bytesflow Manufacturing ERP modular nature allows an organization to select functions needed to increase operational control and effectiveness.

Our Solutions: *CRM for Sales and Services *ERP for Manufacturers *Web 2.0 Development *SEO & SEM *CMS Our Official Website: www.bytesflow.com

CRM KPI and Tracking Service Performance

“Thank you for calling XYZ Widgets. Can I help you?” CLICK.

How many times has that happened? A person works through a myriad of push buttons that would puzzle the most obsessive Sudoku junkie and then, after 15 minutes of finger exercise when they finally reach an actual person the line inexplicably goes dead. Who’s to blame? Is it the fault of the telephone company? Has technology once again run amok? It’s more likely that the caller has been the victim of a poorly thought out Customer Service Performance KPI.

It works something like this. Call Center operators are largely unsupervised, sitting in a cubicle answering hundreds of calls a day. Even though the calls are occasionally monitored the vast majority of the time the operator knows that no one will be listening in. So what motivates the quick hang up? Because the operator knows that the monthly performance bonus is based on one thing and one thing only: how many calls are processed in a given shift? Whether the customer is actually satisfied or not is practically irrelevant. That only relevant factor is the number of calls “processed,” not whether or not those calls are effective.

A similar scenario takes place when the order comes down from the executive offices that no call should take longer than 13 minutes (or some other arbitrary number) to complete. The call center employees’ performance bonus is based on clearing calls quickly and “efficiently.” That’s all well and good until a major issue comes up that takes longer than 20 minutes and then, suddenly the previously helpful call center rep is doing everything possible to hustle the caller off of the line.

As long as Customer Service Performance KPI is based on the quantifiable rather than the true level of satisfaction of the Customer, these scenarios will continue to frustrate the buying public. That is why many companies have introduced a more reliable system of measuring Customer Service Performance. These new KPI more accurately reflect whether or not the Customer actually feels like they have received a level of service that meets their needs. These models look something like this: When the clients’ questions have all been answered a series of questions are asked by the Customer Service rep. “Are you satisfied with the responses to your queries?” “Were your questions answered adequately and professionally?” “Is there anything else we can help you with today?” Sometimes these questions are asked by the rep themselves and sometimes a follow up call is made by a supervisor or another rep. The employees` primary KPI is based on the customers` answers to these questions.

The more often primary Customer Service KPI is based on mere quantity, the less true Customer Satisfaction is going to take place. The only accurate KPI for Customer Service Performance is the actual perception of the Customer as to whether or not they received adequate service.

Managing Your Call Center With Software

Call center management software is becoming increasingly popular, even with businesses that have only a few workers. More often called “contact centers,” call center management software has the ability to control and handle the many different needs of businesses today. Many features include instant routing of important customers to the best agents, reduce holding times for customers, and offer more efficient scheduling of employees and detailed reporting. Your call center management system will help your customers and corporations talk to each other by managing their interactions. It is said that by using the right call management center software will have an immediate positive impact on your business and customer satisfaction. By not making your customers wait, being able to connect them immediately with the right service people, will improve customer perception. Now days, with technology making things faster and faster, customers’ expectations are high and they expect your business to be on its toes and have the information they want-yesterday! The best thing you can do is upgrade your system with good call center software, and keep your customers happy. Happy customers spend more money.

Your investment can reduce your costs, depending on which call center system software you buy. The sooner your business is able to handle more calls, the sooner you can start making more money. Efficiency is key and a call center system can provide a wide selection of reports that give you detailed information, from live statistics on hold times and drop-off rates to yearly overviews of the entire operation. This will help you find out which employee is successful and which ones may need a bit more training. It is suggested before you call a dealer or go online looking for the best call center management software to fit your needs.

• How many requests do you handle per month?

• Where do your requests originate from? (phone, fax, email, web, online chat?) How many to

• What are your primary calls? (Inbound or outbound? sales or service? internal or external?)

• How many agents handle these calls? In how many locations?

• What metrics do you currently use to measure performance?

• What phone system are you currently using?

• What systems will the call center need to connect with? (Existing phones, databases, CRM, etc.)

• What’s your budget for this purchase?

• What IT resources are available to help integrate and maintain the system?

• How will you measure the success of the new system?

Hopefully some of these tools will help you decide whether you need or want to get into call center management software. These are just some of the idea’s out there that can help you decide. Always check out your different options that are out there for you to decide.