It is a technology driven world today and software solutions for contact centers have made newer mechanisms of communication more popular of late. They have a made it easy for organizations to reach out to existing and new clients swiftly. However, managing these interactions is a tough task. Therefore, it is imperative that contact centers have an advanced technology for making the entire process smooth and offers leverage over business rivals.
One such latest innovation has been cloud-based business applications that enable cloud contact centers to save all data on the cloud, and not on its local servers. The cutting edge technology complemented by in-built attributes such as customized reports, real-time monitoring and call recording helps cloud contact centers to increase efficiency at a low production cost.
Integrating your cloud-based contact center software with the following innovative and industry-leading business applications will help you to increase the productivity of your cloud contact centers.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
The process of bringing together smaller components into a single system for the purpose of making them function together is termed as integration. You can integrate your cloud contact centers software with CRM to consolidate customer data/information, and documents into a single CRM database. This will also help you to access and manage data better, and more easily. Once integrated, you would be able to retrieve various customer interactions recorded by the software, (over phone calls, e-mails, social media, and other channels) from one single place, that is – the CRM database. You would also be able to automate various workflow processes such as alerts, tasks, calendars, and so on. Thereby, managers and supervisors would be able to track productivity and performances based on the information logged in the system.
With the help of cloud-based CRM/SaaS/on-demand CRM, you and contact center employees would be able to access data that is stored on an external, remote network, anytime, and from anywhere.
- Salesforce has modules already created to make installing easier. The app is customizable. In the system, there are tabs such as Accounts, Reports, and Contacts, containing associated information. Configuration can be done on each tab by adding user-defined custom fields. By adding configured applications to a Salesforce instance, the configuration can be done at a platform level also. You will be able to get real-time customer activity and information in a single place. Moreover, Salesforce provides insights with reports and dashboards. You may also set up SalesforceIQ to get instant access to CRM data from your inbox.
- Microsoft Dynamics is a server-client application. It is primarily an IIS (Internet Information Service) based web app. The app can be accessed via a browser or by a client plug-in to MS Outlook. The app features a line of adaptable and integrated business management solutions that help to automate and streamline customer relationships, financial processes, and supply chain operations. It assists gathering data for analysis from every phase of your business. The app works with popular productivity applications like MS Office, MS Servers, and MS.Net.
- On the other hand, Pipedrive has extensive customization options. It is a sales management tool, ideal for small and mid-sized businesses. It features data migration to and from many common CRM systems. Great at sales forecasting, this app is intuitive and easy to use. It helps to ensure the continuation of important conversations and activities. The app works seamlessly with Google Drive and Google Apps. You can also sync it with your cloud contact centers. Whenever a change is made on either platform, it would be reflected on the other as well.
- SugarCRM is a complete CRM solution that helps to automate your marketing processes, customer service, and core sales, with a focus on individual customers. The app helps you to develop effective customer relationships with the most affordable, flexible, and innovative solutions in the market. The personalized interactions via the app can drive customer loyalty and excellence all throughout the customer lifecycle. You may download installers and virtual machines or run the SugarCRM on cloud.
- Finally, Zoho CRM offers various add-Ons and apps. It features a set of integration for Google account users, Google app users, and with 3rd-party software. It provides API (Application Programming Interface) for integrating CRM modules with any 3rd-party software. You can also integrate your email marketing software with the app, to reach out to your customers. The app provides you with a 360° view of your company’s full sales cycle and pipeline. You will be able to spot opportunities, identify trends, reduce costs, and increase efficiency at the right time.
Ticketing Software/Help Desk Software
You may directly install the ticketing software or the Help Desk software to your cloud-based contact center software.
- Freshdesk is simple to integrate. Once it is installed, you may even integrate it with other apps. For instance, the Ameyo app. The shared inbox of Freshdesk helps your team to resolve issues by collaborating with each other, and by not worrying about multiple agents responding to the same ticket. The app lets you set SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for support. You may also define ticket priorities for agents. The app works with traditional channels like social media, chat, phone, and e-mail. It can also be added to your mobile for the purpose of capturing issues on the go.
- Zendesk is perhaps the industry-leading, cloud-based customer service application. More than 40,000 companies around the world, including Disney, Box, and Gilt Groupe use the app to increase productivity and ensure customer satisfaction. It has a very simple interface and you can log in to your contact center software, and add Zendesk. It will provide you with live data on your users. Having that information will help your agents to provide excellent support.
- Freshservice offers out-of-the-box integrations with various business apps such as CRM systems, e-commerce solutions, and others. The app is tightly integrated with Google Apps (Gmail, Drive, Hangouts, Calendar, Contacts, and Analytics). Freshservice is an online IT Helpdesk and it features powerful and effective ticketing and asset management capabilities such as enhanced impact analysis, powerful configuration management, and new resources auto discovery. You may just add the app to your software and no complex migrations are required.
Chat
Most of the Chat apps can be easily integrated with your contact center software. Integration ties everything together and makes live chat even more useful.
- LiveChat is a premium live chat and helpdesk application for businesses. By integrating the app with your contact center software, important data such as the customer contact information can be used to create new leads. This helps the Sales team to work more efficiently. Furthermore, chat logs can be stored and used to improve customer interactions.
- Smartsupp live chat is a free app. You can use the Smartsupp Free package with an ‘unlimited number’ of agents, and it has no expiry tag. The app features visitor recording. It helps to increase the conversion rate by up to 500%, which is measurable in Google Analytics.
- Slack is a messaging app ideal for teams. By integrating with the services and tools that you use every day, it helps to bring all your communication in one place. It is also a free app.
- Userlike live chat lets you provide your customers with an optimal live chat experience. No matter where your customers are chatting from, and no matter from which devices they are chatting from, your agents would be able to provide excellent customer service with this app.
Ecommerce Platforms
E-commerce integration necessarily means a fully-managed solution with compliance, data translation, and connectivity, all handled in the cloud. Benefits include quick data/information exchange, improved data accuracy, streamlined business processes, and liberated valuable resources.
- Sana Commerce is an app that delivers e-commerce solutions (fully integrated) to Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and so on. It helps businesses to grow online and also provides mobile support for sales agents.
- Retail Management app helps small/medium sized businesses to sell their products online. It is a cloud-based and customer-centric e-commerce platform that enables businesses to streamline their operations and increase sales.
Workforce Management Systems
Workforce Management (WFM) is an integrated set of processes that organizations use in order to optimize employee productivity. It involves matching the skills of employees to specific tasks over a period of time. The various aspects of WFM include employee scheduling, time and attendance tracking, payroll administration, training programs and assignments, talent management, benefits administration, demand prediction, crisis preparedness, performance monitoring, career planning, and vacation & leave planning. Before integration, you should identify which departments in your company will use and manage the WFM system.
- Globitel Workforce Management is an app that enhances the ability of a contact center to accurately forecast, schedule, and monitor agents’ activities. This would result in the optimized performance of a contact center. The app also helps businesses to obtain visibility of the work it does, the actions of the employees who performs them, and the processes used to accomplish them.
- Calabrio Workforce Management app helps the contact center managers with forecasting, program scheduled for multiple sites, track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and manage real-time adherence. Integration is simple and easy to use.
- Engage Manage is another app that helps with scheduling. The app analyzes the historical data/information and will provide you with the most realistic and accurate workforce forecast possible for your contact center.
Marketing Automation Tools
In a constantly shifting marketing landscape, keeping up with the latest marketing activities can be daunting. However, with marketing automation apps, you will be able to streamline a number of marketing functions. This will help your team to focus on other core tasks to nurture leads effectively, and drive revenue. Integrating these apps with your contact center software means increased revenue for your company.
- Marketo is an app that offers real-time personalization, customer engagement marketing, marketing management functionality, and marketing automation.
- Eloqua is yet another app that offers lead management, campaign management, segmentation, and targeting. With this app, you will be able to launch campaigns in days, rather than weeks.
Integrating Google Contacts
You can integrate (synchronize) Google Contact with your contact center software. Just go to Setup, then Apps and Add-Ons, and then Google Apps. Google Contacts is Google’s contact management tool. It is available as a part of Google Apps – a business-oriented suite of web apps from Google.
The various features include:
- Extensive search functions, sorting contacts based on first or last name, merging duplicates, and integration with other Google products.
- When a call is connected, the app will display the Google Contacts history and information of the customer.
- It helps to populate the customer information to your contact center software
- Agents will be able to call the customers with a single click from Google Contacts. This eliminates the need for agents to manually look up contact information.
Nowadays, the usage of object-oriented programming and interfaces such as .NET or Java ensures the easy integration of apps. Integrating your cloud-based contact center software with innovative and industry-leading applications will help you to increase the productivity of your contact center.
