Is CRM a Contact Center Software?

Is-CRM-a-Contact-Center-Solution

To answer the Question, NO, CRM is not a Contact Center Software. More than 80% of people in Contact Center Industry assume that CRM and the Contact Center Software is same. Let’s see what is  CRM and a Contact Center Software and how they work together to create “WOW” experiences to your customers and to your agents.

What is a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has information about  your customers and also has some BPM (Business Process Management) logics. The information about a customer can be the history of the customer, products your customer is using , purchases s/he has done, services your customer has taken from you,  warranty of the product he has purchased, and many more.

What is a Contact Center Software?

Contact center software handles all the communication of your customer. You can streamline your interactions with you customer based on the channel the customer is using to communicate with you.  The channels can be Phone, Email, SMS, Web Chat and/or Social media. Now a contact center software which handle all these channels in a single solution is known as Multi-Channel or Omni Channel communication Suite.

Some of the features  of these softwares are IVR, ACD, CTI, Voice logger, Reports, Case management system, Canned Messages, Social media stream Monitoring, etc.

Should CRM be used in Contact Center environment? If yes, Why?

YES, CRM should be used in a Contact Center. The CRM when used in a contact center environment empower the agents to give an awesome or how I like to call it- The “WOW” experience to your customers.

Every customer wants your organisation to know him/her personally, give them importance and take actions on priority.  Simple scenario being, If your agents are able to say “Good day Mark, how are you?“, rather than “Good day, thank you for calling XYZ organisation. How can I help you? can I have your name, please?”.  The CRM helps your agents by giving real-time information about the customer during the interaction. The agent can also share information, update information or take requests.  This helps in giving the customer the feeling that you know who he or she is. Basics of The “WOW” Experience.

From an organisation’s perspective, since the agent has all the information about the customer – current product or service used by the customer, their preferences, payment history, purchasing pattern, the agent is now equipped with all the information to cross-sell and up-sell during the interaction making your contact center a profit center.

The contact center will be able to give each customer a more personalized and meaningful experience which makes the customer feel that the agent is more knowledgeable about his/her needs and priorities, knows the customer in person which ensures satisfaction to the customer making the customer your brand ambassador and of course  repeat business and customer loyalty.

The Best-recommended method to use the CRM with Contact Center.

To achieve The “WOW” experience, The contact center solution and the CRM should be integrated. Some of the benefits:

  • Help you build intelligence to treat each and every customer in a different way according to your business strategy.
  • Your agent is able to know who is calling.
  • Certain cases helps your agent know why the customer is calling – brings the last incident reported by the customer in front of the agent.

There are some softwares which offer contact center as a module while they are primarily CRM softwares and some contact center solutions which offer mini CRM as a module while primarily they are contact center software. Since every business is unique and has different business processes, the CRM and the contact center solution should be two standalone softwares which are flexible enough to integrate with each other. 

Related: AMEYO features in “The Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2015” in the Contact Center Infrastructure and APAC Region CRM Application Software Specialists space