Contact centers have come a long way since the traditional days of a desk, analog phone and diligent note-taking. Centers today rely on contact center software to outline all activities, route calls to the appropriate agent, pop information from the CRM platform, measure performance of agents and teams and so much more.
If you still aren’t sure how much value there is in contact center software, consider this recent blog from Contactual (News - Alert). When you consider the cost of time within the contact center, it is very different than in other elements of the organization. Let’s examine the cost of 23 seconds. According to call center supervisors, this is the average time it takes the call center agent to gather customer information. The average cost associated with this 23 seconds - $1.05.
Without the proper contact center software in place, you need to spread this cost to all of the agents in your call center. At 23 seconds per call in a 40 agent call center, the cost in lost productivity per month could easily reach $45,000 or more. When considering how much this cost can grow across the larger contact center, it may be worth the time to investigate the potential of contact center software.
If you have robust contact center software in place and could integrate that software with your customer relationship management (CRM) platform to provide screen pops for all agents, you would save both time and money. If this integration could deliver a 20 percent improvement in the call handling efficiency, you could easily save your contact center $110,000 every year.
Even greater benefits can be realized with unlimited cross-selling and up-selling opportunities as agents gain more information to make suggestions while on the call. They can see customer needs and preferences on the popped information when the call begins.
Certain services may be up for renewal or there may be an incentive available based on the buying history of the customer. Agents with access to a single, integrated view of the customer and their account are able to deliver a better experience for the customer. Overall, this helps to drive better loyalty rates and churn rates will decline.
When you leverage contact center software that allows for CRM integration; you will be able to provide your agents with valuable insight in real-time to improve customer service levels. And, when you instantly identify the most profitable customers and provide the tools to enable call center agents to convert money-losing customers into customers that help drive profits.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Chris DiMarco