5 ways call centres benefit from CRM

CRM systems have come a long way since their introduction in 1999, when they basically worked with a deeper spreadsheet.

Today, CRM systems have the power to reduce overheads, automate what used to be human processes and increase sales in your call centre. What makes CRM systems so unique is that they benefit both the call centre and your staff, improving profitability and staff satisfaction.

However, we've spent enough time with call centre owners and managers to understand that every call centre is completely unique. So we've broken down five ways in which call centres benefit from CRM to let you know if a cloud-based automated CRM is worthwhile for your call centre.

The 5 ways in which call centres benefit from CRM are:

- Automation of processes and tasks - Global hotlines

- Full data retention

- Increased staff productivity

- Increased staff retention

Let's take a closer look at these five benefits.

1. AUTOMATION OF PROCESSES AND TASKS

This year, the UK has launched the biggest ever trial of the four-day week, with more than 3,300 workers in 70 companies, ranging from a local chip shop to large financial firms, starting to work four days a week.

Apart from the demand for better welfare practices, automation has been one of the biggest drivers of the transition to the four-day week, as staff need less time for administration and record keeping.

CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

However, automated CRMs have developed further, with the customer lifecycle fully automated, from sales and service to renewals and complaints. These processes are automatically recorded and supported in the CRM.

IMPROVING PROFITABILITY

From a business perspective, this high level of automation allows your call centre to handle up to two to three times more enquiries and leads each day, as all administration and record keeping is now covered by your CRM system. Your staff can spend more time doing what they do best - communicating. Secondly, your call centre can generate more revenue and achieve more ambitious goals. Everyone wins.

AUTOMATED COMMUNICATION

Secondly, with fully automated SMS and email communication optimised for peak engagement times, you can improve the quality of your call centre at the same time. Finally, your leads and enquiries will be distributed automatically. Not only this, but leads can be distributed to the most appropriate team member to close them, saving time and improving conversion rates.

2. GLOBAL PHONE LINES

With the rapid development of new technologies giving rise to new industries every year, globalisation and the growth of markets around the world has never been faster. This means that your call centre must be able to communicate effectively with more countries than ever before. With a CRM you will have access to a large number of geographic numbers. For example, with Datalyse you can access over 60 countries and make affordable phone calls with a high quality phone line.

TARGET SPECIFIC AREAS

With a global CRM like Datalyse you can be even more specific with your international calls, giving your team the ability to choose numbers by region or city at low cost without reducing service or call quality. At the same time, call data is automatically recorded and backed up.

BILLING PER SECOND

With a smart global CRM, the days of expensive overseas call bills are over. Your calls will be billed per second consumed rather than per minute, reducing the indirect costs that are often unnoticed but a reality. No more rounding and no more transparency on call bills.

3. FULL DATA RETENTION

Without a complete CRM system, you are likely to be working with different programmes for your various processes, from sales to contact management. In an ideal world, all these programs would communicate with each other and synchronise seamlessly, but this is often not the case, as compatibility and renewals lead to data gaps.

With a complete CRM system, your call centre will be able to record all call and sales data and keep it stored and backed up in one easy-to-use system.

This will enable your call centre teams:

- View all previous communications and interactions when initiating an incoming call

- Have the entire call recorded for quality and customer relationship management.

- Automatically make and save notes during the call

This means that the next time the same customer is called, whether it is the same call centre agent or a different person, all data will be available and easy to use during the call.

CLOUD INTEGRATION

Your call centre data is not only recorded and stored within the CRM, but also backed up in the cloud. This not only ensures that data is completely safe and secure, but also allows your remote workers to have constant access to the same information as on-site agents.

4. INCREASING STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

From full access to data via the cloud to automation of communications and administrative tasks, call centre agents' time is saved in all aspects of their work. This allows agents to spend their time doing what they love and what motivates them: talking to customers.

But that's not all, call centres using CRM will save their agents time in:

 - Sending e-mails to customers

- Sending bulk SMS to any country

- Automatic data recording

- Search for data of any customer, order, etc.

- Call preparation and call logging

- Lead generation

- Renewal of services and monitoring of services

Time savings and full automation mean less stress and higher staff satisfaction, which is a great starting point for our last section: staff retention.

5. INCREASING STAFF RETENTION

Without a doubt, employees are a company's greatest asset. When they are cared for and motivated, employees, and more specifically call centre agents, are happier and work harder.

However, this has never been further from the truth in the call centre sector, where staff turnover averages 30-40%. Compared to the national average of around 15%, this is a serious problem.

Increased staff turnover means higher spending on recruitment and training, which happens to be one of the top five costs of a call centre.

However, an automated CRM system that eliminates repetitive administrative tasks, sets automated targets and generates a large number of quality leads offers a complete turnaround to these causes.

REDUCTION OF STAFF TURNOVER

Eliminating these causes means that your staff can not only spend time making more calls and generating more leads, but can also enjoy a shorter working week, higher productivity and more time for training and development.

It's another simple win-win case. Your call centre agents enjoy greater job satisfaction, and your call centre enjoys higher productivity and lower recruitment and training costs.

Want to try Datalyse CRM?

- Datalyse is a fast and easy to use CRM that allows you to unify your company's needs, centralising all your operations in a single application. Find out how a CRM can help your team on our website and blog, or get in touch with us.

Written by Aled Nelmes for Datalyse.