Outbound Contact Center and CRM Functionality
The difference between an effective outbound contact center and a highly ineffective one can often amount to the use that your company is making of your customers’ information.
Proactive Contact
Your outbound contact center provides an opportunity for your company to connect with your customers and provide relevant information that is helpful to their business’ performance. You are able to deliver timely updates and suggest service improvements in a way that is not intrusive.
The key component of this strategy is to be sure that you are targeting your customers correctly and providing information in your communications with them that is relevant.
Effective Use of CRM Information
It is likely that your business already has a CRM system in place that helps you to collect customer information. This CRM platform is a gold mine of relevant information that helps you to understand the needs of your customers.
A well engineered CRM solution allows you to maintain information relating to your customers upgrade and service schedules, service or equipment renewals, and a host of other time-sensitive data. This customer data can be used to target specific customers at specific intervals in time, giving your business the perfect opportunity for proactive contact with your customer base.
CRM and Contact Center Working in Concert
When coupled with your CRM platform, your outbound contact center becomes exponentially more effective. Rather than contacting customers in a haphazard manner, your business is able to contact a specific group of customers and offer relevant information and/or resources to them.
Combining the two systems also allows for scheduling when it comes to planning communications and promotions. Rather than basing your outbound customer contact solely on a scheduled time frame, your business is able to schedule contact based on factors such as product needs, service renewals, changes in service, or other pertinent events.
Essentially, your CRM solution can help guide the workflow of your outbound contact. Using cues and filters that you have set, your CRM solution can dictate which customers are in need of assistance or information at any given time.
Informed Contact Center Agent
Another important benefit of a completely integrated CRM/outbound contact center is the availability of information to your representatives. Rather than approaching a customer with information that doesn’t exactly fit their needs or is redundant, your representatives have knowledge of your customers’ individual situations.
With access to past customer communications, your representatives have the ability to discern that a particular client may be in the market for an additional service, or that in addition to a service renewal, a customer is also looking to expand an existing equipment contract. Armed with this information, your agents are able to create more effective contacts with customers.
The key in creating effective proactive contact with your customers through your outbound contact center is the quality and availability of your existing customer data. Your CRM platform will be able to help dictate your outbound communications in an effective manner, giving clear and relevant direction to your customer contacts.
