CRM & call center software are essential mechanisms that support business and move it forward. CRM call center software enables call center agents to quickly access information and promptly update customers over phone or other communication channels. This article provides an overview of their differences when it comes to their functioning and goals.

CRM and Its Application

CRM is an abbreviation meaning Customer Relationship Management. It describes an entity that handles the relations of a firm and its clients and typically involves the entire course of action, from lead generation to sales. This system gives extensive info regarding the firm`s cooperation with clients and a detailed overview of customers. It also includes important customer data like their contact details and financial history.

You might wonder why is it needed to store all that data? There are a lot of reasons, as CRM goes along with:

• Audit of the entering queries from prospects and consumers.
• Endorsing customer journey with an extensive customer`s portrait and cooperation record.
• Drafting an overview of what is your ideal client and optimal sales cycle, getting precious insights into selling and marketing with analytics, etc.
• Following lead prospecting and generation.
• Keeping existing clients and handling upsells, updates, and changes in contact information.
• Measuring and managing productivity of your staff as well as handling communication with customers.

Call Center Software and Its Application

CRM call center software is programming geared towards reaching out to clients and prospects. It’s a useful instrument which assists to regulate inward and outbound voice communication, direct it to the relevant personnel, make the outbound calling more automated, and administer pertinent goals. This software provides practical means to evaluate activities of coordinators and view detailed stats on various ways of communication.

Nowadays lots of clients use different channels to interact with enterprises which include email, messengers, webchats, and of course phones. Because of this, a multichannel contact center environment that allows answering calls, messages in the chats or mailbox and therefore makes work of a call center smoother and quicker gains in popularity.

Call center software is a helpful instrument that is utilized to:

• Direct potential and existing clients to the relevant departments or coordinators.
• Process orders, sell products and services, and even chase debts.
• Gather stats on incoming and outgoing calls and requests.
• Administer performance of personnel and have an overview of their activities.
• Effectively handle the call volume.

When Are Those Systems Utilized?

As the system tracking all the customer’s interactions, CRM is like a library storing detailed info about clients and their cooperation with an enterprise. Thanks to its versatility, CRM is applied in diverse contexts, for instance:

• Firms compose all-encompassing profiles of existing and prospective consumers to utilize them in future activities, for instance for marketing goals.
• Sales departments construct sales processes/pipelines for diverse objects or services and monitor sales stage per stage in each process/pipeline.
• Customer support coordinators open cases and register complaints and pass them to the sales department.
• Online shops might monitor users’ behavior (what products were viewed or what products were included or deleted from the basket) to draft an optimal offer.

Call center program has also a wide array of application, namely:

• It is employed for cold calling and telemarketing programs because it includes such useful constituents as call scripting and auto dialers.
• CRM is employed in sales, for instance to handle orders in the internet shops and for callback activity in response to clients` queries.
• Customer support department might employ it for dedicated cooperation with the clients, handling web chats, and self-service assistance.
• The enterprises might utilize smart call transmission which connects clients with relevant employees in the least number of transfers, thus ensuring faster service.

What are the principal characteristics?

For CRM, the fundamental features are the following:

• It generates reports and analysis. A CRM produces diverse documents which give an outline of the everyday interaction with clients, current situation in purchases and prognosis for them.
• It allows filtering and evaluating leads. One is able to filter leads given different criteria like work title, location, business domain, and introduce a lead scoring procedure in a firm. Besides, it is possible to prioritize leads and pick up the most relevant and urgent of them to handle them asap.
• It enables easy follow-up of leads. Your team can prepare campaigns given the lead’s behavior, install call reminders and follow-up emails. This doesn`t require any external tools for writing and attaching the notes and can save quite some time.
• It allows monitoring interaction. With such parameters as purchases stats, page views, and email opens, CRM provides details about company-clients` interaction and allows users to decide on the further steps to improve it.
• It allows automating operations. CRM enables creation of email drafts with special placeholders and a personalized message and auto-responder letters.

The main features of call center programming are:

• Automatic Call Distribution. This setting enables routing calls given diverse settings like agent skills, client’s choice, etc. thus ensuring lower waiting time.
• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). Thanks to this feature, it becomes possible to integrate a phone system into other instruments, including CRM. With CTI, the coordinators might view the caller’s info screen when getting a call (Screen Pop).
• Dialers are tools which automate mass outcoming calls. They automatically ring contacts and connect coordinators only when someone replies. With this feature, it becomes possible to significantly increase the number of live calls and save time of the coordinators for more productive activities.
• It includes tools for reporting which give an overview of coordinators` performance, principal KPIs, outbound programs, call statistics, etc.
• Call monitoring makes it feasible and convenient to follow-up performance of staff and listen to recorded calls and in real time. This offers immense possibilities for evaluation of the personnel as well as the training purposes.

What Are Their Main Users?

CRM offers lots of advantages to diverse users. Next to big companies, it is utilized by:

• Small and medium firms which concentrate on B2B sales. Generally, these enterprises have a long sales procedure which involves numerous tickets requiring constant follow-up.
• B2C businesses like real estate or insurance which depend on leads.
• Ecommerce shops which can draft customized offers or track the most popular products with CRM.
• Companies which strive to endorse customer experience with CRM data analytics.

As opposed to that, call center software is widely used by the diverse enterprises:

• It is advantageous to all sorts of call centers.
• Besides, it is beneficial for firms without a dedicated call center department but which still have to handle calls and customer requests from other channels.
• Small enterprises might find it useful to set up outbound lead prospecting, e-commerce and even launching a virtual call center with coordinators working remotely.

Call Center – CRM and CRM – Call Center Integrations: How Are They Different?

Certainly, it is recommended to use both tools together. Only by combining them you can cover all the business goals. Below we will describe the two synthesis models and what advantages they bring.

Call Center – CRM Integration

In this model, the CRM system is integrated into a call center scheme. The customers` details from CRM are shown to coordinators only during calls and in the call center program interface, so that coordinators don`t have to check two windows. It is possible to update the clients` information in the call center program. Those changes and the link to the call record will be stored in the CRM.

The crucial benefit of this model is that it grants better security when running a remote call center. As all the customers` credentials are shown only during the call, managers can determine what data should be visible. Even the phone numbers can be hidden if needed.

CRM – Call Center Integration

In this model, a call center solution or its widget is combined with CRM. Coordinators are able to call in CRM and don`t have to switch to another interface. To make a call, coordinators should press on a button next to the client’s file. When getting an incoming call, coordinators see the customer’s profile as a screen pop. The basic call center features (pick up, put on hold, transfer, mute/unmute the call) might be employed in the CRM environment. Additionally, users can add a call disposition which will be saved in a call center program. Sometimes the integration also includes dialers to automate the calling process.

Thus, both integration schemes are similar. They allow to automatically save all the changes or to process customer records to another system. Besides, it is possible to utilize both types of software independently from each other if required. Whatever type of synthesis you opt for, you`ll save time and resources for more pertinent tasks and the company will only benefit from it.

How VoIPTime Cloud Might Assist with CRM/Call Center Solutions?

1. We Integrate a CRM Into Call Center Solution of VoIPTime Cloud

In this case, you can expect a typical Call Center CRM integration. It means that your staff would notice the latest customer information when getting a call. If needed, you might confine data that is represented on the coordinator`s monitor, namely to hide a fragment of the phone number. This will avert data leakage. The synthesis might be performed using API or Iframe.

2. We Propose to Use Call Center CRM of VoIPTime Cloud

Call Center CRM of VoIPTime Cloud goes with a built-in mini CRM extension that permits to save and arrange clients` information without any external system. This solution allows to:

• make and utilize customizable client files which are shown to coordinators during phone conversations. You can design these files and select what data you would like to share with the personnel.
• create filters and combine them with diverse client card fields in CRM. This is particularly useful when developing telemarketing campaigns.
• employ API synthesis to get the pertinent data from other sources.

Bottom Line

A CRM and call center software are quintessential technologies that ensure diverse operations and are not transposable. A CRM program assists in dealing with all the relationships of a company with existing or prospective clientele. A call center software deals with communication with clients via phone and permits to employ more possibilities than those which are available in a CRM. Some time and effort are needed to efficiently implement those technologies, however they presuppose different involvement of personnel. In the case of CRM, its successful implementation is defined by the personnel. If they follow procedures and note down information after each interaction with a client, all should work well. In case of call center programming, administrators have access to the info about personnel`s conduct and their statistics which might be valuable to maintain a good work speed and intervene when necessary. These technologies are differently priced as call center programs are cheaper than CRM. But in essence, it is best to invest in both of these technologies and utilize them to support your business because their synergy would help to bring it to new horizons.