What Is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
A centralized record that keeps track of all customer contact information and engagement history with the company.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business process that involves centralizing all customer contact information and data on customer interactions and purchase history with the business. This data is compiled in a customer relationship management system, such as Salesforce.
Historically, CRM data has been hindered by manual data entry and the failure of employees to keep customer records up to date. Today, AI automation enables much of the data to be entered automatically during customer interactions by phone, email, and chat. The accuracy of CRM data is essential to provide seamless customer experiences in sales and customer support.
How Contact Centers Use a CRM
Contact center agents rely on CRM data to:
Pull up customer information and interaction history
Record their current interaction in the customer account
Ensure that everyone interacting with the customer has the same customer data
Cloud-Based Agility
Moving to the cloud will allow for faster, easier deployments, seamless upgrades, flexible scalability, and reduced capital expenditures associated with on-premises systems.
Connected Journeys
The contact center should support customer journeys across web chat and social messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and others.
Omnichannel Unification
Shoppers will be coming in from many different channels, so it will streamline the customer experience to route interactions using the same logic.
Customer Context
Agents must begin the conversation right where the customer left off online. When the customer’s needs are transferred to an agent in real time, your brand is creating a seamless transition from web to contact center. Remove customer stress, unneeded customer repetition, wasted time, and deliver a world-class customer experience
CRM Integration
Customer relationship management (CRM) system integration can improve the shopper experience by using CRM data to find the last person spoken to, use shopper purchase history to find the best expert, etc. In addition, once the connection occurs, your staff can access past interaction history and CRM information to understand the customer’s journey and deliver a more personalized experience.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI can deliver next- best-action recommendations and assist in responses that will improve conversion rates, increase shopping cart value, and speed up responses.
Real-Time Management
Supervisors should monitor messaging interactions in real time and assist if needed, even if they are not in the same location.
AI & PCI Compliance
Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) can automate payment processing across digital channels and reduce your compliance risk by collecting sensitive customer data without revealing it to a human agent. Make sure that the IVAs can easily integrate with your payment gateways.
