Does Your CRM Need Relationship Advice?

With so many companies using CRM solutions, you would think customer service would be better. However, research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows that 68% of customers leave a business because they are upset with the treatment they have received from customer service.

What makes this number even more noteworthy is the impact losing customers has on your company’s bottom line. According to Gartner, 80% of a company’s future revenue will come from 20% of its existing customers.

Let’s say you have a call center platform that directs calls to an IVR, and then to agents running your CRM. You also might have agents communicate with customers via chat and email. So why is customer satisfaction dropping?

Here is an example scenario: A customer has a cable TV billing issue. They call their friendly cable company, the same company they’ve been with for years. After telling them again they would like to conduct the call in English, indicating they have a billing question, and entering their account number, they finally get to an agent. The agent’s first question is to ask for their account number and the reason for calling today. It seems like all the right pieces were in place to help the customer, but all it did was waste the customer’s time and annoy them.

How do you think the customer felt after that call?

What is the customer’s satisfaction level now with their cable provider? 

How could this scenario have gone better? 

Think about the customer experience if the following had happened instead.  When that customer called, their phone number was recognized and they didn’t have to identify their preferred language. Since the system knew who they were, they didn’t have to enter their account number. From there, the customer informed the IVR that they had a billing problem. The IVR explained that all agents were busy, but asked the customer if they would like a callback when an agent is available. The customer answered yes, and in a few minutes, an agent called back. The agent not only knew the customer, but had their billing records up and ready to go. What a difference when the customer is treated like their business and time is valued! Now, how is that customer’s satisfaction level?

Nothing improves a relationship more than feeling valued. The benefits of improving customer relationships can be realized when you add a contact center to your CRM solution to:

• Communicate with customers on their terms: voice, email, chat, mobile, etc.
• Personalize the interaction by recognizing who’s calling, emailing, or chatting, and making the connections between all channels so the context doesn’t get lost
• Offer options best suited to every customer, from self- to assisted service
• Connect customers to the most capable agent to help them based on all the information available from the CRM and contact center systems
• Deliver the right answer, the right way, as quickly as possible

If creating better customer relationships sounds interesting to you—and you’d like to improve your bottom line, too—it’s time to look into creating a system of engagement, or system of systems, to manage all customer engagement interactions across your CRM and your contact center solution. The benefits of combining your CRM system with the personalization capabilities of a modern contact center will not only improve your customer satisfaction levels, but also streamline your customer support operations.

If you’d like to learn more, check out the on-demand webinar from Genesys and market research leader Ovum, Putting the ‘R’ back into CRM. This informative webinar features Keith Dawson, Principal Analyst, Customer Engagement, and covers:

• Why CRM systems have changed sales and marketing, but not customer relationships
• What a system of engagement is and why your company needs one
• How your company can benefit from delivering a great customer experience