when crm meets the contact center - genesys...when crm meets the contact center: improving business...

When CRM Meets the Contact Center: Improving Business Outcomes End to End

A Frost & Sullivan White Paper

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contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3

The Customer Experience: Changing in 2015 and Beyond ...................................................... 5

Integrate CRM and the Contact Center to Drive Better Outcomes ...................................... 5

State of the Contact Center: Ready for CRM Integration ........................................................ 7

Best Practices for Success: What to Look for in a Contact Center Solution ......................... 8

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 9

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All rights reserved © 2014 Frost & Sullivan

IntroductIon

When Jason receives the wrong item from his favorite online retailer, it creates a bigger-than-usual problem: the order is a birthday gift for his son, who turns 10 on Sunday. He quickly scans his order history and sees that, in fact, the mistake was his — he somehow clicked on the wrong item and did not notice the mistake when he checked out. But now it is Thursday, and he worries that his son will not have a present to open from Mom and Dad on the big day. So he quickly calls the retailer’s 800 number for help.

What he may not know is that as soon as his call goes into the retailer’s contact center queue, the system identifies him as a repeat customer. And because the contact center is integrated with the company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, the agent who takes the call sees a pop-up window with information on just how good a customer Jason is. He has been ordering from them for 10 years — almost as long as they have been in business. He spends thousands of dollars a year with them. He rarely has returns or problems that cost the business money. And he often tweets about his positive experiences with the organization. In short, Jason is the definition of a high-value customer, which most organizations strive to retain in the best interest of long-term results and repeat business.

So when Jason explains his situation to the customer service rep, the agent knows just what to do. He tells Jason he will ship out a replacement order immediately, for next-day delivery, free of charge. Jason can simply print out a pre-paid return label for the incorrect item and mail it back within the next 10 days. The agent even offers to have the present gift-wrapped, saving Jason the trouble since it will arrive so close to the big day.

Jason was a fan of the company before; now, he is an evangelist.

As mid-size companies look for a competitive edge in an increasingly global marketplace, one approach that can deliver measurable results is to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) tools with contact center applications and services for a deep 360-degree view of the customer, tracking every interaction to ensure an optimal customer experience. By delivering relevant customer data to contact center agents — and by populating call and other contact information into the CRM system — businesses can deliver better service; identify high-cost clients; focus on sales, service and marketing; and turn customer contacts into untapped revenue opportunities.

20% of Customers Expect a Response

within 1 Hour

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This paper will offer a high-level view of the modern contact center; discuss the rapidly changing needs and expectations of customers today; detail the benefits of integrating CRM and contact center systems, especially for mid-size organizations; and outline best practices for success.

Frost & Sullivan research shows that today, only about one-third of contact centers are fully integrated, while the largest proportion is mostly integrated. But by 2016, 54% of surveyed organizations expect to be fully integrated (a 64% growth rate over the two-year period). This will pave the way for more-advanced integration between the contact center itself and other back-office systems, most notably CRM platforms — since the ability to deliver a consistent and seamless customer experience is a high priority for 49% of surveyed contact center decision-makers, a number expected to rise even more (15%) by 2016.

Integrating the contact center with CRM software offers many benefits, starting with CTI (computer-telephony integration) adapters designed within a single unified CRM user interface, saving considerable time and boosting agent efficiency. Other key features include inbound contact routing within the CRM application (for calls, email, chat, etc.); native voice integration; outbound capabilities directly from within the CRM system, making it easy to search, develop and leverage lists and campaigns; visibility into agent and supervisor availability and workforce optimization within the CRM UI; and even mobile-app integration. These, in turn, lead to measurable business benefits, including lower costs, shorter call-resolution times, improved workforce management, and a robust customer experience.

By leveraging customer data via screen pops for both inbound and outbound contact center operations, companies can better route calls to the most appropriate agent or supervisor; deliver personalized service based on the customer’s history with the organization; answer questions quickly and effectively by leveraging all relevant data in a single screen; and get a complete view of the contact center to drive efficiency and deliver a consistently great customer experience across all channels and agents.

Improving Customer Experience

Organizations must have processes and

technology in place to answer the call quickly

and effectively.

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the customer experIence: changIng In 2015 and Beyond

The most important trend in customer service is not tied to technology that underlies the contact center itself. It is the result of changes in how individuals — that is, your customers — perceive their relationships with the companies with which they choose to do business. This is true for both B2C and B2B interactions, and it is shaping the ways in which companies deploy software and services for the purpose of support, sales, marketing and other customer engagements.

The most important trend in customer service is not tied to technology. It is the result of changes in how customers perceive their relationships with the companies

with which they choose to do business.

Today’s customers expect companies to have a clear, consistent view of who they are, what they like, and how they have interacted with the company in the past. Customers are fully aware of the fact that companies may be tracking their interests, purchases, social connections and other personal information — and they expect businesses to use that information effectively to improve their experience with the organization. Whether they are visiting a retailer online or in person, staying at a hotel or dining in a restaurant, or interacting with a physician, school or government agency, customers want a truly personal engagement based on their unique profile. For example, when visiting a hotel, customers expect the property to know their preferences: pillow type, room with a view, same floor as the fitness center, no connecting door, etc. And they expect the hotel to know that because they have shared the necessary information with the organization previously.

Companies that cannot deliver this personalized service will likely lose out to those that can.

The new reality places challenges on mid-size businesses in particular as they look for ways to support their clients with data-driven services that do not require a large number of resources or budget. But it also offers opportunities, since a more personal relationship is a more loyal one and can be a key differentiator that mid-sized businesses can use to position themselves against larger enterprises. Companies that fully leverage Big Data and other customer information as part of their contact center operations can strengthen their brand, personalize marketing campaigns, drive sales and improve outcomes, regardless of the size of operation. They can maximize cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, and they can make it much harder for customers to leave for a competitor, thereby increasing the overall value of any given customer interaction.

Integrate crm and the contact center to drIve Better outcomes

One of the best ways for companies to improve their customer interactions is to integrate the contact center and their customer relationship management (CRM) system. Whether the organization is using salesforce.com (SFDC), Zendesk, or another popular CRM application, connecting contact center capabilities to the CRM software makes it easier to give agents a 360-degree view of the customer and makes it much more likely that the customer’s experience will be seamless.

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Integrating contact center and CRM systems offers numerous benefits:

• Agents: It lets agents focus on sales, service and marketing for increased customer satisfaction, improving their ability to increase revenues with every customer interaction.

• Routing: It brings the value of inbound contact routing to the CRM world, natively integrating voice into the CRM user interface and allowing agents to accept calls, emails and chats right from within an app like SFDC, regardless of their location.

• Outbound: It makes it easy to create high-velocity outbound messaging directly within the CRM environment, leveraging native best practices, lists and existing campaigns.

• Workforce Optimization: It delivers workforce optimization for agents and supervisors within the CRM client, ensuring compliance throughout the workday.

• Mobile Apps: It enables mobile-app integration with tools like Salesforce One, allowing users to support the contact center from anywhere, on any device.

Integrating the contact center with a company’s CRM platform ensures both systems will have access to the best possible data for every customer interaction, making it more likely agents will resolve issues faster and reduce churn, while ensuring marketers and salespeople have all the information they need about customer touch points for higher conversion rates.

For instance, integration makes it possible for the contact center system to route incoming calls based not just on agent availability or expertise, but also on data specific to the customer at hand by incorporating customer profiles from the CRM system into IVR and ACD systems. Once engaged, agents can leverage customer history data— delivered through an automated pop-up —to personalize the support experience, allowing them to answer customer questions quickly and effectively by leveraging all channel interactions, knowledge bases and

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data from business applications, all within a single screen. Meanwhile, supervisors can better monitor agent performance by getting a more complete view of the contact center in relation to the CRM application, and the data and best-practices information it contains.

The integration offers advantages to power users within the CRM application, too. Marketers and salespeople can take advantage of real-time and historical information on customer interactions to help them shape outbound messaging, design campaigns and develop leads. They can also interact with customers from within the CRM environment by using voice and routing integration, making it much easier for them to stay in touch with customers; better still, their interactions are then recorded in the contact center system, where they can be logged just like any other contact center touch point.

Finally, by integrating a company’s two most important customer-facing applications, managers can ensure that all customer interactions are properly prioritized according to more than just “first-come, first-served” metrics. By using CRM data, a manager might opt to route (or have the system route) a call based on the importance or value of the caller; or he might look at how many times the customer has contacted the contact center—via all channels, including voice, email and chat—and have a salesperson reach out proactively to better manage the account. In either case, the call is improved by giving the agent or salesperson all the relevant information on that customer, dating back to the beginning of his relationship with the organization.

Success Points for CRM Integration• Unified database containing all customer

interactions

• Advanced call routing

• Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

• Personalized marketing campaigns

• Mobile customer care

state of the contact center: ready for crm IntegratIon

A recent Frost & Sullivan research survey of more than 300 contact center and customer care decision-makers working in businesses located in the United States and Canada shows that the ability to deliver a consistent and seamless customer experience is a high priority for almost half of surveyed respondents. This number is expected to rise to 57% by 2016, a 16% growth rate.

Importance of Delivering a Seamless Customer Experience

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Current, 2014 Future, 2016

Don’t know

49%57%

16% growth rate

42%36%

6% 5%

Not at all a priority

Low priority

Medium priority

High priority

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As they plan to integrate the contact center with CRM or other back-office software, many companies need to look at their existing contact center infrastructure and make sure it is ready to handle advanced interoperability. Frost & Sullivan research shows that currently, one-third of contact centers are fully integrated, while almost half are mostly integrated. By 2016, 54% expect to be fully integrated (a 64% growth rate), primarily due to the fact that half of the companies that are “mostly integrated” today plan on transitioning to full integration over the next two years.

State of Integration in the Contact Center

Don’t know

Partially integrated

Mostly integrated

Fully integrated

Current, 2014

33%

49%

17%

Future, 2016

54%

40%

1%5%

50%Transitioning to full integration

Mid-size organizations are well ahead of small businesses when it comes to an integrated contact center, but they have some catching up to do when it comes to their larger competitors. With the availability of cloud-based solutions, this is easy and cost-effective to do, and it should be a top priority for most mid-size companies that want to drive successful outcomes through the customer experience.

Best practIces for success: What to Look for In a contact center soLutIon

Companies that are just deploying a CRM application are in an excellent position to integrate the new software with their existing contact center tools. But businesses that already have CRM in place do not have to miss out; they, too, can manage the integration, either themselves or with the help of a provider that understands the challenges and has designed its technology to easily work with the leading CRM platforms.

That said, not all contact center providers can offer an environment that supports CRM integration. And, of course, companies should not have to sacrifice robust contact center capabilities in exchange for being able to use the technology with their CRM system. Look for a solution that will offer the following capabilities and benefits:

• Cloud-based offering that can scale up or down as needed

• Priority call routing based on customer data

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• Skills-based routing based on agent skills and expertise

• Multi-channel support and built-in best practices

• Automated speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), CRM integration

• Screen pops that display a contact record, existing ticket, or auto ticket creation with voice recording enabled

• Advanced search capability — customer, ticket, and organization searches

• Embedded and on-demand access to business data

• VoIP for agent and CRM native telephony

• Self-administration of IVR and contact centers by business users via browser-based tools

• Robust reporting and analytics

• Reliable uptime and performance

• Fast, easy deployment

concLusIon

Customers today expect a personalized, positive experience every time they contact a business. Customers want to know that you know who they are, what products and services they are buying from you and what they want, even before your agents pick up the phone. Integrating your contact center and CRM systems allows agents to recognize customers as soon as they dial into the system. Customers are willing to share information in exchange for a customized relationship —and if they do not get it, they will happily take their business somewhere else.

By integrating the contact center with an existing or new CRM system, companies can leverage customer data for inbound and outbound contact center operations, better route calls to the most appropriate agent or supervisor, deliver personalized service based on the customer’s buying history with the organization, shrink call-resolution times, and get a 360-degree view of contact center efficiency and the overall customer relationship. This can lead to more revenue opportunities, deepened loyalty, and higher customer satisfaction and net promoter scores.

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Melanie Turek

when crm meets the contact center - genesys...when crm meets the contact center: improving business...

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