Boost your virtual call centre with a CRM integration

In today's hurried and digitised world, more and more companies are switching to a cloud-based telephony platform for their call centre organisation. Virtual call centres offer numerous advantages over traditional telephony, including lower costs, greater flexibility and is easier to scale up. Digital telephony is also constantly evolving and comes with numerous smart and automated features to serve your customers even better.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) programmes, on the other hand, have long been the standard for companies with call centres large and small. They are crucial in customer relations and contact, and improve staff efficiency. But imagine if you could combine the best of these two worlds and what benefits that would bring?

Meet AIS (automation, integration, software): the indispensable link between your CRM programme and your virtual call centre.

What is CRM integration for virtual call centres?

By integrating the virtual call centre application with your CRM system, you ensure that the functionalities of your digital telephony are usable immediately from that CRM programme. Specifically, this means that, based on number recognition, there is a real-time connection with the customer database. All relevant data are then immediately available for both incoming and outgoing calls. Calling from your CRM itself is then also possible.

Employees no longer have to switch between different programmes to assist customers, but have all information on one screen. And that screen is their familiar CRM programme.

Why integrate digital telephony into CRM?

When your CRM programme is linked to your telephony in the cloud using a VoIP integration, customer service improves in two ways:

First, employees have easier access to customer data, spend less time looking up information and can thus provide a more quality service.

Second, digital phone platforms have numerous functions such as interactive voice response (IVR), which automatically transfers calls to the right employee, and offer customers the convenience of choice menus and smart queues.

Combining CRM and a phone platform in the cloud allows you to offer an outstanding customer experience, which in turn leads to a better (online) reputation as well as more sales.

Benefits of CRM integration for business telephony

Not yet convinced of the need to connect your digital telephony platform to your CRM tool? If so, here are five benefits that will undoubtedly win you over. More than that: these days, a digital telephony integration for your CRM is even indispensable if you want to outsmart the cut-throat competition.

1. Increased efficiency and productivity

The main objective of linking your CRM to your digital telephony system is to improve efficiency. Merging your communication channels and CRM programme means that employees no longer have to switch between apps to call customers.

Outbound calls no longer need to be manually typed in, but can be made directly from the CRM programme with a click-and-call link. Current or potential customers can be called automatically, eliminating the chance of dialing the wrong number.

Actually, your entire organisation benefits from improved efficiency. This is mainly due to the general benefits of telephony in the cloud that allow numerous tasks to be automated. Think of the calling itself, automatic call forwarding, choice menus and smart queues. By the way, research shows that call handling time shrinks by 20 per cent via CRM integration!

2. Better customer management

By linking your call centre software to your CRM, you can manage your customer contacts more effectively. After all, the data in your CRM is visible in real time in your digital telephony app. So you can immediately see which customer you have on the line, what they have said and what actions still need to be taken.

Thanks to these valuable statistics, you have better insight into the performance of your employees. These include statistics such as the number of calls per day, average call duration and average waiting time. Based on these, you can start fine-tuning things and improve the productivity of your team as a whole.

3. Better communication and performance from your team

Selling, be it products or services, is still the core business of most companies. When your sales team has access to accurate customer data, they can make informed decisions about which products or services to offer to which customers, as well as the best way to reach them.

By sharing data between the two platforms (digital phone app and CRM), employees can see all relevant information at a glance. Your dedicated salespeople have instant access to contact details, customer history and notes on previous customer contacts. Needless to say, this leads to a better customer experience and more sales.

The possibilities are truly endless. Based on contacts with your company, automated messages can also be sent out. For example: when a customer has viewed a certain product on your website, you can automatically send them a text message or an app with a discount code.

4. Insightful analysis of calls and customer data

The data your CRM programme collects about your customers is a veritable goldmine for your marketing. It allows you to analyse customer behaviour, create customer profiles and devise marketing strategies. These insights help convert potential customers into real ones.

Moreover, at the same time, you get a lot of useful information from the statistics of your virtual call centre. All information - call duration, time of day, productivity and more - is available in real time. That gives you a better understanding about your customer service in general and what improvements are needed.

If there are a lot of inbound calls on a particular topic, for example, you might consider dedicating a new section in your FAQ to it.

5. Clearer, more flexible and more sales

When you have business telephony in the cloud with a CRM integration, all data is available in one place. With a simple click, you can see all customer contacts and their transactions. The details of phone calls are simply added to the customer tickets in your CRM. That gives you a complete picture of how consumers interact with your business.
And precisely because all the data is consultable in one place, you can make better decisions to serve your customers even better. You can see what products or services they bought in the past and what their complaints or compliments were. That information is crucial to boost your sales figures.

Even when a particular customer's case handler is not present, colleagues have all the information at hand to provide the same, wrinkle-free customer service. As a result, consumers will also be more likely to return to you.

Belfabriek CRM integration for the virtual call centre of the future

There is a huge gap between what a virtual call centre can do with their CRM programme and what they do with it in reality. A lot of call centres do not combine their CRM with their digital phone platform and that is a missed opportunity. They simply use their CRM tool as a repository for their customer data.

Belfabriek offers the solution: thanks to Belfabriek's CRM integration for virtual call centres, business digital telephony can be easily and quickly linked with the well-known CRM tools on the market. Make full use of the capabilities of your call centre software and dazzle your customers with unmatchable customer service!