CRM and Call Center

Call Center Process:

The Call center is the real operation theatre in telemarketing. In a CRM call center, customers communicate in many ways that include phone, e-mail, web chat, personal sales representative, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and a host of others. Several telecallers are hired for tele call operations.

CRM call centers help companies realign their entire organization around customers. And thus, it is a strategic business initiative sales, marketing and services as well as other groups are connected and coordinated through the CRM applications. Before a call is made to the customer, all recent activity with that customer should be reviewed. Then a sales strategy needs to be planned , based upon observed opportunities. The use of CRM software in the Call centre allows the assignment of a value to each customer if the culture supports that philosophy.

How the Call Center works?

It usually has a manager in overall charge, a few supervisors and the required number of tele-callers. Normally, the tele-callers are grouped in teams of six or seven callers, each supervisor handling one such team. The tele-callers sit in front of a computer terminal and speak into their headsets as telephone operators do in any telephone exchange. Simultaneously they access information on the terminal, and add fresh data on it as the tele-calling progresses.

The tele caller opens the call by greeting the prospect appropriately. Then she politely seeks the customer’s permission to have a brief conversation. She strikes the right chord with the prospect and explains the offering. She generates adequate interest in the product and tries to clinch an order. If this step does not materialize, follow up calls are made to secure the order.

The tele-callers are usually provided with a script with which they practice a game. Once they become comfortable, they resort to improvisation as required and try to make tele-marketing more effective. The scripts for the calls are worked out jointly by the telemarketer and professional consultants hired by the telemarketer. They are also pre tested with a few prospects. The supervisor is always available close at hand , she keeps track of productivity and the call quality of her team.

Advantages of CRM Call Center:

CRM helps the company identify most valuable customers and understanding their life time values. Using CRM, the call centers design the organization systems and service to best meet the needs of customers and maximize their value. CRM is intended for long term relationship building. Besides capturing the different forms of customer interaction, CRM allows to capture and store all available customers in the central history database. This allows agents the ability to pull up a customer’s entire history while the two interact. Communication and service are more effective and efficient. Most CRM products also track trends in purchasing and customer feedback.