Integrated system increases agent talk time

Chris Key of Hostcomm explains the benefits of integrating your CRM system and predictive dialler.

The Problem

The two major components of client acquisition and customer service are the outbound call centre and the CRM system.

Until now, the extent of integration between the two has been limited to basic CTI-type features like ‘click to call’ and ‘screen pop’. Whilst these features are useful, there are still manual tasks (i.e. making phone calls) which inhibit true workflow automation.

These tasks contribute to large amounts of time being wasted in outbound call centres. Choice of dialler can therefore make or break an organisation that relies on high-volume calling.

The Solution

Although most outbound marketing companies do have a dialler, the extent of CRM integration is generally limited. By fully integrating the two systems, using standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs), full automation can be achieved.

A workflow approach to analysing and managing a business process can be implemented through a CRM workflow ‘engine’, which uses an API to integrate several systems (e.g. a hosted dialler).

The engine is able to automate several processes, ensuring that the desired outcome is always the same. This is cost effective due to the elimination of human time.

The Benefits

The benefits of an integrated CRM and hosted dialler system include:

The dialler only presents human answers to the agents and loads up the client record, resulting in agent ‘talk time’ being increased by 300%.
Automated business intelligence from the two systems can be combined on the CRM interface – saving time and providing information on the health of the automated process itself.
Data flow between the two systems will reduce data “clogging” on the CRM system and the associated administration time for data housekeeping.
Traditionally manual tasks can be automated by setting the dialler to trigger workflow routines on the CRM system and vice versa. This means that the agents can focus on selling and fewer admin staff are required.
Web leads can be processed by injecting the lead directly into the dialler for an instant call-back. This will stop the lead going cold and competitors winning.

Implementation

Automating your business processes can be cost effective with little disruption to your business, as both the CRM system and Hostcomm dialler are available as hosted services. This means that the on-premises technical resource requirements are kept to a minimum and the service can be implemented very quickly.

There is also minimal staff training required because the agents are using the same CRM interface, albeit with a few new buttons, so the learning curve is short.