What is contact center CRM?

“CRM” stands for “customer relationship management.” Typically, CRM solutions act as databases, allowing businesses to store and access information on everything from customer demographic data to information on past interactions and purchase history.

A contact center CRM helps contact center agents manage customer interactions, giving them real-time access to important customer data, speeding up resolution times, and making interactions smoother and more efficient.

A good contact center CRM can also help analyze customer data and provide valuable insights that help contact center teams continuously improve.

Benefits of contact center CRM software

CRM contact center software brings a lot of benefits to businesses. These benefits include:

• Better knowledge of customers: Having a centralized tool to store and access customer data leads to much more detailed customer knowledge. You can use CRM analytics to draw valuable, actionable insights about your customers that will ultimately help you build loyal brand and customer relationships.

• Improved internal communications: A good contact center CRM should integrate with other departments in your business. It should be a centralized customer data repository that people from every team can contribute to and draw from. This seamless and centralized data management system allows for quick information transfer and generally makes internal communication much easier.

• Access to data in real time: Contact center operatives must quickly access relevant customer data. The faster an agent can access a customer’s data and history, the faster they’ll be able to understand the customer’s issue and work toward a solution. A contact center CRM solution lets agents access customer data in real time.

• Greater customer satisfaction: Faster resolution time, smoother interactions, and better brand and customer relationships result in greater customer satisfaction.

• Improved conversion rate: Greater customer satisfaction almost always leads to an improved conversion rate. Whatever the aim of your contact center, whether it’s to generate sales, resolve problems, or something else entirely, satisfied customers and greater knowledge of your customers are likely to increase conversions.

• Improved customer retention: Happy customers are loyal customers. A good contact center CRM can seriously boost customer loyalty by helping you manage and improve your customer relationships. 

How does CRM software work for call centers vs. contact centers?

CRM software is a valuable tool for call centers and contact centers. However, the way in which CRM software is used in each can differ due to the differences in the channels they use and the way in which they operate.

Call centers are primarily phone-based. They take incoming calls and make outgoing calls. Call centers are often used for sales and customer support. As such, CRM software for call centers usually works by giving agents immediate access to things like customer profiles and data.

The aim is to give the agent a full picture of the customer’s situation and the brand’s history as quickly as possible, so they can talk the customer through conversion or resolution as efficiently as possible.

A call center CRM may also handle call routing and provide automation services (such as giving automated scripts for certain interactions and helping to automate agent workflows).

A contact center utilizes a much wider range of channels than a call center. In addition to phone calls, contact centers may also operate through AI-driven chatbots (also known as virtual agents), SMS, email, direct messaging, and more.

As such, contact center CRM solutions have omnichannel functionality. They’ll gather customer data across all contact channels and build it into a unified profile for each customer.

A good contact center CRM will provide cross-channel interaction history alongside things like demographic data, purchase history, and behavioral data.

Like call center CRMs, contact center CRMs give agents access to vital customer data in real time and help them achieve quick and satisfying resolutions for customers.

However, contact center CRMS will also help route customers to the most appropriate channel for their needs and help with cross-channel collaboration.

Important features of contact center CRM technology

How does a contact center CRM operate at its best? What features does it use to get the results businesses and customers want? Let’s look at some of the most important contact center CRM technology features.

Seamless contact center CRM integration

The best CRM tools have excellent contact center integrations that allow businesses to connect all their communication channels with their data management tools. Agents don’t have to hop between platforms to find relevant customer details.

Contact center CRM software should also integrate with other tools in your tech stack, including marketing tools and knowledge bases.

Reporting and analytics

Strong CRM reporting and analytics tools help businesses spot patterns in customer interactions, track agent performance, and get to know their customers better. A good contact center CRM will track and report metrics like resolution times, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.

Contact center managers can use CRM reporting and analytics to improve team performance. CRM metrics help forecast customer contact patterns, reveal which tactics and agents are the most successful, and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Assistance from AI and automations

CRM automation can monitor virtual assistants, route communications to the best agent or channel, and help streamline agent interactions through intelligent prompts.

For example, an AI assistant could provide an agent with the precise customer data point to solve a customer’s issue in real time or offer a prompt to help deal with a common problem.

AI-powered virtual agents are an increasingly popular tool for customers to use to get the answers they need without having to make a phone call or wait for an email.

CRM chatbot integrations allow customers to quickly access the data they need to solve their issues by “talking” to a contact center virtual assistant.

Call recording

Call recording has several benefits. It adds to your overall interaction data, allowing CRM analytics tools to spot patterns in customer conversations.

It helps managers and agents to review their performance or re-familiarize themselves with a particular customer’s problem.

Call recordings can be a great training tool. They also provide transparency and accountability if someone makes a complaint.

Calls can be recorded and stored as audio files or transcripts. Transcripts can be useful for quickly locating key points in a conversation.

Contact center CRMs will store recordings and transcripts easily, allowing staff to quickly retrieve conversations as and when needed.

Omnichannel compatibility

Omnichannel compatibility is essential for a contact center CRM. CRM software should be able to connect with every communication channel that a contact center uses.

Agents should be able to access a unified view of all customer interaction data through the CRM, regardless of which channels the customer has used.

Omnichannel compatibility helps agents provide consistent service without requiring customers to repeat themselves when they switch channels or agents.

Intelligent routing

Intelligent routing sends incoming communication to the most suitable representative, department, or channel. Contact center CRM data can be used to identify high-priority customers and route them to the front of the queue.

It can also help send customers to the right agent based on things like past interaction data, language preference, and geographical area.

How to choose the best contact center CRM

What should you look for when picking your own contact center CRM? Here are some of the most important things to consider:

• Scalability: Can your contact center platform scale as your business grows, or will adding extra functionality in the future be complicated?

• Security: CRMs deal with customer data, which is an incredibly valuable resource. Therefore, it’s vital that your chosen CRM solution is fully secure to maintain trust with your customers and compliance with regulations.

• Integration: Your contact center CRM needs to be able to draw data from throughout your tech stack and be accessible from every channel and platform that you use regularly. Make sure that your contact center CRM has a wide range of integrations.

• Usability: You won’t get the most out of your contact center CRM if it’s hard to use. Make sure that you pick a usable solution with a low learning curve.

• Pricing: Make sure that you’re not paying for unnecessary services and that the price you pay reflects the value you’ll get from your contact center CRM.

• Analytics and reporting features: What metrics are most important to your business? How would you like your CRM to track and report on those metrics? Your contact center CRM's reporting and analytics features can make a big difference in how useful it is for you.

• AI features: AI features like intelligent routing and data-driven AI assistance can make your contact center CRM incredibly efficient. Check what AI features potential contact center CRM solutions offer.   

How to optimize ROI from contact center CRM software

Contact center CRM software can bring huge gains and improvements to your business. To get the very best ROI from your contact center CRM, here are some best practices to follow:

• Customize to your company’s needs: For example, if your contact center deals primarily with customer problems, interaction history and past purchase data will be more useful to agents than conversion rate data. Customize your CRM to prioritize the most useful forms of data, as well as for ease of use.

• Enable employees to use the tool: CRM software will not benefit your staff if they struggle to use it. Through thorough onboarding and regular training, ensure that everyone is comfortable using the tool.

• Set usage guidelines: This will ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding your CRM and reduce the risk of misuse.

• Take advantage of AI features: AI can greatly improve the efficiency of your contact center CRM. Make sure that you’re using any AI features to their full potential.

• Focus on customer satisfaction: Remember, “CRM” stands for “customer relationship management.” CRM software is at its best when it’s used to improve customer satisfaction and build loyal brand and customer relationships.

How does CRM integration work with other systems in a contact center environment?

CRM software connects to other systems using APIs (application programming interfaces).

These allow your contact center CRM to communicate with other applications and systems inside and outside your contact center environment. Through these APIs, your CRM can easily access and transfer data between systems.

Not all contact center CRMs can effectively communicate with other systems. When picking your contact center CRM, ensure it can integrate with the programs and platforms you’ll use.

Transform your customer experience with contact center CRM

A good contact center CRM can make a huge difference in customer relations. It speeds up resolutions, saves customers from repeating themselves, and generally makes the entire customer experience much more satisfying.

The right contact center CRM could transform how you interact with your customers and give you the kind of loyal customers that bring growth.

The Vonage Contact Center (VCC) platform integrates seamlessly with popular CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to create a unified solution that enhances customer service and streamlines business operations.

Contact Vonage today to learn how our AI-powered contact centers could boost your business.