For better interaction, a robust CTI ensures agent has all information to successfully serve customers.
Often times, there are calls that leave us speechless. “Congratulations! You’ve won a million dollars!†is a message that will lead to at least a minute’s worth of silence. Or when you have eaten the last cookie in the jar and your mother asks who ate it, you take a minute to decide who to point the finger at. Speechlessness, it would seem, is the natural response when humans are taken unawares.
But think about this situation: you need help with the answer of a math problem like “What is 2+2?†You don’t know the answer so you go to a friend who you know is an expert. You call them and ask them the question, but they do not answer. After some attempts to coax an answer, you realize that your friend does not know it either; he was just calling himself an expert. How would you feel?
Silence is not golden
I have faced this situation in contact centers often. You would explain the issue in the best possible way you can but are greeted with answers of “umm…†and “eh…†instead. The agent on the other end seems to have no clue about your situation. This is a grave mistake for any business that knows the importance of customer service. Do you want to risk your business prospects by wasting the customer’s time, the agent’s effort, and hampering productivity?
How do you change the situation?
Have I told you lately about a wonderful tool called CTI? Computer telephony integration, or CTI, is technology that allows interactions on a telephone and a computer to be integrated or coordinated. CTI integrates different channels such as voice, e-mail, web, office applications, workforce management applications, among others, and affects the efficiency of customer relationship management. The better the integration of the disparate systems, better the business performance.
Benefits of CTI
CTI helps you keep your business processes under the control of business rules. Effectively integrated disparate systems lead to low operational costs and increased revenue gains. If all systems in the enterprise operate as a single unit, it will lead to smooth business functioning and high profitably. Here are more benefits:
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CTI helps agents be more efficient.
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The database and CRM allow businesses to maintain and manage multiple client relations in a more efficient manner.
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CTI provides screen pop-ups which gives the agents access to customer information in real-time—mapping it into a GUI-based interface through the database.
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With CTI capabilities, agents can service faster and more efficiently.
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The CRM lists relevant fields to the agent so that the customer can be serviced in the fastest time possible.
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CTI workbench also allows the agent to transfer the call to another party, put the caller on hold, and dispose the call accordingly.
With a robust integration at your disposal, CTI will prove to be of great importance to your business. Imagine a customer’s satisfaction when they call your contact center and the agent lets them know that they have all the details in front of them. The customer only needs to tell them about the issue. The agent can directly upload the issue while on call, see to its status, or even resolve it within seconds.
Personally, the few times this has happened to me and my friends, I have seen happy responses and longer customer-enterprise relationships. Enterprises should make it a point to note that CTI goes a long way in delivering information to both customer and agent. Shorter interaction times are after all, what everyone wants, so that they can resolve issues quickly. Implement CTI and see how efficient the business becomes.
