How telephony integration improves CRM performance

From improved team efficiency to greater sales success, an integrated telephony system can help boost your company’s success. However, choosing the right partner to oversee the integration process is essential to avoid frustrations and to ensure that productivity is not negatively impacted.

“Successful integration requires a unique skillset as well as technical expertise that understands the challenges involved,” says Jed Hewson, CEO and co-founder of 1Stream, one of South Africa’s leading providers of cloud-based CRM and contact centre solutions.

“Because our telephony system integrates into a company’s existing CRM platform, the amount of training staff require is minimal,” explains Hewson. “They are working off an interface they are familiar with, which means they can continue connecting with customers and helping your business grow, without the hassle and teething problems associated with having to familiarise themselves with a whole new system.”

Here’s how an integrated telephony system can help benefit your business:

With an integrated telephony system, a record of all communications (via WhatsApp, Chat, phone calls, e-mail or SMS) with your customers is kept in one place and is accessible to all team members. This means your contact centre team members can instantly recognise who they are communicating with and have a full understanding of any current or ongoing issues that the customer might have. By having all this information at their fingertips, team members can work more efficiently and spend more time engaging with customers by delivering a solution rather than asking repetitive questions or keeping customers waiting while they seek out information.

Delivering an excellent customer experience can help set your business apart from your competitors and build customer loyalty. By having information about your customers and their previous engagements with your business instantly available to all team members, you show your customers that you value their business and respect their time. This doesn’t just alleviate frustration for your customers, it improves the employee experience too, enabling them to deal quickly and efficiently with issues because they are equipped with all the information they need to provide a solution.

An integrated telephony system is an essential tool to help your sales team improve its sell-through rate. Because all past transactions, queries and engagements with a customer are readily available on one centralised platform, your sales team can utilise this information to spot opportunities to cross- and up-sell.

“Our telephony system can also be implemented into performance dashboards,” says Hewson. “By having all of this information on hand, you give your sales team the chance to analyse customer needs and behaviour and spot opportunities to offer additional products and solutions.”

Simply put, an integrated telephony system ensures you are maximising the benefits of your CRM platform. “At 1Stream, we understand that you have invested heavily in the CRM platforms that support your organisation – you’ve spent time and money implementing these systems and training your team on how to use them,” says Hewson. “That’s why it is so important to ensure that your CRM works optimally and connects to your customers simply and effortlessly – and an integrated telephony system is key to delivering this.”

To find out how telephony integration can help your business grow, contact 1Stream today.