Contact centre software is of course dedicated to all kinds of customer service centres as well as to telemarketing and telephone sales businesses. But is it useful only in these rather niche industries? Quite the contrary! Below we present some industries and business operations, in which the implementation of dedicated customer contact software would be a great idea allowing for dynamic growth of your business.
1. Sales departments in all industries
Various sales departments can be structured in many different ways and handle different tasks. However, the primary task of virtually every sales department is to contact customers by phone. Additionally e-mails, text messages or, for example, website live-chats are used. Besides salespeople, some companies also hire sales support specialists who are usually responsible for the first phone contact with a customer, for example to schedule a business meeting.
Popular CRM systems are a perfect solution for handling sales processes. However, they are not equipped with all the contact tools, but only record performed actions. In such situations a proven solution would be to integrate the CRM with contact center software, allowing salespeople to gain full control both over the overall sales process and over each individual interaction with a customer. Then all the actions connected to making a contact with a customer would be contained in two key IT systems. This solution ensures that no important piece of information gets omitted or forgotten.
2. Medical centres
Popularity of private medical centres has flourished in recent years. The national healthcare system in Poland is far from satisfactory; thus, some people prefer to buy an additional package of medical services so that they have easy access to healthcare professionals and check-ups. However, without a properly designed and configured telephone exchange system equipped with contact centre software each professional medical centre will inevitably face such problems as poor call answering in rush hours. And of course each unanswered call means a dissatisfied, or maybe even a lost patient. Moreover, the ICT market forces businesses to implement such services as automatic text message appointment reminders or separate service line for VIP customers. By using contact centre software tailored to the needs of a medical centre, you can focus on your core task, i.e. on ensuring high quality patient care.
3. E-commerce
It is inevitable that rapidly developing online shops will at some point face a challenge of limited possibilities for customer service. An online customer requires immediate service through several communication channels, such as phone, e-mail, social media, website live-chat etc. In such case it is best to implement software that will contain all communication in a single, coherent tool. Not only will all customer inquiries from multiple contact channels be processed, but it will also be possible to queue them according to predefined priorities. That is what we call a synergy effect!
4. Pharmaceutical industry
In pharmaceutical industry contacting a customer by phone differs depending whether it is a pharmaceutical company or a wholesaler. These are two different ways of selling pharmaceuticals to target customers, i.e. pharmacies. Where in the case of a pharmaceutical company contacting a customer by phone is often just complimentary to commercial activities carried out by sales representatives in the field, such form of contact is crucial to pharmaceutical wholesalers. Nevertheless, in either case it is worth considering the implementation of a contact centre system that will optimise handling of inbound calls and enhance the efficiency of placing outbound calls to pharmacies. Thanks to a contact centre system businesses operating in the pharmaceutical industry are able to achieve their phone sales objectives in a much faster and effective way.
5. Distribution of wares
So far we have implemented our contact centre systems in many distribution companies. It is interesting to note that many representatives of those companies claimed they did not have call centre departments in their companies. However, a short analysis of their activities related to receiving orders by phone and planning of delivery routes revealed that they indeed had a call centre department, even if the management did not call it that way. So, what does optimising of customer service processes look like in the case of companies operating in distribution of various products?
Firstly, the rate of answered inbound calls should be improved, which would in turn result in more calls from customers who might place an order with you.
Secondly, outbound calls should be handled in a better and more efficient way in order to activate customers and encourage them to place an order.
Thirdly, orders placed through other channels, e.g. e-mail, should be processed by means of the same, coherent software.
Finally, accepted orders should be quickly converted in electronic form into transport documents and delivery routes should be planned.
6. Services
The term ‘services’ is rather broad and covers many different business types where one does not sell products, but various services to companies or individual customers. When it comes to customer service, high competitiveness seems to be the most important factor. Nearly every service industry is highly competitive, therefore you must work really hard in order to gain customers. And it is even harder to retain them. It is thus of critical importance that you offer immaculate customer service that helps you to attract and retain customers. So, what can you do to boost customer experience? Time matters the most when trying to gain a new customer. Factors relating to time play an important role here, such as reaction time to inquiries from potential customers, answering call time or reaction time to emergency situations, e.g. emergency helpline. Of course there are many other important things that should be considered. And the implementation of an appropriate call centre system, which will contribute to optimising service time, can help you with all of them.
A suitably configured helpline or managing all contact channels through a single tool will become a perfect solution to attract and gain customers. Of course, once you have gained a customer you must take steps to ensure they do not leave your company. Then other things become important, such as separate helpline queue for regular customers or account manager responsible for handling all matters related to serving a given customer. The aforementioned functions form the basis of a well-developed contact centre system. Thus, it is worth considering their implementation in order to deliver the right level of customer experience.
