Call Center Management Software
Call centers took the focus of company-customer relationships away from the local level to a centralized location. For example, customers no longer have to visit a local insurance agent to ask questions about a policy. They can easily call the company's national 800 number for assistance. With this new model of customer service, customers were no longer dealing with the same company representatives time after time. Instead of the familiar friendly face, they talk to any one of a rotating assortment of hundreds of people in a huge call center. That fact necessitated the invention of tracking software to keep a particular customer's information in a central and easily accessed database.
The name given to this type of software is appropriately named “CRM” which stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software provides call center agents the tools necessary to handle all aspects of a customer's account and interactions such as order placement and tracking, customer preferences, and demographic marketing data. CRM software is sometimes referred to as a "front office solution" because it takes the palce of employees who once manned front offices of physical retail locations. The label of CRM software can also be applied to a system that allows for customer self-service. An example of that would be when a customer logs into his or her account online to place an order or check an account balance.
Beyond the software portion of the discussion is the philosophy of Customer Relationship Management in general. CRM is focused on expanding the relationship with existing customers while also creating new ones. As a sales force gathers data about current or prospective clients, it should be able to anticipate with increasing accuracy what their needs will be for future products and services. Proponents of CRM stress that it is not a one time technological fix, but rather a full-time attitudinal shift in the core practices of a business.
|
