Most call center solutions offer a wide range of integration options. Just a few examples include ticketing systems, ecommerce, social media, and email integrations.
But even if all of your software is on the list, integrating everything isn’t necessarily the best approach.
As long as you bring three key systems together, you’ll improve agent performance and the customer experience, all while keeping things simple.
Unite Your Payment System, CRM, and Phone System With Call Center Integration
Seamlessly connecting software solutions has created huge advantages for call centers. It provides added convenience, increased efficiency, and task consolidation without having to switch back and forth between platforms.
So it’s easy to see why many call centers go all in with app integration. That said, many go overboard to the point that their infrastructure becomes cluttered and overcomplicated.
Say, for example, after implementing a call center solution you see that it has an extensive list of integrations. If you already use several software systems the solution is compatible with, it’s natural to want to connect everything.
However, we find this isn’t always the best route for two main reasons — 1) it’s usually not necessary and 2) it can potentially create added complexity.
Like most industries, efficiently running a call center largely boils down to using the technologies you truly need and eliminating everything else. Looking at the big picture, it’s about equipping your agents with the tools they need to succeed and providing a satisfying caller experience.
Sometimes you need a ton of integrations to accomplish that. However, in many cases, less is more.
Plus, why overwhelm your team if you don’t have to?
After a lot of trial and error, we’ve found that simply combining your payment system, CRM, and phone system is usually the optimal setup. This is really all you need to make your agents’ lives easier while providing a high level of customer service.
Everything else beyond that is unnecessary. Now let’s unpack why this is the case, looking at the role each of the three systems plays.
Payment System
There are several reasons why customers contact a call center, but most calls fall under one of two categories.
One is having an inquiry about products and/or services they’re interested in. The other is to handle billing issues and make payments.
When it comes to the latter, payment system integration gives your agents everything they need to simplify payment processing. In turn, agents can do their jobs with less friction and can quickly transition to taking a payment at any point during a call.
And this is something that can be hugely beneficial for maximizing sales.
Here’s an example.
Say your agent is helping a caller with a product inquiry. After speaking with the agent and having their questions answered, the caller is convinced they want to make a purchase.
Rather than disrupting the conversation by transferring the call to a separate billing department, the agent can use a payment system integration to immediately process the payment themself. They get the sale and the customer has a seamless experience.
It’s the ultimate win-win.
All it takes is leveraging a payment system to enable agents to process payments at a moment’s notice.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM System)
A CRM system is at the heart of all call centers. Effectively managing customer information and following their interactions with your call center is essential to providing personalized customer support.
Agents need customer information at their disposal before they answer a call so they know who they’re assisting and how they can best assist them.
With a CRM, all the information you have on the customer associated with the phone number will auto-populate. That way, an agent can quickly run through the information and answer the call more informed and ready to serve the customer.
Say, for instance, a customer has a question about product shipping.
A CRM would provide your agent with a detailed view of the customer’s history, previous interactions, recent purchases, shipping status, and so on. In turn, this would allow the agent to quickly run through relevant information, such as when the product was shipped, its last known location, and its expected arrival.
That way, there’s no unnecessary back-and-forthing between your agent and the customer.
Your agent can immediately find the information they need to answer the customer’s question so they can move on to the next call, and the customer doesn’t have to waste time waiting to get the information they need.
In other words, it keeps things flowing.
That’s why it’s crucial to integrate your CRM with your business phone system, which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle.
Business Phone System
A business phone system is the centerpiece of your call center. When callers make contact with your company, a business phone system is the first piece of technology used to distribute their calls.
Therefore, it should integrate with both your CRM and payment system to ensure your most important systems work together fluidly.
For example, whenever a caller makes a payment through your business phone system, their payment information will appear in your CRM. And when an agent adds a caller’s information to your business phone system, it will populate in your CRM.
In this way, everything is interconnected so that information is accurate and up-to-date across all platforms. This allows your sales, customer service, and all other teams to collaborate efficiently and prevents important information from being siloed.
But it all starts by having your business phone system synced with your payment system and CRM.
Why Additional Integrations Aren’t Necessary
Again, most call center solutions are overflowing with integrations. Zendesk is a prime example and currently allows you to connect with an astonishing 1,675 apps.
Everything from ticketing systems to workflow management to ecommerce to surveys can be integrated with call center software. And with AI becoming increasingly intertwined with call centers, we’re seeing a ton of more AI integrations as well.
While these types of integrations can certainly be helpful, it’s only truly necessary to integrate your payment system, CRM, and phone system. That’s because that’s all you really need to run your call center efficiently without creating added complexity that gets in the way.
The bottom line is that if you’re deciding which integrations to add, just stick with these three at first.
You can always make adjustments later, but these should be all you need to ensure a positive customer experience while enabling your agents to perform at their best.
Nextiva’s Contact Center Makes Integrating These 3 Systems Easy
As we know, call center integrations don’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) complicated. A payment system, CRM, and phone system are all you need to enhance agent performance and create a quality customer experience.
But when it comes to specific call center software, what’s a good solution to use?
There are plenty of options available, but one of the best in terms of comprehensiveness and simplicity is Nextiva.
It covers you in all three areas and offers the perfect mix of features to allow agents to do their jobs with ease without creating unnecessary complexity.
Nextiva’s cloud-based call center solution can handle high call volumes and has multi-channel support and self-service options. Key features include:
- Call monitoring
- Automatic Call Distribution
- Interactive voice response (IVR)
- Call routing
- Interactive dashboards and reporting
Advanced IVR Credit Card Payment allows callers to process payments via credit card securely over the phone. As we discussed earlier, this is huge for facilitating smooth payments and allows you to strike while the iron is hot and a caller is ready to buy right away.
Nextiva also has an extensive catalog of CRM integrations, including HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zendesk that allow you to track the entire customer journey end-to-end. So whatever CRM you use, odds are it integrates with Nextiva.
We also like how reliable Nextiva is. It has one of the world’s most reliable networks, with eight points of presence strategically located throughout the United States.
This translates into 99.999% uptime so you never have to worry about dropped calls with customers.
Besides that, Nextiva has top-of-the-line security that’s monitored 24/7 by leading engineers, so you can rest easy that your data remains safe.
And if you ever need support, you can instantly get Nextiva’s robust support center, which offers a detailed tutorial section, live chat, support tickets, and more.
Wrapping Up
At the end of the day, a well-run call center relies on two main things—helping your agents do their jobs effectively and providing a great customer experience. As long as you do that, everyone wins.
With so many call center integrations available, it’s often tempting to load up on them and go overboard. We definitely understand.
But when you break it down, all you really need is to unite your payment system, CRM, and phone system. That’s it.
By sticking with the essentials and uniting these three core systems, you can check all the boxes while making things easier for your agents and callers.
