CRM and Voip - A perfect partnership
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have long been seen as the solution to keeping customers happy and costs down, with contact centres across the world leading the way in using the technology to capture, store and analyse data on their customers and clients.
Now, the way forward seems to be teaming up CRM with voice over IP telephony systems, with early signs looking more than encouraging.
Indeed, for market experts, the pairing of the two technologies is a 'marriage made in heaven', offering as it does significant benefits both for consumers as well as businesses of all sizes.
The benefits of VoIP systems are by now well known. Not only do they cut back on an organisation's financial outgoings but the fact that they are easily remotely hosted and managed means that even small-to-medium sized businesses who could perhaps not otherwise afford to run an in-house IT department are able to adopt the adopt the technology.
It's no surprise, therefore, that companies whose business largely revolves around corresponding over the phone with customers have been keen to get involved.
By marrying the two technologies, companies are able to both simplify their outbound calling campaigns as well as introduce a whole host of new applications for their agents to get to grips with, such as preview-dialling and call distribution applications, status reporting and calling scripts, all of which add to the customer's experience, which in turn is likely to impact upon revenues and profits.
"The result: Marketing, sales and service users attain a 360-degree view of the customer," according to Cindy Waxer of VoIP News.
Furthermore, according to Paul Greenberg, the author of 'CRM at the Speed of Light', these new features possess a "cool quotient" that "adds to the customer experience".
"And coolness isn't an unimportant factor in a customer's experience with a company," he added.
Such benefits have not been lost on most of the leading online communications providers, with a host of corporate partnerships having been announced over recent months, not least IP providers teaming up with Microsoft for the use of its Dynamics CRM 3.3 software.
However, as with VoIP itself, the combined systems have yet to reach anywhere near their real potential.
"Dropped calls, poor sound quality and downtime are going to affect a customer's experience no matter what," Greenberg warned, pointing to the areas where the technology still needs to be improved.
The future, however, does look bright indeed for both customers and industry professionals. 
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