With digital omnichannel solutions making deeper inroads into the contact center industry, are telephone conversations nearing their climax? Not really. Infact, according to a Gartner prediction report, close to 75% of customers would prefer calling the customer service over other communication channels, by 2026.
But this shouldn’t mean increasing the agent’s workload, especially in 2026. Agents should be empowered with the right tools and technologies to handle calls faster without being burdened with redundant tasks. The integration of your telephony system with a CRM platform, like Salesforce, can resolve the issue to a great extent and give a renewed boost to agent productivity.
Let’s explore how telephony integration with Salesforce can help your sales agents improve productivity.
5 Ways Agents can Work Smarter with Salesforce CTI Integration.
Let’s see how Salesforce CTI Integration enables agents to work more effectively. Below are a few key ways agents can boost productivity by adopting Salesforce CTI.
1. Screen Pops Key Caller’s Information in Salesforce for Incoming Calls
The Salesforce CTI Integration brings down call handle times by equipping agents with all the context to resolve calls faster. Screen pops, displayed automatically on the agent’s screen, offer contextual information to the agent even before they connect with the customer. This enables agents to pick up data stored in the CRM, providing them complete & quick access to customer information beforehand, thus playing a pivotal role in resolving calls the first time around.
| 💡Also Read |Salesforce CTI Integration: Improving Productivity, Performance, and Customer Experience |
2. Enable Agents to Handle Calls without Switching Screens
With Salesforce CTI Integration, one can embed the standards as well as advanced call controls like Call Answer, Hold, Retrieve, Consult, Transfer, Conference, etc from the telephony system into the Salesforce environment (inside the CTI interface). This provides agents with a unified interface to handle customer interactions within the Salesforce screen. Thus, helping agents reduce manual work and eliminating multiple screen switches.
3. Eliminates the Need to Manually Update Wrap-Ups Across Applications Manually
Most customer care conversations or messaging sessions require completing follow-up work, such as sending an email, updating a case, or wrapping up your notes. Agents do these actions manually, keeping them engaged in wrap-up activities. With Salesforce CTI, it’s possible to unify such wrap-up activities so that agents do not need to manually update wrap-up codes or other post-call actions on multiple systems. The customizable interface, provided by an efficient CTI integration, enables customizing wrap-up activities for agents and helps improve productivity.
| 💡Also Read |5 Reasons To Unify Your CRM and Phone Systems |
4. Automates the Call Logging Process for Agents
Equipping agents with the latest technology and tools significantly minimizes manual labor and lets them concentrate on what matters the most, i.e., resolving queries faster while delivering a better CX. Effective Computer Telephony Integration saves agents time by manually updating interaction details on multiple systems. For example, automated call logging ( enabled in Salesforce) enables logging interaction details automatically as soon as a call ends. A complete log history for an interaction can be created, which can later be referred to for understanding the caller’s previous interaction history.
5. Improves Agent Productivity by Automating Workflows
The Average Handle Time of the interaction also includes the time an agent spends on post-wrap-up activities like adding notes, saving interaction details, etc. Reducing this time and simplifying the process helps significantly improve agent productivity. Salesforce CTI make it possible to integrate multiple-connected workflows for agents to automate their tasks. For example, a new record page is opened automatically as soon as the agent receives a call from a new customer. Integrating telephony and CRM workflows equips agents with the right capabilities to resolve calls more efficiently.
Wrapping up
As businesses play catch up with their customers to make up for the time lost during the pandemic, telephony integration becomes almost a necessity. Apart from giving your agents more time to focus on customer interactions, it significantly brings down call handle time. Agent productivity and better revenue realization, thus flows as a result.
Make your agents work smarter and not challenging with Salesforce CTI integration!
