Excellent communication is vital to the success of any company. Equally important is being able to adopt new technologies as needed to meet ever-changing customer expectations. Unfortunately, these two critical components to running a business can sometimes clash and cause friction. Instead of communicating with colleagues, it’s easy to become entrenched behind a computer screen, with each department siloed off in a technology system custom built for their unique needs.
But, what if these systems could do the required communicating with minimal effort? Thanks to the evolution of software over the past decade, integrations have become more commonplace and can help substantially in bridging the communication gap. This is especially true for customer service teams who need to speak to multiple departments to do their job effectively. Here are a few ways software integrations can improve customer service and overall business communication…
Integrations can eliminate redundant conversations – We’ve all had those days when we’re bogged down answering simple questions over email. Or afternoons where we need to “sit in” on back-to-back pointless meetings where nothing is accomplished. Get rid of these redundant conversations with integrations and get back to helping customers! By sharing information between systems with SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) integrations, there’s less of a need for redundant communication when the software now has most of the answers.
Integrations reduce human error with customer information – Data conversion and transfer projects can be the bane of any department. Instead of hiring an intern over the summer for extensive data entry that won’t even be accurate when they’re done, establish an integration between the software systems. If you take the time to evaluate software integrations and find one that is bi-directional, both systems will be updated in essentially real-time with the correct information. This is great for customer service teams as they always have the right information at their fingertips, even if it’s from other departments, so they can respond to customers faster than ever before.
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Foster a better inter-departmental working relationship – It’s still amazing how many businesses have their departments working in silos where one team has no idea what other teams are working on. Integrations help tremendously here with sharing information and do a great job in reducing the amount of finger-pointing between departments when things don’t go right. A standard “I didn’t know” response is no longer a valid answer, and this accountability means teams must work together more efficiently to grow the company and keep customers happy.
Integrations help single point of contact customer relationships – We’ve all seen a complex customer issue come in only to have conflicting resolutions from different employees reach the customer. Integrations with customer service software are crucial here in helping employees communicate between systems to resolve customer issues. By discussing internally on the backend within software, you can get your ducks in a row before a familiar customer service agent reaches out with the correct response. In addition, it’s easy for everyone involved to see how the customer responds to your proposed solution, and you’ll have a log of the resolution on file should a similar issue arise in the future.
Establishing integrations prepares a business for future growth – Simply put, the sooner you get integrations in place between systems and departments, the faster you’ll have a better view of the entire customer relationship. This helps businesses immediately, but it can also be crucial in making a company expansion effort successful. It lets you get the new employees up to speed quickly with your current customer base so their skills can be utilized to impress them. Blending the new company in right away is important to be prepared for an unexpected boom in customer growth.
To conclude, software integrations improve customer service and business communication in two ways – by changing how employees speak to each other and by making sure each interaction is more focused on the customer. Integrations can reduce unnecessary internal communication and let your customer service team be more timely and thorough with responses. They can also reduce human error, facilitate more digital conversations (where information isn’t lost), and be vital to the success of new employees. Launching software integrations can take time and a little training, but once they are fully operational it’s hard to argue against the positive changes they will have within your business.
