Good customer experience can help set you apart from competitors. When interacting with a company, customers expect personalised communications with fast and consistent responses to queries. This could be through email, self-managing an online account or speaking to a customer support team. Many businesses struggle to provide this level of service as they are operating from multiple systems with data stored in more than one location.
Why disconnected systems create problems
Many businesses have multiple systems and platforms that are regularly used by their employees, this could include CRM system, finance platform, email tools, project management tools and document storage. While these all have their uses, in many cases these systems are not communicating with each other which means staff are having to manually transfer data between them which can cause inconsistencies, errors and delays as well as duplicating time spent.
Customers don’t see these different systems, they view interactions with your company as one, even though they might be communicating with different teams. This is where system integration can help you to get ahead. By reviewing, streamlining and connecting your different applications, platforms and data sources you create a unified view of your customers and can save valuable staff time while delivering a seamless experience.
How integration improves the customer journey
Integrated systems create a single flow of information across the organisation. For example, a customer makes an enquiry on your website which automatically generates a lead on your CRM system, this triggers the sales process and once a sale is made, ongoing support can begin. Each team across your business has access to the same information without requiring the customer to repeat themselves.
Getting started with integration improvements
The goal isn’t to transform everything at once. You can make significant improvements your customer experience with integration with just a few easy steps.
We recommend beginning by mapping your customer journey. This will allow you to identify where multiple systems are being used and will highlight manual and repetitive processes carried out by your team. You will then be able to prioritise changes that impact on customer experience.
Improvements to customer experience include:
- More accurate information allowing your team to provide a more personalised service
- Faster responses to customer queries as alerts can be triggered to notify support teams to make contact
- Consistent communication as your teams can see how a customer has interacted with staff from other teams
- Smoother transitions between departments for example the after sales support team can see the sales process.
Working together
At Active Informatics, we specialise in innovative IT solutions that help businesses achieve their goals. If you’d like to discuss ways you can connect your systems to improve the flow of information across departments and customer touchpoints, contact our team for a free, no obligation discussion.