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Productivity

Nov 02
0
cti, telephony, people on phones, headsets

What is Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)?

By | Customer Experience, Productivity, Technology

CTI stands for Computer Telephony Integration. In essence, it is any technology that allows computers to interact with a phone system, moving control of the telephony platform to a computerised environment. Often this is achieved by taking advantage of cloud technology as opposed to using a more traditional hardware approach such as an on-premise PBX.

You may have already used CTI – directly or indirectly, for example:

  • The on-screen notification you see when a call is coming in? – CTI
  • When you call the bank and you reach the right person that you need to speak to. – CTI
  • When the agent that you’re speaking to knows loads of information about you (once you pass the screening test!) – CTI

There are a whole host of benefits for successful CTI adoption for businesses and users alike. One of the biggest advantages is that it brings together CRM and communications data.

With a CTI solution, your business can:

  • Provide better customer experience with functionality such as inbound screen pops, allowing you to forward/direct the call appropriately.
  • Have personalised, smarter conversations using CRM driven screen pops that offer detailed information about a caller, including historic interactions.
  • Improve employee performance through measurable KPIs relating to call records and stats accessed through CRM dashboards.

Although the T in ‘CTI’ stands for telephony, the very best CTI providers always include an integration with a CRM system. For a CTI implementation to be successful, you need to make sure that it is connected to the system where your data is stored and that your whole communications project encompasses as many of your business-critical communications channels as possible.

By placing your data and communication channels tightly together, you provide your teams with a unified view of a customer. Your agents can see all interactions with a specific caller, no matter the medium where those interactions took place. For example, if a customer is calling in to talk about an email they received, your agent can see the email in the CRM and offer a personalised experience. The same applies with all forms of communication such as text, instant messaging and social media messages.

Companies that adopt CTI successfully can expect cost savings, productivity gains and customer satisfaction improvements. However, equally important are the CTI adoption benefits that are less obvious: collaboration across parties, assistance in performance management and having more time and resources to focus on growing your business.

A good CTI solution will help you identify opportunities, specifically for your business. Productivity gains as a standalone promise isn’t good enough, you must get specific. CTI without a CRM integration is only half the story and you only gain half of the advantages.

Get your CTI solution right by talking to potential vendors about their CRM integration capability. Seek testimonials from businesses that have successfully adopted CTI and have an outcome similar to your goals. Ultimately, you need to make sure that your chosen CTI solution can work towards your goals.

Aug 07
3

5 Ways to Lower Ramp Time for New Hires

By | Management, Productivity, Training

Very frequently in businesses, management sees significant periods of time in which new hires are not yet contributing to sales, internal culture, and the overall success of the company. In many cases, it can take eight months for a newly hired employee to reach full productivity.  One of the best ways to have new employees become successful, is to have a great on-boarding process.

Within a Sales team, your phone system can play a large role in lowering the ramp time for new hires. Why not utilize the tool already embedded in the day to day of your business to train and motivate new hires? Below are 5 tips on how you can lower ramp time and on-boarding for new hires:

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Mar 17
0

7 Ways to Combat the Slow Start and Early Finish Every Week – Part 2

By | Productivity, Sales

Part 2 explores some more ways in which businesses can combat the slow start and early finish to the week. Last week, we looked at how to track and analyze activities and select pre-defined activities for Monday morning and Friday afternoon, which can get all team members involved and help to revitalize low energy periods. Today, we look at how to keep the team motivated by setting goals and how to use rewards and treats to recognize the hard work that they put in during periods of ‘slump’.

Team Work Productivity Slump CloudCall

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Mar 10
0

7 Ways to Combat the Slow Start and Early Finish Every Week – Part 1

By | Productivity, Sales

A study by Accountemps has shown that Tuesday is the most productive day of the week. It also highlights that Monday morning and Friday afternoon tend to be the least productive with only 3% respondents agreeing that Fridays were the most productive days in their offices. As Head of Sales at SYNETY, this has also been my observation – an otherwise great week’s work from the team is usually marred by Monday morning and Friday afternoon blues. We believe that every business, to some degree, falls foul of these low energy periods.

Combat Productivity Slumps Part 1

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Mar 03
0

[Infographic] 4 Reasons to Switch from PBX to CTI

By | Productivity, Technology

Do you use a CRM system to manage information related to customers and prospects? Does your sales team use the phone extensively to connect to prospects while storing data in CRM? Is your customer services team optimised to handle a large amount of inbound calls? If you answered yes to at least two of those questions, it may be time to consider a switch from a traditional business phone system (PBX) to computer telephony integration (CTI).

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Feb 12
0

Recruiters – What to Look for in a CRM and Telephony Integration

By | Productivity, Recruitment

Recruitment consultants spend a significant amount of time making calls to prospective candidates and clients whilst working on storing these interactions into their CRM. It is clear that these two disparate systems need to be connected for recruiters to work more efficiently and be able to place candidates more successfully. To bridge this gap between your phone and your CRM system, a good starting point is investigating CRM-telephony integration.

Recruiter CRM Telephone Integration

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Feb 04
0

Why Digital Disruption is Good for Recruiters

By | Communications, Productivity, Recruitment

For most of us, the word ‘disruption’ has negative connotations associated with – generally unwanted or unplanned – disturbance to an activity or process. This is, however, untrue for digital disruption which is truly transforming various industries – for the better. Take the Recruitment industry, for example. Digital disruption is helping recruiters become more productive, freeing up their time to attract and connect with more candidates and clients.

Recruitment Digital Disruption CloudCall SYNETY

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Nov 25
0

How Technology is Shaping the Future of Telephony

By | Communications, Productivity, Technology

At one point in time, the humble telephone was used by businesses simply to make calls – pick up the phone, dial a number and speak to the customer. But with advances in technology, they can now do so much more. Modern telephony helps to combine the best of both the worlds – the humble telephone meets technology. Computer-telephony integrations bridge the gap between your telephone system and your data helping businesses handle calls better, drive productivity and improve customer satisfaction.

Local Presence Blog post Image

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Nov 19
0

The Perfect CRM – Our Thanksgiving Recipe

By | Productivity, Technology

Technology has heavily influenced sales and marketing strategy. We have come a long way from the days of using spreadsheets, Filofax and fax machines, and even phones, as part of the sales process. These days, it’s all about using one, single technology solution that covers all key business activities. There are a number of software tools or platforms available for boosting a business’s productivity.

Infographic Perfect CRM Recipe

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