For small businesses, keeping up with customer service can be tough to juggle with all your other responsibilities. But ignoring your customer experience (CX) processes can become a long-term barrier to growth. Here’s how call center software can help.

Call center software connects your telephony system to your CRM, marketing automation platform and other tools. These connections create event-based links, giving your team members all the information they need to tailor each call to the customer.

You may be thinking that call center software is only for larger companies with robust call centers and hundreds or thousands of customer inquiries a day. But call center software can also benefit small businesses. Every touch point with a potential customer matters—which means the tools you use to support those interactions matters, too.

Do Small Businesses Need Call Center Software? (Yes)

When properly implemented, small business call center software streamlines your CX processes, allowing your team members to interact with and make informed decisions on a customer-to-customer level.small business call center software

Your team members are freed from manual tasks. They’re happy, engaged and ready to solve the customer’s problems. Customers, in turn, are delighted by excellent service every time. Customers who get great service feel valued, and they become customers for life. Some may even become brand evangelists, sending new customers your way.

That’s a formula for serious growth, all made even more possible by call center software.

Simply put: Your small business needs to retain and gain more customers if you want to grow. And call center software is the key tool used to delight the customers who accelerate that growth. But what features should you look for when deciding what call center software to implement?

Small Business Call Center Software: 4 Helpful Features

With call center software—powered by computer telephony integration (CTI)—your team members have all the information they need at their fingertips to deliver an excellent CX. Here are four helpful features that are possible with small business call center software.

#1. Screen Pop

A screen-pop automatically displays caller information on a team member’s screen when a call comes in. This alert includes any relevant caller information found in the CRM database, ensuring that team members are ready to help customers before they answer the call.

Screen-pops save time, improve call resolution and give the team member the opportunity to personalize the call and provide an even better customer experience.

As a small business, you want to be able to provide that personal touch to each customer interaction. That’s what makes small businesses stand out from their larger competition. Your customers value that special interaction. Screen pops enable your team to add that extra touch.

#2. Reporting Insights

Your technology is only as effective as the insights you can gain from it. That’s why custom reporting of call metrics is the next essential contact center software feature.

Call reporting should include crucial metrics, like call time, queue time, talk time and hold time. You should also consider tracking first call resolution and customer satisfaction ratings. Knowing these metrics will make it easier for you to make meaningful, data-driven business decisions. Access customer reports that inform your growth goals.

If your business has a growth mindset, then you need these reporting insights to make constant improvements to your CX.

#3. Recording and Voicemail

Call recordings, voice mails and call metrics should all automatically archive in your telephony system, CRM or other external system. This allows your team to listen to recordings or messages to return calls faster and more efficiently.

Managers can also go back and analyze calls for continuous improvement. There’s a record of the interaction in case more training or other operational adjustments need to be identified. All in all, this leads to more effective team members and improved customer satisfaction.

#4. Fast & Cost-Effective Implementation

The biggest barrier of call center software for small businesses is the up-front costs. These implementations can be a custom job, which means they come with a custom price tag. Not to mention it can take a long time.

But there’s an option for small businesses who want call center software.

It’s called iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service). iPaaS combines a robust core engine with prebuilt connectors for leading technologies, making it easy to integrate and configure with zero custom code—and providing you with all the features you need for a successful CX.

The benefit? Small businesses don’t have to worry about an IT lift or associated heavy cost burden with an iPaaS-based call center software solution. In fact, they can cost over 50% less with no up-front expense compared to most custom call center integrations.

The cost and time savings are a game-changer for small businesses. Powerful call center software is not out of reach.

Conclusion

So, do small businesses need call center software? The answer is yes, if you are looking for long-term growth.

Call center software isn’t just for large, enterprise organizations. With the right light-weight solution, you will benefit from these helpful features. Because every customer interaction counts, and call center software helps you make the most of it.

CDC Software gives small businesses the tools they need to deliver an excellent customer experience. Contact us to learn more.