This guest post was written by our friends over at Faye, one of Ultimate’s valued partners.
Integrations can have a huge impact on the quality of customer support you’re able to deliver. By bringing together data from different systems — like CRM systems, customer experience platforms, and conversational AI and chatbot software — you can create new opportunities for collaboration and efficiency that go beyond what any single system can achieve on its own.
Think of your favorite song. It probably has percussion, bass, instrumentals, and vocals. And sure, the beat sounds pretty good on its own. But play those isolated layers together, and that's when you really start to get into the groove.
With the Ultimate x Faye partnership, we’re helping companies get the most from their CS tech stack through smart integrations — because we want your customers to enjoy the music. Here are four key ways an integrated customer support software ecosystem can drive success.
1. Provide timely, personalized support
Offering personalized customer support is no longer a brand differentiator — it’s a basic expectation. In fact, over 75% of customers expect personalized customer support experiences. And if your team can’t offer this, customers will turn to your competitors.
When it comes to providing timely, personalized support, nothing beats having a 360-degree view of your customer. Here’s where integrations come in. If all of your CS software is deeply integrated, customer data is shared to one central location, giving agents a holistic overview of a customer’s entire history with your brand.
From past purchases and returns, to historical support tickets and current case details — agents need instant access to relevant information in order to understand each customer on an individual basis. This way, they can provide the truly personalized support customers expect.
2. Deliver seamless, omnichannel support
Your customers interact with you via SMS, email, social media, mobile apps, customer portals, chat, and more. No matter where they are in the world, or what device they’re using, customers want a seamless experience across all digital channels.
Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest challenges customer support teams face. It’s difficult to ensure that customers receive a consistent and positive experience regardless of the channel they use — especially if agents are working with siloed data and disconnected software.
By integrating the support tech your CS team uses every day (like your CRM system or chatbot) into a single software ecosystem, you can meet your customers where they are and provide them with an omnichannel experience that keeps them coming back.
3. Save your support team time and money
When information is siloed in different areas of your support tech stack, agents constantly have to switch between platforms to find and enter customer data. This is known as swivel chair syndrome.
Swivel chair syndrome can lead to data entry mistakes, hurts productivity, and is frustrating for agents. On top of that, it’s costing your business money. Let’s look at the following example.
Say you have 5 agents on your customer support team. They each make $17/hour and work an average of 2,080 hours per year (based on US averages). If you save each of these agents just one minute per hour, you would save $2,912 each year:
$0.28 (agent salary per minute) x 2,080 (minutes saved per year) x 5 (number of agents) = $2,912 per year.
The good news is by integrating your CS software and syncing data between tools, you can eliminate swivel chair syndrome altogether. Rather than digging through old emails or tickets to find the information they need, agents will have more time to connect with your customers.
4. Increase job satisfaction for customer support agents
Agents want to help customers resolve their issues. So it’s frustrating when they don’t have access to the tools and data they need to effectively solve queries. That’s why integrating your customer support software with other apps is key to improving job satisfaction.
An integrated tech stack empowers and supports agents to succeed in their roles. When agents have access to customer data from multiple tools within one central location, they’re not only more productive, but happier too — and your customers will feel it. Happy agents means happy customers.
Greater integration can also improve internal communication between teams. By integrating your customer support software with your marketing or billing software, you’ll create stronger relationships between agents and their colleagues outside of the CS team.
To wrap up
The bottom line is that integrating your customer support software helps your team to provide the best experience for customers, as well as driving efficiency and setting agents up for success. It’s a win-win (or a win-win-win?) — you’ll be able to save time and money, improve agent productivity and job satisfaction, and provide the support your customers deserve.