Where does the agent application end, and the CRM begin?
This question seems pretty straightforward: The agent application is where I login to the ACD, set my availability, and manage the calls - simple. I can access reports about agents, calls, and call center metrics. And the CRM is where I find information about callers and customers, and our interactions with them; I also update and create records in the CRM. I can access reports about customers, orders, tickets, etc. Fair enough.
Well, what about dispositions? For those unfamiliar, a disposition is a small record about what the outcome of the call was, or what the caller’s disposition was. It’s commonly used by inside sales teams to classify the prospects according to their interest level. But it’s also used by inbound call centers for a lot of other purposes: reason for call, which marketing campaign, self reported resolution metrics, etc.
The real question is where should the disposition live? In the call center system or the CRM? The answer depends on the type and purpose of the disposition, and the kind of reporting you need to run against it.
For customer-centric dispositions and sales oriented calls, then it is most helpful to have the disposition in the CRM. In these cases it’s handy to integrate this to the call flow, such that the CRM disposition screen is popped at the end of the call in conjunction with an automatic ACW (After Call Work) state for the agent.
For agent-centric dispositions, such as resolution or reason for call, then it may be more helpful to have the disposition in the ACD. This way you can easily run call reports with the disposition as well.
The all-encompassing answer is to run it either way and have reporting in both places. More sophisticated (and wealthier) call centers are able to do this utilizing third party business intelligence applications. If I had to choose, I would lean toward the CRM disposition. It should always be about the customer.
Please use comments to let me know your thoughts. Next time I’ll dissect call and promise reminders along the same vein.
