Overview

Communication center is a page that brings together customer information and customer care functions, allowing agents to efficiently provide support.

Major features

• Manage all customer calls and requests through a single screen.

• Use Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) tools to manage incoming calls in CRM.COM through Asterisk (an open source PBX) or any third-party telephony system.

Setting Up Communication Center

Communication center definition

Communication center definitions define business rules that are used to control the behavior of the communication center and the information it displays.  There can only be one active definition at a time.

Definition fields

The table describes the sections of Communication Center Definitions Data Entry page and explains how the fields in the page are used.

 Mandatory   Configurable

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Using Communication Center

The communication center can be used to: 

• Make outbound or receive inbound calls with CTI.
• Load customer or lead information by using search options.
• Update contact details.
• Perform a number of financial and customer care actions.

Searching for customers in the communication center

Contact information can be searched and retrieved using 'Quick Search', 'Advanced Search' or 'Communications'.  

Quick Search

Supply a field to search, a possible value and an operator to determine how the value must match the results.  

For example, if 'Phone Number' was selected as a field, provide a number in 'Type to Search'.

• '=': An exact match is required 

• 'Like': Use a % sign before or after the search text, or just type the first letters of the word (without a '%').

Available fields and default operators are defined in the active communication center definition.

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Advanced Search

'Advanced Search' uses a combination of fields and returns a result set consisting of contact information that meets all the search criteria.  Available search fields are enabled through the active communication center definition. 

Communications

'Communications' can be used to retrieve a contact for which a recent communication was logged. The maximum number of retrieved communications is defined in the communication center definition (If 'None' is defined then all of the communications are retrieved).

• 1. Click on the Communications button in the Top menu bar to retrieve all communications created by the logged in user, in a chronological order starting from the most recent.

  2. Select a communication to load its associated contact information.
     
     

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Managing customer requests through the communication center

Action Panel

Customer requests can be managed through the communication center.  The Action panel provides access to actions (defined in the active communication center definition) that are commonly used to complete customer requests.

If a customer has not been selected yet, only actions for creating a new contact information ('Person' or 'Company') or for retrieving the secret number of a voucher will be available.

Instructions on using each action can be found at the following links:

1. Log Person Information
2. Log Company Information
3. Create New Accounts Receivable
4. Become Subscriber
5. Pay a Bill
6. Use Voucher
7. Retrieve Voucher Secret Number
8. Schedule an Activity
9. Plan a Job
10. Create a Communication
11. Raise a Service Request
12. Take a Lead 

Contact Information

Provides the contact details of the customer from the contact information Data Entry page.  Click on ADD MORE INFORMATION to access the page and modify information. 

Subscriptions

Displays the selected customer's subscriptions.  Select a subscription from the list and click on MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION to access the subscription Data Entry page and modify the subscription. 

Financials

Displays a list of the accounts receivable of the customer.  Select an account from the list and click on MANAGE ACCOUNT to access the accounts receivable Data Entry screen and modify the account. 

Jobs

Provides information on all jobs created for the customer (completed and not completed).  Click on a job number to access its Data Entry page and view more details, modify or complete it.

Service Requests

Provides information on all service requests created for the customer (completed and not completed).  Click on a service request number to access its Data Entry page and view more details, modify or complete it.

Customer Management

Provides information on customer care modules that were created for the selected customer, including Activities, Communications, Notifications, Leads. Click on the number of the item you are interested in to view more information or modify it.

Rewards

Provides a list of rewards participants associated with the selected customer.

Click on MANAGE REWARDS PARTICIPANT to access the Data Entry page and modify the participant's information.

Click on VIEW PARTICIPANT HISTORY for detailed information related to rewards.

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Using Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)

Communication center can be integrated with a telephony system to manage incoming calls through the center's interface.

When a call agent logs into CRM.COM, the CTI utility matches the phone's extension with the device of the agent  and starts monitoring the calls. The call agent answers incoming calls through CRM.COM and as the incoming phone number is matched with CRM.COM registered customers, the caller's information is loaded in the communication center screen.

It is possible to integrate with the following computer telephony systems:

• Asterisk - CRM.COM 
• Any other 3rd party telephony system - CRM.COM (through the 'Event Listener'), provided that the CRM.COM WEB API can be called from the telephony system to notify CRM.COM of incoming calls. 

Logging in and out

Users must log into the CTI though the communication center:

1. Navigate to Communication Center.
2. Click on the telephone icon available on the left-hand side of the Top menu toolbar to log in.  
   
   1. The icon   indicates that you have logged in and can receive calls.
3. Click on the icon again to log out.

Receiving an incoming call

1. When an inbound call is received by an agent logged in the CTI utility, the contact information of registered customers is loaded on the communication center screen.  If the number is associated with more than one contact, then a modal window opens with a list of contacts that have that same number.

2. The phone must be answered and terminated from the telephone system application.

    

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Communication Center Business Examples