CTI

Computer Telephony Integration is a method of connecting your call centre telephone system to your computer (or computer systems) that enables a world of opportunities to improve the customer experience and efficiency in your call centre.

Uses for Computer Telephony Integration technology

Most commonly, CTI technology is an enabler in the call centre for two primary functions:

1. CTI enabled Call Routing

If you are storing customer phone numbers in your CRM tool, your ACD will be able to understand which customer is calling.

This enables you to determine the appropriate Call Routing strategy to apply.

For example:

• Ensure that all VIP customer calls are answered ahead of everyone else.
• Connect the customer to the previous agent they spoke to (subject to them being available).
• Route the customer to a product support group if they had just purchased a product

CTI technology really is a powerful enabler to use call routing to offer a personalised service for your customers.

2. CTI enabled Screen Pop

Screen Pop enables information about the customer to appear on the screen as the call comes through so agents can have information such as the customer’s name, address, location as well as things like previous orders, complaints history etc.

This can save considerable time (studies suggest agents with no CTI spend approximately 6% of their call handle time bringing up a customer’s information and 10% flicking through screens to arm themselves with information about the call) and naturally a better customer experience as it can save them having to repeat information, identify themselves etc and just get straight into the nature of the call.

Benefits of Computer Telephony Integration

Just using the two examples above its easy to see how CTI technology can be of use to the contact centre environment. But for the record, common benefits of Computer Telephony Integration are:

• A better customer experience – Contact centre agents can be immediately armed with the right information to help the customer saving them time and the need to repeat information. You can also identify VIP customers and provide them with priority over other callers delivering a much better customer experience for your high-value customers.
• Reduced costs – A key benefit on implementing CTI technology is a reduction in Average Handling Time which has a direct correlation on reduced operating costs for a contact centre. Some studies have shown by having CTI can reduce AHT by 30% – a significant saving.
• Improved data capture – Using CTI you can capture information about all the customer touchpoints with your organisation enabling intelligent analysis and decision making.
• Increased revenue – Arming the contact centre agent with the right information can lead to increased revenue, e.g. “While I’ve got you today, I can see you last ordered <enter product> over six months ago so  you must be getting close to running out! Would you like me to organise another delivery for you today?”.

Basically, no modern contact centre should be without it!

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