Connectivity 'must exist between CRM and employees'

Without the full integration of customer relationship management (CRM), businesses will struggle to get the most out of it, it has been asserted.

Johan Jacobs, a Gartner CRM eServices analyst, explained to the NewsFactor Network that there is often poor integration at the routing or infrastructure level between multichannel and voice agents, undermining the direction of CRM itself.

As a result, there can be a lack of connectivity between customer interaction histories and knowledge management systems for self-service and live agent service, meaning customers can often receive inaccurate or contradictory information, as well as agents asking callers to explain what they did in self-service.

Mr Jacobs said: "If we lift the screen on some of the CRM systems' multichannel functionality out there it is actually very poor.

"There are only a few products out there that have an integrated multichannel suite to enable a true 360-degree view of the customers."

Last month, Gartner listed cloud computing services such as CRM in its top ten strategic technologies for 2010.

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