If 76% of people1 say that a consistent customer experience and high-quality customer service are key to building trust, why do so many companies fall short?
One of two things is likely happening: either the company doesn’t prioritize customer service or it doesn’t have effective customer interaction management.
If you know your customer interactions could use some improvement — or you’re already doing great and want to take it to the next level — we’ve got some helpful tips and best practices for you. Plus, we’ll share a few smart tools you can add to your tech stack to make customer interaction management much easier.
What is customer interaction management (CIM)?
Customer interaction management (CIM) combines processes and systems to manage interactions across all channels — including phone, SMS, chatbots, email, and social media.
With a well-organized CIM strategy, your customer service reps can access past interactions and respond in a more personalized way. CIM also helps you make data-driven decisions, like adjusting how support reps handle certain issues.
Understanding customer communication is challenging without the right tools. That’s why most businesses that prioritize CIM use software to automate, analyze, and streamline interactions.
Why your business needs customer interaction management
Most businesses know their customer base cares about quality customer service, but here are a few other reasons CIM matters:
Creates a better customer experience
Sometimes, customer service reps want to provide a great customer experience, but they can’t access the context they need to do so. Customers get frustrated (and rightly so) when they have to repeat themselves. The end result? Strained conversations and decreased customer satisfaction.
For example, let’s say a customer is calling to follow up on an issue with their gym membership. If the customer service rep doesn’t have any information about prior conversations, the already-frustrated customer will become even more frustrated — making it harder to find a happy resolution.
If the rep had access to contact notes or a shared inbox, they could look up information about the customer’s issue and be more prepared to offer a solution.
Improves customer loyalty and retention
Customer interactions aren’t always bad, but they’re not always memorable. Impersonal experiences can make customers feel like they’re just another number. A CIM tool helps customer service representatives personalize conversations by providing a history of past customer interactions.
For example, does the customer have kids? Or a favorite sports team? Did they recently buy additional products as a result of positive interactions? A CIM tool can track all of these things. This makes it easier to form long-term customer relationships — a common challenge for many businesses.
CIM tools also support proactive outreach, helping businesses connect with customers in meaningful ways. Since positive interactions build trust, better experiences will improve brand loyalty and customer retention.
Reduces customer churn
Zendesk data shows that 73% of customers will switch to a competitor after multiple bad experiences, and 50% will leave after just one. Since customers have plenty of options, you should use customer interaction management to make sure every experience is as good as it can be.
For instance, CIM tools help you spot recurring issues early by analyzing customer sentiment and picking up on customer frustrations. In OpenPhone, AI call tags automatically flag interactions based on set criteria so you can identify issues and proactively address them.
3 common types of customer interactions (+ best practices)
Customer service reps encounter a wide range of customer issues. Understanding common scenarios can help you identify patterns and refine your approach to handling them.
1. Potential customers with pre-sale questions
When a potential customer reaches out to your company, it’s your chance to make a strong first impression. Pre-sale questions should be answered promptly with accurate information.
Keep in mind that different customers want different levels of service. Some will want self-service options (like pricing information) so they can make a purchase decision quickly, while others may want to speak to a customer service rep.
Best practices to manage pre-sale questions:
- Maintain a knowledge base of FAQs so new customers can easily find answers.
- Use AI-powered call summaries to track common pre-sale questions.
- Personalize follow-ups based on specific pre-sale questions.
💡 Pro tip: In OpenPhone, you can use a custom contact note (e.g., “John was interested in our integrations”) to support personalized follow-ups. Don’t overlook post-purchase interactions or other parts of the customer journey either — such as using automation to send a welcome SMS or onboarding guidance.
2. Frustrated customers with complaints
Handling upset customers can be challenging, even for seasoned customer service reps. Equip your team with strategies to respond effectively.
Best practices to manage customer complaints:
- Listen actively and encourage reps to review call transcripts to ensure no details are missed.
- Acknowledge concerns and offer clear solutions (e.g., “I hear you, and here’s what we can do to fix it”).
- Implement automatic follow-ups, like an automated SMS after the issue is resolved.
💡 Pro tip: Customer complaints often reveal valuable insights about pain points or product gaps. While some negative feedback is unavoidable, reviewing customer complaints can help you find ways to improve your business.
3. Loyal customers giving praise
Positive feedback should be music to your ears — and if handled well, customer advocacy can lead to increased sales and overall business growth.
Best practices to manage customer praise:
- Don’t just say “Thanks” — ask satisfied customers to leave a review.
- Organize positive customer service interactions with call tags.
- Track your most engaged customers with OpenPhone’s call views.
💡 Pro tip: Make sure reps are prepared to direct customers to preferred review platforms like Google or Facebook. Additionally, reach out to happy customers with loyalty programs or discounts to encourage referrals.
How to choose the right customer interaction management tool for your business
Any tool you use to track customer interactions should be easy to use and integrate well with your tech stack. CIM software should give customer service reps the context they need to better manage customer interactions in the moment and give you the insights you need to improve interactions in the future.
Shared inboxes
Customer interactions are often siloed within a customer service rep’s individual account. With a shared calling and SMS inbox, teams can access customer messages from a centralized location. They can share responsibility for incoming calls and texts, ensuring customers receive a quick reply.
A shared inbox also helps customer service reps catch up on past customer interactions.
AI-powered insights
Sentiment analysis tools use AI to identify and categorize a customer’s tone. For example, sentiment analysis can detect “frustration” within a conversation, even if a customer doesn’t explicitly say, “I’m frustrated.”
In OpenPhone, call tags automatically categorize conversations by sentiment, topic (such as billing issues), or anything else you’d like to track. You can use call tags to identify the volume of phone calls with a particular sentiment or to find specific call recordings to learn more. Call recording AI tools make it easy to review call summaries and transcripts.
Seamless integrations
Not only can customer service interactions be siloed by rep, but they can also be siloed between tools. You want customer interaction management software to integrate with your existing tech stack — creating a seamless customer data transfer.
OpenPhone has native CRM integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce. You can also connect with 7,000+ other apps using Zapier or Make. With these integrations, you can automate workflows like follow-ups and status updates.
Need a custom integration? Check out the OpenPhone API for real-time data exchange functionality.
Call transcripts and summaries
Handwritten notes are a thing of the past since they’re not accessible to the whole customer support team (and often are illegible).
You can get instant call transcripts in OpenPhone for better team collaboration. AI call summaries let your team quickly catch up on past conversations without listening to the entire conversation or reading the full transcript.
Conner Schryver, Founder of Bookkeep & Prosper, says, “The AI summary feature is a huge bonus for us because I can take that or the transcript itself right off the history, share it with my team, and use it to create tasks. It’s the best feature they have.”
Contact notes
Little nuggets of information help your team personalize conversations when talking to customers. In OpenPhone, you can create custom properties on contact cards to add notes. This information is visible to everyone in your workspace.
You can also use AI-generated contact suggestions to stay organized and save time. OpenPhone will automatically keep your contact list up-to-date by suggesting missing contacts based on your voicemails and call transcripts.
Level up your CIM game with OpenPhone
When was the last time you listened to a call with a customer? Go check out a handful of recent call recordings — see if they’re as you expected or if you can spot ways to make customer interactions better. This exercise is one of the first steps toward effective customer interaction management.
You can then compare your reaction to the call (like noting a customer’s frustration) to OpenPhone’s AI call tags and look for patterns. With these valuable insights, you can find ways to address any issues you uncover and improve the overall customer experience.
Sign up for a free trial and see how OpenPhone can make your customer interaction management easier.
FAQs
Cloud CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) focus on managing customer relationships and sales pipelines, while CIM (Customer Interaction Management) is designed to track and improve customer interactions and boost customer engagement across multiple communication channels.
Small businesses can improve CIM by using automation tools, centralizing customer data, and training support reps to deliver consistent, personalized communication that’s in line with customer expectations.
CIM applies to any business that interacts with customers across channels like email, social media, chat, and phone — not just call centers. It helps you understand customer needs and gaps in service across touchpoints.
Start by centralizing customer interactions and customer feedback in one platform, then use automation to streamline responses and regularly review data to improve communication strategies.
1 PwC. Voice of the Consumer Survey. 2024
