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Simple to set up. Easy to use. Powerful integrations.
Get free accessCRMs have become a staple of small businesses. A computer telephony integration (CTI) offers your company more functions and capabilities than a simple, on-site customer relationship management system (CRM). Any organization that experiences a high volume of incoming phone calls or whose sales and support teams make lots of outbound calls will improve efficiency dramatically with the addition of a CTI integration in Salesforce.
Read on to learn more about what a CTI integration in Salesforce is and how to leverage it to get the maximum potential from your support and sales teams, and learn about the advantages for your operations department.
What Is a CTI Integration for Salesforce?
Salesforce, a company founded for the express purpose of providing SaaS services, developed a CRM platform that enables marketing, sales, eCommerce, and support teams to work as a single unit. As a cloud-based service, teams can work from any location and still access and share notes and customer data.
Salesforce is a leading CRM, and a Salesforce open CTI is a term that refers to technology that enables Salesforce CRM software to interact with telephones. With the goal of improving productivity, a CTI integration is primarily used in call centers or contact centers.
A Salesforce CTI integration provides an essential link between modern phone systems (including virtual phone systems) and computer systems. It’s a valuable tool that enables sales and support teams to make and receive phone calls using a desktop, laptop, or mobile phone.
Third-party CTI systems work much the same way for incoming and outbound calls. For example, as calls come in, a screen pop automatically displays the caller’s contact details, call history, call recordings, and notes. Sales and support agents also get a screen pop when making outbound calls so they have all the customer information in front of them before the customer ever picks up the call. On both accounts, the CRM stores all the call data in a single, centralized window that employees can access with a few simple clicks right from the dashboard.
Why Do CRM’s Have CTI Integrations?
Before the days of SaaS, CRM users needed CTI adapter programs to use telephony system features and functions. Older technology required regular maintenance, and it didn’t offer the many benefits that cloud technology does. An open CTI is a JavaScript API that allows developers to integrate third-party CTI systems. That’s a lot of technical jargon which equates to giving your company the right tools to implement a full-featured call center.
With a CTI integration for Salesforce, that’s no longer necessary. Users can open up any browser and make calls from a softphone directly in the Salesforce app. What’s more, sales and support teams can leverage a wide array of voice calling features that cloud phone systems offer. You can add any number of software integrations and everything is integrated into one system.
Benefits of a CRM Call Center Integration
Digital business tools create efficiency in the call center and provide the means to help improve the customer experience. That said, the biggest problem with utilizing several software solutions in addition to your CRM is that your sales and support teams have to log into and out of each system to get all the customer information they need to serve customers well and in a timely manner.
A CRM call center integration brings all customer data into a single source. It eliminates the time and hassle of switching between systems. With access to all the data they need in one convenient screen pop, sales and support agents only have to remember one set of login credentials, and there’s only one system to use.
That’s a massive benefit on its own, but the many benefits of CTI offer greater functionality. We’ve listed some of them here for you:
CTI integrations provide sales and support teams with all available customer information, including the customer history to inform customer conversations based on all previous interactions.
CTI integrations leverage VoIP technology which is more cost-effective than legacy business phone systems.
Call recording systems are built into cloud-based phone systems or other software apps, and employees can leverage call recordings at any time for greater insight into calls.
Sales reps and support agents can find out when calls were made, received, or missed.
CTI integrations automatically log all inbound and outbound calls directly in the CRM system and record them in the customer’s contact record.
Call center managers have access to dashboard analytics that provide useful insight into call center activity.
The Advantages of Having a Salesforce CTI Integration
While a Salesforce CTI integration offers many benefits overall, it provides distinct advantages for your sales, support, and operations teams.
We’ve provided a breakdown of the key advantages for each team for you here:
For Sales
Leverages sales automation programs to shorten the sales cycle and move leads through your sales funnel as quickly as possible.
Enables faster dialing with features like click-to-dial and power dialing.
Shortens lead response times.
Allows your company to use local phone numbers from your cloud phone service provider, reducing the problem of contacts not answering calls they suspect are spam.
Enables effective team sales as all team members can access customer information even if the customer’s designated sales rep isn’t immediately available.
Offers a detailed view of sales activity by leveraging call recording and call logging features.
Tracks KPIs such as average call duration, number of outbound calls, number of conversions, etc. KPIs help managers evaluate individual and team performance, identify opportunities for coaching and training, and provide objective data to support incentives and rewards.
For Support
Enables faster dialing with a click-to-dial feature that dials customers in one click.
Allows support agents to utilize voice calling features such as transferring calls, placing customers on hold, muting conversations, etc. directly from the Salesforce console.
Enables intelligent call routing such as an interactive voice response system (IVR) that offers self-service options for callers.
Offers an automatic call distributor (ACD) to route calls to an available agent with the right skills for faster call resolution.
Authenticates calls by comparing customer phone numbers with the contact record in the database, eliminating the pain point of customers having to repeat information multiple times.
Automates a screen pop that displays the caller information and call history to streamline workflows and assist customers quickly.
Allows support agents to pull up detailed information like call recordings, billing information, etc. to provide personalized service.
Allows managers to leverage coaching tools like call recording, call monitoring, and call whispering to evaluate individual and team performance, and set goals for improvement.
Provides the tools for support agents to deliver an omni-channel customer experience that helps to increase customer satisfaction.
For Operations
Enables better collaboration with sales and support departments in real time.
Allows them to access the customer history to gain insight into whether sales and support teams are providing quality service.
Gives them access to dashboard analytics that informs them about call center productivity and efficiency, and the impact on the customer experience.
Allows them to update sales and support teams on manufacturing and shipping dates.
Improved efficiency and productivity in your sales and support teams enables operations to meet their overall business goals.
Understanding the Differences Between VoIP Integrations
VoIP integrations open the door for small businesses to implement the newest apps with the most valuable features. With a unified communication system, users can sync information and switch between tools with ease. That is why businesses rely on something like a CTI integration in Salesforce.
Each VoIP integration, also known as an app, offers one or more functions to help improve your workflows.
The following list provides examples of useful VoIP integrations:
AI & transcription – Leverages AI to evaluate calls and transcribe them for greater insight into calls.
Data & reporting – Builds dashboards and reports to evaluate call center performance.
eCommerce – Streamlines e-Commerce workflows.
Help desk – Keeps track of customer requests and problems solved.
HR & recruiting – Streamlines workflows for recruiting and hiring employees.
Live-chat – Enables sales and support agents to chat with customers online in real time.
Productivity – Streamlines various processes to create efficient workflows.
Payments & billing – Enables secure invoicing and payment collection.
Quality assurance – Uses automation to evaluate calls to provide employees with timely feedback.
Sales automation – Sets up automated sales workflows to streamline sales processes.
Surveys – Automates surveys to gauge customer satisfaction.
SMS – Enables text messaging.
The Benefits of Aircall’s Salesforce CTI
With Aircall’s CTI integration in Salesforce, your business can turn phone conversations into data in a snap. Check out the versatility and flexibility you get with Aircall’s CTI integration inSalesforce:
Easily connect Salesforce and Aircall in one click
Get reliable call quality
View salesforce data on incoming calls
Eliminate manual data entry
Leverage advanced voice calling features
Track performance with data
Centralize and streamline workflows
Improve efficiency and productivity
Improve customer satisfaction
Personalize calls to improve the customer experience
Eliminate manual data entry
Automate reporting
With a steady rise in customer expectations, an Aircall CTI integration in Salesforce allows your call center to cut down on handling time by boosting sales and support agent performance. Your customers benefit by getting a better customer experience. That’s the key to increasing growth and revenue for your small business.
Published on May 3, 2021.
