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CRMs are the main workspace for contact center power users.
In fact, a typical sales rep spends 18% of their work time in a CRM system, with almost 63% of their time spent in sales technology as a whole.
However, it’s well known that sales teams hate administrative work, manual data handling, and having to navigate multiple pieces of controlling software.
The good news is that CRMs are evolving to be a single application that unites lead generation, prospecting, direct sales, and cross-sell/up-sell efforts.
As a result, more and more businesses are integrating the communication features of omnichannel contact and call center software (such as VoIP and messaging) with their CRM system. And this is the way to use CCaaS – Contact Center as a Service.
What does CRM integration actually mean?
It’s a good question with multiple answers, as there are different ways a CCaaS platform can connect to a CRM system. For businesses that invest in building a cloud contact center, it’s critical to understand which integration features are key in supporting your business processes.
Let’s look at the five most common integration features:
- Click-to-call integration. The simplest and most common integration feature enables you to call any contact or receive calls from a website, by clicking a single button within the CRM workspace.
- Dialer integration (calling list import). A useful feature for teams that use tools like Voiso AI Predictive Dialer to reach large numbers of contacts quickly for lead prospecting, mass recruitment, or customer research. Dialer integration enables contact center supervisors to import contact lists right from the CRM database to start dialer campaigns.
- Screen pop/CTI. This feature enables CRM users to open a softphone window and dial any number they choose at the click of a button.
- Call detail APIs. A set of features that enable users to transfer Call Detailed Records (CDRs) and call outcome records automatically into a CRM system to enrich customer profiles.
- SMS/messaging APIs. A set of features that enable salespeople and agents to send and receive SMS and other messages from their CRM workspace.
Overall, the integration features that are right for you depend on your business processes; for example, a small support team might only need a click-to-call feature. At the same time, complex up-sell algorithms might involve sending messages through multiple channels or require dialer integration.
Native integration vs Zapier integration
Typically, contact center software providers build a few deep native integrations with major CRMs like Salesforce, Zoho, or Hubspot. In our experience, native integrations typically offer more features and generally have fewer bugs, because a dedicated team of engineers designed them for a specific CRM.
However, for less common CRMs, contact center providers create integrations through API services like Zapier. In theory, these integrations should be as good as their native counterparts, but the reality is that different CRMs may have completely different API standards. For example, Hubspot’s click-to-call API requires a different input format than Zoho. On top of that, CRM systems may not support all features through Zapier.
Which integrations are supported by Voiso?
We’ve worked hard to create well-developed native integrations with Salesforce, Zoho, and 15 other CRMs (to date) – and support the top five categories of features for most of them.
Want to know more about Voiso-Zoho integration? Here’s how Karma Hotels sales department grew its call center from 15 to 100+ employees with the help of Voiso’s Zoho integration.
Karma Hotels is an award-winning international chain of luxury resorts with significantly high sales demands, with Facebook lead generation and a large volume of outbound sales campaigns.
We have smoothed our entire business process by integrating systems with the Voiso platform. For example, Facebook-generated leads drop into Zoho and are made available to Voiso, and the call outcome is then communicated back to Zoho.
David M. Shecker, Karma hotels COO
