Integrated Phone Calls – Creating a Delightful Customer Experience
You’re sitting at your computer when the phone rings.
It’s from a number that you don’t immediately recognize, so you pick up and ask, “hello?” The person on the other end greets you, and tells you that he’s John. “John… How are you?” Who was John again? It doesn’t immediately come to you, so while you exchange pleasantries you shuffle through your contact book and your notes to pre-empt him needing to explain further. Not quick enough. “How can I help you John?” John proceeds to explain that he had sent you some documents to go over – “Ah, John!” Now you remember. What do you tell him? You had reviewed the documents, but his catching you unprepared forced you to be reactive and made you take a step backward and be guided by his direction, instead of a step forward to guide the conversation. It’s an interaction that seems to exist for the sole purpose of business. The experience is, admittedly, a little stale.
Let’s try that again, this time with integrated calling in Vtiger.
You’re sitting at your computer when the phone rings.
“Ring” – A notification pops up on your screen saying that it’s John Decker, with a link to his CRM contact record. You click through to it.
“Ring” – You quickly glance over your most recent note on him. It turns out that after you last spoke he had sent you a proposal to look over. You had put together some notes on it and were going to call him in an hour, but it looks like he’s caught you first.
“Ring” – You quickly reach over to the side of your desk for the printed document you had prepared for this call, glancing at the notes on the yellow post-it on top. Then you pick up.
And you greet him with: “Hey John! Perfect timing, I was just about to call. How are you?”. The tone of John’s response is noticeably upbeat – it’s evident that you remember him. He may have initiated the call, but is it possible that you’re even more prepared for this call than he is? Your preparedness and warmth set a friendly and familiar, but professional tone for the rest of the conversation – the type that leaves a lasting positive impression. If John represents a major account, this might even set the tone for the entire budding engagement between your company and his. Preparation, after all, is frequently championed as one of the best things that you can do to positively influence perception.
The Benefits of Integrated Calling
- Immediately identify the caller, and see their CRM record and notes
- Instantly place phone calls through a company system with a single click
- Identify who is answering or placing what calls with what contacts
- Log and associate all phone calls with voice recordings, tagged to the appropriate lead / contact/ organization records
The Nitty Gritty
So with that being said – we’ve integrated phone calls into Vtiger CRM, currently with Twilio and Plivo integrated, and with Asterisk integration coming in the future. As for the features – read on!
Popup for Incoming Calls
- A notification of the incoming call pops up for all users with the “CRM Phone Extension” configured in their preferences page.
- If Vtiger can find a matching number in a Lead / Contact / Organization record, their name is displayed.
- If Vtiger can’t find a matching number, a text-box appears to input an email address to create a record.
- When a call is answered, all users who were alerted to the incoming call message are notified of who the call was answered by.
Click-to-Call for Outgoing Calls (For Plivo & Asterisk customers only)
- Click-to-call lets you to place a call by simply clicking on the phone number in the Lead / Contact / Organization / Phone Calls record in Vtiger.
Call Logging and Recording
- All incoming and outgoing calls and details are logged in the Phone Calls module. Calls are differentiated by number, time, status and direction.
- A link to the call recording can be found to the right of each call log.
- A detailed description of each call can be found in the detail view of the call.
Controls
- Administrators can restrict incoming calls or outgoing calls for specific users through the Profiles area.
These “nitty gritty” details were paraphrased from our documentation on integrated calling. To see the full document, click here.
