6 Benefits of Using Vtiger’s Telephony Integration
Jake was on the road when he received a call from his manager to reach out to an old customer. The customer seemed interested in the new product that Jake’s company was launching. On the road, with no WIFI and low mobile signals, he had to rely on his colleagues in the office for details regarding the customer, especially the history of the deals made earlier. Even when he reached a motel with WIFI, he was still scrambling around for information, coordinating with his colleagues from multiple teams for updates. Jake’s company Kitchen Tech made kitchen equipment for restaurants, cafes, and caterers. And they relied on a basic CRM and numerous other tools to manage their data.
Does this story sound familiar? Wouldn’t you want to use a CRM that actually helped take care of the above issues? A one-stop solution, where customer data would be available on a single screen and would have also allowed you to connect with the customer? Stay till the end to know how Jake could have escaped all this chaos!
Long gone are the days of ‘telephones’ where the ‘telephone operator’ would take your request and plug your call to the person and/or the number you wanted to speak with. Today, our telephones are integrated with computers enabling us to handle inbound and outbound calls directly from your desktop – all due to a technology called Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI). CTI enables you to make/receive calls, log calls, identify callers, record transcripts of calls, transfer calls, etc. It has advanced to include other devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. And it is also referred to as Telephony Integration.
Telephony Integration and CRM With many software applications integrating with telephony, how can CRM software be left behind? Your telephone systems can now be connected to the CRM software on your computer. Your employees, including sales and customer support teams, can place and receive calls directly from CRM screens either with other employees or with customers. CRMs today also facilitate the integration of multiple telephony systems with the CRM. They give you features such as call logs, caller identification, call transfer, pre-recorded messages, call recording, availability of historical data of the customer, notes, etc. They are also able to provide customer data from multiple apps on the CRM screens. Quite handy for sales and customer support teams!
Point to note: Despite these advantages, many companies still shy away from adopting technology, preferring to rely on old-fashioned phone systems, manual entry of data, etc. Especially small and mid-sized companies.
Telephony Integration in Vtiger CRM
Telephony is one of many channels of communication in Vtiger along with Email, Web, Chat, Social Media, Document, SMS, and WhatsApp. Vtiger CRM’s Telephony Integration module is designed to enhance customer experience by helping you manage your calls directly from the CRM interface. Multiple features in the module are geared to reduce costs, increase employee productivity, provide a single source of information…in effect, they help you achieve your business objectives.Features of Telephony Integration in Vtiger CRM
- Click to call – Manage your inbound and outbound calls with a simple click-to-call feature
- Incoming call popup – Display customer information
- Built-in dialer – Use the dialer to call your contacts
- Call logs – Use call log records to know the call history with the customer and gain call insights
- Call recording – Record your calls and use them to enhance customer service by gathering customer-sentiments
- Call transfer – Ensure you don’t miss customer calls
- Calculus, Vtiger’s AI/ML feature – Action-items from call transcripts can now be automatically derived through AI. Our AI/ML feature, Calculus, sends an email to sales reps after a call with action items.
- Integration with multiple telephony service providers
- Obtain a 360-degree view of contact data on a single platform.
- Record notes during or after a call.
- Record and review call transcripts.
- Gather customer-sentiments from call transcripts.
- Generate reports and analytics on call metrics.
- Use insights from call transcripts for training and coaching sales and customer support teams. For example, did the sales rep handle objections well? Was he able to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the customer?
Benefits of using Vtiger’s Integrated Telephony feature
Your business can reap multiple benefits when you integrate your CRM with telephone systems or services. When you put these features into use, your sales team spends less time researching the contact; your support team will be able to resolve customer issues quickly. So what are the benefits of using Vtiger’s Telephony Integration feature?1. Increase in the volume of calls With the click-to-call and built-in dialer features: Your sales team can reach out to more leads and contacts. Your support team will handle more customer calls and resolve more issues. With a wider reach and a faster response, it is guaranteed that your customer base will increase exponentially.
2. Increased quality of calls – meaningful conversations To enhance the quality of interaction with a customer, all communications should be logged. This helps you to have meaningful conversations in the future with that contact. Call transcripts and notes that you can take during or after a call help to keep a record of your discussion. Sales reps and customer support agents can review these records for historical data. Coaches, trainers, and managers can review these records and guide or train your teams to aim for better interactions.
3. Increased productivity – enhanced customer engagement Features like Call Transfer, Caller Identification, and Missed Calls help your teams provide a faster response. The CRM transfers incoming calls to agents based on agent availability and displays caller details enabling agents to plan responses. Worried about missed calls? Don’t be. Setting up answering messages for calls received during non-business hours, including holidays, ensure you don’t miss out on important calls and provide a quality service. You can also set up reminders to call the customer back.
4. Improved sales and conversion rates Context is king, right? A contact record provides customer interactions, deal-related details, issues, and any notes you might have made about the customer are available on a contact record itself. You can also listen to call recordings to see if you have missed important points. So the next time you speak to a customer, you will have all the information at your fingertips. You will not only make informed decisions; you will be well on your way to building a great relationship.
5. Insights into productivity Generate reports and gain insights on productivity. Call logs help you by storing data on the number of calls, missed calls, call duration, the time spent by agents’ on calls, etc. It will help you streamline your customer out-reach processes and optimize the efficiency of your teams.
6. Lower infrastructure costs – easy on scalability Traditional telephony comes with a sizable infrastructure cost and increases when you want to scale up. When you integrate your CRM with your telephone systems, you can scale up without re-investing in infrastructure, even when you add people to your workforce. And there is almost zero maintenance cost.
Did you know? You can now connect to Vtiger CRM with your existing phone system. Vtiger provides integration with the following telephony service providers: Twilio, Plivo, Asterisk, Exotel, VICIdial, Telzio, Clickatell, Knowlarity Duocom. To know more about telephony integration with these service providers, click here.
Let us go back to Jake’s case. Many of the issues we mentioned could have been averted if Kitchen Tech had invested in a CRM that supported integrations with third-party applications. This is how:
- All the data, including historical deal data and customer issues, would have been available on the CRM screen through the contact record.
- Consolidated information from different apps would have been available in a single place.
- Jake would not have had to rely on his co-workers for information, thereby saving time and effort and avoiding confusion.
- With readily available data, he could have made informed decisions.
- And most importantly, the CRM would have allowed multiple channels of communication with customers like a call, SMS, or WhatsApp message.
- Jake could have made a call and initiated a conversation with the customer directly from the CRM without worrying about losing out on a deal.
We recommend that you take a look at Vtiger’s Telephony Integration module. Vtiger CRM is used by thousands of returning customers from the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) segment. And they have all benefited from it. Why don’t you take Vtiger CRM for a test drive? Sign up for the trial version today!