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Simple to set up. Easy to use. Powerful integrations.
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Simple to set up. Easy to use. Powerful integrations.
Get startedCustomer experience plays a major role in the success of your business. To deliver a good customer experience, your sales and support agents must continually build relationships with every customer interaction they have.
It feels good to have an interesting, enjoyable conversation with another person. In business, it’s a great way to get better acquainted with your customers.
But, you need to have a few things to talk about to get a conversation going. With a CRM phone integration, your sales and support agents can view many details about customers before they even utter a greeting. There’s no shortage of information for sales and support reps to use as conversation starters. During conversations, your employees can continue learning more about customers and document everything in a central place that’s accessible to other employees.
CRMs are essential tools for modern businesses. Along with a cloud-based phone system, they’re a central component of a voice ecosystem.
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Why a Voice Ecosystem is Important
A voice ecosystem is an interconnected system of digital tools that seamlessly work together with a cloud-based phone system, so that sales and support agents can leverage any tool they need from a central source.
A voice ecosystem starts with VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology and an open API (application programming interface). You may also hear this referred to as CRM CTI (CTI refers to computer telephony integration).
Simply put, a VoIP phone system enables voice calling over the internet instead of using traditional analog phone lines.
An API is a software intermediary that allows software applications to interact with each other and share information seamlessly. An open API makes a developer’s life easier, because it allows them to access various program features that they usually couldn’t without this type of interface. The interface uses a universal language or structure to allow public access across the board.
With the benefit of these two technologies in place, you have the basic infrastructure to start setting up a voice ecosystem.
First and foremost, it’s essential to set up a cloud-based phone system and then add a CRM or help desk software. A cloud phone system uses an internet connection to make and receive voice calls. Using a virtual phone system like this, you can set up your own cloud phone numbers, including toll-free and international phone numbers. Cloud-phone systems also come with lots of valuable voice calling features, more than what you can get with a traditional PBX office phone system.
A few reasons that a voice ecosystem is so important for modern small businesses:
Makes your product more robust.
Sets you apart from your competitors.
Allows you to widen your distribution channels.
Makes it harder for customers to switch brands and inspires brand loyalty.
Now, we’ll take a deeper dive into why CRMs are important for small businesses, as well as the benefits they bring, and then we’ll help you get acquainted with some valuable telephony integrations you can use in your own small business.
Understanding the Importance of CRMs for Your Business
A customer relationship management system, or CRM, is a powerful tool that quickly eliminates the pain points of accessing customer data. Because CRMs create efficiency in business, they’re a key tool for business growth. CRMs provide even greater value when you incorporate them into a voice ecosystem, because you get greater functionality and capability by linking the two.
Some of the reasons why it’s recommended to use a CRM for businesses are because it:
Enables instant collaboration across teams
Automates the processes for managing and updating customer data
Syncs data across all business tools
Automates many of the simple, mundane tasks that waste time
Gives you insight into every step of the buyer’s journey
Gives you the proper tools to align your marketing, sales, and support teams
Streamlines communication with customers and opens up multiple communication channels
Allows you to create customized workflows. For example, you can create workflows for contacts, companies, deals, quotes, tickets, etc
Allows you to create customized dashboards to evaluate metrics and KPIs using analytical reports
Helps to vastly improve the customer experience for every customer as a crucial component of your voice ecosystem
A CRM has a lot of value on its own, but it doesn’t have to be an isolated tool that limits your capabilities. When you combine your CRM with a cloud phone system, you’re opening the door to a world of new benefits and advantages.
The Benefits of a CRM Phone Integration
CRMs are a staple in most businesses. For anyone that’s ever used one, it’s hard to imagine that employees once had to write or type everything out manually and find a way to organize all the data. There was no efficient or straightforward way to transfer information gathered on a phone call and preserve it for future use. It was even harder to gauge sales representatives’ productivity.
A CRM phone system integration is a software program that allows third parties to connect a CRM with your business phone system and other software solutions, so all applications can exchange data seamlessly. CRM software is popular because it typically has a user-friendly set-up, seamless ease-of-use, and is easily scalable. The call quality is good, too. Even better, subscription-based pricing is affordable for small businesses, allowing them to adjust their spending depending on how much they need to use the service.
When using CRM phone integrations, sales and support agents can stay connected to each digital tool. CRM phone system integrations also help you evaluate the efficiency and productivity of your sales and support teams.
Let’s look at 10 specific advantages that CRM integrations bring to your business:
Provide the ability to segment target audiences
Score leads for sales teams
Automate alerts based on prospect or customer activity
Provide access to customer data across departments
Enable customized call center reporting via dashboard analytics based on real-time data
Improve internal collaboration between teams
Automate sales and support activities and data collection
Customize and improve messaging
Personalize interactions with prospects and customers
Anticipate your customers’ needs and meet them proactively
Understanding the Available Aircall VoIP Phone Integrations
Cloud-based calling software, like Aircall, offers a whole suite ofVoIP phone integrations, but how can each one of these be used to optimize sales and support performance in your business?
Let’s look at the types of tools you can incorporate into your voice ecosystem when using a modern phone system:
Apps for multiple communication channels
Sales tools
Support tools
Data and business intelligence tools
General or industry-specific CRM
Help desk software
eCommerce software
AI & transcription software
Recruiting software
Automated surveys
Quality assurance software
Productivity software
Software for secure payments and billing
The Aircall App Marketplace offers CRM system integrations with more than a dozen platforms to help you improve your business communications, no matter which software you’re using to manage customer interactions currently.
Aircall App Marketplace CRM Integrations:
amoCRM – Make and receive calls directly from the app to save time and focus on making deals.
Copper – Automatically log calls and bring up the customer’s data as soon as the phone rings.
FLG – Use click-to-call for faster dialing, leverage automatic note creation, access past call recordings, and display insight cards to bring customer details into view.
Freshsales – Access lead, contact, or deal information in a single click. It has automatic call logging and displays a pop-up window with customer details.
HubSpot – With HubSpot CTI, you get lots of unique features, including tag syncing, automated ticket creation, workflow creation, click-to-call, and insight cards.
Microsoft Dynamics – Add context to calls by displaying the caller’s history and account information. This CRM also logs calls in real time and sets triggers for lead, contact, or account creation.
noCRM.io – Log call activity, including the duration of calls and the number that was dialed. It also records calls, and sales reps can customize workflows to follow after calls.
On Pipeline –Log calls along with key details about the call, including whether it was inbound or outbound. Also, it tracks missed calls and can automatically link to persons, organizations, and open deals.
Pipedrive – Log calls and save them to individual contacts and deals. Sales reps can utilize click-to-dial and power dialing features inside the app via Aircall. It also keeps your database updated by connecting only the numbers associated with your sales process.
Salesforce – Use this CRM with a desktop, laptop, Android, or iOS phone. Eliminate manual entry with Salesforce CTI. It leverages popular features like click-to-call, IVR, insight cards, and omnichannel capability.
SugarCRM – Incoming calls automatically link to caller details in the app as soon as the phone rings.
Teamgram – Keep a record of call logs, team notes, etc. It also captures Aircall’s call activity in the call history, so you never miss tracking a voice conversation. This eliminates the need for manual data entry after sales calls.
Zendesk Sell – Integrate with Zendesk and Zendesk Sell for robust inbound and outbound call capability. If no record exists, the app will automatically create one.
Zoho CRM – Automatically log calls as activities, along with key details about the call. Sync call comments and create a link to the call recording in contact and lead profiles, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
In addition to displaying a wide variety of CRM CTI systems, Aircall has partnerships with over 50 other software integrations.
The Benefits of Aircall’s Small Business Phone System
With legacy phone systems, sales and support agents had to ask many questions to learn why a customer called. Customers had to repeat themselves over and over again to explain it, too.
With the development of CRMs, sales and support agents gained access to customer details, which smoothed out the process a little. However, what a standalone CRM system lacks is the ability to work seamlessly with traditional phone systems. Employees have to take the time to log into and out of various programs to find customer information, place a call, and update customer details after the call. It’s just not efficient when software applications don’t work together.
A modern phone system is therefore a game-changer for small businesses. Check out the benefits of Aircall’s small business phone system:
Integrate with your CRM and other tools to form a single source of data.
Allow your sales and support teams to share notes and information internally.
Offer omni-channel communication.
Increase productivity for inbound and outbound calling.
Access a robust set of voice calling features.
Get reliable data in real time to aid in decision-making.
Increase efficiency for sales and support teams.
Enable virtual teams, distributed teams, or remote teams.
Use coaching tools like call recording, call monitoring, and call whispering.
Automate simple, repetitive tasks.
Give your teams the data to personalize calls.
Provide sales and support teams with the tools they need to work more efficiently.
Get insight into call center activity via dashboard analytics.
Why Aircall
At Aircall, we recognize the value that a voice ecosystem brings to small businesses. A comprehensive voice ecosystem that incorporates the right tools will help your small business develop a culture solidly focused on creating a client-centric database and building a culture where the customer experience is of prime importance.
You might wonder how your company ever functioned without it.
Published on April 19, 2021.
