Most progressive and forward-thinking companies employ advanced technologies when trying to find new ways to strengthen commercial relationships and reinforce their business processes to promote growth. In today’s global digital world, telephony has become much more than just communications – it promotes innovation, efficiency, flexibility and integration.

While more and more companies are seeking to adopt modern, cost-effective communication technology such as VoIP (Voice over Internet protocol), the task of communicating with customers and taking care of their needs is often accomplished using advanced and high-tech CRM (customer relationship management) solutions.

VoIP-CRM integrations allow cloud VoIP providers to connect their customer’s CRM accounts with the implemented business phone systems, and exchange data between the two platforms. Let’s analyze the benefits of CRM and phone system integration, and the smart communication models for business that offer the combination of VoIP and CRM.

The concept of VoIP-CRM integration

In general, CRM systems provide a platform to manage, organize and track a company’s interaction with existing or potential clients, business partners, agents and other contacts; it is the key point for customer data analysis when the focus is on customer retention and business growth.

Incorporating the cutting-edge solutions of VoIP technology into CRM will increase the functionality of the overall system and strongly contribute to improved communication and productivity of employees. This integration enables the collection of customer transaction activities and histories, thus creating profiles for efficient targeted marketing and selling. An advanced and high standard VoIP solution transmits voice data packets which are suitable for simple CRM integration, leading to a powerful and effective sales approach.

Based on real-time customer data, such an integration offers companies accurate tracking and wide-ranging projection capabilities. This solution is compatible with the majority of VoIP and CRM platforms, allowing businesses to track client purchases and inquiries, register customer activities, and identify their needs.

Advantages of a business VoIP-CRM solution

With the continuous evolution of CRM tools and business phone systems, customer-oriented companies are positioned to reap substantial benefits in a number of business scenarios. By and large, VoIP is prevalently used for regular business calling and call center click-to-call communications, as well as for remote work and trade engagements. The combination of VoIP and CRM will significantly contribute to building detailed, specific customer relationship profiles for a unique marketing approach.

VoIP-CRM integrations, implemented by top-quality VoIP providers, will bring the following considerable benefits:

• Improved Customer Service

The availability of on-the-go access to beneficial features such as number lookup history, order history, call recording and logging, and real-time data rolled into one system contributes to a better understanding of customers, and consequently builds successful business relationships.

• An Automation Setup for boosted efficiency

The integration allows the setting up of automated processes such as auto call forwarding with, for instance, a cutting-edge call routing feature “Find-Me, Follow-Me”. This automation helps save time for both the customer and the agent, and as a result, more attention can be directed towards business development.

• Effective contact with clients and staff

Some enterprises interact with customers and employees on several different platforms. A unified VoIP and CRM system provides the possibility of following and monitoring activities in an organization, even when working remotely.

• Marketing and sales linking bridge

CRM data is important for the company’s marketing department when analyzing customer behavior and developing promotional campaign strategies. CRM reports and sales funnel data help marketing staff to assist salespeople better. VoIP-CRM integrated calling data is a useful tool in assessing the effectiveness of different strategies to evaluate the customer and improve their experience.

• Better staff management

With the help of VoIP-CRM integrated solutions, sales team managers are able to receive  useful, relevant information on each salesperson’s job performance. This data is useful in optimizing staffing requirements, monitoring staff activities, distributing workload and making necessary changes and improvements to individual sales representatives or the entire team.

Tips on integration procedures

Upon making the decision to employ a VoIP-CRM integrated solution, check out the numerous providers in the digital telecom market that now offer pre-integrated VoIP services in conjunction with standard CRM programs. These services also include integration setup, deployment and maintenance. It is advisable to use a CRM solution that includes a comprehensive application program interface (API).

The API supports features necessary for VoIP integration, and enable the two-way communication and control between the two systems. In essence, an API is an interface that enables one application to talk to another, thus making the integration possible.

When anticipating increasing call volumes, ensure that scalable API transaction volumes are implemented to guarantee that the existing CRM program is ready to cope with an intensive data and transaction feed.

A large proportion of Internet services and off-the-shelves applications are able to facilitate basic integration between an array of VoIP and CRM products. Finding the right services that comply with the company’s fundamental software requirements can help deliver seamless integration in a relatively short time. Another option is to hire a specialist developer with extensive programming and development knowledge to perform a customized VoIP-CRM integration.

Most popular VoIP-CRM integration solutions

Premium VoIP phone system providers specialize in merging their VoIP solutions with already existing or new CRM platforms, and make the integration process hassle-free for a business customer. The VoIP carrier’s main call features such as call logs, call recordings, call history and controls, voicemail, call forwarding, click-to-dial and screen popups are usually compatible with CRM data collection, storage and management.

In general, VoIP integration with popular CRM software provides key data and analytics to a company’s sales, marketing, and support teams. The following are some examples of the most popular CRM software providers offering powerful, complete VoIP integration:

• Salesforce. The Salesforce cloud is a prevalent, on-demand CRM suite with applications for small, midsize and enterprise organizations. This CRM platform provides VoIP integration with 15 different providers, making it much easier for businesses already taking advantage of cloud telephony to integrate with Salesforce.
• Pipedrive CRM. This solution is rich in visual indicators, showing a sales representative where to focus and what actions to take in order to close more sales. Pipedrive CRM can be connected with more than 100 applications and add-ons, making this product highly flexible. VoIP applications such as call.center™ allow  users to automatically open the relevant CRM page during an incoming call, enable call recordings and call logs, and also initiate direct click-to-dial from the Pipedrive CRM.
• HubSpot. This cloud-based CRM platform fits any B2B or B2C business in different verticals, and helps enterprises track and foster leads and analyze business metrics. HubSpot users can automatically follow customer interactions through emails, social media or phone calls. In addition, they can create and manage email templates and get real-time notifications on the email being opened and the attachment being downloaded.
• FreeAgent CRM. It is a cloud-based CRM platform representing a unified package for sales, marketing and customer service. FreeAgent CRM enables leads and follow-up reminders to be automatically allocated in real-time to minimize response times. The platform is integration friendly and completely customizable.

These and other products are well suited for VoIP-CRM integration, and will make a significant impact on the commercial potential of business communications. The solutions provide effective ways to employ actionable information in real-time, thus increasing staff productivity, generating repeat business, creating loyal customers and improving the bottom line.