Companies regularly ask how they may integrate incoming calls with Salesforce. They don’t always look for a complete omnichannel approach yet. But they search for a solution to get customers connected with the right agent and ensuring that the agent has the correct information displayed.
So these are talks about how starting off with such an integration. And basically the customer has some infrastructure, starts or is in an ongoing project for implementing Salesforce Service cloud, and needs information about the options for integrating.
Computer Telephony Integration
But first, what is CTI again… In one of my recent calls, we were talking about integrating Microsoft Teams with Salesforce.
The process would be as follows:
- The agent answers the call in Teams
- Teams makes a call to Salesforce and
- Teams shows the Salesforce page inside its framework (or perhaps in a separate browser window).
Initial question: ‘Is this Computer Telephony Integration?‘. There is an incoming call and Salesforce gets queried to show data on the screen. So, yes. This is CTI. Is it optimal? No, there are better possible integrations.
But the question for you is: What do you want to achieve? What are your expectations?
CTI – Basic Questions To Start With
So, those are the first questions to ask! Do you expect to have a full-fledged implementation? Or do you want to get a plain-and-simple solution?
What do you expect…? That’s where the conversation should start from.
Depending on the answer to this question, there are different routes.
For instance, the following could be true in your organisation:
- We have an Avaya platform, we have our IVR running on it and we want to continue using it. The good news: Avaya has invested to be part of the Service Cloud Voice 3rd party solutions that integrate with Salesforce. Some caution to take into account: there are different Avaya platforms, and so you should evaluate if your Avaya platform may use this Service Cloud Voice Partner integration. But, WHEN your platform may use the Service Cloud Voice integration, then you’re in good shape. You will be able to use the latest integrations, which – for instance – allow the creation of a Voice Call record for incoming calls
- We use Microsoft Teams, are we able to use Salesforce and Teams together? Yes, there are solutions that make that integration. But mostly this integration is done ‘on the desktop‘. Meaning…the agent answers the call in Teams and at that moment a query gets done (from within Teams) to retrieve and open the Salesforce record. So there’s no record displayed when the call is answered, but it takes a few seconds to show the information in Salesforce
Salesforce Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect
When you already use Salesforce, and just embark with Computer Telephony Integration, then Salesforce Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect would be your first choice. It allows to use the out-of-the-box Omni-Channel widget to answer (and make) calls in Salesforce. At this point in time, Service Cloud Voice is the most integrated CTI solution with Salesforce.
Salesforce Service Cloud Voice with Amazon Connect is the solution that is fully maintained by Salesforce. Next to the integration for incoming and outgoing calls via Salesforce, you also get the benefits of the AWS platform available, like:
Also Read
Academy
If you already make use of an IVR and ACD solution in your organisation, then it should be evaluated how much integration you expect, and what timing you have in mind. If chose to use your existing PABX, then you will most probably use their AppExchange package to integrate with Salesforce. In this scenario, know that Salesforce doesn’t update the OpenCTI API any further. It fully depends on your supplier to update (perhaps they already did by now) their AppExchange solution to ensure they use the new integration that has been setup with Service Cloud Voice.
Next Steps
As you see here above, CTI comes in different flavors. It’s an abbreviation that covers much more than only Telephony integration. And CTI means different things for different people.
Do you have a clear view on what you want to achieve? Great!
Do you need clarifications and/or assistance? Then we may assist you in analysing, configuring and supporting your Salesforce Service Cloud Voice implementation project. Want to know more? Then, fill in our contact form.
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