I was at your "Hello" - Phone Call Integration with Twilio and Plivo (and Coming Soon, Asterisk!)

[ashammi228]

Integrated phone calls - creating a pleasant customer experience

You are sitting at your computer when the phone rings.

It’s a call from a number you don’t immediately recognise, so you pick it up and say, “Hello?” The person on the other end of the line greets you and says it’s John. “John… How are you?” Who was John again? It doesn’t come to you right away, so as you exchange pleasantries, you shuffle through your contact book and taiwanese numbers your notes to forestall his need to explain. Not fast enough. “How can I help you, John?” John goes on to explain that he’s sent you some documents to review. “Oh, John!” Now you remember. What do you tell him? You were looking at the documents, but he’s caught you off guard, forced you to react, and forced you to step back and take his direction rather than step forward to lead the conversation. It’s an interaction that seems to exist for the sole purpose of business. The experience is, admittedly, a little outdated.

Let's try again, this time with an integrated call to Vtiger.

You are sitting at your computer when the phone rings.

"Ring" - A notification appears on the screen stating that it is John Decker, with a link to his CRM contact record. You are taken to it.

"The Ring" - You quickly look over your last note about him. It turns out that after you last spoke, he sent you an offer to watch. You wrote down a few notes and were planning to call him in an hour, but it looks like he caught you first.

"Ring" - You quickly reach to the edge of your desk for the printed document you had prepared for this call, and glance at the notes on the yellow sticky note at the top. Then you pick it up.

And you greet him with, “Hi, John! Perfect timing, I was just about to call. How are you?” The tone of John’s response is noticeably upbeat—it’s clear 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, yet professional tone for the rest of the conversation, which leaves a lasting positive impression. If John is representing a major client, it may even set the tone for the entire nascent interaction between your company and his. Preparation, after all, is often touted as one of the best things you can do to positively influence perception.

Benefits of Integrated Calling

Instantly identify the caller and view their CRM record and notes
Instantly make phone calls through the company's system with one click
Determine who answers or calls which contacts with which contacts
Log and link all phone calls with voice recordings tagged with relevant leads/contacts/organization records.
Nitty Gritty

So, with that said - we have integrated phone calls into Vtiger CRM, currently with Twilio and Plivo integrated, and Asterisk integration coming soon. As for the features - read on!

Pop-up window for incoming calls

An incoming call notification appears for all users with a "CRM extension" configured on their settings page.
If Vtiger can find a matching number in the Lead/Contact/Organization record, their name is displayed.
If Vtiger cannot find a suitable number, a text field appears to enter an email address to create a record.
When a call is answered, all users who were alerted to the incoming call are notified of who was answered.
Click-to-Call for outgoing calls (Plivo and Asterisk clients only)

Click-to-call allows you to make calls simply by clicking on a phone number in the Lead / Contact / Organization / Phone Calls entry in Vtiger.
Call recording and recording

All incoming and outgoing calls and data are registered in the "Phone Calls" module. Calls are distinguished by number, time, status and direction.
The call recording link is located to the right of each call log.
A detailed description of each call can be found in the call detail view.