General Resources
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Apr 2, 2023
Best Practices for a Salesforce Call Center Integration
Explore the full capabilities of Salesforce Service Cloud, alternate Call Center applications worth exploring, top integrations with Salesforce, and how to get started with a new implementation.
Intro to Service Cloud (for Call Centers)
Businesses that want reliable, highly customizable solutions to power their Call Centers and Help Desks continue turning to Salesforce as noted by the sheer growth in Service Cloud revenue over the past 7 years.
Salesforce’s comprehensive suite of Customer Support applications are useful for companies that want to improve their Chat, Phone, and Email workflows across Web and Mobile Customer Experience (CX).
Salesforce Service Cloud is a platform built to supercharge the efficiency and effectiveness of a Support organization and provide Call Center Agents with access to the knowledge they need as well as intelligent call routing, case escalation, telephony integrations, and other powerful workflow automations.
Core Features of a Call Center Application
Salesforce Service Cloud provides Call Center Software that improves Customer Support and increases agent productivity. This support is essential for ensuring the business can keep up with growing demand over time.With the right tools and software, companies deliver personalized service and build a positive customer experience across every touchpoint. By leveraging the core features of a Call Center application, businesses can deliver better experiences end-to-end.
Call Routing
When customers can’t get connected to the right people, it wastes their time and yours. Automated software, well-communicated options, and access to real-time support are essential for creating a good call routing experience.
A call center application should have advanced call routing capabilities that simplify the process of getting customers where they need to go.
CRM Integration
The most important function of a call center is providing a cohesive customer experience that makes it seamless as they move through the buyer journey. When interacting with customers, companies need access to the right information, whether it is in the Marketing funnel, during the Sales or checkout process, or for post-purchase Support.
CRM integrations for call center applications make it easier for phone-based Support Agents to help individuals and track their communications over time.
Omnichannel
Support Agents often need to interact with customers beyond the phone - email, chat-based messaging, social interactions, and more will improve the overall support experience.
Omnichannel integrations are essential for Call Centers that want to quickly and efficiently communicate with customers while meeting them where they are.
Knowledge Management and Self-Serve
Knowledge management and self-service tools allow customers to access the information they need without speaking with a Support Agent in real-time.
Creating a robust Help Center, Wiki, or Knowledge Portal allows customers to look up their answers with ease. You can also build out internal Knowledge Bases within Service Cloud, so that Reps know exactly where to get the answers they need to assist a customer.
Alternatives to Salesforce Service Cloud
While Salesforce Service Cloud is a popular option for companies that want to deliver the best call center service to their customers, especially if they are already using Sales Cloud (CRM), many other options may meet their needs.
Here are some of the best options for companies looking outside of Salesforce for CX:
Hubspot
Hubspot is all-in-one customer service, marketing, and sales software that was designed for ease of use and scalability. It is one of the top competitors to Salesforce along with the Microsoft suite of products.
With HubSpot, agents have access to advanced CRM features that allow them to grow alongside their clientele. Thousands of companies all over the world rely on Hubspot for automating their workflows and tracking vital information over multiple systems.
Using Salesforce as a CRM and Hubspot for Support is possible with a simple Salesforce Hubspot Integration: Check out the Guide.
Aircall
Aircall is focused on cloud-based CRM solutions for businesses that need to operate voice services remotely or across multiple channels.
The Aircall platform’s productivity and analytics tools simplify conversations between businesses and clients while seamlessly integrating with existing productivity solutions. It’s easy for businesses of any size to design, deploy, and manage their own call centers with Aircall.
Using Salesforce as a CRM and Aircall for Support is possible with a simple Salesforce Aircall Integration: Check out the Guide.
Zendesk
Zendesk provides SaaS to businesses that interact with the phone, email, social media, or any other type of communication platform. Built around support tickets, Zendesk offers businesses a recorded history of all of their client interactions. This record allows users to keep up with issues and work to resolve problems for clients in less time.
While Zendesk has expanded into a CRM offering, this is a solution better suited for Startups & SMBs. It is common to outgrow the capabilities of Zendesk and need a more powerful tool like Salesforce.
Using Salesforce as a CRM and Zendesk for Support is possible with a simple Salesforce Zendesk Integration: Check out the Guide.
Talkdesk
Talkdesk is a cost-effective call center solution for businesses that want to create the best experiences for their clients. With Talkdesk, managers can schedule shifts, allocate resources, and offer advice and training without worrying about added overhead. This setup leads to positive client relationships built around delivering real results.
Using Salesforce as a CRM and Talkdesk for Support is possible with a simple Salesforce Talkdesk Integration: Check out the Guide.
What are the Best Salesforce Call Center Integrations?
There are many advantages to using Salesforce Service Cloud for your Call Center. Not only is it highly customizable, but it also allows for easy integration with other third party tools.
These integrations provides Agents with a centralized platform for helping customers with their needs. Although there are many options for businesses that want integrated call center capabilities, none are better than Salesforce for managing client relationships and building a positive, supportive environment for users.
The Salesforce AppExchange offers a variety of Salesforce Call Center integrations that businesses can leverage for helping clients, including:
Dialpad
Companies with a lot of contacts have large call logs that are difficult to manage. With Dialpad, Salesforce users have powerful syncing capabilities that give them access to call history, recordings, voicemail, and other important information. This setup gives them insight into callers’ problems so support teams can provide better customer care.
Check out the Salesforce Dialpad Integration or find a Salesforce Consultant to help with setup.
Qualtrics
When businesses need real insights into their clients, they need data-driven support options that allow them to assess and improve their Salesforce processes.
Qualtrics is a service dedicated to collecting web-based surveys from participants so companies can gauge how well their CRM services are working. The platform provides Salesforce call center integrations for organizations that want to understand what their clients are thinking and how to best respond.
Gainsight
When working in the digital space, businesses require real-world data for managing their clients. Gainsight is a business dedicated to aggregating client data and using it to gain insights into their behaviors, attitudes, and expectations.
Companies that want to create client-led Salesforce integrations can use Gainsight to power their growth strategies.
Check out the Salesforce Gainsight Integration or find a Salesforce Consultant to help with setup.
Coveo
Businesses working with large amounts of data can have trouble finding and leveraging relevant information. Coveo is a SaaS search platform that gives companies a way to quickly and efficiently query their repositories for specific data.
When used with Salesforce, Coveo provides integrated AI-driven capabilities that make it easy for businesses to find what they need.
Implementing a Salesforce Call Center
Depending on the size of your Call Center and Support Operations, you will need a cross-disciplinary Salesforce Delivery team for this type of deployment. At a minimum, you will want to hire a Salesforce Architect to manage all design, architecture and integration strategy. Depending on the complexity of the Service Cloud implementation, this Architect would oversee a team of Salesforce Admin Consultants and Salesforce Developer Consultants.
All companies should think about whether to engage a Salesforce Consulting Partner or hire Independent Salesforce Consultants to complete the project - we provide a guide for this selection process and criteria.
Be sure to evaluate multiple different Call Center Applications before making a decision. You should account for how much customizability you need from a CX Tool, what other applications you plan to integrate, and realistically how much your business is likely to change over the next several years.
How FoundHQ can Help
FoundHQ offers the largest network of Independent Salesforce Consultants with over 1,500 Certified Salesforce Consultants available for projects.
The majority of our network spent time working at premier Salesforce Implementation Partners - Accenture, Deloitte, Slalom Consulting, IBM, and others - before moving into Independent Consulting.
The advantage with assembling a team through FoundHQ is that we help customers remain in control. We help identify the right individuals and skill sets needed for the project and allow you to hand select the team of Salesforce Consultants that will work with you.
Additionally, you only pay after work is successfully completed - monthly invoices - so there is no hefty upfront payment.
You can List a Project to schedule a call with FoundHQ to discuss any Salesforce projects and explore the Consultants we have available.
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