To understand the importance of CRM integration, we first need to talk about the role of CRM software within a company.
A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a strategic tool that, companies across various industries, should leverage in order to better understand who their customers are and how they interact with the company. However, in order to make the most out of CRM, it is critical that your system is integrated with the rest of your technology stack.
What is CRM Integration?
As defined by Hubspot, a CRM integration is the seamless connectivity between your CRM software and third-party applications. These integrations result in automated actions that expand the functionality of your software, eliminating the need to toggle back and forth between systems.
How CRM Integrations Strengthen Your Business?
A winning CRM system is supported with a smart integration framework. “Smart Integration” ensures the right data at the right time, enables automation and orchestration of workflows and key CRM processes across applications (ERP, social media, phone systems, lead generation, reporting software, mobile devices, calendars, e-commerce systems, among other applications). A smart CRM integration improves employee productivity, as well as customer experience.
Smart cohesive integrations can extend functionality into the CRM application which exists in the ERP or other edge applications. This provides CRM users a 360-degree view of the customer and prevents the users from logging into multiple systems to perform their job, thus improving employee productivity and ultimately improving the customer experience.
CRM Integration Tools
All integration platforms have pre-built connectors for the most common applications which complement CRM systems. Some integration platforms have prebuilt recipes and automated process integrations which require little or low code to implement. Integration platforms can also be used to function as a workflow engine, as well as functioning as the primary controller or governor orchestrating workflows resident in ERP, CRM, and other systems.
Leveraging an integration platform such as Mulesoft, Dell Boomi, Oracle, or Jitterbit allows for complex bi-directional data and process orchestration with complex business rules which govern routing, enrichments, transformations, and exception handling. These integration platforms can also allow APIs with common functionality to be shared across all applications and systems. Such an API or microservices architecture removes the complexity of integrations allowing for rapid development of new integrations, as well as enabling self-service integration for the “citizen integrator”.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used to automate workflows and integrate applications as well as manual processes which significantly improves employee productivity,
Key CRM Integrations
Below are the specific benefits gained through the integration of key business processes which are the cornerstone of CRM.
Customer & Prospect Communications
- Customer Interactions: Access, control, and visibility as well as chronicling customer interactions initiated by all types of communication channels (phone, web, chat, email or social media).
- Phone: CRM integration with the phone system, helps to record call details and contact information in the CRM for future reference and visibility. This capability also streamlines incoming and outgoing calling from within the CRM application with caller_id, auto-query of the customer record.
- LiveChat/Chatbots: Chat capability is becoming more and more prominent. CRM integration with a chat program or chat feature embedded on the corporate, sales website or mobile application, enables chatbots to automatically generate leads from website visitors or mobile application users. The integration of these communications and leads with the CRM system can ensure a rapid response by a real person.
- Email: enable the internal email client UI from inside of the CRM application through integration with the email system (i.e. Outlook or Gmail, etc.). Salespeople often rely on email as their primary communications method, using it from within CRM puts the current contact and account data at their fingertips without logging into multiple systems. It also provides access to shared templates and sequences which further improves productivity.