What is a Salesforce CTI, and why do Sales and Support Teams use them?

Today, customer data and the ability to predict issues have led to the rise in new levels of customer care - which in the customer experience (CX) world, is often referred to as "hyper-personalization."

But no matter what term you use, customer-facing roles are now more crucial than ever, to grow company profits and build brand loyalty. Making life easy for your sales teams and agents is the first step to helping your front-line teams deliver the level of service your customer's expect.

Customer experience is now so critical for B2B and B2C companies - that some argue that it's even more important than the products you sell. 

80% of customers point to CX as being the key differentiator when choosing one brand over another. *Source Salesforce 

What is a Salesforce Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)?

Did you know that since the humble beginnings of Parker Harris, Halsey Minor, and Marc Benioff in 1999, that over 150,000 businesses globally now rely on the Salesforce platform?  

Salesforce, however, was not originally designed to handle phone calls, SMS, or messages - and there was no such thing as a Salesforce Contact Center. That's where Computer Telephony Integration (CTI for short) comes in. It's an additional integration that allows you to add voice calls directly within Salesforce.

By adding voice and messaging to Salesforce, your teams rarely need to leave Salesforce, and that presents a lot of advantages and efficiencies for managing your customers and their data.

Salesforce CTI adapters also remove the need for on-premise PABX/PDX/ACD solutions, reducing costs significantly as a CTI is all cloud-based. There is no hardware - which means less work for your IT team and technical resources. Scaling up or down is also remarkably easy, and the benefits continue to stack up.

What is the Engage CTI for Salesforce?

Unlike many other CTI adapters that only add voice to Salesforce, the Engage CTI adapter was designed squarely to help sales and support teams deliver superior CX across the most popular communication channels. 

The Engage CTI adds Voice, Email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, Twitter DM, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Webchat to Salesforce - with the Salesforce data required to personalize every customer interaction.

Here are a few ways the Engage CTI helps customers better engage with your business:

• Full Omnichannel experience

Your customers can now contact you on the channels they feel most comfortable on. This includes Voice for incoming calls and outbound calls, SMS, and digital channels like social media such as Facebook Messenger, plus smart website chatbots.

• Verify customers quickly

Have you ever had to answer a million security questions when calling customer support, only to be transferred to another department and have to do it all over again? It's remarkably frustrating. With the Engage CTI, you will know who your customers are before they say a word - verification takes seconds, and so does your customer satisfaction.

• Empathize with your customers 

With Engage CTI and Salesforce, you can see all of your customers’ sales and support history, and with screen pop, all of your key customer data is shown from the get-go, so you can quickly understand your customer's needs. This data and history is also key to closing sales and building customer loyalty.

• Chatbots and self-service AI

Today, many customers will try to solve their problems without you, a win-win. While humans will always be needed for complex cases, with the Engage CTI, you can automate as much as you want to and help speed up service for your customers - like product returns where people don't really want to talk to an agent. 

76% of customers expect an omnichannel experience. *Source - Capgemini 2021

How does the Engage CTI help grow revenue?

Making life easier for your sales and support teams is critical when it comes to improving ROI. By removing different software for different tasks (like separate contact center software) and embedding it all in Salesforce, your entire team are free to do their best work with all of the customer data they need.

The Engage CTI takes Salesforce adapters even further to help businesses optimize workflows and increase revenue. Here are the top ways the Engage CTI helps business growth: 

• ‍Deliver a superior CX

Customer needs have changed. Today's consumers demand an exceptional experience, whether in-person, on the phone, or online. By implementing omnichannel communications with smart AI and machine learning, customers can reach your agents or self-service how they want, on the channels they feel most comfortable on.

• ‍Increase agent productivity

The Engage CTI helps make processes, contact flows, and customer interactions more efficient. From contact search to resolution codes, the Engage CTI improves agency efficiency and reduces resolution times.

• ‍Complete Contact Center

The Engage CTI is so powerful that it can run entire customer support teams. That's because the Engage CTI was built off the back of Engage, an award-winning cloud contact center solution built on Amazon Web Services: Check it out here.

• ‍Reduce costs

Salesforce CTI adapters are traditionally expensive, with per-seat fees, complex installation, and agent training requirements. However, the Engage CTI is intuitive, fast to implement, and provides a superior time-to-value. In addition, you only need one subscription for your entire team.

• Zero on-premise software or hardware 

The Engage CTI is cloud-based, and it takes advantage of your already established Salesforce licences, reducing large amounts of administration and IT support. In addition, the price of the Engage CTI subscription is a fraction of the cost of installing physical phones. All you need is a computer and a headset - your team can then use the Engage CTI anywhere they can take Salesforce!

• Deeper analytics

We can't talk about the Engage CTI without mentioning the analytics and real-time, accurate customer data your sales reps & contact center managers will have. The Engage CTI comes out-of-the-box with customer and employee insights that help drive productivity, efficiency, and accuracy.

Companies often see a 25% increase in profit from a 5% increase in customer retention. *Source - Bain 

Three reasons to run your Contact Center from the Engage CTI.

The Engage CTI, while ideal for sales teams and other Salesforce-driven business units, was specifically designed for contact center agents and support teams of most sizes. Here are a few ways that the Engage CTI can help your contact center agents:

• ‍Reduce average call-handling times

The Engage CTI provides all relevant customer information before the call is even connected! From the first second of the call, your agents will have access to historical data, resolution codes, knowledge based articles, and even intelligent routing to the right agent to provide faster resolutions.

• ‍Reduce call frustrations

By streamlining the customer process within Salesforce and providing an exceptional CX, aggravated calls are significantly fewer.

• ‍A superior agent experience

Happier agents make for happier customers. With the Engage CTI Adapter, your agents can manage multiple customers at once without clutter - and focus on the customers' needs, not clunky software and alt-tabbing a million times a day. Engage empowers agents and provides the tools for a seamless customer experience.

What do you need to run the Engage CTI for Salesforce?

Making Salesforce your communications HQ is quick and easy with the Engage CTI. You only need a Salesforce Lightning Licence at the Essentials level or above. Our team can assist if you need it and discuss any custom integrations that will further help your agent productivity and user experience.