Did you know that approximately 1,100 times a day, your employees move between apps and user interfaces? It means they spend hours switching between apps, diverting their attention, and copying and pasting potentially vulnerable data.
In a perfect world, productivity software and sales applications improve organization and reduce workload. However, if your representatives are using so many incompatible applications that data isn't reaching where it needs to go, those apps are hurting your team rather than helping it.
Integration is the solution, with a potent CRM at the core. However, MuleSoft reports that “integration challenges are slowing digital transformation initiatives for 85% of IT organizations.”
If you have a CRM but don't use the integration features, you are not taking full advantage of this cutting-edge technology. A CRM system can only reach its full potential when integrated with other programs and applications and serves as the primary data hub.
For instance, Coca-Cola uses CRM integrations to encourage teamwork and address consumer complaints effectively. Without it, the Coca-Cola team couldn't have discovered concerns, tracked consumer behavior, and reached customers with promotional offers.
Similarly, Amazon uses CRM integrations to keep track of all its customers' information. With this, Amazon can quickly provide product recommendations based on your buying habits as soon as you check in to your Amazon account from any device.
So, while choosing CRM software is an integral part of business strategy, it’s only half of the equation. Without integrations, CRM software is like a meal without salt. Thus, we'll walk you through all you need to know to master CRM integrations and level your company's productivity.
Let’s dive in.
No matter whether you are engaging in high-touch sales (cold calling or calling existing clients to follow up) or low-touch sales (content marketing or social media ads), a customer relationship management (CRM) system can offer you a lot of visibility into how you are getting along with existing clients and just how successful you are at persuading new clients.
But for your company to truly benefit from your CRM system, it must interact with the other tools and software you use often. Take Vodafone, for example. Vodafone got what was regarded as the single-largest fine in history, costing the company £4.6 million.
The reason? A failed attempt to centralize the brand’s operations with a robust CRM.
According to a report from Forrester Consulting, “This is a result of departments pursuing initiatives in silos — such as modernizing sales, customer service, or existing applications. For accomplishing their customer-focused initiatives, businesses need to think bigger.”
And that’s where CRM integrations are important! CRM integration integrates your core CRM software with third-party tools and apps to combine their functionalities into a single platform.
Imagine CRM as your company's smartphone. The systems that store and organize your customer data, like CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, function as real phones. However, like earlier phones, simple CRM solutions offer contact list management as a feature.
On the other hand, more feature-rich CRM products resemble cutting-edge smartphones. An integrated CRM system offers features and programs that make utilizing your CRM tools more creatively easier.
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Today, businesses use numerous software, as many as 177 SaaS applications for big companies, including email clients, accounting programs, and social networking dashboards. It can overwhelm you in data silos, limiting your CRM’s efficiency. But with CRM integrations, you create an adaptable workflow that offers a 360-degree view of your customers.
For example, you can link CRMs to email marketing platforms using specialized integration tools available on the market, just like Salesforce CRM’s merging with Zoho CRM. Through application programming interface (API) requests made using the POST method, this integration provides synchronization via data flow.
Therefore, CRM integration enables smooth communication between two systems with unique user interfaces, regardless of how they operate or communicate internally. By facilitating real-time information exchange across many systems in a CRM context, this approach aids firms in becoming more flexible.
Because there are so many integrations, decision-makers can feel tempted to install whatever they think would provide even a small benefit. Numerous integrations provide enticing CRM capabilities that promise sophisticated CRM analytics or improvements to fundamental procedures. But this could be a trap.
Alex Haimann from Less Annoying CRM says, “The biggest error is placing excessive emphasis on analytics reporting or other high-level tools while not placing enough on practical everyday use cases.” It means you should choose only the ones that truly benefit your business.
Following such wise words, we have compiled the essential CRM integrations for any business!
The world has moved on to the cloud, and this development of cloud technology has made it possible for Google Drive to become the center of attention for every company that likes to have access to it wherever.
Google Drive integration with your business CRM will lead to data accessibility everywhere, easier file uploading, real-time document changes, and an efficient sales team.
For CRM users, marketing automation has become a highly popular integration. This integration might be helpful to small businesses that need more personnel to manage their marketing and sales teams.
Also, it is an addition that makes creating and handling leads easier for many established firms. In this case, Marketo is the most popular tool, and for good reason. It has out-of-the-box, bi-directional sync support for your business CRM and streamlines marketing workflows.
Email monitoring is made incredibly quick & simple by the two-way synchronization between your CRM & conventional email marketing platforms, such as MailChimp. You can avoid switching between several windows & apps by managing your email campaign contacts within the CRM system.
More than 70% of people rely on digital calendars today. With this calendar integration, you can keep track of all the calls and meetings involved in your deals by synchronizing your whole sales process-related schedule.
It makes it easier for you to remain on top of your ongoing and planned activities, and even if you forget, the CRM system reminds you by email notice of meetings, scheduled calls, and to-dos with the pertinent calendar event data.
Companies that engage in hardcore sales need this very helpful integration. Some CRM systems like Exotel allow users to call other users with only one click from within the system - saving you the time it would take to access, look up, and call someone from the office phone.
All transactions must be manually entered repeatedly into accounting software that runs separately from your CRM system. This process can be made simpler by integrating the best accounting software with your CRM system.
ERP systems are used by businesses to help them manage daily tasks, including production, sales, and marketing. Business owners and teams can oversee a variety of business operations from a single user interface with the use of CRM ERP integrations.
Integrating ERP and CRM software can help businesses save time on redundant data entry and administration because both programs save contact and account data. ERP and CRM software is offered by certain software companies, such as Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite, while Salesforce integrates with ERP suppliers.
Nichole Jordan said, “It no longer requires a multi-million dollar budget to get AI going in your company. It represents an opportunity to level the playing field for smaller companies.”
Your marketers will have a more complete and accurate knowledge of lead or customer behavior with the inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) into your CRM. Automated predictive lead scoring is used to achieve this, where the integrated lead scoring software handles every aspect of the task on behalf of the marketing and sales team.
Businesses aim to increase call center consistency and efficiency across all consumer touchpoints. By integrating Cogito with Amazon Connect, Amazon provides its customer care representatives with immediate emotional support throughout every conversation.
CRM integration is essential for firms today in creating a business architecture that fosters communications and operations. You can create a single platform whose data everyone can trust by connecting your CRM with the rest of your IT stack.
The industry is becoming increasingly open to new solutions that provide a more all-encompassing approach to business management, even if most CRM systems have limited capabilities. These integrated CRM systems can help you with lead scoring, live chat assistance, marketing automation, sales automation, social media tracking, and more.
Additionally, if any essential function lacks advanced capabilities, you can merge these combined CRMs with your desired tool. This way, you can offer a positive client experience using only a few software applications.
In the end, with CRM integrations, you can make things simpler and work towards building your company’s perfect workflow. Meanwhile, if you need any help dealing with complex applications or interfaces, integrating an API, or other technical needs, MarsDevs can help.
MarsDevs is a one-stop shop for all of your tech needs. Need help with your CRM integrations? Book a slot with us today, and let us handle your integration needs!
A CRM integration is a smooth connection between your CRM system and other applications. By creating automatic activities, these integrations increase the usefulness of your program and remove the need to switch back and forth between different platforms.
CRM systems can help businesses track their contacts, enabling the sales and marketing teams to customize communications. Good CRM solutions can enrich their account and contact data with information from outside sources to ensure that all information is comprehensive and current.
Yes, the majority of CRM systems have social network integration. It lets you monitor social media conversations and mentions immediately on your CRM.
By integrating numerous tools and apps, such as social media, email, and chat, companies can better interact with customers, enhance the customer experience, and streamline processes.
CRM integration is essential because it enables smooth client data transfer across all your applications.
