Telephony | Online Help - Zoho CRM

Telephony - An Introduction

Many salespeople spend a significant portion of their day making and receiving calls.
For example:
  1. SDRs place large numbers of calls to reach out to potential clients and source appointments for account executives.
  1. Account executives engage with leads in depth over calls to fully understand their needs and finalize deals.
  1. Account managers make strategic calls with important customers in order to support, retain, and grow key accounts.
As businesses grow, it will become essential to set up a business phone system with dedicated numbers, call routing, and other features to support staff in handling calls. The effort put into selecting and implementing such a system is always worthwhile. Implementing a phone system will not only provide customers with a convenient way to contact you and ensure their concerns are addressed promptly, but also streamline processes to allow your sales team to handle large volumes of calls more efficiently.

A PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is a private telephone network that enables organizations to conduct both internal and external calls. Traditional PBX systems offer a wide range of features tailored to businesses and are widely utilized in various organizations. In the past, PBX systems involved physical phone devices installed on company premises, but modern systems have shifted towards cloud-based services, eliminating the requirement for costly equipment.

The integration of a PBX system with Zoho CRM through the Telephony feature is essential for linking calls and sales to evaluate their effectiveness. This connection enables teams to place and monitor calls, record conversations, and view important information before each call.



What You Can Do With Telephony
  1. Manage outbound and inbound calls from Zoho CRM
  2. Take a quick glance at the caller's purchase history, email conversations, notes about them, and more
  3. Set reminders for scheduled outbound calls
  4. Dial calls with a single click
  5. View a list of missed calls
  6. Add call descriptions
Availability
Permission Required
Users with the Administrative profile can access this feature.



Supported Telephony Systems
In hosted PBX (also known as cloud-based PBX) systems, the telephony services are facilitated by a provider through the internet. Compared to traditional PBX systems, hosted PBX offers a lower initial equipment cost and setup cost, low service and maintenance costs, and more flexibility due to the ease of adding extra lines and extensions.

Benefits
  1. Be better prepared for calls, with caller ID and linked information.
  2. Set reminders for calls so that customers are not lost due to lack of follow-up calls.
  3. Add call descriptions during or after the call
  4. View key details in the business card view before answering a call from a customer
Notes
View the list of PBX systems you can integrate with CRM here.

SEE ALSO
  1. Integrating multiple telephony providers (Different PBX providers can be used for different groups of users)
  2. Telephony extensions (Help documents related to integrating common telephony providers with Zoho CRM)
  3. Configuring built-in telephony (For admins looking to set up the built-in telephony system)
  4. Working with built-in telephony (For admins who maintain the built-in telephony system)
  5. Using built-in telephony (For non-admins who use the telephony system as part of their work)
  6. Workflows for calls (For admins who want to automate follow-ups and other actions based on calls)
  7. Call analytics (A dashboard in the Voice of Customer feature)
  8. Zia for calls (For call transcription, sentiment analysis, and more)