Salesforce Telephony: What Are the Options?

Integrating telephony with Salesforce is a powerful way to streamline customer communication for sales, support, or service operations. Salesforce Telephony allows users to make and receive calls directly within the Salesforce interface, offering tools to log interactions, access customer data, and manage workflows. 

In this article, we’ll explore the Salesforce telephony options available to you, as well as their key features, benefits, and how to get started.

What Is Telephony in Salesforce?

In Salesforce, telephony refers to the integration of telephone systems directly with the Salesforce platform. This integration means that sales and support teams can make, receive, and manage phone calls without leaving Salesforce, allowing for seamless customer interactions and streamlined workflows.

Telephony in Salesforce typically uses a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service to connect telephone systems, with options like Salesforce’s own Service Cloud Voice or third-party solutions like RingCentral and Natterbox. 

These integrations bring advanced telephony features such as click-to-call, automatic call logging, screen pop-ups with customer details, and intelligent call routing into Salesforce.

With telephony, your users gain immediate access to relevant customer data during calls, so they can provide personalized and efficient service. This capability also helps sales teams quickly follow up with leads, track call histories, and maintain accurate records, all within Salesforce.

Salesforce Telephony Use Cases

Salesforce Telephony isn’t just for customer service as many people assume. It’s beneficial across industries, businesses, and teams. Here are some key use cases:

• Sales Teams: Sales reps can make outbound calls with click-to-dial, log calls automatically, and use call lists for quick follow-ups. Sales Dialer provides features like call coaching and voicemail drop, which are ideal for sales teams with high outbound call volumes.
• Customer Service: Service agents benefit from instant screen pop-ups that display customer information, reducing call handling time. Service Cloud Voice’s IVR and intelligent call routing help direct customers to the appropriate agent.
• Call Centers: With features like call recording, IVR, and real-time transcription, Salesforce Telephony equips call centers to handle high call volumes efficiently. Managers can track performance, monitor customer satisfaction, and manage workflows with analytics.
• Healthcare Providers: For healthcare services, Salesforce Telephony centralizes patient communication, enabling secure access to interaction histories, follow-up calls, and coordination between different care teams.

Key Features

Salesforce Telephony includes a broad range of features to streamline communication and increase efficiency including:

• Click-to-Dial: Initiate calls with a single click on any phone number in Salesforce, eliminating manual dialing.
• Automatic Call Logging: Log call details like time, duration, and caller automatically, reducing manual data input.
• Screen Pop-Ups: Get customer details as calls come in, allowing agents to access relevant information instantly.
• Call Controls: In-call functions such as mute, hold, transfer and conference are available directly in Salesforce.
• IVR and Call Routing: Direct calls to the best-suited agent, reducing hold times and improving customer satisfaction.
• Voicemail Drop: Leave pre-recorded voicemails when calls go unanswered, saving time and providing consistency.

Benefits

The benefits are probably already pretty clear from the key features above! But, if you need any  more convincing, let’s break down the numerous benefits you can expect from a telephony solution:

1. Increased Productivity: Click-to-dial, automatic logging, and voicemail drop save time, enabling agents to focus on customers instead of admin tasks.
2. Better Customer Experience: Screen pop-ups with customer details and intelligent call routing allow for more personalized service.
3. Improved Data Accuracy: Real-time transcription and automatic logging ensure all interactions are accurately captured and available for future reference.
4. Enhanced Collaboration: A shared view of customer data and call records promotes effective collaboration across sales, support, and service teams.
5. Actionable Analytics: Data from calls and transcriptions feed into Salesforce Analytics, providing insights on agent performance, call trends, and customer sentiment.
6. Cost Savings: Depending on the solution you choose, adding telephony to Salesforce may save you money because you don’t have to purchase phones and individual phone lines for each user.

Salesforce Telephony Solutions and Tools

1. Salesforce Call Center

Salesforce Call Center uses Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) to link call systems with Salesforce, enabling screen pops, call transfers, and real-time call logging. Key components include:

• Call Center: A Salesforce feature that integrates Salesforce with call systems built by developers or partners.
• Open CTI: A JavaScript API allowing developers to build cloud-based telephony solutions. Open CTI is platform-agnostic, letting agents use their preferred browsers and devices.
• Softphone: An on-screen phone that enables call management within Salesforce.

Setting up a Salesforce Call Center typically involves installing a CTI package from the AppExchange and working with a developer or partner to implement the Open CTI API, which allows customization based on a company’s specific telephony system. 

Once the call center is set up, agents can make and receive calls using a softphone – an on-screen phone interface that integrates seamlessly into Salesforce. The softphone appears in the interface (in the footer in Lightning Experience or the sidebar in Classic), and each call center can be tailored to suit specific workflows, from custom layouts to call directories. 

This flexibility makes Salesforce Call Center a powerful tool for improving productivity, providing a consistent customer experience, and adapting to changing business needs.

Salesforce Call Center can be used for both sales and service teams. 

2. Salesforce Sales Dialer

Salesforce Sales Dialer is a tool designed specifically for sales teams to make and manage calls directly from within Salesforce, without needing a separate phone system. With Dialer, sales reps can click on phone numbers in Salesforce (such as in contact or lead records) to place calls immediately. 

The call panel opens at the bottom of the screen, allowing them to view and access relevant customer details, take notes, and create follow-up tasks or events while still on the call. Dialer also offers automatic logging of call details, which saves time and keeps activity timelines up to date. Sales Dialer offers:

• Call Lists: Streamlined call lists for efficient follow-up.
• Inbound Calling: Users will see a preview of related records to ensure they are prepared before answering a call.
• Voicemail Drop: Ability to pre-record and drop voicemails, saving time on repetitive tasks.
• Localized Caller ID: Calls appear as local numbers, increasing answer rates.

This tool is perfect for sales reps needing quick access to call histories and notes, supporting a high volume of outbound calls.

Some limitations mean Sales Dialer is not suitable for everyone. For example, it is limited to calls within the U.S. and Canada, and certain features, including call monitoring and voicemail capacity, come with restrictions.

Sales Dialer vs. Call Center

Sales Dialer and Call Center may sound similar but they serve specific purposes. 

• Choose Salesforce Call Center (Open CTI) if you already have a phone system and need both sales and service teams to manage calls in Salesforce.
• Choose Salesforce Sales Dialer if your focus is sales and you don’t have an existing phone system or want to make calls directly through Salesforce without adding a new phone service.

3. Service Cloud Voice

Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is a powerful tool designed to improve the phone support experience for both customers and support agents by integrating phone calls directly into the Salesforce Service Console. 

It allows agents to handle calls alongside other digital interactions like chat, email, and social media, giving them a full view of each customer’s history and current needs. 

With features like real-time transcription and AI-driven recommendations through Einstein, agents receive helpful next steps during calls, which speeds up response times and makes it easier to deliver quick, effective service.

For supervisors, Service Cloud Voice provides real-time visibility into calls and agent performance through Omni-Channel tools so they can monitor and manage calls across different digital channels. 

This integration also allows supervisors to easily reassign agents to manage call volume and provide assistance when needed. Service Cloud Voice supports multiple telephony providers, allowing businesses to keep their existing phone systems while unifying customer data and digital channels within Salesforce. 

This seamless blend of telephony, AI, and customer data helps companies deliver a personalized and efficient customer experience across both service and sales operations.

Key features include:

• Unified Communication Interface: Access to customer data across all channels for a seamless view of each interaction.
• Real-Time Transcription: Speech-to-text transcription that enhances note-taking and records conversations accurately.
• Omni-Channel Integration: Consolidates all customer interactions in a single interface, allowing agents to balance calls with other digital channels efficiently.

Service Cloud Voice is ideal for support environments that rely on multiple channels and need unified customer views to resolve cases quickly.

4. Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI)

Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) isn’t a telephony system exactly, but instead a Salesforce tool that enables sales teams to capture, analyze, and leverage data from customer calls to drive productivity and improve coaching. You will still need a telephony option on top of Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI).

ECI integrates directly with popular meeting platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, along with various phone dialers, to automatically create call records in Salesforce. It provides complete call transcripts, AI-powered summaries, and real-time action recommendations, allowing sales reps to focus on engaging with customers rather than taking notes. 

Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) features include:

• AI-Driven Transcripts and Summaries: Automatically generates transcripts in 36 languages and provides AI-generated summaries for efficient review.
• Call Insights and Action Items: Detects key moments like objections or pricing discussions and generates next-step action items.
• Customizable Insights: Allows organizations to set keywords and phrases to track relevant topics, improving data relevance.
• Proactive Coaching: Managers can review calls, add feedback, and organize calls into “Collections” for training or onboarding.
• Sales Signals: Uses AI to track how frequently key phrases are mentioned, aiding in strategic analysis of sales conversations.

There are several considerations when deciding if Einstein Conversation Insights (ECI) is for you:

• ECI integrates with specific online meeting platforms (Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams) and a select group of dialers (e.g., Sales Dialer, RingCentral, Aircall), which may require extra setup or API integration for full functionality.
• Advanced generative features, such as Call Summaries, Call Explorer, and Sales Signals, require the Einstein for Sales SKU or the Einstein 1 Sales Edition, as well as Salesforce’s Data Cloud.

Choosing the Right Telephony Solution

Selecting the right telephony solution depends on your business needs and goals:

• Sales Focus: For sales-oriented teams, Salesforce Sales Dialer offers the tools needed for effective lead management and call tracking if you are based in the US/Canada.
• Service-Oriented Teams: Service Cloud Voice is ideal for support teams handling multiple channels and cases, with real-time transcription and sentiment analysis.
• Flexible Integration: Call Center and Open CTI provide flexibility to integrate third-party telephony providers from the AppExchange, giving businesses control over their telephony setup.

Resources

For more information about the Salesforce telephony options available to you, check out the following Trailhead modules and resources:

• What is Telephony? (Definition, Types and Benefits)
• Trailhead: Call Center Integration for Lightning Experience
• Salesforce Help: Salesforce Call Center
• Trailhead: Sales Dialer
• Salesforce Help: Sales Dialer
• Trailhead: Einstein Conversation Insights for Sales
• Salesforce Help: Einstein Conversation Insights

Summary

Salesforce Telephony offers significant advantages by centralizing communication within Salesforce, helping sales, service, and support teams enhance productivity and improve customer satisfaction. 

From Salesforce Call Center and Sales Dialer to Service Cloud Voice, there are numerous solutions to suit varying business needs. Embracing Salesforce Telephony can unlock powerful communication capabilities that keep your business responsive, efficient, and aligned with customer expectations.