Integration of CRM into Twilio Flex

In the cloud platform-as-a-service industry, Twilio is well-known and widely used. As a result of the integration with CRM, software engineers will learn how to design the user interface on Twilio Flex.

The siloed systems that keep their communication channels, agent interfaces, and customer records separate are one of the most common difficulties we’ve seen while working with our customers to modernize their contact centers. Apart from being expensive to maintain, these disparate systems complicate contact center operations and ultimately prohibit organizations from providing frictionless customer experiences to their customers.

Your customer relationship management system (CRM) and your contact center must work together seamlessly in order to provide efficient and effective customer service. When clients convert their contact centers to Twilio Flex, this is one of the most often requested features.

AMC Technology’s Anthony Uliano, Twilio partner Grace Miller, and Scorpion’s Chris Jenkins, VP of Systems Development joined at SIGNAL recently to discuss how Twilio Flex can interface with CRMs in the following various situations:

• CRM that is natively supported, such as Salesforce.
• CRM that isn’t natively supported.
• Customized CRM.

Brief Overview About Twilio Flex

A prominent cloud communication platform that is configurable and allows businesses to entirely take over business operations from daily management to when and what to deploy, Twilio Flex is one of the most popular cloud communication platforms on the market.

When React customizes your Flex instance, it also provides bespoke CRM solutions within the Flex instance. In order to provide the greatest contact center platform, the Flex plug-in allows you to configure each and every component existing in the instance.

Integration Framework for Twilio Flex

Every layer of Twilio Flex is programmable, making it an ideal platform for contact centers.

Flex provides events and allows you to link Actions to them across all channels at various conversation touchpoints. Programmable UI and Actions Framework allows you to do this.

• Flex can be integrated into your CRM, or your CRM can be integrated into Flex.
• To take action in the CRM UI, you can use Flex to listen to events (such as Task Created, Agent Reserved, Task Ended, etc.) triggered during a customer discussion and call relevant CRM functions/APIs to take action in the CRM UI (such as popping up the customer profile).
• Flex can be configured to listen for events in the CRM (for example, a new lead is added to a campaign) and conduct actions in the CRM (e.g., transfer the job to a campaign queue by creating an outbound call task.).

Setting up CRM with Twilio Flex

CRM That Is Natively Supported, Such as Salesforce

Salesforce has emerged as one of the most popular CRM integrations for Twilio Flex, based on our talks with customers. For this reason, we’ve created pre-built integrations with Salesforce that are immediately available to you (with additional possibilities coming shortly).

Salesforce and Flex Integration

Salesforce connectivity is available as a plugin in Flex and can be added with a simple click. It takes only a few minutes to integrate Salesforce with your Flex contact center by importing a file that contains the parameters you want Salesforce to utilize. Users who have permission to utilize Flex in Salesforce must also be added to the list.

When a new customer initiates contact in Flex, Salesforce will prompt the agent to create a new customer record for that individual. You may see their Salesforce record when they contact you. The Flex integration records all actions relevant to the customer in Salesforce, while the customer’s activity is being tracked by Salesforce. This feature allows you to make outbound calls within Salesforce by simply clicking on a record and dialing the phone number.

The supervisor and team views in the CRM are also accessible through any integration, which is something to keep in mind.

CRM That Isn’t Natively Supported

What about CRMs that Twilio Flex does not yet support natively? Additional connections with the most widely used CRMs will be available soon, either natively or through our partner network, or both. This is all part of a unified roadmap we’re working on.

Until then, you can establish integrations for them. Here’s how to do it:

Create a Custom Integration

Through the Flex Plugin Framework, Twilio Flex makes it simple to create your own CRM integration for your business. Flex can integrate with any CRM that provides an API/SDK interface. If you’re new to Action Framework, start by designing a plugin that listens for all important events throughout the job lifecycle and then triggers appropriate CRM actions.

Here’s an example of a skeletal plugin framework:

init(flex, manager) {
   //BEGIN
   this.pluginName = "Flex myAmazingCRM Integration v.0.1.0";
   // get all relevant data from manager. ex.
   const serviceBaseUrl = manager.store.getState().flex.config.serviceBaseUrl;

   if (window.self !== window.top ) // i.e. Flex in an iFrame
   {
  
       // do your stuff here

       //first hide CRM container since Flex is in iFrame
       flex.AgentDesktopView.defaultProps.showPanel2 = false;  
      
       //tap into Action Framework  and call your CRM's relevant functions - see below for example.

   }
   else
   {
     // do your stuff here ;


       //tap into Action Framework
       //Ex  - After task acceptance, use the task attributes to perform a search and pop up relevant screen
       flex.Actions.addListener('afterAcceptTask', (payload, abortFunction) => {
           helpers.setInitParams(manager);
           console.log('Task Attributes===>', payload.task.attributes);

           //example of constructing searchParams
           var searchParam = payload.task.attributes.searchString;
           if (searchParam.trim() === "") {
             // search by originiator . For outbound you should use payload.task.attributes.to
             searchParam = payload.task.attributes.name;
           }

           //now call the relevant function for you CRM to search and then screenPop
           _myCRM_searchAndScreenPop(searchParam);

           //create a log of this interaction
           _myCRM_LogActivity(payload.task.attributes);

         });     


       //Ex2  - When Agents move between tasks , change CRM Screens.
       flex.Actions.addListener('afterSelectTask', (payload, abortFunction) => {

           // construct searchParams similar to above
           // call the relevant function for you CRM to search and then screenPop
           _myCRM_searchAndScreenPop(searchParam);

           //create a log of this interaction
           _myCRM_LogActivity(payload.task.attributes);           

         });            


         //Ex 3 - Log Activity after Agent completes the task. 
         flex.Actions.addListener("afterCompleteTask",(payload, abortFunction) => {
            //create a log of this interaction
            _myCRM_LogActivity(payload.task.attributes);
           }
         );         
   }

   //END
 }

Make use of a Twilio CRM Integration Partner

• Salesforce
• ServiceNow
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Zoho
• SAP C4C
• Oracle Service Cloud

Customized CRM Integration

A custom CRM is a good idea. This is also compatible with Twilio Flex. Incorporating their own CRM into Twilio Flex has allowed businesses like Scorpion, a digital marketing firm with a wide client base, to streamline their operations and cut average handle time. Incoming digital leads are handled by Scorpion’s proprietary system on behalf of hundreds of different companies, each with its own set of inputs and workflows. Their contact center relies heavily on the speed of their first response.

Flex was able to be deployed on Amazon CloudFront so that Scorpion could construct a unique intake form and a client-specific knowledge base. Repetitive activities were made easier for Scorpion’s contact center workers because of Flex’s ability to abstract away a portion of the old apps they were maintaining, such as TaskRouter and separate Twilio Voice/Chat clients.

Conclusion

However, few people are aware of Twilio Flex’s in-depth features. Because of this, we at Aelius Venture have made a comprehensive guide to using Twilio Flex here on our blog. Just a simple example of how Twilio may be configured and used, we hope you found this post interesting. Customizable UI allows you to give features like call transfer and outbound calling with a more pleasant user experience. With the help of these React plug-ins, a lot of useful information can be displayed on the same page.

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