Exotel Integration With Zoho CRM


Exotel is a highly secure, reliable, and scalable cloud-based telephony system. It enables businesses to set up Customer Call Centres without any hassle of physical infrastructure. The marque capabilities like Number Masking, Multi-Level IVR, Click-2-Call, Missed Call solution, COD, etc. helps businesses to achieve their telephony needs all in one place.


By integrating Exotel with Zoho CRM, you can get intimation of Incoming Calls and initiate an Outbound call using our Click-2-Call feature, all from the Zoho CRM interface. The seamless integration of a call with Zoho CRM Contacts, Events & Tasks, saves agents from context switching and improves their productivity.


Exotel Benefits


With the Exotel - Zoho CRM Integration, you can:

  • Call Intimation - Get the notification on your Zoho CRM screen, whenever any Incoming call comes on to your customer-facing Exotel Number.

  • Follow-Up - Ability to create a new Task, Event, or Call as a follow-up after every Incoming Call.

  • Click2Call - Initiate a call directly from the Zoho CRM Dashboard from Contacts, Missed Calls, and other relevant sections.

  • User Mapping & Bulk Upload - Map the Exotel Users to Zoho CRM Users and enable Click2Call selectively. You can do a bulk upload of user mapping and save time.

  • Recordings - Call Recordings getting automatically added to the completed calls

  • Missed Calls - Missed Calls automatically get added under Activities and Calls

  • Productivity - Work on just one interface (Zoho CRM) and improve your productivity by eliminating context-switching.


Prerequisites

In order to have a successful integration with the Zoho CRM account, you must complete the following tasks:

  1. Sign up for an Exotel Account.

  2. Verify your account through phone or email. 

  3. Get your account KYC verified.

  4. Purchase ExoPhone to be used by Zoho CRM users/agents for inbound and outbound calls.

  5. From the API section, make a note of Account SID, API Key, and API Token

Setting up of Exotel Integration

In order to set up the integration, follow these five steps:

  1. Create Co-Workers and Group

  2. Configure Zoho CRM Call flow

  3. Associate the call flow to the ExoPhones

  4. Enable Integration via https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/

  5. Map the Zoho CRM Users to Exotel Co-Workers in the Integration interface and enable Click-2-Call (if required)

Step 1: Create Co-Workers and Group

To create co-workers and groups in Exotel:

  1. Login via my.exotel.com, go to the ‘Co-workers and Groups’ section

  2. Add all the co-workers corresponding to Zoho account, by clicking on Invite co-workers

  3. Create a new group, by clicking ‘Add Group’ and adding all the co-workers in that group

Step 2: Configure Zoho Plugin Call flow

In order to create the Zoho Plugin Call flow, follow these five steps:

  1. Go to the ‘App Bazar’ section and under ‘Custom Apps’ click on the ‘Create’ button

  2. Provide the App Name and click on OK.

  3. Add a Connect Applet 

                         

  1. Select the Group as created earlier, under the ‘Dial a user or group’ option.

  1. Under the ‘Distribute Calls’ section, select ‘Sequentially’ or 'Equally' and other options as per your requirement.

  1. Let ‘Music on Hold’ be set as ‘Default Tone’. If you want a Custom Tone, please select it and upload the file to be used.

  2. Under the ‘Create popup…’ section, enter this URL (modify the Exotel account name in it by your Exotel account name:

https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/callback/exotel/{account_name}/createpopup

Note: Account_name can be taken from the URL just after my.exotel.com/{account_name}

E.g. https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/callback/exotel/exotel001/createpopup 

                         


  1. After the Call Conversation ends, add a Passthru. In that passthrough enter this URL (change the account_name):

https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/callback/exotel/{account_name}/incomingcallhungup

Note: The Passthru method should be sync.



  1. In the section ‘If Nobody Answers..’, select Go To and add a Passthru applet.

Enter the pass-thru URL ( change the account_name) as:

https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/callback/exotel/{account_name}/callmissed

Note: The Passthru method should be sync.


                 


  1. Save the flow and click on Close.


Step 3: Associate the call flow to the ExoPhones

  1. Go to the ExoPhones section


  1. Click on the button ‘Assign ExoPhones to Flow’ and select the flow created in Step 2 with the ExoPhone and click on ‘Attach Flow’




  1. In the subsequent pop-up, click on OK and you can see the flow getting associated with ExoPhone.


Step 4: Enable Integration


  1. Go to the Zoho Plugin Integration interface: https://zohocrmplugin.exotel.com/


  1. Enter your Exotel Account SID, click on the Submit button. On the subsequent page, click on the ‘Enable Integration’ button. 



  1. If you are not logged in to your Zoho CRM account, it will take you to the Zoho CRM login page. Enter Zoho CRM credentials. 


  1. Once logged in, it opens up the Access permission page, and click on the ‘Accept’ button (if agreeing to provide the mentioned information access). 



  1. On the ‘Exotel Account Details’ page, provide the API Key, and API Token as noted down in Prerequisites step 5, and click on the Save button


  1. The Integration is enabled and the User Mapping page opens up.



Step 5: Mapping the Zoho Users to Exotel Agents


  1. On the mapping page, Zoho Users will be auto-populated. Provide details of Exotel Agents (PBX User) and corresponding Mobile Number (prefixed with Zero digits) 

  1. Click on the Edit button against each user and enter the details as required.


  1. If handling a large number of users, make use of the 'Bulk Upload' capability. Download the sample CSV file with already populated values, edit it with the required values, and upload it back. Track for the live upload status on the same popup.


  1. You can navigate across pages using the pagination option or Search a specific user by Zoho User ID, Zoho User Name or Mobile Number.



  1. Go to Zoho CRM (refresh the page, if already logged in) and you can see the Click2Call icon enabled for the Zoho User on initiating an outbound call from there, the pop-up comes up displaying the available information 



  1. For an Incoming Call, the pop-up will come up showing the calling number. Once the call is over, the user can take the required action to create a new lead, or contact or add to an existing lead or contact. Subsequently, it can be added as a follow-up action of a Call, Event, or Task.  


  1. Once saved, the Incoming Call screen will display the call details like call duration and call recordings (for completed calls): 



Known Limitation:


  • On-Call Events: For both Incoming Call and Outbound Call pop-ups, the call events (like call answered, Ringing, etc.) will not be triggered. Hence, once the call is over, click on ‘Answered’ and do the subsequent action.
  • Call Recording Upload: The call recordings will be uploaded under call details in an interval of 5 minutes. The agent needs to refresh the Zoho Desk screen after 5 minutes of calls completed, in order to see the respective call recordings.
  • Missed Call Details: Missed Call Details will be available in Zoho Dashboard only after 5 minutes. Exotel is pushing the event in real-time. However, it's a limitation at Zoho's end to validate the missed call per agent and then publish it.


Revoking Exotel Zoho CRM Integration


In order to revoke Exotel Zoho CRM Integration, please go to the Exotel Zoho CRM Integration interface and click on the ‘Revoke Integration’ button present on the User Mapping page:



If you have any questions or concerns, please connect with us using the chat widget on your Exotel Dashboard or Whatsapp us on 08088919888.