Smith.ai works with the apps you use every day.

An answering service, like Smith.ai, can offer your business CRM integration. In doing so, answering services can take over call handling and integrate with company systems to ensure all calls, chats, and appointments are logged for your team’s reference. This frees your staff from regular call handling duties and having to constantly update your systems themselves to focus on their specific job duties without having to worry about interrupting work to pick up the phone or forgetting to log call details. Your team will be able to have full access to all calls, chats, texts, and social media messages answered as well as all consultations and appointments scheduled by our virtual receptionists. With CRM integration services, your business can exude professionalism at all times and grow more successful by the hour.

By enabling CRM integration services through an answering service, your business can:

• Minimize distractions & protect team’s time: With regular client calls being answered and call information being logged directly in your systems, your team will be able to focus on more important tasks and avoid constant interruptions.
• Organized information: In having all of your clients information in one place, your team will be able to access any client contact information, see any updates to their schedules, and read through any chat transcripts with ease.
• Increase call resolution: Through giving your team context for each call, chat, or text, you reduce the risk of misinterpretations or misunderstandings and your team members can more appropriately and clearly address clients’ questions.
• Boost client satisfaction & business reputation: With call handling and CRM integration services, your client will be immediately answered, displaying the illusion of a larger business. With callers feeling valued, your business will exude professionalism and your company’s reputation will be stronger than ever.
• Enhance lead conversions: Through logging call details and chat transcripts in your preferred systems, CRM integration services allow your team to have every change to convert leads without the hassle of answering and screening calls themselves.
  

A great CRM integration service can make all the difference for your business. It's important for businesses to not only answer each and every client who contacts them, but also log all information from those conversations so they can collect important caller data, track leads, and set up campaigns. Smith.ai can provide a professional frontline so that your business can have every call, chat, text, or social media message answered, logged, and utilized appropriately. We can deliver exceptional service and effortless integration so that callers can have a great experience with your business and teams can swiftly access any information we handle, thanks to Smith.ai’s answering service.

CRM integration services are invaluable to your business’s success. Without having to book appointments and update calendars, you can improve your team’s responsiveness and productivity and put your business well ahead of your competitors. Whether your business needs lead screening assistance, customer service support, or just help off-setting call handling pressure on your team, a great CRM integration service can transform your business into the best version of itself.

As far as CRM integrations are concerned, call centers and in-house staff can’t perform as well as an answering service. While they may be able to answer calls more frequently and consistently than employees with other duties, call centers and in-house receptionists rarely integrate with companies’ preferred systems. If they do, they tend to deliver sub-par quality on the calls, chats, and appointments they log.

Integrating with a company’s preferred software isn’t rocket science, yet still call centers and in-house staff often fail to offer it. If they do, they frequently integrate in a manner that fails to prioritize your teams’ time and your clients’ satisfaction. Call centers and in-house staff are often not equipped to integrate with CRM, calendars, or other external software. If they are able to do so, they still are unable to answer common questions callers have and come with excessive background noise as well as basic call handling, leaving callers understandably annoyed. 

Answering services like Smith.ai offer thoughtful accommodations, like various software integration options. By paying attention to the details, Smith.ai’s answering service can relieve your busy team of call handling pressures, provide your callers with outstanding customer service, and help your business thrive. Hiring a call center or an in-house staff rather than outsourcing CRM integration to an answering service may risk your reputation, your productivity, and your customer satisfaction. 

If you’re a small business, this rings especially true for you. Over 80% of consumers prefer to talk to a real person over the phone yet call center agents and in-house staff can sound rehearsed, impersonal, and unsettling. This can destroy any initial impression a caller may have and erode any trust they may have in your business, which is critical to establish in the initial conversation with a caller. 

It’s well known that call centers customarily:

• Engage in poor phone etiquette
• Are unable to integrate with CRM and other preferred systems
• Lack the ability to regularly update CRM, calendars, and case management systems
• Fail to update businesses on data obtained during calls
  

With over 82% of customers wanting their issues resolved quickly, call centers fall short of providing satisfactory service to callers. Phone calls answered by call center agents take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, whereas calls answered by an answering service usually only take anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes. And with only 44% of callers reporting call centers to be helpful compared to nearly 76% of callers reporting non-call centers, like answering service, to be helpful, it’s clear to see that hiring a call center will result in longer call times and unsatisfactory customer service.

In-house staff also frequently:

• Come unequipped to utilize CRM and other systems
• Have limited availability and expertise
• Cost companies more than they bring in
• Have little to no ability to manage massive amounts of data
  

Even with a full-time in-house receptionist, over 62% of calls go to voicemail or are left unanswered. Despite being their sole purpose, in-house staff still fail to answer phone calls, which can cost your business potential customers, as up to 50% of sales go to businesses that answer first. With many in-house staff having limited customer service knowledge, current clients are lost as well since over 71% of clients will end a business relationship due to poor phone etiquette. Hiring an in-house staff to answer calls is arguably counterintuitive to your business’s success. 

All of these common issues with call centers and in-house staff can lead to clients hanging up the phone and potential prospects taking their business elsewhere, resulting in your company losing leads, customer loyalty, money, and time. By hiring an answering service, such as Smith.ai, instead, your team can avoid losing out on clients by having a knowledgeable and friendly representative available at all times to answer clients’ questions, screen leads, and schedule appointments immediately in your system.

If that isn’t enough, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that on average, answering services cost only about 20% of what an in-house staff or call center costs despite offering more features and better quality services. 

As a matter of fact, Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can:

• Integrate with your CRM, calendar, and case management software
• Schedule times that your staff is available to accept transfers
• Send transfers to your team via text message, Slack, or Microsoft Teams
• Foster leads with personal and friendly customer service
• Prepare callers with information that allows for a smoother transition
  

Outsourcing CRM integration to an answering service like Smith.ai instead of a call center or in-house staff can save your business from overextended budgets, embarrassing client interactions, missed lead-capturing opportunities, and frustrating workplace complications. Rather than risk your revenue and client relationships on inexperienced or ineffective call center agents or in-house staff, trust Smith.ai’s reliable service to nurture callers, log important client info, and take the pressure off of your busy staff. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Check out some of our clients’ reviews to see why so many businesses trust Smith.ai to integrate with their CRMs.

Cost is an important factor when deciding whether your business should sign up for an answering service or not. Many answering services often hide their true prices to trick you into signing up. Luckily, Smith.ai’s pricing is always clearly advertised upfront so that determining the cost for CRM integrations can be simple and painless.

When signing up for Smith.ai, there are:

No set-up fees

No cancellation fees

Free spam blocking

No hidden fees/pricing

You shouldn’t have to go bankrupt to receive high-quality services that can set your business apart from the others. With Smith.ai, you’ll never be charged with random, unrecognizable fees or stuck paying for something you didn’t sign up for. You can rest easy knowing what you see is always going to be exactly what you get.

Even better – Smith.ai’s CRM integrations, among other features, are incredibly affordable. Monthly plans start at as little at $255/month or, if you prefer, you can create a customized plan that fits your business needs. No matter which plan you choose, you’ll never have to spend more than you should, since Smith.ai’s virtual receptionist pricing follows a per-call rather than per-minute pricing model. That way, you don’t have to pay for someone to sit around while your phone isn’t ringing as you would with an in-house staff member. You only ever pay for the plan you sign up for – nothing more. 

To save you even more money, Smith.ai offers 10% off when you pay upfront annually. You’ll be able to save money and receive the exact same services as you normally would on a monthly payment plan. It’s a win-win. 

If your business might benefit from bundling call handling and CRM integration with live website or text message answering, Smith.ai also offers a 5% bundled discount for receptionist and chat services. This’ll put money back in your pocket and give your business the opportunity to take advantage of unique services other answering services don’t offer, granting your business a leg up in your industry.

Whatever your business can afford, investing in an answering service that offers CRM integrations will be well worth it. While other businesses may be stuck spending massive amounts of time and money on front desk support or call centers, you’ll be able to save both by utilizing an inexpensive and flexible service that provides you with CRM integration how and when you want it. Customers will run to your business for your reliable customer service and your staff will be thrilled to have all the data they need logged under one roof.

To see if Smith.ai is the right fit for your business, sign up today risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

Keeping a business up and running is no simple task. That’s why it’s easy to see how quickly businesses can run into problems they struggle to resolve themselves. Common problems that indicate your business may benefit from a CRM integration service are:

• My team struggles to keep up with phone calls and remain productive

Business calls don’t just come in when your team is ready and available. For teams that already have enough on their plate, the amount of phone calls that need to be properly answered can be overwhelming to say the least. With over 20% of calls being spam, it can be even more difficult to determine which callers are real clients or leads. Answering calls consistently and correctly is crucial for your business’s success, but team members might have to neglect more important work to do so, leaving your staff with a growing list of tasks they can’t seem to get done. 

• I can’t afford to hire front desk support

Front desk support, whether it’s in-house receptionists or call centers, can cost tens of thousands of dollars and with slimmer budgets set in place, business can often be left desperate for phone answering and CRM integration assistance. Paying more than you can afford for services you need can put your business in a dangerous position and trying out free services can be just as detrimental to a business as having nothing at all. Without call handling and CRM support in some way, shape, or form, your business can lose out on leads and dismantle client relationships.

• My staff has difficulty finding and capturing leads

Staff members may not have the time or expertise to convert leads consistently. When a representative can't find a clients' information, struggles to access a client's history, or fails to book consultations that match their teams' schedule, clients may lose interest quickly and feel less secure about entering into a relationship with your business, costing you not only your revenue, but your reputation as well.

• Clients are frustrated with our slow response times

The only way a business can succeed is when clients are satisfied so when clients inevitably have questions about their services or concerns about their products, businesses need to be prepared to answer them. Businesses regularly struggle to find the time to answer clients’ questions in a quick and efficient manner. Whether staff members have limited availability and either can’t get to the phone in time or leave clients on hold, clients can get irritated and hang up, going to the next company they find in their search results. 

If your business is facing one or any of these challenges, an answering service that provides CRM integrations can help you convert more leads and deliver excellent services to clients who call. An answering service, such as Smith.ai, can take the pressure off of your team and allow your business more flexibility in time and in budget without compromising your client relationships. Smith.ai’s virtual receptionists can assist your callers by getting them the answers they need quickly with no hassle and help your team have quick and easy access to all of the information they need to make sales. Smith.ai’s answering service offers the fastest, easiest, and most affordable way to resolve your business’s issues and leave your clients with a smile on their face.

Businesses of every size can benefit from outsourcing call handling and enabling CRM integration, whether it helps to take the load off of a small, family owned business or to increase efficiency in a large corporation. For example:

• For small businesses, CRM integration means a professional “big company” phone presence and no lost information

Small businesses are often up to the necks in tasks that need to be done. They don’t need to spend more of their restricted time logging client data or their narrow budget on hiring front desk support. CRM integrations give small businesses the opportunity to have all of their call, text, or chat information in one place. This allows small businesses to maximize their productivity without sacrificing their much-needed time, money, or outreach towards current and potential clients. No more lost client data.

• For medium businesses, CRM integrations mean scheduled appointments and seamless data logging

With an endless amount of projects that need to be done, medium sized businesses struggle to keep up with answering and scheduling clients, resulting in missed leads and frustrated clients. Keeping up with clients’ needs and logging the details of each conversation can be difficult for any company, let alone a company with limited staff, availability, and resources. Outsourcing call handling and permitting CRM integrations enables medium sized businesses to place the responsibility of customer service and data logging into the hands of a trustworthy agent so that their team can get back to running daily operations without worrying about neglecting clients.

• For large businesses, CRM integrations mean personalized customer interactions and organized systems

Many larger businesses have staff that are far too busy to answer calls themselves. It can be tedious for sizable staff to focus on the smaller details, like providing personalized one-on-one customer service, when there are such vast operations to run. It’s also very costly to hire in-house staff and, for companies at the enterprise level, scaling at lower cost is a core objective. CRM integrations can make it easier for large businesses to function at a high volume without neglecting the details that can separate a good company from a great one. By allowing answering services like Smith.ai to answer calls and log critical information directly in their systems, larger businesses can maintain organized systems and provide quality customer service with little to no extra effort.

Having a well-informed team of virtual receptionists who are trained in customer service and who can represent your company when you’re busy can transform your business’s efficiency for the better, no matter what size your business is. Whether you want to improve your company’s customer service or increase your business’s lead conversion rate, an answering service that delivers CRM integrations can help accomplish your company’s goals and get your team focused on their work again.