User Guide for Salesforce Adapter

The Salesforce Adapter presents a convenient embedded call control window in the Salesforce browser window to allow tight integration between Salesforce and the users handset.

Users can interact with Salesforce to initiate calls, answer calls, and to add new or "pop" existing entities such as Leads, Contacts, Cases etc. using the telephone number of the caller or called party. Call History records are also written against the selected entities.

Key Features

  • Create a new Salesforce record (lead/account/case/etc)
  • Pop an existing Salesforce record
  • Click to Call
  • Write a call record against a Salesforce entity
  • Answer, hold and hang-up the call without leaving Salesforce

User Interface

The Adapter provides an embedded user interface within the classic Salesforce view.

When a phone call is received, the adapter will automatically search through all of the records held within Salesforce to find the number that is dialing in. Depending on what it finds, one of three things will happen:

One:

The phone number is found once: The Phone Panel displays a 'pop' button. This button allows the user to open the record that has been found.

Two:

Multiple instances of the phone number are found: The Phone Panel displays a 'search' button. Clicking this will show the multiple instances found, allowing the user to manually select the correct instance.

Three:

The phone number is not found:The Phone Panel displays the 'New' button. Clicking this button will create and open a new entity with an association to the caller's number.

Answer, hold and hang-up the call without leaving Salesforce

The Adapter offers buttons for the call control features Answer, Hold and Transfer from within the Salesforce page.

Click to Call

Click to call provides the ability to click on a phone number in Salesforce in order to have your desk phone dial that number. The Adapter also includes a convenient phone number dial field to allow the user to dial a custom number by entering the number and pressing dial button.

 

Over recent periods new in-browsers dialers have been introduced by third parties. If you experience issues with dialing, you should ensure that no browser dialing add-ons are active.

Adapter behavior

Write a call record against a Salesforce entity

Telephone call activity recording is performed by inserting a completed Activity into Salesforce and where possible associating the activity with a Salesforce entity. This document uses the term "Call Record" to describe the activity record that is created in Salesforce.

When Is a Call Record created?

A Call Record is created when a user running the Salesforce Adapter hangs-up or transfers a telephone call from the handset that is monitored by the Adapter.

Impact of Transferring a call

In telephony, a call is completed when user transfers or hangs up the active call on their handset. So, in the transfer call scenario, there will be two or more call completion points, hence more than one call saved.

Manual Dialing

What if you don't dial or click to dial from within Salesforce, that is, you manually make a call from the handset. If the user is logged into Salesforce and the Adapter is connected, the behaviour will be the same as if using "click to dial" from within Salesforce. i.e. if a single contact entity is matched it will be associated with the entity, if more than one is matched and no interaction takes places to select the entity, then it will not be associated. However, if you are not logged in to Salesforce with the Adapter connected then no Call Record will be logged.

Internal calls and Dialing rules

Internal calls are saved, however from version 1.0.1 they will not be associated with Salesforce entity. They will show in Call Center / Call related reports. Determining whether a call is internal or external is governed by the settings in client software that the Adapter uses to make the connection to the telephone system (by default a number of 6 digits or greater is treated as external).

Reporting on Call Records

To report on call history, the user is required to create a Salesforce report. Follow the steps provided in the appendices on Creating Call History report.

As the call is recorded as a Salesforce Activity we are limited to what information we can store. (See appendices on Call Record Example.)

How is a Call Record associated with a Salesforce Entity?

Associating a call to an entity is affected by multiple situations. This is because the only possible matching opportunity is using the external phone number associated with the active call. Within Salesforce, a number can appear more than once e.g. against a contact, against a company or even multiple times in various leads. This means the recording method relies on user interaction to improve and confirm the entity associations.

Should a match be made, the user can pop to the entity and continue to use Salesforce as they typically would. On call completion, the Call Record will be saved and associated with the current open page. So, in the scenario where the first entity popped was not the preferred match and the user then navigates to the correct match (account for example), then the adapter will use the new entity as the preferred match.

If there is a single match for the contact for an inbound or outbound call, and no interaction is made (for example "popping" the contact record) then the call record will still be associated with that contact automatically.

If there is more than one match, then the user must select a contact for the Call Record to be associated with. If the user does not interact by navigating to an entity in Salesforce, a Call Record will still be added on call completion, but no entity association will be made.

Outbound calls are handled similarly as a single matched record. For example, if click to dial is actioned from an entity's page, it can be asserted that this is the correct entity to associate the Call Record with. Therefore in this case, if the user completes the call without any actual interaction, it will be associated with this entity.

Summary of Call Record Association handling

Outbound

  • Click to dial has the best chance of correct association as it uses the page dialed from.
  • If single match is made that entity is associated with the call record.
  • If dialed from List Page, like Home page, then you should navigate to an entity for correct association to occur.
  • Manual dial via number entry - user should dial from home screen i.e. not from an entities page. Without interaction, it will not associate with any entity, but if you are on a contact record it will associate with that record.

Inbound

  • If single match is made that entity is associated with the call record.
  • If multiple matches are found, then based on the user's interaction of selecting a contact will determine the association.
  • If not found and user select new button, call record is associated with the new record.
  • If not found and call ends without selecting the new button then no association is made.

Transfer

  • Multiple Calls records are created for each user who handles the call
  • Searches occur after a transfer - so second user will also need to navigate to correct contact

Internal calls

  • Are saved - from 1.0.1 onwards are not associated with Salesforce entity other than user - internal calls follows dialing rules set in the client for min Length and must start with

Dial from handset.

  • Call recorded if Salesforce is open, logged in, Client is running, user has CRM license and Adapter is active on an open Salesforce page. No SF adapter no record saved. Note that some Salesforce pages do not have an Adapter section e.g. Report page and Chatter page

FAQ

I know I called John Smith, but there is no call record. What could cause no call record?

For a call record to be saved - the desktop Client must be running and "Connected" to the user's device AND Salesforce Adapter must be active "Connected" and receiving events. If one of these conditions are not met then a call cannot be recorded.

Where can I see a report of all calls for my department?

You will need to add a Salesforce report on Activities - follow the instructions in Appendices Creating Call History report.

I never made that call, where did it come from?

Check if someone else logged into your Salesforce account and if they have a Salesforce adapter configured. This would generate a call record for your user when a call is made.

Why does my adapter say "Not Connected"?

Check that your client is running and has a valid CRM/DB license.

I can dial from Salesforce but my adapter says not connected? Why?

Click to dial is a basic level feature of the client software. The dial may be using a browsers add-on or extension. In other words you can configure click to dial in any browser even if you have a CLIENT license. So, it is feasible that you have enabled this via another method and its not actually using the adapter to facilitate click to dial.

Why does the initial call show up in the adapter as a valid contact name, then it shows as not found?

If you have configured another CRM integration in the client, e.g. Outlook, the event that is received may have been decorated with a found contact from another CRM and added this information to the call event. You should be aware that other CRMs can be configured alongside the SF adapter, you should be aware of this behavior.

Appendixes

Call record examples

A call record is an Activity and includes the following fields:

Assigned to: Salesforce user involved with the call.

Description: text field describing the call in the format: at TimeZone to/from.

e.g. Outbound Call at 1:09:36 PM Greenwich Mean Time to 07814256404 (David Teague)

Duration: Length of the call in seconds.

Date: Date of the call.

Priority: Normal - this is set by Salesforce.

Status: Adapter sets the task as completed.

Task: Ticked as per completed above.

Associated entity: One or more entities. By associating the activity with and entity, the call is visible in an entities Activity History panel.

Creating Call History report

In Salesforce navigate to the Reports tab and select New Report.

 

Select an Activities and Task report and select Create.

 

You are taken to a customize page, select Save.

Name the report and specify its visibility/Report Folder.

 

You have created a Call report.

To improve the report we suggest adding Duration, and Call Start time.

Add Duration

Drag Call Duration (seconds) onto your report.

 

Add Call Start time

Adding a call start time allows better sorting of the report. You need to add a Custom Field for this because Salesforce does not display Date time fields in a format that allows them to be sorted.

As an Admin, go to "Setup / Activity Custom Fields".

 

Add as follows:

 

This field will now be visible in the reports design and you should add it to the report.

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