Freshdesk is often separated from crucial sales information housed in Salesforce, disconnecting your support and sales teams. This lack of connection causes teams to jump between systems, which wastes time and creates a disconnected customer experience.
If your support agents could access essential client information straight from Salesforce inside Freshdesk, enabling them to deliver more customized and efficient service. On the other hand, your sales team may get insights from client interactions handled by support personnel, ensuring that they approach each contract with the appropriate context.
What's the answer to this problem?
Integrating Freshdesk with Salesforce helps streamline your support and sales operations. Connecting these two strong systems results in a smooth flow of information that empowers both teams, boosts customer happiness, and simplifies operations. In this article, we'll guide you through the step-by-step process of connecting Freshdesk with Salesforce, emphasizing the important advantages along the way.
Why Integrate Freshdesk with Salesforce?
Before diving into the integration process, let’s explore why this connection is crucial for your business. Customer support and sales are two sides of the same coin. While Freshdesk helps your team manage customer inquiries and support tickets, Salesforce organizes your sales pipeline and customer data. By integrating them, you break down silos between these functions, leading to:
Support agents can instantly view Salesforce data related to a customer’s account, such as their purchase history or current deals. No more toggling between systems to find relevant information.
Personalized service has become the norm. Your support team can access a full customer profile from Salesforce, including past interactions and sales details, allowing them to resolve issues faster and with more insight.
Sales reps can stay informed about customer issues raised in Freshdesk. This helps them approach leads with empathy, knowing the full history of a customer’s pain points and resolutions.
By bridging the gap between Freshdesk and Salesforce, you’ll foster collaboration, speed up responses, and ensure customers receive a unified experience across both support and sales interactions.
Step 1: Preparing for the Integration
Before you begin integrating Freshdesk with Salesforce, it’s important to assess your current workflow and determine how the integration can best support your business goals. Consider the following:
Determine what your team needs from the integration. For instance, do you want sales reps to view support tickets, or do you want support agents to access Salesforce deal information? Understanding these use cases will help you configure the integration to meet your needs.
Not every user will need access to both systems. Define which teams will use the integration and what permissions they should have. For example, your support team might only need access to customer account details, while your sales team could benefit from seeing open support tickets.
What do you hope to achieve through integration? Whether it’s faster ticket resolution, increased sales, or improved customer satisfaction, having clear goals will help you measure the success of the integration.
Once you’ve assessed these factors, you’re ready to proceed with the integration process.
Step 2: Setting Up the Freshdesk-Salesforce Integration
1. Access the Freshdesk Marketplace
The easiest way to begin the integration process is through the Freshdesk Marketplace, where you can find the Salesforce app designed to connect both platforms. Follow these steps:
- Log in to your Freshdesk account.
- Navigate to the Freshdesk Marketplace by clicking on the 'Admin' icon and selecting 'Apps' from the menu.
- In the marketplace, search for “Salesforce” to find the integration app.
2. Install the Salesforce Integration
Once you’ve located the Salesforce app, follow these steps to install it:
- Click on the app and then select ‘Install.’
- You’ll be prompted to authorize the connection between Freshdesk and Salesforce. This step involves providing the necessary credentials for both platforms, so make sure you have admin access.
3. Configure the Integration Settings
After the app is installed, you’ll need to configure the integration settings based on your business requirements. Here’s how you can customize it:
- Map Freshdesk ticket fields with Salesforce objects. For instance, you can map a Freshdesk “Ticket Subject” to a Salesforce “Case Subject” or “Opportunity Name.” This ensures that data flows accurately between both systems.
- Set Sync Rules help to choose how often you want data to sync between Freshdesk and Salesforce. Real-time syncing is ideal for teams that need up-to-the-minute information, while less frequent syncing may work for teams with lower support volumes.
- Define Ticket Viewing Permissions help you can configure which Freshdesk agents are allowed to view or edit Salesforce data directly in Freshdesk. Similarly, you can decide which Salesforce users can view Freshdesk tickets from within Salesforce.
Once the integration settings are configured, you’re ready to start using both systems in tandem!
Step 3: Using the Integration for Customer Success
With the integration in place, it’s time to explore how it can transform your customer support and sales workflows.
1. Unified Customer View
The integration enables a unified customer view where support agents can access Salesforce records from within Freshdesk. This feature helps agents:
- View customer account details, such as previous purchases and ongoing sales deals, without leaving Freshdesk.
- Personalize responses based on the customer’s relationship with the company, improving the customer experience.
For example, if a VIP customer raises a support ticket, the agent will immediately see their high-value status in Salesforce and can prioritize the issue accordingly.
2. Syncing Support Tickets to Salesforce
Salesforce users can view and track Freshdesk support tickets related to their leads, contacts, and accounts. This insight allows sales reps to:
- Keep track of ongoing customer issues, making them better prepared for sales conversations.
- Collaborate with the support team to ensure that any customer complaints are addressed before attempting to upsell or cross-sell.
- For instance, if a sales rep sees that a customer has an unresolved support ticket, they can hold off on approaching them for a renewal or upgrade until the issue is resolved, creating a more customer-centric sales process.
3. Improved Reporting and Analytics
By syncing Freshdesk ticket data with Salesforce, you unlock more powerful reporting and analytics capabilities. Here’s how:
- Salesforce’s advanced reporting features allow you to track how customer support interactions impact sales.
- You can generate reports that show the correlation between resolved tickets and closed sales deals, providing valuable insights into the relationship between customer service and revenue.
- These reports can also help identify common support issues that may be hurting sales, allowing your team to proactively address pain points.
Step 4: Best Practices for Maintaining the Integration
Integrating Freshdesk with Salesforce is not a one-time task. To ensure it continues running smoothly and delivering value, follow these best practices:
- Schedule frequent sync tests to verify that data flows properly between Freshdesk and Salesforce. This will allow you to identify any possible problems or mismatches early on.
- Training for users teaches your support and sales staff how to maximize the integration's potential. Make certain that they understand how to access and use data from both platforms in their regular operations.
- Continuous Optimization while your company expands, your requirements may alter. Review the integration settings and field mappings regularly to ensure they are in sync with your existing operations. You may discover fields need to be modified or extra data must be synchronized.
A Seamless Customer Experience with Freshdesk and Salesforce
With a single customer perspective, salespeople are more educated, support workers are more empowered, and consumers get quicker, more customized service. This connection improves internal procedures and the customer experience, which is the aim of any customer-facing staff.
If you want to improve your support and sales alignment, the methods mentioned in here will put you on the right track. Don't delay; start integrating Freshdesk and Salesforce with Klamp now and see your team's productivity skyrocket.