All posts by dtAdmin

Easy Issue Reporting for CRM

Dynamics Telephony includes a great feature you can use for reporting issues – be they on CRM or Dynamics Telephony. Agents have access to a “Report Issue” button that automatically collects the most recent 5 days of logs, a screen shot, timestamp and some details from the agent.

Click here for a Word Document you can edit and give to users to show them how to use Report Issue.

Using “Report Issue”

You may have the Report Issue button (1) on the toolbar:

report_issue_new_0

Note. This button is enabled in Advanced Settings.

Otherwise, click the Report Issue item in the window control-box, like this:

report_issue_step_1

Then fill in the details as best you can…If you do not have time now, then use the “Save for Sending Later button “(2)

report_issue_new_1

View and annotate the screen snap like this. Use the RESET button to remove all annotations.

report_issue_step_3

Click SEND. The report will be sent to IT Support

Configure “Report Issue”

IMPORTANT: Port 85 must be open to the internet. E.g. you must be able to navigate, for every users PC, to http://dtms.westeurope.cloudapp.azure.com:85/test.aspx

Configure the email address to send the report to. If you leave this blank it will be sent to Dynamics Telephony Support. You can use a comma-separated list of email addresses.

report_issue_step_4

Select whether you want critical errors that Dynamics Telephony detects silently, are sent to the email address configured in the previous step.

report_issue_step_5

Turn on impersonation

When you turn on impersonation in DT, entities created by DT are done so on behalf of the current user instead of the DT User.

To turn it on you need to
1. Enter the Organization URI
You get this in CRM > Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources > Organization Service

2. Check the “Impersonate User” checkbox

turn_on_impersonation

3. Restart your DT Client

NOTE
Only one DT Client should be running during this configuration

 

Display actual start with time

The default phonecall entity view on your Dynamics 365 CRM may be showing Actual Start and Actual End with only date, not with time. Here is how to get time to be displayed too.

1. CRM > Settings > Customizations

2. Click “Customize the system”

3.  Expand “Entities” and then “Phonecall” and click on “Fields”

4. In the Fields, double-click on Actual End

5. Near the bottom of the field settings from, you will see “Format” – change this to “Date and Time”

6. “Save & Close”

7. Repeat steps 4-6 for “Actual Start”

8. Publish All Customizations

phonecall_actualEnd_time

IT planing for CRM impact

Dynamics Telephony policy is to have as little impact on your CRM as possible. Here are the impacts you need to consider.

As part of or submission to the Microsoft AppSource Store, install and basic tests were carried out by Microsoft Engineers. this led us to be a Preferred Solution on the AppSource

Admin Level User will be required during the install phase. This is to allow for the installation of the entities described later. This user needs to be allowed install a solution in your CRM.

Authentication. Dynamics Telephony supports all authentication methods supported by CRM online or on-premises. When users use Dynamics Telephony, they simply logon to CRM as normal.

HTTPS and HTTP are both supported. The certificate for HTTPS needs to be trusted by Internet Explorer.

Install procedure is described HERE

Entities Installed by Dynamics Telephony are listed HERE. The entities, fields and dashboards are all standalone with no impact on your standard entities on the Dynamics Telephony entities. They are installed as a solution that you can request to inspect. They can be uninstalled with no impact on your CRM.

Entities written by dynamics Telephony during operation:
– Dynamics Telephony entity records.
Phonecall due to click-to-dial or incoming calls.
Note due to click-to-dial or incoming calls.
– (optional) create lead/contact for unknown caller.
These records are written using the logged-on user. See relationships below:

entities for click to dial

DT Entities installed in CRM

The following items are installed in your CRM by Dynamics Telephony for its own use. They are stand-alone entities that can be uninstalled without affecting your own data.

  1. DialerCall – data for every call made or received
  2. DialerCallEvent – every telephony event (dial, answer, etc.)
  3. DialerCallResult – every reported Outcome
  4. DialerCallOutcome – Outcome buttons configuration
  5. DialerDNIS – configure inbound lines
  6. DialerUser – realtime user status for RTD
  7. DialerKV – Global and per user settings
  8. DialerPhonebook – user extension numbers for easy transfers
  9. DialerQueue – callbacks for the progressive dialer
  10. DialerQueueEvent – Dynamics Telephony Phone system and Asterisk only. Event log of agent joining or leaving an inbound call queue.
  11. DialerQueueSettings – progressive dialer settings based on CRM queues
  12. dtThisWeek, month, day, year dashboards – Dashboards to display statistics
  13. dtRTD – web resource to display agent realtime status
  14. Phonecall fields – fields added to phonecall entity for telephony data and the call recording link
  15. Phonecall form – a simplified form for users to take notes on a call.
  16. Webresources, including our API and images for our dashboards.

How to disable click-to-dial phonecall popout

When you do a click-to-dial in Dynamics 365 CRM, a new phonecall activity is automatically opened in CRM for you. Your telephony connector (e.g. Dynamics Telephony) may also adds a phonecall activity, so you can end up with 2 for the one call. Follow this procedure to suppress the phonecall popout that Dynamics 365 CRM creates.

UPDATE: Dynamics Telephony now has a setting to disable this click-to-dial phonecall popout for all CRM Entity Forms, and for all versions of Dynamics 365 CRM up to and including 9.2. See Dynamics Telephony Menu > Settings > Click to dial Configuration: Block CRM Phonecall [ON/OFF]

WARNING: THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED CUSTOMIZATION, but it can be easily removed.

1. Create a JavaScript Webresource in CRM and paste in the following code into the Text Editor as shown in the screenshot belowsuppress_c2d_popout_webresource

function suppress_C2D_Popout() {
  parent.Mscrm.ReadFormUtilities.openPhoneClient = function(phoneNumber) {
    if (!IsNull(phoneNumber)) {
      parent.Mscrm.Shortcuts.openPhoneWindow(phoneNumber, window.PHONE_NUMBER_DEFAULT_COUNTRY_CODE,"True");
    }
  };
}

2. Add the webresource to the Form you want to be affected by this change. E.g. just the Contact form. Link the JavaScript function suppress_C2D_Popout, to the Form.OnLoad function. See screensnap below.

suppress_c2d_popout_form_properties

3CX Settings

You can use SIP (phonecalls are via PC headset) or TAPI (phonecalls are via deskphone) on 3CX with Dynamics Telephony inbound and outbound dialer on Microsoft Dynamics 365.

For TAPI, follow these steps

1. Get the 3CX plugins from here
https://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/crm-plugins/

2. Run the setup and pick TAPI from the list of components to install

3. Restart the PC

4. Start Dynamics Telephony and launch Settings from the menu
– Pick TAPI from the Telephony Provider list
– In Provider Account set TAPI Version to 2.1

You should now be controlling your desktop phone

Troubleshooting:
– Try running Dialer from Start Menu > Run
– Select menu “Connect Using” and make sure 3CX driver in list
– If you have more than one address controlled by TAPI, you will need to specify it in:
Dynamics Telephony Cog > Settings > Provider Account > DN

What will CTI do for your business

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is a technology that enables a computer to control a telephone i.e. the user can easily make/receive calls without even touching an actual telephone. The most common application of CTI is a “screen-pop” that has the ability to populate the computer screen with caller information and history but in recent times, “click to dial”, campaign dialling, voicemail drop are fast becoming standard CTI features. If the integration is one of quality, then all these features are embedded in your CRM leaving you with just one application open on the desktop.

What will CTI do for your business

Easy Handling of Calls Embedded in CRM

Forget about your phone buttons when CTI is enabled.  Your staff can easily make and receive calls with simple mouse-clicks within your CRM. The CRM is enabled with advanced call control functions such as answer, hang up, hold, conference and transfer etc., making it simple to run the entire calling process. A good CTI application will have the ability to configure department directories so that calling, transferring calls with your organization is easy.

Detailed Information of the Customer is Available with the call

Your staff can scan through the detailed information and past history of the caller with the help of automated “screen pop”. As soon as the call is routed to the relevant department, the data of the customer stored in your CRM is “popped” when the call arrives. This empowers your people to have a more personalized and informed conversation with customers, thereby engaging them well and making them feel more valued. It also improves productivity by reducing the call handling time as there is no delay having to manually search between different databases to find the customer’s details.

Integration of Call Logs and Caller Data in one place

CTI permits integration of phone-call log and caller data such as call history, personal information, purchase history, cases and support tickets etc. – all in your CRM. These statistics can be used for reporting and creating dashboards offering you complete control of your operation and the ability to react in real time to increased call traffic, reduced staffing levels etc.

Customer data travels with the call if transferred to another person

If agents face issues while solving a customer’s query, they can immediately ask their supervisors for help. Agents can initiate a conference call and include their supervisors so as to help answer the customer’s question. Your staff can also transfer the call to other departments if required using the directories embedded in the CRM. Availability of CTI eliminates the need of repeating the information all over again, in case of call transfers, thereby reducing customer frustration.

Increased Productivity/Efficiency

CTI implementation helps contact centers to reduce the average duration of each call, thus ensuring higher productivity of agents. The spare time can be utilized for handling other calls which eliminates the need of adding more staff and maybe doing some outbound activity. A good CTI implementation will have a outbound dialer module which allows you to import outbound campaign lists from your CRM and automate the dialling, call back re-scheduling and logging of all activity to your CRM

Enhanced Caller Experience

By knowing the identity of the caller before receiving a call and greeting the caller by name enables agents to offer a more personalized experience.  Not having to repeat the information is a great benefit to the customer. All these reduce the complexity of the call and make it a satisfying experience for both the agents and the callers. Call duration time are greatly reduced, which in turn allows for more calls to be dealt with.

Pop and Auto-Dial CRM Opportunities

Dynamics Telephony is perfect if you use CRM Opportunities, where it can pop Opportunities (if there are any open for the caller) or pop the callers Contact record. Furthermore, the phonecall activities are logged against the Opportunities as appropriate.

Even better, you can use the Dynamics Telephony Queues Dialer feature to auto-feed Opportunities to users for processing, including calling the customer. Opportunities can be added to the Dynamics Telephony Dialer Queue just like any other entity.

How to get Dynamics Telephony to pop an Opportunity based on the callers phone number

In Dynamics 365, Opportunities have no phone numbers by default. So you need to add one, or more, for Dynamics Telephony to search for. It does not need to be put on the opportunity form itself. Add a custom field to the Opportunity entity. Set it as a “Single Line of Text” (format: phone) field that is calculated based on the related contact phone number. You can add multiple phone-number fields if you like. See here for how to add the field.

TIP: Set a condition that the opportunity must be open (status=active) for the phone number to be populated. In this way, only open opportunities will match and pop.

In the custom entity dialerKVtable, add an entry for each custom field created above..
type: phone
Value: new_telephone1 – the name of custom field
scope: global
Parent: <blank>
Name: incomingLookup_opportunity
Key: 1 – the order of lookup in this entity. If you add multiple phone numbers in the opportunity, be sure to increment this for each entry.

Also in dialerKVtable entity, add another two entries as follows for the primary text to display
Key: opportunity
Name: entityPrimaryNames
Parent: AppSettings
Scope: global
Type: string
Value: name *

Key: name *
Name: incomingLookup_opportunity
Parent: <blank>
Scope: global
Type: name
Value: name *

NOTE: The above will display the Title of the opportunity. You might prefer to create another custom field on the Opportunity that combines customer name and Title. This will be useful for multi-match. It must be a string custom field. Replace “name” above with your custom field name (3 places marked *)

In Dynamics Telephony settings > Inbound set..
Lookup entities: opportunity

TIP: If you set above to “opportunity,contact” then Dynamics Telephony will pop the contact if there are no open opportunities. However, if there is one open opportunity you will get a multi-match to choose between the opportunity and the contact.

What is CTI – CTI Tutorial

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is a technology that enables your PC to control/monitor your phone. In particular, it closely ties your CRM and phone system together. For this blog, I will be talking about these three common CTI features:
Click to dial – You can make calls with a “click” – without touching an actual telephone.
Screen pop – Automatically populate your CRM view with caller’s information and history.
Call logging – All inbound and outbound calls are logged against the customer in CRM

There are many more advanced CTI features we will deal with in later blogs, such as
– Route callers to the most appropriate agent, based on CRM data.
– Add call recording links to the interaction history in CRM
– Outbound efficiency through Progressive Dialer in CRM
– Tracking marketing success of your inbound phone numbers
– Automating workflows based on CTI information
– IVR and CRM integration
– Callbacks, including web callbacks
– Outbound calling with marketing automation
– See a colleague’s presence before transfer
– Screen and call transfer
– Telephony performance data in CRM – unified reporting
– Customer experience measurement using CTI

CTI has helped contact centers to gain a competitive advantage by enabling them to take a more data-driven approach while interacting with the customers. Call centers have witnessed significant reductions in costs, decreased call handle time, enhanced production and more control of the outbound operation.

In the past, many organizations have shied away from implementing CTI based applications, as they had a reputation for being unwieldy in the extreme and the degree of difficulty in implementing those applications effectively, was only matched by the high cost associated with their purchase.

However, CTI is definitely now available off-the-shelf for most CRMs. Some implementations are highly advanced and suitable for premium contact centers. The feature levels will vary, but you should check out what is readily implementable for your CRM.

So, what are the benefits of our three focus CTI features?

Save time on every call.
It could be that the callers CRM records are automatically popped to the agent event before they answer the call. Or the handy transfer buttons in CRM for a smooth transfer to another agent or department. Or not having to manually log every call in CRM. Or simply saving finger-trouble when making outbound calls. All these will save time on every call. Typically the savings are 15 to 30 seconds per call. That adds up quickly with all the calls you are handling.

If it’s not in CRM, it didn’t happen.
Agents no longer have to remember to log calls in CRM. That’s all automatic with CTI. And that also means you now have the data to plan accurately. Or it will save a lot of heartache when absence of a note in CRM translates to customer conflict.

Save money on every call
The screen-pop and easy transfers offered by CTI will result in shorter AHT (Average Handling Time). So, since agents will get through calls quicker, that will yield an immediate cost saving. Furthermore, since the hold times on your expensive toll-free numbers will be shorter, there is a cash saving there too. shorter hold time on your expensive toll-free numbers

Customers will love you that little bit more – and every little helps
The name of the game in retaining customers is to have them trust and love you so they won’t leave easily. The faster call handling, personalization, smooth and speedy start to the call that CTI enables will add to the trust and love your customers have for you.

To Do: Research the basic CTI available for your CRM and phone-system combination. Google something like: Dynamics crm “screen pop” avaya