Chatbot Integration with CRM: Importance, Use Cases, and How-To Steps

Chatbots are becoming the virtual employees businesses love to have. They can handle customer queries, generate/qualify leads, automate repetitive tasks, and do much more. In fact, 80% of sales and marketing leaders have implemented or plan to integrate chatbots into customer experience.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is also a crucial component for business growth. It centralizes customer data, tracks interactions, and provides insights to improve the relationship with customers.

Chatbot integration with CRM can create a powerful synergy that can enhance customer experience and operational efficiency to a great extent. Therefore, we have designed this guide to emphasize the importance of the chatbot and CRM relationship and how to integrate them. In addition, you will also learn about the top AI chatbot platforms for CRM that you can consider.

Why Should We Integrate CRM with a Chatbot?

Before we get into the technicalities of AI chatbot integration with CRM, let's understand why it is important for modern businesses.

Today's customers are different from what they used to be two decades ago. They now expect businesses to offer rapid and personalized interactions. Integrating enterprise chatbots with CRM systems is a strategic move that can transform your customer engagement and operational efficiency.

Enhanced Customer Service and Satisfaction

Did you know that 83% of CRM leaders say that AI has enhanced their customer service response time and positively impacted their customer satisfaction score?

Imagine that a customer sends a message at 2 a.m., and a CRM-integrated chatbot is in place to assist them. The chatbot can immediately retrieve customer details and past interactions, and then provide a personalized response to help the customer. Won't the customer love this rapid and personalized experience?

CRM integration makes the chatbot more intelligent and increases the first-contact resolution rate, as the AI agent has all the information to offer the best solutions that meet customer needs.

In short, the 24/7 automated and smart support leads to faster response times and higher customer satisfaction. Plus, the human agent team gets to only focus on complex queries, which enhances their productivity.

Increased Sales Productivity and Lead Conversion

An AI chatbot for CRM is not just a virtual customer support agent. It asks customers questions about their issues, goals, budget, suggestions, and more. It also collects their contact details, such as name, number, email, etc. Simply put, it is strategically generating, qualifying, and converting leads to increase sales.

On top of that, all the information the chatbot collects is recorded in the CRM in real-time. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and helps the sales and marketing teams to use the lead information to run and refine marketing campaigns and personalize sales conversations.

41% of businesses using chatbots for sales have experienced an average increase of 67% in sales. Therefore, AI chatbot integration with CRM systems is directly linked to increased sales productivity and lead conversion.

Improved Data Quality and Operational Efficiency

If the above two reasons are not enough to integrate CRM with a chatbot, how about improved data quality and operational efficiency?

Don't you want an automated system integrated with CRM that can automatically capture, validate, and update customer information in real time? No human errors, extensive manual work, and inconsistencies!

CRM with chatbot integration provides more authentic and clear data. This leads to more accurate analytics and effective use of marketing and sales strategies. In addition, the staff gets to focus on higher-value tasks instead of wasting their energy on routine ones.

According to Salesforce, 64% of agents with AI chatbots get to focus more on addressing complex issues. Therefore, a chatbot with CRM integration is your key to smarter business operations.

How Can a CRM Chatbot Effectively Optimise Your Workflow?

CRM chatbot is not a new concept or something that needs testing; it is already helping enterprises modernize their business operations. It is smoothing internal workflows and improving customer interactions.

Below are some of the effective use cases of CRM chatbot in optimizing the workflows:

Customer Support + FAQ Automation

One of the most common use cases of an AI chatbot for CRM is to handle customer support queries. Customers often have similar questions, which human agents have to answer if there is no chatbot.

With a chatbot, businesses can automate answering FAQs and free agents to deal with only technical issues. For example, Dagaz Agency is a digital marketing and strategy firm that offers a 24/7 chatbot on its website to answer customer questions.

Schedule Meeting

The CRM chatbot can help customers schedule a meeting instantly. Instead of making a call or waiting for a human agent to schedule, the chatbot provides an automated way to schedule a meeting.

For example, GoFintech Quantum Innovation offers financial consulting, investment planning, insurance, and wealth management services. Once you provide the requested details to the chatbot, it can schedule the meeting for you.

Lead Qualification & Routing

Chatbots can collect and score leads in real time. It will ask for the necessary details from the customer and then store the information in the CRM system. It can also automatically route high-potential prospects to the right sales reps.

For example, personalized chatbots can 2x lead-to-pipeline conversion rates and also reduce time spent on manual lead qualification by about 40%.

Personalized Recommendations

As mentioned earlier, the CRM chatbot also drives sales with personalized recommendations. It can pull out the customers' past history and understand their needs to recommend the best-suited products.

For example, PTB Sales is a precision mechanical parts manufacturing and sales company. Its integrated chatbot can understand the customer's requirements and then provide personalized recommendations.

Other Use Cases

There are many other impactful use cases of CRM chatbots, including:

• Internal process automation
• Support ticketing
• Crafting personalized cold and follow-up emails
• Analyze business data

In short, AI chatbot integration with CRM systems leads to a powerful combination that automates repetitive tasks, enhances customer engagement, and drives smarter decision-making.

How to Integrate an AI Chatbot with a CRM System

Integrating chatbots with CRM systems isn't a deep technical work due to the availability of intuitive AI chatbot platforms. Now you can use the visual/no-code builder to design the complete chatbot flow without any technical skills and then integrate it with your CRM system.

Here are the main steps you need to follow to integrate an AI chatbot with a CRM system:

Step 1. Understand Your Objectives

First things first, you need to set a plan with measurable objectives. It can be like "reducing customer response times by 30%", "cutting support costs by 25%", and similar others.

Step 2. Choose a CRM-Compatible Chatbot Platform

Next, you need to pick the right AI chatbot platform that offers native or API-based integration with your CRM system. Other than that, you also have to consider its intuitive interface, features, security compliance, and more. The next part of this guide lists the top 10 AI chatbot platforms for CRM.

Step 3. Design the Workflow and Map Data Fields Accurately

Now, use the visual builder of the chatbot platform to design the bot's workflow. You have to align chatbot data inputs with corresponding CRM fields for smooth data flow. For example, map chatbot-collected lead information (name, email, phone, inquiry type) directly to CRM lead or contact records.

In addition, you have to configure smart automation rules and workflows, such as lead scoring, meeting scheduling, support ticket creation, etc. By the end of this step, you should have the final design of the chatbot ready.

Step 4. Test and Deploy the Integration

Test your CRM chatbot using the Debug mode and try out different input combinations to check its responses. Also, monitor the CRM record and ensure the integration is working accurately.

Once satisfied, you can deploy the chatbot to your website, social media channels, or other communication platforms.

Step 5. Monitor and Optimize Over Time

Over time, review the performance of your chatbot using the platform's dashboard and analytics. Based on that, you should optimize its performance regularly.

Top 10 AI chatbot Platforms for CRM

The key to maximizing the outcomes of AI chatbot integration with CRM is using the right chatbot platform. The ideal platform is the one that offers a user-friendly interface, a visual builder to design the chatbot flow, advanced AI capabilities, and smooth integration with CRM.

Considering these points in mind, we have shortlisted below the top 10 AI chatbot platforms for CRM:

GPTBots AI Agent

GPTBots AI Agent is our top pick to build an AI chatbot for CRM due to its advanced features and built-in integrations. It helps you create different end-to-end AI chatbots for customer support, marketing campaigns, data insights, internal operations, and more.

 

Overall, GPTBots shines as a modern and feature-packed platform to build an AI chatbot for your business and leverage AI across different business operations.

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Controllable LLM deployment
• Easy bot training with corporate knowledge base
• Excellent integration capabilities
• Multilingual chatbot

Cons

• May need onboarding support for large enterprises

Zendesk AI

If your organization is using Zendesk CRM, you can easily create and integrate a chatbot with Zendesk AI. This platform can create powerful and context-aware chatbots for customer support and other purposes. It is trainable with internal knowledge bases and provides personalized customer interactions with sentiment analysis. It also provides deep integration with the Zendesk ecosystem and is deployable across different channels.

Pros

• Easy to use for non-technical teams
• Complete integration with the Zendesk ecosystem
• Corporate knowledge base training

Cons

• Not best suited for companies not using Zendesk
• Less frequent feature updates
• Limited customization beyond the Zendesk ecosystem

Botpress

Botpress is another top-tier tool for building and having AI chatbot integration with CRM systems. It offers a complete platform for businesses to build chatbots powered by the latest LLMs. It also provides a visual canvas to create a chatbot flow without coding. It can sync with your databases, internal knowledge, and systems to make chatbot responses accurate and context-aware. After creating a chatbot, you can integrate it with a CRM tool and other communication platforms.

Pros

• Visual drag-and-drop canvas
• LLM-powered and context-aware chatbots
• Multi-language support
• Handle complex enterprise use cases

Cons

• Require technical expertise for full-fledged use
• Limited pre-designed templates

ChatBot

ChatBot is an intuitive SaaS builder to create an AI chatbot for CRM. Its visual builder provides a drag-and-drop interface to design the complete chatbot flow within minutes. You can create a chatbot for customer support, schedule meetings, generate/convert leads, and much more. Moreover, you can train the bot with the enterprise knowledge base.

Pros

• Drag and drop visual builder
• Build a chatbot for various business operations
• Automate internal repetitive tasks
• Integrate with CRM, website, Messenger, Slack, etc.
• Top-notch security and compliance

Cons

• Limited handling of complex queries

Markovate

Markovate is a chatbot builder to create AI agents for complex activities. It does not provide a visual platform. Instead, a team of experts creates the chatbot for you. The experts discuss and understand your requirements and then develop the tailored chatbot you need. They also handle the CRM and other integrations.

Pros

• Expert-guided chatbot creation
• Multi-language support
• Use the latest AI tools and technologies
• Integration across multiple channels

Cons

• No visual builder for self-customization
• Less flexibility to change or adapt chatbot functionality
• Higher cost and dependency

Chatfuel

Chatfuel is another go-to tool to build and have chatbot integration with dynamics CRM. Just like many other platforms, you get a visual builder to design the chatbot without coding. You can create a chatbot for answering FAQs, booking appointments, qualifying leads, recommending products, and more. Afterward, you can connect the chatbot with Zapier, Hubspot, Google Sheets, Calendly, and more.

Pros

• Visual and intuitive builder
• Create a chatbot for diverse scenarios
• Multi-language support
• Wide integration

Cons

• May struggle to fulfill complex needs

Kore.ai

Kore.ai is a SaaS platform for creating and integrating chatbots with CRM systems. It offers no-code tools to create custom agents or use pre-built ones for customer service, process automation, work productivity, etc. It also offers drag-and-drop development tools, intelligent orchestration, enterprise search capabilities, 100s of pre-built integrations, and more.

Pros

• No-code and drag-and-drop tools
• Pre-designed templates
• Support 120+ languages
• 100s of integrations

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Higher cost

WotNot

WotNot is an intuitive chatbot platform that offers an interface with over 40 chat elements. It lets you create a chatbot for customer support, lead generation, and appointment booking. You can build the custom chatbot yourself or have a team of experts do it for you. Plus, you can integrate the created chatbot with CRM platforms, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.

Pros

• User-friendly no-code visual builder
• Build chatbots yourself or get help from expert services
• Multi-channel deployment
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting

Cons

• Limited customization
• Learning curve to build complex chatbot flows

Yellow.ai

Yellow.ai is an agile AI-powered customer service platform. It lets businesses create a customer support chatbot to automate support across chat, voice, and email channels. The chatbots created with Yellow.ai can understand queries and interact with customers in 135+ languages. Furthermore, it connects with your existing systems through 150+ integrations.

Pros

• Advanced AI-powered agents
• 135+ language support
• 150+ integrations, including major CRMs (Zendesk, Salesforce, etc.)
• High automation and efficiency

Cons

• Learning curve
• Higher cost for small businesses
• Time-consuming initial setup

Landbot

Landbot is an AI chatbot generator for customer service, sales, and marketing teams. The chatbot can automate interaction with customers across multiple channels and lead to 3x more leads, 10x more appointments, and improved customer satisfaction. It provides built-in integration with popular tools, including Zapier, Slack, WordPress, WhatsApp, etc.

Pros

• No-code visual builder
• Multi-language support
• Create chatbots with diverse applications
• Smooth integration with other tools

Cons

• WhatsApp integration is expensive
• AI chat credits add to the cost

Conclusion

Chatbot integration with CRM is linked to improved customer experience, increased sales, and improved data quality and decision-making. Therefore, it isn't a choice but a necessity to have an AI-powered CRM chatbot to stay competitive.

You can choose any of the above platforms to create and integrate a CRM chatbot, but GPTBots stands out as the best due to its advanced features, which are lacking in others. Its controllable LLM deployment, powerful visual builder, dedicated experts' guidance, and smooth CRM integration make it a go-to platform to create AI chatbots.

Sign up with GPTBots and take the first step toward optimizing your customer engagement and operational efficiency.