Helpdesk versus CRM

Helpdesks and CRMs are tools that serve different purposes. Most customers implement other processes in a Helpdesk than they do in a CRM. babelforce is aware of that and therefore offers a variety of features that enable you to build the processes you need in your CRM and Helpdesk. In this article we want to delimit Helpdesks from CRMs by explaining their different purposes and how babelforce enables you to make the most out of both of them.

Inbound versus Outbound

The main goal of using integrations with CRMs is to keep track of your different leads and manage your marketing campaigns. Hence, the main focus lies on outbound calls.

If you integrate babelforce with a helpdesk, your objectives might differ slightly to those of a CRM. Your focus might lie more on answering customer requests and questions as efficiently as possible. Instead of focusing on outbound telephony, you are giving higher priority to your inbound calls.

Leads versus contacts 

In your helpdesk, the focus lies on managing incoming customer requests and having the customer information stored lucidly. This information might include customer number and product interest or information about ongoing customer requests, etc.

In contrary, a CRM focuses on potential customers, the leads. For users of CRMs, different information may be interesting, regarding the call activities with these leads. For example, when have these leads been called and how often? When is the next call scheduled with them, etc. The call scheduling brings us to the next point:

Automated dialer campaigns

Both, users of CRMs and helpdesks might be interested in outbound dialer campaigns (OBD), but they might use it for different purposes: helpdesk users might take advantage of the OBD by setting up campaigns to gather customer information and carry out surveys. CRM users can create lists of leads they want to contact regularly and schedule calls with them.

Tickets versus Call Records

In a helpdesk, incoming customer requests (and outgoing information) are stored in form of tickets. These tickets include all information about a particular request and customer information. They can be used for both, internal notes and written follow up with customers.

In CRMs, we work with call records and activities, respectively. They include call and lead information and can be used to create new contacts and leads. However, they cannot be used for written follow ups with the (potential) customer, but merely serve for documentation purposes.

babelforce offers slightly different options for CRMs and helpdesks regarding various areas of our service, for example when it comes to setting up Automations for different integrations. Now that you know the differences between CRMs and helpdesks, you can focus on implementing those processes and Automation flows which help you implement your company's personal objectives. But before we move to setting up our call flow Automations, let's dive into the topic of integration setup.