While requests are few, getting them by email or Telegram is convenient. Once there are several managers and clients write more than once, confusion begins: who took the request, did anyone call back, how did it end. That is usually when a business sets up a CRM, and the question comes up of how to connect it to the site.
Below is how such a connection works, what to pass into it, and the most common mistakes.
Why a request should land in the CRM at once
When a manager copies requests from email by hand, some get lost, some get typos, and response time grows. Automatic transfer creates a deal or a client card the moment the form is sent. The manager sees it in their list, and the owner sees how many requests came in and how many were handled.
Which data to pass
- Name, phone, email, and message in separate fields, not one chunk of text
- The name of the form or page the request came from
- Campaign tags and the traffic source, to see which ads work
- The chosen service, product, or calculator settings, if the site has them
- Consent to data processing, if the form collects it
Source tags are especially useful together with analytics, covered in website analytics.
Duplicates and repeat requests
The same person may send a request twice: first through the form, then through a chat. If each request creates a new client, the database quickly fills with copies. Usually the connection is set up so the CRM looks the client up by phone or email and adds the new request to the existing card.
For that, the phone number is best normalised already on the site: no spaces or brackets, and with the country code.
What happens if the connection breaks
The CRM may be down, its access key may change, or its data format may shift after an update. If the site simply fails to send the request at that moment, it vanishes without a trace. A reliable setup always has a fallback:
- The request is saved on the site first and only then sent to the CRM
- On error, sending is retried after a while
- If retries fail, the developer gets an alert and the manager gets a copy by email or Telegram
Other causes of lost requests are collected in why site form requests go missing.
CRM and Telegram together
One does not get in the way of the other. The CRM stays the main record, and Telegram gets a short notice about each new request with a link to the card. The manager reacts quickly from the phone, and the whole client history stays in one place.
Before connecting, check that the CRM has an open way to receive data, and send a few test requests from different forms.
Sending requests to Telegram and a CRM is set up as part of Telegram lead delivery. If you need your site connected to a CRM, get in touch.