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answering services andapplication program interfaces (APIs)OVERVIEWThe majority of businesses are dependent on atleast one piece of software (if not several) and that’swhy software developers have created ApplicationProgram Interfaces - also know as APIs. In thispaper we discuss what APIs are and why you shouldconsider using an answering service or contactcenter that knows how to work with them directly.
situationOver the past 5-10 years the business software industryhas grown exponentially. Whether you’re looking fora database to handle your sales leads, an accountingprogram to handle your invoicing or a calendaringsolution to manage scheduling you’ll have a plethoraof options at your fingertips just by performing a quickGoogle search.“sometimesit is crucialfor one pieceof softwareto work orintegrate withanother”In many ways, the software industry’s growth has beenextremely beneficial for businesses, not only because thereare more software options for handling various businessprocesses, but also because competition in the markethas forced prices down and forced software vendors todifferentiate by providing more features and better customerservice. However, there is a downside to having so manydifferent options. Sometimes it’s crucial that one piece ofsoftware needs to work with another yet there is no built-inway to integrate the two platforms. For instance, when youhave a calendaring solution that tracks client appointments,but you use separate accounting software to invoice clientsfor those appointments. Should you have to enter customercontact details and appointments in two different places? Thisapproach would be time consuming while also leaving youwith the potential to make errors when entering the data inmore than one place.Additionally, what if you want to use a third party to handlesome aspect of running your business? For instance, if youwant to hire an answering service to answer your phone callsand you use Salesforce to track all sales inquiries. Should thelearn what answerfirst can do for your business at answerfirst.com or call 800.645.2616answering services and application program interfaces An AnswerFirst Whitepaper2
answering service be given access to your Salesforce account?Do their Customer Service Professionals even know how touse Salesforce? What if they enter information into Salesforceincorrectly? Or, should the answering service just answer yourphone calls and pass messages to your sales team forcing yoursales associates to enter the information into Salesforce whenthey have time? What if your sales team loses messages orforgets to do the data entry?As you can see there are a lot of potential issues andlimitations surrounding the use of various business softwareplatforms, but the software industry has a solution. Have youheard the term API? It stands for “Application ProgrammingInterface.” According to Wikipedia, an API “is a set ofsubroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for buildingapplication software.” That definition sounds complicated,“apis make iteasier fordevelopersto build newapplications,and to makeexistingapplicationscommunicatewith eachother”but in layman’s terms APIs make it easier for developers tobuild new applications and to make existing applicationscommunicate with each other.What does this mean for you and your business?It means that if the calendaring solution and invoicingsoftware we mentioned earlier offer publicly availableAPIs, it’s very possible that a programmer could make yourcalendaring solution “talk” to your invoicing system suchthat every time you confirm an appointment the calendaringsystem tells your invoicing system to bill your client withoutyou having to take any additional steps.APIs also have the potential to allow service providers theability to integrate with your business software in a waythat’s secure and efficient. Let’s look back at the example of thelearn what answerfirst can do for your business at answerfirst.com or call 800.645.2616answering services and application program interfaces An AnswerFirst Whitepaper3
answering service and Salesforce. If you choose an answeringservice that knows how to work with the Salesforce API then theservice can connect to your customer database via their answeringservice platform. What are the advantages of this configuration?Salesforce account is safe because there is Yourno need for operators to ever directly log-in to it.“there isno need topay costlytraining feeswhen using apiintegrations”The answering service operators will never have yourSalesforce account credentials because by using an APIintegration the operators work within the answeringservice’s software platform - which interacts with yourSalesforce account behind the scenes. In fact, theoperators don’t even know what software solution you’reusing as they’re just entering data into the answeringservice software as they do for any other account.no need to worry about whether or not There’sthe answering service operators know how touse Salesforce.Again, the operators never log-in to your Salesforceaccount. Also, there’s no need to pay costly training feesthat some answering services charge to get their operators“up to speed” on the software you’re using. The APIintegration between the answering service platform andyour Salesforce account circumvents the need for that.worry about losing valuable customer Don’tdata due to human error.If the answering service is just taking messages andforwarding them to your sales team then there’s achance that customer contact data might not getlearn what answerfirst can do for your business at answerfirst.com or call 800.645.2616answering services and application program interfaces An AnswerFirst Whitepaper4
entered into Salesforce. By entering the customercontact info directly into Salesforce via an APIintegration you can be sure that messages won’t getlost in the shuffle and customer data is properly storedwhere it belongs in your Salesforce account.your answering service account set-up Haveand running quickly.Since there’s no need to train operators to useSalesforce there’s no need to wait. Have the answeringservice hook its platform into your Salesforce accountand start forwarding your calls.“there areseveraladvantagesto choosingan answeringservice thatworks withapis”As you can see, there are several advantages to choosingan answering service that knows how to work with APIs.At AnswerFirst, we have worked with many differentbusiness software APIs including: Salesforce, ServiceNow,ConnectWise, Open Weather, CoStrategix, Followup Boss,JIRA, Jituzu, Law Ruler, Solve360, RazorSync, SMTP.com,TimeTap, Twilio, ZenDesk, Fresh Desk, Kayako and more.If you’re looking to outsource your business communications,but you’re worried that a contact center won’t be able tohelp you because software is an important aspect of how youhandle your incoming calls or emails, then try AnswerFirst. Ourprogramming department is extremely proficient at integratingour contact center platform with third-party software via APIintegrations.VISIT ANSWERFIRST.COM OR Call800.645.2616 for more infolearn what answerfirst can do for your business at answerfirst.com or call 800.645.2616answering services and application program interfaces An AnswerFirst Whitepaper5
answering services and application program interfaces 4 learn what answerfirst can do for your business at answerfirst.com or call .45.2 answering service and Salesforce. If you choose an answering service that knows how to work with the Salesforce API then the service can connect to your customer database via their answering service platform.
