The Curious Case of CRMs and Email Integrations: A Mismatch that Needs Resolution

In today’s business landscape, the synergy between tools can spell the difference between operational efficiency and a chaotic mishmash of functionalities. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system sits at the heart of this scenario. It is designed to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle. Yet, curiously enough, one of the most foundational tools of business communication—email—often finds itself awkwardly integrated, or worse, omitted from many CRM systems.

The Significance of Email Integrations in CRMs

Ubiquity of Email: Even with the advent of various communication channels, email remains a primary touchpoint for businesses. It’s a direct line to customers, partners, and prospects.
Traceable Communication: Emails can serve as evidence of communications, decisions, and transactions, crucial for many businesses.
Automation Potential: From drip campaigns to ticketing systems, the potential for automation through email is vast and can significantly streamline operations.
Capturing User Attention: Email is not just a tool; for many sales reps, it’s their primary workspace. A well-integrated CRM-email system aligns with their workflow, ensuring they remain engaged and active. This seamless integration is critical because it increases CRM adoption rates.

The Dilemma: CRMs Falling Short

Despite its importance, many CRM users find the email integration to be lacking:

Inconsistent Syncing: Some users report that their emails don’t consistently sync between their email client and CRM, leading to missed communications or duplicate records.
Limited Functionality: Instead of a full-fledged email client experience, users often get a watered-down version, missing out on features they rely on.
Complicated Setups: While some CRMs offer email integrations, the setup process can be cumbersome and not very intuitive.

Voices from the Trenches

It’s not just a handful who feel this way. Several forum discussions highlight the struggles users face:

Atlas CRM Users have been waiting for any kind of email integration since 2017

Does anybody know if Atlas CRM is able to sync with Gmail? Considering using it as a CRM and need to have emails pulled into Company/Contact records in the CRM.
Monday CRM users waited for email syncing for two years

I too would love to see the email integration track outgoing emails in addition to the current tracking of the incoming emails.
Monday CRM: Add attachments to email integrations

Up vote a million times! This is a much needed addition to Monday!
Monday not providing hosted MS Exchange integrations

Our org has its own hosted email on premise. I really can’t believe there isn’t another way to integrate email especially since competitors can do it.
Pipedrive not providing an Outlook addon

We’ve had an Outlook add-on in the past, but it was discontinued and as far as I know it won’t be brought back, unfortunately.
Pipedrive having email sync issues

We are having persistent email Sync, Contact Sync, & Calendar Sync issues.
Copper CRM not providing any Outlook email integrations

Oh gosh… Not using Gmail and using Copper is a recipe for disaster.
Copper sunsetting their Google Workspace Addon

I’m a big fan of the add-on for the workspace, most inconvenient that it is down. When can we expect this to be back online?
Hubspot still not providing fully automated email syncing

Allow users to simply enter their email usernames and passwords so that HubSpot automatically logs emails without having to install apps etc.
Hubspot not providing historic email logging

I’m not aware of any out-of-the-box solution here, unfortunately.

Desired Features for Seamless Email Integrations in CRMs

In today’s dynamic business environment, a CRM is more than just a contact management system. Especially when it comes to email integration, users have distinct expectations that can revolutionize their workflow:

CRM Accessibility in the Inbox
- Gmail and Outlook Add-ons: Users should be able to update, access, and use the CRM directly from within their email environment. This includes logging notes, updating records, or even pulling up CRM dashboards without having to switch between applications.
- Email Templates Integration: Access to both shared and private email templates while drafting emails ensures uniformity in communication and saves time.
- Automated Personalized Sequences: The capability to send out automated yet personalized email sequences directly from the user’s primary inbox, leveraging the familiar interface of Gmail or Outlook.
- Email Tracking & Analytics: From the inbox, users should have the ability to track if their emails are being opened, which links are clicked, and get real-time notifications of these interactions.
Automated Activity Capture (Email and Calendar Sync)
- Automatic Synchronization: Automatic server-side synchronization ensures that every email conversation and calendar appointment is immediately captured in the CRM.
- Email and Meeting deduplication: The sync should not be logging emails and meetings twice.
- Missing CRM contacts: When emailing or scheduling meetings with new individuals, the system should either auto-create contact records in the CRM or alert users of missing CRM contacts.
- Deal attribution: Inbox activities should be related to relevant CRM opportunities.
- Signature-Based Enrichment: The system should automatically pull relevant details from email signatures, enriching contact profiles with phone numbers, roles, company details, etc.
Relationship Management Insights (See the article re: RM Intelligence)
- Unattended Email Alerts: Users should receive notifications or reminders for emails that haven’t been responded to or for dormant conversations that might need re-engagement.
- Deal Risk Indicators: Based on email frequency, response times, and perhaps the content of the emails, the CRM should provide relationship strength scores. These scores can help users understand which connections may need more attention or which are ripe for new opportunities.
- See Team Connections: Within the CRM, users should be able to view which of their colleagues are connected to specific contacts and gauge the depth of those connections based on email traffic.

Conclusion

It’s clear that there’s a genuine need for better email integrations within CRMs. Developers and companies behind these platforms have a golden opportunity but often grapple with limitations due to resource and expertise constraints. This is precisely where Aurinko can offer assistance.

Aurinko’s prebuilt CRM sync logic is a result of years of experience providing email and calendar sync for Salesforce and other CRM users. Aurinko team has deep understanding of the challenges that product teams face when building sync solutions for CRMs. Over the years, Aurinko has refined its sync logic to make it more efficient, reliable, and scalable.

Furthermore, Aurinko was built to be an API platform for in-app and workspace integrations, like Outlook addins, Gmail plugins, Google Workspace addons, Slack and Microsoft Teams apps. Our team specializes in tailoring our pre-built addons to perfectly suit your needs, or assisting you in harnessing the full potential of Aurinko’s backend API to develop brand new, customized solutions.