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Salesforce SMS Integration Using Microsoft Flow and TxtSync

January 19, 2019 Reading Time: 4 minutes A differentiating factor between competing businesses is the strength of their customer services. Business communications to customers plays an important part in the perceived quality of the customer services on offer. SMS is the preferred communication channel for customers as it can deliver short, concise and relevant notifications, keeping them in the loop with whats going on. Using Microsoft Flow and TxtSync it is very easy to send SMS out of Salesforce and instantly improve your customer communications. In this guide we will explain what Microsoft Flow is, and demonstrates how it can be utilitised to send SMS through TxtSync from Salesforce triggers. The example we will use is to send an SMS to a contact when a case has been raised. The SMS will act as an acknowledgement that the case has been logged and inform the contact of their case reference number. If you are already familiar with Microsoft Flow please feel free to skip to the how to section.

What is Microsoft Flow?

As a business you’ll likely be using various software to drive parts of you business workflow. There comes a time where a workflow needs to span across your different software. This is where Microsoft Flow steps in. Flow is a service that allows software vendors to create connectors to their products. These connectors provide you with some simple triggers and actions that you can base your workflow on. The best way to imagine Microsoft Flow is that its the glue between different products. It gives you the ability to create your workflow processes without the need of a developer writing any code.

What is TxtSync?

TxtSync is a cloud-based SMS service that delivers global SMS. Through TxtSync you can send and receive SMS and track delivery reporting. You can use TxtSync to manage contacts and deliver targeted marketing material directly to their mobile phones. TxtSync has built a Microsoft Flow connector that makes it easy for you to send SMS as part of your Microsoft Flow actions. Alternatively you can trigger workflows on receiving an inbound message.

How to Send an SMS from Salesforce using Microsoft Flow?

In this how to guide we will take you through the process of sending out an SMS when a support case is raised in Salesforce. The message sent out will inform the contact that the case has been logged and provide them with the case reference number. What do you need to get started? Salesforce subscription – Hopefully you already have this.  Microsoft Flow subscription – You’ll need to be able to access premium connectors.  TxtSync account – You can signup for free and use the credit TxtSync provides.  Setting up your TxtSync Account If you haven’t got a TxtSync account you will need to create one for free here. TxtSync gives you some free credit to get started with. Create an application for Microsoft Flow by clicking here. This will provide you with a Client Key and Secret that’s used for authentication in the TxtSync flow connector. Take note of TxtSync’s free shared numbers that you can use to send SMS here. Please Note: You can purchase your own dedicated number or setup a free Sender ID. This is recommended when your serious about going live with your solution as the number or Sender ID represents your brand. Setting up Microsoft Flow From within Office 365 open up Flow

Now select My flows – click New and select “Create from blank”. Flows always start with a trigger. In our example the trigger connector will be Salesforce. In the connector window search for Salesforce.

Under Triggers select “When a record is created”. If this is the first time you have created a Salesforce flow you will need to enter your connection details by signing into Salesforce.

For the Salesforce Object Type select Cases.

The next step is to create an action that you want to perform. The first thing you need to do is to get the contact record from the case so that the contacts mobile number can be accessed. Click “New step”, search for Salesforce and choose the “Get record” action.

Set the Salesforce Object Type to be Contacts. For the Record ID use the Dynamic content to pass in the Contact ID on the Case record.

The next step is to check that the Contact has a mobile phone number. Pretty important if you want to send an SMS!  Select “New step” and search for Condition.

In the “Choose a value” box use the Dynamic content to select Mobile Phone under the Get Record heading. Change “is equal to” to “is not equal to”. In “Choose a value” use an expression of null. Then select OK.

Within the “if no” box select “Add an action”. Search for terminate and select the action. Change the Status to succeeded. This will terminate the flow if the contact doesn’t have a mobile phone.

Within the “if Yes” box select “Add an action”. Search for TxtSync and select “Send an SMS”. You will need to create a connection to TxtSync using the Client Key and Secret that you generated earlier in the guide. Give your connection a name and click Create.

Within the From box enter one of the free TxtSync shared numbers or your own dedicated number if you have purchased one. Within the To box use Dynamic content to pass in the mobile phone of the contact. Within the Message box use a combination of Dynamic content and text to compose a message to inform the contact about the support case.

Save your flow and in the top left hand corner give your flow a meaningful name.

Testing your Flow To test your flow simply click on the Test button in the top right hand corner of the flow edit screen. Select the option “I’ll perform the trigger action”. Now go into Salesforce and create a contact with your personal mobile number. Finally create a case record and link your contact record to the case. Your text message will arrive shortly after!   Until next time, happy flowing!!!

Interesting in Knowing More?

If you have any questions about an SMS integration with Microsoft Flow and TxtSync please get in touch. Get in Touch Read the full article

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Dynamics 365 SMS Integration Using Microsoft Flow and TxtSync

A differentiating factor between competing businesses is the strength of their customer services. Business communications to customers plays an important part in the perceived quality of the customer services on offer. SMS is the preferred communication channel for customers as it can deliver short, concise and relevant notifications, keeping them in the loop with whats going on. Using Microsoft Flow and TxtSync it is very easy to send SMS out of Dynamics 365 and instantly improve your customer communications. In this guide we will explain what Microsoft Flow is, and demonstrates how it can be utilitised to send SMS through TxtSync from Dynamics 365 triggers. The example we will use is to send an SMS to a contact when a case has been raised. The SMS will act as an acknowledgement that the case has been logged and inform the contact of their case reference number. If you are already familiar with Microsoft Flow please feel free to skip to the how to section.

What is Microsoft Flow?

As a business you’ll likely be using various software to drive parts of you business workflow. There comes a time where a workflow needs to span across your different software. This is where Microsoft Flow steps in. Flow is a service that allows software vendors to create connectors to their products. These connectors provide you with some simple triggers and actions that you can base your workflow on. The best way to imagine Microsoft Flow is that its the glue between different products. It gives you the ability to create your workflow processes without the need of a developer writing any code.

What is TxtSync?

TxtSync is a cloud-based SMS service that delivers global SMS. Through TxtSync you can send and receive SMS and track delivery reporting. You can use TxtSync to manage contacts and deliver targeted marketing material directly to their mobile phones. TxtSync has built a Microsoft Flow connector that makes it easy for you to send SMS as part of your Microsoft Flow actions. Alternatively you can trigger workflows on receiving an inbound message.

How to Send an SMS from Dynamics 365 using Microsoft Flow?

In this how to guide we will take you through the process of sending out an SMS when a support case is raised in Dynamics 365. The message sent out will inform the contact that the case has been logged and provide them with the case reference number. What do you need to get started? Microsoft Dynamics 365 subscription – Hopefully you already have this.  Microsoft Flow subscription – You’ll need to be able to access premium connectors.  TxtSync account – You can signup for free and use the credit TxtSync provides.  Setting up your TxtSync Account If you haven’t got a TxtSync account you will need to create one for free here. TxtSync gives you some free credit to get started with. Create an application for Microsoft Flow by clicking here. This will provide you with a Client Key and Secret that’s used for authentication in the TxtSync flow connector. Take note of TxtSync’s free shared numbers that you can use to send SMS here. Please Note: You can purchase your own dedicated number or setup a free Sender ID. This is recommended when your serious about going live with your solution as the number or Sender ID represents your brand. Setting up Microsoft Flow From within Office 365 open up Flow

Now select My flows – click New and select “Create from blank”. Flows always start with a trigger. In our example the trigger connector will be Dynamics 365. In the connector window search for Dynamics 365.

Under Triggers select “When a record is created”. If this is the first time you have created a Dynamics 365 flow you will need to enter your connection details by signing into Dynamics 365.

Now select your Organisation Name. At TxtSync we have a Production and a Sandbox (Dev) environment. It is advised to create your flow first against your Sandbox environment so that you can test it works. Now select your entity name which will be Cases.

The new step is to create an action that you want to perform. The first thing you need to do is to get the contact record from the case so that the contacts mobile number can be accessed. Click “New step”, search for Dynamics 365 and choose the “Get record” action.

Enter your Organisation Name. Set the Entity Name to be Contacts. For the Item Identifier use the Dynamic content to pass in the Customer record on the Case record.

The next step is to check that the Contact has a mobile phone number. Pretty important if you want to send an SMS!  Select “New step” and search for Condition.

In the “Choose a value” box use the Dynamic content to select Mobile Phone under the Get Record heading. Change “is equal to” to “is not equal to”. In “Choose a value” use an expression of null. Then select OK.

Within the “if no” box select “Add an action”. Search for terminate and select the action. Change the Status to succeeded. This will terminate the flow if the contact doesn’t have a mobile phone.

Within the “if Yes” box select “Add an action”. Search for TxtSync and select “Send an SMS”. You will need to create a connection to TxtSync using the Client Key and Secret that you generated earlier in the guide. Give your connection a name and click Create.

Within the From box enter one of the free TxtSync shared numbers or your own dedicated number if you have purchased one. Within the To box use Dynamic content to pass in the mobile phone of the contact. Within the Message box use a combination of Dynamic content and text to compose a message to inform the contact about the support case.

Save your flow and in the top left hand corner give your flow a meaningful name.

Testing your Flow To test your flow simply click on the Test button in the top right hand corner of the flow edit screen. Select the option “I’ll perform the trigger action”. Now go into Dynamics 365 and create a contact with your personal mobile number. Finally create a case record and link your contact record to the case through the customer field. Your text message will arrive shortly after!   Until next time, happy flowing!!!

Interesting in Knowing More?

If you have any questions about an SMS integration with Microsoft Flow and TxtSync please get in touch. We also offer a full native SMS integration into Microsoft Dynamics 2016 and Dynamics 365. Get in Touch Read the full article

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Fill Positions Quicker with SMS in Temp Recruitment

When it comes to temporary recruitment, job placements come and go very quickly. There can be pressure to fill placements from the list of candidates you keep. Simply put – not fulfilling the job placement could lead to the disaster of losing a client to a rival agency.  As a business you want to grow and become more profitable. What you want to spend your time on is winning new business from new clients and growing your candidate list. In order to achieve this, you need to spend less time attempting to place candidates in the first place. If you’re finding yourself spending large portions of your day ringing up candidates to place them, or emailing to check availability, you should evaluate your strategy. Phone calls take time – people like to chat… and it’s a one to one conversation. Not ideal if you have a huge list of candidates to get through. Email, well, no one checks email… That’s a problem because you need to fill that placement fast and can’t wait for someone to check their inbox. What you should be considering is whether you can speed up the process using SMS! Here are some benefits you can leverage with TxtSync SMS solution:

Communicate to all candidates at once

Using our bulk SMS wizard you can quickly initiate a SMS conversation with all of your candidates in one go. You simply write your message once, state who you are targeting and each candidate will receive a personalised text. This is great for quickly asking who is available for a temporary job placement that has just come available. Now all you need to do is wait for the responses to come in.

Personalised Bulk Message

Quick conversations between recruitment agencies and candidates

With SMS, 90% of messages are read within 3 minutes. With the nature of the messing being short and direct, it’s very likely the candidate will quickly reply – even if they are busy at that point in time. This will lead to a quick interchange of messages which will determine if they want the placement or not.

Keeping your messages relevant and personal

For SMS to deliver the greatest impact your messages need to be short and relevant. TxtSync allows you to manage your candidate’s interests by tagging them. When sending your bulk messages, you can quickly select contacts with a specific interest to target them directly. Also by merging fields, such as FirstName, into your SMS you can personalised what is delivered to your candidates.

Sending media over SMS

With our solution we allow you to easily send a SMS that has media attached to it. For example, if you have details about a job in a PDF you can send the candidate a text with the PDF. No need to worry about the cost! We host the file for you and include a short link to access it. All you need is for your candidate to have a smart phone. In the UK, by 2022, the number of monthly active smartphone users is projected to grow steadily reaching a staggering 53.96 million people. So, you should be fine! 

Sending web content

If you have specific info on the job you can send it across in a text message. For example, if the candidate asks for details of where the job is you could send them a link to the company’s website or Google maps. Don’t worry about the cost of the length of the links as we shorten them for you to save you money. 

Received Message

Note: Modern phones preview the image directly under the message.

Opening up the Link

Adopting SMS as a communication channel will really make a difference to your recruitment agency. Simply put its going to save your business time and help you get placements fulfilled quicker. SMS is also a preferred method of contact for most people. It’s WIN WIN! 

Interested in finding out more?

Feel free to get in contact at [email protected] Contact Us TxtSync also has integrations into Microsoft Flow and Zapier which can be used to make our SMS services part of your existing recruitment software. We are always interested to know whether we can make your lives easier with an integration into any of your existing recruitment software. Read the full article

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How to perform a contains data check in Microsoft Flow

Microsoft Flow doesn't have "contains data" or "does not contain data" operator options in its condition action. It is still possible to perform a "contains data" search by using the "is equal to" or "is not equal to" operator along with a null function. The steps below can be reversed if you wish to use "is not equal to" instead.

Step by Step Contains Data Guide

Create a Built-in Condition action. Add your dynamic field to check into the "choose a value" box. Select the option "is equal to". Within "Choose a value" select Expression. Type null into the fx box and select OK. In the "If no" branch continue with your contains data actions. In the "If Yes" branch terminate the flow or perform does not contain data actions. Read the full article

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Right message, right time – but what is the right channel

Everyone is familiar with the old marketing adage of sending the right message at the right time, using the right channel, but what is the right channel in this modern-day mobile phone society? With consumers spending so much time on their phone these days (over 5 hours every day), the effectiveness of SMS marketing or more simply, text messaging your customers has never been greater. No surprise therefore, that more and more businesses are looking to utilise SMS marketing as a key element of their communications mix to increase market reach, enhance sales, and ultimately improve customer engagement.

Right Message

SMS marketing is increasingly popular since SMS is pre-installed on every mobile phone and the open rates for text messages are truly outstanding, with up to 98% of all SMS messages being read and over 90% of text messages being opened within the first three minutes of delivery. Despite the evolution of the smartphone, the top two uses for a mobile phone remain communication-based, namely phone calls and sending and receiving texts. Recent research has highlighted SMS as the most popular messaging channel with over 92% of mobile users preferring this mode of communication. This research also demonstrated that 47% of mobile phone users are already receiving text messages from business, 42% of people receiving business SMS responded when requested and 37% made a direct purchase as a result of a text message from a business. Text messaging can also support other channels within the marketing mix by enabling the customer to directly link with adverts, websites or Apps. This clearly demonstrates that consumers are open to receiving ‘the right message’ i.e. brand-based communications via SMS.

Right Time

The importance of SMS as a channel for business cannot be underestimated. The key to the success of text messaging is that consumers can engage in real-time with the content. The average consumer is bombarded by marketing messages, to the extent that traditional methods such as mailings and in these days of overloaded mailboxes even e-mail marketing proving more ineffectual due to a lack of reach and the time lag involved in reaching customers. Text messages can be sent immediately in response to a competitor promotion or scheduled for specific dates to synchronize with other marketing activity. Messages can be personalized to each customer’s first name or sent on specific dates such as a birthday. There are lots of options with bulk text applications and broad applicability across all industry sectors.

Right Channel

The SMS channel has high conversion rates, low cost and high ROI. In the UK mobile phone users spent £433.41 on their device in 2017 with an overall conversion rate for bulk text across all industries of 12%. However, many industries have reported higher returns, such as 50% in the FMCG sector. Compared to other marketing costs such as TV and print, SMS marketing is highly cost effective, with messages typically costing pence per text depending on the number of texts sent. This means that even with a small budget a business can still reach thousands of potential customers quickly, cost effectively and with a much higher ROI than other marketing channels. SMS marketing can also enhance other channels such as social media and email. It’s interesting to note that by sending a follow-up SMS after an email you can increase email open rates by up to 20-30%. As such, it’s not surprising that the SMS market is forecasted to grow from $55 billion this year to over $78 billion in 2022, as more and more industries utilise SMS as a key channel in their communications. SMS marketing also enables you to reach customers who would normally be quite difficult to contact. Currently, 29% of people in the UK don't own a smartphone so they can't be contacted via social media and email but can receive texts. SMS marketing therefore offers a means to reach substantial, untapped segments of the population. One way of assessing the value of SMS marketing is to compare it with other channels in terms of a Reach and Speed Matrix:

In summary, with consumers now inundated with emails, increasingly resistant to direct voice calls and traditional mailings, SMS marketing is cost effective with instant delivery, highly effective reach and a great ROI meaning its very much the right channel in the modern-day communications mix. (Sources: Google searches for SMS marketing, Ofcom, Search Engine Journal) Read the full article

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10 Tips on Starting a SaaS Business - TxtSync

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Fancy yourself an entrepreneur & thinkijg about starting a saas business? Heres 10 tips that can help you make it a great success or prevent disaster!

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You Can Now Send & Receive SMS in Microsoft Dynamics CRM using TxtSync - TxtSync

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You can now easily send and receive SMS in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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Benefits of SMS could help your business prosper - TxtSync

Deciding whether to incorporate SMS into your business practices? The statistics backup the benefits of SMS which your business can leverage

What are some of the benefits of using SMS in your business?

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Right message, right time – but what is the right channel - TxtSync

Reading Time: 3 minutes Everyone is familiar with the old marketing adage of sending the right message at the right time, using the right channel, but what is the right channel in this modern-day mobile phone society? With consumers spending so much time on their phone these days (over 5 hours every day), the effectiveness of SMS marketing or[...]

SMS marketing is cost effective with instant delivery