Your CRM is only as good as the data it holds. If you’re looking at a contact’s record and can’t see an entire history of interactions — including call history — you won’t know what the best next step is.
If your sales team has to update a CRM (like Salesforce) manually, they might fall behind if they have a heavy call volume. It’s far better for Salesforce to update contacts automatically based on reps’ calls. This ensures that all calls are recorded and saves time.
Salesforce integrates with many business phone systems, including RingCentral. While the RingCentral integration captures call history, it has limitations — some of which might be frustrating for business owners.
If you’re curious about the RingCentral Salesforce integration, we’ll explain how it works. Plus, we’ll discuss an alternative solution that doesn’t have the same limitations as RingCentral.
A closer look at RingCentral’s Salesforce integration
The RingCentral Salesforce integration logs inbound and outbound calls made through RingCentral . Users can also make and receive RingCentral calls directly in Salesforce without switching between the applications, improving call efficiency. When inbound calls are received, a screen pop-up shows the caller’s history so sales reps can have informed conversations.
The Salesforce integration can automatically create tasks in Salesforce for calls, ensuring all relevant call details are included in the task record. You can also schedule RingCentral video meetings directly in Salesforce and enhance performance reporting by incorporating Salesforce data.
Overall, RingCentral’s setup and administration for the integration have a steep learning curve, which can be time-consuming and frustrating. Users also report issues like the RingCentral softphone not being visible in the Salesforce app, and fixes require a developer. Sometimes the click-to-dial feature doesn’t work or the RingCentral pop-up doesn’t display correctly.
Additionally, sometimes the call status is incorrect (such as displaying a status of “ringing” even after the call has been connected). If users are inactive for too long, they might be automatically logged out of the app, creating an extra step to log back in.
10 more RingCentral limitations to keep in mind
On top of the problems with the Salesforce integration, some of the limitations are with RingCentral itself, including potentially having to wait months to communicate with your customers.
Here are the top issues users have reported with RingCentral.
1. Texting registration can take months
One of the most concerning complaints is that RingCentral customers report issues with US carrier registration. The process can sometimes take months to complete or result in rejection.
To send SMS text messages, all businesses must register with The Campaign Registry (TCR), a process that happens through the business’s phone provider, like RingCentral. While RingCentral advertises that the process takes about 20-30 business days, customers report that it takes months, with no explanation or help from the RingCentral team. Without completed registration, RingCentral customers can’t send business text messages.
2. Texting is limited across all plans
RingCentral imposes the following texting limits on its plans:
- Core: 25 text messages per user per month
- Advanced: 100 text messages per user per month
- Ultra: 200 text messages per user per month
Even businesses that send a modest volume of texts to customers could quickly reach the limit across all users. High-volume texting is only available at an additional cost, starting at $0.01 for every message sent or received.
3. Toll-free calling is limited
The Core plan, used by many small businesses, only allows 100 toll-free minutes. The minutes are shared across the entire account, not per user. After that, toll-free minutes are 3.9¢ per minute.
4. Calls are only stored for short periods of time
One of the benefits of a VoIP phone system is the ability to easily record and store calls. Many businesses use call recordings for internal training and monitoring team performance.
However, RingCentral’s call recording has storage limits that could create bottlenecks. On-demand call recordings — the only option for the Core plan — max out at 200 recordings per voicemail box per user and are only stored for 90 days. Automatic call recordings — available with an upgrade — allow up to 100,000 recordings per account but are also only stored for 90 days.
5. Customer service is slow to respond
Customers report poor experiences with RingCentral’s customer support, whether they need assistance completing carrier registration or other issues.
One user on G2 wrote, “[The] main technical issues were the inability to transfer calls. This was raised with technical support [that] took more than four weeks to review.”
Customer experiences with RingCentral’s account executives and the finance team were also negative.
6. The interface is clunky and difficult to use
RingCentral has been providing business communications services since 1999, and its interface reflects its age. The phone app is clunky and difficult to use, and it hasn’t received much-needed updates over the years. As a result, the user interface (UI) doesn’t compare to modern cloud-based phone providers like OpenPhone.
7. Add-ons are expensive
While RingCentral’s base pricing might compare with other VoIP providers, add-ons are often needed due to plan limitations. Some of these include:
- Vanity phone numbers: $30 one-time fee, then $4.99 per month
- RingCentral Rooms for virtual meetings: $49 per room per month or $468 per year
- RingCentral Webinar™: $40 per organizer per month
- Push-to-Talk: $5 per user per month
As mentioned above, you’ll need to purchase additional text messages and toll-free minutes if you exceed the limits of your plan. These add-ons can quickly amount to significant costs for small businesses.
8. Phone numbers can’t be shared for texting
Texting can’t be shared across phone numbers, preventing team members from collaborating on customer responses. Only the team member who received the text can respond. This also prevents team members from working together to solve specific customer issues since they don’t have visibility into the messages the customer has already received.
9. Conversations are siloed
RingCentral stores calls, texts, and voicemails in distinct folders. While this might seem like logical organization, the structure makes it hard for users to easily gather the full context of customer conversations.
10. Billing is described as “a nightmare”
Customer interactions with RingCentral’s billing department are often reported as difficult, and fixing issues can take hours.
One user wrote, “RingCentral’s service and billing are a nightmare. Constant errors, unclear charges, and their support team is useless at best. We’ve spent countless hours trying to fix basic billing issues, and it feels like they couldn’t care less. The whole experience has been frustrating and unprofessional. Stay far away if you value your time and sanity.”
RingCentral also has significant notice periods for cancellation, so customers might get stuck with the platform even if they want to switch to a RingCentral alternative.
💡Still have questions? Find out more about how RingCentral works (and if it won’t for your business).
Do more with OpenPhone’s powerful Salesforce integration
Like RingCentral, OpenPhone also has a Salesforce integration. Unlike RingCentral, OpenPhone’s integration works reliably and logs all calls and texts to the relevant contact in Salesforce, ensuring that Salesforce accurately displays a complete history. Here are a few other advantages:
- OpenPhone allows you to record calls, with the recording URL and duration automatically appearing in the activity description in Salesforce. If a Salesforce user wants to listen to the call recording, they just click the link to the recording. OpenPhone call recordings are stored as long as you have an active account.
- Text messages received in OpenPhone are automatically logged in Salesforce, giving you a more complete picture of customer activity.
- OpenPhone’s seamless integration is bi-directional, meaning you can see your Salesforce contact name and contact information (such as business phone number and email) in OpenPhone. You don’t need to maintain contacts in both apps.
How to set up the OpenPhone Salesforce integration
Setting up the OpenPhone Salesforce integration is easy. Any customers with Salesforce API access can take advantage of the integration. To get started:
- Go to the OpenPhone web or desktop app.
- Navigate to your Workspace settings and select Integrations.
- Select the Salesforce integration and click Connect to Salesforce.
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- Log in to your Salesforce account and confirm you want to connect to OpenPhone.
- Confirm your integration settings in OpenPhone, such as whether you want to log calls for all numbers or specific inboxes.
You can view more detailed information about the integration’s functionality and step-by-step instructions here.
The best RingCentral alternative: OpenPhone
If you rely on Salesforce as your CRM, integration with your VoIP provider should be something that happens in the background — not something that causes problems. In addition to issues with RingCentral’s Salesforce integration, reports of problems with texting registration, billing, and plan limitations should give any business owner pause.
OpenPhone is a modern phone system and Salesforce VoIP integration designed to put collaboration at the forefront. Our plans include unlimited calling and messaging to US and Canadian numbers, unlimited call recording, and AI-powered features like call transcripts and call summaries. (Plus, our customer support team is a delight 😊).
To try OpenPhone, sign up for a free trial today.
