Introducing Callio: Tracking Incoming Calls from Clients with Slack

When we can’t find a tool that would sort out our problems, we just make them. That’s how Callio, a Twilio integration with Slack, was born. Callio lets us intercept incoming calls from our clients via our favourite communication platform – Slack. There is something even cooler about us having the resources to develop new solutions: we can share those solutions with the community to make your life easier.

The Challenge

Working as a remote team and having clients scattered around the world in many different time zones creates possible barriers to effective communication with our clients and prospects. We leveraged Twilio to enable customers to easily reach out to us. However, we sometimes struggled to follow all the incoming calls and thus missed out on business opportunities. We needed a solution that would notify the Business Development Team, ideally on Slack, and let them answer the call immediately.

1. We often missed phone calls from prospects, and, as a result, we might have missed out on some business opportunities.

2. It was hard to keep up with the history of phone calls.

3. It was difficult for our clients to reach us by phone.

The Solution

We came up with an idea to build a simple app that will intercept incoming calls, post a Slack notification and allow us to answer these calls through a web browser using Twilio number. This way we could improve our internal flow in terms of answering clients’ calls, primarily from abroad. We thought that the app should work according to the following workflow:

1. Someone calls us.

2. Callio posts a notification on Slack channel with a link to the web browser where we can answer the call.

3. A Business Development Rep clicks on the link included in the Slack notification.

4. Another notification is posted on Slack to let the rest of the team know that somebody has already answered the call.

5. A call is performed and recorded.

6. When one of the parties hangs up, Slack issues a notification about that, and the line is ready to use again.

The Result

Callio simplified the way we answer incoming calls from our clients. We can now focus on current tasks, knowing that we won’t miss out on business opportunities and giving our clients a simple, secure and reliable way to contact us. We don’t even need to have an actual landline. On top of that, everyone who is in the channel can answer the call, so the likelihood that a call won’t be answered decreases dramatically.

1. We are up-to-date with all incoming calls.

2. Anyone on Slack can answer when a client tries to get in touch.

3. We have a full history of phone calls with a recorded copy of each one.

If you want to try out Callio, check out the setup guide in a separate blog post.