Enable and use the Zoom Contact Center integration

Zoom Contact Center is an AI-first, omnichannel contact-center-as-a-service solution built to empower agents to deliver a total customer experience across multiple digital channels. With the Zoom Contact Center integration, Front users can seamlessly manage SMS and voice channels directly alongside email, live chat, and more in one unified workspace.

Use Front’s Zoom Contact Center integration to seamlessly:

• Place and receive voice calls directly in your Front inbox

• Listen, comment, and tag teammates on voicemails, call recordings, and transcripts

• Get up to speed fast with AI summaries of past calls

• Keep agents focused with automatic Busy status updates

• Send and receive SMS messages directly from Front [coming soon]

To add Zoom meeting links to your calendar or scheduling links, see this article.

You must have both Zoom admin permissions AND Front admin permissions to set up Zoom Contact Center channels in Front.

To set up the Zoom Contact Center voice/SMS integration in Front, admins will need to complete most setup steps in both Zoom Contact Center and Front. 

1. In Zoom Contact Center, company admins need to:

   1. Establish phone numbers and associate teams and users to the phone numbers.

   2. Set up any call distribution logic, voicemail inboxes, call recording, etc. 

   3. Enable the CTI integration and add Front as an external application.

2. In Front, admins need to:

   1. Log into a Front account using the same email address you use with Zoom Contact Center.

   2. Connect phone numbers to the Front inbox you would like the voice call or SMS conversation to be in using the Zoom Contact Center channel integration.

• Agents need to be signed in with the same email address in Front and Zoom Contact Center.

• Agents will be prompted to login to Zoom Contact Center once a channel they have access to is connected. If they do not log in then, or if their login session expires, they will be prompted to log in before making an outbound or receiving an inbound call.

• Agents must enable microphone access for Front.

• If logging in to Front via web browser, agents must have third-party cookies enabled in the browser for the call widget to function. Check your web browser's instructions for guidance (e.g., Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox).

• For an agent to be notified or for a call conversation to show up in Front, the number will need to be connected as a channel in Front. SMS and Voice for the same number should be set up separately.

• Calls are routed through Zoom Contact Center. Front will notify agents based on the Zoom Contact Center call assignment. Because of this, an agent must log into Front and the Zoom Contact Center integration with the same email address.

• The conversation will display in the Front inbox where the channel is connected. For voice calls, once the channel is connected, the conversation will get assigned to the agent that picked up the call.

• Each call to or from a customer will create a new conversation. Call threading is not supported.

• As long as an Zoom Contact Center channel is connected to a Front inbox, admins can leverage Front rules according to their needs.

The inbound caller will be mapped to the appropriate Front contact, as long as the number being used to make the call matches a number stored in your Contacts. Front can successfully match to contacts in the Contact Manager or synced from a CRM plugin (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, etc).

Note: The format of the numbers must match exactly, including parentheses, spaces, and the leading country code.

If a contact already exists in Front with a matching phone number, then the message will display their name as the sender. If the contact does not already exist in Front, a new contact will be created for that phone number. Contact information like first and last names will not sync from Zoom Contact Center to Front.

These instructions assume you’ve already set up phone numbers and call distribution in Zoom Contact Center.

This is required for the Zoom voice call widget to work inside Front. You can skip this section if you’re only connecting SMS channels.

Step 1

In the Zoom admin panel, navigate to Contact Center Management, then Integrations.

Step 2

Click Add integration, then select the Zoom Contact Center Smart Embed application.

Step 3

Fill in the fields for the external application. Enter a name for the connection, then paste Front’s URL in the smartEmbed instance URL field: app.frontapp.com

Step 4

Click Save & Connect. If the connection is successful, click Next.

Step 5

Next, you’ll need to create a user template. From the sidebar menu, navigate to Users, select the Templates tab, then click Add template.

Step 6

In the new template, make the following adjustments in the Profile tab:

• Enable Override existing settings

• In Role, select Admin (default)

• In Package, select Zoom Contact Center Essentials

Step 7

In the new template, make the following adjustments in the Policy tab:

• Under Engagement, enable Zoom Contact Center CTI

• When prompted to select a client integration, select the one you created

Click Add to finish creating the template.

Step 8

Next, you’ll need to add the template to your users. From the user list, select all the users who will use the Zoom Contact Center integration in Front. Click Apply template.

Step 9

In the Apply template pop-up, select the one you created, then click Apply.

Step 10

You’re now ready to complete the setup steps in Front.

This section is applicable if you're connecting voice channels. You can skip this section if you’re only connecting SMS channels.

Step 1

In Front, click the gear icon, navigate to company settings, then select App store.

Step 2

Select Zoom from the list of integrations, then click Enable app.

Step 3

Select the Settings tab, then adjust the toggles for the following company-wide settings:

• Set status to “Busy” during calls: 

  • Toggle on if you want to automatically set agent statuses to “Busy” when they’re on calls. 

  • If toggled off, agents will stay “Available” in Front during calls.

• Sync Front status to Zoom Contact Center: 

  • Toggle on if you want to automatically sync Front status changes to Zoom Contact Center. e.g. “Available” in Front to “Ready” in Zoom Contact Center, “Out of office” in Front to “Not Ready” in Zoom Contact Center. 

  • If toggled off, Front status changes will not affect Zoom Contact Center statuses. e.g. Agent can be “Available” in Front and “Not Ready” in Zoom Contact Center.

Step 4

Click Save.

Step 1

In Front, click the gear icon and navigate to workspace settings in the left sidebar.

Step 2

Click Inboxes in the left menu and create a new shared inbox, or select an existing inbox you would like to connect your Zoom Contact Center number(s) to.

Step 3

Select Channels in the left menu, then click the Connect channel button.

Step 4

Navigate to the Zoom Contact Center option or SMS by Zoom Contact Center option, then click the Connect to Zoom button on the next page.

Step 5

A pop-up will open prompting you to sign in with your Zoom account. Make sure the email address in the E-mail field matches the email address you use to log into Front.

Step 6

Click Allow on the next page. 

Step 7

Select the phone number you want to connect to Front. Select multiple channels to connect them in bulk.

Click Continue.

Step 8 (for SMS channels)

Select when you want conversations to automatically close using the Close conversations setting. 

If you plan to use AI features with your inbox, we do not recommend selecting Never. See this article to learn how the Close conversations setting affects AI features.

Step 9

In the Route to inbox page, select whether you want to route the channel(s) to a single inbox, or multiple inboxes.

Option 1: If routing to a single inbox, use the dropdown to select the inbox.

Option 2: If routing to multiple inboxes, use the dropdowns to select the Zoom Contact Center channels, then select the corresponding inboxes in the other dropdowns.

Step 10

Click Continue to finish. All calls and messages from your channels will route to the selected inboxes by default.

Your team can now use these Zoom Contact Center numbers with Front to make and receive calls, access call recordings, etc. if you connected voice channels, or send and receive messages if you connected SMS channels.

Once a Front admin has enabled the integration, agents can use Zoom Contact Center inside Front.

In Front, you can see your Zoom Contact Center status in your account menu.

If your Front admin has enabled automatic status updates between Front and Zoom Contact Center:

• Your Front status will switch to “Busy” when you’re on a call, then switch back to “Available” when you’re ready to take your next call.

• If you change your Front status between “Available” and “Out of office” in Front, your Zoom Contact Center status will automatically update to match.

• If you change your status to “Busy” in Front, this will not be synced to Zoom Contact Center.

• If you change your status in Zoom Contact Center, your status in Front will not change. You will see your Zoom Contact Center availability next to the Zoom Contact Center section in your user information. For example, if you switch your status to “Not Ready” in Zoom Contact Center, you can still be “Available” in Front.

To make an outbound call, click the down arrow next to the plus icon, then select Call.

In the call widget, select the number you’d like to call from, enter a phone number or contact in the To field, then click the call (phone) button.

Navigate to the conversation using the Open section in your sidebar. You can also make outbound calls from your Front Contacts plugin.

When there’s an incoming call, you’ll hear a ringtone and see a call widget pop-up at the bottom left. To answer the call, you can either Click Answer in the call widget or in the conversation.

The call will automatically assign to you when you answer it.

Click the Zoom icon to expand the widget to take additional actions (mute, transfer, etc.) using the toolbar icons. Use the arrow icon to minimize the widget. You can always re-open it using the Zoom Contact Center icon in the conversation.

After you end a call, you’ll see a Call ended activity update in the conversation and conversation list.

Call summaries, transcripts, and call recordings are available for applicable conversations.

Use Front’s comment feature to take notes after the call. This is useful for adding call summaries, action items, and more. You can also add contextual comments on the call transcript.

When you’re done with the conversation, follow your team’s specific workflows that may include archiving or tagging the conversation.

If no one is available to answer a call, a conversation will be created and marked as marked as Call missed or Voicemail in the conversation list.

For voicemails, Front will display call recordings and transcripts generated by Zoom Contact Center.

To send an SMS message, click the (+) plus icon in the sidebar, then select Message. In the From field, select the phone number you want to send from. In the To field, enter the phone number you want to send a message to. 

Enter your message in the composer and add emojis, attachments, message templates, or knowledge base article links as needed. Once finished, send the message using one of Front’s sending options. 

Messages from the same customer will thread together into the same conversation. To separate topics into new conversations, use the Split conversation feature in the message’s three-dot menu.

Use Front rules to automate team processes to help your team work more efficiently. See this article to learn more.

If you run into any issues setting up or using the Zoom Contact Center integration, please contact us.

Step 1

Click the gear icon, navigate to workspace settings, then select Channels.

Step 2

Select the Zoom Contact Center channel from the list.

Step 3

Inside your channel settings, click the three-dot menu at the top of the page, then select Delete channel.

Step 4

Click Delete permanently in the pop-up to confirm you'd like to delete the channel.

⚠️ Important: While deleting a channel will not delete your inbox history, any drafts associated with the channel will be deleted. We recommend saving drafts in an external document before deleting the channel.

To learn more about what happens when you delete a channel, see this article.

Assignment logic differs between calls and conversations:

• Calls: Front uses the routing logic set up in Zoom Contact Center. When a customer calls a phone number, the call is routed to an agent in Zoom Contact Center, then Front will notify (or “ring”) that agent in Front if they are logged into Front with the same email address.

• Conversations: Front assigns the conversation to the agent that answers the call. If an agent does not answer a call, or the agent that answers the call isn’t a Front user, then Front will not assign the conversation.

Users must have permission to the voicemail inbox in Zoom to access voicemail audio and transcripts in Front. This is configured in Zoom Contact Center.

Call summaries, transcripts, and recordings won’t be available in Front if Zoom Contact Center doesn’t generate them. Zoom Contact Center may not generate these resources if the agent doesn’t have access to the feature, doesn’t turn on the feature, or the call does not meet length requirements. 

To enable call recordings in Zoom:

1. In the Zoom admin panel, go to Contact Center Management, then Preferences.

2. Under Voice and Video Engagements, enable Automatic Call Recording.

3. Set "Record calls of" to Inbound and Outbound and percentage to 100%.

4. Check Allow call recording transcription to also generate transcripts.

No. The integration does not support user extensions.

Yes. Images and videos will be visible inline when viewing the message.

Yes. You can use MMS messages to send outbound replies with files up to 1 MB.

Front follows Zoom Contact Center's file size, carrier, or geolocation limitations. See Zoom's documentation for more information.

Yes. You can access voice metrics in the Key metrics chart of the Workload report or custom report. SMS analytics are included in any text-based metrics like reply time.

Yes. You can still receive calls and SMS messages in Zoom Contact Center if the Zoom Contact Center phone number is connected to Front.

Yes. Toggle on the Mute and hide incoming call banner setting in your notification preferences.

The conversation is first created in the inbox containing the phone number the caller dialed (e.g. Support 888-111-1111). If the caller is transferred to another number connected to Front (e.g. Sales 888-222-2222), the new activity will thread into the existing conversation, and the conversation will appear in both inboxes.

This feature is available on the latest Professional plan or above. Some legacy plans may not have access.