How to use Smartsheet as CRM

Kamya Pamnani

Hi,

Has anyone used Smartsheet as CRM. Like for sending mass mailers and tracking when the mail was reached to the audience and who has opened it?

Please suggest how can we do the same with Smartsheet. Please suggest if the same an be achieved with integration with any third party software.

Thanks.

Paul Newcome

Smartsheet can't track when something has been opened and doesn't have the amount of customization typically required for something like this. You would want to use a third party app for the mailings and then you could possibly integrate it with Smartsheet to track your overall metrics.

Kamya Pamnani

Thank you so much Paul. Can you please suggest which 3rd party help can be used for such integration. This will be helpful as we will know which app has worked well with Smartsheet.

Paul Newcome

I do not know of a CRM that has a built in integration with Smartsheet, but I do know that Smartsheet does have API capabilities. This means any CRM that has API capabilities can be tied directly to it.

Another option would be if the CRM can export a report as a csv or excel file on a regular basis to some sort of shared drive where Data Shuttle could then pick up the data and bring it into Smartsheet.

CJulian

I built a solution where I use Smartsheet as the data source for periodic mailing campaigns. Smartsheet stores contact information (Name, Mailing Address, data I want merged into the customized mail pieces). After I had all my data in a sheet, I used Zapier to connect my sheet with Lob (lob.com). I have checkboxes on my Smartsheet that trigger the Zaps. I have Zaps that verify the mailing addresses using Lob's deliverability scores and the Zap writes the results back to each row so I can fix any addresses before sending.

Once the addresses are in good order, I check another box that triggers a Zap to Lob that merges the data from the row into an HTML mail template for Lob. Lob uses that to render the letters and mails them via their print/mail network. The Zap writes back the mail ID for each letter so I'm able to track it ongoing.

Lastly, I set up a webook on Lob that reports the status changes for each mail ID and I have that writing into a separate Smartsheet where I use and INDEX MATCH formula to pull in the latest status for each mail ID. This allows me to see when the letters are rendered, printed, mailed, and delivered or returned.

Sounds like this could work for your scenario as well.