Many companies are looking for outbound call optimization or full call automation, so employees need to worry about selling products to customers and not spend time typing numbers manually on their phones to reach the leads.
This post will see how we can help employees easily click a phone number to trigger a call, so they no longer need to copy-paste or manually type numbers under the phone dial pad.
First, we will check on several technologies or solutions that power this click-to-call feature, and later we will show how to use Click to Call under several platforms or software.
Technologies we can use to launch the call by Clicking a telephone number
First of all, let’s see which technologies or solutions leverage this click-to-call functionality and then show how to use the click-to-call functionality in the most common programs.
“Tel” link in HTML for phone calls
“Tel” links make the number clickable to trigger calls automatically. Here you can see a simple HTML code that makes a phone link callable in the header of our website:
<a href=”tel:0018889013006″>+1 888-901-3006</a>
The call will be triggered with the embed phone feature when clicking the link from devices with embedded telephone capabilities, such as smartphones.
When the device doesn’t support phone calls, users may be presented with a menu to choose how the browser should handle the number. Desktop browsers that don’t support voice calls may open the default telephony app: Skype for Windows, Facetime for MacOS, or Google Voice under Chromebook.
But it is possible to choose any other application installed on the computer. In the following sections, we will see how to adjust the calling application on Windows and macOS.
Call links or Tel links are much more powerful, as they are not only used in browsers. Other applications also recognize numbers as Tel links. For example, Outlook contacts or Excel cells can be formatted as Tel. You and your employees can call contacts by clicking on their corresponding contact numbers.
If your company has a website, make sure that your contact telephone number is correct. Your potential customers will be just one click away from contacting you.
Adjust the Default Tel app on Windows
To change the configuration of the Tel links of the default telephone application on Windows, you must open the Start menu, and then select Settings > Apps > Default apps > Choose default apps by protocol.
You need to adjust the default program for the Tel protocol and Callto protocol to the VoIPStudio app or any other softphone you would like to use.
Adjust the Default Tel app under MacOS
Unfortunately, there is no setting for adjusting this under MacOS, but you could use the freeware app Rubicode which allows default app adjustments under MacOS.
This app works for Tel links and many other default settings.
Using VoIPstudio Chrome extension
VoIPstudio chrome extension recognizes plain text phone numbers, allowing users to click on them and trigger the call directly.
Under the VoIPstudio extension, you can set it to trigger calls using the extension or use an external softphone or an IP desk phone to handle calls. This adjustment is accessible from app settings.
Using the VoIPstudio Chrome extension as a softphone will allow your employees to dial phone numbers while browsing the Internet quickly and dial from the web-based CRM.
Note that Microsoft Edge can also use the Chrome extensions. You just need to allow the installation of apps from other stores. You can find this setting under extension manager adjustments.
Run VoIPstudio softphone with a destination number parameter
Our desktop softphone also allows dialing from the command line. You can run the VoIPstudio SoftPhone using the –cmd “call XXXX” parameter and destination number to trigger calls. For example:
AppData\Local\Programs\VoIPstudio\VoIPstudio.exe -cmd “call 00442034329230”
So you can quickly allow another local app to trigger calls internally. With VoIPstudio, it is easy to configure a softphone with the destination number if your CRM has a local app client.
Using SIP TAPI driver
This is the legacy approach but still works on the newest Windows 11. We have tested it, so we can confirm this is still operational.
SIP TAPI is a Telephone API that allows clicking to call using a SIP provider from inside any application compatible with Windows Dialer. It is a common feature under legacy Windows applications and CRMs, so if you are using a legacy windows app, it will most probably have dialer compatibility. You will only need to set up your CRM to use Windows Dialer as a dialing app and set up VoIPstudio as the default calling app inside Windows Dialer.
You can learn more about SIP TAPI and how to set it up under our online manual.
Using CTI Connector (Javascript)
VoIPstudio CTI Connector allows for Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) of customer websites or applications.
It does not matter if it’s a simple Content Management System (CMS), e-commerce application, or advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Almost any environment that supports JavaScript makes the connector work as a standalone component. The connector supports both outbound (click to call, also known as c2c) and inbound calls.
You can learn more about VoIPstudio CTI connector and how to set it up using our online manual. We do also have a blog entry showing an example use case.
VoIPstudio REST-API
VoIPstudio has a REST-API. That is API accessible over https via GET, POST, PATCH requests. This among many other things allows initiating a call.
Therefore, initiating a call would be as simple as making the following request:
You can find out more about this REST-API in our manual.
CRM compatibility
VoIPstudio is already compatible with many CRMs. For customers using VoIPstudio, any CRM-compatible click-to-call functions are included by default, as well as some other standard features such as:
- Activity tracking and call history
- Adding contacts from incoming calls
- Active Call Control
- Customer details prompt from inbound call
If your CRM integrates VoIPstudio, you are only a few clicks away from enabling the Click to call feature. Check the available CRM integrations.
Examples of how to enable click to call in different applications
As you can see, you can use several approaches to enable the Click to call feature. It would be best if you found out which works better for you. Here are some common scenarios:
Click to call from a spreadsheet
Imagine you have a spreadsheet from where you need to call contacts from the list and add notes to adjacent cells.
See how to allow telephone numbers from spreadsheets to be clickable from the most common spreadsheet editors below.
We enable click-to-call under this scenario using the HREF Tel link.
How to make phone number callable from Microsoft Excel
To make a number clickable on excel, you only need to use the formula:
=HYPERLINK(CONTACT(“tel:”;B2)
Cell B2 is where you’ve typed the number in plain text.
How to make phone numbers callable from Google Sheets
Unfortunately, the Google sheets HYPERLINK() protocol only supports HTML and mailto. It means that we can only allow clicks to websites or emails.
The solution is to generate a link under the number to a website using HYPERLINK(). This website will translate or redirect to the Tel: number href.
VoIPstudio already has this service, so if you navigate to https://voipstudio.com/call/+442034329230, it will redirect to Tel:+443034329230 and trigger a call to the VoIPstudio line using your computer or smartphone’s default Tel app.
Suppose your spreadsheet has a column with phone numbers like this:
To allow the number on row B to be clickable, you only need to set up a formula under another column using a structure like this:
=HYPERLINK(“https://voipstudio.com/call/”&B2,B2)
Here’s an example:
Or have a look at our google sheet example.
As international numbers start with a + sign, spreadsheet editors will treat them as formulas. We can fix this in two ways:
- Enclose the number between quotes signs “+44xxxxxxxx”
- Add quote sign on the beginning: ‘+44xxxxxxx
How to make phone numbers callable from Open Office
Like Google Sheets, Openoffice links only allow web and mail click to call. If you like to have a click to call from LibreOffice Calc, you will need the same approach as when using Google Sheets.
Dialing from application internally
Many Windows or Mac applications recognize TEL links, and they will allow you to initiate calls using the default TEL app.
Additionally, some apps may integrate differently with the phone service platform. It is typical when you are using a Customer Relationship Manager application. Most of these applications already allow integration with your cloud phone service, so you can click contacts from inside the app to directly trigger a call.
These Integrations also enable many more features, the most common being automated activity register, recordings management, and inbound call identification. Check for VoIPstudio CRM available integrations.
If the application we need to use does not have any previous compatibilities, we could also use SIP TAPI as most Windows applications allow this TAPI use to enable Click to Call. Please check our online manual and do not hesitate to contact our support department if you have any further questions.
There may be other approaches to achieving click-to-call functionality in a particular application. For example, you can use the CTI connector, the REST-API, or call the VoIPstudio app by passing as a parameter for the number to call.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team so that they can evaluate the solution that best suits your scenario.
Click to call from a web browser
While browsing the Internet, you may want to click under companies’ contact telephone numbers to dial the number from your softphone directly. Or maybe you have a web-based CRM, and want to click contact phone numbers from the browser instead of copy-pasting them to your softphone or manually typing numbers on the phone dial pad.
There are several approaches to achieve this, as listed below.
Phone numbers defined as Tel links
Ideally, when browsing the Internet, the phone numbers should be appropriately defined as Tel links. This way, click to call will be enabled by default, and you only need to select your default calling app. Web developers do it by using the HREF tag like this:
<a href=”tel:00611800647203″>+61-18-006-47-203</a>
As a result, customers will see numbers as a clickable link:
Use the VoIPstudio Chrome extension
Install the VoIPstudio extension on your Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser. The extension will recognize any text numbers and parse them as phone numbers by adding an icon nearby the number. So when clicking the icon, it will trigger a call with the extension or any other registered SIP device. Here is what parsed website will look like:
The VoIPStudio chrome extension is handy when your webCRM displays numbers as text. The extension will recognize them and allow you to click from the browser.
Other approaches to calling from the web browser
VoIPstudio already integrates with the most common CRM. If your CRM is one of these, you are probably only a few clicks away from enabling Click to Call. See available integrations on VoIPstudio.
Alternatively, your web-based CRM may allow you to set up a call to run VoIPstudio softphones with destination number parameters or calls CTI connector as described in earlier sections.
