Bird offers many direct integrations that allow you to plug your communications into the tools and platforms already used in your business.

Using Flow Builder's native integrations, custom connections via HTTP requests and webhooks, you can easily enrich customer profiles, enable rapid sales engagement and drive more qualified leads.

Today, we will discuss our integration with Salesforce. 

With this integration you can:

• Add leads into Salesforce from different communication channels: WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, WeChat, LINE, Messenger, Google Business Chat, Viber, etc.

• Create cases in Salesforce to keep records, and store key data inside the cases from all your channels

• Implement flexibility and automation of lead/case creation at any point in your sales funnel

In this guide, you will learn how to:

1. Set up your Salesforce properly

2. Connect Salesforce with Bird

3. Troubleshooting errors when connecting Salesforce

4. Create a flow in Flow Builder that will push data into Salesforce

5. Connect WhatsApp with Salesforce to send your leads

6. Connect Viber with Salesforce to send your cases

Requirements for Salesforce integration

Before you start building the logic in Flow Builder, you need to have the following requirements ready:

• A Bird account: Make sure you have access as administrator.

• A Salesforce Account: You need “Administrator access”

Step 1: Go to Connected Apps in Salesforce to integrate with Bird

To access the Connected Apps section in Salesforce (Lighting Experience), follow these steps:

1. Login to Salesforce as an administrator

2. Select Setup in the drop-down list of the account (in the upper-right corner)

3. On the left-hand pane, go to App Manager > New Connected App

Please note: if you face the viewing issue below, please click “Click here to open this page in Salesforce Classic.”

On the New Connected App page, fill the following required fields under Basic Information:

• Connected App Name, e.g. Bird Integration.

• API name, e.g. Bird_Integration

• Contact Email, e.g. xxx@contactemail.com

5. Go to API (Enable OAuth Settings), and select Enable OAuth Settings.

• In the Callback URL field, enter https://login.salesforce.com/

• In the Selected OAuth Scopes field, select Access and manage your data (api)

• Provide access to your data via the Web (web)

• Perform requests on your behalf at any time (refresh_token, offline_access)

• Click Add

6. Click the Save button to save the new Connected App.

7. In the Connected Apps (Apps > App Manager) list, find the App that you just created, and then click Manage.

8. On the page that opens, click the Edit button. 

• Under OAuth policies, select All users may self-authorize in the Permitted Users list

• In the IP Relaxation, select Relax IP restrictions 

• In the Refresh Token Policy, click Refresh token is valid until revoked. Under Session Policies, Select Timeout value (24 hours), click the Save button

9. Go back to the Connected Apps (Apps > App Manager) list, and click the App that you just created, and then click on View.

10. Go to API (Enable OAuth Settings) and note down the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret. You need this key and secret for the configuration of credentials in MessageBird’s Salesforce integration.

Step 2: Obtaining tokens from Salesforce to authorize access

In Salesforce, access tokens have a limited lifetime specified by the session timeout. If an application uses an expired access token, a “Session expired or invalid” error will be shown. 

Use a refresh token during the authorization process to get a new access token. Using a new token will ensure that the access token is always live.

1. Get your instance URL. Send the following curl request to obtain the instance URL. 

• client_id = Consumer Key

• client_secret = Consumer Secret

• username = Salesforce login username

• password = Salesforce login password

‍If you are not familiar with curl you can use Postman to send the request. Follow these steps:

2. Get your code. Use your favorite browser, then enter the following request URL in a new tab to get the code. 

• <CONSUMER_KEY> should be replaced with the obtained Consumer Key in the above step

• <YOUR_INSTANCE> should be replaced with your instance name

Next, enter your request URL in the browser. Allow access if any alerts popup. You will then see the browser redirected to a URL like the one below. You can obtain the code using that same URL.

• https://login.salesforce.com/?code=XXXX

3. Get access token & refresh token: Send the following curl request to obtain the tokens. 

• <CODE> should be replaced with the code you obtained in the above step. 

• <CONSUMER_KEY>

• <CONSUMER_SECRET> should be replaced with obtained keys with the created Connected App

You can obtain the access_token and refresh_token from the response.

If you are not familiar with curl you can use Postman to send the request. Follow these steps:

Troubleshooting your Salesforce connection

The most common error encountered when integrating Salesforce with Bird and how to fix it:

1. ‘REST API is not enabled for this Organization’ Issue

When you are trying to send a request to the salesforce API using the above credentials, sometimes you will get this error.

• REST API is not enabled for this Organization.
  

You can resolve this error by following the below steps.

Click on Setup in the right top corner.

Go to ADMINISTRATION > Manage Users and click on Profiles.

Click Edit on the specific profile you want to update.

Scroll down and go to Administrative Permissions and check the API Enabled checkbox.

Don't forget to go down the page and click Save.

Step 3: Create a new flow in Flow Builder to create leads or cases

The configuration of Salesforce is done. Now, let’s start a new flow. This template will help you connect your favorite communication channel with Salesforce and push new leads or cases for your team to follow up:

1. Log in to your Bird Dashboard and go to Flow Builder. 

2. Download the sample flow that you will be using.

3. Import the flow with the import function. 

Attach the channels you want to use to create leads/cases into Salesforce. Then, you can publish this flow. 

Using Salesforce with WhatsApp and Viber

This template flow will allow you to connect your favorite channels (WhatsApp, Viber, SMS, etc.) with Salesforce. The following examples, will show how to connect Salesforce to create leads on:

• WhatsApp

• Viber

Keep in mind that you can change the channel or use case depending on your needs.

You should be able to see your flow on your screen.

Fetch your access token before activating your flow. 

API endpoint is as follows:

• client_id = Consumer Key

• client_secret = Consumer Secret, 

• For the refresh_token, please refer to step 2.3.

Create a Lead into Salesforce with WhatsApp

Replace https://XXXX.my.salesforce.com with your instance URL. Phone, LastName, Company, LeadSource, Description are the field names from Salesforce. 

You can find them under Setup > Object manager > Lead > Fields & Relationship. 

Create a Case into Salesforce with Viber

Replace https://XXXX.my.salesforce.com with your instance URL. Phone, LastName, Company, LeadSource, Description are the field names from Salesforce. You can find them from Setup > Object manager > Lead > Fields & Relationship.

The output variable ID is the case ID returned from Salesforce.  

Congratulations! 

You have just successfully connected Salesforce with WhatsApp and/or Viber to create leads and cases for your team to enable faster engagement and drive more qualified leads.

If you have any questions about your new flow or our Salesforce integration, please reach out to us here.