Product Updates

June Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

What’s New

• For customers who want to integrate Custom Activities with third-party integrations, we added the ability to copy custom activity IDs.

• Invites now expire 1 week after being sent.
• There is a new limit of 300 opportunities per lead.
• The "Send Later" action has been re-designed making it easier to pick a date and time from any device.

• In the Close API we improved Lead address validation for Canadian provinces/territories. This matches our current validation for US states (“British Columbia” → “BC”).
• In Zapier we updated the following to support both plain and new HTML (rich text) notes: new note trigger, create note action, and update note action.

• Also in Zapier "New or Updated" Custom Activity triggers were superseded by the simpler "Published Activity". This will trigger only when an activity is published (saved) in your Close app. Existing Zaps using a New or Updated Custom Activity trigger will continue working as-is. In the case of a more complex trigger scenario, you can use the New Event trigger.
• We released a new version of our Zapier integration that uses OAuth authentication which replaces API keys for all new Zaps. Existing Zaps that are using API keys will continue working as-is. For more information, you can check out our Zapier help article.

Bug Fixes

• Lead and Contact SMS buttons will now be disabled if the only number on the Lead or Contact is blocked or if there are no phone numbers.

Lead Visibility Permissions

We've just introduced the ability to restrict which leads each member of your team can view in Close.

• By default, all default and custom roles within Close have Lead Visibility set to `All Leads`
• For new and existing custom roles, you can now toggle this setting to be `Limited Visibility`.
• Once the role is set to Limited Visibility, you will decide which User Type custom fields on the Lead should control visibility for that role.
• Each Role can have up to three (3) fields controlling the Roles' visibility, and each Role can use a different set of fields (e.g. your Sales role can use the Sales Rep field and Success can use a Success Rep field).
• Optionally, teams can decide whether Users in the Role can see unassigned leads (e.g. leads with no one in the Lead Owner field)

A few quick additional notes about Lead Visibility:

• Users with Limited Visibility will only see data in Close that is related to Leads they're able to view. This applies to Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, and Reports tabs, as well as Search.
• Users with Limited Visibility cannot view another User's Inbox.
• Admins and any User in a role with the Manage Organization permission will also be able to see Visibility Summary on each lead in case you need to quick see who is able to view any particular lead.

For more details and a setup walkthrough, check out our help center article here.

OAuth Integration Support

Close now supports integrations using OAuth 2.0. To integrate with Close using OAuth check out our documentation here.

Developers can now:

• Create a private OAuth app for your organization
• Request to publish your app publicly for all Close users

Users can now:

• Authorize integrations built using OAuth to access your data in Close
• Revoke access for OAuth apps that have access to your data
• Authorize the new Zapier OAuth app with Close

Sequence Improvements: Lead Assignment and Send As

We've just introduced a few brand new features to help your teams scale with Sequences.

Assign User Steps

You can now automate lead assignment logic in sequences via our Assign User step.

• You can specify which field should be assigned when the step runs
• The step supports both overwriting an existing user or only assigning if the field is empty, as well as unassigning the User if desired
• Once you’ve selected your action, you can decide whether to assign a specific User or select a User at random
• When selecting a User at random, you can select All users, or one or multiple Groups based on your needs.

‍

Keep in mind that additional steps (e.g. emails, calls, sms) following the Assign User step are optional.

Sequence Send As

When creating Sequences, you will now be able to specify who the sender of each Sequence step should be.

‍Your options will include both static and dynamic selections:

• Enrolling User - The current experience. The step will send from the User subscribing the Contact to the Sequence.
• Specific User - The step will always send from the same User. Think “Email from the CEO as the 3rd email” sequences.
• Assigned User - The step will send from the User assigned to the Lead via a User Custom Field.

This will allow you to create a single sequence that can be used across team members more easily.

‍

Close iOS App - Outbound Calling

We’ve released Outbound Calling in our iOS Mobile App. Making calls through the app using your Close number is now possible.

‍

In Q3, we expect to support inbound calling. You can download the Close app using this link on mobile.

May Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

What’s New

• International SMS - German phone numbers can now send & receive SMS. Additionally, SMS messages from countries we don’t support now show up in your Inbox/Activity Feed (you still cannot reply).
  ‍
• We have adjusted our date calculations so reporting on future events accounts for the entire selected period. This change mostly impacts Meetings because they are created for future days. Now all of your meetings for the week will show up, even if they are in the future.
  ‍
• You can now access Smart Views from the Leads and Contacts pages by clicking on the page title.

Bug Fixes

• We fixed an issue where the “Change Phone Number” modal appeared unresponsive when you tried to change your primary phone number.

Close iOS App

The day has come, and we’ve released version one of our iOS mobile app. You can download it from the App Store and use Close while on the go.

Check out our massively improved mobile experience, better navigation, and quick access to your Inbox, Lead, Contacts, and Pipeline report.

‍

Later in 2023, we’re planning the following updates:

• Mobile VoIP calling
• Improved Email, SMS, and Notes editor
• Android support
• Push notifications

‍

April Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

What’s New

• Lead Detail Updates - We have a new, “About” section. Merge, Delete buttons and Integration Links were moved into the dropdown menu next to the lead name.

• Lead Activity Updates - The “Done” and “Snooze” buttons have been moved above the inbox feed, fixing an issue where they could obstruct other buttons.

• Account Menu Updates - We've added a "What’s New" section to the menu, making it easier to see the latest features and improvements.

• We are blocking outbound SMSes when delivery is not possible. Phone numbers are added to the SMS blacklist if the destination is unknown, a landline or an unreachable carrier.
  

Rich Text Editing for Notes and Call Notes

We've added rich text editing capabilities to notes and call notes in Close. We've also introduced a new field type for Custom Activities to include rich text notes.

With rich text you can:

• Add bulleted or numbered lists
• Bold, underline, strikethrough, italicize, highlight and quote text
• Hyperlink text easily by pasting the link on selected text
• Use markdown or keyboard shortcuts to add formatting easily

‍

You can also create rich text notes via our API. More details here.

‍

Scheduling Links + Calendly Integration

Effortlessly add your scheduling links to your emails and allow others to schedule meetings with you.

My Scheduling Links

You can now add your meeting links from any scheduling tool to Close. Once you have these scheduling links saved in Close we then make it easy for you to insert these into an email or template. You can find scheduling links in Settings -> under the customizations section.

Scheduling Template Tags

You can also set up Scheduling Template Tags, enabling your team to map their individual link to be dynamically inserted when used. Perfect for when you want multiple folks to use the same template. No more creating duplicate email templates for each person to add their link.

‍‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

One more thing. You can use our new Calendly integration to sync your scheduling links automatically. With this new integration you can:

• Sync your active Calendly event types (and your team's if you are a Calendly Admin) with Close
• Add Calendly links to emails and templates
• Map your synced Calendly links to scheduling template tags

March Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

What’s New

• Users can now create Contact records for attendees from a Meeting activity.
  

‍

• An avatar is now shown next to Meeting activity participants who are users in Close, along with an organizer badge.
• The contact address modal is now mobile-friendly and provides a link to Google Maps. On mobile devices, this opens Google Maps in the app or in the browser (if you don't have the app installed).
• You can no longer add more than 25MB worth of attachments cumulatively to an email or email template. This will prevent users from disconnecting Google/Microsoft accounts.

Bug Fixes‍

• We fixed date filters that weren’t showing correctly in Smart Views.
  
• We fixed a chosen status filter in the Opportunities List view, which was getting overwritten in some cases.
• Users can now access their accounts to remove some of them if they exceeded the account limit.
• We now report all bounce metrics for Sequence email steps.
• Custom Objects with required fields don't break when added to a lead anymore.
• Fixed an issue where users were not able to call a Contact back after pausing a dialer.
  
• Opening another user’s email draft doesn't switch ownership of the email anymore.

SignWell Integration

Send contracts faster, streamline sales, and automatically update activity with SignWell’s Close CRM integration.

With this integration, you can:

• Quickly send contracts in Close
• Track contract activity and updates
• See leads updated automatically in Close
• Mark signed contracts as won opportunities
• Send contracts any way you want
• Get legally binding e-signatures instantly
• Quickly reuse and resend popular documents with reusable templates

New Email Composer

We've improved our email composing and editing experience in Close.

• More text formatting options
• Better keyboard support
• Usability improvements for mobile devices
• Ability to drag and drop recipients between To/CC/BCC
• Bug fixes and performance improvements

Sequence Enhancements‍

- New call pausing experience: We’ve removed the 30-second auto-pause logic for sequence calls, and introduced a new button on the call itself to mark the sequence as responded.

- Improved response detection: Any incoming email, SMS, or answered call, as well as any outbound call where the user marks the contact as having responded will now automatically pause the sequence and mark it as responded.

- Enrollment changes: You can now enroll a contact into a sequence even if they do not have the contact information necessary to complete all steps (e.g. the contact has no phone number but the sequence contains calling or SMS steps). Previously we would reject the enrollment in these cases, which forced teams to create multiple iterations of each sequence. Moving forward, these steps will simply be skipped if they cannot be made based on the contact's information.

- Processing changes: We will now continue with sequences if a single step errors in an unresolvable way (e.g. bounced emails, failed calls, undeliverable SMS). Future steps of the same type will be skipped to avoid compounding issues (for example we wouldn’t attempt future email sends in cases where a previous email bounced), but we will continue processing the sequence in case another step type can still be attempted.

Fivetran Integration

Easily sync Close data to the data warehouse of your choice with Fivetran's new Close integration!

This integration includes the following Fivetran connector features:

• Capture Deletes - Fivetran captures deletes whenever they can detect them so that you can run analyses on data that may no longer exist in Close.
• Data Blocking - Data blocking lets you omit certain tables or columns from replicating to your destination.
• Column Hashing - Column hashing anonymizes sensitive data in your destination without sacrificing its analytical value.
• Re-sync - Sometimes the data in your destination and Close get out of sync and you need to overwrite all or some of the existing data in your destination to make it consistent with Close.

February Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

What's New

• The current user is now set by default on sequence enrollment.
• We removed auto-scroll and activity feed filtering when a contact is selected from search autocomplete
• The Inbox and Account settings page received a visual design refresh.
• We updated text on the pricing page to make it clear that cancelling a plan is not going to revoke access immediately.

‍

Bug Fixes

• Dropdown menus with many items now have a maximum height so they aren’t visually overwhelming.
• User filters now appropriately calculate the total number selected.
• We fixed an issue where date dropdowns were displaying outside of the browser window.
• We fixed an error message while hitting the character limit on an email.

Google Single Sign-On

We've added a new way to signup and log in to Close. Now, you can use your personal and Workspace Google account, which means better security and less email/password hassle.

SMS Steps in Sequences

We've added the ability to send automated SMS steps as part of your sequences! When an SMS step type is added, we'll attempt to send an SMS to the contact's phone number when the step processes.

Now your sequences in Close can combine calling, emailing, and SMS steps to create a more powerful sales cadence for you and your team. Check out our Help Center guide to learn more!

January Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup

December Improvements and Bug Fix Roundup