Product Updates

October Improvements

What’s New

• On a lead page, whenever there is an email thread with at least two sent and received messages, you can (1) summarize the thread or (2) quickly expand all the emails on the thread. These updates are designed to help you save time by allowing summarizing long email chains or allowing you to quickly glance through the entire email chain.

• When you add a Contact to a Workflow, you’ll now see a section for Recent Workflows. This will make it easier and faster to add Contacts to Workflows you regularly use. No more scrolling or searching for that one Workflow you always use.

• You can now quickly create a new lead or assign a number to an existing Lead when reviewing missed calls from unknown numbers on the Conversations page.

• We added a new filter that can be used to find Leads or Contacts that have or have not been enrolled in a Workflow. This filter is very helpful if you have a Lead(s) with multiple contacts and you want to add another contact to a Workflow. It's also helpful when you want to find Leads that have not had a single contact in a Workflow yet.

• We will now notify you in Close if your microphone is muted when you are trying to talk to a Lead.
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Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was causing outbound calls to be stuck in a created state. This previously only happened if you hung up immediately after starting an outbound call.

Inbox Improvements

We've made a number of improvements to our Inbox experience to help you drive your inbox count to zero and focus on high value items first.

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Customizable Primary Tab

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You can now control which items show up your primary tab and your Inbox count. This allows you to focus less on lower value Inbox items (e.g. follow-up reminders, OOO messages, etc.) and more on human-sent messages if you prefer.

To customize your Primary tab, simply locate the setting icon near the top of the Inbox page. Any items that you deselect will still be available in their dedicated Inbox tabs.

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Reminders Tab

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We've added a tab dedicated to reminders that will show you any follow-up reminders (both email and opportunities) separate from emails and other items.

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Send + Done and Reply Detection

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We will now automatically mark emails as Done when you send a reply by default. Previously, each send required a redundant click to remove the item from your Inbox. If you're in a scenario where you'd prefer to send a reply but keep the item in your Inbox, you can!

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We've also made it easier to keep your Inbox clean when you email inside and outside Close. Whenever we detect a reply to an item currently in your Inbox, we'll mark it as Done so that you don't have to clear out items you've already handled when working through your Inbox while in Close. These items are still available in your Done folder if you need to reference them.

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Item Deduplication

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We've improved the experience when receiving an email or SMS message from an email address or phone number that happens to be associated with multiple leads in your organization. Rather than that item being duplicated for each lead, you'll see a single item related to that message in your Inbox. You can easily view the other associated leads if desired, and marking the item as Done on one lead will mark the item as Done on any leads where that item was referenced. By default, the oldest contact that contains the email address or phone number will be the lead/contact that is shown in the deduplicated item.

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SMS Conversation View

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When receiving SMS replies and new messages in your Inbox, we'll now show you the full communication history between you and the contact (messages sent between the two numbers). This will give you full context into the conversation and make it easier to reply directly without leaving the Inbox.

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AI Search and Filtering

You can now use natural language to search and filter your Leads and Contacts in Close. Our AI-fueled Search allows you to find leads faster by taking your prompts and automatically building filtered lists for you.

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September Improvements

What’s New‍

• Sort by “Choice” Custom Fields: You can now sort leads by Custom Fields with the “Choice” type with the option to choose ascending or descending. This is useful if you want to group your list by data you record in a choices field (e.g. calling all of the leads in the same industry at once).

• Refreshed Send Email Report: We’ve completely redesigned the Sent Email Report. The updated design is cleaner, more organized, and looks great on both mobile and desktop. You can also now easily sort the table by any field by clicking on the column headers, which is useful if you’re looking for specific information such as your most commonly used templates.

• Custom Activities can now be archived: Previously, you had to delete every custom activity record that existed before you could delete the custom activity type. Now, you can archive a specific Custom Activity Type without having to do all that tedious manual work. You will not be able to create new instances of Archived Activities, but existing instances will continue to be shown on Leads. Archived Activities don’t count against your plan limits.

Bug Fixes

• Custom Activity Issues:
  • We fixed an  issue where valid Custom Activities would be kept in the "Draft" state when collapsed. Collapsing a Custom Activity will now have the same effect as pressing “Done.”
  • We also fixed a similar issue where Custom Activity instances would be saved in the "Draft" state even with all required fields present. They will now only be set to “Draft” if required fields are missing.

August Improvements

What’s New‍

• You can now set a default email account that will be used by automated Workflows! Whenever a Workflow is triggered, either automatically or on behalf of a user, the emails for that workflow will now be sent from the email account set in this new default setting.

• We've added two new filtering options for Smart Views: Local phone and Remote phone. These allow you to filter calls based on specific phone numbers. Local phone filters calls made to or from your team's phone numbers in Close, while Remote phone filters calls made to or from external phone numbers, such as those belonging to prospects or customers.

• We added the Lead Logo to more places in Close! You’ll now see the logo in the Lead search box, upcoming meetings panel and many more places. 

• The character limit for Snippets has been increased to 5,000 visible characters.
• Calls from Anonymous callers will now show as “Anonymous” in the call bar. Previously, the same default phone number was used for all anonymous calls.
• When you remove a user you’ll now be able to reassign any Workflows they were previously assigned to.
• Thailand and Indonesia have been added as options when renting phone numbers and creating regulatory bundles.

Pre-Import Review

When you assign fields, Close will automatically scan for errors and allow you to review and fix them directly in the importer. This change will greatly reduce the number of errors in your final import and save time by preventing re-uploads or additional imports.

For example, if you try to create new leads with a specific status like “Working,” but that status isn’t an option in your Close org, the importer will flag it as an error. When an error exists, you can click on Review to see and fix the rows with errors.

When you map new columns or change existing mappings, Close will automatically re-scan your data and check for errors. If there's an error in a non-drop-down field (e.g. a text, number field, etc...), Close will show you those errors to review.

Note - today, you can't fix these types of errors. We're working on allowing you to fix any errors and should be updating the importer soon. If your import has a lot of errors for a specific field, it's best to fix that in your spreadsheet and restart the import.

AI Lead Summaries

Customers on Pro, Enterprise, and Business plans can now use AI to generate concise summaries of Leads in Close.

These summaries include key details from recent activities, Custom Fields, Opportunities, Tasks, and Contacts. Whether you’re about to hop on a call, send an email, or prepare for a meeting, you’ll have all the essential information at your fingertips.

Lead Summaries are generated using advanced AI, but they may occasionally contain inaccuracies. You can help improve the quality of summaries by using the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down button.

For more details on this feature, please refer to our help documentation.

Lead Logos

We’re excited to bring you a new feature that automatically displays the logos of your Leads. With these logos, you can easily recognize and distinguish between Leads at a glance, helping you quickly find the right one, especially when multitasking.

You’ll see these logos in both Smart Views and the Opportunity pipeline.

In future updates, we'll display these logos in even more places throughout Close. We hope you love the new look and feel!

July Improvements

What’s New‍

• This past month, we updated the design of old activities making them less prominent in the Activity feed. This change will help make the activity feed easier to scan so your team can quickly find and reference important information. As activities grow stale and go without a reply, they will become less prominent in the Activity feed.
  
  Here is an example showing two different email threads. The first is an activity thread that has been replied to, while the second is a generic marketing email from a mass sender with no replies.

• Now, whenever a Lead is merged with another, we’ll create an activity on the remaining Lead. This activity will show when the Lead was merged and which user merged them, making it easier to keep track of data changes.

• We have updated the Activity Overview report making it easier to update and customize to quickly build the most valuable dashboard.

• Lastly, we’ve improved the Snooze options so they are more relevant and easier to choose between. Previously, the options were “1 Day, 2 Days, 3 Days”. Now, the quick options will reflect the specific day of the week, while skipping weekends.

June Improvements

What’s New‍

• We'll now display an in-app banner reminding you whenever you have a task set to be completed at a particular time. The reminder bar will be shown 5 minutes before and for 30 minutes following the task's set time. You can mark this task as done, snooze it, or navigate to the associated lead directly from the reminder bar.  We hope this makes following up at the agreed time with folks easier on you and your teams! 

• If you’re using our Call Assistant feature, you can now easily copy the transcription from Calls and Meeting activities that have a recording or voicemail transcript.

• When using Snippets, you can now reference custom fields within the quick insert menu.

• The AI Rewrite Assistant was added to the email templates editor. Now, you can use AI to edit or create email templates more efficiently.

• To make navigation faster within our admin settings, we’ve added search and filter options to Custom Activities, Custom Objects, and Shared Fields screens.
• The Contact dropdown on the Lead Page now sorts Contacts alphabetically instead of by the date they were added.

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Calling from Web Browsers

• You can now make and receive calls from web browsers. This includes all calling features available on the desktop application today. We support the two latest versions of Safari, Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Brave, and Edge.

• In order to begin making calls through a web browser, you'll need to grant microphone permissions to Close via your phone settings menu.

• We’ve introduced push notifications for incoming calls on web browsers, in case you're not currently viewing your Close tab. Once notifications are enabled you will now see a system notification for incoming calls.

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• In order to receive notifications for calls in a web browser, you will need to grant notification permissions to Close through the phone settings menu.

Lead Based Call Routing

For Premium Numbers, you can now enable Lead Based Call Routing. This feature will look up the phone number in your organization and automatically route it based on your configured rules.

You can set up two different rule types in this flow:

• Custom field rules: If a user is assigned to the selected User field (e.g. Lead Owner, Sales Rep, etc.), we'll automatically route calls to them.
• Lead Status rules: If the lead matches a particular status, we'll route to the selected group numbers (e.g. Sales, Support), or to a specific user on the team if selected.

Additional Notes:

• This feature is only available for phone numbers with our Premium Number add-on enabled.
• Routing rules are evaluated and applied in order, so if a lead matches multiple rules, the first will be applied.
• If the lead doesn't match any rules, they'll move through to the phone menu if enabled, or pass straight through to the group members.

May Improvements

What’s New‍

• You can now drag and drop files directly onto the Activity Feed to automatically create a new Note with the file uploaded and attached.

• Now, you can unsubscribe a specific email directly from the Lead page.

• When creating or editing Notes and Custom Activities on a Lead page, they will remain expanded after saving. This means that you won't lose track of where the Note or Custom Activity is after you save it.
• When viewing a Lead page, long notes are now collapsed by default. Additionally, you can click 'Show more' to view the note, even if you don't have the permission to edit the note.

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April Improvements

What’s New‍

• Now, when you view an email you've scheduled to send later, you can easily change when it will be sent without having to edit the email.

• Opportunity Pipeline can now show Lead Status in the cards.

• In Zapier, the action "Create Note In Close" now supports attachments. You can input URLs, files from other apps such as Google Drive or Dropbox, or plain text

• We added the ability to search for files from the lead activity search. (You can read more about this new feature here)
• If you receive a call while already on a call, the second call's ringtone will only play once.

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Bug Fixes

• We fixed an issue in our Opportunity Pipeline that caused the sorting to fail when certain fields were empty. Sorting now handles more null or empty fields to ensure sorting functions as expected.

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Phone Menu (IVR)

We've introduced the Phone Menu/IVR functionality to group numbers. It's now possible to configure and route your incoming calls to appropriate people and teams directly in Close. Find out more here.

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Mobile Dark Mode

We released the dark mode for our iOS and Android mobile apps. To get it, simply change the system dark mode in your phone system settings.

File Attachments on Notes + Files Browser

You can now attach files directly to notes! And, with our new Files Browser you can easily find files associated with each lead.

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Attaching files to leads via Notes

You can now upload images, PDFs, and other files directly to notes.

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Enhanced attachment previewing in app

We've also improved the experience when previewing file attachments on emails, SMS, and now on notes.

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Easily find files on leads via the Files Browser

We've also added a Files Browser that shows any files that have been sent, received, or uploaded to the lead. To access it, open this menu and click "View Files".

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We hope both features allow you keep more of important documents within Close, and help avoiding using other tools for storage.

Automatically Set Lead Status

We've introduced a new action to our Workflows: the option to automatically update a Lead's status. Now, you can configure Workflows to automatically change the status of a Lead at one point or multiple points in your Workflow. This means less manual work and more accurate categorization of your Leads.

As an example, at the start of a Workflow, you might set a Lead's status to "Potential" or "Actively Working." And, if a Lead reaches the end of the Workflow without engaging or responding, their status could automatically change to "Unresponsive."

This new action is all about making sure your Leads are always sorted correctly, without you having to keep tabs on manually updating their status.

Our goal with this update is to save you time and ensure that your lead management process is as seamless as possible.

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@mentions and Commenting

We've released a few new additions to Close to help you collaborate with your team.

@mention other users and groups in notes

You can now @mention users and groups within notes and activities. Any user that is mentioned will receive a notification via email that links them directly to the activity in Close.

We hope this allows to collaborate more efficiently, rather than creating tasks that reference notes or other activities on the lead.

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Comment on activities

You can also comment directly on various objects and activities in Close. This should make discussions with leads, calls, opportunities, etc. much more seamless in Close, avoiding the need to have those internal conversations outside of Close.

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We hope both features allow you keep more of your conversations in Close so you always have the most context when interacting with your leads.

March Improvements

What’s New‍

• Easier Access to Edit Smart Views: You can now edit the name and permission settings of Smart Views directly from the ‘More’ menu in the page header.

• Add New Users Directly: Organization Admins can now add new users directly, replacing the old invite system and making user setup faster and more straightforward. Additionally, the Zapier action "Create Invite" has been renamed to "Add User" to align with this new process. This name change should not break existing Zaps.

• Enhanced Visibility to Email Follow-Up Options: The email interface now clearly shows the two options available ("Follow Up" and "Enroll in Workflow") if the recipient does not reply.

• More Efficient Bulk Processing: When bulk emails and actions are run simultaneously, they are now processed in separate queues. Previously, bulk emails and actions shared a queue, which could cause delays if either process was long-running.
• Relocated Email Attachment Button: When composing an email, the attachment button has been relocated from the activity footer to the formatting toolbar for easier access.
• Search Within Snippets: You can now search for Snippets by the text within their bodies, simplifying the process of finding the snippet you need without having to remember its name.
• Link to Specific Activities via Zapier: An activity_url field has been added for each activity type in Zapier—Call, SMS, Note, Email, Meeting, and Custom Activity. This feature allows direct linking to specific activities for easier access.

Bug Fixes

• Improved Accuracy of Call Assistant Summaries: We've enhanced our Call Assistant to more accurately attribute dialogue, reducing instances of incorrect speaker identification.
• Fixed Activity Date Filter: The date filter on the lead page now correctly filters activities based on the activity date.
• Addressed Broken Avatar Images: Avatars that fail to load will now display the user's initials until the image can be reloaded.
• Resolved Email Attachment Sharing Errors: Fixed an issue where attempting to share email attachments to external services, like Google Drive, would result in an "Unauthorized" error.