Set Up and Use Conversations

Article author
Dustin Nathaniel Keys
Updated

Overview

You can integrate your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams account with Apollo, then use conversations on Apollo to access and share your video call recordings. Conversations on Apollo allow you to more effectively manage and analyze your video call recordings without juggling multiple apps.

You can play and share your recordings, create video clips, and take action on tasks with automatic transcripts and AI-written summaries, along with account and attendee data on each call.

As a team leader, you can rate a team member's call effectiveness with custom scorecards, and create video call playlists to train and onboard new employees. Use conversations to coach, train, and lead teams to scale successful conversations and increase call conversions.

Check out the following sections to set up and use conversations.

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Follow the Set-up Wizard to Enable the Apollo Recorder for Your Team

 
Connect Your Mailbox

If you haven't already, connect your mailbox and encourage your team to connect their mailboxes. Apollo automatically sends the recorder to meetings based on the schedules of connected mailboxes. If a user does not connect their mailbox, auto-record will not be enabled for them.

To help the non-admin users on your team use conversations, direct them to Use Conversations Successfully section, which provides clear tips on how to ensure that conversations always record.

When accessing conversations for the first time, Apollo's set-up wizard walks you through the most important settings and team permissions for conversations. If you've already set up conversations, check out the Configure Conversation Settings section to learn how to update your team's settings.

To access the wizard and set your team's permissions:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Conversations.
  2. Click Enable auto-record to enable Apollo to automatically record video meetings for certain video conferencing platforms. When auto-recording is enabled, Apollo detects upcoming meetings based on the schedules of the connected mailboxes of your team's recorded users and automatically schedules the Apollo recorder to join eligible meetings. Then, click Next. Enable auto-recording.
  3. Choose whether to record all video meetings, only meetings that are internal to your organization, or only meetings that involve external participants. To record all meetings regardless of the host or participants, click the checkbox for every setting.

    To avoid recording video meetings that involve certain organizations, enter their domain names in the Exclude domains from recording field and press enter. This adds them to an exclusion list, which means Apollo won't record meetings when they participate.

    Then, click Next. Decide which conversations to record.
  4. Apollo only records meetings for the users in your team with the necessary permissions. First, decide whether newly added users on your team's Apollo account should automatically be recorded. Then, click the checkbox for each existing user you want to add as a recorded user.

    Click Next. Add users to record.

Your team is now ready to record conversations. You can further refine conversations settings, including adding trackers (keywords) as well as recording consent messages for conversations.

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Configure Conversation Settings

With conversations set up, you can add trackers, update your team's recording settings, and add a recording consent message:

Trackers are sets of keywords that Apollo detects in your recordings to help you identify and surface the most important parts of each call. Apollo creates prebuilt trackers for you, but you can edit and add trackers. To edit trackers:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Conversations. Then, click the Trackers tab.
  2. Click Edit next to a tracker to add or edit keywords. Edit a tracker.
  3. Enter new keywords to track in the Keywords field. Click Track when mentioned by to set whether you track keywords from internal, external, or all participants. Add keywords to your tracker.
  4. When finished, click Save tracker. To delete the tracker, click Delete tracker.

To create a new tracker:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Conversations. Then, click the Trackers tab.
  2. Click Add tracker. Add a new tracker.
  3. Select Prebuilt or New trackers.
  4. If you use prebuilt, select a template on the left. Make any edits you need and click Save tracker. Edit the tracker template.
  5. If you use new trackers, give your tracker a name, type your keywords into the text box, and add the type of participants you want to track. Edit the new tracker.
  6. When finished creating the tracker, click Save tracker.

You can determine which video meetings should be recorded in Apollo. To change the recording settings for conversations:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Conversations.
  2. Choose which types of conversations to record. To ensure as many eligible meetings as possible are recorded, click all the checkboxes for internal and external meetings. Then, click Save. Record all conversations or only conversations with external participants.
  3. To avoid recording calls that involve certain organizations, enter their domain names and press enter. Then, click Save.

    For example, if you know example.com doesn't agree to recorded meetings, add them to exclusion list and Apollo won't record meetings when they participate. Exclude domains from being recorded.
  4. The Apollo recorder needs to join your meeting to record. To change the recorder's name, enter a new name, then click Save. Be aware that all meeting participants can see the recorder's name. Change recorder name.
  1. When finished, click Save.
 
The Power to Choose

Want the flexibility to record some internal calls, but not all? Consider creating a waiting room in your video meeting app. The host can decide whether to admit the Apollo recorder or not!

In some countries and US states, you need permission from all participants before you can record calls. To inform participants that a video meeting will be recorded, Apollo enables you to send email notifications prior to the call, and make an audio announcement during the call.

To add a recording consent message:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Conversations. Then, click the Recording consent tab.
  2. Toggle Recording announcement on to enable an audio consent announcement at the beginning of each call. Choose when the announcement will happen and select the announcement message. Add a recording announcement to your video meetings.
  3. Toggle Email notifications on to send an email to participants prior to the call. Choose the time when the email will be sent. Then, use the default notification message, or enter your own message. Receive email notification for recordings.
  4. When finished, click Save.

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Use Conversations Successfully

If you are an admin for your team's Apollo account, you likely set up conversations for your team and understand the nuances of how the feature works. However, non-admin users are most likely using the feature and want to ensure that conversations are recorded successfully.

To help ensure that all members of your team understand how to record and use conversations successfully, refer them to the following sections:

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Ensure Conversations Record (Checklist)

The following checklist provides some general tips to ensure that Apollo records your video meetings:







Continue reading this section to learn more about automatic and manual recording options and why Apollo recommends these tips.

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Automatically Record Conversations

Apollo needs at least 30 minutes to analyze your inbox and find meetings for the recorder to join. For Apollo to record a meeting, the Apollo recorder needs to join the meeting. Depending on your video conference platform settings, the recorder can either auto-join your calls or you can choose to allow the recorder into the meeting each time. Either way, you need to make sure that the recorder is in your meeting.

If you schedule a last-minute meeting that is to begin less than 30 minutes in the future, Apollo might not have enough time to analyze your inbox, so the recording bot won't know to join the meeting.

To ensure an upcoming call is slated to be recorded, launch Apollo and click Conversations. Then, review the Upcoming meetings section to confirm the recording status of your upcoming calls.

An upcoming meeting is shown.

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Manually Record Conversations

To manually send the Apollo recorder to a meeting, use 1 of the following options:

  • Add recorder@apollo.io as a guest.
  • In conversations, click Record now and add your meeting URL.

Record an ad-hoc conversation.

 
Check the Settings

You can manually record your calls even if you haven't linked your mailbox or connected your conferencing platform, but if you don't have access to the Record now button, ask your Apollo admin to update your conversations settings. Admins can update the recorded user settings to determine which team members can record calls.

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Access and Share Your Conversations

To access your recorded conversations and share them with others:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Conversations.
  2. Use the filters to find and select a conversation from the recorded meetings.

An example conversation is highlighted.

  1. Click Comment to add comments to the video recording in-line or in-video, including using emojis. Use the AI-generated summary for next steps, objection handling, and call outcomes.

Example conversation details are shown

  1. Click Share to share the recording with anyone online, or click Push to CRM to sync it with your connected CRM.

Example conversation details are shown

Check out Access and Share Conversations to learn more about how to use conversations.

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Coach Teams with Conversations

Conversation scorecards enable your sales leaders and managers to provide detailed feedback on recorded conversations in Apollo.

An example scorecard is highlighted on an recorded conversation

When you create conversation scorecards with questions to assess calls, you can use scorecard ratings to identify training opportunities for your teams.

You can also create playlists of great calls to train and onboard new employees. With playlists to cover topics like discovery calls, objection handling, or competitive differentation, your teams can be better prepared to succeed.

An example playlist for objection handling is shown with 5 videos in the playlist

Learn more about how to coach teams with conversations.

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Associate Conversations with Deals

When conversations turn into deals, you can capture the magic and add the details to the paper trail.

To associate conversations with deals:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Conversations.
  2. Use the filters to find and select a conversation, then click Associate deal.

An example playlist for objection handling is shown with 5 videos in the playlist

  1. Select a deal or create a new one, then click Apply.

An example playlist for objection handling is shown with 5 videos in the playlist

You have now associated a conversation with a deal.

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Deactivate Conversations

If your run into issues with conversations, check out the guidance in Troubleshoot Conversations.

If you're an admin, you can disconnect your video conferencing app from Apollo and stop recording video calls at any time.

To disconnect a video conferencing app and stop recording conversations in Apollo:

  1. Launch Apollo and click Settings > Integrations.
  2. Click Disconnect for the integration you want to remove.
  3. Click Disconnect CI to confirm.

You have now disconnected your account from Apollo. If you want to set up the integration again, follow the steps in the sections above. When you reconnect, Apollo won't display any calls that your team recorded when the integration was disconnected.

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