How to use Surfe Chrome extension for real time contact syncing with CRMs

If you spend time chasing down LinkedIn leads and then manually copying them into your CRM, you know how mind-numbing—and error-prone—that job can be. This guide is for salespeople, recruiters, founders, or anyone who’s tired of flipping back and forth between tabs, trying to keep contacts up to date. We'll break down how to use the Surfe Chrome extension to sync LinkedIn contacts to your CRM in real time. I'll level with you about what works, what’s just fluff, and how to avoid wasting time.

Why bother syncing contacts in real time?

If you’re reading this, you probably already know the pain:

  • You find a promising contact on LinkedIn.
  • You copy-paste their info into HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or whatever CRM you use.
  • You go back and forth, hoping you didn’t misspell their name or forget their email.
  • Meanwhile, five other tasks are piling up.

Real-time syncing means you skip all that. You click, you sync, you move on. No more copy-paste errors, no more out-of-date records. It’s not “life-changing,” but it does save real time and sanity.

What is Surfe, really?

Surfe is a Chrome extension that sits on top of LinkedIn. It lets you pull LinkedIn contact details straight into your CRM with a click. That’s the core idea. You’re not getting a magic AI bot or a silver bullet for sales—just a tool that makes sure your CRM isn’t missing LinkedIn contacts. If that’s what you need, it does the job.

A few things to know:

  • Surfe works with most big-name CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Copper, Salesloft, and a few more).
  • You’ll need a paid Surfe account for most of the real syncing features.
  • It doesn’t find emails that aren’t on LinkedIn—it just moves what’s already there.
  • It’s not a LinkedIn automation tool. It won’t send messages or connection requests for you (and honestly, that’s probably for the best).

Step 1: Install Surfe on Chrome

  1. Go to the Chrome Web Store.
  2. Search for “Surfe” or grab it directly from their site.
  3. Click “Add to Chrome.”
  4. Approve the permissions. You’ll need to let it “read and change data on LinkedIn”—otherwise, it can’t do its job.
  5. Pin the extension.
  6. Hit the puzzle piece icon in Chrome, then pin Surfe so it’s always handy.

Pro tip: If your company locks down Chrome extensions, you’ll need to talk to IT. There’s no fancy workaround.

Step 2: Connect your CRM

  1. Click the Surfe icon in Chrome.
  2. It’ll ask you to sign in or create a Surfe account.
  3. Go through the onboarding.
  4. Select your CRM. Surfe supports Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Copper, and a few others.
  5. Authenticate the connection.
  6. You’ll be redirected to your CRM. Log in and approve the connection.
  7. You might need admin rights on your CRM. If you don’t have them, get someone who does.

Heads up: If you’re using a CRM that’s not supported, Surfe won’t do much for you. Check their site for a current list—don’t assume all CRMs are covered.

Step 3: Sync your first LinkedIn contact

Here’s where you see what Surfe can really do:

  1. Open LinkedIn and navigate to a contact’s profile.
  2. Look for the Surfe overlay.
  3. You’ll see a sidebar or buttons pop up—depends on your settings.
  4. Click “Add to CRM” (or similar—it varies by CRM).
  5. Surfe pulls in all the info it can: name, job title, company, LinkedIn URL, sometimes even email (if it’s visible).
  6. It creates a new contact in your CRM or updates an existing one.

What works:
The sync is fast and pretty accurate. No more missed names or typos.

What doesn’t:
Don’t expect Surfe to always grab hidden emails or phone numbers. If it’s not on LinkedIn, Surfe can’t invent it. Some CRMs have field mapping quirks—double-check that the info lands where you expect.

Step 4: Real-time updates and ongoing syncing

Surfe isn’t just a one-and-done tool. The “real-time” part means you can:

  • Update contact details from LinkedIn, and Surfe can push those changes to your CRM.
  • See if a LinkedIn contact is already in your CRM (helpful for avoiding duplicates).
  • Log LinkedIn messages as CRM notes (depends on your CRM and privacy settings).

Limitations to watch for:

  • Real-time syncing mostly means “whenever you click”—not true background syncing. It won’t crawl your entire LinkedIn network automatically.
  • If LinkedIn changes its layout (which happens), Surfe sometimes needs a few days to catch up.
  • If your CRM has custom fields or workflows, you may need to tweak Surfe’s settings.

Step 5: Tweak your settings for sanity and speed

Don’t just stick with the defaults—Surfe lets you adjust a few things:

  • Field mapping: Decide which LinkedIn fields go where in your CRM. Spend 10 minutes here to save hours later.
  • Notifications: Turn off most of them unless you love pop-ups.
  • Privacy: Surfe can log LinkedIn conversations to your CRM, but be careful—some companies frown on this, and you might end up with private DMs in your CRM history.

Pro tip: Test with a dummy contact before pushing real client data. You’ll catch mapping mistakes or weird formatting glitches.

Step 6: Train your team (or just yourself)

A tool is only as good as the people using it. If you’re on a sales or recruiting team:

  • Run a quick demo—show how to add a contact, update info, and check for duplicates.
  • Set ground rules: When do you sync? Who owns updating records?
  • Make sure everyone knows Surfe isn’t a license to mass-export LinkedIn data (that can get your account flagged).

If it’s just you, jot down your own process so you don’t forget what you’ve set up.

Step 7: Keep it simple—and don’t overthink it

There’s a temptation to go nuts with every feature. My advice:

  • Focus on syncing and updating contacts. That’s where the value is.
  • Ignore the fluff—if you don’t need message logging or custom tags, skip them.
  • If Surfe breaks (it happens after LinkedIn updates), check for extension updates or reach out to support. Don’t waste hours troubleshooting something they need to fix.

The honest bottom line

Surfe isn’t magic, but it does what it says: it saves you from manual data entry hell between LinkedIn and your CRM. The real win is consistency—your CRM is up to date, your team’s not duplicating work, and you’re not losing leads because you forgot to follow up.

Start with the basics, skip what you don’t need, and tweak as you go. Sync a few contacts, see how it fits your workflow, and keep things as simple as possible. That’s usually all it takes to make your day a bit less tedious.