Salesforce, [NYSE: CRM], the global leader in CRM, today introduced the next generation of Service Cloud — technology to support changing customer service expectations and provide connected, personalized service from anywhere on one digital engagement platform.
Over the last year, service agents moved quickly to work from their kitchens and living rooms, but relied on legacy technology — disparate, on-premise solutions and spreadsheets — that wasn’t designed to manage globally distributed workforces. At the same time, agents were reeling from a monumental surge in the volume of customer requests across all digital channels and new, in-demand experiences like appointment setting and curbside pickup.
Today, parts of the world are beginning to reopen — 53 percent of U.S. consumers plan to fly on a plane by the end of this year, and 97 percent plan to shop inside a store. Reopenings will also introduce a slew of new questions around updated policies, protocols, and safety measures. This adds a new level of challenge for agents, who will be on the frontlines, and who are already contending with increased workloads and more demanding customers. In fact, 82 percent of consumers expect to continue contacting customer service at pandemic-level rates yet just 36 percent of service professionals feel fully prepared to handle a surge in service and support cases.
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“We are on the cusp of a great reopening of society, and companies know they need to move quickly to seize the moment,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Service Cloud, Salesforce. “While customers and companies alike are eager to return to in-person experiences, digital behaviors we learned and grew accustomed to during the pandemic are here to stay.”
According to a Forrester report authored by Kate Leggett, VP Principal Analyst, Forrester, “Customer service leaders must stay abreast of three megatrends in 2021 as they weather the storm: AI-fueled digital experiences underpin great customer service, modern agent desktops empower agents to best serve customers, and customer service technology enables resilience and sustainability.
Service from Anywhere with Service Cloud 360
For companies to thrive, they need to make every customer engagement — from online to curbside to in-person — more valuable and empower their service employees to quickly help, whether they are working from home, are in the field, or working in a hybrid model. Today’s announcement includes key updates to Service Cloud Voice, Workforce Engagement, Visual Remote Assistant and more, all applicable across industries from retail to manufacturing.
Modernizing the contact center
With many contact center leaders planning to maintain remote or hybrid work, old ways of working — like handling one support channel at a time or looking over a desk to ask a coworker or supervisor for help — are now obsolete. COVID exposed an opportunity to deliver great service from anywhere.
Service Cloud Voice brings together phone, digital channels and CRM data in one central view for service agents, and offers the agent real-time call transcription and AI-powered guidance on recommended next steps. For the first time, customers can connect their existing phone systems into Service Cloud Voice with Service Cloud Voice for Partner Telephony, creating a unified agent and digital channel experience to deliver faster, smarter and more personalized service.
Businesses have had to rethink their operating model and create a more flexible workforce. For example, with retailers seeing less in-store foot traffic, service associates working on the store floor need to have the ability and the training to also support digital requests in the contact center. But in this new environment, it’s critical more than ever to have the right customer service agent — with the right skills — talking to the right customers at the right time.
Service Cloud Workforce Engagement is a new workforce planning product that uses artificial intelligence to help service leaders predict how many requests will come into the contact center, and on which channels — including phone, email, web chat, text and social. Service leaders can intelligently plan staffing needs, matching agents to work based on their skills, availability and shift preference. Agents have a single workspace that integrates data, as well as real-time coaching and on-demand training with myTrailhead, an online learning platform integrated directly into Service Cloud.
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