Customer service, an experience center

“The adoption of Service Cloud by a company is synonymous with the extension of its customer experience,” explained Thi-Tuyet Nguyen. But how can customer service, traditionally seen as a cost centre, be transformed into an extension of the customer experience in a shop or on a website? This is the question that Salesforce strives to answer each year by integrating new features into its customer service and support application. For Salesforce, “The transformation of customer service necessarily involves combining the customer experience with the advisor experience,” added Thi-Tuyet Nguyen.

An omni-channel customer experience

Consumers increasingly use digital channels: an average customer uses 10 different channels to communicate with companies¹. Clearly, customer services are directly affected by these new uses. This trend is constantly increasing and strongly amplified by the ongoing global pandemic. The Service Cloud offering allows customers to communicate not only via e-mail, social networks, instant messaging such as WhatsApp or Facebook messenger, but also by chat, or “self-service” (i.e. the implementation of a chatbot or an FAQ on a portal accessible to customers) with Experience Cloud. In July 2020, Salesforce extended this multi-channel approach by adding the Voice channel with the Service Cloud Voice solution. “Thanks to this multi-channel system integrated within the same platform, a customer can now make a request via chat, continue on WhatsApp and close the conversation with a phone call”.

¹ https://www.relationclientmag.fr/Thematique/hub-dedie-1270/breve/les-5-tendances-du-service-client-selon-salesforce-353490.htm

“Augmented” advisors

While Salesforce is keen to make Cloud Service synonymous with enhanced customer experience, the company also has in mind the need to change the role of the customer advisor. “Artificial intelligence allows the advisor to be supported in carrying out her or his tasks, some of which are now automated, giving her or him the opportunity to focus on higher value-added elements and on the customer’s needs,” explained Thi-Tuyet Nguyen. How does it work in practice? Based on the content of the conversation in progress, written or oral, articles from the knowledge base are proposed to the advisor, with the aim of providing her or him directly with the relevant solution corresponding to the customer’s request.

Another factor contributing to the transformation of the advisor’s role: the recent and already mentioned release of the Service Cloud Voice application. “Unlike many of the telephony solutions on the market, this one allows for teleworking, which is important in the context of the current pandemic.”

Dynamic workforce management with Workforce Engagement

Dreamforce 2020 saw Salesforce announce the addition of Workforce Engagement, a contact centre tool for analysing surges in customer demand, to its platform: a new feature that enables contact centres to determine accurately the number of staff required to handle customer requests on a given date, by channel, and according to a desired objective. And that’s not the only benefit of Workforce Engagement. The application is also designed to facilitate upskilling and cross-skilling of agents, to track their skill development plan and schedule the learning modules according to upcoming surges in demand.

Artificial intelligence, a vector for customer service performance

For Thi-Tuyet Nguyen, improving customer service will necessarily involve increasing the use of artificial intelligence in this area. “Salesforce has already implemented the first building blocks of AI in Service Cloud via voice and text analysis. Advisors will soon have at their disposal sentimental analysis tools capable of assessing customer satisfaction and indicating the appropriate actions to be taken. Artificial intelligence combined with multi-channel customer data analysis will finally make it possible to move towards greater support and individualisation of the customer experience. These are essential factors for optimising customer satisfaction and ensuring good customer service performance.