Next Gen Service Cloud Revealed: Supercharged Salesforce Features

Today, Salesforce has announced their next generation of Service Cloud, for a remote, digital-first world. Service Cloud 360 strengthens 4 existing Service Cloud feature sets – Service Cloud Voice, Service Cloud Workforce Engagement, Einstein Bots, and Visual Remote Assistant.

Some of these enhancements are generally available today, and others we can expect to roll out over the coming months. Here’s an overview on what we know so far. A month after Sales Cloud 360 was announced, what does Salesforce have lined up on the service side?

“88% percent of service professionals report that the pandemic exposed technology gaps in their jobs”

– Salesforce State of Service Report

Service Cloud Voice

What does the “Contact Center of the Future” look like? Salesforce are continually striving to be at the forefront of CRM and telephony integration.

Service Cloud Voice unifies telephony (phone), digital channels (eg. email, social), and CRM in real time by:

• Providing one central view for service agents,
• Offers real-time call transcription and AI-powered guidance on recommended next steps to the agent.

Agents are being tasked with handling an increasingly diverse range of channels. There was an increase in usage of all 12 service channels in the chart below (except ‘in-person’):

What’s new? Service Cloud Voice for Partner Telephony

Service Cloud Voice for Partner Telephony means you can connect your existing phone systems into Service Cloud Voice.

Service Cloud Workforce Engagement

Also in ”The Contact Center of the Future” category is Workforce Engagement.

For the service leaders, it’s an engine that supports workforce planning. Leveraging AI, managers can predict how many requests will come inbound to the service team, on which channels. Knowing in advance whether support requests will flood in through phone, email, web chat, SMS, or social is a huge advantage (and potentially a competitive edge for your brand down the line!)

• Service Forecast for Customer 360
• Omnichannel Capacity Planning

For more information, check out this article.

And for the service agent, it’s a single workspace that integrates all of the data, systems, and coaching they need to deliver personalized service and resolve issues quickly. The name Salesforce originally picked for this is “Personalized Agent Engagement”:

• myTrailhead integrated directly into the Service Console.
• Provides real-time coaching and on-demand training from anywhere.
• Quickly onboard and continually train agents by delivering bite-size, guided learning paths.

For more information, check out this article.

Einstein Bots

Chatbots are all about automating digital service and diverting low-level requests from your agents, who should be freed up to take care of the more complex, more fulfilling support queries.

If you ever questioned the value of chatbots, this past year has provided the ‘proof in the pudding’.

“In the past year Einstein Bot conversations surged 706%, while service channels like chat,
messaging apps and video support saw double digit adoption gains.”

– Salesforce State of Service Report

What’s new? Pre-Built Einstein Bots

Also known as “Template Bots”, Salesforce are making it easier to get up and running with Einstein Bots.

These premade bots are ‘hooked into’ the appropriate objects (and fields). There are templates for:

• Welcome Dialogs
• Connect with Sales
• Report an Issue
• Check Issue Status
• Check Order Status
• Gather Info from User
• Supporting Dialogs (eg. Agent Transfer, Anything else, Clear Memory, Confused, and End Chat)

Piqued your interest? Find out more here.

Scaling Salesforce Field Service (+ Visual Remote Assistant)

Salesforce Field Service has been growing in popularity (as one of our contributors, Aiden, predicted!) The impact of the pandemic only embedded the importance of Field Service for mobile teams to continue functioning with new precautions in place. As in person interactions become essential for how businesses reopen and effectively stay open (think: a surge in infrastructure and servicing demands), Field Service has a bright future.

What’s new? Visual Remote Assistant (Generally Available)

As companies continue to limit in-person interactions, delivering effective visual support remains important. Visual Remote Assistant allows technicians and agents to see what the customer sees through video support, so they can resolve complex issues from anywhere.

Take a look at the GIFs below – how useful would this precise guidance be to you, as a consumer (or client)?

From the agents’ point of view, the pop-up (bottom left) is a great addition to help service agents view the conversation while able to search the customer record, product context, known issues – and the next best action the agent should take.

Service 360 Availability

• Today: Visual Remote Assistant
• June 2021: Service Cloud Workforce Engagement, Service Cloud Voice for Partner Telephony (pricing information will be made available at general availability).
• October 2021: Pre-Built Einstein Bots (currently in beta, expected delivery October 2021).