Customer satisfaction serves as fuel for most (if not all) businesses, and providing exceptional customer service has become more important than ever. Customers nowadays are more aware of what they want and need, and Service Cloud gives businesses access to a powerful set of tools designed to enhance support processes and drive loyalty.
In this article, we’ll explore the top Service Cloud features that every organization should be using to deliver the best support to customers.
1. Case Management
The Case object is the backbone of Service Cloud – the most important object in the org for everything related to customer interactions. Service Cloud’s case management system allows agents to efficiently track, prioritize, and resolve customer inquiries and issues. Service Cloud utilizes features such as case queues, assignment rules, and escalation processes to ensure that no customer request gets lost in the shuffle.
Case Queues organize and store customer inquiries based on criteria you set until an agent is available to take the Case. This works hand-in-hand with Case Assignment Rules. For example, a new Case can be classified based on issue type or priority and then assigned to a specific queue with Case Assignment Rules. When an agent or member of the queue is available, they can take ownership of the case and work on it accordingly. This ensures cases are assigned to the right team or individual, making workflows seamless and reducing response times.
Escalation processes automatically escalate unresolved or critical cases to higher-level support or management based on predefined criteria. For example, an escalation rule can be set such that if a case has not been resolved within the first 24 hours since it was created, it will automatically be reassigned to a senior agent or manager. This ensures important issues are resolved on time, service level agreements (SLAs) are maintained, and delays are prevented.
2. Business Hours and Support Holidays
This may not be one of the major features but sometimes they’re overlooked, especially when admins are so focused on setting up the specifics regarding rules and criteria. Defining working hours for support teams ensures cases are handled only during operational periods. This helps in setting customer expectations, especially if manpower isn’t made for operating 24/7. Cases can be automatically assigned based on the defined business hours so that they’re addressed only within the service team’s working hours.
While business hours focus on working hours within the day, Support Holidays define non-working days. Your agents will thank you for setting this up properly, as it can account for regional holidays or even company-wide breaks/events. This feature helps ensure that cases are not unfairly timed during off periods and helps to calculate more accurate response and resolution times.
By integrating support holidays into the case management system, businesses can provide clear communication to customers about potential delays during these periods.
3. Omni-Channel
Customers know what they’re entitled to – and when there is a need for support, they expect efficient communication from businesses. It is very important to be present in multiple channels, such as email, phone, chat, and social media. While this is beneficial for customers, agents can have a difficult time managing requests and cases if they’re all over the place.
Service Cloud’s Omni-Channel capabilities enable organizations to centralize all customer interactions in one unified platform so that agents have a complete view of each customer’s history and preferences regardless of the channel they use. Omni-Channel also includes ways you can monitor agent work performance and maximize efficiency with its Omni-Channel Supervisor feature.
Imagine a scenario where a customer needs support for a product they recently purchased. Initially, the customer sends an email detailing their issue. An agent receives and responds to their email, but the customer needs further assistance and decides to call the support hotline. Later after the call, the customer decides to engage in a chat session for additional help.
With Omni-Channel, information and details of the customer’s previous email can be automatically available to the agent who answers the phone. Also, the chat agent can see the customer’s entire interaction history (including the email and phone call), enabling them to provide more personalized and efficient support.
Throughout this multi-channel interaction, Service Cloud ensures that all communications are linked to that specific customer’s profile, giving agents a comprehensive view and most importantly, maintaining continuity in the support experience. In addition to that, the Omni-channel Supervisor can track agent utilization in real-time, which ensures cases are routed to the most available and appropriate team members based on their expertise/skills or queue.
4. Knowledge Base
Sometimes, customer questions are fairly simple or issues are quick and easy to resolve. It would be great if customers were empowered to find the answers to these simple questions independently. This is where having a Knowledge base becomes super helpful.
A Knowledge Base is a centralized repository for articles and anything related to the business’s products/processes. It’s somewhat like an encyclopedia that both customers and agents can look into. The Knowledge Base can have everything, from articles and FAQs to troubleshooting guides. Having one can greatly reduce support ticket volume as it reduces dead ends during support.
Consider a scenario where a customer encounters a technical issue with a software application in the middle of the night. Instead of waiting for support during business hours, the customer can visit the company’s support portal and search the Knowledge Base. It turns out that there is a detailed troubleshooting guide that can walk the customer through resolving the issue on his own. This not only provides immediate assistance but also reduces the need for the customer to reach out to support, freeing up agent time for more complex inquiries.
5. Service Console
The Service Console provides agents with a customizable workspace designed to optimize productivity and efficiency. It has features such as tabbed navigation, utility bar, macros, and split view which can help agents handle multiple cases simultaneously and resolve issues more efficiently. In true Salesforce fashion, it’s a 360-degree view of customer data as well as interactions.
Here’s what the Service Console looks like when opening a Case record:
As seen above, the split view shows a list view along with the agent workspace, so it’s easier to navigate through cases without having to go back to the previous page. When viewing a Case record, the pre-configured three-column layout keeps all the important information within a single view.
This way, scrolling down to see more information is minimized as the agent can already see the case feed, contact details, and related lists. The Service Console also comes with a utility bar, which can be treated as quick access. It can be configured to quickly show Notes, History, Macros, and the softphone.
6. Swarming
When I worked for Salesforce support, this was one of the more recent features that were implemented into the support process – and one I was thankful for. Swarming promotes collaboration on cases and is a better approach to problem-solving as multiple people work together in real time to resolve complex issues. Instead of transferring a case from one agent to another, Swarming brings the necessary expertise together quickly to address the issue more efficiently. The people involved can discuss the issue via Chatter or Slack.
Here’s how it works. A customer has a highly technical issue with their enterprise software and submits a case to the support team. The first-level support agent realizes the complexity of the problem and initiates a Swarm. This Swarm includes a product specialist, a technical support engineer, and a customer success manager. By collaborating in real-time, they can use their expertise and resources to diagnose and resolve the customer’s issue quicker than if the first-level agent was handling the case on their own or immediately escalating to higher-level support.
Throughout this process, the original agent remains the single point of contact for the customer, ensuring a more seamless and coordinated support experience.
7. Service Cloud Voice
If your support center’s main flow of Cases comes from customer phone calls, or if your business has/is a call center, then you already have a telephony system. Service Cloud Voice supports multiple telephony systems that can be integrated with Salesforce so that agents are allowed to make and answer calls from the Service Console. This is beneficial as support agents can access caller information, create Cases, and log interactions directly within the Salesforce platform, even during the call itself.
Click-to-dial is a convenient addition when everything’s seamless in an agent’s workflow. Service Cloud Voice can also make things easier from the management’s perspective with its Omni Supervisor integration, as well as real-time transcription and integrated call recording for easier audits/quality checks on conversations with customers.
8. Web-to-Case and Email-to-Case
Cases can come in through various channels. Some customers, especially those with non-urgent issues, prefer to communicate with support via email instead of phone calls. If your business has a public customer-facing website, it is worth considering setting up Web-to-Case so customers can submit cases to your support team through a form on your website. The same goes for Email-to-Case, where customers can simply send an email to your support email address which automatically creates a Case record for your agents to own within Salesforce.
Having this is a great convenience for customers, as it allows them to reach out for support through their preferred channel and at their convenience, even outside of business hours. Aside from this, it automates case creation, therefore reducing manual entry and ensuring that all customer inquiries are captured and tracked within Salesforce.
9. Messaging
Service Cloud’s Messaging feature expands the range of communication channels available to support agents. In addition to the usual call, email, and chat, customers and agents can now connect through enhanced WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger channels. The main advantages of Messaging are:
- Sending voice messages for a richer communication experience.
- Adding dropdown fields to pre-chat forms.
- Integrating messaging capabilities onto your customer-facing website.
- Controlling sessions.
10. Field Service
This is more like an extension of Service Cloud and could be considered a niche as not all businesses are the best fit for Field Service. However, if your business involves deploying mobile employees (such as technicians or engineers) out onto the field or on-site, then you might consider taking advantage of this feature. Field Service is a powerful tool designed to enhance the efficiency of field operations by providing an all-in-one solution for managing mobile workforce tasks such as service appointments, work orders, and asset management.
Field Service makes smart scheduling easy as it optimizes dispatching to ensure the right technician is assigned to the right job, reducing travel time and increasing efficiency. It even comes with mobile app functionality so that technicians can have real-time access to work orders, customer info, and knowledge articles, even offline. The app can even capture signatures and log parts used on-site.
11. Visual Remote Assistant
As a customer seeking technical support, was there ever a time that you felt the issue would’ve been resolved faster if only the agent can actually see the whole situation with their own eyes? Imagine customers and agents being able to do video streaming and desktop sharing during troubleshooting sessions – this would definitely make problem-solving faster and more efficient.
The Visual Remote Assistant enables real-time visual support to customers and field technicians, allowing experts to provide guidance remotely via video. It takes interactive guidance to a whole new level with features involving Augmented Reality (AR) annotations, so that experts can use AR to draw on the live video feed to highlight areas of interest or specific actions to take. Now wouldn’t that be a clearer approach to communication?
Summary
Implementing Service Cloud transforms support teams into strategic assets, as long as businesses know how to maximize its features. Knowing what it can do makes it easier to decide which ones would fit daily support operations and are actually worth adopting. From simple Case management and Omni-channel support to Field Service and Visual Remote Assistance, Service Cloud provides a powerful and wide range of features designed to make customer service operations more seamless.
These tools enhance agent productivity and ensure effective customer interactions. Embracing these capabilities elevates customer experience and allows businesses to stay ahead in such a competitive market.
What other Service Cloud features should businesses be aware of? Leave them in the comments below!