Workforce Management Featured Article
Salesforce Focusing on Customer Service from Anywhere
As the nation begins to re-open and adjust to post pandemic realities, business leaders are realizing that many of the digital technologies implemented over the last year will likely remain permanent aspects of work culture.
This fact may require additional changes to be made for the entire workforce, such as allowing employees to have flexible schedules and work from home more, or for retailers offering some of the same digital options consumers have become accustomed to even after re-opening.
Finding some sort of balance will be critical moving forward. To help support this move into the next generation of services, CRM solutions provider Salesforce has introduced it’s latest version of Service Cloud. The latest generation of the offering provides more connected and personalized services from anywhere- and via one digital engagement platform.
For customer service agents, the COVID-19 shutdowns made speaking to customers and assisting callers from the comfort of their living rooms and kitchens the norm. This was accomplished while also relying on legacy technologies like spreadsheets and disparate on-premise solutions and with more support requests coming in than ever before.
Even as much of the nation plans to reopen soon, consumers say they will contact customer service the same way they did during the height of the pandemic.
Handling this surge will require updated tools and technologies that support distributed workforces and empower agents to handle calls with efficiency.
"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."
Salesforce has updated Service Cloud Voice, Workforce Engagement, Visual Remote Assistant and more.
With Service Cloud Voice,agents get one central view for all phone, digital channels and CRM data. They also have access to real-time call transcription and AI-powered guidance to help with next steps so they can deliver faster and more personalized service from wherever they’re connecting.
To help with shifting workforce management requirements, Service Cloud Workforce Engagement makes it easier to plan by using artificial intelligence, so service leaders can predict call volume and access channels their customers will likely be using resulting in better staffing and the ability to deliver real-time training and coaching for agents.
Limited in-person interactions will continue to play an important role in employee health and safety to help make delivering support easier from afar, agents and field technicians can also use Visual Remote Assistant to have video access and see what customers see.
Edited by Luke Bellos
