The needs and expectations of customers are ever-changing. Rapid technological advancements coupled with mass migration to online commerce and service platforms have made it more important than ever for businesses to invest in digital capabilities for reaching clients and customers.
On top of this, the instant access to goods, services, and solutions online has put pressure on businesses to provide exceptional customer support as part of customer service.
According to research, 80% of U.S customers cite speed, efficiency, knowledge and friendly service as critical factors for a pleasant customer experience.
Within the South African context, stats have shown that South African customers are 4 times more likely to switch to a competitor if they encounter a service-related problem as opposed to a product or price-related problem.
It’s clear that businesses who want to stay relevant in their industry need to prioritise and revamp their customer support strategies to evolve with the times. Harnessing the power of technology to streamline customer support processes is the ideal solution.
A CRM tool like Salesforce Service Cloud is designed to do just this, enabling companies to:
- Improve customer satisfaction.
- Elevate customer growth and secure customer retention.
- Maintain revenue growth.
Read on for a closer look at Service Cloud and what capabilities it provides for businesses to leverage for customer support.
What is Service Cloud?
Customer service and support is a key focus for any organisation. Businesses aim to employ the right amount of Customer Service Reps (CSRs) and equip them with the necessary tools and resources to handle service requests and support resolution cases with confidence.
But, inevitably, as a business scales and expands, their customer support requirements expand with them.
At a certain point in business growth, it becomes obsolete to keep adding and training new CSRs as opposed to investing in tools to simplify and manage the various moving parts of customer support. This is the purpose of Service Cloud.
Salesforce created Service Cloud as an end-to-end solution for businesses looking to improve their customer service models and elevate their customer support and resolution systems.
Service Cloud enhances the support operations of businesses, with knowledge base centres, live agent support, self-service communities and omnichannel support capabilities.
How Can Service Cloud Transform Your Customer Support Model?
Key features of Service Cloud:
- Service Cloud Voice — Service Cloud Voice integrates telephony and routes incoming calls on a unified platform, enabling support agents to work from a single dashboard and leverage AI-powered recommendations for assistance and resolutions.
- Service Cloud Workforce Engagement — Workforce Engagement is a workforce planning product that uses AI abilities to predict customer service demand, enabling businesses to prepare and staff agents with the necessary skills and resources.
- Visual Remote Assistant — VRA allows remote support agents to provide instant assistance via video chat, no matter where they are, ensuring a positive customer experience every time.
- Service Cloud Analytics — the analytics dashboard makes it easy for support and service managers to gain immediate insights that can be leveraged to improve support operations. CSRs also benefit by having access to the histories of each case and customer to inform their next actions.
What benefits do these features provide for customer support?
Service Cloud’s features enable businesses to quickly and efficiently manage and resolve support tickets and cases from start to finish, driving numerous benefits, including:
- Convenient communication — Service Cloud allows customers to contact support centres on their preferred platform, making communication more convenient. CSRs and support agents can also provide personalised feedback and assistance through access to dashboards that offer a shared view of every customer and their service history.
- Case tracking — Live tracking of every case status is made possible, ensuring continuous support improvement.
- Increased productivity — As Service Cloud empowers agents and CSRs to work from anywhere this increases individual and team productivity while reducing overhead cost per agent.
- Amplified customer satisfaction — By providing seamless connections of customers with support and service agents, Service Cloud helps to elevate and amplify customer satisfaction.
Regardless of your industry or customer base, providing exceptional, efficient customer support is a must. Leveraging the abilities and support of Service Cloud allows businesses to provide intuitive, personalised support to customers while equipping agents with the tools and items they need to take fast, informed actions.
A CRM tool as robust as Service Cloud requires in-depth knowledge and understanding of its features to harness its full potential. For this reason, it’s always recommended to work with a Salesforce implementation partner who has the experience and ability to make the implementation as seamless as possible.
CloudSmiths is a multi-award winning Salesforce partner, having completed over 300 successful CRM projects to date. In addition to implementation, we offer a full range of dedicated services, including Salesforce training, licensing, development and post-launch management to ensure maximum return on your investment.
No matter your Salesforce needs, CloudSmiths has the capabilities and resources to meet them.
