Salesforce enhances Service Cloud for unified customer care

Salesforce has announced significant enhancements to its Service Cloud Digital Engagement capabilities. These new features aim to help contact centres unify unstructured, conversational data from various digital channels, departments, and devices within a single platform.

The upgrades are built on Salesforce's Einstein 1 Platform and are designed to provide service leaders with a more comprehensive view of their customers. This, according to the company, will enable better value delivery in every customer interaction.

Kishan Chetan, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Service Cloud, highlighted the importance of these enhancements. "As customers interact with companies across more touch points and channels, they are looking for more personalisation and a higher-touch experience," he said. "With Service Cloud built on the Einstein 1 Platform, companies can bring in sales, service, and marketing data on one platform to deliver more relevant customer experiences and drive business growth."

The enhancements aim to address common customer service challenges. Nearly 80% of customers expect consistent interactions with companies, yet 55% report that it often feels like they are communicating with separate departments rather than one unified entity. The average customer engages with brands across eight channels, leading to inconsistent communications and increased frustration.

The Service Cloud Digital Engagement enhancements include several key features to address these issues:

Unified Conversations for WhatsApp enable service agents to access a customer's unified profile and complete conversation history. This unification allows for seamless communication, eliminating the need for customers to switch channels when interacting with different departments. For example, a hospitality brand can send a tailored offer through WhatsApp, and an agent can instantly respond to the customer's questions within the same channel.

Omni-Channel on Mobile provides employees with the flexibility to work on-the-go and respond to customers on any digital channel via the Salesforce mobile app. All conversations will be securely logged on the Einstein 1 Platform. This feature allows, for instance, retail sales associates to respond to high-value clients from their phones, armed with the context of previous purchase history to increase repeat transactions and boost customer loyalty.

Bring Your Own Channel gives businesses the capability to integrate digital channels such as KakaoTalk, Discord, Instagram, and TikTok into Service Cloud through APIs and connectors. Data from these external channels will be harmonised in Data Cloud to provide a complete view of customer interactions from any source. This feature also supports LINE, the most popular messaging app in Japan, allowing global companies to reach new markets.

Olivia Boles, Director of Operations Projects at PenFed, shared a positive reaction to these enhancements: "Being able to see all the communication - chat transcripts, emails, phone calls - on the member's profile page has totally transformed the agent and member experiences."

The availability schedule for these features is as follows: Unified Conversations for WhatsApp is now generally available. Omni-Channel on Mobile will enter beta in winter 2024 and will be generally available for all Digital Engagement channels later in 2024. Bring Your Own Channel will be generally available in winter 2024, and LINE support will become available later in the same year.