There’s no substitute for the nuanced tone of the human voice. Kindness, humor, sympathy – an inflection here or a pause there – can send an unmistakable message. When it comes to customer service engagement, customers choose the phone over almost every other channel (except for email). Most service professionals (76%) prefer customer service voice channels for complex cases, too, according to Salesforce’s State of Service report.
In the era of chatbots and text, customer service voice channels remain a powerful way to communicate important details across the miles. Maybe you’ve already upgraded to cloud telephony or CTI–computer telephony integration. Perhaps you’ve customized your digital customer service channels for your unique business needs. But are you getting as much out of customer service phone systems as you could?
Here are five questions to help you make the most of your cloud telephony – plus insight from our telephony partners.
1. Does your team use one platform for voice and digital service requests?
When a customer reaches out to a call service center, they don’t want to rehash everything they’ve done to try to solve their problem. Equip your agents with technology that connects seamlessly with your customer service console so they can view requests across phone, web, and social channels – without toggling in-between. This enables agents to see past order history and service requests, plus knowledge articles viewed or inquiries made through chatbots.
“With Genesys and Salesforce, companies can connect with their customers by voice directly from their Service Cloud deployment while creating a unified agent and digital channel experience to deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized service,” said Olivier Jouve, executive vice president and general manager of Genesys Cloud.
“With the ability to integrate directly with Service Cloud Voice, Vonage Contact Center solution meets the demands of today’s modern workplace through its ease of integration, high-quality audio, and global telephony coverage. We support more than 80 countries, and provide visibility across all customer conversation channels: chat, email, messaging, SMS, and social,” said Savinay Berry, executive vice president of product and engineering for Vonage.
2. Is your customer service voice channel connected to your customer relationship management (CRM)?
Deliver personalized experiences to increase customer satisfaction. Solutions like Service Cloud Voice integrate with your CRM to give your service team a complete customer view across every interaction with your company. When a customer calls to learn more about a special offer they received via email, the agent is already equipped with the information they need to execute.
“Agents can keep using the familiar environment of the Salesforce platform,” said Charanya Kannan, chief product officer at Talkdesk. “Service teams benefit from cloud telephony features like Talkdesk’s contact center functionality and reliability.”
“Whether it’s being able to purchase global numbers, personalizing customer call flows, getting greater visibility into advanced customer analytics, or providing call coaching and virtual queuing – all of these are available from directly within Salesforce. You never need to leave the platform,” said James Radford, product manager at Natterbox.
“By bringing Avaya’s industry-leading communications platform together with Salesforce, we empower businesses to collaborate and innovate at scale to best serve their customers and partners,” said Eric Rossman, vice president of technology partners and alliances for Avaya.
3. Are agents more productive using your customer service voice channel?
According to the State of Service report, 63% of agents say it’s difficult to balance speed and quality customer service. But why not have both? Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation help service teams strike this delicate balance.
When a call comes in, real-time call transcription is enabled automatically as part of Service Cloud Voice. AI analyzes customer data and the transcript to recommend next best actions. From there, automation guides agents through processes to reach resolutions. Cases are closed faster, which boosts agent productivity.
“AI-driven automation coupled with human connection empowers cross-channel, customer-centric experiences that optimize efficiency without sacrificing quality of service,” said Dan Sincavage, co-founder and chief operating officer at Tenfold.
Combining “data-driven design and AI – specifically natural language processing (NLP) capabilities – [enables] organizations to deliver rewarding customer experiences, boost agent engagement, and increase contact centers’ efficiency,” said Thibaud Pietri, chief product officer at Odigo.
4. Are your agents delivering proactive support?
Customer concerns and customer preferences around service channels can quickly shift. A single platform that integrates calls over cloud telephony, along with other digital customer service channels, helps agents serve customers on every channel. It also helps companies anticipate changing needs.
If analytics reveal increased customer demand for support via voice calls, for example, the company can increase resources for that channel. Agents still have access to customer information based on their digital interactions, and they can use that to personalize their experiences on the voice channel.
“Voice is and will remain a critical channel in customer service centers. Understanding voice channel interactions and the part they play in the customer service ecosystem is crucial to analyzing customer behavior as a whole and delivering exceptional experiences,” said Mike Kulik, chief product officer of Bucher + Suter.
5. Are managers able to easily assess agent performance?
When cloud telephony is integrated with a CRM, managers are able to view call transcripts in real-time and assist. They learn about common customer issues and agent challenges. They can then use that information to develop training that ensures smoother service going forward.
Learn how you can bring your customer service voice channel to your CRM
“Voice communication [makes] up over half of the daily interaction with customers,” said Chidubem Chukwuemeka, account executive, Europe and America, at Mirage Computer Systems GmbH. Integrating your cloud telephony with Salesforce “helps boost your service agents’ productivity and takes you closer to your Customer 360 goals,” he said.
Service Cloud Voice for Partner Telephony provides new benefits beyond cloud telephony or CTI alone to enhance your customer service voice channel. Salesforce is unlocking a modern Voice experience in partnership with some of the most popular telephony providers in the world. That means you have a choice with voice: Choose whichever telephony partner you prefer, with more partners to come.
Current Salesforce ISV partners (members of our AppExchange community) with telephony solutions for Service Cloud Voice on our Service Cloud AppExchange Collection Page include:
These partnerships “let the Salesforce community amplify the value of their CRM and telephony investments by igniting agent productivity and delivering on new customer expectations,” said Kari Simpson, vice president of product management and strategy, contact center products, at Upland InGenius.
If you don’t have one of the cloud telephony partners listed, you can still get Service Cloud Voice with pre-integrated telephony from Amazon Connect.
Give agents digital tools that let them combine consumer data with their own human empathy. That means everyone who calls into your customer service voice channel enjoys a seamless, personalized experience.
Learn how to modernize your telephony
Digitize voice calls to integrate customer data, unleash AI, and boost agent and manager productivity.
We invite you to dive into our Heart of Service series:
- Read our first post about how to Chart Your Professional Course with the New Service Career Path
- Join the Service Trailblazer Community and become a #ServiceStar
- Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss the latest from Service Cloud
