Customer Service Week Top Takeaways – Plus, Meet the Service Award Winners
What does award-winning customer service look like? Empathy, mental health, and call de-escalation techniques are top of mind for service leaders as we celebrate the hardworking agents on the front lines.
Customer service agents go through a lot. They have to quickly adapt to digital transformation and new ways of working while facing increased caseloads amid the distractions of working from home. At the same time, agents are more important to the business than ever. They act as brand ambassadors as customer experience has become a-key differentiator that drives growth.
“We tend to glorify products, but not necessarily the work that goes into making sure those products are updated and shipped on time and arrive the right way and are functional,” said Sam Falletta, chairman of the Professional Association for Customer Engagement (PACE), the host of National Customer Service Week, held October 4–8, 2021.
PACE’s chosen theme for National Customer Service Week was “Celebrating the Heart of Service.” And on November 30, Salesforce unveiled the 2021 Salesforce Customer Service Week Award winners in three categories:
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Empathy, training, and data are top of mind for service leaders today
In addition to honoring frontline agents, National Customer Service Week was an opportunity to hear what service leaders are focused on now. That includes supporting wellness and providing tools and training for agents to thrive at work.
“Top of mind for service leaders today is the importance of empathy,” said Falletta. “Customer service people have trained and mastered empathy in a way that allows them to be more skilled in dealing with the pressure that everybody’s under — and that customers place on them.”
“What’s hard is that service agents are dealing with a lot themselves, which is why it’s so critical that leaders acknowledge and address the importance of mental health for their employees. Service leaders are thinking about managing the whole person, as opposed to just driving the numbers or the outcomes.”
Organizations should check in with their staffers by holding roundtable discussions and conducting employee surveys, said Jim Roth, Salesforce’s executive vice president of customer support, during the chat. One survey question might be, “When you go home at night, or on the weekend, can you forget work and focus on other things?” Roth said.
Improving the culture and sense of community in the workplace, and giving agents technology tools to make their jobs more manageable and satisfying, strengthens your contact center.
Encourage connection, learning, and community in your service organization, and invest in automation and AI such as customer chatbots and robotic process automation. This frees agents from high-frustration, routine tasks. Intelligent assistance for agents — things like customer call transcription and guided next-best action suggestions — allow agents to focus on connecting with customers and resolving issues quickly.
For example, the Estée Lauder Companies customers complete routine tasks with the cosmetics company’s chatbots, said Tracy Kellaway, UK director of consumer care for the Estée Lauder Companies. Service agents also engage customers in video chat to provide “moments that matter,” Kellaway said.
But technology is only as good as the data that fuels it. Customers expect experiences tailored to them, and this requires a 360-degree view of their purchase, marketing, and service history, Roth said.
“If you have that data in one place — and by the way this is no small feat for any organization getting all that together — then you can really personalize the experience on the website, or in remote service, or in field service,” Roth said.
In addition to tech tools, service leaders should offer training to help agents improve their skills. After all, 70% of executives agree an improved employee experience leads directly to improved customer experience, according to Forbes Insights Research. In the end, investing in the agent experience improves customer experience, loyalty, and business growth.
Service leaders are also focused on equipping agents to handle customers whose patience has worn thin. In fact, 99% of the requests that Myra Golden, a customer experience designer who trains frontline agents, receives are for teaching agents de-escalation techniques.
“What I’m hearing from service leaders today is, ‘How do we bring down the temperature of a call and redirect intense interactions?’” said Golden, who offered daily workshops during Customer Service Week. “‘How do we prepare our employees to move customers forward?’”
Ultimately, while technology is essential in helping service teams accommodate customers, brands that lead with empathy garner greater revenue.
“We all want to have really slick digital experiences, but at the end of the day this is about people, understanding your customers, and that the role in service is to be there to help your customers,” Roth said. “I think empathy is such a critical value for anybody in service to really instill in their teams.”
A superior customer experience delivers service with the right context and surpasses customers’ expectations, said Brian Solis, global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, during the fireside chat. “Empathy spans every single aspect of the customer journey.”
The 2021 Salesforce Customer Service Week Awards Winners
Innovative Service
Airbnb
Why it won: Airbnb, a community based on connection and belonging, recognized that people are traveling differently. Through use of Service Cloud, they were able to rethink their traditional service approach and adjust to fit the needs of their customers. They are moving the needle when it comes to how customers engage and how teams deliver customer service.
At Home Stores
ChowNow
Why it won: ChowNow provides local restaurants a platform to grow and thrive. During the coronavirus pandemic, Salesforce helped ChowNow quickly add new products and services, like curbside pickup and a no-cost loyalty program, as a way to help restaurant partners navigate the new service landscape. The flexibility of the platform allowed ChowNow to quickly reconfigure existing workflows and processes to onboard restaurants faster and get them back in business. And with Service Cloud, ChowNow now supports restaurants on every digital channel, decreasing average wait times by 50%.
“Virtually everyone at the company uses Salesforce. We sent out a survey recently, and out of 100 respondents, 97.3% said they use Salesforce daily.”
– Amy Larion, director of business systems, ChowNow
SmartRent
Why it won: SmartRent is an enterprise, smart home management solution that gives renters, property managers, and home builders the visibility to stay a step ahead while maintaining or renting their properties. SmartRent leverages Salesforce to provide a seamless property management experience by eliminating the hassle of in-person showings and allowing the ability to schedule maintenance work without disrupting a renter’s schedule. With the help of Salesforce Field Service, SmartRent eliminated tedious manual tasks – replacing physical checklists of 30-40 items with tasks in Salesforce that can be shared in real time across the entire team.
“Salesforce is not only just a CRM. It’s your system of record. It’s the tool that drives action.“
– Demetrios Barnes, chief operating officer, SmartRent
Sonos
Why it won: Sonos, one of the world’s leading sound experience companies, uses Service Cloud to give agents a single view of each customer’s case and order history. The company created a seamless and connected experience for both agents and customers using Help Center, Einstein Bots, and Service Cloud Voice. On top of that, this innovative brand piloted Workforce Engagement, a powerful way to upskill agents and manage the contact center.
“There’s a time in a customer’s journey where they might run into an issue or a problem, and that is a defining moment where you can either rise to the occasion and help them or not. If you can address it, you raise the value in the mind of the customer.”
– Patrick Spence, CEO, Sonos
Excellence in Customer Service
The Auto Club Group – AAA
Why it won: The Auto Club Group – AAA optimizes service, including efficiencies and automation enhancement made in customer service through Service Cloud, and the roadside assistance process with Salesforce Field Service, by automating appointment scheduling and time-of-arrival quoting.
“Today’s consumer has zero tolerance for having to repeat themselves. Omni-channel servicing allows a customer to begin a request or service from one chosen channel and complete the request in a whole other service channel without losing a beat. Field Service has reduced over 25% of the volume that is being handled completely digitally without human interaction, through AI, chat, or other digital self-service capabilities. The result of having a customer-centric approach is a happier, more delighted member, and Salesforce is a big part of our journey.”
– Shohreh Abedi, EVP and chief operations technology officer, member experience, The Auto Club Group – AAA
Canyon Bicycles GmbH
Why it won: Canyon Bicycles GmbH, a German manufacturer of triathlon bikes, urban and fitness bikes as well as e-bikes, connects with customers across their entire journey to offer personalized support through email, phone, and chat with Service Cloud. Workforce Engagement empowers team leaders to plan and balance staffing in real time, assigning work to the right people based on their expertise and location.
CarMax
Why it won: CarMax, the United States’ largest retailer of used vehicles, created an omni-channel experience that empowers customers to buy a car on their terms – online, in-store, and a seamless integration of both. A key component included working with Salesforce to create a centralized view of the customer to provide a seamless experience across all touchpoints.
Domino’s
Why it won: Domino’s is the largest pizza company in the world, with more than 18,300 stores in over 90 markets. Service Cloud is used by Domino’s to manage and maintain strong relationships with franchisees globally, keeping communications and relationships robust. In addition, Service Cloud is leveraged to manage store growth around the world, tracking store builds and brand standards seamlessly.
Flock Safety
Why it won: Flock Safety offers the first public safety operating system that helps neighborhoods, businesses, and law enforcement in thousands of cities work together to eliminate crime, protect privacy, and mitigate bias. It comes as no surprise being able to quickly support customers is key to their business. Salesforce Field Service helps Flock Safety quickly install cameras and ensure that they’re constantly working. Resulting in the ability to address customer problems faster, helping communities reduce and solve crimes.
“Our operations team is now able to dispatch field technicians when work is needed without having to do manual camera health reviews or risk making errors. We’re able to keep key data synced to Salesforce and ensure it’s sent to the right people. It allows us to have fewer offline cameras, and ultimately fewer offline cameras mean that our customers can solve more crime.”
– Jonathan Love, VP of operations, Flock Safety
ICS+
Why it won: ICS+ focuses on customized software for building automation systems. Their focus has always been on delivering the best possible service to every one of their customers, despite tackling more than 100 client engagements each year with a team of only a half-dozen. Salesforce lets them spend less time wrangling information and details and more time serving customers and innovating. It’s made a difference — especially over the past year — in fostering human connection. Service Cloud allows them to manage all of the schedule changes and other constantly moving logistics – which is huge for a small business.
“We can achieve the same results with less effort, fewer things slipping through the cracks, more timeliness, and overall better service and connection with our clients.”
– Bernard Morgan, CEO, ICS+
SmileDirectClub
Why it won: SmileDirectClub, a leading international oral care company, provides omni-channel capabilities across the call center, allowing customers to experience customized interactions no matter where they live through personalized chat rooms, text messages, and customer service calls with Service Cloud.
Culture in the Contact Center
IBM
MTI
Why it won: MTI, a hardware and software solution to help organizations improve security, workplace efficiency, and enhance their customer experience, replaced multiple disparate systems with Service Cloud and Salesforce Field Service to reduce manual scheduling needs and decrease case resolution time.
“MTI provides security and tablet solutions to businesses like retailers, restaurants, hotels, and hospitals, and the pandemic drove tremendous change in all of those businesses. By leveraging Salesforce Field Service, we’ve been able to reduce manual scheduling needs by 50% and run 70-80% of service trips through our optimization model. Not only that, but we’re able to drill down and see to the minute when somebody is on site, what they’re doing, and how it relates back up to a complete customer project. The average time to resolve a case has decreased as we’ve leveraged multiple applications within the Salesforce ecosystem — increasing the speed and efficiency of our business.”
– Mary Jesse, CEO, MTI
Southwest
Why it won: Southwest, a major U.S. airline, gives customer representatives a single view of the customer and the contextual information needed to provide personalized experiences with Service Cloud. Self-service and chat features embedded in the mobile app ensure customers can get service even while in-flight.
“Sharing customer data across all customer-facing employees and channels helps increase the speed of decision making, and improves our ability to provide a much more customer-centric experience.”
– James Ashworth, vice president, customer support and services, Southwest
OneUnited Bank
Why it won: OneUnited Bank is the first digital Black-owned bank that has made it its mission to build wealth and encourage savings within the African American community. During the COVID-19 crisis, OneUnited Bank came across many challenges like communicating with customers, managing workflow, and tracking customer data. OneUnited was able to empower their team to support customer needs by bringing together the power of Salesforce’s Service Cloud and AI tools like natural language processing to automate staff interactions across multiple communication channels.
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