Salesforce Service Cloud 3 allows to help customers via live chat, Facebook, Twitter and Facetime

The guys from Salesforce, that are engaged in developing Service Cloud, can't help repeating that traditional customer support systems (Call-centers + CRM / Helpdesk) - are already obsolete. They are built in expectation that a phone call is the primary communication channel that customers use to get support. But the world has changed. Customers want to solve their problems via the Internet - in Facebook, Twitter, forums. They want to talk to tech support via online chat or personal account at the company's website. They want to read what other users say about a product. They want to use video and screen-sharing, to show the problem to support engineer, rather than explain everything by phone. All these requirements are met in the new version of Service Cloud 3.



So, first, Service Cloud 3 now can talk via Facebook. Customer may open company's Facebook page and post a question. The Service Cloud will automatically create a ticket and the customer service agent can process it:  search for the solution in the Knowledge Base and discuss the issue with his colleagues via Chatter. And when he finds the solution - he posts reply in the Service Cloud interface and it appears in Facebook comments. The same integration with Twitter was implemented in Service Cloud 2. Moreover, Salesforce has introduced integration with Radian6 - the service, which enable such customer communicate in over 80 social networks.



Second, Service Cloud 3 has got a live chat tool - Salesforce Live Agent. This is the result of the Activa Live acquisition last fall. You can embed online chat to your website or Service Cloud customer community. Chat operator can quickly find customer profile with the history of orders and requests. In addition, operator can see what the client typing even before he presses Enter, so he can start searching for the solution faster.



And third, Service Cloud 3 has been integrated with Facetime. Now, customers using iPhone or iPad can contact support via video chat, to show what's not working and get an advice. Recall that recently Salesforce acquired the web-conferencing tool DimDim, so, probably soon it will add an inbuilt video chat and screen-sharing tool.



By the way, Salesforce also doesn't forget about the traditional telephone support. Service Cloud 3 adds a nice visual scripts for Call-center operators (script - is a wizard that guides the operator to ask questions and depending on the customer answer ask the following questions in order to find the solution).

See also: Top 10 Helpdesk software