personalised customer service

Get Personal with Salesforce Service Cloud Personalised Customer Service

From the early days of barter and trade, all the way down to the modern world of digital banking and ecommerce, there has always been a single constant: the customer.; Customers are at the heart of every business process. Beyond being the primary focus of marketing and sales teams, customers also directly influence product development, change management, quality improvement, financial analysis, and even employee satisfaction. In fact, it would be a safe statement to say that without customers, no business can exist. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that almost every business identifies customer satisfaction as a top priority.; However, the reality is that customer satisfaction shouldn’t be a top priority — it should be the top priority. A 2016 Gartner executive survey of CEOs had ‘customer service’ rank second among business priorities, only losing out to ‘growth.’ The truth, of course, is that when a company provides its clients with exceptional customer service, business growth is the natural result. Obviously, there’s some disconnect with many modern businesses when it comes to understanding what customer service really is.

 

What is customer service?

The most basic customer-service definition would be probably be something like this: the process of ensuring client satisfaction with a product or service. On the other hand, the factors that help define superior customer service are often more difficult to pin down. Customer service means that your business is available to work with clients from first contact through sales follow up, but it also means providing a service environment that is helpful, friendly, accurate, and efficient.

Customers don’t like having to wait a long to time for answers or resolutions to problems. They want to be treated with respect. They want to know that they can trust those they do business with, not only to be honest, but also well-informed and intelligent. Maybe most importantly of all, they want to be treated like individuals, rather than just potential dollar amounts. In order to do this, your business needs to focus on providing your clients with personalised customer service.

 

A personalised approach in customer service makes a significant difference.

Customer service shouldn’t be a fire-and-forget solution. It should be an ongoing, one-on-one journey for you and your clients, and that takes dedication. After all, conventional wisdom suggests that impersonal, broad customer service would be capable of helping more clients in a shorter amount of time. Unfortunately, this again turns clients into numbers, which is exactly what clients don’t want to be.

Personalised-customer-service statistics found in the Salesforce 2017 State of Service support this claim — 69% of consumers, and 82% of business buyers say personal care directly influences their loyalty. How much does personal care influence loyalty? The report also suggests that 52% of consumers would be likely to switch brands if the company in question doesn’t make an effort to personalise communications. With this in mind, there may be more at stake when it comes to personalised customer service than many businesses believe.

Business initiatives that are focused on personalised customer service benefit clients, and contribute to business growth, but to really achieve the one-to-one service that clients crave, you need Salesforce Service Cloud.

 

Salesforce Service Cloud customises customer service.

Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer support and service system built on the Salesforce Customer Success platform. The recognised leader in the customer relationship management (CRM) industry, Salesforce has leveraged its client service expertise to create the one-stop tool for businesses that want to provide personalised customer service.

Service Cloud allows you to automate tasks and processes, improve interdepartmental communication, collect and analyse vital data, and improve agent productivity. This is in part to its cloud-based design. 80% of service teams agree that having a single, shared view of a customer across departments results in better personalised customer experiences. Through cloud technology, Service Cloud can be accessed from any internet-enabled device, by an unlimited number of authorised users. All Service Cloud data is processed and updated in real time, and protected by constant security monitoring and multi-layer encryption.

All of this comes together to give your service agents the best resources for providing a personalised customer-service experience. Of course, these features are only the beginning. Here are five other Service Cloud components that will help you personally connect with your clients:

  • Omni-channel integration
    Gone are the days when customers only had a few different options for contacting companies. The modern customer uses a variety of digital communication channels, in addition to the more traditional ones, to connect with your brand. Service Cloud integrates across the communication channels your clients are using. Meaning that they’ll be able to get the support they need conversationally, through the channels they prefer — including social media, popular messaging apps, or even directly with live agents over the web.

  • Predictive intelligence capabilities
    The ability to accurately predict customer needs before they share them is the holy grail of customer service, and with Salesforce Einstein, it’s becoming a possibility. Salesforce Einstein is an artificial predictive intelligence. Einstein helps predict next steps, and gives agents the confidence to provide personalised, effective solutions that save time and keep customers happy. By predicting individual customer needs, Einstein promotes personalised experiences for every client.

  • Superior user interface
    Sometimes the only thing keeping agents from personalising their customer service is difficult-to-find client data. Salesforce Lightning Console makes sure that this doesn’t happen. Lightning Console is the Service Cloud U.I., and it gives support agents and other representatives everything they need to customise the experience to each individual customer. By making client data clear, visible, and understandable, Lightning Console ensures that no customer ever gets generalised as a result of hard to locate information.

  • Self-service options
    Truly personalised customer service needs to take into account that not every client is interested in contacting a representative. Some customers prefer to solve their problems themself. As such, Service Cloud uses client communities, forums, and self-service portals to give your clients everything they need to find their own solutions quickly.

  • Integrated customer support
    Salesforce Service Cloud is a complete customer service solution, which means that it’s designed to function where you need it the most. Service Cloud’s advanced client support features can be dropped directly into your website or onto your business apps. These ‘snap-ins’ integrate where you need them to, giving you and your customers more freedom to engage in a one-to-one client journey.

In short, Salesforce Service Cloud makes it possible for you to treat your customers like individuals, rather than numbers. And when you treat your customers like individuals, they’re sure to come back.

 

Make it personal.

Through the ages, the customer has always been the single constant in the changing world of business. They are the centre of everything you do, and what drives your business to become something better. Treat them with the individual, personalised service they deserve. With Salesforce Service Cloud, you’ll have the power to turn transactions into conversations by engaging with your clients on a personal level. Continue your journey by learning more about Salesforce Service Cloud, today.

Customer satisfaction should be your top priority, and with Salesforce Service Cloud, customer satisfaction is finally ready to get personal.

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