About Salesforce Service Cloud
Overview of benefits
Salesforce Service Cloud is an eCommerce platform designed to help you grow your brand and convert more customers faster. Here are the platform’s top benefits:Faster Time to Value — Service Cloud creates a faster path between your ideas and execution. First, business users can handle whether the infrastructure is ready to support their initiatives. Because cloud readiness is never an issue, they can launch new sites or execute promotions in days or hours, not months. Second, role-based, intuitive user interfaces empower the business user with control over the brand experience and site functionality — all with minimal IT involvement, as the cloud automatically scales and supports whatever they have planned. This frees your IT department to focus on driving innovation and strategic initiatives instead of supporting infrastructure and implementing upgrades. Empowering your users in these ways allows you to authorize your business with tremendous agility.Seamless and Continuous Innovation — Salesforce Service Cloud eliminates the barriers to innovation familiar with legacy commerce solutions, empowering you to keep pace with today’s dynamic market and evolving customer needs. The app is seamlessly upgraded eight times a year, delivering new features and enhancements without disrupting your day-to-day operations. Its open architecture enables you to build unique capabilities without compromising the cloud upgrade path. In addition, the vendor makes it easy for you to connect to your choice of third-party technologies through pre-built integrations that are resistant to breakage when upgrades occur.Supportive Community — Working with Salesforce Service Cloud, you become part of a large, vibrant community that provides fresh ideas and insights. Because this app is built on multi-tenant cloud architecture, all users run it on a single code base using the same software version. This makes it easy to share innovation and ideas across the vibrant user community. You also benefit from the intelligence harnessed by the cloud. Because every customer’s shopper interactions run through the Commerce Cloud, the vendor continuously builds a rich behavioral data set that can be used in the aggregate as a benchmarking tool to drive continuous improvement. Your ability to tap into the knowledge and experience of this collaborative community creates a powerful network effect to conduct your innovation.Shared Revenue Model — The Salesforce Service Cloud business model is based on shared success, which means the vendor is fully vested in helping you grow and ensuring you succeed. They offer insights based on data and results from across their entire user set, and their Customer Success Management, Optimization & Growth teams are at your service to provide the advice and support you need to succeed.A Mini Call Center — As stated in our overview, Salesforce Service Cloud has a very robust computer-telephony integration (CTI) system. The key takeaway from this functionality is that you don’t need extra software to receive calls in huge volumes, as well as you don’t need extra hardware. Another important benefit of this feature is that everything is in one place, meaning that your workflow is significantly streamlined.Softphone Utility in Service Cloud Lightning. Source: Trailhead
As for the feature itself, with it, you can view a full profile of the customer before you pick up the phone. In the profile section, you can see what items your customer has bought and what issues he might have. This will allow your agents to provide a better service as they will know exactly what to assess. Finally, the last important feature of CTI is that it logs all call and you don’t have to take notes manually. All of this will result in enhanced agent productivity and higher consumer satisfaction.Assess Social Media Cases — It’s no secret that the majority of consumers are not only active internet users but profound social media experts. Indeed, most of your consumers are on every popular social media channel. Be it Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, providing a way for your customers to contact you is critical. Thankfully, Salesforce Service Cloud provides this possibility as with it, you can easily answer, resolve, and ask about issues without the need to open multiple websites.Service Console with cases coming from different channels, including social. Source: Trailhead
Indeed, all this can be done in a single tab inside Salesforce Service Cloud. The information presented in this social media tab is not only easy to read but features labels and priorities, making it easy to digest. All issues, reports, and questions can easily be transformed into a chat, email, or even phone conversation. This is a very helpful tool that all help desk should have.Unified Access To Information — As the name suggests, those who opted to use Salesforce Service Cloud can expect an easy way to access all kinds of information. Be it customer profiles, call duration, and even conversation logs, in just a few clicks you can access all this information.An example of a ticket view in Service Console. Source: Trailhead.
This will boost your agent productivity as they won’t have to spend precious consumer time just to find one small detail. Having an information hub that is just a few clicks away is not only convenient but provides you a competitive advantage due to the fact that your business will have a much better and faster service. Also, using this hub, you can provide support across all kinds of channels. Essentially, your customers don’t need to jump from one site to another to get the right answer.Streamline Customer Service — All menus and features were made with speed and quality in mind. This means that all your efforts to solve consumer issues will not only be fast and of high quality but won’t exhaust your agents. Be it the main dashboard or an individual chat, your agents can solve issues anywhere they like as everything will be tied to a single ticket. That’s right, you don’t need to manually include information about certain activities into the ticket as everything is automated. Each activity can also be configured to appear in the general newsfeed which can ease the process of managing remote teams, and it’s not just your teams, you can even set up a consumer feed so that your agents could easily collaborate between one another.Customization of the user interface in Service Cloud Lightning. Source: Trailhead
Mobility — Just as your customers, Salesforce Service Cloud is mobile. Included in the standard package, you get a robust mobile application that is not only powerful in terms of features but super intuitive. From managing new queries to assigning tickets, the app provides a solid experience that will get the job done no matter who uses it. All menus, all features, all reports are easily accessible and do not require previous experience whatsoever.How to get started
When it comes to using the Salesforce Service Cloud, it’s pretty straightforward. For starters, it does not require any kind of installation process, nor does it need any kind of configuration. You simply register an email address, specify what kind of account this is (i.e user or administrator) and proceed to the payment.Once you’ve managed to sort the payment, you can create roles and permissions and start inviting new people to your working space. The procedure is pretty simple as all you have to do is click on the “New User” button in the “Users” menu and your good to go. The person will receive an automated message where he/she will be told what to do. Now that you have people on board, you can proceed to the ticket creation process. To make a new ticket, head over to the “Cases” menu and hit “Create Case”.Creating a new case from the Service Console
You will see a bunch of different fields that you can fill in later. What you should do, is locate the assigned field and select the right specialist.This is just a small section of the whole system and there is a lot of different things you can set up or adjust.Key Features
B2B Commerce Features:- Storefront personalization
- Targeted promotion management
- Multiple catalogs for different customers
- Personalized promotion and coupons
- Multi-account and contract ordering
- Order on-behalf from sales service
- Quick order and reorder templates
- Subscriptions
- Multiple carts
- Tax integration
- Split shipments across multiple locations
- Site search and guided navigation
- Currency and language localization
- Global support
- Global scalability, security, performance, and hosting
- Order history
- Single view of your customer
- RESTful APIs with componentized services
- Lightning flow automation (business process)
- Additional platform cache storage
- Platform development
- Real-time dashboards and reports
- Multichannel orders
- Mobile optimized design
- Powerful commerce platform
- Mobile commerce
- Single, multiple, and unlimited site options
- 2-10 and unlimited price book options
- On-demand Sandbox
- Full-featured reference app with cart and checkout
- Merchandising and marketing tools
- Native targeting A/B testing
- Product, pricing, and catalog management
- Campaigns and content management
- Site search and guided navigation
- Search engine optimization
- Global scalability, security, and performance
- Multisite management and localization
- Internationalization
- AI-powered experiences
- AI-powered business tools
- Certified integrations
Tech details
As for technical details, Salesforce Service Cloud is pretty good as it supports a massive array of different devices and operating systems, as well as it has a plethora of languages right out-of-the-box. It can fit practically in any kind of organization and the key deployment method is cloud-hosted, meaning that you don’t need a dedicated server room for it to operate. Here are the key tech points Salesforce Service Cloud has:Devices Supported | Language Support | Pricing Model | Customer Types | Deployment |
|
| Quote-based |
| Cloud Hosted |
Support Options
- Phone
- Live Support
- Training
- Tickets
Use Cases
Scenario 1: Understanding Consumer Behaviour Analysis
A business can derive multiple benefits from consumer behavior analysis. Tracking their online activity makes you retain and understand your customers. With Salesforce, you can keep track of your customer’s journey consolidated in one place. Be smart and sell better with Salesforce.Scenario 2: Improving Customer Service
Salesforce makes it super easy to resolve a high volume of customer issues across various channels. You are now a well-informed sales representative. Doesn’t it make life easier? Salesforce streamlines.Scenario 3: Customer’s Grievance Redressal
If the customer contacts your business with a problem, Helpdesk software makes it possible to provide direct support to an almost unlimited number of clients. Help desks function much like call centers, except that help desks are suitable for resolving IT-related problems within your organization.Scenario 4: Measuring the Business Impact
Salesforce’s dashboard and reporting tools have tools to measure and analyze your business. Salesforce gives you data to make informed choices. From a sales representative’s view, you know when to follow up and what to offer.Scenario 5: Improves Collaboration Between Teams
Salesforce aligns with different departments in a company. It improves collaboration. Sales and marketing insights will help one another grow as a team, eventually benefiting the company.Scenario 6: Access Data At Any Time and From Anywhere
With Salesforce, you can take your operations to any part of the globe. All of it is possible because it is located in the cloud. Thus, companies require lesser resources in the office to manage their operations.Awards and Certificates
While the help desk does not have as many awards as the company’s main product which is a CRM tool, it does have a few awards and good rank positions. Among the most notable ones are:Finances Online:Top 3 Customer Support Software productsTop 3 IT Asset Management Software productsTop 3 Help Desk Software productsMarketplace/Integrations
When it comes to integrations and marketplaces, the Salesforce Service Cloud has a few options.Appexchange homepage with Top categories and sponsored solutions for your Service Cloud integrations. Source: Salesforce
First things first, there’s the open API system that lets you hook the tool to practically anything you want as long as it’s not outdated. As for more conventional methods, we have a bunch of integrations straight out-of-the-box. Among the most notable ones are the following:- ConnectWise
- Help Scout
- Syncplicity
- Salesforce Service Cloud
- ServiceNow
- Autotask
- Zendesk
- Oracle Service Cloud
- Freshdesk
- Desk.com
- Cherwell Software
- Freshservice
- Wrike
- JIRA
Support Pricing
The company offers five distinct tariff plans that aim to solve different problems in different scales. Essentially, each tariff is designed for a limited set of people (except for the latter one) and a specific problem/goal. Here’s what each of them offers:- Free Trial: No
- Salesforce B2C Commerce: Contact vendor
- Salesforce B2B Commerce: Contact vendor
Salesforce Essentials ($25)
As the name implies, this is an essentials pack. It has everything a standard help desk system has and adds a bit more. Specifically, those who opted to use this tariff can expect in-app tutorials for both you and your customers. Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter integrations. And finally, once you outgrow this plan, you can easily transfer everything to the new plan.Lightning Professional ($75)
This tariff is much more complete compared to the previous option. It has everything the Essentials tariff has and adds customer issue tracking possibilities, real-time business insights, and most importantly, the ability to customize reports and dashboards. Generally speaking, this is a very compelling package and it’s no wonder most organizations opt for this one.Lightning Enterprise ($150)
This package was designed with Enterprise level companies in mind. This is clearly reflected in its functionality because with it you can handle complicated case requirements and differentiate agent expertise. Aside from this, this tariff also has advanced automation options that aren’t available on previous plans. With this package, you can schedule reports, as well as modify the standard templates to get more personalized results.Lightning Unlimited ($300)
The ultimate experience, this tariff is the best the company can offer and suffice to say, it’s amazing. To begin with, you get the ability to modify and adapt your Service Cloud Lightning experience, as well as scale consumer service processes. Another key component is that you can setup Live Agent Webchat which will allow you to provide better service. In addition, you get unlimited training and 24/7 toll-free support. Finally, admins get a number of sandboxes to test things out before releasing them live.Free Trial
The company offers a free trial for everyone and it is based on the Professional tariff. As of the time of this writing, the trial is 30-days long and by the end of the trial period, you can pay for whatever you like and transfer your stuff to the new place.User satisfaction
Overall, most users cite the fact that Salesforce Service Cloud is pretty good in terms of the user interface. The menus are well aligned and each tab is visible even when the amount exceeds ten. Also, many users state that the tool is good in terms of configuring automation. Most state that each rule is well explained and the online documentation is great. Lastly, some people cite that Salesforce Service Cloud can be slow and that many things aren’t as snappy as they should be. But overall, Salesforce Service Cloud is good for the money.Salesforce Alternatives
- Freshdesk
- HubSpot Service Hub
- Jira Service Management
- Zoho Desk
- Help Scout
- Kayako
- Intercom
Patrick C. –
We are a sales and distribution company that serves a number of investment companies. Our prospect base is massive and managing them in excel is simply a nightmare. We operate as a team and having a shared, well-organized workspace is critical for us. Salesforce Service Cloud fixed all of this for us, yet, there are a few caveats. For starters, lack of a genuine support tool is kinda disappointing. Your only option is to email them directly. Next, the tutorial could use a revision as not everything is clear. Although, generally speaking, the tool is pretty good and can be classified as a “Must Have” for any sales team, regardless of industry.
Paulette –
We use Salesforce Service Cloud mainly for case management throughout our wide range of services. This functionality is built within the console and helps our team to be more efficient in multiple cases. Aside from that, we use the built-n automation tool to eliminate monotonous work. But as with everything in this world, the tool becomes very restricted when the number of users exceeds 500. Also, as part of the issue, the more users there are, the slower it works. Yet, in spite of the negativity, the tool is good as we managed to solve a number of issues.
Stephanie Chapman –
The tool helped us solve a wide range of issues but the most critical one that we managed to eliminate with this tool is the fact that it gave us a corporate address. Now we don’t have to give out individual emails or do callbacks when someone is on vacation or sick because everything is stored in one place. Overall, the tool is easy to use, the UI is pretty friendly, and creating multiple orders on one case is a breeze.
Lynette –
PROS: Salesforce commerce platform offers great analytics and reporting functions, an excellent tool to expand our productivity. We love using this software for tracking data, and I like that it provides accurate reports so we can make better decisions based on the reports we get.
CONS: I’d like to see data with past data so we can visualize sales over a while. In addition, there is a steep learning curve, so you can better use this tool and all its capabilities.