Your customers interact with you through more channels than just email and your website, and if you use Salesforce, it’s time to try Salesforce Omnichannel. This feature from Salesforce allows you to intercept your audience at different touchpoints and truly appear when they need your help the most.
The omnichannel’s success is justified, seeing that it’s the go-to strategy for most businesses that want to thrive and scale. Simply put, the omnichannel approach and Salesforce Omnichannel allow customers to consistently engage with your brand through their preferred channels. Whether you have a small support team or a large contact center, Salesforce Omnichannel can meet you where you currently stand.
Today, we’ll explore the features, benefits, use cases, implementation, and best practices of Salesforce Omnichannel so that your customer service operations are as customer-centric as they can be!
What Is Salesforce Omnichannel?
Salesforce Omnichannel is a flexible and customizable Salesforce feature. It helps businesses to seamlessly connect with customers across multiple channels, be they physical stores, email, chat, social media, phone, or SMS. And best of all, anyone can implement the omnichannel approach without coding knowledge!
With this feature, companies can provide a consistent and personalized customer experience across the entire funnel, increasing the likelihood of conversions. What’s more, you can centralize all customer interactions in one place, making it easier to manage and reply to cases and questions at a glance.
But how exactly does it work? For example, let’s say a customer starts a conversation via email and later decides to switch to chat. That’s when Salesforce Omnichannel steps in – it preserves the conversation history and context so there’s a smooth, uninterrupted communication flow.
Key Features You Will Want To Know
Salesforce Omnichannel offers a range of features that help you deliver exceptional customer service. These features include Intelligent Routing, prioritization, an Omnichannel Console, screen pop-ups, and real-time collaboration.
With Intelligent Routing, Salesforce can intelligently direct customer inquiries to the most appropriate agent based on factors such as skill set, availability, and workload. As a result, customers are only connected with agents who can offer the best, fastest, and most accurate assistance. No triaging is necessary, either!
With the prioritization system, you can assign priority levels to customer inquiries based on urgency or importance. Companies can use their own guidelines to make sure they deal with critical issues right away while also handling less-urgent matters in due time. For example, if a customer reports a system outage, that’s a high-priority situation. But if it’s just a general question, that’s a lower-priority matter.
The Omnichannel Console provides a unified view of all customer interactions across different channels. Agents can easily switch between channels, view customer information, and access conversation history without wasting time switching between multiple systems.
When a new interaction happens, screen pop-ups automatically display relevant customer information to agents. This gives them the context they need to provide personalized responses right away. After all, who enjoys having to repeat themselves whenever a support agent changes?
Finally, agents can also become a powerhouse of efficiency by collaborating in real-time, consulting subject matter experts, using knowledge bases, or passing along complex problems to more experienced team members.
Benefits of Using Salesforce Omnichannel
Implementing Salesforce Omnichannel in your business has advantages that go beyond providing faster service. First, it improves the customer experience by keeping things consistent and personal across different channels, which keeps customers happy and loyal.
It also makes your customer service team work better by quickly directing inquiries to the right agents, leading to faster responses and better overall performance. Agents can do a smoother job with a unified console and essential customer info, which means quicker and more accurate support – and, ultimately, happier customers.
Plus, Salesforce Omnichannel collects valuable data. If you’re a manager, you’ll be able to see trends, create customized reports and dashboards, and make data-driven decisions across the board. No matter how big or small your business is, this platform was built to scale with it!
How to Set Up Salesforce Omnichannel
Setting up Salesforce Omnichannel is pretty straightforward. Let’s walk through the steps to get you started, so you can begin providing stellar customer service across all channels.
1. Enable Omnichannel
First things first, let’s turn on Omnichannel. Go to Setup, then navigate to Feature Settings then to Service. Now, look for Omnichannel and select Omnichannel Settings. Now check the box to enable Omnichannel and hit Save.
2. Create Service Channels
Next, you’ll need to define the service channels (like cases, leads, etc.) you want Omnichannel to handle. To do this, go to Setup and look for Feature Settings. Here, you want to navigate to Service then Omnichannel, and finally go to Service Channels. Click New to create a new channel.
3. Configure Routing
Now you need to select the routing type. Your options include:
- Queue-Based Routing: Simple and perfect for smaller teams. Create queues and assign agents to these queues.
- Skill-Based Routing: Ideal for larger teams with diverse skills. Assign skills to agents and required skills to work items.
- External Routing: Use this if you have an existing third-party routing system you want to integrate.
Now, to set up a queue, go to Setup and find Feature Settings again. Then you got to Service then Omnichannel and select Omnichannel Queues to create a new queue. Add your agents to these queues.
4. Set Up Presence Configurations
Presence Configurations determine how much work agents can handle at once and what behaviors they can access.
You can access it by navigating to Setup and (you guessed it) Feature Settings. Now, go to Service then to Omnichannel to find Presence Configurations. Create a new configuration, name it, and define the capacity.
5. Define Agent Availability with Presence Statuses
Presence Statuses show whether agents are available, busy, or offline. To set it up, go to Setup then Feature Settings and then Service. Next, select Omnichannel to find Presence Statuses. Now, you can create statuses like Available, Busy, and Offline.
6. Assign Agents to Queues
Make sure your agents are assigned to the right queues so Omnichannel can route work to them.
It’s simple to enable too. Go through Setup > Feature Settings > Service > Omnichannel and then choose Omnichannel Queues and add agents to the queues.
7. Add the Omnichannel Widget to the Salesforce Console
So your agents manage their work, add the Omnichannel widget to the Salesforce console. Go to Setup and find App Manager, select your Salesforce console app, and add the Omnichannel widget.
8. Test the Setup
Finally, test your setup to make sure everything works. Log in as an agent, set your status to Available, and create a test work item. If it all looks good, then you’re ready to go!
What Are the Best Use Cases
As an overarching use case, Salesforce Omnichannel does a stellar job of streamlining customer support operations by centralizing all customer interactions in one platform. As soon as an interaction pops up on their screen, support agents can provide instant cross-channel support.
This feature is also a must-have sales engagement tool, as it enables sales teams to connect with leads and prospects no matter the stage of the buying journey. This results in a more personalized and laser-targeted buying experience. You can use the logged information to build more powerful marketing or sales campaigns, allowing you to tap into specific prospects’ situations and spin them into your favor with tailored upsells, advice, and more. It serves busy marketers, as it integrates with Marketing Cloud to deliver personalized and targeted campaigns with the right message at the right time to the right audience.
It’s also ideal for field service teams to manage and track service requests, dispatch technicians, and give real-time updates to customers.
And, of course, eCommerce teams! Salesforce Omnichannel can help teams with order management. They’ll quickly resolve any hiccups that may arise during the buying process, only to see a boost in customer satisfaction levels.
Implementing Salesforce Omnichannel In Your Business
Implementing Salesforce Omnichannel is quick and easy, thanks to its intuitive interface and thorough documentation. Salesforce has your back with comprehensive training and support to guarantee a smooth transition.
When you’re ready to implement Salesforce Omnichannel, follow these steps:
- Assess Your Needs: Identify your business needs and specific use cases to determine how Salesforce Omnichannel can best serve your team. Which features are you specifically looking for? For example, you might need field service support if you have techs helping customers across the territory.
- Configure Channels: Set up and configure the channels you want to activate in Salesforce Omnichannel, like email, chat, social media, phone, and SMS.
- Define Routing and Prioritization: Set routing rules and criteria as internal guidelines. This will ensure customer inquiries are directed to the most appropriate agent. Don’t forget to set prioritization rules to handle urgent or critical issues immediately!
- Configure the Omnichannel Console: Customize the Omnichannel Console to fit your business needs, including layouts, views, and agent access levels.
- Train Your Team: Familiarize your agents with the Salesforce Omnichannel interface, walking them through best practices for delivering exceptional customer service. Since customer support and sales can get busy, follow one of our customers’ advice: explain why updating the CRM matters, and you’ll see more team members actually updating it.
- Test and Iterate: Test the implementation of Salesforce Omnichannel with a small group of agents to identify any issues or areas for improvement. Iterate and refine your testing based on feedback and data insights.
- Rollout and Support: Once you’re all set, roll out Salesforce Omnichannel to the entire team. Support and guide them along the way to ensure that the implementation is successful!
Best Practices
To get the most out of Salesforce Omnichannel, here are some essential practices to consider. First, you should align the channels available in Salesforce Omnichannel with your customers’ preferences. Next, invest in thorough agent training, covering effective use of the Salesforce product suite, customer engagement, channel-specific etiquette, and maximizing the use of the platform’s features.
Keep an eye on performance by regularly monitoring metrics like response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction. Then, use this data to spot improvement opportunities and refine your customer service strategy.
Take advantage of automation features to streamline repetitive tasks and increase efficiency wherever possible. For example, automate responses to common inquiries and set up rules for routing those inquiries to specific agents or teams.
Lastly, keep an eye on integration opportunities with other Salesforce products, such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, to create a unified customer experience throughout every single journey.
Integrating Salesforce Omnichannel with Other Salesforce Products
Salesforce Omnichannel can melt into other Salesforce products, creating a complete customer experience. When you connect Omnichannel with tools like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, you can freely tap into the whole Salesforce ecosystem.
For example, integrating Omnichannel with Sales Cloud gives your sales team a 360-degree view of how customers interact across channels. Your salespeople will be able to personalize their approach and sales strategies based on each customer’s history and preferences.
Similarly, integrating Omnichannel with Service Cloud gives your customer service team all the necessary info, like past interactions and support requests. With this info, agents can provide fast and personalized support, making your customers even happier.
Training and Certification for Salesforce Omnichannel
Salesforce offers training and certification options to both individuals and teams inside Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online training platform. These programs cover important topics, such as setting up channels, configuring routing and prioritization, customizing the Omnichannel Console, and general best practices. Participants get hands-on experience through interactive exercises and practical real-world scenarios.
Once you’ve finished the training, you can go for Salesforce certifications like the Salesforce Certified Omnichannel Supervisor or Salesforce Certified Omnichannel Agent. Besides validating your expertise in using Salesforce Omnichannel, these certifications demonstrate your commitment to delivering exceptional customer service.
Salesforce Omnichannel vs. Other Customer Service Platforms
While there are plenty of customer service platforms available in the market, Salesforce Omnichannel stands out for its easy integration with the broader Salesforce ecosystem and its unique feature set.
As part of the Salesforce CRM platform, it integrates with other Salesforce products you might already have in your stack, like Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. This integration offers a complete picture of how customers interact and makes sure their journey is smooth sailing from start to finish.
Are You Ready to Cover Every Channel?
In addition to helping you make the most of your existing tools and adapt to customer preferences, Salesforce Omnichannel grows with your business. You can add new channels and new integrations, implement advanced automation, and do anything else you need to meet your growing demands.
With this feature, you have total flexibility to manage a larger volume of customer inquiries as they come while still scoring a high level of customer satisfaction. All thanks to a unified, automated, and convenient experience for both agents and customers!
