2020 put customer service to the test and revealed critical improvement areas for supporting customers with ever-changing demands. Salesforce recently released the 4th edition of The State of the Service, a research report to show the new era of customer service. Of the over 7,000 global Salesforce users interviewed for the report, 88% said the pandemic exposed service tech gaps.
“88% said the pandemic exposed service tech gaps.”
As agents face more and more anxious, demanding customers with complex cases, customer retention is a primary challenge for service teams worldwide. More than closing one case and handling the next, modern customer service must ensure all interactions highlight a brand’s empathy and personalization.
To ensure agents balance speedy responses with care, many customer service leaders have tried to support busy agents by investing in technology. Unfortunately, only 29% of service professionals say their organizations excel at response times, and even fewer give themselves top marks for handle times (26%), first-contact resolutions (22%), and hold/wait times (20%) as stated in the 4th edition of The State of the Service.
Of course, the key to empowering agents is arming them with the right technology. For example, 77% of agents said automating routine tasks lets them focus on more complex work. By empowering agents with the right tools, customer service heads can improve performance and workflow—and, of course, satisfy customers.
“77% of agents said automating routine tasks lets them focus on more complex work.”
Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), a life sciences company that develops and manufactures products for research, struggled with some of the above case management issues. For example, they were looking for a way to visualize the case management process for different levels of support while managing customer support bottlenecks to ensure they were prioritizing the Service Level Agreements (SLA).
IDT achieved 25% faster response times, effectively streamlining the customer service experience. They discovered new insights on bandwidth and support capacity, which made it easier to decide when it was time to hire new employees.
The key to our customer’s improvement of the service experience was having cases prioritized according to their business rules. By taking the guesswork out of case management, this feature empowers agents to know which case to work next, which is crucial when working with SLAs that require immediate attention and care.
Below are three examples of how our customer found success in prioritizing cases to meet SLAs using Case Flags in Salesforce.
1. The Switchboard View in Case Flags provides overview and analytics on case volume and utilization.
Heads of Support are interested in seeing the big picture of caseloads and metrics for individual agents. These analytics help identify bottlenecks for case assignments and allow for greater insight into an agent’s utilization. Using Case Flags Switchboard View allows leaders to segment teams based on caseload and identifies agents who are overloaded with work and agents who have availability to take on more work.
2. Custom Aging Speeds allow for prioritization of cases.
Businesses that have complex service engagements can benefit from setting custom aging speeds for their cases. Custom aging speeds allow for flexibility when working with different SLAs depending on the priority of the case or the type of customer. Taking the guesswork out of figuring out the SLA for this specific customer support engagement, allows the agent to focus on excellent service.
3. A helpful Utility Bar component shows flagged cases based on priority.
The Utility Bar displays cases in priority order. Agents can focus on urgent cases or cases waiting for a response until all cases have been resolved. When a customer responds, cases are flagged in priority order.
It is important to empower your agents with the right tools in order to achieve faster response times.
The time to pivot to service excellence is now. Case Flags can help you improve the agent experience while organizing case management in Salesforce. Your agents and customers will thank you for it.
If you are interested in elevating your service experience, click here to try Case Flags for free for 14 days.
