5 Key Service Cloud Announcements at Dreamforce ’24

It’s Dreamforce season once again! In case you didn’t notice, the trend has been consistent lately, and it’s welcoming AI with open arms. As always, Dreamforce delivered a new wave of exciting things for Service Cloud, pushing the boundaries of AI with Agentforce – Salesforce’s latest and hottest innovation – taking center stage.

What I love about Salesforce’s approach is that they aren’t framing AI as a replacement for humans but more like a powerful complement. Agentforce basically puts together humans, agents, data, and CRM to drive customer success. Take note: these are not bots but autonomous AI agents that support both customers and employees. They can combine reasoning with the ability to take action.

Combining Agentforce with Service Cloud opens a whole new set of possibilities! Let’s break down the key Service Cloud announcements and innovations to watch out for…

1. For the Customer: Agentforce Service Agent

AI is not new in customer service; statistics show significant improvement in customer satisfaction with companies that have adopted AI. Now, when we think of AI and customer service, I know that one of the first things that come to mind are bots. As customers, I believe that at one point or another, we’ve all engaged with a chatbot.

Most of my experiences talking to chatbots have been pretty basic and pleasant, but there have also been several instances where the bot never actually understood my concern. I eventually had to end the conversation and figure out how to speak to a human agent to resolve my issue. Multiple times I wished that the bot could make its answers more personalized instead of just churning out canned responses or an article for me to read.

This is where Agentforce Service Agent comes in. While bots are great for resolving basic concerns or answering simple questions, they are limited by the way they are programmed and can no longer assist the customer when things go off script.

Agentforce Service Agents are AI-powered, autonomous agents designed to handle and resolve customer cases across channels 24/7 in natural language. They are capable of handling twists and turns in a conversation with empathy and care, all while resolving cases swiftly and accurately because every answer is grounded in trusted data – your company’s data.

What’s great about Agentforce Service Agent is that it can be set up in minutes using prebuilt templates and can be customized fast with low code. All you need to do as an admin is to define clear security guardrails so the agent knows to seamlessly escalate to human employees when circumstances call for it.

The Agentforce Service Agent can not only give information that customers ask for but also take action and potentially turn the conversation into a revenue-generating opportunity. This can save time for human agents, making it a great help for both the customer and the employee.

Agentforce Service Agent is set to be generally available in October 2024. Exciting!

2. For the Agent: Service Planner

Salesforce’s solutions are known for not only enhancing the customer experience but also making life easier for service agents and employees. I’ve been a support rep before, and there were times wherein I felt like I hit a dead end, not knowing what to do next because I’d done all the steps and troubleshooting that I could think of. Service Planner helps minimize these instances by providing detailed directions to resolve issues quickly and more accurately.

Service Planner is an AI-driven tool that automatically generates step-by-step resolution plans tailored to individual cases. With Einstein Data Cloud, AI is grounded right in the support agent’s flow of work as well as the company’s knowledge base, empowering support teams to have more meaningful and high-stakes conversations. Since it knows your company’s processes and the customer’s data from past interactions, it can give personalized step-by-step guidance on how to resolve the customer’s current case faster and more accurately.

After resolution, Service Planner can even create a case summary and Knowledge article on the same topic based on the case with just one click, ensuring future agents have immediate access to well-documented solutions for similar cases. I can see this becoming super useful, especially for new hires!

Service Planner will enter its pilot phase in October 2024.

3. For Management: Customer Experience (CX) Intelligence

If you’ve ever managed a support team, have you ever wished you could instantly gauge how customers feel about your service in real-time? CX Intelligence makes that possible by monitoring customer sentiment and revealing useful and actionable information. Since it gives managers real-time access to conversations between customers and agents, tracking of customer sentiment helps service teams gain deeper insights into customer feedback.

This is basically intelligent analytics with AI-driven recommendations (powered by Einstein AI) wherein support leaders can proactively identify trends based on data from customer surveys and conversations. Users can then utilize this data to optimize service strategies and watch CX Intelligence recommend ways to boost and improve CSAT scores. It’s a tool that provides managers with the data they need to make decisions fast and guide their teams toward more effective, customer-centric performance every day.

CX Intelligence will be generally available in October 2024.

4. Field Service Highlights

Field Service advancements for this year are all about eliminating inefficient processes and poor utilization. Technicians and dispatchers have three new innovations to watch out for:

Dispatcher Agent

Dispatchers can now use Agentforce to optimize scheduling and allocate resources better. This will be generally available in October 2024.

Asset Service Prediction

Entering its pilot phase in October 2024, this one uses AI to anticipate when field equipment may need maintenance or replacement. This predictive capability helps companies move from delivering reactive to proactive field service, reducing downtime and extending asset life to make sure it’s “uptime all the time” for their customers.

Here’s a peek at how these two work together to optimize technician scheduling. In the first image, you’ll see large gaps in Alexander and Harry’s schedules, which isn’t optimal for resource utilization. The second image shows how Asset Service Prediction identified these two large gaps and filled them in with preventive maintenance schedules.

Multi-Modal Troubleshooting

Field technicians will now have access to real-time voice and image assistance, receiving step-by-step repair guidance, visual instructions, and pre-work briefings on the go. Imagine sending Agentforce an image of an error code and instantly receiving troubleshooting steps – this dramatically boosts problem-solving speed and accuracy!

Since accessing product knowledge on-site can get challenging, I’d say this could be a game-changer for field techs, and it’s set to enter its pilot phase by February 2025.

5. A Hub for Service Professionals: Serviceblazer Is Now on Slack!

Salesforce calls its customer service professionals and contact center industry experts “Serviceblazers”. The Serviceblazer Community is available on Trailhead and serves as an online platform for Serviceblazers to collaborate and share insights, innovations, and stay updated with customer service trends.

Salesforce has just revealed that the Serviceblazer Community is also now on Slack, opening up a new space to connect and collaborate. Since we all know Slack offers real-time interactions, this new channel would be great for fostering not only the sharing of Service Cloud insights but also peer-to-peer support, troubleshooting, and networking.

The Serviceblazer Community on Slack offers various channels, focusing on a wide range of topics from Service Cloud announcements to best practices, and even a dedicated job board and open-to-work channel to maximize career opportunities. It’s truly a dynamic environment for service professionals to grow their network, skills, and careers.

As a cat lover, I even love the fuzzy-friends channel, where fur parent Serviceblazers share photos of their pets! Read more and join here.

Summary

Service Cloud has always been about transforming the way businesses engage with customers. With Salesforce’s latest Service Cloud innovations unveiled at Dreamforce ‘24 focusing on AI-powered tools (like Agentforce, Service Planner, and CX Intelligence) integrating seamlessly with human efforts, it’s easy to see how the customer experience is ready for a whole new experience.

Are you ready to fully embrace these AI features? Let us know in the comments below!