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Agentforce to the Team

Salesforce has officially launched Agentforce

Agentforce goes beyond traditional chatbots and copilots, leveraging advanced reasoning to perform tasks like resolving customer issues, qualifying leads, and optimizing marketing campaigns—all without human intervention. Triggered by data changes, business rules, automations, or API signals, Agentforce executes actions independently. Companies like OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley are already harnessing Agentforce to enhance employee productivity, expand their workforce, and elevate customer experiences.

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AI Agents as Tools of Trust

AI Agents as Tools of Trust

Salesforce Report Highlights AI Agents as Tools to Rebuild Consumer Trust For businesses of any size, the to-do list never ends. Monitoring customers, understanding their needs, and delivering products and services that align with their expectations are critical. Salesforce’s latest research, however, points to a troubling trend: consumer trust is at an all-time low. Yet, the report, State of the AI Connected Customer, also suggests that AI—particularly agentic AI—could help reverse this decline. Trust in Decline The key finding of the Salesforce report is stark: consumer trust in companies has taken a significant hit. Among 15,015 surveyed consumers, 72% say they trust companies less today than they did a year ago. Compounding this is the rapid advancement of AI; 60% of respondents believe that the rise of AI increases the importance of businesses being trustworthy. One major culprit behind eroding trust is the perceived mishandling of customer data. A staggering 65% of respondents feel companies are careless with data, adding to the skepticism. While high prices remain the top reason customers abandon brands, 43% pointed to poor customer service as a major deterrent. Can AI Agents Fill the Gap? The Salesforce report suggests that AI agents—when deployed transparently—could address many of the factors driving distrust and disengagement. Younger consumers, particularly Gen Z and millennials, appear more open to interacting with AI agents. Notable insights from the research include: However, trust is non-negotiable. Transparency is a critical factor for AI adoption: As Michael Affronti, SVP and General Manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, explains: “AI agents can help brands deliver consistent, personalized experiences for shoppers across every channel — deepening customer loyalty and ultimately driving more sales.” Building Trust Through Transparency The research underscores the potential for AI to transform customer interactions, but it also highlights the challenges. Transparency and accountability are essential for AI systems to inspire confidence and loyalty. Salesforce’s AI solutions are designed to prioritize transparency and foster reliable consumer experiences. Features such as clear agent identification and robust escalation paths are steps in the right direction. However, companies must double down on governance frameworks and safeguards to ensure AI agents handle data responsibly. Final Thoughts While the idea of using AI to rebuild consumer trust is promising, it’s not without its challenges. Establishing trust in AI itself remains a work in progress. Consumers expect companies to prioritize not only innovation but also ethics, security, and accountability. The Salesforce report demonstrates that younger consumers are already embracing AI as a way to address today’s service expectations. For Salesforce and other companies leveraging agentic AI, the key to success will lie in balancing cutting-edge technology with meaningful protections for customer data and experiences. The future of AI-driven customer engagement isn’t just about meeting expectations—it’s about exceeding them in a way that inspires confidence and loyalty. With the right approach, AI agents could be a vital tool for restoring consumer trust in an era where skepticism runs high. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Salesforce CPQ Check Up

Salesforce CPQ Check Up

A Salesforce CPQ Check Up is a comprehensive review of your system’s configuration and performance. It assesses how well your CPQ solution integrates with your business processes, highlighting any gaps hindering your sales efforts. From pricing rules to approval processes, a health check ensures seamless functionality and equips your sales reps with the tools they need to succeed.

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AI Agents and Consumer Trust

AI Agents and Consumer Trust

Salesforce Research Highlights Rising Stakes for Trust in the AI Era Salesforce’s latest State of the AI Connected Customer research reveals a trust crisis among consumers and highlights how AI is reshaping customer expectations. With 60% of consumers believing advances in AI make trust even more essential, businesses face mounting pressure to deliver trustworthy AI experiences. The stakes are especially high as AI agents gain traction, presenting an opportunity for brands to rebuild trust and drive engagement this holiday season—particularly among Gen Z, with nearly a third open to having AI shop on their behalf. Why It Matters As the holiday shopping season approaches, brands face the dual challenge of declining consumer trust and evolving expectations. With AI projected to influence more than 0 billion in global online sales this season, getting AI right is critical. AI agents—intelligent software capable of handling customer inquiries autonomously—can boost margins and enhance customer service by addressing issues like clunky purchasing and return processes. However, trust in these agents hinges on transparency and robust data practices. Key Insights from the Research Trust Is at an All-Time Low High Expectations for Seamless Experiences Customer service remains a critical loyalty driver: Younger Consumers Are Most Open to AI Agents Generations Z and millennials lead the charge in embracing AI agents for improved shopping experiences: However, transparency remains vital: Building Confidence in AI Agents The research underscores a mixed consumer sentiment toward AI, marked by curiosity (41%) and suspicion (44%). This presents an opportunity for brands to demystify AI’s benefits: Expert Perspectives Salesforce View:“Retailers face fierce competition this season as they aim to drive higher margins and meet rising customer expectations. AI agents enable consistent, personalized experiences across channels, fostering loyalty and boosting sales.”— Michael Affronti, SVP & GM, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Customer Experience at Saks:“Agentforce has unlocked new potential for enhancing luxury shopping. By automating routine tasks like order tracking, our teams can focus on high-touch, personalized interactions. We’re excited to see how AI continues to elevate our service.”— Mike Hite, CTO, Saks Global Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Revolution Customer Service with Agentforce

Revolution Customer Service with Agentforce

Agentforce stole the spotlight at Dreamforce, but it’s not just about replacing human workers. Equally significant for Service Cloud was the focus on how AI can be leveraged to make agents, dispatchers, and field service technicians more productive and proactive. Join a conversation to unpack the latest Sales Cloud innovations, with a spotlight on Agentforce for sales followed by a Q&A with Salesblazers. During the Dreamforce Service Cloud keynote, GM Kishan Chetan emphasized the dramatic shift over the past year, with AI moving from theoretical to practical applications. He challenged customer service leaders to embrace AI agents, highlighting that AI-driven solutions can transform customer service from delivering “good” benefits to achieving exponential growth. He noted that AI agents are capable of handling common customer requests like tech support, scheduling, and general inquiries, as well as more complex tasks such as de-escalation, billing inquiries, and even cross-selling and upselling. In practice, research by Valoir shows that most Service Cloud customers are still in the early stages of AI adoption, particularly with generative AI. While progress has accelerated recently, most companies are only seeing incremental gains in individual productivity rather than the exponential improvements highlighted at Dreamforce. To achieve those higher-level returns, customers must move beyond simple automation and summarization to AI-driven transformation, powered by Agentforce. Chetan and his team outlined four key steps to make this transition. “Agentforce represents the Third Wave of AI—advancing beyond copilots to a new era of highly accurate, low-hallucination intelligent agents that actively drive customer success. Unlike other platforms, Agentforce is a revolutionary and trusted solution that seamlessly integrates AI across every workflow, embedding itself deeply into the heart of the customer journey. This means anticipating needs, strengthening relationships, driving growth, and taking proactive action at every touchpoint,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO, Salesforce. “While others require you to DIY your AI, Agentforce offers a fully tailored, enterprise-ready platform designed for immediate impact and scalability. With advanced security features, compliance with industry standards, and unmatched flexibility. Our vision is bold: to empower one billion agents with Agentforce by the end of 2025. This is what AI is meant to be.” In contrast to now-outdated copilots and chatbots that rely on human requests and strugglewith complex or multi-step tasks, Agentforce offers a new level of sophistication by operating autonomously, retrieving the right data on demand, building action plans for any task, and executing these plans without requiring human intervention. Like a self-driving car, Agentforce uses real-time data to adapt to changing conditions and operates independently within an organizations’ customized guardrails, ensuring every customer interaction is informed, relevant, and valuable. And when desired, Agentforce seamlessly hands off to human employees with a summary of the interaction, an overview of the customer’s details, and recommendations for what to do next. Deploy AI agents across channelsAgentforce Service Agent is more than a chatbot—it’s an autonomous AI agent capable of handling both simple and complex requests, understanding text, video, and audio. Customers were invited to build their own Service Agents during Dreamforce, and many took up the challenge. Service-related agents are a natural fit, as research shows Service Cloud customers are generally more prepared for AI adoption due to the volume and quality of customer data available in their CRM systems. Turn insights into actionLaunching in October 2024, Customer Experience Intelligence provides an omnichannel supervisor Wall Board that allows supervisors to monitor conversations in real time, complete with sentiment scores and organized metrics by topics and regions. Supervisors can then instruct Service Agent to dive into root causes, suggest proactive messaging, or even offer discounts. This development represents the next stage of Service Intelligence, combining Data Cloud, Tableau, and Einstein Conversation Mining to give supervisors real-time insights. It mirrors capabilities offered by traditional contact center vendors like Verint, which also blend interaction, sentiment, and other data in real time—highlighting the convergence of contact centers and Service Cloud service operations. Empower teams to become trusted advisorsSalesforce continues to navigate the delicate balance between digital and human agents, especially within Service Cloud. The key lies in the intelligent handoff of customer data when escalating from a digital agent to a human agent. Service Planner guides agents step-by-step through issue resolution, powered by Unified Knowledge. The demo also showcased how Service Agent can merge Commerce and Service by suggesting agents offer complimentary items from a customer’s shopping cart. Enable field teams to be proactiveSalesforce also announced improvements in field service, designed to help dispatchers and field service agents operate more proactively and efficiently. Agentforce for Dispatchers enhances the ability to address urgent appointments quickly. Asset Service Prediction leverages AI to forecast asset failures and upcoming service needs, while AI-generated prework briefs provide field techs with asset health scores and critical information before they arrive on site. Setting a clear roadmap for adopting Agentforce across these four areas is an essential step toward helping customers realize more than just incremental gains in their service operations. Equally important will be helping customers develop a data strategy that harnesses the power of Data Cloud and Salesforce’s partner ecosystem, enabling a truly data-driven service experience. Investments in capabilities like My Service Journeys will also be critical in guiding customers through the process of identifying which AI features will deliver the greatest returns for their specific needs. Agentforce leverages Salesforce’s generative AI, like Einstein GPT, to automate routine tasks, provide real-time insights, and offer personalized recommendations, enhancing efficiency and enabling agents to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Agentforce is not just another traditional chatbot; it is a next-generation, AI-powered solution that understands complex queries and acts autonomously to enhance operational efficiency. Unlike conventional chatbots, Agentforce is intelligent and adaptive, capable of managing a wide range of customer issues with precision. It offers 24/7 support, responds in a natural, human-like manner, and seamlessly escalates to human agents when needed and redefining customer service by delivering faster, smarter, and more effective support experiences. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM

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Salesforce Agentforce Integration

Salesforce Agentforce Integration

The rise of AI-powered solutions is transforming customer service, support, and automation. For organizations such as nonprofits, national associations, and large enterprises, delivering seamless customer experiences has become crucial. Salesforce’s Agentforce, a next-generation conversational AI tool, plays a vital role in this transformation. Designed to elevate customer support and interaction, Agentforce provides an intelligent and scalable solution for integrating AI chatbots into content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot. Salesforce Agentforce Integration. In this detailed feature review, we will dive into the extensive capabilities of Salesforce Agentforce, analyzing its role as a conversational tool, its technical requirements, and the benefits it provides for nonprofits, national associations, and businesses. We’ll also compare its applications across various CMS platforms like Drupal, WordPress, and HubSpot, exploring its potential as a powerful AI assistant for website automation and customer interaction. Salesforce Agentforce: A Technical Perspective Salesforce Agentforce is an advanced AI-driven conversational assistant that seamlessly integrates into the Salesforce environment. By tapping into Salesforce CRM’s vast data resources, Agentforce serves as an intelligent interface, automating everything from initial customer inquiries to more personalized interactions. Utilizing natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, it continually refines responses and scales interactions, making it an indispensable tool for organizations aiming to enhance customer service workflows. Agentforce integrates smoothly with Salesforce Service Cloud, automating both live chat support and chatbot responses. Additionally, it can connect with third-party platforms, including popular CMS solutions like WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot, allowing organizations to centralize customer service operations in one interface. Core Features and Technical Architecture of Agentforce Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Processing (NLP) Agentforce’s NLP capabilities are its backbone, allowing it to understand complex human language and respond contextually. This empowers it to manage initial inquiries as well as more sophisticated support requests. Agentforce’s NLU also enables it to work across different languages, dialects, and industry-specific terminology, making it particularly valuable for global organizations and national associations serving diverse audiences. Machine Learning for Continuous Improvement Agentforce’s machine learning feature enhances its ability to improve accuracy and understanding over time. Each interaction helps the chatbot evolve, making it more effective at delivering relevant, real-time responses. This model integrates directly with Salesforce’s data infrastructure, giving Agentforce access to historical data and interactions to offer highly personalized, context-aware answers. Deep Integration with Salesforce CRM As a Salesforce-native tool, Agentforce can harness CRM data in ways other AI tools cannot. By accessing customer histories, purchase data, and previous interactions, it creates personalized experiences that build customer trust. Nonprofits and associations can use this data to improve donor or member interactions, offering targeted support and outreach. Agentforce can also be tailored to retrieve specific datasets, such as an individual’s support history or ongoing service case updates. Cross-Platform Flexibility and API Integration Agentforce offers flexible APIs that enable integration with third-party systems, including CMS platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot. This flexibility ensures that AI-powered chatbots can be deployed on organizational websites, providing a seamless experience for customers, donors, and members alike. Whether it’s a nonprofit using Drupal or a business on WordPress, Agentforce acts as the central hub for support and engagement, offering fluid interactions on top of your CMS. HubSpot users can further leverage Agentforce’s marketing features to align lead generation with personalized, chat-based interactions. Use Cases for Agentforce in Nonprofits, National Associations, and Businesses Nonprofit Organizations For nonprofits managing donor, volunteer, and beneficiary relationships, Agentforce offers scalable, automated support: National Associations National associations can use Agentforce to handle high volumes of inquiries from members and professionals: Businesses For service-based enterprises, Agentforce is essential for customer service: Salesforce Agentforce and CMS Integration: WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot WordPress and Salesforce Agentforce Integration For WordPress users, Agentforce offers customizable chatbot widgets that enhance customer engagement, handle ecommerce inquiries, and integrate with WooCommerce for product support. Drupal and Agentforce Integration Drupal’s modular architecture allows Agentforce to automate membership management, provide multilingual support, and distribute content for nonprofits and associations. HubSpot and Agentforce Integration HubSpot users benefit from Agentforce’s ability to automate lead nurturing, sales and marketing workflows, and customer support, all while keeping HubSpot and Salesforce CRM data synchronized. Tectonic and Salesforce Agentforce Integration At Tectonic, we understand that adopting AI-powered solutions like Salesforce Agentforce is only the first step toward delivering exceptional customer experiences. We specialize in crafting, training, and implementing tailored AI chatbot solutions that enhance engagement, streamline processes, and drive growth, all while seamlessly integrating with your current website or mobile app. As a full-service digital strategy firm, Tectonic excels in integrating advanced tools like Salesforce Agentforce into platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot, ensuring your automation strategies are executed with precision. From custom chatbot implementations to comprehensive digital strategy services, our team is dedicated to optimizing your website for engagement and lead generation. Like1 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Spotlight on Agentforce

Spotlight on Agentforce

Agentforce stole the spotlight at Dreamforce, but it’s not just about replacing human workers. Equally significant for Service Cloud was the focus on how AI can be leveraged to make agents, dispatchers, and field service technicians more productive and proactive. During the Dreamforce Service Cloud keynote, GM Kishan Chetan emphasized the dramatic shift over the past year, with AI moving from theoretical to practical applications. He challenged customer service leaders to embrace AI agents, highlighting that AI-driven solutions can transform customer service from delivering “good” benefits to achieving exponential growth. He noted that AI agents are capable of handling common customer requests like tech support, scheduling, and general inquiries, as well as more complex tasks such as de-escalation, billing inquiries, and even cross-selling and upselling. In practice, research by Valoir shows that most Service Cloud customers are still in the early stages of AI adoption, particularly with generative AI. While progress has accelerated recently, most companies are only seeing incremental gains in individual productivity rather than the exponential improvements highlighted at Dreamforce. To achieve those higher-level returns, customers must move beyond simple automation and summarization to AI-driven transformation, powered by Agentforce. Chetan and his team outlined four key steps to make this transition. Deploy AI agents across channelsAgentforce Service Agent is more than a chatbot—it’s an autonomous AI agent capable of handling both simple and complex requests, understanding text, video, and audio. Customers were invited to build their own Service Agents during Dreamforce, and many took up the challenge. Service-related agents are a natural fit, as research shows Service Cloud customers are generally more prepared for AI adoption due to the volume and quality of customer data available in their CRM systems. Turn insights into actionLaunching in October 2024, Customer Experience Intelligence provides an omnichannel supervisor Wall Board that allows supervisors to monitor conversations in real time, complete with sentiment scores and organized metrics by topics and regions. Supervisors can then instruct Service Agent to dive into root causes, suggest proactive messaging, or even offer discounts. This development represents the next stage of Service Intelligence, combining Data Cloud, Tableau, and Einstein Conversation Mining to give supervisors real-time insights. It mirrors capabilities offered by traditional contact center vendors like Verint, which also blend interaction, sentiment, and other data in real time—highlighting the convergence of contact centers and Service Cloud service operations. Empower teams to become trusted advisorsSalesforce continues to navigate the delicate balance between digital and human agents, especially within Service Cloud. The key lies in the intelligent handoff of customer data when escalating from a digital agent to a human agent. Service Planner guides agents step-by-step through issue resolution, powered by Unified Knowledge. The demo also showcased how Service Agent can merge Commerce and Service by suggesting agents offer complimentary items from a customer’s shopping cart. Enable field teams to be proactiveSalesforce also announced improvements in field service, designed to help dispatchers and field service agents operate more proactively and efficiently. Agentforce for Dispatchers enhances the ability to address urgent appointments quickly. Asset Service Prediction leverages AI to forecast asset failures and upcoming service needs, while AI-generated prework briefs provide field techs with asset health scores and critical information before they arrive on site. Setting a clear roadmap for adopting Agentforce across these four areas is an essential step toward helping customers realize more than just incremental gains in their service operations. Equally important will be helping customers develop a data strategy that harnesses the power of Data Cloud and Salesforce’s partner ecosystem, enabling a truly data-driven service experience. Investments in capabilities like My Service Journeys will also be critical in guiding customers through the process of identifying which AI features will deliver the greatest returns for their specific needs. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Alation Strengthens Data Cloud

Alation Strengthens Data Cloud

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 10, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alation Inc., the data intelligence company, today announced a partnership with Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) to deliver trusted, governed data across the enterprise. Alation provides a bidirectional integration that seamlessly delivers data governance and end-to-end lineage within Salesforce Data Cloud, enabling organizations to harness the power of metadata for faster, more confident decision-making while maximizing the impact of their AI initiatives. Salesforce Data Cloud powers real-time insights and decision-making, driving new customer experiences and growth. Quality results depend on trusted data; poor data governance can surface untrustworthy or outdated data, providing an incomplete picture and weakening the insights derived by AI models. According to Salesforce, nearly 60% of AI users struggle to achieve desired outcomes, with over half distrusting the data used in AI systems. Accurate, compliant, and easily discoverable data is critical for building trust in data and AI initiatives. The partnership allows organizations to extend their Alation investment across the Salesforce ecosystem, ensuring data integrity and reliability. Essential metadata—such as tags, governance policies, and data quality indicators—from 100+ data sources can be directly viewed in Data Cloud, providing a unified 360-degree view of data governance, usage, and compliance. For example, organizations can now automatically apply data quality indicators and governance policies to customer and sales data, ensuring AI segmentation models are accurate and compliant, reducing errors, and improving targeting. “Businesses are eager to adopt AI initiatives, but doing so securely and at scale requires robust governance frameworks,” said Gabrielle Tao, SVP of Product Management at Salesforce. “The seamless integration between Alation’s enterprise-class data governance capabilities and lineage insights, and Salesforce Data Cloud’s granular C360 security and trusted AI-based multi-modal data processing behind assisted and autonomous Agentforce, offers our joint customers a bi-directional metadata exchange, enabling users to leverage the unique strengths of each platform. Together, we empower customers to govern their data at high scale, with greater precision and automation, enabling them to confidently drive AI-powered innovations while ensuring data security, compliance, and consistency across their operations.” “Organizations today are drowning in data and pouring significant resources into AI initiatives, yet they struggle to deliver business value quickly due to the sheer complexity and volume of data from countless sources,” said Satyen Sangani, CEO and co-founder at Alation “Our partnership with Salesforce positions Alation as the go-to platform to baseline trust in Data Cloud. We’re cutting through the noise, empowering organizations to deliver reliable and high-value AI agents, drive product innovation, and optimize business operations.” Together, Alation and Salesforce empower organizations to transform their data into a competitive advantage, driving improved outcomes with trusted, actionable insights through: Join Jonathan Bruce, VP of Strategic Customer Advocacy at Alation, and Upwan Chachra, Senior Director of Product Management at Salesforce, at Dreamforce 2024 for the session, “Integrate Data Cloud into Your Data Governance Strategy,” on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, from 11:30 AM to 11:50 AM PDT at the Moscone West, L2, Data Cloud Theater. Discover how data governance powers data and AI strategies by enabling business users to find key datasets and ensuring IT compliance. To learn more, read the blog “Alation Launches Salesforce Connector to Enhance Data Trust.” About AlationAlation is the data intelligence company. Nearly 600 global enterprises — including 40% of the Fortune 100 — rely on Alation to realize value from their data and AI initiatives. Customers such as Cisco, DocuSign, Nasdaq, Pfizer, and Samsung trust Alation’s platform for self-service analytics, cloud transformation, data governance, and AI-ready data, fostering data-driven innovation at scale. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Alation has been recognized five times by Inc. Magazine as one of the Best Workplaces. To learn more, visit www.alation.com.  Alation Strengthens Data Cloud Like Related Posts CRM Cloud Salesforce What is a CRM Cloud Salesforce? Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for Salesforce clients to Read more How Travel Companies Are Using Big Data and Analytics In today’s hyper-competitive business world, travel and hospitality consumers have more choices than ever before. With hundreds of hotel chains Read more Salesforce Service Cloud Question-to-Case Explained The Salesforce Service Cloud Question-to-Case feature streamlines the process for moderators to create cases from questions in Chatter, facilitating the Read more Capture Initial Traffic Source With Google Analytics To ensure the proper sequencing of Tags, modify the Tag sequencing in the Google Analytics preview Tag settings. The custom Read more

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Salesforce Automated Case Routing

Understand Salesforce Automated Case Routing

Simplified Case Management with Automation Customer service becomes easier, faster, and more effective with automation tools. A well-organized case management system ensures that customer inquiries are routed to the right person, get the correct answers, and are resolved promptly. Delays or errors in responses can lead to customer dissatisfaction, making efficient case routing critical. Salesforce Service Cloud offers robust automation tools to simplify case management and ensure the right service agents handle cases efficiently, minimizing errors and maximizing customer satisfaction. Efficient Handling of Multi-Channel Case Creation With cases being generated from multiple service channels like web, email, phone, and chat, managing them efficiently can be challenging. Service agents often spend significant time prioritizing, sorting, and assigning cases manually, which can reduce productivity. Moreover, identifying agents with specialized skills and assigning appropriate cases to them can be time-consuming. Automating this process ensures optimal resource utilization, faster resolutions, and higher customer satisfaction. Salesforce provides several tools for routing cases to the right agents: Additionally, advanced automation tools enhance case-routing efficiency: Omni-Channel Routing: Revolutionizing Case Management Omni-Channel Routing is a powerful feature that transforms inefficient systems into streamlined workflows. Without it, agents often rely on manual processes, such as selecting cases from lists, which can result in: Omni-Channel automatically assigns cases to qualified and available agents in real-time, ensuring balanced workloads and prioritizing urgent cases. It seamlessly integrates with both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience, saving time and enabling agents to focus on resolving cases quickly. Routing Techniques: Case Assignment Rules: Simplifying Small Business Needs Case Assignment Rules automate case ownership by assigning cases to specific users or queues based on predefined criteria. These rules apply to all cases, regardless of origin, including web-to-case, email-to-case, and more. Key Features: Escalation Rules: Prioritizing Unresolved Cases Escalation Rules help identify and resolve cases that remain unresolved within a specific timeframe. They reassign cases to specific users or teams and send notifications, ensuring: Rules are configured with business hours and time-based criteria to determine when cases should be escalated. Einstein Case Classification & Routing: AI-Powered Efficiency Salesforce Einstein uses machine learning to predict and populate case record fields automatically, reducing agent effort and improving accuracy. How It Works: Einstein Case Routing combines AI predictions with assignment or skill-based routing rules to assign cases to the most suitable agents, improving resolution speed and customer satisfaction. Conclusion Automated case routing transforms customer service by improving productivity, efficiency, and resolution speed. While Omni-Channel Routing is the most comprehensive tool for case management, Escalation and Assignment Rules also play vital roles for smaller business needs. Together, these tools enable businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Einstein Service Agent

Einstein Service Agent

Introducing Agentforce Service Agent: Salesforce’s Autonomous AI to Transform Chatbot Experiences Accelerate case resolutions with an intelligent, conversational interface that uses natural language and is grounded in trusted customer and business data. Deploy in minutes with ready-made templates, Salesforce components, and a large language model (LLM) to autonomously engage customers across any channel, 24/7. Establish clear privacy and security guardrails to ensure trusted responses, and escalate complex cases to human agents as needed. Editor’s Note: Einstein Service Agent is now known as Agentforce Service Agent. Salesforce has launched Agentforce Service Agent, the company’s first fully autonomous AI agent, set to redefine customer service. Unlike traditional chatbots that rely on preprogrammed responses and lack contextual understanding, Agentforce Service Agent is dynamic, capable of independently addressing a wide range of service issues, which enhances customer service efficiency. Built on the Einstein 1 Platform, Agentforce Service Agent interacts with large language models (LLMs) to analyze the context of customer messages and autonomously determine the appropriate actions. Using generative AI, it creates conversational responses based on trusted company data, such as Salesforce CRM, and aligns them with the brand’s voice and tone. This reduces the burden of routine queries, allowing human agents to focus on more complex, high-value tasks. Customers, in turn, receive faster, more accurate responses without waiting for human intervention. Available 24/7, Agentforce Service Agent communicates naturally across self-service portals and messaging channels, performing tasks proactively while adhering to the company’s defined guardrails. When an issue requires human escalation, the transition is seamless, ensuring a smooth handoff. Ease of Setup and Pilot Launch Currently in pilot, Agentforce Service Agent will be generally available later this year. It can be deployed in minutes using pre-built templates, low-code workflows, and user-friendly interfaces. “Salesforce is shaping the future where human and digital agents collaborate to elevate the customer experience,” said Kishan Chetan, General Manager of Service Cloud. “Agentforce Service Agent, our first fully autonomous AI agent, will revolutionize service teams by not only completing tasks autonomously but also augmenting human productivity. We are reimagining customer service for the AI era.” Why It Matters While most companies use chatbots today, 81% of customers would still prefer to speak to a live agent due to unsatisfactory chatbot experiences. However, 61% of customers express a preference for using self-service options for simpler issues, indicating a need for more intelligent, autonomous agents like Agentforce Service Agent that are powered by generative AI. The Future of AI-Driven Customer Service Agentforce Service Agent has the ability to hold fluid, intelligent conversations with customers by analyzing the full context of inquiries. For instance, a customer reaching out to an online retailer for a return can have their issue fully processed by Agentforce, which autonomously handles tasks such as accessing purchase history, checking inventory, and sending follow-up satisfaction surveys. With trusted business data from Salesforce’s Data Cloud, Agentforce generates accurate and personalized responses. For example, a telecommunications customer looking for a new phone will receive tailored recommendations based on data such as purchase history and service interactions. Advanced Guardrails and Quick Setup Agentforce Service Agent leverages the Einstein Trust Layer to ensure data privacy and security, including the masking of personally identifiable information (PII). It can be quickly activated with out-of-the-box templates and pre-existing Salesforce components, allowing companies to equip it with customized skills faster using natural language instructions. Multimodal Innovation Across Channels Agentforce Service Agent supports cross-channel communication, including messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and SMS, as well as self-service portals. It even understands and responds to images, video, and audio. For example, if a customer sends a photo of an issue, Agentforce can analyze it to provide troubleshooting steps or even recommend replacement products. Seamless Handoffs to Human Agents If a customer’s inquiry requires human attention, Agentforce seamlessly transfers the conversation to a human agent who will have full context, avoiding the need for the customer to repeat information. For example, a life insurance company might program Agentforce to escalate conversations if a customer mentions sensitive topics like loss or death. Similarly, if a customer requests a return outside of the company’s policy window, Agentforce can recommend that a human agent make an exception. Customer Perspective “Agentforce Service Agent’s speed and accuracy in handling inquiries is promising. It responds like a human, adhering to our diverse, country-specific guidelines. I see it becoming a key part of our service team, freeing human agents to handle higher-value issues.” — George Pokorny, SVP of Global Customer Success, OpenTable. Content updated October 2024. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Salesforce Success Story

Case Study: Large Restaurant Entity-Salesforce Sales/Service/Experience Clouds

An American chain store of bakery-cafe fast food restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which operate in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. The restaurant offers a sit-down restaurants (some with drive-throughs) where customers can enjoy a variety of freshly made sandwiches on your choice of bread, accompanied by soup or salad. Salesforce Case Study: Transforming  a Large Restaurant Entity by leveraging Salesforce. Sales Cloud Service Cloud Experience Cloud Implementation PROBLEM SOLUTION RESULTS . Like2 Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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Slack and Salesforce

Amaze Your Customers With Slack and Service Cloud For Improved Customer Service

Surpass your customers’ expectations with the combined power of Service Cloud and Slack. Drive down operating costs, enhance team productivity, and exceed customer expectations by leveraging the capabilities of Service Cloud and Slack. Understanding the current service landscape: The digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, has propelled customers and businesses into a new era, marked by the extensive use of diverse tools for day-to-day operations. Since 2020, Salesforce’s data indicates that achieving transparency and fostering active engagement are crucial to meeting heightened customer expectations, evident in a notable 47% surge in video support. However, a significant number of organizations face a challenge as their technology systems do not fully align with these evolving expectations. We all know it’s hard to make a good paper mache airplane if you only have a piece of paper. And technology is no different. According to Intercom, 46% of support leaders express that their tech stack acts as a hindrance to achieving organizational goals. Operating across various applications diminishes team productivity and hinders business expansion. To effectively cater to your customers, service teams must innovate and adapt to the multitude of tools, contact channels, isolated teams, and fragmented data. Support operations personnel need to address key questions: The solution lies in adopting Slack as the productivity hub, coupled with Salesforce’s Service Cloud integration. This dynamic combination unlocks your full productivity potential, fostering increased customer loyalty. Break down organizational silos and expedite case resolution for enhanced customer experiences. In the ever-evolving digital marketplace, customers demand seamless service without being transferred between agents or repeating their information. A staggering 83% of customers expect complex issues to be addressed by a single point of contact. However, traditional tiered-support models fall short of meeting these expectations. The solution lies in providing teams with a comprehensive view of the entire customer journey. By leveraging the combined capabilities of Service Cloud and Slack, organizations can achieve significant cost reductions and enhance service team productivity. Service Cloud has been shown to lower support costs by 27%, while Slack increases employee productivity by 26%, according to the 2022 Salesforce Success Metrics Global Highlights study. Swarming Swarming, facilitated by Service Cloud and Slack, revolutionizes the support approach. Unlike traditional tiered support, swarming brings service agents, engineers, and issue analysts together in real-time, eliminating the need for case escalations and customer department bouncing. The swarm team collaborates efficiently, sharing information with customers proactively. The Field Service mobile app further facilitates instant connections with experts, reducing the need for unnecessary on-site visits. Service Cloud and Slack, working together, use out-of-the-box workflows to automatically assemble cross-functional experts and create Slack channels for collaborative efforts on complex cases. This approach eliminates messy handoffs and siloed decision-making, promoting transparency. Swarming ensures that everyone involved can access the entire conversation, participate in Slack huddles, and search for resolutions to similar cases. Automation and streamlined collaboration are paramount for providing exceptional service experiences. The time factor, particularly time to resolution and time on hold, is a significant barrier. Many service agents (78%) struggle to balance speed and quality due to the challenge of working across multiple systems. The integration of Service Cloud and Slack addresses this issue by extending workflows throughout the organization. Soon, Slack GPT will further enhance CRM and conversational data, providing AI-generated summaries and enabling the creation of no-code workflows. Workflow Builder and Flow Builder, no-code tools from Slack and Salesforce, respectively, collaborate seamlessly to automate daily tasks and enhance transparency, agility, and cross-team collaboration. Successful Integration The success of this integration is evident in the substantial improvements seen by service organizations using Slack, including a 32% increase in Net Promoter Score, 27% decrease in service/support costs, 30% increase in agent productivity, and a 30% increase in customer retention. The ever-changing level of customer expectations underscores the importance of service professionals as frontline ambassadors for your brand. With 88% of customers valuing their experience with a company as much as its products, swarming becomes a strategic approach to surpass expectations. Slack Connect facilitates direct access to support for partners, vendors, and B2B customers through a dedicated channel, fostering collaborative issue resolution. Slack clips and white-glove service further enhance the support process. Clips allow users to record audio, video, and screen shares, creating a searchable database of demonstrations. Private support channels in Slack provide key customers with white-glove service, allowing them to record and upload technical issues for prompt resolution. slack and service cloud In the current remote and decentralized business workforce, Service Cloud and Slack offer an opportunity to exceed customer expectations, transform service cases into lasting relationships, cut costs, and boost team productivity. If your average call handle time is too long, if your data is too siloed, or if your customer service teams are overwhelmed, contact Tectonic today to explore a Slack and Salesforce Service Cloud Integration. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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service cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud Question-to-Case Explained

The Salesforce Service Cloud Question-to-Case feature streamlines the process for moderators to create cases from questions in Chatter, facilitating the efficient tracking and resolution of customer issues. Accessible across multiple platforms, including your Salesforce org, Salesforce mobile web, Aura, and Salesforce Tabs + Visualforce sites with Chatter Questions enabled, this feature ensures a seamless experience. When a customer uses the Question action in Chatter to ask a question, similar questions and Knowledge articles appear below the Chatter publisher. If the similar questions and articles don’t address the issue, the customer posts the question. The customer who asked the questions receives an email notifying them that a case was created from their question. The email provides the case number and a link to the case. Agents can respond to the question directly from the case feed using the action in the publisher. When agents find a solution, they can respond to questions directly from the console, and the customer sees the agent’s response on the question or in the My Cases view. Agents choose whether the reply is visible to the Experience Cloud site, or only to the customer who asked the question. The Salesforce Case object forms the base of the Case Management capability of Service Cloud which helps improve the overall user experience for both customers and staff. The Salesforce Question-to-Case Connector further enhances efficiency by synchronizing questions generated in Jive with cases in the Salesforce org. This integration promotes a unified approach to managing customer inquiries. As a valuable tool in Salesforce, Question-to-Case facilitates the escalation of questions to cases, enabling agents to promptly address open issues. Community users, granted moderator permissions, also possess the ability to escalate questions to cases. Salesforce Case Management allows us to record, track and solve customer issues by sales, service and support. It includes the ability to create cases either from an email (email to case), from a web form (web to case), or manually. Cases are the backbone of Service Cloud. Cases help you track and resolve customer issues, showing you a complete view of the customer. To harness the benefits of Question-to-Case, ensure its activation in your Experience Cloud sites, Salesforce org, or both. In the broader context of case creation in Salesforce Service Cloud, cases can be initiated through various channels, such as online case logging, Case Support (CTI), and Email Support. Once a case is generated, the subsequent step involves assigning it to a sales agent or queue for efficient resolution. How do I create a case hierarchy in Salesforce? To create a case that is automatically associated with a case whose detail page you’re viewing, click the New button on the Related Cases related list. From the New dropdown button, Classic users can choose to create either a blank case or a case with information from the parent case. Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more

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