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Increase Service Agent Productivity

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Explain the benefits of Einstein Escalation Predictor.
  • Describe the importance of using a single agent console.
  • Explain how Appointment Scheduler increases productivity.

Let's talk about productivity. To maintain a productive success center, we rely on several key elements: AI to help us manage escalation, automation to schedule appointments, and a single console to keep track of everything that’s happening. In this unit, you’ll learn how we use Salesforce products to continuously improve agent productivity.

Why We Use Einstein Escalation Predictor

For frontline managers, the Einstein Escalation Predictor is a helpful innovation. The Escalation Predictor notifies you when cases are likely to need additional attention. It analyzes data from customers to understand and predict how a customer will behave in certain situations. The predictions are modeled on a data set from cases your customers have submitted in the past. In our success center, Einstein looks at case severities to make predictions. It looks at things like the urgency of past cases, whether or not cases have been escalated to management, and whether the account has been in a red status before. 

Einstein Escalation Predictor helps you build a data model that flags the most important issues for your organization. We recommend programming the escalation predictor with the key factors you’re looking out for. Include things that will contribute to customer dissatisfaction, or increase the probability of escalation. Once the data set is built out, the escalation predictor gives you a probability score for each customer. This helps you know, at a glance, which cases are going to need more action. 

The Escalation Predictor allows a manager to look at a list of customers, cases, and case queues so they can get ahead of any case that may go sideways. We use it to understand what our customer's needs are likely to be each day. We know which cases need to be upgraded to a higher severity level and when to provide more updates than usual for a customer. Managers can look at the scores from Einstein, and say to agents with confidence, "Hey, you have a high probability of escalation on this case. Let's take a look at this together." 

The Benefits of Appointment Scheduler

We just started using our new appointment scheduler and we’re excited about the results. In the past, scheduling field service involved a lot of back and forth. With the appointment scheduler, agents are more efficient and customers save a considerable amount of time. It puts the power of convenience in the customer's hand, allowing them to self-schedule their one-on-one engagements with us. 

When customers submit a case, they see a button that says, "Schedule an appointment." Clicking the button lets customers set up a time to talk about the case. Customers can view a calendar with an agent's availability over the next few business days. Once the customer selects a time, they automatically get an invitation to set up a GoToMeeting with a link. If for some reason an agent becomes unavailable, change notifications are sent, and if a customer becomes unavailable, they can move the appointment. Managers have access to an overview of the appointment scheduler so if an agent calls in sick, managers know what calls are scheduled and how to move them.

Using Service Cloud appointment scheduler to select a time to talk with an agent.

The appointment scheduler reduces cost and customer effort. It saves time and improves efficiencies for service delivery. And it improves customer experience overall. The appointment scheduler is a huge market differentiator for our contact center, and it was easy to roll out because it's built into our Service Cloud platform.

The Importance of a Single Console

A single console that provides one single view of the customer ensures agents and managers have everything right at their fingertips, and it’s one of the best ways to improve agent productivity. Deploying a single agent console enables our agents to use 14 fewer clicks on average per case. With a single console, our agents don’t have to open multiple browsers, or multiple browser tabs, and risk losing information. The single console allows us to avoid performance degradation on our computers and keep customer service interactions running smoothly.

Using Service Cloud means agents can get information very quickly. Clicking on a case number or an account pulls up all the account information they need. Agents can see the customer’s status and level of expertise at a glance. They can see the federated search results in Knowledge, which is immensely helpful in reducing clicks since they don’t have to search all over the Internet to find answers. Service Cloud shows recommended articles, documents, known issues and pieces from our Ideas Exchange or our Trailblazer community. And with just a click, agents can attach the solution to the issue for the customer and resolve the case faster.

Conclusion

Improved productivity depends on the use of artificial intelligence and automation. And when you combine that with a single console, the customer experience gets even better because agents can answer questions much more quickly. In the next unit, you learn how data-driven insights can help you measure the improvements in your contact center and make plans for greater success in the future.

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