14 DAY TRIAL // Customer relationship management (CRM) software maker Salesforce has just announced its latest version of Service Cloud, its web-focused, customer-service offering. The product, introduced last January, has been a great success for the company, seeing a healthy growth in the new market. The latest offering comes with some new, compelling features focused on providing customer support using the resources already available and scattered online.
“The Service Cloud has been helping more than 8,000 companies deliver stellar customer service. Helping them run more efficient contact centers, connect with customers online, and even join the conversation in social communities. And today, their agents got a lot smarter. Now, they have a new way of joining the conversation online. And their customers have a new way to solve their service issues in the cloud, in real time,” Salesforce describes the product.
While Service Cloud already has a hold on 55 percent of the market, the new offering, dubbed “Service Cloud 2.0,” brings three new, major features, which should really take it one step ahead. The first new feature is called Salesforce Knowledge and is a knowledge database of sorts, which can be deployed online, making it easier for customer-service reps, or regular users, if the company wishes so, to find the information they need thanks to a highly organized structure. Knowledge will become available in the fourth quarter of the 2010 fiscal year and will cost $50 per user per month.
The second feature to be introduced to Service Cloud is Salesforce Answers, which will provide a customized website focused on solving the problems customers may have with a rating system and the best answers highlighted. Answers should be available in the first half of the 2011 fiscal year.
Finally, what may be the most interesting feature, Salesforce for Twitter is also being introduced and should be available soon. Following similar integration in the company's main CRM offering, the new feature will allow users to search Twitter to keep track of conversations about the company and can join and answer them from inside the management software. This could be a great tool for customer support, as more and more users are venting their frustrations or asking for help on the microblogging platform.