Top 10: Customer service software

2018. Salesforce released new product - Customer 360



Customer 360 is an innovative software that integrates various customer data components to provide a more cohesive view within the Salesforce product family. Leveraging technology from Salesforce's Mulesoft acquisition, this solution aims to empower customer service representatives by equipping them with a comprehensive understanding of your interactions with the company. By eliminating the need for redundant information sharing, the representative can address your needs more effectively. The primary objective is to consolidate different product functionalities—such as sales, service, community, commerce, and marketing—into a unified customer view. Remarkably, this can be achieved without the need for coding, as highlighted by Salesforce.


2018. ServiceNow integrated with Box



Two leading enterprise cloud providers, ServiceNow and Box, have announced a new integration. This integration allows ServiceNow customers to seamlessly access Box content without the need to switch applications or divert their attention. To benefit from this integration, customers can conveniently obtain the Box plug-in directly from the ServiceNow Store. The plug-in comes with prebuilt workflows designed for common ServiceNow usage scenarios, but it also offers flexibility for customization. For instance, in an HR scenario, a ServiceNow administrator can construct a workflow within the ServiceNow HR application to facilitate the onboarding process for new employees. Utilizing ServiceNow's Flow Designer workflow-building tool, they can effortlessly incorporate all the necessary documents that require signatures, along with other related tasks, into a unified workflow.

2018. HubSpot added customer service tools to its marketing platform



HubSpot is venturing beyond sales and marketing by officially introducing its Service Hub, a comprehensive solution for managing customer service. This expansion includes an all-in-one inbox for organizing all customer communications, a bot-builder to automate certain customer interactions, features for developing a company knowledge base (which can be utilized by the bot-builder), survey creation tools, and a dashboard for monitoring the performance of your service team. Service Hub is seamlessly integrated with HubSpot's existing products, enabling businesses to track customer interactions across sales, marketing, and support.


2018. ServiceNow created helpdesk-chatbot platform



ServiceNow has introduced a new chatbot building tool named Virtual Agent, which enables developers to create automated bot-driven processes for handling routine helpdesk requests. The company asserts that these bots can be designed to offer end-to-end service. This means that if you inform the bot about needing a new phone, it can access your records, comprehend your current device, and place an order for a new one, all within the same conversation. Additionally, these interactions can take place within popular messaging platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams. The tool is also applicable to customer service transactions, allowing routine customer inquiries to be handled without involving a customer service representative for answering common questions.


2016. Customer service app Freshdesk scores $55 million



Freshdesk has secured a substantial investment of $55 million to expand its offerings beyond being a purely customer service application. With this influx of funds, the company aims to embark on an aggressive expansion across its entire product line, leveraging the newfound resources to drive innovation and growth. While Freshdesk doesn't intend to develop a data product similar to Zendesk's recent announcement, it does have significant plans to utilize the data it collects to enhance its products with smarter, data-driven functionality. Even prior to this funding, Freshdesk has been actively working on incorporating more intelligence into its products throughout 2017. The objective is to empower agents with software that assists them in making the most effective decisions to support customers, regardless of whether they are external or internal to the organization.


2015. Salesforce released its next generation Service Cloud



Salesforce is enhancing its Service Cloud, a platform designed for customer service agents and their managers. The company has introduced the new Service Cloud Lightning Console and a Service Wave Analytics App, aiming to enhance the overall job performance of customer service agents through improved experiences and analytics. These updates provide service teams with comprehensive and actionable insights, enabling agents and managers to optimize communication channels, enhance agent efficiency, and identify/address emerging trends. The enhancements encompass key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average handling time, customer satisfaction, and first call resolution, while seamlessly integrating with Service Cloud workflows and records. With the analytics dashboards offered by the Service Wave, service agents gain a comprehensive 360-degree view of the customer.