Interaction Channels section consists of 10% of total score in the Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant certification exam, covering topics such as interaction channel, case submission and configuring an interaction channel solution. Without further ado, let's get into it!
NOTE: This post is written in May 2020 and content might be changed/updated overtime. The content is inspired by focusonforce.com.
Guideline for Interaction Channels
- Describe the use cases and functionality for each interaction channel (communities, mobile, phone, email, web, chat, SOS/video channel, and social media.)
- Given business process requirements, determine the appropriate approach to case submission.
- Explain the design considerations (user interface, user profiles, objects to expose, sharing model, reporting, etc.) and best practices when configuring an interaction channel solution (mobile, phone, email, web, chat, or social media).
Service Cloud Interaction Channels
-
Video Chat Channel:
- Video chat is useful for live video troubleshooting
- Service on Salesforce (
SOS) can be used to connect customers with agents over mobile video chat inSalesforce Classic - SOS calls can be routed to the most available and skilled agents
-
Phone Channel:
- Phone is useful for urgent question, issue or problem.
- Call Center and Softphone can be set up to make and receive calls.
- Call Center can be set up in
Setup > Call Centers:
- Set up Call Center profile:
- Manage Call Center Users:
- Add users to Call Center:
- Set up Call Center profile:
- Directory Numbers can be used to allow users to search for phone numbers throughout organization:
- Softphone Layouts can be set up in
Setup > Softphone Layouts:
- Softphone Layout and Screen Pop Settings can be configured for Internal, Inbound and Outbound Call Type.
- Call-related fields such as Queue, Segment, Caller ID, and Dialed Number can be displayed:
- Different objects can be displayed in the list:
- Different object fields can be displayed (
Salesforce Classiconly, all fields are displayed inSalesforce Ligthning)
- Softphone Layout and Screen Pop Settings can be configured for Internal, Inbound and Outbound Call Type.
- Objects that are related to the incoming calls are shown in the softphone layout:
- Multiple Screen Pop Settings can be set (for Outbound only):
- Screen pops open within: New browser window or tab
- No matching records: Don't pop any screen
- Single-matching record: Pop detail page
- Multiple-matching records: Pop to search page
- Call Center can be set up in
- Click-to-dial allows making outbound calls by clicking the phone field.
- Call logs can be viewed in related object record's activity history.
- Call center features vary from different providers.
- Agent can configure their own softphone settings at
Settings > My Softphone Settings:Automatically log in to your call center when logging into salesforce.comIf only one record found on incoming call(always open or never open)
-
Email Channel:
- Email is useful for non-urgent issue or problem.
- Email-to-Case can be used to convert email from customers into new cases with fields populated.
- Email-to-Case Settings can be set in
Setup > Email to Case:
- Email-to-Case Routing Address can be set so that Salesforce can identify the email address and add email to the Case.
- Email address needs to be verified before it can be used as system support address.
- NOTE: you still need to set up email forwarding on your email account to the service address email in order for it to work.
- NOTE: when setting up forwarding, some email client like Gmail will require you to set the confirmation code. The confirmation code can be obtained in the Case in Salesforce.
- NOTE: you still need to set up email forwarding on your email account to the service address email in order for it to work.
- Once Routing Address is verified, it can be used to communicate with the case and email.
- Support rep can now reply email and communicate with customer using Salesforce Case.
- When customer sends the email to the service email address, a new case will also be generated, along with the attachments or images if any.
- Email address needs to be verified before it can be used as system support address.
- Organization-Wide Email Address can be used to set up email addresses that can be used as the sender in Salesforce with certain allowed profiles.
- Email to Salesforce allows you to automatically log emails you send from 3rd party email accounts as activities on Lead and Contact records in Salesforce.
- Email-to-Case Settings can be set in
- Difference between Email-to-Case and On-Demand Email-to-Case:
| Topic | Email-to-Case | On-Demand Email-to-Case |
|---|---|---|
| Attachment size | greater than 25MB | less than 25MB |
| Client agent | require to download Email-to-Case Agent | not required |
| Case creation limit | 2500 cases per day | 1000 * number of licenses |
| Security | email traffic stays within network firewall | None |
| Infrastructure | Email server required | Emails are processed by Salesforce |
-
Web Channel:
- Web-to-Case
- Like Web-to-Lead, Web-to-Case allows customer to submit the information through a web HTML form.
- Web-to-Case HTML Generator can be used to quickly generate a HTML form for case submission:
- Place the HTML code on the website:
- Web-to-Case has a limit of 5,000 cases per day. The rest of the uncreated cases will be scheduled in queue and will be submitted once the 24-hour period is over.
- Case will be routed to default owner if no active assignment rules is set for case.
- reCAPTCHA can be used to filter spam cases as well as validation rules.
- NOTE: the disadvantage of Web-to-Case is that it cannot send attachments or files when creating case, it also doesn't allow rich text field.
- Like Web-to-Lead, Web-to-Case allows customer to submit the information through a web HTML form.
- Community
- Communities can be set up for customers to discuss issues and open new cases
- Customers or guests can access to Self-Service Knowledge Base, accessing to articles to find solutions on their own.
- Web-to-Case
-
Chat Channel:
- Chat allows customers to communicate with agents on the company website.
- Chat can be enabled in
Setup > Chat Settings:
- Chat Agent Configurations can be set in
Setup > Chat Agent Configurations:- Basic Information:
- Chat Capacity - check with Presence Configurations
- Sneak Peek Enabled - see what visitors type before they send the message
- Request Sound Enabled - play a sound when agent gets a new chat request
- Disconnect Sound Enabled - play a sound when agent is disconnected from Chat console
- Notifications Enabled - enable desktop notifications for incoming chats (depends on browser)
- Custom Agent Name - the customized name of the agent as it appears to customers
- Auto Greeting - greets to visitors when a chat begins
- Auto Away on Decline - automatically change agent's status to Away when they decline a chat request
- Auto Away on Push Time-Out - automatically change agents' status to Away when a chat request that's been pushed to them times out
- Critical Wait Alert Time (seconds) - the number of seconds before the chat tab alerts the agent to respond
- Agent File Transfer Enabled - allows agent to initiate file transfer during a chat session
- Visitor Blocking Enabled - allows agent to block visitors from chatting
- Assistance Flag Enabled - allow agents to raise a flag for assistance
- Assign Users and Profiles:
- Select Chat users for this configuration (user-level configuration overrides profile-level configuration)
- Select Chat users for this configuration (user-level configuration overrides profile-level configuration)
- Supervisor Settings:
- Chat Monitoring Enabled - allow supervisors to view agents' ongoing chat transcripts
- Whisper Messages Enabled - whisper messages allow supervisors to send private messages to agents while agents chat with customers
- Agent Sneak Peek Enabled - allows supervisors to see what agents are typing before they send messages to customers
- Default Agent Status Filter - select the default agent status that will be used to filter the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel
- Default Skill Filter - select the default skill that will be used to filter the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel
- Default Button Filter - select the default button that will be used to filter the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel
- Assigned Skills - select the skills visible in the Agent Status list in the supervisor panel
- Chat Conference Settings:
- Chat Conferencing Enabled - allow agents to invite other agents into customer chat
- Chat Conferencing Enabled - allow agents to invite other agents into customer chat
- Chat Transfer Settings:
- Chat Transfer To Agents Enabled - allow agents to transfer chat to other agents directly
- Chat Transfer To Skills Enabled - allow agents to transfer chats to other agents through skills
- Chat Transfer To Skills - select the skills that agents can use to transfer chats
- Chat Transfer To Chat Buttons Enabled - allow agents to transfer chats to other agents through chat buttons
- Chat Transfer To Chat Buttons - select the Chat Buttons that agents can use to transfer chats
- Basic Information:
- Chat Buttons and Automated Invitations:
- Chat button can be added on the website to start a chat with customer. Automated chat invitations can be set to ask customers to chat with an animated pop-up.
- Chat Button:
- Basic Information:
- Type - select how users access chats on your site (Chat Button or Automated Invitation)
- Language - language for text in the chat window, such as button names (find out what languages does Salesforce supports)
- Enable Customer Time-Out - specify whether the visitor idle time-out feature is enabled
- Customer Time-Out (seconds) - specify the amount of time from the last agent message before the chat times out
- Customer Time-Out Warning (seconds) - specify the amount of time from the last agent message before a warning appears
- Customer Agent Name - the customized name of the agent as it appears to customers
- Auto Greeting - greets to visitors when a chat begins
- Routing Information:
- Routing Type - choose how incoming chats are routed to agents with required skills
- Choice
- Least Active
- Most Available
- Omni-Channel Queues
- Omni-Channel Skills
- Skills - select skills associated with this button (chats from this button are routed only to agents who have all the selected skills)
- Enable Queue - allow incoming chat requests queue up until an agent with the required skills is available
- Queue Size Per Agent - the queue's capacity to hold chat requests per available agent
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the number of chats allowed to queue for each agent.
- Overall Queue Size - the queue's capacity to hold chat requests
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
- Routing Type - choose how incoming chats are routed to agents with required skills
- Chat Button Customization:
- Site for Resources - choose the site that hosts the images for your custom chat button or automated invitations
- Online Image - choose the image that appears when agents with the associated skills are available to chat
- Offline Image - choose the image that appears when no agents with the associated skills are available to chat
- Custom Chat Page - choose the page you'd like to use instead of the standard chat window
- Pre-Chat Form Page - the page that hosts your pre-chat form
- Pre-Chat Form URL - the address of the page that hosts your pre-chat form
- Post-Chat Page - the page a customer sees after a chat session has ended
- Post-Chat URL - the address of the page a customer sees after a chat session has ended
- Einstein Bots Settings:
- Let customers connect to a bot only when an agent is available - enable the button to connect with a bot only when at least one agent is available
- Let customers connect to a bot only when an agent is available - enable the button to connect with a bot only when at least one agent is available
- Chat Button code can be copied into your site's HTML.
- NOTE: if your have modified the configuration, you will need to recopy and paste the code.
- Basic Information:
- Automated Invitation:
- Basic Information:
- Type - select how users access chats on your site (Chat Button or Automated Invitation)
- Active - activates the invitation
- Deployments - select deployments where this invitation appears
- Language - language for text in the chat window, such as button names (find out what languages does Salesforce supports)
- Enable Customer Time-Out - specify whether the visitor idle time-out feature is enabled
- Customer Time-Out (seconds) - specify the amount of time from the last agent message before the chat times out
- Customer Time-Out Warning (seconds) - specify the amount of time from the last agent message before a warning appears
- Customer Agent Name - the customized name of the agent as it appears to customers
- Auto Greeting - greets to visitors when a chat begins
- Routing Information:
- Routing Type - choose how incoming chats are routed to agents with required skills
- Choice
- Least Active
- Most Available
- Omni-Channel Queues
- Omni-Channel Skills
- Skills - select skills associated with this button (chats from this button are routed only to agents who have all the selected skills)
- Enable Queue - allow incoming chat requests queue up until an agent with the required skills is available
- Queue Size Per Agent - the queue's capacity to hold chat requests per available agent
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the number of chats allowed to queue for each agent.
- Overall Queue Size - the queue's capacity to hold chat requests
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
- If chats have a size of 1, this is the maximum number of chats allowed to queue.
- Routing Type - choose how incoming chats are routed to agents with required skills
- Invitation Animation:
- Display Time - select the amount of time the invitation displayes before it disappears
- number of seconds
- until rejected
- Allow invitation to be triggered again after accepting - allow invitation to appear again after customers accept a chat invitation
- Allow invitation to be triggered again after rejecting - allow invitation to appear again after customers reject a chat invitation
- Animation - choose how this invitation displayes when it appears to users
- Slide
- Fade
- Appear
- Custom
- Display Time - select the amount of time the invitation displayes before it disappears
- Invitation Customization:
- Site for Resources - choose the site that hosts the images for your custom chat button or automated invitations
- Online Image - choose the image that appears when agents with the associated skills are available to chat
- Offline Image - choose the image that appears when no agents with the associated skills are available to chat
- Custom Chat Page - choose the page you'd like to use instead of the standard chat window
- Pre-Chat Form Page - the page that hosts your pre-chat form
- Pre-Chat Form URL - the address of the page that hosts your pre-chat form
- Post-Chat Page - the page a customer sees after a chat session has ended
- Post-Chat URL - the address of the page a customer sees after a chat session has ended
- Sending Rule:
- Customize the criteria for your sending rule to define how and when automated invitations are sent to customers
- Customize the criteria for your sending rule to define how and when automated invitations are sent to customers
- Einstein Bots Settings:
- Let customers connect to a bot only when an agent is available - enable the button to connect with a bot only when at least one agent is available
- Let customers connect to a bot only when an agent is available - enable the button to connect with a bot only when at least one agent is available
- Chat Deployments:
- Chat deployments can be created to implement Chat on your website.
- Chat Deployments Agent Configuration:
- Allow Visitors to Save Transcripts - let chat visitors download the chat transcript
- Allow Access to Pre-Chat API - allow developers to access and implement pre-caht API
- Permitted Domains - limit the domains that can host this deployment, one per line
- Enable Custom Timeouts - customize the default idle connection timeout durations
- Branding Image Site - select the site you'll use to host the images for this deployment
- Chat Window Branding Image - select the image that appears at the top of the Chat window
- Mobile Chat Window Branding Image - select the image that appears in the Chat window on mobile devices
- Deployment Code:
- Automated Invitation Sample Code:
- Basic Information:
- Embedded Service Deployment:
- The Embedded Chat setup uses a Salesforce Community or Salesforce Site, so that you can associate users with a guest user profile.
- Create new deployment in
Setup > Embedded Service Deployments:
- Once you have set up the deployment, you will need to configure the following (if needed):
- Chat Settings
- More Chat Settings:
- Pre-chat Page:
- Customize the required field on the Contact or Case record, add new fields or reorder the priority:
- Customize the required field on the Contact or Case record, add new fields or reorder the priority:
- Offline support:
- Additional branding:
- Image & Dimensions:
- Labels:
- Image & Dimensions:
- Customize with Lightning Components:
- Pre-chat Page:
- Once you have setup the embedded service, you can drag and drop the Embedded Service Chat into the Lightning Community Builder, then select the created chat deployment.
- More Chat Settings:
- Appointment Management Settings
- More Appointment Settings:
- Login method:
- Scheduling flows:
- Additional branding:
- Image & Dimensions:
- Labels:
- Image & Dimensions:
- Appointment home:
- Select Service Appointment object:
- No Data for this object yet, but you can still modify the components on the page.
- Add standard components such as Arrival Time, Service Appointment, and Service Resource into tabs.
- Activate the Lightning Embedded Service Page and select deployment:
- Select statuses for the appointment:
- Review the updates:
- Finish the setup:
- Select statuses for the appointment:
- Select Service Appointment object:
- Login method:
- More Appointment Settings:
- Flow Settings
- Let your users complete simple tasks using an embedded Lightning flow.
- Let your users complete simple tasks using an embedded Lightning flow.
- Branding
- Customize the look and feel of embedded service window:
- Customize the look and feel of embedded service window:
- Chat Settings
- NOTE: if you set Active to Chat, you cannot set Active to appointment management.
- If you would like to enabled the chat and appointment, you will need to create two embedded service deployments:
- If you would like to enabled the chat and appointment, you will need to create two embedded service deployments:
-
Social Channel:
- Social Customer Service
- create case from social media post automatically
- post problem on social media websites like Facebook and Twitter
- agent can respond to Social Posts without creating case using Social Publisher action, ==from the detail page Chatter feed, or from the list of social posts
- social media posts can be routed to agents and allow them to respond from Service Console
- Social Studio can be used to create and publish content across multiple media channels, respond to post on the same social media channel
- customer conversations and activities can be analyzed using dashboards
- Social Customer Service
-
Messaging Channel:
- customers can use SMS text messaging, Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger to contact support
- messages that are sent to a channel can be routed to a queue
- a phone number can be associated with SMS channel, a Facebook page ID can be associated with Facebook Messenger channel
- automated responses can be set to send predefined messages to customers when conversation starts or when agents accept or end a conversation
- case can be created for new messaging sessions
- message notifications can be set to send SMS to customers based on certain events, ex: case status is updated
- Messaging User record is created when customer sends a message, which includes the customer's name, phone number, and opt-out status.
- agent can click Start Conversation button on Person Account, Contact, Messaging User, Case, Lead and Opportunity record to initiate an outbound message using SMS channel
Design Considerations and Best Practices
| Channel | Design Consideration | Best Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile |
- SOS can be added to Android/IOS mobile app - Connect to customers via two-way video or screen-sharing - SOS User Feature License in 'Permission Set License Assignments ' is required - Presence status can be assigned with profiles or permission sets - Routing Configurations and Queues can be set - SOS deployment is needed |
- Omni-Channel and SOS widget should be added to Console - salesforceliveagent.com should be whitelisted in the Whitelist Domain |
| Phone |
- Callcenter record needs to be defined by importing the call center definition file - Users need to be assigned to the call center in order to use the call center - Phone directories and softphone layouts can be configured. - Agent can configure whether they should automatically login to call center and set whether a record should be open on incoming call |
- Open CTI API is used for Salesforce Classic and Ligthning |
|
- Email attachments can be shown in Case Attachment Related List - Email-to-Case vs On-Demand Email-to-Case - Thread ID can be inserted into email to ensure the email is associated to the right email - Email messages can be bounced, discarded or re-queued when email surpasses the org's daily email processing limit |
- Email templates with merge fields can be used to improve productivity - Email routing address needs to be tested to confirm case creation is working - Email privacy settings can be set for customers tagged as Don't Market, Don't Track, Forget this Individual or Don't Process. | |
| Web |
- Web-to-Case can be used to generate cases from a web-form - Case queue and case assignment rules can be used to assign cases. - Rich text area fields are not supported at Web-to-Case forms. - If Web-to-Case limit is exceeded, the default owner set in Support Settings will receive email containing the case information. | - Default email template can be used for automated notification that is sent to customers when they create the case. - reCAPTCHA can be used to prevent spam. |
| Chat |
- Chat implementation can be setup to use chat channel. - Chat User Feature License and API Enabled permission needs to be enabled in order to use Chat. - Skills are used to identify agent's expertise which are assigned to users and profiles. - Chat can be routed to agents based on skills, agent availability and skill level using Omni-Channel. - Direct-to-Agent can be used to route chats to available agents, even if they aren't part of Omni-Channel queue. - Chat configurations can be created and assigned to user and profiles to control the functionality of Chat in Salesforce Console. - Deployment code needs to be added on the web page in order to use Chat. - Chat Button can be created to allow customers chat with agent from the website. - Chat conference can be enabled to allow multiple agents work together. - Post-chat button can be added to the chat window, or it can be removed and redirect to post chat URL when the chat is finished. |
- Pre-chat form and post-chat page can be used to enable information exchange with customers. - Offline support form can be setup to allow customers to submit a case if no agent is available. - Quick Text message can be used to allow agents insert standardized notes, greetings and answers to common questions. - Sensitive Data Rules can be used to block sensitive data such as credit card number in chats. - Agents should be able to chat with customer as well as accessing other tools in Service Console. - Chat supervisor panel can be added on Service Console to allow supervisors to access information about their. |
| Social Media |
- Cases can be created from social media posts. - Free Stater Pack can be used to track two or less social accounts. - Social Publisher Action can be added to case feed to allow agents to reply to customers. - Social Action fields can be added, removed, and organized. - Social Business Rules can be used to automate how inbound social content is processed and appears to support agents. - Social Post object is used to store information about a post on social network, such as Twitter or Facebook. |
- Social Studio account can be used to sync Instagram and Youtube. - Facebook and Twitter accounts can be synced with Free Starter Pack. - Case Feed Tracking can be used to create case feed items from social posts. |
| Messaging |
- Messaging implementation can be setup to use messaging channels, such as text messaging and Facebook Messenger. - Predefined automated responses can be set when agents accept or end messaging sessions. - Opt-in and opt-out messages can be set. - Messaging templates can be used to create predefined text messages and messages can be sent automatically based on events. - Messages can be routed to agents based on skills, agent availability and skill level using Omni-Channel. - Sensitive Data Rules can be set as well. |
- The length of message cannot exceed 840 characters (over limit will not be sent). - If other non-English language is used, the text length needs to be considered as most of them are double-byte which requires more capacity. - Images and files can be sent to customers, but not along with text. A separate message for text will be needed. - Files or images should not be used when sending to toll-free numbers. - Messaging are only supported within the country associating with the channel's phone number. |
That's all for this post! More posts regarding to Service Cloud Consultant certification exam preparation will be coming right up! See ya!
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