In the last Dreamforce 2011 conference, a lot of emphasis was placed on the social profile within their Service cloud.  That is, having that user’s relevant Facebook and Twitter stream on the agent’s window.  Along with Data.com and Dun and Bradstreet, you can have accurate data from that user.

As well, Salesforce also recommends the monitoring of social media analytics with Radian6. 

But I feel we’re missing some key components in the call center.

I’ve been an advocate of a unified messaging system as I know a lot of calls or personal emails never make it to the CRM.

Let’s face it, customers will communicate with you when they want and how they want.  That may be by phone, fax, email, or text chat.    Some customers will vent out their frustrations indirectly via Twitter or Facebook.  (You better pray if that user doesn’t have over 1 million followers, because you don’t want bad press coming from person with influence.  Conversely, you’ll accept any kind of good press from this user!)

When choosing a CRM and Service Desk application, make sure you look at your organization and see what media outlet you use to connect with your customers, whether it’s built in or an add-on application.  And choose wisely.

Every media outlet has its time and place, and you have to staff your customer service agents accordingly.

In the video below, Lauren Carlson from Software Advice speaks with Sword Ciboodle’s VP of Marketing, Mitch Liberman and CEO of the Americas, Richard De Francisco, about the future of the call center.  It’s a great interview and overview of what I have been preaching, but you’ll have to ignore the background noise.  The video was shot from the CRM Evolution 2011 conference last August.  As you can hear, it was quite busy!

Here is the interview on YouTube: