Mastering Customer Service Efficiency with Skill-Based Routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel

Introduction:

In the world of customer service, providing personalized and efficient support is key to delivering exceptional experiences. Salesforce Omni-Channel's skill-based routing feature is a powerful tool that enables businesses to match customer inquiries with the most qualified agents. In this blog post, we will explore when it is beneficial to use skill-based routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel, understand how it functions, and provide step-by-step instructions for setting it up.

Understanding Skill-Based Routing:

Skill-based routing is a mechanism that intelligently assigns customer interactions to the most suitable agents based on their skills, expertise, and availability. By matching the right agent with the right customer query, skill-based routing streamlines service delivery, enhances customer satisfaction, and optimizes agent productivity.

When to Use Skill-Based Routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel:

  • Diverse Product or Service Offerings: If your organization offers a wide range of products or services that require specialized knowledge, skill-based routing ensures that customers are connected with agents who possess the relevant expertise. This enhances problem resolution, reduces escalations, and improves overall customer satisfaction.
  • Complex Support Scenarios: In scenarios where customer inquiries involve complex or technical issues, skill-based routing allows you to direct those queries to agents with advanced troubleshooting skills or specialized training. This ensures that customers receive accurate and efficient support, leading to faster resolution times and higher customer confidence.
  • Multilingual Support: For businesses catering to a diverse customer base across different regions or countries, skill-based routing can be utilized to assign language-specific queries to agents who are proficient in the required languages. This ensures effective communication and a seamless customer experience irrespective of the customer's language preference.
  • Specific Customer Segments: Skill-based routing can be useful when dealing with specific customer segments that have unique requirements or preferences. For example, high-value customers or VIP clients may require dedicated support from agents with extensive knowledge of their account history and personalized needs.

Functioning of Skill-Based Routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel:

  • Skills Assignment: Agents are assigned specific skills in Salesforce based on their areas of expertise, certifications, languages spoken, or other relevant qualifications.
  • Routing Configuration: Administrators define routing configurations in Salesforce Omni-Channel to match customer inquiries with the appropriate agents. This includes setting up rules and criteria based on skills, workload, availability, and other parameters.
  • Work Item Distribution: When a customer interaction is initiated, Salesforce Omni-Channel analyzes the incoming request and matches it with the available agents who possess the required skills. The work item is then automatically assigned to the most suitable agent.
  • Intelligent Priority and Load Balancing: Skill-based routing takes into account agent availability and workload to distribute work items evenly among agents with the relevant skills. It also considers priority settings to ensure urgent or high-priority tasks are appropriately assigned.

Setting up Skill-Based Routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel:

Now, let's walk through the step-by-step process of setting up skill-based routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel:

Step 1: Enable Omni-Channel

a.In Quick-Find Box,Search Omni channel setting ,and click on it.

b.Enable Omni channel .

Omni channel

Step 2:Create Service Channels

a. In Salesforce Setup, navigate to the Quick Find box and search for "Omni-Channel Settings."

b. Click on "omni-channel" and Click on New to create new Service channels.

Service channel

Step 3: Create Routing Configurations:

a. In Setup, search for "Omni-Channel Settings" and click on "Routing Configurations."

b. Define routing configurations based on skills, workload, priority, and other criteria.

Routing Configurations

Step 4: Define Skills:

a. In Salesforce Setup, navigate to "Skills" and create skills based on the expertise required.

Omni Skills

Step 5: Route cases to agents

1.Routing using Apex

a.Create trigger/process builder that runs apex when a new case is created

b.Insert PendingServiceRouting record in IsReadyForRouting value as false

c.Create "SkillRequirement" record with skills required as junction record between PendingServiceRouting and skill. Use case description/other fields to find skills required d.Change IsReadyForRouting value to true on PendingServiceRouting records

2.Routing using Flow

a.Create an auto launched flow that gets called on case creation

b.Use "Routing" action and pass (record Id, configuration Id and skill Ids). Salesforce will take care of routing.

c.If flow based routing is used routing configuration also needs to be created

Step 6:create service resources :

a.Go to Service Resource and click on new to create service resources according to your need.

Service Resources

Step 7: Create Presence Status

a. In Setup, search for "Omni-Channel Settings" and click on "Presence Status" b.To create a new Presence Status click the New button.

Presence Status

Step 8: Create Presence Configuration:

a. In Setup, search for "Omni-Channel Presence" and click on "Presence Configurations."

b.To create a new Presence Configuration click the New button.

Presence Configuration

Step 9: Assign Skills-Based Routing to Users:

a. In Setup, search for "Profile" and click on Profile for which you want to assign .

b. Find “Enabled Service Presence Status Access” and click on edit and add available presence status.

Assign Skills-Based Routing to Users

Step 10: Add Omni-channel component to app

a.Create/Edit any console app and add "Omni-Channel" component to the utility bar

Step 11:Go to "Omni Supervisor" tab and you will be able to see status of agents

Omni Supervisor

Conclusion:

Skill-based routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel empowers businesses to optimize customer service operations by connecting customers with the most qualified agents. By leveraging skill-based routing for diverse product offerings, complex support scenarios, multilingual support, and specific customer segments, organizations can enhance customer satisfaction, resolution times, and agent productivity. Following the step-by-step instructions provided, businesses can successfully set up skill-based routing in Salesforce Omni-Channel and deliver personalized and efficient support to their valued customers. Regenerate