Salesforce.com Announces Service Cloud1--the World's #1 Service App, Reimagined

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the world's #1 CRM platform, today announced Service Cloud1—the world's #1 service app, reimagined. With game-changing innovations including SOS for Apps, a smarter agent console and instant service communities, Service Cloud1 empowers companies to deliver personalized, smarter and faster service anywhere, anytime. Industry-defining companies like Activision, Eventbrite, HP, Newell Rubbermaid and Rosetta Stone leverage the Service Cloud1 to connect with customers in a whole new way.

Comments on the News

• "Today's consumers expect customer service to be easy and readily available with the swipe of a finger," said Mike Milburn, SVP and GM of Service Cloud, salesforce.com. "Service Cloud1 takes the customer service experience beyond easy and instant, by enabling personalized, smarter and faster customer engagements."
• "At Eventbrite, we understand the importance of connecting to every customer and providing service where and when our customers need it," said Dana Kilian, VP of Customer Service, Eventbrite. "Salesforce Service Cloud is a key component for us to deliver on our tenacious focus on and commitment to excellent customer service."
• "We live in the age of the connected customer, and it's every company's responsibility to provide customer service where, when and how the customer prefers to engage," said Tim Rondeau, Senior Director of Customer Care, Activision. "At Activision, our goal is to prioritize customer service as a way to build relationships with the gaming community, increase player satisfaction and create customer loyalty. With that goal in mind, we have used Service Cloud in the hopes of personalizing customer service to each and every gamer, exceeding the high expectations of our passionate fanbase."

Service Cloud1—the World's #1 Service App, Reimagined

Today's consumers are increasingly mobile, social and connected, and have been trained by companies like Amazon to expect easy and instant customer service experiences. In fact, according to a recent study, customer experience has overtaken price and product as the #1 brand differentiator[1]. It is imperative for companies to reimagine how they deliver customer service—across every channel and on any device—to meet the rising threshold of customer expectations.

Service Cloud1—Reimagined to Deliver Customer Service Everywhere

The completely reimagined Service Cloud1, the world's #1 service app, sets a new standard for customer service in the connected world. Today, salesforce.com announced Service Cloud1 with new innovations that deliver more personalized, smarter and faster customer service experiences. The new innovations include:

• SOS for Apps—Salesforce SOS for Apps, similar to the Mayday button for the Amazon Fire Phone and Kindle Fire HDX tablet, is a game-changing mobile service solution that will provide in-context access to customer service with a live video connection to an agent, on-screen guided assistance and screen sharing. It will enable any company to embed personalized service in any mobile app to deliver instant, anytime access to support. For example, with one-touch of an SOS button, customers can connect with a live service agent from their bank, who can provide side-by-side guided assistance. The agent will be able to see what's happening on the customer's mobile phone and even draw on the screen to help them navigate.
• Smarter Agent Console—The new, sleek Service Cloud1 Agent Console is optimized to boost service agent productivity in fast-paced environments. The smarter Console pushes dynamic content to agents around known issues, highlights the resources most often used to resolve cases faster and streamlines access to data. With the Service Cloud1 Agent Console, agents can now eliminate time-consuming searches and endless digging through disconnected databases to find information.
• Instant Service Communities—New instant service communities, powered by the Salesforce Community Cloud, allow any company to quickly create, brand and deploy self-service communities where customers can connect with information, apps and experts to quickly find answers to their questions. If a retailer, for example, sees a spike in questions about the availability date of a highly anticipated new product, it can quickly create a self-service community for customers to easily find answers to key questions and share information that may impact their purchase decisions.

Customer Service that Scales with Business Growth—Introducing Desk Connect

Salesforce.com has customer service solutions for any size business—from the smallest companies to the world's largest enterprises. Desk1, the all-in-one customer service app from Desk.com, allows SMBs to differentiate themselves by delivering amazing personalized customer experiences to outpace the competition and drive growth. Today, Desk.com is introducing Desk Connect to seamlessly sync data from support cases to Salesforce for a single, comprehensive view of the customer. As businesses grow and require more sophisticated customer service practices, they have an easy path to Service Cloud1 from Desk1 with Desk Connect.

Industry-Defining Companies Deliver Amazing Customer Service with Service Cloud1

Service Cloud1, the world's #1 customer service app, transforms support organizations to exceed customer expectations and deliver amazing customer service experiences. Industry-defining companies, such as Activision, Eventbrite, HP, Newell Rubbermaid and Rosetta Stone, now have the ability to connect with their customers in a whole new way. Companies that have deployed Service Cloud have seen an average 42 percent faster case resolution, 40 percent decrease in support costs, an average 40 percent increase in agent productivity and an average 40-percent increase in customer satisfaction, according to a recent third-party research report sponsored by salesforce.com[2].

Pricing and Availability

• Service Cloud1 is now generally available and pricing starts at $65 per user per month.
• Salesforce SOS for Apps is currently in private beta and pricing will be announced at the time of general availability.
• The Service Cloud1 Agent Console is generally available and included with Service Cloud1 user licenses.
• Salesforce1 Community Cloud starts at $500 per month and is generally available.
• Salesforce Desk1 is generally available today with pricing starting at $50 per month, per agent.

Additional Information

• Register for Dreamforce 2014, the largest software event ever, including free keynote and expo pass: http://dreamforce.com
• Donate to the San Francisco/Marin Food Bank and other anti-hunger partners around the world here: http://www.dfgives.org
• Sign-up for the Salesforce $1 Million Hackathon: https://developer.salesforce.com/million-dollar-hackathon
• Buy tickets for the Dreamforce Gala and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals Benefit Concert: http://www.theconcertforkids.com
• Learn more about the Service Cloud1: http://www.salesforce.com/service-cloud/overview/
• Follow @Salesforce on Twitter
• Like the Service Cloud1 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ServiceCloud

About salesforce.com  

Salesforce.com is the world's largest provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software. For more information about salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

"Safe harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:  This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements relating to future products and features.  The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions.  If any such risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, the company's results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make.  Further information on factors that could affect the company's financial and other results is included in the reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and in other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including the company's most recent Form 10Q.  These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Information section of the company's website at www.salesforce.com/investor.  Salesforce.com, inc. assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.  

[1] http://www.walkerinfo.com/customers2020/

[2] Source: Salesforce.com Customer Relationship Survey conducted March 2014 - May 2014, by an independent third-party, Confirmit Inc., on 4,100+ customers randomly selected.  Response sizes per question vary.

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SOURCE salesforce.com