Salesforce appears to have beaten Amazon to the punch by allowing customers to white label a mobile customer service which actually is quite similar to Amazon Kindle’s so-called “Mayday” help button last year.
Amazon’s mobile customer service button was a huge hit last Christmas as its provided users of the Kindle Fire HDX tablet an instant video chat connection to Amazon customer service representatives who managed to respond to help requests in just seconds, on average.
Salesforce1 Service SOS is taking a page off that strategy but will also allow customers to add the Mayday button to Android or Apple iOS mobile apps. Service agents can connect with the customer and have data update in real-time to provide personalized attention through live video support and on-screen guided assistance.
Service SOS will be offered in limited beta test form in June. No pricing has been released yet. Salesforce is now looking for at least five customers to work with.
There may be some potential challenges for businesses contemplating deploying the service. For one, Amazon has set a pretty high standard with its nine-second call response time. New staff be needed to run the SOS service.
Salesforce is marketing SOS as an enterprise mobile customer service app tied to its Service Cloud. Top brands such as American Express, Philips and Stanley Black & Decker and Cars.com are already using the Service Cloud platform to deliver customer service.
Business that have deployed Service Cloud were able to achieve on average a 41 per cent decrease in first call resolution time, an average 35 per cent decrease in support costs and a 40 per cent increase in agent productivity, as well as an average 37 per cent increase in customer satisfaction, according to Salesforce.