PeerSpot user
Technical Analyst at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
MSP
We are are able to customize it in a way we like, although the library could be improved.

What is most valuable?

It is at a very mature stage. We are are able to customize Salesforce so that the we can unleash it in our own way, in a way we like, rather than being confined to doing things their way.

How has it helped my organization?

The business for one of our client was completely based on Excel for renewing the business. With the implementation of a complete Service Renewal Cycle using Salesforce, their threshold value of conversion got reduced from 1-2 weeks to a single day!

What needs improvement?

  • Salesforce Community
  • Salesforce Sales Cloud
  • Content
  • Library

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution from more than three years.

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Salesforce Service Cloud
April 2024
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There have been no issues.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy and perfect for scaling.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

3/10

Technical Support:

3/10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

One customer switched from Siebel to Salesforce. They did this as Siebel was not adaptable to changing client environments.

How was the initial setup?

It's always easy.

What about the implementation team?

I am part of a vendor team and do the implementations for our customers.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is always easy when you get to an account executive for the licenses.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Salesforce only if you're a large business. For mid-level businesses it is quite hard.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Silver Partnership
PeerSpot user
it_user342639 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It's increased our contact centre agent efficiency, but there is no control over the appearance of Visual Flow pages.

What is most valuable?

  • Service Console
  • Knowledge 1
  • CTI Integration

How has it helped my organization?

It's increased our contact centre agent efficiency.

What needs improvement?

There is no control over the appearance of Visual Flow pages, giving the appearance of an amateur web application within the Salesforce interface.

It would also be good if there were a workforce management component to balance call distribution in a contact centre based on agent skills and experience.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it on and off for 12 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable. Being cloud-based, the application easily scales to high user and transaction counts.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is responsive, but they often suggest the solutions that one has already read by doing a Google search. I usually have to escalate to tier two to get the answer I need.

But to be fair, being a certified Salesforce consultant, my questions are usually more complex than a regular end user’s questions.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I migrated my tech support team off of BMC Remedy and have migrated many clients off of Siebel and other systems.

Salesforce is much more easily configured so it can change as your business processes change; it’s extremely scalable so it can grow as your business grows, and it’s API is extensive so you can integrate with back office systems in a relatively straightforward way.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward. For a small- to medium-sized business, the system can usually be set up with no custom development. Enterprise organisations will usually require some code to be written along with data migration and data integration.

However, when I migrated my team from BMC Remedy to Salesforce, I did so with no previous training and was able to customize the system to my requirements using the declarative interface. I migrated the data myself using the salesforce Apex Data Loader, which is available for free.

What about the implementation team?

I implemented it myself as described above. However, I would recommend using an integrator. They know the system really well and can ensure your system is implemented following best practices and taking advantage of all the latest features.

While my original implementation was satisfactory, it could have been much better. One example is, I lost all of my record creation dates from the legacy system because I didn’t know that Salesforce could make the Created By and Created Date fields editable when creating records as part of a migration.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My recommendation on pricing is: “negotiate”. The Salesforce account executives can be flexible on price at times so don’t be afraid to negotiate a better price. You may have to commit to a longer contract but you won’t regret it.

Also, if you’re going to do an implementation project, only purchase enough licenses for the implementation team and arrange to start paying for your other user licenses when you go live.

If you’re doing a three month implementation, there’s no need to pay the subscription fees for users who won’t log into the system until you go live.

What other advice do I have?

Use a Salesforce partner and make sure their consultants are certified. Talk to three different firms, and don’t let price be the only driving factor. Rather, look at the firm that seems to best understand your requirements, has good answers on why particular parts of the implementation will cost what they’re proposing, and has a solid methodology that they can easily explain to you.

Simply choosing the least expensive option often costs more in the end with either delays, change requests or worst case, failure.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a Salesforce global partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Service Cloud
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Service Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
770,292 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Salesforce Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
The Live Agent capability connects us to our customers or website visitors through web-chat, and the KB articles provide us with support without raising a case.

Every aspect of the product has great security boundaries. As per my view, this is the greatest way to maintain a application.

  • Case Management
  • Providing support for our issues by raising a case
  • Case handling process by their support team is very nice of course, sometimes there is a delay
  • We have worked on it in two of our projects

Integration with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter

Nowadays, social networking is more popular, so, it is a nice feature to be able to respond to our customers through Facebook and/or Twitter

Service contracts and Entitlement Management

  • Agreements between customers and organization. This is one of the best features provided by Salesforce.
  • We can track agreement information, such as the warranty, easily before providing our support.
  • We know whether the customer is eligible for support or not in advance.

Knowledge articles

  • This is also one of the best features provided by Salesforce, which I like most.
  • We can get support without raising a case by looking in detail at the explanation about the issues using the KB articles.
  • Total article management cycle is well established. (Create-Assign-Publish/Schedule-Update-Archive-Delete)
  • Rating the articles is very helpful as it helps determine which articles are very useful.
  • By maintaining the data categories we can categorize the articles easily.

Live Agent capability

This is very useful application for connecting to our customers or website visitors through web-chat.

Communities and Portal Management

This is also a good feature provided by Salesforce to collaborate with outside people.

Open CTI

It's third-party computer-telephony integration (CTI) system is helpful in maintaining a CRM call center application in Salesforce

Some areas which needs to be improved are:

  • Most of the applications are third party applications which we have to install through App-Exchange (some are paid ones).
  • Most of the features we have to enable by contacting the Salesforce support team (I don't know why).
  • It would be great it we have more out of the box functionalities, meaning less code yet more customization.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user377472 - PeerSpot reviewer
IS Manager at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
There are several good features, but the most valuable to us are the integrated email, entitlements, and the overall powerfulness of the platform.

Valuable Features

There are several good features, but the most valuable to us are the integrated email, entitlements, and the overall powerfulness of the platform.

Room for Improvement

  • I would like better tracking of cases with SLA overdue (including "soon overdue").
  • Emailing from the product has its limitations.
  • In the web view, the editing window is too narrow, and it's difficult for complex cases with many details (logs, etc.), so I would like to adjust the middle column size. See below:


  • No ability to paste pictures from clipboard.
  • Adding in-line comments is not easy.
  • I would like them to add a button such as "Send email and mark case as pending customer info".
  • No embedded management of out of office auto-replies.

Use of Solution

I've used it for one year.

Deployment Issues

There were no issues with the deployment.

Stability Issues

There have been no issues with the stability.

Scalability Issues

There have been no issues with scaling it.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

8/10

Technical Support:

8/10

Initial Setup

The complexity of the setup was in-between. There was some complexity.

Implementation Team

It was done mostly in-house.

Other Advice

You should use a vendor for best practices and to stay in the spirit of Salesforce, as opposed to distorting the product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user852315 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user852315Senior Technical Recruiter at a training & coaching company with 201-500 employees
Real User

Hi There,

Muchas Gracias Mi Amigo! You make learning so effortless. Anyone can follow you and I would not mind following you to the moon coz I know you are like my north star.

I am not able to view or update the specification through View/Edit in Microsoft word link on the specification rule. I am using Pega 7.1.7 with Microsoft Word 2016. I would appreciate for any suggestion on how to mitigate this issue.

But great job man, do keep posted with the new updates.

Obrigado,

Irene Hynes

See all 2 comments
it_user361590 - PeerSpot reviewer
Ambassador at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
It gives us a single view of our customers so both sales support and accounts can see what is happening with the customer.

What is most valuable?

The Cases and Case Deflection features are the most valuable for us.

How has it helped my organization?

If you can get customers to self-serve, this is invaluable and save your customers' time and your staff's time. Our NPS actually went up when we introduced this as customers loved self-service and our cases went down by 50%.

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see more of a blog feature to allow better updates from our staff and link to it socially. This would save us having to run these through two different systems.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for 12-14 months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We've haven't yet had any issues with deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's been stable for us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've had no problems scaling it for our needs.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Customer service has been great as we're a beta customer.

Technical Support:

Technical service has been great as we're a beta customer.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, we were previously using Zendesk as our ticketing/case system. We chose to move to Service Cloud and Community Cloud because we were running our sales side on Salesforce and support on Zendesk. We wanted a single view of our customers so both sales support and accounts could see what was happening with the customer.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward as we were able to set this up in a matter of days.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented all this in-house. As Community Cloud is all template-based and no code is required, this was very simple to set up.

What other advice do I have?

Use the templates for community and use Community Cloud with Service Cloud as they work very well hand-in-hand. Use Case Deflection and the knowledge base articles.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We work very closely with Salesforce. Our CEO has been the keynote speaker for the AU World Tour mainly on Community and Service Cloud. We have also presented at Dreamforce, doing 10 talks in 2015.
PeerSpot user
it_user332889 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. CRM Systems Analyst at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
It allows for collaboration as it tracks and shares everyone's input. But while initial set up can be a non-event, most businesses would need complex customizations.

What is most valuable?

For us, the Force.com platform is the most valuable feature.

How has it helped my organization?

It's a great tool for collaboration because it can track and share everyone's input. You can also configure workflow rules to enforce process.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for over five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

It depends on your contract with Salesforce. There is a lot of information from the user and developer community that does not require a support contract with Salesforce.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used to use Clarify/Amdocs.

How was the initial setup?

The initial set up can be a non-event. However, most businesses would need complex customizations.

What about the implementation team?

I have done it both in-house and with a vendor.

What was our ROI?

Put a lot of thought into your business processes before implementing Salesforce. It is very easy to automate chaos if your business process is not well-defined.

What other advice do I have?

Put a lot of thought into your business processes before implementing Salesforce. It is very easy to automate chaos if your business process is not well defined.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user332844 - PeerSpot reviewer
IPO Business Partner for Marketing at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Features such as pipeline management and custom objects has improved our productivity, but I'd like to see a more powerful campaign function with BI integration.

Valuable Features

  1. Pipeline management
  2. Reporting and dashboard
  3. Custom objects

Improvements to My Organization

A custom community helped us to build a T2 channel partner community, which has bidding and price approval features. It also improved our productivity compared to our competitors. It doesn't require too much coding.

Room for Improvement

In the marketing part, I want to see a more powerful campaign function with BI integration.

Use of Solution

I've used it for eight years.

Scalability Issues

The governor limits are a headache sometimes. We have to either find a workaround or ask Salesforce to improve the limits.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

7/10.

Technical Support:

7/10.

Initial Setup

It depends. If the business role, process, security rule are already there and quite complex, or volume of data need to be migrated are quite high, it will be complex. Lots of things need to be considered.

Implementation Team

With the vendor. If you start from scratch, you'd better work with a vendor team. Then you can either develop your in-house expertise during the project implementation, or hire someone in marketing who has the skills.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

Our users are satisfied with the product, and they spend less time on this tool, but create more opportunity and other data.

Have a discussion with a sales consultant from Salesforce and they will give you proposal regarding your requirement/company size, etc.

Other Solutions Considered

With the consideration of cost, platform extendability, and performance, Salesforce was finally chosen.

Other Advice

It is a quite a good product. If you are going to replace your existing on-premise CRM with a new cloud solution, don't hesitate to call them. But it has limitations as well. Work with a consulting partner, they will help you to boost your productivity.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user377427 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director - Global Client Services & Platform Education at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
The most valuable features for us are Cases, Community, and Chatter.

Valuable Features:

The most valuable features for us are Cases, Community, and Chatter.

Improvements to My Organization:

Service Cloud has allowed our organization to centralize multiple tools and resources into one tech stack that has optimized our ability to coordinate service efforts across the organization.

Room for Improvement:

UI/UX has always proven difficult to keep up with. Salesforce, in general, requires a continued training effort to keep people up to speed and to encourage adoption in the tools. While there have been big improvements to date, simple things like ability to bookmark, right-click or otherwise multi-task panes and articles in Salesforce and the community have been missing.

Deployment Issues:

We've had no issues with deployment.

Stability Issues:

We've had no issues with stability.

Scalability Issues:

We've had no issues with scalability.

Other Advice:

Preparation and training is 90% of the work. Get to know the product before deploying widely. Have your admins get into Trailhead and invest in the training offered by Salesforce.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Service Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Service Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.