Using Screen Flows for your Contact Center Team
5 min
It’s no secret that flows are the present and future of Salesforce declarative automation. Each seasonal release adds features and enhancements to make the tool easier to use with powerful functionality. One type of flow – the Screen Flow – is particularly useful for walking users and clients alike through a step-by-step, using inputs from the user to follow a path down innumerable branches. The flow can create, update, and/or delete records, kick-off other flows or apex classes, and provide the flow user with instructions both within Salesforce and in the world outside of the platform.
A myriad of business cases will benefit from this tool, and contact centers, in particular, can greatly improve efficiency and accuracy using Screen Flows.
Why use screen flows in the contact center?
Contact centers face many challenges. First, they often have a high turnover rate, meaning that new agents constantly requiring onboarding and initial training. Next, call centers are frequently very large, with hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of reps. Despite having a large headcount, organizations want their clients to have a uniform (and hopefully positive) experience when they call in. Whether it’s customer support, sales, business development, or otherwise. Additionally, as companies implement changes to processes, scripts, product offerings, or support procedures, the act of distributing this new information and training the staff is a challenge on its own.
Let’s take a look at how screen flows can solve these challenges and some tips and best practices to implement.
Placement
This article assumes that the reader knows the basics of creating a flow and selecting screen flow as the type. For those building a flow, placement may seem like the last step of the process. And it will be the final step once the flow is built. However, it’s useful to have placement in mind as you begin to create the flow.
One option is to add the flow as a component on a Lightning Record Page. This is especially useful on the Lead, Contact, Account, Opportunity, or Case page. Depending on the contact center’s role, this quickly and easily allows the flow to pull in data from the record and related records directly onto the screens. This information can be used to pre-populate screen information such as scripts or forms.
Another good choice is to use a button to launch the Screen Flow, either from a list view or record page. The use case for this would be a scenario where the representatives are not working from existing records. For example, an inbound team that creates new cases or adds new leads/contacts could use a button to launch the flow. Likewise, global or object-oriented actions would have a similar effect.
Standardizing the Experience
To script or not to script. That is the question many contact centers face. Many in leadership find that the best agents don’t use a script at all, while newer agents need a script to learn the right things to say and the right path to follow. Having the screen populate with the words to say will go a long way in getting new agents off the ground and finding success quickly. Even better, dynamically integrating the script with actual client or opportunity details will make them sound better and more polished. Help the new agents find their footing by avoiding shuffling paperwork, holding a script book, or alternating between different systems to find what they need.
A script may encourage the agent to use the Contact’s first name or a Lead’s company, and this way the flow pulls in the information and directly populates it right in line. Perhaps a complicated portion of the script can pull in several Opportunity or Open Case details. Especially for new agents, this eliminates the need to search through a potentially unfamiliar system while they are on a live call.
For an agent or team that is struggling, returning to a by-the-book on-script approach is often the remedy to eliminate bad habits that have crept in. Leadership can even add delivery notes to the page with additional text or even images (remember to deliver this line with confidence when you see the jpg of a lion!).
Evaluate Script Effectiveness
Even the best script or process can go south. That’s why each screen in the process should have an “out” to end the call on every page. This does not encourage adverse outcomes or make them more frequent. On the contrary, this gives the sales or service operations team insight into where the calls are falling apart. Management can capture data on which screen leads to a “Closed - Lost” or other negative outcomes. This information can be saved to the task/activity record or directly to the record that initiated the flow. This information can be pulled into reports to evaluate the performance of an individual, a team, or the script itself. For example, if one agent is struggling more than average on screen #4, then that may be a simple training issue where he or she could improve. If a team seems to be caught up on a screen more than the call center as a whole, they might need insight from higher up or an adjacent team that is not having the same problem. If everyone in the contact center receives negative outcomes in the same place . . . well, it might be a script problem!
Disposition during the Call
Good data in, good data out. Call centers – especially large ones – constantly evaluate large amounts of calling data. In order to provide effective feedback, a sales or service operations or data team need to know that calls are being dispositioned and updated effectively and correctly. Screen Flows are ideal for updating records behind the scenes as the call is being completed. Rather than asking the rep to spend a few minutes clicking button upon completing the call, let the flow of the call update the right records as they go. Each branch of a decision tree should guide the representative down the correct path to take the next steps in their sales or service process, and a well-designed flow will take that information and update records acccordingly.
Use flow variables to capture information throughout the flow. At the completion of the flow, this information can be used to create a task/activity or update the record that started the flow (or any other record for that matter). Flow variables can also be set and then changed during the process, so if the situation changes from 3 minutes into the call to 9 minutes into the call, the flow can respond accordingly.
Start/End Screens
This may be a minor point, but important nonetheless. When a screen flow is embedded into a Lightning Record Page, it naturally goes back to the start page upon completion. For that reason, it’s a good practice to have a clear-cut ending page, often with a button that indicates to the agent that the flow/call is ending. Likewise, having a page before the script starts is good to allow the rep to start the flow unequivocally.
* For inbound call centers or those using an autodialer, it’s not a bad idea to have the initial greeting or first line of script on the start page so they get off to a good start, especially for new agents.
Versioning
Oftentimes, a script needs different versions for different situations. Perhaps the script takes a different path if they are calling for their first case. Or a sales team may have a different offer for people if it is their birthday month. Maybe the script reads a little differently if we are leaving a message for the second time than we did for the first. With Screen Flows, these decisions and script nuances can be easily baked into the decision trees or conditionally rendered screen pages.
Perhaps there is a new promotion on the first day of the month. Take away the guess work from the call center team but dynamically updating this information right into their system based on variables that can be controlled at the management level, but distributed to the end user representatives who are interacting with customers one on one.
On a different level, versioning can also be done to revert to a previous script iteration. Simply deactivate the current flow and reactivate the script that was working in a couple of clicks.
Notifications
Because flow can create records as well as messages, this tool is perfect for notifying relevant parties based on the outcome of the call. Perhaps the customer should receive a thank you email or a survey after the call, the flow can automatically send this. Additionally, there can be logic involved where the flow determines whether to send the message or modify the details of the message based on the outcome.
Another scenario could be success notifications. Perhaps management would like an email or chatter post whenever someone gets a sale above a certain level, or if a case is resolved with a high-priority account. The flow can take the outcome of the call or details collected along the way, and create that message on our behalf. This could also apply to success – or failure – messages related to Account or Opportunity teams or Case Queues.
