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Call Center Automation with USD

Post Author: Joe D365 |

Unified Service Desk (USD) is a highly configurable solution framework that provides an excellent foundation for call center management. One of the great features of USD are configurable agent scripts, which can be used to facilitate and enable productive customer service interactions. In today's blog we will be covering some foundational USD strategies and go over some recommendations for preparing to configure items in the Dynamics Unified Service Desk. Let's dive in!

What makes USD especially powerful is that agent scripts can be modified without development customizations. Business process analysts can create the steps in the call flow process, and then by leveraging Action Calls, can automate functions that until now were not available unless they were coded by developers. This gives businesses the ability to continually modify and improve business processes while also automating relevant information in real time to customer service agents. These capabilities can be leveraged to improve overall call center performance including ensuring customer service levels and reducing representative training times.

Some of the common automations that can be used during a call script are:

  • Case Disposition Options
  • Relevant Knowledge Base Articles
  • Suggested Email Templates
  • Suggested Note Templates
  • Relevant Web Applications

USD configuration can be set up so that ongoing process improvement driven script iterations can be completed by business analysts and leverage out-of-the-box CRM and USD capabilities. While there is considerably less custom coding typically required in a USD versus customer care accelerator based implementation, there will still be some customizations and technical configurations required to set up the initial solution framework. For example, in order to properly display and leverage the full power of Dynamics CRM email templates and Knowledge Base articles, custom controls need to be developed, along with customized XAML based USD Panel Layouts.

The basic elements in configuring agent script automations are managed by a few core USD configuration entities. Foundational Setup: These define the basic behavior of the USD system and, once set, will not change much unless major processes and/or data flow changes occur:

  • Hosted Controls are the basic containers of information presented within specific USD panels. Some examples of this are CRM forms, CRM views, web applications, and dashboards.
  • Session Lines control how multiple customers and cases are shown and tracked.
  • Tool Bar controls the configuration for adding custom toolbars.
  • Windows Navigation Rules manage what happens when users click on a link within USD. An example of this would be suppressing the ability to open any linked records from a case or a contact record.
  • Events are automatically created when Hosted Controls are set up. These events (on popups, page loads, close, and save) can trigger automation defined in action calls.
  • Ongoing Agent Script configurations are the core entities of the agent script configurability. These configurations can be modified and enhanced in a very agile manner by a business analyst. Starting with simple call script processes and automations as a foundation is highly recommended. As your business gets increasingly comfortable with the configurations, process improvements and iterative agent script configurations should be expected.
    • Agent call scripts define the steps customer service representatives can take in a script.
    • Agent call script answers are the available options for any given step. A given answer can branch out to other agent call scripts steps.
    • Action calls are the automations that are display on the screen such as specific web applications, Knowledge Base articles, CRM views, and CRM Forms.

Examining and Creating Agent Scripts, Answer Options, and Action Calls

In the demo data of USD installations there are some excellent examples of the sequential steps in an agent call script, how to drive the flow through associated answers with redirects to subsequent actions, and associated action calls.

Here are the steps:

1. Under Settings, select Unified Service Desk.

Call Center Automation with USD

2. Next, select Agent Scripts.

Call Center Automation with USD

3. Create a new Agent Call Script and then you can create multiple answer options.

Call Center Automation with USD

4. Next, link the Answers to the next step in the script.

5. Open the next step in the Agent Script that you just created within the script and associate a new action call to the agent script step by selecting the associated Actions.

Call Center Automation with USD

6. Finally, add a new action call. Action calls are the heart of automations.

  • Case Disposition Options (agent script answer options, that, when selected, write to a custom attribute in the case)
  • Relevant Knowledge Base Articles (Parature, by Microsoft enabled out-of-the-box. CRM KB articles require custom controls)
  • Suggested Email Templates (requires custom control)
  • Suggested Note Templates (custom entity that populates predefined notes)
  • Relevant Web Applications (out-of-the-box configuration of answer options, Hosted Controls, and actions)
  • Relevant Custom Entity Views
  • CRM Forms, Views and Dashboards

These are just a few examples of common automations, and once you get the basic configurations set up, the iterative agent call script process can be crafted as a process. The agent call script configurations can be thought of as steps and can be utilized to walk service representatives through the call flow process.

That's all for the blog today, folks! You can learn more about USD by checking out our website!

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

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