Salesforce updating Work.com with tools to help companies connect with employees and customers

Salesforce announced multiple updates to its
Work.com

solution this week designed to help companies adjust to the new normal of increased remote work and re-opening amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Launched in June, Work.com was originally planned as a suite of new and existing Salesforce solutions brought together in one place to help companies and organizations return to work safely in the wake of COVID-19. However as the pandemic continues around the world, governments, companies, and workers are realizing that many workplaces will be forever changed.

“Work.com focused originally on helping companies reopen safely, but now people are transitioning,” said Sarah Franklin, EVP and GM, Platform, Trailhead and AppExchange at Salesforce in an interview with TechRepublic. “We’re in a new normal that demands a new way to work. And Work.com is expanding from just safety and crisis to employee experience, and helping everybody keep their employees happy, healthy, and productive, and really get that focus back on growth, which is so, so, so important.”

In September, the company announced 
Work.com for Vaccines

, that featured updates to help city, state and federal governments distribute, track and measure their COVID-19 vaccination programs. The updates announced today focus on two areas: improving employee engagement/productivity and safely handling in-person customer interactions.

SEE: 
Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs

 (TechRepublic Premium)

Work.com Employee Workspace and Helpdesk

Employee Workspace: A “central digital hub” from which employees can access corporate apps and resources. A company’s Workspace could show or link to Salesforce apps (such as 
myTrailhead

 and Quip), custom software built on Salesforce’s platform, proprietary in-house systems, or even third-party resources (such as Google Workspace). Companies can also use Workspace to keep remote workers connected through “personalized communications, embedded collaboration apps, and notifications.”

“There’s a lot of other things that [employees] need to figure out, and there might be multiple systems that [they] might not necessarily know where to go to get those questions answered,” said Franklin. “And so, with the Workspace, [they] get one single pane of glass to answer all those questions.”

Employee Helpdesk: A portal for employees to ask questions and find solutions on everything from IT issues and facilities to benefits and career development. Beyond just simple FAQs, Helpdesk will feature “Einstein AI-powered chatbots that provide access to knowledge articles and escalation paths, across any department.”

“What this really gets down to, which is why I find this so compelling for Salesforce to be doing this, is that you want to treat your employees like valued customers,” said Franklin. “And today, it’s more important than ever that companies connect with their employees in a digital work from anywhere world…this is the key for every organization to move from just survival mode into how they thrive and look forward to growth with happy, healthy, and productive employees.”

Work.com updates for “safer in-person experiences”

Queue Management: This tool will enable companies and organizations to create virtual lines at their brick-and-mortar locations and minimize physical customer queues. Customers can use an app to reserve a place in line and get updates about their wait through the app or SMS text message.

Broadcast Messaging: Companies can use this feature of Work.com to communicate important information to customers and employees, such as changes to hours of operation or appointment times, health and safety reminders, etc. Businesses can send messages via platforms such as text, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger. Follow-up questions or service requests that occur as a result of any communications, can then be automatically responded to with “chatbots and personalized service communications.”

Digital Trust Cards: Companies can use these virtual placards to give customers important information about their physical locations, such as mask requirements, cleaning policies, and social distancing requirements. The information can be display on a website or within an app and employees can easily update the information as it changes.

SEE: COVID-19: Three business practices I’ll maintain from lockdown life (TechRepublic)

New normal of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating changes that were already happening in many organizations, such as increased telecommuting, digital transformation, and shifting systems into the cloud and onto
XaaS

solutions. Many of those shifts will become permanent, even after the current outbreak subsides.

At the end of our interview, I asked Franklin to talk about the future, to share what Salesforce was hearing from its customers about, not just what they needed to re-open and survive during COVID-19, but to grow once we begin to come out of the pandemic.

“The reality is that we’re living in the future. The future is now,” said Franklin. “The future is where the digital imperative has just come just right straight at us. It’s no longer five years away, it is today. And customers are asking us to do more, not just with employees, helping them be productive and healthy, but also how do we develop them and connect with talent across the organization.”

Salesforce, like other companies, is adapting to this new normal and it seems Work.com will play a significant part of their plans for near future.

“I would love for the pandemic to be over today,” said Franklin. “I think we all would. But what we do know, is that as change happens, we’re going to adapt and change with…and evolve and innovate for our customers.”

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Also see:

• 
  The new normal: What should you expect when you return to office life?
  

  (TechRepublic)

• 
  Remote workers are here to stay: 4 tips to manage them effectively
  

   (TechRepublic)

• 
  Using the new normal to break from the past and innovate
  

  (TechRepublic)

• 
  Sick cats and old PCs: The weird challenges tech support teams face to keep remote workers online
  

   (TechRepublic)

• 
  Four ways CISOs can move enterprise security into the new normal
  

  (TechRepublic)

• What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know about how technology is reshaping business (ZDNet)
• 
  Digital transformation: A cheat sheet
  

   (TechRepublic)

• Digital transformation: An IT pro’s guide (TechRepublic download)
• Digital transformation: A guide for CXOs (TechRepublic Premium)

Article source: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/salesforce-updating-work-com-with-tools-to-help-companies-connect-with-employees-and-customers/#ftag=RSS56d97e7