Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Will Offer New Customer Service Tools, Cloud Pricing

Microsoft provided more details today on the customer service capabilities and related pricing of Dynamics CRM 2016. The upcoming release will introduce a new "interactive service hub" for service teams, new knowledge management authoring capabilities and recommendations powered by Azure Machine Learning, and improved use of Microsoft Social Engagement (MSE). They will also roll out voice of the customer capabilities like surveys (via its Mojo Surveys acquisition) and analysis sometime after the CRM 2016 launch.

The interactive service hub is a new interface in CRM 2016 that provides dashboards and interface elements designed to streamline the work of Tier 1 and Tier 2 customer service agents - both their individual activities and the routing of calls between levels. The Tier 1 interface is designed to help agents handle high volumes of calls with good visibility and efficiency, whereas the Tier 2 interface is geared toward handling calls requiring greater depth of attention.

One challenging use case that the interactive service hub is meant to handle, explained Dynamics GM Bill Patterson, is the ability to for Tier 1 agents to identify a major issue driving many calls and to swarm that issue queue to quickly bring wait times back down to normal. The new service desk offers rich configuration and customization ...