ParaConnect for Salesforce

Does Salesforce keep the most up-to-date information about your Accounts? Do you limit access to your Portal for only ‘active’ Accounts? If you answer YES to both questions, then you’ll be interested in this tip.

In Salesforce, the status of an Account is typically stored in a custom field on the Account record. That status is then reflected in Parature by an SLA or custom field. When an Account becomes inactive or canceled, the Salesforce record is updated. By default, ParaConnect for Salesforce only updates the Parature Account and Customer records if the corresponding Salesforce record was updated since the last sync. So how can translate the status change to the Customer records in Parature? The answer comes in the form of Salesforce Triggers.

The trigger for this scenario is will execute when a Salesfoce Account record is saved. It will proceed to “update” all Customer records that are associated to the Account record that was modified without actually making any changes to the Customer records.

To create this trigger, you must be logged into your Salesforce Account as an Admin. Go to the Account Triggers page located under Setup, and hit New.

Replace any existing code with the following:

trigger UpdateContact on Account (after insert, after update)
{
   for (Account account : Trigger.new)
   {
      List<Contact> contacts = new List</Contacts>();
      contacts = [SELECT Id FROM Contact WHERE AccountId = :account.ID];

      for(Contact c: contacts)
      {
         update contacts;
      }
   }
}

Make sure the Is Active checkbox selected and hit Save.

Now whenever a Saleforce Account record is saved, all associated Customer records will be “updated” without any changes. The next time your Parature/Salesforce integration is set to run, the Account and all associated Customers will be synced.

To create a Portal Tab, you must be logged in as an Admin. Go to the Portal Tabs page located under the Setup tab. Hit New Portal Tab, and fill out the form.

Setting up a new Portal tab

You should now see an extra tab appear on your Portal.

Setting up a new Portal tab

Improving Search Techniques on Your Knowledgebase

Having difficulty finding what you want in the Parature Knowledgebase? The following tips are meant to provide enhanced techniques to improve search results. Also provided, are a few ideas on how to leverage your own knowledgebase to improve the satisfaction of your end users.

Searching the Parature Knowledgebase™

Search keywords rather than entire phrases. Let’s say you are looking for a video tutorial on how to submit a ticket. Your first thought may be to search “video tutorial how to submit a ticket” as your phrase, but this may not render the desired results because there are so many combined words that the search engine is looking for. Begin with something simpler like “submit a ticket” or “video submit ticket”. This kind of search may return more than one result, but it should be easier to find the article you are looking for.

Always sign into the portal before you search. When you are signed into the portal, your Service Level Agreement is recognized by the Parature system, which allows you more knowledgebase articles than the default screen. If you are searching the knowledgebase on the portal without being signed in, a search may render fewer results.

Utilize Parature Advanced Search. Advanced search allows you to customize your search results, finding specific phrases or words. If you happen to know the ID of the article you are looking for, you can type it in here as well.

Be careful with abbreviations. Often, terms like “Knowledgebase” and “Service Level Agreement” are abbreviated to “KB” and “SLA.” When you are performing a search, always spell out the entire term first, as the search may not catch the abbreviations if there are none in the article.

Leveraging your Knowledgebase for Customer Search

Use tag words. Feel free to add tag words at the end of your knowledgebase articles. Adding tag words will allow for a search to grab any of the tag words you choose, which will help in pulling more articles. You could specify these by adding a line at the end of your article titled “Tag:”, and then adding your tag words after the colon.

Get specific with your article questions. Try not to detail your questions too much. Making the question long and complicated will make it more difficult for your customer to find it. Article Question construction is important because customers who cannot find their answer are more likely to give up. By optimizing your knowledgebase questions to mirror the experience of your customers, you can increase knowledgebase satisfaction.

Don’t abbreviate or confuse with complicated terminology. Always spell out your terms. Use terms as your customers know and understand them, not as inter-office jargon. It makes the experience of looking for an article that much easier.

Please share your best practices thoughts and tips with our Parature community.

Knowledge for Your Knowledgebase

Often times, companies fall short of having the appropriate resources for managing their Knowledgebase, such as a Technical Writer or Administrator. Sometimes knowledgebases are even managed by more than one individual. With this mix of resources, it can frequently be difficult to collaborate and maintain a clean and informational knowledgebase. These obstacles shouldn’t deter you from striving for a robust knowledgebase though. Implementing specific practices and procedures can help improve your knowledgebase and maintain its prime condition.

Let’s start with the basics-what are the best steps in reviewing a knowledgebase article and its location? Begin by considering folder structure and layout. What questions do your users ask the most? What items are they most likely to look for when navigating to the knowledgebase? Organize your folders based on the needs of your end user, whether this is structuring them for beginners to experts or starter information to advanced techniques. Start with analyzing how your customers will read the knowledgebase; this will be your most helpful tool in folder layout.

Once you are ready to review an article, you will need to read over it more than one time. Begin by checking to make sure that your article is in the proper folder and doing a grammar and spelling assessment. Then, review your content-does your content answer the question in its entirety? Is your content user-friendly? Does the terminology make sense to your customers? Be careful not to use “office jargon” in your articles, as it may confuse your customers. Lastly, make sure your terms are consistent, meaning that you are not using different terms to refer to the same thing.

Aside from these best practices, the following tips may be helpful in maintaining your knowledgebase:

• Take note of articles that receive the most subscriptions. You should be tracking the amount of subscriptions that each of your articles receives. These articles should be edited to be as close to perfect as you can get them.
• Set expirations on your KB articles. If you open an article, scroll down, and check the “Advanced Options” check box, you will see that you can set an expiration date. If you have a product that changes often and rapidly, you may want to set an expiration date for every three months. If your product changes from time to time but there are often updates, you may want to set an expiration date for every six months. The amount of time you wish to set expiration dates on is really based on the needs of your customers and the changes within your product.
• Pay attention to the amount of views or ratings an article receives. If an article is continuously receiving negative feedback, you should consider updating and cleaning it. Ratings are important to your knowledgebase because without improvement, customers are more likely to submit tickets instead of looking for their answer. Build a knowledgebase that your customers trust. You should also track the amount of views each article collects. Articles that receive the highest amount of views should be reviewed often; they should be in prime condition.
• Review support tickets for new knowledgebase content. By reviewing tickets that are submitted to your support team daily, you may be able to find valuable knowledge to add to your knowledgebase. Support tickets track the issues your customers are having and give you the chance to document the solutions to their issues.
• Consider screenshots in areas where they would be helpful. While screenshots are not necessary for every article, customers often prefer visual learning. Adding screenshots will help them further understand the concept of the article.

Please share your best practices thoughts and tips with our Parature community.

Parature Day with "I Wear Your Shirt"

This blog was originally posted by “I Wear Your Shirt” Thanks to our friends Jason and Evan! Great videos guys!

Good customer service is the best marketing you can do. Parature offers software for customer service including customer support help desk software, knowledge base, case management, and trouble ticket helpdesk software. So what does that mean?

Parature gives your company the ability to reduce the cost of supporting your customers through software and support. Their on-demand software is custom tailored to your website and your customers will never know the difference. Join companies and organizations like Citrix, Rosetta Stone, IGN.com, Colorado State and many more that use Parature’s software.

You can also follow @Parature on Twitter,  like Parature on Facebook,  and see how Parature integrates with Facebook. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Photos | View All Video Clip | Watch on YouTube | View All Live Video | Watch on UStream | View All

Photos | View All Video Clip | Watch on YouTube | View All Live Video | Watch on UStream | View All

ParaFest Panel: Support as a Differentiator - Bringing Customers to the Forefront

This morning ParaFest ‘10 started off with a strong line-up of customer panelists weighing in on everything from how to best integrate Chat into your support mix to establishing a “customer happiness index.”

Panelists Tammy Woodruff (Coremetrics, and one of this year’s Legend Maker award winners), Scott Montgomery (e-MDs), Doug Young, (finalsite), Hugh Ujhazy (Hitachi Data System) and Jon Landau (Huddle.net) offered plenty of practical advice and predictions.

As far as making customer support a competitive differentiator, Doug Young probably said it best: “In our business there are lots of lower-priced options, but our support is a big selling point and justifies our price point. For us, customer support is not a cost, but a real part of the product.”

The session wrapped up with each panelist asked to give just one parting piece of advice for fellow Paraturians. Some good stuff we’ll share in a future post.

Parature CEO Opens ParaFest '10 with General Session Welcome Address

Parature CEO, Tim Davenport delivered the conference welcome address during general session of ParaFest ‘10, the company’s sixth and largest annual users’ conference. ParaFest ‘10 began Tuesday, May 4 and will continue through Thursday, May 6, 2010 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas. This customer focused conference is enabling Parature users from around the world to gain invaluable knowledge from industry experts and thought leaders, while networking with colleagues and peers.

Mr. Davenport’s dynamic and compelling welcome address began with highlights of Parature success in 2009, then continued to set the stage for 2010 and what to expect from this year’s conference. Specifically, he spoke to the value of social media channels as they relate to the customer experience and with it, the unveiling of Parature for Facebook™.
Mr. Davenport stated, “We are delighted to have brought our customers, partners, employees and other industry experts back together in Las Vegas for ParaFest ‘10, providing a unique opportunity to share some of the most thought provoking discussions around customer service and the customer experience today, learning how to further leverage your investment in Parature products and services, and a preview of Parature’s vision for the year ahead.” Tim further commented on Parature’s commitment to the success of its customers and dedication to delivering the reliable and innovative technology that the industry and their customers expect, all at an affordable price.”

ParaFest ‘10 features hands-on training sessions led by the Parature Professional Services team and a diverse mix of customer experience, product and best practices sessions led by Parature customers as well as other industry experts. Attendees have a unique opportunity to exchange ideas, share industry insights and trends, and network with their peers as well as Parature executives and staff. The popular ParaFest Zone is available for participants to meet with Parature experts and partners, experience new product features and learn tips and techniques on how to further strengthen their investment in Parature Customer Service™ software.

Parature for Facebook

The 6^th Annual ParaFest kicked off at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas this afternoon with a record-setting 170-plus in attendance. CEO Tim Davenport set the stage for the event and a big announcement, describing Parature’s commitment to “extending the customer support perimeter” in this era of social media.  It came through loud and clear.  The new mantra for Parature is “be where your customers are.” And clearly social media is redefining where our customers are.

Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Duke Chung then introduced the new offering that “will revolutionize the way you’ll provide support in Facebook.”  Parature for Facebook enables customers to be where their customers are (400 million of them), engage in conversation and deliver quality support right from your company’s Facebook fan page. Parature is first in the industry to bring this functionality to the market. Watch video of the announcement.

Parature customers can monitor Facebook wall conversations, posts and comments in real time and create a new ticket for any post in just one click.

Announcement of Parature for Facebook - See our photo gallery

“Customer service is the new marketing,” said Duke. Perhaps one of the coolest features is how it enables customers to share positive experiences about their support experience. A new ‘Share your Service Experience’ feature lets the user share the service experience and ticket with their friends.

In the first live demo Alexie Harper, who runs the social media strategy for Rosetta Stone, participated with Parature in the first live demo. “We’re not only part of the conversation, but we can take a more active role and ensure our customers questions get answered by the right people inside our organization.” Watch video of the live demonstration.

Parature for Facebook key features include:

Real-time Facebook Wall Monitoring for Quick Customer Response
Via the ‘Facebook Wall Monitor’ all relevant posts and comments containing chosen keywords will be read from the wall and sent to the Parature Service Desk as a ticket, enabling service representatives to easily monitor and respond to otherwise unmanageable wall posts and comments without ever leaving their Parature software.

Knowledgebase Search Right from Facebook The ‘Find an Answer’ feature enables customers visiting a fan page to enter a search term and receive the relevant answer directly from the vendor’s knowledgebase without ever leaving Facebook. Additionally, the customer can use the ‘Ask a Question’ feature for resolution if their question wasn’t answered via the aforementioned method.

Live Chat Direct from a Fan Page
A customer visiting a fan page can ‘Chat with an Agent’ to discuss a service problem, issue, or to ask a question directly from Facebook. The representative will respond to the Facebook user via Parature Chat™.

Sharing a Customer Service Experience
Using the ‘Share Your Service Experience’ feature, a customer who uses the support functionality within Facebook can share their service experience and ticket with their friends. They can also post the result of the interaction to an organization’s wall to share answers and solutions.

Availability is set for next month. You’ll be hearing a lot more about Parature for Facebook, stay tuned.

Parature European Users' Group - February 16-17, 2010

Parature traveled to London to host two events this week; a prospect event, Parature Customer Experience Seminar, on Wednesday, February 17th, and a customer event, Parature European Users’ Group, February 16th – 17th.

We will be hosting a Welcome Reception & Dinner on Tuesday night for prospects, customers, and partners. Check out the agendas by clicking on the event links.

The Parature Customer Experience Seminar will entail a keynote by Sahar Hashemi, Co-founder of Coffee Republic, a demonstration of Parature Customer Service^TM software, a presentation from one of our new partners, Get Satisfaction, and will be emceed by Parature Account Executive, Rick Niles.

The Parature European Users’ Group will include (3) hours of Parature hands-on training by Parature Training Manager, Lisa Flynn, keynote by Sahar Hashemi, Executive Address by Tim Davenport, Product Roadmap session by Cindy Cruzado, Get Satisfaction presentation, three customer presentations from Seatwave, Huddle, and Serco, and will be emceed by Parature Director of Account Management, Bob Rosenau.

We are very excited about the great interest and registrations for this event!

Parature European Users' Group - February 16-17, 2010

We announced today our European Users’ Group to be held February 16 – 17, 2010 at The Cumberland in London. This customer centric event will allow Parature users in Europe to gain invaluable knowledge from industry experts and thought leaders, while networking with colleagues and peers.

The Parature European Users’ Group is a complimentary customer event that will feature an opening night welcome reception, Parature Customer Service™ software training led by Parature Professional Services, a diverse mix of customer service and support best practices presentations, and the opportunity to meet with several key members of the Parature team.

“We are delighted to bring our customers, partners and other industry experts together in London for the Parature European Users’ Group,” said Parature Vice President of Marketing, Gary McNeil. “This event provides our European customers the opportunity to share some of the most compelling stories around customer service and the customer experience while facilitating insightful discussions. This gathering is just another example of how Parature continues to deliver the technology and thought leadership that the industry and our customers have come to expect from us.”

Please visit the Parature European Users’ Group website for complimentary conference registration and additional information.