When a customer asks about their order status, wants to change their travel reservations, or requests a refund—the question sounds pretty straightforward, right? Little do they know, these simple questions can kick off an entire process across multiple systems and teammates: what’s their order number? Which travel itinerary are they referring to? Does their request qualify for a refund?
Reviewing long internal threads about an order or toggling between systems adds minutes—even hours—to every customer inquiry. And that time adds up.
Until today. Front customers now have access to new automation and AI capabilities that accelerate response time and delight customers:
Macros: Create 1-click shortcuts to codify common processes
Connectors: Reduce context switching with a low-code way to build integrations
AI Compose: Write the perfect customer message faster than ever
AI Summarize: Keep your team in sync with AI-generated conversation summaries
Maximize team productivity with 1-click macros
Your customer service team often finds themselves repeating the same actions over and over, like moving messages, adding and removing tags, and notifying other teammates. Doing the same steps repeatedly can be tedious and time-consuming.
With macros, your team can perform several actions at once with the click of a button. The options for codifying your business logic are endless: macros are completely customizable to your needs. From handoffs to escalations to updating other systems (coming soon!), macros make it easy to ensure processes are followed and issues are resolved in a flash.
Here’s just a few of the ways you can use macros:
Route conversations to the right teams (finance, legal, IT)
Escalate customer inquiries to the next support tier
Maintain consistent processes across your team
Reduce onboarding and training time for new agents
Macros are available for Front customers on the latest Growth plans and above. Learn more.
Reduce app switching with Connectors: a new, low-code framework for integrations
Last fall, we released dynamic objects, which created useful shortcuts to your external systems. Dynamic objects enabled you to automatically pull in related records from any third party system (such as your ordering system, travel booking system, and more).
With Connectors, you can pull in even more third-party data to provide contextual information to agents without app switching. Coming soon, you’ll be able to push data to other systems with the same, low-code framework.
New ways to bring in external data
In addition to being able to recognize key info (like order ID, booking numbers, etc.) in a message and connect these records with the conversation, Connectors take contextual third party data to a whole new level. For example, you can set up your Connector to recognize the sender’s email address, and automatically pull up associated business objects like order number, even though the sender didn’t mention it. This can help speed up resolution time since your agent and customers won’t have to deal with the back-and-forth of sharing additional information.
Power smarter workflows
Connectors also help supply external data to your workflows. Use external system data (like order or fraud status) to power your rules (and soon: macros)—all without needing to store the data in Front.
“Connectors have had a significant impact on our operations because we can now access all the information we need without ever leaving our inbox. Plus, smart rules allow us to identify potentially harmful emails and quarantine them based on alerts in our fraud detection software. This helps us verify and prevent spoofing or fraud attempts before our carrier sales team even sees them.” — Brandon Bay, EVP, Logistics Group International
Coming soon: take actions in other systems without leaving Front
Combining macros and connectors will yield massive time savings in the coming months. Let’s say a customer writes in to cancel their order. You’ll be able to set up a “cancel order” macro that lets your agents complete this with the click of a button! No more extra steps, no more toggling apps—your team can do everything right from Front.
Here’s a sneak peek at the future of macros and Connectors.
Connectors are available on the latest Growth plans and above. To bring Connectors into your workflows and take action in third-party systems, you’ll need to be on Scale or above. For current Front customers using dynamic objects, you’ll be migrated to Connectors in the next few weeks—no action is needed on your end.
Provide exceptional customer service with our newly updated AI inbox tools for your team
There’s no doubt that AI is quickly transforming the customer service landscape, allowing teams to help resolve simple customer issues faster. However, top-notch service can’t be achieved with AI alone. There will always be customer issues that need human judgment and finesse, whether it’s a managing strategic account for your business or nuanced issue that calls for more research.
Our updated AI inbox tools are your team’s hidden superpower to deliver exceptional service, while still providing a personalized touch.
Let AI Compose help you craft the perfect response
Drafting messages from scratch can take more time than we’d like to admit. AI Compose helps you create a first draft using the context of the conversation, the appropriate tone, and your preferred language.
With the latest updates to AI Compose, you can get your message just right.
Choose the perfect tone—whether professional, friendly, or empathetic—to deliver your message
Rest easy knowing AI will automatically correct your spelling, grammar, and punctuation before you hit send
Translate to and from 15 different languages to engage with your customers in their preferred language
AI Compose is available for Front customers on the latest Growth plans and above. Learn more.
Catch up instantly with AI Summarize
Staying up to date with long conversation threads can be a huge time sink, and important details can be missed after getting buried in dozens of messages and comments.
With the latest update to AI Summarize, your team can always stay up-to-date.
Get the full details in a single, universal summary that automatically updates every time a new comment or message comes in
Catch up quicker with a short headline summary that gives the TL;DR on what’s going on
Summaries generate in the default conversation language, with over 15 languages supported
AI Summarize is available for Front customers on the latest Growth plans and above. Learn more.
What’s next for Front for AI and beyond
There’s no slowing down now. To hear about what’s ahead for AI at Front from our new CEO, Dan O’Connell, sign up for our upcoming virtual event.
Written by Jo McCann
Originally Published: 24 June 2024