About Microsoft Release Wave Plans
Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 release wave plans outline the various improvements and new features coming to Dynamics 365 applications throughout the year. The functions detailed in the release wave 2 plan are expected to roll out between October 2022 and March 2023.
In this blog, we’re giving you a glimpse of what’s coming to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service starting in October.
About Dynamics 365 Customer Service
If you’re not too familiar with Dynamics 365 Customer Service, it is Microsoft’s prime solution for enabling businesses to deliver exceptional customer service experiences. Dynamics 365 Customer Service is known for optimizing agent productivity through omnichannel support and AI-powered insights that help them best serve customers.
Some of the many capabilities include:
- Tracking customer issues through cases
- Sharing information in the knowledge database
- Defining service terms through entitlements
- Managing performance and productivity through reports and dashboards
Source: Microsoft
Now that we’re caught up on the current features in Dynamics 365 Customer Service, let’s look at what we can expect from release wave 2.
Unified Routing
A major functionality coming to Dynamics 365 Customer Service is preferred agent routing and call overflow enhancements.
What this means: Instead of having agents manually pick and choose which service requests to address, the enhanced intelligent routing service will automatically assign requests to the best-fit agent. It utilizes AI to classify, route, and assign work by analyzing agents’ skillsets, availability, and relationship history with the customer.
Why it’s beneficial: The feature saves teams from having to constantly monitor the service queue and distribute cases.
Modernized Agent Experience
As Microsoft says, agents are the heart of Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The next release wave includes a modernized agent experience with a new continuous view of previous conversations, enhanced multisession navigation, and AI-powered conversation summary.¹
What this means: If you’re working with a customer and need to refer back to their previous cases or consult with your team, you can do so without having to switch to another view.
Why it’s beneficial: The continuous view enables agents to resolve cases faster by accessing every resource they need on one screen.
Knowledge Management
In delivering efficient and effective service, knowledge management plays a key role. That’s why Microsoft is dedicating more resources to managing knowledge-based articles for agents. In this upcoming release, knowledge article search filters and AI-suggested keywords and descriptions for knowledge articles will be available.
What this means: If an agent needs technical assistance to help a customer, they can select filters to refine their search. Plus, suggested articles will appear as AI detects keywords in the conversation. The article descriptions allow agents to quickly determine whether the article is useful or not.
Why it’s beneficial: The search filters, keywords, and descriptions will make it easier and faster for agents to find articles for customers.
Microsoft Teams Integration
Microsoft says to plan for improved Microsoft Teams collaboration capabilities with customer support swarming to help agents resolve complex cases, and improvements to the embedded Teams chat and Teams meeting integration capabilities.
What this means: Instead of having an agent reach out to each team member for service recommendations, they can simply “swarm” support by automatically adding the entire team to the case. They can view details about the issue and customer and respond with suggestions directly from Microsoft Teams.
Why it’s beneficial: The new Customer Service x Teams features, along with the other functionalities, will improve the timeliness and success of customer service.
After seeing what’s to come in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, businesses should recognize that there is always room for improving the customer service experience. If you have any questions about using Dynamics 365 Customer Service to its full potential or implementing the solution into your operations, talk to an expert from our team at Opal Business Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Partner. We’re always happy to help.
