Here's what to look for in the May 15th release.

The guidance in this document is offered for early planning purposes and is subject to change up to the time of release.

Platform

Improved Navigation Experience

Problem Solved: The current Hearsay Desktop application is organized by product (Sites, Relate, Social, Actions) and the tasks for each project are siloed from one another even though many customers rely on using a combination of products to suit their needs. It is difficult for advisors/agents to complete tasks and find what they need when the application is organized by product instead of by outcome or workflow. The decreased usability leads to an unfavorable user experience and a reluctance to use Hearsay.

Expected Value: When advisors/agents can find information quickly and intuitively, they will be able to spend less time studying training materials to learn how to use Hearsay and more time engaging with clients to build their brand. The changes we’re implementing help them complete their tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Expected Solution: We’ve made major changes to how things are organized and named in Hearsay Desktop by conducting extensive user testing to find the most effective navigation and naming conventions. In our testing, we used a measure called the “success rate” to determine how often users could successfully navigate to the correct place in Hearsay to achieve their most essential tasks. With the new experience, users found their way to important tasks at a rate 2x better than with the legacy navigation. The changes improve how advisors/agents will be able to search for information, navigate across the Hearsay platform, and complete tasks.

Here are a few key highlights of what’s changing:

Product names are being removed.
Most tasks will be able to be completed in fewer clicks.
Main navigational items are moving to a panel on the left side of the screen.

For more information on how the product navigation is changing, including additional screenshots and a list of all the new navigation paths, please read our Improved Navigation Experience - User Guide.

Note: These changes will be on for all organizations and cannot be disabled.

Homepage:

Social Post Library:

Conversations:

Websites:

Who is impacted: All
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Increased API security after creating a token

Problem Solved: API tokens/keys are always visible in the admin view, under Settings > Integrations, which makes them easy to copy and misuse.

Expected Value: Better token security improves the safety of customer data.

Expected Solution: The API Token value will only be shown immediately after it is created. After that, it will be hidden in the list of tokens on the Integrations page. If access is needed for a new application, a new token will need to be created.

Where the token will appear:

Who is impacted: Integrator and Program Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Social

Improved Navigation Experience - Social changes

Expected Value: When advisors/agents can find information quickly and intuitively, they will be able to spend less time studying training materials to learn how to use Hearsay and more time engaging with clients to build their brand. The changes we’re implementing help them complete their tasks more efficiently and effectively.

Expected Solution:

We’ll be moving the Facebook Ads menu page (including Promotable and Promoted tabs) into the advisor/agent Post Library as a new tab.
The Activity menu page will be sunsetted and pages will be moved to the other parts of the navigation menu and system.
The Sites menu page in Social will be sunsetted. Events and the Sites Posts Library will only be available under Web Media in the main side menu.
Feeds feature will be sunsetted.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Admin Suggested Posts Library refresh

Problem Solved: The design of the admin Suggested Posts Library doesn’t allow for quick and easy content searches, and the designs between the advisor/agent Post Library and the admin Suggested Posts Library are mismatching.

Expected Value: When admins have a smoother and faster experience finding and selecting content, they can add a higher volume of quality posts that support their social media programs.

Expected Solution: The Suggested Posts Library and Post Cards will be refreshed with a more contemporary look that more closely matches the look and feel of the recently redesigned advisor/agent Post Library.

Before changes:

After changes:

Who is impacted: Marketing Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: N/A
Availability: On for all organizations.

Data & Analytics

Social Insights for Advisors

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents do not get actionable business insight data about their social media publishing activities, performance, and connections. They would like to understand how they perform versus their peers, and they want to receive guidance on what to do differently to improve their use of social media.

Expected Value: Providing key business metrics for advisors/agents will give an insight into their professional social media presence and performance. These metrics include data on social media publishing, engagements, connections, top interest categories for the advisors and their audience, top-performing posts, as well as benchmark figures for advisors/agents’ peers. Alongside these metrics, advisors/agents will also receive personalized recommendations on how to improve their business performance using Hearsay Social.

Expected Solution: A new advisor/agent dashboard called Social Insights will be implemented that provides workspace-level business metrics that are calculated for the past 30 days. These metrics include:

Number of published posts
Number of impressions
Number of likes, comments and shares
Number of clicks on links
Number of connections and followers
Top interest categories for the advisor/agent (based on publishing history)
Top interest categories for the advisor/agent’s audience (based on engagement history)

The numerical metrics will also include hierarchy-level benchmarks, which will provide comparison figures of how the advisor/agent is performing versus their peers.

Below these metrics, advisors/agents will be presented with personalized recommendations based on individual, group and organization-level measures.

This new Social Insights dashboard will replace the existing Metrics page and provide a more appealing user interface and better functionalities.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all organizations using Hearsay Social.

Relate

Star conversations in Relate

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents face difficulties with differentiating between important and unimportant conversations. They would like to flag important conversations, so that they can respond more quickly and effectively. They would also like to remove flags from conversations whose priority decreases.

Expected Value: Allowing advisors/agents to star and un-star conversations will simplify prioritization and follow-up tasks. Being able to mark important conversations will improve user experience, customer engagement, collaboration, and productivity

Expected Solution: Advisors/agents will be able to star and un-star conversations. They will also be able to filter their conversation to view starred conversations.

This functionality will only be available on the Relate web platform at present.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client, Program Admin
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all organizations (subject to change).

Three additional countries getting local phone number support

Problem Solved: Relate has limited support in the international market, leaving users in many countries without access to a local phone number for compliant texting and calling.

Expected Value: Productivity in international teams will increase because agents and advisors in additional countries will be able to communicate with prospects and clients in their local market in a compliant, timely, and effective manner.

Expected Solution: As the third part of our continued effort to Relate access globally, we will add local phone number provisioning support for the following countries that were previously not supported:

Argentina
Bahamas
Brazil

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client, Program Admin, Compliance, Integrator
Archiving and Compliance Implications: None
Availability: This feature will be disabled by default. To enable this feature, contact your Customer Success Manager.

View and respond to all conversations in the Conversation widget in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: There is no centralized interface for advisors/agents to view and respond to all text message conversations in Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Expected Value: The Conversation widget will allow advisors/agents to view and access all of their text message conversations in one place, so it’s easier for them to reach out to their contacts and manage their ongoing conversations.

Expected Solution: The Conversation widget will provide a centralized interface where advisors/agents can view and respond to all conversations. The Conversation widget will provide the ability to:

List all conversations and show the conversation type, contact name or phone number, date of last message, as well as a preview of the message. When selecting a conversation, the corresponding texting page will load
Filter conversations by unread messages, unanswered messages, attestation status (opted-in, needs opt-in, pending opt-in, opted-out), hidden conversations, spam, and broadcast messages.
Mark as spam, allowing advisors/agents to mark a conversation as spam, so they don’t have to see it in the conversation list anymore. Conversations that are marked as spam remain removed from the primary conversation list forever unless manually restored by the user.
Hide conversations, allowing advisors/agents to remove conversations from their view anymore. Hidden conversations can be reverted. If a hidden conversation receives a new inbound message, it will be restored to the primary conversation list.

Group conversations are not yet supported in Salesforce Embedded Relate. To view group conversations, advisors/agents need to use the Relate web platform or the Relate mobile app.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: -
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for any customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Send the same message to several people at once using Broadcast Message in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: Advisors/agents cannot send Broadcast Messages, or messages carrying the same content to several people at once, in Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Expected Value: Advisors/agents will be able to quickly communicate with several people by sending a Broadcast Message to selected contacts. This will save time and create efficiency in communication because advisors/agents will not have to send individual messages. This feature can be especially useful for communicating urgent, time-sensitive announcements like changes in business hours, changes in availability and scheduling, etc.

Expected Solution: The Conversations widget will feature a Broadcast Message button that will allow advisors/agents to compose and send the same message to several people at once. The Broadcast Message button will be displayed if it is enabled in Admin Setup.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: -
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for any customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate.

Conceal a Message in Salesforce Embedded Relate

Problem Solved: There is currently no way in Salesforce Embedded Relate to conceal messages to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information and to comply with regulatory requirements.

Expected Value: Advisors/agents will be able to remain in compliance with their company’s rules and government regulations by being able to conceal messages containing sensitive information.

Expected Solution: Salesforce Embedded Relate will give the ability to select and conceal specific messages. Concealing a message will remove it from the advisor/agent’s workspace view. When a message is concealed, a warning text will be shown instead of the message in the conversation view. Messages that are concealed cannot be reverted to being viewable.

Who is impacted: Advisor/Agent, Client
Archiving and Compliance Implications: -
Availability: This feature is expected to be on for all customers using Salesforce Embedded Relate.

New at Yext

Early Guidance for the May 15th Release