Overview
The Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Certification is intended for Salesforce experts who specialize in designing contact center solutions that make use of cases, knowledge base, and portals, designing interaction channels and building interfaces to maximize agent productivity, and managing data and design analytics that track key industry metrics.
The Salesforce.com Service Cloud Consultant exam is designed for implementation experts who have experience implementing Service Cloud solutions in a customer-facing role. The Salesforce.com Service Cloud Consultant is able to successfully design and implement Service Cloud solutions that meet customer business requirements, are maintainable and scalable, and contribute to long-term customer success.
As of Summer ’13:
- 60 question, multiple choice exam (includes multi-select questions)
- 68% is the passing score (41 questions correct)
- 105 minutes to answer all questions
- $200 fee with $100 retake fee
- Prerequisite: Administrator certification
Personal Experience
I passed my Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant certification on the Winter ’13 release. By the time I took the exam, I was working with the Salesforce platform for a bit over a year and a half. However, I had very little experience working with the Service Cloud at the time. This exam required a large amount of studying to be prepared.
From my experience, I found the Salesforce Study Guide to be pretty accurate for all of the exams. Also, if you are a partner, you can find training videos in the Partner Portal which contains all of the videos listed under “Recommended Training and References” in the study guide. Watch these videos. Also, it never hurts to know the Force.com Fundamentals. For this specific exam, I would have a very good understanding of:
- Service Cloud
- Private Branch Exchange (PBX)
- Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
- Service Cloud Console
- Salesforce Content
- Salesforce Knowledge
- Salesforce Solutions
- Knowledge Centered Support (KCS)
- IT Help Desk
- Customer Portal
- Case Management
- Contact Center
- Data Loader
- Case Escalation Rules
- Assets
- Salesforce Case Assignment
Note: These are just some things to focus on, there will be questions outside of these particular topics. Focus on the Exam outline in the Study guide.
Tips and Tricks
It is important to understand how the Salesforce certification process works and how Salesforce in general works. Salesforce has 3 releases a year, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Each release adds new questions to the exam. From my experience, new features are typically tested more heavily.
Now, while taking the test it is important to do a few things:
- Mark every question you aren’t 100% certain on. Remember, you only need 41 questions correct to pass, so if you only mark 15, you are good to go!
- Eliminate any ridiculous answers from the multi-select options. Remember, you only need to select the specified amount of correct answers.
- Read each question carefully. While I don’t think there are trick questions on the test, the questions do sometimes come in paragraph form and it is crucial to have an understanding of the entire question before you answer.
- Take your time. You have more than enough time to finish this exam. Don’t be surprised if you finish with half of the time left. Utilize that time to review and ensure you selected the answers you intended.
Standard Information
Some aspects of the Salesforce certification process are the same no matter what certification you are attempting:
- All Salesforce exams are on the Webassessor platform
- The only information you get at the end of the exam is Pass or Fail
- If you need to contact Salesforce certification support:
Maintenance Exams
As with all Salesforce certifications, you must maintain the certification upon every release of Salesforce. This means you must pass a maintenance exam three times a year. It costs $100 a year for each path, with Salesforce certifications falling under two paths:
- Admininstrator
- Advanced Administrator
- Sales Cloud Consultant
- Service Cloud Consultant
- Developer
- Advanced Developer
As you can see above, the Service Cloud Consultant certification is part of the Administrator tree. This means you must complete 3 Administrator maintenance exams a year to maintain your certification. The maintenance exams are relatively simply, usually 10-15 questions related to the latest release. Your best bet is to read the release notes and watch the release webinar.
Final Thoughts
In my personal opinion, the Service Cloud Consultant exam was by far my most difficult certification. It was the only certification I have taken where I wasn’t sure when I clicked “Submit” that I was good. I would highly suggest studying for 20+ hours and having at least 1 Service Cloud implementation under your belt. It is not an easy certification and it requires a thorough understanding of the platform. With that said, it is incredibly valuable information to have. When you are ready, give it a shot. Good luck!
This article is part of my Sales Certification Series. For more information on the other certifications, please check them out.
