Salesforce service cloud does a great job of customer facing interactions including functionality for:

Case Management: Handling customer calls, routing the call to the appropriate department or person. Changing the status of the case (Open, Closed, Waiting on Parts, etc.)

Warranty Checks: Is the product in question under or out of warranty?

Serial Number Validation: Your installed base of products, can you quickly determine if the serial number is valid for a specific product? This will determine if the product is under or out of warranty.

Reverse Logistics: Does your customer service staff have access to reverse logistics data to be able to give accurate repair estimates?

Consigned Inventory Visibility: Do you have access to easily swap defective product for consigned inventory for critical customers?

These are just a few of the questions that need to be asked for a successful Service Cloud integration project! I would be curious to hear your thoughts and other Service Cloud concerns!