In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, digital transformation has become more than just a buzzword; it is a critical imperative for organizations seeking to remain competitive and relevant in the digital era. At the heart of this transformation is the adoption of powerful and versatile platforms like Salesforce, which have revolutionized how businesses operate, engage with customers, and optimize their processes. In this blog, we will explore the essence of digital transformation and how Salesforce is pivotal in empowering businesses to navigate the digital landscape successfully.

Getting Accustomed to Digital Transformation with Salesforce

Digital transformation integrates digital technologies into all aspects of a business to change how it operates fundamentally, delivers value to customers, and achieves its objectives. The driving force behind digital transformation is the recognition that the world is becoming increasingly digital, and organizations must fully adapt to harness its potential. This entails embracing modern technologies, reimagining business models, and fostering a culture of innovation to meet the ever-changing needs of customers and market demands.

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform that has emerged as a dominant force in the technology industry. Founded in 1999, the platform has grown exponentially and now offers a suite of solutions beyond CRM, covering sales, service, marketing, analytics, and more. Salesforce’s success can be attributed to its flexibility, scalability, and relentless focus on customer success.

Elaborating on the Role of Salesforce in Digital Transformation

Enhanced Customer Engagement: Salesforce empowers businesses to deliver personalized and seamless customer experiences by consolidating customer data, providing actionable insights, and facilitating efficient communication across channels. Companies can build lasting relationships and foster loyalty by understanding their customers better. 360-degree view of the customer.

Agile and Data-Driven Decision-Making: With Salesforce’s robust analytics and reporting capabilities, businesses gain real-time insights into their operations, enabling data-driven decision-making. By leveraging these insights, companies can optimize their processes, spot trends, and identify growth opportunities.

Integration and Automation: Salesforce offers many integration options, allowing businesses to connect various applications and systems. This integration streamlines processes and eliminates silos, creating a more cohesive and efficient workflow. Moreover, automation features in Salesforce automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for employees to focus on higher-value activities.

Empowering Sales Teams: Salesforce Sales Cloud equips sales teams with tools to manage leads, track opportunities, and forecast accurately. By centralizing information, teams can collaborate effectively, identify potential bottlenecks, and optimize their sales efforts.

Superior Customer Support: Salesforce Service Cloud enables organizations to provide outstanding customer support by offering a unified view of customer interactions. With features like omnichannel, case management and knowledge bases, support agents can resolve issues promptly, enhancing customer satisfaction.

Innovation and AppExchange: Salesforce’s AppExchange allows businesses to extend the platform’s capabilities through third-party applications. This ecosystem fosters innovation, enabling organizations to find tailored solutions for their needs.

Case Studies: Successful Digital Transformations with Salesforce

Company X: A global e-commerce giant faced challenges with its fragmented customer data, leading to inconsistencies in customer interactions. By implementing Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud and Service Cloud, the company achieved a 360-degree view of its customers, resulting in a 25% increase in customer retention and a 30% improvement in customer satisfaction.

Company Y: A medium-sized manufacturing firm struggled with manual sales processes and inadequate data analysis. After adopting Salesforce’s Sales Cloud and Einstein Analytics, the company experienced a 20% increase in sales revenue and reduced the sales cycle by 15%.

Company Z: A financial services organization sought to enhance its customer onboarding process. By leveraging Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud, the company streamlined.

Its onboarding workflows result in a 50% reduction in onboarding time and a 40% increase in customer referrals.

Overcoming Challenges in Digital Transformation

While the benefits of digital transformation with Salesforce are vast, organizations must be mindful of potential challenges. These challenges may include data security concerns, cultural resistance to change, skill gaps, and ensuring a seamless migration process. Developing a comprehensive change management strategy is crucial to mitigate these challenges, as investing in employee training and collaborating closely with Salesforce experts and partners.

Conclusion:

Digital transformation is no longer a luxury; businesses must thrive in the digital age. Salesforce provides a robust and scalable platform that enables organizations to embark on this transformation journey effectively. By harnessing the power of Salesforce, businesses can drive customer engagement, optimize processes, foster innovation, and achieve sustainable growth. Embrace the potential of digital transformation with Salesforce and position your organization at the forefront of the digital revolution.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

Although the sales process may appear straightforward to some, it is actually a complex and nuanced process that requires a clear and well-defined strategy. In order for a business to be successful, it is crucial to have a robust sales process that can accurately identify legitimate leads and effectively guide them towards a successful sale. With only 25% of leads being deemed legitimate, it is imperative that the sales process is able to quickly and accurately differentiate between qualified leads and unqualified ones.

Once qualified leads have been identified and are being guided through the sales funnel, it is important to ensure that the quote-to-cash process is seamless and efficient. This is because an ineffective quote-to-cash process can lead to the loss of prospective clients, undoing all the hard work that went into identifying and nurturing those leads in the first place.

What is Quote-to-Cash?

The final stages of the sales funnel are crucial to the success of any business, and are collectively referred to as the Quote-to-Cash process. This term encompasses a set of business processes that are vital to the successful completion of a sale. High performing marketing teams recognize the importance of an effective customer journey strategy, with 88% of them considering it critical to their success. Quote-to-Cash specifically refers to the series of steps involved in closing a sale, from initial offers or quotes, to payment or cash. This process typically includes configure price quote (CPQ) software, and can involve a range of steps, such as preparing the proposal, obtaining approvals, generating the contract, and processing the payment.

Overall, the Quote-to-Cash process is essential to ensuring that the sales process is completed efficiently and effectively, and that customers receive a seamless and satisfying experience from start to finish.

Configuration

When offering your products or services to customers, it’s important to ensure that they are customized to each individual’s needs. By doing so, you can demonstrate your understanding of their unique requirements and showcase how your business can fulfill those needs. This personalized approach can help establish a stronger connection with your customers and increase the likelihood of a successful transaction.

Quoting

After customizing the price to suit your clients, the next crucial step is to provide them with a formal quote. It’s important to ensure that the quote is precise, delivered promptly, and easy for the customers to understand. Providing a well-crafted quote can help instill confidence in potential buyers and increase the likelihood of converting them into actual customers.

Pricing

Similar to how product presentation should be tailored to individual clients, pricing also needs to be personalized to cater to their unique requirements. Even customers who are willing to make a purchase may require different types of incentives to seal the deal. This involves considering discounts and other special offers that can motivate your clients to make a purchase. By offering personalized pricing, you can increase the likelihood of securing a sale and build a stronger relationship with your customers.

Contract Negotiation

To ensure that the sales relationship is clearly defined and agreed upon by all parties, it’s essential to create and approve contracts. Contracts often undergo several revisions throughout the sales process, so it’s crucial that they are timely and accurate. Any delay or inaccuracy in the contract could potentially disrupt the progress of a lead, leading to missed opportunities and lost revenue. Therefore, it’s important to prioritize the creation and revision of contracts to ensure a smooth sales process.

Order Management

Once contracts are signed, the responsibility falls on you to ensure that the correct orders are delivered to the appropriate clients. This process involves managing invoices, monitoring inventory levels, and ensuring that all shipping is carried out professionally and promptly. By effectively handling these tasks, you can ensure that your customers receive the right products at the right time, enhancing their overall experience and increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

Invoicing

Once the sale is complete, it’s time to account for all charges and send a bill to the customer. The invoice should include any previously agreed-upon discounts or special deals and must be created and sent within the specified timeframe. A timely and accurate invoice not only ensures that the customer is charged correctly but also helps establish your business as reliable and professional. Additionally, it can help streamline the payment process and prevent any potential misunderstandings or disputes.

Payment

As customers pay for your products and services, it’s important to track and review the resulting revenue for accuracy. This involves regularly monitoring your financial records to ensure that all transactions have been properly recorded and that there are no discrepancies or errors. By maintaining a clear and accurate record of your income, you can better manage your business finances, make informed decisions, and identify any potential issues or opportunities for growth.

In summary, the Quote-to-Cash process covers the final stages of securing a sale, but it also presents several potential pitfalls that could disrupt the entire process. To mitigate these risks, Quote-to-Cash solutions and software tools have been developed to help keep everything on track. These solutions can streamline the sales process, ensure accuracy and timeliness in various tasks, and help create a positive experience for both you and your clients. By leveraging these tools, you can improve your sales efficiency, reduce the risk of errors or delays, and enhance customer satisfaction.

What are the key benefits of using Quote-to-Cash and CPQ solutions in your business?

Implementing Quote-to-Cash and CPQ solutions that leverage CRM technology can help streamline and optimize your entire sales process. By providing sales managers with all the necessary information to finalize a sale, CPQ solutions can help reduce errors and inefficiencies that commonly affect the quote-to-cash process. Here are some of the ways that an effective CPQ tool can enhance your business operations:

Automation

Creating essential sales documents such as proposals, quotes, and contracts can be a time-consuming and error-prone task. However, CPQ solutions can help streamline the process and reduce errors by automating these important steps. With the ability to access all relevant data, CPQ tools can quickly generate professional and accurate documents, saving your sales managers valuable time and reducing the risk of mistakes.

Guided Selling

Sales reps who can quickly identify the most suitable products or services for each customer are often the most successful. Advanced CPQ solutions offer a competitive advantage by gathering and analyzing customer data to create a comprehensive understanding of their needs and preferences. This empowers sales managers with insights to make more informed decisions and provide personalized recommendations. In fact, using CPQ is proven to be effective as sales reps who utilize it are 26% more likely to meet or exceed their sales targets.

Quick Turnaround

CPQ tools can streamline the quote-to-cash process and significantly reduce the time it takes to close a sale. With automated contract creation, quick access to client and product information, and the ability to efficiently manage and report on revenue, the sales process can proceed smoothly without any delays. This means that both you and your clients can move forward at the appropriate pace, without encountering any obstacles.

Accurate results

By leveraging CPQ solutions that utilize accurate and up-to-date data sources to automatically populate forms with the correct information, you can reduce the risk of errors creeping into the contract process. With contracts constantly being sent, reviewed, and revised, this can help ensure that all parties are working with the correct information and reduce the potential for costly mistakes.

Personalized Services

It’s crucial to remember that clients are more than just numbers in the quote-to-cash process. By taking into account their unique preferences and needs, you can improve your relationships with them. One effective way to do this is by offering personalized discounts and deals, which can motivate leads to make a purchase. This can also encourage clients to share more data with you, which can be used for analytics and further tailoring your offerings. In fact, research shows that 57% of consumers are willing to share data with companies that provide personalized offers and discounts.

Salesforce quote-to-cash solutions offer a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline and optimize the entire quote-to-cash process.

When it comes to quote-to-cash and CPQ solutions, not all platforms are created equal. It’s important to choose a superior platform that can meet your business needs effectively. Salesforce Quote-to-Cash is built on the world’s leading CRM solution and offers a comprehensive suite of tools, including Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Billing, and Salesforce Lightning, all in one platform. This gives sales managers complete control over the sales process with an easy-to-use, cloud-based tool. With Salesforce Quote-to-Cash, users can automate quotes and invoices, manage subscriptions, view and adjust terms, generate reports, and collect payments all from a single dashboard. Its mobile-first design ensures that users can access all the tools they need from any device, be it desktop or mobile.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

The health sector is actually one of the largest in the world; in 2019, it generated 282 billion dollars in revenue, and by 2027, it is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 7.9%. Healthcare services have been impacted by the conventional method of doing things, however, in the contemporary day, healthcare is moving toward a more patient-centric approach. This surely helps in building patient satisfaction, providing high-quality healthcare, reducing needless expenses, and enhancing better outcomes. In spite of this, healthcare providers today face challenges as they attempt to transform from legacy systems to 1-to-1, smart, and connected care.

However, the latest solutions are focusing on future business in the healthcare industry where they can leverage out-of-the-box, customizable and extensible facilities for their customers bringing more attention to consumers. A healthcare organization’s ability to personalize the consumer experience at every stage requires connecting teams, automating processes, upgrading clinical systems, and securing business data. Therefore, health cloud technology, specifically Salesforce Health Cloud, has revolutionized healthcare delivery.

What is Salesforce Health Cloud?

Health Cloud is a cloud-based CRM (Customer Relations Management) system for healthcare. Using a centralized system, it connects all related entities, including healthcare providers, Medtech, pharmaceutical companies, and the government.

A cloud-based healthcare software platform built on the Salesforce CRM platform covers all healthcare industry needs. It enables healthcare and life sciences professionals to research, triage, diagnose, plan, deliver, and monitor care digitally. As a result, the health Cloud is the most suitable solution for all issues facing the healthcare industry today. A large number of tech-savvy patients are also engaged as a result of one-to-one relationship management.

 

According to research by Salesforce, More than 70% of millennials choose doctors who use technology in health care; 63% expect to share health data through wearables.

 

Salesforce developed the Salesforce health cloud, which was released in 2016, in collaboration with Accenture, Deloitte, MuleSoft, Persistence, Phillips, and PwC. With this innovation, many healthcare organizations were able to turn challenges into opportunities by utilizing them and also developed capabilities that matched industry trends. With this Health IT CRM solution, doctors and patients can manage their relationships through personalized engagements and records efficiently to reduce costs and improve customer service. Through it, healthcare shifts from a medical record-centric approach to a patient-centric approach, providing a complete picture of patients on a single, unified platform.

It helped combine non-clinical and clinical data of customers to drive efficiencies in healthcare by

• Maximizing sales and service excellence by putting the customer first
• Increasing productivity by automating processes and collaborating across teams
• Providing a secure and configurable platform for innovation

“71% of millennials expect to use mobile apps to manage their healthcare, yet most healthcare systems aren’t equipped to provide this option.”

• Salesforce “State of the Connected Patient” Report, 2015

Primary Features of Salesforce Health Cloud

A Complete View of the Patient

• Develop patient profiles that are contextual and rich in information.
• Obtain information about collaborative care networks and health timelines.
• Streamline the integration of patient data from the electronic health record (EHR).
• Integrate medical device and wearable data When you have an overview of the patient,

you can easily access relevant information such as his or her current condition, medications, appointment history, and communication preferences.

Salesforce Health Cloud syncs with the EHRs in your healthcare system to make patient data accessible, usable, and up-to-date on any device. Additionally, you can collect information from at-home devices, like glucose levels, sleep patterns, and activity metrics, thanks to the direct integration of medical devices and wearables with Salesforce Health Cloud.

Salesforce Health Cloud EHR Integration:

Electronic Health Records (EHR), are the digitalized version of patient charts. Medical health organizations prefer these over other means of recording patient data.

EHR also usually provides essential, additional services using saved data such as treatment plans, medication schedules and records, medical history, diagnoses, test results, radiology immunization records, allergies, and radiology images.

All major health cloud-using hospitals are carrying out mass EHR device integrations to digitalize the tedious process of creating and maintaining patient charts and records. The digitalization of the process also removes the chances of human error and the accidental negligence of critical information during chart evaluations.

Salesforce health cloud EHR device integration synchronizes patient data with all the medical records present in the cloud system.

The integration of the Salesforce health cloud with the EHR also results in all the information being updated and analyzed in real time.

Get Smart with Customized Care Plans

Healthcare providers can use Salesforce Health Cloud to:

• Prioritize tasks for all patients’ needs
• Manage patient groups based on segmentation
• Establish a network of personal and professional caregivers
• Personalised care is provided by managing multiple care plans, custom goals, problems, and tasks.

An integrated picture of your patients and the most important tasks pertaining to your whole patient population is provided via the “Today” tab in Salesforce Health Cloud. By reading the personalized care plan for tasks and taking swift action on them using the Today view, you may make care decisions more effectively.

Additionally, you can manage patient populations by segmenting them, for example by sending a secure, private message to all patients with high blood pressure to set up regular check-ins.

Interactive Patient Engagement

Healthcare information is more easily accessible with Salesforce Health Cloud, improving workflows and care outcomes:

• Efficient and effective interaction with care teams and patients
• Comprehensive caregiver networks
• Messages to any devices can be shared securely

Care coordinators may securely collaborate and assign tasks across the caregiver network with the help of Salesforce Health Cloud. The entire healthcare system benefits from this, as you can engage with patients to track progress toward care plans or health objectives, interact effectively with doctors, care coordinators, and family members, and rapidly find answers from specialists within the provider network.

Additionally, you can address patients’ demands for convenient communication by expanding Salesforce Health Cloud to mobile platforms. This will also encourage greater engagement and accountability as well as the growth of stronger bonds and loyalty.

Health cloud provides a facility to store health insurance details where we can display the net deductible amount and net payable amounts of patient bills.

Conclusion

In order to meet the demands of today’s connected patients, modern healthcare systems must rapidly evolve. In order to put the patient at the center of care, Salesforce Health could provide caregivers with the following core advantages:

• Streamline scheduling for your patients, members, and employees to improve team productivity and customer engagement.
• Integrate data from EHRs, wearables, and more to get a complete picture of the patient.
• Utilize a single console for smarter care decisions
• Communicate with patients on any device and across caregiver networks using social media Salesforce Health Cloud has also been recognized as a leading healthcare CRM for providers by Forrester Wave, a guide to the emerging technology market. Salesforce health cloud is trusted by healthcare provider organizations regardless of their size.

It helps to make the most of the technology by using Salesforce’s health cloud platform. Cloud technology is being integrated into existing technology infrastructures in healthcare organizations, and it is also being configured according to the needs of hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers. There are also tailored apps available.

If you’re looking for a salesforce health cloud provider, Vyom Labs can help with our industry-leading salesforce health cloud services and solid solutions with its team of certified health cloud specialists. In addition to customization, salesforce integration services, app development, and other services,

Vyom Labs, a reputable salesforce partner, also offers the best-in-class salesforce consulting services. We offer top-notch salesforce health cloud services and develop a health cloud that is unmatched.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

The world of banking, wealth management, financial services, and insurance is complex and intricate to an extent where it seems like the industry is like a palace made up of cards. Only in this case, people’s hard-earned money is at stake. We have to consider the fact that real-time transactions happen and sensitive data is exchanged. With that in mind, the BFSI industry needs cutting-edge tech to keep the economy running. But with Salesforce, this sector can go a long way in streamlining operations, shortening the queue, and providing a better experience. And here’s how we can do it.

The big problem statement of the BFSI sector

Like almost every other industry, BFSI is no different when it comes to a sudden influx of requests during a certain time of the year. So processing all these requests means depleting the bandwidth of the back office. During these times, addressing the deluge of paperwork, outbound sales, and incoming support tickets becomes an arduous task. For all the field agents, carrying and maintaining the paperwork and spreadsheets while being on the move might take its toll on the most valuable asset of the company, the data. That is where technology comes into the picture.

Simplifying banking with Salesforce

In this day and age, personalization is the key to turning a customer into a legacy customer. And to get the necessary insights, a CRM system goes a long way in capturing all the relevant data points and turning them into solid actionable insights that help banks figure out the exact financial needs of their customers. When it comes to processing new loan requests, having the credit history handy goes a long way in speeding up the process. Processes like mortgaging can also be simplified using Salesforce. Using cutting-edge analytics to study the repayment behavior of customers to avoid risk and act as a collaborative platform for various stakeholders like real estate agents, brokers, and borrowers.

Insurance Industry Powered by Salesforce

The growth of an insurance company is directly related to the synergy it maintains with its customers. Delivering a personalized experience by knowing their needs and providing services accordingly. Managing and streamlining the claims lifecycle and its adjacent processes becomes significantly efficient thanks to the speedy ticket processing of Salesforce.

Financial advisory and wealth management with Salesforce

Just like any other industry in the world, the BFSI sector is adopting digital transformation and tech to innovate processes in order to fortify security measures and provide a seamless experience. With the cutting-edge security of Salesforce, financial companies can meet various regulatory compliances regarding customer data. Apart from the security aspect of Salesforce, the data visualization and custom dashboards based on real-time data help the companies monitor key financial metrics and get insights on vital parameters like expected returns, time horizons, and risk factors.

Conclusion

For an industry that revolves around number crunching and dealing with heaps of paperwork, Salesforce with its AI-powered insights and analytics goes a long way in reducing the queue in banks, adding a virtually impenetrable layer of security. To sum it up, Salesforce helps in improving sales coordination, building an all-round customer profile, improving client relationships, and improving agent productivity.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

There is no denying the fact that CRM is the bread & butter for virtually every sales team in every organization. It is the go-to source of truth that connects all the customer moments, interactions, progress, behavioral data, and many such vital parameters in a way that enables sales reps to use it in live-action. But before we look at the hacks and tricks to maximize the ROI of these systems, let’s take a look at some hard facts. Some of the key findings of the study conducted by Forrester revealed some staggering facts.

1. Over 80% of leaders found that having a single source of truth has had a profound value addition to customer data.
2. Almost 57% of leaders reported that different departments use different CRM systems.
3. 43% of respondents stated that creating a single source of truth was one of the biggest customer experience challenges they faced.

What we summarize of these facts is that creating a unified and centralized window of truth across all the departments should be one of the top priorities for every organization. Once such a system is established, it becomes easy to reap the maxim ROI. After you set up a centralized CRM system, you can use these tips and tricks to add value to your sales team and ultimately, to the business.

#5 Avoiding underutilization of CRM

CRM systems come with a long list of bells and whistles. But unless the features are used in real-time, the money spent on it secretly becomes a tedious expense. In the long run, losing that kind of money can sum up to form a substantial amount, a sum that can be well spent on innovation or employee engagement. And the cause of this is a poor strategy. What you need to do is you need to devise an all-around strategy that covers every angle of the customer’s buying journey and the sales funnel. When you have such a strategy, you will find that a good CRM system has features built to support and help your sales reps at every step of the journey.

When your sales reps start contacting the qualified leads, it means that they are well nurtured and the marketing teams have a fair understanding of what sort of content the end-users have consumed. With a good CRM, your sales rep should be able to get hold of that data and use it during follow-ups and further conversations to well understand the problems and demands of the end-users before they actually end up closing the deal.

Did you know?

Salesforce Sales Cloud is powered by Einstein which helps your sales reps by providing them with actionable insights based on their behavioral data and gives a score on how likely the user is to become a customer.

#4 Eliminating silos

Usually, when different departments in an organization use different CRM systems of their respective divisions, the respective representatives miss out on vital data while interacting with their customers or leads. Information like the context of the customer journey, previous interactions, the current stage of lead nurturing, and personal preferences can help add that personalized touch that can make or break the deal. The key to eliminating operations in silos is to establish a single source of data across the organization. A study by Forrester shows just how necessary it is to establish a single window of truth and what the general belief is regarding the establishment of such systems.

1. Businesses realized that they needed to invest in a centralized CRM to drive customer-first initiatives.

2. Multiple departments usually purchase individual CRM systems to solve the same problem.

3. Not using the CRM in various stages of the customer purchase lifecycle is a missed opportunity.

These key findings indicate just how vital a centralized system is for smooth operation and collaboration across various departments.

#3 Building concrete customer profiles

A fruitful one-to-one conversation with the customer can only take place when the sales rep has real-time data of the customer readily available. With CRM systems like the Salesforce Sales Cloud, your sales reps not only have all the raw data with them but also have solid actionable insights and suggestions coming from the powerful AI named Einstein. To help build such concrete customer profiles the sales rep needs to have social data, broader firmographic data, conversational styles, buying indicators, social data, relationship graphs, and influencer relationships.

#2 Leveraging automation

Sales reps wasting their time on manual administrative tasks is a direct threat to the sales and revenue funnel. The time spent doing these tasks is directly taking a toll on the company’s profits. All that time could have been spent interacting with the customer or building customer profiles. Creating customized and automated workflows to save time on follow-ups, approvals, distributing discount coupons, and other manual tasks significantly boosts agent productivity levels.

#1 – Configure, Price, Quote or CPQ

Every lock has its own unique key. The pricing and quotation that would work for one organization may not work out for another. The software called Configure, Price, Quote, or simply CPQ allows for a more dynamic approach. Generating personalized quotations with special pricing on the go within minutes has never been easier. Any tool that replaces spreadsheets is a potential lifesaver for sales reps. In many ways, CPQ allows for faster and error-free delivery of quotations which means that your reps can close the deals faster than ever.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

Brand
(noun)
An abstract entity with a unique identity of its own that is capable of attracting people.

Ex. A brand’s true outreach capabilities are decided by its marketing teams and strategies.

Every brand is a story waiting to be heard, an idea waiting to be planted into the right minds, or maybe even a solution that is desperately sought by many. But to make it heard and give proper visibility to the right audience could be a challenging task. But what if there existed a piece of tech that allowed you to target the right audience, craft personalized journeys, and make your data work for you? Yes, such technology exists and it’s known to us as Marketing Cloud by Salesforce. And if you haven’t been using it, here are 7 reasons why can’t afford to miss out on all the features it offers.

7. Make your data work for you

Sending the right message to the right audience becomes very convenient and effective when you have all the data generated across various teams in a single window. Be it third-party applications, social media, or even service teams, the Marketing Cloud is listening, recording, and compiling it for you in the form of actionable insights.

6. Account-based marketing for the B2B sector

Account-based marketing is all about knowing your customers and using that data to address their problems as effectively as possible. And to do that you need a platform that collects and collates data from virtually every possible source so that your marketing teams strike the perfect note. And the Salesforce Marketing Cloud data platform allows you do just that. And with detailed customer profiles, your teams can address the customer’s pain points and provide a much more personalized experience.

5. Personalized customer journeys

Here’s the thing with personalization, 80% of customers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience1. To harness the power of personalization, Marketing Cloud provides a tool called the journey builder that can be used to create unique journeys for customers by getting data from various sources, sending messages through virtually every possible channel, and creating a custom flow.

4. Email marketing made easy

Email marketing is considered to be one of the most effective ways to communicate with consumers on a large scale. The ROI is also there. Did you know that for every dollar spent on email marketing, you get $42 in return?2 To make it even better, you can create beautiful, engaging, and personalized emails using the email studio you get with the Marketing Cloud. With cutting-edge analytics, you can even measure the success of your email marketing campaigns and find out what’s working and what’s not.

3. Effective advertising

Imagine having an entire advertising ecosystem that is powered by real-time customer data. You can now have an ad platform that allows you to advertise on virtually every channel like Google and social media for maximum conversion and remarketing. That way you can get more leads by finding a similar audience. You can also use the Advertising Studio with other Marketing Cloud offerings like the journey builder for maximum ROI.

2. Customer Engagement

Engaged customers are loyal customers. Be it B2B or B2C, having an effective customer engagement strategy always pays dividends in the long run. From providing meaningful and resonating content to providing a rich mobile experience, Marketing Cloud helps keep your subscriber count going through the roof.

1. A marketing platform with a mind of its own

Predictive analysis and artificial intelligence are the future, and it’s here. Powered by the AI Einstein, Marketing Cloud goes beyond ticking the conventional boxes by providing lead scores based on real-time customer interaction data. It helps you maximize your ROI on engagement, and marketing campaigns, and provides an exceptional customer experience.

To sum it up, Marketing Cloud is a complete marketing ecosystem that can completely revolutionize your marketing operations. Looking at the offerings, ROI, and the potential to maximize the effectiveness of marketing efforts, it’s safe to conclude that every penny spent on this solution is a penny well spent.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

A good marketing team will help your company broaden your company’s reach, a good sales team will utilize the outreach and zero in on your potential clients and will get your company a foot on their doorstep. But all of these efforts can go down the drain if the aftersales and service cannot keep up. And here are 3 facts based on research conducted by Salesforce regarding the impact of service on the brand.

1. 70% of buying experiences are based on the kind of service the customers are getting.
2. A customer is four times more likely to buy from your competitor if the problem he is facing is based on service rather than price or the product/service itself.
3. 72% of customers reported that having to explain the same problem to multiple people makes for a poor experience.

In the grand scheme of things, these stats and facts contribute to form a significant proportion of the overall customer satisfaction index. But in this day and age, technology is evolving at a staggering pace. And stating that “to not leverage it is a big mistake” would be a gross understatement. The way to a smarter, brighter, and innovative tomorrow is paved with technology. And the piece of tech comes in many forms, but for the service teams, it comes in the guise of a service platform we know as Salesforce Service Cloud. And here are five ways to revolutionize your aftersales using one of the best and sought-after tools for customer support reps available in today’s market.

1. Understanding the Service Lifecycle and revolutionizing it using Salesforce Service Cloud

If we carefully analyze the service lifecycle, it becomes evident that there are a lot of variables in between that need to be addressed in order to deliver a smooth and seamless customer experience.

To start with, the Salesforce Service Cloud can capture issues from virtually every channel out there when it is integrated with the right applications. It can capture customers’ complaints through forms, emails, telephones, chats, social media, and even lets the support executive create incidents manually. Once the case is created, they are allotted to the support executives via an AI channel called the Einstein. And the best part is that the usefulness of the Service Cloud doesn’t end here. It also comes in handy in resolving the issues by readily keeping the knowledge base ready with AI-suggested articles. And bam! You have successfully converted a customer engagement into a success story.

2. No more spreadsheets!

It’s the end of the month, the time everybody is looking forward to. Except for the fact that support reps have to fill in their monthly reports and send them to their respective leaders. And the leaders have to invest painstaking hours into compiling them into a single report with at least some actionable insight. Because there is an excessive amount of human intervention required in this approach, the margin for error increases substantially. Unless your teams are using the Salesforce Service Cloud. In that case, the CRM compiles, records, and presents the data in the form of neat reports that can be accessed and shared across the teams easily while providing priceless intel on your team’s performance, areas of improvement, customer’s history, customer’s purchases, previous interactions, and much more. That means less fuss filling out spreadsheets and more time addressing your customer’s concerns. In the long run, the Salesforce Service Cloud becomes the go-to tool for your service reps.

3. Going mobile with the Service Cloud mobile app

There may be times when your service reps may need to go into the field to troubleshoot the product. In such cases, your service rep’s phone becomes his entire work system. Be it accessing the knowledge base, escalating the issue, or logging the details of the service interactions for the monthly report, the Salesforce Service Cloud mobile app goes beyond ticking the right boxes. Don’t let lack of technology keep your reps from adding that personal touch that ultimately makes the difference and leaves a lasting impression.

4. Empowering the customer with Service Cloud

Some issues can be resolved by simply going through the FAQ, or by going through the product guides. For more severe issues, the customer should be able to reach out to your support team through the channel at his convenience. That requires your service portal to be available on all the possible channels. The Salesforce Service Cloud can be integrated with a wide array of applications to make sure that no stone is left unturned. It also offers multiple self-service options that take care of simple operations. That way your customers resolve some of the L1 issues themselves which indeed adds to the customer satisfaction index. In the end, customers are the ones who are going to interact with the product and the documentation related to it. A study by Salesforce shows that the ratio of the usage of the knowledge base by customers versus support teams is 82% to 66% respectively, and that of the usage of service portals by customers versus support teams is 84% to 64%. With the Service Cloud, the convenience and ease of access empower the customer to tackle the issues effectively.

5. Automation that saves time

Some of the simple tasks like initiating refund, order cancellation, scheduling returns are some of the repetitive tasks that consume a significant bandwidth of your support teams. The Salesforce Service Cloud offers robust automation options that let your support executives focus on severe problems and save invaluable times to connect with the customers for personalized support.

Conclusion:

Be it a product-based or service-based company, unless your company has the aftersales that can keep up with sales, marketing, and operations, the chances of the customer bouncing to another brand increase. But with the right CRM software, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. At Vyom Labs, our experts have extensive experience with Service Cloud and would like nothing but to help your firm become that service powerhouse that you always wanted. All you have to do to initiate the transition is just go ahead and say hi.

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About the Author:

Beena Dhage

Customer Experience (CRM) enthusiast with expertise in providing solutions leveraging digital and cloud technologies. With forte in Customer Service, BMC Remedyforce Services Delivery and ITIL.

Beena Dhage has over 18+ years in the field of IT – focused on implementing, managing, and supporting Salesforce CRM and ITIL-based ITSM applications. She has vast experience of successfully delivering projects in multi-shore / location environment for customers across various verticals including Financial services, Retail, Manufacturing and Information Technology

1. Need of Digital connect for customer support
   • Customer satisfaction and retention are of utmost importance for any service provider as it not only helps to generate consistent recurring revenue, but also provides opportunities for a customer referral, cross-selling and upselling of products/services.

     One of the most effective ways for customer retention is by providing efficient, consistent support whenever and wherever they need it.

   • Customers may face issues while using any service/product. Customers look for options that can help them to solve their issues quickly without any manual intervenes which can be a time-consuming process.

     Traditionally, there were very few means of communication for customers to contact service providers like direct walk-in to the office or calling customer care.

     These ways were time-consuming, cumbersome, and needed human interaction. Customers were deprived of assured support 24*7 and had to wait for a longer time than expected for getting resolution for even minor issues. Leading to customer frustration and also losing customers due to poor support.

2. Necessity is the mother of invention
   • Understanding the necessity of the hour to provide seamless support to customers via their preferences to multiple digital communication channels which can eventually lead to customer satisfaction, increase customer experience, and engaged customers, these key drivers have been influencers for service providers to start exploring digital platform.
   • According to research from IDC, two-thirds of the CEO’s of Global 2,000 companies will shift their focus from traditional, offline strategies to more modern digital strategies to improve the customer experience before the end of the year – with 34% of companies believing they’ll fully adopt digital transformation within 12 months or fewer.
3. Achieving digital transformation in business for customer support using Salesforce:
   • The world is running 24*7 and so are the businesses.
     Salesforce cloud-based SaaS CRM solutions understand that service providers are looking for options where they can provide personalized customer experience and help customers get facility to resolve their concerns with few clicks and platform where they can get support anytime, anywhere, quickly and easily.
     Salesforce Customer Communities to rescue!

     Isn’t it great if a customer gets the option to find answers to their queries without calling the customer care center or to wait till agents receive a call or walk into the service providers’ support office?

     Salesforce Customer Community makes it possible!

     Customers can simply login to Community, find answers to their queries using simple ways like chatting with smart Einstein Chatbot, and getting access to suggested knowledge articles.
     Let’s understand it in detail.

Salesforce Einstein Chatbot:

• Chatbots, use natural language to engage with customers, offer opportunities for customer service organizations to engage seamlessly with customers, offering consistent experiences across multiple channels.
  Sometimes customer faces issue where they need assistance to resolve it and they would prefer to chat with the service agent or an expert.
  Service agents may not be available immediately at that moment as they might be busy in resolving issues of other customers.
• Salesforce Einstein Chatbot available on Customer Community is a perfect option for assisting customers for L1 and L2 issues where customers need not wait for service agents to get free and answer queries.
• Chatbot interacts with customers with the help of questions and answers. They respond based on input provided by the customer.
  Chatbots can be trained in ways that they solve customer’s queries quickly.
  If there is an issue that needs to be handled by the Service agent, then Einstein chatbot can route it to available service agents using the Omnichannel functionality of the Salesforce Service Cloud.
• Personalized service is provided with customer preferences, past purchase history and issues raised, with all this customer data stored in one single place. You can get a sound understanding of your customers by evaluating general requests, products, and support inquiries they have raised in the past.
  This data can be analyzed and used to create highly targeted messages to match customers’ individual preferences, which results in a more personalized and satisfying experience.

Benefits of using Einstein Chatbot on Salesforce customer community

1. 1. Einstein Chatbot is available on the customer community 24*7.
   2. Interacts with customers to solve basic issues immediately.
   3. Chatbot can be trained to understand human language — and respond intelligently — through Natural-Language Processing (NLP).
   4. Take the load off from Service agents and allow them to devote time to complex cases
   5. Saves service agent’s time by providing pre collecting basic data/information on issues from customers.

Knowledge articles

It has been observed that most of the issues faced by customers can be easily resolved without the help of service agents if documented properly.

Implementation of knowledge base not only helps customers but it also helps service providers, as it reduces customer support cost up to 67%.

Knowledge articles are divided into four types –

1. Frequently asked questions (FAQ): Articles that provide answers to frequently asked questions
2. How to: Articles that provide steps to perform a task
3. Known Error: Articles that provide information about known errors and workaround, if any
4. Problem Solution: Articles that provide a solution to a problem

Customers can login to the Customer Community and refer to knowledge articles anytime they need. Knowledge articles can be easily browsed on the community using Salesforce smart search facility and artificial intelligence.

Benefits of Knowledge articles on Salesforce Customer Community

• Customers get resolution faster and don’t have to wait for Support agents to respond to the queries.
• Salesforce Customer Community can be accessed anytime and anywhere using devices having an internet connection.
• Good knowledge base makes customers happy and increases customer retention
• Service providers can acknowledge customer’s issues proactively.
• Knowledge articles can be easily added and removed from the customer community as and when needed.
• It reduces the workload from the Service agent.
• Saves service costs for service providers.

Summary:

Digital transformation for customer success is the need of the hour.

So if you are also willing to win customer’s confidence by providing digital customer support and interested in saving service cost then we – Vyom Labs Pvt. Ltd. -Salesforce consultants will help you at every step of the digital transformation journey using Salesforce services.

Reach out to us at info@vyomlabs.com or share your comments below!

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About the Author:

Varada Bhanage

Varada leads the Salesforce Solution consulting team in Vyom Labs and she is recognized as a solution expert in Salesforce Sales cloud and Service cloud.

She has over seven years of experience in information technology.

Her technical expertise is in Salesforce Sales cloud, service cloud, Custom lightning applications built on Salesforce platform, BMC Helix Remedyforce and ITSM