Just like our in-person meetings have shifted to videoconferencing and digital technologies have been used to transform other traditional business processes, we need to adopt a beginner’s mind in order to truly transform what it means in the context of a year like no other.

Now we need to come together more than ever, and we’re reimagining the Dreamforce experience with Dreamforce To You 2020.

The Dreamforce To You Difference

Dreamforce to You 2020 is a customized, digital experience for Salesforce customers, Trailblazers and stakeholders to inspire, connect and define the blueprint for how to succeed in this new normal. It consists of three core pillars:

• Personalized experiences: For our customers, we’ll create a personalized event to address their unique needs and help their business succeed. We’ll host these meetings throughout November and December.
• Dreamforce to You keynote: On December 2, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff will deliver an inspiring keynote on our vision for the future, celebrate our customers’ success, unveil new innovations across the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and more. Watch live on Dreamforce.com.
• DreamTX: We’ll dedicate four days between December 14-18 to learning with DreamTX (start and end date will vary based on geographic region). Attendees will have access to demos, luminary sessions and additional content to help them succeed. Sign up at Dreamforce.com.

How Canadians Can Build Upon Dreamforce To You With The ‘Path To Growth Summit’ on Dec. 10

One of the best things about attending Dreamforce has always been the moment you take what you’ve learned home with you and apply lessons from around the world in a local context.

This year, we’re giving Canadians an even greater opportunity to keep the momentum from Dreamforce going with The Path To Growth Summit.

Join us on Dec. 10 for a half-day event featuring Salesforce Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist Tiffani Bova, who will speak with some Canadian brands and entrepreneurs who have demonstrated resilience and innovation in the midst of COVID-19. These include:

• Michele Romanow, who has helped countless other entrepreneurs finance their dreams by co-founding Clearbanc and who has helped identify top business talent as a judge on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.
• Nick Nurse, who won the NBA’s 2020 Coach of the Year award for his work with the Championship-winning Toronto Raptors.
• Steve Puchala, SVP of Growth and Restaurant Success at Skip The Dishes, which has accelerated the ability of many independent small businesses to offer food and drinks for takeout and delivery online.

Together, Dreamforce To You and the Path To Growth Summit can provide you a way to take a step back from the challenges of 2020 and determine how to continue leading through change.

Use these opportunities to meet new peers for learning and support, develop your skill set and to keep excellence in customer experience design at the heart of everything you do in 2021. Register now.

The post How Dreamforce To You And The Path To Growth Summit Will Empower Canadian Businesses appeared first on Salesforce.

Best known as “Retail’s Big Show” and produced by the National Retail Federation, NRF 2020 will attract nearly 40,000 attendees to its more than 175 sessions and show floor of more than 800 exhibitors. It’s where retailers come to understand how consumer purchase patterns are changing, the best ways to develop a powerful customer experience and to face the industry’s challenges head-on.

Whether you’re formally exhibiting at NRF or simply experiencing it as an attendee, the marketing opportunities are considerable — but also easily overlooked.

Like many other major conferences, participating in NRF 2020 should be treated like a marketing campaign or project, complete with a workback schedule or timeline that helps organize your activities and tie them back to your company’s goals.

Depending on how early on you decide to join NRF 2020, that timeline could stretch as far back as 365 days ago, or it could be something you’re trying to wrestle with in these last days before it begins on Jan. 11 in New York City.

You can make this task easier by grouping everything in your timeline under three major phases: before the show, during the show and after the show. If you haven’t already covered these to-dos, there’s still time:

Before NRF 2020

Even though a conference like NRF 2020 has been taking place for several years, organizers tend to set a vision for what they hope attendees will get out of it. This takes shape in a theme that guides the talks that will be given by the more than 400 speakers who will take the stage.

Job #1 for marketers should be looking at this year’s theme and determining ways in which your brand’s messaging can align. Perhaps appropriately, next week’s event uses the double entendre of the numbers “2020” to encourage forward-thinking with the theme ‘Find Your Vision.’ Here’s an excerpt from the conference website:

In retail, vision isn’t something you have, it’s something you do. A course of action. A plan of attack. A way of working that not only predicts the future, but creates it – one day at a time. That kind of vision isn’t easy to find, but this year of all years it’s worth taking a closer look.

If you’re a company that works in or somehow supports the retail sector, in other words, how can the products and services you offer make finding your vision a little easier, faster or clearer?

Look through your resource library to find related content marketing assets that could be shared with attendees through social media or other channels.

Remember that word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of marketing, which is why you should look through the exhibitor list ahead of time to see who might be a potential customer or partner. You can often reach out and schedule drop-bys or briefings ahead of time.

During NRF 2020

One of the best ways to stand out at a show like NRF 2020 is to offer your key takeaways and insights to other attendees, and also to those who couldn’t make it. This could include live-tweeting a keynote, writing a post on LinkedIn with your thoughts or even recording a video with a speaker or exhibitor while you’re on the ground.

Instead of taking notes randomly during keynotes and sessions, look for action items you can develop based on each one.

When you’re choosing a keynote, for instance, go in with a plan to get ideas to inspire your next ad campaign, or prepare questions you can ask a panel about how to improve your approach to email marketing.

Although you’ll want to see and do as much as possible, consider how you can advance your goals (like acquiring new customers or nurturing existing relationships) by diving into show-within-a-show experiences offered by major exhibitors and sponsors.

Salesforce, for example, offers trail guides, SMS updates and more for NRF attendees. This may be a great way to connect with other attendees who are also knowledgeable about Salesforce technologies and want to work with like-minded vendors.

When you meet with other attendees, either formally or informally, remember to collect any data that can inform your future marketing efforts. Some of this data may be anecdotal, but examples include anything that helps develop more robust personas for content marketing, identify key steps in the buyer journey or educates you on the use of channels such as social, mobile and email.

After NRF 2020

A few days spent at an event like NRF 2020 can be a bit of a blur, but it’s important to stay focused, even once you’ve returned to the office.

First, look for any opportunities to continue to engage those you encountered (or even those you failed to meet) at the big show. Determine whether you have an offer for retailers to make via an online ad campaign. Set up a Facebook Live chat to build on the discussions you heard, or create content for your blog that addresses questions raised in key sessions.

Next, create a new timeline — one that takes everything you learned about the retail sector overall or the specific customers you’re targeting — and map out how it will have an impact on your marketing for the rest of 2020. If you’re not changing anything about the way you’re handling demand generation or conversions after NRF 2020, you weren’t paying close enough attention.

Finally (but not necessarily lastly!) connect with your counterparts in sales. If they were on the ground with you, compare notes on key opportunities. Some might be active leads reps will pursue.

The best thing about this timeline is that it doesn’t have to be specific to NRF 2020. You can use the same preparatory tactics for every event your firm takes part in — ensuring you see better marketing results all year long.

The post Your Marketing Timeline For the NRF appeared first on Salesforce.

Still haven’t registered for the Salesforce World Tour Toronto? Companies of any size will learn how to sell, service, market, and succeed like never before. Taking place at the Beanfield Centre, (formerly the Allstream Centre) in downtown Toronto on Thursday, April 20, this jam-packed day of inspiration, imagination and innovation brings together thought leaders, industry pioneers and thousands of your peers.

With tailored content specific to your industry, role and company size, inspiring expert speakers and demonstrations of live solutions from the world’s largest cloud ecosystem, you’ll learn how to connect with your customers in a whole new way. And did we mention it’s free to register?

Here’s why joining us for this full day of innovation, networking and learning will be one of the smartest business decisions you’ve ever made:

Sales: become more productive and close deals fast

How do you shape yourself into a master salesperson? Learning from Canada’s top sales leaders might be a good start. At the Salesforce World Tour Toronto, you’ll hear how to provide top-notch customer experiences, foster long-term customer relationships and send your retention and renewal rates through the roof.

Learn the secrets of the most productive salespeople and find out how to do everything smarter and faster. Quickly close deals from anywhere at any time, and cut down on the time you spend on admin.

Marketing: deliver a personalized brand experience

You’ll want to explore all the solutions Salesforce has for marketers – lead scoring and nurturing, building websites and mobile apps, social customer service, and much more. Learn how integrated marketing can help you capitalize on every customer interaction and deliver exceptional brand experiences.

In addition to learning how to develop content that really connects with customers, you’ll have the opportunity to network with the best and brightest marketers.

Service: cater to your connected customers

In an “always on” world, customer service is the differentiator that defines success for almost any business. Today’s mobile and social customers demand frictionless service on multiple channels, and don’t hesitate to turn elsewhere if their needs aren’t being met.

Technology is the key to delivering personalized customer service. And, at the Salesforce World Tour Toronto, you’ll hear from visionary service leaders on how they’re using new technology and mobile apps to increase customer engagement, improve customer satisfaction and increase the productivity of their support teams.

IT: keep pace with a fast-shifting landscape

Canadian IT leaders all face a similar challenge: the acceleration of digital transformation. If you need help keeping up with the ever-evolving IT landscape, our incredible customers can show you how to build apps faster and drive your business forward with Salesforce Platform.

Industry thought leaders, customers, and analysts will give you tips on getting started with Salesforce Platform while explaining how they incorporate it into their enterprise architecture.

2017 is the year to learn and enjoy a new kind of customer success. Register free today for the Salesforce World Tour Toronto and get updates or join the conversation by using the hashtag #SalesforceTour on social media.

The post Why You Don’t Want to Miss the Salesforce World Tour Toronto appeared first on Salesforce.

That, in a nutshell, helps explain the “Circles of Success” concept we’re bringing to the Salesforce World Tour, which touches down in Toronto on May 14. Although the agenda is filled with keynotes from Salesforce experts and special guests, attendees will have just as many opportunities to talk and share their stories as they will to listen to great business advice.

Spread throughout the day in the event’s breakout sessions, the Circles of Success are moderated discussions with other businesses who are seeking to grow, improve their processes and make their customers happy.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to maximize the benefits of the Circles of Success sessions:

Track and Move the Adoption Needle

Getting the first customer is tough, and building a stable of loyal, repeat business is even tougher. In fact, small and medium-sized businesses can be so busy selling that it becomes difficult to keep track of what’s working and what’s not. Cloud-based software makes that easier of course, but listen for the data points that your peers determined contributed directly to greater sales. What information did they collect? How much data provided useful analysis? What was the process of turning the insight into action? These are all questions to ask, sharing your own experiences as appropriate.

Business Metrics For Success

Part of the power of CRM is being able to know more about your customers than was ever possible before. How are other companies making use of that capability? For example, what has made the difference between a one-off sale and a lifetime customer? How do you calculate the time and money you spend to build deeper relationships with your top customers vs. new prospects? What does true customer satisfaction look like? Also, think about the things which don’t always seem tangible like the morale of our staff. Many firms approach these things very differently. Pick and choose what works for you.

When To Hit The Reboot Button

When technology fails, the first thing experts suggest doing is turning something off, then trying again. Businesses often have to do something similar. One of the best icebreakers for a Circle of Success-style gathering is, “Tell us about the last time you started over on a strategy, a process or a product?” No one likes to talk about their failures, of course, but the smartest people in business understand that assessing the lessoned learned from their challenges – and then passing them on – is an important part of being a leader.

Weathering the Storm of Change Management

Small and medium-sized businesses get used to doing things the same way, just like big businesses do. When the demands of customers require a shift in processes or tools – like moving to cloud computing or communicating through social tools, for instance – the big job may be shifting the organizational culture. Circles of Success can be a place to talk about how to effectively work with teams in difficult situations – or at least deepen your understanding about the potential mistakes to avoid.

Circles of Success are not the only reason to come to the Salesforce World Tour Toronto. Salesforce is bringing the action, excitement, education, and big announcements of Dreamforce to the Allstream Centre in Toronto for free! Experience the Salesforce World Tour in Toronto on Thursday, May 14 and see how to connect with your customers in a whole new way. Register today for a full day of innovation and learning.

The post Salesforce World Tour Toronto: How To Make The Most of Peer Networking Opportunities appeared first on Salesforce.

At first, this can be seen as a big departure from conventional wisdom: delight the customer and you’ll gain their loyalty and in turn their repeat business. But if you take a closer look, effort and delight really do go hand in hand. In fact, in order to truly delight your customers, the service experiences you deliver to your customers must first be built upon an effort-free foundation.

Reducing effort is all about getting the customer to their goal in the quickest manner. But customers have different goals. In today’s fast-paced world of multi-tasking and always-on connectedness, the one asset people value the most is time. Time is a more than just money. It’s peace of mind, it’s sanity, it’s leisure, and much more. When you make service effortless for your customers—that is, solve their problem the first time—on the channel of their choice, even anticipating their next issue for them, and doing so in an empathetic and personalized manner, you have satisfied their primary need and fundamentally strengthened their trust.

You have also created an opportunity to delight your customer, which takes the relationship to a new level. For example, suppose a customer calls to dispute a charge, and the answer is, “No problem, we can take care of that, and I can also see that your credit card on file is expired; let’s go ahead and update that as well.” One study might call that effortless experience with next-issue avoidance and experience engineering; another might call it “wowing” your customer. In fact, it is both, and the “wow” (i.e. credit card update) would have been meaningless had the agent not solved the issue the customer called about.

However, you must know your customer in order to deliver an effortless experience and create an opportunity for “wow.” For example, if a cost-conscious customer—say, a student—calls to fix a recent piece of electronics she just bought, the customer’s top concern might be money, not time. In this case, effortless and “wow” might not be as obvious. A quick resolution would be effortless, a 25% off coupon on her next accessory would be a “wow.” For a high-value customer who prefers hands-on help, the resolution might be an offer of a house call by a local technician in the area, which would be both effortless and a “wow.”

It’s important to segment and understand your customers and then do what’s needed to provide each of them with a positive, effortless experience. Companies go wrong when they don’t listen to their customers and fixate on one issue such as Average Handle Time or cost. In many cases, an effortless experience is exactly what a customer is looking for and will create a “wow” opportunity. Delivering an effortless experience to your customers will create a foundation of loyalty upon which any “wow” can be built, such as a future marketing offer. At the end of the day, it’s all about knowing your customer, connecting with them anytime on any channel, and providing them with value, however they define it.

Ready to learn more?

Join salesforce.com for a special event on September 16th in Toronto. Featuring highly sought after guest speaker, Matt Dixon, Executive Director at CEB and co-author of “The Effortless Experience”, we’ll share valuable insights, research data and examples that shatter pre-conceived notions of what customer service organizations should try to solve. You’ll learn about what leading service organizations are doing to drive success and discover some best practices to deliver the Future of Customer Service.

Don’t delay. Reserve your seat now. The event is complimentary, but spaces are limited. We look forward to seeing you!

The post Effortless Service Doesn’t Mean You Can’t (or Shouldn’t) Wow Your Customers appeared first on Salesforce.

A recent study by Corporate Executive Board (CEB), a leading member-based advisory committee for tens of thousands of organizations around the world, showed that what customers value in service situations more than anything else is that companies make customer service effortless for them. CEB found that companies that provide low-effort customer service experiences are 31% more likely to win repeat business, and 88% of them were able to increase their share of wallet. While the numbers are certainly appealing, it still begs the question: How does one achieve this service nirvana?

Taken from a distance, the concept of effortless service sounds almost magical, a utopian state that defies logic. Doesn’t the customer have to open their browser and go to my website? Don’t they still have to call my 1-800 number at times? How can service really be effortless?

Actually, it can. What CEB’s research showed is that a customer’s perception of effort is what actually counts. If I lose my credit card, I am programmed to call their contact centre. If my wait time is low and the agent is polite and efficient, it could qualify as an effortless experience. However, if I want to find out about your return policy and I can’t find it within a few clicks on my mobile phone, suddenly effort increases quickly and dramatically. Customers have expectations for service quality and preferences for which channels they wish to receive service. If I start on the web, don’t make me call you. If I’m on your Facebook page, don’t tell me that information is only on the website. When I’m speaking to an agent, don’t tell me company policy has their hands tied. The more interactions required to solve a single—and especially simple—problem, the more my perceived effort goes up.

Based on over 125,000 customer and over 5,000 agent interviews, CEB has identified the top causes for high customer effort and by extension, a strategy to reduce that effort. It has consolidated these factors into four areas, which it refers to as its four pillars of low-effort service. They are:

1. Channel Stickiness

2. Next Issue Avoidance

3. Experience Engineering

4. Frontline Control

Join salesforce.com for a special event on September 16th in Toronto to find out more. Featuring highly sought after guest speaker, Matt Dixon, Executive Director at CEB and co-author of “The Effortless Experience”, we’ll share valuable insights, research data and examples that shatter pre-conceived notions of what customer service organizations should try to solve. You’ll learn about what leading service organizations are doing to drive success and discover some best practices to deliver the Future of Customer Service.

Don’t delay. Reserve your seat now. The event is complimentary, but spaces are limited. We look forward to seeing you!

The post Making Effortless Customer Service a Reality appeared first on Salesforce.