Meet the customer -> Make the pitch -> wait to hear back

Or this:

Customer visits the web site -> they click around -> wait to see if they come back

In both cases, there is another critical step that makes all the difference between a deal closing or a potential sale disappearing into the either. It’s the quality of how your reps follow up.

Sometimes the follow-up can be pretty generic: a rep calls up a customer and asks, “So, have you given it any more thought?”

In other cases the follow-up is an obvious waste of time. The customer or prospect already made it clear they weren’t interested, and badgering them isn’t going to change anything.

What really works is a follow-up in which a rep provides additional information about a product or service, provides answers to questions that couldn’t be immediately addressed or offers a special discount or promotion based on the value of a deal.

Even then, though, more than one follow-up may be necessary to convert buyer intent into an actual purchase. It often takes two, three, four or even five attempts. This is because, especially in business-to-business (B2B) environments, purchase decisions involve multiple stakeholders, and there can be a lot going on behind the scenes a rep doesn’t even see.

If reps don’t make the effort to follow-up, though, it leaves the company with no other option than to go back to marketing and trying to attract other prospective buyers.

The problem is that reps, like all employees, are human beings with a limited amount of time and energy. The follow-ups they may need to do can be numerous, and they come on top of other duties such as assisting with sales forecasts, conducting demos and setting up their next prospect meetings.

Depending on the size of the sales team and their workload, it’s easy for following up with potential customers to fall through the cracks. Fortunately, technology has advanced to help automate this process in a way that optimizes the chances of closing a deal and helping reps crush their quota.

The development of more sophisticated tools is one of the reasons McKinsey research has estimated sales teams can improve their productivity by as much as 30 per cent by taking advantage of automation.

Turn following up into the easiest part of a sales rep’s job by taking the following steps:

1. Automate your workflows to provide an instant response when a lead expresses interest

Customers sometimes fill out online forms and wonder when someone at the company will get back to them. Don’t let that happen. Instead, design the forms so that they can be aligned with content that will help nurture the sale before a rep even reaches out.

Some of this content could include links to relevant company blog posts, an explainer video or the most common pricing-related details prospects want to know before they move forward. Make it easy for them to choose the right dates and times in a rep’s calendar to ensure the conversation moves forward.

2. Use automation to segment leads based on various criteria

It’s a lot easier to tailor the information you use to follow up with a lead when you know they share a set of common characteristics.

You might have different incentives to convert them into a purchase based on whether they’re a small, medium or large business.

There might be special versions or features of your products and services depending on whether the lead comes from manufacturing, retail or health care.

Some segments might be based on specific business problems or outcomes a lead is trying to reach. Create as many segments as appropriate, and revisit your segments based on a review of CRM data.  

3. Nurture leads through carefully designed sequences

Let’s say you’ve walked a lead through a demo of your product. After a week goes by, you might follow-up by sending over an eBook with market research that helps them make a business case for buying from you.

Next, follow-up with case studies and testimonials from people like them who have benefited from becoming your company’s customer.

Other sequences in a lead nurturing process could be an invitation to a webinar, a special promotional offer or buyer’s guide that helps them take that final step to signing off on a deal.

Be sure to set a trigger to provide real-time notifications for when a lead interacts with a follow-up, either through Slack, text messages or e-mail.

4. Use data to customize follow-ups based on behavior

It sounds like common sense but it’s easily overlooked: when customers act, pay close attention and respond accordingly.

Did the customer stop watching an explainer video half-way through? That could mean they understand how your product or service works, but they might need social proof that what you’re selling has traction in the market. That’s when a case study could do the trick.

Did a customer ask a question to their peers on social media? Add your response to others on the thread.

Did a customer click on a link almost immediately after they received it? Maybe your follow up should be equally quick. Show them you’re noticing and ready to help.

5. Personalize special offers based on a customer’s pain points

A follow-up shouldn’t come across as a desperate attempt to close the deal. It should convey the fact that you’ve been listening.

Even if you’re following up with content that applies to anyone, provide short-cuts to the most relevant details. If you’re sending an eBook with best practices that pertain to a particular vertical market, for instance, tell them in the e-mail the pages that relate most to their business goals.

Use the notes you’ve put into CRM from your initial meeting to fine-tune automated e-mails, and draw upon technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize your advice based on common needs and wants from similar customers.

Automating sales follow-ups isn’t a one-time exercise, of course. Track engagement metrics and closed deals logged in the CRM to refine your strategies. With time, the last follow-ups your reps do will be to send a “thank-you” message to customers for giving your company more business.

The post Automate Your Follow-Up Workflow to Boost Sales Conversions appeared first on Salesforce.

According to the State of Women Entrepreneurship in Canada Report, for example, an estimated 18% of businesses here – including small, medium and even large businesses – are majority owned by women. The vast majority of Canadian female entrepreneurs (90%) are self-employed.

The same research also found that between 2021 and 2022, Canadian women entrepreneurs showed a greater increase in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) compared to men. That means they were busy writing business plans, testing for product-market fit and connecting with investors looking for promising new ventures.

Part of the surge in women-owned businesses stems from Canadian public sector initiatives such as the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) launched by the federal government in 2018. WES represents nearly $7 billion that’s going into programs such as business loans, as well as resources to help women business leaders connect with mentors and other ecosystem partners. Business Development Bank Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC) have also launched financing and insurance solutions for women-owned SMBs.

Another contributor to the rise of female business owners is a greater effort to recognize the success stories in our midst. This includes the 2023 inaugural Canadian Women Entrepreneur Gala, which celebrated dozens of inspiring leaders who are spearheading the development of a more diverse workplace ecosystem. Organizations like RBC are doing something similar with its RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards.

However there’s a third, and possibly overlooked, factor that is helping drive more women in Canada to start and grow their own businesses. Advancements in automation and technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are opening up new opportunities for women to scale companies faster and easier than ever before. They can be more productive, efficient and customer-centric using the right digital channels and tools without the kind of overhead that would have been the norm even a few years ago.

Technology is also allowing women to run companies wherever they are in Canada. This not only includes a specific province or city but locations that span the office, their home or somewhere in between. For those who need to balance entrepreneurship with parenting or caregiving, technology is allowing women business owners to thrive.

If you’re a Canadian woman considering making the leap from employee to business owner, here are some essential steps you should take to help get your vision off the ground:

Make your marketing scroll-worthy

Most small businesses, women-owned or otherwise, don’t start off with budgets that allow them to commission 30-second TV spots or billboard campaigns. Instead, you need to be strategic, making use of digital channels where your target market is likely to visit and ensuring you have a presence there. Social media is the obvious example.

This still means coming up with social posts and social ads that will resonate with a wide variety of customer types, and managing campaigns effectively. Marketing automation takes care of the latter, allowing women to track clicks and other engagement metrics from the convenience of their smartphone.

Generative AI, meanwhile, allows them to iterate multiple versions of the same concept or idea based on a relevant prompt. This can accelerate and streamline the process of content creation.

You don’t just have to be scroll-worthy on social media. The same creative approach needs to inform your mobile website or mobile app. Automation and AI not only makes it easy to develop marketing assets for these channels but to continually refine and improve them as you get to know your customers better.

Take a one-to-one approach for landing your first customers

It can be hard to win over buyers when you’re a relatively unknown entity, which is why you shouldn’t sell like an entity. You should sell like a person who has something of value to offer another person.

This is only possible when you base your sales processes around a CRM that lets you collect, store, and manage all the specific details about each of your customers and prospects. Every time you connect, you can use your CRM data to stand out from the crowd by making a pitch or responding to questions in a personalized manner.

Of course, you’re only one woman, and drafting sales outreach and follow-up emails can take up a lot of time. That’s why the most advanced CRMs now incorporate generative AI capabilities to tailor sales emails and conversations based on your real-time data. The result is that you become more trustworthy, which is the best way for any entrepreneur to establish strong relationships with their first customers.

Build a reputation as a women-owned SMB with best-in-class customer service

“I love her company because they’re so responsive.” That’s the kind of comment you want your customers to be making to their peers, friends and family.

This comes by using automation to ensure you’re ready to deal with troubleshooting issues or questions the moment someone comes forward. An automated customer service platform brings all the right information into a unified view so you can also treat everyone in a way that makes them feel recognized.

You can also make use of chatbots on your website and mobile app to provide customer service round the clock, which can be essential for women who are not only leading businesses but are juggling multiple responsibilities in their personal lives.

We still have work to do to help remove some of the historical barriers that have prevented women from realizing their entrepreneurial dreams. As Canada creates better programs and policies, however, coupled with powerful technologies that anyone can use, the outlook for women-owned businesses is getting brighter every day.

The post Small Business, Big Impact: Women-Owned SMBs Continue to Grow appeared first on Salesforce.

Though the skirt is undoubtedly popular – she has seen friends and more than one perfect stranger on the street wearing one – there is an entire rack of them waiting for her when she walks through the doors. In fact, the rack is full enough that she is pretty confident they will have multiple shades in her size. Maybe it would make sense to buy more than one.

For a small or medium-sized business (SMB) like this fictitious retailer, the woman’s customer journey represents a critical moment.

It’s what could transform her from a casual customer who thinks of the small business as just one of many other retailers she may shop from, to a loyal customer who comes back time and time again because she trusts they will have what she wants in stock.

The availability of that inventory is the result of strong sales forecasting, and it makes the difference between a retailer that merely keeps its head above water during difficult economic times, and one that thrives.

Retail sales forecasting can be even more important for those customers who are not shopping for themselves. When the holidays get closer, harried parents may start to worry that the present they’d chosen for their child will be sold out.

In some cases, people are not coming to a retailer for luxury items or splurges, but necessities. This could include medical supplies like bandages, or replacement parts for an essential item that’s broken down. If customers see empty shelves, their disappointment can keep them from ever returning.

Despite its critical importance, sales forecasting has sometimes been treated more like an art than a science. Retailers might plan inventory levels based on what they sold the previous year, for instance, even though factors like weather or the economy can influence spending habits significantly.

Gut instinct has its place, but taking an educated guess is not reliable enough to ensure sales forecast accuracy. Then, when you do run out of in-demand products, you’re forced to order more and hope that your supply chain can work fast enough to meet your customers’ needs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) turns that reactive approach to sales forecasting on its head. By using historical data as well as models based on trend analyses and other inputs, SMBs can allow predictive algorithms to provide them with numbers they can trust.

AI isn’t necessarily intended to replace human beings who work in merchandising and assortment planning and contribute to (or lead) sales forecasting. Instead, AI and automation are tools that enhance forecasting accuracy and enable teams to exceed customer expectations while driving greater long-term loyalty.

The business case for AI in retail sales forecasting almost writes itself. Check out three key business benefits of AI below.

1. Data integration from multiple sources

SMBs that put their core data in a CRM are at an advantage when they use AI, because it allows machine learning (ML) applications to see the most critical details that indicate future demand levels. There’s no reason to stop there, though.

AI can also be used to build forecasts based on market data from external sources like research databases. It can come from feedback that customers directly provide to your SMB through surveys and other mechanisms. Even social media can help retailers (and AI) better understand what’s becoming a must-have item.

2. The ability to build customized models

Sales forecasts will never look the same all year long. Change is a constant within any business, and many of those changes will affect forces like supply and demand. Fortunately, AI can help take those changes into account.

A good example is peak buying seasons. Besides obvious moments like the holidays, retailers might see a shopping surge as a new product comes to market, or even when they release an upgraded version of an existing product. Products that tie in with pop culture moments like movies and TV shows can affect buying, too.

For other SMBs, there might be value in creating customized models based on particular customer segments. If young professional men aged 18-24 represent your biggest spenders, for instance, you could use AI to get insights into their expected purchases for a particular quarter.

3. Real-time execution

Developing a sales forecast shouldn’t be like writing a book report in elementary school. Too often, however, SMBs have had to take time out to pull whatever data is on hand, study it, make their best estimates, and prepare the final numbers for distribution.

AI doesn’t just make this process faster and easier. It also ensures that all the data which gets put into a sales forecast reflects how shoppers are behaving right now. This makes it a lot easier to be more responsive to what customers want, and it can be done with much larger volumes of data than employees could manage on their own.

The future of AI-based retail sales forecasts

Retails need comprehensive sales forecasts to achieve their growth targets. The good thing about AI is that it doesn’t treat each forecast like an isolated project.

In fact, SMBs that use AI for sales forecasting over time will discover how the right tool will learn about the nuances of their businesses. That means their ability to meet customer demand will only get better and better.

Sales forecasting is key to your customer experience because it covers off a basic need – that shoppers can get what they want when they want it. AI is the best way to develop forecasts that deliver. 

The post Why Your SMB Should Harness The Power of AI for Retail Sales Forecasting appeared first on Salesforce.

Manufacturers, logistics firms and Canadian businesses all need to be able to get products “from to sea to sea,” whether it’s a customer in Victoria, B.C. or in St. John’s, Newfoundland. For many firms, the supply chain extends far beyond Canada’s borders, to a slew of international suppliers, partners and customers.

Moving goods across the country and globally comes with considerable complexity, in part because of how varied all the players are. At any given moment, for example, an automotive manufacturer might be trying to bring in parts to produce a fleet of vehicles, while a health-care firm is shipping perishable medications to hospitals with patients in need.

What flows through the supply chain not only has to travel without being damaged, but arrive at the right destination in a timely manner. There are many forces which can make this much more difficult than it sounds, from geopolitical events to weather hazards and more.

Supply chains can also be costly to maintain. This not only includes equipment and vehicles but people. Even when labour market shortages aren’t an issue, manufacturers and other companies are recognizing they need to hire candidates with a more sophisticated set of skills than ever before.

The Canadian government is already playing an active role in addressing supply chain issues. A good example is the recent announcement from the Ministry of Transport of $10 million in funding to eliminate congestion and support commercial movements in critical supply chain touchpoints in Saint John and New Brunswick.

Businesses, meanwhile, need to consider how they can contribute to supply chain modernization through the adoption of advanced technologies. This includes tools that can foster greater collaboration among supply chain stakeholders, as well as solutions that provide greater insight into where goods are at any given moment.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI), for example, open up opportunities to transform many supply chain processes and achieve gains in productivity, efficiency and cost optimization, including:

Streamlining the process of supply chain data ingestion

Before manufacturers and other supply chain stakeholders can improve the flow of goods, they’ll need to put data in systems to analyze it. That’s difficult when data is spread out across many different parts of the supply chain – and when employees have to put it in manually.

Tools to automate data entry could be a first step in helping ingest greater volumes of supply chain data into systems of record that can identify areas for improvement. It also means employees can spend more time on the analysis than merely inputting information.

Increasing visibility with intelligence at the edge

Supply chain management often comes down to a single question: Where are the products? Historically, it wasn’t always easy to know when a crate was taken off a ship and loaded onto a truck, but technology has changed that.

With technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), for instance, sensors can be fixed directly on equipment to give a clearer view of what’s happening across the supply chain. This enables supply chain partners to track items, and also to get ahead of operational issues. Data about the status of a piece of equipment or part can let companies be more proactive in repairing or replacing parts before they encounter problems, which furthers supply chain resiliency.

Forecasting supply, demand and potential bottlenecks

When data is more accessible and easier to ingest, the real work begins.

Using AI, manufacturers, suppliers and their customers can start to study trends and patterns that could affect what happens along the supply chain.

Modelling these patterns and their potential outcomes can serve a number of purposes. First, it means manufacturers can get a clearer and more accurate sense of customer demand, which means they’ll only order the supplies they need and minimize costly waste.

Second, AI modelling can study supply chain performance to provide early indications of risk. It will help supply chain partners know, for example, where volatile weather might create delays or disruptions as goods are transported from one location to another.

Older technologies took a “rules-based” approach to supply chain automation. The idea was that you could specify that if a particular event took place, equipment and people could pursue a specific action to deal with it. This was undoubtedly helpful, but it fails to take into account all the exceptions and anomalies that business rules might not cover.

AI provides a superior solution because the technology allows businesses to get recommendations based on the specific, unique conditions that might be affecting the supply chain. In some cases they might increase production. In others, they might dispatch more vehicles, or at the very least alert customers that goods won’t be arriving on schedule as expected.

Digitizing business functions for a better customer experience

Although a lot of what happens in the supply chain feels “behind the scenes,” companies should also think about how they can improve the way they indirect on the front lines with customers.

As supply chain operations improve, for instance, everyone from manufacturers and suppliers to retailers benefit from bringing automation and AI to more traditional areas of business. This includes using digital technologies to automate the way they market their brand, sell to customers and provide service and support afterwards.

The potential to transform Canada’s supply chain is broader than the space “from sea to sea.” The opportunity spans everything companies do internally and externally to bring customers the products they want and need.

The post How AI and Automation Can Help Improve Canadian Supply Chains appeared first on Salesforce.

Probably not. After all, if they took the time to choose a card with a design and message that reflects who you are, you’re more likely to think of it as a thoughtful gesture. If they hand-wrote a few lines with a special greeting, your positive reaction may become even greater.

That’s the kind of experience brands need to deliver to their customers. It could be an email message with a special offer, an online ad that showcases a new offering, or a text message that goes straight to a customer’s smartphone.

These may be considered simply “content” if they are generic. When brands approach them as an opportunity for content personalization, however, they come close to achieving that “birthday card” effect.

Content personalization is the effort smart marketers take to ensure everything they put in front of customers uses data to match their:

• Histories: Customers receiving the content should see right away that the brand recognizes who they are based on past purchases, where they’ve clicked on the web site or other indicators.

• Preferences: The content should leverage the digital channels that customers have clearly identified they want to use when they engage with a brand.
• Needs: When content is personalized, it’s never a waste of time for customers to look at it because it speaks to their paint points or interests.

There is no question that this is what people want from their favourite brands. According to Salesforce’s most recent State of the Connected Consumer report, 84% of customers say that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important to winning their business. Apart from moments where customers interact directly with employees, content is the way brands can provide them with that kind of treatment.

Content personalization also aligns with the goals of all marketing departments, such as deepening the relationship with customers and increasing their propensity to buy. By converting more people into active purchasers, content personalization can help marketers dramatically increase the return on investment (ROI) for producing and distributing content.

The best way to get started with content personalization is adopting a platform that can centralize all customer data so that the marketing team – as well as any other department or group within the company – has a single view of that customer’s profile. This leads to far better targeting.

From there, you can begin to use technologies like artificial intelligence to go beyond simple segmentation and begin to take more of a one-to-one approach with each customer – communicating with them in a way that proves you’re paying attention to the journey they’ve taken with you so far.

These are just some of the ways content personalization works in practice to attain higher conversion rates:

1. Landing pages that land more clicks

Many branded email messages, text messages, and ads lead people back to a landing page – the same landing page with the same images and text.

Content personalization means making each landing page almost as unique as a snowflake. It can still promote a featured product or service, but the text could offer different reasons based on what a particular customer has ordered in the past, or what they’ve searched for on your site.

A personalized landing page could also include each customer’s name, feature products in their size or style, and even offer a unique discount code to get more conversions.

2. Product recommendations that resonate

We’ve probably all gotten the occasional suggestion from a brand to buy something that raised eyebrows? “What would make them think I’d want this?” you might say to yourself.

This reflects a disconnect in terms of the data the brand uses, and in some cases may reflect a lack of sufficient data. Today, brands can go beyond simply basing recommendations based on previous purchases. With the right technology companies can synthesize broad customer data and serve up ideas based on purchases from customers with similar profiles.

They can also offer easy ways to collect feedback and further refine their product recommendations. This can be as simple as a thumbs up/down button to rate a recommendation as relevant, or fields that let them key in categories or items they’d like to see in the future.

3. Quizzes and surveys that don’t just ask, but answer

Content personalization isn’t limited to historical data you’ve collected. You can also develop engaging digital experiences that let them have fun while offering more details that give you a sense of what they really want.

Think about an online survey or quiz that helps them reimagine their goals, or see their personality type based on their interest (examples could include a retailer whose quiz segments people into a “Fashionista,” “Comfort queen,” or similar category).

These kinds of surveys and quizzes can couple this kind of “grand reveal” at the end with inspiration for products and services that match the results. Customers who see themselves in the data will be more likely to keep clicking through.

Content personalization and the customer experience

Although what’s been described in this post sounds quite tactical, content personalization is not just a trick to get more sales.

By personalizing what you say at every possible touchpoint, you’re ultimately developing a better customer experience. It will help people as they first discover your brand, and as they continue their journey through the consideration, purchase, and post-purchase phases.

If customers need to seek out service and support with their purchase later on, for instance, personalizing content through a chatbot or landing page could reinforce the idea that they are truly valued as individuals. This will keep them coming back for more purchases over time.

When content has a real “just for you” feel to it, customers take it personally – in the best possible way.

The post Turn Clicks into Conversation with Content Personalization appeared first on Salesforce.

Now imagine sitting down with a random customer and showing them the segment where their profile sits.

“I guess that makes sense,” they might say. “But there’s more to who I am than that.”

And of course they would be right. People are multi-faceted. A person may identify as a parent, but also sees themselves as a social justice activist because of the time they spend volunteering. Another customer might be a senior citizen but is still highly active in sports and enjoys the latest Marvel blockbuster as much as a Gen Z person.

Just because someone’s currently in the “repeat customer” segment, meanwhile, they may be thinking more carefully about future purchases and won’t necessarily stay loyal to your brand for much longer.

Segmentation is a tried-and-true approach to improving the way brands market to their customers, but it only gets you so far. The future is in hyper-personalization – where you leverage a combination of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and data to create highly contextualized messages to specific customers.

Hyper-personalization goes a step beyond segmentation, which relies on broad trends around how customers have liked or acted upon a brand’s marketing content, and data from third-party cookies.

Companies often reach a plateau with segmentation because it is usually built into the early stages of campaign planning. Using hyper-personalization, on the other hand, becomes deeply woven into every interaction a brand has with each unique customer at every stage of their journey. This includes when they make a purchase, when they seek out service or support and when it’s time to re-engage them.

In the fifth edition of Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer, 56 per cent of customers said they expect all offers to be personalized. As more brands become well-versed in hyper- personalization across the customer journey, those expectations will rise even higher.

The road to hyper-personalization begins with taking better control of all your customer data. Using a platform like Customer 360, for example, brands can bring everything they need to know about each customer into a single unified view.

At that point, it’s a matter of taking the rules-based segmentation you’ve done up until now and begin using AI to recommend how individuals are behaving, the best way to optimize their omni-channel path and hyper-personalize every form of communication. This includes:

Customize advertising to reflect individual interests and needs

Brands tend to think of ads as a mass media form of marketing, but with good data they don’t have to be. Instead, marketers can serve up ads that speak directly to a customer’s favourite products and services or even include call-outs, such as their names. This shows the customer there’s a reason they’re seeing the ad online – and that there’s probably an equally good reason to click through and learn more.

Design landing pages aimed at an audience of one

Though they sometimes seem to have a similar purpose, landing pages should be much more than the digital equivalent of a brochure. They should immediately welcome customers into an environment where they feel recognized. You can do this by displaying offers and pricing that reflect the geography where they’re based, offers based on what they’ve viewed on your site and options to let them reconfigure what’s being shown based on their own preferences.

Price and promote based on a person vs. a campaign

Running a 10% sale to attract young women is a segmentation strategy. Hyper personalization means you use AI to develop an offer for an individual (Let’s call them Brian). You might offer a bigger discount because Brian is one of your most frequent shoppers or is a high spender. You might also use AI to recommend accessories Brian has never noticed on your site before. You could even set a timeline for a promotion or offer based on Brian’s typical habits when he spends with your brand.

Fill in the blanks on their behalf

Every moment of friction you put into a customer journey puts your conversions at risk. The one many brands overlook is when they expect customers to complete detailed online forms in order to place an order to sign up for a service. Automate this chore for your customers and have everything pre-populated when it comes time for them to take the next step. They’ll thank you by taking it much faster.

Send notifications that feel like they’re coming from a personal shopper

A regular text message lets customers know when you’re running a sale. A hyper personalized text message tells a specific customer about the status of their order, such as when it has been shipped. Notifications via e-mail or any other preferred channel should feel the same – as though they’re only getting sent information that relates to who they are, what they like and when they would want to know.

Reimagine what it’s like to be rewarded

Lots of loyalty programs are based on collecting and redeeming points. Hyper personalization treats points as only one piece of the puzzle. Instead, you can use AI to develop rewards and incentives that show how much a brand understands – and appreciates – the relationship every one of their customers has developed with them.

There was a time when hyper-personalization seemed like something only the biggest brands in the world could offer their customers. Thanks to advancements in digital technologies, however, companies of any size, and in almost any industry, can make the most of their data and provide the kind of journey that more customers will want to take – and keep taking.

The post How To Hyper-Personalize The Customer Journey appeared first on Salesforce.

Allowing customers to submit an insurance claim via an online form is a lot easier than forcing them to scrawl on pieces of paper and mail them in. It changes how the claims process begins.

Processing invoices via automation means your finance team can stay on top of more complex tasks like consolidation and reporting. It changes how quickly the process happens.

In sectors like retail, automating inventory management can ensure you have enough product in stock at the right location to serve customers. It changes how companies work with greater accuracy.

The next stage of automation will go beyond the “how.” Instead of merely automating the way tasks get done, the opportunity now is to combine robotic process automation (RPA) with artificial intelligence (AI) to better understand the “why.”

This includes answers to questions like, “Why are customers behaving the way they do?”

Within functions like HR, the question might be, “Why are employees struggling to achieve maximum efficiency?”

At the most senior level, leaders might be wondering, “Why can’t we find greater cost savings to combat the impact of economic challenges like high inflation?”

Bringing RPA and AI together leads to intelligent automation to help small and medium-sized businesses not only get tasks done, but gain context to help them improve the way they’re done. The result is a better employee and customer experience, which in turn leads to greater long-term growth.

Research from Deloitte and Blue Prism has found intelligent automation can cut business process costs by anywhere from 25 to 40 per cent on average. That makes it a great place to begin thinking about how you can build upon the digital transformation your company has done so far.

After all, reducing or eliminating manual work was a great start, but the biggest value comes from being able to continually adapt and enhance operations in a cohesive fashion across the business.

These are just some of the areas where intelligent automation could be woven into your digital transformation strategy:

1. Building greater flexibility within critical IT processes

Lots of companies have automated the way their IT department provisions virtual machines to run cloud-based applications. Depending on the business needs, though, the workloads those servers need to handle can cause lag times or delays.

Intelligent automation goes beyond merely ensuring a virtual machine goes live. It would analyze the typical highs and lows that put pressure on compute workloads (such as a spike in e-commerce activity amid the holiday shopping season, for example).

Intelligent automation would then manage compute workloads to ensure they meet business demands and not hamper customer or employee experiences.

2. Reducing the need to hire additional IT specialists

As critical as technology is to business success, many Canadian companies aren’t in a position where it makes financial sense to add headcount to their IT department. Even if they want to hire more people, they might have their work cut out for them. Just look at a report from the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), which estimates that Canadian employers will need to fill an additional 250,000 tech jobs by 2025.

The truth is that a lot of the analysis that needs to happen within many businesses is beyond human capabilities. Intelligent automation can work faster, and at greater scale, to solve problems and even avoid them from happening in the first place.

This means that when Canadian companies do hire more IT people, they can focus on those with advanced skills in areas like machine learning that can help them fine-tune their intelligent automation solutions.

3. Boosting customer retention through better service

Customer service agents often have their work cut out for them. They’re expected to get through large volumes of calls or other forms of customer outreach within a short time frame. They’re expected to troubleshoot a wide range of issues. And traditionally, they’re expected to piece together what went wrong with a customer’s purchase as though the data were part of a jigsaw puzzle.

Customers are a lot happier when they connect with an agent who already knows their purchase histories and account profile details and is ready to get to the problem at hand. That’s the result of intelligent automation, where data is routed from disparate sources to provide a clear picture of every customer and their needs.

4. Developing greater autonomy over business operations

There is no end to the range of third-party services available to help companies manage payroll processing, logistics and other business functions. Many of these services work great, but they come at a cost, and can become a complex web of relationships for companies to navigate. They also pose the risk of keeping data in silos, rather than integrating it into a single source of truth.

One of your goals with intelligent automation should be to take back control of processes and the insights that technology can provide you about what’s working, what’s not and why. You’ll save money by having rules-based automation in place, and greater agility when it’s time to change processes.

5. Avoiding costly errors

You might have automated tasks such as sending customer orders from an e-commerce site to a system that handles shipping information, but what happens if there’s a disconnect when the data is sent to a transportation firm that keeps it in a silo?

The end result is that it becomes difficult to explain to customers why their package arrived late (or in some cases not at all). That same customer may decide to shop elsewhere the next time around, and you’re stuck finding a new customer instead of gaining more business from an existing one.

One of the best aspects of intelligent automation is the ability to deal with exceptions and anomalies that crop up in the day-to-day course of business. It makes the technology can address those mistakes and help stop the threat of customer churn.

Intelligent automation deserves an important place in your IT budget. When you leverage the best of what RPA and AI has to offer, the payoff includes lower costs, happy customers and employees focused on what they do best.

The post 5 Ways Intelligent Automation Can Help Businesses Lower Costs appeared first on Salesforce.

Today’s world is moving faster than ever, and 2023 is already proving to be another complex year for businesses. As leaders continue to navigate macroeconomic headwinds and workforce instability, mission-critical priorities increasingly include cost cutting, efficiency, and productivity. With customer expectations also rising, companies are being forced to do more with less.

The good news? Times of disruption present opportunities for reinvention.

“Now is the time to redefine success,” Emma Chalwin, Salesforce’s EVP of Global Field Marketing explained as she welcomed over 500 Canadian Trailblazers to the keynote. “The saying ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’ has never felt more relevant. At Salesforce, we love a good playbook, and what we’ve seen in our 24 years is that while the world is always changing around us, our customer focus remains.”

The thread of ‘customer focus’ was woven throughout this year’s World Tour Toronto. Businesses of all industries and sizes walked away with an understanding of what it means to be a customer company in 2023, paired with a playbook on how to achieve it.

Check out four actionable takeaways from the event that can help inform your business strategy this year.

1. Employee wellbeing isn’t just a perk – it’s a business strategy

As companies look to rewrite their playbooks for success in a world where change is the only constant, the first step is reimaging the core of your business: the employee experience.

Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, sat down for a fireside chat about the productivity paradox and the need for leaders to recognize the deep connection between employee wellbeing and organizational performance. After all, employees are the keepers of the vision and values that are painted on the company wall. They have the potential to be your best brand ambassadors, and can make or break the customer experience they deliver.

Arianna explained that during hard economic times, there is a tendency for C-suites to view wellbeing as a nice-to-have benefit instead of being a modern business strategy. “Employees shouldn’t have to decide between quiet quitting and burnout. When you put humanity at the centre, work gets better… If your employees are thriving, your business will thrive. The employee experience drives the customer experience.”

What does this look like? According to research by Thrive Global, implementing micro-steps, such as taking three 60-second breaks during the day, can go a long way in improving mental health and productivity. Technology platforms with built-in data analytics can help organizations understand employee behaviours, likes and dislikes, and then provide automated, personalized recommendations to help them make wellbeing a priority. She emphasized that the future of employee experiences will see increased augmentation from automated technology solutions, and further integration of wellness and productivity platforms, like Thrive Global and Slack.

In a breakout session later in the day, Tiffani Bova, Salesforce’s Chief Growth Evangelist, doubled down on how a good employee experience (EX) drives a good customer experience (CX) referencing a recent report by Salesforce and Forbes Insights that revealed C-suite teams with high EX and CX scores see 1.8x faster revenue growth. The magic, Tiffani says, is “when companies do both right.”

2. The future of business is AI + Data + CRM.

While equipping employees with the right technology is integral to wellbeing, it is also the beating heart of any modern customer company.

Meghan Gendelman, Salesforce’s SVP of Americas and Financial Services CMO, spoke about why unlocking the power of AI + Data + CRM will set the good customer experiences from the great, ultimately leading to company growth. “Connecting with customers is harder than ever,” she explained. “They want us to meet them where they are – and to personalize every experience. They want to feel like more than just a number.”

The data shows just how complex the customer journey has become. Canadian consumers are now engaging with brands across 15 channels compared to just 10 last year. With 88% of customers saying the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services, 92% say they will switch brands after just two bad experiences.

The stakes for loyalty are high, but the trifecta of AI + Data + CRM can help create what we call Customer Magic. AI can help you unlock real-time insights and stay ahead of your customers’ needs, connecting your data in one platform gives the entire business – from marketing to sales to commerce – a single view of all of your customers at the same time, and a CRM can help you automate and scale your efforts. In other words, this technology hat trick equips your workforce with the tools to make more informed decisions faster that will drive your costs down, productivity up, and your business forward.

The message from Meghan’s keynote was clear: The Trailblazers of today are leveraging modern technology to unlock their data and become true Customer Companies.

3. Innovation and Trust need to go hand-in-hand

While data-driven innovation is at an all-time high, leaders must take note: the amount of data created by humans globally is doubling every 12 hours and nearly 50% of organizations are seeing an increase in threats.

From the shift towards remote work and digital shopping experiences during the pandemic, to the increasing importance of first-party cookies, companies are relying on data more than ever before.When it comes to compliance, leaders need to plan ahead while also being prepared for reputational risks.

Security experts John Commacchio, SVP and CIO at Teknion, and Khaled Hawasli, Canada Lead, Data and AI Security at Accenture, shared how compliance goes beyond company fines. It also has a major impact on customer trust.

While thoughtful long-term data governance has a huge ROI because it future proofs companies for new regulations, there can be tension between innovation and compliance. Companies need dedicated teams working together to stay up-to-date with the ever-changing privacy landscape while also providing personalized, connected customer experiences at scale.

Having the technology in place to help your business protect sensitive data, build securely, and manage evolving compliance needs is an imperative. Reduce risk while you innovate so that your brand can continue to preserve and build one of your most valuable assets–customer trust.

4. Drive innovation and efficient growth with automation

You’ve reimagined employee experiences to benefit your workforce and your bottom line, created Customer Magic with AI + Data + CRM, and have a data governance strategy in place to build customer trust. What’s the last chapter in this business playbook?

Finding a way to continually exceed customer and employee expectations at an almost infinite scale, all while lowering costs, increasing productivity and driving efficient growth for your business.

According to Salesforce’s latest State of Marketing Report, ​​91% of CMOs have identified the need to continually innovate to remain competitive, and 70% of marketers who invested in process/workflow automation view this as a long-term strategy shift.

On the World Tour Toronto keynote stage, Akif Unal, TD’s VP of North American Digital Marketing and Personalization Strategy, explained there are more than 26-billion customer touchpoints throughout his organization alone. “It’s not feasible to manage it all manually, so we need automation,” he explained. TD has automated communication to send at the right time, doubling the number of personalized triggered emails and increasing engagement by 3x. “Leads have gone up by 5x because we’re using data to make it personalized,” he explained.

McCain Foods has seen similar results with personalization and automation, explained Caroline Morissette, VP of Digital & Data. In some cases, such as chefs requesting samples for new offerings, they’ve seen lead times be reduced by 50% and delivery to customers 50% faster. “We’ve innovated this process with Salesforce,” she added.

Watch the World Tour Toronto keynote on-demand, featuring a fireside chat with Arianna Huffington and stories of customer success with Trailblazers TD and McCain Foods. Click the link here.

The post Becoming a customer company: The magic of AI, Data and CRM at World Tour Toronto 2023 appeared first on Salesforce.

If they’re talking on the phone, for instance, a shift in tone can indicate whether they are confused, excited or starting to get angry.

On a video call, a customer or prospect’s facial expressions can tell a lot about whether they are skeptical of a pitch or eager to hear more.

Even an email or text message can convey how a buyer is moving through emotional states ranging from uncertainty about a purchase to complete confidence in a deal that’s about to close.

Recognizing a customer’s feelings is helpful for sales reps, but the biggest success in sales takes more than that. You need to deepen your emotional intelligence – not only identifying and managing the feelings of clients, but your own as well.

Emotional intelligence, which is sometimes simply shortened to EI, is an asset for people in almost any area of business, but sales people can put it to particularly good use. After all, selling requires being persuasive, even in tense situations. It involves people who have to make purchases that might put their professional reputation on the line.

Sales targets can be ambitious, which means reps have to deal with high pressure. Customers have stresses of their own, of course, which is why they often seek out products and services in the first place. In a sense, the emotional stakes are high on both sides of the table.

Without EI, reps may risk the cues that would help them win a customer over. They could push too hard or act in a way that damages future prospects with a particular customer. In other words, reps need EI because the work they do represents a key component of the overall customer experience they are trying to deliver.

This was reflected in the most recent Salesforce State of Sales report, which found that 78% of salespeople say listening has an extreme or substantial impact on converting a prospect into a customer. The same research also found 71% of salespeople say building a personal rapport impacts the close of a sale.

Brands also have to ensure they’re providing everyone their team, including sales reps, the best possible employee experience. EI helps here in that reps can self-reflect and offer honest feedback to their managers on how they can be better supported on the job. This is more critical than ever as organizations adopt hybrid work models, where reps and their managers might not be meeting in person as often as they once did.

There are plenty of books and other resources to help develop your EI, but start by breaking down the basic components and looking at them through the prism of buying and selling:

Perceive

With each of these areas, start from within. What kind of mood are you in before making contact with a customer or prospect? Are you already feeling under the gun about your quota as the quarter is coming to a close? Did a negative interaction on your previous call leave you in a less than ideal temper? Is there anything going on in your personal life that could influence how you go into a new call or meeting?

Just being aware of your emotional state can help you avoid being overly influenced by it, or shifting your mood based on the need to make a good impression with a customer.

Now do the same thing with your customer. You can’t read minds, of course, but you can ask questions. Something as simple as “What’s keeping you busy lately” could help you perceive whether they’re in a good space to hear you out, or already overwhelmed with fires to put out. Asking “How’s the morale at your firm” might reveal as much about their emotions as their broader comment on team morale.

Understand

True EI doesn’t stop at spotting how we or others are feeling. It analyzes those feelings, much in the way companies analyze data to continually improve the experiences they offer.

If you’re feeling tired, sad or angry right before you sell, for instance, there are going to be obvious limitations in your ability to persuade a customer or prospect to accept a proposal. You might also forget key details or mix them up because your emotions are getting in the way. Thinking through the causes of those emotions is the first step in overcoming them.

Similarly, you need to try and understand why customers may be feeling the way they are. In some cases their emotions will be a result of what you’ve been saying or how you’ve been behaving. In others, their feelings may have little or nothing to do with you.

Manage

EI wouldn’t offer much value if it didn’t include an element of problem solving or working through our feelings and those with whom we’re interacting.

When your own emotions are the issue, it may come down to accepting a situation that isn’t really in your control. You may have to forgive yourself for mistakes you’ve made, or be prepared to seek forgiveness from someone else later. There could also be an aspect of compartmentalizing your emotions – not necessarily letting everything go, but mentally deciding to deal with them later.

Managing the emotions of customers is best done with empathy. You can acknowledge, for instance, that the purchasing decision they’re making is a complicated one. You can also recognize that there are many other priorities going on within their job or across their business.

Where it makes sense, ask what might make them feel better about the purchase, or how you can help build their confidence in the product or service. Customers may feel better just knowing that their feelings are being taken into account by a rep.

As EI becomes a more vital skill within sales, remember that it’s not about achieving perfection every time. Instead, it’s an ongoing process of asking, listening, and doing your best, and then doing it all over again.

The post Why Your Sales Reps Need To Boost Their Emotional Intelligence appeared first on Salesforce.

The relationships that HR leaders influence include those between managers and their team members, those between peers at the same level and even the connection between senior leadership and front-line workers. Their role doesn’t stop with recruitment and onboarding, however.

HR teams are now at the forefront of a host of critical issues that affect small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Canada. This includes:

• The need to develop diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that attract and retain a wider range of talent.
• Working with senior leaders to establish the best approach to hybrid work based on employee expectations and business needs.
• Striking a balance between practices that boost productivity and efficiency, and the need to support employee health and wellness.
• Exploring strategies to boost employee engagement and avoid the risk of “quiet quitting,” especially during challenging economic times.

As with any other area of business, the actions HR professionals take can’t be based on speculation or guesswork. They need data, whether it’s about employees, organizational performance or both. This can create challenges when HR teams have to dive in and out of a wide selection of tools to get the data and insights they need. They need a single view of the truth – which is exactly what a CRM can provide.

CRMs first became known as a transformative tool for sales departments, helping reps centralize and gain a better understanding of all the customer data that can influence a deal. HR may be working with a different kind of data set, but the same kind of benefits apply. A CRM can help identify what employees want and need as well as the areas where an SMB can empower them to do their best work.

Just as a sales rep might use a CRM to nurture prospects and get more business out of their best customers, HR professionals can leverage CRMs to enhance the entire employee journey. This includes the moment they’re hired, to ongoing career development, and any support they might need along the way.

Ultimately, a CRM provides the foundation for data-driven HR, with a number of key benefits:

Automation of key HR processes

The moment someone in a company needs to hire a new person, confusion often sets in. It can start with a search through filing cabinets for the right form to request a hire, followed by additional paperwork that can go missing between one office and another.

A CRM accelerates this kind of process, making it easy to create digital forms to request a new hire and specify details such as their role, the rationale for the hire, and so on. Approval processes become easier too, when all the information is contained in a cloud-based CRM which can be accessed from anywhere.

Other steps in this process – from posting the job to a company intranet to wider distribution on job boards – are similarly turnkey when they happen through a CRM.

The same goes for processes like onboarding, where alerts and notifications can go out immediately before a new hire starts so that they are equipped with everything they need from day one.

Capturing the voice of employees

As companies adopt hybrid work models, it’s more important than ever to ensure that leaders are able to understand what managers and frontline employees are going through on a daily basis. This can happen through formal status meetings or more impromptu check-ins. In both cases, though, the feedback leaders receive should become the subject of deeper analysis about morale and culture.

This is not unlike the way sales reps have standardized on CRMs, capturing notes about their customers’ key objections and pain points. The technology works just as well to store, manage and analyze employee data, including their sentiment.

Employee surveys and performance reviews are other rich sources of data that a CRM can help manage, informing everything from coaching techniques to company-wide policies.

Establishing a platform to connect self-service tools

Generally speaking, employees don’t like having to come to HR on a regular basis. It’s nothing personal. In fact, it’s akin to how customers often prefer to get answers or assistance on their own without having to pester a company.

Thanks to products like Salesforce Lightning, it’s now possible for HR to take the lead on developing simple apps that let employees make changes to their benefits plan, submit travel requests and other tasks. Low-code tools like Lightning means even non-programmers can provide these kinds of experiences. There are also plenty of options on AppExchange that would be highly useful in HR.

Traditionally, the risk of deploying self-service HR tools is that it would become complex and challenging to keep them all up-to-How date. The data that runs through them, meanwhile, could become siloed and therefore less reliable for HR and employees to use.

Those worries go away when self-service apps are integrated with a CRM. All data becomes part of a unified whole, where HR and business leaders can keep on top of usage trends and even discover opportunities to digitize other employee processes.

CRMs can also connect with customer service tools, which have similar capabilities that could enhance HR processes and employee experiences.

A strong employee experience has a direct impact on the quality of the customer experience a company can deliver. Just as CRMs played an integral role in customer experience by transforming sales, HR can now harness a CRM platform to help employees be more engaged, motivated, and happier to fulfill the company’s key business objectives.

The post The Rise of Data-First HR: Using CRMs to Build a Better Workforce appeared first on Salesforce.