Customer Experience In Consumer Goods Companies: The Salesforce Way

This blog marks the beginning of several blogs. I'm going to write on how consumer goods companies use Salesforce to sell and serve in the

Omni-Channel age.

In the early winter of 2013, I received an email from a consumer electronics company regarding a connected device which helps you monitor your overall health. On wondering how they are in possession of my information, I recalled filling in a form a year earlier during a visit to one of the electronic retailers. I had specifically mentioned the description of the product, which not only monitors my health but also helps me with productive sleep, recommends exercise, and tracks diet with a native app.

I was rather captivated after receiving that email about a product I had always wanted. When I inquired, the manufacturers informed me that they had received my information from a form I filled in a year earlier at a retail store. I walked into the shop, browsed the shelf, and bought my dream product. With the purchase, I instantly received a welcome email from the manufacturer, which had a detailed user guide along with the customer service information. Being the inquisitive buyer that I was, I did have some initial technical questions which were adequately addressed by the client services team. I was also curious to know about the platform they used to manage the customer's journey so brilliantly, and the team said a word that was a delight to my ears: "Salesforce."

In this case, both the manufacturer and retailer used Salesforce as a collaborative platform to exchange information about a prospective customer. Salesforce was embedded in every customer touch point, transforming each of them into the pinnacle of customer success. The manufacturer embodied precision in key account management, retail execution, and consumer engagement; whereas the retailer demonstrated the perfect example of clienteling, loyalty management, and connected retail operations.

The widespread innovations and advancements in the manufacturing process suggest that we are indeed in the midst of a technological revolution. The consumer goods industry is going to change more in the next five years than it has in the last fifty years. Companies will be overrun if they stand still instead of innovating. Manufacturers using Salesforce are connected better with suppliers, distributors, retailers, and the end consumers. Companies use different Salesforce products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, IoT Cloud, Wave Analytics, Community Cloud, and Pardot to understand the customer's needs, making sales and service better.

Consumer goods companies are running their full value chains, from suppliers to manufacturing to distribution to wholesale to retailing, on Salesforce.

Salesforce's multitenant cloud integrates with the legacy systems and pulls the data from these systems so that it is accessible to Management, Sales, Marketing, and the rest of the organization, which makes sales and customer service real time. Salesforce not only provides you a platform to manufacture your product but also provides you the customer success platform, which enhances your ability to increase sales, provide impeccable customer service, launch brand-oriented marketing campaigns, build a healthy community, provide deep analytics, and access ready-to-use business apps.

Salesforce is not only a technology platform but a way of living for people who are genuinely passionate about customer success. AppShark is a Salesforce Consulting partner and we can help you in leveraging the power of Salesforce. Do visit us at www.appshark.com or email customersuccess@appshark.com for a free consulting session to know more about the many wonderful things that we can do with Salesforce!