Salesforce: The Leader In-House and Out
Why do we specialise in Salesforce? It’s a common question.
It’s not everyday that a business gets named the leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center (CEC) and No. 1 company to work for in terms of employee and community engagement by Great Places to Work. 2017 is looking great for Salesforce so far, and that only means one thing: better things to come for everyone involved either as an employee, a partner or a customer.
So what is CEC all about? At its core is a group of technologies and business applications that are geared to provide customer service and support, irrespective of the engagement channel (ie. social media, forums). In its maturity stages, a CEC will help determine the next best action based on the nature of the case in order to enable effective customer engagement.
WHAT MAKES YOU A GARTNER’S MAGIC QUADRANT CRM CEC LEADER?
Characteristics evaluated:
- Strong case management and problem resolution system
- Knowledge-enabled service resolution
- Social media/ community management
- Interaction assistance tools
- Service analytics dashboards
- Seamless escalation from self-service to human and back
- Common platform, GUI, development and integration tools
- Open APIs
With emphasis on (extracted as-is from Gartner’s report):
- Scalable cloud-based systems
- Native mobile support of vendors’ customer service and support business applications
- Real-time and predictive analytics
- Multimodal capabilities, such as chat within mobile self-service
- Support for both self-service and assisted service across device types
- Context mining of voice and text
- Social media engagement
- Connection to the Internet of Things (IoT)
- Agent guidance and nurturing
- Messaging
- Automation of engagement using artificial intelligence (AI)-like bots and virtual agents
- Digital workflow/business process management support
- Use of knowledge management
HOW IS IT MEASURED?
Gartner conducts online and telephone surveys to vendors’ customers and potential clients willing to evaluate their products. They also attend product demos, interview system integrators and business consultancies.
SO HOW DID SALESFORCE PERFORM?
Salesforce is the leading CEC vendor for non-complex B2C service centers based on their 2016 revenue. It is also the main shortlisted vendor for B2B customer service operations in the US, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Customers choose Salesforce for their comprehensive offering that includes Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and a rich App Cloud making it a one-stop shop for all their needs. The current trend of blending Marketing and IoT is now possible with the support of analytics. Furthermore, it is the vendor that best meets the demand of a cloud-based customer service application to support customer engagement, including Artificial Intelligence channels. The application platform is so comprehensive that it is replacing outdated bespoke or competitor systems that are not keeping up to date with current business needs and technology advances.
What stands out even more, and should interest our readers, is that Salesforce customers see Salesforce as a strategic advisor. They turn to Salesforce for advice on innovation and business growth strategy. This is a key (and rare!) position to have which speaks to their diligence and care when choosing system integrator partners, like ProQuest. It is in the best interest of Salesforce to know their customers are in good hands.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE – GREAT PLACES TO WORK
We have talked about why customers choose Salesforce. It’s a great product. And we all know that behind a great product, there is always a great team. That’s why it comes as no surprise that Salesforce was named the best place to work in 2017.
The survey was conducted on the top US-based companies with 1,000+ employees that have a strong business and have also demonstrated respect, compassion and concern for their employees, communities and the environment. The survey included personal stories from employees on how their company – in this case Salesforce – have made a positive impact in their lives and communities.
It seems that Salesforce looks both ways when delivering the best to their customers and to their employees. Talk about covering all bases and being a true leader!
If you are shopping around for a CRM, do take into account its presence in the market, growth momentum, marketing organisation and vision that keeps up with emerging customer needs. If your vendor is currently experiencing stagnant sales or not meeting your requirements (which are aligned with your vision) have a look at Salesforce. Or even better, contact us if you would like to know more and find out how we can help bring your vision to life.
So going back to the question, why do we specialise in Salesforce?
Because it’s the best.
