In the pursuit of long-term success, companies must differentiate themselves by delivering exceptional customer experiences and by establishing new service-driven business models. The pivotal element driving this transformation is an adaptive Salesforce platform that seamlessly integrates, automates and expands processes from marketing, service and sales.
The bar for customer experience has risen significantly. The buzz of marketing is growing louder, the touchpoints have become more numerous and economic conditions are dynamically changing. Gone are the days when it was sufficient to simply digitize analog customer processes in sales, service and marketing.
Furthermore, companies no longer thrive solely on physical sales – new business models are needed, driven primarily by service. This encompasses not only training, education and the deployment of technicians, but also engineering services. Sales no longer revolve only around new machines or spare parts, they now extend to include rentals, software sales, digital services and more.
Integration challenges of sales, marketing and service
In many industrial companies, marketing, sales and service are silos in terms of software and organization. Virtually everything is now digitized. However, for processes to be customer-centric and to support new business models, they must be automated on an integrated Salesforce platform. The three functions marketing, sales and service do not run parallel to each other; they are interlinked to form new adaptive processes that directly serve value creation.
To establish a purchase funnel for service contracts, for example, the classic two-pack of marketing and sales must be expanded to include service in the sense of mutual interaction. For example, a defective machine could trigger an IOT event in the CX platform. The customer would then receive a notification via smartphone and be able to buy a new machine directly or order a technician for a fee. In addition to technical implementation, this horizontal integration also requires the organizational development of moving away from task-oriented departments toward a network organization.
Service as a driver of new business models
In today’s times of stagnating machine and plant sales, service is one of the primary drivers of growth for industrial companies. Consequently, companies must leverage existing market assets for innovative business models. These require new billing approaches, which in turn require completely different processes than those that were once transferred from the analog world to the CX platform. A service ticket that is sent from one department to the next is basically just an evolution of an office messenger going from one employee to the next. While undoubtedly an improvement, such a process lacks the potential for direct financial value creation.
Companies must also carefully consider the optimal monetization strategy for their novel service offerings. For instance, the convenience of remote service facilitated by VR glasses, as opposed to the traditional field service where a technician visits the customer, greatly benefits the customer. However, it’s crucial to assess if this approach is equally advantageous for the service provider, especially if it yields lower revenue than the previous method. As a result, the challenge encompasses more than just technical implementation; it necessitates aligning the solution with the overarching business strategy.
In the realm of new business models, an often underestimated but crucial touchpoint is the quotation process, known as Q2O (Quote-to-Order). This phase represents a potential starting point for business relationships, but it presents significant challenges. Companies face mounting complexities in aligning diverse sales use cases within the quoting process. This complexity is amplified by the need to adhere to various legal requirements, particularly when navigating subscription models. Balancing these demands takes time, and as the volume of quotations multiplies, it can swiftly become chaotical. The ultimate objective is to streamline operations by adopting a unified “one-quote” approach that accommodates all sales use cases.
CX Platform: Connected Experience
As the complexity and number of touchpoints considered increases, the architectural question of what to include in the CX platform and how to provide access for external stakeholders is increasingly important. This is because collaboration with customers, partners and even competitors is becoming more and more common. These are integrated on the CX platform via an access layer or omnichannel access, and the associated processes are automated. We are also integrating more traditional business applications, such as Word, Excel and Teams. These platform capabilities are extended to include everything that does not classically belong directly to the ERP core consisting of finance, logistics, production and controlling. However, there are overlaps within the CX platform in these areas. These include, for example, sending invoices, extending and concluding contracts, or paying via online payment service providers. Ultimately, this is also part of the customer experience and is a potential point of contact.
A lot is happening in the field of customer experience and new business models – the expectations for the CX platform reflect this. As Salesforce consultants to the world’s market leaders, we at cbs CX are intimately familiar with our customers’ requirements and respond to the challenges of complex Salesforce projects with passion. We have a comprehensive understanding of processes that enables us to quickly deploy digital business processes in Salesforce and integrate them into existing SAP system landscapes. Are you looking for a way to optimize your customer experience? Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you.
