Don’t You Know Who I Am?

There have been plenty of celebrities that have used this famous saying to try to get preferential treatment at a restaurant, to get VIP treatment when shopping or to get entrance to an exclusive club. However, when we are dealing with our customers (people who we do know), how many times do we ask them information that we should already know about them – whether we ask for this information over the phone or via a website or paper form? Our consultants as KeyNode Solutions live by the standard that “every bit of information should be entered into the Salesforce CRM only once—platform and automation should be utilized in order to display this bit whenever you need it”.

We are not suggesting that every customer needs to be treated as a VIP and given preferential treatment over other customers, but when we can use the information that we already know about a customer in our dealings with them, it does make them feel special and can often diffuse a difficult support call. This is one of the main advantages of using Salesforce across different business branches (i.e. Sales and Service)—it provides you with a holistic view of each and every client and the history of interactions with them.

Great user experiences require thought and preparation. Your business processes cannot produce a great user experience if they are not integrated with other systems and designed from the end user’s viewpoint.

Take holiday travel as an example. First, you search for a suitable location and an affordable holiday package. Once you have selected the location and consulted your travelling companions, you are ready to book your holiday. You supply your all passenger names, addresses and other contact details to the travel company.

The first missed opportunity occurs: No offers of travel insurance or money exchange are received. (Don’t they know you will need insurance and money exchanged?)

A simple Salesforce automated action could have helped the customer here by providing them a quote for travel insurance and recommending a list of local money exchanges and current rates for the country they are visiting. You could even earn a commission on the travel insurance.

If travelling overseas you may need to apply for a visa and supply all your personal information plus photographs all over again. The travel agency had all this information but they rarely offer to help with this service on your behalf. (Don’t they know you need a visa?)

Salesforce automation and a third party application like WebMerge or Conga could have helped here to prefill the visa application forms with the customer details.

Next, you book your seats for your flights. Even though the travel company passed on your frequent flyer membership details, the airline seems to ignore your membership as they don’t automatically offer you your preferred seats based on previous flights – another missed opportunity. (Don’t they know what seats you like?)

A Salesforce API call to one of the main flight systems (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport) could have solved this problem.

As the travel date approaches, you need to decide if you should get a taxi or catch a Uber or leave your car at the airport. Both the airline and the travel agent know where you live and which airport you are leaving from. They are the experts in the travel industry yet they missed the opportunity to offer you a taxi or Uber. AI could have helped them determine the cheapest option for you. (Don’t they know where you are going?).

Uber offer an API that Salesforce could call to determine the fare price and send an email or SMS notification to the passengers.

Finally, you get on the plane. The airline knows you have flown with them many times and even in this same type of plane. They should know this for every passenger, yet you still have to endure the same old safety briefing. Why not just – “hey you have all flown with us before, buckle up we’re off!” (Don’t they know you have flown before?).

Salesforce Customer 360 is the solution to sharing customer information across your Salesforce cloud environments.

Arriving at your destination you have to complete an Immigration card – you fill in all your vital information all over again – your travel company and airline had all this data, but you still have to produce your passports, maybe scan your finger prints and take your photo too (eg for China). All this was done before leaving home for your visa application too! (Don’t they know who you are?)

Merging this information and pre-printing forms is easy with many third-party Salesforce apps on the AppExchange.

Arriving at your hotel you go through the reservation process all over again even though you’ve already booked. You have to fill in the registration form all over again – and again you ask yourself – Don’t they know who we are?

Salesforce Customer 360 is the solution to sharing this information across all your Salesforce cloud applications or Salesforce to Salesforce or API calls allows sharing customer data between providers.

Finally, you get your room keys and get in the elevator. Now you have to swipe your room card before you can select your floor. Bingo! The first sign of intelligence you’ve seen so far! The elevator knows who you are and lights up your floor as soon as you swipe your card. Finally, someone does know who you are!!

While it may not be possible to automate all these features for your next holiday destination, the point is that most of this is technically possible today with Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Pardot, third-party apps from the AppExchange, Artificial Intelligence and external interfaces (API calls). Imagine the brand loyalty, additional commissions and customer satisfaction you could achieve if you implemented some of these features!

Next time you are designing a new business process, take a good look at the customer interface and see how you could make the experience even better. If your business processes need a revamp from the customer’s point of view, contact the experts at KeyNode Solutions – Salesforce Consulting Partner, we have helped businesses seeking an Irvine Salesforce Consulting Partner and those around the country.