Master Your Marketing: How To Convert More Leads With Pardot
One of the primary goals for any small business leader, or marketer, is to generate new leads and grow their business. With so much communication going on in the digital space, how do you identify the marketing tactics that generate real returns? The answer is automation. By employing marketing automation like Pardot, you can expect to grow your business by up to 30%. Since the beginning of the pandemic, businesses all across the ASEAN region have been adapting quickly to the digital revolution. But to succeed in a competitive market, you have to excel. According to research conducted by LIKE.TG, 80% of customers value brand experience as much as products. Small and growing businesses will need to deliver personalised messaging across channels to stay competitive. One of the major stumbling blocks many small businesses face is their systems make it difficult for sales and marketing teams to work together. Often, activities end up being duplicated. This can lead to confusion for the customer, especially if they receive inconsistent messaging from the same company. With Pardot, sales and marketing teams can sync their activities, reduce duplication, and speed up the sales process. With that in mind, here are six ways that Pardot can help you convert more leads: 1. Take advantage of real-time data It’s long been accepted in the sales community that ‘speed to lead’ is vitally important. Our own research tells us that 83% of customers expect to engage with someone immediately when contacting a company. Not all systems allow this kind of speed. Marketing leads gathered by Pardot can be worked on straight away, giving your sales team the advantage. Submissions made via online forms are added in real time to your CRM, allowing sales teams to get a headstart on qualifying and converting leads. Imagine how many more leads you could convert if you contacted leads within a few hours, or even minutes, rather than the next day. 2. Prioritise with automatic lead scoring Leads gathered by a simple email system are often dealt with in the order that they arrive in the salesperson’s inbox. Pardot, however, can automatically score and prioritise leads based on their activities prior to submitting a form. Prospects can be ranked based on a whole range of metrics. For example, which ad they clicked on, which pages on your website they looked at, and their engagement with any email communication they may have received. This means that your sales teams can contact the top ranked, most engaged leads first, before your competitors. 3. Nurture leads for the future Not all customers who fill in a web form are ready to buy. If a member of your sales team calls a lead who isn’t in a position to make a purchase, they might get pushed to the bottom of the list. What if all that prospect needed was a little more information, and a little more warming up? Without integration between sales and marketing, leads who don’t immediately buy might never see any marketing messages. Pardot allows sales teams to pass unresponsive leads back to marketing for nurturing. It also allows salespeople to send marketing-approved email campaigns. 4. Personalise your messages with dynamic engagement builder Without a dynamic system like Pardot, creating personalised marketing messages for each contact can be difficult. Fifty-two percent of customers expect offers to always be personalised, and this number is rising. Pardot makes personalised, always-on marketing possible. Sales teams can effortlessly build tailored campaigns with marketing-curated content, meaning deals can be closed faster. Marketing teams can send bespoke communications to leads based on their profile, their position in the marketing funnel, and their engagement with the business so far. By offering powerful segmentation tools, linked to your CRM data, Pardot allows both sales and marketing teams to target exactly the right customers at exactly the right time. Bangkok-based abrasives company SmartCost used Pardot to drive a 40% increase in conversions. Pardot is integrated with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to track all emails sent to customers. “Pardot helps us design content that relates to customers’ interests,” says Krittakorn Wongsuttipakorn, Founder and CEO. “Our sales team can analyse data collected in LIKE.TG and prepare information based on the customer’s interest before calling or visiting the customer.” 5. Optimise campaigns with marketing analytics To understand whether your efforts are working, you need to measure the performance of your campaigns. Pardot’s out-of-the-box analytics tools give you all the information you need to understand your returns on investment. This information can be fed back into campaigns, driving higher and faster conversions. IT solutions company Riverplus has seen a 30% increase in lead conversion since using Pardot. It has also seen a 300% increase in revenue since adopting LIKE.TG. As Choonrakai Singprasert, Owner and Managing Director, says, “Selling is science. You can’t rely on what you think; you need detailed information to forecast and make sales. LIKE.TG gives us that information and helps us grow.” 6. Give sales teams a live engagement history For sales teams to get the best out of each interaction with their leads, they have to have all the information they need at their fingertips. Pardot saves the entire customer engagement history, and makes it available to the salesperson wherever they need it – in the office, or out on the road. Before a call, or a meeting, the salesperson can review the customer’s history, and use that information to make their interactions more personalised and relevant. This history is updated in real time. It is also integrated with your CRM to ensure that every team has the information they need. Achieve rapid return on investment Pardot integrates with all of LIKE.TG’s advanced solutions. Therefore, as your business grows, your processes can grow with you. Of course, you need to know that your investment is going to provide you with the returns to make it worthwhile. The Pardot team have you covered: take a look at our Time-to-Value Guide for Small and Medium Businesses. For more insights, watch our webinar ‘Master your Marketing: How to convert hot leads amidst distraction’. We discuss all the benefits of marketing automation to help your small business grow at record speeds.
Maximise Your LIKE.TG ROI With the Summer ’22 Release
The Summer ’22 release preview is here! There are many new features and enhancements to help you maximise your LIKE.TG return on investment (ROI). You’re probably wondering: Why should I care? What’s in it for me? How can LIKE.TG help my business in even more ways? We release hundreds of new products, features, and enhancements three times a year, and many of them are free! This cycle has many innovations that can help expand your business to meet growing digital demands and close operational gaps. As a start, check out: CRM Analytics for industries — We’re introducing new ways to leverage our CRM Analytics tools for manufacturing cloud, loyalty management, and communications cloud. CRM Analytics delivers tailored insights and user experiences for every industry and line of business. Since it’s native to LIKE.TG, it also leverages all the security with no additional deployments, allowing automation, rapid scalability, and connecting business processes. LIKE.TG Cloud Integrations for Slack — There’s a new way to interact with LIKE.TG to drive performance and automate work — right from Slack. New integrations with Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud bring LIKE.TG data and tools right into Slack. These integrations improve team performance and make conversations more insightful, customer centric, and action-oriented. Mulesoft Accelerators — New and improved MuleSoft Accelerators for Manufacturing Cloud, Health Cloud (Healthcare & Life sciences), Financial Services Cloud, and Retail Cloud provide the foundation to jumpstart your top integration use cases for LIKE.TG clouds and other industry needs. These packaged solutions will help you get started quickly with your most important integrations and business initiatives. Learn more about these and other features and innovations in the Summer ’22 release. Release in a Box — A comprehensive guide to learn about the new features from the Summer ’22 release. Summer ’22 Highlights Trail — Learn about many of our innovations in the best way, through Trailhead! Take the trail and learn about new features to uplevel your work. Summer ’22 Demo Videos — Want to see our new features in action? Our product teams made these informational videos to show you how to get the most out of our Summer ’22 release. Excited for the release yet? Check out our release marketing website to maximise your investment and learn more about the Summer ’22 release. Get release notes This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Measure What Matters Most — Which Marketing Metrics Should You Focus On?
As Seth Godin rightly points out, “Measurement is fabulous. Unless you’re busy measuring what’s easy to measure as opposed to what’s important”. With channel proliferation, privacy changes, and more data, it is getting harder to measure what is important. Only 33% of marketers strongly agree that they gain insights fast enough for impactful decision-making (Marketing Intelligence Report). Getting data quickly is certainly important, but so too is the quality of the insights arising from that data. Vanity metrics, which tend to focus on number of followers, for example, are falling out of favour. Marketers now concentrate on metrics that measure engagement or conversions. Nearly four in five marketers agree that data quality is what will drive marketing-led growth and improved customer experience. While recent changes in privacy laws make things more complicated, new technologies are now available to help marketers meet these challenges head on. A new definition of success In the latest Marketing Intelligence Report, marketers named customer satisfaction and return on marketing investment as the two most important success metrics. Given the huge shifts that have taken place in customer behaviours and in business objectives due to the pandemic, it’s no surprise they should sit at the top of the success metric list. According to the State of Marketing report, customer satisfaction analytics have seen a 22% growth rate as 78% of marketing organisations reprioritised metrics in light of the pandemic. However, only around a third of marketers say they are completely successful at measuring customer satisfaction and return on investment (ROI). The figures are similar for the next two most important metrics. Thirty nine percent of marketers say customer acquisition is important, but only 31% say they are measuring it successfully. Brand awareness sits at fourth on the list with 36% but only 32% reporting accurate measurements. Part of the challenge lies in the quality of marketing data. The State of Marketing Report shows only 42% of marketers are completely satisfied with the hygiene of their customer data, only 37% are satisfied with the timeliness of their data, and 35% are happy with data integration. And these are not the only data challenges marketers are up against. Challenges faced by marketers today When asked to define the challenges they face in evaluating performance, marketers in Singapore named the following: Manual data integration processes Siloed data Alignment across teams on measurement and reporting These challenges leave marketers in a paradox. Our report found 99% of marketers in Singapore emphasise the importance of having a complete, centralised view of all cross-channel marketing. However, 68% still evaluate the performance of their cross-channel marketing in silos. This leaves plenty of room for improvement and integration. This appears to be a particular problem for businesses in Singapore, where siloed data is the number two performance challenge reported by marketers. Globally, it sits at the bottom of the list, at number seven. This might suggest marketers in Singapore could benefit from greater uptake of customer data platforms (CDPs). And, as we will see below, it’s an area of growing investment. Marketing Intelligence, for example, offers a single source of truth by integrating data from across teams and channels. It gives you real-time insights, allowing you to adjust your underperforming campaigns while they are still live. ROI becomes something that can be monitored and adjusted in real time, not just in retrospect once a campaign is over. Data privacy takes centre stage There have been several significant changes to data regulations over the last few years. Introduced in 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy and security law that imposes obligations on organisations globally and delivers harsh fines against businesses that violate its standards. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into effect two years later. It allows California consumers to see the information companies have saved on them, and who they shared it with. This is also relevant to companies based in Asia who have customers in the US. Together with Apple’s privacy updates and Google’s phasing out of third party cookies, these changes in consumer privacy protections are causing substantial disruptions to digital marketing globally. In response to these changes in data privacy regulations, 98% of marketers in Singapore have fundamentally changed how they measure marketing performance, with revisions in: Customer data collection Marketing performance KPIs and goals Marketing budget allocation But where there is change, there is opportunity. Marketers in Singapore have reported increasing their investments in: Marketing analytics and measurement Customer data platforms Real-time interaction and personalisation Analytics strategies that go beyond outdated measurements like email open rates will be essential to fostering the new metrics of marketing success. With LIKE.TG Marketing Intelligence , marketers can unify data from email from web analytics to build a 360-degree view of their customer, without breaching new privacy regulations. Add data from revenue databases to that equation and the success metric of ROI also becomes simpler to measure. The art and science of marketing It’s long been said that marketing is both an art and a science. I would argue that has never been truer. The scope for creativity is vast and the tools for data measurement are extremely sophisticated. But with the proliferation of data, it can be hard to know how best we can apply these tools. The average number of data sources used in B2C is expected to hit 12 in 2022. That’s double what it was in 2020. In B2B, the anticipated increase is from 10 to 15 (State of Marketing report). A clear objective is critical. Otherwise marketers will find themselves just wading through data, rather than finding real value in it. This is where technology like Marketing Cloud can help. Its AI capabilities can drive automated, personalised content and deliver meaningful and timely insights about customer behaviour. Interactive reporting across teams and channels means campaigns can be course-corrected to improve performance and ROI. Marketers must focus on the most valuable metrics and use the right tools to surface actionable insights from data. By doing this well, marketers not only drive business performance, but also validate and justify the role of marketing. As marketers, there has never been a better time to validate our seat at the board room table. For more data, analysis and expert insight, download the Marketing Intelligence Report.
Meet Brandy the Fox, the Newest LIKE.TG Character
We are in a new digital-first world. Customer expectations are changing. We’re working from anywhere. With all of these complex challenges, what’s a marketer to do? Call Brandy, the newest LIKE.TG character. Wherever you are in your marketing, Brandy is here to help monitor pipeline, cultivate campaigns, tell stories with personalisation, adapt to trends, and more. You’ll see her start to appear alongside our other characters — Astro, Codey, Appy, and all our favorite friends — in the coming weeks and months. Here’s a little more about Brandy the marketer and some insights behind her creation. The ideas behind our characters Let’s back up. Why do we have our LIKE.TG characters, anyway? In 1999, LIKE.TG changed the mindset of what enterprise software could be — easier to purchase, simpler to use, and more democratic without difficulties of installation, maintenance, and constant upgrades. Left to right: Appy, Einstein, Brandy, Astro, and Cloudy Our characters reflect this vision. While each of them has a specific job and purpose, every character shares our mission of making technology friendlier, more approachable, and accessible. They also embrace the fun side of our company and inspire our community to blaze new trails. Fast forward to today and our introduction to Brandy the Marketer. We began by asking ourselves, “What inspires us about our Trailblazers?” To answer the question, we made a list of their best qualities. Then, we went looking for the perfect way to put that into a character’s personality, appearance, and places she’ll show up. Marketers and foxes have more in common than you might think. Here are some details on Brandy, and why she’s a fox. Adaptable: Foxes thrive in diverse habitats — from forests to grasslands, mountains, and deserts. They can scale hurdles and swim well. This makes Brandy a welcome companion to marketers navigating a unique landscape of their own — our all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. Analytical: Foxes scan the field for data. Like marketers today, they have an analytical approach to everything they do. They have an “internal compass” to determine the distance to a goal, just like how marketers use their data to lead their strategy. Adventurous: Foxes can cover a lot of ground. They’re excellent travelers, always headed toward the next horizon. That’s why Brandy loves planning journeys. She finds the magic in every stop — or customer interaction — along the way. Approachable: Foxes are warm and friendly. Sometimes misunderstood or portrayed as mischievous, they’re actually quite lovable. Meet any of our Trailblazers, and you’ll walk away inspired and with a smile on your face. Moment maker: With her camera and watch, Brandy helps marketers deliver amazing customer moments at the right place, at the right time. Moment by moment, she helps marketers build customer relationships that last. A fox. A friend. A field guide. With her brilliant mind only matched by her blazing fur coat — perfectly matching Marketing Cloud’s hallmark orange — Brandy truly is a natural fit to the LIKE.TG family. Brandy is an on-the-go, work-from-anywhere marketer. She’s just like you. But mainly, she’s just like you: a marketer who delivers unforgettable moments for their customers. See how those moments are being built over by marketers everywhere at Marketer Career Path on Trailhead. You’ll be able to: Skill up in your marketing role. From email marketing to analytics, data science, and more, learn new in-demand marketing skills specific to your current role. Network with fellow marketers. You don’t have to go it alone. Join a thriving community of marketers and get expert tips, talk strategy, learn about customer trends, and more. Transform your career. Discover open positions, learn insights from industry leaders, and get inspired with stories of success from marketers just like you. Grow your career, connect with fellow Trailblazers, and explore what’s possible with marketing. Join the #MomentMarketer community. This post orginally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Meet Chloe Chua: A Purpose Driven Change-Maker
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Chloe Catherine Chua, CRM & Data Insights, Outreach & Partnerships at NVPC. Chloe has spearheaded the use of LIKE.TG with no prior IT experience, and is proving people with mental health challenges can contribute immense value to supportive organisations. Chloe Catherine Chua is an inspirational change-maker. Professionally, she has spearheaded the use of LIKE.TG at Singapore’s National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) with no prior IT experience. Personally, she is using her journey with anxiety and depression to inspire change in how mental health is viewed in Singapore’s fast-paced professional world. Chloe’s mission is to make peoples’ lives easier — both at work and in the mental health space. She joined NVPC from the logistics industry and began work with the nonprofit organisation in an administrative role. Despite having no prior IT experience, it wasn’t long before Chloe started thinking about how to use technology to make positive change. “When I started at NVPC, we had LIKE.TG but it wasn’t being used well,” she says. “LIKE.TG is such a powerful tool, but if you don’t know how to use it, you’re not going to get the value it can deliver. When we started testing LIKE.TG after I came in, we saw how it could make our lives so much easier.” Building a LIKE.TG ecosystem Chloe took the development lead. She self-learned LIKE.TG via YouTube videos and articles on the LIKE.TG website. Then she began to build an organisation-wide LIKE.TG ecosystem, with teams that automated workflows and achieved significant efficiency improvements and productivity gains across departments. From consolidating volunteer and donor data into a centralised single source of truth, to creating an interactive events calendar in Tableau, Chloe proved herself to be a one-person digital transformation change-maker. The results she has achieved are impressive. NVPC now has a 360-degree view of stakeholder interactions and data-based insights into program performance. This has led to greater efficiency across teams and improved external communications. It has also relieved a lot of the burden from administration on NVPC employees. And migrating the events calendar to Tableau has improved event scheduling and resource allocation. Making lives easier These would be impressive achievements for any experienced IT head. But the fact Chloe has added this much value to the organisation without prior IT experience makes her contribution even more remarkable. “I’m thankful that LIKE.TG doesn’t require heavy coding,” she says. “It helps me think a lot more in terms of process and what the different possibilities are, rather than having to focus on how to code it. Whatever ideas I have, LIKE.TG can definitely do it. It’s just a matter of knowing the LIKE.TG functions. “I’m also grateful that NVPC trusted me enough to take over LIKE.TG and revamp the whole system with zero IT knowledge,” she says. “Once I understood what NVPC was trying to achieve, I could apply what I had learned about LIKE.TG and build up the automation step-by-step from there. “I would like to make things easier for everyone, so when people tell me I’m making their lives so much easier, that’s a huge achievement for me. Chloe’s experience with LIKE.TG has opened up her love of data analytics and systems design. Systems design has helped her think outside the box and approach problems from multiple angles. Data analytics empowers her to provide leadership teams with accurate and concise reporting on organisational performance. “It excites me to see how I can challenge myself and come up with creative solutions to solve different issues. These skills have given me the focus and direction to further my career development,” she says. Support is a two-way street Chloe is clearly a rising star in the LIKE.TG community. She has the talent — and now experience — to continue to create positive organisational change. However, her immense potential has not always been recognised. “I suffer from anxiety and depression, and my last employer actually let me go,” she says. “But NVPC understands that support is a two-way street. They offer counselling, and if I’m having a difficult period, I can say I need some time to myself and they are very supportive of that. It’s a wonderful thing when employers don’t question you, they trust you.” NVPC’s trust in Chloe has certainly paid off for the organisation. But it’s a concept she says many employers still struggle with. “There’s definitely a long way to go in Singapore,” she says. “There is a stigma that people with mental health challenges can’t work efficiently and can’t help the organisation — that they are just a burden. But we are definitely not.” “It’s difficult to find the right company and the right people to support you, but it’s good to believe that you will find them. So don’t give up. It took me a long time to find an employer that supports me personally, but now, with the right support, I have finally found myself again. And I’m curious and optimistic about what the future holds.”
Meet Daisy Hoang: From Start-up Success to Global Growth Strategist
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Daisy Hoang, Senior Vice President of Sales and Success at Katalon in Vietnam. Daisy brings a growth mindset to the fast-moving tech industry, and has supported ambitious growth in a revenue-generating role. Daisy Hoang is a start-up star. From beginning her career in Chicago to scaling the heights of Ho Chi Minh City in her current role as Senior Vice President of Sales and Success at Katalon, Daisy knows what it takes to achieve ambitious growth in the fast-moving tech industry. Much of her success comes down to her strong growth mindset and customer-focused sales philosophy. Daisy says she’s in the solutions business, and being willing to learn from prospects is more important than a slick sales pitch. “The sales call shouldn’t be about forcing prospects to listen to our pitch. Rather, selling is about guiding prospects through the whole buying experience,” she says. “As salespeople, we shouldn’t be trying to outsmart the prospect, but trying to make their experience of discovery and negotiation as smooth and seamless as possible.” “That’s why I think client-facing roles are so interesting. You learn as much from the prospects and clients as they are learning from your product.” Finding her feet Daisy grew up in Vietnam, and left to study in the US when she was 18. She graduated from top-tier Augustana College with a Bachelor of Arts (International Business, Marketing, and Communication), then won a full-ride scholarship to study for a Master of Science (Marketing and Communication) at Illinois State University. Her first taste of the professional world came via an internship with UnityPoint Health. It was during this time that Daisy began to lay out a blueprint for her career. “During one of my internships, my mentor told me that whatever I do in the future to make sure I’m in a revenue-generating function,” she says. “When times are good you don’t have to worry, and when times are bad often the revenue-generating function continues to be in high demand.” “I also knew that I wanted to be in a very high-growth environment that would push me to continue to learn and develop. Those two guiding principles have always been my north star.” Daisy’s path led to a position as Sales Strategy Lead for Chicago-based online reputation management platform, SIM Partners — that later got acquired by Reputation.com. Working out of the company’s Chicago office, Daisy had a front seat for the platform’s rapid growth. “It was my first time being exposed to scaling across geographic locations and verticals, and they had a very mature go-to-market strategy,” she says. “It was good for me to start out at a small startup and then see how that business could potentially become so large and diversified.” All roads led to Katalon That start-up energy was part of what attracted Daisy back to Vietnam, where investment was booming, and to a role with SaaS solutions provider, Katalon. “I knew before I joined Katalon that I was looking for three things: an experienced senior leadership team, a very strong product that truly adds value to the organisations that use it, and a product that could scale across geographic locations, verticals and customer size.” Daisy found that in Katalon, where she continues to thrive in a fast-paced environment with a global growth vision. “We are serving clients from more than 160 countries, so at any time of the day and night there are members of our team out discovering prospects, pitching and closing. It’s a very dynamic part of the organisation,” she says. “As a very high-growth SaaS startup, we’re also aiming for ambitious growth, and because of that, the challenges are never the same from one day to the other.” A single source of truth One of those challenges was replacing the company’s legacy CRM to create a single source of truth with LIKE.TG. Daisy says LIKE.TG has provided the visibility the organisation needed to build accountability into the sales culture, and more accurately forecast revenue. “I don’t think my job is possible without LIKE.TG,” she says. “I spend a lot of my day living in LIKE.TG. We started out just using LIKE.TG for the sales team, but gradually we expanded it to the customer success team, and now to the customer support team. It’s really good to have that visibility across all teams directly within LIKE.TG.” Daisy says that after a successful growth phase, Katalon is now at a turning point. And she’s excited to take the next step in her career with the company. “I’ve been fortunate at Katalon to build a very high-growth revenue engine, but we’re at a benchmark where playbooks have to change because growing from point A to point B is very different from growing from point B to point C,” she explains. “The next step in my career is building the playbook for the next phase of up-scaling.” Daisy is also optimistic for the future of Vietnam, and is keen to inspire the next generation of home-grown talent. “When I first came back to Vietnam, the tech start-ups were very much focused around solving a local problem. But I’m starting to see more start-ups coming out of Vietnam with a global mindset. It is a young environment that’s heavily dominated by Gen-Z and Millennials, and it’s really good to see bigger dreams.” As a mentor to others now starting on their career path, Daisy finds being a part of those dreams energising, “It’s exciting to share visions of the future with others who are equally passionate about the opportunities ahead.” Check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series: Meet Joey Chan: How an Entrepreneur Found Success in the LIKE.TG Ecosystem Meet Trần Việt Thắng: Helping People Work Smarter Meet Joanna Teo: Customer-Focused Data Evangelist
Meet Francisco N. Collantes Jr. : Deliver Energy Through Collaboration
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this new series featuring Trailblazers who are LIKE.TG customers, Nichola introduces Francisco N. Collantes Jr. (Cookie) from Meralco, the Philippines’ biggest energy company. Cookie is a natural and dynamic project manager, with a passion for quality customer service. Francisco N. Collantes Jr. (Cookie) beams with enthusiasm for his most recent role, and well deserved promotion, as Head of Customer Interaction Management with the Philippines’ power utility giant, Meralco. Since graduating with a degree in Business Management fifteen years ago from Ateneo de Manila University, Cookie has had an action-packed career full of hands-on experience and a few interesting twists and turns along the way. A date with data Cookie’s interest in business was initially broad, but his career motivation has always been clear. “Delivering exceptional customer satisfaction and improving the quality of everyday life through our products and services has always motivated me,” he says. “I’m not a tech guy. I’m not even a programmer!” Cookie says. But in his first role with Meralco as a Business Analyst, he gained an appreciation for data and programming. He recognised that clever use of data made an impact on both customer satisfaction and business results. And as proof that he was putting his new knowledge to good use, Cookie moved into a more senior role as Relationship Manager. “I managed relationships with some of our key channel partner accounts, and trained in project management,” says Cookie. “This was where I really began to understand data modelling and technical architecture. It was also where I came to know LIKE.TG.” Having the right tools for the job The billing system Meralco worked with five years ago was also its CRM system. The CIO at the time decided that a cloud-based CRM platform, rather than the existing on-premise system, would help better understand and service customers. “It was an all-hands-on-deck digital transformation for us,” says Cookie, “I led the pilot project implementation as we moved from on-premise to a cloud CRM solution.” From there, with additional training, Cookie transitioned into a critical Project Management role. “The move to project management became a natural fit for me,” he says. Cookie’s innate ability to lead teams and projects through to completion was recognised by his leaders and, as a Project Manager, he was able to deliver results right to the frontline of customer service – a powerful motivator for him. Cookie says he couldn’t be more pleased with the decision to upgrade the CRM. “LIKE.TG suited our needs on many fronts,” he says. “Our energy is no longer taken up with trying to make backend systems work. Because we now have such a seamless system, we can concentrate on moving our customers into the digital space. This is really exciting to me.” Success built on collaboration, leadership and learning Cookie mentions that collaboration is a key ingredient for success when leading his project teams. “People have unique capabilities and talents. We have to work as a group to deliver the best results,” he says. “I rely on the great collaboration between our tech teams and our customer-centric teams. It’s not business dictating technology, nor technology dictating what the business needs. Rather a true collaboration that leads to success.” Cookie credits inspiring leaders with the team’s success and his own career development. “Having good leaders – and being a good leader – makes all the difference to a person’s success,” he says. “Rather than claiming to be an expert in a particular field and expecting people to follow, the team leaders I’ve been fortunate enough to work with were at the top of their careers. They generously shared their learnings with me.” Focused on continual learning along the way, Cookie advises those working their way up in their careers to have an open dialogue with their leaders about mistakes and lessons. “After every project, whether it has been a success or failure, always track the lessons learned,” advises Cookie. He notes that there are often many unknowns going into a project, which makes it so energising, but also provides so much opportunity for learning and growth. “Take a step back and analyse the success metrics. What went well? What didn’t go so well? And then map the way forward.” Taking the time to reflect and learn from each task, project, or activity is a guiding principle that has made Cookie a highly successful project manager and an inspiring leader. Watch Cookie’s session at LIKE.TG Live: Asia to hear more about the projects he leads at Meralco.
Meet Gratiano Yeung: Transforming Service by Delighting Customers
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this series featuring Trailblazers who are LIKE.TG customers, Nichola introduces Gratiano Yeung (Grat) from Roojai.com, the most visited insurance website in Thailand. With service in her blood and technology driving her dreams, Grat has become one of Asia’s most respected Chief Customer Officers (CCOs). For 14 years in her birth city of Hong Kong, Grat walked the beat as a volunteer with the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force. On the streets and wearing her uniform, she learned the true meaning of service. “Hong Kong is one of the safest cities in the world – the crime rate is very low. So, the role of the police is more about providing services and solutions,” says Grat, now Chief Customer Officer at Thai insurtech Roojai.com. During her years in the police force, Grat also manned the phones in the Regional Command and Control Centre – liaising with police, firefighters and paramedics following emergency calls. In the last four years, she was serving at Inspectorate level and was a Patrol Sub-Unit Commander. Policing was a volunteer role. Her paid work was in customer service. “I graduated in 1998 with a Finance degree, but this was just one year after Hong Kong was returned to China, so there was also a big financial crisis and it was not easy to get a job,” she says. “By chance, I went to a start-up and was employed as an agent in their contact centre.” For two decades, Grat worked her way up in customer service. She managed, designed, and implemented new technological systems for contact centres. “I think it’s in my blood,” she smiles. “I’m passionate about delivering very good customer experience. When you’re able to help someone, you always feel joy and happiness.” A cultural exchange Grat moved from Hong Kong to Pattaya in Thailand with her family for the job with insurtech Roojai.com. The change in culture prompted a change in management style, and presented an opportunity to rethink Roojai.com’s service operations. In Thailand, Grat says, people work quite differently to Hong Kong. “That has pushed me to think about how I can implement technology better for different cultures,” she says. “For example, I developed more automation to increase efficiency. By automating more workflows, we streamlined collaboration across the team.” Grat had the perfect career background to develop such a system. From helping citizens on the streets of Hong Kong, to helping car and motorcycle insurance customers on the streets of Thailand, Grat’s service journey has always involved a delicate balance of human connection and technological wizardry. Technology makes us better humans The systems Grat has helped to implement, for her team and customers, are now revolutionising the automotive insurance industry. Grat’s service team utilise LIKE.TG solutions to ensure absolute personalisation of every customer interaction. They also use artificial intelligence, via the smartphone cameras of customers, to make the insurance claims process easier and quicker, and far cheaper for the business. “People’s expectations are getting higher and higher,” she says. “Contact centre staff must proactively figure out what else they can do to provide better innovation or better solutions for our customers.” “For example, Roojai.com is the first online company for car insurance in Thailand to offer video car inspections after an accident. We don’t need to send a surveyor to inspect the car. This is built into the app with AI.” “With this, the customer saves time and we save time, effort, and money. From an operational perspective, every time we send out a surveyor it costs about 600 baht if it’s in the Bangkok metropolitan area, and upwards from 1,000 baht in upcountry regions. Every month, we cover 3,000 to 4,000 inspections. So, imagine how much we save using this technology.” Great leaders transform processes and people So, is Grat a customer service leader who also implements technology, or a technologist who also works in customer service? Actually, she’s neither, she says. “I’m a transformer,” Grat explains. “Previously, I worked in call centre operations, but now I create innovative solutions, not just for our customers but also for our agents and other users.” “My vision is to share my knowledge on contact centre innovations. I’m looking forward to being an impactful leader in the contact centre industry and helping more agents to deliver value-added service to customers.”
Meet Joanna Teo: Customer-Focused Data Evangelist
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Joanna Teo, Managing Director of Attribute Data. Much of Joanna’s career has been spent convincing businesses of the powerful influence data has on exceptional customer experience. More from Nichola here. Around 13 years ago, Joanna Teo was a digital analyst at OgilvyOne Worldwide. Part of her responsibility involved analysing data to figure out whether online ads were working. Joanna and her colleagues discovered that by looking at the right data, they were able to understand a lot more about the people who interacted with those ads. For example, they could identify patterns of behaviour once people entered a site, and find out what other products they were interested in. She realised that her team had the power to understand how and why customers behaved the way they did prior to, during, and following an interaction. The data offered hints as to the true nature and drivers of their customer experience. The problem was that many colleagues and clients didn’t appreciate the value of this knowledge. Following this, Joanna had to spend time and energy convincing them of its potential. Now, almost 13 years later, and in a dramatically advanced technological environment, she’s having similar discussions, but in a far more receptive environment. As founder and Managing Director of customer intelligence consultancy Attribute Data, Joanna spends much time showing data-savvy clients where to look for the most transformational information. “There has always been a balance between having clients understand that you need more time and more budget for this work, rather than spending everything on ads, or upgrading websites,” she says. “More businesses are now understanding the beauty of data and what it can do for customer relationships. They realise that’s important because success is not just about the moment of transaction.” “At Attribute Data, we focus on customer data. We want to know what customers are doing, thinking, and feeling. A lot of businesses want to figure out how to increase the amount of money customers spend with them. To do this, they first have to realise relationships are not transactional, they’re long-term and they are about experience.” Data reveals the truth Joanna Teo’s LinkedIn page has a three-word title: “actionable intelligence evangelist”. It’s a fitting label for a professional who has spent her career finding powerful meaning in data and convincing clients of its value. Joanna attended Singapore Management University, earning a BSc Information Systems Management. While studying, she interned with Yahoo! later accepting a network optimisation role after graduation, where she was mentored by world-class managers. She learned about performance influenced costs, and the advantage of having accurate data insights. During her time at Yahoo!, the organisation relied on data to win market share in certain parts of the business, optimise ad pricing strategies, and ensure customer success with ad campaigns. Sometimes Yahoo! found success, sometimes competitors had wins. What became clear to Joanna was that the secret to success was to be found in the proper analysis of the right data. “In hindsight, it made me realise how limiting it is to be focused only within your own business, to not pop your head up and see what’s happening in the market.” This led to her next move deep into data analytics at OgilvyOne, where she realised that growth was also about knowing what motivated customer behaviour. It was about understanding people. As important as technology had become in every organisation, sector, and market, it held little value if it didn’t serve human needs. Those needs, Joanna knew, were revealed through data. People drive success In her own business, Joanna realised from the very beginning that people, rather than technology, drive success. She launched Attribute Data, a LIKE.TG partner, six years ago and now has 14 employees. Its success has seen the launch of operations in China this year. “It’s a consultancy, so of course it’s about people,” Joanna says. “We focus on collecting data about how people feel, behave, and think.” Joanna is proud of the fact that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she held on to all her staff. This was partly due to the fact that she employed the right types of people. New hires naturally require an analytical mindset, but she does not hire for specific skill sets New employees can learn on the job, as long as they have the right attitude. “Having the right mindset is important,” she says. “They must be ready to continuously learn, because this is not a stagnant industry. Our people take classes with industry partners such as LIKE.TG to develop highly industry-relevant skills.” What about her own development? Joanna has completed several university-based short courses. These include a Data Science Specialisation from Johns Hopkins University, a Big Data and Social Analytics program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an AI and Business Strategy program at Nanyang Technological University. Next, she’s planning to complete a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence. “I enjoy learning,” Joanna says. “I have set aside an annual budget that I call the ‘enrichment fund’ that all staff can tap into,” Joanna says. “It is very motivating because they choose what they’re going to do. “We need to make data as palatable as possible for our clients, which means we need to enjoy what we’re doing. If we’re engaged, our clients will be too.” At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, we are inviting Trailblazer from around Southeast Asia to share their stories of growth and transformation. Join LIKE.TG Live: Asia to learn from our Trailblazers. For more stories of our Trailblazers, check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series: Meet Johan Yu: Empowering People and Businesses Through Technology Meet Colleen Toledo: Revolutionising Banking, Transforming Experiences
Meet Joey Chan: How an Entrepreneur Found Success with LIKE.TG
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Joey Chan, a LIKE.TG MVP and the founder of Cloud Jedi Solutions in the Philippines. Joey used self-guided learning to become a world-class LIKE.TG Architect, and now he’s helping others to replicate his remarkable journey. Joey Chan is a natural entrepreneur. As a university student, he dreamed of starting his own business within five years of graduation. But the budding young developer faced an important decision at the very beginning of his career. He questioned whether to specialise on LIKE.TG, or on another large platform. “The problem with the other platform is that, given its complexity, nobody would trust that a 20+ year old knew what they were doing. But with LIKE.TG, there was so much I could do on my own without having a large team. That started my deep dive into the LIKE.TG ecosystem.” Joey threw himself into his LIKE.TG self-education. He read all the LIKE.TG related blogs he could find, reviewed the LIKE.TG documentation, and built his knowledge answering questions from other LIKE.TG users around the world through the Answers Community. “I dreamt of becoming world class, so I needed to make sure I really understood the platform,” he says. “I was hungry for knowledge, and one of the places to supplement my learning was the LIKE.TG community. People from around the world would ask questions about LIKE.TG, and if I didn’t know the answer, I would research it and find the answer for them.” The force is with you Just three months from graduation, Joey began moonlighting on the side with his goal of starting his own business firmly in his sights. Within nine months, he received an offer from a US-based company. They wanted him onboard as their full-time developer — at six-times his current salary. Joey seized the opportunity, left his job at the consulting firm, and then shortly after founded Cloud Jedi Solutions. “I started getting more US clients based via referrals,” he explains. “It was a gradual progression. I never felt like I needed to market the business, because we had constant work. Part of our success was in making sure that our clients were getting a great return on their investment at each point of the project.” Cloud Jedi Solutions has become an impressive success story. The company has been the number-one rated developer on LIKE.TG AppExchange since 2015, and Joey has been recognised as a LIKE.TG MVP for his deep expertise and leadership of the Trailblazer Community in the Philippines. Follow the leader Joey used his skills on LIKE.TG to forge a path from an ambitious university student to a successful business leader. Now, he wants to help others follow in his footsteps. He is an active leader of the Trailblazer Community in the Philippines, and is one of the organisers of SEA Dreamin’ — the largest community-led LIKE.TG event in South East Asia. He also currently hosts the LIKE.TG MVP Series that brings LIKE.TG experts to Philippines audiences. “I believe where I am right now with the company is the result of all the investment in learning I made in the past,” he says. “But that knowledge is not meant to be kept to myself. I believe that it should be open to everyone.” Joey says self-guided learning on Trailhead gives anyone with an internet connection access to the knowledge required to become successful in LIKE.TG. However, he advises young developers to find a mentor who can help them focus their learning journey. “There are literally thousands of badges you can earn on Trailhead, so people new to the LIKE.TG ecosystem need guidance on the different paths you can follow. Mentors can really help with that,” he explains. “The most important thing is to be able to build something on your own. It’s a lot easier to follow instructions, but you really bring value to a client when you can identify a problem and solve it with a solution you build in LIKE.TG.” Family comes first Joey is now a dedicated family man, and so is turning to the Trailblazer Community in the Philippines to help grow his team at Cloud Jedi Solutions. “I can continue to work the same amount as I used to, but that’s going to be at a cost to family time,” he says. “That’s a shift I’m making now, and part of the reason I’m growing my team. I have been privileged to reach a point in my career where I can stop working if I want to.” This is the kind of freedom Joey says a career as a LIKE.TG Architect can deliver — if you’re willing to do the hard work. “You have to be willing to do the hard things. When I started Cloud Jedi, I wasn’t in a corporate setting anymore. I had to set my own standards. I didn’t want to be mediocre. I dreamt of becoming one of the best in the world. That was my mindset. “I believe that what I’ve gone through is a pathway others can replicate. I think that in the Philippines, there can be a feeling of being stuck — that you have to leave the country in order to better provide for your family. But, with a career in the LIKE.TG ecosystem, you can do well here without leaving your family.”
Meet Johan Yu: Empowering People and Businesses Through Technology
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Johan Yu, a LIKE.TG MVP, business systems architect, blogger, and author, based in Singapore. Johan loves using the power of data for the benefit of all business stakeholders. In the remote Indonesian village where Johan Yu grew up, electricity was a rare luxury. Therefore, all tasks connected to his father’s farming business were done manually. Along with the farming itself, these included record-keeping of expenses, crop production levels, and sales accounts. At school, Johan began to learn about computers. Very soon, he recognised the power such technology would bring to his father’s business, as well as his community. Johan wasn’t thinking of anything sophisticated like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or robotic automation. Such technology was still a long way off. He could simply see that certain jobs were better left to machines, enabling humans to be better at what they do. “At my high school, we had a computer lab and I became very interested in computers,” says Johan. “Once my teachers knew I was interested in computer science, they guided me on a path to study at university in Jakarta.” Johan earned a Bachelor of Computer, Management Information Systems, at Jakarta’s BINUS University. Then, he took a Master of Management, Information Systems, at BINUS University and Australia’s Curtin University. While studying, Johan realised his dream could come true. As a child, he had imagined using the power of computing to help businesspeople like his father. Today, he is a business systems architect and LIKE.TG MVP , who works with businesses to solve problems using technology. Becoming “skilled, more competent, and faster” For seven years during and following university, Johan worked for an insurance firm. Then he moved to Sydney, Australia, and took a job with the country’s first LIKE.TG partner. Immediately, the LIKE.TG platform made sense to him. It wasn’t so much about what it did, but more about what it allowed him to do. “I had come from using basic systems to building applications,” Johan says. “And I realised there were a lot of things that I thought IT professionals shouldn’t have to do any more. “I saw that we could focus more on how technology can enable the strategic needs of the business, rather than just the infrastructure required. The capabilities of the technology enabled us to think about the business in a different way.” The capabilities of the LIKE.TG platform made him feel “skilled, more competent, and faster”, Johan says. In the past, he had never experienced a strong community around a platform or brand. So when he had challenges, it was sometimes difficult to find solutions. But once he discovered how active the LIKE.TG community was, he realised he was able to find answers immediately, from Trailblazers all over the world. “I appreciated the speed to execute,” he says. “In the past, I had to spend a long time setting up the server, the database, and more. But the LIKE.TG platform is so convenient. I could just start working on projects immediately. And reach out to the community for help when needed.” Success = user experience + empowerment Johan is currently working in a multinational company, from his home in Singapore, with more than 10,000 people around the globe. How does he ensure they’re all making the most of a platform or application that has been developed for them? “We try to make sure apps are simple for users to understand and interact with,” he says. “We don’t want to put too much effort into documentation. If it is user-friendly, then it makes sense. If it’s not user-friendly, it’s just wasting money.” Importantly, Johan says, technology is not about replacing people. Its true power, as he realised when he was a young boy, is in making people even better at what they do. “In the corporate world, we don’t use AI to replace people. We use it to enable people,” he says. “Our people can use AI to see how likely it is that a sale will close. The propensity to close is based on historical data and on the experience of similar customers. So, the AI helps salespeople to prioritise their work. We see that it makes them more successful.” Leading the LIKE.TG community in Singapore In Singapore, Johan is well-known as a generous leader within the LIKE.TG community. He is considered a knowledgeable expert, who spends a great deal of time helping others to find solutions to powerful business challenges. This assistance includes a Salesforce-themed blog site, managed and written by Johan, which attracts more than 2,200 people every day from around the world. Most of his visitors are not from Singapore. They come from the USA, UK, and India. His reputation has spread around the globe. The prolific sharer of knowledge has also written three books. They are LIKE.TG Reporting and Dashboards, LIKE.TG Lightning Reporting and Dashboards, and Getting Started with LIKE.TG Einstein Analytics. Visit Trailhead to learn more about how to deepen your LIKE.TG knowledge and learn in-demand skills. For more stories of our Trailblazers, check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series: Meet Francisco N. Collantes Jr. : Delivering Energy Through Collaboration Meet Gratiano Yeung: Transforming Service by Delighting Customers
Meet Ng Teck Lung: Finding Success Through Lifelong Learning
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Ng Teck Lung, a LIKE.TG Administrator with Ninja Van. Teck Lung left a successful IT career to become a private-hire driver so he could spend more time with his family. Now, he’s reskilled as a LIKE.TG Administrator for a successful mid-career direction change. By early 2016, Singapore-born Ng Teck Lung had built a successful IT career. He started out in the mid 1990s as a Lotus Notes programmer, and worked as a software consultant for various companies until joining BlackBerry as a technical support analyst in 2005. From 2011, he took on senior project management roles at Prudential and e-Cop. But Teck Lung’s successful career came at a cost to his work/life balance. His busy work schedule meant he was missing time with his young family. So he decided things needed to change. “Working as a project manager or a technical support analyst in a global contact centre often meant working at weekends, and I missed some of my daughter’s major milestones,” he explained. “So I decided to leave and partner with ride-hailing platforms as a private driver. That was when the incentives were really good, and being self-employed gave me the flexibility I wanted to spend more time with my family.” Teck Lung says he very much enjoyed his new career choice for around four-and-a-half good years. “I was able to build a stronger relationship with my daughter,” he says. “I would drive her to school and pick her up each day. That was private time for us that I valued very much.” Unlocking the silver lining Then the pandemic hit. Lockdowns and restrictions heavily impacted Teck Lung’s driving business, and he and his family were soon living on their savings. “I heard about the SSG SkillsFuture programme, and decided to reskill as a LIKE.TG Administrator,” Teck Lung says. “LIKE.TG appealed to me because it is the number-one CRM in the world and is still growing exponentially, so I felt that I wouldn’t have any trouble finding a job in the LIKE.TG ecosystem.” Teck Lung participated in the SGUnited LIKE.TG Career Kickstarter Programme, a previous reskilling course supported by Trailhead Academy, and he used the Trailblazer community to expand and extend his LIKE.TG knowledge. Teck Lung even set up Slack groups for subject modules to share study notes with his fellow students. Slack provided a place for students to ask questions and share knowledge, and was so popular that Teck Lung’s lecturer asked to participate. This was an excellent introduction to the spirit of collaboration and knowledge sharing that runs through the LIKE.TG ecosystem and the Trailblazer community. “The Trailblazer community is full of friendly and experienced professionals who are always willing to advise and help. I learned together with fellow local Trailblazers, and we helped out one another by exchanging and sharing knowledge.” Finding success with LIKE.TG Teck Lung is now certified as a LIKE.TG Administrator, Associate and Platform App Builder. He has completed 28 trails in Trailhead, earned more than 200 Trailhead badges, and is a Double Star Ranger. He also took a proactive approach to his employment search. He built his own LIKE.TG dashboard to efficiently manage the progress of more than 40 job applications, and is now successfully employed as a LIKE.TG Administrator with Ninja Van. Teck Lung says his role at Ninja Van provides the flexibility he needs to continue to spend valuable time with family — thanks, in part, to LIKE.TG. “LIKE.TG is a cloud platform, so all you need is an internet connection and you can work practically anywhere in the world,” he notes. “LIKE.TG gives people the flexibility to travel and work from different places. “Trailhead works in the same way. It fits into your own learning schedule, and you can even use it to develop LIKE.TG skills while you’re on holiday.” Seizing the opportunity Teck Lung’s journey is proof that it’s possible to successfully change direction mid-career, and find valuable new opportunities within the LIKE.TG ecosystem that can really change lives. “My advice for aspiring jobseekers is to quickly seize this great opportunity to build a LIKE.TG career. Learning in Trailhead is free and the CRM platform itself is still growing strongly, so there are lots of products to learn and something to suit everyone” he says. Teck Lung explains that it’s key to begin reskilling with a clear goal in mind, “The LIKE.TG platform is huge, so it’s important to set short-term and long-term goals to direct the career path you have chosen, and continue to progress with a focus on continuous learning.” “Join the helpful local communities to expand your knowledge and networks. Participate in online discussions in professional networks on LinkedIn or in the Trailblazer Communities on Trailhead,” Teck Lung concludes. “Finally, take the opportunity to pay it forward by sharing your knowledge with aspiring Trailblazers in the future.”
Meet the New CFO — Your Most Important Leader in This Economy
Who has the most influence in a company? Increasingly, it’s the chief financial officer. More CFOs are being promoted to CEO than ever before, according to new research. Approximately 8.1% of sitting CEOs came directly from a CFO chair. The modern CFO manages more than just money. CFOs are taking broader leadership responsibilities, such as managing customer experiences, hiring and retaining talent, and leading strategic shifts into automation and other areas. The CFO is a lifeline for company health — and becoming more critical as we head into a time of economic uncertainty. What does this mean for today’s CFO? How is this role evolving as businesses face ongoing disruptions and instability? Changing characteristics of the modern CFO CFOs are far more diverse in gender and race than CEOs (and the rest of the C-suite). This year, 16% of CFOs are women, up from 9.7% a decade ago. And 10.9% are racially or ethnically diverse, up from 3.6% a decade ago. CFOs also have staying power, according to LIKE.TG research. CFOs remain in their positions for 4.8 years, on average — second only in tenure to the average 7.2 years notched by CEOs. And they have more responsibilities in their evolving roles. For example, they must be: Complex problem solvers (Well informed) fortune tellers Self-aware leaders Expert delegators “Traditionally, people have thought of CFOs as a steward” and that includes “running a tight finance ship,” Susan Li, Meta’s new CFO, said at a recent summit sponsored by Fortune. But today, CFOs wear many more hats, like “the efficient operator hat. The CFO is really a partner in steering the business direction and product vision for the company.” At some companies, the expanding role of the CFO is removing the need for a chief operating officer, added Tracey Travis, executive vice president and CFO at The Estée Lauder Companies, who also attended the summit. CFO challenges in 2023 — and beyond The C-suite has relied heavily on CFOs in recent years to help lead in times of economic turbulence, and that will continue in the future. In fact, 75% of CFOs say economic disruption is 2023’s biggest challenge. Another challenge is how to invest wisely in a downturn, especially in technologies that can help companies become more efficient as budgets tighten. The modern CFO who understands the potential of strategies like automation and platform consolidation can positively affect the bottom line. The average company uses 976 applications to run its business and store customer data. This isn’t efficient, effective, or affordable. If CFOs don’t have access to data across the whole business, how can they make informed decisions? The modern CFO must be a digital native — and that comes from deep understanding and partnerships with the CIO and tech team. The key is focusing on technology investments that deliver value, long-term cost savings, and ultimately, solid ROI. How can companies make the right technology investments during a downturn to deliver long-term value? LIKE.TG COO Brian Millham suggested the key is to lean into efficiency — simplifying complex processes and creating better productivity pathways. “It is possible to cut costs and reduce complexity while creating resilience within your company,” he added. “You can do this without compromise by consolidating systems and investing in the right technology for your business.” Skills for the modern CFO Spreadsheets are still important, but today’s CFO needs to communicate beyond the numbers. “CFOs are viewed as kind of a deputy CEO,” Alyse Bodine, global head of the financial officers practice at recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles, told Fortune last month. “The ability to lead a diverse set of individuals, both finance and non-finance, across the organisation takes people skills. So, there’s definitely a heightened demand on that skill set when it comes to the finance population.” LIKE.TG completed hour-long interviews last year with 10 CEOs across enterprise and commercial business. Many said they expected to replace current C-suite team members with leaders who had higher emotional intelligence (EQ) and were better equipped to handle not only stressed employees but a more socially engaged workforce. This isn’t new news. In 2020, Summit Leadership Partners found that 80% to 90% of high performers in the C-suite were differentiated by high EQ. According to their research, EQ is twice as important for predicting performance in executives than technical skills or IQ. And EQ could bridge the Great Disconnect between employees and the C-suite. How CFOs can evolve It’s no longer enough to steer a finance ship well. As CFOs develop new leadership styles, they should ask themselves the following questions: Is the way I lead: making the company stronger? true to who I am? necessary to get the job done? It takes a different lens to solve today’s — and tomorrow’s — problems. The modern CFO who can think creatively and differently, and develop thoughtful strategies for investing, is well poised for the road ahead. Ultimately, it’s the CFO who signs off on major investment decisions and takes the risk of investing in innovation versus tightening belts. Leaders should bet on the CFO that invests in the future versus pausing progress. Download our ebook to learn how to Prepare your Business for a Digital Future today. This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Meet Trần Việt Thắng: Helping People Work Smarter
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Trần Việt Thắng, a LIKE.TG Specialist at VinGroup in Vietnam. Thắng leads the LIKE.TG deployment across VinGroup’s B2B and B2C subsidiaries, and has a passion for helping others. Trần Việt Thắng has always wanted to help people. His vision was to be a caring person. As a young boy, he dreamed of becoming a doctor. His motivation was simple — he wanted to make people feel better. But studying medicine at university was expensive. So, he chose another path. “I had a good teacher who convinced me to study IT,” Thắng says. “I was very lucky to meet him. He taught me that, as a developer, I could help many people.” Thắng moved from his hometown to attend university in Hanoi. During his studies, he helped to develop patient admissions software for a local hospital. He quickly discovered that the scalable nature of software development enabled him to help many more people than he could as a doctor. “There were long queues at the hospital and people had to wait a long time to see a doctor,” he explains. “We made a back-end program the admissions office could use to quickly check-in new patients, collect information about their symptoms, and share that information with the doctor with one click.” Thắng’s program significantly increased admissions efficiency and reduced patient wait times. The young developer saw the positive impact his program had on the patient experience at the hospital, and he was hooked. “It was amazing,” he says. “It was a simple program but it helped so many people. I could see how technology can be used to help hundreds of people — maybe even thousands or millions of people. The program made doctors happy too because they could help more people every day. I was inspired by how one program could help doctors and patients together.” Building better solutions Thắng took those learnings into his early career as a developer. He understood that he was in the solutions business. He was passionate about developing software that helped solve problems — and made life better — for businesses, employees, and customers. So, it was a natural fit for him to work for a LIKE.TG independent software vendor (ISV). “I saw that LIKE.TG is a very powerful platform,” he says. “What took us a month or a year to develop ourselves, we could deliver in a week with LIKE.TG. I could develop custom components within the LIKE.TG platform with very little code in a very short time.” Thắng says that building applications on the LIKE.TG platform also ensured he could deliver more stable solutions. “To develop custom software without LIKE.TG, we might have to make 10 versions before it’s stable. But LIKE.TG gave us a stable base we could more easily build on.” This kind of agility and stability meant Thắng could help more customers with much shorter development timelines. But the speed of deployment doesn’t guarantee the success of a project. “We must understand how to best utilise the benefits of LIKE.TG for each customer,” he explains. “We need to think about the customer’s pain points, understand their workflow, and identify LIKE.TG components that will best fit their requirements.” One size doesn’t fit all Building that knowledge has made Thắng a sought-after LIKE.TG Architect. He joined VinGroup as a LIKE.TG Specialist and now leads LIKE.TG deployments across the company’s B2B and B2C subsidiaries. This presents its own challenges. VinGroup is a diverse corporation with many subsidiaries across the technology and industry, trade and services, and social enterprise sectors. Prior to LIKE.TG, VinGroup had no centralised 360-degree view and no collaboration across the group. Part of Thắng’s role is to maximise usage of LIKE.TG and drive change management within the company’s business units. Thắng has already led LIKE.TG deployments for subsidiaries in the company’s hospitality (VinPearl), automotive (VinFast) and healthcare (VinMec) sectors. However, what works for a five-star resort operator is very different from the needs of an electric vehicle manufacturer. That’s why Thắng says he treats every business unit as a new customer with a different set of needs. “LIKE.TG provides a stable architecture, but we must meet a range of different needs within that structure,” he explains. “To do so, we must understand the pain points of each stakeholder and the processes behind them. In other words, we need to know what the employees do so we can create a system that helps them do it better.” Humans helping humans Thắng knows that at the core of any technology-based solution are humans helping humans. He says the best way to succeed is to collaborate and share knowledge with each other. That’s a central value of the Trailblazer community in Vietnam, and Thắng is a passionate member. Since the pandemic started, he has organised several virtual meet-ups with LIKE.TG Architects across Vietnam. “I’ve met many people like me through the Trailblazer community,” he says. “The core value of LIKE.TG is using technology to help people work together. All of us in the Trailblazer community work together to help each other find better ways to leverage the LIKE.TG platform for our employers and customers. “We are not in competition with each other. We share best practices and learnings, and help each other to make the platform better every day and deliver more value to the end-users.” The young Thắng dreamed of making a positive impact on his community as a doctor. While he may have taken a different path, Thắng has remained committed to helping others. He uses technology as a healing medicine for business, and makes his colleagues and customers feel better. Check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series: Meet Joanna Teo: Customer-Focused Data Evangelist Meet Francisco N. Collantes Jr. : Delivering Energy Through Collaboration
Meet Vishal Salunkhe: Creating Magical Customer Experiences
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Vishal Salunkhe, Vice President & Regional Head of Sales Strategy & Operations at Carousell Group. Vishal has spent his career helping companies create intuitive customer experiences that put the magic back in the sales process. Vishal Salunkhe has been fascinated by technology for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Bombay, he was an early adopter from childhood, and remembers his desire to be the first in his class to own a mobile phone. “I saved my pocket money for six months, and I’m sure I skipped meals to get that phone,” he laughs. “Whether it was arcade games, or new apps or even MySpace, I was always very technologically curious.” Vishal puts his childhood fascination with technology down to the magic of user experience. Understanding the mechanics of that experience has been a theme that has run through his career. “In my early adulthood, I began to understand that technology is all about solving user problems in a meaningful way,” he says. “That’s the most attractive part of technology for me. There’s an ‘a-ha’ moment that comes when you see how technology is used to solve a problem that you didn’t even know you had.” Building a strong foundation As a student, Vishal was interested in economics. He attended the Indian Institute of Planning and Management for his postgraduate studies, and completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the International Management Institute. “I was lucky to join a business school that had one of the most intensive and diverse economics curriculum,” he says. “We studied everything from behavioural economics to business economics, and I still see that play out in the foundation of a lot of things I do today.” Vishal also developed an interest in philosophy. He was particularly attracted to objectivism and the work of Ayn Rand. “Objectivism essentially frames achieving our own happiness as the moral purpose of our lives, and productive achievement as our noblest activity,” he explains. “I feel these ideas are the foundation of my life and work philosophy.” Putting philosophy to work It’s no surprise that Vishal excelled in his first professional role as a Sales Operations Analyst at one of the top-five tech companies in India. His grounding in technology, economics and philosophy proved to be an ideal formula for the budding young sales professional. “I realised that I could only become a good salesperson by solving customers’ problems versus the hard sell,” he says. “Selling becomes very easy because when you are just trying to solve a problem for the customer it’s not really a sale. It becomes a partnership, and the sale is just the output of a successful partnership.” Vishal wanted to work across a spectrum of different big-tech software companies, and that journey led him to sales operations and service improvement roles at IBM, A.P. Moller – Maersk, and Red Hat. Today, as Vice President & Regional Head of Sales Strategy & Operations at Carousell Group, Vishal has shifted his focus to the consumer space. “Carousell was a pivotal shift in my career,” he says. “I felt that I had achieved everything I could in sales operations at an enterprise level, and Carousell was an opportunity for me to switch focus from the B2B enterprise space to B2C.” Solving user problems Vishal’s transition to Carousell also came with a move to Singapore, and the opportunity to set up the company’s sales enablement and CRM processes. The role aligned with his core passion for the problem-solving magic of good user experience. “Accepting the role was a no-brainer for me,” he says. “It is an opportunity for me to create, rebuild and polish our solutions to deliver that magic user experience in ways that solve user needs, and are successful for the business.” But Vishal knows you need the right tools for the job. He says the pandemic taught him about the need for collaboration — and the importance of having the tools that make organisation-wide collaboration possible. “I joined Carousell in March 2020, and within one week half the world was locked down,” he says. “There was so much behind-the-scenes strategy and go-to-market collaboration that needed to happen to get to a point where we could be meaningfully solving user problems.” Finding the magic Vishal says LIKE.TG has been instrumental in fostering this kind of organisation-wide collaboration. Customer 360 has replaced disparate sources of data to align employees around a single view of the customer, and streamlined the workflows that deliver magic user experiences. Vishal’s first experience with LIKE.TG was during his time at A.P. Moller – Maersk where he helped migrate a legacy CRM into LIKE.TG. He was hooked on the ease of working with the platform and with the insights it provided. “LIKE.TG is a breath of fresh air in terms of its user experience. The dashboard interface is so intuitive, and it’s so fast to build processes for our sales leaders. You need those kinds of tools in order to deliver the magic moments to your customers. In fact, some of my career choices have been led by whether my potential employer uses LIKE.TG.” LIKE.TG’s user experience, says Vishal, is an example of the intuitiveness Carousell is building into the company’s own user interface. “That’s the other piece of the puzzle,” he concludes. “You can build a very beautiful product that meaningfully solves customer problems. But if the user doesn’t intuitively understand how to use it, then it’s worthless. The user should be able to intuitively use 70 percent of your product in a matter of seconds, without training. That’s where the magic lies.”
New Research Reveals How SMBs Are Meeting Today’s Challenges and Building Resilience for the Future
Since the start of the pandemic, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Asia have found creative and innovative ways to keep pace with evolving customer expectations and drive business growth. In the face of great upheaval, the characteristic grit and resourcefulness of SMBs has been on full display. Eighteen months on from the start of the pandemic, what will be the new mandate for business transformation? We are excited to launch the fifth edition of the Small and Medium Business Trends Report. The report reveals how SMB owners are adapting to an ever-shifting business landscape and preparing for the future. It surveys over 2,500 SMB owners and leaders worldwide, including from Singapore and Thailand. Here are four key takeaways from the report: 1. Support goes both ways as communities step up and SMBs respond to customer needs Globally, two-thirds of SMB leaders say community support has been important to their company’s survival during the pandemic. In Singapore and Thailand, that community support has been even more critical, with 78% of SMB leaders saying it has helped their businesses survive. For the retail sector, that figure jumps to 85%. That much-needed support hasn’t gone without a response. SMB leaders have stepped up to cater to customer needs and build trust during the pandemic. In Singapore and Thailand, 66% of SMBs are offering their customers more flexibility. Fifty-six percent have expanded ways for their customers to reach them. Omni-channel, personalised engagements, quick and seamless customer service, and connected customer experience have built trust and loyalty when it’s most needed. 2. Growing SMBs prioritise employee engagement As remote working has scattered employees far and wide, keeping staff engaged and supporting their wellbeing over the past 18 months has been crucial to the success of growing SMBs. Meeting employee expectations for flexible schedules, remote work, and COVID-safe workplaces has been imperative for successful SMBs. The report reveals that SMB leaders have created trusted relationships with employees by responding to their needs, asking for feedback, and allowing autonomy. 3. Growing SMBs accelerate investment in digital All SMB leaders surveyed in Singapore and Thailand have moved a portion of their operations online in the past year, with almost half moving between 51% and 100% of their operations online. This will help them cater to the new digital imperative in customer service and enable a safer remote working environment. Many leaders are making these changes permanently, which will continue to benefit them in the long term. This is a crucial step to building resilience in SMBs. The latest State of the Connected Customer report shows 68% of customers say they’re online more often than not and nearly two-thirds say they expect to be online more after the pandemic than before. Most growing SMBs (71%) say their business survived the pandemic because of digitisation. In Singapore and Thailand, 68% are accelerating their investment in customer service to manage customers’ expectations and deepen customer relationships in the evolving digital landscape. This has proved that a focus on customer experience is even more of a differentiator for growth in the digital-world. It also makes it clear that the right technology can help SMBs build relationships with their customers and establish a good foundation for growth. What kinds of technology are growing SMBs investing in? The findings show that growing SMBs have moved the majority of their operations online, prioritising customer service, sales, marketing, and IT operations. The types of software that growing SMBs use include customer service software, email marketing software, and ecommerce software. The research also shows that even the majority of stagnant/declining SMBs are investing in these four areas. LIKE.TG helps small businesses find more customers, win their business, and keep them happy so you can scale and succeed. Learn more about our small business CRM solutions. 4. Growing SMBs look to the future and learn from the past After an extended period of uncertainty, many SMBs are finding the steps they’ve taken to survive the impact of the pandemic have made them more efficient. In Singapore and Thailand, 91% of SMB owners feel the operational shifts they’ve made over the last year will benefit their businesses going forward. In Singapore, 88% of growing SMBs have created scenario plans to prepare for future crises. In Thailand, the number is 96%. Implementing digital solutions to deal with the demands of a socially distanced customer base has set SMBs up well to cope with future consumer trends. Ninety-two percent of Thai and Singapore-based SMBs plan to make contactless services available permanently. Secure digital payments, digital customer service, and ecommerce are set to become the standard ingredients of a contactless shopping experience. Agility and innovation are necessary for long-term growth The past 18 months have been a rollercoaster ride for SMBs. For many, the dips have far outweighed the peaks. However, this latest research demonstrates that the reputation SMBs have for being agile in the face of change and resilient in the face of challenge is well deserved. As savvy SMBs prioritise solutions and relationships that fortify their businesses, they will be well equipped to weather whatever may come their way. Now is the time to take inspiration from businesses that have thrived and use the lessons learned during the pandemic. Last but not least, it’s time to leverage the latest research insights to help you build resilience for the future. Read the the fifth edition of the Small and Medium Business Trends Report to learn how small and fast-growing businesses have adapted their operations for success.
New Research: 60% of Marketers Say Generative AI will Transform Their Role, But Worry About Accuracy
Editor’s Note: AI Cloud, Einstein GPT, and other cloud GPT products are now Einstein. For the latest on LIKE.TG Einstein, go here. LIKE.TG surveyed over 1,000 marketers as part of its Generative AI Snapshot Series and found that 51% are currently using** generative AI. An additional 22% plan to use it very soon, totalling nearly three-quarters of marketers. However, over a third (39%) also say they don’t know how to safely use generative AI. They raise concerns about its accuracy and report a need for human oversight, as well as proper training and trusted customer data, to leverage the technology effectively at work. From personalisation to productivity — marketers say generative AI is transforming their role Marketers using generative AI are already targeting the basics, like content creation (76%) and writing copy (76%). But many see a wholesale overhaul of their work on the horizon, with 53% saying generative AI is a ‘game changer.’ Respondents cite reasons for this that include its ability to transform the way they analyse data, personalise messaging content, build marketing campaigns, and build/optimise SEO strategy. With generative AI, marketers also say they expect to save time and be able to focus on more strategic work: 71% say generative AI will eliminate busy work. 71% say generative AI will allow them to focus on more strategic work. In fact, they estimate generative AI will save them over five hours per week – the equivalent of over a month per year* at work. Marketers report accuracy and quality as top concerns — say trusted customer data and human oversight are required to use generative AI successfully at work Accuracy and quality depend on data. However, 67% of marketers say their company’s data is not properly set up for generative AI — despite a similar number (63%) saying trusted customer data is important for the successful use of generative AI at work. This is a sentiment echoed by experts. According to Clara Shih, LIKE.TG’s CEO of AI, “Data is fuel for AI — without high-quality, trusted data, it becomes ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ AI pulling from data sources that are irrelevant, unrepresentative, or incomplete, can create bias, hallucinations, and toxic outputs.” Many (71%) marketers also believe generative AI’s lack of human creativity and contextual knowledge is a potential barrier to successfully using generative AI in the workplace. As a result, 66% percent of marketers say human oversight is needed to successfully use generative AI in their role. Marketers need training to realise the potential of generative AI While marketers are excited about the opportunities of generative AI to transform their work, many feel unprepared to take full advantage of it, with 43% saying they don’t know how to get the most value out of the technology. And while 54% of marketers believe generative AI training programs are important for them to successfully use generative AI in their role, 70% say their employer does not yet provide generative AI training. “Generative AI has the potential to transform how marketers connect with their customers by powering more personalised, automated, and effective campaigns — quickly and at scale,” said Stephen Hammond, EVP and GM, Marketing Cloud at LIKE.TG. “But as companies look to adopt the technology, they need to unify their first-party data and leverage trusted AI innovations to ensure safety and accuracy.” More information Tune into Connections on LIKE.TG+ to learn more about the future of generative AI for marketing and commerce Learn about LIKE.TG’s new Marketing GPT product here Learn AI skills on Trailhead Read senior IT leaders’ perspectives on generative AI for their business Research methodology LIKE.TG conducted a generative AI survey in partnership with YouGov May 18 – 25, 2023. It included over 4,135 full-time employees across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. The data above reflects responses from 1,029 full-time marketers representing companies of a variety of sizes and sectors in the United States, UK, and Australia. The survey took place online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US, UK, and Australian full-time employees (aged 18+). *(5 hours per week on average saved using ‘generative AI’ x 52 weeks in one year) / 8-hour working day = 32.5 days or over a month per year saved on average **have leveraged generative AI into their workflows or are experimenting with it at work.
New Research: Is CRM the Secret To Connecting Your Business Silos?
LIKE.TG partnered with Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of CRM systems across a wide range of industries. The findings show the core challenges facing business leaders today and how they’re investing in customer-centricity for tomorrow. It’s fiscal year planning time, and as the departmental leader, you’re eager to invest in new technology to improve customer experience metrics and performance for your team. There’s immense pressure to deliver quickly, so involving other departments isn’t an option right now, but you’ll be sure to include them in the future. Sound familiar? New research shows four out of five organisations are investing in CRM to support customer-focused strategies. Yet departmental buyers have traditionally purchased CRM in isolation to solve a single business problem, resulting in a majority reporting that CRM systems are at least somewhat fragmented across their organisations. These findings highlight a central problem: applying technology to old ways of doing things doesn’t magically change the way teams deliver customer experience at scale. When departmental leaders buy and implement CRM in silos, the real shift to customer-centricity remains out of reach. But there is a way forward. Let’s look at the data to see whether CRM really is the secret to connecting your business silos. We’ll unpack the core challenges facing business leaders today, how they’re investing in customer-centricity for tomorrow, and how that shift can pay off in a major way. Bridging the gap between current usage and expectations for CRM In Fall 2019, LIKE.TG commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of CRM systems across a wide range of industries. Forrester surveyed 484 business leaders with decision-making responsibility for CRM strategy at their organisations. Business leaders recognise the importance of gaining a single source of customer truth and overwhelmingly agreed that CRM should support the complete customer lifecycle. The challenge is that there’s an overwhelming discrepancy between expectations for what a CRM system should support and how CRM is actually being used in businesses of all sizes and industries. Business leaders want a single source of customer truth and believe their CRM system has significantly greater utility beyond their sales and service departments, but are struggling to unify data across their teams and systems. In fact, the report shows “creating a single view of the customer across teams and systems is the greatest customer experience challenge faced by business leaders today.” How did it become so difficult? Siloed initiatives mean siloed data A majority of respondents (57%) reported that their CRM is at least somewhat fragmented across the organisation, with a few, many, or all departments having their own CRM. This is a result of departments pursuing initiatives in silos — such as modernising sales, customer service, or existing applications. Incremental improvement is possible when departmental buyers purchase CRM in isolation to solve a single business problem. But it doesn’t transform the business. In fact, siloing these efforts may be contributing to greater difficulties. As the data shows, customer data is coming from too many sources to make sense of it easily, and these silos are negatively impacting the quality of customer and prospect experiences. So how does an organisation move past these challenges to leverage the full power of CRM and gain a unified view of the customer? The evolution of CRM as a single source of truth Before we can take meaningful steps toward customer-centricity, it’s important to recognise what’s possible when multiple teams unite around a single customer view. I think back to my recent experience of buying a new car: I was invited to download the brand’s mobile app, where I could learn more about the car, set up oil changes, and schedule recurring maintenance appointments — a welcomed part of my onboarding journey. I received a call from the sales associate, checking in to see if I had any questions now that I’d been driving it for several days. When I noticed an issue with one of the headlights, I chatted with a service agent online to discuss the problem. The agent knew me, my car, and my warranty details, and scheduled an appointment at the nearby service center in under two minutes. All of the departments I engaged with seemed to operate as a single unit, and had the right data and tools at hand to deliver a great experience. I was grateful to have purchased this particular car — not because of the quality of the product, but due to the quality of my experience as a customer. CRM can be the single source of truth, bringing together marketing, sales, commerce, service, and back office departments, and 80% of those surveyed agreed they are increasingly using their CRM system as so. But it requires businesses to look holistically at their processes and how they put the customer at the center. Leading businesses are evolving to put the customer in the center of their feedback loop and innovation cycle in what we call customer 360 transformation. For example, in the ASEAN region, companies like Bluebird Group, Prudential Singapore, and Anantara Vacation Club have made their CRM the single source of customer truth. These businesses integrate their CRM system with core operational systems to prove a single source of customer truth, resulting in broader teams connecting around the customer. And those efforts are paying off: the research shows businesses that successfully connect departments on a well-integrated CRM platform report significantly higher customer satisfaction. CRM alone isn’t the secret to breaking down silos. As more businesses employ the right mindsets, disciplines, and tech stack to bring their silos together, CRM can serve as a key driver of transformation. Read the Forrester report to dive deeper into the findings.
New to Slack? Here’s How You Can Use It to Work From Anywhere
Slack is your company’s virtual headquarters. It connects everyone in your business and supports the way people naturally work together — in real-time or not, in-person and remote, structured and informal. It’s where conversations come together, information can easily be found, collaboration is seamless, and your team’s favourite apps are connected in one place. Slack encourages knowledge sharing across the organisation and gives everyone direct and instant involvement with ideas — and the people who have them. With Slack, collaboration is just the beginning. Like LIKE.TG, Slack is a platform with almost limitless potential for custom integrations, automated workflows, and solutions. In short, Slack is where the future works. Why is it called Slack? What does Slack have in common with lasers and scuba diving? For one thing, you might not know that the name is an acronym: it stands for Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge. That name should give you a pretty good idea of what Slack is all about, but let’s take a look at some of the features that make Slack a great tool for our work-from-anywhere world. Channel your conversations There are two main ways to communicate in Slack: channels and direct messages (DMs). A channel is a conversation involving a group of people that focuses on a specific topic. Channels can be open (anyone can join) or private (only people who are invited can join). Channels are the key to productivity in Slack. When you have conversations in channels, you increase visibility and can easily make sure the right people are involved. A channel is a conversation involving a group of people that focuses on a specific topic. Use direct messages for conversations that don’t belong in channels. Say, for example, you need to reschedule a one-on-one with a coworker or have a question specifically for the project lead. Communicate with panache Slack also goes way beyond the basics of messaging. Emoji reactions, @mentions, and threads make communication in Slack that much more effective. Use emoji reactions to simplify communication or acknowledge a message with just a few clicks. You can show someone you’ve seen their message with a tick emoji, or let someone know you’re looking into it with the eyes emoji. Use @mentions to get someone’s attention in a channel. They’ll get a notification and everyone else in the channel can follow along with the conversation. If you have a message for everyone, use @here to notify everyone currently online in a channel. Maybe you want to respond to a message in a channel without interrupting the flow of the conversation. In that case, respond in a thread. Here’s one more emoji-related tip: let people know to thread their replies with a thread emoji. Find what you’re looking for Use the search bar at the top of your Slack workspace to search for messages, files, channels, or people. Once you’ve entered a search term, you can narrow your search to a specific channel or conversation, then further filter your results by date, reactions, and more. Search is useful for when you’re looking for something specific (like a project plan) or for context around a decision, client, or project that you’re getting up to speed on. Make Slack work for you and your team Slack fosters workplace connections, especially when your coworkers might be in different physical spaces with different time zones and varying schedules. Adding a profile picture and keeping your status up to date when you’re out of the office are just a couple of ways to bridge the gap between remote and in-person workers. Use direct messages for conversations that don’t belong in channels. After you’ve filled out your profile, take a few minutes to customise your preferences. You can, for example, decide how and when you get notifications and create a notification schedule. Want to learn more? Visit Trailhead and earn the Slack Basics badge. This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
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