Seth Godin, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and teacher, is coming to LIKE.TG Live: Asia this week for our Marketing Trailblazers episode. Sharing his vision on the future of marketing, Seth will outline strategies, tools, and skills that marketing teams of the future will need to have. This episode is a must-see for marketers. Seth regularly speaks at TED Talks and advises brands to be more human in the way they interact with customers. He is also an avid blogger and podcaster, with a significant following online who tune in to hear his insights on marketing. Many companies have made giant steps forward with their digital transformation projects. This episode is a timely reminder for marketing Trailblazers to always keep an eye out for what comes next. What today’s customers expect from companies We know that the new normal for marketing is customer engagement that starts with digital. Our State of the Connected Customer research shows that 60% of all customer interactions now happen online. Companies are becoming more sophisticated in how they market to customers, with the use of artificial intelligence up by 186% in 2020. Customers are changing the way they think about companies and now expect them to play a greater role in society than ever before. Around 60% of customers say that last year they stopped buying products or services from a company whose values didn’t agree with theirs. They also actively switched to a company with values that were more closely aligned. What you say as a brand and when and how you say it are critical for marketing success in this digital age. At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, we’ll talk about how to stay ahead of changing customer expectations. How Sephora personalises beauty through marketing technology Sephora, the global leader in beauty and marketing innovation, will also be joining us at LIKE.TG Live: Asia. We will hear from Amrita Balaji, Senior Manager of Marketing Technology at Sephora in Southeast Asia. Her team helps the business grow by building scalable and automated marketing solutions using LIKE.TG Marketing Cloud. Their mission is to keep the customer experience at the forefront of everything they build. Prior to 2020, Sephora had many customers that had only visited their retail stores to buy their beauty products. The brand is well known for being bold, vibrant, and colourful, and provides a highly engaging and personalised experience in-store. The marketing technology team wanted to help these customers make a smoother transition to ecommerce. Join this episode to hear how Sephora used Journey Builder to develop personalised customer journeys as part of their ecommerce onboarding experience. These online journeys guide customers in the same way that an in-store Beauty Advisor would do, creating a familiar experience for customers. Personalised marketing to the right people at the right time in the right way is the future of modern marketing. We hope stories from Trailblazers like Sephora will inspire you to continue finding ways to become closer to your customers. To hear from Seth Godin, Sephora, and other leaders in marketing, register and tune in on 17 June for Episode 5 of LIKE.TG Live: Asia.

At LIKE.TG, we believe that creating a culture of equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing. It empowers us to innovate, build deeper connections with our customers, and ultimately become a better company. For those who might question the business benefits, there’s strong evidence that equality in the workplace increases profits. One of our priorities at LIKE.TG is to create a workplace that represents the diverse communities we live in. A workplace where everyone feels seen and supported to reach their full potential. This includes employees of all sexual orientations and gender identities, which is why Outforce was formed. Outforce is one of several equality groups at LIKE.TG that empower underrepresented groups and encourage them to bring their authentic selves to work. Outforce focuses on supporting the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) community. In celebration of Global Pride Month, we’re spotlighting some of the ways Outforce is promoting equality in Southeast Asia. Creating an inclusive environment As a group, Outforce is bold. However, we know it can be difficult for people from underrepresented groups to believe in themselves. To help, we want to create a workplace where LGBTQ+ people are celebrated for being their true selves and supported to unlock their potential. Creating visibility is key to our vision. We want to create visibility of the amazing diversity within the LGBTQ+ community. We also want to bring visibility to the continued challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people and educate others on how to become better allies. Outforce has recently launched an LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality Handbook, which aims to do just that. The handbook contains tips for interacting with LGBTQ+ individuals and helping to nurture inclusivity. For instance, using someone’s correct pronouns is essential. In the handbook, we offer advice on how to navigate pronouns when meeting new people. The most important thing is to ask, rather than assume. We also suggest everyone offer their own pronouns, making an effort to normalise the sharing of these. In the handbook and our Quarterly Allyship Leadership Workshops, we provide tips on speaking out about workplace bullying. Bullying can manifest itself in many ways, including less obvious ones like isolating an employee on purpose or keeping them out of the loop. The first step to stop workplace bullying is acknowledging that a problem exists, and this is one area where having an ally can help. Giving back to local communities Outforce wants to empower LGBTQ+ individuals both inside and outside of LIKE.TG, which is why we volunteer our time to organisations like Pink Fest. Pink Fest is a festival that has been celebrating Global Pride Month in Singapore since 2018. This year, we partnered at Pink Fest with PayPal, ResMed, and Twitter to introduce the Inclusive Careers Lab. The program included virtual panel discussions, skill development workshops, and mentoring sessions. These were designed to help underrepresented groups within the region whose careers were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. LIKE.TG held 1:1 Career Coaching Sessions during the event, providing participants with tips on how to navigate career development journeys. Soon, we will launch a broader mentoring program to support the professional and personal development of the LGBTQ+ community across Southeast Asia. We want to provide everyone with opportunities to shine, connect, and grow. Outforce will continue to work with other groups to promote equality for all.

More than half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say technology drives the growth of their customer base. From automating manual processes and improving productivity to enabling employee collaboration across regions, digital transformation is enabling companies to pivot to growth. A government-funded grant is now supporting SMEs in Singapore to spark their digital transformation. The Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) enables SMEs to accelerate digital transformation, increase productivity, and close deals remotely with customisable and scalable LIKE.TG solutions. The PSG is supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). It provides grant support of up to 80% on pre-approved vendor solutions, including LIKE.TG CRM Sales Cloud. Participating SMEs can now deploy LIKE.TG within weeks. Our Jump Start program helps businesses to configure end-to-end processes and increase team efficiency with guidance and setup assistance from LIKE.TG experts. With Premier Success Services, SMEs can also get additional help, adoption guidance, coaching, and live support. We sat down with Justin Choo, CEO of cloud marketing platform provider Knorex, and Phu Le, Group General Manager, to find out about their PSG-enabled digital transformation journey. What are the business challenges that led to your digital transformation journey? PL: We have been spearheading digital adoption across the company. That involves continuously exploring, evaluating, and adopting innovative tools to streamline our internal workflow and help scale the business. There were several challenges we faced as we began to grow the business on a global scale. We needed more measurable reporting, tracking, analytics, and a system that can let our teams collaborate easier across the different countries. We were also looking for better ways to structure our business model for different customers across regions. Lastly, we needed more features to support our sales activity. Why did you choose LIKE.TG? PL: There are a few key advantages of LIKE.TG that have been very important to us. We are a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, so we love to do application programming interface (API) integrations and data migration. LIKE.TG has features that support this. Data security and privacy compliance are also very important to us. LIKE.TG has a special compliance centre that has been very useful as this is something that we emphasise on as part of our ISO certification requirement. Finally, LIKE.TG has a very strong community that enables us to easily find solutions to any challenges we face. This helps to speed up resolution. How important was the PSG in enabling your digital transformation? PL: The PSG program gave us the impetus to explore new, viable options, and accelerate our digital transformation and adoption. PSG provided a curated list of vendor options, which gave us the confidence to explore products with vendors and directly tap ready-to-use solutions. It also helped to alleviate much of the trial and error, while reducing the cost. How did you find the PSG application process? PL: All the ready-to-use solutions are vetted, and you can apply for a particular solution for the current challenge you face in your business. The application process was simple and straightforward. The PSG customer service team readily answered all our questions along the way. It was an absolutely delightful experience. Do you have any advice for Singapore SMEs that are considering applying for the PSG? JC: Be clear about what you’re looking for. There are various ready-to-use digital transformation packages available. You have to understand your problem so that you can choose the package that is the best match for your needs. It is also important that you think of eventual expansion in two to three years’ time, since this will be a solution that you will likely have to work with for that period. How did the Jump Start program help with your LIKE.TG deployment? PL: The Jump Start program was very helpful. It guided us on how to best navigate the LIKE.TG deployment and get our team onboarded. Jump Start also helped us set up different user profiles with different access controls, and we managed to get various reporting features set up from the start of the deployment. I believe many SMEs would benefit from Jump Start, whether they have prior experience with using customer relationship management (CRM) software or not. How are you using LIKE.TG in your business? PL: We are using Sales Cloud for our sales teams across the globe — from North America to Asia-Pacific. It helps to track vital top-line metrics, and our teams can instantly look at the current state of the business to track progress. JC: Prior to LIKE.TG, we found that we were increasingly constrained by the limitations of our previous CRM. But with LIKE.TG, we have a lot of flexibility especially when it comes to customising reporting. It helps us track up-to-date metrics and enables our team to collaborate wherever they are. It is a very useful tool. How did you utilise LIKE.TG Premier Success Services? PL: So far the service has been a great help, especially as we were becoming familiar with the system. The 24/7 live chat has been very helpful for us. It enables us to resolve any query we have right away. When you transition from a legacy CRM to a new platform, migrating the data and mapping the workflows in the new system is usually the most painful part of the process. Fortunately, that can be done very smoothly with the suite of migration tools LIKE.TG offers. How did you support employee onboarding to Sales Cloud? JC: It helps that most of our staff already have previous experience with LIKE.TG, so the onboarding was smooth sailing. Nonetheless, we created an internal playbook for our staff to familiarise themselves with the new system. It highlights things they need to know about the transition and some key new workflow and features. We also had some internal training sessions with the sales team, and communicated to them some of the tutorials and support services LIKE.TG offers via the Trailhead learning platform. What results have you seen since your LIKE.TG deployment? JC: We have the ability to do much more detailed reporting. That enables us to do a much deeper dive into our numbers, which allows us to get closer to our customers. We can get those insights much more easily, which saves us at least four to six hours per week on reporting. Get your digital transformation journey started with LIKE.TG. Learn more about how to pivot to growth using the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) or contact us to get started now. At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, we invited fast growing small businesses like V-Key, hoolah, and Carousell to share about how they navigatedthe challenges of the past year. Register for LIKE.TG Live: Asia to hear from these Trailblazers on 10 June.

Uncertain times can be unsettling for businesses with leaner resources than their larger counterparts. However, they can also be a period of growth for businesses that narrow in on new business opportunities. This is especially true if they use technology to differentiate themselves and create stronger customer connections. According to the 4th Small and Medium Business Trends Report, the new normal for fast-growing businesses has brought about a renewed focus on the customer in four ways. Businesses now show more care with their customer communications, offer more flexibility, have expanded the ways they can be reached, and prioritise longer term relationships over one-off interactions. In our upcoming LIKE.TG Live: Asia Small Fast-Growing Business Trailblazers episode on 10 June,we’ll speak to four resilient, innovative, and agile businesses. One of these businesses is Citrus Media, a vibrant and independent publishing house from Singapore. Founder and owner Angie Lim will talk about how her company used the LIKE.TG Small Business Relief Grant to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll also explore how the other three fast-growing businesses in Southeast Asia are doubling down on customer communications to fuel their growth and thrive: Payments startup hoolah takes customer interactions to the next level Buy now, pay later startup, hoolah, has digital transformation built into its DNA as a company. It partnered with LIKE.TG in 2018 to build a sales methodology into Sales Cloud, which helped hoolah create a scalable sales structure. When tight restrictions had the hoolah team working from home, the LIKE.TG platform helped maintain the team’s strong culture and keep the teams engaged with its merchants from anywhere. Using Customer 360, added visibility across merchant activities helped the teams prioritise interactions. With Commerce Cloud, hoolah offered merchants the ability to integrate directly with its systems in a faster and more cost-effective way than a standard application programming interface integration. The agile and scalable sales methodology based on LIKE.TG has helped set hoolah up for success as it expands further into Asia. Digital identity leader V-Key eyes growth and platform evolution As a leader in two-factor authentication and mobile security, V-Key has developed a digital trust platform for companies to use anywhere online. It can secure and authenticate digital identity for its employees as well as customers. With 100 million installs of its virtual security technology already, V-Key aims to grow this to one billion. V-Key chose to develop a stronger partner ecosystem around the region. This helps V-Key to scale faster and tap into local knowledge, relationships, and opportunities. Customer 360 helps V-Key collaborate more effectively with its partners and reach its customers. Internally, V-Key’s teams use LIKE.TG to build deeper relationships with its customers by having a single view of each customer. They also keep track of the business pipeline as V-Key continues to evolve its business. Peer-to-peer marketplace Carousell scales smarter customer interactions The second-hand goods industry has evolved from running classifieds in newspapers, to online sites and now, to a native mobile-first design experience, like Carousell. With operations across six countries, Carousell turned to LIKE.TG to help consolidate, automate, and standardise commercial data and measure the effectiveness of its sales teams. Carousell also uses Customer 360 to help make sure people aren’t falling through the cracks, and to provide opportunities for better interactions at scale. The next evolution for Carousell is to use artificial intelligence to jump people through millions of listings directly to the ones most relevant, and help them to buy and sell faster. Choosing the right technology platform early on can help a business achieve ambitious goals and scale without major disruption to business processes. It is easy for operational effectiveness to go astray during periods of intense growth when scaling up. With integrated customer relationship management platforms like LIKE.TG, every team can contribute to success from anywhere and rally around one goal: putting the customer first. To hear more from hoolah, V-Key, and Carousell on their learnings and digital transformation journeys, register and tune in on 10 June for Episode 4 of LIKE.TG Live: Asia.

Dive into the latest Summer ’21 innovationsincluding Employee Concierge, Workforce Engagement, Content Scheduler, and Einstein Search. Watch the highlights below: Ourrelease home pagejust got a makeover.Watch the Innovation Spotlights, two integrated product journeys showcasing some of the most exciting Summer ’21 innovations, to help grow your business. We’ve also added an Innovation Overview, which explores LIKE.TG’s history of customer-led innovation.Watch thefullvideo now. After June 14, you will have access to hundreds of globally available products and features. Getting ready for the release is as easy as one, two, three: 1. Find what’s new for your company Watch theSummer ’21 Release demo videosand use theSummer ’21 Release In a Boxfor a slide-by-slide view of exciting new innovations. 2. Skill up on new products and features Earn a new badge with the newSummer ’21 Release Highlights Trailor get detailed information on each product and feature with theSummer ’21 Release Notes. 3. Get pro tips from your peers Check outRelease Readiness Liveand theRelease Readiness Trailblazers Community, where you’ll find the latest release resources and announcements across all LIKE.TG product areas. This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

Banks, like most companies, face an urgent imperative to reimagine themselves and seize new growth opportunities. Most bankers surveyed by PwC view attracting new customers as one of their top challenges. However, banks also recognise the need to deepen their customer relationships and focus more on customer profitability. Hence, enhancing customer experience is the number one investment priority for banks globally. This renewed focus on customers is crucial, because only 27% of customers surveyed by LIKE.TG describe the financial services industry as completely customer-centric. Similarly, only 27% feel that financial institutions provide great service and support. To close these gaps and improve customer satisfaction, banks need to embark on a transformational journey. This means making everything customer-centric: from marketing and sales, to service and digitalisation. When you start with the customer and work backwards, you will be better-positioned to deliver incredible experiences that build brand loyalty and drive revenue. Here are five ways to build this kind of customer-centricity: 1. Engage the right prospects at the right time To attract new customers, your marketing campaigns need to reach audiences that are actually interested in what you have to offer. The first step in that direction is to define the right audience by combining: Data collected directly from prospects Data on prospects gathered by partners Information on prospect demographics, behaviours, lifestyles, interests, and more, aggregated from third-party sources. Together, these insights can help you zero in on the best-fit prospects for your bank, and then target them on the channels and devices they prefer. Once you’ve gained a prospect’s attention, start building a relationship of trust with them. Provide meaningful, useful, and engaging content in exchange for the customer’s personal data. This, in turn, will help you personalise their experiences further. Next, create an appropriate internal sales cadence. Set up automatic notifications to help sales reps determine when to email a prospect, when to call, when to wait, and more. This streamlined workflow can help reps maximise conversions, and ensure repeatable sales success. 2. Organise your bank around your customers Being truly customer-centric is about knowing your customers in-depth. Build a 360-degree view of each customer, including needs, key life events, products portfolio, circle of influence, complaints filed, satisfaction level, etc. The more you understand your customers, the better you can anticipate and meet their needs. Being customer-centric is also about making the customer experience as frictionless as possible, from onboarding to servicing and beyond. Empower your teams with all the customer information they need at their fingertips, so that they can serve customers seamlessly. When everyone in your organisation has a single source of customer truth, then it won’t matter that your customers are interacting with different teams or lines of business. They will experience your brand as a single, unified entity across touchpoints. 3. Make banking personal Today’s customers expect hyper-personalised experiences. That means understanding each customer as a segment of one. A unique individual whose personality, lifestyle, preferences, needs, and environment are constantly evolving. The challenge is to enable this kind of personalisation at scale. Artificial intelligence-powered tools can help by swiftly processing customer transaction history, digital behaviour, channel preferences, life stages, and other data. With the resulting insights, you can predict the needs of each customer, and determine the best way of serving them. Let’s say you roll out a new offer or marketing message based on your customer insights. To ensure that it translates into the desired customer action, focus on building personalised customer journeys. This set of tailored customer experiences can help you reach customers through the right channels, at the right time, encouraging the desired response. 4. Enable real-time, data-driven customer interactions Customer insights usually have a short life. So, it’s important to evaluate and act on them while they’re still relevant. Interactions need to be analysed in real time to deliver personalised customer experiences. Once you do that, track how the customer responds. Use artificial intelligence to infer their intent. Then, re-adjust your customer interaction strategies in real time. Try and transform each touchpoint and interaction into an opportunity for a meaningful customer conversation. For example, if a customer is accessing knowledge articles around closing a fixed deposit on the bank portal, you could analyse this web behaviour in real time along with signals from other customer behaviour (provided that the customer has consented to this data being used). If a customer is exploring the best credit card options via a bank’s online chat, a next best offer such as “the credit card with the highest cash back”can be generated and sent to the customer via a message, in-app notification, or on any other preferred channel. Finally, measure the impact of personalised communication and offers on your KPIs. The more real-time metrics you have, the faster you can fine-tune and personalise customer journeys to deliver greater satisfaction. 5. Tap into the open banking ecosystem Open banking is an opportunity for your bank to keep customers at the centre, and offer them more choices, convenience, and personalised experiences. You can do this by opening your application programming interfaces (APIs) to third parties to access your data or functionality. You can choose from either of two open banking approaches. Banking as a Service: In this model, you can integrate your digital banking services with the products and services of non-banks to offer customers an end-to-end solution. This approach requires you to have a robust API-led architecture, so that you can seamlessly connect and exchange data with the third-party ecosystem. Platform Banking: The second open banking approach is to build your own comprehensive digital ecosystem where you own the customer experience, but offer products and services (financial and non-financial) from multiple third parties. This marketplace model can help you increase customer loyalty, attract new customers, and generate new revenue streams by charging fees on any product or service sold in the ecosystem. How LIKE.TG can help LIKE.TG enables you to delight customers by putting them at the centre of your business. With our Customer 360 platform, you can listen to customers better, anticipate their financial needs, and deliver seamless experiences at every touchpoint. Rich customer profiles and smart insights help you identify new opportunities to deepen customer connections, and convert more leads. Meanwhile, powerful collaboration tools and artificial intelligence help your teams work faster and smarter to get things done. Learn more about LIKE.TG for retail banking. This post originally appeared on the I.N.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

Mobile technology adoption is accelerating across the Asia Pacific. InThe Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2020 report, GSMA estimates that the total number of mobile internet users in the region will grow to around 2.7 billion by 2025 (that’s 61% of the population). Mobile apps, in particular, are immensely popular in the Asia Pacific. Today, apps like Grab and Shopee are an indispensable part of everyday life for many people. The bottom line? Businesses need to harness the power of mobile apps if they want to stay engaged with their customers and employees. The good news is that, unlike a few years ago when mobile app development was the domain of IT teams, today low-code app development platforms have made launching digital marketplace and workplace app solutions easier and more inclusive. Here’s how you can benefit from mobile app development in a low-code environment: Low-code app development with clicks, not code The accelerated pace of digital transformation demands rapid development of business applications, which is possible in a low-code environment. Out-of-the-box PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) solutions allow organisations to build functional business apps with just a few clicks, without the need for an extensive IT team. These solutions are cost-effective and considerably reduce the time taken to build and deploy apps by using customisable templates, drag and drop tools, and other app building components. Solutions like theLIKE.TGLightning App Buildercan help you build customised business apps by integrating ready-made components such as API services, data integration services, authentication, event log framework, analytics, and collaboration. Rapidly test and deploy apps Performance and vulnerability testing are essential even for low-code apps and need an environment that can support such rapid development. Testing spaces likeSandbox and Scratch.org allow developers to test apps and make any changes in a secure, isolated environment. They also ensure there is no business disruption during the app testing or while making any changes. Enable business-critical customisations in-house There is a growing demand for digital skills across the region. For example, in Singapore, 91% of managers believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for digital skills in their organisation. But hiring expert talent on a budget is also a challenge.Empowering the existing team to become citizen developers can address this issue. Even business admins, managers, and team leads can build apps that can extend LIKE.TG’s out-of-the-box functionalities to deliver critical customisations. These stakeholders can, among other things: Automate complicated business processes into seamless workflows Set triggers for alerts and notifications (for instance, when a new or big sales opportunity arrives) Set security levels and access permissions based on role and hierarchy in the team Build custom validations for data entry to ensure compliance with business rules (for example making certain fields mandatory or setting rules on password strength, etc) Prepare your workplace for successful remote working With the shift to remote work environments over the past year, your employees have also become the consumers of your remote working setup. This includes file sharing and transfer, remote collaboration, 24/7 access to data, etc. Hence, there is a need to focus on improving the overall digital experience for employees as well. Low-code app development platforms help organisations champion this internal mandate too. UsingLIKE.TG Platform, you can easily build productivity-driving enterprise mobile applications for your employees. Integrate these with back-end systems to give employees access to all critical data anytime, anywhere. The apps can be fully customised to support a team or employee’s unique line of work and responsibilities. You can also update these apps using simple click-and-point and drag-and-drop tools that let you try-test-launch easy and fast. Low-code app developmentwill rise to prominence in the new normal, as ‘digital first’ becomes the modus operandiof every business. According toGartner, low-code application building will consolidate more than 65% of all app development functions by 2024. Organisations can leverage the benefits of LIKE.TG Platform to create powerful, intuitive, and engaging mobile apps in no time with easy-to-use components like no-code builders. This post originally appeared on the I.N.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

LIKE.TG Live: Asia brought our customers, Trailblazers, and employees together virtually. We learnt from great speakers, heard inspiring customer stories, and caught up on the latest LIKE.TG innovations. All sessions are now available online, so you can watch any episode you might have missed. Let’s take a look at the great speakers and session highlights that made LIKE.TG Live: Asia an unmissable experience: Episode 1: Success From Anywhere We kicked off the series with a keynote from LIKE.TG Senior Vice President and General Manager for ASEAN, Sujith Abraham. Sujith shared how LIKE.TG is encouraging job creation, enabling digital transformation, and driving economic growth around the region. Next, we saw some of the latest LIKE.TG technology innovations: Future Cloud 3.0, Customer 360, and Hyperforce. We also heard from customers who used LIKE.TG to transform their businesses: Cheryl Goh is the Group VP of Marketing and Sustainability at regional powerhouse Grab. With AI, Grab now predicts the best delivery route for drivers and batches orders together based on customer location. Joshua Tan, Head of CRM at NTUC FairPrice, shared the supermarket chain’s approach to personalising customer communications. This enables them to better predict customer behaviour and respond faster to customer needs across all channels. Finally, we heard from Joanna Teo, a Trailblazer who helps upskill workers that have been made redundant. There was also a discussion about the increasing challenges that women in Singapore have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Episode 2: Service Trailblazers In this episode, AirAsia shared how their super app brings together several businesses like food delivery, logistics, flights, and travel packages. AirAsia’s Customer Happiness team now services multiple business units, not just the airline, and helps meet customer needs across any channel. We then heard from United Tractors, the largest distributor of heavy equipment in Indonesia, about their digital transformation journey. They have digitised most paperwork and have improved productivity and reporting for their field service team. That’s a major achievement for a company that supports customers in a diverse country made up of about 17,000 islands. Episode 3: Sales Trailblazers Sales needs accurate customer data, sales history, stock information, and product information. Accessible and accurate data goes a long way in boosting customer experience and driving loyalty over the long term. Globe Telecom is one of the largest mobile network companies in the Philippines. They shared how tapping into analytics and sales data from Sales Cloud helped the company develop strategies to adapt to the pandemic. A smart, guided workflow helped significantly improve the efficiency of customer interactions. Tenaga Nasional Berhad shared their challenges pivoting from face-to-face service to delivering sales remotely throughout Malaysia. The company had started to develop new renewable energy products and services. The team simplified their rooftop solar customer data, analysed it for opportunities, and refined their approach to deliver more repeat business. Episode 4: Small Fast-Growing Business Trailblazers Fast-growing Buy Now, Pay Later company hoolah shared how they partnered with LIKE.TG to build a sales methodology and scalable sales structure. As a leader in two-factor authentication and mobile security, V-Key discussed their method for developing a digital trust platform for companies to use anywhere online. They also developed a stronger regional partner ecosystem to scale faster and tap into local knowledge, relationships, and opportunities. Peer-to-peer marketplace Carousell outlined how they scaled for smarter customer interactions. They use Customer 360 to make sure their customers and prospects aren’t falling through the cracks, and to provide opportunities for better interactions at scale. Episode 5: Marketers Digital Experience Trailblazers Bestselling author, entrepreneur, and teacher Seth Godin shared his future vision of marketing, as well as how marketing teams can prepare for the future. We also heard from Sephora, the global leader in beauty and marketing innovation. They grew their business through building scalable and automated marketing solutions with Marketing Cloud. Watch this session to learn how Sephora used Journey Builder to develop personalised customer journeys as part of their ecommerce onboarding experience. Episode 6: Admin IT Trailblazers Thanks to low-code and no-code tools, almost anyone can create an app to support their organisations’ unique business needs. We heard from global energy and solutions company PETRONAS about how they empowered their dealer network of service stations with an e-Service portal. The portal handles all communications, financials, stock, and maintenance tracking between dealers and PETRONAS. We featured Ranosys Technologies in a small panel discussion to learn how they built apps on the Customer 360 platform. They also shared how they developed an app to be their internal portal. This portal helps teams across the business sync their efforts and automate some admin tasks. Also on the panel was Loh Lik Peng, CEO of Unlisted Collection:. He outlined how important employee autonomy and the human touch is for the hospitality industry. To round out the episode, we heard from LIKE.TG CTO of Security, Dr Taher Elgamal, about why trust is the foundation for customer success at LIKE.TG. Episode 7: Financial Services Trailblazers Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) is a digital pioneer. They empowered their team of Relationship Managers to service customers with tools based on the LIKE.TG platform. UnionBank can now deliver banking services from anywhere, without being limited by the number of branches or usual banking hours. Life insurer Singlife shared how creating brand trust is key to their successful digital-first experience for customers. They also talked about regional expansion, and gave an update on their recent merger with Aviva Singapore. LIKE.TG Live: Asia is available on demand If you missed any of these episodes, no worries. We made all LIKE.TG Live: Asia episodes available on-demand, so you can experience the learning, connection, and innovation again. Thanks for tuning in, and come join us again next year! Watch LIKE.TG Live: Asia on demand.

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.

Tracy Wang leads marketing at MuleSoft Asia, a LIKE.TG company that provides integration software for connecting applications, data, and devices. She reveals how MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021 will help businesses develop a winning API product strategy. More businesses are turning to reusable Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs are messengers that take requests and tell a system what a user wants it to do, then returns the response back to that user. One benefit of APIs is that they give businesses better data visibility across many different sources. With good data visibility, businesses can make informed, data-driven decisions. This results in smoother business processes, as well as more connected experiences for customers, partners, and employees. Learn how to achieve this and more at MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021, on 3 August at 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Singapore Standard Time). What is MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021? MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021 brings together IT and business thought leaders in Asia’s leading integration event of the year. The free 90-minute online event will reveal how to fast track API-led connectivity so you can create connected experiences faster. MuleSoft executives will also demonstrate how you can accelerate your business outcomes using the latest innovations and trends in integration and API management. Finally, hear from business leaders from some of the most successful companies across Asia, who will share their experiences in developing a winning API product strategy. Why attend MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021? MuleSoft helps organisations make better data-driven decisions by leveraging API-led connectivity. The power of data depends on your ability to get it out of silos and integrate it into your daily business operations. Businesses collect, store, and use vast amounts of data across systems like LIKE.TG, Google Analytics, and MySQL. MuleSoft’s industry-leading full-lifecycle API management and iPaaS capabilities enable you to connect all that data together. It’s a little like transforming your siloed data into composable LEGO® bricks. With an effective API integration strategy in place, you can use your data to build connected experiences across your organisation. This enables you to deliver digital initiatives faster, and drive bottom-line growth. Who’s speaking at MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021? MuleSoft CEO Brent Hayward will be there, along with Brian Kealey, VP Asia, and Shaun Clowes, SVP Product Management. They will demonstrate how MuleSoft is addressing the latest trends in integration, full-lifecycle API management, and automation. You’ll also hear success stories from some of our customers across Asia: Get insights into the lessons 7-Eleven learned from a recent MuleSoft deployment. Learn how AstraZeneca leveraged API-led connectivity to transform their business operations and accelerate their COVID-19 vaccine innovation efforts. Discover new use cases that big brands such as INSEAD and Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) have been able to support when it comes to integrating systems and data. They will also talk about the challenges they faced in their own integration journey, and share recommendations. Find out how Singapore-based Starfish Digital is unlocking MuleSoft’s capabilities with no code integrations. Uncover how Philippines-based Sonak Corporation executed their vision for connectivity in order to set up their ecommerce, retail, and loyalty program efforts. Where and when is MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021? MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021 will be held online on Tuesday, 3 August from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Singapore Standard Time). It is completely free and open for all to join. Closed caption language support will be provided for Thai and Traditional Chinese. Whether you are getting started with APIs and integration, or a long-time MuleSoft customer, join MuleSoft Summit Asia 2021 to learn how to create connected experiences faster. Register today to secure your spot.

Prior to COVID-19, exports from the Philippines were on the rise and reached US$70.3billion in 2019. However, the country’s export market—like many others— was challenged by the pandemic. The trade shows, which typically boosted exports, were put on pause. This was a real dilemma for the Philippines’ Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM). CITEM is the export promotions arm of the country’s Department of Trade and Industry. It is committed to developing, nurturing, and promoting globally-competitive micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), exporters, designers, and manufacturers. So when it became clear that events had to be cancelled, CITEM leapt into action to support these businesses in new ways. Here’s a snapshot of how CITEM moved quickly to advance its digital strategy: Digital tools evolve from an opportunity to a necessity Even before the pandemic, CITEM viewed the move to digital as a powerful tool to build a community for its stakeholders. However, it became a necessity almost overnight, leading CITEM to engage a LIKE.TG consulting partner to digitalise trade promotions. This partner was Third Pillar, a Philippines-based consulting partner, which is now part of Globe Telecom, Inc. “The trade show industry, globally, was caught unaware when the pandemic started so it was really difficult for everyone to digitalise and change their processes. However, CITEM had already started to look at putting together a digital trade and community platform,” said Pauline Suaco-Juan, Executive Director at CITEM. “We did this primarily because we realised that sourcing preferences were beginning to change, with more and more people sourcing products through social media and websites.” CITEM’s vision for digital engagement gave rise to FAME+, a digital platform that connects buyers and sellers within the Philippine home, fashion and lifestyle industries. It also tells the stories behind each product, brand, or designer found on the catalog to optimise their visibility with content creation and distribution. CITEM’s main challenge in launching FAME+ was onboarding sellers. Many of these businesses were not yet using digital technologies; so it was up to CITEM to help them get started. Automation and personalisation drive quick wins Third Pillar has helped CITEM solve the challenge of onboarding sellers by using MarketingCloud to automate and streamline the process from end-to-end. For example, it has created an email journey which prompts sellers to register for FAME+ and to submit the information needed to build out their product listings. Third Pillar has also enabled CITEM to promote these listings using personalised email journeys based on buyers’ browsing habits. These journeys have been successful in helping sellers reach new audiences and sustain their businesses—and jobs—at a critical time. Additionally, the use of Marketing Cloud has created internal efficiencies for CITEM and trimmed the time it takes to produce campaigns. “What we’ve done is apply LIKE.TG to automate those digital processes that typically take time, allowing the CITEM team to focus on what they do best, which is relationship-building and storytelling,” said Deanna Rubiano, Third Pillar Chief Marketing Officer. Working with Third Pillar, CITEM has also adopted Social Studio to promote the businesses on FAME+ and enhance their digital presence. Social Studio will also allow CITEM to efficientlymanage social media, equipping just three people to handle 15 different channels. These include channels for CITEM’s sub-brands such as IFEX Philippines, CREATE Philippines, and the Sustainability Solutions Expo (SSX). Social listening will be especially valuable in helping CITEM to understand and tap into industry trends so that it can continue to lift the profile of the Philippines’ export industry. “CITEM team has worked closely with LIKE.TG and Third Pillar last year to equip ourselves with the necessary tools to take CITEM’s content marketing to greater heights,” Suaco-Juan said. “I’m certain that with all these CRM functions available to us, we will be able to seize every opportunity ahead of us in the digital sphere.” Read more customer stories to find out how other businesses are transforming digitally with LIKE.TG.

Even as vaccination drives are well underway, and governments are easing COVID-19 restrictions, working from home is still the norm for many companies. If you’re working from home, it never hurts to check in on yourself. Make sure you have steps in place to keep your mental health and productivity at its best. Staying connected with people is one way to stay mentally strong. When it comes to colleagues, don’t just message them. Make time to talk to them, look at their faces during video conferencing, and ask them about what they’ve been up to outside work. You can also make new connections by joining community groups. We recommend joining community user groups that exchange knowledge and expertise, like the ones we have over at Trailblazer Community Groups. With Trailhead, plus the help of the Trailblazer community, you can learn in-demand skills and earn LIKE.TG certifications. Read the infographic below for more tips on staying connected, managing your work, keeping your motivation up, and more. This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

With inputs from Rajesh Subramanian, Digital AE, Mid-market Businesses all over the world are quickly digitising to stay relevant. For B2B businesses, the use of the right tools and technologies is particularly important to clinch new, bigger opportunities. This is because B2B selling involves multiple decision-makers, longer sales cycles, and the need for highly-targeted client communication. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have limited resources. Hence, they are unable toto set up large, dedicated sales and marketing teams, equip them with premium automation tools, and incur capital expenditure (CAPEX) on setting up an elaborate IT infrastructure. But what if they had one powerful B2B marketing automation tool that could align and enhance their sales and marketing strategies without the need for extensive investment or large, specialised teams? They could then: Create 1-to-1 engagements at scale with personalised emails Attract more sales-ready prospects Reconnect with inactive leads Enable sales teams with complete marketing context to quickly move prospects through the pipeline Drive data-backed marketing and sales campaigns to maximise ROI How Pardot helps small businesses LIKE.TGPardotticks all these boxes. It is a B2Bmarketing automation tool thatcan accelerate an SMB’s growth by integrating and enhancing the two most essential business functions: sales and marketing. Pardot automates critical marketing and sales activities, so sales and marketing can work as one team with one dream: to sell more effectively. Here’s how Pardot can help small businesses find and win more customers: Create beautiful, branded landing pages and forms with easy landing page templatesand drag-and-drop buildersto capture new leads Display targeted offers on your websites and landing pages Set forms to trigger notifications and score leads automatically, so you always have a steady flow of high-quality leads in your pipeline Build rich profiles over time using engagement and social media data for progressive and social profiling Better understand the customer journey by visually mapping out and testing every asset and touchpoint before launch Use one powerful, flexible builder to create customised experiences through dynamic campaigns that adapt to customers’ buying signals Automatelead managementusing Pardot’s blended lead scoring and grading system, so reps can identify and interact with the hottest leads first Enablelead nurturingby automatically triggering emails and notifying the right reps based on prospect activity for prompt follow-ups Give sales reps marketing powers by enabling them with marketing-approved mini-campaigns for their customers Perfect marketing to sales handoffs with built-in business rules, real-time alerts, and assignment triggers, so sales reps never miss great opportunities Automatically segment audiences based on specifications like age, location, industry, etc. and run targeted email campaigns at scale Build personalised emails with an intuitive email editor, customisable signature, and dynamic content that resonates A/B and spam test each email and dynamically change them based on each lead’s score, grade, industry, job title, etc. Set triggers and autoresponders to automate email delivery based on prospect activity Empower sales reps with visibility into customer engagement history, insights, and access to marketing-approved content to drive more relevant conversations Leverage visual reporting and graphical dashboards to gain insights into the performance of every sales and marketing campaign Identify the top performing emails and templates to maximise ROI Use Engagement and Lifecycle reports to understand your sales cycle’s health and identify where in the sales funnel prospects are getting stuck Enable marketers to successfully track and demonstrate marketing influence across sales cycle by using off-the rack attribution modules (first, last touch, even) Pardot enables sales-marketing alignment SMBs that wish to grow need to think long-term. They need to find customers and build meaningful relationships with them. But they also need quick wins and fast results for continuous cash flows. Pardot is a simple and cost-effective marketing automation tool that SMBs can start using straight out of the box — no additional CAPEX or special skills needed. The tool is extremely intuitive and templatised, taking only a few minutes to become a part of your marketing and sales processes. With a single command centre, it seamlessly ties your marketing efforts with sales goals, resulting in higher revenue inflow. Find a Pardot edition that suits your budget and needs. This post originally appeared on the I.N.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

Chris Jordan is Director of Data, Personalisation and Marketing Intelligence, ASEAN. He consults with key strategic customers around the use of data and technology, specifically in the context of digital marketing. In the first of a two-part series on data, Chris discusses how marketers should adapt their data-driven marketing strategies in response to privacy updates from Google and Apple. Thomas Kuhn, a brilliant philosopher, coined the term paradigm shift. He used it to describe the disorientation that people feel during times of social change. As marketers, we are most certainly going through a phase of social bewilderment, as we revolutionise the way we think about digital and data. Third-party cookies are on the way out Consumers have spoken up about privacy and security, and the big players are listening. In January 2020, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced that it plans to eliminate the third-party cookie. This is a key tool that marketers have used for years to track customers’ online activities and deliver personalised ads. Google’s cookie alternative, called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), is still in the works. Meanwhile, Apple rolled out AppTrackingTransparency this year. This new feature requires apps to ask users for permission to track their activities across other companies’ apps and websites. So, how do we manage data-driven marketing and the personalised experiences that consumers have come to expect? This is challenging in a world where locked off data in big consumer platforms like Google and Facebook is only increasing, and governments are curtailing marketers’ data collection processes. Healthy and not-so-healthy data I like to think of data as an ecosystem, much like the human body. We fuel our body with a healthy balanced diet, and in return, our body operates at maximum capacity. Data is much the same, hence the age-old IT saying, ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’. So, how can we marketers learn from diet? Well, much like diet, data is based on quantity and quality. Eat too much of the bad stuff, and your health will suffer. Consume the right amount of the good stuff, and your health will prosper. We all know that cookies are not good for our health, but sometimes we can’t help ourselves. Here’s what a healthy data diet looks like: Fresh: Much like produce, new data trumps old data. We need the data we collect to be recent and relevant. Clean: Organic food has proven to be healthier, and much like this, those nasty additives are not going to make for a healthy data ecosystem. We need clean, de-duped first party data. Trusted: When we know where food is made and what went into it, we trust it. Data is much the same, we need permission to collect and use it with total transparency. The value exchange between businesses and customers The trick to long-term health success is typically ‘balance’, and the same will apply to our evolving data strategies. Whilst AppTrackingTransparency is new and Google’s action plan is still up in the air, right now the best bet is balance. Think about how to collect fresh, clean, and trusted first party data. This starts by asking your customers or prospects for their permission. Explain in non-legal language that providing this data, explicit consent, and preferences will create personalised and relevant experiences across any channel. Once collected, we need to connect the data, across ecosystems and internal silos. The idea sounds simple but can create incredible complexity. This exact challenge has given rise to a new MarTech category: Customer Data Platforms (CDP). Martin Kihn, Senior Vice President of Product Strategy for Marketing Cloud, explains what a CDP is and why it matters, in his insightful article. Once this data has been captured and connected, we can use it to master the next big thing in marketing. Seth Godin, who spoke in the LIKE.TG Live: Asia marketing episode, noted that this big thing is already here: To quote Adam Grant’s latest hit book, we need to ‘Think Again’, and reframe how we think about the constitution of healthy data. Keep your eyes peeled for part two, in which we dig into ‘activating healthy data’. To learn more about future marketing trends from thought leaders like Seth Godin, watch the marketing Trailblazers episode ofLIKE.TG Live: Asia.

Retail and consumer brands responded to the challenges of 2020 with admirable resilience, agility, and innovation. In a short time, they launched a variety of new services and customer experiences. These included options to buy-online-pickup-in-store, virtual appointments, flexible payment options, and livestream ecommerce. As a result, customer expectations for what makes a great digital experience have increased. In fact, more than 80% of B2B and B2C customers now believe the experience provided by a company is as important as its products or services. Delightful retail experiences help to drive brand loyalty and create lifelong customer connections. This can have a significant impact on the bottom line over the long-term. All that energy and innovation around the customer experience has changed retail and consumer brands forever. Now the challenge is to continue this spirit of innovation and deliver delightful customer experiences consistently. Meeting the demand for more personalised experiences In a recent webinar, Matt Marcotte, LIKE.TG Global Head of Retail and Consumer Goods Industry Advisors, shared his advice on how to deliver exceptional customer experiences. He said it comes down to three things: Actionable customer data The ability to personalise customer experiences Optimisation of consumer engagement and experience Getting to a single source of truth for customer data is the ultimate goal, particularly for retail and consumer brands. Solutions like LIKE.TG Customer 360 bring sales, marketing, commerce, and service together around a single view of customer data on an integrated platform. Customer data needs to be collected, consolidated, and stored securely in a place where teams can access it as needed. When teams have a shared understanding of the customer, they can work together to create more personalised customer experiences. “Finding technologies that really make the collection of data, the creation of the single source of truth, the ability to talk across systems and departments easily, is really something that all companies should be striving to do,” Matt says. One great tool for this purpose is Tableau. It can help analyse your customer data and provide a deeper understanding of customers. These insights help to identify further opportunities for personalisation and uncover customer trends within your data. “Personalisation doesn’t need to be as complicated as it sounds to implement,” Matt says. “It all starts with intent and a relentless focus on putting the customer at the centre of everything that you do as a brand. Then, find ways to use technology and data to get to know them better.” Creating consistency across platforms The ability to connect your planning and execution within the same platform is critical for personalising and optimising your consumer engagement. Matt says this helps brands to create a holistic view of the customer that lets them: Unlock growth Improve program execution Build better pricing strategies Develop more effective promotional activities and channel incentives Luxasia, the leading omni-channel partner for luxury beauty and lifestyle brands in the Asia-Pacific region, is a great example of this in action. They develop personalised beauty experiences and connected customer journeys for customers online, offline, or in-store. The Luxasia team knows that they are selling emotional connections as much as physical products. They use feedback and customer data to help them make beauty more personalised through relevant product recommendations. Consistent, excellent experiences like these develop stronger relationships with customers and drive loyalty over the long term. “Consumers make decisions based on how they feel. As brands, part of getting to know customers is building relationships, and relationships are emotional,” Matt says. This is reflected in LIKE.TG’s most recent State of the Connected Customer report. It found that 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. “So, in a world of increasingly endless choices and commoditised products, the experience the consumer has with the brand is really important,” Matt says. As retail and consumer brands optimise these experiences, we will see the impact this can have on building loyalty and lifetime relationships. With LIKE.TG as a partner, retail and consumer brands can deliver exceptional customer experiences and build their customer base. Find out how retail and consumer goods brands are enhancing customer experiences with LIKE.TG. Tune in to watch the webinar on-demand.

The shift from physical to digital commerce has been enormous in the past year, with the pandemic driving both businesses and consumers online. For retailers like Toys”R”Us with a large physical presence, this presents a unique challenge. It wanted to provide an experience that offers customers the best of both worlds. Tim Halaska, Regional General Manager of Digital Strategy for Toys”R”Us Asia, shared how the retailer has responded to this challenge and is fuelling imagination in Asia. As Asia’s leading retailer of toys, education, and baby products, Toys”R”Us is a well-loved destination for kids of all ages. Here are six ways it’s capturing the magic of its in-store experience and taking it online. 1. Creating efficiencies in digital commerce As a first step in its online transformation, Toys”R”Us partnered with eWAVE, a global commerce services specialist, to centralise ecommerce with Commerce Cloud. Launched across seven markets in Asia, Commerce Cloud provides Toys”R”Us with a single platform to power more seamless and personalised shopping experiences for its customers. Commerce Cloud also provides economies of scale so that Toys”R”Us can provide equally compelling experiences to each market, no matter its size. 2. Tailoring sites to local needs One of the benefits of Commerce Cloud is that it simplifies merchandising across multiple sites, multiple languages, and multiple currencies. It also supports localisation of sites. Working with eWave, Toys”R”Us has integrated Commerce Cloud with local payment options and enabled shoppers to log in from social media sites popular in their markets. Toys”R”Us has also used Commerce Cloud to centralise activities like site maintenance. This frees up local teams to focus on driving sales locally. For example, they can spend time identifying what products or offers are most popular in their markets and promote these online and in-store. 3. Creating mobile-first experiences Toys”R”Us has launched new websites in seven markets across Asia in the past twelve months. Commerce Cloud’s Storefront Reference Architecture provided a blueprint to speed up site development and embed mobile design best practices to help convert today’s mobile shoppers. These include a seamless checkout flow with as few taps as possible. 4. Delivering consistency across channels In transforming the shopper experience, Toys”R”Us has ensured that whether a customer shops online or in-store, they can find the same products and enjoy the same deals. “One of the things we’ve really focused on is the customer journey and creating alignment between the online and offline experience. So now when an email goes out about a promotion in-store, the customer can also purchase that product online straight away,” said Halaska. 5. Personalising product recommendations Personalisation provides retailers with the chance to turn every interaction into a positive customer experience. It can also lead to increased conversion and cart size. Toys”R”Us is reaping these benefits by using Einstein to provide customers with product recommendations based on their browsing and purchase histories. 6. Rewarding shopper loyalty Now, when customers make purchases on a Toys”R”Us website, they are instantly enrolled into the retailer’s Star Card Loyalty Program. The program allows customers to earn points in-store and online and provides them with access to exclusive offers and events. In exchange, Toys”R”Us is able to track and understand its customers’ behaviour and provide more personalised experiences. “We can now see the customer’s journey from in-store to online. We’re excited to delve into that further and use those insights to connect with customers in new ways,” said Halaska. Learn more about how Toys”R”Us is using Commerce Cloud to provide a unified retail experience.

Business leaders across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region are prioritising employee wellness. According to a recent report by Willis Towers Watson, supporting employees’ physical and emotional health is a top priority for companies throughout the region. Two in five APAC employers said they plan to enhance mental health services and stress management. Forty percent of employers want to improve employee wellbeing programmes. Notably, more organisations in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and India, are prioritising employee wellbeing programmes than other APAC regions. AFDigital is one such company that is making a strong commitment to improving employee wellness. Founded in the Philippines in 2012, AFDigital specialises in social media marketing, customer journey automation, training, and digital marketing operations. They work with a wide range of enterprise customers and small and medium-sized businesses across the region. Understanding employees better Pauline Pangan, Founder and Managing Director at AFDigital, says COVID-19 was a catalyst for her company’s renewed focus on employee wellness. “We realised that we need to be proactive in improving our employee’s wellbeing now more than ever,” she explains. “We are so far away from each other because everyone is working remotely, and it’s stressful because of the uncertainty about what’s going to happen.” Before Pangan and her team could improve employee wellbeing, they had to understand the health and wellbeing challenges her people are facing. To do this, AFDigital has taken a data-driven approach with monthly employee wellness surveys delivered through the LIKE.TG CRM. AFDigital is now able to see survey results in a wellness dashboard. “In the beginning we didn’t have awareness about what our employees were experiencing, because they wouldn’t necessarily come to us and say they’re struggling,” she says. “The survey is a safe, anonymised platform our employees can use to share their challenges.” Focusing on the individual Pangan says the wellness surveys help identify where employees are starting to feel challenged, and the impact this is having on their mental, emotional, physical, financial, and developmental wellbeing. “We started to notice mental health becoming a challenge,” says Robin Leonard, Co-Founder and CEO at AFDigital. “People were saying they were burnt out, and had meeting after meeting with no gaps. That’s where we started seeing that while it’s great we were productive, it was not sustainable.” Leonard explains that personalised insights from the wellness surveys are helping the company take a more individualised approach to improving employee wellness. This was particularly useful during the height of the pandemic. “We were finding people who were struggling with their work because their household was struggling,” he says. “For example, we could identify if our people had no space to work from home and rent them a small nearby workspace so they could safely work away from their home.” “Employee wellness has to be very one-to-one. The individualised insights coming from the wellness survey enable us to take that approach.” Redefining human experiences While Pangan says it’s certainly true that happy employees are productive employees, boosting productivity is not necessarily the top priority. “We are prioritising wellness as a business not just because we care about productivity. But because we want our team to be the best humans they can be,” she explains. “When they are given the tools and awareness to nourish themselves and increase their wellbeing, that’s when they are able to do their best work in service to our customers. This hopefully creates a ripple effect in the community.” Focusing on the human-side of the equation comes with another key benefit — fostering genuine human connections between employees. This, says Pangan, has in turn helped to create more authentic customer engagements. “We don’t employ machines, we employ human beings. And they are servicing human beings,” she says. “It’s a very intimate type of business engagement. That’s the reason why we changed our mission statement to ‘redefining human experiences’.” Finding the bliss point Pangan says that balancing data-driven decision making with a human approach has been critical to the company’s employee wellness strategy. “We have amazing technology that enables us to make data-driven business decisions”, she explains. “It affords flexibility to make human emotion-based decisions, which allows us to achieve the bliss point balance of a tech-based, human-focused business.” Pangan adds that recognising increased employee vulnerability throughout the pandemic has helped to build deeper connections. “COVID-19 has opened this conversation for us,” she says. “It feels like we can see each other now. We need to bring each other together and be more connected. As employers, we need to make everyone feel that we belong and care about each other.” Human capital is our greatest asset as a business. We need to bring out the best in them to get the best from them,” Pangan concludes. “When our employees are happy, that’s when they do their best work.”

As today’s digital-first, ecosystem-driven businesses shoulder their way into the financial services sector, they bring with them a history of revolutionising customer experiences through personalisation. That makes it imperative for traditional financial services companies to up their game. As they go head-to-head with today’s digital-first, ecosystem-driven businesses, their success to a large extent will be determined by how well they understand each customer’s unique needs and are able to deliver hyper-personalised solutions, services, and content. Customer expectations have changed Today’s customers want experiences and recommendations that are tailored to their needs. They expect personalised services that are seamless across multiple channels. They want to be treated with empathy and to have their queries resolved as quickly as possible. Financial services companies are finding innovative ways to meet these expectations. Some are using behavioural analytics and advanced machine learning to capture deep insights on the customer. These companies know their customers’ next move, can guide customers to where they want to go, and recommend the most relevant products, content, and categories. Other companies are building a 360-degree view of the customer across sales, service, and marketing teams. This makes it easier for them to visualise important events and milestones in their customer’s life and drive more meaningful, personalised conversations. When employees have a single, shared view of the customer, they will also be able to deliver consistent interactions and seamless service across departments. Working smarter Digital tools offer exciting opportunities for financial services companies to not only personalise customer engagements, but also improve productivity. Workflow automation frees up employees to focus completely on the customer and their needs, rather than searching for information or performing mundane tasks. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence can provide predictive guidance and recommended actions to strengthen customer engagement. It can also enable teams to quickly search knowledge repositories for the most relevant information to personalise service. Find out more Hyper-personalisation is an opportunity to build enriching and rewarding relationships with customers. It also represents a strong competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded landscape. Find out more in our latest e-book, Hyper-personalisation: Key to the Future of Digital Banking in ASEAN.

In our work-from-anywhere world, team collaboration is every contact center manager’s top priority. But the reality is that support teams are often siloed from important departments, expertise, and technology. Service agents toggle between too many tools while managers lack a complete view into workloads and performance. This prevents teams from delivering fast, quality customer support. There has to be a more human,collaborativeway. That’s where Slack for customer service comes in. It’s designed to connect teams and mobilise the entire organisation to better serve your customer. The result is faster case resolutions, higher agent productivity, increased customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), and a transformed customer experience. Here’s how it works: Slack is more than a messaging tool It integrates withService Cloudto bring service teams a collaboration platform where they access valuable customer data, key information, and cross-functional partners for faster resolutions. “With Slack for customer service, we’re now able to connect customer service across an entire company —from customer support agents to product engineering, DevOps, security teams, and other departments,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Service Cloud. “In today’s remote and hybrid work reality, customer-facing teams need to be able to easily communicate and collaborate with operations and incident management functions to rapidly problem-solve, resolve complex issues, and unleash the full productivity of the organisation.” Consider these four ways to use Slack for customer service: 1. Quickly help customers with an AI-powered knowledge base The majority of service agents (63%) still struggle to balance speed and quality, according to our latestState of Servicereport. One key reason: most work across multiple systems to access experts and knowledge. With Slack, agents tap into a collective knowledge base, without having to work across multiple screens. Work in Slack happens in channels, a home for all the messages and files related to a specific team or topic. As teams work through complex issues together, a searchable knowledge base grows. The predictive search function usesartificial intelligence (AI)to show the most relevant and helpful content to resolve cases, including knowledge base articles, logged files, and past resolved tickets. Over time, AI and machine learning (ML) understand the types of searches that your service agents perform to provide the most helpful information. 2. Provide personalised service to key business-to-business accounts with Slack Impersonal, one-size-fits-all service no longer meets customer expectations. Just like in our consumer lives, today’s business customers expect service to be tailored to their needs. But business-to-business (B2B) issues are more complex and may require an entire ecosystem of internal and external partners to resolve. Quick collaboration between all these parties is often a challenge. With Slack, you can transform the way you work by moving out of siloed conversations. Rather than having to chase down contacts and answers, the service team loops in the right experts — other departments, as well as external partners and vendors — in a single, shared, secure place. Customers can bring their tools, documents, and people with them, creating a new avenue for stronger customer relationships. For example, take the case of a vending machine company. A corporate customer calls the company to report that one type of candy bar keeps getting stuck. Nothing changed with the vending machine, nor did the customer change their candy offering. The agent brings an expert from the candy company into a channel inSlack Connect— a place for connecting with people outside your company — to figure out what’s going on. The partner explains that the company recently changed the packaging size of that particular candy bar. Next, the partner shares recommendations for similar products that would easily fit the vending machine. The agent relays this information back to the customer. Then, the agent documents the steps to help other agents handle similar requests. The agent goes one step further to help customers who may face similar issues by proactively alerting them to the packaging change and replacement options. 3. Provide proactive service during incident management The unexpected happens. Whether it’s a security breach or power outage, service teams need to handle large-scale incidents on the fly. Slack provides a single place for service agents, engineers, and whoever is analysing the root cause of the incident to come together. In Slack, everyone has the information and tools they need to take action as quickly as possible so customers get answers fast. That moves service from reactive (answering customer questions when they reach out) toproactive, which involves sharing key information with customers before they realise that they need it. “Using Slack unlocks proactive service — teams swarming and problem-solving on Slack are seamlessly connected with customer-facing teams who can view real-time status of issues and resolutions. This helps businesses proactively inform affected customersbeforethey call in,” said Shih. 4. Solve tough issues by case swarming with Slack for customer service Seventy-seven percent of service agents say their role ismore strategic than it was two years ago. This includes handling more complex cases. However, the answers to complex issues are not always available in your knowledge base. Slack connects your service console with the rest of your business so that experts come together to solve problems in real time. This sets off thecase swarmingprocess (also referred to asintelligent swarming, or incident swarming). Say a high-value business customer has a complicated request to split the shipment of a large order to multiple locations over time. The service agent pushes a request into a Slack channel for cross-functional partners, subject matter experts, and managers to swarm the case. They set up a quick discussion to get on the same page and document the steps to resolve the case. When teams take a collaborative approach like this on Slack, the customer has a faster, better experience. One of the unexpected benefits of case swarming is accelerated agent training. This is especially important in a remote work environment, where agents can’t huddle in person at the office. Less experienced service agents and highly-skilled experts come together to solve cases in real-time. Service agents access previously siloed expertise and acquire new skills on the job. How to get started with Slack for customer service Slack for customer service makes your support tools even more valuable by bridging the gap between service and the rest of your company. Instead of jumping to different systems and losing valuable time tracking down the right expert, service agents focus on what matters: your customers. See how to give your customers an all-digital, end-to-end experience they will love with Service Cloud and Slack. Find out more about Slack for customer service, and learn how to build end-to-end engagement from anywhere. This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

Many Singapore-based small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are using digital transformation to achieve business growth, and overcome declining revenues due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions. According to the Survey on Impact of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) Measures on Businesses*, 53% of respondents expect their overall business revenues to decline by more than 25%. This is largely due to demand uncertainty. SBF’s National Business Survey 2020/21 revealed that uncertain demand for business services or products is the leading challenge for 59% of Singapore SMEs. How SMEs can future-proof their business models and processes Digital transformation is the key to overcoming these challenges. Today, customers expect to be able to engage with brands digitally. They want personalised online experiences and expect consistent interactions no matter which department they talk to. SMEs will therefore have to adapt accordingly and acquire digital capabilities. In fact, the effective use of technology can be a differentiator for SMEs. According to our Small and Medium Business Trends Report, 51% of growing SMEs say technology drives the growth of their customer bases. SBF’s National Business survey revealed that 84% of businesses have accelerated their digital transformation by an average of two years. Streamlining business and operational processes will also be the priority for 19% of Singapore businesses as they seek to overcome challenges associated with COVID-19 over the next 12 months. One unified view: the core enabler of digital transformation Fifty-six percent of SMEs worldwide use a customer relationship management (CRM) system, according to our Small and Medium Business Trends Report. That’s a 24% increase from 2019 to 2020. With a CRM system, SMEs reap benefits like delivering faster customer service and having a unified view of the customer. Customer 360 delivers these benefits and more. With Customer 360, every team — sales, service, marketing, commerce, and beyond — can have a single, shared view of customers on an integrated CRM platform. This single source of truth enables employees to work together to build lasting, trusted relationships and deliver the intelligent, personalised experiences their customers expect. Technologies like CRM can seem daunting to SMEs that are starting their digital transformation journeys for the first time. To help SMEs succeed, SBF and LIKE.TG will be hosting our first joint webinar: How SMEs Can Reimagine and Pivot Your Business Growth With One Unified CRM. Join the webinar and accelerate your digital transformation In this webinar, LIKE.TG and SBF experts will share how SMEs can kickstart their digital transformation plans by using a single platform tailored to the needs of SMEs. You’ll learn how to: Automate your business processes across cross-functional departments, allowing you and your team to scale for the future of work Connect your tools and systems in one platform to get a complete view of your business and a single view of your customer Find more customers, win more deals, and keep customers happy with loyalty Aside from LIKE.TG and SBF experts, we have also invited a LIKE.TG customer to share their digital transformation experiences. Justin Choo, Founder and CEO of Knorex, will share how the cloud marketing platform provider embraced rapid digital transformation and grew despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Justin will also talk about how Knorex used the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) to help fund up to 80% of the company’s Salesforce-enabled transformation. Digital transformation is helping Singapore SMEs grow in spite of COVID-19 restrictions. But you need the right technology to power your digital transformation. LIKE.TG brings companies closer to their customers in the digital age, while SBF supports Singapore SMEs in their recovery and growth journey. Join us for the webinar on 26 August, 10.30am SGT and be the next game-changer for your business. Note: This webinar is most suitable for Singapore companies with up to 200 employees. LIKE.TG is a pre-approved IT vendor for the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) under the SMEs Go Digital program. *Survey on Impact of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) Measures on Businesses conducted by the Singapore Business Federation, Singapore Manufacturing Federation, American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore, British Chamber of Commerce Singapore and European Chamber of Commerce in Singapore

Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzworthy phrase — it has quickly become the reality for marketing organisations around the world. Eighty-four percent of marketers surveyed in our latestState of Marketingreport said customer expectations are changing their digital strategies. As that transformation continues, they also indicated their jobs have become more important. Seventy-seven percent of marketers surveyed said they feel their work adds more value than it did a year ago. This year’s State of Marketing report, now in its seventh edition, is our largest-ever pulse check on global marketing trends, with insights from more than 8,200 respondents across 37 countries. Representative of marketing roles from the event marketer to the CMO, this survey taps into what has inspired and challenged marketers over the past year, and what they’re expecting in the times ahead. For instance,working from anywhere is here to stay. Eighty-two percent of marketers say their company is adopting new policies around remote work. Despite the harsh challenges of the past year, marketers have found innovative ways to connect with their customers — and each other. Yet 69% of marketers still say collaboration is tougher than before the pandemic. How do marketers grapple with our new reality as we emerge from one year of transformation into the next? Read on for five key takeaways from the report. 1. Collaboration is now a top priority and challenge Some of marketers’ top priorities and challenges are evergreen — innovation and real-time customer engagement, for example. It’s what’s new to the list that paints a vivid picture of what marketers are excited about — and concerned by. Top priorities and challenges of marketers in Southeast Asia. Visit Tableau to learn more. We’ll start by talking about what’s new to both marketers’ top priorities and top challenges lists — collaboration. During the shift to remote-first work, marketers may feel like they’ve lost touch with their colleagues. Givenemployees’ and companies’ interestin continuing flexible and remote work, marketers will likely continue to use an evolving set of technologies, such as video conferencing and messaging platforms. Marketers had two other new priorities in their top five this year — creating a cohesive customer journey across channels and devices, and improving marketing ROI and attribution. Collaboration is essential to achieving both of these. Collaboration within the marketing org — and with sales and service departments — is the only way marketers can deliver a cohesive experience at every customer touch point. It’s no wonder that 78% of marketing organisations have adopted new work-collaboration technology due to the pandemic. Coordination across marketing campaigns and activities (as well as solid digital savvy) will help marketers find new, innovative ways to measure marketing ROI. Since only 31% of marketers are completely satisfied with their ability to measure marketing ROI and performance, leaders should make a concerted effort to improve their measurement capabilities. Aside from collaboration, there was another new challenge in marketers’ top five this year: insufficient organisational structures and processes. It’s natural for marketers to feel unprepared for the rapid pace of business transformation that they experienced over the past year. But now is the time to step back and look at how to improve processes to better serve customers, operate internally, and drive growth. 2. Innovation and resilience help marketers deliver on customer demands in digital Since the start of the pandemic,60% of consumer interactions with companies have been digital, compared to 42% pre-pandemic. Although pursuing digital innovation can be daunting due to the overwhelming amount of new channels and technologies in the market, marketers are leaning in. Even digital channels we might have classified as “emerging” recently are seeing widespread adoption, such as podcasts and streaming (OTT) ads. Marketing organisations in Southeast Asia use these media channels. Visit Tableau to learn more. In the end, it’s innovation and resilience that separates those digital marketers who are best prepared for the digital long-haul from the competition. Forty-eight percent of underperforming marketers — those moderately or less satisfied with their overall performance and investment outcomes — say they struggle to innovate their marketing strategies, tactics, and technology. That’s compared to just 31% of high performers — those completely satisfied — who say the same. 3. More data doesn’t mean better data or smarter data decisions Marketers are planning to use 75% more data sources on average by 2022 than they did in 2020. Yet only 33% of marketers are completely satisfied with their ability to use data to create more relevant customer experiences. Parsing that out between high-performing marketing organisations and underperformers reveals another striking statistic. Compared to 47% of high performers, only 8% of underperformers were completely satisfied with their use of data to craft relevant customer experiences. There’s a clear problem in the world of customer data. How do we fix it? Marketers must know that more data sources doesn’t necessarily mean richer customer insights. In fact, marketers felt that across the board, their data quality left much to be desired. Percentage of marketers in Southeast Asia who are completely satisfied with various aspects of their customer data. Visit Tableau to learn more. Marketing leaders can take advantage of the opportunity to improve their data management by becoming data champions within their organisation and by boosting the data literacy of their teams. Data literacy will help marketing leaders improve on things like data quality by being purposeful in choosing data sources, and data integration by being fluent enough to partner closely with IT. The future of marketing strategy is data-driven, so improving our data practice is an investment in long-term success. 4. Account-based marketing soars — with caveats Last year’s State of Marketing reportfound that account-based marketing (ABM) programs had rapidly gained in popularity. This year, 79% of B2B marketers said they’re using an ABM platform, and account-based marketing comprised an average of 16% of B2B and B2B2C marketing budgets. B2B buyers expect the same level of empathy and personalisation that B2C consumers have come to enjoy, especially during the pandemic-era shift to digital-first B2B selling — a trend that ABM programs address. How marketers in Southeast Asia feel about various aspects of their ABM programmes. Visit Tableau to learn more. Despite the resources being dedicated to ABM, fewer than half of marketers are completely satisfied with any one element of their account-based marketing programs — including technology, measurement, personalisation capabilities, and the identification of target accounts. Where’s the disconnect? Although ABM programs are relatively new to the B2B marketers’ toolkit, marketers shouldn’t be complacent when adopting these strategies. They require dedication to coordinating with sales teams, as well as digital and technology skills that evolve as quickly as the market does. We’ll continue to see ABM in B2B marketers’ toolboxes. But marketers should make plans now to improve the requisite digital skill sets and internal sales and service processes thatmake account-based marketing programs successful. 5. Marketers need relevant training to prepare for the future There are two main approaches to improving a marketing team’s skills: Hiring to fill knowledge gaps and upskilling or reskilling current staff members to keep up with the pace of change. What’s the best option to future-proof a team’s success? It may depend on the quality of the internal training resources at hand. Unfortunately, that’s a cause for concern for many teams: only 44% of marketers rate the employee training they receive as excellent. Even marketers’ top-requested skills training is falling short. The No. 1 skill marketers said they want to improve is creativity, yet only 44% of companies offer training in that area. Even critical data analytics skills that are in high demand are falling behind, with only 39% of companies offering analytics training. So marketing leaders must make the choice: Do I rely on the quality of the reskilling resources I have, or do I look elsewhere? The choice starts with making the conscious decision to be proactive. Marketing leaders should take a hard look at their existing training resources to decide whether they are enough to prepare teams for the future of marketing strategy. Having the right skills on your team means marketers can react to dynamic market conditions and embrace new trends in what customers want and need. For marketers around the world, future-proofing success can feel unattainable given the rapid pace of transformation across all industries. But preparation, and being willing to look outside the box forresources to upskill your teams, can be the solution marketers need. This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.

As the world’s #1 CRM, LIKE.TG brings companies and customers together. This is possible through LIKE.TG Customer 360. It’s an integrated, AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM) platform that unites departments and gives them a single view of your customer. This enables your teams to create connected, personal customer experiences that build stronger relationships. LIKE.TG Customer 360 is designed to be tailored to the needs of every business. We have specialised solutions to support the capabilities you need to thrive and grow. We also have an extensive network of ecosystem partners offering apps and guidance to help you craft a truly customised experience. Read the infographic below to learn about the various LIKE.TG Customer 360 solutions and apps. These include: sales, service, marketing, IT (platform), commerce, Tableau analytics, data integration (MuleSoft), and partners (AppExchange). No matter your business type, LIKE.TG Customer 360 helps your teams come together, serve customers better, and grow your business. For details on this infographic, please click here.

I’ve been on the hunt for a house lately. This involves me sending out a lot of emails, and calling real estate agents about properties. In doing so, the real estate agents capture my contact details. Even though I hadn’t opted-in for it, I started receiving at least weekly emails from dozens of different real estate agents. They made numerous marketing personalisation sins: Their list of properties seem to be the real estate’s inventory. Not a curated list of properties in my price range, in the suburbs I’m looking at, with the features I want. All of the properties link to the real estate agent’s website, rather than my preferred real estate listings site Each email contains a handful of properties (rarely good ones I might add). All linking to the real estate agent’s website (rather than my preferred real estate listings website). The email tends to get lost among all the other property-related emails in my inbox. BUT their emails did start with “Hi Dan”, so everything’s great right? Email isn’t my personal favourite channel. But there’s no denying that email is asuperstar when it comes to ROI. Companies of all shapes and sizes will benefit from investing in strong email personalisation capabilities. However, for too many marketers, the real estate example is actually the best personalisation they’re doing today. Digital advertising? Ask the media agency. SMS? Too expensive, just send more emails. Website personalisation? There are several country specific websites, but they’re identical. Not good enough. The sad reality is that too few marketers invest in the infrastructure and resources needed to deliver truly relevant and consistent messaging across every channel. Why marketers need to embrace continuous improvement People, in general, are uncomfortable with change. We like the known, the familiar. Yet, technologies and trends are always evolving. For example, customer data platforms are transforming the way pizza companies engage with their customers. Some brands have gone beyond personalisation to deliver hyper-personalised experiences: one-to-one conversations with each customer across all channels. Faced with such major changes, it’s natural for people to retreat to what’s familiar. However, over the past year, brands have done the impossible. They have accelerated their digital transformation and compressed years of marketing development into a few months. This cannot be a one-time thing. Marketers need to adopt a philosophy of continuous improvement. There’s a reason business schools all around the world teach students the story ofToyota. Toyota’s kaizen philosophy is one of the key lessons that every successful business, regardless of country or industry, should take to heart. Ask yourself if your company is doing everything they can in these areas: Data strategy: how is data collected and managed? Is it used to its full potential? Integration: is your data stuck in silos or unified in one easily accessible place? Data hygiene: is your database regularly cleansed, standardised, and de-duplicated? ID management: do you have unique customer IDs across channels that allow for omnichannel engagement? Reporting and analytics: is data used to drive marketing decisions? How automated is your reporting? Start small, but start today It’s a challenging time to be in marketing. The remit of marketing has expanded beyond branding to encompass business growth and return on investment. There has been an explosive growth of marketing technology solutions over the years. As of April 2020, there are 8,000 marketing technology solutions. Digital skills training in the Asia-Pacific region needs to keep up with technological advances. For example, Singapore will need 1.2 million more digital workers by 2025 to remain competitive. Don’t get overwhelmed with re-thinking your entire approach to marketing personalisation. It’s crucial to remember that perfect should never be the enemy of good. Start small, but never stop moving forward. Seek continuous improvement. You can start by revamping your email newsletter, so that it is relevant to your audience. Then, you might sync your customer data to Facebook, so you aren’t advertising to people who actually look at your emails. Building on success, you can implement one-to-one engagement across all touchpoints, using real-time personalisation and interaction management solutions. Know that you don’t have to do all of this on your own. The right partner can help to build and grow successful businesses. Take the team at Verticurl, a LIKE.TG partner, for example. They are experts on marketing technology and how marketers can make the most out of their marketing data. For example, how the deprecation of third party cookies will impact marketers and their personalisation efforts. If you’re wondering where the gaps in your personalisation strategy are, check out Verticurl’s Database Maturity Assessment to see where there’s room for improvement.

The past year and a half have seen a decade’s worth of digital change. Everything we do—from communication to commerce and consumption—has been transformed by digital technologies. These advancements can unlock tremendous value for our societies. But they can also reinforce and exacerbate inequalities, unless webridge the digital skills gap—starting with the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. A recent report from AlphaBeta (commissioned by Amazon Web Services) found that by 2025, the number of APAC workers requiring digital skills will grow over five-fold. The average worker will need to learn seven new digital skills. This will call for about 5.7 billion digital skill trainings. How do we get to this point? What can businesses and governments in the APAC region do to improve access to digital skills training? To find some answers, LIKE.TG hosted a panel discussion on ‘Bridging the digital skills gap in the APAC region’. The panel featured several industry thought leaders and government luminaries: Terence Chia: Cluster Director, Human Capital Cluster, Digital Industry and Talent Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore Ved Mani Tiwari: COO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India Patrick Kidd: CEO, Digital Skills Organisation, Australia William Sim: VP, Trailhead Academy (APAC), LIKE.TG Here are a few key takeaways from the session that are particularly relevant to Singapore: Gaps can be transformed into opportunities To close the digital skills gap, we first need to understand what’s missing. Then, find a way to transform that gap into an opportunity. For example, as banking consumers moved increasingly away from in-person banking towards digital banking, DBS Bank proactively trained branch tellers in digital skills that would enable them to provide better service to customers, including as video-tellers. That way, DBS Bank engaged their employees as partners in the bank’s digital transformation journey. Many solutions that fill digital gaps can be replicated across the economy. IMDA facilitates this through initiatives, like the Open Innovation Programme, that connect technology solution providers with companies that need such transformative solutions. Sharing and scaling up digital capabilities, techniques, and solutions can prepare our industries for a digital future. “Let’s see the gaps as opportunities to do good.” Terence Chia | Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore The supply of digital skills must match the demand There’s plenty of demand for digital skills. The LIKE.TG economy alone is expected to create 8,500 direct jobs and 17,000 indirect jobs in Singapore between 2019 and 2024. To fill these jobs, we need skilled people, including Salesforce-qualified professionals and other skilled resources. That’s whyTrailhead is taking the initiative toempower students and aspiring professionals with the in-demand digital skills that will set them up for a successful career. LIKE.TG strongly believes that access to quality training shouldn’t be based on an individual’s propensity to pay for it, but simply their propensity to learn. Therefore, all Trailhead courses are free. The end goal isn’t just to train or upskill individuals, but to place them within LIKE.TG’s global ecosystem of customers and partners. It’s a win-win for everyone. Aspirants can connect to exciting job opportunities within the LIKE.TG economy. In turn, LIKE.TG’s customers and partners gain access to a range of skilled professionals. “Through our digital skilling programs, we want people to achieve better jobs, better living standards, and a better future.” William Sim | Trailhead Academy (APAC), LIKE.TG Both public and private sectors have a role to play The Singapore government runs surveys every year to assess digital inclusion and skills. They also rely on the private sector for industry feedback and information. Both parties must work together to generate a positive impact at every level of the ‘digital skills stack’. The lowest level, base skilling, is about ensuring that every Singaporean has basic digital literacy skills. Schools already train children to understand the fundamentals of software coding. The private sector can support these efforts by, for example, funding student laptops and providing basic IT skills training. The next level, cross-skilling, is about recognising that digital skills are crucial not just for software programmers or data scientists, but also for marketers, service reps, and other professionals. Therefore, digital skills training should be an integral part of academic courses at the university level. The private sector can help by ensuring that academic curricula are aligned with industry demands. The last level, upskilling, is about making sure that digital skills evolve at the same pace as industry opportunities. This is where the private sector can play the largest role. For example, LIKE.TG’s Trailhead Academy has partnered with Workforce Singapore to run the LIKE.TG Professional Conversion Program (PCP). The program equips working professionals for new career opportunities with LIKE.TG customers. More public-private partnerships like these can help unlock Singapore’s true growth potential. “Let’s simplify, align, and collaborate. Then we can exert influence.” Patrick Kidd | Digital Skills Organisation, Australia Digital skills development must be holistic In the digital age, technical skills like software programming and data science will continue to be important. But as AI and automation take over more tasks, soft skills like thinking critically and communicating well will also become essential. A truly effective digital skills program will hone both hard and soft skills. Digital now pervades every industry—including those that were traditionally non-tech. Logistics, for example, uses sensors, robotics, and even self-driving trucks to transport goods faster. The education sector is experimenting with gamification, smart boards, and chatbots to make learning more engaging. Even skills training programs are using augmented and virtual reality tools to help professionals upskill remotely. All of this goes to show that digital is the future. The faster we close the skills gap, the better positioned we will be to thrive in an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. “Since the pandemic, digital skills have become survival skills.” Ved Mani Tiwari | National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India Visit the LIKE.TG Professional Conversion Programme page to learn how you can improve your digital skills and employability in the Infocomm Technology sector.

Sales and service experts share how these two teams can work together to deliver great customer experiences and build brand loyalty. The global pandemic has changed the sales landscape forever. Sales teams that were used to meeting face-to-face have had to rapidly switch to virtual selling. Consumers started engaging with businesses online in record numbers, with some shopping online for the first time. Alongside this shift in buying habits, customers’ ideas about how organisations should behave have changed. More than ever, they expect the businesses they deal with to have values that extend beyond the traditional pursuit of profit. Eighty-nine percent of customers expect companies to clearly state their values, and 90% expect them to clearly demonstrate those values. Customer experience is also more important than ever. Eighty percent of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its product or services. The role of customer service teams is evolving to help meet these growing expectations. Service has changed from a ‘repair and recovery’ function to become a trusted advisor and custodian of customer care. The influence of service departments on the sales process is growing, too. By sharing data between departments, service teams can contribute to better sales experiences and improve sales performance. Read the infographic to find out how. For details on this infographic, please click here.