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Meet Johan Yu: Empowering People and Businesses Through Technology
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Johan Yu, a LIKE.TG MVP, business systems architect, blogger, and author, based in Singapore. Johan loves using the power of data for the benefit of all business stakeholders.
In the remote Indonesian village where Johan Yu grew up, electricity was a rare luxury. Therefore, all tasks connected to his father’s farming business were done manually. Along with the farming itself, these included record-keeping of expenses, crop production levels, and sales accounts.
At school, Johan began to learn about computers. Very soon, he recognised the power such technology would bring to his father’s business, as well as his community. Johan wasn’t thinking of anything sophisticated like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or robotic automation. Such technology was still a long way off. He could simply see that certain jobs were better left to machines, enabling humans to be better at what they do.
“At my high school, we had a computer lab and I became very interested in computers,” says Johan. “Once my teachers knew I was interested in computer science, they guided me on a path to study at university in Jakarta.”
Johan earned a Bachelor of Computer, Management Information Systems, at Jakarta’s BINUS University. Then, he took a Master of Management, Information Systems, at BINUS University and Australia’s Curtin University.
While studying, Johan realised his dream could come true. As a child, he had imagined using the power of computing to help businesspeople like his father. Today, he is a business systems architect and LIKE.TG MVP , who works with businesses to solve problems using technology.
Becoming “skilled, more competent, and faster”
For seven years during and following university, Johan worked for an insurance firm. Then he moved to Sydney, Australia, and took a job with the country’s first LIKE.TG partner. Immediately, the LIKE.TG platform made sense to him. It wasn’t so much about what it did, but more about what it allowed him to do.
“I had come from using basic systems to building applications,” Johan says. “And I realised there were a lot of things that I thought IT professionals shouldn’t have to do any more.
“I saw that we could focus more on how technology can enable the strategic needs of the business, rather than just the infrastructure required. The capabilities of the technology enabled us to think about the business in a different way.”
The capabilities of the LIKE.TG platform made him feel “skilled, more competent, and faster”, Johan says. In the past, he had never experienced a strong community around a platform or brand. So when he had challenges, it was sometimes difficult to find solutions. But once he discovered how active the LIKE.TG community was, he realised he was able to find answers immediately, from Trailblazers all over the world.
“I appreciated the speed to execute,” he says. “In the past, I had to spend a long time setting up the server, the database, and more. But the LIKE.TG platform is so convenient. I could just start working on projects immediately. And reach out to the community for help when needed.”
Success = user experience + empowerment
Johan is currently working in a multinational company, from his home in Singapore, with more than 10,000 people around the globe. How does he ensure they’re all making the most of a platform or application that has been developed for them?
“We try to make sure apps are simple for users to understand and interact with,” he says. “We don’t want to put too much effort into documentation. If it is user-friendly, then it makes sense. If it’s not user-friendly, it’s just wasting money.”
Importantly, Johan says, technology is not about replacing people. Its true power, as he realised when he was a young boy, is in making people even better at what they do.
“In the corporate world, we don’t use AI to replace people. We use it to enable people,” he says.
“Our people can use AI to see how likely it is that a sale will close. The propensity to close is based on historical data and on the experience of similar customers. So, the AI helps salespeople to prioritise their work. We see that it makes them more successful.”
Leading the LIKE.TG community in Singapore
In Singapore, Johan is well-known as a generous leader within the LIKE.TG community. He is considered a knowledgeable expert, who spends a great deal of time helping others to find solutions to powerful business challenges.
This assistance includes a Salesforce-themed blog site, managed and written by Johan, which attracts more than 2,200 people every day from around the world. Most of his visitors are not from Singapore. They come from the USA, UK, and India. His reputation has spread around the globe.
The prolific sharer of knowledge has also written three books. They are LIKE.TG Reporting and Dashboards, LIKE.TG Lightning Reporting and Dashboards, and Getting Started with LIKE.TG Einstein Analytics.
Visit Trailhead to learn more about how to deepen your LIKE.TG knowledge and learn in-demand skills.
For more stories of our Trailblazers, check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series:
Meet Francisco N. Collantes Jr. : Delivering Energy Through Collaboration
Meet Gratiano Yeung: Transforming Service by Delighting Customers
How to Work With AI Colleagues and Build AI Skills
Growing up in a liberal household in Pakistan, Dr Ayesha Khanna was aware of the inequity in society and felt a responsibility to do something about it. Joining us on the Future of Work, Now podcast, Dr Khanna shared how these principles have influenced her career and led her to complete a PhD focused on smart cities.
Today, Dr Khanna is CEO of ADDO AI, a specialist data science and artificial intelligence (AI) firm. ADDO AI provides advice and implements data platforms for customers in Asia, the Middle East, and the US. She is also Founder of 21C Girls (21st Century Girls), a registered charity that teaches coding and artificial intelligence to girls and women in Singapore.
In her conversation with podcast host Jess O’Reilly, Dr Khanna offers insight into her work and provides advice on how to maximise the benefits of AI.
Here are highlights from the conversation:
Machines are the new team players
Over time, technology has moved from the back office to the front office. Now, technology and business teams work closer together. However, there’s a new team player today and that’s the machine.
“There’s the business person, there’s the technology person, and now there is the machine itself. We have to learn to work with these new influences, whether it’s an AI agent that supports you in your daily decision-making, or a robot in your warehouse,” said Dr Khanna.
Treating AI like a colleague doesn’t mean believing everything it says. On the contrary, Dr Khanna, says it is okay to question what it tells you. The important thing is to listen.
“Think about your normal office relationships. Your colleague will say something and you could be quite open to it or your instinct may tell you that it won’t work for your business. That is precisely how we work with humans and how we must work with machines. We have to be open to AI’s recommendations and experiment, but we also have to be critical and question the recommendations,” said Dr Khanna.
Building skills and confidence in AI
AI projects typically require data scientists and AI engineers, as well as experts in areas like natural language processing (NLP). Dr Khanna said there had previously been a shortage of skills in these areas, but growing interest in AI could help close the talent gap. In addition, solutions like Tableau CRM could lessen the need for large teams of data experts.
“Where existing AI products can be used, then your job is to connect the dots. You don’t need to be a deep AI expert for that. You can have just a small team or have an advisory team who can come in and create a little bit of custom code. I think we’ll see more of this in the future,” said Dr Khanna.
Asked about the skills required for the future of work and AI, Dr Khanna said it was important for everyone to be computationally literate.
“The ability to read and write, do basic math and recognise basic coding is fundamental to understanding how the world around you works. Without that, you lose confidence,” said Dr Khanna. “There are many fabulous people who shrink back in board meetings, for example, as they don’t understand how technology is disrupting their business. It is unfair to them and unfair to their employer and employees as they have a responsibility to learn what’s necessary about the world around them.”
Empowering women in tech
Through her charity 21C Girls, Dr Khanna is now empowering the next generation with the skills and confidence to succeed in the future of work. She was raised to believe that she could do anything, and started the charity because she wanted other girls to believe the same.
The charity now works with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Google in Singapore to teach boys and girls how to code. “The kids love it. They learn the basics of coding, but also problem solving through coding and that really is the key. Coding is another language to solve problems just like writing music or painting is a language to express your creativity,” said Dr Khanna.
Dr Khanna also runs the Empower Program with Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. This program teaches girls the basics of AI and the feedback has shown it to be successful in building confidence about the future.
“It’s very important we put in that work to upskill ourselves and be fearless. AI and technology is not rocket science. You can learn the basics and sometimes the basics are all that you need. So I encourage everyone— especially girls and women— to pick up that book or take that course and learn,” said Dr Khanna.
Listen to the full podcast for more on Dr Khanna’s career journey and her perspectives on the future of AI.
Access the podcast on demand at our podcasts page, Spotify, and iTunes. You can also listen over at the Singapore Community Radio Twitch page, Facebook page, and website.
Tune in at 1:00 p.m. SGT Friday, April 30 to hear from Suraj Naik, CMO and Board Member of the Genius Group.
Sign up here for our LIKE.TG Blog newsletter to get monthly updates on the latest LIKE.TG stories.
How Marketers Can Drive Equality, Connection, and Digital Innovation
As the digital imperative reshapes how we work and connect with our customers, marketers everywhere are experimenting and pushing the boundaries of digital technology. From pivoting to online events to driving hyper-personalisation, they’re spearheading a massive shift in customer engagement.
Wendy Walker, Senior Director Marketing Asia Pacific at LIKE.TG, joined us on the Future of Work, Now podcast to talk about this shift. She also discusses how marketers are championing equality and innovation.
Here are key takeaways from the conversation:
Diversity and inclusion are key to innovation
Wendy is passionate about the constant change and progression that comes with working as a marketer in the technology industry. Even so, she shared that the pandemic was a reminder that change can come from absolutely anywhere and have a dramatic impact on the way we work.
Marketers need to be ready to adapt and innovate, and the role of diversity is crucial.
“Our teams are more agile than ever and we all know that innovation can give us a competitive edge. What many leaders forget is that diversity is a key ingredient in innovation. This includes the diversity of thought and the diversity of perspective that comes from an inclusive culture where everyone feels they have a voice.
“For me, this emphasises the point that diversity and inclusion are not nice-to-have considerations. They are key drivers of innovation and collaboration, and can have a major impact on business success,” said Wendy.
Representation in marketing
Like others within the media industry, marketers can play a pivotal role in promoting and celebrating diversity within our broader society. It’s a role that Wendy takes seriously as a passionate advocate for equality both inside and outside of the workplace.
“I am acutely aware of the powerful impact marketing can have on society and that is why I am very intentional about ensuring the messages we send out are truly representative of the communities we serve at LIKE.TG.
“Everyone should see themselves reflected in popular culture and that includes seeing themselves represented in advertising. It helps people to feel seen and heard and hopefully empowered and inspired as well,” said Wendy.
Authentic representation is becoming the standard and Wendy said that marketers are in a unique position to challenge and influence perceptions of what society should look like.
“What does a doctor look like? What does an athlete look like? Or what does love look like? We as marketers can help to define these things and ensure inclusivity,” said Wendy.
Achieving customer connection
Marketers are adept at understanding and influencing customer behaviour, which puts them in a prime position to help businesses recover and grow post-pandemic.
“It’s become tougher than ever to connect with our customers, but if we understand what they are going through, we can send more relevant messages out to the market and show that we care. I talk a lot about empathy in marketing; it’s what we need to achieve a real connection with our customers,” said Wendy.
Of course, the touch points used to engage with customers are also important. The last year has led marketers to accelerate their move to digital and build new skills for the future. They have also been experimenting with personalisation and automation for more sustainable and scalable engagement.
“There’s been so much learning for everyone over the last twelve months, which is evident in how marketers relate to customers, address their needs for accessibility, and execute in a number of other different ways.
LIKE.TG + Tableau: A Potent Pairing for Data-Driven Success
Robert Wickham is Tableau’s Vice President Strategy Growth, Asia Pacific Japan. He leads a team of specialists throughout the region that helps customers transform their business using the Customer Success Platform.
Right now in business, we’re seeing a dramatic and growing performance divide between organisations that are data-driven and those that are not.
Data-driven companies have a considerable competitive advantage. They’re more likely to acquire and retain customers, uncover hidden opportunities, attract talented staff, and deliver seamless and connected experiences for their customers.
This is supported by research recently conducted in the Asia-Pacific region by Tableau and YouGov. It revealed that 82% of data-driven organisations believe data gives them a critical advantage.
The study confirmed that data allowed businesses to:
Make strategic decisions faster
Communicate more effectively with stakeholders
Be more agile
These are all powerful advantages in a fast-changing environment. But it’s not enough to have data. The data must be presented as actionable insights and the user must be motivated to have their decisions informed by the data. The business advantages of data only become a reality within an organisation that truly embraces a data culture.
LIKE.TG + Tableau: Better Together
In companies with good data culture, every employee has access to the data they require to do their best work. This is possible when all departments are connected around a single, shared view of customer data.
LIKE.TG Customer 360 makes this possible. Customer 360, the world’s #1 CRM, offers best-in-class apps that unite every team — marketing, sales, commerce, service, and IT — around a single, shared view of customer data on an integrated platform. This enables teams to work together to build lasting, trusted relationships and deliver the personalised experiences their customers expect.
The world’s #1 CRM is truly supercharged when paired with Tableau, the world’s leading analytics platform. If data gives businesses a competitive edge, the combination of LIKE.TG and Tableau fuels high performance and drives impact.
Why is this?
Tableau brings analytics into the flow of business. It does this by unifying data from other sources as well as LIKE.TG into a single view. In doing so, it offers intelligent insights for informed business decisions. It allows people across the organisation to interact with and feel confident about the company’s real-time data feed.
Tableau’s user-friendly platform gives each team member insight into exactly what they need to make excellent decisions, every time. Importantly, when combined with LIKE.TG Customer 360, it powers up a single view of the customer by connecting data across various functions, including sales, service and marketing, offering entirely new insights into customer success.
Not only does Tableau help people see and understand data with its customisable, intuitive, and interactive dashboards, the AI function also reveals trends and patterns that were previously invisible.
The confidence that comes from this user-friendly platform is a vital part of its success. The best data analytics in the world will come to nothing if staff can’t, or don’t want to, use the software. In a data culture, this is not a problem.
Good data culture means great customer experience
To remain relevant and close to customers, and to deliver better outcomes for them, a business needs digital capabilities. The better its capabilities, including its data culture, the better the customer experience.
An excellent example is PLDT, which transformed from traditional telco to digital disruptor.
PLDT has dramatically boosted experience and engagement for its customers by transforming its internal operations through the use of LIKE.TG and Tableau.
These platforms are essential for its workforce to manage, engage, and collaborate more effectively.
Static spreadsheets are gone. In their place are rich, real-time data dashboards customised to the specific needs and workflows of individuals within the organisation. Historical reporting is exactly that – history. Teams have moved on to focus on future plans and strategy.
Having real-time data at their fingertips and presented in an easily digestible format means every decision by every staff member is informed by real-time market intelligence. Staff know exactly what is going on within the organisation, around the business, in the market, and in their customers’ individual journeys.
It all adds up to better business, outstanding agility, improved insight, and exceptional customer experience. The returns are many, including growth in individual customer value and customer numbers, highly satisfied customers, greater brand loyalty, more engaged team members, and a high-tech workplace that attracts talent.
When businesses adopt digital technology and use data to inform decisions, they develop a distinct competitive advantage. When businesses combine the power of LIKE.TG, the insight of Tableau, and a healthy data culture, there is no limit to their success.
Watch our on-demand webinar to learn more about how LIKE.TG and Tableau can supercharge growth for your business.
How To Create a Data Culture Starting With Trust
As companies become more digital and have more online interactions with customers, they have an explosion of data at their fingertips. A recent study shows that this data can provide companies with a critical advantage.
The study, by Tableau and YouGov, examined the use of data by organisations in Asia Pacific and Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. It revealed that 82% of data-driven companies reported critical business advantages during the pandemic. It also found that 62% of data-driven companies are optimistic about the future.
So, how can more companies reap these advantages? We examine this topic in season four of our Future of Work, Now podcast, Tech in Hyperspeed. The season is hosted by Jess O’Reilly, Regional Vice President for LIKE.TG. To kick off the fourth season, she talked to our first guest about how to build a data culture.
Here are highlights of the conversation with Robert Wickham, Vice President Strategy Growth, Tableau Asia Pacific Japan:
Why are data companies more optimistic about the future?
The global pandemic has made us feel as though we’ve gone through a portal and come out on the other side, to a world where the laws of physics no longer apply. It’s a little bit like being dropped into the jungle and needing to find a new path. We need new tools to navigate and data acts as our map and compass.
For example, by looking at what employees and customers are telling you — whether through surveys or through the data they’re creating — you can create services that are more relevant to them right now.
Organisations that have a data culture feel more optimistic about how to navigate these uncertain times.
What does having a data culture mean to you?
Data culture can sound like yet another buzz word, but within a data culture there are several elements that lead people to value and rely on data to make decisions. One of these is data literacy. Can you read and understand your data? Can you ask the right questions and become a data detective?
When we talk to customers about creating a data culture, we encourage them to think about three fundamental pieces of the puzzle. The first is that you’ve got to build trust. The second is that you’ve got to cultivate talent. The third is you’ve got to drive commitment from the top down.
If we explore those pieces in more detail, trust has a couple of different facets. First, you need to trust the people within your organisation to be the custodians of the data. So, rather than locking data in silos, you want to create an environment where all employees have access to data and the opportunity to explore it. Secondly, you need to be able to trust your data and know that it is valid. That requires data literacy.
How can you cultivate talent and data literacy?
You need to bring people into your organisation that already have data literacy skills. That means you need to look at your recruiting practices and your job descriptions, and ensure you’re hiring for those skills.
Secondly, you need to create learning pathways for existing employees so that they can learn and develop their skills. We do this at LIKE.TG through Trailhead and there are some organisations that have set up data academies.
Building data literacy is not something that can be achieved with a “one and done” mindset though. In addition to offering training, companies need to create data communities where people can continue to learn and share.
What does the future of data and analytics look like?
I am excited about a future where everyone is thinking about data and analytics, and making data-driven decisions regardless of their role. I’d also like to see data become as significant and easily available as electricity in the developed world.
Listen to the full podcast for more insights on how to build a data culture and create data-driven customer experiences.
Access the podcast on demand at our podcasts page, Spotify, and iTunes. You can also listen over at the Singapore Community Radio Twitch page, Facebook page, and website.
Tune in at 1:00 p.m. SGT Friday, April 23 to hear from Dr Ayesha Khanna, CEO and Co-Founder of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm and incubator.
Sign up here for our LIKE.TG Blog newsletter to get monthly updates on the latest LIKE.TG stories.
Customer Journey Map: What is Customer Journey Mapping & Why is it Important?
On the surface, customer journeys may seem simple – you offer a product and someone buys it. But look more closely and it’s easy to see that the customer journey is becoming increasingly complex.
Customers use messaging apps, email, phone calls, websites, and various other channels to communicate with businesses. All these touchpoints create increasingly complex customer journeys, making it more difficult to always ensure a great customer experience. But customer experience is more important than ever. According to 2020 global research from LIKE.TG,
80% of customers now consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products.
69% of Gen X customers prioritise convenience over brand loyalty
91% of customers agree that a positive customer experience makes them more likely to purchase again
Customer expectations are undoubtedly undergoing a major transformation. How can brands meet these expectations and ensure every customer journey is smooth?
One excellent way to understand and optimise the customer experience is a process called customer journey mapping.
Your customer’s journey – in pictures
A customer journey map is a visual picture of the customer or user journey. It helps you tell the story of your customers’ experiences with your brand across social media, email, livechat, and any other channels they might use.
Mapping the customer journey ensures that you are not missing out on the chance to interact with your customer at any stage.This process also helps business leaders gain insights into common customer pain points. With these insights, businesses can deliver more optimised and personalised customer experiences.
Creating a customer journey map
Customer journey mapping (also called user journey mapping) is the process of creating a customer journey map. Doing this helps businesses see things from the customer’s perspective and where they can improve. First, all the possible customer touchpoints are mapped out. Touchpoints include websites, social channels, or interactions with the marketing and sales teams.
User journeys are then created across these various touchpoints for each buyer persona. For example, a millennial buyer persona may typically become aware of a product on social media, research it on the mobile version of your site, and finally make a purchase on a laptop.
The customer experience at each touchpoint should be included in your customer journey map. This can include what action the customer needs to take and how your brand responds.
Why customer journey mapping matters
Customer journey mapping is important, because it is a strategic approach to better understand customer expectations. It is also crucial for optimising the customer experience.
Customer journey mapping is just as important for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as it is for larger companies. Customer expectations are changing for all businesses, regardless of size. Customers demand an omni-channel approach to customer service, marketing, and sales.
One of the most important aspects of the customer experience is personalisation. Recent research found that 52% expect their offers to always be personalised. Customer journey mapping allows SMBs to create personalised experiences across all touchpoints – for every individual, across all channels.
Mapping the customer journey has a host of benefits such as:
Allowing you to optimise the customer onboarding process
Checking customer expectations against the experience they actually receive
Understanding the differences in buyer personas as they move from prospect to conversion through the buying funnel
Creating a logical order to your buyer journey
However, the biggest benefit of customer journey mapping is simply understanding your customers more. The better you understand their expectations, the more you can tailor the customer experience to their needs.
How does customer journey mapping enable omnichannel marketing and customer service?
Today’s consumers want a highly personalised experience and this includes your marketing and customer service efforts. This interconnected approach is called omni-channel marketing and omni-channel customer service.
In terms of marketing, customer journey mapping can target one prospect across multiple touchpoints. For example, a customer who browses a product on a website can be retargeted with a social media ad later on.
To offer the best possible customer experience, omni-channel marketing is often backed up by omni-channel customer service. This is where the customer can receive customer support across any channel, such as on social media, messenger apps, or live chat. Again, customer journey mapping can allow your customer service team to better understand the customer experience and improve their ability to resolve issues.
How can I optimise my customer journey map?
Mapping out many different customer journeys across many different buyer personas can be quite time-consuming. Once you have mapped them out, you still need a way to offer a personalised omni-channel customer experience.
If you’re serious about customer journey mapping, you need to invest in software that can help. Customer journey mapping tools are typically part of marketing automation software like Pardot. These allow you to easily create customised journeys and automate marketing actions. This takes your marketing automation efforts to the next level.
Check out a demo of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement’s powerful marketing automation software built on the world’s #1 CRM.
This post originally appeared in the U.K.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
FAQs
What is a Customer Journey Map?
A Customer Journey Map is a visual representation of the end-to-end experience a customer has with a brand. It outlines touchpoints and interactions, helping businesses enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. Explore LIKE.TG solutions for optimising your customer journey today.
How do you create a customer journey map?
Here are the steps:
1) Identify customer touchpoints and interactions across their lifecycle.
2) Gather data, analyse feedback, and collaborate cross-functionally.
3) Leverage LIKE.TG’s tools to streamline the process and design effective journey maps for improved customer experiences.
Highlights From Our LIKE.TG Live: Asia Premiere Episode
Yesterday, we launched our premiere virtual experience – LIKE.TG Live: Asia. Featuring Trailblazers, industry experts, panel discussions, and live demonstrations, it was packed full of inspiration – and celebration!
Here are the highlights of the first episode:
Success from Anywhere is the New Normal
Our morning session kicked off with a keynote from LIKE.TG Senior Vice President and General Manager for ASEAN, Sujith Abraham. Sujith shared how LIKE.TG has successfully partnered with organisations across the region to encourage job creation, enable digital transformation, and drive economic growth.
Highlights include:
Creating 147,000 new direct jobs by 2024
Generating $10.5 billion in new business revenue in Asia by 2024
Offering S$960,000 to 120 eligible small businesses alongside the Singapore Business Federation this year to overcome COVID-19 challenges
Sujith reinforced one of our core LIKE.TG values – innovation – and how this important principle can inspire and enable every organisation in Asia to “do well, and do good.”
LIKE.TG Area Senior Vice President and General Manager, Singapore, Cecily Ng, presented LIKE.TG technology innovations: Future Cloud 3.0, Customer 360, and Hyperforce. Cecily pointed out that the true measure of technology isn’t simply that it can automate and streamline processes. It’s about enabling businesses to be agile when the going gets tough.
Learn about the latest LIKE.TG technology in our keynote session.
The ASEAN businesses leading the way in innovation
At LIKE.TG, we’re always proud to see how our customers embrace change and thrive through innovation. None more so than two success stories from the region: Grab and NTUC FairPrice.
First, Cheryl Goh, Group VP of Marketing and Sustainability at Grab, shared how this regional powerhouse utilised machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase efficiency and create great customer experiences through mapping and routing. With the help of LIKE.TG AI, Grab is now able to predict the best delivery route for drivers, and batch orders together based on customer location. This isn’t just efficient. It maximises drivers’ time and brings them higher earnings. The use of this technology is just one of the reasons Grab has now expanded into eight ASEAN countries.
We also learnt how Grab has helped onboard small businesses and boost their online exposure through the $3.5M Homegrown program. Grab launched a social impact initiative – Grab For Good – that focuses on improving the lives of Grab partners, and a Grab For Good Fund. Amongst the many planned initiatives, including scholarships, training and insurance subsidies, $20M has been set aside to vaccinate Grab drivers not covered by national insurance programs. Well done Grab team!
Special guest, Joshua Tan, Head of CRM at NTUC FairPrice, shared FairPrice’s digital transformation process and how they are personalising customer communications through an omni-channel approach. With the help of LIKE.TG Customer 360, NTUC FairPrice sees their “customer as a compass”. This has enabled them to better predict customer behavior, respond faster to customer needs, and be more present in their customer’s journey with the brand.
Along with special community outreach programmes during the past year, It was also inspiring to hear how FairPrice has adopted a “test and learn mindset” to improve customer experience through tech innovations to drive business growth. Thank you Joshua and NTUC FairPrice for sharing such valuable insights.
Watch the full stories from Grab and NTUC FairPrice.
How an Inspired Trailblazer created opportunities for workers
Inspired Trailblazer, Joanna Teo, is the Founder and Managing Director of customer intelligence data agency, Attribute Data. She joined LIKE.TG Senior Director of Marketing Wendy Walker for an enlightening discussion. Joanna talked about her journey with LIKE.TG over the past 12 years and why she formed her own company to help organisations unlock the value of data and analytics.
One of Joanna’s greatest contributions was helping to upskill workers, especially those who were made redundant. She partnered with the Singapore government and LIKE.TG to train workers to learn tech-focused skills. This partnership led to employment for many participants and helped to build their confidence.
Learn more about Joanna’s career journey here.
How the crisis has created opportunities
We were honoured to have Kim Underhill, President of Singapore charity, Daughters of Tomorrow, and Shailey Hingorani, Head of Advocacy, Research, and Communications at AWARE. They talked to Wendy Walker about the increasing challenges many women have faced throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and what their organisations are doing to help.
Kim and Shailey shared candid insights into the factors leading to increased domestic violence cases. They also discussed the impact on women who needed to juggle the responsibilities of child and elderly care, homeschooling, and for some, employment. Despite all of this, however, Kim and Shailey also reflected on many positive initiatives. For example, creating child care communities for women in Singapore who are experiencing financial hardship, and an online collaboration with Twitter to help those in domestic violence situations. They also shared the good news story that donations to women’s causes in Singapore during 2020 were at a record high. Bravo, and heartfelt thanks to Kim and Shaile!
Watch the full discussion with Wendy here.
Wrap-up
That wasn’t all. We saw live demonstrations and interactive sessions that dived deep into LIKE.TG technology. We also heard from Trailblazers who shared their digital skills through Trailhead Network.
If you missed any of our sessions in episode one, you can still catch them on demand by registering here.
Tune in for more
This is just the first in a series of informative and engaging online episodes over the coming six weeks. From now until 1 July, you can tune into weekly episodes on Service, Sales, Small Fast Growing Businesses, Marketing, and IT/Admins.
Heads up: In the Marketing episode we’ll be joined by Seth Godin, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur and Teacher! He’ll share his vision on The Future of Marketing in a Digital-First World.
You’ll also hear from more of our Trailblazers, who will generously share their learnings and best practices for success.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn more!
LIKE.TG Live: Asia Is Almost Here. Join Us in 2 Days!
If you haven’t done so already, do sign up for our premier annual event, LIKE.TG Live: Asia 2021. Kicking off in just two days, we begin a 6-week program with our keynote, “Success From Anywhere”.
“Success From Anywhere” is a phrase you hear a lot at LIKE.TG. It’s embedded in our values and our mission, and is demonstrated daily through the resilience and strength of our Trailblazers.
Two ASEAN businesses who exemplify this are Grab and NTUC FairPrice. Cheryl Goh, VP Marketing and Sustainability at Grab, and Joshua Tan, Head of CRM at NTUC FairPrice – will be joining us in the keynote. If you want to learn more about how their businesses have adapted in this all-digital, work from anywhere world, this opening episode is one you won’t want to miss.
If you already use LIKE.TG – or are still researching how it can benefit your business – LIKE.TG Live: Asia is the perfect place to learn more. You can watch live demonstrations, ask questions, hear customer success stories, and network. No matter the size or scale of your operation, or the industry you work in, LIKE.TG Live: Asia has something for everyone.
So what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars and get ready. We look forward to seeing you there!
Episode 1: Program Overview
10:00-10:40 a.m. “Success From Anywhere” Keynote and Customer Interviews
10:40a.m.-11:00a.m. Panel Discussion “Where to From Here? What Do We Need to Propel Us Into The Future”.
11:00 a.m.-11:10 a.m. Trailblazer Interview
11:10 a.m. – 12:00 a.m. Live Demonstrations
ON DEMAND: Equality Track: Lesson From A Year of Change. What The Pandemic is Teaching Us About Equality
Tableau Live APAC 2021: Find Success Through Data
JY Pook leads the Asia-Pacific (APJ) region for Tableau, and is responsible for the region’s overall efforts to enable customers to supercharge their digital transformations by leveraging data and analytics. More from JY here.
Having made it through a nerve-wracking period of turbulence and disruption, businesses in Asia-Pacific are now eyeing growth. Some are achieving this much earlier than others.
Register for the Tableau Live Asia Pacific event, happening on May 11 2021, and you’ll meet people from some of those businesses. They include Macquarie Bank, Bentley, Mahindra Finance, Tokopedia, MYOB, Agoda, and Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta.
These organisations have recognised the urgent need to transform, prepare for future shocks, meet customer experience expectations, and ensure every decision is informed by the most accurate real-time data.
They realise data is essential to being agile and quick to recognise opportunities before their competitors do. They also understand that innovation is essential if they’re to use the right data in the right ways.
Critical to part of the transformation journey is figuring out how to democratise that data and place the power of this strategic asset in the hands of everyone.
To do that, a business must develop a true data culture. But how is this achieved? How does everybody across the organisation receive relevant data to make faster, smarter decisions and engage meaningfully with customers?
As we’ll discover in detail during the Tableau Live Asia Pacific event, the answer lies in:
Technology and innovation
Behaviours around that technology, aka “data culture”
Data culture is essentially the collective behaviours and beliefs of those who value data. However, data culture on its own is worth little. A business may be filled with people who value data, but who have no way to access it.
Hence, the other essential ingredient in the recipe for data-driven success is technology. Typically involving artificial intelligence (AI), technology should automatically source the right data for the right person. This allows people to uncover relevant insights, operationalise accurate predictions, and make excellent decisions faster.
Product innovation to democratise data for everyone
At Tableau Live Asia Pacific, attendees will also discover entirely new ways to utilise the world’s leading analytics platform, Tableau, and uncover the depth of capabilities of the platform.
At Tableau, we’ve had a relentless focus on how AI-powered analytics can democratise data across an organisation. We believe analytics needs to be accessible and easy to use for the ordinary user to deliver business impact. That’s accessing any data, anywhere for any user.
The result is a real-time, dashboard view of relevant data that is customised for each and every individual within the organisation. With the assistance of AI, which collates and analyses the right data from the right sources, sales people see exactly what they need to see when they’re on a call. Marketing managers get real-time intelligence on current campaigns. Supply chain managers see how a current delay of raw materials in one part of the world will affect deliveries of manufactured goods in another.
Rather than relying on static, historical data presented in spreadsheets, employees get a live feed of real-time, relevant data. They have the technology and they know how it makes them better at their work.
That’s what the democratisation of data truly looks like.
The value and power of a passionate community
Data culture begins with community – a thriving, collaborative group of people who help each other and share knowledge. In the data analytics space, the Tableau Community is unrivalled.
At Tableau Live Asia Pacific, you have the opportunity to join and meet members of our passionate community, and learn from each other at roundtables.
You will develop an appreciation of data as a key strategic asset. You’ll also see how data creates high-trust and high-transparency environments that promote sharing, collaboration, and the success of others.
Most importantly, you’ll begin to adopt a data and innovation mindset. One in which data and analytics become a catalyst for personal and organisational improvement. That’s a powerful step towards better decision making and future business success.
We look forward to welcoming you into our community at Tableau Live Asia Pacific. Get to know members from Bentley, Mahindra Finance, Tokopedia, MYOB, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health Thailand, Agoda, Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta, and more.
Register to find out how your business can become truly data-driven.
5 Tips for Building a Successful Development Roadmap From AXA Singapore
AXA Singapore is on a mission to become the world’s best digital insurer. That means creating value and differentiation for the company’s customers and its vast network of more than 5,000 distribution partners.
The company has undergone an extensive digital transformation that includes Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud deployments. It has also built a new distributor portal on Experience Cloud.
This distributor portal gives the company’s dedicated partners and independent agents direct access to customer policy data and claim status.
“Previously, partners needed to call or email our distributor care team to check on policy details, claim status and renewal dates for their customers,” explains Abhishek Sharma, Head of CRM, AXA Singapore. “Some of our partners may have a portfolio of around 1,000 customers, so this could be quite time consuming.”
The new portal puts an end to this. It also reduces the admin burden on the distributor care team, and enables them to focus on more high-value tasks.
Read thecustomer storyto learn more about how AXA Singapore has improved customer engagement while boosting process efficiency. Sharma also shares his five tips to create a development roadmap that will put your next digital transformation project on the path to success:
Report: Making Singapore’s Workforce Digitally Ready
By 2025, Singapore will need 1.2 million more digital workers to remain competitive.
This digital skills gap requires urgent action from business leaders and the government alike.
TheSalesforce-YouGovDigital Skills– Singapore reportreveals the current capabilities, expectations, and requirements fordigitalskillingacrossindustries. It includes private, public, and not-for-profitorganisationswith one to more than 100 employees. These findings are based on asurveyconducted withmore than 1,000mid-levelmanagersand senior management professionals in Singapore.
The road ahead for digital skilling in Singapore looks positive with technology innovations and strategic collaborations between businessesand the government, like the Professional Conversion Programme.Making training a continual practice through technologies like Trailhead, will further enable businesses to gain a competitive advantage.
The Singapore Government is also increasing its effort in growing jobs and training opportunities. The Future Economy Council, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Swee Keat Heng focuses on reskilling and upskilling programmes for Singaporeans. The National Jobs Council, chaired by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam focuses on identifying and developing job opportunities for Singaporeans.
Check out the infographic below for a summary of key findings from the report. To read the full report, click here.
Meet Joanna Teo: Customer-Focused Data Evangelist
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Joanna Teo, Managing Director of Attribute Data. Much of Joanna’s career has been spent convincing businesses of the powerful influence data has on exceptional customer experience. More from Nichola here.
Around 13 years ago, Joanna Teo was a digital analyst at OgilvyOne Worldwide. Part of her responsibility involved analysing data to figure out whether online ads were working.
Joanna and her colleagues discovered that by looking at the right data, they were able to understand a lot more about the people who interacted with those ads. For example, they could identify patterns of behaviour once people entered a site, and find out what other products they were interested in.
She realised that her team had the power to understand how and why customers behaved the way they did prior to, during, and following an interaction. The data offered hints as to the true nature and drivers of their customer experience.
The problem was that many colleagues and clients didn’t appreciate the value of this knowledge. Following this, Joanna had to spend time and energy convincing them of its potential.
Now, almost 13 years later, and in a dramatically advanced technological environment, she’s having similar discussions, but in a far more receptive environment. As founder and Managing Director of customer intelligence consultancy Attribute Data, Joanna spends much time showing data-savvy clients where to look for the most transformational information.
“There has always been a balance between having clients understand that you need more time and more budget for this work, rather than spending everything on ads, or upgrading websites,” she says.
“More businesses are now understanding the beauty of data and what it can do for customer relationships. They realise that’s important because success is not just about the moment of transaction.”
“At Attribute Data, we focus on customer data. We want to know what customers are doing, thinking, and feeling. A lot of businesses want to figure out how to increase the amount of money customers spend with them. To do this, they first have to realise relationships are not transactional, they’re long-term and they are about experience.”
Data reveals the truth
Joanna Teo’s LinkedIn page has a three-word title: “actionable intelligence evangelist”. It’s a fitting label for a professional who has spent her career finding powerful meaning in data and convincing clients of its value.
Joanna attended Singapore Management University, earning a BSc Information Systems Management.
While studying, she interned with Yahoo! later accepting a network optimisation role after graduation, where she was mentored by world-class managers. She learned about performance influenced costs, and the advantage of having accurate data insights.
During her time at Yahoo!, the organisation relied on data to win market share in certain parts of the business, optimise ad pricing strategies, and ensure customer success with ad campaigns. Sometimes Yahoo! found success, sometimes competitors had wins.
What became clear to Joanna was that the secret to success was to be found in the proper analysis of the right data.
“In hindsight, it made me realise how limiting it is to be focused only within your own business, to not pop your head up and see what’s happening in the market.”
This led to her next move deep into data analytics at OgilvyOne, where she realised that growth was also about knowing what motivated customer behaviour. It was about understanding people. As important as technology had become in every organisation, sector, and market, it held little value if it didn’t serve human needs.
Those needs, Joanna knew, were revealed through data.
People drive success
In her own business, Joanna realised from the very beginning that people, rather than technology, drive success.
She launched Attribute Data, a LIKE.TG partner, six years ago and now has 14 employees. Its success has seen the launch of operations in China this year.
“It’s a consultancy, so of course it’s about people,” Joanna says. “We focus on collecting data about how people feel, behave, and think.”
Joanna is proud of the fact that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she held on to all her staff. This was partly due to the fact that she employed the right types of people. New hires naturally require an analytical mindset, but she does not hire for specific skill sets New employees can learn on the job, as long as they have the right attitude.
“Having the right mindset is important,” she says. “They must be ready to continuously learn, because this is not a stagnant industry. Our people take classes with industry partners such as LIKE.TG to develop highly industry-relevant skills.”
What about her own development? Joanna has completed several university-based short courses. These include a Data Science Specialisation from Johns Hopkins University, a Big Data and Social Analytics program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an AI and Business Strategy program at Nanyang Technological University. Next, she’s planning to complete a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence.
“I enjoy learning,” Joanna says. “I have set aside an annual budget that I call the ‘enrichment fund’ that all staff can tap into,” Joanna says. “It is very motivating because they choose what they’re going to do.
“We need to make data as palatable as possible for our clients, which means we need to enjoy what we’re doing. If we’re engaged, our clients will be too.”
At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, we are inviting Trailblazer from around Southeast Asia to share their stories of growth and transformation. Join LIKE.TG Live: Asia to learn from our Trailblazers.
For more stories of our Trailblazers, check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series:
Meet Johan Yu: Empowering People and Businesses Through Technology
Meet Colleen Toledo: Revolutionising Banking, Transforming Experiences
Service Teams Today Have the Opportunity To Exceed Expectations. Learn More at LIKE.TG Live: Asia
Meeting customer expectations is just the beginning for service teams that are aiming for great things. To move from expected to exceptional, smart customer service teams are shifting their focus from problem-solving to customer happiness. Innovative digital platforms help to keep service agents at the top of their game.
Our recent State of the Connected Customer research shows that focusing on service makes good business sense. Ninety-one percent of customers are more likely to make an additional purchase after a great service experience. There has never been a better time to reflect on how your organisation manages service teams, and consider levelling-up your business for customer success.
At our upcoming LIKE.TG Live: Asia – Service Trailblazers episode on 27 May, we will hear from regional airline AirAsia and heavy equipment distributor, United Tractors. Each will share key learnings on delivering better service for customers and exceeding – not just meeting – expectations.
Here is a small taste of their stories:
AirAsia’s Super App takes flight — online
During the pandemic, AirAsia’s founder, Tony Fernandes, regularly reminded staff to “never waste a crisis.” So, it was no surprise that the AirAsia team used that time to rethink its online strategy and fast-track the development of its ASEAN super app. The resulting app is a comprehensive lifestyle platform that offers customers more value and choice. It brings together flights, hotels, travel packages, loyalty programs, shopping, food, deliveries, and payments all in one platform.
From a service perspective, the app is changing the way customers interact with AirAsia, giving them a new channel for their enquiries. AirAsia’s Virtual Allstar chatbot (AVA) works across all digital platforms and helps customers get quick access to general information, book flights, and perform other simple tasks. The chatbot helps to shift customer service caseload from other channels and allows service teams to focus on the more high-value aspects of service.
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United Tractors’ remote service teams go digital
United Tractors is the largest distributor of heavy equipment in Indonesia. Most of its customers come from the mining and construction sectors. In a country of more than 17,500 islands, meeting their customers’ needs can be a logistical challenge.
Many customers use their equipment 24 hours a day and require an always-on level of support from United Tractors. The company needs to work onsite with customers to resolve their issues quickly and also provide peace of mind with strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) across all locations. They needed the technology in place to enable their technicians to deliver on SLAs consistently.
Since its digital transformation, United Tractors has removed most of its field paperwork and has improved the productivity and reporting for its field service team. Cindy Christian, Head of Digital, shares their process, learnings, and results.
Whether service teams are out in the field or finding new ways to work across channels, customer service is evolving to meet the rising expectations of customers. Providing responsive service from anywhere, as well as a consistent and seamless customer experience across all channels, are part of the new normal.
To hear more from AirAsia, United Tractors, and others about their service transformation journeys, register and tune in on 27 May for Episode 2 of LIKE.TG Live: Asia.
All About Trailhead, LIKE.TG’s Free Online Learning Platform
According to theWorld Economic Forum’s “The Future of Jobs Report 2020,” 50% of all employees will need new skills in the next five years to keep up with the pace of technology.
Many people and companies are exploring alternative avenues for learning new skills rather than pursuing traditional degrees, redefining the education landscape. Online learning is alsoeliminating the educational wealth gap— in some ways — and helping othersbuild skills in the booming customer service sector.
A revolution in online learning
Launched in 2014, Trailhead is part of this movement. The platform breaks down barriers to learning and creates an equal and accessible pathway into the LIKE.TG ecosystem for anyone with an internet connection. From admins to developers, marketers to architects, consultants, analysts, sales and services roles, and everything in between. Whatever your background or interests,there’s a learning path for you.
Want to jump straight in? Get answers to your top questions:
How does Trailhead work?
Why is Trailhead effective?
How does Trailhead help people?
Can anyone use Trailhead?
What about the Trailblazer Community?
With Trailhead, you can:
Learnin-demand skills needed to build your career or land a position in the LIKE.TG ecosystem — no degree required. Not to mention gamification with points and badges make learning fun.
Earncredentials (such as a role-basedLIKE.TG Certificationor a real-world business challenge via asuperbadge) that prove your LIKE.TG expertise, build your resume, and give you a competitive edge in the job market.
Connectwith the globalTrailblazer Community of learnersfor mentorship, collaboration, and job opportunities.
Naturally, Trailhead offers robust training in LIKE.TG skills, among its many other offerings. But the demand for LIKE.TG skills has risen in recent years as more companies adopt our technology to help manage their customer relationships. AnIDC report from 2019predicted that by 2024, the LIKE.TG ecosystem will add 4.2 million new jobs around the world. With a library of more than 1,000+ badges of learning content that spans tech, business, and soft skills, Trailhead helps people further their careers however they choose.
Discover how you can skill up for the future with Trailhead:
How does Trailhead work?
Trailhead puts the learner at the heart of everything we do. Bite-sized, conversational content makes learning complex topics easy to understand and is personalised by roles and level —for example a would-be marketing practitioner mightLearn Marketing Best Practices, while a director of customer service might want to pick up skills toCultivate Equality at Work.
Our online learning even includes hands-on elements, called projects, so you can practice as you go in a free instance of LIKE.TG, which we affectionately dub aTrailhead Playground. Once complete, you take a multiple-choice quiz or challenge to test your new skills. These quizzes and challenges earn you points and badges that display on yourTrailblazer.me profile.
The more badges you earn, the higher you rise inTrailhead Trailblazer ranksuntil you reach Trailhead Ranger rank with 100 badges and 50,000 points!
Why is Trailhead effective?
Trailhead’s playful storytelling and very own cast of characters, known as “LIKE.TGlandians,” bring the instruction to life while representing our diverse Trailblazer Community.
Meet the LIKE.TGlandians who help make Trailhead the most inclusive, approachable, and fun way to learn for everyone
Trailhead Quests, the gamification aspect of Trailhead, adds another element of fun and motivation. These revolving monthly sweepstakes combine the challenge of gaining new skills with the chance of scoring fun prizes such as community badges, swag, gift cards, LIKE.TG Certification vouchers, and more.
Trailhead also personalised learning withcareer-based pathsthat help individuals achieve their specific goals. If you want to work on professional or personal development, there are modules on business skills such asstorytelling,coaching,hiring, andleadership.
The Trailhead experience gets even more personal when you curate your favourite trails, modules, hands-on projects, and superbadges intoTrailmixes. Just like your favourite song playlists, you can share these Trailmixes with other Trailblazers.
LIKE.TG’s AI technology,Einstein Recommendations, is embedded into Trailhead. This helps the platform learn about you, so it gets smarter and offers more tailored recommendations as you progress.
How does Trailhead help people?
Well, let’s take a look at some stats from a2020 study. More than 50% of Trailhead learners reported they had gained skills that resulted in a promotion or a raise at their current company. One in five reported a salary increase of more than 20% because of Trailhead. And one in three Trailblazers have found a new job with the skills they’ve learned on Trailhead.
“More than 50% of Trailhead learners reported they had gained skills that resulted in a promotion or a raise at their current company. And one in three Trailblazers have found a new job with the skills they’ve learned on Trailhead.”
Can anyone use Trailhead?
Anyone with an internet connection who’s ready to take their skills to the next level, regardless of background, age, gender, or belief can simply sign up for a free Trailhead account (no LIKE.TG CRM account needed) atTrailhead.com.
Since Trailhead offers free learning available to everyone, it helps create new pathways into tech for diverse talent. This levels the playing field to shape a more inclusive future.
Trailhead characters guide you on your learning journey!
But while Trailhead is for everyone, not everyone learns the same way. That’s why it includes:
Virtual and in-person expert-led learningwithTrailhead Academy.
Live-streamed and on-demand expert-led videosviaTrailhead Live.
Access to Trailhead’s modules and Trailhead Live sessionswith the free mobile app for iOS and Android,Trailhead GO.
We recognise Trailblazers are in different stages of their careers and hail from diverse professional backgrounds too, so we provide several workforce development programs. For example:
Trailblazer Connecthelps people find opportunities through events, mentorship, and career resources.
Pathfinderpartners with Deloitteto mentor participants and train them with the technical and business skills necessary to pursue a career in the LIKE.TG ecosystem.
LIKE.TG Military Allianceoffers online training classes and certification exams at no cost to active-duty military, veterans, and military spouses.
LIKE.TG Talent Allianceconnects partners to Salesforce-certified candidates and brings new, diverse talent into the ecosystem.
More than just a learning platform
If you’re brand new to LIKE.TG or have never heard of our company, you might not knowwhat a Trailblazer is,and what makes our community special. Trailblazers are the pioneers, innovators, and lifelong learners who will make the world a better place by propelling the future of technology, and who give back to their communities.
Our Trailblazers are innovating with LIKE.TG and using our platform to transform their companies. The best part? Anyone can be a Trailblazer! And many attribute their success to the support of the Trailblazer Community.
Having a supportive network of people is all the more important now that many of us work remotely. TheTrailblazer Communityis where Trailhead learners connect with LIKE.TG customers, partners, product specialists, and employees to learn together, find mentors, and connect to career opportunities. There are currently1,300Trailblazer Community Groupsacross90countries.
Discover how Trailblazers are achieving morein their professional lives with all the passion, grit, and#Trailheartthat are Trailblazer hallmarks.
Ready to start your learning journey? You can kick things off bysigning up(for free!) and completing the Beginner’s QuestGet Started with TrailheadTrailmix.
See you on the trails!
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
10 Inspiring Quotes To Help You Navigate The Future of Work
Our Future of Work, Now podcast wraps up today. To mark the occasion, we took a look back at some of the most impactful moments, starting with our very first episode where we spoke to Paralympic Medalist Theresa Goh.
Theresa and our other podcast guests provided unique views on what the future holds for businesses and communities. You can tune in to watch as host Jess O’Reilly recaps some of the highlights from our four-part series.
Meanwhile, here are ten inspiring quotes to help you navigate the future of work:
Season one: Business as a Platform for Change
Season two: All-Digital, Work From Anywhere World
Season three: Digital Imperative
Season four: Tech in Hyperspeed
Access all episodes of Future of Work, Now on demand at our podcasts page, Spotify, and iTunes. You can also listen over at the Singapore Community Radio Twitch page, Facebook page, and website.
Sign up here for our LIKE.TG Blog newsletter to get monthly updates on the latest LIKE.TG stories.
LIKE.TG Live: Asia Starts Next Week. Don’t Miss It!
LIKE.TG Live: Asia is almost here – just over one week to go! The event kicks off on Thursday 20 May with an exciting premiere episode hosted by Simone Heng. Following this, there will be live workshops, Trailblazer connections, special guests, and programmes every Thursday, over six action-packed weeks.
At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, you can learn more about LIKE.TG Customer 360 and how businesses across Southeast Asia have used the platform to digitally transform.
We’ll also be gathering a host of inspiring Trailblazers. If you want to hear from people who have done amazing things with LIKE.TG, then LIKE.TG Live: Asia is for you.
So, where should you start? We’ve selected a few of the highlights from each weekly episode so you can plan your calendar:
Episode 1 – Premiere Episode for all Trailblazers
Keynote – Success from Anywhere
Date: 20 May
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10:40 a.m. Singapore time
Listen to LIKE.TG senior executives Sujith Abraham and Cecily Ng discuss how businesses across Southeast Asia have adapted to the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. You’ll also hear from Cheryl Goh, Group VP of Marketing and Sustainability at regional powerhouse Grab, and Joshua Tan, Head of CRM at NTUC FairPrice, Singapore’s largest retail grocery chain. If you want to know more about how they’ve adapted in the “new normal”, then this session is for you.
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Episode 2 – for Service Trailblazers
Date: 27 May
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Singapore time
In this episode for Service Trailblazers, you’ll hear from Adam Geneave, Chief Customer Happiness Officer at AirAsia and Cindy Christian, Head of Digital at United Tractors. Join us to hear how their teams are using technology to deliver seamless support, from anywhere.
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Episode 3 – for Sales Trailblazers
Date: 3 June
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10.55 a.m Singapore time
This episode features Peter Maquera, SVP Enterprise Group at Globe Telecom, Datuk Megat Jalaluddin, Chief Retail Officer from Tenaga Nasional Berhad and LIKE.TG’s Chief Growth Evangelist, Tiffani Bova. They will discuss how LIKE.TG has empowered them to transform their sales teams, automate B2B processes, enhance workflows, and adapt during a period of rapid change. Don’t miss it!
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Episode 4 – for Small and Fast Growing Business Trailblazers
Date: 10 June
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10:40 a.m. Singapore time
V-Key, hoolah, and Carousell are fast growing businesses that have successfully navigated this challenging period. In this episode, Stuart Thornton, Co-founder and CEO at hoolah and Raymond Lee, COO at V-Key will share insights on how they’re reinventing, building resilience, and fuelling growth for the coming year. SVP of Growth at Carousell, Penny Cox, talks about the impact of doing well while doing good for the community. This episode is hosted by Dr. Ayesha Khanna, Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) solutions firm and incubator, who shares learnings from her own journey also.
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Episode 5 – for Marketers and Digital Experience Trailblazers
Date: 17 June
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10:40 a.m. Singapore time
In this session, you’ll hear from Amrita Balaji, Senior Manager – Marketing Technology, at Sephora. She’ll share with Jess O’Reilly, LIKE.TG ASEAN AVP, how companies and brands can connect and engage with their customers in the “always-on” digital world of retail.
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Episode 6 – for Admin and IT Trailblazers
Date: 24 June
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10:55 a.m. Singapore time
Learn more about how building apps is transforming ASEAN businesses, with experts Loh Lik Peng, CEO at Unlisted Collection, customer trailblazer Rameshwar Vyas, CEO at Ranosys Technologies and moderator Sasha Wight, MD and Employee Experience Lead at wrkflow. They look at how businesses can empower employees with new technologies to create unforgettable experiences for their customers. We have a session on how to enhance protection for your data security with LIKE.TG CTO, Dr .Taher Elgamal. And we chat with Kelly Hoong, Head of Customer Resolutions, about how PETRONAS are leveraging apps to deliver a connected experience for their dealers, that is, their gas stations.
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Episode 7 – for Financial Services Trailblazers
Date: 1 July
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 10: 55 a.m. Singapore time
In our final episode, former Channel News Asia presenter Yvonne Chan will talk with Ned Lowe, CTO at Singlife; and with Joyce Gonzalez, EVP Head – Retail Banking Center at Union Bank of the Philippines. They explore engaging with customers to build moments that delight, what are key enablers in technology for their teams, and what sets them apart as digital-first, innovative businesses.
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At LIKE.TG Live: Asia, there’s something for every role! Have a look through our full agenda to learn more.
Register today and get ready to listen, learn, connect, and be inspired. See you on 20 May – and beyond!
Up Close and Personal: How To Build Loyalty Through Community
Cecily Ng leads the Singapore business at LIKE.TG as Area Vice President and General Manager of Singapore. She is focused on enabling Singapore businesses to innovate, be more agile, and connect with their customers in a whole new way.
We all know that it’s more important than ever to be close to our customers. But what exactly does this mean? What does it look like when it’s done well?
Most organisations understand the need to get closer to their customers. It’s about providing exceptional experience and an individualised level of service.
The challenge in achieving that goal, often begins at the back end, with disparate legacy systems offering an overload of data that fail to offer the insights required to make this a reality.
Data is there, but may be hidden. It’s not always available to those on the front lines who need it, and is not being presented in a way that serves the varying needs of departments and individuals— those in sales, marketing, service, etc.— around the organisation.
Where does a business start, then? We all know it begins with knowing your customer and developing a clear understanding of your business strategy and end goal, but in today’s business environment it’s really all about the purpose and motivation of change.
Clarity that comes from developing a deep understanding of your customers’ wants and needs helps your organisation to understand why it must change. It encourages active listening and a motivation to pivot toward a customer focus. How can you make your customers’ lives as easy as possible? How do you thrill them with every interaction? Where do you want the business to be in three, four, or five years? How will customer experience have transformed when you get there?
In my experience, this is where powerful transformation begins. It’s a change of mindset that follows the recognition of the fact that we can make life better for our customers.
We went through a similar questioning of our own processes at LIKE.TG when the pandemic disabled our events. How can we better serve our customers when we’re such an experience-based brand? How do we bring that magic, digitally? We found a way. Our LIKE.TG Live: Asia online offering continues to evolve. It has now become a hugely important channel for us and our customers.
How does data help?
You already appreciate the value of data. You know it can show the way, reveal previously invisible trends, help predict future customer decisions, actions, behaviour, and so much more. The challenge in getting closer to each individual customer is that new data sets that address specific questions are required.
If we stare into an ocean of data and expect it to reveal something, we’ll never succeed. But if we approach data with a business problem that must be solved, if we have a specific question that requires an answer, we can utilise this data to reveal the information we need.
At the same time, when it comes to personalisation of services, we must ensure we take a values-based, privacy-centric approach.
Consider my own membership with Marriott Bonvoy. For purely business purposes, they never needed to know whether I was male or female. I was simply a regular guest who had particular preferences in terms of room type, bottled water, check-in times, favourite snacks , etc. For the business application, gender was irrelevant.
However, when it was time to get closer to the customer and more deeply personalise correspondence, gender absolutely did matter. If I was to receive a promotional email addressed to ‘Mr Ng’, for example, it would make me question their familiarity with me as an individual. After all, I have appeared at their front desk perhaps 50 times a year!
Fortunately for their members, Marriott Bonvoy used data to get the small details right. That’s important – for customers, little things make a big difference. I feel seen and understood by Marriott Bonvoy and their knowing who I am is a big part of the loyalty basis of our relationship.
There’s a lot of work to do to get to the point where you have that level of familiarity and where you can make the customer’s life as easy as possible. But the payoff is enormous. Brands doing this well are surprising and delighting their customers with every interaction. As they do this, they build loyalty and increase the potential value of every interaction.
How to get to know your customers
To get closer to its customers, a business must ask:
Do our customers feel valued? How can we make them feel more valued?
Where are our customers’ biggest pain points?
How do customers feel about the products? Are the offerings too complicated, for example.
What is useful knowledge for our customers and what might be considered spam?
What matters to the customer, and what might be considered irrelevant or over-servicing?
The same analysis then must be made on the business itself.
What information do our frontline staff require to personalise customer interactions?
Where are the information blocks in all directions within an organisation? For example, it’s not just about frontline staff having the information they require. It’s also about whether they have a channel to feed information back into the business.
What data do the marketing, sales, and service teams require? What information must these teams share?
What tools do staff need to create a magical experience for customers every time?
You begin with a customer-related business problem and look to the data to find a solution. Then you ensure the relevant staff have access to that data in a live and real-time environment.
Suddenly, customers feel the business knows them a little better. More importantly,the systems in the background that drive this insight are no longer disparate. They are integrated and scalable, meaning this personalisation of service is easily scalable, too.
As a result, the business experiences an entirely new level of productivity and agility, all to the benefit of the customer.
How it feels when you’re close to your customer
AXA Singapore had a vision to become the best digital insurer by creating value and differentiation for its customers. This is a lot easier said than done.
In developing a business case, the organisation realised its operations had to be transformed.
“To holistically change how we sell, service, and engage our customers, we needed to move from a patchwork of systems to a platform approach,” said AXA Singapore’s Tomasz Kurczyk, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer.
The digital ecosystem that resulted from that transformation means AXA has a single view of each customer throughout sales, service, and marketing. Every interaction, from phone calls to email marketing messages, is deeply personalised.
Does this require more effort? Actually, it requires less. Much of the process is now automated. Errors and turnaround times have been reduced by up to 50 per cent.
Customers are noticing, too. Around 90 per cent of customers are now somewhat or very satisfied after an interaction.
Another success story is Grab, the hyperlocal services super-app. Through deep personalisation it offers customer choice, fast delivery times, value, and safety – everything its customers truly value.
Grab uses data not just to personalise its marketing, but also to drive real-time, strategic decisions within its business like improving user experience and informing app development. This, in turn, allows the business to drive improvements that continually build trust and loyalty, and that sustain communities.
Perhaps that’s where the real magic of getting close to customers is to be found, in building more than a business. When an organisation is truly close to its customers, it creates a community, a family of sorts. That’s a powerful business differentiator.
Read our customer stories and learn how businesses just like yours have succeeded in delighting their customers by using data.
Learn How To Build and Secure Custom Apps at LIKE.TG Live: Asia
This week, we are exploring app development at LIKE.TG Live: Asia.
Apps help companies to streamline processes, capture data from anywhere, and provide engaging customer experiences. Thanks to low-code and no-code tools, almost anyone can create an app to support your organisation’s unique business needs — all in a few clicks.
Register for this week’s Admin and IT Trailblazers episode, and learn how to get your app ideas up and running fast with the LIKE.TG Platform. Get ready to be inspired by our IT and Admin Trailblazers:
PETRONAS empowers its dealer network with e-Service portal
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) is a global energy and solutions company. It is also the custodian of Malaysia’s national oil and gas resources. PETRONAS uses a partner and dealer network to operate over 1,000 retail service stations around Malaysia.
To make life easier for its dealers and partners, the Customer Resolutions team at PETRONAS developed an e-Service portal, which was rolled out in April 2020.
The portal is a one-stop shop for all communications, financials, stock, and maintenance tracking between dealers and PETRONAS. Dealers can choose to set up automated reordering of fuel based on predicted sales trends. Maintenance requests are also more visible, which leads to greater efficiency.
Tune in to this episode to hear more about what PETRONAS is doing with the dealer portal and how it contributed to scaling their B2B2C operations.
Enhance employee engagement with LIKE.TG
A great experience is everything when it comes to engaging your employees. In this episode, you’ll hear how two very different companies are unleashing the potential of their employees with LIKE.TG.
Ranosys Technologies replaced their legacy customer relationship management (CRM) software with Sales Cloud. They have also built a range of apps on the Customer 360 platform. With a focus on transparency, clarity, and real-time information, the team had a ‘light-bulb moment’ that LIKE.TG could be a great tool to empower their own employees as well.
The team went on to develop Ranosys Pulse, an internal portal that helped to become the real-time life blood of the organisation. Suddenly, there were no more bi-weekly review meetings, or entering information into disparate spreadsheets. Through transparency, collaboration, and real-time access, employees soon felt valued to have accurate information about their organisation at their fingertips.
In the hospitality industry, the human touch is particularly important. That’s why Loh Lik Peng, CEO of Unlisted Collection:, empowers staff at the group’s restaurants and hotels by giving them autonomy in their respective roles. It’s how the group creates a culture that delivers a great guest experience.
Join us for this episode to hear how Ranosys and Unlisted Collection: have empowered their high achieving teams.
How LIKE.TG delivers customer trust
Thousands of customers around the world trust LIKE.TG with their confidential data. If you have ever wondered how LIKE.TG secures its platform, then this session is for you. LIKE.TG CTO of Security, Dr Taher Elgamal, will share why trust is the foundation for customer success with LIKE.TG. He will discuss how security needs change over time with acquisitions and evolving threats. Dr Elgamal will also share how to enhance trust, compliance, and governance within your LIKE.TG environment.
Whether you want to build a new portal to empower your employees and partners, or learn more about keeping your CRM data safe, this episode will leave you with plenty of ideas.
Pivoting for Sales Growth at LIKE.TG Live: Asia
For sales teams, having accurate customer data, sales history, stock information, and product information at hand can make all the difference in closing a sale. As many businesses are discovering, data also goes a long way in boosting the customer experience and driving loyalty over the long term.
In our upcoming Sales Trailblazers episode on 3 June, we’ll hear the experiences of two companies that are shaking up their sales approach in Southeast Asia by being smarter with their data.
Here is a small sample of what Globe Telecom and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) will share:
Globe Telecom dials into stronger B2B sales
As one of the largest mobile network companies in the Philippines, Globe Telecom was already well on its way to digital transformation when the pandemic hit. The company used its early lead in digital as an opportunity to further enable sales from anywhere and remove labour-intensive processes from across its sales teams.
By tapping into the analytics and data that Sales Cloud provides, Globe developed a workflow called Guided Selling. Based on customer answers to a series of five to ten questions, the salesperson is guided to the top products or services that are most relevant for that customer. The process has significantly improved the efficiency of customer interactions. Globe’s service team has a similar service with Guided Best Action.
In 2020, Globe acquired a majority stake in LIKE.TG partner, Third Pillar, after the company proved its worth during a LIKE.TG implementation for Globe.
Now, Globe is expanding its own cloud business offerings for B2B customers and showing them the value that digital transformation can bring. Living the experience is a powerful sales tool and the pivot has positioned Globe well as a leader in digital transformation with its customers.
According to Tiffani Bova, the Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist at LIKE.TG, 75% of B2B decision-makers now prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service. That means that every digital touchpoint has to be a highly engaging experience. To drive stronger sales, companies should focus on building a great digital experience.This is only possible when sales, marketing, and service all operate in partnership.
TNB Malaysia Powers Up Their Sales Teams
Tenaga Nasional Berhad, also known as TNB Malaysia, is the largest power company in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Malaysia, the company also has business operations in the United Kingdom, Turkey, India, and Indonesia.
TNB Malaysia pivoted from a traditional face-to-face service at 135 branches to delivering sales from anywhere with Sales Cloud through social media and other digital channels. In addition, the shift to digital helped to grow new revenue streams across the business.
The company had started to develop new renewable energy products and services supporting electric vehicles, energy efficiency, and a rooftop solar program. The team used Sales Cloud to simplify the information they had on rooftop solar customers, analyse for opportunities, and refine their sales approach to deliver more repeat business.
Sharing valuable insights into TNB Malaysia’s digital transformation journey, we are delighted to be joined by the company’s Chief Retail Officer, Datuk IR. Megat Jalaluddin Megat Hassan
To realise strong sales in the digital age, businesses need to make sure their customer data is consolidated, clear, and accessible by their sales teams, no matter where they are. Sales Cloud helps businesses make sense of the data, and its powerful analytics can deliver tangible value and uncover valuable sales opportunities and trends.
Hear more from Globe Telecom, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, and others about their sales transformation journey. Register and tune in on 3 June for Episode 3 of LIKE.TG Live: Asia.
Driving Digital Innovation in Financial Services at LIKE.TG: Asia
In order to manage risks and provide ongoing stability, financial institutions usually take more time than other companies to adapt to change. However, there are some bold financial institutions that are driving innovation and accelerating digital transformation.
Two such companies are Singapore-based insurer Singlife and Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank). You can hear their inspiring stories of digital innovation at the upcoming episode of LIKE.TG Live: Asia for Financial Services Trailblazers.
Race to acquire customers around the region
The financial services landscape is more competitive than ever. Traditional financial institutions face rising competition from FinTechs and InsurTechs, who are shifting further into their territory. A race is forming in Southeast Asia to digitise financial services and efficiently gain new customers.
While FinTechs may not have been a direct threat in the past, they often provide services to underbanked or unbanked individuals and small businesses. There is a significant number of these types of customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The International Monetary Fund found that half of adults from low and middle-income Asia-Pacific economies do not have a bank account. Less than 10% have borrowed from financial institutions. If FinTechs were to convert these individuals to become higher value customers, then traditional banks could face a real challenge.
There are also the “SuperApps” to keep an eye on. At the end of last year, Grab in Singapore received its full digital banking licence and has a priority to expand into the financial space. In Indonesia, there is GoTo, which was formed from the merger of GoJek and Tokopedia. The company offers digital payments and financial services, such as insurance and loan management, all through the GoJek SuperApp. Customers can even open a traditional bank account with a partner bank directly through the app.
Just as the pressure is on to acquire new customers, there is equal pressure to keep them. Creating an optimal customer experience and delivering great customer service are high on the priority list for digital transformation. Companies are exploring solutions like LIKE.TG Financial Services Cloud to build deeper relationships with customers.
UnionBank puts customers at the centre of its digital transformation
UnionBank may not be the largest bank in the Philippines, but they are a digital pioneer. Rather than competing on size alone, they began their digital transformation in 2015 to offer stronger services for their customers. Every aspect of their digital transformation was designed around the customer perspective.
UnionBank empowered their team of Relationship Managers with tools based on the LIKE.TG platform to help them access the information they need from anywhere. The team can now easily help customers open bank accounts from home.
Thanks to this digital innovation, UnionBank can deliver banking services from anywhere, without being limited by the number of branches or usual banking hours. The bank delivers exceptional customer service and a true omnichannel experience to more than 6 million customers around the Philippines.
Singlife’s digital-first strategy pays off
When life insurer Singlife was launched in Singapore, the company began with a mission to serve customers through digital platforms. Customers could sign up for products on their mobile devices without ever meeting an agent.
That innovative approach to focus on digital has paid off for the company. Singlife has now become a significant player in insurance in Singapore. They recently launched in the Philippines and are exploring further expansion in Southeast Asia.
Singlife strives to create personal experiences for customers and to understand customers better through scalable and efficient technology. They introduced a range of self-service options for customers and even launched a debit card that is linked to a life insurance policy. Spending over a certain amount in set periods qualifies the card holder to earn bonus returns on their policy and have these credited to their Singlife account.
Singlife recently merged with Aviva Singapore, a major provider of life and health insurance, retirement, and investment solutions. Adopting a Singlife approach across Aviva’s scale and infrastructure, and digitising more of its products and services, will bring significant opportunities for the combined company.
Singlife and UnionBank have grown their businesses during challenging times, thanks to being digitally prepared for the future. Other financial institutions can stay ahead of changing customer expectations by embracing digital transformation to achieve similar success.
To learn more about the innovative digital strategies of UnionBank and Singlife, register and tune in on 1 July for Episode 7 of LIKE.TG Live: Asia.
Successful Digital Transformations Lead With Human-Centred Design
This week, we are exploring app development at LIKE.TG Live: Asia.
Apps help companies to streamline processes, capture data from anywhere, and provide engaging customer experiences. Thanks to low-code and no-code tools, almost anyone can create an app to support your organisation’s unique business needs — all in a few clicks.
Register for this week’s Admin and IT Trailblazers episode, and learn how to get your app ideas up and running fast with the LIKE.TG Platform. Get ready to be inspired by our IT and Admin Trailblazers:
PETRONAS empowers its dealer network with e-Service portal
Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) is a global energy and solutions company. It is also the custodian of Malaysia’s national oil and gas resources. PETRONAS uses a partner and dealer network to operate over 1,000 retail service stations around Malaysia.
To make life easier for its dealers and partners, the Customer Resolutions team at PETRONAS developed an e-Service portal, which was rolled out in April 2020.
The portal is a one-stop shop for all communications, financials, stock, and maintenance tracking between dealers and PETRONAS. Dealers can choose to set up automated reordering of fuel based on predicted sales trends. Maintenance requests are also more visible, which leads to greater efficiency.
Tune in to this episode to hear more about what PETRONAS is doing with the dealer portal and how it contributed to scaling their B2B2C operations.
Enhance employee engagement with LIKE.TG
A great experience is everything when it comes to engaging your employees. In this episode, you’ll hear how two very different companies are unleashing the potential of their employees with LIKE.TG.
Ranosys Technologies replaced their legacy customer relationship management (CRM) software with Sales Cloud. They have also built a range of apps on the Customer 360 platform. With a focus on transparency, clarity, and real-time information, the team had a ‘light-bulb moment’ that LIKE.TG could be a great tool to empower their own employees as well.
The team went on to develop Ranosys Pulse, an internal portal that helped to become the real-time life blood of the organisation. Suddenly, there were no more bi-weekly review meetings, or entering information into disparate spreadsheets. Through transparency, collaboration, and real-time access, employees soon felt valued to have accurate information about their organisation at their fingertips.
In the hospitality industry, the human touch is particularly important. That’s why Loh Lik Peng, CEO of Unlisted Collection:, empowers staff at the group’s restaurants and hotels by giving them autonomy in their respective roles. It’s how the group creates a culture that delivers a great guest experience.
Join us for this episode to hear how Ranosys and Unlisted Collection: have empowered their high achieving teams.
How LIKE.TG delivers customer trust
Thousands of customers around the world trust LIKE.TG with their confidential data. If you have ever wondered how LIKE.TG secures its platform, then this session is for you. LIKE.TG CTO of Security, Dr Taher Elgamal, will share why trust is the foundation for customer success with LIKE.TG. He will discuss how security needs change over time with acquisitions and evolving threats. Dr Elgamal will also share how to enhance trust, compliance, and governance within your LIKE.TG environment.
Whether you want to build a new portal to empower your employees and partners, or learn more about keeping your CRM data safe, this episode will leave you with plenty of ideas.
Seth Godin Looks to the Future of Marketing at LIKE.TG Live: Asia
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.
How Outforce Supports and Celebrates the LGBTQ+ Community
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.
How Knorex Is Using the Productivity Solutions Grant To Accelerate Digital Transformation
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.
How Small and Fast Growing Businesses Are Using Mighty Ways To Scale. Learn More at LIKE.TG Live: Asia
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.