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The 5G Opportunity in ASEAN: How To Unlock Value For Your Business
It’s a pivotal time for ASEAN’s telecommunications industry with growing momentum behind 5G. Today, 5G is commercially available in several ASEAN countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia. What’s more, adoption is growing with 5G connections predicted to reach 430 million by 2025 across the broader Asia-Pacific region.
The opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs) and other businesses are huge. The high bandwidth, low latency, and massive scale enabled by 5G unlocks new possibilities in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation.
Of course realising these opportunities takes work. This is why the recent conversations around 5G have shifted from network rollouts to monetisation models and user experiences. Here, we shine a light on those conversations and where 5G is headed.
5G adoption driven by business need rather than speed
5G is potentially up to 100 times faster than its predecessor, 4G/LTE. However, speed alone is not enough to drive widespread adoption.
Manoj Prasanna Kumar, Head, Technology, Enterprise 5G IOT at Singtel, says businesses will adopt 5G for the same reason they adopt most technologies — to solve specific challenges.
“Businesses will not upgrade to 5G just for a faster network. That’s why any discussion with the customer should start with the challenge they are trying to solve,” said Manoj.
It is the resulting applications that will drive the need for 5G. Drones are a great example. They are increasingly popular in areas like facilities management, often used to inspect hard-to-reach areas and perform maintenance. To safely operate drones, the transfer of information between devices and operators must be as close to real-time as possible. This is where the need arises for high-speed, low latency, and reliability of 5G.
MEC extends possibilities for 5G and mission-critical applications
As businesses look to harness the full potential of 5G, they need to optimise other aspects of their infrastructure. For example, those wanting to deploy drones and other mission-critical applications may need to transform their network architecture and adopt multi-access edge computing (MEC).
MEC provides cloud-computing capabilities that allow data to be processed as close as possible to the source. This ultimately reduces latency and speeds up data processing, both of which are important for applications like drones and autonomous vehicles.
“What customers are most concerned about is scaling and securing their applications while knowing that their infrastructure and connectivity will not be an issue,” said Manoj.
“What the market then needs is seamless infrastructure that extends from the customers’ edge to the cloud and can be accessed through any means of connectivity. This will provide a bedrock on which customers can confidently run their mission-critical applications.”
5G monetisation will require service providers to rethink business models
5G is still relatively new and CSPs are forming plans to monetise their 5G investments. Manoj suggests partnerships and revenue sharing will be key.
“5G is not just about a higher order of connectivity. It represents a new global economy. I say this because as customers adopt 5G, they are looking forward to new business models from CSPs like pay-for-use and revenue sharing. They want to ensure that CSPs have skin in the game to solve the business challenges they are trying to solve,” said Manoj.
On a more practical level, CSPs need to modernise their business support systems (BSS) for 5G. A recent survey from Nokia indicated that only 11% of CSPs who responded had sufficient BSS capabilities to support 5G monetisation.
There is a need for CSPs to extend and revamp their BSS and IT stacks to enable rapid launch of new 5G offers and support new charging models. It is also important for BSS to support the growth of solution partnerships and ecosystems to deliver new digital customer experiences.
That’s why LIKE.TG and Nokia have partnered to provide CSPs with the capabilities they need to launch and monetise 5G services faster. This offering builds on LIKE.TG’s Communications Cloud with integrated solutions from Nokia for service orchestration and monetisation, leveraging Nokia’s Digital Operations Center and Converged Charging platforms.
“CSPs need to invest in systems that will give them the flexibility to charge customers based on different parameters. At the same time, there is a whole new ecosystem of developers creating apps and pre-integrated solutions CSPs should be tapping into. Through our partnership with LIKE.TG, we are helping CSPs capture every revenue opportunity from the 5G economy,” said Gustavo Duarte, Global Vice President, Presales and GTM Business Applications, at Nokia CNS.
How 5G drives new use cases
In terms of industry verticals, 5G will drive new use cases and applications, and promising verticals include Industry 4.0. These encompass factory floors, logistics, warehouses, smart city, and public safety use cases. From a horizontal perspective, video analytics, and AR/VR and Metaverse are areas where 5G capabilities are key to driving adoption. For example, on the factory floor, customers are exploring how video analytics can be used to detect faulty products as they emerge from the assembly line.
Singtel’s Manoj also sees many use cases when video cameras become mobile, for example when mounted on automated guided vehicles (AGVs). “A typical AGV has about 8-10 cameras to offer 360 degree views to the pilot or the driver, likewise drones, robots which carry cameras…This is a key use case that may require low latency communications to back-end systems and video recording systems.”
Manoj also sees strong potential in virtual reality and mixed reality use cases, including Metaverse use cases. “The enterprises we are speaking to are exploring how they can use Metaverse in their day to day operations,” said Manoj. As more rich and immersive content requiring low latency and edge computing resources are developed, the demand for 5G and MEC will increase.
In summary, there is a huge potential for 5G across a wide range of use cases in Asia. 5G leaders such as Singtel are taking great strides in making these leading edge 5G applications a reality. At the same time, LIKE.TG and Nokia are enabling CSPs to deliver new customer experiences, and offering new charging and monetisation models that are integral to unlocking the potential for 5G.
How Kerry Express Delivers a Winning Customer Experience
The last two years have seen a major digital shift in the way customers engage with brands. According to the latest State of the Connected Customer report, today’s customers are more active on digital channels than in 2020. Even as they return to in-person experiences, this digital-first customer behaviour is likely to continue.
However, while 85% of customers expect a consistent experience across channels and departments, 43% of customers still prefer non-digital channels when engaging with a brand. This makes it critical to provide customers a satisfying online and offline experience.
As businesses strive to meet evolving customer expectations, building trust is proving more crucial than ever. So, how can brands build and maintain trust? How can they create seamless, connected experiences that build long-term customer relationships?
Reimagine the customer journey
The challenges and disruptions we face in recent years have significantly changed the needs and preferences of customers. Businesses need to gain a deep understanding of these changes to be able to craft a connected customer experience.
“The pandemic pushed customers to buy more items online that they would have previously bought offline,” said Dave Liu, Director, Business Operations, Kerry Express, a leading delivery service in Thailand. “From bulky items and mobile devices to cold chain products, including seafood, were increasingly ordered online.”
Dave also observed an increase in home deliveries compared to office deliveries while people worked remotely during the pandemic. There was also a rise in orders from locations outside the main cities. “Even now, with the easing of social restrictions, we don’t see these shifts in online customer behaviour really dropping,” said Dave.
To meet these changes in customer expectations and shifts in demand, businesses need to redesign their customer journey. By focusing on what matters to customers, brands can understand their motivations and behaviours across channels.
Kerry Express went about doing this by putting the customer at the centre of their journey mapping.
Unify and personalise customer experience across channels
With the shift to digital-first experiences, customers expect a personal touch when engaging with brands. 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, while 62% expect companies to anticipate their needs.
To build trust and make customers feel their needs are understood, businesses should focus on personalising the customer journey. Kerry Express did this by focusing on every touch point to make life easier for customers.
“Most of our customers are online sellers. To serve them better, we created a seamless environment across online and offline channels,” said Dave.
“We have created a variety of online tools from websites to chats along with offline channels for sellers and employees to engage customers. We also provide support to every employee to go to every customer touch point to provide support to customers.”
By offering a variety of pickup and delivery options, Kerry Express catered to the preferences of both sellers and recipients. Customers could also update their order fulfilment preferences at any time — from home delivery to pick-up at collection centres or self-collection of products.
To deliver such a highly personalised experience, a business needs to have a 360 degree view of the customer journey across channels. Cloud-based CRMprovides a single, comprehensive view of customer behaviour on an integrated platform powered by AI. This helps deliver a seamless, connected experience at every stage of the customer journey.
Leverage technology to create a connected experience
By investing in the digitalisation of systems and business processes, a brand can improve its ability to meet customer expectations. According to Dave, this digitalisation should be implemented with a sound strategy.
“It helps to consider two perspectives when looking to digitalise your services — the customer’s and the customer service agent’s,” said Dave. “First, always consider if a service area can move online or to self-service or chat bots without creating much inconvenience to customers. This can immensely help service agents by reducing the volume of service requests. By monitoring the type of calls coming into the contact centre, we can get an idea of the types of services that can be shifted online.”
Kerry Express empowered their agents with platforms that gave them a comprehensive view of their entire operations. This helped them better manage customer expectations by giving them visibility at every stage of the customer journey. By leveraging AI to analyse operational data, their senior executives were also able to make the right operational decisions.
“During the pandemic, we saw customer demand shifting from the city centres to the outskirts. From the data available to us, we were able to mobilise our resources to cater to this shifting demand. AI has been very useful in analysing data to make informed operational and business decisions.”
Meeting the high expectations of today’s digital first customers is critical to business growth. By leveraging data to create a connected customer journey across channels, businesses can deliver unrivalled experiences, deepen trust, and build loyalty.
Get more insights from Dave Liu of Kerry Express on how to create a seamless and connected service experience across the customer lifecycle. Watch the webinar Seamless Service for the Digital-First Connected Customer.
To learn more about creating connected customer experiences, read the State of Connected Customer report.
5 Simple Steps To Delivering More Efficient Product Demos
A product demo is the most important part of a marketing strategy. It’s a chance to put your product’s best qualities in the spotlight, answer questions, and turn naysayers into believers.
Often, presenters are tempted to just reuse marketing positioning language. But at this stage in the marketing journey, your audience has probably already heard it before in a launch presentation or online content.
Perhaps they still have questions, or they’re sceptical about a product’s capabilities. It’s your job to change their minds, or they’re going to bounce to a competitor. Imagine the pressure!
Product demos should answer questions like, “How does this product work?” and “How will it benefit my business?”
These questions are often rooted in confusion and doubt. The goal of a product demo is to build confidence and enthusiasm by showing audiences exactly what they will be getting. If you do this job really well, you will also make them feel great about the opportunities this product makes possible.
You can improve your demos by honing a few simple but important steps. Here are five practical tips for creating product demos that audiences love.
1. Plan a big question that your product demo will answer
It’s easier to ask a question than to write an answer at the beginning stages of a project. A great question will inspire a great answer. This question will continue to be useful throughout the whole process, from planning to presentation.
As you collaborate with new internal stakeholders, you can start by saying, “Here’s the question we’re trying to answer in this product demo.”
Talented teams don’t need to be told what to do; they just need to understand what you want to achieve. A great question can succinctly express your objective and spark the team’s imagination. It will also grab your audience’s attention.
So what makes a question great? Great questions are thought-provoking. They inspire the listener to wonder or imagine.
Here are a few examples of thought-provoking questions:
What if your most common business process took half as many steps to complete?
What if you were sent a warning just prior to making a mistake?
What if it cost $5 to switch to a new browser tab?
These questions make the audience think about how their jobs — and lives — could be improved.
From there, they can begin to see a story with solutions. This is why these questions are so useful in the first few minutes of the demo.
2. Identify the purpose of your product demo
Great demos deliver clear takeaways, but doing this requires focus. First, we need to resist the temptation to show everything. Check out the overload in this example:
“In this demo, I’m going to show you how the LIKE.TG Platform enables you to build, automate, and secure using low code.”
There are actually three takeaways here: build, automate, and secure.
Remember, the product demo’s job is to address doubt and confusion. It’s going to be very challenging to do this if you have three different takeaways.
So let’s try being more focused. For example:
In this demo, I will show you how LIKE.TG Flow helps you use automation to make your business processes more efficient.Now we are focusing on automation, which makes it easier for the audience to digest and appreciate.
Set yourself and your audience up for success by focusing on the takeaways.
3. Visually introduce the use case for your product demo
Your audience needs to see how the product works. But how do we get them to connect the talk track and visuals? To emphasise important points in your demo, phrases such as , “Here you’re looking at…” could be used. For instance:
Here you’re looking at a mortgage application that one of our customers just submitted.Notice in this example, what the audience is seeing has been clearly pointed out. Visualisation is used to set the context and use case that the demo will dig into.
4. Identify the challenge your product addresses and the outcome it makes possible
Now it’s time to take the audience on a journey. There can be no journey without contrast. We need to go from nowhere to somewhere.
This means we need to envision life without our products and then show the improvement our products make possible.
So let’s return to our example:
Here you’re looking at a mortgage application that one of our customers just submitted. It involves a lot of manual steps. As a result of this inefficiency, our customer satisfaction scores were plummeting.
Finally, we cut the number of steps involved in processing one of these applications in half. As you can see, our satisfaction scores have never been higher.
Notice the contrast between these two points. This is important because we introduce challenges at the start and end with a solution to the problems.
5. Show how your product enables the journey from challenge to solution
Imagine showing someone a picture of a dilapidated house. Then imagine showing a picture of an immaculate house and saying, “We help you make this happen!” Their natural question will be, “How?”
It’s not enough to show your audience the before and the after. To have credibility, you must show the journey between those two points.
Every great demo shows its audience how the product helps them get from challenge to solution. But how do we bridge these two points?
Use these three magic words to get from problem to solution: Because, Therefore, and But.
What makes these words so special? They force presenters to acknowledge what just happened before showing the next step.
For example:
Our business process is inefficient. Because of that, our satisfaction scores are plummeting. Therefore, we will use LIKE.TG Flow to create a new workflow. Because of that, we’ve eliminated many of these steps with automation.You don’t have to literally say these words repeatedly in your talk track. Just be mindful of the philosophy to connect each step in your demo. This connectivity helps your audience follow the story.
You want your audience to experience what’s possible with your product. They should leave the demo feeling inspired. Even if your audience doesn’t remember every detail of your presentation, they will remember what the experience felt like. They will feel that life will be better with your product.
Those are the five tips for memorable live product demos. Remember, have fun during your presentation. If the audience senses that you believe in your product and are excited about it, they will believe in it and be excited, too. And your customer relationships will be better for it.
Build process automation into your business to improve productivity.
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This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
What Your Financial Services Business Can Do To Inspire Customer Trust
The last few years have seen a rapid change in customer expectations. Amid all the uncertainty in life and business, trust is now a valued commodity for customers. According to the State of the Connected Customer report, 88% of customers believe trust becomes more important in times of change.
Financial services customers in particular place great value on trust – they need to know their investments are secure and expect a transparent experience from their service providers. According to recent LIKE.TG research, 83% of customers reported a concern over their long-term financial security. This makes it critical for financial services institutions (FSIs) to show their customers that they understand their concerns and can address their needs in a transparent manner.
So how can your financial services business think and act like your customers? What can you do to win trust and turn your customers into loyal advocates for your business?
1. Build a connected customer experience
“The quality of customer experience is directly proportional to customers’ perception of transparency and trust ,” says Prakash Thomas, Regional Vice President; Financial Services Health, LIKE.TG Industries; ASEAN. “If a customer’s interaction with a business across their channels is fragmented, it is difficult to meet customer expectations. Having the right data at the right point of the customer journey helps understand their real needs and enables meeting client needs and expectations in a consistent manner.”
To gain a deep understanding of customer needs, a business needs to have a single shared view of its customers across channels and teams. As customer journeys are increasingly shifting to multiple channels, it is critical to have this shared view across digital and in-person touchpoints. Cloud-based platforms like Customer 360 and Financial Services Cloud can provide a comprehensive customer view for business teams to access from anywhere and at any time. This helps to build a business understanding your customer needs with improved process efficiency to deliver a seamless and connected customer experience.
2. Invest in technology to deliver a personal touch
Globally, 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. But customers are also clearly indicating that FSIs are falling short in this regard. Only 11% of banking customers, 11% of insurance customers, and 18% of wealth management customers say their service providers anticipate their needs.
To deliver an experience that meets growing customer expectations, FSIs can invest in automation to personalise the experience based on each customer’s unique journey. Customers are increasingly shifting to a digital-first user journey, with Asia’s share of active digital banking users increasing to 88% compared to 65% four years ago. This is driving businesses to invest in a strong tech foundation to gain 360-degree visibility of customer journeys. Banks like RCBC in the Philippines are using Marketing Cloud to leverage customer transaction history and demographics information to build more personalised and automated journeys.
3. Communicate honestly and transparently
74% of customers say communicating honestly and transparently is more important
now than before the pandemic. To win customer trust, a business needs to interact with a customer in clear, transparent, and meaningful ways. According to Prakash, customer trust in financial services can be varied.
“Traditionally, customers have not been high on trust with insurance companies. This is due to the perception that there isn’t a high level of transparency in insurance products when compared to say retail banking due to complexity in their product offering,” explains Prakash. “But I think insurers have improved drastically in the last few years in regards to simplifying communication around product offerings , and regulators have also had a big role to play in improving transparency.”
Using a single source of truth can help business teams create cohesive experiences for customers and improve transparency in product communication. With a full view of purchase history, you can make tailored recommendations that genuinely address customer needs. Your service teams can also have the right information to solve customer problems faster and build trust.
4. Take data security and regulatory compliance seriously
“If I’m a customer, the security of my data is my biggest concern. As a financial services business, you’re basically only as good as your last security breach,” says Prakash.
To maintain customer trust, FSIs need to invest in the right data security solutions. According to Prakash, there are three essential steps a business can take to ensure security.
“First, ensure you have sufficient security measures in place to address regulatory compliance issues. The second is technology upgrades — you have to ensure you are operating on the latest version of your systems. Every upgrade comes with newer protection against emerging security threats. And lastly, you need to keep raising security awareness amongst your teams and customers so they are aware of on-going threats in the marketplace and practise a culture of security in their day to day operations. It is important that even a simple advice of not clicking on malicious links needs to be reinforced regularly to clients and internal staff.
A secure platform like Financial Services Cloud can help keep customer profiles and data secure, while helping drive regulatory compliance. With the right tools and knowledge at your disposal, your teams can fully focus on meeting customer needs in a secure manner.
5. Be clear about your values, and stick to them
For many customers today, it’s not enough for companies to deliver a great product or service. They prefer businesses which demonstrate values like commitment to environmental practices, sustainability, diversity and inclusion. 66% of customers have stopped buying from a company whose values didn’t align with theirs — up from 62% in 2020.
“Customers want to interact with businesses that are committed to doing the right thing. That means acting not just from your own corporate values but aligning with shareholder, community and philanthropic values,” says Prakash. “And when your personal values are aligned to your corporate values, it blends into an organisational culture of doing right by your customers and the community at large.”
Building customer trust requires keeping your customers at the centre of all your business actions and service delivery. Financial services have a big opportunity to align their systems, people, and processes to be fully customer centric and win trust.
To find out more on how ASEAN financial services brands can increase efficiency with automation and win a share of the mind, time and trust of customers, download our e-book Winning Customer Minds, Time and Trust
What is LIKE.TG Customer 360?
According to our State of the Connected Customer report, 85% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments. However, 60% say it generally feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, not one company.
LIKE.TG Customer 360 is an integrated CRM platform that solves this challenge by connecting your departments and customer data. Everyone gets a single, shared view of your customers. Think of it as a circle of information about the customer, with the customer in the centre.
Connect your teams on one platform
With LIKE.TG Customer 360, customer data from every step of their journey is captured in one place. This shared view enables teams to work together to deliver personalised experiences and trusted relationships with customers.
Sales teams can be more efficient
Make every customer interaction count, with a complete view of your leads. Sales Cloud lets you control your whole sales pipeline, from prospecting to sale. You can also automate everyday tasks to allow your sales team to concentrate on selling. Customer 360 is also a truly mobile platform, allowing your teams to achieve success from anywhere.
Marketing teams can be more cost-effective
With Marketing Cloud, you can treat your customers as if you’ve known them for years. And with live campaign data, you can see which marketing assets customers are engaging with, and optimise your campaign budgets in real time. This saves you money, and makes your marketing more effective.
Service teams can provide personalised service
If a customer calls your service team about a product issue, there’s no need for service to ask the customer for their purchase details. With Service Cloud, the agent can easily look up the information that the sales team captured when the customer made their purchase. They can then quickly respond to your customer’s needs.
More than a CRM
Customer 360 goes beyond just sales, service and marketing. It includes the full range of LIKE.TG technology – uniting commerce, IT, and analytics – in one connected system. Every employee has access to customer data, so they can make more informed decisions, respond faster to customer needs, and predict new opportunities.
Add more apps and the benefits multiply
Customer 360 can be tailored to suit your specific business needs, with apps dedicated to different business functions and industries.
Adding more than one app to your Customer 360 solution has measurable benefits:
72% of customers with more than one app report an improved time to ROI
95% of customers with two or more apps report improved efficiency and productivity
96% of customers with more than one app say they have met or exceeded ROI expectations
You can take it even further than that. With MuleSoft you can integrate data from a range of sources into your CRM, and with Tableau you can get real-time analytics and visualisations.
Customer 360 makes collaboration easier
Teams are empowered to work as one from anywhere because Customer 360 lives in the cloud. And with Slack, your teams can collaborate and communicate more effectively in your organisation’s ‘digital HQ‘.
Slack for sales
Sales teams can work faster, communicate more efficiently, and onboard new team members more effectively, all with Slack. And with Slack Connect, you can even invite your customers to engage on Slack.
Sales teams using Slack have seen:
15% faster sales cycles
13% more deals closed
Saved an average of 31 minutes a day per user on daily tasks
Slack for marketing
Marketing teams can react to data in real time, without having to use inefficient emails. And with total integration with Customer 360, teams can run their campaigns all from inside Slack.
Marketing teams using Slack have seen:
16% faster execution of marketing campaigns
Improved cross-company sharing of information
Slack for service
With rapid internal communications all happening in Slack, your service teams can respond quicker to customer enquiries and take advantage of automated workflows to handle day-to-day tasks.
Service teams using Slack have seen:
9% faster ticket resolution
11% improved customer satisfaction scores
Source: Creating Your Digital HQ for a Digital-First World ebook
Read the infographic below to learn more about the benefits of usingLIKE.TG Customer 360.
Start uniting your teams around your customer with LIKE.TG Customer 360.
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This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version ofthe LIKE.TG blog.
This post was updated in September 2022.
Meet Daisy Hoang: From Start-up Success to Global Growth Strategist
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this blog series featuring Trailblazers, Nichola introduces Daisy Hoang, Senior Vice President of Sales and Success at Katalon in Vietnam. Daisy brings a growth mindset to the fast-moving tech industry, and has supported ambitious growth in a revenue-generating role.
Daisy Hoang is a start-up star. From beginning her career in Chicago to scaling the heights of Ho Chi Minh City in her current role as Senior Vice President of Sales and Success at Katalon, Daisy knows what it takes to achieve ambitious growth in the fast-moving tech industry.
Much of her success comes down to her strong growth mindset and customer-focused sales philosophy. Daisy says she’s in the solutions business, and being willing to learn from prospects is more important than a slick sales pitch.
“The sales call shouldn’t be about forcing prospects to listen to our pitch. Rather, selling is about guiding prospects through the whole buying experience,” she says. “As salespeople, we shouldn’t be trying to outsmart the prospect, but trying to make their experience of discovery and negotiation as smooth and seamless as possible.”
“That’s why I think client-facing roles are so interesting. You learn as much from the prospects and clients as they are learning from your product.”
Finding her feet
Daisy grew up in Vietnam, and left to study in the US when she was 18. She graduated from top-tier Augustana College with a Bachelor of Arts (International Business, Marketing, and Communication), then won a full-ride scholarship to study for a Master of Science (Marketing and Communication) at Illinois State University.
Her first taste of the professional world came via an internship with UnityPoint Health. It was during this time that Daisy began to lay out a blueprint for her career.
“During one of my internships, my mentor told me that whatever I do in the future to make sure I’m in a revenue-generating function,” she says. “When times are good you don’t have to worry, and when times are bad often the revenue-generating function continues to be in high demand.”
“I also knew that I wanted to be in a very high-growth environment that would push me to continue to learn and develop. Those two guiding principles have always been my north star.”
Daisy’s path led to a position as Sales Strategy Lead for Chicago-based online reputation management platform, SIM Partners — that later got acquired by Reputation.com. Working out of the company’s Chicago office, Daisy had a front seat for the platform’s rapid growth.
“It was my first time being exposed to scaling across geographic locations and verticals, and they had a very mature go-to-market strategy,” she says. “It was good for me to start out at a small startup and then see how that business could potentially become so large and diversified.”
All roads led to Katalon
That start-up energy was part of what attracted Daisy back to Vietnam, where investment was booming, and to a role with SaaS solutions provider, Katalon.
“I knew before I joined Katalon that I was looking for three things: an experienced senior leadership team, a very strong product that truly adds value to the organisations that use it, and a product that could scale across geographic locations, verticals and customer size.”
Daisy found that in Katalon, where she continues to thrive in a fast-paced environment with a global growth vision.
“We are serving clients from more than 160 countries, so at any time of the day and night there are members of our team out discovering prospects, pitching and closing. It’s a very dynamic part of the organisation,” she says.
“As a very high-growth SaaS startup, we’re also aiming for ambitious growth, and because of that, the challenges are never the same from one day to the other.”
A single source of truth
One of those challenges was replacing the company’s legacy CRM to create a single source of truth with LIKE.TG. Daisy says LIKE.TG has provided the visibility the organisation needed to build accountability into the sales culture, and more accurately forecast revenue.
“I don’t think my job is possible without LIKE.TG,” she says. “I spend a lot of my day living in LIKE.TG. We started out just using LIKE.TG for the sales team, but gradually we expanded it to the customer success team, and now to the customer support team. It’s really good to have that visibility across all teams directly within LIKE.TG.”
Daisy says that after a successful growth phase, Katalon is now at a turning point. And she’s excited to take the next step in her career with the company.
“I’ve been fortunate at Katalon to build a very high-growth revenue engine, but we’re at a benchmark where playbooks have to change because growing from point A to point B is very different from growing from point B to point C,” she explains. “The next step in my career is building the playbook for the next phase of up-scaling.”
Daisy is also optimistic for the future of Vietnam, and is keen to inspire the next generation of home-grown talent.
“When I first came back to Vietnam, the tech start-ups were very much focused around solving a local problem. But I’m starting to see more start-ups coming out of Vietnam with a global mindset. It is a young environment that’s heavily dominated by Gen-Z and Millennials, and it’s really good to see bigger dreams.” As a mentor to others now starting on their career path, Daisy finds being a part of those dreams energising, “It’s exciting to share visions of the future with others who are equally passionate about the opportunities ahead.”
Check out these other posts from our Inspired Trailblazers series:
Meet Joey Chan: How an Entrepreneur Found Success in the LIKE.TG Ecosystem
Meet Trần Việt Thắng: Helping People Work Smarter
Meet Joanna Teo: Customer-Focused Data Evangelist
4 Tips for Retailers to Make Customers Come Back for More
The rising cost of living means retailers need to work harder to attract new shoppers and keep existing customers coming back for more. How do you balance the online and in-store retail shopping experience? How do you improve the buying process? How do you keep customers satisfied while they spend?
The simple answer is to create a seamless retail shopping experience that connects digital and physical touchpoints to make your customers come back for more. For companies, it starts with creating agility across online and mobile commerce channels. This also means giving customers greater flexibility when browsing and buying, no matter how they choose to shop.
Here’s what you can do to get your online and brick-and-mortar channels ready for the shopping season.
Tip #1: Offer faster mobile commerce experiences
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer who is waiting to get the best shopping deals during Singles’ Day. Would you rather travel to the malls, pull out your laptop, or grab your phone to shop?
With ecommerce shopping events — double-digit days, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, becoming increasingly common and popular every year, it has never been more important to optimise your mobile commerce experience. In fact, in the second quarter of 2022, mobile accounted for 81% of traffic share and 66% of total order share in ASEAN. It’s time to make phone and tablet shopping seamless and more efficient with:
Mobile-specific marketing: Does your mobile app send push notifications when an out-of-stock product returns to inventory in time for delivery? Do you send well-timed text messages to your best customers when a flash sale starts? If not, it’s time to add that to your retail strategy and boost engagement with an integrated experience across every touchpoint.
Hassle-free browsing and checkout: Opt for simple designs that load fast and add bigger “buy now” buttons that are easy to find on a mobile device. Consider enabling one-step purchases right from the product page, and don’t forget to add convenience-focused payment options. Mobile wallets, for example, ensure customers won’t have to scramble at the point of purchase to find their credit card.
An optimised post-purchase experience: Consider that 41% of digital leaders are prioritising experiences like returns optimisation over the next two years. Ensure your self-service channels are optimised for mobile so customers can accomplish routine tasks easily and efficiently from their phones.
Tip #2: Make social selling part of the retail shopping experience
How can you help your customers find the right products when so much depends on Instagram images on a small screen? By enabling associates (or even influencers) to interact with your customers on a live stream, you can turn virtual retail shopping into a personalised and engaging experience.
Your customers will be able to see the product from different angles, ask about flexible fulfilment options like same day delivery or in-store pickup, and inquire about return policies in real-time. That process helps customers avoid buying items that won’t work and has the potential to reduce online return rates.
Leading retailers are already capturing customers’ attention on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. That’s not just for show: All signs indicate that social commerce is just getting started. In fact, it’s predicted to grow three times faster than traditional ecommerce over the next four years.
“Consumers live on their phones, and pushing your brand experience and checkout to these social networks helps remove the friction that a consumer encounters between discovery and purchase,” Rob Garf, LIKE.TG’s vice president and general manager, retail, said.
Tip #3: Prioritise fulfilment and inventory optimisation
Imagine the disappointment when finding out the product you ordered online is out of stock or stuck somewhere on a congested supply chain. As retailers face inventory and shipment challenges, digital leaders are solving the problem by prioritising fulfillment and inventory optimisation. What does that mean in simple terms? It means it’s time to solve the “where is my order” problem once and for all:
Prioritise transparency: Does an offer for a comparable product mean your customers won’t mind if a shipment is delayed or unavailable? No. But at least you can be honest and transparent —74% of customers say that trust is important. And by keeping an open line of communication, you can be the retail hero that shows up with potential solutions.
Empower your customers: Ensure your customers can access their order history, track delivery, and use self-service to arrange a return or exchange. Enable flexible fulfilment options, like buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS), a choice that’s popular with customers and that’s been adopted by 85% of retailers.
Rethink order management: The right order management system gives your online and in-store associates access to real-time inventory and fulfilment data. When your employees can follow customer orders from the point of purchase through delivery, they can stay proactive if there’s a problem — like offering a similar product that’s available for on-time shipment. This ensures effective and efficient communication with customers, and at the same time, frees up employees’ time to handle more important tasks.
Tip #4: Add flexible payment options
As inflation lingers, flexible payment options are bound to grow in popularity.Programs like buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) may make an important difference in the retail shopping experience and to retailers’ profitability. Digital leaders are twice as likely as digital laggards to prioritise investments in flexible payments. 61% digital leaders say they’re already offering BNPL as a payment option, while another 32% plan to add it in the next two years.
Delaying payments or offering instalment options aren’t the only ways retailers are rethinking transaction flexibility. Apple Pay, for example, is increasing in popularity: While 54% already accept Apple Pay, another 34% plan to add the option within two years. Not only do mobile wallet options streamline transactions with one-click payments, they also expand the number of payment options customers have at checkout.
Find out how to give shoppers the gift of convenience this year by removing friction from their retail shopping experience.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of theLIKE.TG blog.
Is Your Enterprise Ready for the Future? Here are 6 Ways to Prepare
New technology can be exciting, but it can also be difficult to know where you should focus. This is especially true if you are leading transformation for your enterprise. Legacy systems, organisational changes, and return on investment all need to be considered.
As the pace of change accelerates, every industry is facing disruption, both from new technology and from competitors. Add rapidly evolving customer expectations, and you may find you’re having a hard time keeping up.
Customers care about more than just your products and services, too. For example,85% of customers say that their purchasing decisions are influenced by how an organisation treats its employees.
With these things in mind, here are six ways you can prepare for the future of work, starting today.
Create flexible and supportive working arrangements
Businesses that are flexible about work options appear more attractive to job-seekers. In the long run, these enterprises will incur lower costs with fewer overheads and salary demands.
According to the EY 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey, more than half of all respondents in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines said they would quit their jobs if their employer did not provide flexibility in where they could work. However, 60% of Singaporean respondents to our Employee Engagement Report said their employers have limited or no technology to support flexible work.
Having the means to collaborate and communicate with colleagues around the world can make all the difference for your employees. It will make them more productive, too — teams using collaboration platform Slack are able to close more deals, resolve issues faster, and improve customer satisfaction.
Focus on results
Businesses that measure employee productivity through good results and customer feedback, rather than the hours they put in, are well-placed for the future of work. Gone are the days of clocking in and out to measure employee effectiveness — today we have much more sophisticated options available to us.
Establishing KPIs for your employees helps your teams focus on what’s important. The right tools are needed for proper measurement to get quality data. Only with an established data culture, you can derive deep insights that help your enterprise prepare for the future of work.
Ultimately, the best measure of employee effectiveness is customer satisfaction. There are established metrics that are still useful for day-to-day operation, but with modern solutions you can start to measure metrics such as Return on Experience to make sure that you are delivering the service that your customers expect.
Adapt business models to meet customer expectations
As technology advances, customers expect businesses to move forward too. According to the latest State of the Connected Customer Report, customers expect to communicate with companies online more than 60% of the time. Fifty-seven percent of customers prefer to deal with businesses online, and that number gets higher for younger audiences. If you don’t have the means to provide a smooth online experience, you could be missing out on business.
Customers are interested in more than just products and services — 88% of customers expect companies to clearly state their values. Two thirds of customers have stopped buying from a company whose values didn’t align with theirs — up from 62% in 2020. Issues such as climate change, social issues and community involvement are top of mind.
Improve employee experience
There are many factors that contribute to a good employee experience (EX), and it’s been shown that poor EX can have an impact on your bottom line. In Singapore, 71% of employees say struggling with outdated and inefficient technology has a direct impact on their work.
By modernising the tools that your employees use every day, you can streamline their experience, leading to higher satisfaction and higher efficiency. When we surveyed workers in Singapore, more than half said that software to help them communicate and collaborate with colleagues would improve their workplace experience.
Every business’s culture is unique — make sure yours is working for you and your teams.
Keep customer communications transparent
It’s more important than ever to maintain customer trust. Out-of-stock products,
delayed deliveries, and poor customer service can cause significant damage to a business’s reputation. Use all your available communication channels to let your customers know if your business isn’t running as usual.
Of course, this relies on having the right tools to understand when the service you provide to your customers isn’t working as intended. Solutions such as Commerce Cloud help you automate your operations, while also empowering you with cutting-edge AI to improve your customer experience.
Scale as your business grows
With improved security and flexibility, cloud-based storage and applications give businesses a long-term competitive advantage in a changing world. However, not all cloud-based services are created equal. Make sure that the solution you choose has best-in-class security certification, integrations with all your other software, and has the power to scale with your business as it grows.
Ready for Dreamforce 2022? Here’s How You Can Experience the Magic
Every year, our flagship event Dreamforce brings the LIKE.TG community together to inspire with insights from thought leaders and Trailblazers.
This year, as Dreamforce celebrates its 20th anniversary, the magic of this event will be streamed live and available on-demand on LIKE.TG+ from September 21-23 (Asia Pacific Timezones). At the Dreamforce campus, there will be 1,000+ sessions and workshops on a variety of topics — from sustainability and the journey to net zero, mindfulness, wellness and customer success.
Dreamforce 2022 will attract tens of thousands of Trailblazers from around the world to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. There will also be plenty of innovation, inspiration, and customer stories from across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. So get ready to experience the magic of Dreamforce on LIKE.TG+ anytime, anywhere.
The Dreamforce 2022 experience on LIKE.TG+
Register for our immersive LIKE.TG+ experience that brings the best of Dreamforce to you, for free. This reimagined virtual experience is a full three days that includes two channels, 72 hours of live broadcast, 200+ on-demand sessions, and many exclusive, digital-only moments. It’s your perfect opportunity to connect, learn, and have fun at our LIKE.TG family reunion — Dreamforce.
Be inspired by Marc Benioff, change-makers Matthew McConaughey, Bono, Jane Goodall DBE and Al Gore, and a whole host of Trailblazers, customers, partners, actors, activists, world-class athletes, and thought leaders.
Sessions you don’t want to miss
Dreamforce Main Keynote
Co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor will kick off Dreamforce by sharing the vision for the future of LIKE.TG. Hear customer success stories and find out about our latest innovations.
APAC Encore: Dreamforce Main Keynote 12:00 p.m. SGT, 21 September 2022
Presenting the Dreamforce Main Keynote — but with an APAC twist! Catch up with LIKE.TG executives Pip Marlow, CEO, ANZ ASEAN; Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO, India; Leandro Perez, VP CMO, APAC, and some very special guests, to hear their insights on the exciting future of the Asia Pacific region.
ASEAN Customers Share Insights
Azureen Azita Abdullah, Head of Downstream Digital Innovation, PETRONAS will be featured in the Energy and Utilities main session. Catch it on-demand on LIKE.TG+ from 21 September.
Erville Magtubo, Head of Customer Care, Meralco; Atiporn Jaroensri, Chief Information Officer, CP Lotus Corporation, and Aadrin Azly, Chief Digital Officer, PETRONAS will also be speaking at Dreamforce.
What you can learn from thought leaders
Find these sessions and more on the Dreamforce schedule and get ready to sit back and enjoy the show!
Digital Transformation for an Evolving Future
Learn how to lay the foundation that empowers you to support technologies that will be prevalent for many years to come.
Building a Human and Humane Future of Work
Learn how to prepare for the next era of technological innovation to ensure your workers are equipped with the right digital literacy skills.
Leading in a Flexible Work World
Understand how organisations are navigating an evolving digital environment where employees need to succeed from anywhere.
Using Business as a Platform for Change
Learn how business leaders are helping promote social justice, prioritising diversity and leading with empathy and responsibility.
Are you a LIKE.TG Partner? Don’t miss Dreamforce!
Dreamforce is a fantastic opportunity for LIKE.TG Partners to connect with current customers and prospects, and nurture relationships.
“I look forward to the opportunity to welcome our APAC Partners at Dreamforce. Whether it’s in person or online, Dreamforce is a great way to help Partners connect with customers. The sessions will be very helpful in demonstrating our Partners’ expertise through success stories, and the innovations they leverage in delivering customer success with LIKE.TG,” said Latika Minocha, VP of Alliances and Channels, ASEAN.
We have put together a handy Dreamforce Watch Party Kit to help Partners organise watch parties with their customers and teams.
Sustainability at Dreamforce 2022
At Dreamforce, we’re committed to accelerating the world’s journey to net zero. Each year, we make every effort to have a more sustainable Dreamforce. This year, along with carbon-friendly and eco-friendly measures, we also have expert speakers educating and enabling us to take climate action.
Learn how to get to net zero across your entire organisation and also how ‘ecopreneurs’ benefit people and the planet through innovative sustainability businesses.
The details — with more to come
Watch Dreamforce Today for the latest news and special guests, Global Programming for all the sessions designed for you, and the nightly show Dreamforce Tonight – all available on-demand, so you don’t miss any session! You can also search for sessions by topic, industry and role on LIKE.TG+.
Main channels:
Prime Time: The channel for the best of Dreamforce from around the world featuring LIKE.TG executives, global leaders, and changemakers (including the APAC Encore: Dreamforce Main Keynote).
Trailblazer: Hear from Trailblazing pioneers, innovators, and lifelong learners on this channel. Discover how to use LIKE.TG to do well and do good in your career, company, and community.
When: September 21–23, 2022. Join us as we count down to the APAC Encore: Dreamforce Main Keynote from 8 a.m. SGT, 21 September 2022
Where: Wherever you are!
CRMs vs. Manual Spreadsheets: How Automating Processes Help SMBs Grow
Are the fundamental building blocks of your business kept in spreadsheets? Fast insights into sales pipeline and dashboards, revenue forecasting, customer information, and lead management are crucial to a sustainable business. Learn why it may be time to move beyond spreadsheets to position your small to medium-sized business (SMB) for growth.
There comes a point in the growth of a SMB when the business owner will look at the vast amount of spreadsheets that contain critical data and think: there must be a better way.
This reality check comes quicker to leaders during times of change as they’re forced to juggle competing priorities. According to LIKE.TG’s latest Small and Medium Business Trends Report, leaders say the shift in customer expectations for online transactions have driven 63% of SMBs to now manage an ecommerce presence. Investing in digital capabilities has become the keyfocus for many SMBs — 71% of SMB leaders say their business survived the pandemic because of digitisation. Their top motivators to focus on digital transformation are increasing productivity, improving business agility, and enhancing data security. The use of technology not only helps them establish a foundation for growth but also build better relationships with their customers and stakeholders. For businesses that are still using spreadsheets such as Excel to host important data, it is now time to move beyond manual processes and choose automation. Here’s why.
CRMs give SMBs what matters — time and efficiency
Creating one-to-one relationships with customers is what sets a SMB apart from its competitors.
Without a customer relationship management (CRM) system that efficiently manages business data, SMB leaders will often go to bed feeling anxious about customers and prospects they haven’t responded to. For any interactions that day, they’ll need to manually add details to the right spreadsheet on what was covered and when to follow up.
The change from spreadsheets to a CRM software is when business leaders can step out from working within the business and find the time to work on the business. With intelligent automation processes, they will have the ability to build a diverse and comprehensive customer reference database that supports marketing, sales, and service. Unlike spreadsheets, a CRM makes it easy to automate certain tasks so your team can focus on high-value business.
All those hours of manual data entry and the stress of remembering previous customer conversations will be taken away, giving business leaders back the resource that matters — time.
The costs of using spreadsheets over CRM systems
To put this into perspective, how much does one hour cost to a business leader who is working with a customer? Think about the hours per week spent updating, collating, and organising spreadsheets. Is the reliance on spreadsheets and monotonous data entry detrimental to revenue and growth? What if all these manual tasks could be integrated in one system? How would that change the cost of one hour?
CRM 101: The Small Medium Business’s Guide to build your business strategy and maximise ROI
LIKE.TG’s small business CRM gives leaders the tools to capture new leads and effectively manage their prospects, right through the sales cycle to becoming an active customer. The personalised email templates provide consistent messaging and intuitive activity tracking ensures that no conversation is lost or forgotten. Combined with CRM analytics, it allows SMBs to seamlessly access, collaborate, and share insights from anywhere. As such, businesses can win deals and keep their customers happy in one unified 360 platform.
With these features easily accessible on desktop, laptop or mobile devices, LIKE.TG enables small to medium-sized business leaders to focus time and energy on marketing their brand, strengthening relationships with key customers, and looking at future growth opportunities for the business.
Don’t hold back your business with manual data processing and disconnected spreadsheets. It’s time to reassess whether your processes are driving growth or holding you back. Level-up with a CRM software that gives you back time to work on what matters most.
This post was based on the original at the A.U. LIKE.TG blog.
Want to Stand Out in Financial Services? Transform the Front Office Through Digitalisation
Fintech firms have raised the bar when it comes to convenience. There are now 1230 fintech apps in Asia Pacific alone that make it easier than ever for consumers to borrow, make payments, save, and invest.
Some innovation in fintech is driven by back office teams responsible for the manufacturing of products and services. However, what sets many fintechs apart from one another and traditional financial services firms is their front office innovation.
The front office in finance is responsible for the complete distribution of products and services. It comprises customer-facing functions like sales, marketing, and customer service. These functions are all critical for winning and maintaining customer loyalty.
So for fintechs, banks, and other financial services firms to succeed, creating an effective front office is a good place to start. Here are tips on where to focus and how LIKE.TG can help.
Transforming the front office through digitalisation
First and foremost, front office teams need the data and tools to provide an exceptional customer experience. They also need the right technology to streamline service delivery and minimise costs.
Digitalisation provides a solution to all these challenges. More to the point, a truly digital front office enables a seamless and connected customer experience. It also effectively closes the personalisation gap in financial services. This means customers can enjoy personalised experiences, across whatever channel they choose to interact.
In addition, digitalisation and automation often go hand-in-hand. And the experts interviewed for our Future of Financial Services report agree that automation plays a critical role in the delivery of fast and accurate service. Automation also enables the easy and transparent experiences that customers seek. For example, automating manual, repetitive tasks speeds up processes like customer onboarding.
Combined with technologies like artificial intelligence, automation can also help financial services firms engage with customers at the right time, on the right channel and offer them the right set of products and services.
How LIKE.TG supports front office innovation
LIKE.TG Customer 360 can help financial services firms to transform their front office. It unites sales, service, marketing, and other front office teams around a shared view of the customer. They can then work together to personalise every step of the customer journey.
For instance, using Customer Data Platform marketers can hyper-personalise communication. They can also tailor product offers and recommendations based on customers’ goals or pivotal life events. With Tableau and CRM Analytics, advisors or relationship managers can better understand the customer journey. They can then contextualise engagement and take data-driven actions to minimise customer churn.
Slack keeps teams aligned and speeds up decision-making, ultimately helping them work more efficiently and deliver more value to customers.
MuleSoft can further help to create an effective, digital front office. By integrating multiple systems, for example, MuleSoft can support a more automated and connected customer experience.
The integration platform can also help the industry to collaborate on the distribution of products and services. For example, fintechs can use application programming interfaces (APIs) to securely connect to a bank’s systems and data. They can then distribute the bank’s products while layering innovative, personalised services on top. They can also use experience APIs to expose specific data to mobile apps where it can be securely consumed by customers.
We are seeing similar movements in the industry already with the rise ofbanking-as-a-service(BaaS) in ASEAN. With BaaS, banks allow their products or services to be embedded into the offerings of fintechs. The fintechs then market and sell the services as their own, effectively acting as the front office or distribution layer of banks.
This creates new streams of revenue for both companies and, more importantly, provides customers with more meaningful products and experiences.
For further insights on how digitalisation can transform the front office, download our e-bookUnleashing Fintech’s Potential.
How To Improve Customer Lifetime Value With Connected Sales & Service
Running and growing a business requires your focus on a lot of different things. You have to hire the right people, make sure you’re managing cash in and cash out, and ensuring you’re providing the right product or service to your customers.
The problem with this is that we tend to forget the one thing that drives growth is customers. Without customers, there is no business.
So, for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to succeed today, leadership must be laser-focused on transforming the customer’s experience for the better.
But our world has changed. We are dealing with new channels, skills, regulations, stakeholders, and expectations. This is making it harder than ever to connect with our customers.
This isn’t just a new chapter for business. It requires a whole new playbook built around:
Enhancing sales productivity throughout the pipeline to drive faster sales.
Retaining customers and building loyalty with end-to-end visibility.
Enabling seamless collaboration across your entire business.
Cross-team alignment delivers connected customer experiences
To achieve those three critical goals, SMBs need better cross-team connections to deliver more personalised customer experiences. A truly connected experience requires you to break down the walls between sales, service, and marketing.
When departments work together, it creates a circle of success that delivers the connected experiences that drive customer lifetime value, satisfaction, and retention. It also improves process efficiency, and boosts sales and service productivity to increase cost effectiveness.
To make that possible, you need one customer command centre that connects departments with shared access to a 360-degree customer view on a single, scalable platform.
This allows the marketing team to leverage service data to find and focus on more high-value customers. They will also know of a customer’s recent service enquiries, so they will not reach out with promotions while a customer is experiencing technical issues.
At the same time, your sales team will also be aware of recent purchases on your commerce platform and can tailor their outreach accordingly. And your customer support team can use sales-related data to assist customers in their pre-sales journey, and provide personalised service to drive better conversion and retention.
Increasing customer lifetime value with Customer 360
If you want to increase customer lifetime value, you need to better deliver the connected, personalised experiences customers crave. According to the fifth edition of the LIKE.TG State of the Connected Customer report, 56% of customers expect all offers to be personalised, and 85% expect consistent interactions across departments.
Customer 360 empowers companies to use a data-driven process to deliver personalised customer experiences. It helps businesses to better understand customers’ individual needs, and therefore level-up personalisation strategies to increase customer lifetime value.
It achieves this by creating a single source of truth for connected customer experiences — across sales, service, marketing, and commerce. So whether customers are meeting you in-person, answering your emails, or chatting on the phone, you have one platform connecting every touchpoint.
That’s how you drive personalisation and deliver consistent customer experiences that are connected across your organisation.
Connection is the secret to customer loyalty
Singapore-based smile cosmetics company, Zenyum, is putting this concept into practice. Zenyum’s success is based largely on the company’s ability to connect with tech-savvy millennials and deliver connected customer experiences that combine digital convenience with deep data-driven personalisation. This has been made possible through Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Experience Cloud.
“Having the right information in the right stages is key,” says Chief Product Officer at Zenyum, Anupama Hoon. “Now we follow a single sales dashboard to track the metrics for the company. We have a clear overview of the sales funnel, and the data is available in real-time.”
Data-driven selling has a strong competitive advantage over intuitive selling. Data-driven organisations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers compared to their competition, and nine times more likely to surpass them in customer loyalty.
Zenyum’s success underlines the point that disconnected systems lead to unreliable data, reduced productivity and unknown customer needs. But with the use of technology, SMBs can adapt to evolving customer needs, build meaningful connections, and accelerate growth.
Use These 4 B2B Sales Techniques to Grow Your Business Faster
Closing B2B sales is tougher than ever. Business buyers have a proliferation of information and resources at hand to educate themselves about the purchases they’re making. That means B2B sales teams need to get smarter about how they influence and win over business buyers. Here are four useful B2B sales techniques that can help you build a powerful sales strategy in a competitive marketplace:
1. Transactional B2B sales
Transactional selling is the simplest B2B sales technique. In fact, it’s the way most people think about sales: identify a prospect, pitch them your product, and close the sale. The focus is on the short-term, usually on selling a single product — for example, in real estate. In transactional B2B sales, the prospect is aware of their needs, knows the solution, and is simply looking for an offering that best matches their requirements.
To grow your transactional B2B revenue, understanding customer needs and expanding sales through digital channels are crucial. In the latest State of Commerce report, B2B buyers are turning to digital channels now more than ever. The share of revenue coming from digital channels for B2B sellers has increased from 28% to 40% in two years. Revenue is expected to increase to 52% two years from now. Transactional selling is not just only about closing sales fast, but also providing more transactional options to close deals efficiently.
2. Solution B2B sales
Solution selling involves knowing the customer’s needs or problems and offering solutions in the form of products or services. It’s about pitching a value proposition. So, instead of simply selling the benefits or features of your offerings, you focus on the end state of the sale — how will the buyer’s organisation improve by adopting your product or service. Solution B2B sales have slightly longer purchase cycles but typically lead to deals with a better ROI and the potential for multiple repurchases.
To make sure that sales pitches are productive in solution B2B sales, you can’t just rely on experience and intuition. There is a need for data analytics to help boost your sales strategies and create a personalised, insightful solution for different customers. In the State of Connected Customer report, sales personalisation is one of the most important factors that influence B2B transactions. 89% of business buyers said they are more likely to buy if companies demonstrate an understanding of their end goals. With a clear view of the needs of your customers, you can better align your products and services with their goals to create great value.
3. Consultative B2B sales
Consultative selling is similar to solution selling; though, with the former, the buyer is aware of their problems or needs but not very proactive about finding a solution. In consultative B2B sales, the sales representative gains a deep understanding of the buyer’s problems or needs and how to fulfil them. They then advise the buyer about potential solutions, taking on a consultative role that nudges buyers towards making the purchase.
Consultative B2B sales often require the efforts of a sales representative along with a subject matter expert, so that all the buyer’s doubts and questions can be resolved. As this B2B sales method usually features larger ticket sizes, longer purchasing cycles, and a high-touch face-to-face selling environment, trust becomes more important, especially during times of change.
87% of business buyers expect sales representatives to know their business goals and work with them as a trusted advisor. However, only 62% say they generally trust sales representatives. There is still work to do in gaining customer’s trust. But this is a good opportunity for you to build trusted relationships with more personalised and customer-centric sales interactions.
4. Provocative B2B sales
In provocative B2B sales, the customer is not aware of a problem or need they might have. The sales representative executing this sales technique needs to first make the buyer aware of their problem or need, and then pitch their offerings as a solution. Provocative B2B sales are tricky to execute because the sales representative risks patronising or offending the buyer. However, if done well, this method gives the seller a first-mover advantage by offering the buyer solutions to problems they didn’t even know they had — and thus beating the competition to it.
Using data-driven insights to predict your prospect’s needs can help you close deals quicker and improve productivity in provocative B2B sales. As the primary thing being sold is guidance, followed by the product or service as a solution, a sales representative who anticipates customer needs will be able to build trust and elevate buyer satisfaction.
A B2B sales team may need to adopt different sales techniques depending on the buyer they’re interacting with. A CRM software like LIKE.TG’s Sales Cloud empowers your sales teams with a 360-degree view of prospects and customers. It unifies data from multiple sources on one shared platform, providing sales teams with all the information they need to understand customer needs and determine the best suited B2B sales techniques to deploy in any situation. With commerce, sales, and other data connected, sales representatives are becoming experts in understanding the customer’s past relationship with the company, measuring estimated revenue, and predicting the potential for add-on business.
Learn how to measure and boost productivity, and lead your sales team back to growth.
Download Report
This post originally appeared on the LIKE.TG India blog.
How to Turn Social Media into a Powerful Customer Service Tool
Trust is the connective tissue between a brand and its customers. As marketers, we play a special role in building trusted relationships with our customers. In many ways, we are the face and voice of the brand. Everything we say and do can build or destroy trust. This is why values-based marketing is important.
As customers navigate a rapidly-shifting world, values-based marketing is more crucial than ever. In Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report, we found that 74% of customers say a brand communicating honestly and transparently is more important now than before the pandemic.
Our research also finds that customers trust companies to act responsibly. Seventy-one percent of customers in Singapore and 83% of customers in Thailand trust companies to act with society’s best interest in mind.
“71% of customers in Singapore and 83% of customers in Thailand trust companies to act with society’s best interest in mind.”
Salesforce’s marketing team is now prioritising values along with products. We are communicating what we stand for and the actions we’re taking to live our values. That helps people understand who we fundamentally are as a company and what we’re like as a partner.
With that, here are five wayswe lead with valuesin our marketing. We hope you can find these strategies useful in your own communications as well.
1. We publicly hold ourselves accountable for living our values
You may have seen our high-profile Team Earth campaign featuring Matthew McConaughey. By discussing our values on big stages at Salesforce events such as Dreamforce and Salesforce Live, we invite others to hold us accountable for truly living our beliefs in trust, equality, and sustainability.
2. We strive to communicate with integrity, authenticity, and transparency
We share our values with the world because we know they are important to our stakeholders. We build trust by being honest, helpful, and relevant, providing information our customers and others need to make the right decisions for their company and community.
3. We practise inclusive marketing
That means our storytelling reflects the diverse communities that we serve. It includes people of all backgrounds, regardless their race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, or religion. We challenge stereotypes and inspire people to be the best they can be.
We use a method called counter-stereotyping that portrays people in roles that challenge prejudices. We want to dispel incorrect perceptions and showcase our belief that anyone can do anything. We keep accessibility top of mind for how our content is consumed, too. For example, all images in our content must meet accessibility standards, which include acceptable colours and fonts, plus alt text for images and closed captioning for videos.
4. We lead with sustainable marketing
Our events marketing team uses QR codes that direct to downloadable schedules and content (instead of handing out paper programs). We give eco-conscious gifts. And recipients must opt in to direct mail (less paper, more digital).
5. We’re building a safe future for consumer data
The technology world is changing at breakneck speed, and while innovation is great, sometimes it’s hard to keep up. That can turn into unfair and even risky situations. We are taking all possible steps to eliminate algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence, and we’re also protecting user privacy.
“Relationships built on values and trust benefit everyone and lead to progress toward the sustainable and fair world we all want. ”
Our values-based marketing also prepares our community for the industry and technology shifts that are happening now and coming our way. These include privacy changes, thenew era of marketing analytics that focus on consumer privacy, and more. We want our customers and partners to know what steps to take to be successful and safe.
The bottom line is that relationships built on values and trust benefit everyone and lead to progress toward the sustainable and fair world we all want. We can live our highest purpose as marketers by building trust through communicating our values with integrity and building values into everything we do.
Find out what consumers and business buyers have to say about trust and values-based marketing.
DOWNLOAD REPORT
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the Salesforce blog.
Want Your Business to Be More Efficient? AI Can Help
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has the potential to completely transform the way you do business. You can save money on marketing, close deals more quickly, and provide better service, all without increasing your headcount.
The recent State of the Connected Customer report showed that trust is still a valued commodity. Trust in businesses is slowly growing — 52% of customers say they generally trust companies, compared to 48% two years ago.
But businesses still need to act in ways that build trust. According to the report, these are the top five actions that businesses can take to build customer trust:
Communicate honestly and transparently
Use customer information responsibly
Treat customers as people, not numbers
Resolve issues proactively
Communicate proactively
Customers now expect you have a greater understanding of their needs. They expect you to be available 24/7, and they want to be able to contact you however they like and get the same experience.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system acting as a single source of truth, combined with the power of AI, can help you meet these expectations.
Speed up the sales process with AI
You can use AI at every step of the sales process, from prospecting to closing. By automating every step of the selling journey, you can free up your sales staff to maximise the time they spend selling, improving productivity and efficiency.
Improved sales pipeline
AI can take on the task of lead scoring, providing you with a prioritised list of leads based on previous deals. Your sales teams can address the prospects who are most likely to convert into high-value sales first.
A CRM-integrated AI can also tell you which leads are most likely to close.Sales Cloud, alongside Einstein Opportunity Insights, will automatically assess customer sentiment, competitor involvement, and prospect engagement to understand whether a prospect is likely to buy.
For your existing clients, Einstein Account Insights can keep tabs on company updates and activities, and alert your sales teams when an opportunity presents itself.LIKE.TG Geniekeeps these insights updated in real time, meaning you can act on them as they happen.
Finally, you can use AI to keep a track of all your sales activities.Two-thirds of high-performing sales teamsautomate administrative tasks, such as call logging and meeting reminders. By letting your AI manage these day-to-day tasks, you give your sales teams more time in their day for selling.
Proactive customer service with AI
The latest State of Service report contains insights from over 8,000 customer service professionals from around the world. A clear message from the research was that efficiency is becoming more important to customer service leaders:
Customer satisfaction is now measured by fewer service teams than in 2020
The proportion of organisations that consider speed to be more important than quality has doubled since 2020
Metrics measuring first contact resolution, cost per contact, customer effort, and case deflection are all increasing in popularity
Each of these efficiency measures can be boosted by AI.
Resolving issues proactively
With AI-powered chatbots, you can instantly help customers find the answers they’re looking for. Not only does this reduce the burden on your service personnel, but it also helps the customer faster.
You can also turn customer service teams into a driver for growth. With data kept up to date in real time, AI can intelligently make suggestions and in-context recommendations to customers, based on their previous activity.
You can save time for agents by using AI to complete data fields, perform case triage, and automatically route service tickets so agents can concentrate on the cases that require their attention.
Read about How SmartCost integrates Sales Cloud and Service Cloud to drive a 50% boost in revenue.
Improve marketing experiences with AI
AI gives marketers the tools to make every customer interaction effective.
Predictive insights mean that customers only ever see relevant marketing messages. Supported by LIKE.TG Genie, Marketing Cloud and Einstein assess every engagement, brand interaction, and purchase to make sure that each ad hits home. They even take into account customer conversations on social networks.
In the State of the Connected Customer report, it was revealed that 69% of customers say that they are open to the use of AI to improve their experiences. You can use it to offer personalised content and provide bespoke offers tailored to each customer, making them feel valued, improving your bottom line.
Optimisation at scale
AI can help optimise your marketing spend, offering suggestions for targeting, and flagging when campaigns aren’t hitting the mark.
All of this data can be presented in easy-to-digest formats, with automatically created visual guides accompanied by natural language descriptions. This lets you share your insights quickly and make up-to-the-minute optimisation decisions.
Read about how GeniusU provided its fans with a totally personalised experience.
Prepare your business for a digital future
Businesses of all sizes are feeling pressure, from evolving customer expectations, growing costs, and increased competition.
An AI-powered CRM will give you the tools to meet those challenges. Download the Prepare your Business for a Digital Future e-book now, to understand how a single source of truth, boosted by an always-on AI, can change the way you do business.
What Is a LIKE.TG Admin?
LIKE.TG helpsover 150,000 customersacross a myriad of businesses, nonprofits, and institutions to connect with their customers. People around the world rely on ourCustomer Relationship Management (CRM)platform to keep business running. The LIKE.TG Administrator in any of these organisations is critical for success. Read on to learn:
What is a LIKE.TG Administrator?
LIKE.TG Administratorswork with stakeholders to define system requirements and customise the platform. To put it simply, they enable users to get the most out of LIKE.TG technology.
A LIKE.TG Admin best understands how to make the platform work for their company’s goals.
Some organisations may employ just one admin; some employ many people in this role. A LIKE.TG Administrator’s colleagues can rely on them to:
Maintain the platform
Make it as easy as possible for users of any technical level to use LIKE.TG
Stay updated on the platform’s new tools, capabilities, and updates
Think of LIKE.TG Administrators as yourtrusted advisorson all things LIKE.TG. They are a vital bridge between business and technology.
What does a LIKE.TG Administrator do?
In some organisations, administrator jobs are combined with other roles. Depending on their needs, some hire for this role specifically. Because of our platform’s capabilities, having someone with an admin certification can ensure the company is using the platform to its fullest potential.
Take your sales team for example. They might use Sales Cloud to keep track of opportunities, sell smarter, and close deals faster. With the help of a LIKE.TG Admin, your salespeople can set up personalised dashboards, fields, alerts, and reports to shorten the sales cycle and track every lead in greater detail. This level of organisation can increase efficiency and productivity among salespeople and make customers happy.
That’s just one department. We have solutions for just about every team in a company, including sales, marketing, customer service, and more. Each department can learn from the LIKE.TG Admin how to use our platform most effectively.
How to become a LIKE.TG Admin?
You do not need a technical background or knowledge of LIKE.TG technology to begin. Anyone with a computer and an internet connection anywhere in the world can train on Trailhead, our free online learning platform designed to teach new students and seasoned professionals a wide variety of business skills. Best of all, learning to become a LIKE.TG Admin happens online and on your schedule.
To find work as an admin, you must prepare and study, and then pass the LIKE.TG Certified Administrator exam. Absolute beginners kick things off by learning what the LIKE.TG platform is and what it does, and then build on that knowledge in a series of engaging modules. We estimate that it takes around 115–125 hours of study and to pass.
Career prospects and opportunities for LIKE.TG Admins
As our Trailblazers continue to grow and impact business, LIKE.TG Admin jobs will grow, too. Our research shows a 400% annual growth rate for admins. It’s a career path for people who love to learn and for professionals who enjoy using the latest technology.
Some people earn their LIKE.TG Administrator Certificate to supplement their current role in a company – and potentially secure a higher salary. Others use it to enrich their resume and find a new position. Many companies use LIKE.TG, including retailers, nonprofits, financial services, healthcare providers, and software companies.
LIKE.TG Administrator credentials and certifications
Becoming a LIKE.TG Admin can be a valuable long-term career path, or a way to improve the career path you’re already on. The LIKE.TG Administrator role has five credentials, including:
Administrator— designed for those who have experience with LIKE.TG and continuously look for ways to help companies get additional features and capabilities
Advanced Administrator — for seasoned LIKE.TG Administrators who have mastered advanced LIKE.TG features and functionality to solve a variety of business problems
CPQ Specialist— for individuals with experience designing, building, and implementing quoting flows with LIKE.TG Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), technology used to organise sales teams
Marketing Cloud Administrator— for administrators who configure and troubleshoot configuration and user requests in Marketing Cloud, including subscriber data management and Setup navigation
Platform App Builder— for those skilled in designing, building, and implementing custom applications
You can also pick up a few Superbadges along the way to indicate extra learning concentrations in topics such as Business Administration Specialist and Security Specialist.
Examples of the concepts you’ll learn during study for the certification exam include:
Managing users, data, and security
Maintaining and customising Sales Cloud and Service Cloud apps
Building reports, dashboards, and workflows
In addition to becoming a LIKE.TG Admin, you can follow other paths of study to help you learn and demonstrate your capability with our platform. You may also want to consider certifications to become a LIKE.TG Architect, Developer, Marketer, Consultant, or Designer.
To become a certified LIKE.TG Administrator, you don’t need any other certifications. However, if you choose to become an Advanced Administrator, you’ll need to start with your Administrator Certificate. The Advanced Administrator exam builds on your LIKE.TG Admin knowledge.
Before scheduling your exam, we recommend that you have at least 6-12 months’ experience using LIKE.TG.
How to prepare for the LIKE.TG Administrator certification exam
Future admins have a few options to prepare for their credentials. To complement the Trailhead courses, Trailhead also has a community of fellow learners; members are known as Trailblazers. You can join the Trailblazer Community to learn together, find answers, and collaborate.
Administrators can also learn from the LIKE.TG Admin YouTube channel with videos that show what the role entails, as well as recorded webinars and educational videos. You can also get tips on how to pass the exam.
There are online and offline resources including blog posts, podcasts, and virtual programming and in-person events that are updated regularly.
Once you’ve gone through the courses and steps on Trailhead to study for the certification, familiarise yourself with the LIKE.TG Certified Administrator Exam Guide.
When you’re ready, it’s time to sign up for the exam. The test can be taken in-person or online. It includes 60 multiple-choice or multiple-select questions and five non-scored questions. Test takers have 105 minutes, or just over an hour and a half, and they must score 65% or higher to pass. There is a fee to take and retake the exam.
After you pass the test, you’re a certified LIKE.TG administrator, and your career opportunities have expanded. But your learning doesn’t stop there. Maintain your certification on a specific schedule to keep your knowledge, skills, and abilities current.
Get the skills you need to make an impact and launch a new career in business and technology. Learn more about kickstarting a LIKE.TG Administrator career.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
This post was updated in October 2022.
You Can Build Customer Trust With Values-Based Marketing – Here’s How
Trust is the connective tissue between a brand and its customers. As marketers, we play a special role in building trusted relationships with our customers. In many ways, we are the face and voice of the brand. Everything we say and do can build or destroy trust. This is why values-based marketing is important.
As customers navigate a rapidly-shifting world, values-based marketing is more crucial than ever. In LIKE.TG’s State of the Connected Customer report, we found that 74% of customers say a brand communicating honestly and transparently is more important now than before the pandemic.
Our research also finds that customers trust companies to act responsibly. Seventy-one percent of customers in Singapore and 83% of customers in Thailand trust companies to act with society’s best interest in mind.
LIKE.TG’s marketing team is now prioritising values along with products. We are communicating what we stand for and the actions we’re taking to live our values. That helps people understand who we fundamentally are as a company and what we’re like as a partner.
With that, here are five wayswe lead with valuesin our marketing. We hope you can find these strategies useful in your own communications as well.
1. We publicly hold ourselves accountable for living our values
You may have seen our high-profile Team Earth campaign featuring Matthew McConaughey. By discussing our values on big stages at LIKE.TG events such as Dreamforce and LIKE.TG Live, we invite others to hold us accountable for truly living our beliefs in trust, equality, and sustainability.
2. We strive to communicate with integrity, authenticity, and transparency
We share our values with the world because we know they are important to our stakeholders. We build trust by being honest, helpful, and relevant, providing information our customers and others need to make the right decisions for their company and community.
3. We practise inclusive marketing
That means our storytelling reflects the diverse communities that we serve. It includes people of all backgrounds, regardless their race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, or religion. We challenge stereotypes and inspire people to be the best they can be.
We use a method called counter-stereotyping that portrays people in roles that challenge prejudices. We want to dispel incorrect perceptions and showcase our belief that anyone can do anything. We keep accessibility top of mind for how our content is consumed, too. For example, all images in our content must meet accessibility standards, which include acceptable colours and fonts, plus alt text for images and closed captioning for videos.
4. We lead with sustainable marketing
Our events marketing team uses QR codes that direct to downloadable schedules and content (instead of handing out paper programs). We give eco-conscious gifts. And recipients must opt in to direct mail (less paper, more digital).
5. We’re building a safe future for consumer data
The technology world is changing at breakneck speed, and while innovation is great, sometimes it’s hard to keep up. That can turn into unfair and even risky situations. We are taking all possible steps to eliminate algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence, and we’re also protecting user privacy.
Our values-based marketing also prepares our community for the industry and technology shifts that are happening now and coming our way. These include privacy changes, thenew era of marketing analytics that focus on consumer privacy, and more. We want our customers and partners to know what steps to take to be successful and safe.
The bottom line is that relationships built on values and trust benefit everyone and lead to progress toward the sustainable and fair world we all want. We can live our highest purpose as marketers by building trust through communicating our values with integrity and building values into everything we do.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
3 Ways to Take Your Permission-Based Selling Strategy to the Next Level
You might have heard of permission-based selling, and it’s possible that you’re already doing it without even knowing. It’s a strategy that eliminates the old stereotype of cold-calling and pushy sales reps. Instead, you engage with prospects who have already made it clear that they want to hear from you. By gaining the permission to sell, you remove obstacles that may have stood in your way if you had used more blunt sales techniques.
The technique is similar to permission-based marketing, where a customer opts in to receiving marketing messages, by subscribing to email newsletters for example. There are many overlaps between the two techniques — permission has to be granted before the selling or marketing activity can take place, and you have to make sure you don’t lose the customer by exploiting that permission.
The benefits of permission-based selling are clear: the prospect is more open to your proposals if they have asked to hear them. Your messages are less likely to be ignored if the recipient wants to read them.
You can gain permission in a number of ways:
Approach a prospect and ask them if they’d be willing to hear your proposal, or they could express interest by contacting you first.
Request permission through your website, in your email signature, and even on your social media profiles. Just be careful that the request for permission isn’t itself too pushy.
So far, so good. But there are ways to improve your chances even further.
1. Don’t forget the human connection
All sales negotiations, even large B2B deals, are ultimately conversations between human beings. Understanding how to make connections on a personal level will improve the quality of your permission-based selling.
No-one likes to be talked ‘at’ — if you can engage your prospect in a two-way conversation, rapport will be built much quicker. In person, these conversations happen naturally, but as we move to a hybrid working environment, you may find it harder to maintain that human connection over video. There are a few things you can do to make it easier:
First, break the ice
Don’t just jump straight to business. Think about what’s important to your customer, how has their career journey been? What about outside of their job? Perhaps it’s their children, or a sports team they follow. Talk for a few minutes about these things, and the rest of the meeting will flow more easily. With experience, you will learn how to maintain the delicate balance between being too business-like and too friendly.
Understand how you appear on screen
We have all got better at meeting over video, but it’s a skill that needs to be practised. Consider putting a note near your camera to remind you to look at the camera when you are speaking — not to the screen. Make sure you have good posture, that you are seated in a well-lit place and that the area behind you is uncluttered.
Maintain your curiosity
Pause often, ask open-ended questions, and make sure to leave room for your prospect to ask their own. Get them to talk to you, rather than dominate the conversation yourself. In the end, a good sales conversation is a bit like a first date, you want them to leave feeling heard!
2. From rapport to permission
Once you’ve developed a rapport with your prospect, you can start building towards permission to sell. Think of it as a chain from rapport to permission:
Rapport > Trust > Credibility > Permission
One way to build trust with your prospect is to not waste their time — a person’s time is the most valuable commodity they have. The best gift you can give a prospect is to end a meeting early — they will remember it and consider you a reliable person.
As trust develops, you will have the opportunity to display your credibility. At this point of the conversation, you should be presenting solutions to your customer’s problems – not selling your products. This is the time when your research shows its value. The more you know about a prospect’s context before you begin, the higher your credibility becomes.
By solving problems, you will become a trusted, credible advisor in the eyes of your prospect, not simply someone trying to sell a product and move on. Naturally, permission to sell follows, and you can make your pitch. The time you spend building rapport helps to establish trust and credibility with your customers. Sales should come easier following that.
3. The power of the referral
If what you’ve read so far has made you think permission-based selling takes time, you’re right. It’s a long game.
There is one way to speed up the process, though. If you can get a referral from a trusted third party, you can gain permission to sell almost instantly.
The secret to getting a referral is to ask for one — it’s as simple as that. Many people won’t think to pick up the phone (or open up Slack) and ask to be referred, but it’s the quickest way.
If you have cultivated a reputation as a reliable person and have ensured that yourbusiness relationshipsare built on mutual trust, then people will gladly help you. Of course, the reverse is also true — if someone asks you to refer them to a customer, and you trust them, it will help everyone if you make the referral.
When someone gives you a referral to a prospect, they are placing their credibility in your hands, so it’s more important than ever that you act with integrity, and do your best to solve the customer’s problems.
More sales insights and advice
For more sales advice from LIKE.TG, Trailblazers and industry experts, download 50 Pro Sales Tips.
What Is a CDP?
The customer data platform (CDP) is one of the fastest-growing categories of marketing technology today. According to the 2020 State of Marketing Report, 86% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their use of CDPs. To understand why, you have to look at some underlying challenges in marketing related to data and personalisation.
What does a customer data platform do?
We live in an era where the customer is in control. Amazon can predict what products we will buy next, Netflix recommends the shows we like with great accuracy, and Grab lets us customise trips right down to the type of vehicle we want to travel in.
Customers want personalised experiences and fast service, and expect companies to have an intimate understanding of their preferences. Delivering seamless experiences is no longer a marketing advantage, but a necessity.
Customers expect the interactions they have on a company’s website to translate to their mobile app experiences and even in-store visits. They want everything updated in real time, so their current needs are being met on every channel. The problem is that, for most companies, those environments operate off of different datasets — even though the customer is the same.
As customers move from channel to channel, they expect their experiences to be consistent and ‘in the moment’. Most customer journeys involve three or more different channels (email, web, and mobile app), and customers tend to move seamlessly and quickly between these channels. Most companies, however, don’t have these data environments connected in real time.
The result is disconnected experiences for consumers and the lack of a single source of customer data for companies.
That’s where a CDP comes in. It combines all of that data in real time for companies, allowing them to offer hyper-personalised experiences for customers.
This is taken a step further by LIKE.TG Data Cloud, the first real-time CRM. It funnels a nearly infinite amount of dynamic data into Customer 360 instantaneously. Now, your data has been turned into real-time customer magic. It is continuously updating with new data from any of your customers touchpoints, faster than ever.
How does a customer data platform work?
The first thing CDPs do is connect all of a company’s customer data in a single place. That means not only stitching together a single customer ID from many different customer interactions, but also tying together databases that traditionally don’t share data, like marketing clouds, service software, and ecommerce engines. We call that customer resolution.
Next, CDPs match the data we have about our customers (like email and mobile numbers) to what we could find out about them (anonymous cookies and mobile device IDs, for example) to get a complete picture of each individual. This way, we can start to associate a journey that started with an email campaign and continued onto the website with the same customer. We think of this as a cross-device identity.
Once the CDP has created unified profiles of customers, the system has to make that data available in real time so companies can deliver personalised experiences. That means connecting customer data to many different types of systems, such as email-send engines, demand-side platforms, and content management systems.
As the amount of consumer data grows, companies must be aware of and respect data privacy concerns. Many consumers are willing to have some of their data used to deliver magical, personalised experiences, but they expect that companies will protect this data and use it ethically. These are the building blocks of a trusting relationship with customers, and companies need to use consumer data in the right ways.
In a nutshell, CDPs are concerned with these primary tasks: data collection, data unification, data activation, and data insights.
What are customer data platforms used for?
So, what do companies use CDPs for? Here are a few examples.
The right ads at the right time
Sometimes the best use of data in marketing isn’t used to better target consumers — but to not target them at all. We’ve all had the experience of being targeted online by ads for things we’ve already bought.
The reason companies have a hard time stopping ads for the sneakers (or car) we have already purchased is disconnected data. A unified profile that connects marketing and purchase data enables marketers to be smarter with their budgets by suppressing consumers that have already made a purchase and redirecting those dollars toward prospective customers, or recommending other products.
Personalisation
A consumer comes to your website, browses a particular product — say, a new red convertible — and leaves. Wouldn’t it be great if you could tie everything you’ve learned about that customer to a personalised offer via email or push notification? For example: “test drive this red convertible today, and get $500 off MSRP!” You can only do that by connecting that consumer’s identity to your marketing engine.
CDPs solve this problem. Customers who see content tailored to their interests (test drive this red convertible today!) are more likely to engage with a brand.
Insights
What drives better marketing? The answer has always been better customer insights, but most analytics systems operate in silos.
Email engagement data is separate from website analytics data, which is separate from display advertising data. Stitching that data together, and tying all of those interactions with the same consumer can take a lot of effort when you are using legacy systems.
What if an outdoor retailer had a customer’s marketing interactions (email and advertising engagement) tied together with their ecommerce data (purchase history) and website interaction data (products viewed multiple times) — and made that information available to a service representative in the call centre?
A bit of data science (customers who purchased this tent online, and opened email promotions for these hiking boots, and spent between $250 and $1000 annually, usually buy this backpack) can reveal the right product recommendations to the call centre agent, who can make a personalised, relevant offer on the spot. This type of personalisation can turn a $15/hour call centre representative into a $100,000 a year salesperson. That’s the power of a CDP.
What is LIKE.TG Genie?
What is LIKE.TG Customer 360?
What Is MuleSoft?
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of theLIKE.TG blog.
AI Is Everywhere — But Are You Building It Responsibly?
Artificial intelligence (AI) touches billions of people daily. It suggests recommended content on your favourite streaming service and helps you avoid traffic while you drive. AI can also help businesses predict how likely someone is to repay a loan or determine the most efficient routes for distributors to ship goods quickly and reliably.
There is no doubt the predictive capabilities brought about by these AI have helped businesses to scale rapidly. With applications in fields from retail services to logistics and personal finance, the global AI industry is projected to reach annual revenue of US$291.5 billion by 2026. In Asia Pacific, the size of the AI market is also growing. It is estimated to be worth around US$450 million by 2025. But for all the good AI has contributed to the world, the technology isn’t perfect. AI algorithms can cause many business and societal pitfalls if not kept in check.
AI is trained on a large amount of data that has been collected over time. If that data collected shows bias, or is not representative of the people the system will impact, it can amplify those biases. For example, the recently launched BlenderBot 3, a conversational AI, perpetuated negative bias by generating unsafe and offensive remarks during a public demo. Research has also shown that many popular open-source benchmark training datasets — ones that many new machine learning models are measured against — are either not valid for the context in which they have been widely reused or contain data that is inaccurate or mislabeled.
Ways to combat bias in AI
As a result, governments around the world have begun drafting and implementing AI regulations. Singapore has a law focused on accountable and responsible development of AI, while Thailand has most AI initiatives embedded within policies and strategies to strengthen the development of AI-related technologies.
Regulation, when well-crafted and appropriately applied, ensures an ethical AI system that is inclusive and unbiased.
In the meantime, business leaders need to pave the way to a more equitable AI infrastructure. Here’s how:
Be transparent
To increase trustworthiness, many regulations require businesses to be transparent about how they trained their AI model (a program trained on a set of data to recognise certain types of patterns), the factors used in the model, its intended and unintended uses, and any known bias. Policymakers usually request this in the form of data sheets or model cards, which act like nutrition labels for AI models. LIKE.TG, for example, publishes its model cards so customers and prospects can learn how the models were trained to make predictions.
Make your AI interpretable
Why does an AI system make the recommendation or prediction it does? You might shrug when AI recommends you watch a new movie, but you’ll definitely want to know how AI weighed the pros and cons of your loan application. Those explanations need to be understood by the person receiving the information — such as a lender or loan officer — who then must decide how to act upon the recommendation an AI system is making.
That said, one study conducted by researchers at IBM Research AI, Cornell University, and Georgia Institute of Technology found that even people well versed in AI systems often over-relied on and misinterpreted the system’s results. Misunderstanding how the AI systems work can result in disastrous consequences in situations that require more human attention. The bottom line? More real-life testing needs to occur with the people using the AI to ensure they understand the explanations.
Keep a human in the loop
Some regulations call for a human to make the final decision about anything with legal or similarly significant effects, such as hiring, loans, school acceptance, and criminal justice recommendations. By requiring human review rather than automating the decision, regulators expect bias and harm to be more easily caught and mitigated.
In some cases, humans may defer to AI recommendations rather than rely on their own judgment. Combine this tendency with the difficulty of grasping the rationale behind an AI decision, humans don’t actually provide that safety mechanism against bias.
That doesn’t mean high-risk, critical decisions should simply be automated. It means we need to ensure that people can interpret AI explanations and are incentivised to flag a decision for bias or harm. For instance, the AI governance framework in Singapore, along with its personal protection data policy, allows AI to make recommendations for decisions with legal impact (for example, a loan approval or rejection) but requires a human to make the final decision. This not only promotes AI adoption, but also builds customer confidence and trust.
How to add ethical AI practices to your business
It’s understandable, then, that some executives may be reluctant to collect sensitive data — age, race, and gender, for example — to begin with. Some worry about inadvertently biasing their models or being unable to properly comply with privacy regulations. However, you cannot achieve fairness through inaction. Companies need to collect this data in order to analyse if there is disparate impact for different subpopulations. This sensitive data can be stored in a separate system where ethicists or auditors can access it for the purpose of bias and fairness analysis.
In a perfect world, AI systems would be built without bias, but this is not a perfect world. While some guardrails can minimise the effects of AI bias on society, no dataset or model can ever be truly bias free. Statistically speaking, bias means “error,” so a bias-free model must make perfect predictions or recommendations every time — and that just isn’t possible.
There is a lot to understand to ensure companies are creating and implementing AI responsibly and in compliance with regulations. This requires business leaders to build ethical AI practices.
Executives can start by hiring a diverse group of experts from many backgrounds in ethics, psychology, ethnography, critical race theory, and computer science. They can build on that by creating a company culture that rewards employees for flagging risks — empowering them to not only ask, “Can we do this?” but also, “Should we do this?” — and by implementing consequences when harms are ignored.
Prepare for the future of AI. Find out how.
DOWNLOAD REPORT
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
M1 Proves Customer and Employee Experience Go Hand-in-Hand
While Singapore’s M1 may have started out as a traditional telco, the experience it provides rivals that of the industry’s digital natives. Innovation is in M1’s DNA and its digital transformation has uplifted service and resulted in an incredible Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60.
LIKE.TG is a partner in M1’s ongoing transformation to become a digital-first telco, and we recently met with Stamford Low, Director, Customer Experience Retail, to learn more about how his team is progressing and the lessons learned along the way. Here are key takeaways showing that exceptional customer experiences start with engaged employees.
Drive adoption with friction-free experiences
M1 operates in a digitally-savvy society, but old habits can be hard to change. For customers to self-serve or purchase a new phone and contract online, the process must be as convenient as dropping into a local store. That’s why M1 continues to streamline its digital journeys and remove any points of friction.
“If we provide frictionless digital journeys, customers won’t have a need to use legacy assisted channels,” said Stamford.
The same logic applies to new tools and processes for employees. M1’s employees have embraced robotic process automation (RPA) and new applications because they can see the value they provide. These technologies eliminate repetitive and mundane tasks, making it easier to serve customers.
“Our employees love the agent and sales consoles in LIKE.TG because of the user experience. Thanks to our agile way of building things, they’ve also been able to provide input into how we cluster and display information on screens,” said Stamford.
Customer experience and productivity are inextricably linked
Call deflection is a common measure of success for service-focused organisations. However, for M1, it is secondary. Its primary goal is to provide a better digital experience.
“The starting point for us is not call deflection or call avoidance because that’s inward-looking. We want to focus on making the customer journey so proactive that there’s no need for the customer to call,” said Stamford. “If we know that there is something wrong with your mobile service, for example, why should we wait for you to call us? We should be reaching out first, either through our app or an outbound call.”
When customers do reach out, M1 wants to ensure an efficient response — whether it is from an agent or the telco’s chatbot Mindy. Einstein Next Best Action and continued enhancements to the agent and sales consoles will help increase the speed of customer service and improve the telco’s already high NPS.
“Our NPS is at a level that makes it difficult to keep improving and we have already harvested all the low-hanging fruit. That’s why we are challenging ourselves and using Einstein Next Best Action to be more proactive,” said Stamford.
The telco also plans to reorganise the information in its agent and sales consoles so that it is more aligned with the customer journey. For example, if a customer calls about a billing dispute, M1 wants to provide agents with everything they need to manage that dispute on a single screen.
“Data shows that first contact resolution (FCR) is the number one driver for transactional NPS. So the best way to improve FCR is to equip employees with the best tools to resolve customer queries,” said Stamford. “I believe that also translates into empowered employees and thus a better employee NPS.”
Transformation is a journey, not a sprint
We asked Stamford for tips on how to manage internal change and shift employee mindsets. He said that digital transformation is a journey. It is important for leaders to be aligned and to provide clear direction on where the journey is headed.
“Digitalisation is sometimes viewed as a threat to certain departments and certain roles. For example, there were concerns within our business that we would go 100% digital and close all our stores. However, management alleviated these concerns by making it clear that’s not our focus right now.”
“Some people still struggle with digital, so to cater to Singapore’s whole population we will still need stores. The question is how do we upskill our store staff and provide them with the knowledge in their tablets to sell in a personalised way,” said Stamford.
Upskilling is an essential element of M1’s transformation and the business has made this as easy and efficient as possible for employees. When processes change, for example, employees only need to learn what’s new rather than sit through training on what they already know. They can also find information on new processes and features in a library of articles built on LIKE.TG Knowledge.
Training time is 50% faster for new sales and service employees. Stamford attributes that partly to how easy the service agent and sales consoles are to use.
Commenting on the broader efficiencies offered by new digital capabilities, Stamford indicated that the need for efficiency and productivity was a given. What’s most important to him, though, is the impact on the customer.
“People always look for efficiency and productivity gains in operations because it leads to cost optimisation. However, I think about efficiency more from the perspective of how it can help us to provide a better customer experience,” said Stamford.
Consumers Are Budget Conscious This Shopping Season — Use Data To Turn Browsing Into Buying
Would you be surprised to learn that companies with a strong retail data strategy grow revenue up to 2.9 times faster than companies without one? Or that 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations — a 7-point rise in just two years? Keep those numbers in mind this shopping season because they could affect your revenue and growth.
Creating personaliszed experiences based on collected customer data, also known as first-party data, is an increasingly critical part of retail data strategy. Despite this, only 32% of retail executives say they can turn profile information, purchase history, and service interactions into tailored experiences that make shoppers feel like VIPs. To stay profitable in this changing market, retailers need to meet the demands of must inspire budget-conscious customers. To do that, they need to prove they understand their customers’ needs and expectations.
Here’s how to acquire and engage customers this shopping season.
Use customer data to personalise every interaction
First-party data helps you tailor offers and messages to your customers’ specific interests. The payoff is huge: 78% of consumers say personalised email and other messages make them more likely to repurchase in the future. However, simply accumulating huge quantities of data isn’t enough. You also need to know what to collect, when to collect it, and how to use it. The challenge is to not drive customers away by asking for everything at once.
To level-up your retail data strategy:
Avoid intrusive demands
During the shopping season, customers’ patience tends to wear thin. Their interest in completing a long customer profile is probably low, so be strategic about what you ask. Focus on data collection that will enable you to follow up with them after the purchase to learn more. Use a multi-pronged approach that balances frequency with relevancy, and stay away from sending mass email and generic communication when possible. The more you know about your customers, the more opportunity you have to tailor your messaging to inspire participation. With a personalised approach, you can collect more valuable information, like product preferences, later as you build trust.
Keep your loyalty program ready for the shopping season
Not only are loyalty programs an effective way to gather zero- and first-party data, its members are often your most valuable customers. But with consumers likely to shop less and from fewer retailers this shopping season, your job is to make sure your members think of you first when they’re making shopping lists. How? By ensuring your loyalty program delivers the best value exchange possible.
While traditional rewards-for-transactions arrangements will remain important as consumers get more budget-conscious, don’t overlook the intrinsic value of the VIP experience. That’s especially important for millennial and Gen Z shoppers who value exclusive access to limited-edition products and experiences nearly two times more than Gen Xers and baby boomers. So, from priority sale access to complimentary gift wrap, ensure your members feel the data-for-rewards exchange is worth the effort.
Connect data across the full customer lifecycle
Busy shoppers don’t have time to waste. They don’t want to repeat themselves on the phone, explain an online promotion to a store associate, or make an extra trip to the post office because they can’t return a purchase in person. The bottom line? Your customers expect you to bridgephysical and digital interactions. By elevating data from sales, service, marketing, and commerce to a shared customer data platform, you’ll gain the 360-degree view you need to ensure every interaction stays personalised, consistent, and on-brand.
Segment audience data to automate relevant communications
Shoppers are inundated with emails, texts, app notifications, and social media advertising. Your retail data strategy needs to stand out from the crowd and capture their attention with intelligent messaging that’s tailored to their specific needs and interests. But how?
By organising your customer data based on shared attributes, you can target the audiences most likely to respond to customiszed messaging. For example, imagine you’ve created a segment of customers in a certain region who are on the waiting list for gaming equipment. You’ve recently restocked that region’s store shelves with popular consoles, headsets, and controllers. Segmentation and automated messaging enable you to alert interested customers that the items they want are back in stock. But even better, you can also send communications to lookalike audiences who have purchased gaming equipment from you in the past — and that’s the kind of personalised experience that drives revenue.
Make online experiences intuitive, wallet-friendly, and fast
To grow margin in a challenging economy, you need to do more than tailor communications to customer preferences. Your retail data strategy needs to capture the attention of your first-time shoppers at the right moments and then make it easy for them to buy.
Use data from existing customers to create:
Intelligent product displays. Offer relevant recommendations on the pages where customers are shopping, like athletic socks alongside sneakers. But don’t display just anything. Deliver a good customer experience by ensuring the products are in stock (or at least available for on-time shopping season delivery).
Money-saving promotional bundles. Budget-conscious shoppers don’t want to waste money or time. Reduce taps to discovery and increase average order volume by combining closely related products into wallet-friendly bundles. For example, offer a treadmill alongside a fitness tracker, workout wear, and hand weights.
Personalised (and fast) checkout. With 71% of traffic coming from mobile devices in the second quarter, it’s never been more important to optimisze commerce experiences for smaller screens. Invite new customers to create a profile with their payment preference and enable “buy it now” on mobile product pages to ensure they can breeze through checkout.
What’s next for your retail data strategy?
A difficult economy and shifting consumer sentiment are creating yet another year of unprecedented challenges in retail. You’ll need to use every tool you have to acquire new customers and keep loyal shoppers coming back for more.
With the right retail data strategy and streamlined digital experiences that address busy shoppers’ needs, you can keep your customers happy from double-digit shopping festivals to Black Friday and beyond.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of theLIKE.TG blog.
Automation and Efficiency Are at the Heart of Customer Service Trends
How is the role of service changing? Findings from the latest State of Service, Fifth Edition report show that customer service has evolved. Instead of a department that handles customer complaints, it is now a cornerstone of any successful organisation.
The last few years have seen a major shift in the way that customers interact with the businesses they buy from. In turn, businesses are changing the way they approach customer service.
Telephone calls and email once dominated customer service interactions. But in recent years, they have dropped in popularity, with channels such as video support and chatbots becoming more widely available.
As more customers are choosing to communicate using more than one channel, service teams’ priorities are changing. New metrics, designed to allow managers to make meaningful change, are now being measured.
This has led to organisations everywhere choosing to automate their processes to improve productivity. Nearly three fifths of service organisations worldwide have some form of automation assisting their customer service teams.
Service managers are starting to measure different metrics
As the saying goes, you should measure what matters most. The State of Service report reveals that service managers around the world are changing what they measure to match business priorities.
Customer satisfaction is still the most popular metric among service teams, but its popularity is dropping. In 2020, 87% of organisations tracked customer satisfaction, but the number decreases to 74% in 2022.
Customer retention, revenue, and average response time have also dropped. In their place, service-level agreement (SLA) performance, first-contact resolution, and cost per contact have become part of service organisations’ reporting.
The biggest increase was in the number of organisations measuring case deflection — a process often achieved through self-service portals or automated processes. Since 2018, the proportion of organisations measuring this metric has grown from 36% to 67%. This goes hand in hand with what we’ve heard from customers. Eighty-three percent of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company, according to the State of the Connected Customer report.
Automation and efficiency go hand in hand
Companies can find it difficult to balance speed and quality in service. Since 2020, the number of service decision makers who say that speed and quality are equally important has dropped by 9%. At the same time, The number of decision makers who say speed is more important has more than doubled.
To increase speed without compromising quality, many companies are turning to automation for answers.
58% of businesses around the world are using automation processes/workflows. The research shows that organisations across the region are ahead of the curve in implementing automation. In Indonesia and Taiwan, 70% of service organisations are using automation processes, and in the Philippines that number is 71% — much higher than the global average.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) — a tool that often powers automation — is also popular across the region. Companies in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan use AI more than the global average. For instance, Fulbright University in Vietnam is using AI to make students’ lives easier. AI may even be able to flag potential problems for students before they occur.
Self-service digital options
Our research also shows that 57% of global customers prefer to engage with companies through digital channels, and 59% prefer self-service for simple questions. More than half of customers have used chatbots, and nearly two-thirds have used a self-service portal.
Insights from the State of Service reveal that the mix of channels that customers like to use is changing. In 2020, 96% of organisations around the world used the telephone for customer service interactions. Now, in 2022, that figure is down to 77%. For ASEAN organisations, that figure goes as low as 74% in Thailand.
The numbers for email have dropped in a similar way. Only 76% of global organisations use email for customer service, compared to 92% in 2020.
In their place, digital channels such as video support, and online communities have become more widely adopted.
The cost savings and efficiency benefits, as well as swift resolutions for customers, mean that automated service through bots is likely to become even more popular in the years to come.
Shared tools make customer service work easier
There is also a greater emphasis on agent experience. As the report states, 85% of decision makers around the world agree that there is a direct link between employee experience and customer experience.
There are several things an organisation can do to improve the experience of their workers. Service organisations around the world have offered flexible schedules, wellness benefits, and improved career progression opportunities, in an attempt to enhance employee experience.
Another way to improve the day-to-day experience of your service teams is to ensure that they have theright tools and resources they need to carry out their tasks efficiently. This becomes especially important when it comes to customer data, so that service teams can provide effective service without having to consult colleagues from other teams.
In the report, teams were asked whether they had access to the same customer relationship management (CRM) tool as other departments in their organisation. Sixty-two percent of organisations around the world reported that they did. Across the region the picture was slightly different. Some countries have fewer organisations sharing the same CRM technology than others:
Percentage of service professionals who say all departments use the same CRM software:
Indonesia: 68%
Malaysia: 58%
Philippines: 65%
Singapore: 49%
Taiwan: 70%
Thailand: 70%
Vietnam: 64%
Shared tools can lead to other benefits too — 95% of organisations that use more than oneCustomer 360 appreport that they see improvements in efficiency and productivity, and 96% say that they have met or exceeded their return on investment (ROI) targets.
Accelerating the Path To Net Zero — What You Can Do
The trail to net zero is a shared journey explains Boon Poh Mok, Director of Government Affairs Public Policy, Southeast Asia Greater China, LIKE.TG. When the public sector, private businesses, and people come together, they can accelerate sustainable outcomes for business and the planet.
Businesses in Asia Pacific are increasingly committing to net zero. By the end of 2021, 86% of companies across the region were already setting net zero targets or intended to do so over the next 12 months.
ASEAN countries in particular are forging ahead on the path to net zero. In March 2021, the Singapore government announced The Singapore Green Plan to advance the nation’s agenda on sustainable development. Committed action is also being taken by other countries in the region — Malaysia is implementing the Green Technology Master Plan 2017-2030 to create a low-carbon and resource efficient economy. Vietnam’s government has issued the country’s National Climate Change Strategy to 2050 to implement its COP26 commitments.
In 2022, LIKE.TG commissioned Access Partnership to prepare the Trail to Net Zero for Singapore report to investigate the sustainability efforts in the nation. The report also provides recommendations to accelerate the path to net zero. While it examines Singapore’s net zero journey, its recommendations are also useful to policymakers and business decision-makers across the ASEAN region. Here are some of the key findings and recommendations:
Sustainability requires a public-private-people approach
Climate change is a global challenge. Being a low-lying city-state, Singapore is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events and rising temperatures. The Singapore Green Plan charts ambitious targets over the next 10 years to enable the nation to achieve its net zero aspirations with committed actions.
Singapore’s climate initiatives focus on lowering emissions through efficient power generation and energy demand, and boosting green spaces. A successful trail to net zero for Singapore will need the public sector, private sector, and people to work together. The public sector has taken the lead by setting the climate policy for achieving net zero. It is also partnering with the private sector in developing and implementing cutting-edge climate technologies. It provides incentives and grants to promote startups and ecopreneurs who build innovative solutions that merge business with positive social impact. It is equally important for the people to take advantage of opportunities to upskill themselves on sustainability initiatives. This can help them appreciate the importance of committed climate action and align their decision making with larger sustainability goals.
The business opportunity in net zero
YouGov surveys commissioned by LIKE.TG found that Singapore businesses strongly support action on climate change. The government’s net zero commitments resonated well in the business community — with 81% of managers supporting Singapore setting net zero emissions target by 2050. When asked whether enough is being done to address climate change, 54% of managers believed the government should be doing more, while 66% believed businesses should do more.
Businesses also had a sound understanding of the potential for growth opportunities in the transition to net zero. Singapore managers were three times more likely to think that achieving a net zero economy by 2050 will result in more jobs than less jobs (39% compared to 13%). The Singapore Green Plan 2030 projects a green economy will create 55,000 new jobs in Singapore over the next 10 years, with at least 4,000 created to date.
Businesses are also more conscious of emissions across their value chain. Almost two-thirds (61%) of Singaporean managers are more likely to purchase products or services from a supplier business with a net zero target.
Technology has an important role to play
On the trail to net zero, it is critical to adopt technologies that help reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency. Technology can open up opportunities for business innovation and growth, while helping to switch to more sustainable solutions. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers many use cases to achieve sustainability outcomes. It is already being used in Singapore to monitor pollution levels and mitigate extreme rainfall events. Other potential uses include smarter decision making for decarbonisation and efficient allocation of renewable energy.
Adoption of cloud computing can also enable businesses to lower their environmental impact, while offering greater flexibility, cost efficiency, speed, and business continuity. A study by SP Global Market Intelligence has shown significant energy savings of 79% from moving business applications and IT workloads to the cloud.
Trail to Net Zero for Singapore reveals that a reduction of one million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be achieved in 2022 by migrating to the cloud. Emissions reductions can be further boosted if cloud operators begin sourcing 100% renewable energy for their operations.
Walking the talk on net zero
While many businesses today talk about sustainability, it is critical to take actions and track progress to build credibility with customers and stakeholders. One of the ways to do this is to have a third party audit of your sustainability initiatives and provide recommended actions to achieve net zero.
Public and private organisations can also adopt a shared digital platform to forecast and track emissions. This can provide a single source of truth to ensure better decision making across an organisation’s operations, including its supply chain.
Sustainability is one of LIKE.TG’s core values, and we continually put it into action. For over a decade now, LIKE.TG has been on a sustainability transformation journey. We are a net zero company, and have achieved net zero emissions across our value chain, and are sourcing 100% renewable energy for our operations. We have funded more than 40 million trees as part of our 100 million trees goal. Our commitment to sustainability transformation has helped inform our Climate Action Plan and forms the basis of the Net Zero Cloud platform to help businesses go carbon neutral faster.
Sustainability is a shared journey. We walk the talk and walk together with businesses on their trail to net zero.
Learn more about Singapore’s sustainability mission in Trail to Net Zero for Singapore
Go carbon-neutral faster with Net Zero Cloud.
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Infographic: 7 Ways to Drive Digitalisation With Low-Code Development
The growing need for rapid digital transformation and the shortage of skilled developers to deploy projects at pace is creating a new phenomenon — an industry-wide demand for cost-efficient low-code development platforms. Low-code platforms can help businesses meet their digital transformation goals and increase speed to market.
Companies not only need to address the urgency of digitising workflows but also increase the efficiency of their sales and operation teams. How? By equipping the average business user with the ability to create the apps needed to work better, without waiting on the IT department. Low-code platforms help you create customer-facing apps as well as internal ones for employees; these highly customisable apps with popular features deliver the ideal user experience.
As companies look to turn more of their employees into citizen developers, more IT leaders and businesses are leveraging the potential of low-code tools. According to Gartner, the use of low-code software development platforms is increasing at a rate of over 20% annually. By 2023, more than 50% of medium-sized to large businesses are expected to implement low-code development platforms.
So why is low-code touted as the future of software development?
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Time is money when it comes to developing apps. A dynamic low-code platform like LIKE.TG can speed up the app-development process, letting you save on cost, time, and effort. With the help of the LIKE.TG suite of low-code tools, users can create apps, monitor and manage changes easily and reimagine business processes with visual workflows and point-and-click tools.
This post originally appeared on the I.N.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
