Most reps I know are motivated by building relationships and bringing real-life solutions to customers, not crunching numbers or drafting emails. Fortunately, generative AI can help take the drudge work off their plates by drafting communications, conducting research, and streamlining sales process tasks. I don’t see it replacing reps any time soon, but AI will certainly affect the way we work in the coming months and years. More details on that below. What is generative AI for sales? Generative AI uses simple prompts to create copy (like prospecting emails) and make recommendations (like suggestions for quick-win deals) that are critical to efficient sales processes. It does this by analysing your existing sales and customer data to help you draft emails, or determine which messages or resources would help advance a sales conversation. All of this will likely be integrated into a CRM, where sales and customer data live. For example, let’s say you’re a rep selling accessories to car buyers, and you’re struggling to hook new prospects with your emails. You probably already use a sales engagement tool to add a personal touch, but maybe it’s not working well. Here’s where generative AI can help: It can streamline email creation by generating copy based on what customers are looking for and which emails have performed well in the past. You simply paste a prompt such as “Write a prospecting email for car accessory buyers” into a chat interface like ChatGPT. The AI system will then review your previous emails, along with industry and customer information, and craft a high-performing email you can use with new prospects. This is just one application. Let’s look at all the ways generative AI will likely affect your day-to-day work. 4 ways generative AI will improve sales We’ll see generative AI for sales used heavily in four key areas over the next year. Sales reps will use it to generate prospecting emails, get real-time guidance during discovery and negotiation, improve presentations in real time, and analyse data. Let’s dig into each use case. 1. Create prospect emails at scale A typical sales rep outreach process looks something like this: Review CRM data to find a qualified lead, head to LinkedIn to research their background and role, spend more time researching their company on Google, and draft a personalised email to catch their attention. Time-consuming, right? With generative AI, you can use text-based prompts to quickly research target companies for information to use in prospecting emails. In the same tool, you can use that information to request a draft of a prospect email. For example, you might enter a prompt like, “Draft an introduction email to my highest-value lead.” Then, you can ask for the best subject lines based on past email performance to increase the chance of an open. 2. Guide effective discovery Establishing trust with a prospect during discovery will always be a deeply human process. But humans aren’t perfect:Sometimes, we miss body language and verbal cues that show a prospect is struggling or has concerns. In an interview, Dan Heffernan, chief growth officer at Dale Carnegie Training, said he believes “empathic AI” will help with this during virtual sales calls. This technology is built into phone or video conferencing tools to analyse prospective clients’ speech patterns, speaking volume, and body movements to gauge mood and recommend ways to steer the conversation in the right direction. Here’s an example. While meeting with a high-value prospect, you start describing a new feature of your product — and the prospect begins fidgeting. Empathic AI tools can notice this and suggest the cause of the prospect’s discomfort, such as the imagined cost of this new feature. Easy to solve: As you continue the conversation, fold in a casual line to allay their fears, like, “This is part of the base price.” 3. Improve sales presentations in real time I’ve spent hours crafting the perfect presentation that will catch and keep clients’ attention. I’m sure you’ve done the same. With generative AI, you can use text-based prompts in presentation tools to create tailored decks and pitches in minutes. This isn’t common now, but with ChatGPT already making waves, it’s only a matter of time. We’re also seeing early versions of real-time coaching: AI-based guidance, integrated into video conferencing tools, can evaluate your live presentation to see if it’s hitting the right pain points for your prospect. Triggered by specific keywords, the AI system can recommend prospect-specific information to ensure you’re delivering the most effective presentation. Instead of just rolling through a standard deck, for example, AI coaching could prompt you to highlight a certain feature the prospect is interested in. It’s so advanced, Heffernan said, “you may even be prompted to go for the close.” 4. Speed up data analysis Sales reps can spend huge parts of their day generating, pulling, and analysing data — and with so much to look at, it’s easy to miss big-win deal opportunities. Generative AI can act like a personal data analyst assistant to uncover patterns and relationships in your CRM data almost instantaneously, pointing you toward high-value deals and deals likely to close. Even better, it adapts to changing deals and customer information in real time, helping you modify your sales approach to what works in the moment. Adapting to an AI world Generative AI for sales has a lot of pros. It can help you write knockout pitches and emails, make the discovery process pop, and analyse a slew of data in seconds. In other words, it’s a tool that can handle the busywork so you can sell more efficiently. I predict it will be an integral part of sales within the year. What generative AI won’t do is replace the human aspect of sales. Sales is inherently about relationships and will continue to rely on a personal touch. As Heffernan put it: With generative AI in the mix, “sales professionals will be freed up to hone knowledge and skills best left to humans — building customer trust, collaborating, and empathising to meet customer’s’ needs.” Get articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now

Prospects — the potential customers you want to sell to — are the fuel for the sales pipeline. Every prospect represents a possible deal. So growing your base of prospects and working to nurture them will grow your revenue. Even though prospecting is important, it may sometimes feel like you’re just wishing and hoping the right people will come. Let’s see how to make prospecting a science instead — less like drilling for oil and more like filling up on gas. What is sales prospecting? Prospects are possible customers, and prospecting is finding possible customers. Sales reps use prospecting to expand the size of their potential customer base. They’ll reach out to leads (potential sales contacts) and nurture them into “opportunities” (leads who have been warmed up over time). There are various sales prospecting techniques, from making calls to sending direct mail, attending networking events, and connecting on social platforms like LinkedIn. The stages of the sales prospecting process The sales process goes from cold leads to warm opportunities to red-hot deals. Prospecting is what happens in between: From leads … Sales and marketing source leads. Leads are unqualified prospects. Leads can come from marketing (think a webinar that requires a form fill) or sales (think cold outreach). … to opportunities … Sales qualifies leads into prospects. Sales gets to know leads and decides whether they’re a good fit for the product. If they are, the lead is “qualified” to become a prospect. Sales nurtures prospects into opportunities. As sales works to make prospects more and more interested in the sale, these prospects become “opportunities” who are more and more likely to buy. … to customers Sales closes opportunities into deals. In the end, after many conversations, there will be two kinds of opportunities: “closed-lost” (boo) or “closed-won” (yay!). How do I find new sales prospects? We could talk about all the different platforms out there, but let’s be real. “When it comes to sourcing prospects online, LinkedIn is the biggest game in town,” says Stephanie Svanfeldt, a strategic account executive at LIKE.TG. Here are tips to get going: 1. Follow the prospect before you connect Unless you’re sending InMail, which is a sponsored message, you’ll need to get connected with prospects before you can message them on LinkedIn. Start by following them. From there, you can begin to comment on, like, and share their status updates and work your way into their world. If they think you’re providing value, they’ll be more likely to respond to a connection request. 2. Find them in groups Joining a group where your prospect is active can give you a shortcut to getting connected. Look for the groups they belong to on their profile and see if there’s one that also makes sense to join. Then you can chime in on the group’s posts. Even if you can’t respond to them directly, they might get email alerts about the best comments left in the group, which is a great way to end up directly in their inbox. 3. Hype them up Everyone wants to go viral. Follow the prospect’s activity and help drum up engagement. This is a great way to show that you’re interested in your prospect’s ideas. You can also look at the information they highlight on their profile — like courses, presentations, and thought leadership — and “endorse” them for skills that matter most to them. How has the sales prospect changed? Prospecting used to be a volume play. Salespeople could make 200 calls a day and send out blasts of emails and know that enough of them would stick to be worth it. Cold outreach is still an important piece of the puzzle, but sales development representatives (SDRs) and sales reps will need to balance broad quantity outreach with targeted quality outreach. Here’s why: The new prospect isn’t waiting by the phone like they used to Prospects are spread out across digital platforms — mainly LinkedIn, but also Twitter, Facebook, and messaging apps — and they have strong opinions about where they like to communicate. The new prospect is flooded with more messages than ever. Our inboxes have never been more crowded. First, in a trend The Economist calls, “It could have been an email,” meetings are getting shorter — by 20%, according to this Harvard Business School study. Conversations that used to happen in meetings are happening in emails instead. Second, that same study shows that more emails are being sent in the pandemic (by 5%) — with more recipients on average (by 3%), and more frequently after hours (by 8%). The question becomes: How can you capture people’s attention as their inboxes overflow? The new prospect wants more out of their interactions. The intense, shared experience of the pandemic has taught us all to go beyond the superficial layer. To get a prospect’s attention now, you have to be authentic and relevant. Get articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now How can I approach this new sales prospect? Account-based marketing made a splash when companies began to personalise marketing campaigns to individual companies. Now this trend of personalisation is coming to sales. Here’s Stephanie Svanfeldt again: “Everyone talks about account-based marketing, but it’s also about account-based sales. We need to study the individual and be relevant when we reach out.” What are the prospect’s preferred channels? How can you stand out from the crowd? How can you find an authentic common ground that gives the relationship traction? Here are the steps to take: Lean on customer relationship management (CRM) Sales prospecting is harder than it used to be, now that we need to be more relevant and personalised with every approach. It takes more time and more care, and it’s harder to scale. We need technology to close the gap. CRM gives you a control room for all your interactions with our prospects — the last email you sent, notes from all of your meetings, and the pitch deck you presented —so all the information you need is at your fingertips. Research your way into their world Research is the groundwork. If it’s a publicly traded company, read their investor reports. If it’s a small or medium business (SMB), then set up Google alerts to learn about their press, and devour everything they put out there about themselves. Insights about opportunities and accounts (at LIKE.TG, we use Opportunity Management) help you bring more value to the table. You’re trying to learn about problems and people, so by the time you reach out, you’re not only saying the right things — you’re also saying them to the right person. Find the channel that sticks Everyone is different. Every approach needs to be different too. Some of us are old school and like to talk on the phone. Some of us live in our inboxes. Some of us really love getting gifts in the mail. How can you find the right channel? The answer is to leave no stone unturned. If the prospect doesn’t pick up the phone, try connecting on LinkedIn. Still no luck? Reach out again and be as relevant as you can. Craft an email that grabs them. Keep working on the interaction until you see a spark. Earn the right to ask them what their favourite communication channel is — and meet them there. How do I qualify a sales prospect? Qualifying a prospect is an important piece of the puzzle, but don’t mistake “qualifying” for “deciding whether someone is important.” Everyone you talk to is important — because if they’re not the right person to talk to, then they can point you to the person who is. Here are questions to help you qualify whether a prospect is a good fit: Is this the right person? Does the prospect match your ideal customer profile? Are they already interested in your product? Can they influence the deal, or even decide to buy it? Is this the right company? Is it in your territory? Is the industry a good fit? What’s the size of their organisation? (Don’t just think of how many employees they have. If you’re selling a subscription or usage-based service, then also think about the size of their consumption.) Is this the right project? Is the department funded to pay your price? Will the project be a priority this year for the company? Will the team be using the product for the right use case — in a way that will create an impact? How can I move sales prospects to the next stage in the sales cycle? Research is important, but you’ll need more than that to take the conversation to the next level. After all, it’s just as easy for prospects to research us as it is for us to research them. We won’t get anywhere with them by repeating the same general information on your company’s website. How can you go deep, and bring them an insight that no one else has? You’ll need to learn their accent — not just their language — and become knowledgeable about their lives at work. That means learning about specific trends in their industries, their companies, and even their lives. Ready to take your very best practices for prospecting, and set them into motion at scale? Sales Cadences lets sales managers set steps for sellers to follow — things like: when to email versus call, what call script to use, and what material to send if they say no. Keep the conversation moving. Don’t just think about closing the deal. Think about closing every step of the deal. It can be easy to get carried away in your excitement to move the conversation along. Here’s how: Obsess over the next step Don’t forget to end every conversation with a question. “Can we connect for five minutes after you’ve taken a look?” “Is there someone on your team I could work with on that?” “If you’re not the right person to ask, can you tell me who is?” Advance but qualify Prospecting is all about marching onward. But don’t over-focus on a deal that won’t be worth the effort. As you move the conversation forward, you need to keep qualifying at the same time. At every stage, ask whether the prospect is still a fit. Qualification also means making sure that they’re ready to move onto the next step. You won’t have all the answers, but someone else will Selling is a team sport. You need to lean on everyone you can to get the information you need. Ask subject matter experts at your company to teach you about a new domain. Reach out to technical and digital advisors to help you map out a solution. Ask marketing for help with a new pitch. You don’t have to do this alone. Head over to Trailhead and learn how to prospect for better sales. You’ll discover why prospecting is important, how to develop a contact strategy, and when it’s best to reach out.

In an uncertain economy, banking customers want clear guidance and familiarity from their financial institution — and they’re not afraid to move their money if they’re not satisfied. Improved customer service in banking should be your focus, as people have grown to expect easy digital services and personalised support from their bank. AI can help you meet those expectations – anytime, anywhere, and on customers’ preferred channels. In the last year, we found that 25% of customers switched banks, and 39% of those who switched did so due to poor customer service. Customers want to feel like their needs come first, and banks that can deliver will come out on top. How can banks offer a more personal touch? This is where AI can help. While you already may use predictive AI in customer churn prediction, ticket routing, credit scoring, and fraud detection, generative AI can help create new content that greatly improves customer service experiences. Banking use cases for generative AI You can prompt generative AI to help create emails, service replies in chat, and knowledge articles that make it easier to offer more relevant and personalised service. The technology understands natural language, so customers can use their own words and language to communicate with chatbots that sound human. Because generative AI can read and understand text, video, and sound, it can identify and summarise action items and insights from conversations, transcripts, and recordings to assist contact centre agents. Generative AI can help you improve and grow your customer service experiences, from no-touch interactions like self-service help with chatbots to high-touch situations like working through complex issues in a branch visit. When using this technology, your top priority should be better serving your customers’ needs in order to meet your fiduciary responsibility. Last month, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States proposed updating rules and regulations requiring wealth management firms to supervise AI technology, such as automated replies produced by generative AI. Future proposed regulations could lie ahead for all of financial services, so banking leaders should proactively think about how to manage the risks associated with using this technology. By combining your trusted customer data with AI, you can transform customer service in banking to improve the customer experience and boost loyalty. AI can help you deliver personalised customer service in banking Our research found 63% of service professionals say generative AI will help them serve their customers faster, saving them over four hours weekly (or nearly one month per year). Drawing from your trusted customer data, generative AI can automatically generate relevant content, such as action summaries and service replies. It helps agents find answers to known questions and issues, surfacing content from your knowledge base articles so they don’t start from scratch with each new caller. This makes your agents more efficient, allowing them to focus on more complicated cases. And it’s not just helpful for service inquiries. AI can look at customer data, preferences, transaction history, and customer service logs to generate new offers, recommend next steps, or provide proactive assistance for customers’ specific questions or issues, regardless of how they communicate. For example, if a customer is getting married and asks about opening a shared account, generative AI can create a suggested reply for an agent that includes details specific to the customer’s finances, while also triggering a followup email to the client with relevant offers for newlyweds. These highly personalised recommendations are possible because AI uses customer data to create content that’s better matched to real-time customer needs, improving customer engagement and loyalty. Make self-service tools easy to use and effective We found 81% of people try to solve a problem themselves with self-service tools like chatbots or how-to articles before seeking support. Self-service options save both customers and banks time and effort, making for quick, in-and-out interactions, but bots can be very impersonal if not set up right. Self-service tools must be easy to use and integrated well with your platform. When customers use these tools for simple banking transactions, you can use that data to better serve them in the future. While you should focus on making these tools intuitive and simple, you also need to make sure these services feel empathetic and personalised, which helps to build trust with your customers. Unfortunately, 59% of consumers say it often feels like they are dealing with separate departments, not one company. And 52% of customers describe most service interactions as fragmented. Customers want their banks to have a holistic view of their relationship, so they can avoid repeating their story or starting at square one when moving across service teams, channels, and departments. AI can significantly improve and scale customer service in banking with better self-service tools that handle more of your customers’ questions. AI-powered self-service enables banks to resolve high volumes of inquiries more efficiently, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs. And using AI alongside the trusted data in your CRM system allows you to quickly analyse customer behaviour patterns to anticipate what they’ll need next. For example, if a customer frequently transfers funds between accounts, the system can provide shortcuts to reach the next step. Or at the start of a session, it could automatically offer a short list of the customer’s most frequent tasks to save time. This helps customers resolve issues and accomplish tasks quickly, providing full access to personalised services, showing them savings opportunities, and proactively recommending services that support their financial wellbeing. Use your data to offer proactive recommendations Banking customers want to feel like you know, remember, and value them. But only 37% of customers say their bank anticipates their needs. That’s concerning, because half of those we surveyed said they would switch banks if service felt impersonal. AI algorithms can help you anticipate customer needs and automate outreach — even before customers turn to you. For example, predictive AI can identify patterns, then alert bank staff to potential customer needs. Maybe it recognises a customer building up their savings account and frequently checking their credit score. This could indicate they are planning to make a purchase that requires lending services. A personal banker then could use generative AI to reach out to the customer with a personalised loan offer tailored to their finances. Similarly, predictive AI can alert your team to event triggers, such as a customer’s fixed deposit reaching maturity. Then generative AI can help you meet that customer at the right moment, generating a package of reinvestment options for their unique circumstances. That’s what people want from customer service in banking. Eventually, AI will make personalised financial planning more accessible for all banking customers, no matter their wealth. By analysing the vast amounts of data you already have, the algorithm can offer personalised recommendations tailored to every customer’s financial goals. This will revolutionise the way financial advice is delivered, making it more accessible and relevant to the broadest range of banking customers. Use AI to take customer service in banking to the next level Despite improving digital services and capabilities, many banks find it difficult to win the loyalty of their customers. Customer service could make the difference, helping the customer feel known and valued by offering empathetic, personalised care.Still, you will need to think about how you’ll supervise AI usage. Choosing the right technology platform is key, and you should look for solutions with built-in compliance and transparency features for protection and control. These might include audit trails for record-keeping, automatic hand-off to humans for decision-making, and transparency in data usage for recommendations. For banks to build trust with their customers, they must get to know them throughout the journey. To do this at scale, AI can help you connect with customers, addressing their needs and showing you care about their needs today and in the future.

“You are caller number 10; please stay on the line.” A few years ago, a phone message like this from a company was a standard part of the customer experience.But today, customers expect more. They expect callback options. They expect to open a chat window on your website, send a text message or a tweet, and get a near-instant reply. They expect that you already know who they are when they call, that you’re aware of their most recent order, and that you understand what they neednext. They don’t want to repeat their information. And they definitely don’t want to wait.Customer expectations for good experiences keep soaring. They don’t just want the right product at the right price — they want the full package. In our annualState of the Connected Customer reportthat surveyed nearly 17,000 global customers, 91% of business buyers and 86% of consumers said the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.As products become less distinguishable by brand and price, a great customer experience has become essential for companies to differentiate themselves. Here are some ideas and strategies for building customer relationships that last.What is customer experience?Customer experience, also called CX, gets thrown around a lot. But how is it defined, and what does it mean?“Customer experience and service have converged,” saidPeter Schwartz, LIKE.TG senior vice president of strategic planning. “It’s more than call centres and successful responses to problems. It is service opportunities in sales, support, and marketing. Delivering great customer experiences now means providing amazing, almost magical service at every opportunity.”For example, think back to the last time you called your cable company, filed an insurance claim, or booked a vacation. When you were finished, how did it feel? Was the overall experience easy and enjoyable? Or headache-inducing? What did you think of the company that provided the experience?What’s the difference between customer service and customer experience?The customer experience is broader and deeper than just the level of service received. Customer experience is the total perception of the company, interaction by interaction, from the first touchpoint to the last. This may include navigating the website, talking to sales reps over the phone, visiting a store, sampling a product or service, and experiencing an onboarding phase after a purchase.The point is that at every one of these moments, customers form judgments about whether a company is living up to their expectations. Is that company making it easy and enjoyable for them to do business with? In other words, customer experience is the sum of all interactions.Why is customer service important?Customer service isn’t just about addressing concerns or fixing issues; it’s about forging relationships, building trust, and creating memorable experiences that your customers will reflect on for all the right reasons. Let’s unpack why investing in premium customer service should be a no-brainer for today’s businesses.Increased brand loyalty thanks to great CXWhen customers feel valued and understood, they’re more likely to stick around. Every other positive experience and interaction they have with your brand reinforces their decision to choose you over competitors. Conversely, a single negative experience can be enough to push them towards competitors. Indeed, one in six shoppers will abandon a purchase after just one bad experience.Prioritising excellent customer service is your ticket to building a loyal customer base. And you’ve no doubt realised for yourself how much easier it is to convince an existing customer to buy from you again than it is to convince a prospective customer to buy from you for the first time. Not only that — increasing customer loyalty (retention) by just 5% has been shown to increase profits by somewhere between 25-95%.Minimised churn through genuine careChurn, or the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity, is a metric no business can afford to overlook. This is the flip side of the brand loyalty argument. Since it’s much more complicated (and more expensive) to win a new customer than keeping an existing one, the churn-reducing impacts of providing great customer service are similarly immense. The difference here is that brand loyalty refers more strongly to customers making repeat or additional purchases. Whereas, churn is more relevant to subscription- and membership-based businesses as it’s more strongly related to people choosing to cancel a service rather than to choosing not to make a repeat purchase. (Note, you can measure a churn rate even if you sell non-consumable products. However, the reasons for churn in those circumstances are harder to determine and attribute. Often, the reason is simply that a customer doesn’t need any other products from you.)Effective customer service acts as a vital buffer against churn by proactively addressing concerns, listening to feedback, and showing customers they’re more than just numbers. We instinctively understand that it’s easier for a customer to choose not to make a purchase in the first place than it is for them to cancel an ongoing subscription or membership. (The former is really easy. The latter takes effort.) But if you thought one in six shoppers abandoning a purchase after a bad experience was bad, this may just make you fall off your seat. A whopping 86% of shoppers will leave a brand altogether after just two bad experiences!Additional sales opportunities with stellar serviceEver heard the phrase ‘people buy from people’? When customers have an emotional connection with a brand, they’re not just more likely to buy but also are more loyal customers and likely to upsell or cross-sell. And they’re also much more likely to share their positive experiences with their friends, relatives, work colleagues, and even just acquaintances. In fact, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people.Delivering top-tier customer service can lead to increased sales opportunities, from repeat business to referrals. When customers love your service, they won’t just come back — they’ll bring friends.Standing out in a saturated marketWith so many options available at the click of a button, what makes a customer choose one brand over another? More often than not, it’s the experience they anticipate or have received. In a market teeming with similar products and services, standout customer service can be the difference between being a customer’s first choice or a forgotten brand. And 81% of businesses believe the experience they give their customers differentiates them from their competitors.Ability to charge higher pricesImpressive though the above CX benefits are, there’s one amazingly direct benefit that makes investing in superior customer experience and service even easier to justify. Customers will pay for a better customer experience. And we’re not talking about a minority here. An overwhelming majority (86%) of shoppers are willing to pay a premium for great customer service.How to create good customer experiencesCustomers have always wanted a consistently good buying experience and the best value they can get. If they’re not happy buying expensive razor blades, they can sign up for inexpensive monthly delivery. If they’re fed up with mediocre hotel chains that don’t offer value, why not try Airbnb?Technological advances have led to disruption across every industry. Customers have more choice and great freedom to take their business elsewhere if they’re not receiving the experience they expect.In fact,71% of consumersswitched brands at least once in the past year.And, social media and review websites likeTripadvisorandYelpgive consumers an unprecedented platform — for better or worse — to amplify poor experiences to a much wider audience.Together, these factors give consumers an upper hand dealing with companies. And service with a smile is no longer enough.Customer experience isn’t a new concept, but it’s never been more relevant. According toour State of the Connected Customer report, 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services — the highest it’s been since LIKE.TG began tracking the sentiment.Customer service teams aren’t the only ones responsible. Once mainly concerned with driving new leads,80% of marketersnow feel they lead customer experience initiatives across their organisation.The good news? Customers are willing to pay a premium for great experiences, and not just great products and services. This means businesses have an opportunity to increase revenue by delighting their customers in a way that no one else can.How to measure customer experienceOffering top-notch customer experience is vital for businesses today. But how do you know you’re delivering what your customers want? The key is to measure and evaluate your activities using not just one, but several methods. Here are some top techniques to get you started.Analyse customer satisfaction survey resultsSurveys are a direct line to your customers’ thoughts and feelings. When you send out a well-crafted survey, you’re essentially asking your customers, ‘How’d we do?’, and their responses can provide a wealth of information.Look for patterns in the feedback. If multiple customers mention a specific aspect of your service that they loved, you know you’re onto a winner. Conversely, if there’s consistent feedback about areas of improvement, it’s a sign there’s work to be done.Not everyone will respond to your survey request. Those that do will tend to have a reason to respond. Either something’s been bugging them, and a survey is a chance for them to air their feelings. Or they’re thrilled with their user experience along with you, and so they’re happy to help you out. People in the middle tend not to bother filling in surveys unless there’s an incentive. Either way, keep your surveys concise and focused to get the most meaningful results.Identify the rate of, and reasons for, customer churnCustomer churn, or the rate at which customers stop doing business with you, can be a telling metric. However, a high churn rate might indicate dissatisfaction with your customer service, or it could result from dissatisfaction with your products or services. Therefore, it’s essential to know your churn rate and understand the reasons behind it.As an example, if you sell infant nappies (diapers), customers will churn when their children are toilet trained, no matter how wonderful your products and customer service are. However, if your churn rate suddenly spikes, you can be pretty sure there’s some other factor at play.Exit surveys can help you gain insights into why customers are leaving. Maybe it’s pricing, maybe it’s a competitor’s new offering, maybe they had a bad experience with one of your customer support team or people, or perhaps it’s something about the product itself. Pinpointing the reason for churn can guide your strategies for reducing it in the future.Ask customers for product or feature requestsSurveys of any kind are always going to give you information, mostly from people who are either really happy or dissatisfied. Suppose you don’t want to experience the disadvantages associated with incentivising survey responses. In that case, one clever way to get feedback from people in the middle of the spectrum is to allow them to submit product, service, or feature requests.It’s simple but effective: ask your customers what they want, and they’ll tell you if anything is missing from your offering. By actively seeking feedback from unhappy customers on potential new products or features, you can ensure you’re meeting (and even exceeding) their expectations. If you notice certain requests popping up repeatedly, it clearly indicates a market demand. Delivering on these requests can enhance the customer experience and foster loyalty, as customers feel heard and valued.Analyse customer support ticket trendsA treasure trove of information can be found in customer support tickets. Examining the trends and recurring issues in these tickets gives you a clearer picture of where customers might be stumbling. Is there a particular stage in the buying process that causes confusion? Or maybe a product feature that’s not intuitive? Keeping a close eye on these tickets can provide actionable insights to smooth out any wrinkles in the customer’s perspective journey.What is customer experience management?Measuring customer satisfaction score and experience and analysing the effectiveness of your CX strategies are both important parts of customer experience management (CXM or CEM). CXM isn’t a new concept, but it’s not particularly well known. However, as shoppers demand ever-increasing levels of customer service, customer experience management is also increasing in popularity.At its core, customer experience management is about ensuring customer interactions lead to positive and memorable experiences. It’s the practice of designing, understanding, and optimising every interaction and touchpoint in a customer’s journey to foster satisfaction and loyalty. It’s not just about mitigating negative experiences, but actively creating positive ones.In a world where consumers have endless choices at their fingertips, a single, poor customer experience frequently leads customers to explore competing options. Conversely, a consistently good experience can turn a one-time buyer into a lifelong advocate. Add the power of online reviews and social media into the mix, and such advocates can influence countless potential customers. This interconnected landscape makes CXM crucial for modern businesses.The components of effective CXMCustomer service management is a whole topic unto itself; however, these are the basic pieces of the puzzle:Listening to your customers: This sounds obvious, but it’s more than just hearing words. It’s about understanding the sentiments behind the feedback, be it through surveys, reviews, or direct communications.Analysing data: With technological advancements, we’re swimming in data. But raw data isn’t helpful on its own. Effective CXM involves diving deep into this data to glean actionable insights about customer preferences, behaviours, and pain points.Engagement and personalisation: Today’s customers don’t just want products; they want experiences tailored to their unique needs and preferences. Using tools like customer relationship management (CRM) software can help businesses offer personalised recommendations, content, and interactions.Continuous improvement: The world isn’t static, and neither are customer expectations. CXM isn’t a one-off task but an ongoing effort, so it’s important to regularly revisit and refine strategies based on new insights and feedback.As you can see, customer experience management is more than just a buzzword. It’s a comprehensive approach to understanding, engaging with, and delighting customers at every step of their journey. In a world where customer-centricity is the name of the game, businesses can’t afford to overlook the power of effective CXM. If you’d like to kick-start your CXM efforts, check out our guide to improving customer experience management.Why customer relationships matterIf a friend ignores a call, text, or email, it probably doesn’t bode well for the relationship. As with friendships, customer relationships bloom when individuals feel understood. Relationships weaken when customers feel that businesses don’t appreciate their personal preferences, whether that’s remembering they enjoy romantic comedies, or that they would rather be contacted by email.Lack of trust can also derail a customer’s experience before it even starts. While customer data is an essential part of delivering personalised experiences, customers need to know that if they hand their data over, it will be safe, used legitimately, and beneficial to them.Asquestionable business practicesmake headlines, customers grow ever more selective about the brands they trust. Nearlytwo-thirds (64%)say most companies aren’t transparent about how they use personal information at a time when trust comes at a premium: 74% of customers say communicating honestly and transparently is more important now than before the pandemic. Businesses that clearly articulate how they use their customers’ data can gain and keep their trust.How can companies better know and connect to their customers and build more trust? Listen to Seth Godin, marketing guru and founding editor of The Carbon Almanac, and Brian Solis, vice president of Global Innovation at LIKE.TG, discuss.window.addEventListener("message", function(message){ // Ensure event is coming from Casted if(message.origin === "https://podcasts.LIKE.TG" ) { if( message.data.event) { // Handle events if(message.data.event === "castedSizeUpdate") { var casted_episode_player = document.getElementById('casted-episode-player-a88e5233'); if(casted_episode_player) { casted_episode_player.height = message.data.payload.height; } } } } }, false)A company’s trustworthiness also represents its values. Increasingly, customers consider what a company stands for when deciding whether or not to buy from it. According to theState of the Connected Customer report, 66% of customers stopped buying from a company whose values didn’t align with theirs — up from 62% in 2020.How do you create a good customer experience?One challenge for companies trying to get this right is that customer expectations keep soaring. Increasingly, customers want experiences that are connected, memorable, and differentiated. We’ll talk through examples of each.;Our research showsthat 85% of customers now expect consistent interactions across departments when they engage with a company. For example, in a customer’s mind, a service agent should know the details of any recent ecommerce transaction they made, and engage accordingly. Not doing so risks losing customer trust:55% of customerslose trust in companies when there’s a lack of consistency across touchpoints.U.S. Bankconnects all of its employees with a single, unified database of customer information. The solution also allows the bank to turn raw data into high-value insights, which can be used to drive decision-making, and personalise its financial offerings for customers.Customer relationships had previously been built within individual business units such as banking, mortgages, investments, and payments. This led to a disjointed and often unsatisfactory customer experience. By approaching customer relationships as a single business, employees now have an aligned and complete view of their customers’ interactions with the entire organisation. This creates a unified customer experience across all business lines and strengthens relationships with customers.Customers now have an easier time accessing financial services across all channels, including mobile devices, personal computers, ATMs, and 3,000 branches across 25 states.A customer experience strategy builds relationshipsIt’s not enough for businesses to provide a personalised customer experience. They need to stand out from other companiessetting a high bar. And they need to organise around the customer. While research from more than a thousand global senior leaders ina study from Harvard Business Review Analytic Servicesfound that customer experience is a top-five business priority, few feel they’re presently doing it well.One European brand seeing results isBrunello Cucinelli, which quadrupled its ecommerce revenue after it adopted its customer experience strategy, culture, and solutions. The high-end clothing brand found maintaining its personal touch challenging for digital shoppers. It needed to bring the personalised experiences it was known for in its stores to online commerce.The company’s solution was to implement what its leaders have dubbed “graceful technology.” This centralised system builds stronger, more personal relationships with customers. Featuring easily accessible customer order histories and automated workflows, the system helps store managers expedite online customer service needs. Employees can spend more time building relationships with shoppers. Customers can receive in-store service regardless of where they connect.Brunello Cucinelli has successfully translated the luxury experience to the digital realm. And in the process, set new customer experience standards for the mass market.The benefits of long-term customer relationshipsCustomers want businesses to treat them like individuals. They want tailored engagement based on their unique needs. While niche brands were the first to offer differentiated customer experiences, this is now the expectation people have of mass-market companies as well.TakePiedmont Healthcare, for example. With the U.S. healthcare industry shifting to a value-based model, the healthcare provider was under pressure to improve patient outcomes and meet growing patient expectations with more personalised medicine. Piedmont Healthcare realised it needed to embrace technology to help it engage with patients and assist them to get easier access to care. They needed to personalise how the company connects with them.The organisation’s solution was to implement an integrated cloud-based system to capture patients’ information and create comprehensive patient profiles. It gives the company better insight into its relationships with both patients and physicians. They can use data-driven information to create high-quality, personalised marketing communications for both groups. Sales staff can also use the system to deliver personalised messages to physicians at scale, track engagement, nurture leads, and follow up with greater speed.How to make an amazing customer experienceWith success stories such as these making the market acutely aware of what’s possible,56% of customers expectoffers to always be personalised. LIKE.TG’s Peter Schwartz believes businesses will eventually use artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve a better customer experience. He wrote that it can turn a “comprehensive trove of datainto insights that can anticipate customers’ needs and act as their digital assistant.”He uses the example of a frequent business traveler. They walk into a hotel room to be greeted by their favourite song playing, photos of their family in digital frames, and an email asking if they’d like the Caesar salad, without croutons, they last ordered from room service. The temperature and lighting are set to their preferred levels. And when they turn on the television, it suggests a movie they’ve yet to see, starring their favourite actress. A rental car of the model they’re considering buying is available at the hotel.“This isn’t marketing to a category of consumers,” Schwartz said. “It’s applying AI and all the customer data to cater to the needs of a single individual, which is much more powerful.”Glen Hartman, global lead of commerce and ecosystems partners atAccenture Song,has also describedthe potential for unprecedented levels of customer immersion. “Say you usually do your grocery shopping on a Saturday morning. You use the store’s app, you belong to its loyalty program, and perhaps you’ve even attended a do-it-yourself cooking class there. So, they know you well,” he said in an interview.“When you walk in the door, the store knows you’re there through location technology. Delivering a real-time personalised experience in this context could mean the store suggesting a recipe based on your shopping list you created using the store app.“They could even show you a video of what the recipe looks like, right on your phone. Then they might upsell you on some other things to have a great dinner that night. That’s a successful shopping trip.”Hartman stresses that people also expect the brands they love to understand their wants and needs in context. Otherwise, it’s easy to miss the point and end up alienating customers. As he pointed out, if that same customer came back with the goal of quickly picking up some medicine for a sick child, for instance, and was offered all kinds of coupons and additional ingredient suggestions, their experience would clearly be less than optimal.How to improve customer experienceShelves of books are devoted to answering this question. However, the advice can be distilled to two pieces of wisdom:Give your business a customer-first mindset.Put the customer at the heart of your business — from marketing to point-of-sale procedures and after-sales follow-ups. Make customer obsession principles part of executive conversations and business planning during pipeline reviews, inside shareholder meetings, and throughout business development. Ask what their needs are, what’s driving their decision-making, what their goals are, and what they’re feeling.Get started with automation and AI.Get clear on the specific business problems you want automation and AI to solve.Once you’ve defined a specific use case, consider how existing workflows would be impacted and who would need to be reskilled.Customers are open to companies using AI to improve the experience they receive, includingchatbots, text and voice analytics, and more. In fact,AI adoption is surgingfrom service teams and beyond.Connected customersare knowledgeable and technology-aware — and they have limited patience for brands that can’t keep up. Delivering outstanding experiences isn’t a luxury; it’s an expectation. And those that do it well will be rewarded with customer loyalty and repeat business.

In a world where the simple act of a returned voicemail was once considered the hallmark of exemplary customer service, it’s fascinating to see just how much the landscape has evolved, especially over the past decade. Gone are the days of basic, one-size-fits-all service. Now, it’s all about customised, quick responses. Businesses nowadays are no longer in a race to be good; they’re in a race to be the best. The quandary that emerges from this transformation, then, is defining what exactly constitutes exceptional customer service in today’s fast-paced, customer-centric world. To shed light on the subject we’ve delved deep into the heart of recent research, analysing insights from two major global surveys: the “State of Service”, which includes data from over 3,500 service professionals worldwide, and the “State of the Connected Customer” which brings together viewpoints from over 6,700 customers, blending both consumer and business buyer perspectives. Our goal is to present a detailed interpretation of their findings, providing definitive answers to these important questions: What is good customer service today? How do we measure customer service experiences? How can businesses provide a service that surpasses customer expectations? The definition of good customer service and how it’s evolved Customer service isn’t just about the person behind the counter anymore; it’s the sum of interactions a customer has with your company. Today, every touchpoint matters, from the initial contact, through the definitive sale, and even beyond. Each of these elements collectively addresses the pivotal question, ‘What is good customer service?’. Technology advancements have forever altered the customer service landscape. Gone are the days when checking an order status required a lengthy phone call. There is no doubt that technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution has made customer expectations higher than ever before. What’s not quite as easy is actually delivering customer service that lives up to these very high standards. Today’s Generation Z and the Alpha generation assume they can get that information just by speaking into a device. In fact, 67% of customers admit that their standards for a good customer experience are higher than ever before according to a study by LIKE.TG. So, what does it mean to offer great customer service in this fast-paced, tech-driven age? Today, good customer service entails: Personalised interactions A seamlessly connected experience Speedy responses (“real-time” or “always on”) Proactive solutions that address potential issues before they surface Let’s unravel these elements one by one. Being connected and personalisation: the pillars of customer service We’ve all been trapped in the maze of customer service phone lines, haven’t we?The frustration of having to repeat our problems multiple times is a universal pain point. Customers don’t see your business departments as separate entities; they view your business as one cohesive unit. Hence, their impatience when your service team doesn’t have access to your sales or marketing teams’ databases. LIKE.TG showed that 70% of customers emphasise that connected processes are crucial to winning their business, and an equal percentage say service agents’ awareness of sales interactions is essential for retaining their business. It becomes evident that when striving to cultivate customer loyalty and maintain client relationships, the significance of establishing personalised connections through service interactions cannot be overlooked. What’s more, customers expect uniquely personalised interactions.And the demand for personalisation isn’t limited to consumers; 72% of business buyers also expect sellers to tailor engagement to their unique needs. Everything from social media to live chat options, chatbots, and AI have become essential parts of customer service.Companies that master these technologies not only stand out but also set a new bar for customer service in their respective industries. That said, if customer service representatives lack the autonomy to resolve problems themselves, customers can be left feeling unimportant and overlooked. This issue resonates with 26% of consumers who’ve experienced being transferred from agent to agent without a solution! How much does real-time service really matter? The customer’s adage has evolved from “the customer is always right” to “the customer is always right now”. Our research reveals that one of the most highly valued service factors is “real-time messaging when I need service.”64% of consumers said they expect companies to respond and interact with them in real time. In our connected world, good service equates to always-on customer service. Customers also appreciate self-service tools like FAQs or account portals, which allow them to find immediate solutions. In this era of constant connectivity, real-time messaging and self-service capabilities are considered the fast track to resolution. Now, what does personalisation look like in the practical sense? Imagine logging onto a website and seeing recommendations tailored specifically to your past purchases or preferences.Or consider reaching out to a customer service representative who already knows your purchase history, sparing you the need to explain. Industry giants like Amazon have built their success on such personalised customer interactions. Harnessing the power of customer data and smart algorithms, they’ve elevated personalisation to an art form. Real-time responses and personalised interactions are no longer luxuries but prerequisites for effective customer service.There is little doubt that by offering these features, bolstered by self-service capabilities, you can significantly enhance customer satisfaction. The secret sauce to exceptional customer service: customer service channels Interestingly, there is a considerable gap between how businesses and customers utilise customer service channels. Did you know that the average customer uses 10 different channels to communicate with companies, ranging from phone calls to voice-activated personal assistants? With a considerable gap between how businesses and customers utilise customer service channels, customer service teams are in a race to keep up.While businesses are mostly aligned with customer expectations around more established channels like email, to provide good customer service means it is essential to look beyond traditional customer touchpoints. An astonishing 66% of service professionals have witnessed a significant surge in volume via digital channels, however there are still big gaps in the adoption of channels like mobile apps and voice-activated assistants. While conventional channels like phone and email remain vital, customer service is witnessing a digital revolution. SMS-based text, Social Media applications like Instagram and Twitter, and messenger apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are already used by a majority of service teams. In the near future, we anticipate growth in mobile chat and video support. In fact, the use of voice-activated personal assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, in customer service is expected to grow by an impressive 152%. This digital shift has led 80% of service decision-makers to admit that emerging technology is transforming customers’ expectations of their service organisation. But even ensuring customer service availability across all channels might not suffice.Why?Because as well as multiple service channels, you need to deliver proactive service. Proactive service is the new norm Customers increasingly associate good customer service with proactive services, like receiving notifications about a delayed shipment before the expected delivery window. A previous LIKE.TG study indicated that 59% of customers expect companies to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions before they even contact them. Looking to the future, customer service is likely to continue evolving, shaped by advances in technology. From virtual reality that could offer immersive customer support experiences, to blockchain technology that promises secure and transparent customer transactions, the possibilities are truly exciting. Forward-thinking businesses are already exploring these technologies to stay ahead of the curve and exceed customer expectations. More than half (56%) of service organisations are exploring AI technologies that could automate tasks typically requiring human interaction, potentially freeing up customer service reps for higher-value tasks. Proactive service doesn’t just solve problems; it builds trust and loyalty. When a company takes the initiative to address an issue before it escalates, it shows customers that they are valued and that their satisfaction is a priority. Internet service providers like Comcast, for example, often reach out to customers proactively if they detect an issue with their service. When resolving issues before they affect the customer, they not only prevent dissatisfaction but also strengthen the customer relationship. The importance of assessing customer service experiences Customer service metrics have evolved, just like the service itself. Once viewed as a necessary expense, customer service is now seen as a key driver of revenue and customer loyalty. Top-performing companies are redefining and measuring success in new ways. For instance, classic KPIs like case volume and average handle time are still relevant but are increasingly being tracked alongside newer performance measures that account for the broader customer experience. The top-tracked metrics for customer service teams include customer satisfaction (net promoter score, CSAT, etc.), employee experience, and average handle time (AHT). So, what does proactive service look like? Consider a streaming service that suggests shows based on your viewing history, or a shopping website that warns you when items in your wish list are about to go out of stock. Simply by anticipating customer needs and acting accordingly, these businesses not only enhance the customer experience but also cultivate customer loyalty. The power of effective communication and empathy Communication is more than just exchanging information. It’s about understanding the emotion and intentions behind the information.Effective communication involves active listening, clarity, and empathy, all of which are key to satisfying customers. In the modern era, customer service metrics have become more sophisticated. They not only include traditional metrics like response time and resolution rate but also track customer emotion, sentiment analysis, and customer effort score.These metrics provide a deeper understanding of the customer experience, helping businesses to optimise their service accordingly. For instance, the airline industry might prioritise on-time departures, while a call centre might focus on first-call resolution. Empathy can make a real difference in customer service interactions. By truly understanding and sharing the feelings of another, customer service agents can build trust, diffuse tense situations, and create a loyal customer base. But how do we cultivate empathy in a customer service setting? The role of training and empowerment Training customer service representatives to effectively address customer needs is vital. In addition, empowering them with the right resources and autonomy to solve customer issues independently can significantly enhance the customer experience. Empowerment begins with training service agents to truly listen to customers, to understand their feelings and respond in a way that demonstrates this understanding.This could involve role play exercises, active listening workshops, or even mindfulness training. Customers are becoming more demanding, and businesses must adapt or risk losing customers to competitors.Companies like Apple recognise the importance of delivering exceptional customer service, and have become well-known for training their agents to deliver empathetic customer service, encouraging them to go the extra mile to make customers feel heard and valued. The pivotal role of AI in customer service The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed the way customer service functions, with a 143% projected growth rate of AI use in service organisations over the next 18 months. High-performing service teams are 3.2 times more likely than underperformers to have a defined AI strategy, showing that AI is becoming a vital component of a high-performing customer service strategy. Looking ahead, 82% of service decision-makers say their company’s customer service must transform to stay competitive. As customer expectations continue to evolve, companies that place a high priority on customer service and adapt to new technologies will likely lead the way in customer satisfaction and retention. Other tips to improve customer service While effective communication, empathy, and AI integration play crucial roles in delivering high-quality customer service, there are other strategic steps that can be leveraged to elevate the customer experience. In this section, we’ll dive into additional key strategies and practical tips to enhance your customer service, further fostering trust and loyalty amongst your clientele. 1. Customer service is like a clear lake: transparent and inviting Imagine your customer navigating your online shop. Can they understand why that sitewide sale isn’t reflected in their cart? Do delivery times and return policies shine bright, clear, and accessible? How about the information on discounts? Are they a treasure hunt, or easy to stumble upon? If any of these answers come up in the negative, we might be faltering in customer service, letting potential sales slip through our fingers. In a study by Forrester, almost half of online customers—45%, to be exact—said they would abandon a transaction if their questions remain unanswered! That’s why in customer service, it’s always wise to err on the side of too much information rather than too little. An FAQ page is so important to have, but remember that the best e-commerce businesses guide their customers every step of the way, hiding nothing that could be of use. Physical stores operate differently. Here, clear signage and open communication are key to exceptional service. Avoid situations where your customers make wrong assumptions. If certain items are non-returnable, make it clear before they hit the checkout counter. Remember, no one likes to squint at the fine print—keep it clear, keep it transparent, and both you and your customers will steer clear of unwanted surprises. 2. Extend a helping hand to your digital diners In this e-commerce age, many businesses expect online shoppers to be self-reliant. While it’s true that customers have become more independent, not everyone is a tech wizard, and even those who are may sometimes want a little hand-holding. eConsultancy showed that a whopping 83% of online shoppers need some customer support. Whether it’s a conversation with an agent, in-person or online, or a slower-paced email exchange for less urgent queries, many customers crave human interaction to save time and ensure smooth transactions. To prevent an ocean of abandoned shopping carts, make sure you meet your customers halfway. Live chat can be a lifesaver, known to significantly reduce abandonment rates. But if that’s out of reach, ensure your customers can easily find email support and a 24/7 toll-free number on every page of your site. Make it simple for your customer to find quick answers. If they feel lost, they might abandon their cart, whether out of frustration or lack of time. Remember, the easier you make it for them to reach out, the higher the chance of completing a sale. 3. Trust: the magic ingredient for customer loyalty Does your company pick up the phone before the first ring has ended? Is it honest with all important purchasing information, offering personalised experiences when customers need them? If so, congratulations! You’re weaving the magic ingredient into your business: trust. Sure, your product or service might bring customers to your door, maybe even twice. But the secret to having them come back over and over again lies in trust. If customers believe they’ll have a good, hassle-free experience with you, that trust will blossom into invaluable loyalty. In a nutshell, if you can offer customers what they want when they expect it, the bond of trust between your company and your customer will grow into loyalty that’s hard to break. Harmonising service and trust: a symphony of customer loyalty Let’s recap. Placing your customer at the heart of all your business operations and earnestly working towards enhancing their experience essentially encapsulates the concept of “What is good customer service?” Exceptional customer service is all about being proactive, consistent, accessible, personalised, and empathetic.It’s about valuing your customers and putting them at the heart of your business. It’s also important to remember that these qualities aren’t just abstract ideas. They are critical business strategies that can and should be measured, evaluated, and improved upon continually. Customer service was once a 9-5 affair, but today, customers demand round-the-clock service. Companies that can deliver this level of service will see significant improvements in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Remember, you’re not just providing a service or selling a product, you’re also delivering an experience. A delightful, memorable experience that leaves your customers eager to come back for more. It’s about embracing technology but never forgetting the importance of human connection. It’s about putting your customer at the heart of your business and doing everything in your power to make their experience with you fantastic. If you can provide the customers with what they’re looking for, when they need and expect it, then that trust built between your company and the customer will evolve into invaluable customer loyalty. And you don’t have to do it all alone!Your team is your most valuable asset. Train them, empower them, and make them part of your customer service journey. Together, you can create a customer service experience that’s not just good, but exceptional. Remember, every interaction you have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. Your business’s success depends on it.

Dreamforce is the crown jewel of the LIKE.TG event universe —and it was epic. From amazing keynote sessions to demos showcasing the tools to solve your biggest challenges, Dreamforce had something for everyone (including the very best swag!). But are you ready for the understatement of the year? That’s right – AI pretty much stole the show. From generating hyper-relevant sales emails to prospects to anticipating a customer service issue with a VIP, AI is here to serve and support every aspect of the business.Here’s the thing: it’s IT that enables everyone else to leverage AI.As an IT leader, you’re already feeling the pressure to pivot to an AI-led approach across your organization. But you’re faced with the harsh reality of connecting and harmonizing your data while adhering to security and data governance standards? How can you build AI-powered applications that you can trust? And how can you do it now? AI for IT: 3 launches you can use Let’s take a look at how these new AI launches, all announced at Dreamforce 2023, are helping IT teams get more done – and how you can, too! 1. Unlock the full power of your data According to our latest State of IT report, 86% of IT decision-makers worldwide believe that generative AI will play a significant role in their organizations in the near future.However, the average organization reported more than 1000 distinct applications used across the enterprise. Scarier still, fewer than a third of these apps are integrated. This is a problem when AI depends on accurate, unified data to deliver critical insights and predictions. In MuleSoft’s 2023 Connectivity Benchmark Report, enterprise IT leaders estimated spending an average of $4.7 million per year on custom integration efforts. That’s an increase of 31% from their 2022 estimate of $3.6 million. With this in mind, it’s critical to have the right tools and development environments at the ready to implement and build the experiences customers expect. All of this with security and powerful generative AI capabilities built right in. One way to get connected quickly is with MuleSoft, loaded with new generative AI capabilities to make integration faster than ever before. Connect to any data or system, wherever it resides, with security and governance built in. The MuleSoft Accelerator for Data Cloud can help you unlock and connect to critical industry systems quickly and securely. Once unlocked, your teams can finally harmonize with existing data sources through the power of LIKE.TG Data Cloud. This enables you to get a unified view of every customer so that you can deliver the right experiences at the right time every time.Harmonizing data quickly? That’s music to our ears. Get IT articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now 2. Put your data to work If your teams have tackled the data unification challenge — bravo! After all, it’s these integration challenges that slow down digital transformation initiatives for 80% of IT teams. But it’s actually garnering insights and getting recommendations from AI that IT leaders are being pressured to deliver. With unified data in place, how can we start to see the benefits of AI? Well, IT teams can make the building of apps and automations a bit easier with Prompt Builder.Because every generative AI-powered CRM app depends on the quality of the AI prompt, it’s useful to get a boost with the provided prompt templates. These templates guide IT teams in building AI prompts that will root the AI in specific data and instructions —making it possible for the AI to deliver better suggestions more quickly. This low-code prompt management tool allows IT teams to build, test, and fine-tune trusted AI prompts within the Einstein Trust Layer. Any sensitive data is automatically masked to limit bias and toxicity. With this tool, IT teams can leverage AI to build everything from auto-generated emails to product descriptions for websites. This means freeing up time to focus on deeper, more sophisticated IT challenges. Low-code. Painless. That’s how AI should be. 3. Deploy safely and quickly With a tremendous amount of pressure to consistently deliver new solutions, IT leaders must balance speed and delivery with security.We know all too well what can happen when an organization skirts security concerns to increase deployment speed. According to our recent State of the Connected Customer Report, the average cost of not complying with data protection regulations is $14.8 million. That’s a lot, and we want to work toward avoiding any data breaches.One thing AI can help with is mitigating security concerns without compromising on deployment speed. By using secure development environments with sandboxes, IT teams can safely test AI processes without the risk of pushing any errors to the production org.Plus, sandboxes are also a great space to train teams on how to responsibly build code with the help of generative AI.When it comes to production environments, a new feature will help protect your sensitive data and stay compliant. Privacy Center will feature new data management policies where IT teams can delete stale data or de-identify at scale to protect the production org.But if something were to go awry, we’ve got you covered there, too. LIKE.TG Backup is a native solution that allows you to protect against corruption, data loss, or coding errors by providing daily backups and the ability to restore quickly.Delivering new solutions with peace of mind. Sounds peaceful. Don’t sleep on AI What’s top-of-mind for IT leaders is how to get the most out of AI —now. That starts with the right tools to pull together your data with security and governance built-in. Leading IT organizations are already transforming to accommodate the latest AI trends. Make sure you’re one of them.

Every year Dreamforce excites, inspires, and guides us toward the future, and this year was no exception. With more than 1,600 sessions across three days, Trailblazers from all over the world gathered to hear what the future of CRM + AI + Data + Trust holds for us. Trailblazers from the APAC region were well represented, with over 25 speakers featuring across nearly 30 sessions. Dreamforce keynote – the AI revolution Of course the main event was the keynote address, which kicked off with the big questions – if artificial intelligence is the wild west, then who’s the sheriff in town? Responsible innovation, paired with ethical use, was the focus of so much of what we heard. We’ve already mentioned the core elements of LIKE.TG – CRM + AI + Data. On the keynote stage, CEO Marc Benioff added an extra element to that trio – Trust. “We’re in this AI revolution – it’s going to impact who we are, it’s going to impact how we operate, but it’s also going to bring us back to our values,” said Benioff. He highlighted what he called the trust gap – 52% of consumers don’t believe AI is safe and secure. Public Language Learning Models (LLMs) are harvesting data from across the internet, warned Benioff, and they have set their sights on corporate data next. New AI capabilities in LIKE.TG To combat this, Benioff announced the launch of Einstein 1, the new trusted AI platform for customer companies. All LIKE.TG applications integrate with Einstein 1 Platform, built on the LIKE.TG metadata framework. Pairing with Data Cloud, it can access and provide real-time data, and allows you to build next-generation applications. Integrated, shared metadata makes LIKE.TG fast and easy to use, and allows you to create solutions once, and run them anywhere. And because they’re on the cloud, they update automatically. Ultimately, says Benioff, the AI revolution is a trust revolution. Parker Harris, co-founder and CTO, joined Marc on stage to discuss the Einstein Trust Layer. This unique technology ensures that customer data is kept safe and secure, meaning that LIKE.TG AI doesn’t have access to your customer data, no customer is shared with LLMs, and PII data is never compromised – what Harris calls ‘zero retention’. David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer, then took to the stage to talk about Einstein Copilot. Embedded into every app, Copilot lets you use natural language to interrogate your data, improve customer experiences, resolve issues faster, and grow your business.And if this powerful new technology sounds like something you need for your business – and we think it is – then we have some good news for you. Tableau and Data Cloud are now free to get started. Asia Pacific Trailblazers Dreamforce is truly an international event, and among the many speakers from all over the world, there were more than 25 speakers from across the region speaking in nearly 30 sessions. Among them was Cebu Pacific Air. Angelo Maria Berbano, IT Director – Airline Operations Systems, was there to share how the airline has automated its operations using Slack – saving an incredible 114,000 admin hours a year. “The number that isn’t out there, though, is the huge impact that this has had on our people. It just makes things easier for them, more efficient, and they’re able to do things faster,” said Berbano. “And you know what they say – happy people are productive people.” You can watch the story on LIKE.TG+. And don’t forget Dreamforce: The Asia Pacific Edition. Join Leandro Perez, Vice President and CMO of Asia Pacific, as he talks to LIKE.TG leaders including Amy Weaver, President and Chief Financial Officer, and Paula Goldman, Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer. They’re talking about data, AI, and what the future holds for LIKE.TG and its customers. There’s more insight from Asia Pacific Trailblazers, too. Tune in to see Regional LIKE.TG leaders from across Asia Pacific also interview Trailblazers on the latest that’s going on in our region: Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson and CEO, India, talks to Miling Nagnur, Chief Technology Officer at Kotak Mahindra Bank. They discuss the power of Dreamforce, customer experience, and the future of AI in India. Frank Filman, CRO Australia, speaks to Melissa Irwin, Chief Data, People and Sustainability Officer at Endeavour Energy about her first Dreamforce, and the company’s net zero efforts. Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN, chats to Mac Munsayac, Vice President and Head of Customer Experience at Philippine Airlines about the company’s digital transformation, data-driven personalisation, and employee experience. Plus, take a look at the playful game show ‘Who wants to be an Einstein?’. You can watch Dreamforce: The Asia Pacific Edition on LIKE.TG+. The most sustainable Dreamforce ever Of course, Dreamforce wouldn’t be Dreamforce without embodying each of the LIKE.TG values. Sustainability is the most recent addition to that list, and with every event, we’ve taken an extra step to making our work as sustainable as possible. This year, more than 74% of the structures used at the event have been recycled or reused, and 100% of the food packaging used across the three days was compostable. It doesn’t end with the physical materials at the event, though. There were dozens of sessions dedicated to addressing one of the most pressing issues of our times – climate change. As part of the Platform for Change series, Australian energy company Endeavour Energy took part in a session titled Tackle Climate Change at the Source. Guy Chalkley, CEO, presented Endeavour Energy’s context, values, and how it has embraced sustainable transformation. Chalkley was joined on stage by Melissa Irwin, Chief Data, People and Sustainability Officer at Endeavour Energy. Irwin expanded on the sustainability mission at Endeavour, and shared how others can take on the challenge themselves using Net Zero Cloud.Check out the full session on LIKE.TG+.

What are customer needs? Answering that question may not always be easy – but it’s crucial for business success. After all, knowing what the customer wants is the starting point for creating winning products and services. Just as importantly, it’s the basis for forming long-lasting relationships. The State of the Connected Customer report reveals that 62% of customers expect businesses to anticipate their needs, and 73% expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. If your business isn’t proactively working towards understanding its customer and addressing their concerns, it risks falling behind competitors that are. Let’s take a look at how you can determine the needs of your customer – then go about satisfying them. What are customer needs? Put simply, customer needs are the factors that influence the purchasing decisions of consumers and B2B buyers. By anticipating and meeting customer needs, brands can create offerings that better connect with the consumer and buyer, while increasing profitability and driving long-term loyalty. Main categories of customer needs There are many factors that might influence purchasing behaviour, from the simple and common to the complex and highly personal, but most fall into one of three types. Practical. Customer needs are most often driven by practical considerations. These can include everything from price and availability to ease-of-use and functionality. If you’re offering a high-quality, low-cost product or service that’s easy to obtain or access, you’re catering towards practical customer needs. Customers driven by practical needs are likely to choose an offering that will simply help them perform a function or achieve a goal. This was once particularly true of B2B buyers, whose longer buying journey includes input from multiple stakeholders. But in a world where products and services often share similar price points, availability and functionality, B2B buyers are increasingly being influenced by emotional and social factors — whether they know it or not. Emotional. What a customer wants can often be just as powerful a driver of purchases as what a customer needs. In other words, they may be driven by how an offering makes them feel. For example, they may choose a product that evokes pleasant memories from childhood. Or they may look for a product that makes them feel more confident or powerful. While a practical customer may choose a fuel-efficient compact car, an emotional one may splurge on a motorcycle. Consumers have always been influenced by emotional and social factors, but these factors are increasingly influencing B2B buyers as well. Harvard Business School professor Gerard Zaltman posits that 95% of cognitive decision-making happens subconsciously. This means that even buyers who think they’re being pragmatic are often responding to factors outside the rational. And this means that B2B organisations should focus on creating emotional bonds with buyers – not just winning over the procurement team. Social. Some customers make purchases that are socially driven. For example, they may choose sustainable or ethical brands that reflect their lifestyle. Or they may opt for luxury products that are in-line with their social circle to keep up with the Joneses’. Socially driven needs are often considered to be the hardest to predict, but entire businesses have sprung up around tracking new trainer drops or tech releases. B2B buyers are also paying attention to socio-political factors in their purchasing decisions, as they need to justify partnerships to stakeholders. As such, they’re looking at their vendors’ CSR (corporate social responsibility), treatment of employees, environmental impact and community involvement in ways they never did before. Decoding consumer needs: Unpacking product desires Once you understand what your target customers need, you can start creating products that fulfil those needs and then marketing them effectively. However, those three categories of customer needs are very broad. It’s much easier to begin building products that fulfil those needs, if you can apply them to all the various aspects of product design and development. In the shifting landscape of consumer needs, it’s crucial to understand the various factors that play a role in driving product selection and influencing purchasing decisions. So, let’s take a look at how nine aspects of product design relate to the three categories of customer needs. Functionality: Bridging the gap between expectations and utility When designing the functionality of a product, it’s vital to consider how it addresses the practical, emotional, and social needs of your target customers. For practical needs, the product’s functionality needs to either resolve a specific problem or simplify a process for the user. Here you’re looking at your product’s core utility and what you’re going to promise your customers about what your product can do for them. When designing the functionality of a product to meet the practical needs of your audience, it’s a good idea to focus on usability, ensuring it’s intuitive. Addressing emotional needs involves creating a user experience that consumers will enjoy. It doesn’t matter how well your product meets your customer’s practical needs, if they don’t enjoy using it they simply won’t use it and therefore they won’t recommend it to their friends. So, when designing your product’s functionality, it’s also a good idea to aim to evoke positive emotions like comfort, delight, or a sense of achievement. Social needs are fulfilled when a product either helps people interact with others or elevates their social status. Some of the best products do both. When designing your product’s functionality to meet your customers’ social needs, think about how it could enable sharing or collaboration, helping users feel connected. Or, if that’s not possible, try to incorporate something that will help your product become a status symbol once it becomes popular. Anything you can do to help your users feel a sense of pride or belonging within their social circle when using your product is going to help make your product popular. So, when it comes to designing the functionality of your product, you’ll get the best results if you can ensure it: Solves a problem or simplifies a process Is easy and intuitive to use Is comfortable to wear or use Delights your audience Helps users collaborate, share, or connect with friends, family, work colleagues etc. Gives people a sense of pride to own and use or helps them feel like they belong within their social circle The price conundrum: Balancing affordability and value In the same way that product functionality needs to meet the practical, emotional, and social needs of the intended users, so too does product pricing need to meet all three categories of customer needs. When it comes to practical needs, the price must align with the perceived functionality and utility of the product. Customers need to feel they’re getting their money’s worth, and the cost of the product should correspond with its ability to solve a problem or enhance a process. Price also plays a practical role in the customer’s budgeting, so providing a range of options or payment plans can be beneficial. Addressing emotional needs involves the psychological aspects of pricing. The price can evoke emotions of satisfaction or discontent, based on perceived fairness and value for money. If a product is priced too high, it may deter potential customers; if too low, it might create doubt about its quality. Therefore, a pricing strategy should strive to create a positive emotional response, where the customer feels they’re making a worthwhile investment. Social needs pertain to the status symbol a product’s price can represent. For some consumers, purchasing premium or expensive items is a way to express their identity and status. Conversely, other consumers may derive pride from finding the best deals and saving money. It’s therefore essential you understand these dynamics within your target audience, and develop pricing strategies that respect and cater to these social needs. Therefore, a well-crafted pricing strategy should aim to: Align with the product’s utility and the customer’s budget constraints Evoke positive emotions by providing perceived value for money Cater to the social needs of the target audience, whether they be prestige-seeking or bargain-loving. Convenience: The silent influencer in consumer preferences Designing a product for convenience is yet another balancing act that must address the practical, emotional, and social needs of customers. For practical needs, ensure your product simplifies tasks and is easy to use. A product that seamlessly fits into the customer’s daily routine and requires minimal effort to operate ticks the boxes for practical convenience. Emotionally, a convenient product brings peace of mind and reduces stress, making the customer’s interaction with the product enjoyable. The more effortless the experience, the more positive the emotional response. Social needs are met when the product aligns with the customer’s lifestyle and collaborating with it, or sharing it, is effortless. In short, when optimising your product for convenience: Make your product user-friendly and time-efficient Aim for a stress-free, enjoyable customer experience Ensure collaborating with or sharing you product is easy Design matters: The aesthetic appeal in product selection Sensing a pattern? Yep, you guessed it — design plays a significant role in addressing practical, emotional, and social customer needs too. Practically, a well-designed product is easy to use and enhances the user’s efficiency. This involves thoughtful placement of elements, appropriate use of color and contrast for visibility, and a design that supports the product’s overall functionality. Emotionally, the aesthetic of a product can evoke feelings of attraction, pleasure, and even joy. A visually appealing product not only enhances the user experience but also makes the product more desirable. It’s the emotional appeal of the design that often turns a one-time user into a loyal customer. Socially, product design can influence how a product is perceived by others, often serving as a status symbol. A well-designed product can reflect good taste, sophistication, or a specific lifestyle, thus contributing to the user’s social identity. A thoughtful product design should: Enhance usability and efficiency Create an emotional connection through visual appeal Cater to the social desires of the target audience Reliability: Building trust through consistency Reliability addresses the practical, emotional, and social needs of customers all in one go. From a practical perspective, a reliable product consistently performs as expected. Emotionally, reliability builds trust and reduces anxiety. Socially, the dependability of a product can enhance a user’s reputation. Performance: Quality at the forefront Similarly, performance addresses practical, emotional, and social customer needs all in one go. Practically, a product’s quality and operational excellence ensures it effectively delivers on its intended function. The key here is that the level of quality needs to match the customer’s expectation and your pricing strategy. E.g. There’s no point making a super endurable, disposable product as the cost would likely be too high for customers to stomach. Emotionally, a high-performing product can instill pride and satisfaction in the user. Socially, products known for their superior performance can elevate a user’s status among peers. Efficiency: The quest for productivity Product efficiency is fundamental in catering to the practical, emotional, and social needs of your customers. Practically, an efficient product can simplify tasks, conserve resources, and save time for the user. It enhances the user’s productivity, proving its worth in their everyday routine. Here’s a great example of a product improving efficiency for a customer. Emotionally, an efficient product can induce feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment. It can reduce stress by making tasks easier, and provide more time for enjoyment or relaxation, enhancing the user’s overall well-being. Socially, an efficient product can serve as a status symbol, portraying the user as a conscious and responsible individual. In our increasingly eco-conscious society, products that promote efficiency are often viewed as desirable, elevating the user’s standing within their social circle. An efficient product addressed the three categories of customer needs by: Simplifying tasks and saving time Inducing feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment Reflecting a responsible and eco-conscious image Compatibility: The role of integration in consumer choice The compatibility of your product with other products owned by your users is crucial in addressing practical, emotional, and social customer needs. Practically, a compatible product that seamlessly integrates with existing systems or devices, can increase productivity for customers, reduce the learning curve for your product, and ensure your users don’t have to buy extra products to use what you’re offering. Emotionally, a product that integrates easily can provide a sense of relief and satisfaction. It simplifies the user’s life, reducing potential stress and frustration that may come from incompatible devices or systems. Socially, compatibility can enhance the user’s status in their circle. Having a product that works harmoniously within an ecosystem of devices demonstrates a user’s savvy tech awareness and can be a source of pride. When designing your products, it’s a great idea to consider how compatibility could provide a better experience for your users. Compatible products: Seamlessly integrate with existing systems or devices Provide emotional satisfaction by simplifying the user’s life Enhance the user’s social standing by demonstrating tech-savviness The experience quotient: More than just interaction Customer experience is the culmination of every other part of the product design process. Products deliver a good customer experience if they: Are intuitive, or at least have great instructions that make them easy to use Perform well and reliably Easily integrate with existing workflows and products Generate positive feelings such as joy, satisfaction, or excitement Make it easy for users to share their experience or feel like they belong when using the product Make users look good within their society If you’re looking for ways to improve your customer experience, here are six ways to improve CX with data and measurement. Navigating the terrain of service needs Just as key facets of product design can fulfil all categories of customer needs, so too can the critical elements of service design meet all three categories of client needs. When designing new service for your clients, you’ll get the best results if you consider each aspect of the service from the following angles. Empathy: The key to service satisfaction Empathy is one of the most important customer service skills you can employ and building empathy into your services themselves also plays a vital role in meeting the practical, emotional, and social needs of your clients. Practically, empathetic customer service provides solutions that truly fit the customer’s needs, thereby enhancing the overall value of the service. Emotionally, empathy can evoke feelings of being understood and valued, fostering a deeper connection between the customer and the service provider. Socially, customers who experience empathetic service are more likely to share their positive experiences, enhancing their status within their circles. When developing your services, see if you can incorporate empathy into your design process by: Really understanding what your clients need, so you can design the best solution Ensuring your clients feel understood and valued Making is socially desirable for your clients to share their experience with you Fairness: The foundation of trust Fairness is also crucial in addressing the practical, emotional, and social needs of your clients. Practically, fair service policies ensure everyone is treated equally and without bias, enhancing the overall reliability of the service. Emotionally, fairness can instill feelings of trust and respect, strengthening the customer-provider relationship. A good example of an unfair practice that really annoys clients is when service providers offer discounts for new clients without rewarding loyal clients. Fairness is perhaps most relevant, however, to the social needs of your target audience. If they’re driven by the need to be ethical, they’ll want to know your services are fair to all clients, without any kind of social bias. Alternatively, for some target audiences, social responsibility might be a bigger driver, and they may be more likely to buy from a service provider that provides discounts for not-for-profits or contributes to worthy causes. Fairness means different things to different audiences, so when designing your services, you might consider: Ensuring equal and unbiased treatment of all clients Balancing attraction tactics with loyalty strategies Giving back to underserved communities or those in need Transparency: The service game-changer There are practical, emotional, and social aspects to transparency too. Practically, transparent service operations enable customers to make informed decisions, increasing the service’s utility. Emotionally, transparency can induce feelings of trust and loyalty, making the service more desirable. Socially, transparency enhances a customer’s social standing as they can confidently vouch for the service to their circle. It also gives clients the confidence that a service provider is honest and ethical. Many businesses get nervous about sharing their inner workings, worrying that competitors might copy them. However, there are several benefits to transparency: Clients like that they can make informed decisions It fosters trust and loyalty Clients are more likely to recommend transparent services from honest, ethical businesses Control: A new era in customisation Control is another aspect of service design that can enable you to address the practical, emotional, and social needs of your clients. Practically, giving customers control by allowing them to customise their services enables them to choose a service that exactly meets their needs, enhancing their overall experience and satisfaction. Emotionally, control can incite feelings of empowerment and freedom, making the service more enjoyable. Socially, having control enables customers to tailor the service to their social context, making it more shareable and recommendable. The benefits of giving control to your clients can be highly rewarding: Enhanced customer experience and satisfaction, which leads to increased conversions along with greater loyalty and advocacy Feelings of empowerment and freedom, which also leads to increased loyalty Options: Choice is power Options are an important way you can give your clients more control over their services and therefore options are a key way of meeting the practical, emotional, and social needs of your clients. Information: The fuel of knowledgeable decisions You might think giving your prospective clients information only fulfils their practical needs, but, with the right strategy, it fulfils emotional and social needs too. Providing sufficient information empowers customers to make informed decisions, which is critical if they’re to choose a service that meets their practical needs by solving a problem for them. This includes the decision to buy as well as making informed choices about any options you offer. Emotionally, information can evoke feelings of confidence and trust, making the service more appealing. Socially, informed customers are more likely to share their knowledge, enhancing their social interactions and status, and effectively giving you free advertising and even free customer support. Apple’s support community is probably one of the most well known examples of this. In short, providing information can: Foster confidence and trust Ensure your clients get what they need from your service, reducing churn and increasing referrals Enable you to create a community around your service and reduce your advertising and customer support costs Accessibility: Anywhere, anytime service Accessibility is perhaps the element of service design where it’s most obvious how to meet the practical, emotional, and social needs of clients. An accessible service gives clients what they need, when they need it. That includes allowing clients with disabilities to benefit from your services. Accessibility therefore addresses the practical needs of clients in several ways. A client who can’t access the services they need when travelling, will get really frustrated. Whereas a client who can start a project on their desktop in the office, continue it in the car on the way home by dictating to their mobile, and then continue on their home computer at the end of their journey, is likely to be pretty chuffed. These examples illustrate just how much of an impact accessibility has on whether a service meets the emotional needs of clients. A client who wants to share their service with friends when traveling, or use it to collaborate with their blind assistant on the other side of the world, is far more likely to choose a service provider that enables them to easily share their fully accessible service with others. To summarise, an accessible service: Can be used in any location at any time Has online and offline capabilities and can be used on any device (if it’s a digital service) Can be used by people with disabilities Enables sharing Eight ways for identifying the needs of your customers When it comes to addressing customer needs, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. For instance, you’ll want to tailor your messaging to prioritise the distinct concerns of different audiences. But how can you gain key insights into your customers, so that you can not only meet their needs, but exceed their expectations? Here are 8 strategies for getting started. Follow your data. We’re living in the age of the digital imperative. You likely already have a wealth of information about your customers at your disposal, especially if you’re centralising your data in a CRM. Take a deep dive into your business’s data and see what’s connecting with customers, what can be improved, and what new opportunities can be identified from it. Talk to your customers. The best way to know what your customers want is to simply ask them. Deploying post-purchase surveys will help you evaluate your customer experience. You can also reach out to loyal customers for opinions on products and services. They may have some great ideas for improvements and new offerings. Raise your social media game. Try to engage with your customers in the places where they spend their most time. For many, that’s social media. Listen in on what people are saying about your business. Are you seeing recurring concerns? Can you use this information to drive improvements? Are you using your brand’s social media presence to showcase your voice and build more personal relationships? Gather feedback from your teams. Your sales and service teams speak to your customers frequently. Gather your reps and discuss what they’ve been hearing from customers. Do your teams have suggestions for new products or services? Do they have ideas for how you can improve the customer experience? Form a focus group. Forming a focus group isn’t for every business. After all, it can be costly. Moreover, these groups will not have the same in-depth knowledge of your offerings as your customer base will. But if you’re looking to move into new markets, a focus group can put you on the right path. See what people are searching for. One of the most cost-effective ways to see what customers need is to see what they’re searching for. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner to gain insights into customer behaviour. You can see how many times phrases and keywords have been searched each month, so you can see what’s trending up. Or you could use Google Trends to see more specific data, with searches being further segmented. Learn from your competitors. Your competitors are helping to define your marketplace, so it’s important to keep up with any new products or services they’re offering. Look for ways you can use this market intelligence to improve your offerings or create new ones. You’ll also want to pay attention to their messaging. How are they positioning themselves? After all, they’re trying to reach the same customers you are. Use Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is one of the most customer-centric technologies that SMES can use. Not only can AI tools analyse data to identify unique needs and preferences; they can help SMEs create tailored customer journeys. AI can also increase efficiency, improve service and create more customer-centric marketing campaigns. You understand the needs of your customer – what’s next? Now that you know the needs of your customers, you can build a blueprint for meeting them. Some of the steps towards building a customer-centric strategy include: Get regular feedback from your customers. Talking to your customers isn’t a one-time thing – it should be done regularly. Establish a feedback loop where you can constantly evaluate the products and services you’re offering, and the market’s response to them. This regular monitoring of consumer needs will help you respond quickly to market shifts and emerging customer concerns. Perfect your brand’s messaging. You’ll want to create different messaging for different audience segments, considering their specific needs and the channels through which they shop. Make sure that your marketing is aligned with customer needs and that your communications highlight the most relevant benefits of your products and services. Brainstorm new products and services. Knowing what your customers value and prioritise when making a purchase will help you create innovative offerings that not only address their needs, but stand out from the crowd. Look at the results from your focus research. Is there a gap between what customers need and what’s available? Create the need. Some businesses have an ‘if you build it, they will come’ approach. Instead of researching and responding to the existing needs of their customers, they create a new need in their customers. For example, it’s unlikely that socially conscious Millennials are wishing there was a credit card made just for them, but if you offer a card that donates to charities, provides rewards based on purchases from sustainable businesses, and sponsors community building, you may create that customer need. Level up your loyalty programme. Look at your business’s loyalty programme. Is it centred around the needs of your customers? Is it offering value at the right places? Loyalty programmes are a powerful tool for building relationships, so ensure that your programme is working as hard as it could be. Re-evaluate your customer service KPIs. Quick and convenient should always be the priority when it comes to customer service. But once that frictionless service is in place, can you add further value to the customer experience? Look at your service KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and see if they can be supplemented to not only measure successful resolutions, but how well you’re meeting the ongoing needs of your customers. In other words, turn your service into a relationship-building machine. Ready to follow customer needs to exciting new places? By following the needs of your customer, you can ensure that you’re always putting them first. And by designing your business around offering solutions, you’ll be well on your way to winning trust and increasing customer retention.

1. What’s my starting point?2. How can I get prepared?3. Can Superbadge Super Sets help me?4. What’s my time commitment?5. How do I ace the exam?6. Are there more resources? LIKE.TG Administrators are the productivity champions who keep their company’s instances of LIKE.TG running at peak efficiency. They help ensure business processes are automated, create essential reports and dashboards, and train users on how everything operates. Admins help their teams work more effectively.Being the one with all that knowledge and skill pays off! Admins are in high demand, and getting certified can put your career in high gear. Our research shows 148% job growth for admins in the past 5 years (US data) and a median U.S. salary of $86,000.So, how do you set yourself up for LIKE.TG Certification success? Here are the answers to six questions that will put you on the path to becoming an admin #CertifiedPro. 1. What’s my starting point? Trailhead! LIKE.TG’s free online learning platform helps you enhance your resume with the most in-demand skills to prepare you for future LIKE.TG career opportunities. Within Trailhead, the Trailblazer Community also helps you make great connections with Trailblazers from anywhere who can mentor and help grow your network to boost your career. Trailhead allows you to: Learn at your own pace: What learning schedule works best for you? Mornings before work? Evenings after work? Weekends? Any and all options are open because you decide what modules to complete at a pace and time that works for you. Every time you return, you can pick up exactly where you left off, so you never miss a beat. Learn anywhere: With the free Trailhead GO mobile apps for iOS and Android, you can do your studying on the go from almost anywhere! Have a few minutes on your commute? Waiting at the airport, or on a long-haul flight? If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, you can learn something new. Follow a curated guide for role-specific learning: We’ve got guided learning paths called trails and custom learning paths called trailmixes designed especially for admins, and you can follow that preset path to make sure you’re exam-ready. You can also check out the LIKE.TG Associate certification exam. This exam is for those with up to 6 months of LIKE.TG user experience and who want to demonstrate skills in the following areas: How the CRM platform solves the challenge of connecting departments and customer data How LIKE.TG Customer 360 can solve business challenges Key LIKE.TG Platform terms Fundamental functionality in the current version of LIKE.TG at a foundational level, such as requirements gathering, reporting, security, sharing, customisation, and data management You can prepare for your LIKE.TG Associate certification exam with the exam guide and by completing the LIKE.TG Associate certification preparation trailmix. 2. How can I get prepared? We’ve got the tools to help you prepare for your exam, no matter your learning style. We’ve covered all the bases, with exam guides, interactive study tools, videos, trailmixes, and more. Prepare for Your LIKE.TG Administrator Credential trailmix This trailmix includes all the modules, projects, and tasks that will guide you through your preparation for the admin cert exam. LIKE.TG Certified Administrator exam guide This exam guide supplies all the critical details you’ll need, including a full content overview, information about how much time is allotted for the exam, the score required to pass, all associated fees, retake options, and more. There’s a handy exam outline included that details every topic covered in the exam and the relative weight of that topic. It also includes a list of all other recommended training, reference, and study materials to get you on the path to success! Administrator Certification Exam trail You’ll know if you’re exam-ready after you’ve completed the Study for the Administrator Certification Exam trail. The trail guides you through earning four badges, each of which covers a separate section of the exam. It includes interactive content such as flashcards, embedded practice questions, and downloadable materials — all specially designed to get you prepped and ready for the actual exam. The interactive Administrator practice test gives you the opportunity to experience the format and questions you may see on the LIKE.TG Administrator Certification exam. The results upon submission are your guide to strengths and weaknesses to help you focus on areas needed for additional learning. Courses led by experts For a more interactive, face-to-face learning approach, we also offer an array of Trailhead Academy courses taught by LIKE.TG experts to help you prepare for your admin certification exam. These courses include: Certification Preparation for Administrator (CRT 101) Administrative Essentials for New Admins in Lightning Experience (ADX 201) Trailhead Virtual Bootcamp for New Admins (TVB201) LIKE.TG Certification Days 3. Can Superbadge Super Sets help me? The design of a Trailhead module offers step-by-step instruction and bite-sized learning with interactive challenges so you can test your newly developed skills. A superbadge, on the other hand, takes the skills you’ve learned in a specific domain (think: process automation or app customisation) and challenges you to put them to work to solve a complex, realistic business problem. You’ll get a specific business scenario with relevant information scattered throughout the story. Your job is to uncover the business need and design a solution through a series of interactive challenges in a Trailhead Playground. Those challenges are validated in real time as you complete them. Then, you can add on Super Sets, a series of superbadges that cover specific roles. Super Sets allow you to prove your expertise in specific areas and are a powerful cert prep tool. In fact, we surveyed Trailblazers and found that 95% said that completing superbadges made them better prepared for their certifications. Check out the Admin Super Set, which highlights the superbadges designed to help you get ready for your admin certification. And superbadges are a great addition to your resume, profile, and social channels, as they show the world just how much of an #AwesomeAdmin you are! 4. What’s my time commitment? “How long is this going to take?” Don’t worry, that’s everyone’s top question! The answer is that it really depends on you. You’re the best judge of your current schedule and how much time you can commit to studying. The great thing about Trailhead is that your learning really is up to you. How does studying fit into your schedule? Can you carve out a few minutes in between meetings or during your commute? Our on-the-go tools and “pick up where you left off” modules mean that no matter how much time you have, you can probably squeeze in a little learning. And keep in mind that there’s no hurry to get certified. You’re working toward a goal here, which is to make sure you’ve really grasped all the key concepts in a certain module — because these are concepts you need to build on for the next module. So, take your time and learn at a pace that works for you. If you’re nervous about making a time commitment or you’ve been putting off the exam because you’re afraid to fail, don’t let that hold you back! Learning is a process and failing is just one small part of that process. 5. How do I ace the exam? Test-taking is stressful for lots of people. Even if you think you’ve got all the concepts for the LIKE.TG Certification down, you may dread the actual exam just because test-taking isn’t your thing. But you can manage your state of mind and put a success strategy in place to help you breeze right through exam day! Stay calm and learn to manage your expectations. Not everyone passes the exam the first time around, and the internal pressure to pass at any cost may cause unnecessary stress. To be clear — if you don’t pass, it’s okay! There’s no failing on this learning journey. There’s only a new opportunity to do better on your next attempt. Your exam results include section-level feedback, which will help you identify exactly what to focus on to come back even stronger for any certification retake. During the exam, it’s important to manage your time. Exams can last anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes depending on the topic, so you should be able to figure out approximately how much time you should give each question before you move on. You’ll always know the total amount of time you have remaining, and you can easily mark a question to come back to later — so don’t let any single question take up too much of your time. Simply mark it for review and revisit it. Take advantage of available resources. If you’re taking the exam in person, the testing centre will allow you three sheets of paper, which you can use to jot down notes, keywords, and important concepts that you’re afraid of forgetting. Have one concept you continually brain freeze on? Memorised an acronym or mnemonic device that helps you remember it? Jot that down as soon as you get to your station. Your testing time doesn’t start until you hit the start button, so take a few moments in the beginning to get prepared. 6. Are there more resources? Yes, of course! Bookmark the LIKE.TG Admin Career Development page where you can find all of the resources designed to help you grow your LIKE.TG Admin career. Check out the Admin blog— This is the place to find best practices, tips and tricks, insights, and career advice for LIKE.TG Admins. Subscribe to the Admin podcast — We’ve got interesting guest speakers who are ready to share their career insights on a variety of topics, all designed to help you maximise your leadership skills and career potential. Join Admin events in your area — In-person and virtual events let you make great connections with other Trailblazers in your area. Get involved with the Trailblazer Community — This is the place to connect, learn, have fun, and give back with #AwesomeAdmins around the world. You can even connect with a user group close to you, or a study group that will help you get exam-ready! You’re doing a great job — celebrate your progress All of these strategies have one thing in common: to help make preparing for your exam more fun! Enjoy the learning process, and remember, you’re an expert in your field. Getting Salesforce-certified is proof to yourself and your employer that you’ve worked hard to gain the knowledge and skills you need to succeed as a LIKE.TG Admin. So, it’s not a matter of whether or not you’ll get certified — it’s just a matter of when. You’ve got this! And when you do earn your certification, you can pay it forward by taking part in the Trailblazer Community and helping other aspiring admins get ready for their exams.

Over the last two decades, communications services providers (CSPs) have faced a two-fold cash flow squeeze. First, accelerated adoption of competing OTT (Over-The-Top) service offerings – such as voice calls and messaging through WhatsApp – have put downward pressure on consumer revenue. Second, increasing spends on generational technology advancements every few years – like 4G to 5G network upgrades and fibre rollouts to address increased data consumption demands – have put upward pressure on costs. So it’s logical for CSPs to seek alternative strategies to maintain healthy margin levels and retain market foothold. Mergers and acquisitions (MAs) are a powerful strategy CSPs use to achieve this. How MAs are reshaping the APAC communications market APAC markets are a diverse mix of prepaid and postpaid, characterised by a blended mobile ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) – as low as USD $3 in Indonesia and India, and up to USD $30 in Australia. At the same time, the prepaid heavy markets have an extremely cost savvy subscriber base that churns easily from one provider to next. Consumers are lured by lower costs or value-added incentives such as free data roaming packages or unlimited local calls. And most countries have high teledensities – as high as 145% in Singapore, 124.8% in Australia, and 113.9% in New Zealand – that leave limited headroom for net new customer acquisition. These unique market dynamics have powered a surge in MA activity that has reshaped the marketplace and created new market leaders throughout the region. True Corporation and Total Access Communication (dTac) in Thailand, for example, created a new company with an enterprise value exceeding USD $20 billion. That’s only one of several examples. Celcom and Digi in Malaysia formed the largest mobile services provider in the country. Indosat and Hutchinson in Indonesia created the country’s second largest service provider with more than 100 million subscribers. And the Telkomsel and IndiHome merger in Indonesia resulted in expected annualised savings of USD $330 million. In Australia, the merger between Vodafone Hutchison and TPG Telecom created an enterprise value of USD $4.9 billion for Vodafone. And in neighbouring New Zealand, 2degrees and Vocus joined forces to form the country’s third largest service provider with an annual turnover of more than USD $1 billion. The same can be seen in India. When Vodafone India and Idea Cellular merged a few years ago, the combined entity emerged as the market leader with nearly 400 million subscribers. MAs have enabled each of these players to establish a 50% or above market share in their markets of operation. Increasing customer stickiness and wallet share with MAs In addition to an increase in market share, MA activities typically enable CSPs to increase customer stickiness where subscribers use a mix of volatile prepaid services (such as mobile data) from one provider, and highly retentive postpaid services (like fibre broadband) from another. Tapping in on each party’s offerings generates cross-sell opportunities CSPs use to increase customer wallet share and retention. On the spend side of the equation, MA activities tend to free up capital by reducing or eliminating spend on overlapping infrastructure. CSPs can then choose to use such capital to develop and market innovative products in the information and communities technology (ICT) space (such enterprise apps, IoT, and data centres), or develop partnerships with other industry service providers (like digital banks and micro insurance companies). The critical need for an integrated customer view Achieving a successful MA in the communications industry presents several challenges. For CSPs with legacy systems, realising the business benefits of an MA requires the rationalisation and integration of business strategies, customer facing and internal functions, product offerings, business processes, and IT stacks. However, delivering high-quality customer service over the course of the rationalisation period – and beyond – is key to retaining customers across the merging companies. In scenarios where a customer is consuming products from both merging companies, having an integrated view of the customer becomes crucial to achieving this goal. Gavin Barfield, VP Solutions and CTO ASEAN at LIKE.TG, makes the point that MAs provide an opportunity to retire legacy technology and embrace modern technology stacks. Solving the integration puzzle with a 360-degree customer view Developing this integrated 360-degree customer view requires systems integration and normalisation of data across product offerings, sales transactions, inflight orders, customer’s assets, trouble ticket histories, and more. LIKE.TG Customer 360 provides an integrated view of each customer, across multiple functions, products and systems. This view is what communications companies’ marketing, sales, contact centre and field service teams require for day-to-day operations, and to maintain business-as-usual – or better. For example, marketing teams enabled with deep customer insights from Customer 360, can review customer segments, customer spend and preferences to develop attractive cross-sell and up-sell offers for the new acquired customer base. Sales and customer service teams can also review customer sentiment to inform meaningful conversations with customers from the merging organisations, and address customer concerns with the right insights at hand. Singtel in Singapore is one CSP that’s using such data insights to understand and prioritise its customers’ needs in a complex, hyper-connected and fast-changing world. Rationalising business processes with a connected CRM Integrated CRM platforms also enable the rationalisation of business processes during MA activity. When CRM platforms are served over a connected user interface, it enables seamless handovers across internal functions. For example, when a sales representative requests pricing approvals for mobility and connectivity products, their manager uses the same connected interface to review and approve the pricing. Solution specialists use the same interface to review the overall solution construct for consistency and coherency. Sales Ops uses the same view to review quote accuracy, and can derive weekly forecast reports using a single data instance. Such simplification allows identification of redundant or unnecessary business processes that are candidates for transformation during the rationalisation process. Leveraging AI technologies to enable sales and service teams Gavin Barfield is seeing more communications companies increasingly motivated to embrace generative artificial intelligence (AI) to lead innovation and stay ahead. That’s largely because AI technologies provide relevant and contextual information – during the sales stages and customer service engagement – that enables sales and service teams to meet their customers where they are. Customer 360 uses LIKE.TG Einstein AI technologies to leverage the full power of this kind of data analytics. Let’s take an example of a high-value subscriber who uses different prepaid SIM cards for voice and mobile gaming from two merging CSPs. AI could potentially suggest an up-sell to a 5G plan with more voice minutes and gigabytes for this subscriber, and the latest bluetooth earphones to enhance the subscriber’s gaming experience. Additionally, based on customer demographics and preferences across similar customers, AI could suggest an Instagram and WhatsApp add-on for a few extra dollars. Such examples not only generate increased wallet share, but also project the CSP as an intelligent organisation that understands and wows its customer throughout the customer lifecycle. From business transformation, process harmonisation and operational streamlining to increasing customer delight and wallet share, CRM platforms help CSPs across all stages of the MA journey, and ensure long-term business success.

Imagine a world where you create a new product that everyone wants. It’s a snap to make, and it sells itself – a mega-hit. Congratulations, you’ve smashed your goals! In this world, there is no overnight success. If you sell a product without attracting the right buyers and demonstrating how it meets their needs, it may just sit on the shelf. Meanwhile, a competitor does their research, knows what buyers want, and delivers it. Not only have you lost revenue, you’ve lost potential customers to the competition. Ouch. How do you avoid this and capture customer interest? Build a comprehensive go-to-market (GTM) strategy that combines careful research with tailored messaging that hits on the right buyer pain points. What you’ll learn: What is a go-to-market strategy?Why is a go-to-market strategy important?How to build a go-to-market strategy frameworkGo-to-market strategy example What is a go-to-market strategy? A go-to-market strategy is a step-by-step plan for introducing a new product to buyers. This includes market, customer, and competitive research that uncovers problems your product can solve. Creating a buyer persona lets you target prospects with key messaging that emphasises your product’s unique problem-solving value. Why is a go-to-market strategy important? A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a meticulously crafted blueprint businesses employ to introduce a new product or service to the market. A well-crafted GTM strategy ensures target buyers see your product, understand and appreciate its value, and are compelled to buy. As CEO of Revenue.io, Howard Brown put it, “Meeting expectations early and often builds trust and is the foundation of any successful partnership.” You can launch a product without a go-to-market strategy, but buyers who need your product might not see or appreciate its value. They might turn to competitors already established in the marketplace and are perceived to be stable. In the early stage, it’s normal for someone to see your solution and say, “Oh, you’re just like [competitor],” even if they don’t offer what you offer. Research bears this out, especially for smaller companies. Of startups that fail, more than a third do so because there was no identified market need. How to build a go-to-market strategy framework A successful go-to-market strategy requires understanding your market, prioritising buyers’ pains, and identifying your competitive advantage. Building a framework around these fourelements can help deliver your product in a way that makes it “ready to buy.” Let’s run through how to do that in six steps. 1. Create your buyer persona Selling is about delivering value to your target buyer, and that often takes the form of a solution to a unique problem. To make sure you’re targeting the right problem, build out a buyer persona that connects their pain points to your solution. To surface this detail, you’ll start with your existing customers. Dig into customer data in your CRM, conduct interviews with buyers whose problems you’ve solved, and lead market research efforts to see where else these needs surface in your industry. (Check out our comprehensive guide on buyer personas for more guidance.) If you sell B2B, your team will likely be coordinating a purchase with multiple people at each prospective company. The buying group might include end users, the CFO, an operations lead, and so on. Make sure you include problems and needs for these roles in your buyer persona. 2. Conduct competitive research Going to market with a new product isn’t just about solving prospects’ problems. It’s also about separating yourself from the crowd of products already in the market. To ensure you deliver unique value, research competitors with similar products to see how they’re positioned. Use these questions to guide you: What similar products are already on the market? What do you offer (features, price, functionality) that your competitors don’t? If a competitor’s product is famous, why is it resonating with customers? How can you use that information to frame your messaging? You can likely offload some of this research if you have an AI-powered CRM. Use AI tools to scan sales call transcripts for competitor mentions and pricing information. Pair this with automated online research based on industry, competitor, and product keywords. (Here’s how Sales Cloud does this.) 3. Map customer problems to your product solutions You know your target buyer’s problems. You know what competitors are doing to solve those problems. And, you know what your product offers. It’s time to connect all three and deliver a high-value solution that’s unique in your market. Build out a simple matrix so you can see all three and how they connect. Here’s what this might look like: Product: Long-lasting, high-performance running shoes with extra arch support priced 20% below similar productsExample buyer: Casual runner, mid-40s, median income To keep the focus on the buyer during this value mapping, review your matrix and ask: “How would my target buyer see or understand this?” That’s a good gut check before you frame your messaging. 4. Develop key messaging for marketing and sales efforts Using your matrix from the previous step, draft messaging for each prospect problem that shows why your product is uniquely qualified to serve as a solution with proof points to back it up. Let’s continue with the example of our shoe buyer. You know from your research that they are between the ages of 40 and 50, like to run as a hobby, and want to stay active despite minor injuries. But, they’re also price-conscious. Here’s what key messaging might look like for this target buyer: Problem: Their feet hurt when they run, likely due to prior injuries, muscle strain, or bad shoes. Product value: A pair of running shoes designed with input from an orthopedic surgeon, with research that finds 60% of wearers felt less foot pain after a month. What competitors offer: Some shoe brands advertise “extra support” but don’t have medical experts contributing to design or research showing this support works. Key message: Running doesn’t have to end when you hit middle age. Buy orthopedist-designed running shoes that keep you on the trail, whatever your age. Don’t believe us? Just ask our runners: 60% of customers in their 40s say they felt less foot pain after a month of running in our shoes. Complete this messaging for every problem you’ve identified, making sure to demonstrate clear and measurable ROI. You can also emphasise the potential downsides to sticking with the status quo or going with the competition. 5. Identify your sales channels Now you need to reach your prospective customers. But how do you take your key messaging and combine it with the right buying channel? Start by identifying the channels your buyers typically use to make a purchase, then select the right strategy to match. Here are the most common strategies: Direct sales: This involves a rep talking directly to a customer, building a personal relationship over time before closing a deal. This is perfect for longer sales cycles that require ongoing negotiation, typical for complex products at high price points. These deals are often high-touch, requiring a nurture-heavy strategy with lots of explanation and sharing of valuable resources to build trust. Self-service sales: This strategy is much more hands-off, letting customers make a purchase on their own without speaking to a sales rep. Consider this option when you want to make it fast and easy for your customers to buy, and/or when you don’t have a large team to handle individual sales. It works best for simple products that don’t require a lot of explanation and are offered at a low price point. I typically see this strategy with B2C business models, where customers can buy products on a website, but I also see it with SaaS companies that offer subscriptions. For example, LIKE.TG lets small-business owners buy software through the LIKE.TG Starter page. Partner sales: Consider this strategy, also known as channel sales, if you want to get your product to market quickly without adding headcount. It’s ideal for smaller, resource-strapped companies launching a simple product that’s relatively low-cost, but best sold directly through reps because it requires some assistance with delivery, onboarding, or setup. The big benefit here is broader market reach via preferred vendors like online marketplaces, resellers, and third-party distributors. 6. Go to market and measure results With the core elements of your go-to-market strategy in place, it’s time to get your product to the right buyers. As you ramp up marketing and sales on your channel(s) of choice, start tracking total units sold, prospect engagement and objections, and sales cycle length. You can do this easily with an AI-powered sales analytics tool that delivers insights in real-time. If you lag behind expectations, consider adjusting elements of your go-to-market strategy to compensate. Go through the steps above again periodically (at least once a quarter) to make sure your research and persona are up-to-date. By surfacing any new needs or problems of your target buyers, you can adjust messaging to keep customers interested. Go-to-market strategy example Mary, a software as a service (SaaS) company founder, is working on launching her new product to the market. Mary has created an innovative solution that automates data entry for companies with high volumes of customer information to manage. Her soft launch was a success, and she’s ready to sell. To make sure she’s bringing in the right prospects, Mary develops a buyer persona based on conversations with her current customers, and conducting market research. After a few weeks, she lands on the target buyer: mid-sized retailers that take a lot of customer orders online and by phone. The problem: the only other software providers on the market are too expensive for mid-sized companies, and their solutions take too long to get up and running. With this as a guide, Mary decides on key messaging: Spending your weekend entering customer orders (only to ship them too late)? Automate your data entry to save your weekends and keep customers happy. Mary also knows from customer conversations that she needs a sales team to engage with prospects – it’s a long-term investment for her customers, so they need to see demos before they commit. So, she hires 10 sales reps to start conducting outreach and connecting with prospective customers. Within a few weeks, the team has scheduled demos and is having in-person meetings. She even lands some initial clients, who find the software easy to set up out of the box and affordable for their budgets. Most of them are impressed with how it works, but there’s a problem: people say they need more app integrations to make data management easier.That’s excellent feedback, so Mary takes it to her team. After some investigation, they land on the top 10 most requested apps to start. As customers start using Mary’s software with the app integrations, they see real-time savings for their teams. Because they don’t have to spend extra time entering customer data manually, they can also save on headcount and ensure customer orders are shipped promptly. Within a few months, Mary saw a 40% increase in sales, with many customers saying they’ll write positive product reviews and refer their friends. Build your customer base with a strong go-to-market strategy A go-to-market strategy may seem like more fuss than it’s worth, but it helps you accomplish the most important task in sales: solving customer problems. Just keep in mind that it’s not a “one and done” effort. Continually monitor your sales and customer engagement to see how you can adapt your strategy to meet evolving buyer needs.

Dreamforce is the crown jewel of the LIKE.TG event universe —and it was epic. From amazing keynote sessions to demos showcasing the tools to solve your biggest challenges, Dreamforce had something for everyone (including the very best swag!). But are you ready for the understatement of the year? That’s right – AI pretty much stole the show. From generating hyper-relevant sales emails to prospects to anticipating a customer service issue with a VIP, AI is here to serve and support every aspect of the business.Here’s the thing: it’s IT that enables everyone else to leverage AI.As an IT leader, you’re already feeling the pressure to pivot to an AI-led approach across your organization. But you’re faced with the harsh reality of connecting and harmonizing your data while adhering to security and data governance standards? How can you build AI-powered applications that you can trust? And how can you do it now? AI for IT: 3 launches you can use Let’s take a look at how these new AI launches, all announced at Dreamforce 2023, are helping IT teams get more done – and how you can, too! 1. Unlock the full power of your data According to our latest State of IT report, 86% of IT decision-makers worldwide believe that generative AI will play a significant role in their organizations in the near future.However, the average organization reported more than 1000 distinct applications used across the enterprise. Scarier still, fewer than a third of these apps are integrated. This is a problem when AI depends on accurate, unified data to deliver critical insights and predictions. In MuleSoft’s 2023 Connectivity Benchmark Report, enterprise IT leaders estimated spending an average of $4.7 million per year on custom integration efforts. That’s an increase of 31% from their 2022 estimate of $3.6 million. With this in mind, it’s critical to have the right tools and development environments at the ready to implement and build the experiences customers expect. All of this with security and powerful generative AI capabilities built right in. One way to get connected quickly is with MuleSoft, loaded with new generative AI capabilities to make integration faster than ever before. Connect to any data or system, wherever it resides, with security and governance built in. The MuleSoft Accelerator for Data Cloud can help you unlock and connect to critical industry systems quickly and securely. Once unlocked, your teams can finally harmonize with existing data sources through the power of LIKE.TG Data Cloud. This enables you to get a unified view of every customer so that you can deliver the right experiences at the right time every time.Harmonizing data quickly? That’s music to our ears. Get IT articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now 2. Put your data to work If your teams have tackled the data unification challenge — bravo! After all, it’s these integration challenges that slow down digital transformation initiatives for 80% of IT teams. But it’s actually garnering insights and getting recommendations from AI that IT leaders are being pressured to deliver. With unified data in place, how can we start to see the benefits of AI? Well, IT teams can make the building of apps and automations a bit easier with Prompt Builder.Because every generative AI-powered CRM app depends on the quality of the AI prompt, it’s useful to get a boost with the provided prompt templates. These templates guide IT teams in building AI prompts that will root the AI in specific data and instructions —making it possible for the AI to deliver better suggestions more quickly. This low-code prompt management tool allows IT teams to build, test, and fine-tune trusted AI prompts within the Einstein Trust Layer. Any sensitive data is automatically masked to limit bias and toxicity. With this tool, IT teams can leverage AI to build everything from auto-generated emails to product descriptions for websites. This means freeing up time to focus on deeper, more sophisticated IT challenges. Low-code. Painless. That’s how AI should be. 3. Deploy safely and quickly With a tremendous amount of pressure to consistently deliver new solutions, IT leaders must balance speed and delivery with security.We know all too well what can happen when an organization skirts security concerns to increase deployment speed. According to our recent State of the Connected Customer Report, the average cost of not complying with data protection regulations is $14.8 million. That’s a lot, and we want to work toward avoiding any data breaches.One thing AI can help with is mitigating security concerns without compromising on deployment speed. By using secure development environments with sandboxes, IT teams can safely test AI processes without the risk of pushing any errors to the production org.Plus, sandboxes are also a great space to train teams on how to responsibly build code with the help of generative AI.When it comes to production environments, a new feature will help protect your sensitive data and stay compliant. Privacy Center will feature new data management policies where IT teams can delete stale data or de-identify at scale to protect the production org.But if something were to go awry, we’ve got you covered there, too. LIKE.TG Backup is a native solution that allows you to protect against corruption, data loss, or coding errors by providing daily backups and the ability to restore quickly.Delivering new solutions with peace of mind. Sounds peaceful. Don’t sleep on AI What’s top-of-mind for IT leaders is how to get the most out of AI —now. That starts with the right tools to pull together your data with security and governance built-in. Leading IT organizations are already transforming to accommodate the latest AI trends. Make sure you’re one of them.

Cross-selling involves selling related, supplementary products or services based on the customer’s interest in, or purchase of, one of your company’s products. Its a great way of increasing customer loyalty and deeping customer relationships which in turn can improve customer lifetime value and retention. This makes cross-selling an excellent growth strategy. What we will cover: Cross-Selling vs. UpsellingExamples of Cross-SellingBenefits of Cross-SellingPotential Drawbacks of Cross-SellingSteps for Cross-Selling to CustomersCross-Selling techniquesCross-Selling: Key facts and FAQs Cross-Selling vs. Upselling Cross-selling and upselling are two distinct practices that involve approaching existing customers and convincing them to purchase additional products or services. In the case of upselling, your goal is to sell a more expensive, more advanced product to the customer than they had planned by conveying its added benefits. One example of upselling would be a cable television provider selling a premium plan with a more extensive selection of channels to a current subscriber of a basic package. Upselling may also entail approaching the customer at the point of sale for one product, offering a more advanced alternative. In both upselling and cross-selling, companies must effectively utilise their existing and potential customer base to increase sales by offering appropriate additional products to the right customers. However, cross-selling never involves encouraging customers to replace their current choices with more expensive ones. LEARN MORE ABOUT UPSELLING Examples of Cross-Selling Some examples of cross-selling include an electronics retailer offering a deal on a computer case, mouse, and screen cleaning wipes to a customer who purchases a new laptop, or an insurance provider offering renters’ insurance to its car policyholders. Benefits of cross-selling The main benefits of cross-selling include increased sales revenue,improve customer satisfactionand in B2B businesses, increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) through deeper integration in a customer’s business. When it works, cross-selling is great for both you and for your customers. The ideal situation is one where your existing customer is not aware of a product or service that would improve their customer experience. You find them on theircustomer journeyat the ideal point, via their preferred contact method, and they react positively and go on to purchase the recommended product. Your sales increase, and their customer satisfaction increases because the product better fits their needs. Potential Drawbacks of Cross-Selling When it doesn’t work, cross-selling can be annoying for customers and ineffective at generating sales. This is almost always down to a lack of planning or appropriate data. If you recommend a product that makes no sense – for instance, promoting winter clothing to a customer who just bought a bathing suit – you may drive that customer away. If you approach a customer by phone who would typically place orders via email, you may not be able to make contact. And strangely enough, cross-selling is notalwaysa great idea, even when it works. According to aHarvard Business Reviewstudypublished in 2012, certain types of problem customers can actually make cross-selling a profit-losing strategy. According to Denish Shah and V. Kumar, some customer types can put stress on your customer service staff, whether by returning or cancelling a large number of goods and services or withholding spending in other areas to spend on your cross-selling promotions. It’s crucial toanalyse customer data and metricsrelated to your cross-selling marketing campaigns to evaluate which efforts produce cross-sales without reducing overall profitability, and which customers should be left out of cross-selling or approached with different methods, such as upselling. In general, cross-selling too many options to too many customers can be a losing endeavour if you don’t have a well thought out strategy in place. Steps for Cross-Selling to Customers Identify related products and services suitable for cross-selling Identify suitable customers ready for a cross-selling Develop a cross-selling campaign and customer journey Before you can convince your customers to respond to cross-selling efforts, you need to identify which products and services go together: What do customers typically buy as add-ons to their purchases? What products are usually purchased together? Or even, what products have been successful in previous cross-selling campaigns? Solid data makes all the difference. Say your company is a fitness centre: Do some of the members often buy drinks at your front desk? They might be interested in a supplementary beverage program for a flat monthly fee. Or maybe your online electronics shop has wireless headphones that could be marketed to recent smartphone buyers – these customers may even have browsed for headphones, but left them in their shopping carts without purchasing. Identify related products and services suitable for cross-selling The next step in creating effective cross-sellingcampaigns is targeting the right audience. Identifying cross-sellcustomers starts with the data you gather from your customers at every stage of their customer journey. You can use information about in-person and digital communication your company has had with customers, their purchasing and browsing histories, whether they’ve repeatedly returned merchandise or cancelled services. All of this information can help you identify the best candidates for a cross-selling campaign. You can also target “look-a-likes” who demonstrate similar behaviours or characteristics to these customers. Identify suitable customers ready for a cross-selling Organising the information you receive through customer purchase histories and interactions is infinitely more effective when you use sales and marketing software with effective tools forCRM, and even better when coupled withAI-assisted sales analytics. Artificial Intelligence tools can automatically contact customers who display interest in certain products without the need for your staff to set up a new campaign each time. This frees up your marketing and sales staff for the more personal interactions that machines can’t perform. Develop a cross-selling campaign and customer journey Once you’ve identified customers who are ideal candidates for cross-selling, you’ve got to convert them. You then need to develop a strategy for presenting the potential cross-sales. If you have an online store, cross-selling through ads that appear during the checkout process can be effective, as canemail campaigns targetingthose who recently purchased a product. For higher cross-selling conversion rates, test out different approaches to making contact with customers, and adjust your approach based on analytics-based results. Cross-selling techniques Now that you’ve identified the customers you’d like to approach and the products you’d like to cross-sell, here’s some advice about techniques and some cross-selling tips to keep in mind: Offer the customer additional products and services that will genuinely provide them with added value: Think about cross-sales from your a customer’s point of view, not just in terms of how much revenue you think you can generate. If you’reutilising a CRM, fewer well-placed offers are far more valuable than a greater range of offers that don’t benefit your customer relationships. Find your customers at effective touch points on their customer journey: If they’ve used your website to place orders, email ortargeted adsmight be the best method for cross-selling. If they’re more likely to visit a store in person, a salesperson is more likely to cross-sell additional products and services to them in person or on the phone. Use your existing inbound marketing campaigns to promote supplementary products and services: If you have content targeting an audience that buys luxury cars, for instance, you can include ads for car accessories on your blog posts and product descriptions to encourage cross-sales. Make effective use of the data your customers provide: The new generation of consumers expects personalised service, even when it comes to upselling and cross-selling, and the tools for providing that through solid data are out there. Encourage cross-sales by creating spaces for interaction between customers: An online community for skateboard buyers may be as effective at encouraging sales of additional wheels and other parts as your direct marketing efforts. Make use ofsocial sellingtechniques: For example, social mediainfluencersare a valuable tool for reaching the widest possible audience in the current, predominantly digital sales environment. Offer incentives for influencers who already promote your products to mention supplementary products on their social media channels. When handled with care, Cross-selling can be an effective way to increase sales revenue for your company. While you should take advantage of potential cross-sales, you need tools for gathering and analysing data to use cross-selling in a way that benefits your business and your customers.Managing your marketing and sales data intelligently gives you a competitive edge on your cross-selling efforts, thanks to sales AI. Find out more about LIKE.TG’s cloud software and Einstein Analytics with adeep dive into AI. That’s a lot of info! Here’s what you should take away from this article: What is cross-selling?Cross-selling is the process of offering a customer products that are compatible with the ones they’re purchasing. What’s the difference between cross-selling and upselling?Upselling is the practice of selling a more expensive product to a customer, while cross-selling is offering supplementary products. What’s an example of cross-selling?An example of cross-selling would be offering a deal on a computer case to a customer who purchases a laptop. What are the benefits of cross-selling?Benefits of cross-selling include increased sales revenue,improved customer satisfactionand increased Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Are there drawbacks to cross-selling?When it doesn’t work, cross-selling can be annoying and ineffective. This is usually down to offering incompatible or inappropriate products. What are some steps for cross-selling to customers?The most important part of any cross-selling strategy is identifying products or services that are compatible with one another. After that, it’s identifying which customers are most likely to benefit. What are some cross-selling techniques?When cross-selling, it’s important to always try to add value to the customer experience. You’ll also want to make sure that you’re offering the appropriate products at the appropriate touchpoints. Cross-selling isn’t limited to burgers and software. It can be valuable in any industry, with any product. Case in point: As a sales consultant, my clients sometimes need more than a basic training course or hour-long coaching session. Cross-selling books, additional training, or sales resources is almost always an option — and to make sure the door is open for those cross-sells, I continuously deliver valuable articles or insights to build trust. Then, when an opportunity presents itself, I go for the cross-sell. This happened recently, shortly after the launch of my third book on sales. I had a few clients at the time who showed some interest in additional training for their sales teams, but I didn’t know exactly what they were looking for. So, I asked open-ended questions like, “What industry-specific insights or examples would be helpful?” and “What’s the best learning modality for your team?” Eventually, I uncovered a good fit: a few clients with smaller sales teams that wanted resources sellers could use on their own time. I confidently proposed a cross-sell in our regular check-in conversations, offering bulk copies of my book at a discounted rate. Happily, they accepted, and many have noted since that the book has made their training more impactful. Frequently asked questions What is cross selling and why is it important? Cross-selling involves selling customers related items when they are making a purchase. It’s important not only because it boosts revenue, but also because it increases customer satisfaction, builds engagement, and helps to create solid and lasting customer relationships Does cross selling work? Yes. Cross-selling provides value for both businesses and customers, leading to increased revenue, increased customer satisfaction and better long-term relationships. This is assuming that cross-selling is done correctly – as the products or services being cross-sold must be appropriate and fit the needs of the customer. What is an example of cross selling? Cross-selling involves offering additional products that complement a purchase. For example, if a customer is buying a new bike, the retailer might offer them a discount on a tyre pump or a bike light. An electronics retailer might offer a case, an external hard drive and a mouse with the purchase of a new laptop.

Defining Process Automation Process automation applies software and technology to streamline and automate business processes, aligning them with predefined organisational goals. In today’s rapidly changing and competitive business environment, companies face the challenge of staying ahead of the curve. They must not only boost competitiveness and profitability but also enhance resilience and agility to thrive. Process automation is a key strategy to address these challenges. The Growing Importance of Process Automation Increasingly, businesses are turning to process automation as a powerful tool in their quest for competitiveness and profitability. According to a recent Gartner survey of global industry leaders, 80% of respondents cited automation as a core business priority for success. Defining Process Automation Process automation involves leveraging software and technology to automate business processes and functions. These automated processes help organisations achieve specific organisational goals, whether it’s producing a product, onboarding employees, or providing customer service. Process automation offers a simpler and faster way to enhance business efficiency and agility, allowing companies to create workflows and automate tasks without extensive coding. Business Process Automation to Digital Transformation Initially, Business Process Automation (BPA) was conceived as a discrete component within the broader framework of Business Process Management (BPM), with a predominant focus on enhancing back-end productivity by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. This initial iteration of BPA aimed to alleviate the burden of routine operations, thus increasing efficiency and reducing the potential for human error. It was a crucial stepping stone in the journey toward more streamlined and efficient business processes. However, the evolution of BPA has been nothing short of remarkable. What was once a supporting element has now taken centre stage and transformed into the driving force behind BPM. In the contemporary business landscape, BPA has emerged as the catalyst for comprehensive digital transformation. It has expanded its scope and capabilities to encompass not just the back end but also the front end of business operations, ushering in an era where process optimisation touches every aspect of an organisation. The Role of Robotic Process Automation Robotic Process Management (RPM) represents a pivotal aspect of modern process automation. It encompasses integrating robotic process automation (RPA) tools and bots into business systems, further enhancing automation capabilities. RPM leverages software robots that are meticulously programmed to replicate human actions, allowing them to execute an array of rule-based tasks. This technology not only simplifies and accelerates processes but also ensures the consistency and accuracy of operations. By automating these routine and repetitive tasks, RPM liberates human resources to focus on more strategic and creative endeavours within the organisation. The synergy between RPM and other cutting-edge technologies like AI, machine learning, and workflow automation solidifies its position as a cornerstone of digital transformation, streamlining processes across various business functions and offering a competitive edge in today’s dynamic business landscape. Identifying Automation Candidates Not all activities are suitable for automation. Process automation is most effective for repetitive tasks with well-defined steps, sequences, and rules. This approach ensures that the business process is consistently executed with the right people, in the correct order, and within specified timeframes. Some areas that commonly benefit from process automation include recruitment, employee onboarding, payment and payroll processes, workforce scheduling, invoicing, customer experience enhancement, and compliance and regulatory tasks. Key Technologies in Process Automation Two core technologies at the heart of business process automation are Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Workflow Automation. RPA involves software robots that emulate human actions to automate rule-based tasks within business systems. In contrast, Workflow Automation focuses on the independent execution of tasks, documents, and information flows in line with established business rules. Techniques and Technologies in Process Automation To achieve optimal outcomes in process automation, organisations employ a diverse array of techniques and cutting-edge technologies. These innovative tools and approaches empower businesses to not only streamline their operations but also enhance their decision-making capabilities and adaptability. Here’s a more in-depth look at the key technologies that play pivotal roles in achieving the best results in process automation: 1. Hyperautomation: Hyperautomation is not merely a technology but rather a comprehensive strategic initiative. It involves identifying, vetting, and automating as many businesses and IT processes as possible. By orchestrating multiple technologies, tools, and platforms, including AI and machine learning, hyper-automation enables organisations to automate various tasks and processes. It extends the reach of automation to virtually every aspect of business operations, paving the way for an extensive digital transformation. 2. Intelligent Process Automation (IPA): Intelligent Process Automation represents the next evolution of traditional process automation. It combines process redesign with the power of robotic process automation and machine learning. IPA not only automates repetitive, rule-based tasks but also incorporates AI and cognitive technologies to mimic human activities and even learn from them. This infusion of intelligence into automation leads to improved performance, increased speed, reduced risk, and enhanced customer experiences. 3. Low-Code/No-Code Automation: Low-code and no-code automation platforms are designed to be accessible to individuals with limited programming or coding expertise. They offer drag-and-drop functionality, visual tooling, and pre-built content. These platforms empower subject-matter experts to automate processes according to their specific needs. Simultaneously, they maintain governance and ensure compliance standards, allowing IT teams to oversee the integration of new automated processes within the system securely. 4. Big Data Integration: Big Data is characterised not only by its volume but also by its complexity and speed. It encompasses structured and unstructured data, such as customer feedback, emails, videos, and images. Big Data integration into process automation allows businesses to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to guide decision-making, accelerate processes, and reduce the burden of repetitive tasks and assessments. It provides valuable insights previously buried within data, aiding in more informed decision-making. 5. Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI technologies complement process automation by addressing the challenges posed by unstructured data. While traditional process automation thrives on structured data, AI is proficient at processing unstructured data, such as scanned images, webpages, and PDF documents. AI can convert this data into a structured format, making it understandable for other automation tools, which enhances the overall accuracy and utility of process automation. 6. Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP-powered tools excel at understanding human speech, context, and tone. In process automation, NLP can be deployed to enhance interactions, providing both internal and customer-facing automated responses. It allows organisations to deliver more effective and context-aware automated services and support. 7. Machine Learning: Machine learning relies on Big Data to make informed decisions. When integrated with RPA, AI, and NLP, machine learning can identify trends, patterns, and insights from both data and human users. This augments the accuracy and relevance of process automation, making it a more valuable asset for organisations. 8. Intelligent ERP Systems: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have evolved to become intelligent and capable of supporting a wide range of business functions. Modern ERP systems incorporate AI and machine learning technologies to enhance operations across the organisation. Many automation functions are now integrated into these ERP systems, improving efficiency and performance in various departments. Incorporating these advanced techniques and technologies into process automation solutions equips organisations to not only optimise their processes but also harness the full potential of their data. It results in more agile, adaptable, and intelligent operations that can respond to changing market conditions and customer needs with speed and precision. Benefits of Process Automation The advantages of business process automation are significant and include: Increased business structure agility and resilience. Enhanced operational efficiency with faster cycle times. Improved compliance through transparent data trails and monitoring. Reduced burden of slow, manual processes, enabling greater freedom to innovate and grow. Real-time collaboration across the organisation, fosters teamwork and employee satisfaction. Improved customer service quality and faster response times. The Path to Digital Transformation through Process Automation Successful digital transformation relies on several key strategic components: 1. Strategic Priority: In any organisation aspiring to navigate the digital transformation landscape successfully, automation must transcend the realm of individual processes and be elevated to the status of a strategic imperative that permeates the entire organisational fabric. Rather than viewing automation as a series of isolated initiatives, it should be ingrained in the company’s overarching strategy. This strategic approach ensures that automation is not merely a reaction to specific operational challenges but an integral part of the organisation’s vision for growth, efficiency, and competitiveness. By making automation a strategic priority across all functions and departments, companies can unlock its full potential, realising the benefits of coherence, cost-effectiveness, and adaptability. 2. People-Centric Approach: An essential facet of digital transformation is placing people at the forefront of the automation journey. Instead of expecting employees to conform to rigid automation processes, businesses should design automation solutions that adapt to the needs and preferences of their workforce. This people-centric approach emphasises that technology should serve as an enabler, enhancing human capabilities rather than replacing them. By focusing on making technology work for people, organisations can foster a culture of innovation and collaboration. Employees feel empowered to explore the creative aspects of their roles, while automation takes care of the repetitive and mundane tasks, leading to a more motivated and satisfied workforce. Furthermore, this approach promotes seamless human-machine collaboration, wherein both elements complement each other’s strengths, resulting in an agile and adaptive organisation well-prepared to thrive in an era of rapid change. 3. Scalability: Amid today’s unpredictable market conditions and an ever-shifting business landscape, scalability is a critical determinant for achieving and sustaining process automation success. The ability to scale automation initiatives effectively equips organisations with the flexibility and adaptability to meet evolving market demands. As market dynamics change and business requirements shift, organisations must have the agility to respond promptly and effectively. Scalability in process automation ensures that automation solutions can grow with business needs, accommodating increased workloads, expanding operations, and addressing new challenges without requiring a complete overhaul of existing systems. This adaptability is crucial for organisations seeking long-term value from their automation investments. Implementing Process Automation Implementing process automation within an organisation is a transformative journey requiring careful planning, strategic alignment, and a commitment to continuous improvement. The process begins with a thorough assessment of the existing workflows and processes, identifying areas where automation can yield the most significant benefits. Once these areas are pinpointed, the next step involves selecting the appropriate automation tools and technologies tailored to the specific needs and goals of the organisation. Successful implementation hinges on clear communication with all stakeholders and fostering a culture of collaboration, where employees actively participate in the automation journey. Change management strategies are essential to ensure a smooth transition. Furthermore, it is critical to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of automation, monitor progress, and adjust strategies as needed. Training and upskilling employees to work alongside automation solutions is also crucial. As processes are automated, they must be continuously monitored, optimised, and adapted to changing circumstances. The successful implementation of process automation does not represent an endpoint but a continuous cycle of improvement, enabling organisations to unlock the full potential of automation while staying agile in an ever-evolving business landscape. Automate Your Business Processes with LIKE.TG Transform your business operations with the power of automation using LIKE.TG. Instead of relying on your users to manually execute every step of a business process, empower your organisation with the efficiency and consistency of automated workflows. The advantages are twofold: your team can redirect their valuable time and skills to more strategic tasks, and you can have confidence that each process is executed precisely as intended. LIKE.TG provides a comprehensive suite of automation tools, from guided visual experiences to behind-the-scenes automation and approval processes. Even more appealing is that these tools don’t require writing a single line of code – they’re all point-and-click. Choose from various LIKE.TG Flow features to streamline and automate your business processes. Flow Builder, for instance, simplifies the automation of your organisation’s repetitive tasks, creating a graphical representation as you build it. It combines the capabilities of workflow rules and Process Builder, offering a unified, point-and-click solution. As your business grows, you can leverage Flow Orchestration to manage complex workflows, involving multiple users and departments, regardless of geographical boundaries. For personalised experiences, Einstein Next Best Action provides the means to display tailored offers and actions to the right people at the right time, refining recommendations based on your unique criteria. LIKE.TG’s automation tools extend to Automated Actions, reusable components that perform background tasks such as updating fields or sending emails. Approval Processes take automation a step further, allowing you to define a sequence of steps required to approve a record. LIKE.TG Workflow Rules enable the automation of standard internal procedures and processes, simplifying your organisational operations. Alternatively, you can harness the power of Process Builder, which offers graphical representation as you design automated processes.

Fill in cell. Add row. Update column. New tab. Cross eyes. Rinse, repeat —10 times a day. Sound familiar? I’ve seen countless businesses (including enterprise companies) compile — and try to analyse — sales data in spreadsheets like this. Sure, spreadsheets are useful for small projects, but they can be cumbersome when dealing with complex sales data. Sales dashboards to the rescue. The right dashboards can automatically pull in, organise, and display your data in clear and useful ways, segmenting critical metrics by role with data updated in real-time so everyone can see the latest information. But not all dashboards are created equal. Below are a few specific types that I recommend to get a clear look at sales performance at every level — rep to sales org. What is a sales dashboard? A sales dashboard is a visual representation — typically in graph or chart form — of sales metrics. Located within a company’sCRMor sales analytics software, it groups together related metrics for an “at a glance” look at progress toward sales goals. When used regularly, a dashboard can reveal where sales teams are performing well and where they need to improve. In most cases, sales dashboards are created by sales managers, sales leaders, and sales operations teams, though reps can create dashboards to track their own accounts. The most versatileCRMsallow teams to share dashboards with others on the sales team and across the business for maximum visibility. One dashboard I see a lot: A sales manager creates a team pipeline dashboard that includes the total number of leads generated by reps in a given quarter, the total number of leads in each pipeline stage, and the team’s conversion rate (percentage of leads that complete a purchase). With this information, the manager can forecast sales for the quarter and identify opportunities for coaching. How to create a sales dashboard How you build a sales dashboard depends on the analytics platform you’re using, but there are a few common steps: Determine the goals and metrics you want to track, find a tool that allows you to track them, sync your sales data with the new tool, and build out the dashboards for your team. Identify sales goals you want to track.For example, you may have a yearly sales goal of $1 million. Identify metrics that support each of these goals.If your singular goal is total sales, you probably want totrack metricsthat support that goal, like leads generated, leads in pipe, and pipeline value. (My recommendation: Try to stick to three or four metrics per goal. Otherwise, it’s hard to set up your dashboards and even harder to interpret them.) Identify who should have access to each dashboard.In many cases, you’ll want to share dashboards across the team for maximum visibility. But there will be some dashboards, like topline sales goal tracking, that may not be helpful to reps in their day-to-day work. Find an analytics tool or CRM that allows you to create dashboards using the metrics you’ve identified.Many customer relationship management (CRM) tools have pre-built templates and drag-and-drop tools to make building dashboards simple. I recommend picking ones that can create dashboards with just a few clicks based on role or function. Sync your data.If you’re deploying a new analytics tool in your tech stack, make sure it’s securely integrated with your other tools and can sync customer and sales data frequently — ideally, in real-time. Alternatively, you can avoid daisy-chaining a bunch of tech by picking (or moving to) aCRMwith robust analytics that includes customisable dashboards. Create and share your dashboards.Follow the steps provided by your analytics orCRMprovider. 7 sales dashboards examples The dashboards that give you the clearest picture of sales and business health are simple, visible across the sales org, and supported by real-time data. Here are the seven I use the most: 1. State of sales dashboard Who it’s for:Sales managers and executives KPIs to include:Total team revenue, total deal amount in pipe, average quota attainment percentage, forecast accuracy (Can also include: Total new leads, employee satisfaction and turnover rate, calls booked by quarter/year, average team deal amount) When to use:Daily or weekly Why it’s important:Think of the state of sales dashboard as a command centre. It provides a snapshot of all key metrics that affect team-wide sales targets. By knowing these, you can see signs that overarching sales strategy should be revisited, territories should be re-evaluated, or enablement efforts should be shored up. 2. Forecasting dashboard Who’s it for:Sales managers and executives KPIs to include:Teamwin rate, average deal amount, average sales cycle length, total pipeline value When to use:Weekly Why it’s important:Think of this dashboard as a weather report for your sales team. Based on the latest sales data, it can determine whether or not you’re likely to hit your overarching sales goals and coach up your reps against any potential storms. I recommend checking it weekly to spot any problems, like low lead volume or unusually long sales cycles, that might keep you from hitting your topline sales goals. 3. Sales rep performance dashboard Who it’s for:Sales managers KPIs to include:Conversion rate, total revenue generated, quota attainment percentage, activity engagement, opportunities in pipeline, customer retention rate, potential risks and neglected accounts (Can also include: Leads generated, opportunities in pipeline, average deal amount, sales cycle length, and activity metrics like calls made or emails sent) When to use:Daily or weekly Why it’s important:Rep performance is most accurately measured by three key metrics: conversion rate, total revenue generated, and quota attainment percentage. When you combine these on adashboardand view them relative to previous months, quarters, or other reps, you can see whether a rep is underperforming, performing as expected, or excelling. The other metrics noted here, like leads generated and average deal amount, can be early warning signs of neglected deals and that key performance metrics will be off. When these are below benchmark, it’s a good time to dig into calls and processes to find coaching opportunities. 4. Sales leaderboard Who it’s for:Sales reps and managers KPIs to include:Number of new leads, new pipeline generated, quota attainment percentage — all by rep (Can also include: Activities logged and service level agreement compliance rate) When to use:Quarterly Why it’s important:Most reps I’ve worked with are competitive. They’re motivated to beat their teammates by winning more or bigger deals.By displaying your reps’ performance for the whole sales team to see, you encourage them to push for the top of the leaderboard. Encourage a little healthy competition by offering added incentives for those who hit the top of the leaderboard by quarter’s end. An added plus for managers: This dashboard reveals which reps might need extra coaching. 5. Win/loss dashboard Who it’s for:Sales managers and executives KPIs to include:Win rate or loss rate, win/loss trends over time, churn rate When to use:Quarterly Why it’s important:When setting up this dashboard, make sure you add filters for industry, business size, or other dimensions so you can see where your products/services are resonating and where they’re falling flat. With this info, you can take a close look at your sales strategy and adjust product positioning for your target market. 6. Sales lead dashboard Who it’s for:Sales reps and lead generation teams KPIs to include:New outbound leads (from prospecting), new inbound leads (from marketing or advertising efforts), win rate by lead type When to use:Weekly Why it’s important:With a closer look at the source of the leads you’re bringing in and whether or not they’re converting, you can see the effectiveness of your prospecting and marketing efforts. Concentrate on the channels that bring you highly qualified leads that are likely to close and drop the leads that never make it through the pipeline. 7. Pipeline generation dashboard Who’s it for:Sales managers, sales reps, and marketing teams KPIs to include:Total pipeline value, pipeline growth rate (quarter over quarter), conversion rate (Can also include: Pipeline velocity, or how quickly a lead makes it through the pipeline, and target vs. actual pipeline) When to use:Weekly Why it’s important:For every business, a pipeline value-to-sales ratio is critical for hitting targets. The typical standard is typically 3:1, but this ratio changes depending on your industry and need. Whatever it is, this dashboard helps you keep an eye on your team’s pipeline to ensure you have enough deal dollars in the works to hit your sales targets. For instance, if you’re aiming for $2 million in revenue, you’d probably want to see a $6 million pipeline. In short, if your pipeline value is low, you’re unlikely to hit targets, so it’s probably time to start ramping up prospecting. Boost your team’s performance with sales dashboards Setting up dashboards is just the beginning. Once you have these dashboards in place, it’s crucial to review and update them every quarter to ensure their relevance. This regular maintenance allows you to get the most out of your tools, ensuring that your sales reps, managers, and leaders continuously receive the insights they need to succeed and close deals faster. But don’t worry, it’s a heck of a lot easier than viewing those metrics in sheet after sheet of rows and columns.

If you aim to deliver projects on time and within budget while satisfying all stakeholders, efficient project management is essential. But what does exemplary project management entail? What are the best frameworks, and which features are critical in the software you select? Our definitive guide to project management with LIKE.TG addresses these queries and more. You will gain insights into project management processes, optimal frameworks, and managing a project effectively. What is Project Management? Project management leads a team to achieve all project goals within specified constraints. Typically outlined in project documentation created at the project’s inception, the main constraints include scope, time, and budget. For instance, your objective may be to launch a new product, develop software, or organise a networking event. To attain your end goal, project management encompasses: Establishing goals Scheduling tasks Managing teams Monitoring progress Collaborating with stakeholders Numerous structured frameworks, such as Agile, Kanban, or Scrum, can be employed to reach your project objectives. While these frameworks take different approaches, each is focused on bringing the necessary steps to complete your project on time and within budget. Why is Project Management Important? Project management is vital as it provides the leadership, motivation, and problem-solving skills to introduce new products or services, boost revenue, and meet organisational objectives. Prioritising effective project management styles enables proactive and continuous workflow improvement, preventing mistakes and overspending. The most successful companies understand how to manage a project efficiently and productively. Who Uses Project Management? Organisations of all sizes, from large multinational corporations to small or medium-sized businesses, employ project management. Whether you are leading a team in the office or managing remote teams globally, effective project management ensures your organisation reaches its goals. Project management encompasses various project types, including (but not limited to): Product and service development Software engineering Event planning Construction projects Marketing campaigns IT system implementations Traditionally, a project manager leads the project team and is responsible for the project’s overall success, assigning tasks to team members, monitoring progress, and ensuring deadlines and budgets are met. Multiple team members can share project management responsibilities in smaller teams without a dedicated project manager. The Five Stages of Project Management Successful project management begins by designing and following a straightforward road map to set expectations. As Matt Burns, a project manager at LIKE.TG, emphasises, “The number one thing to do before initiating any project is to outline the project road map at the beginning. Because if you want to go somewhere, and you don’t have this map, you’ll probably get lost.” To help you create your road map, let’s delve into the five essential phases of project management. Here’s a high-level overview of each: Initiating In the project initiation phase, essential preparations are made to complete the work on time and within budget. This phase involves: Defining the project scope Providing a high-level project overview Establishing budgets For larger projects, a project charter or Project Initiation Documentation (PID) may be created to delve deeper into these areas. Planning and creating a clear and deliberate project plan ensures all team members work toward a common goal. During the project planning phase, you will: Select project team members Outline deliverables Estimate required project resources Determine associated activities Set key milestones and dates Additionally, you can outline your team’s project management methodology with options such as Agile, Waterfall, PRINCE2, PMBOK, Scrum, Lean, or Kanban. Executing During the execution phase, you will carry out your project plan to deliver products to stakeholders. This stage runs concurrently with the monitoring and controlling phase and may involve: Managing workflows Recommending changes Suggesting corrective actions Ultimately, it’s about maintaining control, collaborating with the entire team, and staying on track. Monitoring/Controlling Regular monitoring is essential in any project life cycle to answer the question: Where are we versus where should we be, per the project plan? Effective monitoring requires: Regular project check-ins Use of proper project documentation and tracking tools to visualise project progress. Visual and real-time monitoring is more effective. Closing The closing phase, also known as “project delivery” or project closeout, involves wrapping up all activities and delivering the final product. This handover could be to the client, an internal team, or an external stakeholder. It may include concluding contracts or agreements and conducting a comprehensive review or audit. The Four Types of Project Management Various project management types and frameworks can lead to successful project management. Choosing the right one is crucial, as it determines how you structure your team and plan and monitor your projects. Here are concise descriptions of the leading project management frameworks: 1. Waterfall Project Management Waterfall project management focuses on meticulous planning, breaking down and scheduling the entire project from start to finish sequentially. It’s best suited for teams capable of defining all project requirements upfront and comfortable with fixed deadlines. 2. Agile Project Management Agile is an iterative approach that enables quick responses to project feedback. It prioritises adaptability, collaboration, and incremental delivery, making it ideal for complex projects with evolving requirements, especially in software development. 3. Kanban Project Management Kanban focuses on continuous improvement through visualising and managing the flow of work. Tasks move across the Kanban board as the project progresses, allowing for rapid adaptation and resolution of bottlenecks. It is beneficial for projects with unpredictable workloads. 4. Scrum Project Management Scrum divides larger projects into shorter sprints, adapting to project demands as it evolves. It defines rules for team size, roles, planning, meetings, and deliverables. Eight Tips for Successful Project Management Effective project management allows companies to develop products or services, optimise operations, and provide value to customers with minimal friction and greater efficiency. To succeed in project management, follow these eight tips: Invest in the initiation and planning stages to avoid later confusion. Choose the proper framework or methodology for your project. Promote a culture of transparency and ownership to improve communication and collaboration. Define a realistic project scope to prevent scope creep. Prioritise efficient scheduling for better time management. Practice effective resource management to maximise efficiency. Engage your stakeholders and maintain strong communication throughout the project. Leverage tools like LIKE.TG to streamline project management workflows and facilitate decision-making. Start mastering project management with LIKE.TG today and unlock the potential for successful and efficient project delivery.

To gain insight into the realm of Customer Experience Automation (CXA) and its potential to shape customer expectations and enhance overall satisfaction, it’s essential to explore how businesses employ automation to streamline repetitive, manual tasks, mitigating the risk of human error. This is particularly vital in improving client contentment. Customer Experience Automation, or CXA, leverages automation tools like AI chatbots and automated email campaigns to elevate the quality of customer interactions. CXA solutions optimise communication with both prospective and existing customers, ensuring their needs are met seamlessly from start to finish, resulting in more personalised interactions. The advantages of automating the customer experience are diverse and manifold. Furthermore, CX automation is gaining increasing popularity in the business landscape. If you’re ready to embark on your CXA journey, continue reading to delve into the world of customer experience automation. Learn how it distinguishes itself from marketing automation, understand its benefits, and discover its myriad applications within your organisation. Defining Customer Experience Automation CX automation empowers businesses to automate individualised customer engagement throughout the entire customer lifecycle, expediting communication and personalisation. Instead of relying on service representatives for daily client interactions, automation solutions shoulder much of this workload, thereby minimising human intervention and streamlining operations. For successful customer experience automation, it is imperative to incorporate the following elements: Orchestration: Utilising existing customer data to pinpoint areas where automation can be most effective, you can set up your touchpoints and communicate with clients at opportune moments. Segmentation: By categorising your audience into subgroups based on shared characteristics like demographics, shopping habits, and personal values, segmentation ensures that each contact receives content tailored to their unique requirements and at the most appropriate times. Personalisation: Personalisation guarantees that every interaction with your brand is tailored to the individual, enabled by the data collected during segmentation efforts. Automation: The ability to analyse customer data and harness it to automate communication processes. Recognising that customer experience and customer service have distinct meanings is essential. While customer service represents a single instance of support when a client requires assistance, customer experience encompasses every interaction with your business. CX Automation vs. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) While CXA focuses on automating the entire customer journey, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves organising and managing client relationships and analysing interaction-derived data. These two components work harmoniously to improve customer experience and cultivate more robust connections with your audience. CRM software aggregates and evaluates automatically or manually collected information, providing a centralised dashboard for accessing client data, promoting interaction uniformity, and personalising customer engagement. With CX automation, you can leverage the insights from your CRM to automate specific interactions throughout the customer journey. CX Automation vs. Marketing Automation CXA tools are designed to guide customers through their journey from start to finish and beyond, ensuring comprehensive care at all stages of the buying process. In contrast, marketing automation primarily concentrates on enhancing funnelling efforts to progress individuals through different stages and campaigns. The Benefits of Customer Experience Automation The advantages of utilising customer experience tools include improved customer communication, enhanced operational efficiency, and fortified customer relationships. Notable benefits include: 24/7 Support: Automation tools enable customers, both current and potential, to access support whenever they require it, even outside regular working hours. AI chatbots can address common issues without necessitating human intervention. Cost Reduction: Businesses can save money and minimise operational costs by automating various requests. This efficiency allows live agents to focus on more critical tasks. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Automation can reduce response times, provide high-quality support, and resolve issues more swiftly, increasing customer satisfaction and decreasing waiting times. Personalised Communications: Automation empowers businesses to offer personalised interactions, catering to individual needs and interests through product recommendations, targeted ads, and tailored emails. Consistency: CX automation minimises friction, ensuring that customers experience a consistent journey through the buying process and perceive your brand positively, while reducing the risk of unprofessional errors. Valuable Insights: CX automation software can gather crucial information about customer preferences and needs, enhancing your understanding of your clientele. Strengthened Customer Relationships: Automated customer experiences build stronger client connections, fostering loyalty and advocacy, ultimately contributing to increased sales and recommendations. Increased Profitability: A better customer experience, coupled with satisfied customers, can boost conversions and revenue, fostering business profitability. However, human interactions remain invaluable and sometimes indispensable. Ways to Implement CX Automation With predictions suggesting that 40% of customer interactions will be automated through AI and machine learning, the importance of CX automation is undeniable. Here are some practical ways to leverage CXA within your business to stay ahead of the competition: AI Chatbots: Deploy AI and machine learning-driven chatbots to respond swiftly to frequently asked questions, reducing customer wait times. Self-Service Scheduling: Streamline the appointment booking process with self-service tools, allowing customers to schedule appointments efficiently. Automated Emails: Employ various automated emails, such as abandoned cart notifications, new subscriber welcomes, and transactional messages, to enhance customer engagement. Live Chat: Offer real-time support through live chat solutions, ensuring customers receive timely assistance outside regular business hours. Feedback Surveys: Automate customer surveys to collect valuable feedback about their interactions with your brand, facilitating continuous improvement. In conclusion, embracing CX automation enhances customer relationships and boosts sales and positions your business for success in a world where automation plays an increasingly significant role in customer interactions. While automation is invaluable, the human touch remains essential for certain interactions.

It’s no stretch to say the marketing data landscape has changed quite a bit over the past two years. For one, the ways companies collect user data have been under the microscope, and policies from Apple and Google are forcing marketing data analytics changes across the board. Also, customers are more thoughtful than ever about what information they’re willing to share and how it’s being used. Finally, scalability and personalisation have become buzzwords, but you can’t accomplish either without strong analytics – and getting that has been an uphill climb for many businesses. How are companies succeeding in this new era of marketing? We spoke with marketers from Cox Automotive and Sobeys about charting their own paths forward and how they’re finding ways to connect with customers in this complex landscape. Here’s how those companies adapted their marketing data analytics to become more efficient and improve outcomes across the customer journey. Rethink your marketing data analytics strategies The movement toward consumer privacy protections is accelerating, and that’s a good thing. However, the downstream effects of increased data collection restrictions mean various metrics — like open rates and measurement methods used to benchmark success — are no longer reliable. Because of this, you’ll need to shift your strategies. As the previous metrics of success are deprecated and customers are increasingly experience-oriented, marketers are realising how important it is to gain a more complete view of how campaigns are performing. Instead of evaluating marketing channels individually or in silos, they are assessing performance across all investments together as part of a unified strategy. Last year, 83% of marketers described their cross-channel coordination as dynamic as opposed to siloed or duplicated – up from just 68% in 2021. Marketers are also more focused on first-party data — information gained directly from the customer. Instead of relying on old systems like open-data exchanges to buy audience data, they are modernising the way they build first-party data assets through the lens of user consent. Cox Automotive has spent the past two years building a more complete picture of prospects and clients, including combining role, engagement, and product purchase data from across its brands into a centralised location. Now, their teams can target specific audiences with custom product or service messages. By unifying their data, Cox Automotive can better segment their audience and deliver more personalised messaging to their customers. They have defined value by segment and role so they have a clear idea of the problems they are solving and the messages they need to convey for each product. Use automation to free up time for smarter insights Having a clear vision for your marketing data analytics is critical for a successful marketing strategy. And building a trusted data foundation is the first step in executing on that vision. Automation can handle menial tasks like gathering and segmenting data, giving you a clear view of the information you need to make decisions. Marketers are using a growing number of different platforms in their tech stack to advertise, engage customers, deliver better experiences, and ultimately get people to convert. This complexity often leads to teams spending too much time on connecting and harmonising data to create reliable insights instead of optimising their efforts. Instead of relying on a jumble of platforms, you can invest in automated data governance to relieve your teams of manual data aggregation. This includes managing campaign naming and taxonomy, tracking requirements, data delivery, and quality assurance. A proper marketing intelligence platform facilitates data connections, with all clicks and no coding. With a platform that uses technology like automation and AI, you’ll spend less time on data prep and more time on connecting with customers. But it’s not only about connecting the data. Marketing intelligence helps harmonise it to create a consistent framework that enriches raw data: helping you find actionable insights, rather than get lost in a sea of data points. You can take this even further with automated taxonomy management, flexible harmonisation logic, and holistic data governance tools. With an accurate data foundation that evolves with the changing data ecosystem, you’ll move more efficiently and gain time back to do more testing and learning. The end result? Less wasted time trying to decipher inaccurate marketing data analytics, a better return on your investment, and happier customers. Turn insights into outcomes with marketing data analytics With access to cross-channel and first-party data, you can measure customer-based outcomes across an entire marketing journey. Then, you can use those insights to achieve your marketing initiatives. For example, instead of focusing on upper-funnel metrics like clicks and opens, marketers can optimise for downstream outcomes such as signups and purchases. Grocery chain Sobeys is using qualitative and quantitative data to improve how it measures success across the customer lifecycle. “What gets measured, gets done,” said Erika De Haas, vice president of marketing communications at Sobeys. “As we continue to build our connected full-funnel experiences, establishing clear baseline benchmarks based on all of the first-party data we have will be critical to not only connecting our experiences but driving their impact and growing our loyal customer base.” Sobeys’ strategy is to approach the sales funnel as one connected experience, with every interaction helping build customer loyalty. “At the top of the funnel we focus on which emotional benefits drive Canadian families to choose Sobeys. We research brand preference, and what matters most is brand ownership and equity,” said De Haas. “As that same customer moves through our funnel, we develop communications and experiences that provide more functional benefits, and success is more measured on transactions.” De Haas said Sobeys’ success will always be measured by the same metric: Is it providing families with what they need so they continue choosing Sobeys as their place to shop? Now, the team has new tools to achieve that metric across the customer journey. “Knowing if our customers engage with our brand at the top of the funnel but drop off in the middle will require a different strategy than if they’re engaged at the middle but drop at the store,” she says. “Monitoring our data in a holistic way will be the difference-maker that ensures we are connecting our customers with our brand throughout the entirety of their journey with us.” Connect with customers across your channels Once you have your strategy, automation, and insights all in order, the next step is putting them all together to start generating engagement across all your channels. That engagement generates more high-quality first-party data, which in turn leads to more data analysis, better insights, and even better engagements on the next go round, as your data analysis operation grows into self-perpetuating and self-improving marketing powerhouse. The first step to getting there is building connected customer journeys that guide every customer through relevant interactions across their favourite channels. That will mean different things for different businesses – maybe for you it’s about increasing engagement in your customers’ inboxes, or reaching them at the right time via SMS. But no matter what the individual steps along the way might be, you can build the perfect journey from good strategy and clean data, with AI helping your customers along the way as sort of an invisible tour guide. You can find more success on that journey by being smart about automating elsewhere. Using first-party data instead of cookies gets you lower cost conversions. Automating more basic customer communications saves time and frees up your marketers to do more big-picture work. That all may sound like a lot to manage, but with the right intelligent reporting and a connected dashboard, you can easily keep track of all of it in one place. You can get the most from your marketing data analytics when you let AI and automation eliminate the guesswork, letting you focus on your customers.

The hottest topic in service today is generative AI, especially in the contact centre. 84% of IT leaders we surveyed in a recent study say generative AI will help their organisation better serve customers, and every day we speak with service leaders who are excited about the potential for generative contact centre AI. Yet, only 24% are actually using any form of contact centre AI. What’s in the way? 66% say that their employees don’t have the right skills to successfully put generative AI to use. What’s needed is an entire redefining of the way contact centres interact with customers in this age of AI, to maximise the effectiveness of the technology we have available, while also ensuring we maintain the human touch we know customers still value in their interactions. What is contact centre AI? The right mix of customer service channels and AI tools can help you become more efficient and improve customer satisfaction in your contact centre. AI is still an emerging branch of technologies in the contact centre space, and its presence and utility is evolving at a rapid rate, however it is showing a great deal of promise in being able to increase efficiency, provide better analysis, and – perhaps surprisingly to some – personalise the customer experience. Some AI technologies that are currently being used are: Chatbots Perhaps the most obvious and visible of the AI customer service tools, chatbots can greet customers, collect any background information, and try to solve the issue they’re seeking to resolve by drawing on existing data. The challenge right now is that chatbots are great at solving simple problems, but complexity can still baffle them, so they still require the attention of a real person. Chatbots can, however, pass on the information they’ve gathered to ensure a smooth transition that many customers won’t be able to detect. Intelligent routing Contact centres have been routing their enquiries for a long time now, with customers instructed to press different numbers on their phone to be put through to different departments, but AI can take into account more complex criteria, including customer personality and information drawn from previous contacts with the business. This helps ensure the customer is put through to the most appropriate department, improving their customer experience and helping to prevent potential frustration. Intelligent Interactive Voice Response (IVR) We’ve all had that frustrating experience of telling a robot on the phone the reason we’re calling, only to have them misunderstand and ask us to repeat ourselves in perpetuity until we hang up in frustration, but IVR has come a long way in recent years. Now using natural language processing and understanding, IVR can be used from the first point of contact to collect data, identify why the customer is calling, and automate some tasks – all without annoying anybody. Live transcription and translation While the language barrier was once just that – a barrier to communication, AI can now translate in real time, allowing better access to people from diverse communities. It can also transcribe in real time, allowing participants in the call to have an immediate recorded summary. Predictive technology Based on their previous activities, AI can predict when a customer might need support in advance, allowing you to forecast and schedule customer support strategies. Automation of processes Work that was once done by your customer service representatives can now be automated by AI, including uploading summaries to a database, scheduling follow-up communications, or dialling outgoing numbers. Reporting and analysis Access to more accurate reporting, analysis and analytics can give your business invaluable customer information that allows you to take appropriate action in real time. This sort of information could help you to identify customers in danger of churning, for instance, giving you the chance to reach out to them with a compelling offer personalised to their consumer behaviour. Quality management and coaching AI can take the high touch out of quality management by automatically tracking performance, script compliance, and metrics, and providing feedback to staff members in real time. Although the contact centre and customer service landscape is in a constant state of flux as technology moves more rapidly than it ever has before, AI is already showing great value in the contact centre arena – and the best is almost definitely yet to come. How does AI fit into the contact centre technology stack? AI doesn’t compete with, nor replace, the contact centre technology stack that already exists. Rather, it’s a transformative addition to your existing stack, and it should seamlessly integrate with your systems, enhancing your customer experiences and your operational efficiency. You’ll find AI solutions that can enhance the way your existing stack operates, including your: Communication platform Customer relationship management (CRM) Learning management system (LMS) Workforce management (WFM) Quality management (QM) Business analytics. Ultimately, good AI will optimise your contact centre by helping your staff to solve problems more quickly, make data-driven decisions, and streamline the customer service experience by linking in with your existing systems. Get articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now Why is contact centre AI important? We may be just beginning to scratch the surface of the possibilities AI brings to contact centre efficiency and effectiveness, but we know that it is already opening a multitude of pathways for companies to amplify their productivity, prioritise their customers, and streamline operations. The gap between contact centres using AI and those that aren’t will only widen, as the value-driving potential of AI creates enormous advantages, including: Better customer connections: AI brings self-service avenues and gives your staff the ability to create tailored interactions. This, in turn, elevates your customer satisfaction metrics, engagement levels, and lifetime value. Increased efficiency and lower cost: Put simply, tasks that used to require a person to take the time to execute them can be done either automatically or, at least, much more quickly and with less boring repetition. That reduces handling times and operational costs, and provides a better experience for both employees and customers. Heightened security: Ever-improving fraud prevention and security AI can provide an extra safety net for your business, your business assets, and your customers, helping you to meet your compliance standards and bolstering your professional reputation. Enhanced insights: AI simplifies the process of assessing and applying massive amounts of data that your contact centres collect. You can then use this data to refine your customer satisfaction metrics and discover new commercial opportunities. Improved employee experience: While many might be concerned that AI will take the jobs of contact centre workers, what it actually does is take boring, repetitive tasks off their hands, letting them focus on the true nature of their work: personalised customer service. While some work will no longer need the human touch, AI will give your employees the tools they need to tailor their approach and give the best service possible. Using AI to elevate the customer experience- What can contact centre AI actually do? Let’s look at four key ways you can use contact center AI, along with example use cases and tips that will help you get started. Generating service responses to customers Your contact centre provides multiple ways for customers to contact your business — from phone to email to chat to SMS. While many customers still use the phone, 57% now prefer to use digital channels. Your agents staffing these digital channels need to give accurate and relevant information, reply in a timely manner, and resolve the customer’s issue quickly. So how can generative AI help? The large language models powering generative AI can automatically generate a human-like reply to any question. When grounded in your customer data and knowledge base, you can personalise these generated replies, making them more trustworthy. Agents can review the suggestions from the model and easily send. For agents working on several cases all at once, contact centre AI can be a real timesaver. Let’s look at an example for a fictional internet company we’ll call Nation-Wide Web. Jane is a Nation-Wide Web customer and notices an unusual charge to her bill. Jane opens up a chat message on the company’s website and is soon connected to an agent, Katie. Katie has a few messaging windows open from customers, one of them is Jane. Jane shares her concerns about her bill. Apparently, Jane went over her data package for the month. The contact centre’s AI tool uses Jane’s question and the context of her account status to generate a personalised message that explains this charge in an empathetic tone, but also that it’s within company policy to waive the fee given the circumstances. Katie reviews the message and confirms the policy, then sends the message and removes the charge from Jane’s account. Jane is happy she got a quick and easy solution and Katie can focus her attention on customers with more complex issues. Generating case summaries To provide your customer with a great experience, you need accurate data to track and optimise your business’ service interactions. This makes the wrap-up summary your agents do after a case is closed one of the most crucial pieces of service data your business can collect. The challenge? This is a time-consuming task that keeps your agents from helping other customers. But contact centre AI can take the most complex email and chat conversations and generate a proposed wrap-up summary. Your agent just needs to review these summaries before they’re saved to the case log. This saves agents a ton of time and effort on data entry. Let’s go back to our Nation-Wide Web example. If you remember, Katie’s AI tool generated a response to Jane and all Katie had to do was review the message, press send, and waive the fee from Jane’s account. In the meantime, the AI is using the data from the message thread and the actions that Katie took in Jane’s account to generate a case summary. After the conversation with Jane is complete, Katie can read over this proposed summary, adjust some details, and save it to the case record. Reducing after call work helps Katie move on to help other customers faster. Generating knowledge articles LIKE.TG research shows that 59% of customers prefer self-service tools for simple service issues. However, to do that, a business needs a large knowledge base that customers can search through to find a solution. Service agents are often tasked with publishing knowledge articles after resolving a case. But it takes time for agents to manually create, review, and publish an article, which keeps them from helping customers in need. Contact centre AI can automatically generate a knowledge base article after a support case is closed by pulling from case notes, message history, and data from other service tools. From there, your agent just needs to review the article to ensure accuracy and add it to the queue for approval. This takes the pressure off agents to write articles from scratch. Going back to our Nation-Wide Web example, Austin has slow internet and calls to troubleshoot. He’s connected to Tawni who asks for his router and modem details. Tawni runs through a few common scenarios based on similar cases, but none work for Austin’s setup. Tawni decides to try something new. She asks Austin to do a full-system reboot through the Nation-Wide Web mobile app. After this is over, Austin’s internet speeds are back to normal and the case is closed. Tawni logs all of this information into the company’s service console, including his router and modem setup and how she solved this issue with a reboot. Because this was a unique case, the contact centre’s AI tool uses the details of the Tawni’s conversation with Austin and the context of Austin’s issue to generate a new knowledge base article. Tawni adds some extra detail and pushes it into the approval queue. Generating answers When your agents are in the middle of a service interaction, they don’t have time to read pages of documentation or every detail of a knowledge base article. But, they still need to find the right information to solve your customer’s query. The same is true for self-service. Reading article after article to find the information you need is not a good customer experience. Generative AI can help agents and customers get the answers they need faster and easier. Rather than getting a list of pages that may (or may not) have the answer, AI can pull the relevant details from a knowledge article and answer a question directly as plain text. For our final example, we’ll go back to our Nation-Wide Web customer, Austin. A few months after his interaction with Tawni, his internet is slow again. He remembers they used the mobile app to fix the issue last time, but now he’s locked out of the mobile app. But instead of calling for assistance, he takes a look at the company’s Help Center. Austin uses the search function to ask the following question: “How do I fix a slow internet connection when I’m locked out of my mobile app?” Before, Austin would have first needed to find the article on resetting his password and then find the article on using the app to perform a full-system reboot. Now, the contact centre’s AI tool generates a personalised response to Austin’s question, pulling together information from multiple articles. “First, click here to request a new password to your mobile app. Once you are logged in, here’s how to use the app to perform a full-system reboot…” Austin solved his issue without interacting with an agent and still got a personalised experience. If an agent was the one who needed to find specific information within the knowledge hub, they’d have this same experience. By adding generative AI to your contact centre, you’re helping everyone get the most out of every service interaction. Your agents get more done with less busy work and your customers get a quick and easy resolution to their problems while having a personalised experience. What’s the best way to set up for success with generative AI? Start slowly and build your contact centre AI program out as your business skills-up on AI. For example, have your agents take Einstein Reply Recommendations for Service on Trailhead and then practice what they learn with one another. Once they’re comfortable, check out how else you can apply generative AI across your contact centre.

Field service can help drive revenue growth by selling to your existing customers, also called upselling or cross-selling. Most likely, your mobile team is already doing this without much guidance or forethought. We’ve found that 65% of mobile workers are successfully selling to existing customers. But the question is, how can you reach this audience at the right time, with the right message, in a way that doesn’t make them feel like they’re being sold to during a service visit? Here are four tips to help set you up for success: Get buy-in from leadership for upselling/cross-selling in the field Invest in the best field service management software to make sales fast and easy for your mobile team to do [AI is key] Train your field service employees and contractors on sales tactics Offer incentives to motivate your team Ready to get started? Let’s dig into each of these best practices for upselling and cross-selling in field service. Make the business case for upselling and cross-selling I’ve spent 15 years of my career in sales and sales leadership roles for software and hardware companies. Most business leaders I speak with are always looking to increase their share of wallet on customer spend for similar products. They also know that customer trust can lead to more sales. This makes the business case to use field service technicians as sellers easy to stand up with your leadership team. After all, your mobile team is in the field every day building trust with customers by solving problems for them. Paired together, monetizing every field service visit while leaning into that customer trust sets the stage for revenue growth.However, it’s not as simple as asking your field service team to sell at appointments. While your mobile workers are uniquely positioned to sell, they may not be comfortable selling, prepared to sell, or even interested in selling. Even with your leadership buy-in, there’s a lot that goes into making this transition. Let’s look at how field service management with AI, training, and incentives can set your team up for success. Use AI-first mobile field service management Your field service team needs mobile-ready field service management powered by AI to make upselling easy and fast. Here are a few examples of how having the best field service management in place can help your mobile workers sell successfully. With AI-generated summaries, you can brief your mobile workers on past service interactions, asset history, offers, and communications before they even arrive at a job site. These details can help your team prepare a consultative sales approach that’s personally tailored to the customer’s specific needs and preferences. AI can make recommendations for upgrades, replacements, or maintenance from new customer data collected on site. For easy upsells like a new battery or service level agreement (SLA), your team can instantly provide next steps. But for more involved sales, like customized equipment, let your mobile workers know it’s okay to pass the lead to Sales. AI can create a list of questions or a checklist for them to quickly capture key details for a seamless hand off. Mobile quoting lets your technicians provide pricing right in the field for a future project. Creating customized documents with a line item breakdown, images, and a signature capture makes it easy for your customers to commit on the spot. Payment capabilities within the field service management mobile app lets your field service workers collect immediately for the additional sales they make. They’ll receive credit right away and earn their incentives faster. At the end of each appointment, have your mobile workers ask your customers to fill out a digital customer satisfaction survey from their field service management mobile app. AI can analyze the post-service feedback to identify potential upselling opportunities. For example, if a restaurant chain customer says they have issues maintaining their freezers, your field service technician can suggest an SLA. Get service articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now Offer upselling training and support In addition to having the right field service management enablement, give your technicians the right training to identify customer cues and engage in upselling/cross-selling. Remember: your field service technicians are not salespeople, nor should you assume they will enjoy selling. The two roles require different skill sets, but each plays an important part for revenue growth. Train your mobile workers on sales techniques and how to look for customer cues. This can include easy upsells, such as extending a warranty or SLA, and more involved upsells like upgrading an outdated piece of equipment. Use knowledge base articles on how to sell andTrailhead, LIKE.TG’s free self-paced learning platform, to help your field service technicians get up to speed. Your field service technicians should feel comfortable with basic pre-selling best practices. One of the most critical skills is how to set customer expectations for contact from your team. If a customer asks a question that Sales is best suited to answer, the field service technician should give a specific timeframe and channel in which they will be contacted. Uncovering an opportunity and creating a lead in the CRM goes directly to Sales for follow up. This helps to create a valuable partnership between Service and Sales. The seller can progress the opportunity, and the field service technician doesn’t feel like they’re doing a seller’s job. It’s a win-win for Service and Sales. Provide career and monetary incentives When you expand the scope of any team member’s role and expectations, it’s vital to introduce consistent incentives to ramp up participation and recognize outstanding work. Deliver these rewards monthly, quarterly, annually, or on an ad-hoc basis to recognize exemplary achievements. Include sales expectations as part of your employment contracts. Clearly explain how field service technicians can earn incentives by generating leads that convert to sales. A few incentive options include: Bonuses for a number of on-the-spot sales or closed leads Paid training for career growth Extra paid time off (PTO) Pair these personal incentives with public recognition, such as a team leaderboard. At a minimum, a simple thank you and acknowledgement in a team meeting can go a long way to reinforce the results you’re looking for. Encourage your entire team by sharing growth metrics and KPIs that showcase the impact that field service has had on your company’s revenue growth. This transparency and measurement will make the team’s work feel more tangible and, importantly, it can help justify increased investment in your team’s training and incentive programs. Set up your field service team to upsell/cross-sell for revenue growth Your customers should always feel like they’re having a consistent experience — no matter who they’re interacting with. With the right field service management, training, and incentives in place, your mobile team is primed to become your organization’s new just-in-time sales team and drive revenue growth. Remember: by investing in your field service team, you’re investing in your company’s future. Tiffani Bova contributed to this blog article.

It’s true: I once fell asleep during a sales kickoff. I didn’t mean to, but nature is bound to take over when you’re sitting through the sixth presentation in a row.When I came to, I made a solemn vow: When I became a sales leader one day, I’d never throw a boring sales kickoff. Today, I’m Head of Sales at Slack, and I’ve made good on that promise (or so my entire sales team tells me).Here are my strategies for throwing a sales kickoff that captivates and energises your sales force and team for the new year. It starts and ends with a simple principle: Put yourself in your audience’s shoes, and give them something good.What you’ll learn:What is a sales kickoff (SKO)?What should be included in a successful sales kickoff meeting?How do you plan a sales kickoff agenda?Sales kickoff tips and best practicesWhat is a sales kickoff (SKO)?A sales kickoff is an event where the company’s sales team gathers together, often at the beginning of the fiscal year. It’s a chance to celebrate wins from the previous year, set goals for the coming year, and share lessons and strategies to help each other win.SKOs are all about:Camaraderie. This is the time to deepen connections that will carry us through the rest of the year.Collaboration. Team selling is more important than ever, and sales kickoffs help us sell faster and smarter when we learn more about each other’s working styles. Often a sales kickoff will include partners from other teams, like solution engineering and customer success, who are critical to the sales cycle. Building these relationships is critical to working more effectively together throughout the year.Excitement. Sellers begin their pitches by understanding the customer’s why. Same goes for sales kickoffs. My sales team is full of people who want to create generational wealth for their families, advance careers, help their customers, and gain freedom. So I create content that touches on those themes to get people excited.What should be included in a sales kickoff?A great sales kickoff includes team-building product training, recognition, interactivity like workshops and discussions, and, yes, presentations (but not too many, please). Here’s a closer look at the key elements of a sales kickoff.Team-buildingTeam-building exercises help us peel back that professional layer on the surface, and make personal connections based on rapport (“I like you”) and trust (“I feel that you have my back”). These exercises also create valuable networking opportunities, where employees and leaders from different teams can step outside their circles and connect. Here are some ideas:Rock, Paper, Scissors Extreme: Pair off and play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Every loser joins the Hype Team of the winner, following them around and cheering them on. In the end, there’s the final battle between the two finalists, with their massive Hype Teams behind them.Shark Tank Fail: Teams of two pitch their very worst business ideas to a panel of judges, and the team that makes people cringe the most is the winner.Flip the Tarp: Place groups of people on a large tarp, and ask them to flip it over while standing on top of it, without touching the ground.RecognitionWeave recognition into your next annual sales kickoff meeting to celebrate wins from the previous year and create some healthy competition to outdo each other in the year ahead. Here are some examples:Awards: Give away awards to top performers and get creative with the categories. Some examples: Achievement Award for hitting a sales record, Leadership Award for being a great manager, Growth Award for being the most improved player, Team Morale Award for bringing great vibes, and Salesmanship Award for elevating the craft.Leaderboard: Pull together data from across your sales dashboards and present a Leaderboard to show how top performers rank across sales metrics, like close rates and sales cycle length.Appreciation Shower: Group into circles of six to ten people and give spontaneous shout-outs to each other.Get articles selected just for you, in your inboxSign up nowInteractivityBring in interactive elements to make your next sales kickoff meetings more engaging and give your sales teams a chance to converse. Here are some ways to do it:Workshops: Organise people into groups and ask them to work on solving a problem together, like ideas for launching a new product, growing the business, or selling into a new industry, region, or company type. At the end, ask a representative from each group to present on what they discussed.Roundtables: Encourage everyone to join in with roundtables, which are organised conversations that give everyone a chance to speak. Typically a moderator will kick it off by introducing a topic, then go around to facilitate table by table.Panel discussion: Feature a panel of speakers who can share diverse points of view on an important topic, and include an QA that encourages audience participation.PresentationsAt sales kickoffs, you’re usually launching something new. Maybe you’re launching a new product, selling into a new industry, or tweaking the sales process. Use presentations to help the team walk out with confidence to sell, and remember to frame your content with what’s in it for them. What will help them drive the business? Dig into topics like these:Product announcements: When I’ve gotten stuck in my career, I’ve always broken through by bringing it back to basics. What are the products? What do they do? Use the sales kickoff to discuss product announcements that will help your sellers go to market.Industry trends: We owe much of our success at Slack to the fact that we speak the language of the industries we sell into. Use the sales kickoff to present on trends, risks, and opportunities in your target industries, so sellers can bring more expertise to the table when they meet with customers.Sales strategy: The sales kickoff often happens shortly after you create your annual sales plan and sales strategy at the end of the fiscal year. Now’s the time for sales leaders to present the top-line goals and tactics and get the sales team in lock-step to achieve them.Customer panel: Customer speakers tend to be the favourites at the sales kickoffs I’ve been to. It gives the sales team to hear about the product and the industry from decision-makers we sell to, and leaves time for them to ask questions.How do you plan a sales kickoff agenda?When you’re planning an agenda, find a comfortable venue with different areas to break out, set aside time and budget for group meals to come together and relax, and dream up surprises to thrill the audience, like an exciting keynote speaker they’d never expect.Here’s a sample agenda to get your juices flowing:Day 1:Breakfast and introduction. Fill up your attendees with eggs and caffeine, tell them what to expect in the coming days, and leave space for people to greet each other, shake off the nerves and the jet lag, and choose a place to sit down.Look back and look forward. Look back on the previous year and share lessons learned, including highlights and lowlights. Then, shift to the year ahead, announcing important changes and goals.Keynote speaker. Invite an exciting guest speaker, like one of your company’s most beloved executives, a customer from one of your biggest deals, or even a celebrity. For example, our sales kickoff at LIKE.TG once featured football legend Peyton Manning, who discussed how to go for growth.LunchRock, Paper, Scissors Extreme: Described in the team-building activities section, this high-energy game shakes off any afternoon doziness and helps people let their guards down.Sales strategy presentation: Make the transition from a discussion on strategy to a presentation, so sales leaders can share their vision for the year ahead.Roundtable discussion: Company strategy. Pick an important topic you’re wrestling with, like how to penetrate a new market, or which product line to invest in next, and invite everyone to weigh in.Leaderboard: End the day on a high note, sharing the top performers across the metrics you care about, and getting everyone amped up for dinner.DinnerDay 2:BreakfastProduct presentation: Get down to business with critical presentations sharing important announcements that will enable your sales team to be more effective.Customer presentation: Invite a customer speaker to share why they chose your company, what’s top of mind in their industry, and how they’d recommend you engage with similar customers in the future.Industry panel discussion: Invite a few guests to share lessons that help your sellers speak in the native accent — not just the language — of your customers.LunchFlip the tarp: Remember this one from the team-building activities section? Get the energy up by getting physical.Roundtable discussion: Customer segmentation. Group up, so everyone can share thoughts in facilitated conversations about the topics raised so far.Awards: End the day on a note of recognition, having your awards ceremony to honour your team.Sales kickoff tips and best practicesTo throw a really successful sales kickoff event, first, you’ve got to define what success looks like. At the end, ask for feedback to see how you did. It’s also important to involve the right people, and invest in seeing each other in person. Let’s take a closer look.Set goals to define successJust as we set sales targets, we have to set SKO targets. I communicate measurable goals in every sales kickoff meeting, including both long-term goals to set a vision, and also short-term goals to set day-to-day tactics to get there.Here are a couple examples of goals we’ve set at previous SKOs at Slack, using the V2MOM process pioneered by Marc Benioff.Method: Create solutions around product that solveMeasure: X% increase in cross-sellsObstacles: Organisational structureMethod: Create a holistic plan for customer success, products, and partnersMeasure: X% accounts have an account planObstacles: Enablement structureGet feedback on your content to see if it resonatesIt’s critical to gather data on how well your content is resonating. I send out anonymous surveys at the end of each SKO to ask people about what worked and what needs improvement. I also organise a small committee and ask them to take notes throughout on the good, bad, and the ugly, so we can meet after and debrief.Involve people on other termsBroaden the audience of your SKO to include anyone who’s accountable to the customer experience. For example, at Slack SKOs, we include team members from the following teams:Sales (all managers)Sales development (all managers)Solution engineering (all managers)Customer success (select managers)Industries and partner team (select managers)Meet in person if you canMy advice for throwing a virtual sales kickoff? Don’t do it. There’s no substitute for meeting in person and feeling that energy in the room. That said, sometimes a company will have no choice but to go remote with their sales kickoff. For example, you might have budget constraints or a team that’s widely distributed around the globe. If that’s you, read our complete guide for how to throw a virtual event or sales kickoff.The Met Gala? Coachella? No. It’s your upcoming sales kickoff.Some of my fondest moments from across my career have taken place at SKOs. This is the time to think big and go all out. Do it right, and you won’t just set yourself up for a successful year of sales. You’ll also create the kinds of memories to take with you long after the SKO is over.

Let’s face it: If you’re not offering personalised experiences, you’re probably losing valuable customers. However, even withcountless resources availableto improve personalisation, marketers still face many hurdles when executing their strategy. If you’re just starting this journey (or tired of hitting roadblocks), we’ve outlined some personalisation challenges to watch out for — and how you can overcome them. In ourTrends in Personalisation survey, we found that 94% of marketers say customers expect a personalised experience. Still, only 26% of marketers are confident that their organisation has a successful strategy for personalisation. So what stands in the way of personalised marketing? Obstacle 1: Lack of organisational alignment Often, the biggest factor that leads to personalisation strategies failing is a breakdown of coordination across departments and teams. Our survey found that 42% of marketers say a lack of organisational alignment is one of the biggest personalisation challenges. Customers can tell when different departments at your company aren’t sharing the same data. “If you’re not aligned, the result is that customers get a very siloed experience,” said Leigh Price, senior director of product marketing at LIKE.TG. Our State of the Connected Consumer report reveals that 56% of customers often have to repeat or re-explain information to different representatives, and 55% say it generally feels like they’re communicating with separate departments, not one company. But when that customer journey is uniform across departments, people take notice. In our report, 79% of customers say they’re more loyal to companies that provide consistency across departments. So how can you build a cohesive personalisation strategy from the start, so your customers don’t end up frustrated? Identify stakeholders for the three main functional areas of personalisation: strategy, channel execution, and product management. Then build your strategy and collaborate. Not sure where to start? Here are the stakeholders you need working in harmony and how they align with the three functional areas: You’ll need an executive sponsor to help you strategise, own the overall program and provide support. This may be your vice president of marketing, CMO, or even chief customer officer. After you develop a strategy and appoint an executive sponsor, you’ll need several stakeholders to help you implement and manage your overall personalisation program. Some of these roles include: Program manager: This person will oversee the personalisation program by managing and maintaining schedules, coordinating groups across departments, and providing resources. Product manager: Working in alignment with the program manager, the product manager will oversee the day-to-day management of the program and will act as an expert for your personalisation product. Tech lead: Although marketers can run many aspects of personalisation campaigns independently, it’s still essential to appoint a tech lead or establish a relationship with IT. They will set up the initial integration and be available as a resource when technical issues arise. Analytics lead: An analytics lead can synthesise data and owns all program insights. From the beginning, you will need this key stakeholder to stay on target, meet your goals, and innovate new approaches to personalisation. You’ll also need a channel execution team to help you coordinate and execute campaigns. They may start with one channel and then extend your personalisation efforts across channels little by little. Get articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now Obstacle 2: Not being able to access the right data Once you’ve got the departments aligned, you have to make sure they’re working with relevant data. Our report shows that 61% marketers believe the lack of data stands in the way of adopting generative AI to improve personalisation. Different teams working off different data is one of the major personalisation challenges that companies face. Organizations often have a wealth of data available to them, but marketers don’t always have access to that data. “In order to drive connected experiences, it’s important to consider all of the data we have on that individual,” said Victoria Calkins, product marketing manager at LIKE.TG. “For example, we want to know when they’ve browsed on our website or contacted customer service. As marketers, we often don’t have access to all of this data because it may live in other parts of an organisation.” Siloed data — when departments don’t have the same information — leads to disconnected customer experiences. Here are two ways you can overcome this: Break down your data’s barriers: Invest in technology that will house your customer data in one place, such as a customer data platform. This allows departments to work from the same set of data, giving them a 360-degree view of the customer journey. Start small: You may not know where to start when you have a lot of data at your fingertips. Rather than looking at all your data, focus on simple use cases to get started. “People think, ‘I can do one hundred things with personalisation,’” said Price. “But just focus on your website and simple use cases, focus on your email program, and you can iterate and grow from there.” Obstacle 3: Lack of knowledge and skills With coordination and access to proper data in place, now it’s time to ensure your department has the proper technical skills to build a personalisation strategy. Personalisation requires a team of people with both technical and creative skills. Some marketers don’t have the technical skills to deliver end-to-end personalisation, while others lack the creativity to provide relevant and engaging content. Our Trends in Personalisation survey found 43% of marketers say a lack of knowledge and skills is their most significant personalisation obstacle. Embracing technology like AI can help take some of the more routine tasks off your department’s plate, letting them tackle big issues. “We are coming out of the age of managing marketing campaigns manually, and you no longer have to do it all yourself because of artificial intelligence,” said Calkins. “Using AI will allow your marketing efforts to go further without adding extra work to your teams.” Learning about AI can help marketers move customers toward a purchase, sending messages that are relevant and timely to them. For example, you can use triggered messages, emails that are automatically sent when a customer takes a certain action — like placing an item in the cart, but not making a purchase. There is only one solution when it comes to this obstacle: investing in the education of technologies that can do the heavy lifting. Companies should empower their talent by expanding their understanding about what customers want to see, giving them the knowledge they need to overcome personalisation challenges. Obstacle 4: Finding the right mix of messaging Once you’ve got your organisational alignment, data, and knowledge bases all in order, you still need to figure out how to best connect with your customers across a multitude of channels. You don’t just want to blast them with a firehose of branded content or redundant messaging, either. The key is to speak to them on a personal level. But how do you use your customer data to scale your efforts, yet still tailor your messaging? This is where AI can help with one of the biggest personalisation challenges. It isn’t realistic for a single marketer in most businesses to keep track of every piece of outreach, content, and engagement on a per-customer basis, but it’s a breeze for a properly trained AI. With a well-trained generative AI drawing off good data, your customers will receive ongoing engagement tailored to their personal preferences, not only in terms of which content they see, but when they see it, and how often. For example, take a customer who’s mostly responsive to email outreach but also tends to jump on special offers on social media. They would see a regular content drip in their inbox, but might only encounter your messaging on social when there’s a special offer that echoes items in their purchase history. When you do it right, every interaction will feel like part of the same pleasant, ongoing conversation with a brand that recognises them as an individual, rather than just a faceless customer. It makes sure everyone gets what they actually want out of your brand, and it makes sure your brand gets the most out of your customers. Time to start overcoming personalisation challenges Personalisation is a work in progress. Tech tools are evolving, and so are our processes and skills (not to mention customer expectations). Now that you’ve identified the four top personalisation challenges, take stock of your own organisation and build a path to success – both for yourself and for your customers. Editor’s note: Brandi Holness contributed to this blog post.

Picture a scenario where your company needs more dedicated employees focused on business development. There’s no one to push you to improve, inform you about new business opportunities, monitor market changes, keep an eye on your competitors, or help you engage your target audience more effectively. Such a situation would undoubtedly hinder your success, wouldn’t it? This is why businesses establish robust business development practices and hire professionals to spearhead these efforts, among other responsibilities, to achieve growth. Business development encompasses strategically deploying opportunities across your organisation to promote expansion and increase revenue. It involves pursuing opportunities to grow your business, identify new prospects, and convert more leads into customers. Business development closely aligns with sales, as business development teams and representatives are often integral to the larger sales organisation. Despite the close association between business development and sales, it’s important to understand their distinct roles. Business Development vs. Sales While business development operates within the broader sales team, its function differs from traditional sales activities. Business development is a multifaceted process aimed at establishing and nurturing relationships with prospects, understanding buyer personas, enhancing brand recognition, and uncovering new growth opportunities. In contrast, sales teams focus on selling your products or services to customers and converting leads into clients. Business development simplifies the work of salespersons and sales managers, making their roles more effective. Business Development Managers vs. Business Development Specialists In business development, two distinct roles play complementary yet different functions: business development managers and business development specialists. Understanding the distinctions between these roles is essential for building an effective business development team: Business Development Managers Business development managers oversee the overall strategy and direction of business development efforts within an organisation. They are responsible for setting targets, creating strategic plans, and managing a team of specialists or representatives. Business development managers focus on aligning business development goals with broader company objectives, ensuring that the team works towards the company’s growth vision. They also play a key role in building relationships with high-level clients and partners. These professionals often have a combination of leadership, strategic thinking, and relationship-building skills. They are responsible for analysing market trends, evaluating the competition, and making informed decisions to steer the company’s growth. Business Development Specialists Business development specialists, on the other hand, are the front-line professionals responsible for executing the tactics outlined in the strategy. They focus on identifying and qualifying leads, nurturing relationships with prospects, and converting them into customers. Specialists are typically more hands-on and deal with the day-to-day tasks that drive growth. Their skills are geared towards communication, lead qualification, and relationship-building. They play a vital role in researching potential clients, reaching out to them, and guiding them through the sales process. Specialists are often highly trained in the products or services offered by their organisation and are adept at matching these offerings to the specific needs of potential customers. Business Development Manager and Specialist Responsibilities Although specific responsibilities may evolve as your business expands, the following list provides a solid overview of typical business development representative (BDR) tasks: Qualify leads: BDRs must identify and assess leads to pinpoint ideal prospects for your products or services. Leads are typically qualified through calls, emails, web forms, and social media. The key to lead qualification is understanding their needs and determining whether your product or software can address them. Identify and communicate with prospects: By qualifying leads and identifying individuals who match your buyer personas, BDRs locate ideal prospects and engage with them directly to gain insights into their needs and pain points. This enables BDRs to determine whether the prospect can benefit from your product or service, ultimately increasing the potential for enhanced customer loyalty and retention. Once ideal prospects are identified, they can be handed over to a sales representative (or sales manager, as needed) for further nurturing. Proactively seek new business opportunities: Proactively exploring new opportunities, whether related to your product line, target markets, potential prospects, or brand awareness, is a crucial aspect of business success. BDRs seek new business opportunities through networking, competitive research, and conversations with prospects and current customers. When a new business opportunity is identified, BDRs should schedule marketing assessments and discovery meetings with sales reps to evaluate the potential for closing deals. Stay up-to-date on competition and market trends: Staying informed about your competitors’ strategies, products, target audiences, and emerging market and industry trends is essential. This knowledge enables you to effectively identify ideal prospects and prepare your business to adapt to market shifts that may necessitate new approaches to lead qualification and audience engagement. Report to salespeople and development managers: As previously discussed, BDRs typically report to sales reps and sales managers. They communicate with these senior team members to discuss lead qualification strategies and ways to connect prospects with sales reps for nurturing customers. BDRs are also responsible for sharing their findings, including business opportunities and market trends, with sales reps and managers. This collaborative approach ensures that strategies align with business and audience needs, contributing to organisational success. Promote satisfaction and loyalty: A BDR’s interaction with a prospect may be the very first interaction the prospect has with your business. Therefore, it’s crucial to make a strong first impression to pique early interest. Whether a BDR is qualifying leads, understanding prospects and their needs, or selecting the right sales rep for deal negotiations, all interactions with prospects matter. When a BDR conducts research or engages with a prospect, personalised communication demonstrates attentiveness and care, leaving a lasting, positive impression. In addition to understanding how BDRs contribute to your growth, there are other effective business development strategies to engage prospects and discover new business opportunities. Let’s explore these ideas in detail. Business Development Ideas Innovate your networking approach: Traditional cold calls are less effective nowadays. Innovate your networking by building strong relationships with prospects. This can be achieved through face-to-face meetings at conferences, trade shows, and industry events. Leverage online networks like LinkedIn and other social platforms to connect with potential customers who sign up for your email subscriptions or complete forms on your website. Offer consultations: Providing consultations and assessments for prospects allows you to discuss how your product or service addresses their needs, helping prospects decide on conversion. Additionally, consultations and assessments may reveal if a prospect is not an ideal fit for your product, saving time and resources spent on unsuitable leads. Provide sales demos: Offer prospects and leads tailored sales demonstrations showcasing how your product or service solves their challenges. These demos can be shared in person, via email, on your website, or through video calls. Nurture prospects: Nurturing prospects through phone calls, emails, meetings, or other forms of communication is crucial. It involves providing information about your product or service, helping prospects make informed decisions, and ensuring they feel valued and understood by your company. Offer various types of content: Supply prospects with diverse content formats, such as blogs, videos, and social media posts, enabling them to learn more about your brand and offerings. Customise the content to cater to their preferences and make it easily shareable to facilitate sharing with their team members. Collaborate with marketing: While business development resides within the sales department, it should maintain open communication and regular meetings with other departments, including marketing and product development. Sharing insights, content, and information between departments ensures a cohesive strategy to engage prospects and deliver tailored solutions. Invest in your website: Your website often serves as the initial point of contact for prospects. Make it visually appealing, optimise it for search engines, link to sales content, and maintain an active blog to create a positive first impression and facilitate effective business development. Empower employees to enhance skills and knowledge: Business development is an ever-evolving field influenced by changing strategies, technology, and market conditions. Encourage employees to stay updated on industry trends, refine their skills, and adapt to new technologies. Ensure that your team receives appropriate training and education, allowing them to adapt to shifts in the market and emerging opportunities. Business Development Process A business development process combines steps your business takes to grow effectively, boost revenue, enhance relationships with leads, and excel at every stage of the buyer’s journey. By navigating your business development process, your team gains a deep understanding of your organisation’s overarching goals, sales targets, current business landscape, target audience demographics, and more. Here’s how to effectively conduct business development: Conduct extensive market research A critical business development component involves in-depth market research. Understand your market, target personas, and the current state of the market to implement other aspects of business development successfully. Increase visibility and awareness Beyond sales, your marketing department plays a pivotal role in business development. Boost your brand’s visibility by building an effective website, investing in paid advertising, leveraging social media, engaging in co-marketing partnerships with industry peers, and maintaining an active blog. Promote thought leadership Establishing credibility is vital for business development. Publishing industry-specific, insightful blog content demonstrates your expertise and fosters trust. Webinars, white papers, and video content further enhance your reputation and build trust with potential customers. Conduct outreach Actively reaching out to prospects is a cornerstone of business development. Engage with leads, actively reaching out to warm and cold leads through research. BDRs typically oversee this step, making it a crucial aspect of business development. Qualify leads Once BDRs have connected with leads, they must qualify them to gauge their suitability and decide if they are worth the sales team’s time and effort. Effective lead qualification is a pivotal moment in the business development process, indicating the overall success of the process. Provide exceptional customer service Customer service is an integral part of business development, ensuring that current customers remain satisfied and contribute to your business’s reputation and growth. Positive word of mouth and referrals simplify business development and make it more effective. Develop sales content from success stories Translate customer satisfaction into promotable sales content, including case studies and testimonials that highlight the value your product or service provides. This content is tailored to attract potential buyers by showcasing real-world success stories. By incorporating these elements into your business development approach and sharing them with your team, you can create a strategic business development plan that encourages success and growth. Let’s explore the steps involved in crafting a comprehensive business development plan. Business Development Strategy A business development plan is a strategy devised by sales managers to guide BDRs in achieving growth-related objectives. This plan aims to set realistic goals, align team members, identify prospects, and convert leads into customers. Key steps in creating a business development plan include: Step 1. Craft an elevator pitch: Create a concise, engaging elevator pitch that conveys your company’s mission and how your product or service addresses the needs of your target audience. Document the most effective elevator pitches for reference. Step 2. Set SMART goals: Establish Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely (SMART) goals for your business development strategy. Ensure these goals align with your company objectives and are specific to your business. For instance, set goals to increase the number of qualified leads by a certain percentage over a quarter, specifying the type of prospects and measuring success through conversations with sales reps. Step 3. Conduct a SWOT analysis: Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to gain insights into your business’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Analyse your competition and potential threats. Use this analysis to identify ways to grow and adapt your business to market changes. Step 4. Determine how you’ll measure success: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of your business development efforts. Common KPIs include company growth, revenue changes, lead conversion rate, leads generated, customer satisfaction, pipeline value, and reach. Step 5. Set a budget: Determine the budget required for your business development goals, considering resources, previous strategies, and operational expenses. Collaborate with your team to establish a budget that aligns with your business development initiatives. Step 6. Keep your target audience in mind: Always focus on your target audience and their specific needs. Tailor your plan to address these needs and increase the likelihood of converting them into customers. Step 7. Choose an outreach strategy: Select an outreach strategy that aligns with your business development goals, such as networking, referrals, upselling, cross-selling, and sponsorships. Clearly define expectations and guidelines for outreach to maintain professionalism and brand consistency. Following these steps, you’ll create a comprehensive business development plan that empowers your team to drive growth effectively and efficiently. Business Development Drives Better Growth Business development is an indispensable component of any successful organisation. It facilitates revenue growth, aids in identifying ideal prospects, generates more leads, and closes more deals. To reap the benefits of business development, focus on creating a robust business development plan and ensure that your team is equipped to set your business on the growth path.

How can you increase digital engagement? Anticipate your customers’ needs — and tailor your messaging to fit those needs. We found that currently 73% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. This demand for personalisation will only continue to grow. So understanding and using customer data effectively, and using AI to make the most of that data, will help you create lasting connections. But how you collect customer data will need to change, too. Third-party cookies, once a cornerstone of data collection for marketers, are slowly being phased out to improve consumer privacy protection. The good news is, there’s a blueprint for how to tackle these changes and build a digital engagement strategy that puts your customer’s needs at the centre of every interaction. Let’s break down exactly what digital engagement is, what makes it challenging, and how you can overcome those challenges with the help of AI and a strong strategy. What is digital engagement and why is it important? Digital engagement is how your company interacts with potential and current customers across digital channels. Each interaction a customer has with your company’s social media, email, and website adds up to create a unique digital engagement experience, and that experience is essential. With a robust digital engagement strategy, you can build customer relationships that last. Digital engagement examples Using self-service options for questions, such as chatbots on a website or app Watching product tutorials on a website or via YouTube Interacting with posts on social media Searching for a service online and clicking on a website in the results Reading a weekly email newsletter or blog post Clicking a call to action button to learn more about a product from an email marketing campaign Interacting with a targeted ad on another site Responding to a customer survey, leaving a review, or otherwise volunteering their own opinion on how you’re doing Creating brand loyalty with digital engagement How do you win (and keep) the hearts of customers in a competitive market? In 2022, nearly two-thirds of customers switched brands at least once for different reasons. With so many online options, it’s easy for people to discover new brands that meet their ever-changing needs. So what’s the key to making sure they choose yours? You may think an award-winning product or an innovative service with raving online reviews is enough. It certainly helps, but over 85% of customers say a company’s digital experience is just as necessary as its product or services — the highest it’s ever been. Marketers who acknowledge and address this demand will be able to build relationships with customers that keep them coming back for more. Get articles selected just for you, in your inbox Sign up now What are the marketing challenges — and solutions — for digital engagement? These days, businesses across every industry have made their online presence a priority. Not only has our digital shopping increased, but much of our day-to-day life — from working to attending doctor appointments — also happens online. As a result, the digital space is becoming a bit crowded, which makes digital engagement challenging in a few key ways. Businesses must: Compete against an abundance of online content and ads Create a seamless experience across various new digital channels Reach the right target audience to improve ROI Stay on top of ever-changing consumer data protection laws It’s also important to remember that laws around how companies collect personal consumer data are changing. Third-party data collection, which has traditionally been an important data source for marketers, is becoming stricter and even prohibited in some states. To stay compliant and still deliver the personalised experiences customers crave, you need to ensure your data capture methods are current.To address these challenges, you can harness the power of first-party data — information that comes directly from the customer. This includes past purchase history, phone calls, website visits, click-through rates on emails, and more. First-party data is usually captured by a customer relationship management (CRM) system that helps collect, structure, and analyse data easily. Generative AI is a powerful tool, too — helping you decipher first-party data and deliver personalised content at scale. Best practices when using AI for digital engagement While many marketers have begun experimenting with generative AI and see its game-changing potential, nearly 45% told us they need to learn how to get the most out of the technology. Let’s look closer at how you can use AI for effective digital engagement. Chatbots AI-powered chatbots are not only a cost-effective way to solve customer issues quickly, but they can also help you tailor future marketing efforts. Take a clothing retailer, for example. If a customer uses the retailer’s website chatbot to complete a return and tells the chatbot the fit is too large and the colour is darker than they prefer, now the retailer has more information about this customer’s preferences. The marketing team can now send personalised and automated product recommendations via email or through ads on social platforms. Email With AI, you can take email to the next level. One well-known food retailer uses a rich database from its online recipe sites and education funding program, where users scan receipts and view recipes online or through an app. All of that data goes into the company’s CRM and is analysed. AI then makes one-to-one product and recipe recommendations for customers. AI also helps the company segment its audience to find the best time to send an email based on previous engagement history. This approach is working for the food company, helping to triple customer engagement. Content creation With an abundance of online ads, it can be tough to grab the attention of your audience. Through content marketing, brands can offer educational information through blog posts, webinars, videos, reports, and e-books to keep customers engaged in different campaigns across various digital channels. But what topics should you cover? What will lead to conversions? More than 70% of marketers are currently using AI to inspire them and assist with writing copy. A CRM with AI capabilities can also analyse content performance to determine what resonates most with your audience, enabling you to make a big impact. Targeting Of course, none of that high-quality content matters unless it reaches the right audience, and AI can help with that too. By analysing all your customer data, AI can identify preferences, habits, and interests in your customer base that would take hundreds of man hours to parse, and make sure that the right context reaches the right audience. It can also help make sure that it reaches them at the right time and place by identifying their preferred channels and what times of day they’re most responsive to marketing. Three steps for building a digital engagement strategy You’ve got the data. You’ve incorporated AI. You’ve personalised experiences. Now it’s time to set your digital engagement strategy up for success. 1. Map the customer journey Customer journey mapping is a visual representation of a customer’s experience across your brand’s platforms. Typically, marketers create a customer journey map for each of their buyer personas.Millennial personas, for example, tend to find products through social media, research about them on company websites, then make a purchase on a laptop. With this information, you can better predict and plan for prospects’ next steps across different digital channels, aligning your customer service, marketing, and sales efforts with it. 2. Lean into account-based marketing (ABM) Let’s put those customer journey maps to good use. Account-based marketing — particularly for B2B brands — helps improve the customer journey by unifying marketing, sales, and customer service around accounts. Teams work side-by-side to nurture leads to deliver personalised content at the right time. One major ride-sharing company has used this approach to send retargeting messages to different subsets of their audience, particularly those who have stopped engaging. The marketing team pushes CRM data into third-party advertising platforms to send relevant content to keep leads moving down the sales funnel. 3. Personalise the experience across every channel More than 70% of customers expect brands to understand their unique needs. Harnessing first-party data is critical to ensure personalisation for each interaction across every channel. It’s how one automotive racing giant creates a consistent and personalised brand experience across in-person events and digital channels. When fans attend an event on race day, brand representatives know the fan’s name, driver preferences, and past purchase history thanks to CRM first-party data. Post-race, the marketing team can follow up with communications on their favourite driver or by recommending merchandise from the event. It can be challenging for marketers to analyse the sheer amount of first-party data required to implement these three steps. But the right CRM can help centralise all customer data and organise it in an accessible way, so marketing teams can build campaigns based on facts, not assumptions. A strong digital engagement strategy requires understanding our customers’ preferences, behaviours, and needs. By implementing these best practices, you can show your customers that you understand them as individuals. That intimate level of personalisation is what builds the kind of trust and loyalty that keeps them coming back.

This year marked a watershed moment for the tech industry. The introduction of generative AI brought AI use to the fore, and it is now dominating the business agenda. While 2023 has been a year of AI innovation, 2024 will be a year in which AI transforms the enterprise. By 2025, AI won’t be an auxiliary technology but the core around which successful businesses revolve, ushering in a new era of unparalleled transformation.Amid this, how businesses operationalise AI will be critical next year. Businesses that fail to adapt will risk being left behind. In the year ahead, what else can businesses in ASEAN expect, and how can they get ready to leverage the opportunities in this new era of work? In my view, here are some trends that will shape the dynamic business landscape in ASEAN: #1 AI delivering a golden opportunity for ASEAN businesses to leapfrog AI has the potential to contribute nearly S$1.36 trillion to the ASEAN economy by 2030. Capitalising on the AI opportunity and new use cases across sales, marketing, commerce, and IT interactions will allow businesses to leapfrog and supercharge growth on a global stage. The time is now, especially with ASEAN being seen as a favourable business destination, amid geopolitical tensions elsewhere. Global enterprises such as Hyundai and Procter Gamble are already investing in the region with new factories and RD centres, and more are expected to follow. ASEAN countries are also making steady progress toward AI adoption, with Indonesia and Thailand recording one of the biggest improvements in overall AI readiness across the region. Much of the growth is attributed to government AI readiness, with the introduction of new national AI strategies and policies. However, business AI readiness has stagnated. The missing piece? A lack of trusted and secure tools that enable businesses to harness AI’s potential. Businesses in the region will need a trusted digital advisor, with access to trusted technology and a thriving ecosystem, to set themselves up for success. #2 Companies Need to Lay the Right Data Foundation to Leverage AI AI’s full power relies on accurate, comprehensive data, making a company’s AI strategy only as strong as its data strategy. The AI revolution has turned the spotlight on data, highlighting the need for companies to develop a robust data strategy to harness its benefits. With over 71% of a company’s applications disconnected, enterprises will need to unify data across disparate sources for AI to deliver the right predictions and recommendations. As ASEAN organisations still have untapped data, it is projected that more companies will lay the groundwork for AI by 2024. To build a strong data foundation, corporate leaders will need to prioritise data harmonisation, eliminate silos to extract value from data sources, democratise data for personalised insights, and ensure data privacy and compliance. This requires businesses to put in place strong data governance frameworks, well-defined policies for data collection, storage, and use, and constant monitoring and auditing of training data. #3 Trusted data sharing will supercharge ASEAN economies Cross-border data flows are also an essential part of building this data foundation, as they allow ASEAN businesses to tap data in a trusted manner. To set things in motion, negotiations for a new ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) began in September. This will encourage more seamless and secure data flows across ASEAN member states. With negotiations set to conclude by 2025, the next two years will be an opportune time for ASEAN to realise its ambitions for digital integration and write its own rules for data governance. A framework that makes trusted data sharing the default, without jeopardising data sovereignty, can help enhance competitiveness in the region and unlock ASEAN’s next phase of growth. #4 A new era for customer engagement: everything, everywhere, all at once Customer expectations are increasing, and competition is fiercer than ever. In this new era of customer engagement, businesses need to connect with customers through new channels and pathways and provide personalised experiences at every touchpoint. Innovations across AI, data, and CRM help businesses achieve this by providing a better understanding of their customers, and enabling personalisation at scale. In the new year, industry-specific solutions will rise in demand, as businesses seek tailored solutions to deepen their engagement with customers and build stronger relationships. For example, banks are introducing digital solutions to cater to tech-savvy customers, and innovative financial products to meet the needs of different customer segments. Banking-specific solutions can give banks a better idea of who their customers are, what financial products they have, and what more they might desire. Wrapping up the year for LIKE.TG ASEAN It has been an incredible year for LIKE.TG in ASEAN, filled with exciting milestones. As a company, we have driven incredible innovation, and led customers into the future with our combination of CRM + AI + Data + Trust. We expanded our presence in the region, with a new permanent office in Thailand and the launch of our new entity in Indonesia. This has allowed us to get closer to customers and partners in the region, and hire local talent to build our operations and deliver customer success. At the same time, we also put into action our commitment to address the skills gap in ASEAN. Our initiatives across Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have contributed to exceeding our commitment of training 500,000 women and girls in IPEF emerging economies by 2032. We’re the first out of 14 companies under the initiative to do so, and nine years ahead of schedule. And we’re not stopping either. We continue to help countries across ASEAN upskill their workforce and open pathways to jobs through our LIKE.TG ecosystem. All of this would not be possible without our amazing team at LIKE.TG, who put customers at the heart of everything we do. Our LIKE.TG team is dedicated to bringing the power of our #1 AI CRM to more businesses in the region, and I couldn’t be prouder to work alongside them to fulfill this important mission. In the new year, I look forward to working more closely with our customers, partners, and ecosystem, to support more ASEAN businesses as they embark on their digital journeys.