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Why Data-Driven Companies Are More Confident and Resilient
One year after the COVID-19 pandemic began, recovery is uneven across the Asia-Pacific region. Many businesses are uncertain about the future and the challenges it might bring.
But there are business leaders who feel optimistic about the next six months, in spite of the uncertainties ahead. These are the leaders of data-driven organisations. In data-driven organisations, leaders value data and ensure employees have access to the data needed to make business decisions.
Data-driven companies are more optimistic
More data-driven companies (63%) are optimistic about the future health of their business in the next six months than non data-driven companies (37%).
This is the most notable finding we uncovered in a recent study conducted in conjunction with YouGov. We surveyed more than 2,500 managers and IT decision makers. Our focus was on four markets in the Asia-Pacific region: Singapore, Australia, India, and Japan.
We asked business leaders across various industries about their use of data during the pandemic, lessons learnt, and confidence in the future health of their organisations. Overwhelmingly, we found that data-driven organisations are more resilient and confident during the pandemic. Eighty-two percent of data-driven companies have reported critical business advantages during the pandemic. Business leaders experienced these benefits:
Being able to make strategic business decisions faster (54%)
More effective communication with stakeholders (54%)
Increased cross-team collaboration (51%)
Making their business more agile (46%)
Bank Mandiri, one of the leading financial institutions in Indonesia, is a great example of a data-driven organisation.
At the height of the pandemic, when many of its customers faced cash flow problems, the bank turned to its data. It tapped into data sources, built data squads, and created key dashboards focused on real-time liquidity monitoring and a law restructuring programme. All within 48 hours. A Tableau solution allowed Bank Mandiri to increase flexibility in their operations, and assess customers’ suitability for their new loan restructuring program. Customers could still carry out their financial transactions and receive support with their financial and loan repayment needs.
What is troubling is that across the region, there remains a disconnect in how businesses value and use data. Only 39% of non data-driven companies recognise data as a critical advantage. But, as the pandemic has shown, a strong data culture is no longer a nice-to-have. It has become a must-have for organisations.
Explore the full dashboard here.
Investment in data skills key to gaining competitive advantage
One of the fundamental areas of focus for organisations during the pandemic is retaining and investing in their people. On this front, data-driven companies are again leading the charge. Eighty-two percent of them are eager to increase or continue their existing level of data skills investment in employees over the next six months.
Worryingly, 32 percent of non data-driven organisations have opted to either reduce or not invest in data skills at all. These non data-driven companies are at high risk of being at a disadvantage. Without the requisite skills, it is hard for employees to make data-informed strategic and tactical decisions.
Zuellig Pharma, one of the largest healthcare service providers in the region, is deeply committed to investing in data skills training. The company has Tableau and automation training, as well as self-directed learning on its online Academy. These efforts have paid off well during the pandemic.
At Zuellig Pharma, even ground level staff such as warehouse operators demonstrate data competency. They can review and analyse data using Tableau and understand how warehouse processes map against business goals. An empowered workforce gives the organisation more confidence in planning, preparing, and overcoming new operational challenges brought about by the pandemic.
Start building business resilience with data analytics now
Economic recovery remains uneven and there is much uncertainty across the region. It is more important than ever for business leaders to build operational resilience and business agility with data insights.
Actually, becoming a data-driven organisation does not require dramatic changes right off the bat. Business leaders can start with data that already sits within their organisations. They can also empower their employees with the necessary data skills and tools. Over time, business leaders can work towards building communities centred around making data-first decisions.
Look to data-driven organisations like ZALORA for inspiration on how to drive organisational transformation with data. Data enabled ZALORA to diversify its product offerings and unlock new revenue streams, even amidst the pandemic. In 2020, it introduced TRENDER, an embedded analytics solution, which gives brand partners on its platform real-time insights and trends on sales performance. That’s how ZALORA stayed relevant and competitive in the retail scene.
Find out more about our YouGov research and how to get started on your data journey here.
Another version of this post appeared on the Tableau blog.
13 Trailhead Badges for Your Best Start To 2021
A little while back, we suggested a few Trailmixes that would help you on the Road to Ranger. This time around, we’re all about preparing for the ‘next normal’ – we’re yet to see what 2021 holds, but we do know a few sure-fire ways to head into it as strong as possible.
Create space for success
Most of us have spent the better part of 2020 (was there actually a better part?) working at home – we’ve settled into the spare room, the dining table, whatever corner we can make work, increased our data plans, and gotten on with it as best we could.
I’ve been delighted recently to see what our amazing community has gotten on with throughout this year – check out #TrailheadTaughtMe on Twitter to see for yourself!
Now, as we wrap up 2020 and move towards a more flexible version of “normal”, we need to optimise these spaces for the long-haul of hybrid working, so we can stay productive and motivated while we work from anywhere.
So we’ve made a Trail for that – Succeed from Anywhere During COVID-19 is all about doing old things in new, better and sometimes surprising ways. These include simple but powerful processes around email, calendar, and time management.
Showcase your experience
You never know what’s around the corner, particularly in such an unpredictable environment. The only way individuals can mitigate risk is to be in the best position possible when opportunity comes along.
In terms of the latter, there could be a new opportunity in your organisation or with a new employer, or a chance to spread your wings and head into a new market, industry or territory.
To take advantage of such potential opportunities, it’s vital to be prepared. Start with the LIKE.TG Skills and Experience Building Module, which not only showcases your ability to analyse a business challenge and identify a specific problem, but clearly demonstrates your creative and strategic problem-solving talents.
Then, why not Build an App to Track Your Trailblazer Journey? This serves a number of powerful purposes. It demonstrates your technical confidence, sharpens your app-building skills, deepens your knowledge of and familiarity with the LIKE.TG ecosystem and, of course, results in an app that will be enormously practical throughout your Trailblazer journey.
Of course, if you’re serious about taking advantage of new opportunities you’ll want to rev up your resume. For this, you’ll benefit from the Resume Writing Strategies Module, which teaches you how to choose the best structure, represent your skills in the strongest possible way and add unforgettable finishing touches to your curriculum vitae (CV).
Once that’s done, it’s time to supercharge your CV by Building Your Personal Portfolio on LIKE.TG. This Module will lead to you having your very own site that shines a spotlight on your unique and highly valuable talent.
Finally, spend some time on the Career Development Planning Module to help you recognise what options you might enjoy and where to identify your next opportunity.
Become a data buff
As more organisations start considering themselves “data companies” – rather than energy companies, retailers, or banks – data analysis skills will become even more highly sought after across all functions.
Data is only as useful as its analysis and the insights that can be gained from it, so this is an excellent time for you to learn to use Tableau to prepare and visualise your data, and share insights from it, in The Tableau Workflow module.
Sharpen your business analysis skills
LIKE.TG Business Analyst: Quick Look teaches you all about what’s involved in the LIKE.TG Business Analyst role. And the Essential Business Analyst Skills Module will inform you of the vital skills required to drive projects successfully, and how you might best develop those skills.
Further learning around business analysis can be had in the Business Analyst Best Practices Module, and the Admin BA Job Comparison: Quick Look Module will teach you the differences between LIKE.TG admins and LIKE.TG business analysts.
All of these Badges can lead to fascinating new opportunities, within your own workplace and elsewhere. It all helps to make you a more valuable employee – never has the need for multi-skilled workforces been more pressing.
Beef up your security status
During the pandemic, cybersecurity was one of the top concerns for large, medium, and small organisations across all industries – and it became far more complex to manage with a distributed workforce.
Two of the most powerful Trailmixes for those who’d like to boost their security ratings are Get Started with Cybersecurity and Cybersecurity Resources During Covid-19. Both offer a mass of valuable learning around personal and professional digital security matters, intrusion analysis, social engineering, threat intelligence, cybersecurity career paths, and much more.
Use this time to upskill via Trailhead and you might remember 2021 as the year your career took a fabulous new turn.
These are the top badges we’ve picked for your 2021 prep, but there are so many more to choose from. That includes a raft of new Architect badges. Head over to Trailheadand get inspired!
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
3 Success Stories of Digital Transformation in Asia
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. Every month, she highlights three small businesses in Asia that use LIKE.TG to overcome business challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present significant challenges to businesses across Asia. Success in the new normal requires the agility to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing business and social environment. For these three innovative businesses, that has meant embracing organisation-wide digital transformation. Here’s how they have digitally transformed to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.
1. Oneworld Alliance Logistics
Since the company’s launch in 2003, Manila-based Oneworld Alliance Logistics has rapidly developed into one of the largest logistics companies in the Philippines. In fact, the company has achieved double digit year-on-year growth for most of its 17-year history. Now, Oneworld Alliance Logistics is embracing digital transformation to continue building on that success.To do so, the company has replaced paper-based processes with new digital workflows. This involved building and deploying new custom financial systems on Sales Cloud as the company’s new customer relationship management (CRM) software.
The results have been impressive. Oneworld Alliance Logistics has achieved a 50% improvement in the efficiency of its administrative processes. The company has also seen an 85% to 98% improvement in the efficiency of its back-office processes.LIKE.TG has also been instrumental in helping the company maintain operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This was particularly challenging with restrictions in the Philippines that forced the company to send half of its workforce home. “LIKE.TG has given us the ability to adapt as fast as COVID-19 is changing the business landscape,” says Miko Sumagang, Technical Adviser at Oneworld Alliance Logistics. “Gone are the days when our employees would have to physically walk between departments carrying paper slips. Digitalisation limits physical interactions, which of course is paramount to preventing workplace infections.”
2. Myra (OIB Group)
Malaysia-based Myra is more than your average property development company. It is in the business of building happily ever afters.For Ken Goh, Head of Marketing at Myra, that means creating customer experiences that extend far beyond the pre-sales pitch. “Purchasing a home off the plan is not as tangible as buying an existing home,” he says. “Our customer lifecycle can be up to three years. We want to support our customers through their entire journey with us.”However, managing complex customer journeys was difficult with the company’s cumbersome paper-based customer management system. Goh knew that digital transformation was the way forward. He secured Sales Cloud for customer segmentation and Pardot for marketing automation.“With LIKE.TG, we are now able to act more as a consultant than a standard property developer. We can provide advice and support throughout the entire customer journey, from finance to interior design,” he says. “That has helped to reduce our drop-off rate from 6.7% to 1.45%, while achieving a 65% to 70% reduction in the cost per lead.”Goh says that the company’s LIKE.TG deployment has made it possible to continue operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even when Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO) meant that the company had to send 300 employees home on short notice.“LIKE.TG made that pivot possible,” he explains. “Construction had to be shut down, but most of our other departments were able to jump right back into work and operate at 70% to 80% efficiency throughout the MCO. That translates to about MYR$82 million worth of sales bookings from the middle of March that we might not have been able to close without LIKE.TG.”
3. BAYA
After transforming Vietnam’s furniture industry with a super-store business model, BAYA is now embracing digital transformation to drive the company’s next chapter of innovation.“We have a lot of competition now and a very aggressive vision for growth,” says Vu Anh Nguyen, General Manager of BAYA. “It’s not enough to compete just on furniture design any more. We need to provide the best customer experience available, and we’re putting the technology in place to achieve that.” That has included the deployment of LIKE.TG Customer 360 to integrate data from multiple customer databases. BAYA uses Sales Cloud to increase transparency, speed, and efficiency across the sales pipeline. They deploy Quip to boost customer collaboration in the interior design process. Finally, they use Marketing Cloud to drive lead generation and personalise service journeys.This organisation-wide approach to digital transformation paid dividends quickly. The team at BAYA secured a major account within two months of their Sales Cloud deployment. “A client needed to furnish 40 apartments across two floors of an apartment building. She came into a BAYA store in the afternoon and we were able to get the design draft out to her that night,” says Nguyen. “She was impressed with our speed and we closed the deal the next day. Just that single account represents a 3,000% return on our investment in LIKE.TG.”This strong commitment to digital transformation has also helped BAYA bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s post-pandemic growth rate is stronger than ever. BAYA opened a new store in Bac Ninh in early July, and has plans to open two more new stores in the coming months.
The trail to growth can have lots of twists and turns. The Small Business Growth Kit helps to make the trek easier with tips on how to plan a path forward and prepare a sales pitch. There’s also a list of indicators that can help businesses decide when it’s time to invest in new tech.Download The Small Business Growth Kit here.
How To Break Down the Complexity of B2B Commerce
While the last year has brought unprecedented change to how we work and connect with our customers, customer experience remains a key differentiator.
For the Fourth Edition of our State of the Connected Customer report, we surveyed over 15,000 global consumers and business buyers. Four-fifths indicated that they place the same emphasis on flawless engagement as they do on product quality.
The percentage was even higher amongst business buyers. These individuals no longer want to be treated as an entity. They have come to expect a personalised customer experience that is just as intuitive as what they would get when buying a pair of shoes or a jacket online. It’s an important reminder that while B2B purchases can be complex, the buying journey need not be.
Here’s how LIKE.TG can help make the B2B buying journey as straightforward as possible:
Simplifying customer engagement
Technology has fundamentally changed customers’ expectations. Our latest State of the Connected Customer report revealed that 65% of business customers prioritise convenience over brand. It also found that 66% of business customers prefer personalised products and services.
These demands are putting digital technology at the forefront of B2B selling. We see many businesses transform processes like quoting and pricing. One of these is PLDT.
PLDT is a leading Philippines-based telecom operator that serves both businesses and consumers. The Enterprise Business within PLDT is transforming digitally with LIKE.TG , with the aim of simplifying customer engagement.
“We want to make a positive impact on every single business. To do that, we realise that we first have to make an impact on the people of our organisation. That’s why we have endeavoured to drive our vision forward with a digital transformation that will allow us to simplify the complex for our organisation and likewise for our customers,” said Jovy Hernandez, Senior Vice President and Head, Enterprise Business from PLDT.
The first step in PLDT’s digital transformation is consolidating all customer needs onto a single platform in order to streamline operations and serve customers better.
PLDT also plans to digitise proposal and contract generation. Leveraging LIKE.TG, the sales team will be able to prepare proposals faster. The team will also have access to a product catalogue that highlights all solutions that are suited to a customers’ needs. Customers will be able to sign contracts digitally and receive the solutions they need more quickly.
Making online buying easy
Changes in customer behaviour are also accelerating the growth of B2B ecommerce. LIKE.TG B2B Commerce can help businesses take advantage of this shift and offer more consumer-like buying experiences. These include seamless online ordering and purchasing recommendations that can be tailored to each customer in real time.
LIKE.TG B2B Commerce was recently evaluated by Forrester in The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Suites, Q2 2020. LIKE.TG was found to be a leader amongst 13 B2B commerce suite providers.
LIKE.TG received the highest possible scores in the criteria of business intelligence and analytics, content and offer personalisation, and product and service configuration. It also scored on-par with other vendors in the criteria of promotions and order and inventory management.
The Forrester report described LIKE.TG as a “powerhouse for end-to-end customer engagement solutions centred around its CRM.” It also said “LIKE.TG is above par in its approach to the market, setting strategies that speak to customer needs and delivering (as promised) with reliable technical and support resources.”
Access the full report here to learn more about why LIKE.TG has been named a leader. You’ll also find guidance on what to look for in a B2B commerce solution.
Meet Gratiano Yeung: Transforming Service by Delighting Customers
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this series featuring Trailblazers who are LIKE.TG customers, Nichola introduces Gratiano Yeung (Grat) from Roojai.com, the most visited insurance website in Thailand. With service in her blood and technology driving her dreams, Grat has become one of Asia’s most respected Chief Customer Officers (CCOs).
For 14 years in her birth city of Hong Kong, Grat walked the beat as a volunteer with the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force. On the streets and wearing her uniform, she learned the true meaning of service.
“Hong Kong is one of the safest cities in the world – the crime rate is very low. So, the role of the police is more about providing services and solutions,” says Grat, now Chief Customer Officer at Thai insurtech Roojai.com.
During her years in the police force, Grat also manned the phones in the Regional Command and Control Centre – liaising with police, firefighters and paramedics following emergency calls. In the last four years, she was serving at Inspectorate level and was a Patrol Sub-Unit Commander.
Policing was a volunteer role. Her paid work was in customer service.
“I graduated in 1998 with a Finance degree, but this was just one year after Hong Kong was returned to China, so there was also a big financial crisis and it was not easy to get a job,” she says. “By chance, I went to a start-up and was employed as an agent in their contact centre.”
For two decades, Grat worked her way up in customer service. She managed, designed, and implemented new technological systems for contact centres.
“I think it’s in my blood,” she smiles. “I’m passionate about delivering very good customer experience. When you’re able to help someone, you always feel joy and happiness.”
A cultural exchange
Grat moved from Hong Kong to Pattaya in Thailand with her family for the job with insurtech Roojai.com.
The change in culture prompted a change in management style, and presented an opportunity to rethink Roojai.com’s service operations. In Thailand, Grat says, people work quite differently to Hong Kong.
“That has pushed me to think about how I can implement technology better for different cultures,” she says. “For example, I developed more automation to increase efficiency. By automating more workflows, we streamlined collaboration across the team.”
Grat had the perfect career background to develop such a system. From helping citizens on the streets of Hong Kong, to helping car and motorcycle insurance customers on the streets of Thailand, Grat’s service journey has always involved a delicate balance of human connection and technological wizardry.
Technology makes us better humans
The systems Grat has helped to implement, for her team and customers, are now revolutionising the automotive insurance industry.
Grat’s service team utilise LIKE.TG solutions to ensure absolute personalisation of every customer interaction. They also use artificial intelligence, via the smartphone cameras of customers, to make the insurance claims process easier and quicker, and far cheaper for the business.
“People’s expectations are getting higher and higher,” she says. “Contact centre staff must proactively figure out what else they can do to provide better innovation or better solutions for our customers.”
“For example, Roojai.com is the first online company for car insurance in Thailand to offer video car inspections after an accident. We don’t need to send a surveyor to inspect the car. This is built into the app with AI.”
“With this, the customer saves time and we save time, effort, and money. From an operational perspective, every time we send out a surveyor it costs about 600 baht if it’s in the Bangkok metropolitan area, and upwards from 1,000 baht in upcountry regions. Every month, we cover 3,000 to 4,000 inspections. So, imagine how much we save using this technology.”
Great leaders transform processes and people
So, is Grat a customer service leader who also implements technology, or a technologist who also works in customer service?
Actually, she’s neither, she says.
“I’m a transformer,” Grat explains. “Previously, I worked in call centre operations, but now I create innovative solutions, not just for our customers but also for our agents and other users.”
“My vision is to share my knowledge on contact centre innovations. I’m looking forward to being an impactful leader in the contact centre industry and helping more agents to deliver value-added service to customers.”
Infographic: What Customer Connection Means Now
The COVID-19 crisis has shifted customer expectations radically, rapidly, and permanently. Digital capabilities have become imperative, and offer an opportunity to build a precious resource: trust.
We spoke to more than 15,000 consumers and business buyers about the unprecedented shifts in customer expectations and behaviour. This infographic sums up what they told us about trust, data, and their expectations for customer experience and post-COVID-19 digital initiatives:
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Meet Francisco N. Collantes Jr. : Deliver Energy Through Collaboration
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. In this new series featuring Trailblazers who are LIKE.TG customers, Nichola introduces Francisco N. Collantes Jr. (Cookie) from Meralco, the Philippines’ biggest energy company. Cookie is a natural and dynamic project manager, with a passion for quality customer service.
Francisco N. Collantes Jr. (Cookie) beams with enthusiasm for his most recent role, and well deserved promotion, as Head of Customer Interaction Management with the Philippines’ power utility giant, Meralco. Since graduating with a degree in Business Management fifteen years ago from Ateneo de Manila University, Cookie has had an action-packed career full of hands-on experience and a few interesting twists and turns along the way.
A date with data
Cookie’s interest in business was initially broad, but his career motivation has always been clear. “Delivering exceptional customer satisfaction and improving the quality of everyday life through our products and services has always motivated me,” he says.
“I’m not a tech guy. I’m not even a programmer!” Cookie says. But in his first role with Meralco as a Business Analyst, he gained an appreciation for data and programming. He recognised that clever use of data made an impact on both customer satisfaction and business results. And as proof that he was putting his new knowledge to good use, Cookie moved into a more senior role as Relationship Manager.
“I managed relationships with some of our key channel partner accounts, and trained in project management,” says Cookie. “This was where I really began to understand data modelling and technical architecture. It was also where I came to know LIKE.TG.”
Having the right tools for the job
The billing system Meralco worked with five years ago was also its CRM system. The CIO at the time decided that a cloud-based CRM platform, rather than the existing on-premise system, would help better understand and service customers.
“It was an all-hands-on-deck digital transformation for us,” says Cookie, “I led the pilot project implementation as we moved from on-premise to a cloud CRM solution.”
From there, with additional training, Cookie transitioned into a critical Project Management role. “The move to project management became a natural fit for me,” he says. Cookie’s innate ability to lead teams and projects through to completion was recognised by his leaders and, as a Project Manager, he was able to deliver results right to the frontline of customer service – a powerful motivator for him.
Cookie says he couldn’t be more pleased with the decision to upgrade the CRM. “LIKE.TG suited our needs on many fronts,” he says. “Our energy is no longer taken up with trying to make backend systems work. Because we now have such a seamless system, we can concentrate on moving our customers into the digital space. This is really exciting to me.”
Success built on collaboration, leadership and learning
Cookie mentions that collaboration is a key ingredient for success when leading his project teams. “People have unique capabilities and talents. We have to work as a group to deliver the best results,” he says.
“I rely on the great collaboration between our tech teams and our customer-centric teams. It’s not business dictating technology, nor technology dictating what the business needs. Rather a true collaboration that leads to success.”
Cookie credits inspiring leaders with the team’s success and his own career development.
“Having good leaders – and being a good leader – makes all the difference to a person’s success,” he says. “Rather than claiming to be an expert in a particular field and expecting people to follow, the team leaders I’ve been fortunate enough to work with were at the top of their careers. They generously shared their learnings with me.”
Focused on continual learning along the way, Cookie advises those working their way up in their careers to have an open dialogue with their leaders about mistakes and lessons.
“After every project, whether it has been a success or failure, always track the lessons learned,” advises Cookie. He notes that there are often many unknowns going into a project, which makes it so energising, but also provides so much opportunity for learning and growth.
“Take a step back and analyse the success metrics. What went well? What didn’t go so well? And then map the way forward.” Taking the time to reflect and learn from each task, project, or activity is a guiding principle that has made Cookie a highly successful project manager and an inspiring leader.
Watch Cookie’s session at LIKE.TG Live: Asia to hear more about the projects he leads at Meralco.
SMB Blog Series #1: Meet 3 Agile Businesses Growing in Challenging Times
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. Every month, she highlights three small businesses in Asia that use LIKE.TG to overcome business challenges.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought some activities to a standstill over the past few months, many businesses across Asia have moved into high gear to meet the crisis head-on. From the rapid activation of working from home to pivoting to help customers in this new normal, the speed of the response has been impressive.
Here are three fast-growing businesses who have helped set the pace in Asia.
1. Roojai.com
Roojai.com provides drivers in Thailand with simple, affordable, and reliable online insurance. Today, it is the most visited insurance website in the country with roughly one million visitors per month. Supported by their CRM, the business has put customer needs at the heart of its operation and has achieved more than 250% year-over-year growth.
Just before the pandemic, Roojai.com began planning for a 24/7 support model which involved some call centre employees working from home. So when COVID-19 reached Thailand, the business had already planned for the logistics of remote work and quickly mapped out a plan for half of their workforce to work from home. As the impact of the virus spread, the business accelerated that plan and moved everyone out of the office to remote work in less than two days. With Roojai.com’s call centre and claims process managed within their LIKE.TG CRM and easily accessible from home, all that had to be done then was help employees with their home internet and computer set up. Roojai.com maintained service levels throughout this time with up to 98% of calls picked up within 20 seconds.
Now as they transition to slowly moving teams back into the office they are also adapting their workplace to maintain social distancing. This includes minimising contact with customers by using their video claim service powered by LIKE.TG and SightCall from the AppExchange, instead of face-to-face service visits. Their longer term plan is to make customer service available 24/7, so the lessons learned from the past few months will be used as the night shift continues to work from home. In addition, Roojai.com managed to identify opportunities for new insurance product lines during the COVID-19 lockdown, and are now able to provide customers with greater peace of mind.
2. Zenyum
Within the last two years, Zenyum has built the fastest growing smile cosmetics brand in Asia with operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Offering dental services and products like invisible braces, Zenyum provides customers with a highly personalised experience to guide them on their smile journey.
During the pandemic, dental clinics have had to close for some time, leaving Zenyum unable to book customers for consultation or treatment. As a result, Zenyum pivoted to focus on client experience at the beginning of their dental smile journey. They initiated early conversations to understand treatment goals and how they could help. While switching to a complete, remote-first culture, Zenyum also created a COVID-19 tag in their CRM, so they could identify customers who needed extra support or a flexible plan. Capturing all this information in LIKE.TG means no leads were lost and prepares them to help customers move forward in their smile journey once clinics reopen. Meanwhile, themanagement team was able to monitor efficiency in dashboards and support employees as they worked to maintain their service levels while working from home.
3. BINUS University
BINUS University is one of Indonesia’s largest private universities, serving more than 45,000 students across a growing network of campuses. The university is driven by a commitment to help students achieve their dreams so they can go on to enrich society and help improve quality of life for all Indonesians. In line with this commitment, the university has been using LIKE.TG to digitise its operations with a focus on enabling student success.
This ongoing digital transformation has supported BINUS University’s incredibly agile response to COVID-19. In mid-March the university had to close its campus due to the pandemic and subsequently asked all of its students from outside Jakarta to go home. With 150 employees already using LIKE.TG, teams were able to transition to work from home while helping facilitate students’ transportation needs and managing essential communication. Dashboards and analytics in their CRM tracked their key performance indicators (KPI). And where the university was able to identify financial or personal difficulties for students, they have been quick to pause irrelevant communications.
During this period, BINUS University has continued to employ security workers and other staff who are unable to be on campus to work. However, the impact of the virus has left many people unemployed and through a special grant from the government, 1,300 have so far signed up for future programs run by the university.
LIKE.TG is committed to helping all businesses navigate through this time with agility. So if like these three businesses, you face new challenges in meeting the needs of customers and employees, see how LIKE.TG Care can help.
For more stories of successful small businesses in Asia, see these posts from our SMB blog series:
3 Companies Using Technology To Enable Business Growth in ASEAN
3 Examples of Successful Digital Transformation in Asia
Top 5 Trailblazer Tips – in GIFs
At LIKE.TG Live: Asiawe were lucky to have so many Trailblazers sharing their insights, advice, and expertise with us.
Here are some top tips from our customers in Asia ondata quality, business intelligence, relationships, support models, and more. Enjoy!
Avis Easteal, Regional Head of Consumer, APAC at Luxasia, shares how the luxury beauty retailer increased data capture and data quality, and is using that data to build deeper relationships, improve customer experience, and upsell. |Watch the full video >>
Jasmin Lau, Executive Director at Singapore Global Network, on how her team codifies all of the organisation’s relationships to increase the relevance of every interaction – and how they started small to build these capabilities and skills. |Watch the full video >>
Francisco Collantes Jr – or ‘Cookie’ – Head of CRS Program Management at Meralco, on the trends driving change and how the forward-thinking energy distribution company continues to transform and innovate. |Watch the full video >>
When Anantara Vacation Club started offering service via WeChat, more than half of its Chinese customers – or ‘owners’ – selected this platform within three days. Matthijs de Man, Director of Club Services and Innovation, on why channel choice and real-time engagement is vital to Anantara. |Watch the full video >>
With one in three residential households and half of active companies as monthly billing customers, and having transitioned to a digital company, Hong Kong Broadband Network can nowuse its incredible reach for good. NiQ Lai, HKBN Co-Owner and CEO, shares more. |Watch the full video >>
Explore the Dreamforce To You 2020 sessions you may have missed, or watch your favourites again, over here.
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
8 Retail Trends and Predictions for 2021
Over the last 12 months, organisations were really scrappy, and now it’s time to lean into automation, scale, and efficiency to harden much of the innovation that has been held together by baling wire and masking tape. 2020unraveled many of our retail trends and predictionsentirely — and taught us important lessons about the resilience of retailers.
Among the many eye-opening moments that happened as a direct result of the pandemic, digital shopping saw an unprecedented50% year-over-year (YOY) increase in revenueover the holidays. And those retailers with creative pickup options – curbside, in-store, drive-through – grew more than 60% higher than those that didn’t during the last five days before Christmas. Meanwhile, shoppers turned to social media for more than just inspiration: purchases from a social channel referralskyrocketed 104%. And we’re just getting started.
Given the massive disruption and changing consumer expectations due to COVID-19, retailers are looking to accelerate digital transformation. In fact, based onour researchof 500 retail leaders last summer, 76% plan to increase technology spend, and 44% plan to increase their human resources.
I’ve asked our LIKE.TG thought leaders to put together observations from an expectation-shattering year and their best ideas about what it all means for retail industry trends. Among the common themes: the continued rise of digital, a shift in the role of brick-and-mortar locations, the rise of loyalty, and the value of experience. Here’s what they had to say.
1. Shopping at the edge endures — and expands
Anna Rosenman, Vice President Marketing, Commerce Cloud, and Experience Cloud
When we launched ourState of Commerce Report, we saw that 66% of high performers in retail had replaced aspects of the physical shopping experience with digital. More than 70% also experimented with live chat, video, livestreaming, and social shopping. At LIKE.TG, we call this phenomenon “shopping at the edge.”
Looking ahead, with 88% of high performers reporting that they are investing even more in digital experiences, we expect to see commerce become prevalent in newer channels, such as online gaming. We will also see businesses that previously were highly reliant on in-person selling embrace digital as a means of reaching existing and new audiences.
In addition, I believe that in 2021 thepost-purchase digital experience— from convenient payments to embedded service and loyalty — will become priorities as brands work to keep their customers. Additionally, the data captured beyond the buy button will enhance the broader customer journey. Thisfirst-party datawill help retailers better segment and personalise marketing to capture new audiences, deliver a more intelligent commerce experience, and increase the lifetime value of customers.
2. Coherent storytelling will win the social commerce game
Vinod Kumar, Product Management Director, Commerce Intelligence
As Anna Rosenman mentions above, the biggest takeaway from 2020 was increased universal comfort with online shopping for almosteverything. Capabilities that were considered nice-to-have just a few months ago suddenly became essential for survival. “Contactless” and “curbside” come to mind.
The big revelation was social commerce. While TikTok’ers were chasing their 30 seconds of fame shuffle-dancing to siren jams, all the major social “walled gardens” rolled out some form of commerce capability.
My prediction is that coherence is the one key difference between winners and losers in the upcoming retail gold rush to social; the difference between fad chasers and tastemakers.
Brands that deliver great products with amazing experiences on social, anchored by coherent storytelling and a narrative that’s consistent with their brand ethos, will win. Those that jump in with random acts of content, won’t.
3. Physical experiences will snap back, but digital will remain the priority
Matt Marcotte, Senior Vice President, Industry Go-To-Market
2020 was a year of forced change — building new muscles, trying new channels, and replacing physical contact with digital connection. It accelerated change that was already on the horizon, but its artificial nature will result in some snapback once we are able to go back out in the world. We’re also likely to see an even greater reliance on technology to make our lives easier, more convenient, and frictionless. But physical experiences are still critical. Touch is a powerful factor in creating emotional connection — and the one sense that has been most repressed during the pandemic.
Brands need to divide their store strategy into two lanes: efficiency and experiential. Efficiency is about using stores as mini-distribution sites for buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup. Make the last mileeasier for customers, and connect the digital shopper with product and services. Experiential is about creating a moment that inspires, excites, and takes the customer on a multisensory journey that builds brand affinity, advocacy, and amplification. Existing stores, pop-ups, brand collaborations, and events are some areas brands can focus on to create distinctly emotional experiences.
Despite this return to shopping in stores,“digitally enabled” is still the way of the world, period.On average, we spend 12 hours a day connected to technology— essentially, most of our waking hours — which means that we are constantly influenced by our computers, digital screens, and mobile devices no matter where we are. Brands need to embrace this reality and build experiences that connect all touchpoints to complement each other without competing.
Imagine shopping in a store as your phone serves up information about a product you have been looking at online. You’re directed to the aisle where it’s located, making it easier for you to buy and enable your purchase. Now imagine playingFortniteand dressing your avatar in real-world designer gear through the game – and then being able to purchase those items for yourself from those designers as you play. That type of synergy is the future, and the brands and retailers that can find ways to use technology to connect the customer experience will win.
4. Personalisation is the new black
Alex Drinker, Global Leader, Retail Go-To-Market
2020 changed the retail industry forever. The massive surge in digital forced the industry to look at everything from its supply chain to its customer engagement tech stack. In almost every case, retailers found gaps in what they needed to serve this newdigitally enabled consumer. This change in consumer behaviour was, and will continue to be, a catalyst for the industry to improve upon all areas of the customer journey and to force some leaders to reevaluate traditional business models.
However, 2021 isn’t just going to be the year of the digital consumer. I believe it will be the year of a more informed, connected consumer who hashigher expectationsfor personalisation, service, and the ability to transact in every channel.Seventy-nine percentof consumers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services.
With that in mind, I expect that during 2021, brick and mortar will remain the most important channel for the majority of retailers. Conversely, for digitally native brands, the store will be a new growth channel.
A little less than a third of all orders came from digital this holiday, more than double that of 2019. However, that means that two-thirds of all orders came from offline channels. I wouldn’t expect that number to change anytime soon.
This means that omni-channel experiences must be personalised and seamless. When brands build a new engagement channel, they will enable that channel to do anything a customer wants. For example, through an SMS conversation, a shopper might want to receive promotional offers and transact, but also reach back out to the retailer for help. Customers may not know what omni-channel means, but their behaviour demands it from retailers.
Together, these factors mean that personalisation will take on a whole new meaning. Consumers are willing to provide their personal information for a more curated experience. When we asked 10,000 consumers what made their favourite brands stand out, the top answer was catering to their unique needs. In order to meet those needs, I predict more retailers will have a well-defined artificial intelligence (AI) strategy to drive personalisation at scale.
5. The last mile will be reimagined
JR Linne, Global Director, Retail Industries Solutions
The last mile will get a much needed tune-up. With the constraints on last mile coming to a head during the peak holiday 2020 season, retailers have started to reimagine ways to get their goods into the hands of customers. Courier servicesexpanding beyond food deliverymean that the reliance on traditional carriers will decrease as customer options become more diverse. I could even see retailers repurposing store headcount to a delivery mechanism themselves to ensure they own the customer experience to the very end.
That was a big lesson from the 2020 holiday shopping season, by the way. Safety concerns and overloaded shippers drove consumers to retailers with curbside, drive-through, and in-store pickup options. They were rewarded with a 49% increase in digital revenue on average YOY, and 54% digital revenue growth YOY in the five days leading up to Christmas. Retailers who didn’t offer these options saw only28% average growth on average YOY, and 34% digital revenue growthYOY in the five days leading up to Christmas.
6. Loyalty will win big this year
Hilary Englert, Director, Product Marketing
Customer loyalty will be redefined as the world emerges from the limitations required by COVID-19, and it will be more important than ever.
Brands that have capitalised on shifting trends in 2020 need to build on those new routines and loyalty as the world makes its next transition. That means building loyalty will be top of mind in 2021. While value, convenience, and availability were the critical factors in 2020 (I go back tothe toilet paper saga), they’re now table stakes. Consumers will return to looking for connectedness with a brand, what it stands for, and its purpose. The experience that a brand provides through meaningful and relevant communications creates the authenticity that shoppers will crave.
Also, as categories re-emerge (e.g., formal wear for weddings and school supplies for on-campus learning), loyalty will be even more important for brands to become part of new routines and capture mindshare. Brands that remain relevant, consistent, and authentic are primed to grow.
7. Retail recovery might take longer than expected
Vinay Vaswani, Retail Industry Business Development Lead, LIKE.TG EMEA
The view from my perch in Europe allows me to look at these trends from a global retail perspective. I realise that it’s been a frustrating year for retail, and there is a lot of optimism on the vaccines bringing things back to normal soon. However, I believe that retailers should prepare for retail recovery to take a bit longer than expected around the world.
The current retail situation is likely to continue through the first half of 2021, with more store closures and companies entering administration. We may see improvements after the summer or more realistically, in late 2021 and early 2022 as easing of lockdowns (and vaccinations) allow shoppers to come back into the stores. On the flip side, the potential for revenue growth might help to buoy the 2021 numbers.
Meanwhile, digital shopping will continue to grow in 2021, almost becoming the norm. We’re already seeing a permanent shift in consumer shopping behaviour,especially in grocery. We should also expect more of:
Social commerce (through livestreaming and influencers)
Direct-to-consumer sales by consumer companies
Innovations around augmented reality and virtual reality
In terms of what that means for stores, I believe stores will continue to be very relevant – but their role will continue to change to support online shopping. The stores that do remain open will have more technology and tools to support online shopping (such as click and collect), or they will offer different in-store experiences, such as new layouts. Conversely, digital native brands will be likely to open brick-and-mortar locations. Retailers will have to adapt their stores while expanding their digital shopping capabilities at the same time.
8. Young consumers will reward uniqueness
Adriana Bourgoin, Chief Customer Officer, Commerce Cloud
Consumers will continue to seek uniqueness, heritage, and sustainability. Expect retailers to respond with creative collaborations,limited productions, and recycle/resell/sustainability efforts to build loyalty. 2021 will see more activism positioning, front and centre.
Gen Zwill solidify its position as a force for change. These digital natives brought their parents and grandparents into new shopping behaviours in 2020, and drove significant increases in digital sales for emerging categories,such as alcohol. While their true spending power may not be recognised for a few years, their outsized influence will be seen not just in retail but in any industry ripe for disruption, including higher education, banking, and travel.
The lines between creators, buyers, and sellers will continue to blur.Customised sneakers have already become the norm. Influencers regularly launch products in partnership with major brands. Online marketplaces and the introduction of ecommerce on social platforms have created a digital bazaar on a global scale. In 2021, expect to see more of this, but with greater adoption by professionals, such as beauty advisors and hair stylists, with corporate sponsorship.
Learn how Saleforce for Retail makes every shopper experience feel custom tailored.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
3 Companies Using Technology To Enable Business Growth in ASEAN
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. Every month, she highlights three small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Asia that use LIKE.TG to overcome business challenges.
The road to business growth is rarely easy. Challenges arise overnight and businesses must stay agile to overcome new obstacles and maximise opportunities. Building your business with the right technology is vital to achieve success in the rapidly transforming digital world.
But it should never be a case of deploying technology for technology’s sake. Rather, technology should be focused on making your employees’ and customers’ lives better. Here’s how three successful companies are using LIKE.TG to enable people-first business growth in ASEAN.
Mitsubishi Chemical Cleansui Haili
Haili is the sole distributor of Mitsubishi Chemical Cleansui, Japan’s number-one water purifier brand in Vietnam. The company started in 2017 on a business-to-consumer (B2C) model, and has grown rapidly in a short time.
Growth has been so strong, in fact, that it has been challenging for the company to expand its in-house sales team fast enough to fulfill market demand. The solution, says Trang Le, Business Marketing Manager at Mitsubishi Chemical Cleansui Vietnam, is extending other distribution channels through a new business to business to consumer (B2B2C) model.
“The advantage of this model is that we do not need to recruit too many sales people and we are able to increase our speed to market as well as consumer coverage,” says Ms Le. “Dealers are our extended sales army, and we needed to find a way to empower them.”
The company turned to LIKE.TG to deploy a Dealer Management System to enable dealers to register orders quickly. This system also keeps dealers updated on new programs, product knowledge, sales kits, and special promotions.
“Besides selling the water purifiers, we also need to change the water filter for the end consumers on a yearly basis,” Ms Le adds. “So, our Dealer Management System ties consumer details to each product we sell.”
Ms Le says the Dealer Management System has contributed to a 30% reduction in data entry. Customer orders are now processed 20% faster, too.
“Our dealers feel happy because they do not have to manage their customers, orders, products, status, purchase date, and cartridge replacement date via Excel anymore. As such, we have seen significant improvement in dealers’ mindsets since we started the roll out of the Dealer Management System.”
SmartCost
Bangkok-based abrasives company SmartCost currently serves more than 1,500 business-to-business (B2B) customers. The company began with a single manual sandpaper stamping machine in 2004. Since then, it has grown into a network spanning 850 factories and 650 car body shops across Thailand.
SmartCost was founded on the vision to become a partner for every customer, with a solution-centric approach at the heart of every customer interaction. However, managing work flows with Google Sheets and an under-performing customer relationship management (CRM) software was holding the company back.
SmartCost deployed Sales Cloud to create a systemised pipeline and track sales activities. They used Service Cloud to get a 360-degree view of their customers, as well as real-time insights into every order progression.
SmartCost implemented Tableau to transform data into actionable insights, to assist with inventory, manpower, and production planning. Finally, they automated their marketing processes by integrating Pardot with Sales Cloud and Service Cloud.
The LIKE.TG deployment has contributed to a 50% increase in revenue gains, driven by a 30% improvement in measurable services levels and a 40% boost in lead conversions.
“The sales team now works in a more systematic way with increased productivity,” says Krittakorn Wongsuttipakorn, founder and CEO of SmartCost. “Management can track sales activities, and support the sales team to follow the team strategy.”
Khun Krittakorn added, “With LIKE.TG, we can also use data and learnings from one business unit to enable cross-sell opportunities across the organisation. We would like to be a trusted partner for our customers in every industry. Insightful customer data from LIKE.TG can make this plan come true. LIKE.TG is the piece that completes our big data jigsaw.”
gm
Founded as General Marine Underwriting Agents Pte Ltd in 1975, gm Pte Ltd was historically run as a traditional ledger business. But when current Chief Executive Officer Douglas Chia took over the Singapore-based company from his father in 2013, he had a different vision.
Douglas wanted to simplify insurance to offer straightforward protection for the things his customers care most about. He knew implementing the right technology was the way to achieve his vision.
gm started with a CRM system in 2013, and the business grew rapidly. However, with no pipeline view and no way to manage lead flow, employees became frustrated with the legacy CRM. Douglas and his team had to look for a better solution.
“We looked at a few different CRM vendors, but they were too complex,” Douglas explains. “Then we found LIKE.TG. We could use it straight out of the box for a simple deployment, and the intuitive user interface enabled fast adoption.”
It was a winning formula. The company grew rapidly and saw gains in market share. The move to LIKE.TG delivered a revenue gain of 30%–40%.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Within three days, all 40 employees had to work from home. “We set up a VPN immediately, and I raced out to buy as many laptops as I could grab,” Douglas laughs. “But, thanks to LIKE.TG, we didn’t have to worry about the core system. It was ready to go.”
That meant that the company could run as close to business-as-usual as possible. Many of the company’s competitors couldn’t match that pace. gm even grew the business by about 20% during the worst weeks of the pandemic.
“It was important for us to be there for our customers during the pandemic, and to keep communicating with them,” Douglas says. “Those are the types of relationships we want to keep building going forward. For us, it’s about using technology to help make our customers’ lives better. LIKE.TG is helping us to do that.”
At its core, technology is about people and processes. Using the right platform to streamline your processes will improve employee engagement and help your team deliver more value to your customers. Get it right, and your business will be prepared to turn your next big challenge into your greatest opportunity.
The Role of AI in Marketing: Beyond Automation, Towards Personalisation
COVID-19 has led to a sharp increase in the amount of time consumers spend on digital platforms. For marketers, this is a huge opportunity to stay connected with their audiences during the pandemic. But with so much being communicated digitally, not every conversation is attracting engagement.
Engaging customers in real-time requires faster, more accurate decision-making regarding what needs to be said, when it needs to be said, and how. Messaging that reflects a deep understanding of customer context and offers relevant communication is key.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered solutions, with their predictive capabilities, can help marketers make the right decisions, in near real-time. They can also enable marketers to run contextual marketing campaigns and personalise conversations with prospects and customers. This results in better engagement rates and an improved customer experience.
Here’s how AI-enabled solutions are transforming marketing:
1. Smarter segmentation for better audience discovery
Buyer personas are the cornerstone of modern digital marketing. AI solutions can help segment these personas, smartly. By crunching hundreds of data points from ongoing campaigns, the solutions help marketing teams find new sub-segments.
An outdoor apparel brand has an audience segment of hikers. AI informs marketers of two sizeable categories within this segment – family road-trippers and tech-savvy hikers. Using these insights, they tailor their product recommendations for each of these categories, resulting in more precise targeting. For example, family road-trippers are shown hiking gear for kids, and tech-savvy hikers are shown the latest GPS device or solar-powered light.
Identifying the audience sub-segments helps launch hyperpersonalised marketing initiatives. Marketing platforms with in-built AI capabilities can identify the unique traits of individual customers within a sub-segment. This can then be leveraged to tailor the marketing content and build personalised customer relationships.
2. Accurate predictions to aid lead conversion
Traditionally, marketing decisions were driven by marketers’ experience and gut instinct. AI-solutions take the guesswork out of the process with their accurate, data-driven predictions. These predictions enable marketers to personalise the customer journey and successfully transition leads through the marketing funnel, ultimately boosting lead conversion.
Consider Einstein Engagement Scoring, for instance. This AI-enabled feature of LIKE.TG Marketing Cloud uses machine learning on customer data to assign a score to a company’s email subscribers. The score predicts the likelihood of each subscriber engaging with your email campaigns, and ultimately, to convert. The feature can also tell you how likely a subscriber is to open an email, click the links within that email, or to stay subscribed.
Marketers can use these predictions to build more personalised customer journeys. For instance, customers with a low probability to open emails can be targeted through other channels, such as social media ads and mobile messaging.
3. Personalised messaging across channels for better engagement
Based on factors such as browsing history, age, and recent engagement with a brand, AI algorithms can serve the landing page that is most likely to resonate with a website visitor. The same goes for advertising. The algorithm can select and offer the right copy from a bunch of options, in real-time, according to a user’s profile. This helps marketers run dynamic ad campaigns that are accurately targeted at users.
Today, AI-powered solutions can be even more specific, helping marketers deliver just the right amount of engagement. For instance, Einstein for Marketing Cloud has an Engagement Frequency feature. It tells you the optimum number of emails to send to customers for brand recall without being seen as spamming them. Similarly, it tells you which subscribers are being emailed too little or too often. Based on this information, marketers can tailor their messaging strategy for better customer engagement.
“AI-powered analysis can also tell you when email engagement rates are too low, and if a social content strategy would be a better bet.”
As customers start to value brand experience as much as products, businesses will need to deliver personalised messaging across channels to stay competitive. AI can boost your marketing team’s understanding of customer behaviour and engagement.
To see how marketing teams can leverage this understanding to create personalised, well-timed, and contextual marketing campaigns, try Einstein for Marketing Cloud.
This post originally appeared on the I.N-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
The Spring ’21 Release Is About To Bloom — Preview It Now!
Did you know most new innovations in theLIKE.TG Spring ’21 Releaseare already included with products you’ve purchased?
In order to maximise your return on investment (ROI), check out some of our favouriteincludedfeatures such as Sales Cloud’sForecast Adjustment, Einstein Recommendation Builder, LIKE.TG Shield for Surveys, and Tableau CRM’sDashboard Components.
On February 15, you will have access to hundreds of globally available products and features. Increase your business capability withRevenue Cloud, a revenue management system to speed up revenue growth across every channel. UseMuleSoft Composer for LIKE.TG, the fastest and easiest way to connect your apps and data to LIKE.TG. Explore Commerce Cloud’sPayments, an out-of-the-box payment solution that gets you to market fast while boosting conversion rates.
We also continue to drive customer-centric transformations by expanding our industry product portfolio, so you can get closer to your community. Today, you can preview Public Sector Solutions’Grants Program Management, which tracks, manages, and delivers grants programs with ease. You can also preview Communication Cloud’sEnterprise Sales Management, which transforms the selling experience with effective management of transaction quoting. Additionally, Education Cloud’sAdmissions Connectprovides an innovative user interface (UI) to read and review academic applications, whileStudent Success Hubdelivers equitable and holistic student support from anywhere.
Check outLIKE.TG/releasesto explore all that Spring ’21 has to offer. From there, getting ready for the release is as easy as one, two, three:
1. Find what’s new for your company
Use theSpring ’21 Release In a Boxfor a slide-by-slide view of our most exciting new innovations and shareSpring ’21 Release demo videosto help LIKE.TG users across your company get ready for their new tools.
2. Skill up on new products and features
Earn a new badge by taking the newSpring ’21 Release Highlights Trailor dive deep with theSpring ’21 Release Notesto get more detailed information on each product and feature.
3. Get pro tips from your peers
Join theRelease Readiness Trailblazers Community, your central location for all the latest release resources and announcements across all LIKE.TG product areas.
Now that you’re ready, mark your calendar for February 15 when all Spring ’21 innovations will be available globally.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Why Accelerating Digital Transformation Is the Key To a Bright Future
The shift to digital is happening quickly and it is clear that a one size fits all approach no longer works as a sales technique. But without truly knowing your customer, it’s impossible for sales leaders and their teams to fully understand their clients’ needs and ensure interactions are individually tailored.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the art of creating seamless and personalised customer experiences at every step of the sales process. Here we explore the basics of CRM and look at how cloud-based CRM technology has become a crucial tool for sales teams.
What is CRM?
CRM technology allows businesses to collect and store customer information, activity, phone numbers, and addresses all in one place. But it is much more than just a glorified phone book! A technological suite of CRM tools analyses and unlocks client data to create a complete 360-degree view of your customer.
The advantage is simple. By having all of this information in one place, you can better manage your company’s relationships and interactions with customers, prospects, and stakeholders.
For example, core technologies like mobile, AI, workflow, app builder, communities, voice, and the highest levels of security are built into every app on LIKE.TG’s completely digital-first Customer 360 CRM platform. With every email, every phone call, and every meeting in one place, teams can work collaboratively to ensure tailored and informed interactions with customers every single time.
How do sales teams use CRM?
Sales teams use CRM technology to create exceptional customer experiences, identify leads, and increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities. They do this by controlling and utilising the flood of data that is generated during the sales process.
Sales reps gather valuable sales information when they are out on the road meeting with prospective clients, but this is often recorded in handwritten notes, personal devices, or in their heads. Without a central source of truth, valuable data can be lost along with customer trust and any sales opportunities.
By using a simple, customisable dashboard enriched with analytics, sales reps can capture customer information and get a complete view of their clients at a glance.
The new generation of CRM even goes one step further with built-in intelligence generating customer insights and automating administrative tasks such as data entry and lead routing. It even predicts how customers will feel and act so sales reps can prepare the right outreach.
So, why is CRM important for sales teams?
Customers expect more than ever from the buying experience. They want the process to be easy, accessible, and personalised. They want to feel understood and they expect consultative interactions across different digital channels with sales representatives who have their best interests at heart.
But many sales teams struggle to meet these expectations, with scattered customer data and siloed departments creating friction. Without truly knowing your customer, it is hard to understand and tailor sales interactions.
For premium appliance brand Fisher Paykel, CRM technology has played a key role in helping the global company understand its customers and deepen its customer relationships by providing seamless and tailored experiences.
“Our partnership with LIKE.TG means the technology is less of the focus and we can concentrate more on the customer, more on our people, more on our product. That’s really where the advantage is for us,” said Rudi Khoury, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Customer Experience at Fisher Paykel.
CRM technology allows sales leaders to rise to the occasion by putting the customer at the centre of every interaction. It allows sales reps to focus more on their clients’ needs and less on back-end administration – resulting in business growth.
Top 5 CRM advantages for sales leaders
1. Increases sales and efficiency
CRM platforms have a proven track record. In fact, statistics from Forrester have shown that 50% of sales teams equipped with complete, accurate, and centrally-held information about clients and prospects have increased productivity.
2. Helps identify and categorise leads
In 2018, duties like data entry and paperwork filled so many hours that sales reps only spent one-third of their time actually selling! With CRM systems, sales leaders can spend more time learning about and connecting with customers, and identify the most worthwhile leads to prioritise.
3. Increases cross-selling and upselling opportunities
With a 360-degree view of your customer, cross-selling and upselling opportunities become more obvious. This potential is maximised when sales has the right tools to cross-collaborate with other teams.
CRMs like Customer 360 create a single source of truth with a unified customer profile across all touchpoints, to ensure sales reps can easily meet customers anywhere they are.
4. Improves customers experiences
With increasingly digital needs, customers need relevant and personalised experiences across multiple devices and channels. Customer 360 allows sales reps to quickly access complete customer records and exceed customer expectations, even when teams are working remotely.
5. Customer insights
According to the recent State of Sales report, 88% of sales reps say current economic conditions make it important to anticipate customers’ needs. A good CRM system gathers information broadly to allow sales teams to better understand their customers. Technologies like AI, workflow, and app builder analyse and unlock this data to provide unprecedented insights into how your customers feel so you can know exactly what they want and when your lead is hot.
Learn how Sales Cloud can help sales teams drive revenue growth.
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Predictions From a Futurist: What We Can Expect From the Future of Work
When we talk about a better future, what do we mean? Our latest guest on the Future of Work, Now podcast shares that this question helped lead him to a career as a futurist.
That guest is Peter Schwartz, American futurist, innovator, author, and co-founder of the Global Business Network. He is also SVP of Strategic Planning for LIKE.TG. Peter’s first book, The Art of the Long View, is considered a seminal publication on scenario planning. He has also served as a script consultant on the films The Minority Report, Deep Impact, Sneakers, and War Games.
Peter talks about these experiences in the first episode of our podcast’s new season on the Digital Imperative. He also offers his view on how we may live and work in the future.
Here are key takeaways from Peter’s conversation with host Simone Heng:
Remote work: Temporary or the new norm in the future of work?
Many businesses are in a state of transition. They are considering when, and to what extent, employees will return to the office. Peter shared his view that whatever happens, the workplace won’t be exactly the same as it was before.
“When the pandemic hit, the world changed course into the future and it changed the calculus of what we do from home as compared to what we do in the office or in the classroom, shop, or doctors’ office,” said Peter. “We’re working, learning, shopping, and even socialising remotely and while we’re learning these new behaviours, the technology is radically improving.”
Peter predicted that video conferencing will be considerably better in one year from now. There will also be new technologies for applications like learning, medicine, and socialisation.
“There’s a great wave of innovation that is going to make it much more desirable to do things remotely.”
Peter Schwartz | American futurist and SVP of Strategic Planning for LIKE.TG
Future changes to our daily habits
So what will daily life look like for workers? Peter painted a picture of a world where technology is gradually wrapped around us and enables us to work from anywhere. This could include the home, the car, or even the beach. It could also include a casual studio space that can be booked by the hour.
“I think every worker who can do their job remotely will have a suite of technology around them that enables them to work wherever they want, whenever they want. I can also see homes having a personal studio room with good lightning, good sound, and good screens that can be used for work and education,” said Peter.
Of course not everyone will want or be able to afford these rooms in their home, so you can imagine a lot of empty office space becoming casual studio space.”
More broadly, now is a time for human beings to adapt or, in Peter’s words, reimagine, reinvent, and relocate.
“Some of us are now able to rethink our lives and not be trapped by the choices we made in the past. Instead, we can make new choices and create new options for ourselves,” he said.
The one big trend shaping the future of work
Almost everything we do at work, we do with other people. So no matter where we work, collaboration will remain vital and will need to extend beyond emails and conference calls. The tools of collaboration will have to evolve and Peter identifies this as the most apparent workplace trend shaping the future.
“We have recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire Slack and that is all about enabling teams to collaborate very creatively,” said Peter. “We’re also seeing other tools of collaboration in the workplace, including online white boards and tools for brainstorming. These tools and the ability to collaborate and engage with our colleagues and customers is what I see as most exciting about the future of work.”
Listen to the podcast to hear more from Peter, including his tips on how businesses can future-proof themselves.
Access the podcast on demand at our podcasts page, Spotify, and iTunes. You can also listen over at the Singapore Community Radio Twitch page, Facebook page, and website.
Tune in at 1:00 p.m. SGT Friday, March 5 to hear from our next guest, Stuart Thornton, CEO Co-founder of hoolah, a Singapore-based fintech company.
Sign up here for our LIKE.TG Blog newsletter to get monthly updates on the latest LIKE.TG stories.
CRM 101: A Guide for Sales Leaders
The shift to digital is happening quickly and it is clear that a one size fits all approach no longer works as a sales technique. But without truly knowing your customer, it’s impossible for sales leaders and their teams to fully understand their clients’ needs and ensure interactions are individually tailored.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the art of creating seamless and personalised customer experiences at every step of the sales process. Here we explore the basics of CRM and look at how cloud-based CRM technology has become a crucial tool for sales teams.
What is CRM?
CRM technology allows businesses to collect and store customer information, activity, phone numbers, and addresses all in one place. But it is much more than just a glorified phone book! A technological suite of CRM tools analyses and unlocks client data to create a complete 360-degree view of your customer.
The advantage is simple. By having all of this information in one place, you can better manage your company’s relationships and interactions with customers, prospects, and stakeholders.
For example, core technologies like mobile, AI, workflow, app builder, communities, voice, and the highest levels of security are built into every app on LIKE.TG’s completely digital-first Customer 360 CRM platform. With every email, every phone call, and every meeting in one place, teams can work collaboratively to ensure tailored and informed interactions with customers every single time.
How do sales teams use CRM?
Sales teams use CRM technology to create exceptional customer experiences, identify leads, and increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities. They do this by controlling and utilising the flood of data that is generated during the sales process.
Sales reps gather valuable sales information when they are out on the road meeting with prospective clients, but this is often recorded in handwritten notes, personal devices, or in their heads. Without a central source of truth, valuable data can be lost along with customer trust and any sales opportunities.
By using a simple, customisable dashboard enriched with analytics, sales reps can capture customer information and get a complete view of their clients at a glance.
The new generation of CRM even goes one step further with built-in intelligence generating customer insights and automating administrative tasks such as data entry and lead routing. It even predicts how customers will feel and act so sales reps can prepare the right outreach.
So, why is CRM important for sales teams?
Customers expect more than ever from the buying experience. They want the process to be easy, accessible, and personalised. They want to feel understood and they expect consultative interactions across different digital channels with sales representatives who have their best interests at heart.
But many sales teams struggle to meet these expectations, with scattered customer data and siloed departments creating friction. Without truly knowing your customer, it is hard to understand and tailor sales interactions.
For premium appliance brand Fisher Paykel, CRM technology has played a key role in helping the global company understand its customers and deepen its customer relationships by providing seamless and tailored experiences.
“Our partnership with LIKE.TG means the technology is less of the focus and we can concentrate more on the customer, more on our people, more on our product. That’s really where the advantage is for us,” said Rudi Khoury, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Customer Experience at Fisher Paykel.
CRM technology allows sales leaders to rise to the occasion by putting the customer at the centre of every interaction. It allows sales reps to focus more on their clients’ needs and less on back-end administration – resulting in business growth.
Top 5 CRM advantages for sales leaders
1. Increases sales and efficiency
CRM platforms have a proven track record. In fact, statistics from Forrester have shown that 50% of sales teams equipped with complete, accurate, and centrally-held information about clients and prospects have increased productivity.
2. Helps identify and categorise leads
In 2018, duties like data entry and paperwork filled so many hours that sales reps only spent one-third of their time actually selling! With CRM systems, sales leaders can spend more time learning about and connecting with customers, and identify the most worthwhile leads to prioritise.
3. Increases cross-selling and upselling opportunities
With a 360-degree view of your customer, cross-selling and upselling opportunities become more obvious. This potential is maximised when sales has the right tools to cross-collaborate with other teams.
CRMs like Customer 360 create a single source of truth with a unified customer profile across all touchpoints, to ensure sales reps can easily meet customers anywhere they are.
4. Improves customers experiences
With increasingly digital needs, customers need relevant and personalised experiences across multiple devices and channels. Customer 360 allows sales reps to quickly access complete customer records and exceed customer expectations, even when teams are working remotely.
5. Customer insights
According to the recent State of Sales report, 88% of sales reps say current economic conditions make it important to anticipate customers’ needs. A good CRM system gathers information broadly to allow sales teams to better understand their customers. Technologies like AI, workflow, and app builder analyse and unlock this data to provide unprecedented insights into how your customers feel so you can know exactly what they want and when your lead is hot.
Learn how Sales Cloud can help sales teams drive revenue growth.
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
New Research: Is CRM the Secret To Connecting Your Business Silos?
LIKE.TG partnered with Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of CRM systems across a wide range of industries. The findings show the core challenges facing business leaders today and how they’re investing in customer-centricity for tomorrow.
It’s fiscal year planning time, and as the departmental leader, you’re eager to invest in new technology to improve customer experience metrics and performance for your team. There’s immense pressure to deliver quickly, so involving other departments isn’t an option right now, but you’ll be sure to include them in the future.
Sound familiar?
New researchshows four out of five organisations are investing in CRM to support customer-focused strategies. Yet departmental buyers have traditionally purchased CRM in isolation to solve a single business problem, resulting in a majority reporting that CRM systems are at least somewhat fragmented across their organisations.
These findings highlight a central problem: applying technology to old ways of doing things doesn’t magically change the way teams deliver customer experience at scale. When departmental leaders buy and implement CRM in silos, the real shift to customer-centricity remains out of reach.
But there is a way forward. Let’s look at the data to see whether CRM really is the secret to connecting your business silos. We’ll unpack the core challenges facing business leaders today, how they’re investing in customer-centricity for tomorrow, and how that shift can pay off in a major way.
Bridging the gap between current usage and expectations for CRM
In Fall 2019, LIKE.TG commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the use of CRM systems across a wide range of industries. Forrester surveyed 484 business leaders with decision-making responsibility for CRM strategy at their organisations.
Business leaders recognise the importance of gaining a single source of customer truth and overwhelmingly agreed that CRM should support the complete customer lifecycle.
The challenge is that there’s an overwhelming discrepancy between expectations for what a CRM system should support and how CRM is actually being used in businesses of all sizes and industries.
Business leaders want a single source of customer truth and believe their CRM system has significantly greater utility beyond their sales and service departments, but are struggling to unify data across their teams and systems.
In fact, the report shows “creating a single view of the customer across teams and systems is the greatest customer experience challenge faced by business leaders today.”
How did it become so difficult?
Siloed initiatives mean siloed data
A majority of respondents (57%) reported that their CRM is at least somewhat fragmented across the organisation, with a few, many, or all departments having their own CRM. This is a result of departments pursuing initiatives in silos — such as modernising sales, customer service, or existing applications.
Incremental improvement is possible when departmental buyers purchase CRM in isolation to solve a single business problem. But it doesn’t transform the business. In fact, siloing these efforts may be contributing to greater difficulties.
As the data shows, customer data is coming from too many sources to make sense of it easily, and these silos are negatively impacting the quality of customer and prospect experiences.
So how does an organisation move past these challenges to leverage the full power of CRM and gain a unified view of the customer?
The evolution of CRM as a single source of truth
Before we can take meaningful steps toward customer-centricity, it’s important to recognise what’s possible when multiple teams unite around a single customer view.
I think back to my recent experience of buying a new car:
I was invited to download the brand’s mobile app, where I could learn more about the car, set up oil changes, and schedule recurring maintenance appointments — a welcomed part of my onboarding journey.
I received a call from the sales associate, checking in to see if I had any questions now that I’d been driving it for several days.
When I noticed an issue with one of the headlights, I chatted with a service agent online to discuss the problem. The agent knew me, my car, and my warranty details, and scheduled an appointment at the nearby service center in under two minutes.
All of the departments I engaged with seemed to operate as a single unit, and had the right data and tools at hand to deliver a great experience. I was grateful to have purchased this particular car — not because of the quality of the product, but due to the quality of my experience as a customer.
CRM can be the single source of truth, bringing together marketing, sales, commerce, service, and back office departments, and 80% of those surveyed agreed they are increasingly using their CRM system as so. But it requires businesses to look holistically at their processes and how they put the customer at the center.
Leading businesses are evolving to put the customer in the center of their feedback loop and innovation cycle in what we callcustomer 360 transformation.For example, in the ASEAN region, companies likeBluebird Group,Prudential Singapore, andAnantara Vacation Clubhave made theirCRM the single source of customer truth.
These businesses integrate their CRM system with core operational systems to prove a single source of customer truth, resulting in broader teams connecting around the customer.And those efforts are paying off:the research shows businesses that successfully connect departments on a well-integrated CRM platform reportsignificantly higher customer satisfaction.
CRM alone isn’t the secret to breaking down silos. As more businesses employ the right mindsets, disciplines, and tech stack to bring their silos together, CRM can serve as a key driver of transformation.
Read the Forrester report to dive deeper into the findings.
How To Structure and Plan Your Digital Marketing Strategy in 2021
A good digital marketing plan should start with a solid understanding of your brand and its value to your audience. It should set priorities for short-, mid-, and long-term business goals and articulate a well-defined path to achieving them. While a digital marketing plan is primarily meant to organise your marketing team, it should also be cross-functional and incorporate the work, milestones, and objectives of other teams, and align with the organisation as a whole.
But first, what’s a digital marketing plan? It’s a document that details all of the planning for your digital marketing initiatives and activities. This plan is focused on how you will reach your target audiences and engage them in the digital space. Learn more about creating one over at Trailhead.
2020 brought a global pandemic that shifted the way we live and work, and created unprecedented obstacles. What does that mean for 2021? Marketing professionals need to reflect on what we’ve learned and set themselves up for success. How can you create a marketing plan that works? We’ve got a few ideas.
Here are some areas to focus on to help structure your digital marketing plan for 2021. These tactics, architectures, and methodologies will help ensure your plan is clear, actionable, and measurable. Most importantly, your digital marketing plan will set you up for success in 2021 and beyond.
Set goals for your digital marketing plan
Structurally speaking, your plan should include three levels of detail:
Goals.These should be meaningful and aligned with larger business objectives. To set the right goals for your team, use a methodology like theS.M.A.R.T method(Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time-based).
Strategy.This is the topline approach to how you’ll try to achieve those goals. Break down your annual objectives into achievable and stretch quarterly milestones.
Tactics.These are the specifics about how you’ll execute your strategy.
Another methodology is theV2MOMmethod, a LIKE.TG acronym for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures. This method was developed by our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,Marc Benioff, and it is used by our organisation to drive company alignment. If you’re curious about creating organisational alignment in your own business, learn how to do it by taking theV2MOM Trailon LIKE.TG’s free learning platform, Trailhead.
Regardless of how you set your goals, you should take the time to set strategic priorities. While you may want to achieve them all, not every goal should have the same weight or importance to your team.
Lastly, check in with your goals often. Use adata visualisation tool, preferably one with a dashboard where you can see all of your KPIs at a glance. This will help you easily see how to attribute success to specific efforts so you can focus more on what works.
Create personas of your audience, and act on them
Once you’ve established your overall goals and tactics for the year, it’s time to shift your focus to your audience. Who are you speaking to? What do they want to hear? What problems can you solve for them?
A well-planned digital strategy should incorporate what you know about your audiences’ wants, needs, and behaviors. How do they like to interact with your brand? What do they rely on you for? What do they need to move forward at various points in the buying process? Segmentation is key to creatingtargeted activationsthat connect in a meaningful way and drive action with specific cohorts within your audience.
Develop and make use ofuser personasto help you understand your audience better. These profiles combine demographic and psychographic information about different segments of your audience to create more specific target segments. Strong data visualisation tools help spot trends that let you form educated assumptions about your audience. When combined with broader market research, this information can help you craft these profiles.
User personas can also help tailor your content strategies to connect with specific audiences in ways that are meaningful to them. Your messaging, the channels you use, how often you communicate, and even when – these can all be informed by a digital marketing plan that uses strong segmentation and theright reporting tools. You’ll learn more about your audiences over time. And as you do you’ll be able to make your efforts even more relevant.
Measure the success of your digital marketing plan, and learn from it
To evaluate your plan and its efficacy, make sure you’re looking at the right metrics. Analyse your data and look for trends. Do you understand the KPIs? While conversions are the ultimate goal, understanding your audience’s full ecosystem of actions and behaviors will allow you to reach success. The more granular you can get with your reporting, the more insight you’ll have. With the rightdata visualisation tools, you will easily be able to see if you’re reaching your objectives.
Doing business under COVID-19 has taught us that adjusting with agility and grace is essential. Your digital marketing plan is a roadmap for success that requires some flexibility; a plan that’s too rigid becomes irrelevant fast. While we can’t yet predict what lessons we’ll learn this year, with the right plan in place, we’ll be ready for anything.
Staying ahead of the marketing game in 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic forced marketers to start figuring out how to better connect with customers and deliver what they need, when they need it. As businesses kickstart in 2021, it’s more important than ever for marketers to deliver innovative customer experiences that are meaningful, engaging, and personalised.
How 3 Innovative Businesses in ASEAN Achieved Customer Centricity
At LIKE.TG, Nichola Palmer works with customers to bring their stories of innovation and transformation to life. She highlights three small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the ASEAN region that use LIKE.TG to overcome business challenges.
Forward-thinking companies across ASEAN are using digital transformation to meet rapidly evolving customer expectations and build deeper customer relationships.
To achieve this, organisations need a single source of truth for customer data. Sales teams also need tools that can track customer conversations and reveal insights required to drive more meaningful value-added conversations with customers.
Here’s how three successful companies use LIKE.TG to build better customer relationships:
Grand Guardian Nippon Life
GGI Nippon Life is embracing digital transformation to meet rapidly evolving customer expectations in Myanmar. When the company began local operations in 2013, internet connectivity was patchy across the country and technology uptake was low. That has changed in recent years, and the company is now redefining what it means to be customer-centric.
“We understand that true customer centricity isn’t just about delivering basic insurance services,” says Ang Kian Wee, Division Head, Strategy and Transformation, GGI Nippon Life. “It’s really about understanding the needs of our customers, and how they change through different life stages.”
To understand customer needs, the company needed a way to drive more meaningful conversations between salespeople and customers. So Kian Wee and his team turned to the LIKE.TG Customer 360 platform.
They began with a Service Cloud implementation to digitise the recruitment process. The human resources team is now able to digitalise several processes relating to creation of job positions, job applications by candidates, and candidate selection.
Next came a Sales Cloud deployment to enable salespeople to build a 360-degree customer view. “We established operating procedures within every process with guidance and instructions,” says Manoranjan Sahoo, Chief Distribution Officer, GGI Nippon Life. “We also pre-set tasks salespeople need to complete at every stage.
“In June we closed about 50 policies with a small pilot team of five to six salespeople. That number doubled in August, and doubled again by December.
“Sales Cloud has also improved operational efficiency. Previously, our salespeople spent two to three hours per day on paperwork. That’s now down to 30 minutes or less.”
Dornier MedTech
Dornier MedTech is a customer-centric global healthcare company that is embracing customer obsession and innovation. The company uses LIKE.TG to drive this transformation across its ASEAN operations, starting with Singapore and Japan.
“The agility of any company in today’s increasingly disruptive world is a function of the mindset of the team and the speed by which critical data is made available to them,” says Issac Khoo, General Manager at Dornier MedTech. “LIKE.TG has enabled us to capture and reference the wealth of data points in the customer’s journey with Dornier MedTech”
Prior to adopting LIKE.TG, processes were largely manual. This created a lack of transparency between teams as data was held in spreadsheets and difficult to share. The company initially deployed Sales Cloud to streamline approvals. Later, it rolled out Sales Cloud to sales teams across ASEAN to provide a 360-degree view of customers.
According to Hiromasa Ito, IT Manager for Dornier MedTech in Japan, Sales Cloud has saved each sales rep there up to two hours a week on reporting. “Our sales reps now have more time to spend with customers and they have quick access to customer and product information through the LIKE.TG mobile app. It is also easier for them to share information with different teams.”
Dornier MedTech is now also using Service Cloud to provide more efficient and personalised support. Enquiries are automatically routed to the right team and support engineers are notified right away when a customer needs help. In the past, this could take up to four hours.
“A large part of support is knowing your customer and having a platform like LIKE.TG that can capture all our customer conversations gives us that knowledge,” says Martyn Yap, Senior IT Manager, Asia Pacific at Dornier MedTech Singapore. “It’s helping us get closer to our customer and deliver more proactive support.”
Ranosys Technologies
As a LIKE.TG implementation partner, Ranosys is helping to support its clients’ digital transformation with expert LIKE.TG consulting, development, implementation, and support. The company is also driving global growth from its Singapore headquarters, with an internal LIKE.TG deployment.
Ranosys Technologies CEO Rameshwar Vyas and his team have replaced their legacy customer relationship management (CRM) software with Sales Cloud. They have also built a series of apps on the Customer 360 platform, including recruitment, workforce, and payroll management systems.
“We’ve created a single source of truth,” says Vyas. “We used to generate reports monthly or quarterly, but there’s no need for that with LIKE.TG. Anyone who wants to check on the pulse of the company can see the data they need at any time.”
The recruitment management system has increased human resources’ efficiency between 30 and 40 per cent. The workforce management system has improved resource allocation, and the payroll management system has increased back-end efficiency.
As the company looks towards the challenges of the future, Vyas is focused on building new capabilities and upskilling employees for jobs of the future.
“We believe developing employees is very important,” he says. “There are currently 37 people in our Practice and Solutions team. And we work with senior strategy consultants whose focus is to prepare us for the next biggest challenge, and to find ways to take our people to the next step.”
To best serve your customers, you must understand what is most meaningful to them. Digital transformation at its core is about connecting your team with the tools they need to identify customer needs. Then they can drive and track more meaningful conversations that add real value to your customers.
How Digital Unlocks New Growth Opportunities for Telcos
Cheng Kian Khor is Director of Communications Industry Strategy for LIKE.TG in the Asia-Pacific region. Cheng Kian has 24 years of experience in the telco industry, in a range of consulting, chief architect, and global solution leader roles at leading companies. More by Cheng Kian.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed more customers online, and they are staying there. Now it’s up to companies to meet customers online and offer digital-first experiences.
According to a recent LIKE.TG State of the Connected Consumer report, 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to COVID-19.
This demand for digital engagement presents an opportunity for communications service providers (CSPs).
Some CSPs are already moving from selling connectivity to becoming digital-first service providers. Others are expanding their offerings and building lifestyle-focused digital commerce storefronts.
It’s an exciting time for Asia’s CSPs as many begin to redefine what telcos will look like in 2021 and beyond.
Putting the customer in control
Singapore-based M1 is undergoing a digital transformation to be more agile and customer-centric, to better serve its customers in the digital world. Even through the crisis, the Singapore-based CSP has accelerated its digital transformation.
“Our vision is to become a digital-first telco and provide new experiences for our customers,” said Nathan Bell, Chief Digital Officer at M1. “This will involve driving new digital capabilities into the business and reimagining our ways of working so that we can add more value to every interaction.”
CSPs like M1 are using digitalisation to put customers in control. To achieve that, they must deliver consistent customer experiences across all digital channels.
M1 uses LIKE.TG Communications Cloud to enable customers to build their own plans. This was vital when customers were avoiding store visits during the pandemic. It also provides a solid foundation for ongoing digitalisation.
“More of our customers are looking for solutions that are available as they need them,” explained Bell. “We want our customers to know we are there to support them in their time of need. And that we can evolve to meet their ongoing requirements.”
Becoming more than a telco
Digitalisation also presents an opportunity for CSPs to embrace wider ecommerce. Some are now offering a broader range of merchandise, goods, and accessories. These are often bundled as attractive offers and promotions. From gaming chairs to hairdryers and apparel, some CSPs are diversifying their product catalogues and presenting slick digital storefronts.
But what do gaming chairs have to do with telecommunications services? Absolutely nothing! And that’s the point. CSPs are using ecommerce to expand beyond traditional telco products and services. This is part of their journeys to becoming genuine digital lifestyle brands.
Solutions like LIKE.TG Commerce Cloud help CSPs pivot towards digital sales. Commerce Cloud, for example, does the heavy lifting for CSPs. It enables companies to deliver pure digital commerce and digital-first mobile experiences.
With Commerce Cloud, CSPs can create personalised shopping experiences across all digital channels. Whether the customer wants to buy the latest smartphone release, or a new Xbox gaming console.
This opens an opportunity for CSPs to become so much more than a run-of-the-mill telco. Suddenly, the digital experience is no longer just about checking bills and phone plans. CSPs can become genuine digital-first lifestyle brands.
Enabling digital-first experiences
Of course, this is much easier said than done. Ecommerce has traditionally been an afterthought for CSPs. Cumbersome digital storefronts were typically bolted onto legacy systems.
This created scalability issues. For instance, the surge of new smartphone orders on launch day would often overload telco websites that were not designed to cope with peak order volumes. Custom legacy storefronts were also cumbersome and slow to market when adding new products or offers. That made it hard for many CSPs to scale up for Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales. All these meant that it was challenging for CSPs to leverage digital commerce opportunities.
That’s why CSPs are transitioning away from using heavily customised legacy platforms for commerce and customer engagement. Instead, they are embracing new digital-first, customer-centric cloud platforms.
Communications Cloud and Commerce Cloud enable CSPs to skip the legacy bolt-ons. Instead, they harness cloud connectivity to deliver pure digital commerce experiences. They also enable scalable digital storefronts and customer-centric mobile apps.
Unlocking the growth potential of digital
The future is bright for CSPs that understand the full potential of digitalisation.
Digital is an integral part of the post-pandemic world. To be successful, CSPs must meet customers online and deliver digital-first experiences. That’s how CSPs can become genuine digital lifestyle brands and unlock new growth opportunities.
But unlocking these opportunities is not possible with legacy platforms and ecommerce as an afterthought. Digital-first user experience and commerce must become a key component of business strategy. Digital-first cloud platforms like Communications Cloud and Commerce Cloud can help drive CSPs’ digital transformation.
Explore Communications Cloud and Commerce Cloud for your digital commerce requirements.
Responsible AI in Marketing: Embedding Ethics by Design
The marketing and advertising industries are being influenced by consumer demands for greater privacy and data control, as well as impending artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. Kathy Baxter shares how LIKE.TG builds trusted AI into marketing automation software. More from Kathy here.
We are in a crisis of trust. According to LIKE.TG’sState of the Connected Customer, 92% of consumers believe there is a moderate to major need for companies to improve their trustworthiness, and 61% reported that it’s difficult for a company to earn their trust.
Thegrowing use of artificial intelligence (AI)in marketing makes things even more complicated. Fewer than half (48%) of customers trust companies to use AI ethically, and 65% are concerned about unethical use of AI. This may be because we see more negative headlines about biased AI (as infacial recognition,healthcare recommendations, orhiring) than positive ones about AI (for example,identifying cancer tumors that doctors miss).
Optics aside, the burden is on marketers to respect privacy when personalising marketing messages with AI. There’s a fine line between useful, targeted ads and ones that are downright invasive. It’s also easy to slip into stereotype bias – attribution of particular qualities to a member of a particular social group – or exclude segments of your customer base by focusing on demographic variables.
So, how do you ensure your marketing is accurate, inclusive, valuable, and privacy-preserving? AI can only be trusted when it is built transparently and has protection for human rights, explainability, accountability, and inclusion at its core. (LIKE.TGinfuses ethical practices and processes into our AI development.)
Next, it is up to marketers to make sure the technology benefits customers. Last month, Emily Witt, Sarah Flamion, and Annie Chin of LIKE.TG sharedfour principles for responsible marketingwith data:
Use and collect individual information appropriately
Be transparent about the data use
Give customers control and clarity
Provide clear benefits in exchange for data
Let’s apply these principles in the context of AI in marketing.
1. Collect and use sensitive data only when necessary and when it can benefit the customer
Einstein Content Selectionscans the fields in your models and highlights any sensitive fields (such as age, race, gender) or their proxies (ZIP code, name). Using these variables can add stereotype bias into your models. By highlighting these fields and proxies, customers can make an informed decision about whether or not they should include these fields in their decision making.
Our Lookalikes model excludes age, race, gender, and income level to mitigate that type of bias. Relying more on behavior or interest-based variables rather than solely on demographics is less biased and more inclusive. You’re likely to discover new prospects you didn’t even know might be interested in your products or services!
2. Be transparent
This refers to being open and clear about how you developed your AI models. What training data did you use? Was it representative of all your customer base or only part of it? What are the variables in your model, and did you weigh or exclude any? We publishmodel cardsfor our global models so all of our customers can understand how we created them.
3. Give customers control over the data you collect and respect their preferences
The State of the Connected Customer report found that 61% say they feel like they’ve lost control over how their personal information is used. No wonder there is a crisis of trust. Now is the time to give your customers control over their data.
Third-party cookies are on their way outand digital marketers need to start preparing now. One way to do this is by collecting first-party data directly from customers. In addition to being more accurate than third-party data brokers, it’s also cheaper because you cut out the middleman.Nederlandse Publieke Omroep(the Netherlands version of the BBC) has moved from cookie-based ad sales tocontext-based ad salesand seen their profits grow by 62%.
4. Demonstrate the benefits customers receive in exchange for use of their data
Using features like Einstein Content Selection andCopy Insightshelps personalise message and tone. Einstein Send Time Optimisation and Einstein Engagement Frequency ensure messages arrive at the right time and not so often that they overwhelm your customers. Together, these features ensure you send the right message to the right customer at the right time.
Putting these four principles into practice will help customers trust your company with their data and increase loyalty and sales, because your customers see the value you provide.
Want to learn about removing bias from your data and algorithms?Take the Responsible Creation of Artificial Intelligence trail on Trailhead.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Here’s How LIKE.TG Creates Jobs & Nurtures Tech Talent in Singapore
The LIKE.TG ecosystem is booming across Asia. More companies are turning to LIKE.TG to better understand their customers. As such, demand for Salesforce-literate professionals at our customer organisations is growing.
From 2018 to 2024, LIKE.TG will create 8,500 new direct jobs, and more than 17,000 indirect jobs, in Singapore.
Those jobs need to be filled. That’s why Trailhead Academy and Workforce Singapore created the LIKE.TG Professional Conversion Program (PCP). The program connects mid-career professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs) with LIKE.TG career opportunities.
The program is a win-win for employees and employers. PMETs will be ready to build careers in the LIKE.TG economy. LIKE.TG customers will also have access to a talent pool of budding LIKE.TG professionals.
5 LIKE.TG roles for PMETs
The PCP equips PMETs for new LIKE.TG career opportunities. It focuses on five key LIKE.TG roles. These include:
LIKE.TG Administrators assist with data quality projects, and learn how to develop automated data cleansing routines. The role also involves implementing systems security and integrity controls, developing and delivering end-user training, and troubleshooting email campaigns, workflows, approval cycles and auto-responders.
LIKE.TG Sales Cloud Consultants support the sales team to create solutions for prospects and customers. This involves developing customised sales process solutions, and coordinating the entire Sales Cloud solution cycle.
LIKE.TG Sales Service Cloud Consultants carry out all duties of a LIKE.TG Sales Cloud Consultant. The role also extends to developing customised customer service and support solutions, and coordinating the entire Service Cloud solution cycle.
LIKE.TG Marketing Cloud Consultants support the Marketing Operations Manager and other key stakeholders in the development of electronic direct mail (EDM) processes and marketing automation initiatives. They’ll also assist with the implementation of lead generation campaigns, and manage ad trafficking and quality control processes.
LIKE.TG Platform Developers develop customised LIKE.TG platform solutions, and support the formulation, deployment and maintenance of critical applications. They’ll also prepare test data, and plan and conduct module and application testing.
SGTech administers the six-month program, and LIKE.TG customers employ trainees for the duration of the program. That ensures trainees experience a mix of classroom learning facilitated by LIKE.TG, and structured on-the-job training at employer organisations.
How PCP helped Workato hire the LIKE.TG talent it needed
Automation platform provider Workato needed fast access to experienced professionals to scale up.
“The PCP has been instrumental in scaling our operations in Singapore,” says Allan Teng, Managing Director and VP Asia-Pacific and Japan at Workato. “It has helped us find and train many local candidates for our open positions very quickly.
“This is made possible by opening many of our positions to candidates with experience from other industries. Then we put them through a combination of structured and on-the-job training. This is subsidised by the government to help them get ready for a career switch into tech.”
Steven Hoon, Senior Business Transformation Manager at Workato, successfully made that career switch. He is now helping train his team on LIKE.TG with Trailhead.
“I helped administer LIKE.TG and perform app integrations,” he explains. “I spent quite a lot of time self-learning on Trailhead. I obtained my LIKE.TG Certified Administrator title within six months.”
“Now, I‘m showing my team the right place to learn more about LIKE.TG within the Trailhead platform.”
Enabling the careers of tomorrow
The LIKE.TG ecosystem will generate more than $2.5 billion annual revenue by 2024. That’s in Singapore alone.
Increasing global uptake of cloud computing is a powerful trend that’s driving the growth of the LIKE.TG ecosystem. From the beginning of 2019 to the end of 2024, worldwide spending on public cloud computing will grow 19% per year, from $147 billion to $418 billion.
That suggests many future career opportunities will lie in the cloud. LIKE.TG and Trailhead Academy are providing clear pathways for PMETs to access those opportunities.
How Singapore SMEs Can Grow Using the Productivity Solutions Grant
Update on 25 Mar 2022:The enhanced maximum support level of 70% has been extended to 7 October 2022.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to get their businesses back to growth, adopting digital solutions can be a game-changer.
This can be as simple as automating manual processes, which results in improved productivity. Technology also enables employees to collaborate and get work done from anywhere. Most importantly, effective use of technology sets growing SMEs apart from stagnant ones. According to our Small and Medium Business Trends Report, 51% of growing SMEs say technology drives the growth of their customer base. Forty-eight percent say technology influences their ability to stay open and in business.
LIKE.TG is a pre-approved vendor under the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) programme. This initiative aims to help SMEs in Singapore kickstart their technology journey by providing grant support of up to 70%. The enhanced maximum support level of 70% has also been extended to 7 October 2022.
Apply today to transform your SME with the generous support of the Singapore government, and LIKE.TG. Read the infographic below to learn more about the application criteria.
5 Ways Tech Businesses Can Drive Gender Equality
In her role at LIKE.TG, Wendy leads marketing in the region; helping businesses grow and connect with their customers, partners, and employees. As a passionate advocate for Equality, she is also President of the LIKE.TG Women’s Network; with a charter to empower, invest, and amplify the progress of women, creating gender-equality allies and taking action on equality.
This year we mark International Women’s Day on March 8. Established in 1911, the purpose of this day is to take the time to acknowledge the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women everywhere. Even as women have blazed new trails, women still face unequal opportunities in every aspect of professional and public life. Since gender inequality still exists, International Women’s Day raises awareness about how far we need to go.
Pre-COVID, the World Economic Forum estimated, at the current rate of progress, it would take 257 years to close the gender gap. Initial evidence shows the pandemic has stymied this already slow progress and has disproportionately impacted women globally. But even before the pandemic, LIKE.TG’s commitment to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 5: Gender Equality, ensured our ongoing support of equity and inclusion initiatives. For instance, Tableau Foundation joined the Equal Measures 2030 Partnership Council last year to support women data journalists and increase opportunities for women and girls.
While women represent 46.9% of the global labour force, only 29% hold managerial positions. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, pay equity in the workplace won’t reach gender parity until 2059. It is clear work needs to be done. To start, we can acknowledge interactions with colleagues and in our community can impact others and our efforts can move the needle.
Here are ways you can support gender equality in tech:
1. Create and support gender equality programs in the workplace
The first step in driving gender equality is to make time and room for authentic conversations on women’s issues.
Advocate for holding internal meetings, like town halls, to create safe spaces to educate allies, share personal experiences, and provide resources. Use the outcomes of these meetings to mobilise and shift company culture. At our annual gender equality event, the Trailblazing Women Summit, we invite speakers from outside our company to elevate conversations around gender equality in tech, business, media, politics, and other industries.
In Asia, we’re holding internal activities this week to support focus areas of inclusion, equality, and philanthropy. Our employees will host 150 one-on-one mentoring sessions with young people throughout the region. They will also participate in I am Remarkable sessions to celebrate achievements in the workplace and learn through discussion. We’ll come together in an Inspiration Circle to get energised for the year ahead. We’re also proud to host a fireside chat with President of Daughters of Tomorrow, Kim Underhill. We’ll explore how it helps women from the low-income community access sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Our internal employee resource group, LIKE.TG Women’s Network (SWN), produced these events to empower and inspire employees to lead without limitation.
2. Offer inclusive benefits to all employees
As a company, reevaluate your benefits package to promote gender equality. LIKE.TG offers benefits to support individuals and families no matter where they are in their life. We offer paid parental leave for all parents, childcare subsidies, surrogacy and fertility benefits, paid family sick time, and flexible time off. During the past year, additional support benefits to parents included enhanced family benefits such as child education or childcare at home and caregiver support for elderly or infirmed relatives.
Beyond generous inclusive benefits, we encourage employees to take their work-life balance seriously. For example, when tennis star Serena Williams and husband Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian welcomed their first child together, Ohanian took 16 weeks of paternity leave.
3. Perform a company-wide equal pay audit
Pay parity is one of the most obvious ways inequality shows up in the workplace between men and women. To address and understand compensation gaps, conduct a comprehensive equal pay audit. This ensures a readjustment so all employees are paid equally for equal work, regardless of gender.
LIKE.TG conducts an annual pay audit to ensure equal pay with our current employees. Since our first equal pay audit, we have invested more than US$12 million to address any unexplained compensation inequities between men and women.
4. Consider intersectionality in all equity decisions
Intersectionality takes into account the whole person as an individual when experiencing multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism and sexism) and how this overlapping reality can’t be separated out. It is particularly prominent in experiences of marginalised individuals or groups.
Women are often underrepresented in the business world, but the additional challenges for intersectional women can be different. For people who don’t face these intersectional challenges, unconscious bias training can assist in understanding and navigating complexities around equality.
If you have programs and resources around gender equality, consider ways to highlight specific intersections and how they may affect underrepresented groups. For example, at LIKE.TG, we have 12 employee resources groups. We encourage groups like LIKE.TG Women’s Network (SWN) and Outforce (LGBTQIA and allies) to work together and elevate the discussions around the nuances found at this intersection.
5. Be an ally
An ally is someone who advances the rights of, supports, and advocates for a community they may not identify as belonging to. At LIKE.TG, we say allies ask, listen, show up, and speak up for one another. We also recognise allyship is a journey. We know that some may be at the very start — curious — they want to learn more. Others may be further along the journey and are — courageous – ready to use their voice or platform to speak up.
We strive to create a workplace that reflects the diverse communities around us and where everyone feels seen, heard, valued, and empowered to succeed. We have created the SWN Inclusive Allies program to help raise awareness about gender equality through a specific ASEAN regional lens and to offer guidance to colleagues who want to support equality through allyship. The program will give everyone an opportunity to share a common language, tools, and actions to practice being a stronger ally. It consists of a series of workshops and materials where our employees can learn more about gender equality and be inspired to be an ally.
If you are a leader, think of ways to use your platform to advance a woman’s career and promote gender equality in your business.
Just as technology companies have revolutionised and disrupted industries, we are in a unique position to lead the way for equality. To reach gender equality, we all need to take consistent steps along this journey. Learn more about ourinclusive leadership practicesand how to championequality in business. Finally, useTrailheadto reflect on the value of diversity and inclusion at work and what you can do to promote equality.
Portions of this article are based on ideas written byIsabel Gonçalvesfor The 360 Blog.
Why Hyper-Personalisation Is the Future of Customer Experience
Jess O’Reilly isArea Vice President, Sales, ASEAN, at LIKE.TG. She discusses the shift from personalisation to hyper-personalisation, when it comes to delivering great customer experiences. More from Jess here.
Let’s begin with what we know.
We know that customer experience is king. According to the 2020 State of Connected Customer report, almost 80% of B2C consumers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. That number increases to 85% in the B2B sector.
We also know that personalisation is vital for creating positive customer experiences. More than half (53%) of customers say they feel an emotional connection to the brands they buy from the most.
We see many companies across Asia already using integrated CRM platforms and data insights to meet this demand. More than 60% of marketers have improved personalisation across channels, and 78% say their customer engagement is data driven.
Hyper-personalisation versus personalisation
Hyper-personalisation is the next step forward.
Personalisation had a macro impact on the customer experience. It changed how companies think about customer-centricity. Hyper-personalisation expands these learnings to help companies connect with customers in the micro moments.
For example, personalisation may seek to deliver more relevant marketing content to a customer via their preferred communication channel. Hyper-personalisation seeks to hold a one-to-one conversation with each customer, across all channels.
The road to hyper-personalisation
Customer data fuels hyper-personalisation. Companies must understand their customers’ purchasing behaviour in order to anticipate their next need. But it’s not enough to simply collect and store customer data.
Companies must use data to create a complete 360-degree customer view that seamlessly integrates with legacy systems across the organisation. This is known as a single source of truth, and it’s vital to achieve hyper-personalisation.
Zenyum is one company that has successfully implemented hyper-personalisation. After launching in Singapore in 2018, the smile cosmetics company rapidly expanded into Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.
“We are targeting a huge market of 600 million people, but in the end, we still want to call every customer to guide them through their smile journey,” says Julian Artopé, CEO of Zenyum.
That is hyper-personalisation. To get there, the company turned to LIKE.TG and the Customer 360 platform to create a single source of truth. This enables Zenyum’s Customer Success and Customer Care Executives to provide hyper-personalised customer journeys as they move seamlessly between sales and service functions.
“The data gathered through LIKE.TG helps us check in on every customer as they progress through their Zenyum journey, from the initial pre-assessment to the completion of their treatment,” explains Muhammad Shafeeq, Head of Customer Success (Singapore Malaysia) at Zenyum.
“Each customer receives highly personalised communication from their private Customer Success and Customer Care Executives, who can now lead them through their entire smile journey.”
How to scale hyper-personalisation
It’s one thing to provide hyper-personalised journeys to a handful of customers. It’s quite another to scale it across a customer base that spans multiple countries, languages, and demographics.
A CRM system that is well-integrated with core operational systems can help. The various departments also need to be connected on the CRM, so that everyone shares a complete view of the customer.
This was certainly a challenge Zenyum faced — and conquered. Artopé explains that the company’s legacy customer relationship management (CRM) software was failing to provide the data insights that enable hyper-personalisation.
“Our system could only give us a basic overview of the total funnel size,” he says. “At the same time, we forced our customers into our channels instead of enabling them to communicate with us however they would like to.”
Customer 360 changed this. Zenyum used it to create an integrated personalisation pipeline. This enables the company’s Customer Success and Customer Care Executives to engage with customers on a one-to-one basis across all communication channels and throughout all stages of the customer journey.
“We needed better reporting options that would allow us to dive deeper into the data and better understand our customers across the seven markets that we are operating in,” Artopé explains. “LIKE.TG enabled us to create a smoother Zenyum journey and connect more personally with our customers.”
The hyper-personalisation imperative
The need for a single view of the customer may not be news to many companies. According to a Forrester research report, 80% of companies say they would gain from a CRM that provides a single source of truth. Yet, only 25% of companies currently have this capacity.
Customer experience in the future will be hyper-personalised. Without a CRM as a single source of truth, it is difficult for businesses to create hyper-personalised customer experiences. To get started on your hyper-personalisation journey, tune into our Customer 360 webinar on demand, or read more about the Customer 360 platform.
