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9 Ways LIKE.TG Brings Companies and Customers Together
As the world’s #1 CRM, LIKE.TG brings companies and customers together.
This is possible through LIKE.TG Customer 360. It’s an integrated, AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM) platform that unites departments and gives them a single view of your customer. This enables your teams to create connected, personal customer experiences that build stronger relationships.
LIKE.TG Customer 360 is designed to be tailored to the needs of every business. We have specialised solutions to support the capabilities you need to thrive and grow. We also have an extensive network of ecosystem partners offering apps and guidance to help you craft a truly customised experience.
Read the infographic below to learn about the various LIKE.TG Customer 360 solutions and apps. These include: sales, service, marketing, IT (platform), commerce, Tableau analytics, data integration (MuleSoft), and partners (AppExchange).
No matter your business type, LIKE.TG Customer 360 helps your teams come together, serve customers better, and grow your business.
For details on this infographic, please click here.
Is Your Marketing Personalisation Strategy Where It Needs To Be?
I’ve been on the hunt for a house lately. This involves me sending out a lot of emails, and calling real estate agents about properties.
In doing so, the real estate agents capture my contact details. Even though I hadn’t opted-in for it, I started receiving at least weekly emails from dozens of different real estate agents. They made numerous marketing personalisation sins:
Their list of properties seem to be the real estate’s inventory. Not a curated list of properties in my price range, in the suburbs I’m looking at, with the features I want.
All of the properties link to the real estate agent’s website, rather than my preferred real estate listings site
Each email contains a handful of properties (rarely good ones I might add). All linking to the real estate agent’s website (rather than my preferred real estate listings website).
The email tends to get lost among all the other property-related emails in my inbox.
BUT their emails did start with “Hi Dan”, so everything’s great right?
Email isn’t my personal favourite channel. But there’s no denying that email is asuperstar when it comes to ROI. Companies of all shapes and sizes will benefit from investing in strong email personalisation capabilities. However, for too many marketers, the real estate example is actually the best personalisation they’re doing today.
Digital advertising? Ask the media agency. SMS? Too expensive, just send more emails. Website personalisation? There are several country specific websites, but they’re identical.
Not good enough.
The sad reality is that too few marketers invest in the infrastructure and resources needed to deliver truly relevant and consistent messaging across every channel.
Why marketers need to embrace continuous improvement
People, in general, are uncomfortable with change. We like the known, the familiar. Yet, technologies and trends are always evolving. For example, customer data platforms are transforming the way pizza companies engage with their customers. Some brands have gone beyond personalisation to deliver hyper-personalised experiences: one-to-one conversations with each customer across all channels. Faced with such major changes, it’s natural for people to retreat to what’s familiar.
However, over the past year, brands have done the impossible. They have accelerated their digital transformation and compressed years of marketing development into a few months. This cannot be a one-time thing. Marketers need to adopt a philosophy of continuous improvement. There’s a reason business schools all around the world teach students the story ofToyota. Toyota’s kaizen philosophy is one of the key lessons that every successful business, regardless of country or industry, should take to heart.
Ask yourself if your company is doing everything they can in these areas:
Data strategy: how is data collected and managed? Is it used to its full potential?
Integration: is your data stuck in silos or unified in one easily accessible place?
Data hygiene: is your database regularly cleansed, standardised, and de-duplicated?
ID management: do you have unique customer IDs across channels that allow for omnichannel engagement?
Reporting and analytics: is data used to drive marketing decisions? How automated is your reporting?
Start small, but start today
It’s a challenging time to be in marketing.
The remit of marketing has expanded beyond branding to encompass business growth and return on investment. There has been an explosive growth of marketing technology solutions over the years. As of April 2020, there are 8,000 marketing technology solutions. Digital skills training in the Asia-Pacific region needs to keep up with technological advances. For example, Singapore will need 1.2 million more digital workers by 2025 to remain competitive.
Don’t get overwhelmed with re-thinking your entire approach to marketing personalisation. It’s crucial to remember that perfect should never be the enemy of good.
Start small, but never stop moving forward. Seek continuous improvement. You can start by revamping your email newsletter, so that it is relevant to your audience. Then, you might sync your customer data to Facebook, so you aren’t advertising to people who actually look at your emails. Building on success, you can implement one-to-one engagement across all touchpoints, using real-time personalisation and interaction management solutions.
Know that you don’t have to do all of this on your own. The right partner can help to build and grow successful businesses. Take the team at Verticurl, a LIKE.TG partner, for example. They are experts on marketing technology and how marketers can make the most out of their marketing data. For example, how the deprecation of third party cookies will impact marketers and their personalisation efforts.
If you’re wondering where the gaps in your personalisation strategy are, check out Verticurl’s Database Maturity Assessment to see where there’s room for improvement.
Bridging APAC’s Digital Skills Gap: 4 Key Insights From Industry and Government Luminaries
The past year and a half have seen a decade’s worth of digital change. Everything we do—from communication to commerce and consumption—has been transformed by digital technologies.
These advancements can unlock tremendous value for our societies. But they can also reinforce and exacerbate inequalities, unless webridge the digital skills gap—starting with the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
A recent report from AlphaBeta (commissioned by Amazon Web Services) found that by 2025, the number of APAC workers requiring digital skills will grow over five-fold. The average worker will need to learn seven new digital skills. This will call for about 5.7 billion digital skill trainings.
How do we get to this point? What can businesses and governments in the APAC region do to improve access to digital skills training?
To find some answers, LIKE.TG hosted a panel discussion on ‘Bridging the digital skills gap in the APAC region’. The panel featured several industry thought leaders and government luminaries:
Terence Chia: Cluster Director, Human Capital Cluster, Digital Industry and Talent Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore
Ved Mani Tiwari: COO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India
Patrick Kidd: CEO, Digital Skills Organisation, Australia
William Sim: VP, Trailhead Academy (APAC), LIKE.TG
Here are a few key takeaways from the session that are particularly relevant to Singapore:
Gaps can be transformed into opportunities
To close the digital skills gap, we first need to understand what’s missing. Then, find a way to transform that gap into an opportunity. For example, as banking consumers moved increasingly away from in-person banking towards digital banking, DBS Bank proactively trained branch tellers in digital skills that would enable them to provide better service to customers, including as video-tellers. That way, DBS Bank engaged their employees as partners in the bank’s digital transformation journey.
Many solutions that fill digital gaps can be replicated across the economy. IMDA facilitates this through initiatives, like the Open Innovation Programme, that connect technology solution providers with companies that need such transformative solutions. Sharing and scaling up digital capabilities, techniques, and solutions can prepare our industries for a digital future.
“Let’s see the gaps as opportunities to do good.”
Terence Chia | Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore
The supply of digital skills must match the demand
There’s plenty of demand for digital skills. The LIKE.TG economy alone is expected to create 8,500 direct jobs and 17,000 indirect jobs in Singapore between 2019 and 2024.
To fill these jobs, we need skilled people, including Salesforce-qualified professionals and other skilled resources. That’s whyTrailhead is taking the initiative toempower students and aspiring professionals with the in-demand digital skills that will set them up for a successful career.
LIKE.TG strongly believes that access to quality training shouldn’t be based on an individual’s propensity to pay for it, but simply their propensity to learn. Therefore, all Trailhead courses are free.
The end goal isn’t just to train or upskill individuals, but to place them within LIKE.TG’s global ecosystem of customers and partners. It’s a win-win for everyone. Aspirants can connect to exciting job opportunities within the LIKE.TG economy. In turn, LIKE.TG’s customers and partners gain access to a range of skilled professionals.
“Through our digital skilling programs, we want people to achieve better jobs, better living standards, and a better future.”
William Sim | Trailhead Academy (APAC), LIKE.TG
Both public and private sectors have a role to play
The Singapore government runs surveys every year to assess digital inclusion and skills. They also rely on the private sector for industry feedback and information. Both parties must work together to generate a positive impact at every level of the ‘digital skills stack’.
The lowest level, base skilling, is about ensuring that every Singaporean has basic digital literacy skills. Schools already train children to understand the fundamentals of software coding. The private sector can support these efforts by, for example, funding student laptops and providing basic IT skills training.
The next level, cross-skilling, is about recognising that digital skills are crucial not just for software programmers or data scientists, but also for marketers, service reps, and other professionals. Therefore, digital skills training should be an integral part of academic courses at the university level. The private sector can help by ensuring that academic curricula are aligned with industry demands.
The last level, upskilling, is about making sure that digital skills evolve at the same pace as industry opportunities. This is where the private sector can play the largest role. For example, LIKE.TG’s Trailhead Academy has partnered with Workforce Singapore to run the LIKE.TG Professional Conversion Program (PCP). The program equips working professionals for new career opportunities with LIKE.TG customers.
More public-private partnerships like these can help unlock Singapore’s true growth potential.
“Let’s simplify, align, and collaborate. Then we can exert influence.”
Patrick Kidd | Digital Skills Organisation, Australia
Digital skills development must be holistic
In the digital age, technical skills like software programming and data science will continue to be important. But as AI and automation take over more tasks, soft skills like thinking critically and communicating well will also become essential. A truly effective digital skills program will hone both hard and soft skills.
Digital now pervades every industry—including those that were traditionally non-tech. Logistics, for example, uses sensors, robotics, and even self-driving trucks to transport goods faster. The education sector is experimenting with gamification, smart boards, and chatbots to make learning more engaging.
Even skills training programs are using augmented and virtual reality tools to help professionals upskill remotely.
All of this goes to show that digital is the future. The faster we close the skills gap, the better positioned we will be to thrive in an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.
“Since the pandemic, digital skills have become survival skills.”
Ved Mani Tiwari | National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India
Visit the LIKE.TG Professional Conversion Programme page to learn how you can improve your digital skills and employability in the Infocomm Technology sector.
Why Customer Service Is the New Sales Engine
Sales and service experts share how these two teams can work together to deliver great customer experiences and build brand loyalty.
The global pandemic has changed the sales landscape forever. Sales teams that were used to meeting face-to-face have had to rapidly switch to virtual selling. Consumers started engaging with businesses online in record numbers, with some shopping online for the first time.
Alongside this shift in buying habits, customers’ ideas about how organisations should behave have changed. More than ever, they expect the businesses they deal with to have values that extend beyond the traditional pursuit of profit. Eighty-nine percent of customers expect companies to clearly state their values, and 90% expect them to clearly demonstrate those values.
Customer experience is also more important than ever. Eighty percent of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its product or services.
The role of customer service teams is evolving to help meet these growing expectations. Service has changed from a ‘repair and recovery’ function to become a trusted advisor and custodian of customer care.
The influence of service departments on the sales process is growing, too. By sharing data between departments, service teams can contribute to better sales experiences and improve sales performance. Read the infographic to find out how.
For details on this infographic, please click here.
Machine Learning: 6 Real-World Examples
Machine learning is a modern innovation that has enhanced many industrial and professional processes as well as our daily lives. It’s a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), which focuses on using statistical techniques to build intelligent computer systems to learn from available databases.
With machine learning, computer systems can take all the customer data and utilise it. It operates on what’s been programmed while also adjusting to new conditions or changes. Algorithms adapt to data, developing behaviours that were not programmed in advance.
Learning to read and recognise context means a digital assistant could scan emails and extract the essential information. Inherent in this learning is the ability to make predictions about future customer behaviours. This helps you understand your customers more intimately and not just be responsive, but proactive.
Deep learning is a segment of machine learning. In essence, it’s an artificial neural network with three or more layers. Neural networks with only one layer can make estimated predictions. The addition of more layers can assist with increasing optimisation and accuracy.
Machine learning is relevant in many fields and industries, and has the capability to grow over time. Here are six real-life examples of how machine learning is being used.
1. Image recognition
Image recognition is a well-known and widespread example of machine learning in the real world. It can identify an object as a digital image, based on the intensity of the pixels in black and white images or colour images.
Real-world examples of image recognition:
Label an x-ray as cancerous or not
Assign a name to a photographed face (aka “tagging” on social media)
Recognise handwriting by segmenting a single letter into smaller images
Machine learning is also frequently used for facial recognition within an image. Using a database of people, the system can identify commonalities and match them to faces. This is often used in law enforcement.
2. Speech recognition
Machine learning can translate speech into text. Certain software applications can convert live voice and recorded speech into a text file. The speech can be segmented by intensities on time-frequency bands as well.
Real-world examples of speech recognition:
Voice search
Voice dialling
Appliance control
Some of the most common uses of speech recognition software are devices like Google Home or Amazon Alexa.
3. Medical diagnosis
Machine learning can help with the diagnosis of diseases. Many physicians use chatbots with speech recognition capabilities to discern patterns in symptoms.
Real-world examples for medical diagnosis:
Assisting in formulating a diagnosis or recommending a treatment option
Oncology and pathology use machine learning to recognise cancerous tissue
Analyse bodily fluids
In the case of rare diseases, the joint use of facial recognition software and machine learning helps scan patient photos and identify phenotypes that correlate with rare genetic diseases.
4. Statistical arbitrage
Arbitrage is an automated trading strategy that’s used in finance to manage a large volume of securities. The strategy uses a trading algorithm to analyse a set of securities using economic variables and correlations.
Real-world examples of statistical arbitrage:
Algorithmic trading which analyses a market microstructure
Analyse large data sets
Identify real-time arbitrage opportunities
Machine learning optimises the arbitrage strategy to enhance results.
5. Predictive analytics
Machine learning can classify available data into groups, which are then defined by rules set by analysts. When the classification is complete, the analysts can calculate the probability of a fault.
Real-world examples of predictive analytics:
Predicting whether a transaction is fraudulent or legitimate
Improve prediction systems to calculate the possibility of fault
Predictive analytics is one of the most promising examples of machine learning. It’s applicable for everything; from product development to real estate pricing.
6. Extraction
Machine learning can extract structured information from unstructured data. Organisations amass huge volumes of data from customers. A machine learning algorithm automates the process of annotating datasets for predictive analytics tools.
Real-world examples of extraction:
Generate a model to predict vocal cord disorders
Develop methods to prevent, diagnose, and treat the disorders
Help physicians diagnose and treat problems quickly
Typically, these processes are tedious. But machine learning can track and extract information to obtain billions of data samples.
Machine learning in the future
Machine learning is a remarkable technology in the field of artificial intelligence. Even in its earliest uses, machine learning has already improved our daily lives and the future..
If you’re ready to apply machine learning to your business strategy and create customised experiences, check out the Personalisation Builder. Use the power of predictive analytics and modelling to understand each customer’s preferences!
Interested in artificial intelligence and how it’s affecting the global business landscape? Discover the benefits of AI for businesses in every industry.
The State of CRM Reveals Top Asia-Pacific Trends and Opportunities
Think back to your last online shopping experience. Perhaps it was your regular grocery order, or the latest activewear that you’ve had your eyes on. Maybe something a little more indulgent like that newest gaming console.
Whatever it was, it’s likely you had one of two types of experiences as a customer:
You browsed around, found just what you were looking for, perhaps even received a great discount, placed the order in a click or two, got told exactly when to expect it, received it, and even got a personalised follow-up with some great offers and tips. Seamless from start to finish!
Or, perhaps you had the other type of experience. You know, where the whole thing feels like a frustrating rollercoaster: clunky websites, broken transaction gateways, multiple online chats and phone calls with customer service, and marketing promotion that feels spammy at best. All these before your order was even processed, let alone delivered. Lesson learned: Not ordering from this shop again!
So, what differentiates the first type of experience from the second? Three words: customer relationship management (or CRM). CRM is a technology that helps businesses manage relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. The goal is simple: Improve business relationships (and, therefore, customer experience). A CRM system helps companies stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability.
In short, a good CRM can be the difference between an excellent customer experience and an average one.
The State of CRM in the Asia-Pacific
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a transformative impact on the way we live our lives, run our businesses, and engage with products and services as customers.
This impact manifests in distinct ways. Customers have become more digitally savvy and expect great experiences throughout their purchasing journeys. Yet, many businesses are still playing catch-up when it comes to delivering great digital experiences to their customers.
In fact, new research reveals that over one in two executives in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region have struggled to maintain good customer experience (CX) due to an accelerated transition to remote work.
Download the State of CRM research, featuring a special spotlight on APAC and all the global insights and trends.
The global State of CRM research from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by LIKE.TG, surveyed 795 executives and 1476 employees globally. These include 164 executives and 319 employees across APAC (Australia and New Zealand, India, and Singapore). This research aims to understand how their teams use CRM today, their key challenges, and opportunities for businesses to maximise their use of CRM to grow with resilience.
The challenge
Data, data everywhere
A vast majority (71%) of APAC executives report that customer data in their business originates from far too many sources. This means their teams struggle to make sense of it, access crucial customer insights in real time, or act on them to help deliver good CX.
While this a region-wide challenge, it manifests most prominently in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), with 75% of executives feeling this way.
Remote but not in control
The seismic shift to remote work has also created productivity and communication challenges among employees. This is due largely to the lack of a well-integrated and accessible CRM system. This has had a flow-on effect on CX. In fact, 60% of APAC executives note that they were unable to maintain their customer engagement levels during the shift to remote, a challenge also echoed by employees.
Singapore is the most impacted by this, with 61% of employees reporting communication and coordination issues while working remotely. Meanwhile, workers in India are almost 1.5 times more likely to report that they struggle with accessing their CRM system while working remotely.
Basic doesn’t cut it
A well-integrated, modern CRM can unite multiple teams — beyond just sales and service — to help deliver good CX. However, CRM use in APAC is still largely transactional and basic, with limited adoption of more advanced use cases like deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML). This limits how a business interacts with customers in smart ways, but also how well its employees and teams liaise with each other.
ANZ businesses, in particular, are lagging behind their peers in this regard — with only 25% augmenting employee processes with AI or machine learning (ML) recommendations. That’s compared to 36% and 39% for India and Singapore respectively.
The opportunity
However, these challenges coexist with the silver lining of opportunity.
Prioritising CX
Executives across APAC are intentional about making a change for the positive, with 79% affirming that a CRM system is instrumental in delivering a seamless customer experience. In fact, nearly half of them say that delivering a superior CX across multiple channels of engagement is a top priority for the next 12 months. In even more positive news, a staggering 81% of executives in the region expect CRM use to expand beyond sales and service/support over the next three to five years. This signals improved coordination between teams, as well as a better experience for customers.
This optimism is highest in Singapore at 87%, followed by 82% and 75% in India and ANZ respectively.
Driving efficiencies
While the current use case for CRM across APAC is basic, the research finds that by 2023, 73% of businesses will be using AI-powered automation to enable easier customer engagement. A further 80% will be using automation to relieve employees of repetitive day-to-day processes, allowing them to focus on work that truly matters.
Close to 40% of organisations in Singapore and India are already using AI-driven insights to augment employee processes. While ANZ (25%) is currently lagging, over half of executives there plan to add this capability within the next two years.
The upshot
Employees as changemakers
According to Brian Solis, LIKE.TG’s Global Innovation Evangelist, it’s important to remember that technology alone won’t solve business problems. People are the real changemakers, and they need to be empowered with the right tools and knowledge to achieve greatness. “Adoption, training, and change management are such critical pieces of any CRM deployment, and your overall employee experience (EX). When employees don’t know how to use the CRM, or understand the value CRM can bring to their daily workflows, success and ROI will always remain out of reach,” says Solis.
Security, flexibility, automation
APAC executives want to ensure that employees can access customer data, whenever and wherever they need to. Therefore trust and security come up as the top criteria that regional execs use when evaluating CRM systems. Work-from-anywhere connectivity and advanced capabilities such as AI insights and automation are close behind as the second and third most important priorities.
Integration, integration, integration
It comes as no surprise that customers have come to expect highly personal interactions. They expect any business they interact with to have a full understanding of who they are and where they are in their journey. Teams on the frontlines can’t serve customers by using CRM applications that are disjointed, or only support part of the customer lifecycle. Therefore, businesses need to unify CRM applications, and support role-based views to ensure that customers receive the experiences that they expect.
State of CRM research tells us that organisations that prioritise consistent usage of CRM systems across teams, better training for customer-facing employees, and enhanced automation maximise the power of their CRM to deliver greatest business value. This, therefore, makes them more resilient in the face of massive disruption or change.
5 Ways Marketing Is Changing in ASEAN Countries
Marketers are coming to terms with major changes like evolving customer expectations, advances in technology and tools, and new ways of working.
How is the profession adapting to face future challenges and seize opportunities?
According to the latest edition of our State of Marketing report, marketers are now focused on a future of innovation and real-time engagement. We surveyed over 8,200 marketing leaders from all over the world for this report. More than 1,700 participants came from Southeast Asia.
We have pulled out the insights specific to marketers in ASEAN countries. Some might be a surprise, and some are a call to action. Others show how marketing professionals in this region are staying ahead of the curve.
Read the infographic below to learn more: For details on this infographic, please click here.
How 3 Retailers in Asia Boost Customer Engagement with Marketing Tech
According to more than 8,000 marketers around the world, the single greatest challenge for the profession this year has been real-time customer engagement.
It’s no surprise, then, that the main priorities for marketers looking into the future all revolve around improving customer engagement and creating seamless experiences. The 2021 State of Marketing report, released this past month, reveals what has been top of mind for marketers as they adapt to new customer behaviours and expectations. At the top of the list of priorities are:
Innovating
Engaging with customers in real time
Creating a cohesive customer journey across channels and devices
Improving marketing ROI and attribution
Improving collaboration
There are already great examples of businesses that are nailing customer experience and engagement. They are doing it through the innovative use of technology and collaboration between marketing, sales, and service.
Here are three great examples:
1. Tokopedia
When growing, almost every business reaches a stage where increasing headcount is no longer enough to keep up with service demands.
With more than 100 million active users per month, Indonesia’s largest marketplace platform Tokopedia had to create new ways to deliver trust at scale. The solution came with the optimisation of channels such as email, live chat, and self-service.
Tokopedia was able to implement its LIKE.TG solutions in four months and with zero downtime. Using LIKE.TG gave Tokopedia a 360-degree view of customers. The business achieved some great customer engagement outcomes as a result, including:
Seventy percent drop in repeated contacts
Ninety percent drop in the complaint-to-transaction ratio
Forty percent improvement in response times for customer care
Read more about Tokopedia’s success here.
2. Sendo
Sendo, one of Vietnam’s largest ecommerce businesses, connects more than 300,000 sellers to millions of buyers. Three years ago, their customer service team of just 20 agents had to scale quickly in a heavily siloed technological environment.
The solution involved integrating all data into a single system. This provided a single customer view as well as customer access across multiple channels. Service Cloud and Social Studio enabled this and more at Sendo, including real-time reporting to measure and improve KPIs such as call handling time.
Having all customer information in one place resulted in an increase in productivity by more than 30%. Customer satisfaction has increased 20%, and survey response rate has grown by a massive 150%.
Read more of Sendo’s story here.
3. Fisher Paykel
Premium appliance brand Fisher Paykel is on a mission to be the most human-centred appliance brand in the world. Accomplishing this requires a deep understanding of what people want and need from their products.
As the company sells directly to consumers as well as through a network of retailers, it’s critical that all tools and data are centralised for easy access by other areas of the business.
LIKE.TG solutions have helped Fisher Paykel break down silos and improve efficiencies. Marketing Cloud helps the company tailor communications to individual customer preferences based on previous behaviours. Builders, designers and retailers can make use of a dealer portal built on Experience Cloud that simplifies collaboration and order tracking. And integrating Service Cloud into Fisher Paykel’s call centre is helping service teams get instant insight into the customer at the other end of the phone.
Together, these measures have reduced transactional calls by 60%, and the time it takes to train new operators has shrunk from nine months to three weeks.
Get more insights into Fisher Paykel’s success here.
In 2021, business success involves a deep knowledge of customers as well as one-on-one communications. When all teams have a single and shared view of the customer, customer experience moves to an entirely new level.
Customers Want Connected Experiences. Data Integration Does Just That
It can take up to 35 pieces of data to create one personalised customer experience, according to MuleSoft. Yet, customers crave connected experiences. Customers volunteer information such as what they buy, where they buy it (online or at a store), if they contacted customer service, if they use a coupon, if they read your marketing emails, and on and on. Your customers never stop giving you valuable information about their preferences.
Now, customers want you to remember these interactions. For your brand to connect with them, now and in the future, with these preferences in mind. They want you to see them as individuals. They want you to provide them with the personalised experiences they prefer. According to the 4th Edition of the State of the Connected Customer report, 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services. Customers feel so strongly about this, one in three would abandon a brand after only one negative experience.
Customer data increases exponentially
The amount of data organisations must connect, analyse, and act on continues to explode. Yet, only one-third of the average 900 applications enterprise organisations have is connected. It is no wonder nine in 10 IT leaders believe these data silos create unaddressed business challenges.
So, it’s time to ask: What if you could connect all those data points to power all aspects of your business?
This question is creating massive hurdles for many companies across every industry. But this isn’t something IT leaders can ignore if they want to stay competitive and meet evolving customer needs. Instead, a data-driven business should be a priority now — if it wasn’t before 2020. Seventy-two percent of those surveyed in a recent report say experimentation with and investment in digital technologies have played a key role in helping them navigate the crisis. Sixty-seven percent of those same respondents invested more than industry peers in digital-related capital expenditures.
You know there is a better way. Whether it is for your salespeople that spend two-thirds of their time not selling, or for your IT team who spends time on projects that aren’t business-critical. Maybe it is for the customer service people who spend time answering the same questions over and over again. Whomever it is for in your organisation, you know productivity and morale improvements are necessary. That data is the key.
Employee experience supports customer success
Not only should your technology bring you and your customers closer, but it should also support your employees in their work so they can be the glue to keep your customers close. You can useLIKE.TG Customer 360, the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, and Slack to ensure a superior employee experience. It’s time you discover what other innovative companies have: Better employee experiences lead to better customer service experiences. That all leads to business growth.
As businesses work to obtain their footing in a changing world, most (87%) IT and business leaders feel their alignment has improved over the past year. For example, INSEAD CIO Mr. Choo Tatt Saw knows increasing employee productivity means better customer service. “MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform’s API capabilities enabled us to implement automated scheduling and course bookings — improving the efficiency and productivity of our staff. Now, they can focus on higher value tasks instead of manual work.” Additionally, connecting systems through one integrated platform enabled INSEAD to provide a 360-degree view of their data, which in turn powered innovation and cut down on development time from three months to two days.
This type of flexible and secure technology should be at the heart of your digital transformation. As you evaluate solutions, it is crucial to get a trusted technology partner and platform capable of adjusting as your organisation and market needs it to.
Flexible technology is the answer
The MuleSoft Anypoint Platform provides this flexibility. It uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect the data from your LIKE.TG CRM to Tableau to visualise that data.It is possible to use Slack as a frontend interface that can enhance inter and intradepartmental communication.
The current business landscape is still evolving as the pandemic economy continues. Businesses that want to continue growing need a flexible platform that can respond quickly to the market. A recent study shows a correlation between those that have successfully navigated the ongoing pandemic and have invested, more than their peers, in experimentation in digital technologies. Whether that is the evolving market of today where coronavirus variants are now surging or the market on the horizon with the return to schools and hybrid work schedules.
What’s next?
The only way to prepare for the unimaginable is to do the best you can with the data you have now. Have reliable, secure, and flexible technology built for agility. Finally, prepare to look at novel business challenges with a “beginner’s mind” when the situation demands it.
Given everything that’s happened since March 2020, are you ready for the next step in your digital transformation? See how MuleSoft (with LIKE.TG, Slack, and Tableau) can provide your customers with the connected experiences they want — faster.
Go ahead, take the next step.
Meet Brandy the Fox, the Newest LIKE.TG Character
We are in a new digital-first world. Customer expectations are changing. We’re working from anywhere. With all of these complex challenges, what’s a marketer to do?
Call Brandy, the newest LIKE.TG character.
Wherever you are in your marketing, Brandy is here to help monitor pipeline, cultivate campaigns, tell stories with personalisation, adapt to trends, and more.
You’ll see her start to appear alongside our other characters — Astro, Codey, Appy, and all our favorite friends — in the coming weeks and months.
Here’s a little more about Brandy the marketer and some insights behind her creation.
The ideas behind our characters
Let’s back up. Why do we haveour LIKE.TG characters, anyway? In 1999, LIKE.TG changed the mindset of what enterprise software could be — easier to purchase, simpler to use, and more democratic without difficulties of installation, maintenance, and constant upgrades.
Left to right: Appy, Einstein, Brandy, Astro, and Cloudy
Our characters reflect this vision. While each of them has a specific job and purpose, every character shares our mission of making technology friendlier, more approachable, and accessible. They also embrace the fun side of our company and inspire our community to blaze new trails.
Fast forward to today and our introduction to Brandy the Marketer. We began by asking ourselves, “What inspires us about our Trailblazers?” To answer the question, we made a list of their best qualities. Then, we went looking for the perfect way to put that into a character’s personality, appearance, and places she’ll show up.
Marketers and foxes have more in common than you might think. Here are some details on Brandy, and why she’s a fox.
Adaptable:Foxes thrive in diverse habitats — from forests to grasslands, mountains, and deserts. They can scale hurdles and swim well. This makes Brandy a welcome companion to marketers navigating a unique landscape of their own — our all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.
Analytical:Foxes scan the field for data. Like marketers today, they have an analytical approach to everything they do. They have an “internal compass” to determine the distance to a goal, just like how marketers use their data to lead their strategy.
Adventurous:Foxes can cover a lot of ground. They’re excellent travelers, always headed toward the next horizon. That’s why Brandy loves planning journeys. She finds the magic in every stop — or customer interaction — along the way.
Approachable:Foxes are warm and friendly. Sometimes misunderstood or portrayed as mischievous, they’re actually quite lovable. Meet any of our Trailblazers, and you’ll walk away inspired and with a smile on your face.
Moment maker:With her camera and watch, Brandy helps marketers deliver amazing customer moments at the right place, at the right time. Moment by moment, she helps marketers build customer relationships that last.
A fox. A friend. A field guide.
With her brilliant mind only matched by her blazing fur coat — perfectly matching Marketing Cloud’s hallmark orange — Brandy truly is a natural fit to the LIKE.TG family.
Brandy is an on-the-go, work-from-anywhere marketer. She’s just like you.
But mainly, she’s just like you: a marketer who delivers unforgettable moments for their customers. See how those moments are being built over by marketers everywhere atMarketer Career Pathon Trailhead.
You’ll be able to:
Skill up in your marketing role.From email marketing to analytics, data science, and more, learn new in-demand marketing skills specific to your current role.
Network with fellow marketers.You don’t have to go it alone. Join a thriving community of marketers and get expert tips, talk strategy, learn about customer trends, and more.
Transform your career.Discover open positions, learn insights from industry leaders, and get inspired with stories of success from marketers just like you.
Grow your career, connect with fellow Trailblazers, and explore what’s possible with marketing. Join the #MomentMarketer community.
This post orginally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
Using Technology To Scale and Grow Small & Fast-Growing Businesses
Customer expectations have changed a lot since 2020. Finding the right technology to engage customers and grow relationships over the long term is now a top priority for small and fast-growing businesses.
According to our fourth Small Medium (SMB) Business Trends Report, more than three-quarters of SMB leaders said last year’s crises should be a catalyst for business improvement.
SMB leaders cite these three factors when it comes to the technology contributing to business success:
It drives my customer interactions (51%)
It influences my organisation’s ability to stay in business (46%)
It drives the growth of my customer base (42%)
SMB leaders are learning that technology can make a critical difference in the success and growth of their business.
To learn more about this critical connection, we spoke to a few fast-growing SMBs at LIKE.TG Live: Asia. Read the infographic below to learn what they said worked for them.
For details on this infographic, please click here.
How Government Generates Trust Through Digital Services in Singapore
A major global study from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and LIKE.TG reveals the links between a government’s digital services and levels of trust for government.
It’s not news to anybody that the pandemic has driven people online in record numbers. More people than ever now live more of their lives within a digital realm.
What is fascinating is the effect this is having on customer expectations, and on trust in government.
Whether it’s shopping, working, learning, healthcare or government services, people are looking to the digital realm, first. As they do, they are having varying levels of experience.
Every time they have a wow moment, every time they’re delighted by a remarkable, personalised online interaction, their expectations are being shaped.
The trailblazing report The Global Trust Imperative from BCG and LIKE.TG offers a sharp focus on what those changing expectations mean for governments and their agencies. In particular, this report – developed from surveys with 24,500 people across 36 countries – reveals that 87 per cent of respondents globally believe that a great digital government customer experience would increase their degree of trust. This alone highlights the fact that there is a deep and powerful connection between digital government services and trust in that government.
In Singapore the report found 77 per cent of respondents say great digital experiences would have the highest positive impact on trust for the government. Importantly, almost as many say bad experiences decrease trust. There’s great risk involved in getting digital experience wrong, or not providing it at all.
Some of the findings are encouraging in terms of the positive impact digital upgrades have already had. For example, in Singapore, 54 per cent say their needs are being met by their government’s digital services.
There were several findings of interest to public sector leaders. For example, globally, 94 per cent of customers say they’re not happy with just any digital offering. Customers worldwide expect government digital services to be as good as or better than banks, telcos, leading tech firms or other leading governments. That’s high expectations, indeed.
Let’s dig a little deeper.
What customers want
To know how to best serve customers, first we need to understand what they don’t want. Globally, 70 per cent of customers say the last interaction they had with digital government services had at least one pain point. Although this number varied from country to country, even a leading country like Singapore found that 64 per cent of users faced some type of problem when accessing their digital service.
So what is it that they want? Where are governments falling short in the digital realm?
The most common problems were:
the length or difficulty of the process – 21 per cent
technical difficulties or issues completing their request – 20 per cent
no help available – 16 per cent
not having all the paperwork or information they needed – 16 per cent
Why is all of this important? Because customers are hesitant to share personal data with the government. The report tells us 41 per cent of customers feel they have little control over their data and 37 per cent don’t trust that their data won’t be used for additional purposes without their consent.
But here’s where it gets really interesting. More than half (52 per cent) of customers globally said if they could see how it would benefit themselves, they would be willing to provide personal data to the government.
In other words, the government can build enormous trust by communicating benefits more effectively.
How is this achieved?
In the public sector, spending is at an all-time high. However, budgets are still limited.
Transparency is an important goal – trust will convince customers to share more data. To effectively utilize that data, governments require a modern, agile and resilient technology engine that is fuelled by data.
Government also needs to be where the people are, digitally speaking. That’s not on desktop screens but instead on fully modular devices, the same ones being used by digital natives. If it wants to deliver the right messages and services to the right audiences/users at the right time, the government needs to be on smartphones and tablets.
And speaking of “the right messages” and “the right customers”, data must be utilised to personalise messaging and service. Personalisation further builds trust. It demonstrates interest and thoughtfulness. It streamlines processes. It removes many of the blocks, mentioned above, that make customers feel that the government is falling short in digital delivery.
Finally, the government must seek constant, real-time improvement to its services. For example, great government apps offer a simple choice of thumbs-up or thumbs-down after almost any online interaction. It’s immediate, real-time data that should lead to constant improvement of service.
Breed success by addressing data-sharing fears
The reality is that governments that experience greater trust from their online users deliver better online service. Better service delivery that meets or exceeds user expectations encourages more data to be shared. This drives even better service delivery. It’s a virtuous cycle.
In fact, The Global Trust Imperative tells us that roughly half of all respondents would share their personal information if it would benefit themselves (52 per cent) or the community (47 per cent). To encourage sharing information, governments will first need to address some universal fears. Globally, 1 in 3 users were afraid their personal information would be made public (36 per cent), not stored securely (36 per cent), or could be stolen by hackers (35 per cent).
Therefore, it’s worth putting some effort into the establishment of a data-sharing compact with users. The quality/trust benefits to users and to government agencies should be made clear and tangible.
What are the other high-value focus points to come out of the research?
The first is a recognition of the good work done so far, and the resulting gains in trust over the last few years. During the pandemic, digital projects were delivered at pace and under unprecedented conditions. They were often cross-agency and multi-disciplinary, representing best-practice digital delivery. There’s now a great opportunity to take this experience and trust forward to create ever greater gains.
What does the report make clear? First, digital services that deliver on users’ increasing expectations are critical to a functioning government.
Next, there is a clear connection between a government’s quality of digital services and the overall levels of trust people have in that government.
We know most users are still experiencing problems and challenges with online government services, and are hesitant to share data. We also know that if the personal benefits are clear and tangible, people will be more willing to share their personal data.
Finally, governments able to deliver a high quality of service delivery will achieve enhanced policy outcomes as trust will increase.
Never have technology and human sentiment been so aligned, meaning right now there is great opportunity for governments to innovate in an environment of increasing trust.
Download The Global Trust Imperative report here.
Accelerate Your Career With the LIKE.TG ASEAN Developer Challenge
As a LIKE.TG App Developer, you get to work with Customer 360, gain access to a wide range of learning opportunities, and be part of the inclusive LIKE.TG community.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), by 2024, LIKE.TG and its ecosystem of partners may create 8,500 direct and 17,000 indirect jobs in Singapore alone. This is driven in large part by increased demand for cloud solutions and services.
The ASEAN Developer Challenge introduces you to the LIKE.TG ecosystem. Think of it as an opportunity to learn, earn, and connect. Register for the challenge and see how easy it is to begin building enterprise apps on the LIKE.TG Platform. Eventually, you will also get an opportunity to showcase your app-building skills to LIKE.TG customers and partners at an official LIKE.TG Demo Day.
LIKE.TG Developer Advocates will guide you through the challenge, and help you convert your enterprise app idea into a marketable asset. It’s also a great way to get LIKE.TG certified for free, says Joey Chan, a LIKE.TG MVP based in the Philippines.
“Starting as a LIKE.TG Developer is the best decision I’ve made for my career,” he says. “I have joined programming competitions since my university days to hone my skills. This is a great opportunity for everyone in the region to learn and get certified for free!”
How to join the ASEAN Developer Challenge
Participating in the challenge couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is follow these three simple steps:
First, sign up for a free Trailblazer.me account and register for the challenge. Don’t forget to read the program terms.
Next, register for our three training webinars. Complete the Trails on Trailhead that we’ll share with you after each webinar. The first webinar will be held at 1:30 p.m. SGT on September 1, 2021.
Finally, build an app and submit it by 6:30 p.m. SGT on Sunday, October 17, 2021
What happens next?
We’ll feature your app on our Developer community blog. You’ll also reveal your app to LIKE.TG customers and partners at an official LIKE.TG Demo Day at 11:00 a.m. SGT on Wednesday, October 27, 2021.
All participants who complete the required Trails on Trailhead will receive a US$200 Certification Voucher. All participants who attend the Demo Day will receive a US$400 Certification Voucher.
Get your ticket to the LIKE.TG community
Your LIKE.TG journey doesn’t end on Demo Day. As a certified LIKE.TG Developer, you’ll be a valued member of the LIKE.TG community.
Johan Yu, a LIKE.TG MVP based in Singapore, says the challenge is a great way for ASEAN developers to showcase their talent, build their careers, and become an integral part of the growing LIKE.TG ecosystem.
“It’s great to see such programs for the ASEAN community,” he says. “It will help to showcase our expertise, the power of the LIKE.TG platform, and build networks within the community.
“I’d like to ask all ASEAN developers to join this program and use it to get LIKE.TG certified. I’m excited to see what our developers build!”
Start your LIKE.TG App Developer journey and register for the ASEAN Developer Challenge now.
Three Sales Lessons We Can Learn from 2021
Over the past year, your business probably faced its fair share of disruption, resilience, and change. This may be a good time to reflect on the things you have learned and celebrate what you accomplished in the last nine months.
It’s important to take a moment and see how far you’ve come and what you’ve been able to achieve. Learn what you can from 2021, so you can end it on a high, and kick 2022 off to a flying start.
Here are our top three ways to set your teams up for sales success in the year ahead, inspired by our ASEAN 50 Pro Sales Tips guide for 2021:
1. Review your plans
It’s good to review your plans and reflect on what has worked and what hasn’t. After all, good planning is only as effective as your team’s ability to implement it.
Having teams in clear alignment across a business is a guaranteed way to get closer to achieving your goals and targets. One way to help make that happen is to introduce new methodologies into your planning cycle.
One of the tools we use for planning success at LIKE.TG is our V2MOM, which stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures. It’s a robust planning framework for businesses of any size.
The reason the V2MOM works so well is that it helps to align teams around the overall direction of the business. It brings everyone together, from the CEO through to senior managers and sales teams. This provides clarity and momentum around key business objectives.
Sujith Abraham is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of LIKE.TG in Asia. He is a big believer in bringing teams together in alignment.
“The world, customer needs, and workplace operations have changed. You need to build a sales culture that adapts to the new and constantly changing business reality. Now, more than ever, sales leaders need to motivate teams and align representatives to common objectives,” says Abraham.
Jovy Hernandez, Senior Vice President and Head, Enterprise Business at PLDT, advises leaders to “have a vision and purpose for your organisation. Create a sales culture that gives meaning and reason to your day-to-day activities.”
When teams are clear on their purpose and the business objectives, they can start to focus on what matters most. This helps to remove distractions and builds energy across the teams for collaborating on common goals.
2. Empower your teams
So your teams are aligned and you’ve pointed them in the right direction. If you give them the right tools and access to the right data, you can unlock a powerful combination.
Start by empowering your teams and reskilling them, making sure they know how to make the most of any new tools. Cecily Ng is the LIKE.TG Area Vice President and General Manager of Singapore. She suggests fostering a love for learning across your teams.
“To succeed in the new normal, you need to build a resilient sales culture. Reskilling and retraining are critical,” says Ng. “Encourage people to have a mindset for learning, as doing so will drive innovation and growth for your business, now and in the future.”
A customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Customer 360 revolutionises the way your teams communicate with leads. It will allow them to choose the most appropriate time, format, and content for their conversation.
For Avis Easteal, Regional Head of Consumer at Luxasia, timing is everything and applies to all teams across the business.
“Try to understand where the client is in their annual budget and planning process,” she says. “When negotiating, timing can be the difference between success and ‘I can’t right now’. Do your research.”
3. Nurture your relationships
According to a recent State of Sales report, 89% of high-performing sales reps believe there is an increased need to build trust before a sale. Showing empathy for customers during challenging times is one way to build that trust.
“Nurture your contacts. Not everyone is ready to buy straight away, as much as we’d like them to,” says Jimmy Storrier, CEO and Managing Director of Aquient in Singapore. “Take the time to interact with people and check in with them regularly by sharing articles and insights, or a virtual coffee! This builds trust and a solid foundation to grow from.”
Another way to be relevant to your customers is to be active across social media channels and interact with them in helpful ways when appropriate. With 3.78 billion people on earth using social media, this form of social selling continues to rise in popularity.
Tiffani Bova, Global Growth Evangelist for LIKE.TG, believes that social selling has come of age. She says that “social selling should be your default method to connect and engage with customers.”
Whether social selling or interacting with empathy, these are just some of the ways salespeople can nurture their leads and build a pipeline of sales.
Learn from 2021 and accelerate into 2022
By aligning your plans, and giving your teams the tools and training they need, you can elevate their ability to nurture their leads. Don’t forget to keep them motivated and celebrate their wins.
These will set up your sales teams for success and get 2022 off to a great start.
Be inspired by the ASEAN 50 Pro Sales Tips for 2021 with insights and tips from more than 30 industry leaders. Download the e-book and get inspired.
Hyper-personalisation Made Easy With LIKE.TG and MuleSoft
Customers want hyper-personalised experiences. They expect businesses to anticipate their needs. They also want personalised micro moments across their preferred channels.
To achieve this, organisations need a single source of truth that pulls in data from multiple sources to create a 360-degree view of the customer. Together with LIKE.TG Customer 360, MuleSoft can help businesses achieve this vision.
The data integration challenge
LIKE.TG’s State of the Connected Customer report shows 80% of customers say the experience a business provides is as important as its products or services. For business buyers, that figure increases to 85%. Add that to the fact that 52% of customers expect personalised offers every time, and you’ll start to see how much data you need.
Providing hyper-personalised experiences depends on being able to access a single source of truth. Data comes from multiple sources. For a real-time 360-degree view of the customer, all that data needs to be integrated into your customer relationship management (CRM) system.
It’s a big ask. MuleSoft’s Connectivity Benchmark report shows the average enterprise-level organisation runs 843 individual applications . Yet, the surveyed respondents said only 29% of those applications on average are integrated.
Two major hurdles to data integration
Siloed data and legacy IT infrastructure remain the two major stumbling blocks to successful digital transformation.
Siloed sources of critical information undermine your operations by preventing a 360-degree view of the customer. Customers, too, are frustrated as they feel like they are dealing with separate departments, not one company. In fact, 65% of customers say they often have to repeat or re-explain information to different representatives.
MuleSoft’s research reveals that legacy IT infrastructure is an obstacle to many digital initiatives, with 34% of organisations reporting that it presents the main challenge to digital transformation.
While most organisations recognise the importance of data integration then, only 18% say they integrate end-user experiences across all channels.
How MuleSoft Composer delivers API integrations for LIKE.TG
MuleSoft Composer supercharges your CRM by bringing in data from other applications and making it available inside LIKE.TG Customer 360 — no coding involved. With its straightforward click and drag functionionality, MuleSoft Composer can defeat the challenges associated with siloed information.
Inefficiencies associated with disparate systems and manual processes cause slowdown for sales teams. Organisations could be taking orders in Google Sheets, using Netsuite for inventory, invoicing in Xero, and accepting payments via Paypal. But the data from each application is recorded separately, which makes it almost impossible to get a real-time picture of a purchase. This makes it difficult to provide efficient, personalised customer service.
MuleSoft Composer streamlines operations by integrating invoicing, orders, payments, and inventory applications. Once you have all that data in one place, it’s so much easier to get a 360-degree view of your customer.
Every team can benefit from MuleSoft Composer
It’s not just sales teams that benefit. By having all your data accessible, customer service teams can work faster to close tickets. Agents can access all the customer’s information straight away, instead of spending valuable time digging through different apps.
MuleSoft Composer can also connect with your Slack or Microsoft Teams apps. This allows you to set up triggers for other teams. For example, once the accounts team receives a payment, an alert can be sent to the fulfilment team to pack and send an order. By integrating your inventory apps, the team can act with confidence, knowing that they have real-time insight into stock availability.
The advantages go beyond your organisation. Set up automated notifications about their orders, and customers feel the benefits too. Your marketing teams can get in on the action as well. All your automated messages can carry personalised offers to encourage repeat purchases.
Customer expectations are changing
Customers are purchasing online more than ever before and expect quick turnarounds on orders and deliveries. The State of the Connected Customer report reveals that 58% of consumers expect to do more online shopping after the pandemic than before. Eighty percent of business buyers expect to conduct more business online.
Furthermore, 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That makes the drive to create hyper-personalised experiences for customers even more compelling
Create integrations with clicks, not code
Because no coding is required to operate MuleSoft Composer, IT teams are free to focus on other tasks. Research shows that IT teams have to deliver 30% more projects on budgets that are growing by less than 10%. Everything you do to make digital transformation simpler is a step in the right direction.
Since MuleSoft Composer can integrate legacy applications into the LIKE.TG platform, an overhaul of an existing tech stack isn’t required. Instead, MuleSoft can work with the IT infrastructure the organisation already has in place.
Customer experience is a driving force behind business success. To deliver hyper-personalised customer experiences, you need a 360-degree view of your customer. To get that view, your data needs to be integrated into one system. MuleSoft Composer brings data into your LIKE.TG CRM simply and powerfully, providing your entire organisation with data they can rely on.
Tune in to the webinar to hear Amy McDonnell, Head of MuleSoft Composer, in conversation with Vijay Iyer, Director, Solution Engineering, at LIKE.TG. They discuss the challenges that are facing enterprise organisations and how LIKE.TG and MuleSoft Composer can help meet them.
Dreamforce 2021 Is Coming: Here’s What You Need To Know
You saw Dreamforce reimagined in 2020 when we hosted the event completely virtual for the first time. A live-streamed keynote, personalised content, four days of digital learning, and 140 million views later, and you can bet our virtual experience game has never been better.
This time, prepare to take another leap as LIKE.TG takes Dreamforce 2021 global in exciting new ways on September 22–24 (Asia-Pacific timezones).
San Francisco remains the heart of Dreamforce, but in 2021 there will be plenty of innovation, inspiration, and customer success from across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Think of it as having a front-row seat to all of the Dreamforce action — no matter where in the world you are.
Screentime never looked so good: introducing LIKE.TG+
Attending online has never been easier or more fun. This year, we’re thrilled to introduce LIKE.TG+. It’s designed so that anyone can experience live LIKE.TG broadcasts from anywhere in the world and stream original content series on demand. As the world changed the way they consume content, so did we.
We’ve got four channels ready for Dreamforce, delivering more than 100 hours of innovative and inspiring content:
Prime Time: This is where to go for the best of Dreamforce, live from around the globe. Think LIKE.TG executives, global leaders, and changemakers.
Trailblazer: Tune in to hear from Trailblazing pioneers, innovators, and lifelong learners. You can also discover how to use LIKE.TG to do well and do good in your career, company, and community. Curious about the latest Customer 360 product innovations? This is where you can see them come to life and get sneak peeks at the LIKE.TG product roadmap.
Customer 360: Immerse yourself in success stories from Trailblazers, and get behind-the-scenes content highlighting innovations from the LIKE.TG experts who created them.
Industries: Switch to this channel for stories on how industry innovators are driving growth and reimagining their industries for an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.
The details — with more to come
When: September 22–24, 2021. Join the APAC Takeover as we count down to the Dreamforce Main Show from 11 a.m. SGT/HKT, 22 September, 2021.
Where: Everywhere! You can find a schedule of events and experiences happening in the APAC region here.
What: Think expert-led demos, top tips from LIKE.TG leaders from across APAC, unmissable insights from innovative Trailblazers such as Singapore Airlines, Telstra, Titan, and Toys“R”Us, and more.
Who is in on the APAC Dreamforce action: Our lips are sealed — for the moment. But LIKE.TG APAC is very excited about the two major business partners we have on board for Dreamforce. They are experts at keeping everyone connected and making the digital world a fun one to inhabit. Register for the latest updates.
Where do I start: Sign up for a free LIKE.TG+ membership today so you’re ready for when the action starts in September.
This post originally appeared on the A.U.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
5 Ways a CRM Can Help Financial Services Close the Personalisation Gap
Digital transformation has been an imperative for financial services institutions over the course of the pandemic. The LIKE.TG Trends in Financial Services report shows that as customer demand for advanced digital capabilities soared, the financial services industry prioritised implementing new technologies over improving customer experience. However, this has left only 27% of customers feeling the financial services industry is customer-centric.
Rather than replacing customer experience with the implementation of new technologies, there is an opportunity here for both of these priorities to work hand-in-hand. Indeed, new technologies, including customer relationship management (CRM) tools, can help create the personalised experiences customers demand from their banks and insurers.
1. Enabling a seamless omni-channel experience
Digital-first fintechs are already offering digitised personalisation. This inspires traditional banks and insurers to digitally transform as well.
With face-to-face meetings with customers becoming less common, it’s essential for financial services institutions to offer innovative alternatives. Using a CRM for financial services can help.
By bringing together real-time customer data from multiple sources and channels, a conversation can move seamlessly from chat bot to Messenger to email to phone call and back again. Given that 65% of customers say they often have to repeat information to different representatives, this kind of continuity is essential to providing personalised service. Digital engagement is built into the LIKE.TG Financial Services Cloud platform, giving companies a 360-degree view of the customer. This interaction never falters as information from one encounter is carried through to the next in a timely, collaborative way.
Banks and insurers often grapple with multiple systems, processes, and teams in an effort to create connected experiences for their customers. MuleSoft can integrate multiple systems to support the omni-channel experience that customers desire.
2. Making every communication count
Meeting the digital transformation imperative doesn’t mean bombarding the customer with emails and messages just because you can. Rather, it’s about using technology to offer relevant communications to the right customer at the right time. The State of the Connected Customer report showed that 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalised.
Financial Services Cloud can facilitate personalised interactions with client profiles centred on personal goals, pivotal life events, and business milestones. It can help businesses nurture deeper relationships by staying in touch with proactive tracking and event alerts to remind you to reach out when a customer needs you most.
Tools like Email Studio segment audiences so banks and insurers can filter profiles rapidly and make relevant offerings to the customers most likely to respond.
Journey Builder can expand on personalised communications by helping banks and insurers to deliver the right information to customers not just via email, but across web landing pages, ads, and apps. Instead of getting one-size-fits all solutions, customers are guided through a journey that adapts to real-time events like purchases, app downloads, or service cases.
3. Predicting needs with artificial intelligence
Key to solving a customer’s problem is knowing the customer. With CRM providing a single source of truth, the information needed to address an issue is always at hand.
A CRM tool that leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI) can take that customer knowledge and personalisation to the next level. With Einstein, banking and insurance representatives can get deeper insights into their customers. Have they bought a new house or had a baby? Were they made redundant during the pandemic? Did they buy a new car?
It’s the kind of knowledge that allows banks and insurers to engage more proactively with their customers and more accurately forecast problems and opportunities. Einstein Discovery, together with Tableau and Financial Services Cloud, allows banks and insurers to prescribe corrective actions to help minimise client churn and maximise opportunities to grow account assets.
Einstein Relationship Insights (ERI) brings critical insights from disparate sources (including the web, news, and internal and external documents) to uncover the most relevant information for every customer and reveal new leads.
AI capabilities can also help banking and insurance representatives engage with more empathy. This quality is in increasingly high demand, and one that represents a valuable competitive advantage. LIKE.TG research shows that 68% of customers expect the companies they engage with to demonstrate empathy, but only 37% say this actually happens.
Transparency and regulatory compliance around how personal information is gathered and accessed is crucial. With consumers more aware of digital privacy regulations, having a clear data protection policy presents an opportunity to nurture a relationship of trust with the customer.
4. Supporting collaboration
Integrated with LIKE.TG Financial Services Cloud, Slack is a powerful tool for collaboration that ultimately helps improve the customer experience. Slack enables banking and insurance representatives to pull in the right people and the right data for a conversation in the context of a specific opportunity, case, or campaign.
Case swarming is a collaborative approach to customer service. Service agents can resolve issues by calling upon expertise from other teams, while simultaneously guiding the customer. Slack’s integration with CRM gives a 360-degree view of the customer, while the channel format allows the representative to gain input at speed.
In corporate and investment banking, Slack integrates with Financial Services Cloud to offer dedicated deal rooms. These rooms are where all the parties involved in a complex sale can stay on top of the ebb and flow of account activities.
For investment banking and advisory teams competing to win more deal mandates, Slack and Financial Services Cloud are now purpose-built for deal teams. Together, both can help fuel productivity with actionable insights and research, a deeper understanding of clients, and built-in compliance to collaborate and share sensitive information throughout the lifecycle of a deal.
5. Using automation for efficiency and personalisation
Automation has a key role to play in improving efficiencies and the customer experience in financial services.
Whether it’s opening a new bank account, applying for a loan, updating an insurance policy, or reporting a stolen card, customers expect a seamless digital process. CRM can help achieve this by automating as much of the process as possible. That could include forms that are automatically populated with the customer’s data or automating a series of personalised emails that take the customer through the loan application process.
Digital Process Automation (DPA) can extend the power of Financial Services Cloud by providing click-based configuration and integration tools that simplify the creation and delivery of branded, automated customer experiences.
As autonomous finance emerges across the banking and insurance sectors, automating tasks such as account transfers or claims processing will further leverage the power of AI to deliver optimised, personalised customer experiences.
Discover six strategies for using a CRM to deliver the personalised experiences customers want. Download our e-book, Hyper-personalisation: Key to the Future of Digital Banking in ASEAN, here.
How to Build an Integrated Real Estate CRM for Tenant Management
COVID-19 is reshaping the office property market as businesses move to decentralised and work-from-home models in the mid to long term. This has implications for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and their investors as falling demand threatens to drive down the value of CBD office space. In Singapore, for example, the vacancy rate of office space rose to 11% with office rents falling by 0.8%, and prices down 4%.
That makes it more important than ever for REITs to work smarter. Some are turning to technology like CRM platforms to generate deeper insights and drive better decision making. Additionally, as businesses change the way they use traditional work spaces, REITs can assist tenants transition to alternative real estate offerings buoyed by the need for collaboration.
To be effective in this climate, REITs need a 360-degree view of tenants. But lack of integration between real estate management software platforms can create data silos. This leaves the leasing rep without transparency into lead generation, deal progression, and tenant relationships.
LIKE.TG can solve this problem. REITs and real estate agencies can use LIKE.TG to build an integrated CRM for real estate.
From integrating legacy systems to marketing automation on the platform, and empowering all this data with AI, a LIKE.TG CRM can provide a single source of truth for leasing reps. Portals can enable collaboration with brokers and tenants. Lastly, help your tenants return to work with ongoing health checks and safety protocols in the new normal.
Here’s how to use LIKE.TG to build an integrated real estate CRM for REITs and leasing reps in five steps:
Step 1: Set up a CRM platform
Sales Cloud in the Customer 360 suite is the core of your CRM for REIT and real estate. This is where you build a lead-to-lease pipeline to give leasing reps visibility into deal progression across the entire tenant journey.
Leasing reps can follow tenant journeys through each of the opportunity stages — from new lead to deal closure. They can also use LIKE.TG’s point-and-click approval process to enable seamless and transparent negotiations and discount approvals, and create custom objects in Sales Cloud to give leasing reps seamless access to lease information and property inventory data.
AppExchange enables you to integrate relevant apps into Sales Cloud to add specific functionality. For example, Conga is a document generation app that gives leasing reps access to a range of templates they can use to instantly create key documents like a Letter of Intent.
Step 2: Add marketing automation
Leasing reps need a constant flow of leads funneling into the Sales Cloud pipeline. This is easy with a simple Pardot integration.
Pardot is a marketing automation solution that helps you to generate and nurture leads, and seamlessly pass them onto leasing reps without the need for integration. This combines the benefits of marketing and CRM in one platform.
Lead transfer can be automated to save time, and leads can be placed straight into an automation journey. This will help leasing reps nurture leads through opportunity stages from project announcements to site visits and leasing discussions.
Pardot also has a range of lead generation tools for marketing managers. For example, Pardot enables marketing teams to build web forms to capture prospect information, and build email templates that drive prospects to Pardot landing pages. Built-in marketing analytics enable smart campaign performance monitoring and show the return on investment of each campaign.
Step 3: Integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data
To create a single 360-degree tenant view, Sales Cloud may need to call on data from various sources including your ERP, broker CRMs, and other legacy platforms. MuleSoft makes this process seamless with easy data integration between systems.
MuleSoft connects multiple applications together. It enables simple data syncing between various sources including inventory applications and popular ERPs like SAP and Oracle. For less well-known platforms, MuleSoft uses a point-and-click methodology to create APIs capable of syncing data with Sales Cloud from just about any software platform.
With all tenant data brought together from multiple platforms into a single view on Sales Cloud, the leasing rep no longer has to juggle multiple systems to find basic data like contract terms, contract expiry dates, and lease renewal dates. They can access all relevant data and get a 360-degree view of each and every tenant within Sales Cloud.
Step 4: Build partner and tenant portals
In REITs and large real estate agencies, selling is not a single person play. It often requires collaboration between leasing reps and property brokers. For example, brokers may be responsible for matching prospects to properties and scheduling site visits. To do so, brokers often need to exchange information with leasing reps.
Experience Cloud can be used to build a partner portal that boosts collaboration between leasing reps and brokers. Both can use the portal to access key tenant and inventory data. Leasing reps and brokers can also communicate inside the portal with web-based communication tools such as Chatter or Slack.
Tenant portals hosted in Experience Cloud can also be used to improve communication between leasing reps and tenants, and enable tenant self-service to ease leasing reps’ workloads. For example, tenants can log in to a tenant portal to view contract information, book meeting rooms, and raise customer service tickets without help from their leasing reps.
Step 5: Leverage artificial intelligence
Leasing reps can work smarter with artificial intelligence (AI) built into your LIKE.TG real estate management solution.
Einstein is LIKE.TG’s AI technology that helps customers sell smarter, deepen customer relationships, scale customer support, and personalise experiences. It is embedded in Sales Cloud to provide leasing reps with critical insights on deal progression, identify upsell opportunities, and complete property evaluations based on existing data.
Einstein can also use AI insights to identify important emails based on keyword scans, and help leasing reps prioritise their inbox around high-value tasks.
Step 6: Manage Employee Health, Safety and Security
REITs and property managers can help tenant companies deploy solutions like Work.com to support safe return-to-work protocols, and ongoing health and safety checks in the new normal.
With Work.com your tenant companies can manage health-related interactions and workplace planning on a single platform. This enables companies to boost healthcare and community responsiveness now, and for future crises.
Your tenant companies can use the Workplace Command Centre to take swift action on employee wellness, and help their employees adapt to new ways of working with myTrailhead. You and your tenants can also track the latest independent public health data through the Tableau COVID-19 Data Hub.
LIKE.TG helps busy leasing reps work smarter, smashes data silos, and creates a single source of truth. Leasing reps get the visibility and insights they need to progress deals, manage tenant relationships, and improve performance across the board.
4 Ways To Ensure Your Experience Metrics Stay Customer-Centric
Customer experience and service have shifted from being viewed as a cost-centre to a value-add for businesses. It’s much more cost-effective to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. Service teams are central to creating the customer experiences that drive retention.
A customer relationship management (CRM) system empowers service teams to deliver a compelling customer experience. Having a CRM that captures every touchpoint means service teams can fuel customer engagement, improve loyalty, and transform customers into advocates.
LIKE.TG research shows 79% of executives across the Asia-Pacific agree that a CRM system is instrumental in delivering seamless customer experiences. Fifty percent of those surveyed said delivering outstanding customer experience over multiple channels of engagement is a top priority for the next 12 months.
But your CRM should be viewed as always evolving. It is not set-and-forget or focused purely on vanity metrics. It’s essential that leaders measure the success of their CRM solutions against customer experience expectations. This will ensure that value is maximised, and that customer needs are truly at the heart of service delivery.
Here are four tips for service leaders to keep in mind when they are measuring the success of CRM for service teams.
1. Take a customer-centric approach to agent productivity and speed of resolution
The standard metrics of customer service agent productivity and efficiency are still important. But at the same time service teams are looking at how fast they can close a critical incident, so too can they focus on a holistic approach to the customer experience.
As soon as the focus becomes just about hitting a certain call resolution time or a certain number of cases closed, then the organisation comes across as prioritising internal service KPIs over the customer.
Knowledge articles, which are a core capability of Service Cloud, are critical to empowering service agents. With the relevant information immediately at hand, agents can get a quicker time to close with the best possible outcome for the customer.
Workplace messaging system Slack is also a useful tool for working efficiently and keeping the customer front and centre. Integrated with Service Cloud, Slack enables a collaborative platform for service teams to access customer data.
We use it for case swarming,whereby a case is elevated into a Slack case form and taps into the wisdom of the wider team to get a faster resolution.
So, yes, measuring efficiency is important. But only as long as it’s done through the lens of customer experience.
2. Make your customer feedback count
Customer engagement, loyalty, and advocacy are built on connected, seamless customer experience. Getting feedback about that experience is a powerful way to improve or to make necessary adjustments.
How do you get feedback? One way is to ask for it with customer experience and satisfaction metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Another way is to make it a fully automated process in the service workflow so that each case concludes with a solicitation. Were you satisfied with your experience? How can we do better? That information is then gathered into your CRM for service dashboard so teams can track feedback.
It’s important, however, to be mindful of the Cobra Effectwhen gathering quantitative data. This happens when you superficially meet a target, but in the process you undermine your larger goal. For example, a customer service officer might think, “If I hurry the interaction with this customer, then my turnaround time is quick and that will improve our efficiency KPIs”. Technically, they’re right. But the more important goal of creating positive customer experience gets undermined along the way.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) embedded in Service Cloud can help take measuring feedback to the next level by delivering more qualitative, nuanced data about customer sentiment. Whether it’s a fully digital encounter with a chatbot, or a personal encounter with a service agent, AI can uncover trends and analyse sentiment we couldn’t otherwise surface. It might, for example, pick out keywords like ‘disappointed’ or ‘frustrated’ that indicate a customer service response is needed.
3. Build a 360-degree customer view in your CRM with integration and collaboration
With Service Cloud, businesses can eliminate the silos that have traditionally interrupted customer experience. Customers don’t want to feel like they’re dealing with disconnected departments. They want to engage with a single, unified organisation.
For example, if a customer has an open service case, we can exclude them from a marketing audience so they are not targeted with the wrong messaging while their case is being addressed. This way, marketing and service are on the same page.
It comes back to how CRM for service can deliver a 360-degree view of the customer. Every touchpoint, every communication, and every conversation is visible in real time to everyone in the organisation. No matter what channel a customer chooses to interact with you, the conversation can pick up from where they left off. A seamless, omni-channel experience can only occur when systems are integrated and teams collaborate.
4. Don’t make upselling just about selling
Speaking of better integration between teams, upsell is a perfect example because it’s a shared metric. Service teams can place a customer into a marketing journey, or pass them directly on to a sales person.
But upselling can be an extension of outstanding customer experience — not just pushing more products in order to meet sales targets. Upselling plays into the trust your customers have in the organisation. Service agents have an important role in nurturing that trust and in creating starting points for sales and marketing to introduce new campaigns to receptive customers.
Just as customer experience is everyone’s job, so too does upselling depend on every department working together.
Learn more about how a CRM for service can take customer experience to the next level. Watch the Service Cloud demo and try it for yourself.
Dreamforce Asia Pacific Takeover: Here’s What You Don’t Want to Miss
Mark your calendars because Dreamforce 2021 is almost here. This annual global event is a chance for LIKE.TG customers, partners, employees, and the wider community to come together. We gather in the spirit of sharing innovation, insights, and success stories.
In just two days, sessions featuring industry leaders, innovative companies, and LIKE.TG experts will be streaming right to your device exclusively through LIKE.TG+, our brand new streaming platform. You can sign up for free today, ready for the launch of Dreamforce.
Kicking off such an anticipated global event deserves its own countdown and region-specific Trailblazers to celebrate.
That is why LIKE.TG Pacific is taking over Dreamforce.
Why you should tune in to the Asia Pacific Dreamforce Takeover
If you want to hear from local Trailblazers or deep dive into region-specific topics, then the Asia Pacific Takeover should be your starting point for your 2021 Dreamforce experience.
You’ll have the chance to learn firsthand from inspiring customers and local experts. Singapore Airlines, Toys”R”Us, Telstra, and Titan Company are ready to share how they use technology to innovate and make an impact in their communities.
Our regional leaders will be there to offer insights around customer experience, people, and purpose. The line-up includes:
Sujith Abraham, SVP and ASEAN GM
DiDi Wong, Regional VP and Geo Leader Hong Kong and Taiwan
Arundhati Bhattacharya, India CEO
Pip Marlow, ANZ and ASEAN CEO
Inspiring local stories and future vision from thought-leaders are all things that come to mind when we think of Dreamforce. Plus, the must-see global keynote featuring Marc Benioff, our Chair and CEO will be broadcast during the Asia Pacific Takeover.
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The Asia-Pacific Takeover has even more to offer, with multi-award winning chef Kelvin Cheung revealing his mouth-watering tips and tricks to creating diverse and distinct cuisines. Also, don’t miss live entertainment from Charlie Lim, Benny Dayal, and Guy Sebastian.
The Dreamforce global broadcast has an exciting line-up of well-known and inspiring speakers. Be inspired by innovative thinkers who are challenging the status quo and leading by example. We’re definitely going to tune in to hear from actor and musician Will Smith, activist Jane Fonda, and Amref Global Ambassador Nice Nailantei Leng’ete.
Where and when to tune in
When: 22 September 2021, 11 a.m. SGT/ 10 a.m. ICT
Where: Sign in to LIKE.TG+. We will be broadcasting on the Primetime Channel
How: Register for a free LIKE.TG+ membership today so you don’t miss the best of Dreamforce.
If one afternoon of content isn’t enough for you, many of the global Dreamforce sessions will be available to view on-demand 24 hours after they run. There’s truly something for everyone, but some sessions that we’re excited about are:
How Slack is helping sales teams accelerate growth
How Tableau can help businesses unlock the power of their data
New strategies for customer-centric commerce
Ways automation can bring speed and scale to business operations
And more, including a rocking performance from the Foo Fighters at the Dreamforce Opening Celebration
So, that leaves us with one last question: Where will you be watching the Dreamforce Asia Pacific Takeover from?
How To Create Impactful Customer Experiences With Ethical AI
Rob Newell is Vice President, Solution Engineering and Cloud Sales, at LIKE.TG. He’s passionate about helping organisations throughout the Asia Pacific region surpass their business objectives by employing ethical AI and enterprise cloud technology.
The challenges around ethics, trust, and artificial intelligence (AI) are real. They can have a significant impact on customer experience and on the market’s perception of brands and businesses. Fortunately, there’s plenty businesses can do to create AI experiences that enhance trust and have a positive impact on customer experience.
We know from LIKE.TG research that top performing sales teams are 2.7 times more likely to use AI to determine what action to take next. Compared to underperforming organisations, they’re also 2.4 times more likely to use AI to prioritise leads and 1.9 times more likely to use AI to manage admin tasks.
At the same time, there’s a crisis of trust in AI.
Why is this? Whenever AI delivers flawed outcomes, customers and employees lose trust. AI will deliver erroneous outcomes as a result of one of three main things:
Bias in the data
Bias in the algorithms
Teams responsible for managing the data and algorithms lack diversity within their ranks
LIKE.TG and ethical AI
At LIKE.TG, trust is our number one value, and we consider it our responsibility to develop ethical AI. We must also help guide organisations on the principles of building a trusted AI capability that enhances customer experience and enables customer success.
This begins with purpose and values, and covers five key areas. AI that builds trust must be:
Responsible: by safeguarding human rights and protecting the customer data the business has been entrusted with.
Accountable: by seeking and leveraging feedback from stakeholders — including customers, regulators, employees, and communities — to constantly evolve and improve the AI.
Transparent: by being clear about how the technology arrived at its predictions or recommendations, as well as how and what data was used to drive the outcome.
Empowering: by adding positively to the lives and economies of customers, communities, and societies.
Inclusive: by ensuring all teams and stakeholders bring a variety of perspectives.
AI drives impactful customer experiences. That’s something we all understand. To build trust with customers still wary of AI, businesses need to be transparent about how they use customer data to create seamless and personalised experiences.
Make AI ingredients clear
Independent bodies test new cars and give them safety ratings so customers can understand exactly what they’re paying for in terms of protection. Food products on supermarket shelves contain nutrition information to help the customer make healthy choices. Why shouldn’t AI engines that drive various customer outcomes be treated with the same level of transparency?
Now, at LIKE.TG, they are.
One of the developments driven by our Office of Ethical and Humane Use of Technology is what we call ‘Model Cards’. They communicate the critical information from customers or prospects that we’re using to build a specific model. It might be information around the training data we use, the ethical considerations, or the performance metrics.
We publish this information so customers can clearly see how a particular piece of AI capability thinks and works. They can see how it was built and what they can expect as a customer. It’s a simple and effective way of driving transparency.
This sets a standard for the way our business wants to operate in the realms of AI. Being a leader in technology, we have an ability to influence the market around us. This is part of our vision for transparency and the ethical use of AI.
The danger of ignoring challenges around AI ethics
There are numerous influences around ethical behaviour with AI. They’re driven by various forces, including employee activism, increased regulation, increased expectations from customers, and more.
When these influences are not enabled and enacted, various serious issues can arise.
First and foremost is privacy violations. If you’re not clear with a customer as to why you’re collecting data, how you’re using that data, or the benefits you expect to derive from it, that in itself is a privacy violation. It erodes trust very quickly.
Second, you’ll find there will be bias in the data, which could come from originally using an incorrect or undiversified training data set.
Third, you’ll see inequality. Your AI will not be pervasive and available to everyone, or it will treat certain individuals or groups differently.
This will bring the business to a point where it doesn’t have the desired level of loyalty from the customers. Those customers will churn more quickly.
How do businesses ensure this doesn’t happen? They must be clear on what their purpose is and put purpose at the centre of everything they do. Customers want businesses to look beyond profit generation. They want to know what impact a business is having on society. If a business has a purpose, all of its actions will flow from that, including ethics in their AI models and their correct execution.
Next, it’s about the cultivation of an ethical mindset throughout the business. That involves putting the customer at the core of everything the business does and ensuring absolute transparency. This might involve the creation of diversity advisory boards and the like, which helps to drive accountability.
Finally, it involves the diversification of technology via the diversity of the teams that build technology.
Any technological advancement or transformation intended to create seamless, personalised customer experiences must contain these ingredients. Those that do will be well rewarded by the market.
Learn more about how businesses like yours are using ethical AI in the real world. Check out our customer success stories here.
New Research Reveals How SMBs Are Meeting Today’s Challenges and Building Resilience for the Future
Since the start of the pandemic, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Asia have found creative and innovative ways to keep pace with evolving customer expectations and drive business growth. In the face of great upheaval, the characteristic grit and resourcefulness of SMBs has been on full display.
Eighteen months on from the start of the pandemic, what will be the new mandate for business transformation?
We are excited to launch the fifth edition of the Small and Medium Business Trends Report. The report reveals how SMB owners are adapting to an ever-shifting business landscape and preparing for the future. It surveys over 2,500 SMB owners and leaders worldwide, including from Singapore and Thailand.
Here are four key takeaways from the report:
1. Support goes both ways as communities step up and SMBs respond to customer needs
Globally, two-thirds of SMB leaders say community support has been important to their company’s survival during the pandemic.
In Singapore and Thailand, that community support has been even more critical, with 78% of SMB leaders saying it has helped their businesses survive. For the retail sector, that figure jumps to 85%.
That much-needed support hasn’t gone without a response. SMB leaders have stepped up to cater to customer needs and build trust during the pandemic. In Singapore and Thailand, 66% of SMBs are offering their customers more flexibility. Fifty-six percent have expanded ways for their customers to reach them. Omni-channel, personalised engagements, quick and seamless customer service, and connected customer experience have built trust and loyalty when it’s most needed.
2. Growing SMBs prioritise employee engagement
As remote working has scattered employees far and wide, keeping staff engaged and supporting their wellbeing over the past 18 months has been crucial to the success of growing SMBs.
Meeting employee expectations for flexible schedules, remote work, and COVID-safe workplaces has been imperative for successful SMBs. The report reveals that SMB leaders have created trusted relationships with employees by responding to their needs, asking for feedback, and allowing autonomy.
3. Growing SMBs accelerate investment in digital
All SMB leaders surveyed in Singapore and Thailand have moved a portion of their operations online in the past year, with almost half moving between 51% and 100% of their operations online. This will help them cater to the new digital imperative in customer service and enable a safer remote working environment. Many leaders are making these changes permanently, which will continue to benefit them in the long term.
This is a crucial step to building resilience in SMBs. The latest State of the Connected Customer report shows 68% of customers say they’re online more often than not and nearly two-thirds say they expect to be online more after the pandemic than before.
Most growing SMBs (71%) say their business survived the pandemic because of digitisation. In Singapore and Thailand, 68% are accelerating their investment in customer service to manage customers’ expectations and deepen customer relationships in the evolving digital landscape. This has proved that a focus on customer experience is even more of a differentiator for growth in the digital-world. It also makes it clear that the right technology can help SMBs build relationships with their customers and establish a good foundation for growth.
What kinds of technology are growing SMBs investing in? The findings show that growing SMBs have moved the majority of their operations online, prioritising customer service, sales, marketing, and IT operations. The types of software that growing SMBs use include customer service software, email marketing software, and ecommerce software. The research also shows that even the majority of stagnant/declining SMBs are investing in these four areas.
LIKE.TG helps small businesses find more customers, win their business, and keep them happy so you can scale and succeed. Learn more about our small business CRM solutions.
4. Growing SMBs look to the future and learn from the past
After an extended period of uncertainty, many SMBs are finding the steps they’ve taken to survive the impact of the pandemic have made them more efficient. In Singapore and Thailand, 91% of SMB owners feel the operational shifts they’ve made over the last year will benefit their businesses going forward. In Singapore, 88% of growing SMBs have created scenario plans to prepare for future crises. In Thailand, the number is 96%.
Implementing digital solutions to deal with the demands of a socially distanced customer base has set SMBs up well to cope with future consumer trends. Ninety-two percent of Thai and Singapore-based SMBs plan to make contactless services available permanently. Secure digital payments, digital customer service, and ecommerce are set to become the standard ingredients of a contactless shopping experience.
Agility and innovation are necessary for long-term growth
The past 18 months have been a rollercoaster ride for SMBs. For many, the dips have far outweighed the peaks. However, this latest research demonstrates that the reputation SMBs have for being agile in the face of change and resilient in the face of challenge is well deserved.
As savvy SMBs prioritise solutions and relationships that fortify their businesses, they will be well equipped to weather whatever may come their way. Now is the time to take inspiration from businesses that have thrived and use the lessons learned during the pandemic. Last but not least, it’s time to leverage the latest research insights to help you build resilience for the future.
Read thethe fifth edition of theSmall and Medium Business Trends Reportto learn how small and fast-growing businesseshave adapted their operations for success.
The Winter ’22 Release Preview Is Here
At LIKE.TG,we are constantly innovatingto help you connect with your customers. After October 11, you will have access to hundreds of globally available products and features.Preview the latest Winter ’22 innovations today!
How can you get started exploring? First, get a slide-by-slide view of the newest features withRelease In a Box, and earn a new badge with theHighlights Trail. Next,cozy up with the Innovation Spotlights, two integrated product journeys showcasing the latest products and features across the Customer 360:
Improve employee performance and grow your business. In this video, you’ll see how a bank analyses sales calls to train reps more efficiently withEinstein Conversation Insights Enhancements, simplifies document workflows withDigital Process Automation, and quickly builds personalised chatbots withEinstein Bots Enhancements.
See how Cumulus Bank maximises employee performance with Customer 360.
Engage with your customers. Watch how a manufacturing company utilises out-of-the-box templates to build fast-loading landing pages and event sites withMicrosites, supercharges campaign analytics withDatorama ReportsforMarketing Cloud— Advanced, and modernises the post-purchase experience withLIKE.TG Order Managementfor B2B.
See how Badger engages with customers using the Winter ’22 Release.
Don’t miss out on the latest news about Slack, ourrecent acquisition. WithSlack-First Customer 360, it’s easier than ever to connect customers, employees, and partners with the conversations, apps, and data that power digital workflows for an all-new way to work.
Learn more about innovation at LIKE.TG and the Winter ’22 Release atLIKE.TG/releases.
This post originally appeared on the U.S.-version of the LIKE.TG blog.
LIKE.TG Brings the Power of Hyperforce to Singapore
Businesses in Singapore will soon be able to accelerate their digital transformation journey with Hyperforce, a reimagination of LIKE.TG’s trusted platform architecture built to reliably deliver the LIKE.TG Customer 360, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Industries, and more, on major public clouds.
Expected to become generally available in Singapore in December 2021, Hyperforce will help empower LIKE.TG’s global customer base to quickly and easily deploy LIKE.TG apps and services in new regions by leveraging the scale and agility of public cloud computing.
Why is Hyperforce important for the ASEAN region?
Delivered through LIKE.TG’s strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Hyperforce has been built to reliably deliver the LIKE.TG Customer 360, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Industries and more, on major public clouds.
“Organisations across Southeast Asia are putting unprecedented levels of focus on digitisation to maintain meaningful relationships with customers and to provide flexibility for their employees in an increasingly unpredictable environment. Hyperforce creates flexibility by unlocking the ability to host data locally in Singapore, and it does so with the scalability of the public cloud — accessing compute capacity flexibly and efficiently as and when they need to,” said Sujith Abraham, Senior Vice President and General Manager, ASEAN, LIKE.TG. “With Hyperforce, we are proud and excited to be able to accelerate our customers’ digital transformation journeys, helping them remain agile as they grow and pursue innovation.”
What does Hyperforce deliver?
The key features of Hyperforce include:
Performance at B2B and B2C scale. With the elasticity of the public cloud, customers can more easily access compute capacity as required to be more flexible and efficient. Hyperforce allows resources to be deployed in the public cloud quickly and easily — reducing implementation time from months to just weeks or even days.
Built-in Trust. Hyperforce’s security architecture provides the ability to control or limit user access levels to help protect data. Encryption, at rest and in transit, comes standard, helping to protect the privacy and the security of data.
Local Data Storage. Through Hyperforce, customers around the world can choose to store data in a particular location to support compliance with regulations specific to their company, industry, and region
Backwards Compatibility. Every LIKE.TG app, customisation, and integration, regardless of cloud, will run on Hyperforce.
How can I get Hyperforce?
Customers interested in onboarding to Hyperforce in Singapore can get started today with the Early Adopter Program. Simply reach out to your LIKE.TG Account Executive if you would like more information about how to become a Hyperforce Early Adopter or contact LIKE.TG here.
Hyperforce has been tried and tested in several global markets, and is currently available in India, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the US.
In December 2021, Hyperforce will be launched in Singapore, Brazil, Germany, and France.
Learn more about Hyperforce, and how you can run your business with the power and scale of Hyperforce.
Data Makes Business Conversations Better, New Tableau Survey Reveals
The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed major organisational changes, especially in the ways we work and communicate.
Just think: When was the last time you bumped into a colleague by the watercooler? What about the last time you gave your teammate a literal pat on the back for coming up with a brilliant business idea? Those days seem like a lifetime ago.
The truth is that remote and hybrid work is here to stay. With less opportunities for face-to-face interactions, business leaders are concerned about how the new ways of working will affect business conversations and culture.
How can leaders communicate effectively with teams and maintain business partnerships?
Data drives better conversations
Despite the challenges, many leaders have taken the bull by its horns and transformed business conversations for the better. Unexpectedly, many leaders in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) region reported that changes associated with the pandemic had actually improved business conversations.
These were the findings from a recent YouGov survey commissioned by Tableau with more than 650 business leaders across Singapore, Japan, Australia. We sought to examine how business leaders had adapted decision making and employee engagement strategies since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Each country had their own unique take. Singaporean leaders noticed a flattening of workplace hierarchies. In Japan, younger leaders adapted better to change than their older counterparts. Australian leaders adopted a more egalitarian approach to leadership.
The positive changes experienced by these leaders all bore a common denominator: the use of data.
In fact, APJ leaders were almost two times more likely than their counterparts elsewhere in the world to use data to improve workplace decision making and communication. By the same token, those who increased their data use were more than twice as likely to report these positive changes, compared to those that hadn’t.
What the transformative power of data looks like
Take Southeast Asia’s latest unicorn, CARRO, for instance. CARRO is an online marketplace where users can buy, sell, or lease pre-owned and new cars. Not only did CARRO keep their car marketplace business afloat, but they even managed to bag new funds in spite of the pandemic.
Credit goes to CARRO’s leaders, who value the ability to curate, explore, and share data with teams across the region. CARRO uses data across all aspects of its business: to level the playing field for employees, remove bias during brainstorms, and improve accountability and transparency during performance reviews.
Meanwhile, at retailer Levi Strauss Co., data enabled the personalisation of customer journeys and helped the business anticipate market and inventory changes.
Therein lies the transformative power of data. When it is at the centre of all conversations, everyone in the team can come together as equals, and make decisions based on fact and not gut feel.
The importance of leaders in building data cultures
Unlike CARRO or Levi Strauss Co., not every leader is as tuned in to working with data. Many leaders are still ‘works-in-progress’ as they navigate their way in a data-driven world.
Although many regional leaders recognise that data insights are important and critical in decision-making, they aren’t deliberate and purposeful in weaving data into the fabric of their organisational cultures. There is a strong correlation between leaders who personally use data on a weekly basis at minimum and overall business adoption. Yet, only 16% of these leaders use analytics daily. Worryingly, just 19% of these businesses empower everyone with data. The frequency and scale of data use is not there yet.
This is where data-driven leadership comes in. If employees don’t see their executives making decisions with data, how can we expect the wider business to do the same? At the end of the day, it’s not data that makes the decisions, it’s people who make decisions based on data.
Leaders must push the envelope to drive data adoption across their organisations. They must ask themselves: Am I setting a good example for my team? Have I established a healthy culture where people are comfortable working with data? What can I do to empower my team with the skills they need to succeed?
At Phoon Huat, one of Singapore’s leading food suppliers, data is front and centre across conversations. The leadership team has been deliberate about instilling a digital-first mindset in all their employees. Everyone is equipped with the data skills they need to dig deep into a situation and question findings. This proved pivotal during a time of inflection for the business, when Phoon Huat decided to expand their brick-and-mortar presence online during the pandemic.
Three key steps for creating data cultures
When looking to create a data culture, business leaders need to consider three important areas:
Make a commitment to lead by example
Shift mindsets about how people think and behave around data
Develop skills by hiring and training employees to use data instinctively
What will remain true is that data and quality conversation will continue to be the bedrock upon which successful leadership is built.
Learn more about how business conversations are changing and how business leaders can become more data-driven. Explore the results of the report here.
