Tag: CRM

System of Engagement

In order to engage and support people at the center of whatever service, product, or program you are offering, it’s important to create and maintain a connected and consistent view of them in order to deliver a successful experience.

People engage with people

Throughout my career, conversations around an organizations CRM (aka Customer Relationship Management system) have referred to it as the system of record (SOR) or source of truth (SOT). These terms are not always interchangeable. For the purpose of this post, I will consider them one in the same, SOR/T for short. Next, I will define what is a system of engagement and how it relates to CRM.

For all intents and purposes, The Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a communication and engagement platform used to share information through various channels to engage with your audience (customers, constituents, students, patients, donors, and . . . you get the picture that this list can go on for a while). What it is NOT, is the single source of truth for any one individual. It can, however, be the single source of digital engagement. It can even support traditional offline communications, but that is conversation for another day.

Regardless of the channel of communication, people expect a consistent experience and at minimum for you to get their name right, should you choose to personalize your messages. Email, mobile, or any communication channel for that matter, should leverage the same view of the person to whom they are delivering messages.

Your system of engagement isn’t just for marketing. For more on this topic, refer to my post titled End the Marketing Cloud. Just like channels shouldn’t matter, the stage that each person chooses to engage with you should not prevent you from delivering consistent communications where, different parts of your organization are aware of what has happen so far and should be able to make informed decisions when responding to or initiating a conversation. For example, if a person has requested support with a product/service, it would make sense not cross/up-sell something else before you have resolved their concern. Similarly, if I just bought something, I hope I’m not immediately bombarded with ads everywhere I go to buy the thing I just bought! In cases where I just donated to a cause, does it really makes sense to hit me up immediately after with another a request for more money?

The point is your CRM and SOE should be connected with each other, and connected with other systems, as needed, to ensure the best possible view of the people who have chosen your organization. They are not obligated to choose you and you should not assume they always will. Do what you can to connect the fragments of their profile so that you can thoughtfully utilize it to deliver and respond with timely messages for any and all relevant occasions.

Even if you have all your systems mapped and documented with respect to how your systems are connected, have you mapped out the various touch points between you and those who have engaged with you? Are these reflected in your overall architecture? Are there any gaps or areas of opportunity to improve profile accuracy? As automated as society has become, people still expect people to be on the other end. That is why it’s important to put as much care and thought into your system of engagement as your system of record or source truth.

The Disney Experience

The Magic Kingdom - Photo by Chris Zullo I recently shared a family vacation at Disney. If any business understands the customer experience, it has to be the iconic mouse and his pals. Disney realizes that we have options. The reason people travel to Disney from all over the world  Disneyland or World is for the experience. If it was only about the rides, then no one make the yearly pilgrimage that many make as there are plenty of amusement parks that are much closer to home and likely cheaper, yet people save much of their holiday funds to visit that magical castle. Disney understands that my experience is paramount to building and maintaining a relationship that makes me say, “That was AMAZING and I want to do that again!” and hope that I will share my raving review with friends and family. During my visit the following quote from Paul Greenberg‘s book, CRM at the Speed of Light, Fourth Edition rang true repeatedly:

Your purpose for this granular look at the customer’s specific experience is to find out what you need to provide them with that is actually important to them. It allows you to understand what it will take to reinforce the positive, reduce or eliminate the negative, and meet or exceed customer expectations. You can’t ask for more than that.

If your not happy, they want to know so they can fix it and learn from it. I saw a great example of this one night heading into a live action show and just outside the amphitheater in Hollywood Studios there was an obviously upset father with a stroller who started walking away, but the park staff who was speaking with him (note “with” not “to”) immediately went into super customer (secret) service mode by radioing to the nearest checkpoint to “stop that stroller”. No joke. They want everyone to have the best time possible. Earlier that same night, a toy my son picked out the night before broke. We found a vendor that had the same item and were able to exchange without issue. Disney is an experience and the company knows it. That is why people come from all over the world even when there are closer options. There are Disney parks in Europe and Asia, but people from these continents still travel to North America to experience the original parks. Experiences, good or bad, influence our decisions to repeat or avoid specific activities.

Few businesses put in the effort that Disney does to ensure you swing towards the positive end of end of this spectrum. For example, when I think about going to a sporting event or even getting on a plane, I dread the security line. Disney easily has the most efficient entry process I have ever seen. They are properly staffed and keep the flow moving with a thorough, yet quick security check. Once you clear security and the ticket gate, there are ambassadors posted nearby that are there to help answer any questions you have and to address any issues with your experience. They have the authority to handle it on the spot. Multiple times were asked how was our stay going and not because there was an issue. There is generally positive vibe here. Again, this comes down to the experience. I should not be gushing over my entry into an amusement park, but here I am because of the conditioning of countless poor experiences that have lowered my expectations to such a level that I am impressed just by getting through the door in a reasonable amount of time. There are many more examples I could site, but suffice it to say don’t take my word for it. Go experience it yourself firsthand.

Four days, three nights, practically no sleep with a 2 year-old in tow and I’d do it again because my experience was awesome!

Salesforce Certification – Where do I start?

So you use Salesforce and you want to “cert up” aka get certified, but where do you start? For starters, it doesn’t hurt to bookmark the Salesforce Certification page. Once there you will notice there are four tracks to follow.

Since the purpose of this post is to help those starting their journey towards certification, I will focus on the first two options only. The Administrator and Developer tracks are both starting points while the last two are for advanced users. Certifying as an Administrator requires you to understand the idealistic way to leverage the the core functionality of this powerful CRM application. The ADM 201 exam is the gateway and prerequisite to obtaining additional certifications that fall under the Implementation Experts track that specialize in two different areas, Sales & Service Clouds respectively (see Implementation Experts for more details). There are many community resources out there to help you study in addition to official offerings. Here are a few of them to help you prepare for ADM201

In my opinion, the Developers exam is more practical. If you’re a hands-on type of learner, then take advantage of the practice resources available to you. In the bullets below, are two main Developer workbooks that I used to prepare for the Developer exam. I was wisely told prior to starting down this path that if you “know the book, know the exam”. I started with Fundamentals and quickly followed that up with the skinnier Workbook. I strongly recommend you create an account on Developer Force and practice using these guides:

Here are a few community-based resources for DEV401

Choosing the best track for you will come down to your role and responsibilities. Another consideration is your learning style. For me, I learn best through hands-on experience. If this you and/or you don’t have much practical experience with Salesforce, then the Developer track is the way to go. As I mentioned above, there are two practice guides you can follow in your developer org. I felt great before, during and after passing developer exam because I completed both developer workbooks. If you need additional incentive, Salesforce has some swag for you just for building a simple app (details supplied at registration). A happy coincidence is that you get hands-on experience that is also relevant to Administrator track. Something that I benefited from as I recently added the Admin certification to my collection. Win-win situation! Here are more Salesforce resources to help you prepare for and maintain your skills:

Good luck with whichever certification you choose to tackle first!  Let me know in the comments if I missed a helpful resource the community would benefit from.