Raj Ravuri, Director Industry Strategy-Manufacturing, Salesforce India, Interaction with Dynamic Manufacturing India ,edited excerpts
What are the top challenges that your company has faced in the past year?
COVID-19 has forever changed the way that businesses think about their future and how critical role technology plays in this new post-pandemic world. Regardless of whether you work in retail, travel, government, manufacturing, or healthcare sectors, companies must adapt to the new reality that businesses not only must digitally transform to survive – they must do so at scale and with speed.
While none of us could have predicted a year and a half ago that this would be our future, we’re excited about the possibilities. Overnight everything needed to change to digital and Salesforce has never been in a stronger position. Our ability to pivot, innovate and lead the tech industry in supporting the communities around us through work.com and now Vaccine Cloud is a testament to our core value of Innovation. And we’re also helping our customers pivot as well. Our relentless focus on our customers, and helping them to transform their businesses and drive success in their business from anywhere will always be at the center of what we do.
With work.com we have an opportunity to create an even better workplace for everyone. A new way of working, a new way of connecting, a new way of advancing our culture by serving our customers, taking care of our employees, serving all of our stakeholders, and creating success from anywhere. The introduction of Vaccine Cloud by Salesforce is a great example of how Government agencies around the world are leveraging technology to manage the deployment of vaccines in a fair and equitable way.
Have you adopted or increased the usage of digitization to combat these challenges? Could you give us some examples from product innovation to illustrate how you’ve used digitization to combat these challenges and aimed for growth?
Business continuity continues to be a priority for all. In this new Hybrid world, organizations are reimagining work and how to blend new virtual interactions with face-to-face meetings and provide new self-service buying experiences that customers have come to expect. Sales and Marketing leaders are now tasked to earn market share and get businesses back to growth with a 360-degree view of the customer, in order to achieve successful outcomes, while upskilling themselves. Investing in employee re-skilling is essential to their growth and profitability. In short, companies need a digital HQ for achieving a “Success from anywhere“ business model.
At Salesforce, we’re driving the Slack-first ‘Success From Anywhere’ digital HQ model, where we are seamlessly connected with our employees, partners, and customers around the world in a Hybrid digital-first “Work From Anywhere” environment with conversations, applications, and data to enable digital workflows across every line of business, drive increased productivity and innovation. While our offices will remain an important part of our strategy as we reopen, the office is no longer at the center of our workday.
Our industry strategy is enabling our customers to get started with an end-to-end Customer 360 faster than ever before, tailored to the specific needs of every industry. We have launched major product innovations for our customers on our Industry clouds for Healthcare, Public sector, Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Financial Services, Media & Communications, etc.
We also introduced the next generation of Sales Cloud — a new technology to support a digital-first selling world and Salesforce Service Cloud to help businesses rethink their operating model and create a more flexible workforce. This year we added updates like Service Cloud Voice, Workforce Engagement, Visual Remote Assistant to support changing customer service expectations and provide connected, personalized service from anywhere on one digital engagement platform.
With Work.com technologies such as myTrailhead for Employees, CEOs and managers will help their workforce address the training and re-skilling imperative by equipping people with tools that the increasingly digitally transforming economy demands.
Salesforce has helped companies transform by unlocking the value of their customer data, providing a single source of truth, enabling them to go digital fast and scale with confidence in the all-digital, work from anywhere world. We’ve also accelerated our focus on innovation across key industries, completely re-imagining what technology can do for specific industries, delivering the power of the Salesforce platform to drive innovation, business growth with scalable industry solutions.
What are the typical hurdles that organizations face with digitization programs (issues like data security, lack of digital know-how, or financial/time constraints) and how can organizations address these challenges?
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a moment of truth for businesses. Many businesses were simply not as streamlined and resilient as they once thought. Business leaders have had to adapt their business operations to be more agile and innovative to benefit customers. In an all-digital world, businesses need technology that enables their teams to market, sell, and service their customers from anywhere. Simply put, businesses have to be digital-first moving forward.
What we need is for businesses to – Build technology responsibly: For technology to be effective, it must be built responsibly and trusted. The willingness of businesses to adapt will be a key determinant of success and even long-term survival. The need for digital training and reskilling to build more inclusive and robust economies, digital training and reskilling must be central, especially in supporting disproportionately-affected groups. Like employers, employees also need to digitize. The crises we face provide institutions around the world a chance to reassess their values and think about how to become more responsible and sustainable. Every business has an urgent responsibility to act and do more than simply maximize shareholder value. Together, they can rebuild public trust and make the world a better place for all stakeholders.
As a Trusted Digital Advisor, we will continue to help companies transform by unlocking the value of their customer data, providing a single source of truth, enabling them to go digital fast and scale with confidence in the all-digital, work from anywhere world.
What impact has this leap in the digitization of the past year had on customer preferences? For example, do you see an increased demand for digital features, product customization, specialized after-sales support, or improved supply-chain metrics like a faster time-to-market?
Whichever generation your customers are, their expectations are now more digitally driven than ever. Due to the pandemic, we wanted to find out what actions customers think businesses should be taken as the economic landscape begins to settle. Older generations are more concerned about companies offering completely new types of products and services. Conversely, the younger generations want to be able to access existing offerings through digital channels.
According to our State of the Connected Customer report, 89% of customers agree that how a company acts during a crisis reveals its trustworthiness. A majority of consumers also expect companies to clearly state their values. The ethics of a company has never been more emotionally important to customers than it is now.
In India, we’re guiding customers such as Edelweiss and SpiceJet through their digital transformations, touching every aspect of the businesses in the process – from product offerings to customer service. Our global customers include ABB, Adidas, AXA PPE Healthcare, 3M, Mercedes-Benz, Honeywell, and more.
India’s largest cargo airline and leading budget carrier SpiceJet uses Service Cloud and they have increased first call resolution from 18% to 31%. With Service Cloud Digital Engagement, the company has been able to automate and handle 65% of customer queries with a chatbot integrated with web and mobile sites, and WhatsApp. And as a result, customer cases generated via email have been reduced by 61% and an average employee response time over chat has been reduced from 37.2 seconds to 25.5 seconds.
For instance, Penna Cements has a large network of dealers, masons, and other influencers who are instrumental in promoting the company’s brand and driving up sales. To incentivize and reward these partners, the company has created a Dealer Mason Loyalty Scheme program that is managed entirely on Salesforce. With Salesforce Sales Cloud, Penna Cement has completely digitized its sales processes—including lead management, order management, sales loss capturing, inventory tracking, and even verification of PAN data. The solution provides a single source of customer truth, making it easier for sales teams to track customer requirements, predict opportunities, and convert more leads. Salesforce Service Cloud consolidates all service-related requests, queries, and quality complaints on a single platform for complete visibility. Sales volumes at penna have shot up 15%, while the number of customers added year-over-year has increased 11%
