As customers expect to be treated like real people, brands will need to collect more data for delivering real personalization. Will we really trust them?The 2018 Salesforce annual conference (Dreamforce) wrapped up in late September. This event was billed as the largest software conference in the world, and according to Marc Benioff, Co-CEO of Salesforce, 171,000 people were in attendance. If for any reason you’re not sure what Salesforce does, or the concept of a CRM, then you’re in luck, because that’s not what this article is about. According to the Future of Business Survey, attracting new customers, increasing revenue and maintaining profitability are among the most common challenges businesses face today. All three of these common challenges can be improved on, in some part by increasing customer loyalty. The 2018, Salesforce Research, Trends in Customer Trust report states, “Historically, companies relied on differentiated products and services to drive customer loyalty.” It was often these levers that companies pulled to tap into customer loyalty and caused them to buy more products and services. However, the report goes on to state, “Today, the commoditization of products and services—along with unprecedented access to information—has dramatically expanded customers options and elevated their expectations.” As a result, businesses should look to company culture, values and motivating employees as levers to drive customer trust and earn access to more personal data, in turn, offering customers deeply personalized experiences. 54% of customers don’t believe companies The Trends in Customer Trust report positions the importance of a customer’s trust around the idea that we’re all now in a new business era, the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Setting aside the full macro details of this interesting concept, how true does this statement feel to you? “As lines between digital and physical worlds blur, today’s customers demand deeply relevant, personalized experiences across devices, channels and interactions.” – Trends in Customer Trust, Research Brief, 2018 To put this into focus, the same report provided compelling reasons to believe we’re at a tipping point for trust as, “Fifty-four percent of customers don’t believe companies have their best interests in mind.” The report then goes on to layout findings that support the business value of customer trust and how personalization of customer experience is connected to data, and the importance of transparency. This report itself is a tactical example of how to build customer trust in the Salesforce product. Mad Money’s Jim Cramer interviewed Marc Benioff at the opening of the 2018 Dreamforce conference. One of the topics covered was about how trust is the highest company value at Salesforce. This is the key point of this article—trust. The values of a company should now be aligned with trust. Marc Benioff put it this way, “If your employees don’t trust you, if they don’t like your values, they’re going to walk out.” It’s my belief that the same goes for customers, too. As businesses tackle the very important challenges of attracting new customers, increasing revenue or maintaining profitability, they would be wise to look at their company culture and ask if they have really made trust their highest company value? It would come as no surprise to me at all if, one day, Salesforce renamed its CRM product—Customer Trust Management (CTM) software—just to make a big point to the business world. AuthorWilliam Hetrick is a problem-solving marketing manager who has a passion for blending insights with flawless creative to produce meaningful customer experiences. |
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