Data is today’s corporate kingmaker. Analytical technology is helping businesses anticipate customer needs and purchasing trends in real-time. Doing so allows firms to stay competitive with personalised offers and maintain lean overheads.
However, companies need to choose the right software to find the signal in the noise. In this article, we’ll walk you through why you need a broad overview of customer behaviour and how Salesforce helps you build a 360-degree customer view data model so can grow your revenue.
Read on to find out how to cater to today’s discerning customer effectively with Salesforce technologies.
What does ‘360-degree customer view’ mean in business?
Customers at earlier stages of the sales funnel have different needs from ones who have already purchased — yet each cohort stands to become repeat buyers from their initial transaction.
At the same time, the internet has only served to expand the number of potential ways that customers can interact with businesses. Consumers can connect with companies via passive mediums like online websites and social media or more direct channels like phone, email or live chat for dedicated support. As a result, firms need to take a broader overview of how to manage conversions.
Known as a 360-degree customer view in Salesforce, this perspective places the customer at the heart of everything. By combining performance data with live analytics dashboards, businesses can draw insights from innovative software platforms to deliver reliable service and unique customer experiences.
The application of consumer data in this way is popular, as customers show a strong appetite for bespoke services. A 2021 McKinsey survey found that 71% of respondents expected companies to deliver personalised interactions and as much as 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Ease of navigation, product relevancy and post-purchase support were among the most popular topics, signalling a mutually beneficial data-sharing arrangement. Businesses simply can’t ignore the advantages of using customer data to both parties’ benefit.
What is the 360-degree customer view in Salesforce?
The 360-degree customer view is the premier benefit of Salesforce’s software ecosystem. It’s why Salesforce has won the title of the world’s best customer relationship management software for 8 years running. Salesforce helps businesses synchronise their activity by consolidating customer data across marketing, sales, operations, service departments and more.
Using smart data models, Salesforce generates a complete overview of what your customers’ interests, history and frustrations are, helping your team address their needs and wants proactively.
Below are just some of the examples of what Salesforce’s 360-degree customer view data models can do for your business:
- Marketing Cloud and Sales Cloud can collect data on which marketing campaigns your customers respond to best and which messages customers have seen previously.
- Service Cloud aggregates customer purchase history and helps staff solve issues proactively.
- Einstein AI integrates across the entire Salesforce software ecosystem, offering AI-derived insights on everything from sales forecasts and support strategies to computer vision.
- Commerce Cloud creates personalised online shopping experiences for online customers and automates order management.
How to build a 360-degree customer view data model
If you’re convinced of the importance of a 360-degree customer view data model, how can you get started building one of your own?
Salesforce offers a standard data model upon which you can build using performance dashboards and custom objects. The aim is to create an adaptive data model that captures important information on your business’ performance, highlighting potential inefficiencies and opportunities.
Start by setting up Salesforce in your organisation. You can get started using our Salesforce implementation checklist and How to improve data quality in Salesforce guide. From here, the aim is to measure how your performance changes over time, based on your KPI metrics.
The exact steps on reading and using your analytics dashboards will vary depending on the Salesforce platform you use. For example, Sales Cloud’s reports dashboard will show sales metrics like revenue forecasts and territory management. However, the same dashboard won’t be as useful when analysing things like customer case resolution times or marketing email open rates, since it doesn’t collect the data for such.
You can learn the basics on how to integrate data into your analytics reports using custom objects and workflows in our articles How to refine your Salesforce sales funnel and How to build an adaptive Sales Cloud data model in Salesforce.
Uncover new insights with Salesforce’s 360-degree data model
Companies stand to gain from shifting their perspective from a product-first focus to a customer-first focus, using the 360-degree customer view that Salesforce technologies can provide.
By centralising their data and enabling powerful analytics tools, Salesforce can help your business offer the personalisation and seamless purchasing experiences that customers are so keen on. You can record and learn from performance data in just a few clicks, and uncover ways to build reliable brands and yield repeat customers.
Get started with a cloud-based platform and capture the full range of customer interactions your business has. Salesforce’s flexible management features mean you can create custom objects and capture data anywhere you want.
Build a customer data model using expert advice
makepositive is a Platinum Salesforce Partner with a team of experts on hand to help you set up scalable Salesforce solutions.
We have experience in helping our clients establish everything from core Salesforce platforms like Sales and Service Clouds to AI-based analysis tools. Our nearly 200-strong team has over 600 certifications in Salesforce technologies, meaning we can take on any project you need.
Get in touch with us at [email protected] and build a 360-degree data model of your own with expert advice and support.
