Collaborating on Salesforce Software Development For Revolutionary Customer Experiences

Table of Contents

A3Logics 18 May 2023

Table of Contents

Businesses are always looking to care for their customers and stakeholders in meaningful and profitable ways. Whether it’s a product or a service business model, the customer experience is always meaningful. For that reason, the customer experience covers a multitude of functions:

  • Sales process
  • Marketing and brand building
  • Relationship brokering
  • Problem solving
  • Crisis management

These are just a handful of common yet not exhaustive areas of how customers engage with businesses. What’s more, these are all areas that contribute to a business’s longevity. Because of this, there’s both an importance to consistently delivering a quality customer experience and an urgency to keep up.

So, what does this look like in the current market and how do businesses elevate and expand customer services?

Over the course of this article, we’ll explain four key areas why businesses can turn to a Salesforce software development:

  • Benefitting from the technical features and software development components that build quality customer services
  • Investing in the collaborative planning process for high-calibre custom software development
  • Sustaining the value-adding of customer service and customer experience
  • Devising and implementing Strategies for supporting employees and managing business operations using the software

 Why businesses need Salesforce CRM features including Salesforce software development  services in 2023

 

Firstly, let’s review the state of the market in 2023 then we’ll explain why Salesforce is a sound solution.

 

Presently, we are in a time of profound flux. Both economic instability and exponential technological advancements are happening at the same time. Whether it’s small owner-operator offerings or heritage companies, there’s a need for businesses to use the best tools available. Emphatically, customers play a crucial role in this as they’re part of short-term and long-term revenue streams. At the same time, building customer relationships meaningfully and sustainably in order to deliver exceptional service experiences is key.

 

This is where business tools designed to do just this with constantly diversifying features and smart technology are essential. In this business era, these digital tools are a must and there is one that majorly stands out: Salesforce.

 

Not only is this one of the world’s best customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, it’s been number one for decades. All in all, the software quality and the powerful scope of service opportunities make it an invaluable business platform. Furthermore, in the context of revolutionary customer experiences, this is where the platform truly shines. Overall Salesforce is a multi-billion dollar product that works for businesses of all sizes irrespective of industry and model.

 

The key Salesforce platform features that make it the leading CRM are:

  • Simplicity yet sophistication
  • User-friendly user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) irrespective of the user
  • Reliable and secure data management
  • All-in-one customer database
  • Customizability with reliable and effective baseline features
  • Accessibility depending on business, industry, and user needs
  • Cloud solutions with mobile/tablet options in Salesforce Mobile
  • Extensive integration options

Understanding the value of Salesforce software development in the global market

 

Now we’ve looked at Salesforce’s CRM features, let’s delve into the software’s appeal in the worldwide business market. Irrespective of the region and industry, people crave the familiar and the cutting edge in one neat, easy-to-use, and impressive package. Consequently this is why Salesforce is the go-to solution.

 

A Salesforce development is a Software as a Solution (SaaS) that is:

  • Robust
  • Multi-dimensional
  • Customizable
  • Accessible
  • Scalable
  • Swiftly deployable
  • Highly functional

This makes it suitable for all industries, fast, and integratable across existing systems or third-party platforms.

 

What’s more, a Salesforce software development fulfils the business needs of:

 

  • Quality products
  • Efficient development
  • Extensive variety of features
  • Data analysis
  • Security
  • Automation

Unquestionably what makes Salesforce a heritage product is that it keeps performing and features keep improving as technical advancements happen. For example, Salesforce is continually investing in essential technology from generative AI collaborations with Accenture and its Slack acquisition. As one of the biggest software companies in the world — rivalling Microsoft and surpassing IBM — Salesforce “covers all bases”. Martin Gessner writes for Focus on Force that, “For years, its characteristics and capabilities have been critical to the effective operations of both small and large organizations from a variety of industries.”

 

Get in touch with our Salesforce software developers to gain maximum value of your investment

 

The critical role of Salesforce software development in the 21st century

 

Before we delve further into businesses collaboratively developing Salesforce software platforms for customer service: the changing market. In view of Salesforce being the leading global CRM, we’ll now discuss the changing state of customer service. Moreover, how dramatically customer service needs and expectations irrevocably changed since 2020.

 

Above all, the pandemic permanently reshaped our world. Specifically, this is likely to be one of the most profound historical events of this century. Though some things have regained their familiar shape — shopping and travelling — others have not, namely the service experience and processes.

 

Since the pandemic began in 2020, the global customer service market has seen:

  • Rapid digitization
  • Dynamic and creative service solutions in line with regulations and public safety
  • Broader international market
  • Investments in communications and marketing strategies to maintain customer relationships
  • Progressive personalization and targeted offerings to nurture meaningful connections

 

While local businesses are rebuilding their base, businesses everywhere, no matter the target market, need to make an impact. Prior to the pandemic, globalization was an unstoppable force. At this point, businesses are striving to keep up while making up for lost profits and time.

 

By the same token there is pressure for businesses to be at the forefront of new technology in customer service. Chiefly, this means choosing software and technical solutions that afford a customer experience that’s:

  • Efficient yet emotive
  • Data-driven yet organic
  • Reliable, consistent, and prompt

 

The outcome is that businesses need software that enables a fortified operational foundation. Following this they can allocate resources to outreach, analytics, and disruptive customer-centric activities and campaigns. Though Salesforce can achieve this, the platform must be used in a strategic way starting with development leading to maintenance.

 

The interrelationship between existing customer service offerings and a Salesforce software development for customer experiences

Undoubtedly every business will already operate customer service systems and initiatives. Nevertheless, even the most customer-oriented or technically-savvy organization can be doing better. In fact, customer service and customer experience are not actually the same thing. Despite customer service being a component of customer experiences, it’s not the all-encompassing whole. At any rate, businesses should be evaluating all 360 degrees of their customer experience to see how things are running. After this review they can reinvest, redesign, refine, and redeploy.

 

Presently customer experience markets are booming. Accordingly current data shows that for the 2023-2030 period, the market’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 15.4 percent. So from a market value of $10.65 billion USD in 2022 to doubling again by 2030, customer experience matters. Furthermore Grand View Research reports, “Social Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can particularly assist businesses at this stage in positively engaging customers and increasing brand awareness.” Explicitly they highlight, “These developments would further drive the growth of the customer experience management market during the forecast period.” Therefore clearly analyzing and overhauling all areas of customer experience with particular emphasis on customer service is an essential strategy.

 

What customer service offerings do most businesses have outside of a Salesforce software development

  • Dedicated support through customer service personnel and a Help desk — Available over varying communication channels for general communications, queries and product/service responses, and business representation.
  • Resolutions — Available with customer correspondence to respond to needs and resolve issues.

 

How a Salesforce software development targets customer service through customer experience

 

  • Multi-faceted dynamic and personalized communications — Refining and scaling up the communications quality across even more channels.
  • Data analysis — Providing high-level reports that flag issues and data patterns leading to better support and resolutions.
  • Round-the-clock support — Integrating AI through chatbots and generative technology so common problems are resolved while human personnel are on standby for emergencies.
  • Logical case management and dedicated personnel — Organizing team resources to manage complex service needs and plan resource allocations.
  • Straightforward inter-departmental collaboration — Simplifying the customer service if it’s necessary to transfer between departments or access their records.
  • Automation — Eliminating repetitive low-level tasks frees team members to work on profitable tasks without compromising customer service.

 

In reality, many businesses may use some platforms to manage customer service areas. Even so Salesforce is an all-in-one solution that is purpose-built to improve customer service. Likewise, the integration with Sales and Analysis creates a unifying funnel for caring for customers and converting leads.

 

What is available for businesses when they choose to collaborate on a Salesforce software development to deliver revolutionary customer experiences

 

Meanwhile it’s reasonable to wonder how businesses can successfully utilize Salesforce. After all, this SaaS is an ongoing investment and leveraging all features is costly. Neither personnel planning for implementation nor introducing a new business tool is without impact on productivity, team experience, or customers. All things considered, this is where Salesforce software development professionals have a key role.

For this reason, let’s take a look at the contributions Salesforce software development teams make

 

  • Technical expertise — Applying development and platform-specific nous to every client’s business and a custom Salesforce solution.
  • Qualifications and certifications — Particularly Salesforce partners have official consulting certifications in Salesforce Technical Architecture and Consulting.
  • Delivering Salesforce capabilities — Salesforce puts customers in their value proposition. In fact, Salesforce takes this one step further and quantifies customer loyalty as its own metric. They say, “Repeat frequency, customer lifetime value, and average cost per order” are customer satisfaction metrics. Due to Salesforce development teams’ knowledge and experience in the SaaS, they can build custom platforms according to business needs.
  • Consultation — To comprehensively understand and ideate solutions in order to eke the maximum value out of a Salesforce investment.
  • Planning and Process management — Overseeing and maintaining the end-to-end development from the initial consultation to monitoring the platform once it’s in use.
  • Integrating with existing systems — Many businesses use software tools that experts will integrate with a Salesforce solution. For example, Saleforce integrates well with Microsoft Office 365 and Amazon Web Services. Expert developers make integration straightforward and problem-free.
  • Maintaining the platform and resolving issues — Ensuring the platform runs smoothly 24/7 is another development team responsibility. Both in the day-to-day and if problems arise.
  • Scaling the product — As the business grows and achieves strategic goals, they can utilize more of Salesforce’s features and modules. Not only can Salesforce development teams consult on this but also manage the platform scaling.

Tying together revolutionary customer service and a Salesforce software development solution

 

  • Communication — Salesforce platforms embed frameworks for connecting, practices that uphold the brand, and systems that help maintain customer experience consistency.
  • Follow-up — Delivering personalized engagement in line with the customer experience value proposition in all areas of service and communications.
  • Data analysis — Securely storing data and measuring how processes are working and look for any telling metrics. As a result businesses can identify any service issues before they permanently damage the customer experience.
  • Relationship building — Maintaining customer loyalty in sustainable and meaningful ways through the platform functionalities that deliver the business services or products. If customer relationships are nurtured then there is a statistical likelihood of them returning to the business.
  • Robust CRM systems that make it easy for customers — For example, providing customers with active support and passive support systems so they can track their sales history any time. When they can easily access data via a user-friendly dashboard this reinforces the business outlook of quality customer experiences.
  • Data security — Especially important for every business in the 2020s. Furthermore this is consistent with compliance and brand integrity so customers don’t need to worry. Concurrently this reduces risks of data breaches, e.g. Australia’s Optus data breach that undermined trust in the telecommunications company.
  • Technology features — Encompassing straightforward and new technology that is constantly evolving. In detail: chatbots for 24/7 support, follow-up depending on customer activity data, and UX personalization that customers love.

 

Understanding the customer service software features businesses need in a Salesforce development

 

Following on from this in-depth discussion let’s now look at the headline Salesforce customer features. In detail, we’ll explain how Salesforce delivers these for customer service and the overall customer experience.

 

Key software features benefitting customers in a Salesforce development

 

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Emerging technology
  • Range of operational modules
  • Salesforce Mobile for mobile and tablet applications
  • Internal workflow improvement

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

 

All-in-one Salesforce features lead to the highest level of response to customer needs. Altogether this consists of contact database, opportunity management, quote management, interaction tracking, and automating sales, marketing, and customer service. Both existing customers and new customers benefit from the robust platform features that service representatives will use for better interactions.

 

Emerging technology

 

As a result of continuous technical progress, features are constantly evolving to improve and enhance the customer experience. Presently one leading emerging technology is generative AI that Salesforce is deploying to deliver more personalized and accurate services. Certainly this streamlines low-level customer service interactions and frees service personnel to resolve complex situations. Comparatively, emerging technology like AR/VR even enables Salesforce Mobile to have a more interactive and immersive quality.

 

Range of operational modules

Salesforce offers extensive operational modules. Due to the extensive range of customization options, businesses can choose from these to build a completely customer-centric UI. For example, Salesforce Mobile is able to be deployed to customers so they can interact on a custom business app.

 

Salesforce Mobile for mobile and tablet applications

Further to the point above about operational modules, Salesforce Mobile is particularly effective for engaging users. As has been noted in industry commentary, global internet users prefer mobile solutions. Subsequently turning to the powerful, reliable Salesforce application options makes sense. Because apps work online and offline customers always experience a strong UX that supports their needs. At the same time business support personnel can respond and engage in real time to deliver in-app customer solutions.

 

Elimination of internal silos

 

Boosting internal team collaborations helps eliminate business dysfunction that can make customer experiences disappointing. Not only does this make the customer experience more harmonious but also it offers a richer service process. Both the ability to connect customers with different seamlessly and making internal communications simpler is highly beneficial. In order that businesses grow and retain customers they must work well with the resources they have while progressively innovating. In short, if all team members work together across an organization then this naturally positively affects customers — at all times.

 

Essential planning process steps of bringing a Salesforce software development to customers

Now that we understand how Salesforce customer-oriented elements are integrated into a business solution we’ll look at software development. Because the best outcomes are developed using Salesforce experience and expertise, all phases of Salesforce software development are imperative. Moreover evidence shows that an effective software development depends on the sequential process of ideating, testing and deploying a solution.

 

What businesses need to remember when they are building and introducing a Salesforce software development to customers

 

Testing

Every software development should involve beta testing to establish how the product is working. Not only to investigate functionality but also to identify bugs, issues with the UX/UI, userflow, and more. On the one hand, after this testing, it’s possible to proceed to revisions and further testing. On the other hand, it can also help establish if the system is in line with customer experience objectives. Following this, businesses and Salesforce software development teams can continue with their current plan or adjust their course.

 

Revisions

 

As can be seen from the point above, revisions logically follow testing steps. Certainly businesses will need to work with software development teams to manage these revisions according to the beta testing. At least some revisions will likely be necessary and it’s crucial that these are tested as well.

 

Staff Training

 

To have every personnel member across the new system especially customer service team members, training is as important as development. On the positive side this helps encourage staff buy-in and they can assist with testing. On the negative side if staff are not optimistic and engaged this can actually devalue the software. Still Salesforce is only as impactful as the business stakeholders using it so thorough and empowering training will reap returns. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that development consultants can also help with implementing the finished platform to staff.

 

Platform launch for customer-facing Salesforce products

 

Keeping customers in the loop of what’s changing and invite them into the process is another logical step. Compared to simply launching products overnight, updating customers and building anticipation can be built into marketing operations. Equally this may also help with choosing a beta test audience. Then once the platform is deployment-ready it means that customers are primed to engage and experience the UX/UI.

 

Integration

 

Another key success point for using Salesforce modules is integrating them with other business software. When the business is collaborating with developers they will complete an end-to-end analysis of integration. Whether it’s choosing modules that deliver particular functions such as Commerce or integrating with Google G Suite, this boosts efficacy. Additionally this will prepare all stakeholders for changing systems and workflows thus resulting in a comprehensive deployment plan.

 

Customer feedback channels

 

Once the platform is live, it’s non-negotiable to gather qualitative and quantitative input. That is to say that establishing customer feedback channels and encouraging staff input helps maintain a functional Salesforce business platform. Straightaway businesses can use this feedback to inform developers on how the SaaS is operating while planning for maintenance, etc

 

Data analysis

 

In the same way, data analysis is central to feedback. Although it will be data driven and potentially require team evaluation, it shows service failures and missed sales opportunities. Unlike explicit feedback over time, daily data reports can lead to swift responses and developers adjusting the Salesforce UI.

Scaling

 

Lastly, preparing for the long-term and further investments means scaling strategies. Thereafter businesses can collaborate with their Salesforce developers to introduce features, additional modules, and even new technology. Similarly this planning will keep improving the customer experience. In due time it can be a demonstrable way for businesses to make changes then update their customers and stakeholders. For example they can market their scaling activities, “You asked and we listened, here’s this new Salesforce feature.”

 

Using Salesforce software development to support staff with their customer service roles and responsibilities

Finally, remembering how team members can affect the customer experience is extremely relevant. In order to target this customer service area, businesses need to plan how to support their teams. As per the section on strategically planning deployment, there are a number of key steps to incorporate.

 

In summary, businesses need to include the following in their staff supports:

  • Staff training — Familiarizing them with the software and equipping them to succeed.
  • Timeline planning — Preparing all staff for all phases of the development process so they know what to expect.
  • Staff reviews and feedback — Both informally and through data analysis to normalize using systems effectively. These insights can make the systems and the employee experience better.
  • Coaching staff — Keeping them on track with their performance in the role so this then feeds through onto the customers.
  • Encouraging inter-departmental collaboration — Sharing the workload meaningfully and reducing silos that affect morale across the entire team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, investing in tools that can be a reliable and scalable solution is both a necessity and sound business. Undeniably, Salesforce helps address both customer service and sales problems in order to operate more effectively. Simultaneously this benefits all stakeholders: employees and customers. In effect, taking the time to plan, design, and deploy Salesforce is money well spent.

 

Beyond the customer service area of businesses, the scope to reap returns applies to the areas of:

  • Sales processes
  • Staff engagement and satisfaction
  • Team morale and collaborative productivity
  • Business progression and strategic growth
  • Brand integrity and reputation

When this combines with happy, loyal customers there is extensive scope for business scaling. In the long run businesses will need to view their customers as assets who they care for using robust technology. In the same fashion, businesses already have this option with Salesforce and a quality software development can meet needs accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

 

How does a Salesforce software development CRM platform benefit businesses?

Salesforce is a platform dedicated to making businesses run better. Whether it’s working as a sales funnel to convert customers or maintain conversations, Salesforce is an all-in-one CRM. Because Salesforce is designed to be customized for individual businesses of all sizes, it’s an especially beneficial business tool. Overall, Salesforce is a robust solution that businesses can use in myriad ways that are completely consistent with their needs. To learn more, an A3logics Salesforce software development consultation will review business needs then provide an expert solution proposal.

Will a Salesforce software development help build customer loyalty?

 

A custom Salesforce software solution can be conceptualized and delivered in line with the goal of customer loyalty. For example, if the goal is to maintain customer relationships in tactical yet effective ways then there are viable features. Altogether Salesforce is a data-driven yet user-friendly platform enabling businesses channels to better connect with customers. Therefore discussing these objectives with developers will help devise and build a Salesforce platform with high-performing features.

What technology features in a Salesforce software development can businesses opt for?

There are extensive technology features available in Salesforce software development including:

  • AI and Smart technology including chatbots
  • Data analysis and reporting
  • Automation
  • Cloud access
  • Mobile/tablet applications with online and offline features

All in all, the best technology features are the ones that suit the business needs. Then developing a platform that is scalable is a sound strategy. From here, software developers can consult, evaluate, and recommend the best Salesforce custom platform features.

 

How long does a Salesforce software development take to build and deploy?

The building and deployment timeline for Salesforce is entirely dependable on business needs. Because this is a SaaS platform that can be low-code and is entirely customizable during planning timelines are established. Significantly if a business needs the platform ready to deploy quickly, it is possible and Salesforce is always scalable.