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The Ultimate Insider’s Guide:Integrating Feedback in Salesforce

3 INTRODUCTION

4 HOW DID WE GET HERE? THE ROOTS OF CRM

7 CONNECTING FEEBACK, SALESFORCE, & CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

9 ACTION PLAN

12 MORE SUPPORT FOR YOUR ACTION PLAN

13 BONUS: TECHNICAL TIPS

Table of Contents

IntroductionAs the first survey software company to offer seamless integration with Salesforce, Clicktools has unique experience and insights on how to do this well. Over the years, we’ve read and responded to more than 415 Salesforce user reviews on the AppExchange, always appreciating direct customer feedback as the clearest indication of how we’re doing. To help customers maximize the value of the Salesforce platform, Clicktools employs multiple certified Salesforce Administrators among its services, support, and development teams. And, the ease and power of our Salesforce integration is always paramount when developing or enhancing features on our roadmap.

In other words, Salesforce users are at the heart of what we do.

We’re huge proponents of centralizing enterprise feedback in Salesforce because we know the importance of building a single view of the customer, empowering customer-facing teams to act on customer insights in context, and automating the interactions that don’t require a human touch. Collecting and responding to feedback effectively is one of the most powerful ways to increase engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.

Plus, having one location for all customer data, including feedback, massively strengthens a company’s ability to deliver great customer experiences. Only with integrated information can you generate the analysis and intelligence required to drive process improvements. Otherwise, you’re forced to make inside-out guesses about what your customers want and expect. Usually these guesses are incorrect.

This paper offers advice, tips, and an action plan to build a better business by integrating feedback data in Salesforce. We hope it helps you expand your feedback program to create even better customer experiences.

Terrific Survey > Salesforce Tool I have used many survey tools in the past, but none can compare to Clicktools… The ability to integrate surveys into standard and custom objects in Salesforce has never been easier. Gone are the days of exporting surveys to an Excel file and dealing with messy data. Clicktools allows data to flawlessly stay in your CRM without the possibility of human error.”Actual 5-star AppExchange Review

It’s been more than 20 years since the term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) was born. We now know that the birth of that term was more than just another technology acronym, it was the beginning of an industry.

It all began around 1995, when early innovators were blending the capabilities of Sales Force Automation with what was then called Contact Management. These groundbreaking solutions didn’t have a proper name yet, but category titles such as enterprise customer management (ECM) and customer information system (CIS) were introduced. Those got some traction, but never stuck. In the end, CRM won out and no one looked back.

Through the late 90s and early 2000s, today’s big CRM players joined the game and the term CRM referred to a technology solution that supported and powered the sales cycle.

Notably, the 90s ended with the launch of the first true Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM company – Salesforce.com. Because its solutions were originally targeted toward smaller businesses, this new player was largely ignored by the bigtime vendors like Siebel, Oracle, and SAP. Little did they know at the time that they would soon be facing off and vying for domination of this emerging space.

Now, of course, Salesforce is the world’s leading CRM solution. It has broken the mold of what customer relationship management used to mean, offering a massive integrated platform geared from marketing to sales, customer service, and business analysis. It’s so all-encompassing, in fact, that the company now broadly refers to its offerings as a Customer Success Platform.

So, for the purpose of this paper, we will discontinue the term CRM and simply say Salesforce. Many of this paper’s recommendations will still apply, even if you use a CRM solution other than Salesforce, but given that so many Clicktools customers choose Salesforce, we will focus on that platform and refer specifically to its functionality and nomenclature.

How Did We Get Here? The Roots of CRM.

of organizations believe developing a customer journey map is good for

their business.

73%

73%Salesforce’s 2016

State of Marketing Research Report

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Let’s start by addressing a big challenge: Salesforce is an incredibly robust solution, which can be overwhelming if not properly configured and managed. Add to that the proliferation of apps that can be integrated with it and you have a potential tangle of technology that can cause some organizations to try to do too much without enough forethought and planning. These types of implementations usually scare users away, causing adoption, usage, and standardization problems.

Unfortunately, in many companies, Salesforce and its related apps and processes are still fragmented and often approached from an internally driven perspective, rather than a customer relationship-driven one. This ultimately frustrates so many customers and internal users that some Salesforce initiatives may be dismissed as failures.

To embrace the true value of Salesforce, some organizations need a shift in perspective, but it’s not a logically challenging one. Simply think with the customer’s mind. Then, you’ll see that the correct starting point for setting up proper Salesforce processes is the customer journey: the totality of interactions and transactions that customers experience as they engage with a company.

So, wrap your arms around your customer journey(s) before delving into the technical nuts and bolts of integrating feedback into Salesforce. This holds true for building your feedback program, too. You need to identify key transaction points and what results you’re looking for, in what areas of the business, before building your first survey.

Built correctly, your feedback program integrated with Salesforce and its numerous add-on apps can become the engine of growth by supporting the delivery of customer experiences that inspire loyalty, advocacy, and repeat purchases.

SUCCESS REQUIRES A CUSTOMER-FIRST PERSPECTIVE

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To work properly, all engines need a regular supply of good quality fuel and in the case of customer relationships, that fuel is customer information. It includes their needs, preferences, and a record of all their interactions and transactions. In today’s socially connected world, this information extends to what people say on social networks; just because the company is not listening, doesn’t mean customers aren’t talking.

To build a comprehensive, single view of the customer, you need one data repository, accessible across the company – in this case, Salesforce. This paints a dynamic picture for your employees to respond to customers both individually and as a collective group. Remember, your customers don’t see the lines and boxes that make up your company’s structure. They have experiences and don’t distinguish (or care) whether they’ve crossed from one department to another.

CUSTOMER INFORMATION FUELS YOUR BUSINESS ENGINE

Why do so many companies struggle to find value from their CRM system? There’s something that Salesforce.com and the other industry leaders can’t tell you. It’s this: the problem with your CRM system isn’t usually about your CRM system. It’s about you. It’s the way it’s been setup. It’s the way it’s been implemented. It’s the way it’s managed.”Forbes, “What Salesforce Won’t Tell You”

Customers demand choice of channels and will hop from one to another at different interactions. At each stage, they expect the same, high level of service. Regardless of who collected the customer information, it must be added to the single view of the customer.

Teams across the company contribute to and access the single view of the customer. This enables them to contextualize each interaction and demonstrate their understanding of the customer.

Information drives action. When the individuals within your company know that a customer needs attention, whether in the form of sales, support, or service, they have the context and data at their fingertips to provide high quality interaction. Customer feedback enhances this information and should be used to improve the quality of the insights available.

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Connecting Feedback, Salesforce, and Customer ExperienceAs you design your feedback to Salesforce processes, you will need to think across your entire company. The customer journey is not limited to sales and marketing experiences. It goes well beyond that and actually consists of the following phases: want, research, engage, buy, use, and comment. This is rarely a simple, linear path; iterations and loops are the norm and the journey is often repeated as customers make repeat purchases.

In each of the phases, there are numerous ways to collect feedback and enhance the single view of the customer by integrating the responses and data into Salesforce. The following are proven tactics to improve your relationships with customers and as a result, increase your marketing, sales, support, and service success.

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WANT & RESEARCHFrom the very first steps of the journey, companies need to capture information from prospective customers. At this stage, it is important to demonstrate your ability to respond rapidly to their needs.

• Brochure/demo request forms• Requests or collateral• Inbound call scripts• Partner lead registration

ENGAGE & BUYAs customers shift their emphasis from “I’m looking” to “I’m interested,” the process of progressively profiling customers accelerates. The exchange of information becomes more focused as customer requirements become clearer.

• Web2Lead forms• Quotations• Win/Loss surveys

USE & COMMENTAs the customer uses their purchase, a happy buyer can rapidly morph into an angry one if the proper communication channels are not available. Providing easy access to support creates advocates and repeat customers.

Customers now use social media as a way to sing your praises or to warn others not to make the same mistake. These views are a vital part of the customer voice and need to captured and added to the single view of the customer in Salesforce.

• Product registration• Web2case forms • Closed case survey• Project satisfaction surveys• Relationship surveys

• Webinar registration• Event registration• Campaign landing pages• Facebook contact forms

• New customer insight surveys• Stay in touch forms• Purchase order forms

• Complaint capture• New product ideas• Twitter to case• Facebook to case

Driven by the immense power of customers, companies are recognizing how critical customer experience is to their financial success – or failure. It is rare to find a senior executive that does not believe the financial payoff of a winning customer experience, although many struggle to quantify it effectively.”Customer Experience Magazine

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Action PlanKeen to integrate your customer feedback data into Salesforce to improve customer experience? That puts you ahead of most; only 26% of companies have a well-developed strategy for improving customer experience.

Here are six steps to success.

Do your sums and estimate the financial benefits of improving customer experience. A few figures showing the dangers of losing to competitors will create a sense of urgency, especially if you need executive buy-in and plan to rally the broader organization.Also, it will be helpful to gather any research on what customers think about your company and products. Tangible evidence (e.g. survey and poll results, complaint and complimentary letters, etc.), rather than internal anecdotes, which tend to include personal bias, will help keep your team on track as you embark on the action plan.

1

Assemble an internal team to map out your customer journey. Pick people who really care about customer experience to ensure you capture the best potential perspective. When building your customer journey maps, remember to include social networks where your customers share views, research their needs, and seek information.

2

For each of the key interactions on the journeys, answer the following questions:• At this step, what matters most to the customer?• What customer experience should we provide? Try not to get hung up on how you do things today.

Strive to outline the ideal (not the current) situation.• What constitutes success for the customer and what therefore should we be measuring?• What does the customer do next? At each interaction point, be sure to guide customers toward a next

step of some kind. This does not need to be a sale or upsell; it can be an event, offering of information, education, or other interaction.

3

Build listening mechanisms into the interactions to gather key information and test the quality of the customer experience. Contextualize the interactions and listening mechanisms using Salesforce data and reporting.

Customers get annoyed (rightly) when they are asked questions they have already answered or companies do not tailor their interactions using information they have shared.

4

Action Plan

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Action Plan

Map out the technical specifications to integrate key measures and information gathered from the customer journey into Salesforce. If you have a Salesforce Admin, now is the time to pull that person into the room, if s/he wasn’t already on the project team. Make it clear that success requires associating feedback data with individual contacts and related records to enhance the single view of the customer.

Implement alerts and workflows to address any issues raised by the information captured, for example, low satisfaction score or requests for sales contact.

Use the information collected to generate role-relevant reports. Where possible, look to integrate data from the information collected to provide reporting relevant to users’ roles and responsibilities.

5

6

To earn the respect (and eventually love) of your customers, you first have to respect those customers. That is why Golden Rule behavior is embraced by most of the winning companies.”Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines

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More Support for Your Action PlanAs you get further into planning how you leverage feedback and Salesforce to improve customer experience, here are several best practice suggestions to streamline the process and the results.

• Automate deployment. For example, lead discovery forms or closed case surveys can be issued using Salesforce workflow or Clicktools Scheduled Deployment to remove the costs and time of this administrative task. This not only significantly reduces costs, but also ensures rapid, even instantaneous follow up.

• Build business rules that enforce opt-outs and limit how many surveys are sent. Across departments, you’ll want to control the number of surveys an individual can receive in a set period of time. For example, if your marketing department is sending one this week, make sure your customer support department isn’t doing the same. Prioritize what goes when.

• Ensure that surveys and forms represent your brand accurately. Collecting information is part of the customer experience and it should enhance, not detract from the brand. Be sure to establish standards for question structures, brand look and feel, and style of language that are applied across the company.

• Provide different channels for customers to give feedback, including social media. Where the information requested is triggered by a specific event, it should use the channel chosen by the customer. For example, a survey may trigger a follow-up with a customer reporting a low satisfaction score or a lead form may initiate a sales process. Build the follow-up alerts and reporting in Salesforce, providing one place for employees to manage the whole customer journey.

• Make it easy for employees to see customer information. For example, results of a closed case survey should be visible in the case, contact, and account records of the customer. Of course, this should be overridden if anonymity has been requested.

Providing ample customer feedback methods can help engage with your customers dynamically. Omni-channel feedback collection is one of the most trusted and reliable means of engagement, as it offers various different platforms – web, email, IVR, QR Codes, tablets, smart devices – to bring the brand closer to the customer.”LinkedIn

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BONUS:Technical Tips for Managing Your Feedback Data in Salesforce

• Create the survey first. This isn’t as obvious as it may seem. You’ll want to figure out what data you are going to collect and what type of questions you will use to collect it before doing anything in Salesforce. The specifics of your survey will affect what field types and/or object you use in Salesforce to store the data collected.

• Create the Salesforce fields and/or objects before mapping. Also, set up the parent-child relationships in Salesforce before you do the mapping in Clicktools, which should be the last step, since you can only view fields/objects that exist in your Salesforce Org and that your Salesforce user has read/write access to when doing the mapping.

• Use a custom object to store your responses. This object can be related to your Contact, Account, or Case objects, or any other object you might be sending surveys to via a Lookup or Master-Detail field. This enables you to store historical survey data in a list if respondents answer your survey multiple times.

• Add Record Types under your custom object. It’s a best practice to segment the data inside the object, rather than start a new object and complicate the mapping. Also, always check the

mapping article to make sure your Clicktools questions match up with right Salesforce fields. When mapping, make sure to use ID values (contact ID) versus things like contact’s first or last name.

• Utilize the new process builder over workflows to do even more with Salesforce when launching surveys.

• Set up new credentials in production for integration. This way you get “created by” as something generic like integration API, versus the admin’s name.

• Test your surveys in the Salesforce Sandbox before switching them into production. Note that a single Clicktools Instance can integrate to multiple production AND sandbox environments. When switching from a Sandbox to a Production environment (or vice versa), you will need the exact same fields and object to exist in order to avoid errors.

• We saved the very best tip for last: Test a lot!

And, of course, let us know if our professional services, support, or success teams can help. We are here for you.

It’s critical to properly plan and manage how you integrate your customer feedback data in Salesforce. To get the most value from your survey data, consider following these pro admin tips:

ABOUT CLICKTOOLSClicktools powers enterprise feedback for hundreds of companies worldwide. Across industries, the Clicktools platform enables organizations to collect, centralize, and act on feedback using surveys, call scripts, and web forms that integrate with leading CRM solutions. The company is owned by Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ: CALD), which operates as CallidusCloud®, the leading provider of sales and marketing effectiveness software.

US: 1-800-774-4065 | UK:+44 0800 0432587sales@clicktools.com | www.clicktools.com

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Your consumers are connected, intelligent, opinionated, and oftentimes have a lot to say about your products and service. Sometimes the truth hurts, but customer feedback is valuable.”The Salesforce Blog