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Digital transformation is an iterative process. How quickly you see results depends on the vision that you have for your business, and the metrics you are targeting.
If you’re just starting out with your own digital transformation, it can be difficult to see how the long-term benefits are worth the effort. The good news is that many others have been through the process, and a lot can be learned from their experiences.
Below, we hear from three businesses of varying sizes about their business visions, the steps they took in their transformation journeys, and the results they got.
Founded in the Philippines in 2011, AFDigital began as a digital marketing agency. Since then, it has evolved into a multi-cloud Salesforce and MuleSoft implementation partner.
AFDigital uses a ‘glocalised’ approach. That means they support a physical, on-the-ground presence in key markets with a well-resourced Philippines-based delivery centre. Pauline Pangan, Founder and Managing Director, believes this model has been particularly effective in meeting their customers’ changing needs.
“Our goal is to help our customers redefine the human experience with Salesforce technology. That’s why we are constantly investing in building our capabilities,” says Pangan.
The company started out using a collection of unconnected apps to manage their business, before investing in a full Salesforce Customer 360 deployment.
“We expanded our use of Sales Cloud, and started using Service Cloud,” explains Co-Founder and CEO Robin Leonard. “Then we started to use the single customer view in Salesforce as our platform for delivery, sales, service, and marketing.”
AFDigital uses Marketing Cloud to power all the company’s nurture journeys. It also deployed Experience Cloud and built an ecommerce platform with Store Connect during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, it uses Tableau for data analytics and reporting.
“I am a strong believer that what you cannot measure, you cannot manage,” says Pangan. “Salesforce enables us to measure and manage the metrics that matter to our shareholders, our customers, our employees, and our partners.”
AFDigital has seen an impressive 380% growth in Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) over the last two years.
It has also doubled its customer retention rate over the last 12 months, and the opportunity conversion rate has increased from 28% to 52%. Perhaps most impressively, the company has achieved 900% revenue growth since investing in Salesforce.
The company can also use the enormous success of its own digital transformation as a case study to share with potential prospects.
“We achieved all this amazing success because we invested time and money to build the right processes. I always tell our customers that Salesforce is already solving the business problems of tomorrow. The only limit in the value we can squeeze out of the technology is our imagination.”
Anantara Vacation Club’s vacation ownership programme was created in 2010 with a single property in Phuket. Now, it spans nine luxury Club-owned resorts across Southeast Asia and New Zealand.
Anantara Vacation Club has built an impressive customer base of more than 14,000 Club Points Owners in less than a decade. To help provide consistent customer experiences worthy of the luxury brand, it turned to Salesforce.
“When we had 500 to 1,000 Club Points Owners, we could still manage the process manually,” says Matthijs de Man, Director of Club Services and Innovation and Anantara Vacation Club. “But when you start getting 200 to 300 enquiries a day, it becomes unmanageable.”
Prior to Salesforce, customer service agents dealt with enquiries through email, which was inefficient and time consuming. That’s when de Man and his team turned to Service Cloud for end-to-end customer management, from the moment of booking to the end of the stay.
“For a Club Points Owner, it’s a seamless experience,” says de Man.
Club Points Owners in China can now also log enquiries and communicate with customer service agents through the social media platform WeChat. Integrated Live Chat case management through the Club’s website has opened another in-demand customer communication channel.
“Our entire customer service team has the same access to Club Points Owners’ information – whether they contact us through our call centre, WeChat, Live Chat or email,” de Man explains. “Club Points Owners now get a consistent experience through any channel they choose to use.”
Service Cloud had an almost immediate effect on the Club. The Club Points Owner base grew by an incredible 200 per cent following the deployment. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are down from around 10 hours to less than two hours.
Overall customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) never dip below 87 per cent and are as high as 94 per cent in the Japanese market. Chinese Club Points Owners also rate the Club’s customer service highly with CSAT scores consistently around 90 per cent.
“The best thing about Service Cloud is that our employees now have a clear understanding of everyone they are talking to, and an essential view of all their previous interactions with us” says de Man.
Now in its 25th year, digital network operator M1 has brought numerous innovations and achieved many firsts in the Singapore market. In 2019, it was privatised and became a key pillar of Keppel Corporation’s (Keppel) connectivity business. It then started work to digitally overhaul all its processes and offerings, with a customer-first approach.
“Our vision is to become a digital-first telco and provide new made-to-measure personalised experiences for our customers. We want to set a new standard for what a digital experience looks like in our industry, ” said Nathan Bell, Chief Digital Officer.
M1 has rolled out Sales Cloud to B2B sales reps and is using Service Cloud in its contact centre. It is using Tableau CRM to provide data insights that can be used to provide customers with personalised recommendations.
M1 also plans to leverage Marketing Cloud to provide customers with hyper-personalised offers and promotions. Combined with Datorama, this will provide real-time insights so that M1 can adapt campaigns to customers’ individual interests.
To realise the full potential of its digitalisation, M1 has used MuleSoft to integrate Salesforce with its Operations Support System and other technologies.
“Omni-channel is being redefined and we see increasing fluidity between channels, with customers moving more frequently from one to the next. Salesforce will help us keep pace with our customers and ensure a consistent experience, no matter which blend of channels they use,” said Bell.
Throughout the transformation process, M1 has seen more than 1,500 employees learn new skills.
“When implementing new technologies, adoption is typically a push exercise and you have to convince people why they should get onboard. In this case, it was different. Everyone wanted to know what they could do to help get this out to our customers fast. Salesforce enabled us to deliver an incredible outcome and one that’s sustainable as we move into the new norm,” said Bell.
Most importantly, this outcome will support M1 in accelerating decision making and increasing relevance while realising its goal to be a digital-first telco. Ultimately, this leads to an improvement in the way it serves customers.
