Did you know nearly three-quarters of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations? The fact is, only 47% of customers say companies live up to those expectations. As a small business leader with limited budgets and resources, you may feel pressure to keep up. 

Wondering how to connect to your customers, deliver great experiences, and rise above bigger competition? At Dreamforce 2019, we shared the power of Salesforce Customer 360, and how it can help businesses of all sizes exceed customer expectations. Here’s what it means for small businesses and how you can take advantage of it in cost-effective ways.

What does Customer 360 mean for small businesses?

Salesforce Customer 360 is an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system that unites customer data across marketing, sales, customer service, and more. When it comes to your small business, Customer 360 is a cost-effective way to connect you to all customer touchpoints, so that your company has a single view of every customer and can deliver the experience they deserve. Here are three reasons it’s a game-changer for your SMB:

1. A single view creates a better customer experience

Have you ever gotten a call from a customer, only to realize that they have already talked to someone else in your organization? While it may be frustrating for you to do the detective work and figure out who your customer is and where they’re coming from, it’s likely even more frustrating for the customer to share all their information with your business over and over again. In fact, research shows nearly 80% of customers expect consistency when interacting across multiple departments. Depending on the size of your small business, you may have employees focused on sales, service, marketing, or commerce, and your customer may have a different experience every time depending on whom they contact. 

Customer 360 makes it easy to satisfy this customer expectation and align your organization. When your small business uses one system and has a single view of the customer, your whole team — whether sales, service, or marketing — can automatically log and capture information about the customer that’s visible to everyone else. The best part? On the receiving end, your customer feels like the whole company understands them and is invested in their success. 

2. Deliver personalized customer experiences

If you’re running your business on spreadsheets or sticky notes, it can be difficult to get context on your customers and deliver personalized experiences — especially when their information can be misplaced, deleted, or even compromised. 

As a small business, a personalized customer experience is key to building lasting, trusted relationships with your customers. Plus, when it comes to bigger competition, personalization can be the differentiator. With Customer 360, you and your teams can pull data on who your customers are, what their needs are, and why they’re using your business. In turn, you’ll better serve customers — whether that means solving their problems more easily, sending them personalized messages, or selling to them based on their needs — and you’ll outshine your bigger competitors who may not be marketing, selling, or servicing with a personalized touch.

3. Make it easy for your business to scale and grow

Companies that grow, meet and exceed customer expectations. Unfortunately, this is exactly the struggle small businesses face — according to our research, 58% of SMB leaders say meeting customer experience expectations is a challenge for growth over the next two years. 

So, how does your small business meet customer expectations and grow? With technology, it’s much easier. But even if your small business is using a lot of different apps to market, sell, and support customers, what happens when you grow out of those apps? It can be very costly and disruptive to rip and replace all these systems. 

With Customer 360, you can get started on solutions fit for a one-to-two person team, and then easily scale your solutions on the same platform as you grow.

Hoping to get started? If you’re a one-to-two person team, start on Salesforce Essentials — our CRM designed for small business with teams 1-20 people. With it, you’ll get sales and service in one CRM application. For more mature small businesses with established processes or custom workflows, check out our portfolio of solutions that can fit your specific business needs.

Learn more about Customer 360 and how it can help your small business in our interview at Dreamforce 2019 with Eric Rodriguez, VP of Operations at Common Living: 

Salesforce can help you find customers, win their business, and keep them happy so you can grow faster than ever. Learn more about our small business CRM solutions, follow us on Twitter at @Essentials, or keep up with us on LinkedIn at Salesforce for Small Business. Join the conversation with #SMBTrailblazer.