Forrester research report

Making Leaders Successful
Every Day

Salesforce Data Overview
Forrester Consulting
Andrew Magarie
Associate Consultant

Ben Harris
Consultant

Kate Leggett
Principal Analyst
November 15, 2012 For internal use only

Preamble…

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited

Customer
experience
decision
makers say that
a good
experience is
critical to their
success

Think the
importance of
customer
experience has
risen

Forrester’s Customer Experience Index

Few companies deliver an outstanding customer
experience

Source: April 24, 2012, “The State Of Customer Experience, 2012” Forrester report

Customer service managers agree that customer
experience is important

The customer service leader must balance customer
needs with business needs

Cost
Customer
satisfaction and Compliance
loyalty
Revenue

Take a step back and think about the journey that
customers expect to have with a company

Most of the time this journey is fractured. Why?

www..com

Most companies are a mess of disconnected technology

www.astutesolutions.com

Customers want to engage using a variety of
communication channels

Realize that online channel usage has grown in the past
two years

Companies are not investing in shoring up the foundations
of good interactions

Source: “Contact Center Purchase Plans 2011” Forrester report

Agents don't have access to the right information at the
right time

Companies cannot tame the knowledge problem

Email

Agents cant easily collaborate

Customer service metrics don’t drive the right behavior

And the volume of social inquiries and comments
overwhelm companies


Companies offer more customer touchpoints than ever
before


SalesForce Data Slides


S1: Profile of respondents: US focus

“In which country is your company headquartered?"

Base: 196 United States Customer Service decision-makers

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of salesforce.com, July 2012

© 2012 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 22

S2: Respondents work primarily for large to global companies

“Using your best estimate, how many employees work for your firm/organization worldwide?"




S3: Respondents have a fairly even distribution of customer service
organization sizes – from small to very large
“Using your best estimate, how many customer service agents do you have in your company?"




S4: The survey profiled select industries

“Which of the following best describes the industry to which your company belongs?"




S5: Respondents were evenly split between business and IT roles

“Which department or group best describes where you currently work? If you work for multiple
groups, please choose the one you work in most frequently”




S6: Respondents have a direct knowledge of their customer service
strategy and operations
“Please indicate level of involvement in your organization’s customer service strategy and operations.”
(Select one for each)




S7: Respondents have mid to senior titles

“Which title best describes your position at your organization?"




S8: Few companies solely outsource their customer service
operations
“How do you manage your customer service operations today?"




P1: Respondents work for B2B and B2C companies

“Which of the following best describes the audience that your company's products/services are
marketed to?"




P2: Survey respondents consider themselves technology leaders

“How aggressive is your company when it comes to investing in customer service technology?"




P3: Respondents use a variety of social media channels

“Do you use the following social media tools or perform the following social activities on a weekly
basis?" (Select all that apply)




Q1: Half or survey respondents have a clear link between company
and customer service strategy
“What is the relationship between your customer service strategy and your customer experience
strategy?"




Q2: Organizations have a balanced scorecard of customer service
goals
“What are your firm’s three (3) most important customer service goals over the next 12 months?”




Q3: Organizations rely on customer sat ratings to declare success
with their operations
“What are the main measurements of success for your customer service operations?"
(Select your top 5)




Q4: Organizations rely on a balanced scorecard of metrics to
measure the success of a customer service interaction
“On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest priority, what do you consider the key components of
a successful customer service interaction?”




Q5 Companies are moving away from viewing their customer
service organizations as cost centers
“What is the vision of your customer service organization?"




Q6: Customer service agents are measured via direct customer
feedback and adherence to productivity goals
“How are you planning to incentivize and measure your agents to support your vision of your
customer service organization?"




Q7: Operational pain points include managing social inquiries and
empowering agents with a single desktop to manage all inquiry
types
“On a scale of 1 to 5, how proficient do you feel your organization is currently when it comes
to the following business capabilities?”

Poor1 2 3 4 Excellent5 Don't know/ not applicable

Standardizing the delivery of customer service
across our agent pool 4% 22% 52% 22%

Increasing the productivity and ef f iciency of
my customer service organization 1%5% 27% 47% 21%

Using collaboration tools to quickly connect
agents with other agents or subject matter 3% 12% 29% 35% 20% 1%
expert

Locating the right content to answer a
customer's question by searching across all 3%5% 29% 43% 20% 1%
sources of conten

Guiding agents through the right customer
service processes 1%
2% 30% 47% 20%

Enabling customers to use multiple
communication channels in the course of a 3% 12% 29% 37% 19% 1%
single interaction




Q7 cont: Operational pain points include managing social inquiries
and empowering agents with a single desktop to manage all inquiry
types
“On a scale of 1 to 5, how proficient do you feel your organization is currently when it comes
to the following business capabilities?”




Q8: Agents are not empowered to manage social media inquiries
“On a scale of 1 to 5, how proficient do you feel your organization is currently when it comes to
providing the following capabilities to empower your customer service agents?”



Q9: Agent priorities for improving the customer experience include
better productivity and personalization
“What are your most important priorities when thinking about improving the experience of
customers as they interact with customer service agents?” (Select all that apply)



Q10 Organizations are challenged with people, process and data
issues when looking to improve customer experiences
“On a scale of 1 to 5, what are your organization's biggest challenges to improving the
overall customer experience delivered by your customer service organization today?”



Q10 (cont.) Organizations are challenged with people, process and
data issues when looking to improve customer experiences
“On a scale of 1 to 5, what are your organization's biggest challenges to improving the
overall customer experience delivered by your customer service organization today?”



Q11: A quick resolution time is the driving factor for customer
satisfaction
“On a scale of 1 to 5, what do you believe impacts your customer satisfaction scores the most?”



Q12 Agents struggle with multiple applications to service
customers effectively
“Thinking about your customer service technologies that agents use to provide service to
customers, what are the challenges that your customer service agents face?” (Select all that apply)



Q12 (cont.) Agents struggle with multiple applications to service
customers effectively
“Thinking about your customer service technologies that agents use to provide service to
customers, what are the challenges that your customer service agents face?” (Select all that apply)



Q13 Managers are not empowered with the right strategic
technologies to gain insight about their customer interactions
“Thinking about your customer service technologies that agents use to provide service to customers,
what are the challenges that your customer service managers face?” (Select all that apply)



Q14 Organizations report a correlation between improved agent
experiences and better customer satisfaction outcomes
“Complete the following statement in the way that best describes your ability to correlate an
improved agent experience to better customer satisfaction:
We can correlate a good agent experience to good customer satisfaction ratings...”



Q15: Technology implementation challenges focus on cost,
integration complexity, and organizational resistance to change

“What challenges did you face during your technology implementations?" (Select all that apply)

Source: AForrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited Forrester Consulting on behalf of salesforce.com, July 2012
© 2012 commissioned study conducted by 50

Q16: Organizations balance cost and customer experience
initiatives
“In the next 12-24 months, when planning to invest to improve your customer service capabilities,
what business benefits do you hope to achieve?” (Please rank your top 3 where 1 is most
important and 3 is third most important)



Q17: Agent toolset priorities focus on efficiency, productivity and
personalization
“Thinking about your priorities for improvements in your customer service agent toolset that you
would like to see made, what are the 3 most important priorities?” (please pick and rank your top 3
improvements from 1(most important) to 3 (third most important))



Q18: Tactical priorities for improving customer service capabilities
revolve around knowledge and multichannel service
“Thinking about your tactical priorities for improving your current customer service capabilities,
what are the 3 most important priorities?” (Please rank your top three where 1 is most important
and 3 is third most important)



IT priorities for new technologies focus on integrate-ability,
scalability and performance
“When choosing new technologies to implement in customer service organization, what are the 3 most
important priorities from an IT perspective?” (Please rank your top three where 1 is most important and 3 is
third most important)

Source: AForrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited Forrester Consulting on behalf of salesforce.com, July 2012
© 2012 commissioned study conducted by 54

Q20: Companies plan a broad set of customer service technology
investments
What are your firm's plans to implement or expand the use of these technologies in the next 12 months?



Q20 (cont.) Companies plan a broad set of customer service
technology investments
What are your firm's plans to implement or expand the use of these technologies in the next 12 months?



Q21 Organizations face cost, budget and process barriers which
prevent them from optimizing their technology investments
“Which of the following barriers, if any, prevent your organization from making better use of
technology to improve your customer service capabilities?” (Select all that apply)



Q22 Companies face a balanced scorecard of risks if new
technologies are not adopted
“What are the perceived risks of not adopting new technology in your customer service
organization? (Select all that apply)"



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