Having worked on a number of Zendesk to Salesforce Service Cloud migrations to date, we see a core set of common themes around why customers choose to migrate to Salesforce. As such, we wanted to share the typical profiles or personas and trends for companies (from an organization and system perspective) moving off of Zendesk and as they make the transition to Salesforce.
Modern Service Organizational Trends
#1 Product diversification
Zendesk is a great solution for emerging, small and medium business, and having worked on similar transitions, we see many instances where moving to Salesforce is a priority based on a larger product base which needs more and varied support processes. Clients that begin selling products who venture into providing services or partner relationships require more complex processes to support their business.
#2 Expansion of industry segments
Similar to moving from being a single to multi-product company, we see organizations that move into varied industries needing increased flexibility when managing support cases. Often moving from a classic retail industry into a specialized industry like entertainment causes an increased complexity among service teams who also need to be focused on specific areas to ensure realistic organizational support.
#3 Global expansion
Another obvious area of complexity comes from moving the business out of a native territory and entering the global market. We have found many of our clients started small, but blossomed quickly into an national or even global business. Leveraging Salesforce allows for an easier approach to rolling out their business globally encompassing regulatory needs, differing languages, and other geographical differences, but still having the ability to manage everything homogeneously within Salesforce.
#4 Evolving customer segments
Another area, which is similar to the multi-industry model, is when a company attempts to serve other segments. Within a single segment, a tool like Zendesk works well, however as you need to respond to new customer segments the flexibility of Salesforce becomes critical.
#5 Diversification
As your company direction changes (industries, segments, and geography), the platform should grow with you and support infrastructure growth and change. Salesforce is a great tool to scale from a small support team to a call center with hundreds of agents.
#6 Need to scale
Salesforce is often brought in because more automation and integration is required across disparate, but essential business systems. Prior to this automation, the company needed more agents to move data regularly from system to system which is both labor-intensive and not cost-effective. Once the company joins their ERP, marketing automation, sales automation, and service systems together on the Salesforce platform, they can reap the benefits without the unnecessary overhead.
#7 Customer satisfaction demands
Salesforce is exceptional at making your current workforce more effective and efficient by providing a truly omnichannel approach to service. It combines features like Live Agent, Knowledge Management, Leads and Chatter into a single, powerful tool. Service managers have a true one-stop-shop for each of their support requests and can leverage Salesforce’s flexibility to provide the best support possible and keep the number of agents required to a manageable level.
Customer Service Technology Trends
#8 System complexities
The move to a larger market and different locales, also may mean a change to how you are selling your products and what you sell in specific regions or industries. We have seen many customers vary their SKU’s to match a specific geography and this level of complexity can be managed through Sales Cloud and Salesforce CPQ with ease. That said, the support to that new set of needs can be applied using a similar approach, but leveraging a flexible solution with a streamlined user experience. Coupling this with variances around currency and language requirements means that you need to seamlessly cross borders while providing a single set of reports for executive management. By migratomg from Zendesk to Salesforce, you will be building on a platform and reducing unnecessary integrations. Also, leveraging the AppExchange will allow businesses to quickly implement specific tools such as marketing automation, CPQ, customer satisfaction surveys, and many more.
#9 Integration and customization
As noted in the first blog, Sales Cloud and Service Cloud combine into a powerful tool which provides a 360-degree view of the customer. Leveraging both for companies that are growing, increasingly has not become important but is now essential. Knowing your customers’ needs while supporting future sales is highly important regardless of your industry, segment, or geography. Salesforce puts the customer at the heart of your company’s market approach and both they and your company benefit from the outcome.
#10 Fragmented customer experience
In the Age of the Customer, consumers have come to expect omnichannel engagement and end-to-end journey support. As the customer service technology landscape continues to evolve, one of the biggest advantages of having a single CRM platform like Salesforce is the ability to bring new functionality into the mix, like self-service through Community Cloud, Live Agent, or Field Service Lightning that delivers a seamless experience across all these new channels.
As companies grow, we see many of the areas listed above as undeniable impacts and inevitable decision points to select the best service platform that provides the most accessibility, functionality, and flexibility to run a growing business. Companies will need to heavily consider the benefits of transitioning to Salesforce and away from siloed solution, to manage their emerging business. Don’t forget to register for our webinar with Salesforce to learn more!
