We often hear the saying — “customer is king”. But how do we know if we’re meeting the needs of customers, engaging them in the best way possible and leaving them satisfied? This is where customer relationship management (CRM) comes in.

Companies today adopt various cutting-edge technologies and strategies to manage and analyse customer interactions and data, using them to provide tailored outreach and experiences for customers. Happy customers in turn lead to greater profitability for businesses.

So how do new technologies like artificial intelligence and big data lead to better CRM? We caught up with Renzo Taal, APAC Senior Vice President of Salesforce, at the DBS Asia X Fintech Festival Lab Crawl to chat about how we’re creating intelligent customer experiences with the latest and greatest innovative solutions.

1. How does a CRM system help businesses improve customer experience?

The foundation of CRM systems is to help manage customer data. Businesses and its people create vast quantities of data every day. Each time someone picks up the phone and talks to a customer, goes out to meet a new sales prospect, or follows up a promising lead, they learn something new and potentially valuable.

But where does this data go? Into notepads or documents on laptops perhaps; or maybe it’s just stored in their head. If that’s the case, then details can get lost or forgotten, meetings and phone conversations may not be followed up on and choosing what to focus on can be a matter of guesswork rather than a rigorous exercise based on fact. Worst of all, if the staff member leaves, then all their knowledge may walk out of the door with them.

A CRM supports sales management, delivers actionable insights, integrates with social media and facilitates team communication. Streamlining all of this leads to greater visibility into customer relationship status.

2. What does innovation mean at Salesforce? Apart from product R&D, where do you most see innovation at Salesforce?

Thinking differently is in our DNA, which is why innovation is one of our core values. At Salesforce, innovation goes far beyond our products, R&D and our business model — it’s about the mindset of every single person in the Salesforce family.

We see clearly that the Fourth Industrial Revolution is changing the way people work — using robotics, AI, the Internet of Things, and more. We are making these innovations easier and more accessible, which is in turn helping to create a future with greater opportunity and equality for all.

In addition to the innovation we see internally, we see incredible innovation coming from our partners and customers in how they leverage our technology — we call these people trailblazers. Trailblazers can be developers, administrators, sales leaders, marketers, CEOs, and more. What they have in common is that they are powering change at companies across all industries.

3. Do you foresee cloud computing playing a bigger role in B2C or even B2B businesses?

Absolutely. Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, it’s easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance. The affordability of cloud-hosted data makes it an essential tool for these types of situations.

We are seeing technology moving to the cloud. It’s not just a fad — the shift from traditional software models to the internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years and will continue to grow in the future.

4. What do you want to say to businesses which are still hesitating to adopt CRM software?

Your customers are important to your business. In fact, no matter what your industry, no matter what your focus, no matter what kind of products or services you offer, your customers are the single most valuable asset of your organization. Customers give your company a sense of purpose and direction. They provide invaluable feedback and serve as a springboard for new concepts and ideas. And let’s not forget about the revenue they bring in. The relationships that you cultivate with your customer-base will determine your company’s level of success.

The key to giving customers what they want lies in understanding them, and a CRM system does just that.

5. Any wise words for people trying to be more innovative?

When looking to maintain a steady pace of innovation, we always:

Listen to customers: Our customers are telling us that they want to transform their businesses. We’re continually inspired by our customers and by listening to where they want to take their companies. These conversations help influence our innovation and bring Salesforce to new heights.

Keep a beginner’s mind: By thinking like a beginner, we’re constantly looking at new ideas and technologies to see where we should go next. This beginner’s mind has helped us embrace new trends and harness these trends to deliver incredible new tools to our customers — like Salesforce Einstein.

Do it simple, fast, and right the first time: By building software with this in mind, we’ve been able to deliver technology to our customers that’s flexible, efficient and simple to use.

Renzo Taal is Senior Vice President, APAC, of Salesforce, the top CRM platform focused on artificial intelligence. He was one of the panellists for the panel discussion on “Creating intelligent customer experiences with AI, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics” at the DBS Asia X FinTech Festival Lab Crawl that took place on 15 and 16 November 2018.