Workplace Transformation Lessons Organizations Can Learn from Salesforce

Businesses always remain in a phase of transition. As technologies keep evolving, organizations across the globe have discovered that their tried and tested methodologies need to change and tech stacks need to be up to date. From just being a buzzword to becoming a reality, the world has truly experienced digital transformation in the last decade. But was it enough? Just when organizations were adapting to the phase of transformation, a global pandemic changed this narrative furthermore. And it made them rethink how they served their customers and employees. It propelled them to suddenly think of establishing a remote workforce and diving deep into all things cloud or IoT.

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation and only the organizations that could understand this early on, eventually, got it right. Just like Salesforce. The cloud solutions giant managed workplace transformation remarkably well and has introduced a hybrid work culture as mobility restrictions started easing in most parts of the world. So, in this blog post, we will take a look at how most organizations have responded to the pandemic and how Salesforce managed this transition so successfully.

Why Are Workplaces Transforming After COVID-19?

Forward-thinking organizations realized that the pandemic is an accelerant for change – an opportunity to reinvent how they have been delivering customer and employee experiences. Mobility restrictions made it necessary to replace face-to-face conversations with virtual meetings to protect the employees and enable them to work from home. Also, extending digital outreach to customers was much needed so as to facilitate and engage them at every touchpoint of their journey. So, even the businesses that weren’t digital savvy invested in strengthening their digital infrastructure.

According to Business2Community^[i], 25% of B2B sales representatives said that not being able to meet face-to-face with customers was one of the biggest challenges they confronted. So, many organizations have moved to a virtual sales model, introduced a secure eCommerce experience, and added video conferencing capabilities to showcase and sell products/services. As Heraclitus has rightly said, “Change is the only constant”, it is imperative to embrace workplace transformation.

How are Workplaces Transforming?

Many organizations believe that what they could have done in years in terms of technology adoption, the pandemic propelled them to do in weeks. Many even started utilizing their underutilized resources to their full potential. So, organizations are viewing technology as a medium to innovate and thrive.

To improve their customer-centricity, organizations are investing in automating their processes so that their sales and marketing teams can handle tasks that require human intelligence. What it means, practically, is embracing email automation tools, introducing virtual agents and chatbots to provide round-the-clock, personalized support to customers, and effectively deflect cases. Organizations are also empowering their digital marketing teams and support technicians with AI-powered tools so that they can deliver personalized experiences to their customers and solve customer issues remotely.

Consider how banks have migrated physical channels online, how healthcare providers have moved to telehealth, and how retailers have facilitated online shopping and contactless delivery. All this, not only ensures employee safety and customer satisfaction but also signals the world to step into the new digital normal.

How Salesforce is Enabling Workforce Management and Workplace Transformation?

Salesforce introduced work.com^[ii] – their digital workplace that contains a suite of products to enable employees to work from anywhere. It helps them make data-driven decisions to schedule work shifts, capacity management, office-based employee planning, etc. It is a platform that contains all the applications, data, tools, and collaboration features that their employees need to work within a secure online interface that can be accessed from anywhere and anytime. It is also enriched with features like employee wellness checks, shift management, IT service center to quickly resolve problems, queue management solutions, and more to make employees’ lives easier and safer.

And when they were set to partially reopen, Salesforce initiated wellbeing surveys to help understand employee sentiment in terms of stress and burnout of working from home and how they felt about coming back to the office. They have also redesigned their social and breakout spaces to foster human connection and collaboration. And guided by employee feedback, Salesforce has also introduced a hybrid work model wherein they’ve introduced three ways of working:

To top it, Salesforce has provided its employees with tools that foster engagement. This encompasses work.com and communication tools like Slack and Zoom. The cloud technology giant has also increased the frequency of company communication including a daily email newsletter branded ‘The Daily’ having everything employees need to know. This is a complete suite of personalized cloud, social, and mobile-connected experiences to help employees feel more connected and perform their jobs effectively.

The Future of Work at Salesforce

The future of work at Salesforce looks more digital, human, and connected. Apart from giving access to digital desk – work.com to their employees, Salesforce will also focus more on AI and automation.

“Automation frees up people to be creative and curious, especially when combined with highly personalized insights and recommendations surfaced from AI” – Brain Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce.

And this is what they aim to extend to other organizations as well. Today, customers spend more time online which results in increased service requests from them. Companies, therefore, can turn to AI-powered chatbots to improve customer service and manage the limitation of not being able to make hundreds of support reps sit side by side. Salesforce Service Cloud with its Robotic Process Automation (RPAs) could be of great benefit to organizations having such automation requirements.

Conclusion

In today’s highly volatile business landscape, organizations need to be more resilient to change not only to empower their employees but also their customers. To stay relevant amidst ever-evolving consumer behavior and its in-depth impact on business, you need to constantly evolve and utilize technology to its utmost potential. With successful technological evolution, you can bring people and processes together, empower your workforce to work from anywhere, and strengthen their connection with your customers. A new transformed workplace is, therefore, the key to finding success in the future.

Statistics References:

^[i] https://www.business2community.com/infographics/b2b-sales-impact-of-coronavirus-infographic-02304040
^[ii] https://www.salesforce.com/in/work/?sfdc-redirect=219