Salesforce Service Cloud Guide for A Successful Implementation

This year you focused on getting your sales and inside sales teams organized by implementing CRM for sales. Now you have visibility of pipeline, closed sales and activities that your sales organization is focusing on. But that’s only half of the equation to continuing revenue growth. The other half is building strong customer loyalty by providing exceptional customer service. Here's where a successful Salesforce Service Cloud implementation fits in.

One of the most popular Customer Service CRM’s in the market is Salesforce Service Cloud. Below are some features/benefits of service-centric CRM like Salesforce Service Cloud to help you understand the benefits for customer service departments.

Customer Support on any channel

In today’s diverse environment, customers come through multiple different channels. Examples might be the more traditional phone/email or more digital including social media. By having multi-channel support, you’ll meet customers where they are.

Smarten up your Customer Service

Wouldn’t you rather be able to predict or anticipate problems before they even become a problem? Predictive support allows you to do just that, using smart tech to fix problems and anticipate needs on behalf of your customers. The result? Loyal and happy customers!

Customer service that is personalized

Offer service whenever your customer needs it with software that allows for 24/7 support. Now that you’re sold on implementing a CRM for your Customer Service team, where do you begin? This guide will walk you through all the critical steps in successful customer service CRM implementation.

We’ll be covering the 5 w’s of a successful CRM implementation including:

• Who will be responsible for the CRM Implementation?
• What current customer service functions will the CRM improve and what goals do you have?
• When will CRM implementation milestones be completed?
• Where else in your company will the Customer Service CRM need to integrate with (sales, marketing, HR, etc.)?
• How will the project be accomplished successfully?

Who will be responsible for CRM Implementation?

One of the most critical aspects of any customer service CRM implementation is to determine who will be responsible for the project success. This CRM implementation success team typically consists of a project manager, customer service management and service or support super user(s) and the governing support of a steering committee. It’s critical to assemble a team before even choosing a CRM as these three user groups are the key to a successful implementation.

Project Manager

Probably the most important person in any CRM implementation is the Project Manager. The Project Manager is responsible for overseeing every aspect of a CRM implementation, however, that doesn’t mean they need to necessarily know everything about the CRM. The ideal person is very goal-oriented and knows how to set deadlines and bring team members together with one unified goal. They must be used to completing projects that may be completely new to them, without having anyone to turn to. The Project Manager might find it helpful to bring in an expert on the chosen CRM to help them in the process. Even though they may not do the work of implementing the system, they ensure the project stays on track and that the right people are in place.

Customer Service Management

There’s always going to be push back when implementing a CRM. Although a CRM may theoretically make someone’s job easier, learning a new CRM (or even transitioning into a CRM for the first time), is a big adjustment. Most complaints from users is that management is adding extra work by now making them enter excessive information. Users feel that management isn’t in tune with their needs because management doesn’t use the CRM. A critical aspect of successfully implementing a CRM is to involve top management. Management should be using and learning the system along with end users. By getting them involved as “early adopters”, management will be able to better understand and anticipate complaints or difficulties in using the system.

Support Super User / System Admin

It’s essential to nominate someone in your organization to be a super user or system admin. This is an end user that spends time learning everything they can about the system. Often taking tutorials or training classes to expand their knowledge so that if any issues or questions arise, this person can provide a knowledge transfer. An ideal person to nominate is someone that enjoys learning and has a great deal of patience. They’ll likely need it when they have to explain simple things to the same user multiple times.

Steering Committee

This is a team that decides the priorities of a company and manages its general operations. The job of a steering committee is to ensure that every project aligns with the goals of the business and who is put in place (project managers) to govern the project. A successful Customer Service CRM implementation will rely on gaining approval from the steering committee to make sure the end result is a success.

How will the project be accomplished successfully?

There’s a huge amount of strategy that comes with any CRM implementation. One of the biggest issues is not just completing an implementation but doing one successfully. You might be wondering how a company could implement a CRM system but not be successful, after all, if the CRM is up and running, it must be a success. That’s not often the case.

Successful CRM’s implementations result in not just transitioning your team to a new CRM, but by meeting your implementation goals. If you implement a CRM just to discover sales figures drop as a result, it doesn’t seem like the additional costs of the new CRM have benefited your company. In fact, if CRM’s are not implemented properly, they can increase the burden on your sales and marketing teams, making it more difficult for them to do their jobs and to make the company grow. A CRM is not free either, most costing companies a significant amount in monthly or yearly dues.

If you’re still wondering how to successfully complete your CRM implementation, we’d be happy to discuss how we can help.