CRM

The retail industry is dealing with increasing costs, declining sales, disgruntled customers, and stiff competition. This has encouraged retailers to adopt technology tools and solutions to enhance operational efficiency and improve customer interactions. In fact, the retail industry offers a lot of scope for technological transformation in areas of supply chain management, inventory management, sales, marketing and more thereby empowering retailers to increase the overall efficiency and profitability of their business.  One such technology that has the potential to transform the retail sector is artificial intelligence, which has helped retail businesses boost their speed, efficiency, and precision. Let’s dive in a bit deeper to find out how: Cognitive Inventory Management: The thinking capability of AI can be leveraged to determine the inventory components basis of the current sales trend. Depending upon the data available, AI draws inferences and forecasts of probable scenarios, provides recommendations, and even takes necessary actions with human approval. Well trained algorithms can be used to make decisions, which improve efficiency. An AI-powered system can process huge amounts of data and help create an inventory that is tailored as per the current market trends and customer demand.  Customer Purchase History: With an AI-powered CRM, organizations can target the specific interest of buyers. By breaking down huge volumes of data, AI tools can be used to identify the purchasing pattern of customers and understand their preferences. The AI-powered systems can further recommend similar kinds of items to the customers for purchase. To integrate an AI-powered CRM, retailers should consider partnering with a Salesforce implementation partner. Interactive Interactions: Customers always look for a prompt response and with an AI-driven chatbot customer service can be improved significantly. These chatbots are trained to communicate with customers and provide answers to frequently asked questions and provide customers with the necessary support. These bots gather useful customer data and use it to determine their preferences and purchasing pattern. Streamlining Supply Chain: The retail industry can streamline their supply chain by leveraging AI-powered tools. This might involve categorizing in-demand products, transporting them, tracking the shipment, and inventory management. With an AI-powered CRM in place, the retail industry is poised to attain new levels of efficiency while maintaining a good customer relationship. Why Should Retail Businesses Consider Leveraging Salesforce Einstein?  Salesforce Einstein is an AI-powered CRM that integrates predictive analytics, and machine learning. Apart from this, there are other features such as Einstein discovery that allow users to figure out hidden data patterns in customer data. Other important features such as Einstein prediction builder provides for business predictions through custom AI models. Bots connected to CRM along with the integration of computer vision make use of deep learning models for identifying the make, model, or brand via product images. Another innovative feature is the Einstein voice assistant that helps in interacting with users in real-time. Quick Wrap-up:  Given the growing preference for online retailing by customers, organizations working in the retail sector are gradually adopting AI-powered solutions to enhance operational efficiency and business productivity. With a robust AI-powered platform like Salesforce Einstein in place, retailers can provide exclusive customer experience while taking business efficiency to the next level. If you are looking for implementing Salesforce Einstein within your business ecosystem, it’s in your best interest to get in touch with a reliable Salesforce consultant.   

The global insurance sector is undergoing a dynamic change due to digital transformation. This digital disruption has forced insurance providers to either make significant changes to their business models or face the risk of being ruined. However, insurers, especially traditional insurers may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage owing to their age-old business models, as well as hefty investments made in infrastructure. In fact any change to their business model might be extremely difficult for some insurers as it may cannibalize their existing business. To create efficiencies leading to higher profitability or a competitive position, insurers are leveraging innovative technology solutions that too without making significant changes to their business models. Insurance regulators are indeed viewing technology as an enabling solution that can help them better realize their mission of warranting a competitive and sustainable insurance market. Today, insurance providers are doing away with traditional customer servicing methods and are opting for robust insurance CRM software that has helped them manage everything from a single place. Let’s take a quick look as to how a robust CRM like Salesforce drives positive growth for businesses that are a part of the insurance sector: Personalized Services: CRM software provides users a great way of increasing the understanding of existing and potential customers. This enables them to provide personalized services according to the unique requirement of every client. Financial service cloud by Salesforce paves way for marketing automation, which enables brokers to nurture leads and then turning them into customers while connecting with customers at the right time, and with the right product advice. Salesforce CRM software for insurance also helps in delivering personalized services to the policyholders. To implement Salesforce insurance CRM software within their business ecosystem, insurance organizations should consider partnering with an experienced Salesforce Implementation Partner. Improve Customer Loyalty: Offering superior customer service is a key way of improving customer loyalty. Insurance companies that have implemented robust cloud-based CRM get access to meaningful insights that are required for providing personalized sales, claims, and service-related interactions for a huge client base. Moreover, a cloud-powered solution can be integrated with different departments such as sales, marketing, etc., which allows staff and clients to connect irrespective of their location thereby paving way for a more integrated environment. Secure Repeat Business: A robust CRM can be leveraged to utilize multiple aspects of a business. This presents a cost-effective way of bringing people together, breaking data silos, providing a single view of customers. This allows insurance teams or brokers to sell (up-sell and cross-sell) more while making repeat sales to existing customers by keeping the need of each customer at the center of communication regarding sales, marketing, and support. Wrap Up: Salesforce CRM software for insurance provides insurance companies an opportunity to support their customers in a way that extends their journey with the organization rather than providing momentary service and support. With competition within the industry becoming fiercer, Salesforce CRM for the insurance sector can make organizations stand out of the crowd. Organizations looking forward to enhancing business efficiency and ROI by implementing Salesforce insurance CRM should should seek assistance from a reliable and certified Salesforce consultant.

Service Cloud refers to a ‘Customer Service’ platform i.e. unique, powerful, and robust customer support application that can be used to track, manage, and resolve customer queries. The platform is built on SaaS (Software as a service) model and can be accessed from anywhere. Why do we need a Service cloud? Customer satisfaction is the most important thing for every company and if your company deeply cares about the customer, then Service Cloud should be your go-to platform for all customer service needs. Whenever a customer raises a concern or issue regarding any service of the product to the company, these tickets are received by a service agent following, in which they deal with all the issues efficiently.  Below are some quick points that will clear all your doubts about the service cloud: 24*7 Support: Service cloud provides 24*7 supports to its customers. Customers can raise a query at any point of time that too without any hassle. Personalized support: The service cloud provides one to one communication between the customer support team member and the customer. Because of this direct conversation, the customer can easily convey their problem and get resolutions while ensuring that the service agent has all the necessary details required to resolve the query raised by the customer.+ Maximize agent productivity: Service cloud can be accessed from anywhere and due to this feature, agents can provide their support from any part of the world through any medium. They are not restricted to work in any particular environment. This helps in increasing the productivity of the agents. Social Customer Services: The tools for a customer support team to handle cases and support their customers from social channels like Twitter, Facebook, and website. Customers can post their queries over these social platforms and will get the resolution for the same. Security: Data is a very essential part of the organizations and thus data security and confidentiality hold a lot of significance for organizations. With Service Cloud, organizations can ensure the safety and security of their data. Features of Service Cloud: Listed below are some key features of Service Cloud: Multi-Channel Support: The service cloud provides so much flexibility over a communication medium to its customers. They can email their problem; they can do live chat, make a call, or even can post their problem over social media platforms. Similarly, for resolution, they can choose any medium according to their convenience to discuss with the agent. Service Console: A service console is a salesforce application for users to work in a fast-paced environment. The console is a dashboard-like interface, where all the information such as customer profile, case histories, etc are complied at a single place. It saves response time for agents as they can quickly find, update, or create records. Knowledgebase: It is like an online library of service and support information. This feature allows agents to quickly find the solution, and provide them to customers. Community: Community is a platform made by a group of people to share information and help customers. It is a self-service portal for customers where they can find everything they need, from knowledge articles to user forms and even customer support. Case Management: Whenever a customer raises a query it can be treated as a case in Salesforce. Case management is necessary for agents to track, manage, and resolve those cases efficiently. How to access Service Cloud? Here is how you can access Service Cloud: Login to login.salesforce.com Create a Salesforce Console App Choose its display Customize push notifications Grant users Console access- Sc Users Services provided by Service Cloud: In-Service Cloud, case tracking or management and knowledge bases is one of the essential features or services. Case Management in Salesforce: Taking care of the customers is the most important task and the case management functionality helps in properly managing this aspect. Whenever a customer raises a query in Salesforce it is treated as Case. Case management deals with customer service, providing support and resolutions to their queries. Case management helps users to record, track, and solve issues of customers. Cases can be created and resolved through multi-channel and it can be further classified into three types: Email to Case: Email to Case helps you to create a case when an email sent by your company’s email address such as abc@learning.com. These generated cases will be displayed in ‘Email related lists’. Web to Case: Web to Case allows users to submit Cases directly to the Customer support group by filling a simple web form. Users need to fill some required information in the form i.e. name and Email address. Escalation and Auto response: Case escalation rules are used to reassign and notify the individuals if a case isn’t closed within a specific time. Also, you can configure auto-respond to the cases. Use case on Case creation:  Tim is having an issue with his laptop and he needs to get it fixed as soon as possible as he has a meeting in the next 1 hr. Let’s see how he raises a case regarding the problem. Step 1: Login into Salesforce and select ‘Service’ app Step 2: Click on the ‘Cases’ tab. Step 3: Click on the ‘New’ button Step 4: Fill all the required information on the ‘Case’ window Conclusion: In every industry customer satisfaction is very important. Every customer looks for a quick resolution of their issues, and if companies can satisfy the customer with their effective and prompt services, then it can tread a path of success and growth for organizations. Service Cloud allows organizations to collaborate with their customers on a single platform while providing effective solutions to their problems. Service Cloud helps organizations to provide better customer support by providing numerous types of features and services. With the help of these features, service agents can help customers in a better way and can provide them a superior customer service experience. About Girikon: As a reputed name in the Salesforce consulting and implementation space, Girikon offers high-quality services to clients across the globe. Over the years, the company has expanded its presence across the globe by establishing offices across UK, Australia, USA and India.

XML stand for Extensible Markup Language which is easy to read by human and machine both, it is saved with.xml extension and have markup symbols to describe its file contents like HTML. XML file should be well structured and have proper opening and closing tags, it is considered as a kind of database in itself. It always start with <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?> which contains its version and the encoding, changing the encoding will let XML to treat special character differently. JSON stand for JavaScript Object Notation, it is language independent data format and used in exchanging data between a browser and a server. It is text based representation of structured data which is based on key-value pairs. We can convert any JSON into JavaScript and vice-verse. Note: Before reading any file make sure it is not password protected. I am reading below file               tFileInputXML tFileInputXML component Reads an XML structured file row by row to split them up into fields and sends the fields as defined in the schema to the next component. tFileInputXML component has a few basic properties that needs to be check/uncheck to process data for proper formatting. In ‘Edit Schema’ we need add one column with type, ‘Document’. Then in ‘Loop Xpath query’ option we need provide tags within XML file, e.g “/”, a simple backslash means file will be read from beginning to end or we can also provide “/root/value” now under ‘mapping’ in “XPath query” we can provide similar “/” node value to fetch values of all tags. tXMLMap TXMLMap is similar to tMAP component, it is an advanced component fine-tuned for transforming and routing XML data flow (data of the Document type), especially when processing numerous XML data sources, with or without flat data to be joined. In tMap component if we already have XML file, we can import it by right click on doc and select ‘import from XML file’ the schema will be automatically created. In this we have to set loop element, in the above image loop element is ‘value’, so iteration will happen based on ‘value’ tag. tAdvancedFileXMLOutput tAdvancedFileOutputXML outputs data to an XML type of file and offers an interface to deal with loop and group by elements if needed. tAdvancedFileOutputXML can be used in place of tXMLMap. In above image ‘entidad’ column is set as loop element, so iteration will happen on this tag. ‘@id’ is called attribute which means it is sub-element of entidad and we can’t add sub-element under it whereas ‘direction’ is also sub-element of entidad but we can add sub-element under it as we can see in above image. tFileInputJSON tFileInputJSON Extracts JSON data from a file and transfers the data to a file, a database table, etc. JSON stand for ‘JavaScript Object Notation’ is a lightweight data-interchange format and It is based on the JavaScript programming language. ‘Edit schema’ will contain all columns. ‘Read By’ will have 3 options out of which we are taking ‘JsonPath’. We can check ‘Use Url’ if Json file need to be fetched from any website else keep it uncheck. ‘Loop Json query’ is appearing because we have selected ‘JsonPath’ in ‘Read By’ property above, it will have path of tabs in file, please see Json file before this. In the ‘book’ tag we have 4 attributes which needs to be extracted. tFileOutputJSON tFileOutputJSON receives data and rewrites it in a JSON structured data block in an output file. Below is the file format that we are going to convert into JSON file. ‘Name of data block’ is what comes in JSON at top, see below image. Edit schema will have all column that need to be mapped. Output JSON file: While working on Talend if in case we came across some issue which is not possible to resolve at our end we can raise it to Talend community on this link. Their team will help in solving the problem. About Girikon:  Girikon is an IT service organization, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona with presence across India and Australia. We provide cutting-edge Salesforce consulting services and solutions to help your business grow and achieve sustainable success.   

Customers continue to be the most important assets for any organization and to ensure long-term relationship with your customers, it’s important to cater to their needs in the best possible way. One of the most effective ways of doing so, is to constantly upgrade your products and services, in a way that fulfils the evolving requirement of your customers. In other words, create new version of your products through new releases and upgrades. If you are leveraging the Salesforce platform, you will have to keep pace with all the upgrades that it keeps releasing time and again. What is Salesforce Upgrade? Salesforce releases new upgrade from time to time and to improve the performance, logic, and usability of your software, it is essential to upgrade it to the new version. Besides releasing regular upgrades that could be used to improve a products functionality and performance, Salesforce has illustrated seamless upgrades that are critical to customer success. Salesforce takes up to five minutes for upgrades and users will not see any difference when using the new Salesforce release. Changes with the new release will not activate by default and only salesforce admin can activate the new features using the Setup menu. What is the Impact on Interface? During the upgrade, our customizations are preserved, and Salesforce gives the same effects having the same consequences. During the upgrade, the Session Id is inactivated, and if any interface is running at that time, we’ll get ‘INVALID_SESSION_ID’ error. We cannot run our batches during the upgrade period, as the upgrade window can break our batch, we’ll have both valid and invalid data in our org. To manage this, what we need to do is: Monitor the validation/deployment results and check the post-deployment steps. If we need to run a batch after deployment checks the execution result of the batch. If it failed, we have to run it again. This has an impact on our scheduling (stop cascade batches and implement a retry every 30 minutes for example) We need to plan our batches after or before the upgrade period. We need to implement to run the same batch once again to continue the process without altering the data already processed. For a batch update to keep data consistency, we need to use transactions. It is native for batch Apex, but when using the API (custom development, ETL connector (i.e. TALEND, dataloader, etc.), we are not able to keep data integrity. The only way to keep it is by creating Apex Webservices that will be accessed by our batch. Is there any impact on Connected Users? During upgrade all the users need to invalidate their Session Idso that they are unable to connect the Salesforce until the upgrade process has finished. Users receive an error message letting them know that the service is unavailable during the upgrade and are prompted to log in again when the upgrade is complete. To manage this, we need to do: Share an upgrade timeline plan with all users so they know when you will upgrade, and how often Inform the user when they can log in into the system Share the new document, if any, if there is a change in the Salesforce UI/UX Best Practices to be followed If the Salesforce upgrade is not planned, there might be cases where end-users may not be able to access Salesforce after the completion of the update. In order to avoid unexpected service disruptions, we may need to take the following actions: 1) Enable “My Domain” NOTE: “My Domain” is required for customers who have requested the org migration. 2) Update the hard-coded references if any, for e.g. test-abc.salesforce.com and make sure to update them to the right URLs (for example, <yourdomain>.salesforce.com, abc.salesforce.com) prior to the org migration. Also, if there is any hardcoded Id in the code, make sure to update them dynamically. 3) If the Salesforce org has set up corporate network settings or any email security filters to restrict the access to only certain IP ranges, make sure to update the lists to include the newest ranges. You can whitelist the IP ranges in the Network Setting of Salesforce. 4) If there is an issue in integration following the maintenance, prepare to refresh integrations. Why to Upgrade and what are the benefits? Salesforce has the capability to work with earlier released features even if those features are supplanted by new functionality. Salesforce keeps all customers on a single version—i.e. the most recent version—of the product. Therefore, Salesforce provides the same experience, coolest Feature, advancement on compatibility and the latest bug fixes. Conclusion It is very much required to upgrade the Salesforce version to the latest release as it can eliminate the technical risks involved during the implementation. We understand that there could be a service disruption for couple of minutes but it is must have for your organisation since it could also increase your productivity. As we know that Change is the only Constant, hence we all must go with the flow and suggest the users/clients to upgrade to the newest version as soon as it is live. About Girikon:  Girikon is a Salesforce Consulting Partner, committed to deliver excellence by providing customers with wide array of quality services including Salesforce implementation, Salesforce consulting and Salesforce support.

Gartner predicts that by 2020, all new entrants and 80% of historical vendors will offer subscription-based business models, regardless of where the software resides. The challenge which companies following the subscription based model faces is of having a strong sales pipeline.    A sales pipeline is a journey with a set of stages that a prospect moves through, in order to become a customer from a lead. Once each pipeline stage is completed, the prospects are advanced to the next stage till it reaches the final stage i.e. Closed Won/Won.   These days’ companies spend enormously on building their Sales Pipeline as having a strong sales pipeline helps companies generate more revenue. It won’t be incorrect to say that the sales pipeline acts as a backbone of a business. By having Bulk Rebook feature in your CRM you can build a strong sales pipeline with just one click. It will help you create asales pipeline where initial nurturing of the leads will be already done and they will be on the lateral stages. Your 70% work will be taken care by the Bulk Rebook and you will be on the Proposal/Quote generation stage(as you can see in the below image) from where you will generate the Proposal and send it over to the prospect. Advantages Below are few advantages of having Bulk Rebook in your CRM; It will ease your work of building a strong sales pipeline as it will create a sales pipeline with all the potential buyers with their exact needs. It will reduce the number of clicks in closing the deal as all the important information related to prospect will be captured by the Bulk Rebook. It will save your time and efforts to nurture the Leads as it will already be nurtured and hence it will save your money. It will even bring in all the information associated with the prospects like the past requirements, new requirements, glimpse of their budget etc. With all the important information present, the Sales Rep will be able to pitch the right product/services. It will enable bettersales and revenue Sales Reps will be able to create better quotes within no time. Negotiation time will be reduced significantly. It will provide us early insights of salesin the next subscription period. Proposal generation time can be reduced and hence will result in reducing the time to convert the prospects to customers. Bulk Rebook can be customized; companies can bring in the information associated with the prospects of their choice for quick and effective decision making. Conclusion The importance of having Bulk Rebook is evident from the fact that it leads to significant improvements in the levels of sales closures, sales administration time, and sales cycle timing. All these and many more advantages of having Bulk Rebook in your CRM software undoubtedly help you stay at the top of your league. About Girikon Girikon a Salesforce Consulting Partner based out in the USA with presence across Australia and India. They house a team of Certified and experienced Salesforce Consultants, administrators and developers who offer end-to-end services to global clientele.

Salesforce is very handy in terms of integrating it with different platforms. It has allowed various platforms to sync resulting in enhanced user experience. This package is also an integrated package resulting in an outstanding outcome. This package utilizes Twilio API to enable direct SMS from Salesforce as more than 50% prospects prefer SMS over emails. This package is developed on the Salesforce platform, allowing scheduling of Single / Bulk SMS / MMS campaigns from Objects and Reports. It empowers organizations to reach out to more customers quicker with Salesforce via scheduling features that use workflows to send the customize customer-specific messages. The features of this package include, ● Individual & Bulk SMS / MMS ● Customized email template ● Interactive Chat window ● SMS notification on email ● Schedule SMS / MMS on the weekly/monthly basis ● SMS from Reports ● SMS History ● SMS usage tracking ● SMS OptOut feature The user can create customizable SMS templates with dynamic field values and interactive emojis that give users an individual touch and allows tracking of all the SMS sent to their customers that provides a consolidated repository of SMS activities. The businesses can keep the record of SMS usage in a graphical arrangement determining Outgoing SMS, Incoming SMS, etc.