According to the Salesforce Connected Customer report, 70% of customers say connected processes such as contextualized engagement based on previous interactions are critical to winning their business. Yet, due to fragmented processes and siloed customer information, very few companies are actually able to offer such tailored experiences. This begs the need for a single source of truth!
The single source of truth has been the Holy Grail of computer science for quite some time now. When talking to CNBC at the launch of Salesforce Customer 360 Truth, founder Marc Benioff described the single source of truth as the fourth stage of computing after the three “waves of computing” that include systems for records, engagement, and intelligence.
Salesforce has been working on this idea since last year. It first unveiled its Customer Data Platform, the Customer 360, back in 2018, and then made headlines again with its acquisition of MuleSoft (also 2018) and Tableau (2019) in its pursuit of the single source of truth for customer information. Salesforce finally unveiled its solution in the form of Customer 360 Truth at Dreamforce 2019.
Let’s dig in!
What is Salesforce Customer 360 Truth?
Customer 360 Truth is a vital addition to Salesforce’s Customer 360 Platform and its answer to the single source of truth problem. By unifying consumer experience across their various departments and applications (not just Salesforce), Customer 360 Truth provides companies the tools they need to better understand customer needs and offer them highly personalized experiences while ensuring the safety and integrity of their data.
Salesforce Customer 360 Truth is built on top of the Cloud Information Model (CIM), a new open-source data model that standardizes data interoperability across cloud applications, made possible courtesy of Salesforce’s acquisition of MuleSoft for $6.5 billion. CIM simplifies data integration processes across cloud applications by providing standardized data interoperability guidelines to connect point-of-sale systems, digital marketing platforms, contact centers, CRM systems, and more.
Salesforce Customer 360 Truth: Services and Capabilities
Salesforce Customer 360 Truth helps the platform go above and beyond traditional CDPs through the incorporation of the following services and capabilities:
Salesforce Customer 360 Data Manager
With Customer 360 Data Manager, you can overcome data silos and deliver the personalized customer experiences that your customers expect from your brand. You can effectively condense customer data scattered across multiple applications and systems in your organization into one comprehensive, unified view.
Customer 360 Data Manager’s intuitive UI makes it easy to define matching rules that identify a single customer across your entire enterprise and establish relationships between disconnected records to create a unique profile. A universal identifier known as the Global Party ID (GPID) is assigned to these profiles to allow for the exchange of customer data between different apps and systems
Salesforce Identity for Customers
From mobile apps to websites, Salesforce Identity provides your customers with a single, two-factor authentication solution to engage with your company’s digital properties. Moreover, with Social Sign-on, they no longer have to bother with remembering multiple usernames and passwords.
Easy registration and reduced signup friction make it easier for you to bring new users aboard and convert them to leads. Having a singular authenticated experience also helps you keep track of customer interactions across all your business units and engage them in a more informed way. You can provide customers with tailored content and offers, monitor their activity with ease, and obtain valuable insights by analyzing identity information.
Salesforce Customer 360 Audiences
This feature brings together all your customer data from multiple sources to build unified profiles that are then used to create customer segments and engagement journeys based on various characteristics, i.e., demographics, prior engagements, etc.
Customer 360 Audiences helps you identify specific groups that you want to engage through advanced analytics and AI-backed insights. This data is available to you in real-time, so you can engage your customers in an informed manner and deliver highly personalized experiences across different touchpoints of the customer journey.
Privacy and Data Governance
Privacy standards in Salesforce Customer 360 are second to none, and you have total control over how your data exists in the Salesforce platform so that you may collect and respect customer data use and privacy preferences throughout.
Data classification labels are applied down to the field level to help you better understand your customer data and what you can and can’t do with it. Thus, helping you ensure the safety of your customer data and your compliance with regulations such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
The Bottom Line!
While only time will tell how close Salesforce has actually come to the single source of truth, all that Salesforce has accomplished is no minor feat. It is a great step by Salesforce for helping users deliver personalized yet reliable experiences in all their sales, marketing, and service engagements with their customers.
Intagleo Systems has extensive hands-on experience in Salesforce development. Contact us today if you’re implementing Salesforce for the first time, or need consultation regarding the Salesforce Customer 360 platform. We’ll be happy to help you!
