Transformation @ Work

Digital tools such as Salesforce provide the transformational functionality that healthcare payers need to deliver next-level member experiences. But the cost and time expenditure of deploying those digital tools can pose a real roadblock for implementation, leading payers to rely on their existing legacy tools — often at the expense of their members’ experiences. To overcome this implementation h...

Thanks to an abundance of patients, complicated cases, and ever-shifting compliance guidelines, most healthcare providers are stretched thin. Oftentimes they’re limited to just a few minutes per interaction – just enough time to address any pressing patient concerns and move on. That may be enough to handle immediate crises, but what gets lost in these cases is the personal touch: the daily intera...

For decades, automotive dealers and OEMs have relied on the same toolkit for their needs: a whiteboard, individual file folders for sales reps, and sticky notes on computer screens and cubicle walls. Each of those tools serve a purpose; but the undeniable fact is, there’s a ceiling to their effectiveness – especially when dealing with larger customer households, multiple locations, and remote inte...

Pricing should be a straightforward proposition: the seller sets a price, the customer pays that price, and everyone walks away happy. But in manufacturing, the process is anything but simple. Between discounts based on volume and customer loyalty, location-based pricing, and ongoing supply chain disruptions, pricing can become an ongoing struggle for manufacturers. Sales teams’ existing methods o...

Education and nonprofit sectors are facing serious challenges when it comes to staffing and retention. Simply put: employees are exhausted, burnt out, and struggling to overcome the challenges posed by a global pandemic, sudden transition to online learning, and ever-increasing responsibilities. Many teachers have left the field entirely — and as absences and resignations pile up, the stress on cu...

There are few experiences more frustrating for a customer than having to repeat crucial information again and again. Yet when buying a car, the customer is often expected to answer the exact same questions when shopping for a vehicle, negotiating a deal, and having the vehicle serviced. It raises the question: When your data is kept under one roof, why isn’t that information being shared between t...

From the keynotes to the Q&As to the learning sessions to the after-hours business dinners, when we look back at Dreamforce 2022, there was one word on everyone’s lips: Genie. But for all the buzz coming out of the event, with Genie’s ability to process real-time data and deliver “customer magic” mentioned on nearly every keynote, many of us are still asking the question, “what exactly is ‘custome...

For too long, larger insurance providers have competed solely on price, and left customer experiences on the back burner. But the times are changing, and a wave of smaller providers and insurtechs are offering faster claims and more personalized experiences–and customers are taking note. According to a 2021 J.D. Power survey, 87% of customers feel that claims experiences influence their decision t...

If you want a clear picture of what’s coming to Salesforce in the new year, there’s no better place to look than Dreamforce. This year’s event was no exception: Dreamforce 2022 was jam-packed with announcements that are going to impact businesses in a big way during the new year. From the rollout of Salesforce Genie, which brings game-changing real-time data to Salesforce, to major announcements o...

Imagine how you would feel if, every time you tried to process a healthcare claim or spoke to your doctor, you had to remind them your name. It’s an annoying feeling, right? Now, imagine how it would feel if they consistently forgot your pronouns, failed to deliver communications in a language you could read, or forgot to loop in the person legally tasked with overseeing your health decisions. Bei...

Whether they’re buying a car or getting their vehicle serviced, customers want to be treated like people. In a field as high-stress as the automotive industry, the value of having someone know your experiences, your needs, and your pain points simply cannot be overstated. When it comes to buying something as important as a car — the vehicle we drive to work in, take on vacation, pick up our kids w...

A tool is only useful if you use it, and people are only likely to use a tool if they know how it works. You could spend millions of dollars and months of employee time on the latest and greatest piece of technology, only to watch it languish, unused, because you didn’t invest in adequate training. With that kind of monetary investment and time commitment… wouldn’t you want to take every possible...

Lead generation is both the cornerstone of successful marketing campaigns and a perpetual challenge for teams of all sizes and skill levels. The responsibility for managing campaigns often falls directly on employees’ shoulders – and over time, that burden can start to weigh on team members, leading to burnout, subpar performance, and even turnover. Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (also known a...

Anyone who has bought, sold, or taken a vehicle in for service knows that customer experience is a major pain point for the automotive industry. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), dealers, and service providers alike have long struggled to give customers the clear communication and personalized experience they need, especially as the industry shifts into a digital-first model. But to meet co...

The Bullwhip Effect: Small changes on the consumer side that have cascading effects on vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers. Navigating the bullwhip effect can be a challenge during the best of times – but when supply chains are volatile and industries strained by the lasting effects of COVID-19, it can feel nearly impossible. Market pressures have put an enormous pressure on the interactions bet...

Despite the struggles, market disruptions, and supply chain issues that have plagued the distribution sector over the last two years, it’s not all that hard for those in the industry to look towards the future with optimism. After all, many businesses in distribution have seen steady business or even positive growth since March of 2020. But the reality is, many distributors (even the ones who were...

Even in the digital age, finding promising students is a challenge. Administrators need to leverage data to manage the overwhelming number of applications coming into even middle-sized schools—but when data is used as a replacement for personal, one-on-one connections, the pursuit of an “ideal student” can leave potentially successful applicants out in the cold. Admissions teams need to factor in...

The last few years have put all the systems we rely on to the test, especially in manufacturing, which has had to deal with massive supply chain disruptions and sudden changes in cost. In many cases, these issues collided with technology that, while not necessarily broken, had gone several years without investment and was closing in on obsolete even before the pandemic hit. The reality is, manufac...

Patients and providers alike are living through a historic moment in the healthcare industry. COVID-19 and the resulting shifts in telemedicine (as well as the resulting issues with practitioner burnout) have significantly changed consumer expectations around 24/7 care and, in many cases, impacted patient trust in healthcare institutions. Providers and payers need better tools for providing person...

In the eyes of many team leaders, especially in manufacturing and distribution, automating sales and account management runs the risk of losing those real, genuine relationships that deliver value back to the business year after year. But the reality is, by giving your sales reps and account managers the tools to automate daily processes, you might be able to make them even more effective at build...

Can you define your educational institution’s ideal student customer? Targeting the wrong students in your recruitment efforts can lead to lower admissions numbers, greater student churn, and a general lack of trust in the institution’s ability to help students succeed. But for administrators looking for a clearer picture of their ideal customer, digitalization can provide an invaluable starting p...

If you’ve sought medical care, tried to fill a prescription, or just read a hospital bill lately, you probably already know the hard truth: healthcare has become dehumanized. There are valid reasons for the shift; after all, providers have long struggled with interoperability, personnel workloads, and the ever-growing problem of confidentiality. But the end result is the same: a sub-par customer e...

One of the biggest challenges team leaders face when advocating for digital transformation isn’t the technology itself, or even regulatory issues — it’s making digitalization seem like a viable option. This is especially true in Financial Services, where regulation, legacy hardware, and interwoven processes create cultures that are resistant, or even outright hostile, to change. On this episode of...

An institution's job is to keep students on-track to academic success. But the reality is, there are plenty of factors — from mental health degradations, to overworking, poor program fit, and more — that can cause learners to stumble along the way. How can administrators proactively address these pitfalls, and keep students moving forward? Digitalized journey mapping might just provide an answer....

Hyperautomation is one of the biggest talking points in manufacturing — but often when we talk about it, we have a fairly limited scope of what it can mean. We might consider how to bring hyperautomation to the shop floor through robotics and machine learning, or discuss new ways to automate assembly. However, we all too often overlook more immediately pragmatic opportunities to streamline process...