The two words Salesforce has used more than any other in 2024 are data and AI. Attend Connections or another event, read about the company’s major focuses, or chat with anyone in the ecosystem and you will find those words front and center, for good reason.
Companies have understood the value and importance of customer data for decades. The great debate around how much data should customers give and what will they receive in return (personalization vs privacy) is getting old enough to get a driver’s license.
So why are we talking about it now? Because the technology is finally reaching the sophistication level of being able to act on that data in real time in ways that can create an impactful level of efficiency for brands.
And for Salesforce, that technology is Data Cloud.
Salesforce has released its share of CDPs and data platforms over the years under various names, so it’s understandable if you are unsure how this one is different or how it works.
Despite the name, Data Cloud is not its own platform like Service Cloud or Commerce Cloud. Instead, it lives inside your CRM in the Einstein platform and connects to your various clouds and other systems, centralizing all of your customer data in real time. This real-time data can then be acted on across your service, marketing, and commerce platforms to push out relevant and personalized content through automation and AI.
But maybe the biggest misconception I’ve seen is around how to get started with it, because it’s easier than you probably think.
One of the announcements from last year’s Dreamforce was that any company on the Enterprise Edition or above can begin using Data Cloud for free. In fact, since it is part of the Salesforce Core license, you probably already have access to Data Cloud and might not even know it.
The barrier to entry is low and the benefits are immense. And this is key in a time when budgets are tight and companies are trying to do more with less. The personalization, automation, and AI capabilities that Data Cloud brings helps your teams become more efficient, productive, and get to market faster.
The question then becomes, how do you actually use Data Cloud to generate results? Like the data it stores, the technology doesn’t do much good just to have it. You have to put it to work in the right ways. And those strategies depend on your inflection points with your customers.
Are you having trouble identifying when your customers are getting ready to leave? Data Cloud can help predict which customers are most likely to churn and target them with relevant messaging to engage them again. Or, if your customer service teams are overwhelmed in cases, Data Cloud can speed up the resolution process, not only showing a full view of their history with data from your commerce, OMS, ERP, and other systems, but also use Einstein to automatically escalate cases and craft messaging.
These are just two of dozens of applications that can help your business operate more efficiently, and with a relatively low level of lift. Before you begin, really look at your organization closely – either internally or with a partner – and identify the aspects of your business that are most critical to optimize.
Data Cloud doesn’t have to do everything for you all at once in order to have a positive impact. But this tool already at your disposal doesn’t help at all if you don’t take advantage. It’s right there for you to leverage, so what’s stopping you from getting started?
