Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Loyalty360 Loyalty Live | James Murphy and Sara Fefferman, Salesforce
Familiar to marketing, sales, and customer service teams globally, Salesforce supplies cloud-based solutions to support its clients’ customer loyalty and customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and programs. The company’s signature software bundle, Customer 360, provides brand teams with a shared view of customer information at every phase of the customer journey, allowing clients to enhance customer relationships, streamline sales and marketing efforts, and scale to accommodate business needs.
Loyalty360 recently spoke with two Salesforce associates, James Murphy, Senior Manager – Retail Industry Advisor, and Sara Fefferman, Product Marketing Manager. They discussed how Salesforce is helping brands leverage technology to build and maintain customer loyalty
Good afternoon, good morning, Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360. Hope everyone's happy, safe and well. Want to welcome you back to another edition of Loyalty Live. In this series we have the privilege of speaking with leading Agencies AGs, technology partners and consultants, and customer channel and brand loyalty, about the, technology trends and best practices that impact the ability of brands to drive unique experiences, enhance engagement and, most importantly, impact customer loyalty. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Fefferman, product marketing manager, and James Murphy, who's a senior manager in the retail advisory group at Salesforce. How are you today?
Sarah Fefferman:Hello, thanks for having us.
Mark Johnson:Absolutely. Thanks for taking the time. First off, we like to start these on a personal level, so we'd love to know a little bit more about the individuals speaking with what they do, a little bit about their background, previous jobs that kind of got them into the customer loyalty industry and, obviously, your current role at Salesforce. So maybe even a fun fact, a passion you have outside of work. So let's start with James and then we'll pop back to Sarah.
James Murphy:Yeah, sure. So hello everyone. James Murphy on the retail industry advisory team here at Salesforce, I've been in retail for the last 20 plus years with the majority of my time spent on the in-store customer engagement type of use cases. So point of sale systems, clienteling, the evolution into multi-channel and omni-channel and store fulfillment and, of course, loyalty really spanned a lot of that time as well as the store became connected with online. So, yes, focused on here as a retail industry advisor here at Salesforce, loyalty has been one of my focus areas that I've been really tracking the last couple of years and I believe the key value that we bring is we're helping retailers and brands try to deliver an omni-channel customer experience.
James Murphy:So I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and Spokane Washington area. I currently live in Utah where, like I mentioned, it's already snowing in the hills the last couple of days. The fall colors are in full effect, so it's time to do that scenic Sunday afternoon drive. And fun fact about me, I love fly fishing, so that's definitely one of the passions that I have.
Sarah Fefferman:Thank you, i'm Sarah Fefferman. I've been in marketing for the last 10 or so years, five of which at Salesforce. I am currently on the product marketing team at Salesforce on the marketing cloud and I'm specifically focusing on loyalty management. So very excited to be here with James to talk to everybody today. Let's see Fun fact for me I recently moved to Sausalito, so just over the bridge in San Francisco, and with my move I picked up a paddleboard. Find myself a paddleboarding Any day. It's not too windy out here, so loving Sausalito life.
Mark Johnson:That's awesome. For those who may not be familiar with how Salesforce supports brands customer loyalty efforts, can you give us a brief overview of what you got to do, how you do it, the technology in the process? I would definitely love to know more.
Sarah Fefferman:Yep, let me take this one.
Sarah Fefferman:So loyalty management is Salesforce's in-house loyalty solution and it is built directly onto our core platform. So the way we look at it is, it all starts with data, and we view loyalty as one of the best ways to bring in quality, relevant and actionable zero and first party data into your Salesforce ecosystem. So, with your data all in one place, you're able to create a consistent view of each member, with loyalty connected to the wider customer experience, which at Salesforce, we call this the customer 360. So we're able to deliver consistency for customers across every single touch point, across the full customer lifecycle, whether it be their service or their commerce, et cetera. This also enables brands to deliver modern loyalty programs with your data in one place.
Sarah Fefferman:So it's beyond that standard earn and burn model, so you can create personalized programs at scale based on what your customer preferences are, which is what our customers are asking for. And then the final thing is you're able to use this data to drive the most impact for your programs, with predictive insights and dashboards built in that help your customers improve their program performance, drive overall customer lifetime value and really help them prove out their ROI. And when we talk industries the great thing about this is that we have industry specific out of the box templates that help our customers get up and running fast. So we've seen so many use cases outside of that standard B2C retail use case that we all know and love. So I'm really excited about our loyalty management solution.
James Murphy:Well, it's like.
James Murphy:I started three and a half years ago. So I started three and a half years ago and when I got here I was familiar with Salesforce and CRM and everything, but I was shocked to learn that we couldn't set up and define loyalty programs natively within the solution. To my surprise, within like a couple of months of landing here, I heard that we were actually bringing one to market and I latched onto that and definitely became part of that initial launch, which actually was about three years ago. Right now where we launched, we're almost at our three year anniversary of launching it, just after NRF, so definitely excited to be a part of that and to be able to leverage the power of that world's number one CRM to deliver these connected loyalty experiences.
Mark Johnson:That's awesome. So when you look at restaurants, cpg, b2b, they may not be, as all, always as advanced per se as retail programs. When you look at the evolution, where they are, how are they looking at customer loyalty to transform their audience, transform their engagement with their customers in kind of these newer industries?
James Murphy:It's been really fun tracking just how loyalty has been so top of mind the last couple of years, mainly in the role it plays in the race to first party data and this cookie-less future and so forth. So I think that was a driving factor of why so many different companies kind of launched or re-imagined programs recently. But what I've loved really seeing is the blending of things that have been working amazingly in one industry are transferring or influencing other industries. Elements, such things that have been table stakes and like traveling, hospitality and FinTech, like around the partnerships and collaborations and team-ups or marketplace exchanges where I can bank all these points and then I can turn them into a dining coupon or concert tickets or whatever that might be are actually some of the top ways that retail programs have been evolving, taking something that has been very table stakes over there, but it's also going the other direction too. Amazing elements from retail and brand type of strategies are also now showing up across to other industries.
James Murphy:I think of Telco and you have some of the biggest ones out there, even Comcast and Xfinity that launched a rewards program this year that you can start to earn free tickets to some of the streaming movies that are still in the theater, or discounted subscriptions, or if you wanna go mobile, you get access to the new iPhone 15 at a discounted rate. You're also seeing media. One of my favorites is Outside Plus. That's kind of aligns with the fly fishing angle that I shared about, but Outside that really collaborated all these magazines together into a single ecosystem plus with access to the digital versions of those to read on your iPad. But then they latched that into this whole streamable content and community as in addition to partnerships and other things. So it's now this one-stop shop that has access to this lifestyle types of activity to help you get outdoors and really enjoy that.
James Murphy:Then it doesn't stop there. We've seen automotive really come into the equation, with loyalty and rewards and subscriptions showing up there. Fintech I think of, like Rocket Mortgage and what they've done with gamified learning and education. So if you're comparing the 15 year mortgage versus the 30, you can actually start to earn points or dollars that you can bring towards closing costs that are showing up. And I think that gamification and the personalization and experiential is really starting to show up in so many different industries today.
Sarah Fefferman:Okay excellent and I'll just chime in really quickly on that. James and I are on the heels of Dreamforce, which is our big customer event. That happened a couple of weeks ago here in San Francisco. That's why we're so fired up right now. But we got to speak to so many different customers and so many different industries and what was really exciting to see is the different complexities and nuances in Omni Channel, omnicurrency, omni Language, and how they're able to solve some of these bigger problems whether it be a nuance and a technology that a customer is struggling to get and how they're able to solve that with our platform and with our technology and data. So we're really excited about who we got to speak to and it was great.
Mark Johnson:That's awesome, a big discussion right now we have within our community. I'm sure you see it as well. Marketers are trying to understand the customers. The customer expectations are changing, evolving, the need to meet them in the channel with the right content. Relevancy is very important when you look at how customers are changing more holistically, especially with privacy and other areas. How do you envision the future of customer loyalty programs in various industries, considering different technologies? How can customer loyalty at its core be leveraged to address customer expectations?
James Murphy:I think loyalty is really a connective tissue into that customer experience. That's why I love it so much, as it touches and connects so many parts of the enterprise for marketing commerce service. The top messages that we've been saying lately about the future of loyalty is that loyalty starts with knowing your customer and understanding your customer. It starts with data. We know that consumers are more tech savvy than ever before. They're on more channels than ever before. Data is being generated at a rate that's going to double by 2026. It's absolutely crazy.
James Murphy:The first thing that we've really been doing, in addition to having the C360 that Sarah already mentioned, is we want to make it easier, faster, for companies to be able to connect all this disparate data into a unified, actionable profile that they can use more quickly, more cost effectively, so that they can activate and harmonize that information and then deliver connected experiences on top of that. So CDP Salesforce data cloud plays a major part in kind of this future state of loyalty, which is loyalty. The future is connected, it's data driven, it's powered by insights and automation and all of that. So once you have that holistic view and you have the data in an actionable single place, that's where we're really looking at the power of AI and ML to do a couple of things. It's to drive that automation and efficiencies companies are doing, needing to do more with less, with smaller teams. So automate is absolutely much as possible to really just take a lot of that management overhead out of the, out of the equation. But then AI has a major role to play in personalization, in relevancy, in the timeliness of those benefits and perks and things that come out. It needs to really matter in the moment for that customer.
James Murphy:So, as I look at the future, it needs to have that be powered by data. It needs to be AI generated, it needs to be data driven. But then it needs to be connected across all the channels. It needs to tie marketing. It's not just marketing's problem anymore, it's not just the store, point of sale or e-commerce. It's ensuring that that membership experience or loyalty experience is connected across all those touch points. And then there's some really fun things coming with, like Web 3. So it needs to. It's not only connecting that experience across Web 2 world, which we primarily live in today, but how do we now deliver a connected experience into future state, Web 3, blockchain, nft and some other really cool innovations that we're seeing with companies like Starbucks, odyssey and others that are really starting to push the envelope on where that future state could go. So there's never a dull moment. There's always new ways and things that are coming up, but I really think the future of loyalty is that connected data driven experience.
Mark Johnson:Excellent. And when you look at brands who are proactively leveraging and engaging their customer loyalty members and to use it to shape marketing efforts, you talk about CDP and just getting kind of action building on the disparate data sets. You know programs have evolved considerably. So how can brands you know leverage the loyalty program in a way that shapes consumer reactions but also impacts other areas within the organization?
James Murphy:Yeah, there's.
James Murphy:There's a lot of ways I I was able to present with With shoe carnival a couple of weeks ago at Dreamforce and one of the things I loved hearing from them About what they're looking at as far as their future state.
James Murphy:They just relaunched their shoe perks program and they're really focusing on on pulling in the voice of the customer feedback sentiment Into that overall strategy so that they know exactly that that the service agent that's working with this customer that called in knows who they're talking to, knows what loyalty tier they're on and their lifetime value and so forth.
James Murphy:But they also know what else is going on holistically in that, in that customers world, whether an order was late, whether they're struggling with an exchange, whether they provided some feedback or reviews, and they they're able to do something with that. So I think it's really about, yeah, back to that knowing and understanding, but be sure that you're pulling into the voice of the customer, into that overall engagement, so that you can deliver that proactive service or surprise and delight moment that might actually help them remain true, because customers are abandoning, they are changing brands more quickly. Loyalty is up for grabs right now and it's not just about bad service, it's about a lot of other reasons. But whatever they can do to deliver that white love service experience, I think is very important.
Mark Johnson:That's awesome, so any thoughts?
Sarah Fefferman:Yeah, I would just add to that. From the service perspective, it's also giving agents the ability to use service as a way to Use loyalty as a way to service their customers. For instance, you're able to give points in a situation, and only when your data is connected on the back end Are you able to do that successfully.
Mark Johnson:Okay, excellent. Many brands right now are locked in a long-term contracts with the technology that may or may not work. They're looking to either add functionality, add technology or, you know, change their program in a way Kind of some of them obviously have some pretty restricted covenants or technology that doesn't allow that. You know, when you look at a piece or two of advice that you could give a brand to Adapt, innovate their customer loyalty program, customer, with the processes you know, are there quick wins a brand should consider or able to enhance their current program.
James Murphy:Sarah you go first?
Sarah Fefferman:One thing that we walked away especially from Dreamforce, like I already mentioned was is really to take time as a company to define not only your customer goals but your company goals and really build your program around that. And loyalty might look a lot different for what you're doing versus somebody in the exact same industry or someone in a very different industry. So really figuring out what loyalty means for you and building your program around that I think could be a quick win. You know, and when you think about what makes you as a consumer drive by drip, what makes you as a consumer react to a loyalty. If it's free shipping, if it's something that's outside of points, there's more you can be offering and thinking about holistically. So building a program and really just setting up that conversation Internally whether your data and your systems and your whatnot aren't there yet, you can have that conversation and build a north star of what you're working towards.
James Murphy:Yeah, and I love that. It definitely starts with you knowing that persona. Who are you building this for? What are the key goals? Like why are you launching a rewards or loyalty program?
James Murphy:And having that knowledge, and then I think that the piece of advice that I would say is start simple. There are so many ways that loyalty can show up today some really amazing different things, but they don't need to do everything out of the gate. Modern loyalty program management solutions need to be able to to be a little bit more market agile, to be able to react. React to things that are happening. And I think retailers are so used to kind of the old way, where it was very rigid and set it and forget it, where now they have the the opportunity to try out new things, to start with an MVP or a minimum viable, like a minimum viable program, which I think the first thing would be like to deliver that connected experience, and then they can start to add on additional elements and different perks and rewards and partnerships and Experiences and emotional things on top of that. But it doesn't need to be fully baked to go live. They can continue to evolve and iterate this over time, absolutely.
Mark Johnson:And last question, and do you have any closing thoughts or advice for brands again who may be looking to do something unique, or maybe even what are some initial Additional initiatives that you are working on at Salesforce and for the remainder 23 into 24?
Sarah Fefferman:I'm gonna go first, james, if that's okay, and I'm gonna give a quick nod to referral marketing. We did announce this at Dreamforce and it's launching in our winter release. This is a what referral marketing is, if you don't know, but it's a way for brand advocates to invite their network to get a reward and both get rewarded. So, whether you have a robust loyalty program and you want to add this on, or you want to bring this into your sales force portfolio, you can do that coming soon. Or if you don't have a loyalty program and you just want to start to dip your toes and this is a great way to do that to start surfacing some of your top brand advocates and starting start to get them to talking about your brand. So really excited about this, which is going to be launching, like I said, in the next month or so. So Keep following along with us for more information. We should have some some more information on our website in a month or two, so that's right, james.
Mark Johnson:Any last thoughts?
James Murphy:Yeah, what she said. I'm very excited for referral marketing as well, I think refer a friend programs are showing back up in a big way today. There's a lot of exciting things on the roadmap. You know you're gonna continue to see, yeah, the role that AI can play in loyalty and program management and in promotions and benefits and perks and all sorts of things like that. So that's what I'm really really most excited about Reach out. You don't have to know what it needs to be. There's companies, like all of us on this phone call today, that would love to have that conversation and talk about loyalty and what it could be and provide examples of how it's showing up and to just get that conversation going and then, like ourselves and our partnerships and our whole ecosystem, can help them really define what that future state needs to look like to meet their North Star and to meet the expectations of their key personas and so forth. So, yeah, reach out, let's talk. We would love to.
Mark Johnson:Excellent. Now we have the fun part of the interview. We have our quick fire questions. So, James, we're gonna kind of throw these at you. First off, what is your favorite word James: Casual? Mark: What is your least favorite word? James: Anxious. Mark: Interesting. What excites you?
James Murphy:New technology and innovation.
Mark Johnson:Mark: What do you find tiresome James: Politics. Mark: Ah, what profession, other than the one you were currently in, would you like to attempt?
James Murphy:Angel investing in VC.
Mark Johnson:Mark: Okay. What profession would you avoid? James: Telemarketing, okay. Mark: Who inspired you to become the person you are today? James: My father. Mark: What do you typically think about at the end of the day?
James Murphy:Family retirement and probably fly fishing as well.
Mark Johnson:Okay, and how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
James Murphy:Hopefully personally and fondly and just genuine and loyal. Okay, great, what a funny answer. No, that's good, that's good I like that.
Mark Johnson:So good to wrap that up Great quick fire responses and also thanks to both of you, you've taken the time to talk with us today to talk about some things you're seeing in the industry. It's great to have beacons like yourself who are kind of leading the charge pertaining to customer loyalty, and hopefully we continue to work together to elevate the discussion, cause it's a very interesting time to be in the industry for sure. So thank you.
James Murphy:Yeah, and thank you for having us and for all the amazing loyalty work that you're doing, so I'm a big fan, so this was a pleasure to be here today.
Mark Johnson:Absolutely, Thank you, everyone else, for taking the time to listen today. Make sure you join us back for another edition of Loyalty Live and look forward to talking to you soon, thanks.