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Virgin Media uses Salesforce to build omni-channel sales
Virgin Media is using Salesforce to offer a single customer view irrespective of the channel the customer uses to talk to the company
Virgin Media has implemented a range of Salesforce platforms to support omni-channel sales across its entertainment and communications services.
The company has deployed Salesforce Service Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud and Chatter to link its website, call centres, door-to-door sales and retail stores, in a bid to simplify the customer experience.
Virgin Media is using Service Cloud to share sales data across departments and between stores. It claimed this enabled it to log every customer interaction on every channel such that when a prospective customer begins the shopping process in one channel, the profile and shopping cart can be accessed from any other channel to create a seamless experience.
Virgin Media said it could actively view this customer information in the Salesforce Analytics Cloud.
While introducing Salesforce was driven by the business, Christopher Coleman, head of multi-channel sales at Virgin Media, said the company worked closely with IT to enable legacy systems to integrate with the cloud platform.
“This was not a technology-driven project. Our Salesforce work was driven by the business. Customer prospects were telling us our channels were not joined up enough. We had legacy billing systems and we wanted to make a huge leap because we had not invested in front-line technology for quite some time,” said Coleman.
Read more about Virgin Media
- A Retail Business Technology Expo panel likened the current omni-channel movement to the dial-up stage of internet connectivity.
- Head of online operations development at Sainsbury’s, Dave Crellin, says retail channels are growing so fast customers don’t know what they want.
He said the project was much broader than simply deploying the Salesforce service cloud, however. “There is deep integration to our existing stack, including the Adobe stack, and our billing system to deliver on the vision,” said Coleman.
For instance, one of the requirements of the project was to make it possible for sales agents to see what direct mail had been sent out to prospective customers. “We integrated with Adobe Campaign to make available PDF documents of the brochures or letters customers had been sent,” he said.
The company has also deployed Salesforce1 Mobile App. This was rolled out to Virgin Media’s field sales teams, giving them access to work schedules and Chatter for connecting with colleagues in other departments.
