Global Success Formula
.Since 1886, Coca Cola has remarkably managed to keep its secret formula secret since it was founded over 120 years ago. While the well known story of the secret recipe has been well documented through the decade, its red and white label has been its driving engine behind the company’s worldwide success. Its customer orientated way of doing business is well know. With Salesforce, its base in Germany was able to rise to even higher levels of customer service quality
The Inevitable change of business
Due to the ever-changing advance of business, a company that has been as successful and that has been around as long as Coca Cola, they needed a company like Salesforce that they felt would be in it for the long term.
“In the past, big companies outcompeted smaller companies. But that’s history. Today, the fast companies outcompete the slow companies,” explained CEO Ulrik Nehammer. “We needed to get much faster, work on collaboration, connectivity, and scalability — and all that in a mobile context. Salesforce has been a fantastic partner and a great help for us.”
The Success Factor
Salesforce1 is being used as the main instrument behind Coca Cola Germany’s sales and customer service efforts. Custom apps built on the Salesforce1 Platform are powering multiple parts of its business.
According to Thorsten Kohler, CEO of Your SL, Coca-Cola Germany’s Salesforce implementation partner, “It’s like a big toolbox. Out of that toolbox you can quickly build new applications for any department in your company.”
Coming together to serve customers
What set Salesforce apart from other systems was its second to none connectivity and it has been something that Coca Cola Germany have been looking for in a big way.
“We’ve seen a lot of systems, but they weren’t 100-percent connected. With the Salesforce1 Platform, we all see everything at the same time,” says Nehammer.
Thanks to Salesforce, the company is able to take care of customers in a far more efficient way. This is now possible via the cloud on the Salesforce1 Platform departments from bottling locations to field reps being able to access it.
“With everything connected on the Salesforce1 Platform, everyone knows what’s going on with our customers,” said Kai Uhlemann, head of mobile. “That’s very important for us.”
Coca-Cola Germany is now able to instantly solve issues that once took days just to spot. “We call it connecting the dots,” according to Nehammer. “If there’s a delivery that’s gone wrong, immediately the customer sees it, the sales rep will see it, distribution will see it, and I see it.”
The Big Solution
In the past the user experience would have been troublesome as the call center and repair sections would often break down in the past but thanks to the efficiency of Salesforce, Coca Cola Germany’s technical repair and call center branches are now working like a dream.
With Service Cloud, call center support agents have instant access to service history. Issues can be logged and work orders can be generated along with other important activities through a custom field in the service mobile app in real time.
Almost every aspect of Coca Cola Germany is covered as the company’s in-house repair facility, which would have had technicians keeping track of their jobs via paper, has also been brought into the mix. Thanks to Service Cloud, technicians can now instantly let customer-facing sales reps know the moment that any repairs are finished resulting in Coca-Cola Germany’s technical services department’s productivity ncrease in productivity by 30 percent.
“This has been a massive step forward for us,” said Andrea Malende, business process expert and mobile solutions. “I’m amazed how quick and smooth the implementation was.”
Technologically Up To Date
Custom mobile apps have essentially helped the company make better decisions for customers due to them being now being capable of staying completely connected to vital customer information. This is thanks to custom mobile apps being integrated into Sales Cloud.
“The most dangerous place to make a decision is in the office,” said Nehammer. “You need to make decisions where the customer is.” Retailers are enjoying the benefits too. Armed with tablets running these fully connected custom apps, field reps have the data to give retailers personalized service.
Quality In Store
The sales side is being heavily implemented as besides ordering inventory, reps now have the important responsibility of assisting in the creation of the most efficient point of sale that is possible. Surveys are now being carried out to analyse if Coca-Cola promotional materials are bing effectively used to their potential. In the past, surveys were done manually and results for surveys would have been slow to come in the past but nowadays via the use of the connected apps, any important relevant team members are instantly notified so any potential problems or issues can be prevented or fixed in a quick and effective manner.
Massive Potential
With Coca Cola’s legendary logo and name coupled with Salesforce’s second to none technology powering its efforts, Coca-Cola Germany is now even more excited than ever about what lays in store for it in the future.
“We’re just getting faster and it totally excites me,” said Nehammer. “It’s a very important time in history to have a great brand coupled with great technology. We are on to something very, very special. Some would call it a secret formula.”