What is Salesforce Experience Cloud and how do businesses use it?

Salesforce Experience Cloud, formerly Community Cloud, is a digital experience platform (DXP) that enables organizations to design and deliver customer-first experiences across channels. Along with tools for managing user communities, social media, and content, Experience Cloud has features for managing mobile apps, websites, and portals.

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Built on the Salesforce Customer 360 platform, Experience Cloud gives businesses a single view of their customers across all data sources. Armed with these insights, businesses can build more personalized experiences relevant to each customer.

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Businesses can create portals, websites, and communities to provide seamless access to relevant information, resources, and collaboration tools. Through Experience Cloud, organizations can enhance customer satisfaction, increase partner engagement, and improve employee productivity. Let’s learn how.

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Benefits of Salesforce Experience Cloud

Salesforce Experience Cloud presents businesses with unique advantages when it comes to delivering a seamless experience throughout the customer journey. Here’s what you can expect from Experience Cloud:

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Seamless integration

Salesforce Experience Cloud seamlessly integrates with other Salesforce products, such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, providing a unified platform for comprehensive customer management.

1. Scalability and Customizability: Experience Cloud is highly scalable, allowing businesses to expand their communities as their needs grow. Moreover, with extensive customization options, businesses can tailor the platform to meet their specific requirements and align with their brand.
2. Trusted and Secure: Salesforce, renowned for its robust security measures, ensures that customer data within Experience Cloud remains protected. Businesses can rest assured that their customer information is in safe hands.
3. Extensive AppExchange Ecosystem: Salesforce’s AppExchange marketplace offers a vast range of pre-built integrations and apps that can further enhance the functionality and potential of Salesforce Experience Cloud.

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Experience Cloud use cases

Businesses across industries use Salesforce Experience Cloud. It helps them connect better with customers, sell more, and be more productive. Some usual ways they use it include:

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Partner portals

Businesses can create portals just for their partners using Salesforce Experience Cloud. Through these portals, partners can easily collaborate with internal teams, access pertinent information, share leads and opportunities, and access marketing resources. This promotes stronger partnerships by accelerating partner engagement and streamlining processes.

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Businesses can give customers 24/7 access to information and support by using self-service portals. They can be used to provide product or service documentation, address common queries, and troubleshoot problems. Self-service portals can be used to track customer satisfaction and gather customer feedback.

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Customer communities

Businesses can use Salesforce Experience Cloud to develop communities specifically for their customers. Customers can find self-service resources in these communities, access personalized content, engage with other users, and look for support there. This promotes collaboration, improves customer satisfaction, and lightens the load on customer support teams.

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Businesses can foster greater engagement among their clients by using community forums. They can be used to support customers, share knowledge, and link customers with one another. Community forums can also be a great tool to get feedback from customers and monitor in real-time about their needs and preferences.

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Employee communities

Salesforce Experience Cloud has the option to create in-house employee communities. Employees can access company-wide announcements, training materials, and resources through these communities, which serve as central hubs.

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Additionally, they can work together, exchange information, and get immediate support from their peers or subject-matter experts. By streamlining internal communication and fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing, teams at large are able to raise employee engagement and productivity.

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Salesforce Lightning apps (branded mobile apps)

Using the Salesforce Experience Cloud, companies can build mobile applications that are specific to their needs. Customers, partners, and employees may have mobile access to pertinent information, services, and resources thanks to these applications. These branded mobile applications increase convenience and engagement whether users are checking order status, submitting support tickets, or keeping up with company news.

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Businesses can use Salesforce Lightning apps as a powerful tool to give employees access to and sharing of data from anywhere. Custom applications for particular business processes, like sales, marketing, or customer service, can be made using them. Additionally, Salesforce Lightning apps can be used to connect to other business applications, including CRM and ERP systems.

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Social media integrations

Businesses can engage with customers on their preferred social media platforms with the help of Salesforce Experience Cloud’s numerous social media integrations. They can be used to share content, respond to inquiries, and offer assistance. Integrations with social media can be used to track customer sentiment and gather customer feedback.

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Salesforce Experience Cloud Features

Salesforce Experience Cloud has many features that improve customer engagement, boost sales, and increase operational efficiency, including:

• Personalization: Salesforce Experience Cloud can be used to personalize customer experiences based on their interests, demographics, and past behavior. This can be done through a variety of methods, such as targeted content, personalized recommendations, and customized user interfaces.
• Connectivity: EC is integrated with the Salesforce Customer 360 platform, which gives businesses a single view of their customers across all data sources. This allows businesses to create more personalized experiences that are relevant to each individual customer.
• Scalability: EC is a scalable platform that can be used by businesses of all sizes. Businesses can start with a small deployment and then scale up as their needs grow.
• Analytics: Salesforce Experience Cloud provides businesses with a wealth of data about their customers and their interactions with the business. This data can be used to track customer engagement, identify trends, and make informed decisions about how to improve the customer experience.
• Security: Salesforce Experience Cloud is a highly secure platform that meets the highest industry standards. Businesses can be confident that their customer data is safe and secure when using Salesforce Experience Cloud.

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Commonly asked questions about Salesforce Experience Cloud

1. How can businesses expand their platform capabilities with Salesforce Experience Cloud?

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Businesses can expand their platform capabilities with Salesforce Experience Cloud by integrating third-party applications available on Salesforce AppExchange marketplace. This integration allows businesses to access additional functionalities and features that meet their specific requirements. By integrating these applications, businesses can enhance their platform's capabilities and offer a more comprehensive and seamless experience to their customers.

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2. What role does customization play in Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Customization plays a significant role in Salesforce Experience Cloud through the use of Experience Builder. This tool allows businesses to customize their experiences by choosing appropriate templates and making design modifications without requiring any coding. Businesses can create different experiences for their site, set up pages, navigation menus, and components based on their preferences, enhancing user interaction.

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3. How can businesses leverage Salesforce Experience Cloud to enhance customer interactions?

Businesses can leverage Salesforce Experience Cloud to enhance customer interactions by focusing on personalization and understanding customer needs. By integrating customer support applications into the platform, businesses can efficiently handle customer inquiries and provide a seamless experience. This integration helps in improving customer service and ensuring that important leads are not missed.
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4. What are the key features of Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Some key features of Salesforce Experience Cloud include personalization, business integration, and customization with Experience Builder. Personalization involves understanding customer behavior and interests to enhance their experience. Business integration allows for seamless interaction with customers, clients, and remote employees. Customization with Experience Builder enables businesses to create unique experiences without the need for coding.

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Salesforce Experience Cloud in Action: Real-Life Use Cases

Nike and PUMA Use Salesforce Experience Cloud for personalization

Nike uses Salesforce Experience Cloud to create personalized shopping experiences for its customers. The company uses data from its CRM system to recommend products that customers are likely to be interested in.

Nike also uses Salesforce Experience Cloud to power its NikePlus loyalty program, which allows customers to earn points and rewards for shopping and engaging with the brand. Nike’s loyalty program members spend, on average, 37% more than non-members.

Puma, another sports brand also uses Salesforce Experience to enhance their mobile shopping experience. The company achieves this with Experience Cloud’s built-in mobile UX design, merchandising, and technical architecture. Thanks to Salesforce, Puma can offer its customers a seamless and streamlined experience.

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Bank of America and Wells Fargo use Salesforce for customer support

Financial services companies like Bank of America and Wells Fargo use it to provide customer support and education. Many financial service institutions like Bank of America use Salesforce Experience Cloud to provide customer support and education. The company uses a variety of channels, including self-service portals, community forums, and social media, to connect with customers and answer their questions. Bank of America also uses Salesforce Experience Cloud to collect feedback and track customer satisfaction.

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IBM uses Salesforce to build collaborative communities

Technology companies like IBM use it to build and scale collaborative tools for the future
IBM is using Salesforce to build collaborative communities both within the firm and customer-facing in a bid to scale innovations that look forward by a 100 years. The company uses a variety of features, such as document sharing, team chat, and video conferencing, to help employees collaborate more effectively.

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With the combined intelligence of Salesforce Einstein and IBM Watson, customers can receive faster, more accurate answers, pointing them to helpful resources to help with case deflection. IBM has a better understanding of the issues its customers are facing thanks to Salesforce and Slack, and how to guide them towards more effective solutions. IBM has improved employee productivity, developed a more vibrant, community-based culture, and increased seller and partner transparency by uniting its global teams around a single source of truth.

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Hulu uses Experience Cloud to connect viewers and provide answers

Hulu Help Center is powered by Salesforce Experience Cloud. This site helps customers find answers themselves, when they want it. Hulu also gives its subscribers and potential customers an opportunity to connect with other viewers and drop their feedback to shape Hulu’s content.

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Open Table uses Experience Cloud as a one-stop shop for diners

Diner Help, is OpenTable’s one-stop solution for everything dining. Users can search for answers using keywords like ‘modify reservation’, ‘points’, or ‘change phone number’. There are nifty shortcuts, like adding a payment method to an account, marking your dining and communication preferences, or updating your email or phone number.

Diner Help also has a featured article information and how-to’s. OpenTable covers a tone of common topics and questions, and is powered by Salesforce Experience Cloud.

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Experience Cloud case study: National Ability Center

At the National Ability Center (NAC), handling a multitude of schedules and forms was a daunting task. Hannah Kuhnhausen, a Technology Platform Specialist for NAC, knew the struggles all too well. A lack of a unified data system made understanding their participants’ needs a big challenge. In their quest for improved efficiency and service, NAC partnered with SaltClick to upgrade their Experience Cloud site. The goal was to optimize NAC’s experience by creating an easily navigable platform for participants, volunteers, and donors. With SaltClick’s expertise, NAC’s site transformed into a dynamic, user-friendly platform where users could sign up quickly and efficiently, enhancing overall experience and safety.

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Taking a step further, NAC and SaltClick embarked on a second project for instructors, creating a platform that replaced four fragmented sites instructors needed to access. Kuhnhausen praised the smooth transition, revealing plans to incorporate scheduling, resources, and incident reports to make the platform a “one-stop-shop for instructors.”

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Watch the video to learn more about NAC’s transformation story, driven by SaltClick’s expertise.

Choosing the right Salesforce Experience Cloud partner

If you’re thinking about using Salesforce Experience Cloud, it’s crucial to pick the best partner to assist with implementation and platform management. The ideal partner will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary to help you make the most of Salesforce Experience Cloud.

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When choosing a Salesforce Experience Cloud partner, keep the following in mind:

• Experience in your industry: The partner should have previous experience collaborating with companies in your sector. This will guarantee that they are aware of your unique needs and difficulties.

• Technical knowledge: The partner must possess the necessary technical know-how to set up and maintain Salesforce Experience Cloud. Additionally, they ought to be able to assist you in tailoring the platform to your particular needs.
• Request customer references from the partner so you can contact other companies using their services. This will help you get a better idea of their skills and how they can support you in achieving your objectives.

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Book an Experience Cloud demo

Salesforce Experience Cloud enables companies to design and deliver connected, personalized experiences across all channels. And can be a great choice if you’re looking for a way to drive sales, boost operational effectiveness, and improve customer engagement.

To learn more about Salesforce Experience Cloud, schedule a demo with us.