Good ideas fail all the time. To succeed, you have to combine those ideas with data, design, and a culture willing to adopt them. (tweet this)

Onstage at his Super Session at Dreamforce, Eric Berridge revealed how those three elements impact business outcomes and inspire actions that help your customers now. 

DATA is unlimited and everywhere.
Companies used to collect and store a finite amount of data about their products, employees, and customers in antiquated internal CRM systems. That was the age of ERP. Now, there is an unlimited amount of data about customers—that’s both an opportunity and a challenge. 

But people are struggling to manage this deluge of data. According to Bluewolf’s The State of Salesforce report, 76% of Salesforce users struggle with integration and data quality. (tweet this) Additionally, 70% of users enter the same data into multiple systems. Some key questions arise:

How do we tackle this massive, unlimited amount of customer data?
What can the audience do now to take advantage of this information?

DESIGN for the customer moment.
We have unlimited data, but how do we put it effectively into the hands of end users? Live data must be managed through simple, intuitive design. (tweet this)

Great design requires understanding the customer journey and employee realities. You have to learn, not assume. Don’t fall into the conference room trap—get out there and experience it for yourself.

Bluewolf recently worked with Bay Club, a San Francisco based health club, to identify the pain points preventing sales reps from up-selling and cross-selling successfully. We spent time in the field with the reps, observing, asking questions, and recording data to understand their day to day experience. We discovered that in-person touchpoints, while central to the Bay Club brand, were ineffective in driving additional sales, because the reps couldn’t access customer data onsite. We took those insights and translated them into a mobile app designed to provide live customer data—facility preferences, activity levels, class participation—to increase sales, while maintaining the deep human connection central to Bay Club’s philosophy. 

Great design doesn’t just satisfy a visual requirement; it requires a deep understanding of the goals and experiences of end users. 

CULTURE can make or break a company’s success.
Your employees are the ones that drive engagement with customers. Their ability to drive your brand’s values is 100% tied to the strength of your culture. 

Best selling author Stan Slap explores these questions:
What is culture? And why, even with quality data and beautiful design, does it resist change?

Data, culture, and design work in concert to achieve growth, engagement, and retention. They enable companies to do more with less, faster. (tweet this)

This week at Dreamforce, think about how these ideas can enhance your understanding of session content. Then, take a look at your business—how can these strategies help your customers now?

Interested in how the best companies are using Salesforce? Download our fourth annual The State of Salesforce Report or register for our webcast to hear six Bluewolf experts discuss key trends from the report.