More than 8 in 10 companies using Salesforce believe that customer engagement will overtake productivity as their primary driver of growth, according to Bluewolf’s “The State of Salesforce” [download page] report, conducted in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management. The survey also found that a majority of respondents involved in service (70%), sales (65%) and marketing (60%) are measured on increasing customer engagement, with 6 in 10 respondents overall ranking customer engagement as their top priority.
The study indicates a high level of enthusiasm for Salesforce: 9 in 10 respondents believe that the platform is now more valuable to their company than it was a year ago, and 69% plan to increase their Salesforce budget. Moreover, a slight majority believe that Salesforce presents their company with “substantial” innovation potential.
Beyond customer engagement, respondents are also focusing on mobile: about half have or are planning to build a custom mobile application on the Salesforce platform. Currently, the most popular mobile apps being installed by employees are Salesforce Classic (44%) and Chatter mobile (42%), while 43% report accessing Salesforce from a mobile device at least monthly. Sales professionals in particular seem interested in drawn to the potential posed by mobile, as 7 in 10 feel it’s important to access real-time customer information on a mobile device.
Other Findings:
- 4 in 10 Salesforce customers are investing in marketing cloud.
- 1 in 10 are already invested in Salesforce Communities, and 1 in 5 plan to purchase Salesforce Communities licenses in the next year.
- 6 in 10 are increasing budgets dedicated to custom app development on the Salesforce platform.
About the Data: The survey had more than 450 participants, spread fairly evenly across IT, marketing, operations, sales and service functions. 51% own or influence their company’s Salesforce budget, and 86% are using either the enterprise or unlimited edition of Sales Cloud. 56% have at least 3 years of experience with Salesforce.
