The customer is in control, and that’s exactly as it should be.

Who better to provide the product/service feedback that fuels your growth? Who better to inform, support, and talk-up your brand? Who better to point the way in every way than the people who — to be blunt — give you their hard-earned money?

But you, the business owner — whether in retail, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, or any other market — are in control here as well. The primary thing you control regarding your customers is their experience.

It’s not just the customer experience that’s within your purview: it’s the experience of your partners, vendors, and employees as well.

And there is no better solution for managing, optimizing, and taking part in those experiences than Salesforce Experience Cloud. Because an experience is essentially a relationship (a customer with a brand, a partner with a rep, an employee with a colleague), and Salesforce remains a leader in relationship management.

What Is Salesforce Experience Cloud?

Formerly called Community Cloud, Salesforce Experience Cloud (SFEC) is an online platform with one focus: connection.

• Connecting customers to information, self-service tools, support staff, and even each other
• Connecting employees to knowledge-building assets, to HR and IT, and (as above) to each other
• Connecting partners and vendors to resources and representatives, to portals where they can track orders, claims, rebates, and forecasts

In other words, Salesforce Experience Cloud is about empowering people inside and outside your enterprise to gain access to the information and digital capabilities they need to interact efficiently with your brand.

How do you do it? SFEC comes pre-loaded with apps and low-code development tools that make creating content libraries, self-serve portals, and community building resources as easy as drag and drop. In most cases, no development help is required.

Bringing Experience Cloud Down to Earth: Real-world B2B Use Cases

In the B2B world, SFEC is an exceptionally powerful tool that can help you deliver the self-service buying experiences that customers and partners now expect. Here are four ways B2B businesses can build better connections with customers and partners with Salesforce Experience Cloud:

• Deliver intelligent self-service supported by CRM data. Just like in the B2C world, B2B buyers would rather solve problems and find what they’re looking for on their own, without the help of a customer service agent. SFEC makes this easy by personalizing each digital experience based on customer profile information, interests, and past activities meaning that your customers are empowered to self-serve and find a resolution quickly and autonomously.
• Create new opportunities for learning (and purchasing) via digital knowledge communities. Consider this stat from the CMO Council: “Nine out of 10 B2B buyers say online content has a moderate to major effect on purchasing decisions.” With SFEC, you can bubble up in-context information and promotions about products that a customer might not know about, which helps to generate additional buying opportunities and motivates deeper customer engagement across your product catalog.
• Tame Complexity in the B2B buying process with CPQ. B2B buyers seek brands that empower them to buy complex products through easy-to-use digital experiences that are self-service. In a 2022 survey of B2B buyers, Gartner found that “Eighty-three percent of B2B buyers say they prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce.” Exposing configure, price, quote (CPQ) functionality via a digital portal powered by SFEC will enable you to provide the self-service tools and digital capabilities that B2B buyers need to navigate complex buying decisions.
• Grow channel sales and streamline partner resource management. Distribution partners, channel sales reps, and resellers all serve as an extension of your sales team so maximizing their efficiency is in your best interest. SFEC provides the digital platform to accomplish this at enterprise scale. Streamline the onboarding process and get your strategic partners up and selling quickly with digital knowledge bases, product information, and pre-built comarketing campaigns. Simplify deal registration and lead distribution/management with automated workflows. Ensure partners remain motivated by providing personalized sales dashboards populated with quota attainment data, loyalty incentive status, and seasonal SPIFF opportunities. Leverage AI-powered product recommendations to encourage partner cross selling and upselling.

A best-in-class Platform Needs a best-in-class Implementation Partner

These B2B use cases barely scratch the surface of what’s possible with Experience Cloud in the larger SFDC ecosystem. Just as Salesforce states – “One platform. Endless possibilities” – the possibilities are endless. This is why you need a seasoned partner like Argano that has implemented, configured, and customized SFEC to solve specific business problems for B2B clients in various industries. Here are a few examples:

• Consumer Electronics: Unified and optimized two existing support communities on SFEC; added multi-language chat capabilities; enabled omni-channel support and self-service functionality.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing: A modern partner experience with self-registration for 140,000 distribution partners.
• Leading Healthcare Network: A community portal to facilitate member-to-member communication, provide centralized knowledge resources, and improve shareability.
• Energy Infrastructure: Created a self-service digital community built on SFEC to enable customers to view the status of their in-field compressors and check maintenance records.
• Insurance Broker Services Platform: Self-service portal built on SFEC enabled brokers to retrieve accurate pricing, plan updates, and discounts instantly empowering them to sell more, faster. 

Are you ready to empower your customers and strategic partners with engaging digital experiences? Contact us today to get started.