First came Agentforce for Public Sector, swiftly followed by Agentforce for Manufacturing.

The offerings target the respective sectors with a library of prebuilt skills and actions to more quickly configure AI agents.

Both announcements are an extension of Salesforce’s industry-specific strategy, with the CRM leader previously releasing similar solutions for consumer goods, education, financial services, healthcare, and retail.

Salesforce has also developed department-specific Agentforce offerings, covering commerce, field service, sales, service, and – more recently – HR.

The strategies seemingly have the same objective: to get businesses experimenting with Agentforce, securing quick wins, and instilling confidence in AI agents.

In doing so, Salesforce hopes to inspire broader adoption and build an appetite for more mature AI agent approaches.

Such approaches may include chaining AI agents together to mechanize multi-step processes.

Kishan Chetan, EVP and GM for Service Cloud, shared more on the strategy during a press briefing before the launch of Agentforce for HR.

“The reason we created these specialized solutions is to ensure the topics and actions are relevant to each specific workflow,” he said.

“For example… in health and life sciences, it’s about tasks like logging health information, interacting with payers, or requesting provider appointments.

Essentially, the goal is to provide the right actions for each function, while keeping everything on one unified platform.

“If customers want to combine these capabilities and create agents with multiple skills, they absolutely can,” concluded Chetan. “That flexibility is a major advantage.”

Lastly, as vendors make AI agent announcements much faster than most enterprises can execute, these Agentforce offerings can help them catch up.

In this sense, Salesforce is challenging innovation fatigue, which is particularly prevalent amongst its customer base, having released Agentforce 3 little more than nine months after the original platform’s debut.

What Can I Build with Agentforce for Manufacturing?

With Agentforce for Manufacturing, businesses can build AI agents that assist with tasks such as monitoring demand fluctuations, streamlining inventory, and optimizing incentives.

As Achyut Jajoo, SVP and GM of Manufacturing for Automotive and Consumer Goods at Salesforce, explained:

We’re delivering that with out-of-the-box agents that understand their (manufacturers) specific challenges, from preventing asset downtime to aligning sales plans and operations, and immediately work alongside their teams to drive results.

Here are four examples of what manufacturing companies can now more easily build on Agentforce.

1. A Production and Sales Alignment Agent

With a new “Sales Agreement Management” skill, manufacturers can implement an AI agent that monitors build plans and flags significant deviations between planned and actual product sales.

When such deviations occur, the agent can schedule a meeting with key stakeholders, sharing suggested talking points with the account team.

In doing so, the AI agent helps optimize production alignment and resource allocation.

2. An Inventory Checker

Agentforce for Manufacturing enables the development of an AI agent that sales and service teams can use to instantly check inventory during customer conversations.

If necessary, the sales and service team can also request stock replenishment via the agent.

Lastly, the agent may also suggest upsell and cross-sell opportunities in real time, helping boost sales and manage inventory more efficiently.

3. An Incentive Program Analyzer

Manufacturers can also build an AI agent that assists product teams and rebate program managers in tracking incentive programs.

In doing so, the agent surfaces insight into insights into performance, payouts, and profitability.

Additionally, it can aid channel sales teams in spotting underperforming programs, so they can instead focus on those that drive real profits.

4. An Asset Health Monitor

With the “Prevent Asset Downtime with AI” skill, businesses can build an agent that does exactly what it says on the tin: prevent asset downtime.

Indeed, the agent helps service reps and fleet managers by detecting potential asset issues early and automating tasks like generating repair quotes, creating work orders, and sending maintenance summaries.

Alongside that, the agent may also proactively warn customers of problems, reducing downtime and protecting revenue.

What Can I Build with Agentforce for the Public Sector?

With Agentforce for Public Sector, businesses can build AI agents that engage with constituents and employees, accelerate recruitment, simplify complaint management, and more.

Celebrating its launch, Nasi Jazayeri, EVP & GM of Public Sector at Salesforce, said:

With AI agents working alongside dedicated government workers and providing 24/7 support for constituents, helping with everything from routine inquiries to complex, time-consuming tasks, Agentforce will power a more responsive, agile, and effective government.

Here are some examples of the AI agents governments may now develop.

1. An Inspection Support Agent

The new Agentforce offering allows brands to build an AI agent that provides detailed summaries of prior violations and license compliance, helping inspectors conduct more efficient inspections.

Moreover, it could automate documentation and other follow-up tasks, reducing administrative load and supporting overall regulatory compliance.

2. A Complaint Analyzer

One possible agent could help agencies by summarizing and analyzing constituent complaints. It might then identify related past issues and suggest next steps based on policies and regulations.

The agent may also categorize the complaints, flagging frequent and emerging issues so that the agency can improve its services and policies.

3. A Recruitment Specialist

Consider an AI agent that matches resumes, engages candidates, and automates communications.

Agentforce for Public Sector could enable such an agent. It may also assess qualifications, filter candidates for hiring managers, and accelerate the recruitment cycle.

4. A Candidate Assistant

Government agencies may now more quickly build an AI agent that helps improve the candidate experience by matching their CV with best-fit postings.

Indeed, it can gauge their job history, skills, and goals to pair them with relevant postings, so they save time scouring jobs and increase application success rates.

5. A Benefit Advisor

Another possible AI agent could take questions from constituents regards their benefits and eligibility across numerous languages.

From there, it may provide assistance while accelerating their application processing, minimizing process errors, and enhancing policy compliance.

6. A Compliance Supervisor

One final example is an AI agent that works with employees and complainants, helping them spot compliance information and navigate through filing complaints.

In doing so, the AI supervisor ensures the user adheres to regulations, accelerating reviews and chopping down resolution times.

More Changes to Agentforce

Alongside its industry-specific Agentforce offerings, Salesforce is making other moves to drive adoption of its AI agent platform.

For instance, last week, it announced two big changes to the Agentforce pricing model. These introduced pay-as-you-go and pre-commit pricing options.

The former is ideal for those wishing to experiment and ramp. Meanwhile, for those ready to go all-in, the latter is perhaps the better option.

Either way, Salesforce is covering all the bases.

Meanwhile, the CRM leader expanded its Agentforce platform in June to include a Command Center. The solution offers a platform to monitor enterprise-wide AI agent deployments, tracking their adoption, relevant success indicators, and costs.

Salesforce is far from the first vendor to launch such a solution. However, Tableau’s business intelligence heritage and agentic analytics vision give it a differentiator here.

Expect more announcements on Tableau, Agentforce, and Salesforce’s broader ecosystem at September’s Dreamforce conference.

At a time of so much disruption, it promises to be a don’t-miss event.

For the former, the enterprise tech giant has unveiled several industry-specific AI agents that aim to drive productivity across the service lifecycle. These stem from its ongoing collaboration with NVIDIA.

Meanwhile, ServiceNow acquired the Quality 360 solution from Advania last week to bolster its Manufacturing Commercial Operations (MCO) product with new quality management capabilities.

Both moves underline ServiceNow’s intent to push forward its industry innovation, help businesses overcome sector-specific challenges, and – ultimately – simplify enterprise operations.

That’s crucial, as some consider ServiceNow’s offerings complex – despite its strong customer retention rates.

By delivering more pre-configured innovations and flows for specific industries, ServiceNow can improve time to value and challenge these assumptions.

Additionally, industry-specific innovation will help ServiceNow position itself as the “platform of platforms”.

After all, customers shouldn’t view ServiceNow as a traditional suite of tools for individual departments. Instead, it has a vision to connect the enterprise.

“Our focus extends beyond platform solutions to deeper, industry-specific capabilities,” wrote Amit Zavery, President, Chief Product Officer, & Chief Operating Officer at ServiceNow, in a recent blog.

In the near term, you can expect to see us amplify our efforts in the front office and partner with customers to enable each focus industry to meet its unique needs more effectively.

With this industry focus, ServiceNow supports more sector-specific flows that cross functions, helping businesses automate more of the enterprise.

Consider other announcements from earlier this year, too, including its bid to hire 3,000 employees before the close of 2025.

This recruitment effort isn’t just about selling more solutions; it’s also about implementing them.

That’s critical, as with its deep platform, businesses need skilled experts to help them integrate these solutions and workflows effectively.

So far, giving companies AI tools without proper support has not worked so well for everyone.

With industry-specific innovations and heightened support, ServiceNow may execute on its “platform of platforms” vision.

More on the New AI Agents for Telcos

ServiceNow’s release of several telco-specific AI agents came at MWC. These agents collaborate to automate common workflows that run across customer service and network operations.

The tech juggernaut gave several examples here. “Issue resolution” is one, with its AI agents scouring network data, diagnosing faults, and proactively recommending solutions.

Interestingly, ServiceNow’s AI agents may also help coordinate some of the repair actions, such as scheduling a field service engineer.

Another example is “billing resolution”. Here, the AI agents detect unusual usage patterns on the network, give real-time explanations, and send proactive notifications to customers, recommending more cost-effective plans.

According to ServiceNow, this increases transparency, reduces unexpected charges, and – ultimately – lowers billing complaints.

These new AI agent use cases result from an ongoing partnership with NVIDIA, with ServiceNow one of the first tech providers to access its latest agentic AI innovations.

Celebrating their release, Rohit Batra, GM & VP for Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Media, and Technology at ServiceNow, said:

The launch of new AI agents developed specifically for the telecom industry demonstrates our continued commitment to building solutions that help solve the biggest challenges facing business leaders.

“ServiceNow has been at the forefront of AI innovation for years, and this collaboration with NVIDIA marks the next step in delivering agentic AI-powered automation that transforms how CSPs operate and serve their customers,” he concluded.

The announcement builds upon the Now Assist for Telecom Service Management (TSM) solution that ServiceNow launched with NVIDIA in 2024, with BT amongst the early adopters.

More on the Quality 360 Acquisition

Last week, ServiceNow announced that it acquired Quality 360 from Advania.

Quality 360 is a solution that aims to isolate and suggest resolutions for quality issues across the manufacturing chain, from production to service delivery.

ServiceNow will embed the solution within its MCO product, offering manufacturers new insights that will help them better manage quality issues.

That’s according to Batra, who said: “Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to maintain high-quality standards while managing complex supply chains.

By integrating Advania’s Quality 360 into the ServiceNow platform, we’re providing manufacturers with the AI-driven insights and automation they need to proactively manage quality issues, drive operational efficiency, and enhance customer trust.

“This acquisition exemplifies our commitment to partner-led innovation and delivering industry-specific solutions that drive meaningful transformation.”

With the acquisition, ServiceNow hopes to help manufacturers improve their efficiency, enhance customer trust, and expand its presence in manufacturing.

Yet, critically, this is another example of ServiceNow delivering new solutions to help overcome the unique challenges of a particular industry.

ServiceNow’s Mission to Connect the Enterprise

Many enterprise tech providers claim to connect the front and back office, but it often boils down to loosely integrated bots that serve particular functions.

ServiceNow takes it further, driving enterprise-wide connections across field service, contact centers, ERP, finance, and other systems.

Industry-specific innovations and AI agents represent the next frontier.

For customer experience leaders learning about ServiceNow from product champions in IT teams, consider its CRM portfolio.

Ask: How is it implemented? What processes is it improving? How can we replicate that success across our systems?

It’s a fascinating option, as CX Today highlights in the article: ServiceNow Is Co-Innovating With CCaaS Leaders: Why?

Formerly MTD Products Inc, Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor has made a name for itself as a worldwide leader in the development and manufacturer of outdoor power tools. Through its facilities in Europe, Asia, and Northern America, the company produces a host of powerful products which can be found both online and in stores around the globe.  

Not just an innovator in the manufacturing space, Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor is also a pioneer in customer experience, as one of the only outdoor power equipment companies with its own dedicated contact center. Working with Verint, the company recently took new strides in ensuring its CX solution could deliver the best results for teams.  

Optimizing Workforce Resources with Verint 

Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor is invested in constantly updating and elevating the experiences created in its contact center. The brand focuses heavily on monitoring key metrics, such as operational efficiency and schedule adherence, and regularly looks for new ways to empower its workforce.  

To enhance the performance of its customer service teams, Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor deployed the Verint Workforce Management Professional solution, offered as part of the comprehensive Customer Engagement platform designed by Verint. The solution allows the company to leverage automated forecasting, scheduling tools, and enhanced services for communication.  

At the same time, the company upgraded its telephony solution with Vonage, and implemented the Salesforce CRM, thanks to Verint’s flexible and open platform approach. The contact center upgrade allowed the manufacturing brand to build a single, unified solution for communication and workforce management, with a comprehensive view of the customer journey.  

Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor has the tools it needs to make interactions with agents, customers, and supervisors simpler and more efficient. The Verint WFM solution allowed the brand to achieve a 20% increase in contact center capacity, without increasing headcount. Additionally, the team also reduced the amount of agent training and coaching required by 250%.  

Creating a More Efficient Team 

Not only did the contact center upgrades delivered by Verint, Salesforce, and Vonage help Stanley Black & Decker Outdoor to better unify its teams, it also had a direct impact on efficiency. The WFM solution from Verint supports the company’s contact center managers in being more customer-focused and strategic, as they’re no longer distracted by scheduling issues.  

Managers have more time to interact with agents and respond to requests, which has also improved schedule adherence and reduced call abandonment rates. According to the company, the team has gone from a 75% schedule adherence to over 90%. They’re answering more calls with fewer people, and they have more scope to focus on empowering and developing their workforce.  

The ability to take advantage of seamless integrations between Verint, Vonage, and Salesforce, combined with access to excellent customer service has helped Stanley Black & Decker to accelerate towards its goals for better overall CX.  

At the same time, happier customers lead to improved brand reputation, a higher chance of word-of-mouth referrals, and a better chance of converting new customers. In the manufacturing industry, delivering exceptional customer experience can be complex because there are so many different types of consumers to consider.

Manufacturing brands frequently find themselves dealing with everyone from wholesale distributors to big-box retailers and end customers, and new go-to-market models are emerging all the time.

Fortunately, any manufacturing brand can generate incredible results by embedding CX solutions into their business strategy. Here are just some of the top use cases for CX tools in manufacturing for 2023.

1. Build Stronger Teams

Exceptional teams are the backbone of successful companies. If you want to ensure you’re delivering an amazing customer experience, you need to ensure your employees have all the tools they need to thrive in any landscape. Various CX solutions are available to help empower teams and drive improved performance today.

For instance, workforce optimization tools can help keep track of manufacturing engineers and specialists wherever they are, while CCaaS technology empowers these employees with the tools they need to reach out to customers and answer complex questions. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools can also help manufacturing teams to deliver a more personalised level of service to every type of customer in the manufacturing landscape.

A comprehensive set of CX tools, combined with the right training solutions, makes sure employees are engaged, well-supported, and ready to tackle any customer service challenge.

2. Provide More Personalised Experiences

Hyper personalisation is a crucial trend in every industry today – including the manufacturing sector. Around 91% of customers say they prefer to shop with companies that offer recommendations and offers relevant to their needs. To deliver this level of service, manufacturing companies need access to the right tools.

In a manufacturing landscape, where companies are usually dealing with valuable and lucrative long-term relationships with B2B brands, understanding the needs of each customer is crucial. A CRM environment where agents can track customer relationships over time will be crucial.

It’s also important to think about how your agents can personalise the experience for the customer by delivering service through their preferred channel (Such as video or chat). A CCaaS solution can help with this. The more information you collect about your target audience, the more you’ll be able to build a customized service and support strategies to suit their needs.

3. Explore New Sales Models

There are various ways for today’s manufacturing companies to take their products and services to market, from wholesale selling to direct-to-customer options. Around 40% of US consumers said they made Direct-to-Consumer purchases in 2020, and opportunities in this area are growing post-pandemic. There’s also the rise of concepts like manufacturing marketplaces to be aware of and the budding idea of “servitization” and maintenance as a service as an extra source of income.

All of these new revenue options can provide valuable opportunities for manufacturing brands to increase their profits and connect with new customers.

However, to properly leverage the potential of these new environments, companies will need to ensure they have the right customer service strategies in place. From workforce optimization tools implemented to align teams dealing with different segments of customers, to CCaaS solutions, rethinking a go-to-market model means also rethinking CX.

4. Discover the Potential of Omnichannel

Customers are increasingly demanding a wider range of channel options when it comes to communicating and interacting with all kinds of companies. While phone, email, and on-site support are still popular options in the manufacturing industry, there will be an ongoing demand for a broader range of new platforms in the years to come.

Implementing the right CX solutions now, like omnichannel CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) systems, will allow companies to serve all of their customers on the channels they like most. There’s even the opportunity to streamline the CX space, improve customer service and take pressure off the service team with access to self-service channels and helpdesks.

Implementing the correct tools now could even mean customer service teams in manufacturing can take advantage of tools like Extended Reality to deliver contactless service and support from a distance in the post-pandemic world.

5. Pave the Way for Innovation

Speaking of self-service solutions and extended reality, CX solutions can help to set the foundations for innovative new technologies in the manufacturing space. According to the manufacturing section of the Salesforce “State of Service” report, around 24% of decision-makers use AI chatbots to support their clients today, and 33% plan to use them soon.

Many manufacturers are already making significant strides in successfully leveraging the potential of disruptive technology to delight customers. AI can help deliver self-service troubleshooting and assist manufacturers in providing long-term maintenance for customers.

At the same time, solutions like 5G and the Internet of Things are creating a future where companies can use their CX tools to solve problems for customers remotely and pre-emptively prevent issues. With the right tools, companies can improve customer satisfaction levels and reduce the amount of cash they spend sending engineers to various customer locations.

6.  Improved Access to Data

Finally, CX solutions can be extremely useful in providing manufacturing companies with the critical data they need to make agile and effective decisions in today’s competitive landscape. The data collected in a CCaaS and CRM environment can provide insights into which customers are the most valuable to a team, and which service requests need to be prioritized.

Information collected from workforce management tools can highlight issues with productivity and make it easier for companies to plan when additional members of staff might need to be available to deal with peaks in demand.

Analytical solutions combined with CX tools can help business leaders map virtually every part of the customer journey for each client segment. The result should be better customer lifetime value, improved retention, and increased revenue.

CPG Europe, a leading provider of construction materials, understands that building great CX requires a multi-faceted, flexible approach. The huge company operates on an international basis, delivering innovative tools to architects, construction site workers, building specialists and project managers.  

To stay ahead in the marketplace, CPG Europe believes it’s crucial to be able to rapidly respond to customer queries with innovative contact center tools. Because of this, the company started looking for CCaaS solutions that would allow the company to become more accessible across multiple channels. Fortunately, the team found Twilio.  

Delivering Flexible Customer Service 

According to CPG Europe, the rising need to support and reach customers with multiple tools delivered under a single umbrella is what led the company to Twilio. Originally, the organization was just looking for a SIP provider. However, when the COVID pandemic fit, the brand began prioritizing a more flexible solution, capable of adapting to the changing workplace.  

Eventually, the business chose to adopt the Twilio Flex contact center solution, to help simplify customer experience, by bringing agents and customers into a streamlined, accessible ecosystem. Prior to using this technology, CPG Europe was constantly trying to balance services from a range of different telephony providers. Switching to Twilio allowed the company to embrace a more flexible, scalable solution, in an all-in-one connected environment.  

The Twilio portal made it easy for the company’s leaders to set up new numbers and connections without technical assistance. It also ensured the company could rapidly implement a fully remote contact center, both during and following the pandemic.  

Enabling Rapid Global Expansion 

Though CPG Europe had used cloud contact center solutions in the past, they had lacked crucial features like real-time reporting, to assist with measuring performance. The business was able to rapidly shift into the Flex landscape, working with Twilio, and access improved business continuity. Rather than relying on different site-specific numbers of physical constraints, CPG Europe was able to merge all of its phone numbers into a simple IVR system.  

Customers can now rest assured they’ll always be routed to the right agent without having to be transferred between teams. Plus, Flex has enabled CPG Europe to launch specific features relevant to their customer’s needs, such as an “emergency mode”, which ensures customers can leave a message even when a line is facing technical issues.  

Currently, CPG Europe is leveraging the power of Flex to continue expanding their engagement operations, and enhancing their CX strategy. The brand started with calling functionality, before branching out into new channels like chat, SMS, and beyond. According to CPG Europe, Twilio’s flexible and scalable nature was perfectly suited to the company’s evolving needs.  

The new functionality utilizes holographic instructions to help deskless workers follow step-by-step processes, enhance efficiency, and learn on the job.

Microsoft Teams capabilities are combined with Guides to enable seamless collaboration among workers using HoloLens 2, allowing participants in a call to see what the HoloLens user sees in real-time, annotate their three-dimensional space, and share required files easily.

The company has released a new set of features in Guides to make the experience more intuitive and dependable.

Annotation improvements enable users to draw on any object or surface, anywhere, and remain in place, even if the user moves around.

The drawings are visible from different angles, and digital ink stays in place where intended, allowing users to annotate and share in real time. Previously, users could only draw on flat or semi-flat services.

Dynamics 365 Guides now give HoloLens users more options when joining a Teams call. The user can choose to turn on or off the video, join muted or not, and change these settings once they are in the meeting.

The company has added restricted mode features that enable the admin to restrict who can log in to the device and make calls, enhancing the company’s security and information confidentiality.

Additionally, Microsoft has added a new feature that allows users to navigate directly from one guide to another by linking the second guide in an action step.

What is Dynamics 365 Guides?

Dynamics 365 Guides is a mixed reality tool developed by Microsoft that enables deskless workers to follow step-by-step holographic instructions.

The tool aims to improve efficiency and compliance with processes and enable workers to learn on the job.

With the help of HoloLens 2 and Microsoft Teams, the tool allows remote collaboration and real-time sharing of 3D annotations and required files. Dynamics 365 Guides also gives users more options when joining Teams calls and allows them to navigate directly from one guide to another.

The manufacturing industry has invested heavily in customer experience technology in recent years. The industry has recognised that providing a positive customer experience is critical to customer satisfaction, leading to increased sales and revenue. This article will discuss the state of customer experience technology in the manufacturing industry, including the current trends and challenges.

The Potential for CX in Manufacturing

The definition of “customer” is varied and complex for manufacturing companies. The term could refer to the wholesalers that take manufacturer products to distribution channels or a licensed dealer network. Customers could also be big-box retailers where products are displayed or even end-users who access the brand through D2C solutions.

To survive in this complex landscape, manufacturing brands need CX solutions that allow them to serve a wide range of consumers with personalised solutions. The right technology can empower manufacturing teams by helping them to strengthen relationships with B2B brands or boost their reputation with B2C consumers. Some of the significant areas of focus for CX solutions in manufacturing companies often include:

• Empowerstrategyees: Manufacturing companies have employees distributed in various environments, from the back office to the shop floor. These team members need to be aligned and supported with access to the right CCaaS tools, workforce management and optimisation tools, and service desks.
• Personalising service: Delivering a custom level of personalised service is crucial in B2B manufacturing industry where relationships can make or break a company. CRM solutions for tracking relationships with major brands, wholesalers and distributors are essential to success. It’s also important to have the right omnichannel contact centre environment for connecting more effectively with customers.
• Supporting new go-to-market strategies: The evolution of the manufacturing industry is leading to new strategies for many brands, like manufacturing marketplaces and direct-to-consumer selling. To enable these avenues for growth, manufacturing companies need to ensure they have the right solutions in place for service, including self-service and contact centre solutions.
• Empowering customers: Informed customers are happier in the manufacturing sector. Help desks and self-service solutions can empower customers to accomplish more with their manufacturing retailers in a fast-paced environment. This is becoming increasingly important in today’s world of contactless service.

Trends Driving CX in the Manufacturing Space

Excellent experience drives better sales, improved client retention, and more robust business growth. 84% of customers say the experience provided by a company is just as necessary as its products and services. Moreover, customer demands are only becoming more complex in the post-pandemic landscape. Some of the current trends influencing the manufacturing space’s approach to customer experience include:

• New customer service channels: While phone, email, and on-site interactions have always been common components of CX in manufacturing, new solutions are beginning to rise to the forefront. Increasingly, B2B and B2C customers expect access to various communication methods, from video and chat to even extended reality in some cases.
• Automation and AI: Speed is essential in any interaction with a manufacturing company, but it’s vital in the B2B landscape. When companies have an issue with a manufacturing product or service, they need a solution fast. AI systems and automation can help to accelerate resolutions with bots and virtual agents. These tools can also reduce pressure on the manufacturing industry’s back-end service professionals.
• IoT and Disruptive tech: In an age of contactless service inspired by the pandemic, manufacturing companies increasingly do more of their work from a distance. Tools like IoT systems and machine teams can control remotely allow manufacturing companies to offer a new level of service. There’s even the potential to guide customers through solving common problems using XR technology in the future.
• Advanced analytics: Analytics are crucial for maintaining valuable customer relationships in the manufacturing industry. Today’s companies rely more heavily on advanced CRM solutions and tools for tracking information about the customer journey. The more information the company can collect, the easier it is to deliver personalised support and service.
• Hybrid work: The rise of hybrid workplaces and remote employees in all industries also influences the manufacturing landscape. Companies will need cloud-focused solutions with robust mobile connectivity (via solutions like 5G), workforce management tools, and flexible communication systems to succeed in this new environment.

The Challenges to Overcome in Manufacturing

Manufacturing is an industry currently amid a significant period of transformation. New go-to-market strategies are emerging for manufacturing brands, including the rise of e-commerce marketplaces in the B2B world and increasing demand for direct-to-consumer solutions. These changes present new challenges and questions about how to manage customer experience.

At the same time, manufacturers are still dealing with the challenges and issues facing most companies in a post-pandemic landscape. Teams must figure out how to deliver contactless service in an environment frequently defined by face-to-face interactions.

For many manufacturing companies, the focus will be on finding the right disruptive technology to implement to drive quick results with a minimal initial investment. Companies will need to do some organisational soul-searching in the years ahead to determine what kind of business avenues and sales solutions they will take advantage of.

It will also be crucial to ensure that exploring new avenues for sales doesn’t mean compromising on delivering personalised and relevant service for each customer group.

CX vendors in the manufacturing industry can provide business leaders with various ways to strengthen their position in the marketplace and compete with other brands. From CRM tools and workforce optimization software to CCaaS (Contact Centre as a Service) offerings, there is no shortage of phenomenal tools available for modern brands.

Today, we’re looking at some of the top CX vendors with solutions specifically suited to the manufacturing space.

Mitel

Pioneers in communication solutions built to empower teams and delight customers, Mitel can offer a range of tools to business leaders in the manufacturing sector. The Mitel communication technologies are perfect for bringing teams together, particularly in a hybrid environment, with workforce optimisation services and collaboration tools.

Mitel’s technology can integrate with your CRM and contact centre technology to help you strengthen your position in any marketplace with a better knowledge of your target audience. Already, Mitel has assisted a range of manufacturing brands in improving their efficiency and performance levels, regardless of the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Twilio

Twilio’s unique approach to customer engagement and CX enhancement has made the company a stand-out choice for many business leaders over the years. Twilio powers personalized interactions and trusted global communications to connect customers and brands in any environment.

Twilio’s highly flexible ecosystem of tools is perfect for manufacturing companies searching for a unique range of solutions to complex customer service and team management problems. The portfolio of solutions also means you can connect with customers on their preferred channels, wherever they are in the world. There are powerful APIs to build solutions for all kinds of platforms.

Avaya

A company committed to helping companies accelerate their digital transformation initiatives in the modern world, Avaya has achieved exceptional results for a range of manufacturing companies over the years. Avaya’s portfolio of communication technologies covers everything from internal communication and collaboration tools to contact centre solutions.

If you want an end-to-end solution for communication and collaboration, Avaya can help you to design an environment offering the best of both worlds. You can also expect a fantastic level of support and global reliability from Avaya.

HubSpot

One of the top providers of digital tools for sales, marketing, and service, HubSpot offers companies in the manufacturing industry everything they need to keep track of their clients and empower their teams. With dedicated solutions for the manufacturing sector, HubSpot ensures business leaders can get a better insight into their target audience with features like a free CRM and extensive segmentation. You can also create personas and distribute them to members of the team.

The great thing about HubSpot is its flexibility. You can choose which tools you need from various hubs to make your business more efficient. There’s also access to a range of integrations with existing tools you might be using and contact centre technology too. HubSpot’s solution can scale to suit the needs of any manufacturing team, large or small.

RingCentral

An innovator in cloud-based solutions for communications, collaboration, and customer service, RingCentral is a fantastic vendor for manufacturing brands. With RingCentral, business leaders can build comprehensive communication technology stacks, combining everything from back-end collaboration and workforce management with contact centre functionality.

You can design an omnichannel environment for delighting clients across a range of different environments and connect your CRM technology for in-depth consumer profiles. RingCentral also has the scalability and flexibility manufacturing companies need to expand their ecosystem across various landscapes.

Salesforce

Salesforce is one of the biggest companies in the CRM landscape for a reason. Known for offering a wide selection of customisable tools for service management and sales, Salesforce helps businesses from every industry grow at speed. With the Salesforce ecosystem, manufacturing companies can learn more about their audience, even if they’re working with global teams.

Salesforce’s intelligent tools for customer profiling and sales management make it easy to accelerate revenue opportunities and drive better business outcomes. With Salesforce, there’s also access to a wide selection of integration options, and artificial intelligence tools like Einstein.

Talkdesk

Committed to aligning teams around the world and improving the customer experience at every point in the buying journey, Talkdesk has a host of fantastic tools to offer manufacturing companies. With the Talkdesk technology for customer experience, manufacturing companies searching for agility can access end-to-end innovation in the cloud.

Talkdesk can enable everything from better workforce engagement for your hybrid employees to omnichannel engagement for your target audience. There are AI tools available within the portfolio, as well as self-service options if you want to help customers solve problems for themselves. On top of all that Talkdesk also offers some of the best reporting and analytics around.

Cisco

Easily one of the better-known companies in the communication space, Cisco offers a range of tools for manufacturing companies looking to upgrade connectivity and communications. With Cisco, business leaders can build everything from extensive collaboration ecosystems for hybrid teams, to contact centre environments with CRM connectivity.

Cisco’s tools for customer experience are designed to suit a range of business needs, with deployment options for all kinds of manufacturing companies. Cisco is also one of the major innovators working to implement new AI solutions into the CX environment.

Zoho

Zoho offers ERP and CRM technology for manufacturing companies. If your growing manufacturing brand needs help managing the many moving parts of your organization, Zoho can help. With the easy-to-use software offered by Zoho, business leaders can gain a better understanding of their marketplace, audience, and their employees.

Zoho offers an easy way to strengthen relationships with your suppliers, keep an eye on your team productivity, and even make better decisions about the future of your company.

Just like in any other industry, companies in the manufacturing landscape need to be able to offer customers a simple, effective, and streamlined experience. This often means investing in new tools and technologies to help with better understanding customer needs and catering to those requirements. From CCaaS solutions to CRM tools, the right CX technology can make or break your manufacturing brand in 2022.

If you’re looking for insights into just how significant the right CX investments can be, the following case studies can offer a fantastic view into the power of experience.

Mitel and Antalis

A leading European wholesaler and global supplier of fine packaging materials, Antalis operates across 43 countries worldwide, with more than 5,500 employees. In the past, the employees in different countries worked on separate IT systems, creating different “data hubs” of information about clients and consumers. This led to a highly disjointed approach to service.

To deliver a better quality of service, Antalis turned to Mitel for a flexible, smart, and convenient contact centre capable of integrating with the company’s existing CRM system and telephony applications. The new ecosystem is both employee experience friendly and ideal for creating a more consistent, personalized experience for end-users. Read the full case study here.

Twilio and CPG Europe

Best-known for its flexible range of innovative technology solutions, Twilio helps companies embed the CX systems they need into their existing tools. CPG Europe, a leading manufacturing brand, turned to Twilio to help bridge the gap between remote employees and customers while enhancing their telephony systems.

In this case study, Twilio explains how it worked with the CPG Europe organization to help them create an all-in-one environment for maintaining customer relationships, even when the business was under additional strain due to the pandemic. The innovative remote contact centre solution allowed CPG Europe to bring customers and agents together like never before.

Freshsales and Evans Manufacturing

Evans Manufacturing, a company committed to creating branded goodies for companies looking to build brand equity and recognition, wanted a way to build better relationships with clients, particularly during the stressful period of the pandemic. To achieve this goal, the company decided to work with Freshworks and the Freshsales environment to combine CRM insights with a host of valuable sales tools for the manufacturing team.

Working with Freshworks allowed Evans Manufacturing to embrace new selling methods while improving its customer interactions across multiple channels. As this case study shows, the Evans brand achieved a remarkable 23% increase in revenue by implementing their new technology.

HubSpot and Bell Performance

As a manufacturing company with 100 years of history, Bell Performance is no stranger to the challenges of changing times. Over the years, the company has found itself catering to a greater demand for more personalized sales and marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. HubSpot’s comprehensive marketing hub offered an excellent way for the company to engage customers while maintaining insights into client data.

The free CRM offered by HubSpot, combined with a range of inbound marketing tools to build better client relationships, helps Bell Performance modernise its approach to end-to-end CX for the new generation. Check out the full case study here.

Salesforce and Kone

Kone, a company known for creating elevators, escalators, and moving walkways, produces products to serve more than 1 billion people every day. For the past 11 years, Salesforce has partnered with Kone through the Salesforce Cloud Services Advisors landscape, helping them understand the customer journey with state-of-the-art CRM tools.

The company recently upgraded its sales and marketing strategy by investing more into its cloud-based collaboration with the Salesforce group. The cloud landscape made it easier for Kone to collect information from all points in the customer journey, create visibility into the sales processes, and even set up automation for success.

Zoho and Rain for Rent

Responsible for manufacturing liquid handling solutions like tanks and pumps, Rain for Rent is a family-owned company with a long heritage of delivering products worldwide. Though the company previously relied on alternative solutions for CRM insights, they found their existing software required a lot of customization, which led to low adoption rates among team members.

With Zoho, Rain for Rent created a more comprehensive CRM environment with minimal need for customization and personalized enhancements. The Zoho One solution allowed the company to maintain a strong focus on customer service while reducing training times for teams. See the full case study information here.

Talkdesk and Canon

One of the better-known companies in the camera technology space, Canon, was founded in 1937 in Japan. Since then, the brand has become a world leader in both consumer and business imaging solutions. As the company grew in recent years, it discovered it needed a more comprehensive view of its sales force activity and insights into how customers perceived the brand. Working with Talkdesk allowed Canon to achieve these goals.

By implementing an end-to-end Talkdesk contact centre solution and enabling integration with Salesforce, Canon could improve business insights and create time-saving automations for teams.

Avaya and Jindal SAW

A leading manufacturer and supplier of steel and iron pipe products with manufacturing facilities worldwide, Jindal SAW has a strong focus on delivering exceptional customer experience with a personalized approach to service. However, the brand struggled to continue delivering the fantastic solutions their customers expected during the pandemic.

Avaya worked closely with the Jindal team to understand the existing infrastructure and deliver a comprehensive solution through Avaya OneCloud. The introduction of the new technology allowed Jindal to achieve better levels of mobility and flexibility, with enhanced collaboration leading to improved customer experience.

When leading energy and manufacturing brand, ENGIE decided it was time to do its part in delivering a zero-carbon future, they knew they needed the right CX tools to drive results. By implementing CX technologies, ENGIE ensures it can help its customers reduce their own carbon footprint.

CX tools allow team members to provide personalised advice on the kind of renewable energy, smart technology, and energy-efficient solutions each client might leverage. With help from Salesforce, ENGIE has been able to successfully build its brand-new business model of “zero carbon” solutions as a service – making the world a cleaner, more sustainable place.

Let’s take a closer look at how ENGIE and Salesforce are working together.

Building the Perfect Customer Service Strategy

French manufacturing company, ENGIE, decided in 2016 it was time to eliminate any business processes which weren’t sustainable in a zero-carbon world. One of the pioneers in the clean energy movement at the time, the brand chose to focus more of its business operations on solutions capable of saving the planet and reducing energy waste.

With the rise of this new strategy came a new business model “Zero carbon transition as a service”. According to the CEO of ENGIE, Isabelle Kocher, the new mission of the brand homed in on supporting global, innovative, and tailor-made solution needs of customers making the transition to a more energy-efficient landscape.

A Salesforce customer since 2010, ENGIE has a long-standing relationship with the leading CRM and sales company. Salesforce was a clear choice for the company’s technology needs when it began to introduce the new zero-carbon business model, as it could offer a 360-degree view of each customer.

With Salesforce, ENGIE can effectively track and understand customer journeys across more than 70 countries. By gathering information on a regular basis, the company can create services specifically tailored to the needs of its diverse audience.

Making a Revolutionary Idea Successful

According to Isabelle Kocher, the team believed the future of energy began with a new commitment to decentralisation in energy production, digitalisation, and decarbonisation. These concepts have only grown more relevant over the years. With the introduction of zero-carbon transition as a service, ENGIE had a revolutionary idea and value proposition. However, the company also knew it needed tools that were just as revolutionary to make the concept a success.

Building on an existing investment in the Salesforce environment, ENGIE decided it needed a common customer relationship management system capable of supporting the global needs of individual customers in their ecosystem. The Customer 360 platform from Salesforce was the obvious choice, according to Kocher, as it allowed the company to maintain a completely client-centric and global approach with their operations.

Ensuring continued client-centric operations was a significant focus point for ENGIE. They believed the only way to deliver suitable solutions to companies making their transition into more sustainable processes, was to go bespoke. By understanding a client’s energy usage, the ENGIE team could better determine the best way to sustainably reduce it.

According to ENGIE’s EVP, Yves Le Gelard, if there was one company ENGIE trusted to put the customer first with their technology, it was Salesforce. It didn’t take long for the team to confirm that Salesforce was the ultimate strategic partner for their needs at a defining time in their roadmap.

Everything the ENGIE brand does today can start with the customer in mind, thanks to the central and focused technology of Salesforce Customer 360. The technology allows ENGIE business units to share intelligence about what customers want and need, developing a deeper understanding of the target audience overall.

A Comprehensive Salesforce Deployment

While Customer 360 from Salesforce forms a central part of the ENGIE strategy for CX success, the company has also deployed a number of other tools from the Salesforce portfolio over the years. To drive sales for zero-carbon solutions as a service, ENGIE also uses Tableau CRM and Sales Cloud to provide sales teams with insightful information in a convenient single pane of glass.

Employees can get immediate information on which customers need new energy solutions to meet sustainability targets. CPQ for communities and marketing cloud also allows the brand’s marketing team to create seamless experiences for customers across every touchpoint.

When the company decided to launch a new consultancy business, to help companies in executing their sustainability strategies, they also leveraged the AI features of Salesforce Einstein Analytics, to help cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers.

Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning are two other crucial parts of the Salesforce toolkit leveraged by ENGIE today, empowering more than 100,000 field technicians with instant access to useful information and team support.

Looking Ahead to a Brighter Future

ENGIE’s long-standing relationship with Salesforce has only grown more powerful over the years, as the company has invested in a host of new technologies to strengthen CX across a variety of new market offerings. The company is now forging ahead with its goal to be a leader in zero-carbon transitions for companies looking to contribute to a more sustainable world.

With Salesforce technology, ENGIE is reaching its goal of aligning organisations around a deeper understanding of the customer, and intelligent, data-driven strategies for encouraging positive change. In addition to a successful customer-centric transformation, the company is also using Salesforce technology to enhance employee-centric digital transformation too. ENGIE uses service and sales cloud technology to align teams and give them access to more of the information they need in the moment.

According to ENGIE, the values of Salesforce resonate with their own. Salesforce is bold, forward-thinking and caring – all aspects that are important to ENGIE’s own identity.