Murali Kushal Sha is the Executive Director at an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company.
In the fast-paced world of sales, where every interaction matters, team members rely heavily on various applications and SaaS tools to manage their workflow efficiently. These tools serve as indispensable companions, aiding sales professionals in tracking customer interactions, managing leads and closing deals. However, amid the hustle and bustle of daily tasks, the sales team might find themselves pondering the fate of the vast amount of data they input into these systems. What happens to this data, and what value does the application provide?
Proactive Alerting
Enter proactive alerting—a paradigm shift in how applications engage with users. Traditionally, applications deliver a plethora of alerts through different channels, inundating users with notifications that demand their attention. Yet, users still find themselves grappling with the arduous task of organizing these alerts and deciphering their relevance amid the noise. This manual process is not only time-consuming but also distracts sales professionals from their primary focus—engaging with customers.
Imagine a scenario in which the application becomes intuitive, anticipating the needs of the sales user and proactively delivering alerts in real time. For instance, you might have recently engaged with a customer who submitted a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey, and the feedback isn’t favorable. Traditionally, you would only become aware of this when you happen to navigate to the alerts page or stumble upon the notification bell icon. However, with proactive alerting, the application would notify you instantaneously, empowering you to address the issue promptly and mitigate any potential fallout.
Key Components To Consider
As a principal Salesforce architect, I have extensive experience in determining the components required for proactive monitoring. The first and foremost requirement is to alert the user when a specific event happens with context and options to dismiss or take a predefined action. Here are other main components of proactive alerting.
• Alert Types: Alerts can be tailored to the specific needs and preferences of individual users, ensuring relevance and actionable insights.
• Audience: The delivery of alerts is targeted to the appropriate audience based on user roles, responsibilities and areas of focus.
• Subscription And Consumption Statistics: Insights into alert subscription and consumption patterns enable users to optimize their alert preferences for maximum efficiency. They also help highlight the most important alerts for users and eliminate unnecessary “noise.”
• Priority: The prioritization of alerts is based on urgency and impact, guiding users in allocating their attention and resources effectively. For example, an alert about a dissatisfied customer takes priority over insights about a customer.
• Delivery Channels: Most proactive alert systems provide flexible delivery options, allowing users to receive alerts via their preferred channels—whether email, mobile notifications or in-app messages.
• Predefined Actions: Predefined actions can be integrated within alerts, empowering users to make immediate and informed decisions in response to critical events. For example, the system could enable users to directly call a prospect based on a specific insight and can prompt them to record notes after completing the call.
• Insights: Beyond mere notifications, proactive alerting provides actionable insights derived from data analytics spanning multiple systems, enabling users to glean meaningful intelligence and drive strategic initiatives.
The components above that make up the proactive alerting framework could be implemented in any technology or tool of choice. However, the options you choose will depend on your specific business needs. Some businesses will only need a few, whereas larger organizations may need the full suite of features.
Consider partnering with an experienced vendor or developer who can assess your company and ensure your proactive alerting system matches your needs. You don’t want functions you’ll never use that could complicate adoption and cause your sales team to avoid using the alerting system. Conversely, you’ll want to make sure that you have the functions you need to boost your sales team’s productivity.
Conclusion
In essence, proactive alerting represents a paradigm shift in the way sales users interact with applications—from passive recipients of notifications to active participants in a dynamic ecosystem where data-driven insights drive informed decision-making. By harnessing the power of AI and predictive analytics, applications can transcend from mere functionality to become indispensable allies, empowering sales professionals to stay ahead of the curve and deliver unparalleled value to their customers.
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