Driving Customer Engagement Through SAP-Salesforce Integration

How integrating Salesforce with your SAP ERP can reshape customer engagement strategies

The importance of customer engagement as a revenue-generating business strategy has increased in recent years. It’s no longer acceptable for businesses to treat customers as a transaction or a number. A higher level of service and connection is expected in exchange for loyalty and continued business.

The businesses succeeding with customer engagement are those that prioritize digital transformation. They are using technology to improve the customer experience at every possible outlet, from sales and marketing to operations and ecommerce.

One aspect of this digital transformation is integration, specifically between SAP ERP systems and front-end systems like Salesforce. The data collected from SAP integrated systems can help shape customer engagement strategies by making critical backend data more accessible to every department.

Customer engagement: What it is and why it’s important

Customer engagement revolves around the interactions a company has with its customers. The deeper and more meaningful these interactions, the better the engagement. Customer engagement has also been proven to help the bottom line: Customers who are fully engaged represent a 23% higher share in profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.

As previously mentioned, customers want to be more than just a purchase in your company’s records. They are seeking out brands that value their business and their opinion. Customer engagement strategies are meant to create strong relationships with people, not only to attract new prospects but to build a loyal customer base that sustains itself.

How Salesforce-SAP integration can help drive customer engagement

Customer engagement strategies impact every department and every phase of a customer’s journey. Luckily, a Salesforce-SAP integration will do the same.

• Sales: Great salespeople provide a unique experience by knowing customers inside and out to give them the best service and anticipate future requests. Bringing customer data, complex pricing, and configuration logic from SAP to the front-end application that salespeople use enhances the customer experience in several ways.

Real-time, accurate information from one data source gives sales reps and their customers confidence that the pricing, inventory, and availability they see are correct. If a customer calls with a question or issue with an order, their salesperson has access to the SAP order history, status, and shipping info to provide them with an on-the-spot answer. No more delays or long wait times for simple questions.

With a platform like enosix, you eliminate the need for dual-maintenance and allow for real-time pricing simulation from any front-end, without the need to store any SAP pricing. Salespeople can get accurate quotes to customers more rapidly and ensure that SAP will accept quotes and orders due to real-time validation during your lead-to-cash process.

• Customer service: Many companies lose a sense of engagement with customers at the service level. Long wait times, inaccurate orders, and constantly being put on hold will lead to disenchantment with any business.

SAP-Salesforce integration gives your customer service team access to a 360-degree customer view through the service-oriented interface. Real-time information about order history and status, past invoices, delivery information, and line-item details help service teams provide fast answers with greater accuracy.

enosix has been proven to not only shorten call resolution time but increase first call resolution rates as well. Great customer service is what keeps customers loyal over long periods of time, so an integration-focused strategy is central to engagement.

• Marketing: Modern marketing requires in-depth knowledge of customers to create targeted and relevant messaging that speaks to them individually. If the marketing department only has access to information in Salesforce, they are only seeing a fraction of that customer.

Access to SAP data opens up a treasure trove of information for marketers, including purchase history, special pricing, and delivery information. This data can be used to enhance marketing campaigns and target messaging about certain products and pain points to the right people in order to drive revenue.

• Ecommerce and self-service: Engaging with customers doesn’t require a live conversation. Oftentimes, it’s most important to meet them where they want to be with the tools and answers they need. This means expanding self-service and eCommerce options, so customers have a fast and convenient experience. In fact, 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative.

Integration is required to make these eCommerce and self-service experiences valuable. This guarantees that product information, pricing, and inventory is always accurate. enosix Commerce creates orders in SAP as soon as a shopping cart is submitted, including accurate pricing, tax, shipping, configuration, and other business logic that already exists in the ERP. This expedites the processing and shipping process, getting orders to customers faster.

Integration also allows customers to seek and find answers to basic questions more rapidly. B2B businesses can create portals and logins for individualized customer experiences with specific pricing, discounts, and custom products.

Integration and engagement with SAP-Salesforce integration

Digital transformation is paving the way to greater customer engagement. Whether you are just shaping your customer engagement strategies for the first time or looking to optimize and improve the ones you have, integrating SAP data with your front-end system is critical to providing the best possible experience.

enosix’s pre-built UI interface for Salesforce greatly reduces implementation time compared to traditional middleware strategies. Plus, enosix is a portable solution, meaning you don’t have to wait until you upgrade to S/4HANA to start your transformation.

Schedule a demo today to see enosix in action and learn more about optimizing your customer engagement strategies.