Salesforce Adds Channels To Its Tool For Small Businesses

Salesforce has added conversational channels to its Salesforce Essentials tool for small businesses.

Small firms can now use Salesforce Essentials apps to engage with customers in multiple social channels, including Facebook Messenger, Instagram and YouTube, in addition to phone and chat. The solution also provides a unified view of the customer, the company says.  

The goal is to give “small businesses the tools needed to manage customer communications across all those channels in one centralized spot,” states Marie Rosecrans, SVP, Salesforce Essentials and SMB.

Rosecrans adds: “We all expect real-time instantaneous communication today — whether it’s with our family, friends or favorite brands.” 

However, Salesforce notes that small businesses are often impaired in their ability to meet customer expectations.

According to Salesforce, the new features include:

  • Conversations across social channels 
  • Real-time chat conversations from website or help center  
  • Native phone support built into the CRM
  • Channel setup with walkthroughs and live help 

Instagram and YouTube are now generally available at a cost of $25 per user per month. 

Facebook Messenger and chat are also generally available today through single licenses that come with Salesforce Essentials. Additional licenses cost $15 per user, per month.

Lightning Dialer for Essentials is generally available in the U.S. and Canada for $2 per 100 minutes.

Launched in 2017, Salesforce Essentials is being used by multiple small brands, including G Photography, a portraiture studio.  

Owner Gwendolyn “G” Houston-Jack states that Salesforce allows the firm to keep high priority deals, accounts and goals front-of-mind.

Mission.org, a firm that allows sponsors to create podcasts, uses Salesforce Essentials to help it prioritize customer service and growth. “As a small business, it’s important to build trust with your customers while also making revenue predictable,” states CEO Chad Grills.

Meggie Palmer, creator of the PepTalkHer app to help women close the pay gap, states that Salesforce “allows us to have a central hub of all of our prospective and current clients so that we can effectively market to them, talk to them and sell to them now and also into the future.”

 

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