Chad Pearce, Vice President Marketing – APAC at Zendesk joins us in this chat to share a few tips on scaling Sales and Marketing efforts effectively for a better online customer experience:

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 Hi Chad, welcome to SalesTechStar! Tell us a little about yourself, we’d love to hear about your role at Zendesk… what’s a typical day at work like and how has that changed from pre-Covid times to now in the new normal?

I joined Zendesk earlier this year in July in the thick of the pandemic, so I like to joke that this “new normal” work-wise is just “normal” for me. But on a serious note, my roles often involved a lot of virtual team interactions even prior to Covid-19, so the shift hasn’t been too drastic.

In my role at Zendesk, I work with over 30 marketers across APAC to ensure our goals and executions are aligned with functions across the business. A key part of what I do is ensuring our marketing team reaches beyond its functional boundaries to integrate with different departments like sales and communications, so we can have a real impact on the bottom line.

Staying abreast with fast-moving customer needs requires us to continuously change and adapt, so no two days are the same for me. The only constant is making sure I’m plugged into my team, hustling alongside them to drive ground-breaking firsts for the business, even when working remotely.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed how Marketing and Sales teams across industries are expected to function. When it comes to the future of marketing and sales: what are some of the new fundamentals that will now drive change in this new normal?

New ways of working will definitely impact the way marketing and sales teams operate. Technology for the distributed workforce has brought about new possibilities for cross-team collaboration, and with every interaction logged virtually, breaking down these communication silos can help organizations create deeper and more authentic customer relationships. In fact, our recent research with Ecosystm in Singapore found a staggering 99% of businesses believe collaboration between CX and other teams improves the quality of business outcomes, a view which will continue to expand the role our teams play in shaping the overall customer experience. Constantly changing roadmaps has also become a new norm, emphasizing the importance of nimble and creative marketers that can deliver without delay, all while keeping a pulse on customer demands and putting them at the center of everything we do.

As marketing and sales teams work on creating more impact in today’s (largely) remote selling world, what are some of the top customer facing strategies and points that they should keep in mind in your view?

Capturing people’s attention in a remote world is challenging, and this is where great CX comes in as a differentiating factor. By putting customer needs first in everything they do, teams should ask how they can contribute to building customer loyalty and value through empathetic customer experiences. This extends to a focus on an omnichannel perspective, which allows businesses to connect data points and oversee a customer’s end-to-end journey. Customer data collected across channels can inform targeted marketing communications and sales tactics. Most importantly, marketing and sales teams must tune in and listen to customers, shifting their mindset from channel metrics to a customer-centric one to play a part in delivering great customer experiences.

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There has been more emphasis on creating valuable customer experiences in this downtime; can you share a few thoughts on creating loyalty among customers with a strong CX strategy?

The pandemic has taken its toll on people around the globe, with many struggling to juggle the loss of jobs, new caretaker positions, anxieties, and being physically disconnected from loved ones. More than ever, people want that human connection, and so businesses must focus on creating empathetic, authentic experiences that address customer needs. The key to this is putting your customers first in everything, ensuring their needs sit at the heart of your CX strategy. Doing so ensures you add genuine value with interactions that capture their loyalty and requires a trifecta of people, process and technology. Agents that know how to connect to customers with empathy must have the right context to help them effectively, and the right tools to do it quickly. With today’s digital customer experience driven by technology platforms, digital strategies and data capabilities, organizations that truly want to respond to customers’ needs must be investing in their CX process and tools. Only then are they able to deliver the top-notch experiences that connect to their customers and keep them coming back.

How have you seen leading brands (B2B / B2C) drive better online engagement and interactions at the height of this year’s lockdowns?

New messaging capabilities have been a driving factor in creating better online engagement; we’ve seen a 50% surge in messaging-based support tickets over the past eight months. Live chat is now a familiar customer service channel, but how leading brands are upgrading their chat capabilities is a defining feature. These organizations are moving to adopt social messaging platforms, and tie-ups such as Zendesk’s strategic partnership with WhatsApp across Facebook messaging properties works to enable real-time support across messaging channels on web, social, and mobile. The customer demand for such channels is clear – since the beginning of the year, the number of average weekly social commerce tickets in APAC has increased by 66%. More than 34,000 forward-thinking Zendesk customers observing these trends have already shown strong demand for Facebook’s messaging channels by adding WhatsApp and/or Messenger to their support offerings.

As the holiday season sets in; how do you feel marketing and sales can dovetail strategies to maximize opportunity during this time?

With popularity of e-commerce exponentially boosted amidst the pandemic, we are taking on the holiday season in a thriving digital-first environment. This has blurred the lines between distinct channels, as customer support, sales, and marketing interactions now intertwine to become a medley of possible touchpoints to win customers over. As more shoppers flock to stores (online and in store), what will set businesses apart is how they tap on marketing, sales, and support teams to engage customers in their end-to-end journey with responsive and authentic interactions.  As these different functions across the business collaborate, they can ensure a seamless experience for customers, from purchase to after-sales support. Full-funnel visibility makes this possible, and sales CRMs such as Zendesk Sell can play a crucial role in helping businesses juggle better conversations and smoother pipelines to close important holiday sales.

Can you take us through some of the top sales technologies / marketing technologies that over the years have driven customer value and outcomes in your journey? What are some top tips you’d share with teams when it comes to choosing / implementing sales technologies today?

There are thousands of tools available for today’s sales and marketing teams which drive our strategic functions. Essential technologies such as CRMs, sales intelligence, conversion optimization and marketing automation can uncover the customer insights you need to refine sales and marketing strategies, but companies must ensure that new tools can connect with existing systems, rather than adding a silo of data clutter. That’s why having open and flexible platforms (such as!) Zendesk Sunshine to build products, systems and tools upon play an important role in enabling that seamless cross-channel integration. Doing so gives teams a holistic view of the customer that will transform the sales and marketing functions.

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