COVID -19 IMPACT
Physical and Mental Health of Employees is Top Priority Thierry Nicault, the Regional VP for Enterprise Business Unit (EBU) for MEA and Central Europe, Salesforce, speaks about the measures his company has undertaken to minimize the business and financial impact During this COVID-19 crisis, what measures have you undertaken to continue your own business without disruption? We remain committed to flattening the curve. Aligned with various local and national government guidelines, we have extended our office closures in North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM to early May. Our top priority remains the physical and mental health of our employees and their families. We’re offering virtual workouts and meditations. We are hosting guest speakers to discuss how to manage anxiety and help our children and families through this difficult time. Supporting our employees, we’re providing technology and content for WideOpenSchool.org, a new free online resource from Common Sense Media to support families and educators transitioning to remote learning as a result of COVID-19. These times remind us we’re more connected than ever. We continue to look forward, to find ways to help, to look for hope and are humbled by those who have committed to doing the same. We continue to support our local communities at the local, national and global levels. To date, we’ve donated $3 million to UCSF’s COVID-19 Response Fund, the CDC Foundation's Emergency Response Fund and San Francisco’s Give2SF Fund, and matching employee donations. We announced we’re expanding our support for those affected by donating $1.5 million to organizations like the Italian Red Cross, Madrid Food Bank and New York COVID-19 Emergency Fund. The funds will support mitigation and direct relief for vulnerable populations. What measures and initiatives have been taken to provide uninterrupted service to customers? We remain laser focused on helping
our customers in the Middle East and around the globe navigate through this crisis. For example, we are making some of our technology available for free for a period of time to help our customers and partners navigate through the crisis. As coronavirus deepens, more than 3,500 organizations worldwide are using Salesforce Care solutions across customer contact centers, emergency response, small business support, and work from home. Salesforce and AWS are giving Salesforce Care customers free access to Amazon Connect for deploying virtual contact centers in minutes. We’re also supporting re-skilling with a surge in our Trailhead content. Supporting Middle East organizations in their move to online shopping and deliver, we’re launching 3 Quick start packages from our Commerce Cloud portfolio to accelerate e-commerce transformation, and delivering service continuity from physical to digital commerce with Quick Start packs. Which top industry verticals and markets have you seen the maximum traction? Organizations need to adopt a crisis response strategy upfront called “from breakdown to breakthrough” to become stronger 18 months later than if the crisis had not happened. CEOs should adopt 5 points: • Collaborate with the community and turn them into allies • Exceed customer expectations in unexpected ways • Listen for the customer-driven single source of truth and share data-driven insights • Plan for the new normal – and start the transformation now with a team that works solely on post-crisis projects • Brand values should guide your daily problem-solving and serve
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communities and the world as human beings How has COVID-19 impacted business with existing customers in those verticals and markets? Business priorities have shifted from playing offense to defense. It is a critical time to focus on helping new and existing customers to extract value from products and services. To address their concerns, organizations should consider creating a resource center or FAQ page. Businesses can empower customers with self-service apps that have knowledge articles and FAQs. Now is the time to optimize the mobile experience through either responsive web pages or native mobile apps. What should companies do to weather the challenges faced due to the COVID-19 situation? Top ten points for sellers include: • Whether what you’re selling will put your customer in a stronger personal or professional position right now • Add value to customers at each touch point and let customers set the pace • Play the long term with customers • Consider emotional intelligence and err on the side of caution • Listen to customers and prospects, and infuse messaging with empathy and value-based selling • Embrace inside sales • With sales reps spending only one-third of their time selling, ask your sellers how to set them up for success following coronavirus • The future of work is going to be a lot more reliant on video and CRM, and a little more forgiving of those working from home • Video is truly bridging the gap between people during this crisis • Spend your time brushing up on sales skills with online resources
