If you\u2019re a leader in the technology industry, you may feel like the ground has completely shifted beneath you. Years of eye-popping growth and hiring binges have given way to a new reality marked by smaller budgets and, for many, smaller teams. But for all that has changed, there is one constant: when you put your customer at the center of everything, you succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to sacrifice customer experiences to do more with less. To the contrary, becoming more efficient means you can focus your resources on those experiences. Many\u00a0leading tech companies\u00a0are doing just that.<\/span><\/p>\n The road map for success in 2023 and beyond is about adapting to economic uncertainty in ways that make you a true customer company. We\u2019re seeing a broad shift among tech companies to these new strategies to not only survive but thrive:<\/span><\/p>\n Here I\u2019ll explain what I mean by each of these trends, and how you can think about each in the context of your business.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep trust first<\/b><\/p>\n At Salesforce,\u00a0trust\u00a0is our number one value. Customers trust our technology and infrastructure to perform, to be available, and to be secure. Your customers may trust you for other reasons unique to your business. Maybe it\u2019s trust that you will maintain the privacy of their data, or\u00a0your compliance with privacy regulations. Maybe it\u2019s trust in your transparency with them.<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever it is you do to build trust, the key is keeping that value at the forefront of your approach to solving the unique challenges of 2023. That may be easy to overlook when you\u2019re under pressure to cut costs without sacrificing revenue growth, but your customers will demand it.<\/span><\/p>\n According to our\u00a0State of the Connected Customer\u00a0report, 88% of customers believe trust actually becomes\u00a0<\/span>more<\/span><\/i>\u00a0important in times of change.<\/span><\/p>\n Help your teams become more flexible and agile<\/b><\/p>\n If you\u2019re suddenly left with smaller teams, how do you get more out of the people you still have? You may need to ask them to take on new roles or different responsibilities than they\u2019re used to.<\/span><\/p>\n Part of the answer is better\u00a0employee upskilling, giving your teams the professional development they need to adapt in a rapidly changing environment. Part of it is giving them the\u00a0digital tools and best practices\u00a0that, particularly in a hybrid workplace, create an effective balance of flexibility and accountability.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the biggest wins come from equipping your teams with\u00a0technology\u00a0that helps them succeed faster. Tech companies engaging in digital commerce, for example, can now access a\u00a0flexible, headless commerce storefront\u00a0that offers pre-packaged integrations, pricing, and implementation accelerators with best-of-breed partners.\u00a0Compostable Storefront\u00a0can help tech companies set up and sell faster across their platforms while accelerating time to value and lowering the total cost of ownership.<\/span><\/p>\n Likewise, your service teams can resolve incidents faster with\u00a0digital tools that enable automated incident response, interruption-free troubleshooting, and streamlined incident review. The result isn\u2019t just faster case resolution for your customers \u2013 it\u2019s productivity gains for your agents.<\/span><\/p>\n Simplify your tech stack and unify your data<\/b><\/p>\n Another key to becoming more efficient is simplifying your tech stack. One important way many tech companies are doing this is by consolidating vendors. The average business uses a whopping\u00a0976 applications. That creates a lot of inefficiencies, which is part of why we\u2019re starting to see\u00a0<\/span>a shift in approach<\/span><\/a>. According to our latest\u00a0State of Sales report, 94% of sales organizations plan to consolidate their tech stack in the next 12 months.<\/span><\/p>\n Just as important as simplifying your tech stack is unifying your customer data streams. This will help you get more actionable, data-driven insights faster, so you can stay ahead of your competitors and ensure that your customers remain at the center of the tough decisions you face.<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, with\u00a0Genie Customer Data Cloud, your business can analyze billions of data points stored and harmonized in\u00a0Genie\u00a0using Tableau, a\u00a0visual analytics platform. You can use this to drive down data warehousing costs, increase speed to insight, and enable better decision making by\u00a0bringing all your data and analytics together\u00a0in one place.<\/span><\/p>\n Use automation and AI to drive cost savings and efficiencies<\/b><\/p>\n Even if you do all of the above, it\u2019s nearly impossible to be as efficient as you can be in 2023 without taking full advantage of automation and AI. Doing so can\u00a0<\/span>free up your teams<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from menial tasks, giving them more time to focus on where they truly add value. And that\u2019s a huge need for many businesses. According to our State of Sales report, 72% of sellers are spending time on \u201cnon-selling\u201d activities.<\/span><\/p>\n Your teams can also make smarter decisions faster with AI.\u00a0<\/span>Revenue Intelligence for Technology<\/span><\/a>, for instance, uses the power of\u00a0<\/span>Einstein AI<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to help your sellers make better, data-driven forecasting and pipeline management decisions so they can be more productive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Only 33% of sales organizations say they\u2019re currently using AI, but the highest sales performers are 1.9 times more likely than underperformers to use it.<\/span><\/p>\n Service contact centers are also smarter with AI. With\u00a0<\/span>Einstein Conversation Insights<\/span><\/a>, agents can automatically identify customer pain points in real time to improve customer satisfaction scores and reduce churn.<\/span><\/p>\n\n