Reflections on a Troubled Relationship with Salesforce.com

Yet another frustrated Salesforce.com post. It's a reminder of the level of frustration with Salesforce.com, simmering beneath the surface. Perhaps the best indication of a problem in a relationship is when you exploring your options. It's one thing to think about alternatives, it's another thing to begin exploring alternatives.

Customer Churn
Enterprise software is not quite the same as your cell phone carrier. Despite the illusory promise of being able to take all of your data in Salesforce at any time, changing the business processes that you've built and the workflows that have been established isn't as simple as a data export. You don't just port your number -- switching to a new platform takes time and implementation efforts. And so, if you're an established customer with a company like Salesforce.com, extracting yourself isn't a decision that you make off the cuff -- and the people that work in enterprise software know this.

Unfortunately, there's a certain arrogance that comes with those "switching" challenges. Often, what this means is that businesses take their customers for granted. Look at Oracle, SAP or a variety of enterprise products -- it's one of the things that frustrate people the most about dealing with companies like this.

In the past, Salesforce has purported to be different. It's pushed aspects of its business model that emphasize their customer focus, like their old tag line about being focused on making their customer's successful. The idea that you can just pack up your data and go is supposed to embody that difference.

So when you find yourself looking at competitive solutions -- like SugarCRM and Oracle OnDemand -- in order to see how feasible it would be to switch, you know that a threshold has been reached. The company has lost your loyalty. Like working in a job that you're not happy in, if the right opportunity presents itself, you'll switch. This is the blow-back that comes with the arrogance of an entrenched solution.

The Product Is Not The Problem
As marketers, we sometimes find ourselves in the unpleasant situation of having to find a positive message for a shitty product or feature. With Salesforce.com, nine times out of ten, the product is not the problem -- it's the other aspects of business outside of software. From WTF Pricing to the erosion of their customer support, I've had my frustrations with their approach to business. But if I were to describe my overall experience with the Salesforce.com brand, I would summarize is like this:

• Really great software product with a shifty, used car salesman business wrapper. Try to keep one hand on your wallet at all times and read everything twice before you sign. 

Perhaps that sounds harsh. Don't get me wrong, I think that the majority of vendors in the enterprise software space are similar. I remember my first encounter with Salesforce.com sales back in 2004, two guys in sports coats, overdressed for the company and the industry that we were in, looking like sales guy hipsters getting ready to try to hustle us.

To be fair, that isn't my only experience with Salesforce.com people I've encountered over the years, but hovers like a dark shadow over most experiences with the business portion of the business. In contrast, most of the actual software and product people seem to be genuine, nice, and technically skilled at one they do -- this is one of the upsides of the Dreamforce experience, when you can encounter the people behind the business wrapper who are actually involved in crafting the product.

The pricing portion of dealing with Salesforce.com is probably one of the worst aspects of dealing with the company. While many aspects of the "you just pay this per month and you get access to all of this" pricing model seems straightforward enough, it's a landscape of add-ons and extras that become increasing segmented and monetized as they work to wring more revenue from their customer base in order to wow their shareholders. And so they highlight new features in the key note presentations, "wouldn't it be great if you can look at your customer and know everything about them from their Linked In profile"? It would, only that feature will cost you $10 per month for each of your users. How about record de-duplication -- pretty cool right? That's another $15 per month. Wouldn't it be great if you could access all of the information about your prospective customer's business? We have it right here in the business we acquired, Data.com, and it's yours to access for $25 per month. And you've got to have floor mats, right?

It's like your playing three card monte with a hustler. "See here, this card is the value proposition, the ROI for the game. Keep your eye on that card and you can't lose. Oh, look at that. You almost had it. But wait, don't quit now." And this goes on and on while they shake you down.  

And this is one aspect of dealing with the business that makes it so insufferable. As you deal with the sales guys and the account managers, not only do you get these pricing messages, you also often get the, "this is not me, this is coming down from the top" message. And that's not just a one-off. The "business" of the way that Salesforce does business is entwined in their brand.

And this is why the ugly reality of Salesforce is that, it's often better if you don't have to deal with the company, don't have to engage with the business. When you can simply work with the software, it's a strong product.

Messaging FAIL: Spinning a Salesforce.com Price Increase

Here's a marketing guy quick tip for your sales staff, brought to you courtesy of a recent meeting with Salesforce.com regarding a price increase that they have decided to drop on our account.

If your business develops messaging to explain a price increase and that messaging doesn't land well with your customers, arguing with them in an effort to "help" them to accept your messaging will not make things better.

Balancing the Churn Equation
The bottom line with a price increase on an enterprise SaaS product is that it's an effort to manipulate the existing balance between mining equity from the business (for shareholders) against the retention equity of the customers. The big question underlying the whole equation is the availability of competitive alternatives and the cost to switch.

But there is an invisible part of the scale, hidden from the immediate balance. It's the place where the little things accumulate. Maybe it's dropped calls and disconnects for your cell phone carrier. Or that time at the restaurant when they got your order wrong. It's the little moments that begin adding up -- yet another brick in the wall -- building toward an opportunity to switch.

It makes for an interesting question. If there was a direct competitor to Salesforce.com with none of the traditional baggage of a company like Oracle or SAP -- say if Workday did CRM -- what do you think the landscape would look like? Would you switch?

While the 'viable alternative' question is a little hazy, one thing is clear. With many of it's business practices, Salesforce.com is very efficient at moving bricks into the desire to change side of the opportunity-to-switch equation.

I've going to write more about this whole price-increase thing in the next couple of days. This is just one brick.

Great Customer Service: The North Face

Some time ago -- I'm not sure how long it's been -- I got a new backpack for carrying my laptop. For many of us that travel, luggage and laptop bags can be a big deal. Part of the reason is that, while there are many mediocre designs, it can be a challenge to find all of the features that really fit your style and travel requirements.

This laptop backpack, the most amazing laptop backpack that I've owned, is made by The North Face and, apparently, sold exclusively through REI. It's called the Overhaul 40. It's got a huge carrying capacity -- easily capable of carrying multiple laptops (as is sometimes a requirement). It also features some great luggage features like a side carrying handle and the sleeved back that allows you to put it over the handle on luggage. But best of all, it's a really great backpack, with good padding, a good hip belt, and a great balance on your back. It's designed like it was made by a company that makes gear for trekking. Even heavily loaded, it feels well balanced.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was bummed when I accidentally closed the car trunk on the hip belt buckle. At first, I didn't think anything bad happened. Then later, as the hip belt buckle just fell off, I realized that the cross connector had broken.

I was really bummed, but figured that with some looking, I could probably get a replacement plastic buckle at REI. And that was my plan until I was talking to one of my colleagues who does a lot of outdoor stuff. He suggested contacting The North Face, commenting that brands like The North Face and Patagonia have really strong warranties.

A quick search on the Internet, an email to customer service, and within two days, they are shipping me a replacement buckle! As a customer, I am wowed. One more reason why I love my pack. I've become a bigger fan of The North Face than I was previously.

It's a great example of what great customer service can do for your business. Contrast that with the many horror stories that I've written about. The North Face -- I would recommend them.

10 Reasons I Can Skip Dreamforce This Year

I never wind up registering early for Dreamforce because I'm always a mix of one part skeptical that I'll go, one part skeptical as to who (if anybody) will attend with me, one part skeptical that I'll still be working with the platform in the same capacity, and two or three parts soured on the entire experience (adjust to taste).

Now, as the conference approaches, it's not too hard for me to find more reasons why it may not be worth me attending this year.

• Considering that I was already researching hotels several months ago, I know that there isn't any available hotel space. That means commuting to the city and I now live 30 minutes further from San Francisco after moving out of Mountain View last year.
• I've already been reminded of their loyalty to me as a customer when I was recently contacted by the phone sales guy offering me a 10% discount. The same sales guy told me that they still have access to great nearby hotels, and with shuttles, it shouldn't be a problem. Sales guys, Salesforce.com sales guys, or people telling me things that I know are miss-information -- I'm not sure which is worse.
• I just got the email announcing the band for the Gala this year, and it's Bruno Mars. I saw his act during the Superbowl Halftime show and that was more than enough for me. At least if I do go to Dreamforce this year, I know one night I won't feel compelled to stay late.

I know that this is only three reasons, but it's three reasons that speak loudly to me when I wake up to find the Bruno Mars announcement in my inbox. Three big loud reasons not to go. And it makes me grumpy. Not feeling positive about the platform or about being a customer. Grumpy.

Add to all of that contract renegotiation, threats of price increases, and I'm not really feeling the love from Salesforce. Instead, I'm wondering how I would design an exit path from Salesforce for the company.

Then again, I didn't get the tele-sales guy's Dreamforce ROI calculator. That probably would have solved everything.

Personal Values and Your Consumer Behavior

How much do your values impact your own personal consumer behavior? Take the Supreme Court ruling on Hobby Lobby versus providing contraception to their employees as an example. Would you consider yourself more or less likely to shop at the place based on the business participation in this legal battle? Regardless of the specific side of the issue you find yourself on, the root question is more about whether, by participating in this legal battle over "values" issues affects your decision to engage in a relationship with the business.

Perhaps it's the circles that I run in, but my friends consumer activities have long been shaped by many of these issues. Back in the nineties, many of my friends used to avoid buying Exxon gas. These days, even as Chick-fil-A restaurants have began popping up all around the south bay, we haven't been to a single one. There are no Hobby Lobby stores here, but if there were, I guarantee you that I, for one, would not be a customer.

Back when I lived in the bible-belt south, I once worked for a music store that, essentially, has a religious test for employment. After I quit working there, they eventually got to a point where they held mandatory prayer meetings with their employees. The idea that, as an employee you might have to participate in a mandatory prayer meeting offended me to the core -- I didn't want to pray, I just wanted to be employed in the music business. For the owners, perhaps it was a moral issue, but for many of the people that worked there, it was more about them exerting their power over employees than it was about shared values. The acceptance of practices like that is one of the reasons why I left the region and found myself much happier here in California where that type of business behavior wasn't tolerated.

Our everyday choices are governed by our own values.

In all, the silent embargo against businesses who cross your moral threshold may not significantly impact their bottom line. But, as a consumer, you have a choice, and when businesses engage in polarizing public activities, they should expect to see a cost associated with that. When I don't buy Exxon gas or Chick-fil-A sandwiches, there is no analytic that measures that. There is no survey that says, I didn't come in because your business behavior and my political views don't match. But I represent a percentage of potential business that is lost because of that.

But this isn't completely a this-side-that-side kind of situation. There are business behaviors that are apolitically positive. Compare the Hobby Lobby case to Starbucks recent announcement that it would pay for college for all of it's employees. It's hard to imagine an opposition to their position. It's an example of a business doing something more for employees, versus fighting to do less. So which public activity makes you feel better about doing business with the company?

How Foursquare lost me as a user

Anyone who has been to lunch with me in the past couple of years knows that I have a regular ritual. One of the first things that I do when I get to a restaurant is check in on Foursquare. Recently, as the try to find the sweet spot for engaging with their users and making money, Foursquare split their app into two, launching "Swarm". Swarm is designed for the people that use Foursquare to gather and find their friends. Meanwhile, Foursquare has been relegated to more map exploration functionality.

From one I've read, Foursquare believes that their user base falls into two very distinct camps, the ones that are all about gathering with their friends and the map explorers. Me, I have all of about five friends on Foursquare, and most of them don't use it very much -- if at all. So when I first learned about Swarm, it was pretty clear to me that I was not the target audience. Not something I was planning to download -- despite the pop-ups that started appearing in the Foursquare app.

But then, about a week or so ago, when I went to check in at a restaurant, the Foursquare app told me that there was no more check-ins in Foursquare. That feature had been disabled. The funny thing was, I didn't think of it much the first time I came across it, but the second time I tried to check in a couple of days later, it kind of pissed me off. That check-in process, with all of it's associated historical metrics, had become a data set that I found interesting. And it was gone.

I emailed Foursquare, but they eventually contacted me and suggested that I use Swarm. They might has well have suggested that I use Yelp. Something about the "change this process" that I'm just not willing to do. Almost like, if Levis suddenly quit making pants in my size and suggest instead that I take the next size up and wear a belt. Something in that message is basically saying, "we're done."

Salesforce.com Dreamforce Sales FAIL: A Comedy of Discounts

So I just got a call from a telesales guy at Salesforce. He wanted to see if we were interested in going to Dreamforce this year. I told him that we were considering it, but I still had my reservations and complaints from last year.

He then proceeded to offer me discount codes. It was near the end of the call by the time I got around to asking how much the discount was for -- 10% off the current price. Not exactly a mind blowing discount, but he was excited. In fact, he seemed a bit surprised that I wasn't more excited.

"Just 10%?," I asked.
"It's 10% off the current price, but we can give you more of a discount if you send more than five people," he responded.

I tried to convey my disappointment. As a long time customer that's been to five or so Dreamforce conferences and participated in several rounds of surveys, I actually felt a little insulted. "Is this the best you guys can do," I asked? "Perhaps I should just wait for someone to provide a better discount code."

At that point, he told me he would also send me their ROI calculator to help me better determine the ROI on the experience.

Why Some Sales Experiences Suck
Sometimes, as a sales guy, your job with the customer should be to do no harm. In this case, the experience actually reminded me of the ways that Salesforce.com has really been pissing me off lately. To start with, if you're going to take the time and effort of a direct sales call to my cell phone, you'd better have something exciting and meaningful that you're offering. It had better be special.

Those "special contact" touch points are limited access for a reason. When you turn it into a crappy sales call, you're not winning the hearts and minds of your customers.

The "sending me the ROI calculator" response to the "is that your best discount" question reeks of an un-empowered phone sales agent who isn't really allowed to go off script. In short, he has only one or two tools in his tool bag and doesn't seem to have any direction on when to refer problem calls up the management chain.

Yup, there's nothing like being a long-standing customer that's dropped into a customer service pool that treats you like statistical digit. Perhaps you may want to tweak your algorithm to include time served.

Customer touchpoint FAIL.