What to Expect From a Salesforce Consulting Partner in Retail

You have advanced your brand to the world’s #1 CRM for retail, Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC). Your business will now need assistance in the implementation process, customization, data integration, business strategies, AppExchange, and much more to scale at ease. Choosing an experienced and efficient Salesforce Consulting Partner with a Managed Services team to align your platform’s capabilities is vital to achieve your business goals. The team must be comprised of experienced experts with robust collaboration and communication skills to guide your business forward.

When seeking a proven consulting partner for your business, you’ll want to look for these key signs and qualities to ensure your entering into a reliable and trustworthy relationship. 

Five Key Signs of an Experienced Retail Salesforce Consulting Partner

1. Fluid and Flexible Implementation Processes 

Outstanding customer service stems from a portfolio of expertise. An experienced Salesforce Consulting Partner offers a multi-faceted Managed Services team model that put clients first. The customer-centric strategy contributes to dedicated client success managers, case managers, project managers, technical leads, and subject matter experts in digital experience and data services. This team should work in synergy to accomplish the following: 

• Establish achievable ecommerce goals via constructive team engagement 
• Offer strategic guidance to drive maximum site performance and maintenance 
• Cooperatively develop a site strategy and a prioritized work plan 
• Continuously work to improve conversion rates by removing roadblocks 
• Ensure shopping and buying experiences remain best-in-class 

2. Dedicated Experts on the Managed Services Team

More than support, a committed Managed Services team will provide proactive and strategic guidance through meaningful team collaboration. They should be an extension of your in-house talent and offer industry insight expertise to navigate and build on Salesforce and create multi-cloud experiences with your business goals in mind. These initiatives should result in improved workflow efficiencies, stronger roadmaps, and better customer experiences.   

Find a Salesforce Consulting Partner that offers a dedicated team with 360-degree coverage of the following: 

• Account planning and strategy to maximize the value of Salesforce.
• Technical issue management, new release updates, and resource planning.
• Technical leadership for quality product management and architecture harmony with strategic objectives.
• Multi-cloud expertise for automation and optimization of cross-cloud integrations.
• UX Developers to structure the user experience so that customers find what they need, when they need it.
• Composable Commerce specialists and enable real-time in-house site updates.
• Digital Marketing experts to strategize a conversion and engagement strategy.
• Project Management to deliver implementations that bring the big picture ideas to life, on time and on budget.

3. Salesforce Certified Experts to Deliver Strategic Business Growth

Salesforce Consulting Partners often try to deliver technical expertise on many commerce platforms. Finding a partner that is solely focused on Salesforce can offer many advantages: 

• Salesforce focused experts concentrating on one platform deliver faster results while supporting the budget with more precise expertise in planning, programming, and execution. 
• Salesforce certified experts have the knowledge for what and how custom applications can be implemented and grow revenue on time by cutting cost across a multi-cloud experience.  

4. Streamlined Communication Effort 

A Salesforce Consulting Partner should provide full transparency. You should expect frequent meetings and reporting from their Managed Services team, with clear roadmaps of current work, future plans, and results from past projects.  

Some partners will provide you with access to online customer portal for a real-time view of active projects and their progress. A good Salesforce managed partner will always keep you in the loop on all communication regarding what is happening with your business. 

5. Rapid Roadblock Resolution 

Time is money in ecommerce. If your site is down, or not operating at peak performance, it can impact your bottom line. It is vital to have a Managed Services team who is available to address and resolve issues 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Having this flexibility and dedication from a good Managed Services partner shows that your business is as important to them as it is to you. 

Expect Solid References

Every company operates differently. Be sure you start a relationship with a Salesforce Consulting Partner that has customers willing to speak well on their behalf. Ask lots of questions and be sure that they are a fit for your business. Digging in and asking the tough questions will help guide you to the right partner. 

Here are some important questions to ask:

• What made you choose the Salesforce platform? 
• Does your Salesforce Consulting Partner have a dedicated Managed Services team? 
• Do they understand your long-term business goals and short-term technical needs? 
• Do they use a proven release process? 
• Is your site being monitored to ensure platform performance optimization? 
• Do they offer recommendations for user interface elements that successfully elevated your conversion optimization? 
• Do they have user experience designers who know how to build and deploy customer-centric experiences?
• Was a composable commerce storefront option discussed to allow for quick and flexible site updates?
• Were your projects delivered on-time and on-budget? 
• What is the protocol for issue management and questions? 
• In case of an emergency, does your Salesforce partner have 24/7 phone, email, and web customer support? 
• Do they have merchandizing, digital marketing, AI, user experience, and other digital transformation teams focused on Retail? 

Download our recommended reference questions for when you are looking for your Salesforce Consulting Partner.

Moving Forward with Confidence

Selecting the right Salesforce Consulting Partner is paramount for maximizing the potential of your Salesforce Commerce Cloud implementation. A proficient partner will offer fluid and flexible implementation processes, a dedicated team of experts, Salesforce-focused expertise, streamlined communication efforts, and rapid roadblock resolution. By evaluating these key signs and qualities, you can ensure a fruitful and enduring relationship that propels your retail business towards its goals with confidence and efficiency. If you are ready to explore how a dedicated Managed Services team like the experienced group of Salesforce experts at RafterOne can support you, we would be happy to discuss.