Universal Timeline

As customers expect more from companies, the idea of the “customer platform” is essential. Salesforce is increasingly acting as an abstract customer lifecycle and interaction layer that sits above traditional transactional systems.

Every person that touches the customer along their lifecycle should be a participant on a common, customer-centric platform. The more participants on the platform, the richer and more actionable the customer information, the more power the company has to innovate new ways to leverage that information to transform the customer experience. Customer satisfaction is higher when the customer does not need to repeat themselves across channels. The value of each customer interaction is higher.

The use of a timeline is a tremendously powerful way to show interactions and events across the dimension of time, where the most recent event is clearly visible, no matter what type of object it is or which related list it comes from. When engaging with a customer, that level of visibility dramatically shortens the amount of time to begin the conversation, reduces repetition and handle time, and makes cross-channel interactions more seamless.