The Salesforce Customer Journey: how Belgian companies conquer the world with our finest chocolate, fries and beer running on Salesforce

We often talk about how companies can use Salesforce technology to personalize experiences and improve their customer journey. But what better way to demonstrate this than by visiting customers who put those words into practice… Recently, we took a group of journalists on a road trip in an iconic vintage, Salesforce-blue, Volkswagen bus. The destination? Three Belgian companies that give consumers around the world a taste of our national pride: chocolate, fries, and beer.

Each product stems from a long tradition and has an authentic story. That’s certainly true for the Belgian “praline” – the word does not even exist in most languages. Neuhaus, the first stop of the “Salesforce Customer Journey”, invented the praline more than 100 years ago. The company once began as a Brussels pharmacy that came up with the innovative idea of coating their medication in chocolate. Soon Neuhaus switched to a more palatable filling and the praline was born.

The chocolate of choice for personalized taste

Today, Neuhaus has a huge facility producing over 80 different pralines that are distributed to all corners of the world. The company has not lost its innovative spirit and knows the importance of a customer-centric approach. After all, as their CEO puts it, “each praline dies in the consumer’s mouth”. Neuhaus has come a long way. A few years ago, they did not even have first-party customer data. Now they have more than 500,000 customers registered through the Insider program, an initiative that allows Neuhaus to better understand their consumer’s expectations.

This is where Salesforce comes in. As soon as a customer enters a physical or online store, Neuhaus wants to know who that person is. The customer journey can be rather complex. Since 70% of all pralines sold by Neuhaus are purchased as a gift, the company has to focus on both the buyer and the lucky person who is about to receive this mouth-watering treat. That’s why Neuhaus is using most of the tools in the Salesforce toolbox: Commerce Cloud to power the online store, Marketing Cloud to engage their customers with personalized offers, and Service Cloud to harness the full potential of their data. In addition, they also leverage the power of AI to make customized suggestions based on the customer’s shopping behavior and build meaningful and relevant relationships with customers.

Turning a potato into a highly personalized product

A similarly impressive production site can be found at the location of our tour’s next stop. In Wielsbeke (West Flanders), Agristo produces fries – note that I deliberately avoid the common term “French fries”, because we all know that fries are Belgian…

At Agristo, customers can order fries and other frozen potato products under a private label for use in restaurants, hotels or supermarkets. This means that personalization is a critical ingredient for Agristo. Every customer has different expectations when it comes to quality, size, taste, packaging, etc. Agristo obviously already produces the best potato products in the world, so how can they further stand out by optimizing their services? To find the answer to that question, the company recently completed the implementation of Salesforce Sales Cloud. The software enables sales teams to efficiently support and connect with customers and prospects, while providing highly personalized experiences.

In the coming months, Agristo will explore even more Salesforce features that should allow them to streamline processes, eliminate silo’s, and ensure that every team works with the same customer data. At the production site, we also got an evenly impressive look into Agristo’s vision and approach on sustainability. For instance, the company also manages to invent new products with the residual waste from other products so nothing goes to waste.?

Bringing order to the data of a large brewery

Last stop of the tour: Haacht Brewery. This family brewery was the first in Belgium to make a pilsner and is now the third largest pilsner brewery in the country. They also brew other beers, of course, and even distribute soft drinks and coffee. The complexity of their business is one reason why they needed a powerful customer data platform.

Like the other two companies on the tour, Haacht Brewery has a customer-oriented mindset. Last year, they began implementing Salesforce to connect data about customers, markets, products, and even the buildings they own. By bringing this data together, the brewery can break down siloes and work more efficiently towards a common goal with all departments. Even the maintenance crews who go on-site to clean the pipes of tap installations often hear information that can be used to improve the overall customer experience. That’s why Haacht Brewery also leverages features such as Field Service, an extension of Salesforce Service Cloud that boosts the productivity of remote workers.

An inspiring first Salesforce Customer Journey ended in the bar of Haacht Brewery, where the journalists could reflect on the stories of our customers while enjoying a refreshing beer. The secret ingredient in each success story? They all focus on personalizing experiences throughout the customer journey. Ultimately, Belgium may be the birthplace of pralines, fries and beer, but we need a customer-oriented approach if we want to conquer the world with these authentic products. The companies on our tour certainly understood this, so our culinary heritage is in good hands.

Feel free to share your thoughts, or ask me questions if you would like to know more about these cases or the Salesforce Customer Journey.