Transcript of a short celebratory Salesforce video where multiple speakers reflect on the importance of the customer voice and the Idea Exchange over ten years. It describes feedback moving from emails/cases into a transparent, global Idea Exchange that influenced product roadmaps, release planning, and company culture, and cites milestone counts while thanking customers.
Questions this video answers
11,000 cases a month
66,000 ideas
3 million points retired
Chapters
Take 1.
Customers for Salesforce are the reason that we exist.
The customer's voice is absolutely an essential part of our culture.
Even the smallest customer and the biggest customer have that same voice.
They have something to say, and they always show us the way. There was always the commitment to listening, but there was not the content that we could understand, synthesize, and react to.
Early on, the voice of the customer was an email or a case that was logged in the service.
11,000 cases a month later, we realized we needed a different solution, One that was more global, more transparent, and allowed customers to connect to each other in a whole new way.
We launched the Idea Exchange to give rise to more of the voice of the customer, and we've grown an organization around that to drive our product roadmap.
There was this groundswell. There was this emotional reaction to it.
The fact that Salesforce provides a venue and a forum for their users to communicate. It's a phenomenon that I haven't seen anywhere else.
The Idea Exchange really allows the customer to democratize product development.
Here's this company taking into account what it is that we as customers are looking to have as functionality or features, and they're delivering on that.
When I get that email that says, hey, you know your idea is coming in the next release, that's listening to your customers. Because I said, I need this, and you put it in, that's amazing.
It seems like they're always listening and always making it better. You asked for it, we're delivering. Here it is.
Every single thing we do is informed by the feedback we're getting from the Idea Exchange. It has changed our approach to release planning completely.
By working with them, by partnering with them, by having that conversation, they had a place to be able to provide input and make a change.
It's really about trying to think like one of our customers.
And I wouldn't say that we've always gotten it completely right, and we heard that loud and clear from our customer base. There's been times where we feel like we haven't been listened to or heard as clearly as we would like.
Our customers said, it's great what you're doing with innovation, but remember to stay.
True to the core.
And I think our customers were just showing us that we weren't balanced.
And true to the core now is a phenomenon, and it became part of the fabric of how we do product development.
It made us a better company, and it made Salesforce a better product.
66,000 ideas later, 3 million points retired. We would not have that growth if we were not delivering on what people.
Were asking for 10 years on it is still revolutionary. It's my guiding light. It's the thing that makes sure that I'm staying on the path and that I'm keeping our customers first.
We keep pivoting back to the customer every time we do that. It helps refocus us on who we are and helps us be successful.
So thank you, thank you, thank you for 10amazing years.
Salesforce is better because of you.
You helped me build the service we have today, and I look forward to the next decade ahead.
