From the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles to the skyscrapers in every corner of the world, Saint-Gobain Glass, with its remarkable 350-year run, is reflecting the world around us one glass at a time. One of the most trusted names in the construction industry, Saint-Gobain Glass entered the Indian market in the year 2000, having foreseen the sizable opportunity the country offered.
Over 70% of India is yet to be built; this means there is a huge market for construction. And this, in turn, means there is an increasing demand for glass. Saint-Gobain Glass today has a 177-acre glass plant in Chennai that delivers high performance, energy-efficient glass to the building industry.
With a wide range of customers including construction developers, architects, and consultants, Hemant Rathod, Head of Sales, Saint-Gobain Glass, India, explains how Saint- Gobain is leveraging Salesforce to simplify the customer experience.
Staying ahead of the curve
Saint-Gobain Glass has always been ahead of the times in equipping its workforce with the latest technology. From providing iPads to its sales team at a time when it was unheard of, or developing its own sales portal to capture sales data and streamline operations, we have always been quick to embrace technology. In line with this tech-focused culture, when it was time to upgrade to a sophisticated CRM solution, the choice was simple.
Saint-Gobain Glass had used a home-grown CRM solution for more than a decade and were looking for a next-gen solution that was capable of scaling and was similar to ours. Salesforce is a robust CRM platform which offers extensive customisation capabilities as well.
Polishing operations with Salesforce
Saint-Gobain Glass uses Salesforce today to streamline lead management, capture and consolidate customer interactions, and increase sales process efficiency.
Activities across the sales pipeline are consolidated on Sales Cloud, including recording tasks, scheduling sales appointments, and recording every customer interaction on the one platform. Sales reps on the field use the Salesforce mobile application to capture project data on-the-go, including storing geo-tagged pictures of the project location.
This single customer view is allowing Saint-Gobain Glass to have smarter, more data-driven conversations with customers and offer them solutions that are truly mapped to their needs.
The team has also created automated workflows and approvals for efficient implementation that reduce manual error and save time, and drive sales team productivity. Within a year of implementation, the sales team was recording twice the number of sales meetings on Salesforce.
The comprehensive project management on one platform has also enabled greater internal collaboration and easy handovers at Saint-Gobain. Teams across the organisation use Chatter to stay updated and collaborate easily on projects.
With all the project and customer data easily available in one place, the leadership team is able to take more strategic decisions around project and customer prioritisation.
The data also helps the leadership team monitor sales performance on a real-time basis. Ultimately, the platform has helped to consolidate all operations, eliminating the need for any other solution. The implementation of Salesforce within Saint-Gobain Glass has seen very strong uptake. The Salesforce mobile app alone has seen an adoption rate of 90%, with sales reps enjoying the flexibility and convenience it offers on the ground.
Mirroring a bright future
With new and exciting technology developments every day, Saint-Gobain Glass wants to stay on top of the game by extending the company’s winning CRM solution to channel partners. Ultimately, we want to create an inclusive digital ecosystem where we all engage in efficient and productive work.
Adding to this, Deepak Pargaonkar, VP, Solution Engineering, Salesforce India said, “The infrastructure industry in India has gone through several ups and downs in the last two years. However, moving forward, technology is playing a key role in streamlining processes between multiple stakeholders. Saint-Gobain has leveraged Salesforce to streamline lead management, capture and consolidate customer interactions, and increase sales process efficiency. Ultimately, simplifying the customer experience”.