Peakon
Peakon takes employee success global with Salesforce
Successful employees are productive employees – and more likely to be loyal to your company. The critical connection between business success and employee engagement is more widely understood today - people-forward businesses are looking inwards, and listening to their employees. They understand that people success leads to business success.
From construction workers in India, to software developers in California, or hospitality staff in London, it’s no surprise that highly engaged employees have 37% fewer sick days, are 30% more productive, and deliver up to 2.5 times better customer satisfaction. And to help companies get closer to their employees, Peakon has built a platform to find out what they really think about their jobs.
Peakon has been blazing a trail in gathering and analysing employee insights across every sector since 2014. Machine learning helps it to deliver personalised insights that identify actions that need to be taken faster, it helps companies build the best teams, and as a result it reduces churn.
“In uncertain economic and political times we provide a safe space for employers to give their employees a voice and help introduce initiatives that make a difference. For example, when companies need to meet diversity goals, we can identify how inclusive their culture really is,” said Dan Rogers, co-founder and CMO at Peakon.
The UK-based platform boasts a 98% renewal rate and industry-leading Net Promoter Score of 60. Although it started with a customer base of start-ups, global clients now include EasyJet, Verizon, BMW, and Pret a Manger. “Some customers have reduced churn by up to 50%, while others have completely redefined the way they operate after working with us,” said Rogers.
Finding the right tool for the job.
Peakon employs more than 200 staff across five offices in London, Auckland, Copenhagen, Berlin, and New York. It’s currently working to raise its profile and awareness of how valuable and powerful workforce insights can be. “Companies spend so much time obsessing about customer data, yet they think employees are the most important key to success – so why aren’t they looking at employee data as well?” he added.
To meets its global growth goals, the company realised it needed to get its data in order before scaling up its sales team. As the leading CRM platform, Salesforce was the obvious choice, and it implemented Sales Cloud in 2015.
“Finding the right platform is like finding the right employee,” explained Rogers. “There’s no point in looking to save and hiring the wrong person when you can invest in the best talent – or the best technology.”
Joining up sales and marketing teams.
With Sales Cloud Lightning, leads are automatically routed through to sales reps. The team qualifies leads, ensuring they’re a good fit for the business, before approaching potential customers. When an opportunity is created, account executives work through five sales stages: from qualification, to accepted, and negotiated. Prospects requesting a demo on the website are also captured in Sales Cloud.
The marketing team works closely with sales to pass leads over at the right time. “The hand-off point isn’t where they throw it over the fence. Everyone has an interest in reacting to leads, so they’re qualified vigorously, and campaign decisions are based on whether we’re creating opportunities.”
Campaign data is pushed into leads and opportunities, to provide an easy view of the sales funnel and win rate and to help calculate a quick return on ad spend. “Visibility into which tactics are working and which aren’t has helped drive growth as we expand globally,” explained Rogers.
Sales reps automate administrative tasks.
Key processes have now been standardised across all regions, so sales directors can base their decisions on company-wide guidelines and encourage healthy competition among nearly 70-strong sales team. And the team is clocking up to 40 new customers a month from the 2,500 leads coming in. “We now have a single source of truth to manage our KPIs across marketing and sales,” added Rogers. “We can find out what’s preventing a lead from closing and where data is getting stuck. Sales Cloud helps us get everyone on board.”
By automating administrative tasks, for example with Salesforce Inbox, Peakon’s sales reps are free to spend more time with clients. “We’re able to log email activity against the relevant prospect or customer,” said Rowan Bailey, Head of Revenue Operations. “We love being able to see conversations progressing, so directors can get an overview, or guide conversations and provide extra training.”
Putting forecasting in the spotlight.
A solid platform to manage peaks in demand.
Making customer advocacy key focus for 2020.
Next on the agenda for Peakon is helping advocates to share knowledge and ask questions, and the company is currently running a pilot on Community Cloud. The community will be used by a new dedicated customer advocacy team, who will also track word-of-mouth referrals from customers.
As Peakon focuses on building up its client base over the next year, Salesforce will help it scale faster and more efficiently. “Salesforce is the backbone providing a single source of truth. It helps us beat the competition - and our 98% renewal rate proves it,” said Rogers.