The future of work at Croud: Dynamic, flexible and suitable for all experience levels

 

The Croudie Network opens up a world of flexible possibilities for Salesforce professionals and companies.

Croud is a global, full-service digital marketing partner that knows first-hand how difficult it can be for agencies to balance demand with resources.

Sergio Cuerda, Salesforce Practice Lead at Croud, explains: ‘We started 10 years ago and, in that time, have grown from two employees to 400 across the UK, US, Australia and now Dubai. When you’re an ambitious, growing company, there’s always variable demand in terms of work, which can lead to a scramble to hire the right talent.

‘So we spotted an opportunity to create an extensive bench of on-demand digital experts, helping our clients deliver work at scale whenever needed. And that’s how our Croudie Network was born.’

The Croudie Network is made up of over 3000 global members, curated and managed by internal teams. They represent world-class talent in all digital marketing disciplines, so adding Salesforce expertise was the obvious next step.

Sergio continues: ‘I’m familiar with Salesforce as I’m an ex-Marketing Cloud employee and, as an agency, we were also using Salesforce Datorama (now Salesforce Intelligence) in order to deliver excellence in measurement and analytics. About eight months ago, we started talking to clients about the possibility of using the Croudie Network as a way to meet demand for Marketing Cloud roles within the Salesforce ecosystem. It was clear there was appetite from the start.’

 
 
“It’s a very inclusive way of working. Age, gender or location don’t matter and it can be done around other commitments.”
Sergio Cuerda
Salesforce Practice Lead
Croud
 
 
 
 

Dual Benefits

With the Salesforce ecosystem growing and company demand fluctuating, working in this unique way brings many advantages for professionals who value flexibility in their career. ‘Our Croudies simply receive work requests through their inbox, and can accept or decline based on their availability.

‘If you’re thinking about re-entering the workplace or changing your career, it’s the perfect opportunity to build experience by dipping your toe in the water. Or if you’re an actor, for example, and suddenly get an acting job, you can take a break from the Croudie Network entirely and then reactivate your account whenever you like.

‘It’s a very inclusive way of working - age, gender or location don’t matter at all - and it can be done around other commitments, such as parenting, caring or other jobs.’

One of the benefits for companies is that they can employ multiple Croudies with specialist skills to deliver projects. ‘Whatever level of complexity a client needs, we can deliver - and at an adjusted level of pricing according to expertise.

‘To date, we’ve mostly been asked to do medium to high complexity work, but we envisage a situation where we’ll also be asked about less complicated jobs - such as adding users or changing permissions. This means we’ll be able to offer hands-on experience to those who are just entering the Salesforce ecosystem too.’

Ensuring that Croudies stay up-to-date with skills is something that Croud takes seriously. ‘We always want our Croudies to feel they can progress in their career, so our Croud Academy Live offers weekly webinars led by members from our internal team. But Trailhead (Salesforce’s online, gamified learning platform) is just too good to try and replicate, so for anything else we just point people there. It’s fantastic!‘

Building Ambitions

As Croud continues to deliver transformative results, reaching the highest standards of work remains a priority. ‘With our model, clients always feel reassured that they’re getting access to people with the right level of knowledge to deliver what they need. We vet our resources carefully and have strict quality controls across the process, including a full-time Croud Project Manager who interacts between client and Croudie.

‘We’ve currently got 60 Salesforce certified Croudies in our network but, with a global footprint, we’re looking to expand. It’s easy to join us. You simply apply on the website and a member of our team will contact you to understand your knowledge. We’ll often refer back to Trailhead to verify this, as the points and badges system is a fantastic way to level-set, like a CV. Then, once you’re approved, we’ll set you up in Croud Control - a mini LinkedIn for Croudies - and you’re live on the website!’

Croud is also working closely with clients to ensure they’re getting the best out of Marketing Cloud. ‘We’ve discovered that clients don’t always understand what they have or use the full breadth of functionality, so we offer free, one-hour Marketing Cloud Health Checks. We ask questions about data, content, relevancy and reporting, and then give a three-pronged set of recommendations - things clients can do themselves, things that we can do for them and Salesforce software they would benefit from.

‘Even though it’s still early days, our journey with Salesforce feels really fruitful. We currently have a 100% client retention rate and we’re already discussing adding Service Cloud. And with our team of Croudies growing all the time, we don’t anticipate stopping there. We see this as the future of work, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of it.’

 
 

For more information, visit Croud.

 

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