As the emphasis on customer 
experience grows by leaps and bounds, CRM software needs to evolve along with it. Where periodic customer behavior reports were once enough, companies now require real-time updates about how customers are being engaged. Already a leader in CRM, Salesforce Marketing Cloud has developed a CRM innovation that will allow marketers immediate access to customer behavioral patterns.
With a new tool called Predictive Journeys, Salesforce wants to improve its already robust CRM technology. Combining predictive analysis with existing CRM software, the new product seeks to give a more dynamic view of customer interactions.
“In the age of the connected customer, engagement must be real-time and relevant,” according to a company statement. “Marketers want technology to tell them who to target, when to target them , and in what channels with what message, They need to make decisions in the moment that are based on a multi-dimensional view of the customer and include their true interests and intent, not just channel preferences.”
In describing the new technology’s impact in CRM, Salesforce used the analogy of navigation. In previous years, it was enough to simply look at a map and plan out trips using static travel information. Now, however, mapping programs are able to give up-to-the-minute information regarding things like traffic, construction, and arrival time. Likewise, Predictive Journeys seeks to provide marketers with real-time feedback on customer behavior.
The most impressive feature of Predictive Journeys is its ability to predict how a customer will act in the future.
“With Salesforce Marketing Cloud Predictive Journeys, marketers can now go beyond simply meeting customer needs, to anticipating and greeting them at the next step of their journey as they arrive,” said Scott McCorkle, CEO of Salesforce.
The program is then able to use predictive analysis to determine the most likely actions that a customer will take next, whether that’s opening an email, unsubscribing to the mailing list, or purchasing a product.
What’s more, the program even allows marketers to target consumer segments that have been defined by predictive scores. For example, if Predictive Journeys predicts a customer is likely to unsubscribe, and that customer is then re-engaged by the company, he or she will automatically be reassigned to a new segment indicative of their new “journey” with the brand.