The video gaming industry is estimated to increase by $7.8 Billion to $108.9 Billion by the end of 2017 – and CRM is a big contributing factor to this growth.
The video gaming industry has largely experienced continuous growth since its inception. However, between 1983 to 1985, in what is now known as the Video Game Crash of 1983, the industry fell from $3.2 Billion in 1983 to $100 Million in 1985. Since then the industry has taken more recession-proof steps with the biggest and most obvious factor being customer service.
How did CRM help?
Video gaming companies have started using CRM to improve ways a typical gamer interacts with their games such as getting ideas for new franchises. This is a very good approach in trying to solve a lack of creativity while ensuring brand loyalty as it makes users feel inclusive.
Activision, a leading videogame publisher pulled off one of the biggest and best launches in the entertainment industry for one of its video games, Modern Warfare 3. Within 16 days the game earned $400 Million. It was able to do so because they knew exactly what their customers wanted and they gave it to them.
Robert Schmid, CIO of Activision, was quoted saying “I personally don’t like calling somewhere. I just hate hanging on the phone.” And because his sentiments were shared by a majority of the company’s customers, Activision employed Social Studio by Salesforce Marketing Cloud to listen to their customers in a different way.
Social Studio allowed Activision to see what people were saying about their product and quickly track down users who were experiencing issues. All these issues and conversations were then integrated to Salesforce Service Cloud where customer service reps quickly followed up on them. The marketing team used all conversations and interactions across social media platforms as a source of content.
By integrating Salesforce Service Cloud to their business process, Activision reduce customer service related expenses by 25%. After Marketing Cloud was integrated, the number of self-serve customers increased from 50% to 85%. Basically, through the help of self-serve content, Activision reduced the number of customers that needed to speak to someone which helped reduce their customer service operating costs. All of this happened within a year and took less than 3 months.
Lava is an authorised Salesforce Partner in Malaysia and has more than 10 years of cloud solutions, CRM implementation and consultation experience and we’ve helped companies from various industries achieve their goals through Salesforce products. We pride ourselves in not just being a CRM partner but in also understanding the needs of our customers and taking their business to the next level. Get in touch with us if you’d like to know more about Salesforce CRM at asklava@lavaprotocols.com