Building strong, lasting relationships with customers is at the heart of every successful brand. Think about it: people are more likely to stick with and recommend a brand that feels like a trusted friend rather than just another company. 

These connections go beyond transactions—they’re about creating experiences, showing genuine care, and adding value to their lives. When brands invest in fostering these bonds, customers don’t just buy once; they come back, they advocate, and they build a sense of loyalty that’s hard to break.

When it comes to building brand loyalty, Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) strives to deliver exceptional customer experiences while fostering meaningful, lasting connections with its island guests to meet their ever-evolving needs.

To bring this vision to life, SDC launched a robust suite of CRM capabilities powered by Salesforce’s Sales, Service, and Marketing Cloud platforms. Leveraging the solution’s ability to provide a comprehensive 360-degree view of customers and enable personalized interactions at scale, SDC’s CRM implementation was recognized as the Country Winner at IDC’s Enterprise Intelligence Awards. Additionally, it earned a Silver Award at the recently concluded Marketing Technology Awards 2024.

We recently spoke with Ivan Teo, director, digital marketing, Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), to gain insights into the execution of SDC’s CRM project. He shared details about SDC’s plans to enhance customer relationships and gain a deeper understanding of guest behaviour, which will play a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s future strategies.

Revolutionising data for enhanced guest experiences

SDC’s launch of its CRM program aims to transform the way SDC delivers exceptional guest experiences and foster deeper relationships with its visitors, through the enhancement of backend platforms, operation processes and guest engagement.

“These insights underscored the need for an integrated system to unify data and drive strategic, data-driven decisions. The CRM initiative was designed to align with the ‘One Sentosa Service Experience’ by enhancing data analytics, streamlining operations, and personalising interactions, ensuring SDC meets the evolving needs of its guests,” he stated.

Ivan highlighted that the CRM project presents a valuable opportunity for SDC to future-proof its operations through digital transformation. This initiative is particularly significant as it allows Sentosa to address evolving needs and expectations of its guests. By implementing this solution, SDC is positioning itself to better understand and respond to changing visitor preferences, ensuring that it remains relevant and competitive in the years ahead.

“With the tourism landscape constantly evolving, the initiative was positioned as a vital investment to ensure Sentosa remained a leader in guest satisfaction and loyalty. The project’s focus on scalability, such as extensible APIs and integration capabilities, enables SDC to adapt quickly to new opportunities and maintain its competitive edge,” he added.

Consolidating guest profiles in a unified platform

SDC’s 360-Degree Customer View unites guest data from diverse sources like loyalty programs and admission systems, which transforms scattered insights into a clear, actionable plan. 

“By integrating disparate data sources, such as admission systems and loyalty programs, the CRM provides a holistic understanding of each guest. This enables SDC to deliver tailored experiences, such as personalised offers, relevant content, and timely service responses,” Ivan said.

In their real-life application of the solution, SDC’s loyalty marketing team leveraged this comprehensive view of their guest data to increase member activity rates through targeted engagement strategies, while its digital marketing team used it to enhance website journey personalisation, resulting in better click-through rates and engagement.

This deeper understanding of guest behaviours also helps SDC anticipate future needs, ensuring it stays proactive rather than reactive.

“For example, by analysing engagement patterns, SDC can better design promotions and services to delight guests and improve guest satisfaction. This data-driven approach aims to foster meaningful relationships with visitors, making their experience on Sentosa memorable and distinctive,” he said.

Automation is key to independently-designed customer journeys

Another significant reason why SDC’s 360-Degree Customer View is integral to its operations is how its marketing automation feature allowed its teams to independently design customer journeys and campaigns, reducing costs and reliance on external vendors. 

Moreover, automation features also helped streamline case management, where guest inquiries via web forms are now converted directly into cases, saving valuable staff time.

“This allowed teams to focus on enhancing guest interactions rather than administrative tasks. Additionally, automated insights into customer segments and campaign performance helped optimise engagement strategies, ensuring timely, relevant, and impactful communication,” Ivan noted.

As a result, various teams had experience significant efficiency gains. For instance, its guest insights and experience (GIE) Team saved significant hours annually through automated workflows and case resolutions.

“This operational improvement allows staff to concentrate on higher-value activities, such as refining customer journeys and creating innovative engagement strategies, further enhancing the overall guest experience,” he added. 

What makes SDC’s customer journey, omnichannel tools effective?

In terms of improving SDC’s customer journey, Ivan highlighted that its CRM tool is able to aid in the planning of guest interactions across their journey, from planning a visit to post-visit follow-ups. 

For example, integrating with real-time data, like island visit data and purchase patterns, Sentosa was able to design targeted campaigns to increase loyalty and drive purchases. 

“Being able to identify potential pain points and engagement metrics in the guest journey will allow Sentosa to continuously shape experiences that will be meaningful for visitors,” he said.

“By addressing these proactively, SDC hopes to create a more seamless and enjoyable experience for all visitors. This capability not only boosts immediate satisfaction but also strengthens long-term loyalty,” he added.

While the omnichannel experience is a work in progress, Ivan is looking forward to leveraging the CRM solution to unlock consistency in guest experiences across multiple touchpoints, be it web, mobile apps, or in-person interactions. His team is now looking at how to scale up personalised notifications as well as geolocation interactions to further enhance relevance and engagement.

“These initiatives not only improve the overall guest experience but also strengthen brand loyalty by ensuring the interaction with the brand is intentional and meaningful,” he said.

“We hope that by continuously improving our guest experiences, SDC can strengthen its reputation and position as the world’s best-loved leisure and lifestyle resort destination,” he adds.

****

The 360-Degree Customer View from SDC is more than just a tool—it’s a game-changing strategy for creating deeply personalised and impactful guest experiences. By turning data into actionable insights, marketers can engage audiences with precision, anticipate their needs, and build lasting connections that drive loyalty and satisfaction. It’s the key to staying ahead in a competitive landscape like tourism while delivering customer experiences that truly stand out in the longer run.

The travel and tourism industry is changing fast, and it’s not just about offering stunning destinations or top-notch service anymore. Today’s travellers expect a seamless experience at every step—whether they’re booking online, scrolling through recommendations, or checking in at a hotel. If brands want to stay competitive, they need to deliver more than just great physical experiences; they also need to wow their guests digitally.

In this latest case study, we take a look at how Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) embarked on its CRM journey with Salesforce in order to improve its guest experiences through a unified platform for data-driven decision-making.

The Challenge

SDC is dedicated to the development, management and promotion of Sentosa island, and one of its goals is to provide exceptional customer experience and create meaningful, lasting relationships with its island guests to meet their evolving needs. Continual efforts are also undertaken by SDC in providing world class experiences, and engaging effectively with guests, island partners, and broader ecosystem partners.

The Objective

The strategic imperative was to implement an enterprise CRM solution aimed at advancing data analytics and digitalisation to deliver a personalised and seamless guest experience, fully aligned with the One Sentosa Service Experience initiative. The key business objectives included achieving a comprehensive Customer 360° view, consolidating data for more informed decision-making, and enabling personalised customer interactions at scale. 

On the technology front, the goals focused on integrating disparate data sources into a unified platform, utilising a common data model, and deploying extensible APIs to enhance speed-to-market while ensuring scalability for marketing automation.

Moreover, the overarching goal was to elevate guest service standards and unlock deeper insights across various business units, including guest insights and experience, brand experience & marketing, loyalty marketing, and digital marketing teams.

The project also aimed to transform SDC’s interactions with guests and streamline operations by focusing on key goals:

  • 360-Degree Guest View: Consolidate guest profiles, including visit frequency, spending habits, and preferences, for personalised engagement and better service.
  • Marketing Automation: Bring marketing automation in-house, enabling teams to design campaigns independently and reduce costs while automating case management for guest inquiries.
  • Analytics and Insights: Centralize data from various systems to generate actionable insights, improve customer segmentation, track marketing performance, and monitor membership trends.

The Solution

SDC took a major step in its transformation journey by rolling out an advanced set of CRM capabilities built on Salesforce’s Sales, Service, and Marketing Cloud platforms. This initiative was designed to redefine how SDC harnesses data insights to deliver more personalised and efficient guest experiences. 

By integrating Salesforce with core systems—encompassing B2C profiles, guest transactions, and service histories—SDC established a unified platform that empowers data-driven decision-making across the organisation.

The project was executed through a structured process, ensuring seamless integration across departments:

  • Implementation Process:
    • Conducted discovery workshops to identify business and technical needs.
    • Ran user-driven sprints dedicated to each module as well as planning a detailed mapping of existing data fields for both migrated and streaming data made for a smooth transition.
    • Performed robust data validation through system integration and user acceptance testing (UAT).
    • Deployed the CRM system with a well-coordinated Go-Live plan, followed by ongoing maintenance and enhancements.
  • Cross-Department Collaboration:
    • Strong alignment among department heads, coupled with a consistent messaging of the project’s strategic importance to working teams, ensured effective change management.
    • Teams actively participated in reviews, testing, and data validation, even during weekends, with notable contributions from the Loyalty, Digital Marketing, Brand Marketing and Guest Insights & Experience teams.
    • Integrated multiple data sources, such as ticketing, product information, and admission systems, into a unified platform for a comprehensive guest view.
  • Overcoming Challenges:
    • Addressed data fragmentation and operational silos by creating a centralised system with unified data fields.
    • Improved data accuracy and monitoring through automated alerts for sync failures and weekly vendor support reviews.
    • Integrated diverse admission systems (e.g., Gantry IU, Sentosa Express QR code) to capture guest behaviour comprehensively.

The Result

The CRM project brought tangible benefits across various teams, driving greater efficiency, accuracy, and personalised engagement. The Guest Insights & Experience team saved over 1,000 hours annually through streamlined processes, while the Loyalty team leveraged integrated data to gain richer insights into guest behaviour. The Digital Marketing team also saw improved click-through rates by delivering personalised content. These improvements not only enhanced operations and customer engagement but also supported SDC’s overall business growth.

Singapore – Omnichannel communications platform MessageBird has announced its rebranding to Bird, as well as announcing a drop in its prices for the platform to become more accessible in terms of cost, yet still retain the same quality and even offers more services. 

In a blog post by Bird CEO Robert Vis, he announced the rebrand with more details on the platform’s change in pricing, citing that they will be staying away from offering high markups like their competitors, promising to deliver services to clients at the lowest possible cost.

To make this possible, Bird will be employing new messaging APIs that will allow it to charge SMS at a 90% discount with no markups and no hidden fees.

Additionally, Vis also introduced Bird CRM, Bird’s new customer relationship management platform that will mark a next chapter for Bird in marketing, sales, and payments. They will also be dropping costs for this service, stating that users will also be saving 40% on Email and 90% on SMS for Bird CRM as well. 

Talking about the rebrand and Bird CRM, Vis said, “All communications between businesses happens over channels – whether it be calling, texting, WhatsApp or iMessage – and all these interactions create a customer contact. From there, every business uses endless tooling to manage the customer relationship, whether it be to encourage them to buy more or simply to support them.”

“What if this could be all done from one tool? What if the channel didn’t matter when it came to selling or servicing your customers? What if payment data was fully integrated with your other customer data? And what if you could just log into one tool and it just works? Today marks Day 1, our first iteration of BirdCRM and while we still have lots to do – we hope you will enjoy some of the magic and help us realise our dream of making talking to a business as easy as talking to your friends,” he concluded.

Austin, Texas – Global technology company Zoho has announced the launch of ‘Zoho Marketing Plus’, a unified platform that brings together marketing activities across campaign ideation, creation, execution, management, and measurement, providing stakeholders across the entire marketing organisation with a single, shared view of critical information for improved collaboration and results.

The new marketing platform increases the effectiveness of digital marketing strategies by giving marketing leaders a deeper understanding of customer preferences and behaviours so they can deliver dynamic, high-value customer experiences that drive brand affinity and customer happiness.

According to Zoho, CMOs require their teams to leverage technology solutions that capture customer insights in ways that add value both to the business and customers. Through automation and business intelligence, the platform synchronises engagement data to help marketing teams better understand customers, make more informed decisions, and ultimately drive better results, growth, and revenue.

Mani Vembu, chief operating officer at Zoho, said, “Consumers and digital marketing continue to evolve at warp-speed, and marketers are struggling to keep up. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to properly manage multiple campaigns, channels, customer profiles, data, and ROI.”

He added, “The complexity of data and personalization at-scale only raises pressure on marketers and CMOs to deliver effective campaigns and revenue. By eliminating redundancies and confusion arising from multiple siloed solutions, Zoho Marketing Plus maximises productivity and teamwork, allowing marketers to stay nimble and collaborative amid evolving customer needs. When marketers aren’t bogged down by operations, they can deliver creative campaigns that promote meaningful relationships between the brand and customers.”

The unified platform includes a vast array of integrated capabilities aimed at helping digital marketers achieve greater results through simplified processes, tighter collaboration, shared assets, and consistent data.

Sydney, Australia – Global customer relationship management (CRM) platform HubSpot has announced joining forces with ticketing platform Humanitix to reimagine how marketers and event organisers manage their customers’ ticketing journeys. 

HubSpot users can synchronise their contacts and ticketing information via the new Humanitix integration with HubSpot. The new feature leverages HubSpot’s custom objects to enable event organisers to collect leads and track existing registrations throughout the customer journey, all within the HubSpot CRM platform.

“The partnership will significantly streamline the ticketing process by providing a single source of truth across the attendee and guest experience. Not only will this save event organisers and marketers valuable time, but it will also provide them with access to key customer data to help inform future customer communications and marketing efforts,” HubSpot said in a press statement.

Kat Warboys, APAC marketing director at HubSpot said that with the events industry emerging from the pandemic as one of the hardest hit, streamlined processes are no longer just a ‘nice-to-have’ but critical for the revival of the events sector.

“Just as the pandemic changed the face of the events circuit in Australia, it also altered customer expectations. As a customer relationship management platform, HubSpot is committed to providing event organisers and marketers with the tools they need to surpass these expectations at every stage of the customer journey through thoughtful communications, value alignment and human touch,” Warboys said.

Meanwhile, Adam McCurdie, CEO and co-founder of Humanitix, commented, “Selling tickets to help support disadvantaged children around the world is what gets us out of bed in the morning. Empowering our event partners to maximise that social impact at scale comes part and parcel.”

He added, “The integration with HubSpot is game changing for us. Not only will it allow our partners to seamlessly synchronise customer data across both platforms, but it will also free them up to provide a level of customer service unmatched in the event ticketing industry – not just in Australia, but globally.”

Sydney, Australia – Customer relationship management (CRM) platform HubSpot has relaunched its software service ‘Service Hub’, a customer service software enabling companies to prioritise their customer experience. Through the revamped software, it allows companies to deepen customer relationships while driving team efficiency and connecting to the front office.

First introduced in 2018, Service Hub allows teams to transform feedback insights into actionable customer journey improvements, while customisable tools and views help drive team efficiency.

Sabina Sobinina, director of success for JAPAC at HubSpot, said, “Consumers tolerate poor customer experiences and end up feeling overlooked and disappointed far too frequently. Combatting this is why we originally launched Service Hub, which has since evolved to include all new features that strengthen the customer experience and provide authentic interactions that not just satisfy the customers’ needs, but delight them too.”

Some of the features of Service Hub include customer portals for ticket conversations going between customers and reps, service level agreement (SLA) management tools that help companies prioritise incoming requests, mobile inboxes to keep teams productive on the go, and beta offering of inbound calling.

Sobinina added, “We know almost every customer is more likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service, which is why it’s so important that teams have a unified understanding of customers. We’re genuinely delighted to further empower businesses to deliver genuine, connected, customer-centric experience.”

Bangkok, Thailand – Software company AquaOrange has announced their successful rollout of Zoho CRM across 600 businesses in Thailand. The company is one of Bangkok’s authorized Zoho CRM service providers specializing in rolling out CRM applications.

AquaOrange has mainly catered to small and medium-sized B2B customers, while also providing consultancy, training, and an onboarding service in addition to implementation. The Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management software that helps businesses manage customer interactions. It is a cloud-based CRM solution that can be accessed anywhere and on any device.

According to AquaOrange, the popularity of the Zoho CRM platform has grown tremendously and has become the go-to CRM solution for many businesses in Thailand.

Shahan Farid, CEO of AquaOrange, said that the Zoho CRM interface is easy to use and intuitive, so even if customers are new to this type of software, it should not take long before you get used to it. Farid added that in most instances, it only takes a few hours before you become comfortable with the interface.

“Zoho CRM application completes Sales cycle ensuring no Leads and potentials are lost by efficient workflow follow up with easy to view dashboard reporting,” Farid said.

The Zoho CRM works in helping clients in the sales process, salesforce, marketing automation, quotation management, opportunity management, forecast, and deal management.

Singapore – PRM Marketing Services (PRMMS) has announced that it is transitioning its business to focus on providing services concerning customer and channel partner marketing, including B2B2C, customer relationship management (CRM), partner relationship management (PRM), as well as incentives and rewards, to a more global focus.

Their global strategy will be focused on the markets of Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), as well as North America.

PRMMS is led by CEO JB Ray who has been spearheading its CRM and PRM business since 2003. Said transition marks a major milestone for the company in accelerating its loyalty and relationship marketing business independently which has been growing for two decades across APAC markets.

Speaking about the transition, Ray said, “Formation of PRMMS is a strategic move guided by innovation, growth and our ambition to be the disruptor in CRM, PRM and Incentives and Rewards category. We envision the future is about ecosystem led b2b2c solutions and we are not stopping until we help transform and enable the industry to be efficient and effective in managing customers and channel partners.”

As part of the transition, PRMMS has also confirmed several key management updates, namely Carolin Chan as VP for strategy and marketing, while Binesh George has been appointed as chief technology officer. Chan and George have been with the company for 15 years.

Speaking about his appointment, Chan said, “I am excited about PRMMS evolution and impacts we can bring to markets. I will be focusing to further enhance our capabilities, help our global clients expand to APAC and EMEA markets and strengthen our marketing activities, consistent with our business strategies.”

Meanwhile, George commented, “Technology has been our key enabler and I am looking forward to further accelerating the productization and transformation process of our solutions ensuring security, compliance and scalability needs of our clients.”

Ray further added, “The new organisation structure together with our strategic direction will allow us to develop innovative solutions and redefine how CRM, PRM and Incentives and Rewards will operate in the future in ecosystem led environments and bring strategic benefits to clients, partners and customers.”

California, USA – Global software company SugarCRM has recently introduced its new integrated ‘playbook’ functionality which allows support of guided selling and advanced CRM process automation. 

Through the new functionality, the no-code toolset enables business users to easily design, visualise, and automate sales, service and marketing processes. SugarCRM customers can create playbooks and templates for sales plays, sales methodologies, guided selling, service processes, lead nurturing and more.

Said functionality follows the recent acquisition of plug-in solutions AddOptify, a provider of guided selling solutions for SugarCRM customers worldwide. The solutions have aided SugarCRM customers through enabling mid-market companies to translate their customer engagement best practices into playbooks to optimise both the user and the customer experience at every stage of the customer journey.

For the company, the need for sales engagement technologies was accelerated by the pandemic and their use is increasingly becoming a key factor in defining and distinguishing high-functioning customer-centric sales organisations. 

Rich Green, chief technology officer and chief product officer at SugarCRM, said that the new functionality will allow customers to leverage proven playbook capabilities within the Sugar platform to streamline sales processes, improve marketing operations and optimize customer service execution.

“This empowers sales, marketing and customer success teams to boost buyer engagement, drive greater customer trust and satisfaction, improve win rates and increase revenues. It also reflects Sugar’s commitment to offer more no-code/low-code capabilities designed to put change in the hands of non-technical business users,” Green stated.

In the near future, SugarCRM plans to provide additional out-of-the-box playbooks and templates for processes including lead qualification, customer on-boarding, case management, troubleshooting and other human-in-the-loop customer interactions spanning the sales, marketing, and service realms.

Geneva, Switzerland – Banking software company Temenos has announced that Infinity Digital for Salesforce will be made available on their platform, which brings together the worlds of CRM, assisted channels, and digital channels onto a single platform. The solution will be available on Salesforce AppExchange, an enterprise cloud marketplace. 

Infinity Digital for Salesforce offers banks synchronisation between Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and the bank’s core banking systems. It helps banks achieve higher efficiency and streamlining of servicing, onboarding, and origination processes with better personalisation and greater customer experience.

This solution integrates Salesforce Financial Services Cloud with Temenos’ digital banking platform, giving customer-facing teams in banks a holistic view of their customers surfacing both customer engagement and transactional banking data across all channels and transactional systems. 

In addition, Infinity Digital for Salesforce enables banks to serve their customers with tailored offers made possible through relevant, complete, and accurate information at every interaction. Banks can integrate digital and assisted channels with their transactional system and create a unified platform across marketing, sales, servicing, and origination functions to give client-facing teams a complete and actionable view of customer interactions.

Max Chuard, chief executive officer at Temenos, said that they are excited to extend their leadership in digital by combining their open banking platform with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud in a single platform to help banks reinvent the customer and employee omnichannel experience.

“We are aiming to solve one of the most fundamental problems in banking today by connecting the worlds of CRM, transactional footprint and digital interactions. This go-to-market strategy will accelerate our penetration in the digital front office segment. We help banks with complex channel architectures by breaking down silos to reduce complexity and costs, and achieve customer-centric business transformation to provide outstanding customer experiences,” Chuard said.

Meanwhile, Eran Agrios, SVP and GM for financial services at Salesforce, commented, “We’re excited to see Temenos innovate with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to help banks deepen their relationships with customers through hyper-personalised experiences. With Infinity Digital for Salesforce, customers can connect their core banking systems to their omnichannel experiences, delivering hyper-personalised experiences faster.”