Sacramento Kings Score Big by Creating “Wow” Moments for Fans with Salesforce

Sacramento-based NBA team uses Salesforce Sales Cloud to create an integrated expansion strategy and optimize the ticket buying experience for fans

The team’s Net Promoter Score increased by more than 100 points and reached a 10-year high for season ticket renewals after implementing Salesforce

SAN FRANCISCO— March 27, 2019— Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced the NBA’s Sacramento Kings are using Salesforce to transform engagement with customers, fans and ticket holders and deliver world-class experiences both online and in the arena.

The Sacramento Kings host 41 regular season home games per season, routinely featuring capacity crowds of more than 17,500 fans inside of the award winning Golden 1 Center. With a goal to transform customer experiences and maximize seat occupancy, the Kings needed a way to access real-time sales data and live opportunities and get a holistic view of information across the organization. Previously, its sales teams tracked thousands of customer records in spreadsheets manually, limiting responsiveness to customer needs and the ability to suggest relevant products and offers to buyers.

The Kings deployed Salesforce Sales Cloud and now its sales team has a scalable, central source of truth that integrates with other software solutions and empowers them to deliver ‘wow’ moments to customers, fans and ticket holders in real-time. Today, all ticket sales for the Kings—season tickets, packages, group tickets, ticket support, operations and sponsorships—are managed in Sales Cloud. When the Kings are in season, renewal predictions are crucial, as they help the team forecast budget for the following season and expand growth opportunities, opening up seats for new fans to optimize customer satisfaction and revenue. Based on current and historical data, Salesforce can provide the Kings sales team with a list and a score, surfacing high-risk accounts, new leads and key opportunities. As a result, the team increased their Net Promoter Score by more than 100 points.

“Technology enables us to give our fans a world-class experience from the moment they buy their ticket to the time they set foot in the arena—and we’re excited to build on this already robust system to guide more useful and active conversations with our customers,” said Philip Horn, SVP of Sales and Service, Sacramento Kings. “Salesforce allows us to understand what our fans want and need, with one complete view of our customer data that can scale as fast as our rapidly growing fanbase. You can’t afford to not have technology like Salesforce at the center of your customer relationship.”

With Salesforce, the Kings have created a technology-based sales culture they call Sales 3.0, built on a dynamic ecosystem of real-time tools centered on Salesforce. The Kings sales team can monitor attendance of ticket holders to optimize customer satisfaction and make sure that tickets are best utilized, and they can address issues at the moment of highest impact via mobile notifications and remote account access. For example, if a season ticket member misses two games in a row, the sales rep for that account will be prompted from inside the arena to reach out if the fan still hasn’t scanned in when tip-off occurs to make sure everything is okay. This type of interaction and proactive service has helped the team reach a 10-year high with a 25 percent increase in season ticket renewals this season since deploying Salesforce.

As the next step in their digital transformation, the team is deploying Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which will expand on their vision of delivering highly personalized and engaging fan experiences whether they’re exploring ticket options or at a game. By expanding their use of Salesforce, the Kings will be able to identify customers’ specific needs and interests based on their previous behaviors, and amplify and refine engagement in real-time.

“As an avid basketball fan, it’s great to see the Sacramento Kings delivering a personalized experience for every ticket buyer and increasing engagement in a way that will turn every customer into a lifelong fan,” said Adam Blitzer, EVP and GM of Sales Cloud, Salesforce. “As the global leader in CRM, Salesforce keeps innovating to enable sales teams to understand their pipeline, revenue and forecast better while also rapidly adapting their processes to deliver the unique experiences that today’s customers want.”