Fixing the Broken Customer Journey: How Salesforce AI Powers Seamless Engagement Across Channels

8th September 2025 by

iLink Digital in Blog, Salesforce

Why Customer Journeys Are Still Broken in 2025

Customers today aren’t comparing you to your closest competitor — they’re comparing you to the best experience they’ve ever had. Whether it’s a one-click Amazon purchase or Netflix serving the perfect recommendation, expectations are being reset in every interaction.

The gap between those expectations and what many organizations deliver is stark:

64% of customers expect real-time responses from brands, according to Salesforce research.

73% of banking customers expect near real-time approvals, yet only 7% of institutions can actually deliver on this promise (PYMNTS, 2025).

And perhaps most striking, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience (PwC).

Despite investing billions into CRM and marketing technology, too many businesses still deliver experiences that feel disconnected: a retail shopper getting promotions for products they already bought, a banking customer waiting days for an update while receiving irrelevant SMS campaigns, or a B2B buyer bombarded with generic nurture emails that ignore prior conversations.

These aren’t minor slip-ups — they’re signs of a systemic issue: the customer journey is still broken. And in 2025, when AI and data are transforming every industry, customers are less forgiving than ever.

“The cost shows up in trust, conversion, and churn.”

 “Want to see how your journeys compare? Take our free Customer Journey Health Check and uncover where silos are costing you revenue.”

The Root Cause: Fragmentation Across Channels and Data

Why does this happen? Because most organizations operate in silos.

Data silos. Customer behavior data lives in CRM, analytics tools, support systems, and loyalty platforms, with no unified profile.

Channel silos. Email campaigns don’t talk to mobile push notifications; call center notes don’t trigger personalized follow-ups.

Team silos. Marketing, sales, and service functions run parallel journeys, creating overlap, gaps, and confusion.

The result: customers see disjointed messaging, irrelevant offers, and repeated information requests. Trust erodes. Conversions drop. Churn rises.

5 Signs Your Customer Journey Is Broken

Sign	What It Looks Like	Impact on Customers
1. Disconnected Messages	Customer buys a product but still gets promos for the same item.	Frustration → loss of trust.
2. Slow Responses	Approvals, follow-ups, or service responses take days.	Customers defect to faster competitors.
3. Generic Campaigns	One-size-fits-all emails/SMS with no relevance.	Engagement drops, unsubscribe rates rise.
4. Data Silos	CRM, web analytics, and support systems don’t talk to each other.	Teams lack a full customer view → missed opportunities.
5. Lack of Personalization	Customers receive irrelevant or poorly timed offers.	Conversion rates fall, churn risk increases.

“If you recognize any of these signs in your organization, your customer journey is likely costing you revenue. The good news: Salesforce AI-powered Marketing Cloud, Pardot, and Data Cloud directly address each of these gaps — transforming fragmented interactions into seamless, connected experiences.”

How Salesforce AI Fixes the Broken Journey

Customer journeys break when brands can’t connect data, anticipate intent, or keep experiences consistent across touchpoints. Salesforce has evolved Marketing Cloud, Pardot (Account Engagement), and Data Cloud into an AI-powered engagement engine designed to resolve these exact challenges.

1. Unified Profiles with Salesforce Data Cloud

Instead of piecing together partial views, Salesforce Data Cloud creates a real-time unified engine, ingesting trillions of records monthly and unifying them into a living customer graph. For engagement leaders, this means personalization no longer waits for batch updates — it’s triggered instantly, in the moment of need. This means marketing sees the same customer story as sales and service.

For example:

A retail customer browses online, calls support about sizing, and redeems loyalty points. Data Cloud merges these interactions into one actionable record.

Marketers can instantly trigger relevant campaigns without waiting for batch data uploads.

2. Predictive Engagement with Einstein AI

Einstein now powers more than lead scoring. With Einstein Copilot and Agentforce, it creates campaign variations, predicts intent, and even simulates customer responses. This shift matters because 64% of customers expect human-like, real-time interactions, and AI agents can now deliver that at scale.

Salesforce Einstein AI uses predictive analytics to anticipate customer behavior:

Forecasting churn risk and triggering retention offers.

Optimizing send times and subject lines for maximum engagement.

Recommending next-best actions based on history and intent.

Instead of reacting after the fact, Einstein empowers brands to act in the customer’s moment of need.

3. Cross-Channel Orchestration with Journey Builder

Journey Builder has evolved from linear automation into adaptive, AI-driven orchestration. Journeys flex in real time based on live signals — a click, a service resolution, or an app login. The result: no two customer journeys are alike, and engagement feels contextual, not canned.

Salesforce Journey Builder ensures consistency across channels:

Customers receive the right message whether they’re on email, SMS, social, or in-app.

AI adapts journeys dynamically: if a customer clicks an ad, they don’t get a redundant email.

Marketing and service interactions align — a support resolution can automatically trigger a satisfaction follow-up journey.

4. B2B Account Engagement with Pardot

In B2B, the average deal involves 11+ stakeholders. Account Engagement has expanded to orchestrate entire buying groups, not just individuals. AI-driven scoring and intent data ensure the right content reaches decision-makers, influencers, and champions — aligning marketing and sales on one playbook.

For B2B organizations, Pardot uses AI to manage complex buying groups:

Lead scoring prioritizes sales-ready prospects.

Account-based nurturing ensures decision-makers and influencers get relevant messaging.

Sales teams get insights into marketing interactions, enabling smarter, coordinated outreach.

Journeys adapt to live signals (clicks, case resolutions, app logins). No two customers take the same path, yet every experience feels consistent across email, SMS, push, ads, and in-app.”

 Ready to see this in action? Book a Salesforce AI Demo and watch how Data Cloud, Einstein, and Journey Builder unify real-time engagement.

The Business Impact of AI-Powered Engagement

Organizations that embrace Salesforce AI for customer engagement report significant benefits:

20% higher engagement rates with AI-optimized campaigns (Salesforce benchmark).

Up to 40% more revenue from personalization activities, according to McKinsey.

Reduced churn by proactively identifying at-risk customers.

Faster pipeline velocity as sales and marketing align on AI-driven lead scoring.

The ROI is clear: personalization powered by AI doesn’t just improve campaigns, it transforms revenue growth.

Real-World Scenario: Seamless Engagement in Action

Imagine a global insurance provider.

A customer starts a health policy quote online but abandons midway.

Data Cloud instantly updates their profile.

Einstein predicts high intent but possible price sensitivity.

Journey Builder triggers a personalized follow-up email with a premium discount.

If no response within 24 hours, a push notification is sent with a simplified quote tool.

Pardot nurtures the account, ensuring both the policyholder and employer HR manager receive targeted follow-ups.

The result? A once-broken journey becomes a connected, intelligent, and seamless experience that improves conversion and customer trust.

Best Practices for Delivering AI-Powered Journeys

To maximize impact with Salesforce AI, organizations should:

Integrate data early. Prioritize connecting CRM, web, service, and offline data into Salesforce Data Cloud.
Start with high-value journeys. Focus first on journeys tied to revenue or retention (e.g., onboarding, renewals).
Measure what matters. Track engagement rates, churn reduction, and customer satisfaction alongside traditional campaign metrics.
Balance automation with empathy. Use AI for efficiency, but maintain human oversight for sensitive or regulated contexts.

Instrument KPIs and A/B tests; publish a scorecard.

Don’t let another quarter slip with broken journeys. Claim your Free 30-Minute Journey Assessment—we’ll identify 3 quick wins and help you build  a 4-week action plan.

Looking Ahead: The Next Wave of AI Engagement

Salesforce’s roadmap goes beyond personalization. With Einstein Copilot and Agentforce, AI agents will soon interact directly with customers in natural language, manage multi-step processes, and orchestrate experiences across departments.

This means the customer journey will no longer just be “automated” — it will be adaptive, conversational, and truly intelligent.

Conclusion: From Fragmented to Seamless

In a world where customers expect real-time, relevant, and connected engagement, broken journeys are more than an inconvenience, they are a growth barrier. Salesforce AI, powered by Marketing Cloud and Pardot offers organizations the ability to:

Unify data into actionable profiles,

Predict and personalize in real time,

Orchestrate consistent journeys across every channel.

The result? Stronger trust, higher conversions, and reduced churn.

At iLink Digital, we help enterprises move beyond disconnected campaigns to build AI-powered engagement strategies. Our Salesforce-certified experts specialize in unifying customer data, deploying predictive journeys with Einstein AI, and designing B2C and B2B engagement programs that drive measurable outcomes — from higher conversion rates to reduced churn. Whether you’re looking to fix broken customer journeys or unlock new growth through personalization at scale, our tailored consulting and implementation services ensure you get there faster, with confidence.

Ready to fix the broken journeys in your customer engagement?

Connect with iLink Digital’s Salesforce experts today and design AI-powered experiences that convert.