CRM - January 2008 - (Page 45)

The Big Rigs Get Revved Up With an updated GoldMine in the driver’s seat, a Carolina truck dealership steers to unified customer information T he McMahon Truck Group, ous departments within each dealership. “We needed a CRM program so that we which operates three Mack Truck dealerships and a leasing could increase the speed with which we company in North and South were servicing customers,” Krom says. The Carolina, had used FrontRange Solutions’ group looked at Sage Software’s ACT! and GoldMine application for several years in a few other CRM offerings, but chose inits sales department, but rapid growth stead to upgrade GoldMine to version 6.6, necessitated developing a more compre- citing the application’s flexibility, cost, and hensive CRM solution rather than using simplicity, and its ability to enable the group to manage sales from a an application simply for sales centralized location. force automation. Transactions are Other CRM-related activ“We were going from two linked directly ity went through a variety of shifts to three, becoming an nonintegrated applications, around-the-clock operation,” to GoldMine, so including a Lotus-based explains General Manager Don McMahon now product, a customized Access Krom. “We were adding 15 has a complete database, and an application more technicians.” The addideveloped by a national tions were due to increasing customer history. dealer association. customer demand on the Now all transactions, including servicealready-strained operations, Krom adds. “It was either [expand] or tell customers visit activity, leasing, and sales, are linked we couldn’t do it. We’re not in the habit directly into GoldMine—so instead of a marketing database, McMahon has a comof telling customers that.” Krom had been happy with Gold- plete customer history. All the employees Mine’s performance, but the auto group access GoldMine so there’s continuity of had two separate GoldMine 4.0 applica- awareness between departments, making tions, each running two of the businesses. the software an operational tool as well as Krom was looking for something more a CRM system. Additionally McMahon’s robust to enhance customer relation- marketers use GoldMine for more tradiships and build sales across the different tional activity, such as email marketing. Centralizing sales and service enabled dealerships as well as across the variwww.destinationCRM.com the auto group to eliminate three managers, at a combined total savings of some $250,000 annually. By consolidating all parts and servicing information on a single solution, the auto group has increased service to its sales force by 14 percent and has enhanced customer service, according to Service Manager Joe Lossick. A client with a fleet of trucks might have several in for servicing at a time, but the legacy system didn’t provide a good estimate on service time—or notification that service had already been completed. “We used to keep everything on paper,” Lossick says. “So when a customer called in to ask about a truck that had been brought in for servicing, we would have to find all of the information, then call him back.” Additionally, the servicing department wouldn’t know about new parts until the parts department called to say they’d arrived, meaning potential delays in notification and in using the part for repairs, Lossick says. The new, integrated system sends the service manager a pop-up notification as soon as a new part arrives. Krom expects to use GoldMine even more extensively in the future; McMahon has just begun using the software for targeted-blast email campaigns. Executives can select a filter—such as territory, products, or service customers—add all appropriate attachments (e.g., parts specs), and email those out to the appropriate list. McMahon Truck Group happens to be a beta tester for Mack Decisive, an application that enables customers to receive faster quotes, into which the group plans to integrate the abilities of GoldMine. For most dealers, quoting an engine replacement on a truck takes days due to the complexity of looking up all the parts and related labor. But the Decisive beta enables customers to obtain pricing information on the initial phone call. —Phillip Britt By upgrading to GoldMine 6.6, McMahon Truck Group has: eliminated a sales manager and two service managers for an annual savings of $250,000; increased service to its sales force by 14 percent; and expanded sales and service to a 24/7 operation. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2008 45 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - January 2008

CRM - January 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Facebook's About-Face On the Scene: Oracle OpenWorld 2007 CRM Market Set to Double Customers, Meet your Makers Required Reading Oh, Behave! Fine-Tuning the Channel Listen Up! The Master Piece Flying High on Customer Service Let's Get Digital The Big Rigs Get Revved Up Putting Asia in Your Pocket Secret of My Success Connect Re:Tooling Pint of View

CRM - January 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.