CRM - February 2009 - (Page 46)

THE Recession ISSUE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS Cutting Costs, Not Cutting Corners D-Tools tries riding out the recession with low-cost, high-quality CRM Tell us about your organization. I started D-Tools in 1998 as a company to install electronic systems for residential and commercial clients—basically anything with boxes that hooked up with wires. Then, I learned how to link Microsoft Visio with data. I saw that I could automate a lot of the processes that I was struggling with, like explaining a wiring system to an installer. So I created a product that bundles Microsoft Visio with all of our applications. we were implemented in six weeks. We went live May 1. I was just amazed at the level of quality of the software. What have been the results? With Oasis, the sales process was almost impossible. It was hard to qualify where a lead was. In Zoho, it’s almost a pleasure. Before, we had no easy way to hand off leads when someone was interested in purchasing or was asking questions. Now, we have very well-defined roles. We have a sales administrator who prequalifies all the leads and fills What challenges were you facing? The in the missing links. We score the leads and company started out of my house but grew then assign them to a sales assistant. Zoho over the years. From Day One, we used a does that by clicking “change owner.” combination of Act!, Excel, and Outlook That eliminated a lot of emails and hand-off kind of all glommed into one. It was state-ofstuff. It’s easy to look at all our leads and see the-art at the time: a lot of papers being the stage they’re in. From a marketing standmoved around in folders. A few years later, I point, we can create microtargeted email camsaw an ad in PC Magazine for Oracle Small paigns for those that ask specific questions. Business Suite, which turned into NetSuite. You send out an email campaign and the We liked the idea of linking CRM and acAdam Stone, FOUNDER phone rings instantly. Not only is it inexpencounting, and at the time it looked like the AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF sive, it’s easy to use. I do everything in it. We’ve perfect combination of the two. SOFTWARE COMPANY D-TOOLS | automated the entire lead-to-sales process. We used that until 2007, but ended up as told to Lauren McKay Our Web-to-leads is automatic. We sell softswitching to Oasis CRM and its link to Quickware and customers can now get a trial verBooks. We spent a lot of money getting our sion. It was a separate form—a lead into email that someone had data out of NetSuite and into Oasis, but as soon as we did, I knew to put into the system manually. Now, because of Zoho, the it was never going to work. It was very expensive—hard costs, emails are automated and the lead is brought into the system. soft costs, and lots of business costs. I’d say it was a $200,000 Once you get it implemented, there isn’t confusion with mistake. We’d have been better off staying with NetSuite, but who’s supposed to do what. In most companies, the biggest we didn’t like that we couldn’t access our information. overhead is the people in the company. Anything you can do What happened next? As the CEO, I realized that we’d made to make processes more efficient will generate revenue. a mistake. We couldn’t get our money or time back, but we had to move forward. I started looking at CRM systems we How is your company faring in the tough economic climate? could use, but I did a lot more homework. I didn’t just trust Zoho lets you start free and add seats as you go—completely what someone said. Just because someone says it works doessmall-business–friendly. With the credit crunch, we could n’t mean it works. Coincidentally, I volunteer for a nonprofit never buy [software upfront] today—we’d have to get a loan. group. I took it upon myself to get them set up with a CRM Overall, business is down, but we’re holding our own. product I’d seen: Zoho. It was free for the first three people using it. That immediately made me suspicious—free couldn’t be any good. I got it set up for nonprofit business flow and HOW OLD IS THE IMPLEMENTATION? said, “Wow, this is good stuff. It’s free and it’s cheap and it It will be a year old in May 2009. works.” I also applied for Salesforce.com nonprofit CRM. I WHO WAS INVOLVED IN THE DECISION PROCESS? implemented them both and compared feature-for-feature. My executive team. five fastfacts 5 What was the implementation like? With almost every feature, Zoho was equal to, if not better than, Salesforce.com— and for us, Zoho was better. I got all of our data out of Oasis and QuickBooks in a reasonable format and into Zoho, and 46 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | FEBRUARY 2009 WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST CRM IDEA? Combining a high-quality product with an extremely low price. BIGGEST SURPRISE? The speed of product enhancements. BIGGEST MISTAKE? Going with a CRM vendor that uses data lock-in as a pricing tactic. www.destinationCRM.com http://www.Salesforce.com http://www.Salesforce.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - February 2009

CRM - February 2009 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Express Service CRM on Twitter Breaking Customer Service Tradition Outsprinted That’s (Not) Entertainment Running on Empty Required Reading Up Against the Downturn The Numbers Tell the Tale Make Marketing Your Megaphone! Hold Onto Your Customers! Spend Your Way Out! Constructing a Virtual Customer Experience Next Customer, Please! It’s Showtime! From A(erospace) to Z(oology) Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - February 2009

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