CRM - December 2008 - (Page 44)

would work well with Asterisk, an opensource phone application upon which GOTW built its telephony system. Leishman says his main implementation snag has been with personnel.“Working with programmers is like pulling your own teeth,” he recalls. Multiple firms in the United States and Canada handled different pieces of what he describes as a “cradle-to-grave system,” depending on relevant experience and cash flow. However, the hard work was well worth it. “The end results were good for us. I looked at some off-the-shelf products a year ago…but they cost more than what I’ve spent on development so far to do just a third of what our system does.” Since infusing SugarCRM into GOTW’s business processes, Leishman says that handling times have plummeted from two or three minutes to as low as 20 seconds, despite adding another 17 cities in the last nine months. Callers are now recognized by their phone numbers or other identifiers, enabling their SugarCRM records to pop up on the agent’s screen as the call is answered. If it’s a prospect, a “new contact” screen appears to the agent, mostly prepopulated thanks to integration with an external postal-information database. Agents can process customers quickly and move on—and that’s one benefit that can’t be quantified: freedom. “Our people can work from home, which adds a lot of flexibility to the day,” he adds. Convinced that SugarCRM is up to the task of helping GOTW scale up, Leishman is confident he can stick with the vendor for the next round. “We’re looking at potentially adding 80 U.S. cities in the next 18 months, and adding 100 to 150 technicians to our existing 50,” he says. “I know now that Sugar can handle that.” —Christopher Musico A Site Stops Feeling Overtaxed The voice of the customer helps Intuit in an online revamp A the payoff WITH SUGARCRM, GEEKS ON THE WAY HAS BEEN ABLE TO: $ dramatically cut handling time from between two and three minutes to as little as 20 seconds; slash payroll-processing time from 24 hours to five minutes; knock 20 percent off its information technology costs; and foster improved morale among the company’s customer-facing employees. s 2008 ends, many people are dropped from 15 percent to 9 percent.“We already looking ahead to a tried to knock out all the barriers,” Jones time of dread: tax season. At says, and feedback made it possible. When 18 percent of visitors reported Intuit, the developer of business and financial software—TurboTax, site-navigation issues, a total redesign led Quicken, and QuickBooks—April is the to new product pages with enhanced debest of times, and potentially the worst: scriptions. New product catalogues, comWhen most of your business comes in one parison charts, and recommendation engines make it easier for customers to peak load, every Web-site visit counts. For years the company had been basing identify the optimal products. Navigation its Web design on the expertise of its in- issues dropped to 8 percent. In one British site, Web analytics and ternal team. Embarking on another redesign initiative early last summer, Intuit iPerceptions data confirmed that a rise in product-content complaints decided to try something new. was simply due to informaLance Jones, Intuit’s man- “You can stare at tional tabs being below the ager of online customer expe- a page for days scroll line. By displaying the rience, knows the importance [trying] to figure out tabs more prominently, the of Web analytics; he also recoglength of each session grew by nizes its shortcomings. “We what about [it] is 30 percent, average order value were using an analytics tool to causing a fallout.” rose by 20 percent, and frusunderstand visitor behavior.… You can stare at a page for days [trying] to trations over poor product content figure out what about [it] is causing a fall- dropped 20 percent. “They [moved] upout,” he says. So what better way to gauge scale when they understood more clearly customers’ thoughts than by asking them? what each product offered,”Jones explains. Average conversion rose from 2 perA discussion with Google Analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik led to iPercep- cent to roughly 2.5 percent. While that tions, a Montreal-based provider of voice- may seem low, Jones says that for a niche of-the-customer analytics. Its hosted market, with a seasonal buying cycle, that solution offers a two-stage process: a pop- result brought “smiles around the room.” up asking visitors to participate in a sur- Reinforcing the commitment to the cusvey; and, at the end of the session, the tomer experience, Jones’s team doubled survey itself. Customers have to pass the from four to eight employees. By the end first stage to reach the homepage, but, to of 2009, he aims to have 95 percent of visIntuit’s amazement, visitors rarely express itors successful in their tasks—be it a purchase, research, or support. —Jessica Tsai discontent toward the survey itself. Intuit and iPerceptions crafted a 15question survey on visitor intent and frustrations, with one overarching metric: task completion. If an objective went unmet, AFTER IMPLEMENTING IPERCEPTIONS’ VOICE-OF-THE-CUSTOMER ANALYTICS the survey helped Intuit understand why. SOLUTION, INTUIT: has seen a .5-percentage-point increase Overall, Intuit has an average survey rein purchase conversions; sponse rate of 2 percent to 5 percent—as manages between 300 and 3,000 visitor many as 3,000 responses per month durfeedback responses per month; ing its peak season (January to April) and has seen customer frustration around the checkout process drop from 15 percent as few as 300 a month the rest of the year. to 9 percent, and navigation difficulties When Intuit relaunched QuickTax.ca improve from 18 percent to 8 percent; and and QuickBooks.ca, two of its largest Web redesigned its U.K. site, increasing session length by 30 percent and properties, in September 2007, and after average order value by 20 percent, addressing specific purchase-process comwhile decreasing overall frustration plaints, frustrations over failed purchases around product content by 20 percent. the payoff $ 44 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2008 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.QuickTax.ca http://www.QuickBooks.ca http://www.destinationCRM.com

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

CRM - December 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Rave Is Over CRM on Twitter Financial Frenzy Will Customer Experience Survive in a ‘Soft’ Economy? Holiday Humbug Empowered Consumers Are Ready to Flip the Switch Required Reading Transparency Spiff Up Your Site! They Aim to Please Mixing In a Little Sugar Sweetens the Deal A Newsletter Employs New Tactics A Site Stops Feeling Overtaxed Make ’Em Laugh—Personally Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - December 2008

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