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Case Study: Creating a CRM Road Map and Maximizing ROI from CRM

Successful CRM begins with a business plan and strategy, not a technology in search of a problem.

Business Issue
A mid-size manufacturer of oral care products asked for assistance in becoming more customer-focused. The company sells to and services dental offices either directly, through a field sales force and call center, or indirectly, via a network of dealers and brokers. About 50 percent of customers are on an automatic delivery plan, but the company has experienced significant churn of customer accounts each year. The revenue from a typical account is only a small percentage of total spending by a dental practice.

The company wanted a customer relationship management road map for migrating to business processes and systems that:

• Gather information from, and present information to, their customers to enable a 360° view of their interactions.
• Enable sales to synchronize new customer data with files already on their laptops.
• Help identify reasons for customer switching and sources of customer satisfaction.

The company also wanted to identify opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling, and new product offerings.

Adroit's Role
Our approach was to observe and assess current assets and processes across sales, marketing and customer care, and to identify opportunities for realistic improvement. Principal findings included:

• Unified customer data proved to be the most urgent need in creating a platform for growth. Existing data was not clean, integrated or widely accessible.
• Field sales in particular were failing to consistently capture and share data, resulting in the potential loss of opportunity for driving revenue.
• The failure to cross-sell effectively through the call center was costing potential revenue. A fulfillment mentality had developed.
• Despite a rising percentage of business passing through the dealer channel, the company lacked transactional data generated from that channel.

We quantified each issue, proposed concrete solutions, and estimated their cost and impact.

Outcome
The company has a set of prioritized actions for improving customer focus. Each of the recommendations is within the company's ability to implement - mostly with a minimum of outside help. Recommendations requiring acquisition of technology are justified by a formal ROI.
The projected outcomes include:

• Improved cross-selling through the call center based on real-time access to improved customer data
• More effective data capture, contributing to stronger marketing programs
• For field sales reps, improved route planning and more effective presentations, whether selling alone or in tandem with dealer reps
• Stronger partnerships with the dealers, translating into improved market access

In the short term, better customer data means more productive interactions and a better match of resources to opportunities. Longer term, a CRM road map ensures synergy with an evolving go-to-market approach and reinforcement of the brand.