An Inspiring Story to Help You Choose the Right CX Platform
Every enterprise knows how important it is to build a solid tech stack. But have you ever stopped to consider how much investing in the wrong technology could cost your company?
Research shows that businesses waste $30 billion a year on unnecessary, unwanted or unused technology. Within the realm of customer relationship management (CRM) software, adoption rates hover well below 90% for more than half of sales teams.
The unfortunate fact is that even the most cutting-edge solutions won’t do you any good if no one uses them. This is especially true when it comes to selecting a customer experience (CX) platform. When all of your critical customer data is managed from within one central location, it’s imperative people use it.
So it’s easy to understand why a company would want to develop a meticulous process for selecting a vendor.
Recently, we spoke with Marie Merckaert, content marketing manager at Savoye, a fast-growing supply chain company headquartered in France. Together with her team, Merckaert came up with a method for selecting a solution virtually guaranteed to support the company’s exact needs.
We were so impressed with Savoye’s approach that we decided to share it here on the Sugar blog.
From relying on spreadsheets…
For years, Savoye’s marketing, sales and customer service departments relied on spreadsheets to document customer conversations. Each employee would work with an individual Excel file to track communications, and then use that individual data to court customers over the course of many months or years.
There was just one problem, and it was a big one: There was no easy way to combine efforts.
“A lot of people knew a lot of things, but there was no sharing,” Merckaert told Sugar.
As frontline employees worked to close deals and upsell products and services—a process that typically takes years in the warehousing and order management industries—it became clear that a more collaborative approach was needed.
“The right communication is really important for our customers and prospects, and often for winning a project,” said Merckaert. “So we really needed to put a new solution in place.”
…to comprehensive CX platform
When Merckaert and her colleagues set out to find a new CX platform, they knew it would be critical to find the right software from the start. There was simply too much on the line to risk low adoption, and they were determined to find a solution that would be welcomed by employees across departments.
So as soon as Savoye set out to research the market and vet vendors, the team developed a four-step process to gather organization-wide feedback they could use to inform the right decision:
- First, they created a committee. Representatives from the marketing, sales and IT departments were all invited to take part in the decision-making process.
- Next, the committee held interviews with staff. By taking time to speak with employees who would be using the new system, committee members were able to identify the exact features and functions people would need to be more efficient.
- Once the interviews were complete, a checklist was compiled. After enough feedback had been collected, the insights gleaned from interviews were used to create a detailed list of desired features.
- Last, a blueprint was built. By creating a detailed list first, the team was able to enter the evaluation process with a deep knowledge of what the company would need.
Where does Savoye’s CX strategy stand today?
After using the above process to select a new CX platform, the transition was relatively easy. Savoye brought on an implementation partner to help configure the software to meet the company’s exact needs, and to make it easier than ever for employees to collaborate on customer communications.
Today, all 100 members of the sales and marketing departments rely on Sugar, and there are plans to expand to additional teams. Now that information is regularly shared and accessible to all, it’s easy to let customers know when it’s time for an update — or jump at opportunities to offer them much-needed upgrades.
Merckaert attributes Savoye’s success to the amount of forethought that went into making the decision.
“It’s so important to involve the managers, directors and executives who will be driving user adoption, in addition to interviewing staff to understand what they need to be successful,” Merckaert says. “Everyone has to be on board.”
Looking for more inspiration to inform your CX strategy? We have plenty! Download the customer experience buyers guide to discover more secrets for building a blueprint and selecting the right software for your company.
