Where do you start when your processes are not in order?

The question

We were recently asked to take full stock of a company across sales, marketing, purchasing, selling, data flows, data quality and its business processes. The first question from management and staff was: “Can we manage the phone traffic better? Too many calls end up with one person.” On top of that there was an ambition to expand: “How do we grow from a successful business today into a higher segment in terms of customers, revenue and profitability?”

First things first

During the first exploratory conversations, what stood out was the sheer commitment of both management and staff. This was no “ordinary hard-working team”. Passion, drive, presentation, the quality of the services and the premium product, attention to the customer and personal motivation all played a decisive role.

We deliberately chose to involve both management and employees in the whole process from the very first conversation. That way everyone was engaged, and we could make sure decisions were reached from every perspective. That only works if there is support for the new plans and directions from the outset. Without the involvement of employees, a new way of working is almost always doomed to fail, or at least will not deliver the best result. The approach sounds obvious, but in practice it is rarely the starting point.

Taking stock of the pain points

The high volume of daily calls concerned purchasing and selling, but above all scheduling viewings across the country. That happened seven days a week, around the clock, at the least convenient moments. The necessary follow-up steps and appointments were often made without visibility for the rest of the organisation: the employee who had arranged something with a customer noted it in their own calendar. Unfortunately the next call soon followed and the exact record slipped into the background, with all the consequences that brings. Through time pressure and a lack of overview, insight and calendar management, important and essential information was not accurate or sufficiently visible to the various departments. Sometimes crucial information was missing altogether. Simply too much different data was being recorded in too many places.

Avoid unnecessary work

Management and staff largely worked in the same way, and the business processes were followed much the same way by everyone. So the real question was not whether the business processes needed reviewing. The existing processes played no immediate role and were not vital at this stage; they were not standing in the way of revenue or profitability.

In consultation with the client we established that the first instinct — to review and map every business process — did not need immediate attention. The emphasis shifted fairly quickly to how all the data was recorded and valued. How, where, when and in what manner was data recorded and made visible? Was all the important information actually stored, or did something occasionally go unrecorded in the rush of the moment? The key question became: who had which data, and when?

Insight creates the freedom to grow

After the exploratory conversations, the main conclusion was that the business processes would stay intact for now. The focus would be entirely on data, with the goal of more revenue, time saved and above all more enjoyable work. How good would it be if that one crucial person in the business was no longer interrupted by ninety calls a day? How good would it be if every employee immediately knew where they could schedule a viewing, with which customer, for which product, at what time and at which location? How much lost time and frustration could be avoided if employees and customers never again stood in front of a locked gate during a viewing? Beyond spreading the workload across the team, streamlining the data would bring further benefits. With the focus on data management through a new CRM system, a more effective way of working and marketing strategy would follow naturally, answering the second core question: raising revenue through a higher segment of customers and products.

Defining the requirements and functions

In the end a roadmap was drawn up with a route to follow and the steps towards solutions. First there had to be a solid CRM system — one that met the requirements defined by the client and CodeCast together. That would let us prevent all the frustration for employees and customers alike. In this case our selection of the new CRM system was based on aspects such as:

• Flexibility and future-readiness.
• Horizontal scalability.
• GDPR and European legislation.
• Solid integration with the marketing plans and the website.
• Easy to use for sales, administration and finance.
• Customer contact and email.
• Calendar planning and appointment management.

Choosing and implementing a CRM system

The next step in the process? On the basis of the story above and the list of requirements, an in-depth study into the selection of a good, flexible CRM system now has to take place. It is important to map carefully whether and how existing data can be migrated. The client has to be prepared for what is coming: what can they expect from the system, from the hosting and from CodeCast as their guide? The work is not finished once the CRM system is up and running — that is when the real work starts, for the client and for CodeCast. With the foundation in order we can go on optimising the business processes, so the company can keep growing and reach its objectives: a better spread of workload, more revenue and a pool of customers in the higher segment.