Success Stories
National Healthcare Provider
The Challenge
Our Solution
We were retained initially to give a keynote address at a national leadership conference. This then led to a number of multi-year projects included the following:
Employee Engagement Survey:
Customized our employee engagement survey and conducted an annual employee survey for 8,000+ employees for three consecutive years. Analyzed the data, prepared a set of reports, and led the leadership team through an action planning process. This became a major source of data in the company’s annual planning process.
Patient Care Enhancement:
We led a team that visited a cross section of clinics and then developed a plan to raise the level of patient care and customer service.
Call Center Consulting:
We were engaged to review the operations of a major call center and provide concrete improvement ideas. We also designed and delivered a customer service training program for all call center leadership and call agents.
Call Center Consolidation:
We lead the effort to consolidate multiple regional call centers to two national call centers. This included defining the requirements for the new phone system, assisting the development of call routing and queue management protocols and training all employees on customer service excellence.
Executive Coaching:
We were selected to coach several leadership team members. Utilizing our executive coaching model, we obtained 360-degree feedback, developed a customized coaching plan, and then met regularly with each leader being coached.
The Result
Packaging Manufacturer
The Challenge
Our Solution
We were retained to re-implement Salesforce so that it would be a tool to help increase sales success and efficiency. The project started with a series of meetings with key users to understand their business and where they had needs that were not being fulfilled. Salesforce was redesigned to satisfy the requirements, the data cleaned up, and the users trained to use the system as part of their daily work practices.
The system had immediate success within the sales team, so we turned out attention to the operations side of the business. Additional requirement gathering sessions were held with the operations users and new functionality was added to Salesforce to support their business. Custom modules were added including the following:
Sample Requests:
Providing samples to customers is a key part of the sales process at this company. The new module developed utilizing Salesforce allows sales team members to enter specific details regarding a sample needed for a customer. The system would automatically notify the operations team that a new request was ready to process. Once completed, the requesting sales team member was automatically notified. Prior to this system being implemented, the sample request process was handled very inefficiently utilizing emails going back and forth between parties.
Production Schedules:
As in all manufacturing companies, the production schedule is critical and everyone involved wants to know the status of their specific jobs. We created a new module where the master schedule was updated daily and all team members could find the status of the jobs by simply viewing the schedule online. We also created a special dashboard that summarized the schedule details, including highlighting jobs that were running late. This allowed the sales person to proactivity communicate with their customers.
Status Reports:
Communication within a company is always one of the biggest challenges. We created a module that allowed each team member to create a simple status report highlighting their accomplishments, plans for the coming week, and areas where they need help from another team member. These reports made the weekly staff meetings, sales meetings, and operations meetings much more effective as everyone had the ability to read status reports prior to the meeting so that the time together was spent discussing solutions.
Sales Commissions:
The Salesforce system was expanded to track aspects of a commission system, making it transparent to the sales team members.
New Product Development:
The process of introducing new products into a manufacturing environment can be costly and require significant resources. We developed a module within Salesforce to help quantify the costs, track the required review and approval steps, and document the risk/reward for the proposed new product.
The Result
The system also proactively alerted leadership and team members when there was either a problem or something that was trending in the wrong direction, allowing for an immediate response. What started as a single project to implement SalesForce.com for the Sales team has led to being invited to be part of almost every aspect of the business for the past several years. Additional services provided included leadership coaching, quality process definition, human resources advising, team building sessions, and customer service training.
Roadside Assistance Company
The Challenge
Our Solution
The Result
The system was built, the users trained, and the team started receiving their leads and daily direction from the new tool. The end result was a much more efficient and coordinated sales effort. For the first time, the company leadership was able to monitor the success of the sales effort in a real time, allowing for timely coaching of employees. After the system had been in use for six months, the resulting data was then used to analyze the effectiveness of a variety of sales program and make pricing and program changes to respond to the needs of their customers.
Additional Engagements
The success of the initial project led to several additional initiatives, including the following:
Call Center Relocation: After working with the 100+ agents and leadership team responsible for handling the large volume of calls in a 24/7 call center, the decision was made to relocate the call center to another state where the corporate headquarters existed. We managed the entire year long project that involved the following responsibilities:
- Created a master project plan and then managed the entire project, coordinating the efforts of 20+ team members representing multiple disciplines.
- Met with the existing staff to communicate the relocation plans and their options in the new organization.
- Designed the new phone system, including call queues and flow.
- Created an overall communication plan to guide a large number of high profile client companies through the relocation effort.
- Managed the relocation / hiring of agents in a multi-phase transition of a live call center from the current location to a brand new facility.
- Worked with Information Technology and Telecom team members to ensure the 100+ phone numbers were transferred without the loss of single customer call.
- The end result of the project was very successful call center relocation without an interruption to the business or the loss of a single customer
Management of a Strategic New Business Initiative:
The nature of the customer demands was changing and the company needed to introduce a series of new products to allow the company to stay ahead of the competitors and provide new sources of revenue. We were engaged to manage the project. The project was completed on time and met the objectives of the senior leadership team.
Leadership Coaching:
We were engaged to provide leadership coaching to a group of managers and senior leaders. Utilizing a proven leadership program, each member being coached achieved the desired results and progressed in their careers.
Major Midstream Energy Company
The Challenge
Our Solution
We were hired to create an overall Business Process Excellence and Customer Service strategy. The engagement started with a few initial projects and then grew into a significant effort lasting several years. The major projects included the following:
- Business Process Mapping:
Reviewed, improved, and documented all key business processes. - CRM Selection:
Conducted a full software selection by studying all major solutions available at the time for a Customer Relations Management system. After several rounds of demonstrations and meetings, we selected SalesForce.com as the winning package. - Salesforce.com Implementation:
Gathered business requirements, customized the system, converted data, built key reports and dashboards, trained all user groups, and facilitated the startup of the system. - Customer Service Training:
Customized our proven customer service training program and delivered the training to all company employees and contractors.
The Result
Building Manufacturer
This client is a national building manufacturer with offices throughout the United States.
The Challenge
Our Solution
The executive team participated in a session designed specifically for leadership to ensure that they understood and bought into the concepts being taught in the program.
We utilized our industry leading Culture of Service training methods and program to give employees the tools and methods for improving their individual levels of service. Teams were trained across the country and given access to reinforcement for continual improvement.
The Result
Technical Manufacturer
The Challenge
Our Solution
- Service/Repair Coordination
- Demo Unit Management
- Configure/Price/Quote
- Customer Surveys
- Status Reporting
- Marketing
- Lead Management
The Result
Salesforce has become a core tool for this client with over 90% of their global employees having login IDs where they utilize the system daily to conduct their business. There have been significant efficiency gains, improved communication, both internally and with customers, and increased accountability as almost every aspect of the business is now tracked and reported on from within Salesforce. In addition to the project to implement and support Salesforce, we were involved with the areas:
- Leadership Development
- Process Improvement
- Customer Service Culture
- Annual Planning Retreats
