Challenge
Support sales and customer service needs specific to the transportation and logistics industry; Provide flexible and cost-effective workflows for critical business processes; Accommodate rapid growth
Solution
Sugar Professional, hosted on-site; customized for industry-specific sales, marketing, and support needs.
Results
- Cut operational costs by 20%
- Decreased service requests by 20% via automated routing
- Reduced service resolution time from days to hours
- Increased sales to existing customers
Intro
When customers need quick decisions and even speedier service, it’s critical to have the relevant information within reach. The fast-paced transportation and logistics industry requires balancing speedy results with deep relationship engagement in order to net meaningful gains for the business – and its customers.
To support growth, keep up with industry demands, and improve its sales and service operations, PostNord Norway turned to Sugar to replace a data-entry heavy CRM tool with a flexible platform that powers a new VIP service system that reduces customer issue resolution time from days to hours, introduces streamlined processes, and decreases operational costs by 20 percent.
Engaging Relationships
The PostNord of today is one of the Nordic region’s leading logistic companies, with ongoing relationships with notable brands such as BMW and Stian Sports. To maintain its leadership in the industry, the company strives to marry close-knit customer relationships with a high level of service.
“We needed to increase our sales team’s face-to-face interaction with existing and potential customers,” explains Christopher Øtsby Andersen, Head of Customer Consulting at PostNord Norway. “So the CRM system had to provide an improved overview of sales efforts and enhance service to our customers. Management wanted the system to be modern, cost-effective and flexible enough to support our specific business and future development.”
The centralized, 360-degree customer view delivered by Sugar was critical to PostNord’s success: the innovative CRM solution supports the close customer relationships that are crucial in the fast-moving transportation market. With all customer-facing employees accessing Sugar, the team is empowered with relevant information that helps them truly engage with PostNord customers – and drive outstanding results for the business.
The VIP Experience
The customer service experience got an immediate update with the implementation of a Sugar-driven VIP service system. Now, customers can contact PostNord via an online form and submit service requests with near-immediate responses. With Sugar deeply embedded in PostNord’s customer service process, external requests are automatically prescreened and directed to the right employee rather than to a central mailbox.
The company receives approximately 1,800 service requests daily and 20% of those requests are routed directly to local account managers and support departments. A major shift in the delivery of customer service, PostNord has reduced service resolution time from days to hours, streamlined service processes, and cut operational costs by 20%—all while delivering a better customer service experience.
“As more service requests are placed online, Sugar gives us an efficient, cost-effective communication channel that allows our employees to save time, reduce manual errors, and deliver faster customer service,” says Espen Ellingsberg, the assistant director for CRM and customer support at PostNord Norway.
Delivering Sales Impact
Sugar has also strengthened the operation of Postnord Norway’s sales organization. With improved visibility into customers, campaigns, and sales processes, the sales team can take a more proactive approach, including an increased number of on-site sales visits to existing customers and reduced turnaround time in pursuing new opportunities.
Sales management relies on reporting via Sugar to provide immediate detailed reports to oversee the sales process, review opportunities, and make directed decisions and recommendations.
“Sugar supports our daily sales process and we can now see improved efficiency and visibility for employees and management,” says Christopher. “With our ability to acquire core intelligence for analysis at the management level, we can chart the sales potential in the market better than we ever could before Sugar. As a result, our sales with existing customers have increased and we continue to grow and add new customers.”
Integrations
IBM Connections: Suite of social and real-time collaboration, analytics and content management tools.
Act-On: Marketing automation.
ERP: Coordination with core business processes.
Data Warehouse: Syncs Accounts, Contacts, Consignments, Invoices, and other business data.
Microsoft Active Directory: Coordinates employee user access to Sugar.
Customizations
- Turnover Module: Shows the expected account value in Won opportunities along with the actual amount per month the customer spends. This can be drilled down to single Product via the addition of product catalogue in the Opportunity View. This information feeds a Realization Degree value that is presented visually as charts on the Account view of the Customer.
- Full featured Case Management with Portal for the Customers: Allows for integrated service case management with selfservice customer access. Also linked to Cargo Areas, so assigned users can communicate with cargo handlers directly.
- Loss Claims Management: Whenever a support case leads to a loss claim, the process is automated in Sugar to calculate the actual amount for the claim and assign appropriate division of the cost between the appropriate departments or third party contractor. Linked to finance system for payment or collections as needed to complete the claim.
- New Customer Form: Completed by a Sales Rep when a new customer is won, the form is automatically sent to appropriate department stakeholders to collect digital approvals and signatures.
- Dashboard with KPI’s: Presented in the Account view to give a 360-degree view of the customer status.
- Case Management: Allows IT Support department to manage internal support requests. Created template for common questions and workflows to route requests to appropriate case handlers. Also a completely new Knowledge Base that suggests solutions based on key information entered in the support case request.
- Process WorkFlow Module: Access to create and manage processes for records within Sugar.
Sugar Partner
We help companies in their digital transformation and are with them during their whole journey. We focus on the needs of the organization and select the right software made for their specific purposes. Exsitec is the biggest Elite Partner for SugarCRM in Scandinavia and has over 15 years of experience with SugarCRM, as well as hundreds of delivered solutions.