- Electronic component industrial distributor customizes Oncontact CRM to better meet customer needs -
Gopher Electronics is a progressive, industrial electronic distributor representing approximately 60 world-class manufacturers of electro-mechanical components. The company purchases products from suppliers and distributes them to a large number of customers. Key products include connectors, switches, sensors, circuit protection equipment, fans and power supplies.
The organization’s mission is to provide complete customer satisfaction by providing error-free service on time, every time. Gopher Electronics has used customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for 20 years. However as time went by, its previous CRM provider demonstrated poor support and stopped updating its solution. Because of these issues, the company decided to seek out a new system. Specifically, Gopher Electronics needed a CRM solution that could incorporate unique customizations, grow with the company and include the support necessary.
“With our previous CRM provider, we were no longer receiving the support needed to continuously grow while maintaining the excellent customer service that our clients rely on,” said Nicole DeSantis, systems support, Gopher Electronics. “We needed a new solution that could be customized to complement our business practices and provide us with more visibility to our customer’s needs.”
Finding an Easy-to-Use, Customizable Solution
After extensive research, Gopher Electronics selected Oncontact Software’s Oncontact CRM to automate their critical sales information more efficiently. The company chose Oncontact CRM because it was easy to use and supports intensive customization. Gopher Electronics also liked that the software houses all company information on one central screen to provide users with an immediate, complete view of every customer.
Gopher Electronics now utilizes Oncontact CRM across three core units which consist of inside sales, outside sales and account development teams. The company customized the main screen so that each department has its own log-in. Now, each user has immediate access to department-specific screens designed with the necessary fields and prompts to ensure all required business data is collected.
With Oncontact CRM, all vital account information is tracked and users are always up-to-date with ongoing activities. It enables employees to have quick access to details regarding their account activities, calendars, opportunities, sales history and support data. Further, logging all activity enables management to easily pull accurate business reports to view trends and sales activity.
“Oncontact is a great fit for us,” added DeSantis. “The ability to customize the solution to suit our specialized business design has been very beneficial. Also, our employees find Oncontact CRM to be straightforward and much more intuitive than our previous solution.”
A Deeper View into Account Activity
Since implementing the solution, employees have increased visibility and access to a broader range of business data to help generate new leads and improve sales to existing customers. For example, every employee has the ability to view sales trends that are occurring with their accounts. If users see that a particular customer’s purchases are low, they can focus more time on the customer to see if there are any issues or actions that can bring the account back to normal activity levels.
“The ability to view the sales trends for each account has been a valuable tool to help grow our business,” said DeSantis. “The increased visibility enables us to recognize our customer’s needs as well as maintain and develop relationships more effectively.”
Upgrading to the Latest Technology
Pleased with the solution since implementation, Gopher Electronics recently upgraded to Oncontact’s latest software version, Oncontact CRM 6.0. The upgrade was desirable because it uses the latest .NET platform and easily integrates with third party applications. Also, its graphical user interface and visual style complements Microsoft Windows Vista operating system and supports industry-standard solutions including Microsoft SQL server and Microsoft Office 2007.
“Upgrading to Oncontact CRM 6.0 took work as any upgrade does, but Oncontact made the process extremely easy,” explained DeSantis. “The staff provided us with the detailed information and the exact steps that needed to be performed in order to transition smoothly.”
Since the migration, Gopher Electronics has been able to further develop customizations to improve business processes. The company created a new screen enabling all customer quotes to be accessible through Oncontact. Previously, the quotes were logged into an Excel spreadsheet and stored as a printed copy, which was cumbersome and time consuming to use. Now, the quotes have the familiar Oncontact interface and are located in one central location. Further, the information is stored in a SQL database which reads and writes to the solution enabling employees to access any quote instantly. In addition to the quote screen, Oncontact CRM 6.0 provides a search function for activity notes. Each department now has the ability to easily search and edit all activity data in real time to solve issues faster and work more efficiently.
Value-Added Support
Gopher Electronics is pleased with the support received since becoming an Oncontact customer. Oncontact has continuously assisted the company with specific customizations to ensure that the solution runs as efficiently as possible and provides a significant return on investment.
“The support from Oncontact has been great and the staff responds very quickly,” concluded DeSantis. “If we have customizations that seem out of the ordinary, Oncontact will work through it with us to figure it out. With their help, we can virtually do any customization that we can think of.”
