Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Microsoft CRM Helps McBride Electric Make the Right Connection with Customers
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Building and Construction
Customer Profile
McBride Electric is one of the largest privately held, multi-service, multi-state electrical contractors in the U.S., offering a variety of services in the electrical, data cabling, lighting, and emergency power areas.
Business Situation
McBride Electric sought a portable and customizable CRM solution that could store a variety of information and help the company serve its customers more efficiently and effectively.
Solution
Using Microsoft® CRM, McBride Electric is now able to maintain all customer data in one location, helping the company enhance its customer-service efforts.
Benefits
Increased customer service and customer satisfaction
Improved access to information
Enhanced employee morale
Faster response to customer requests / "The general look, feel and ease of use of the solution are just phenomenal. The intuitiveness is great—we can get off the ground and build from here. I would recommend Microsoft CRM to others because it's customizable, and because of its ease-of-use and ease-of-implementation."
David Fischer, IT Director, McBride Electric
For more than half a century, McBride Electric has provided a wide range of electrical services to customers across six states. To better track vital customer information and help both its in-house and remote employees continue to deliver high-quality customer service, McBride Electric implemented Microsoft CRM (now part of Microsoft Dynamics™), a centralized customer relationship management solution.
Situation
In the service industry, exceeding customer expectations at every interaction is a proven path to business success. And for more than 50 years, it's something San Diego-based McBride Electric has done consistently. Whether the company is lending electrical services expertise, providing computer and optical cable wiring, handling clean power solutions, or managing multi-site Point of Sale (POS), electrical data and lighting projects, McBride Electric's more than 500 employees pride themselves on seeking and maintaining positive relationships with their customers.
Unfortunately, McBride Electric's customer-service efforts were hampered by a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that couldn't store customer information from all 14 of the company's locations and didn't provide a way to effectively leverage the data that was already there. In addition, because the company's 35 salespeople maintained their own customer databases, data wasn't always accurate or consistent. Worse, because these databases were seldom backed up, the company risked a complete loss of data.
Solution
McBride Electric researched several CRM solutions, including Salesforce.com, Siebel, WorldTrak, SalesLogix, ACT!, WebAccess, and GoldMine. In the end, the company chose Microsoft® CRM because it is scalable, portable, and customizable. Plus it could easily store large volumes of customer data and integrate with McBride Electric's back office system.
McBride Electric has been pleased with its new solution's ease of implementation, short ramp-up time, and easy learning curve for employees. "There hasn't been any situation that we haven't been able to address using Microsoft CRM," says David Fischer, the company's IT Director. "In fact, there are pieces of this package we will grow into as we advance our sales team."
Benefits
Improved access to customer information—Microsoft CRM integrates with McBride Electric's back office system, providing easy access to vital sales and customer information. Employees can now view and update a wealth of customer data, including contacts; account, sales and order information; service records; and history—and share that information across teams and departments. With this data, the McBride Electric office staff knows what's been communicated to the customer, understands the scope of the work to be done, and ensures the company can deliver on its promises.
Better customer service—With the additional information Microsoft CRM makes readily available to its salespeople, McBride Electric anticipates timelier responses to customers, leading to an increase in customer satisfaction, and ultimately, improved employee morale. "Life should be easier because this solution is so complete," Fischer says. "You can easily and quickly print a report to get the information you need, rather than spending time searching for it in the previous system—if, in fact, it was there to begin with."
Quicker response to customer needs—and more—Because Microsoft CRM provides full functionality online or offline through Microsoft Outlook®, or online from any location using a Web browser, it provides the remote portability McBride Electric sought to respond more quickly to customer needs. "We could've enhanced our previous solution, but it wasn't easily portable, and we didn't want to reinvent the wheel if a portable solution was already out there," Fischer says.
Because of the tight integration with Microsoft Outlook®, accurate records of customer-related communications are now maintained in Microsoft CRM with automated tracking of both incoming and outgoing customer e-mails.
Finally, Fischer says, Microsoft CRM has definitely exceeded McBride Electric's expectations at every turn. "The general look, feel, and ease-of-use of the solution are just phenomenal," he says. "I would recommend Microsoft CRM to others because it's customizable, and because of its ease-of-use and ease-of-implementation."
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systemsthat your company already has implemented. By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to: