CRM Helps Drive Successful Call Center

Capital Office Products in Daytona Beach, FL, has found a cost effective way to acquire, manage and grow a large volume of customers cost effectively. Three years ago they started a call center. According to Tom O'Hanlon, call center sales manager, they initially began the program as a way to maintain and grow existing customers. Three years later new customer acquisition has grown to be the largest side.

"In the beginning", said O'Hanlon, "we just intended to offer a higher level of support to existing customers - someone to call them-keep in touch and maintain them and grow the business. It all just evolved to new customer acquisition". O'Hanlon went on to say, "As we saw the competitive environment get more volatile and we asked our 'maintenance' reps to be come more proactive in growing business, new customer acquisition was a natural progression".

Three years and a lot of hard work later, Capital Office Products now has 12 new customer acquisition reps and 7 account maintenance reps. Combined they cover 3500 customers with each maintenance rep covering between 400-600 customers.

As a key to their success, O'Hanlon went on to say, "When an inside rep acquires a new customer they keep it...

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Dealer Profile: J&E's Office City

J&E Office City, located in Metropolitan St. Louis, has an enviable base of business; 70-80% of their business comes from 70-80% of their customers.

It wasn’t always that way, according to J&E President, Jerry Gibbs. “About 10 years ago we decided to take charge of where our business was coming from”, said Gibbs. “We knew that being in such a large metropolitan area and the competitive environment that comes with it; we needed to spread our business around. We didn’t want to be vulnerable with fewer accounts making up a large percent of our business”

A significant part of the solution for J&E was to make an investment in GoldMine CRM and Sales Force Automaton software. “We needed a system” said Gibbs, “A system that would help us to manage customer sales history and customer information, and at the same time give us the capability to touch more customers and prospects with automated campaigns and other ongoing promotional programs. Not only could we sell more to existing customers but we had a program in place to increase our customer base.”

Along with the addition of technology and more progressive and automated marketing, J&E assigned 20% of its comme...

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