Salesforce helps The Retail Factory follow-up leads, enhance service and retain customers

The Retail Factory is the UK's only one-stop shop for retail and office supplies and sells more than 25,000 products through several channels:  online, telephone and face-to-face. Formed in 2006, The Retail Factory now has a turnover of £1.6 million and a workforce of twenty, and the company is rapidly expanding.

The Retail Factory sells a diverse range of products (from shop fittings to printer ink cartridges) and caters for a wide range of customers, from home-based individuals to government bodies to large corporations. This great customer diversity, coupled with several retail channels means that keeping track of all relevant data can be a complicated process. Phil Dunseath, The Retail Factory’s e-commerce director, says: "As a small business, obtaining and keeping customers is key. It was always a fundamental requirement from day one that we should be able to manage and record all our interactions with current or potential customers regardless of the channel they choose."

In the early days of business, The Retail Factory's sales advisors spent a lot of time manually inputting customer data and there was a great need to make this process far more effective. The company also wanted to make the best possible use of sales leads. "Marketing to generate sales leads can be costly, so if a customer is kind enough to give you information, the least you can do is use it intelligently in trying to meet their needs," says Dunseath. It was decided that tailoring the company’s products and communications through an effective CRM system would increase sales conversion and help improve customer retention.

Connecting all parts

After investigating the CRM market, The Retail Factory opted for Salesforce Enterprise Edition. Dunseath explains why: "A good CRM system connects all parts of the business, from sales and marketing through to accounts and finance – Salesforce does that." The company also liked the fact that Salesforce was an affordable, web-based, scalable solution, allowing the business grow and develop in a seamless fashion. Other attractive features included Salesforce’s modular construction and the high degree of customisation it offered. "We are adamant about using technology for our benefit," says Dunseath. The Retail Factory took out eleven Salesforce Enterprise Edition licences.

The Retail Factory worked with Salesforce-approved technology partner PrimaLink to integrate the CRM into the business and develop applications.  "Integration was a smooth process: Salesforce is at the core of our business, it’s even included in the induction training of every new employee," says Dunseath, "People generally find it easy to use and will often customise it to suit their role in the business." The Retail Factory is progressively integrating Salesforce with all areas of its business including, sales, finance and HR. Internet sales orders, for example, are  automatically fed into Salesforce, and to the company’s suppliers for dispatching orders. "All the customer and order data is available instantly, so if a customer calls with a query a sales advisor can find the record easily," notes Dunseath.   

There are also plans to transfer sales and purchase information from Salesforce directly into SAGE Line 50 accounts to streamline processes even further and reduce as much paperwork as possible. The company has also developed a customised sales quote module through Salesforce which it uses to obtain and track bespoke quotes from suppliers in cases where customers have special requirements. And Salesforce has also been used to develop custom tabs and sections to house employee information and human resources documents, keeping everything in one place.

Better Use of Time

The use of Salesforce has dramatically reduced the amount of time sales advisors need to spend inputting data. It has also given them instant access to relevant customer data, greatly enhancing customer service and greatly increasing the potential for customer retention. "If has taken some time to develop and implement some of our Salesforce projects but we are confident that it makes us more efficient. For instance having robust processes in place using Salesforce helped in obtaining our recent ISO9001 accreditation," says Dunseath, adding that: "Salesforce greatly reduced our manual paperwork and re-keying of data, which has probably freed up resource equating to three full time employees. Time which can now be used elsewhere."

The Retail Factory also plans to implement

CTI integration

and also integrate its email and web analytics packages, giving the company the ability to track marketing activity effectively and measure its ROI.

The Retail Factory