Arani boosts customer service and doubles efficiency with Salesforce

For a growing SME, it can be challenging to deliver great customer service as the customer base expands. But as electrical products manufacturer Arani discovered – it doesn’t have to be.

Arani is a manufacturing company with a difference – its unwavering focus on customer service. With service and sales supported by Salesforce, Arani has been able to halve response times to customers and double outgoing sales interactions, helping it maximize efficiency and compete with larger companies.

The manufacturer has specialized in LED lighting since 2009, and has grown its product offerings to include EV chargers, wiring devices, and junction boxes for all types of residential, commercial, and industrial projects across Canada. It serves more than 2,000 electrical contractors from its two warehouses and offices in Montreal and Calgary.

As a fast-growing company, Arani understands the importance of leveraging technology to enable sustainable expansion. This approach led it to Salesforce. Service Cloud and Sales Cloud are now used by all employees in customer-facing roles to support timely and relevant conversations, empowering employees to do more while enhancing the customer experience.

Five ways Arani boosts competitive advantage with Salesforce:

Arani has always prided itself on the quality of its customer service, but until it had Service Cloud, it couldn’t measure its progress. With more customers to serve, providing good support was becoming increasingly stressful for the team. Supported by just email and group chat, agents found themselves overlapping on cases and duplicating effort.

This all changed when Arani introduced Service Cloud. “With Salesforce, we’re organized, informed, and efficient,” said Sean Arani, President at Arani. “All the information is in one place which makes communication with the customer and escalations much easier – and we never have to ask them to repeat themselves.”

The new approach has reduced response times by up to 50%. Eventually, the company plans to respond to every customer query within just 5-10 minutes. And with the ability to track metrics for every case, Arani will be able to maintain customer service levels even as its customer base expands.

With every sales rep using different systems to handle their customers - from notepad and pen to Excel spreadsheets – Arani struggled to keep track of its leads and gain an overarching view of its sales funnel.

Since rolling out an integrated CRM system, the team never forgets a potential customer, no matter how many they’re dealing with. “With Salesforce Flows automating key processes, we can enforce best practices and track every lead and opportunity in real time,” explained Patrick Lurie, Director of Technology at Arani. “With all the information they need at their fingertips, sales reps can contact twice as many customers in the same timeframe.”

Arani is a KPI-driven company, but with manual processes, it could only report on the previous month. The management team now uses real-time data from Salesforce dashboards to identify training needs, make process improvements, and make better financial decisions.

For example, the marketing team can manage advertising spend to maximize ROI, based on the conversion rates of the leads it generates. “The dashboards and reporting capabilities are my favourite part of Salesforce,” revealed Arani. “Data is visible across the business and is always live, so we don’t have to wait to make decisions – we can be proactive, which is crucial at today’s pace of business.”

With customer information spread across multiple systems, Arani’s reps previously struggled to collaborate effectively. Now customer data is all in Salesforce. When a colleague is on vacation, there’s a trail of information to make it easier for someone else to step in. “With all conversations tracked, we can better understand the customer mindset over time and have more meaningful conversations that help their businesses,” shared Lurie.

As well as enhancing internal efficiency and the customer experience, Arani has discovered that using Salesforce also helps the company appeal to job candidates. “Salesforce has brand recognition – prospective employees know that we’ve invested in the systems and processes they need to do their jobs effectively, and this makes us a more attractive workplace so we can create a strong team to take the company forward,” explained Arani.

To further improve efficiency, Arani plans to integrate its phone system, website, SMS, and chat with Salesforce next. Lurie is also looking at Salesforce Tableau to leverage AI-powered support, as well as to reveal patterns and make predictions in customer behaviour. “With Salesforce, there are no limitations – anything is possible,” stated Arani. “Our goal is to offer our customers the service they deserve, and with Salesforce, we can achieve this no matter how fast we grow.”