GWC redefines client relationship management with Salesforce

As its solution portfolio and market share have grown, so too has its customer base. GWC has 1,500 customers around the globe and they all have different needs. Despite this diversity, GWC needs a common platform for customer relationship management (CRM). “We had a siloed approach to CRM across our 10 business units, which meant customers would have a very different experience depending on who they engaged with,” explained Kamal.  “We needed a solution that could support future growth and the next stage of our customer-centric transformation.” 

GWC started to implement Sales Cloud in July 2017. It took just three months to onboard the first two business units with six others going live in 2018. “With Sales Cloud, we can achieve the right balance between consistency and flexibility,” said Kamal. “We’d been trying for four years to unify the experience across our diverse customer base; Salesforce made it happen.”

The sales cycle at GWC also varies between different business units. With Sales Cloud, teams can access and adapt standard templates and proposals, which has helped reduce the sales cycle lead-time. 

GWC has also improved lead capture and conversion. As Kamal explained: “Lead management is now automated, which stops potential new business from falling through the gaps. We can now identify key success factors and focus on them throughout the sales opportunity to increase the win rate.”

Every stage in the lead management process - from requirement analysis and proposal creation to negotiation and closure - is tracked in Sales Cloud. Once a lead is converted, a customer account as well as onboarding tasks are automatically generated. 

The 60-strong sales teams can access, view, and edit tasks and add data while on the move. “In the past sales reps had to come back to the office to update the CRM system after a meeting, which was time-consuming and not always convenient,” said Kamal. “With the Salesforce Mobile App, there is no time-lag in information being updated, which has improved accuracy.” 

When GWC wants to introduce a new report or dashboard, it no longer has to rely on help from the IT team. “The sales team have been empowered with the Salesforce self-serve features,” said Kamal. “Everyone now has greater visibility of the sales process and pipeline.” 

By boosting sales performance, GWC’s revenue ratio for the year ending 2018 increased by 25% compared with the previous year. 

To put the customer at the centre of its business, GWC needed to extend visibility into another important area: customer service. “Sales teams would visit a customer without realising there was an open case, which demonstrated a disconnect in our business,” explained Kamal. 

To bridge this gap and provide a better customer service experience, GWC implemented Service Cloud in December 2018. The initial deployment focused on its contract logistics business unit, GWC’s largest business unit, but will eventually be extended across the business. “With Service Cloud, we can take a more proactive approach to tracking and escalating cases,” said Kamal. “The contract logistics service team are now successfully closing double the number of cases per month, which has contributed to greater customer satisfaction and retention.” 

Better case management is particularly key when it comes to enabling system integrations for customers. In the past, these integrations took longer as they moved between different teams at GWC, which could have negative repercussions on operations. GWC has used Service Cloud to set up automated workflows and emails to prevent a break in the chain and provide customers with status updates.