thomas.wieberneit@aheadcrm.co.nz
How (and why) a marine consultancy made Zoho core of their business

How (and why) a marine consultancy made Zoho core of their business

During ZohoDay 2022, I had the chance to have a longer conversation with Graham Dallas, business development manager of the ABL Group. Graham was responsible for the implementation of ABL Group’s new CRM system. ABL Group is the result of a 2020 merger of AqualisBraemar ASA and the LOC Group. It is a 400+ person global energy and marine consultancy that helps companies around the world transition toward offshore renewable energy sources, clean shipping, and sustainable marine practices. Formerly Microsoft Dynamics users, ABL Group first began working with Zoho in 2021 via an implementation partner, and they collaborated on a design and build of a customized CRM solution for their business. Soon, the second phase of implementation will begin, which then includes integration with Oracle NetSuite. One of the main challenges facing ABL Group was the integration of two different businesses, one of them already using a “chunky” CRM solution and the other one not having a system. if you do not want to read too much but prefer watching the edited interview, you can do so here. The challenge to address was that ABL Group, also because of the recent merger has a lot of differing business structures that shall be supported via one single system. Luckily, the structures weren’t necessarily complex – the business just has a lot of different requirements due to the different regions and lines of business. ABL Group started with a small team of experienced persons who went into this implementation projects with open eyes and some ideas. They assembled a list of 6 candidates that they narrowed down into three with Zoho...
How to make Zoho a business’s operating system

How to make Zoho a business’s operating system

During ZohoDay 2022, I had the chance to have a longer conversation with Adi Mula, founder and CEO of Foodhub. If you do not want to read too much but prefer watching the edited interview, you can do so here. Similar to GrubHub and DoorDash, Foodhub allows residents of the UK, India, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia, the US and some more countries to order food to be delivered from a variety of local restaurants; unlike those other sites, Foodhub does not charge service fees. Foodhub currently has about 1,100 employees. Most of them are using Zoho products in one way or another and many use multiple Zoho products. Foodhub started its Zoho journey with the goal of simplifying processes and to be able to provide every team with simple and easy to use tools that will help them do their jobs.  Originally, Foodhub worked with a set of interconnected, yet overly complicated applications. This journey started with implementing Zoho CRM because this was where the pain was biggest in this area.  The sales teams in the various countries have different needs, yet the business needs them use a common foundation. The old solution did not support this. One of the problems that were caused by this was that Foodhub used huge Excel sheets to support its sales process. Besides the obvious complexity, this also caused a GDPR risk, as these sheets contained lots of personal data that could have easily be shared online. Moving to Zoho CRM immediately solved this problem by enabling model processes that solved the needs of the different regions while implementing an adequate security and permission model. Migrating...
CRMKonvos – Mitch Lieberman on CX, CDP and Conversational Excellence beyondCXM

CRMKonvos – Mitch Lieberman on CX, CDP and Conversational Excellence beyondCXM

During this episode we talked with Mitch Lieberman who has quite some experience in the CRM industry, on the vendor- and analyst side. He was with Epiphany, Sugar, and with G2, to name but a few.He has the insight and the sharp mind that makes this conversation particularly interesting, without me diminishing the other ones, though.Mitch certainly got our grey matter into high gear during our conversation that started with CX, went into a solid discussion of the value (what is it?) of Customer Data Platforms, CDP, on to conversational systems – and back. Btw, what is a CDP? Let Mitch provide his interesting view.We learned a lot.You can, too.This conversation is in English, apart from a few minutes at the beginning and the...
Customer Experience on Cruise Ships – It doesn’t always need AI to deliver

Customer Experience on Cruise Ships – It doesn’t always need AI to deliver

It is this time of the year. Both, my wife Nicole and I put in long hours throughout last year, and yes, the pre-Christmas-time was not exactly a vacation, too … So, we were looking forward to some downtime and a family cruise with the line that prides itself as being “the home of the smile”. But, hey, if you are in the customer experience business – you never really have full downtime. At the end of the day it is also impossible to not reflect your own experience. Hence, we also could not avoid to realise how simple things can turn something amazing into something mediocre – or even plain disappointing. The cruise industry is a highly competitive industry, too, with more and more customers having more and more choice. Cruise Market Watch predicts more than 27.6 million cruise customers in 2020. Ships are getting bigger and more comfortable – and the fleets are growing, too, with 25 more cruise ships being expected to enter service in 2020. At the same time, customer expectations are rising fast. And this does not only apply to the digital world, but also to the physical one. And a cruise is all about the customers’ experience, and nothing else. This is what they are selling with slogans like ‘premium all-inclusive’ (TUI Cruises). “After all, the best holiday feeling is: not being in the need to think of anything, but to be able to. Not needing to pay for it, but being able to try anything. Not needing to relinquish anything but being able to enjoy everything.” (original in German, translation by me)...
The Demo, the 7P of Planning, and Customer Experience

The Demo, the 7P of Planning, and Customer Experience

Being a consultant being called into or asked to do a product demo is inevitable. A demo is one of the most powerful tools that product/solution vendors and their partners have in their arsenal to convince prospects. The demo is a key part of the customer journey that the buyer of enterprise software takes. A good experience in this step will establish the trust that is necessary to go any further with a vendor and/or implementation partner. A great demo can make an underdog a winner while a poor demo can make the frontrunner an outright loser. Well, and sometimes the underdog’s killer demo scores them only the second place in a winner-takes-it-all world. I have seen and done that on both sides of the table, given good and bad demos, sat as a customer or trusted adviser, attending bad to great demos. And it is always amazing to see and participate. One thing is for sure: If you get into the make or break position of a competitive demo in a short list, you better remember The 7 P of Planning Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Know thy customer; and know her well. Who is part of the buying center? Who decides? Who influences who? Who has the money? What are their likes and dislikes? What are their interests? What do they want to achieve? What do they expect to see? How can I surprise/wow them? Who is my friend? These are only some of the more important questions that you need to get answers for before the demo. Other ones include answering how important this...