The tale of the tape
In 2016 it became apparent that eir’s affiliate sales process was not yet optimal and the decision was taken to undertake an operational review. At the time Affiliate sales were outsourced to a partner who only handled leads generated through Affiliate websites and the sales process looked like this:
- Leads flow from the Affiliate website into Salesforce
- Team leader downloads reports to track open leads
- Affiliate sales team contact prospects
- Leads are updated, with outcome
The review highlighted the need to update this strategy such that all leads were contacted within moments of the lead being submitted. The existing process caused delays which meant that a significant number of contacts had already committed to a competitor. In summary this meant lower conversion rates and lost revenue.
As well as operational efficiencies the review also looked for savings against the licensing fees and script development costs associated with Salesforce and at this point it became clear that replacing Salesforce with a more flexible CRM, offering better value for money, was the key.
The old one two
The eir team met with a number of providers and quickly identified bxp as offering the best operational choice combined with an attractive pricing model.
Improved functionality
The main reasons behind the decision to replace Salesforce with bxp were:
bxp alerts agents to leads as soon as they are completed on the Affiliates’ websites. This means that there is no longer a need to generate a manual report and it allows the sales team to contact the prospect immediately. The result was a 24% increase in the leads conversion ratio.
Prior to implementing bxp, the Affiliate team only handled web based leads whilst Affiliate generated calls were routed to eir telesales. Merging the operation to handle both streams allows managers to view overall sales stats and has also lead to improvements in performance vs. target and commission payments.
eir’s partners also benefited from the implementation of bxp because the new process automated the whole data transaction. The removal of manual intervention resulted in cost savings as well as ensuring that data transfer was 100% accurate.
Improved financials
The move to bxp delivered significant savings against licensing and development costs. The user-friendly nature of bxp and its online training tools also means that eir can readily make changes to the sales script without incurring the development costs previously imposed by Salesforce.
In addition, deploying bxp and bringing the Affiliate sales team in-house has generated a sales uplift of over 370% between July and December 2016 when compared to 2015’s figures for the same period.
Boxing clever
bxp used their API to link to the Affiliates database and he API code can be easily be adapted to transfer additional data. Furthermore, these changes can be implemented by eir, independently of bxp.
The Affiliates database presents as a form to the agent, giving them a clear view of the client’s details. Agents have one-click access to leads that require contact and these are offered-up in chronological order. Some customers elect to call in and for these the agent will create a new record within the same database.
In operational terms this means that the customer is contacted whilst the idea is fresh in their minds and they enjoy a professional, joined-up start to their customer journey. The implementation of bxp also allows the sales team to effectively manage a pipeline of customers who may not necessarily want to complete the sale on the initial call.
Round two
Based on the service that bxp have provided the Affiliate sales team so far and the user-friendly nature of the system, eir has decided to use bxp as the CRM system for their Field Sales team and this is currently being implemented. eir estimate that this will generate additional cost savings of around €250,000.00 per annum.
bxp have also recently won the tender for the NEC (Non-eir Customer) database which will allow eir to generate effective campaigns based on comprehensive, up to date information. This, ultimately, means the ability to deliver the right message, at the right time, to the right people.
It’s a Knockout!
Since the introduction of bxp, our lead submission process to eir has improved immeasurably. bxp has enabled our systems to communicate seamlessly and has cut down on human error by 100%.
In addition, our reporting and reconciliation processes are fully supported by bxp which further reduced our workload. We are wholly supportive of the bxp solution and we wish that all partners had a similar solution in place!
David Kerr, Founder & Managing Director, bonkers.ie – April 2017
eir has increased their overall sales productivity since they moved to bxp and formed a centralised Inbound and Outbound sales team who are now one of the most productive Switcher partners.
Since the move to bxp Switcher has also seen significant improvements in eir’s ability to cross-sell and upsell from both inbound and outbound channels. Improved flexibility, consistency, speed, reliability and transparency of reconciliation and sales reporting have been clear to see since the introduction of bxp.
Eoin Clarke, Chief Executive Officer, Switcher Limited – April 2017
We work with directly with eir´s affiliate sales team and since the implementation of bxp we have seen the processing of our leads enormously accelerated. Lead management and reporting is paramount to us and a robust CRM means accurate analysis of our lead data and sales pipelines. bxp was simple and easy to implement and the guidance we got from their tech support was excellent. We look forward to working with bxp / eir on future projects
Luke Rafferty, Managing Director, BB Only – April 2017
Early last year, Sales Operations proposed a migration from Salesforce to bxp. Their proposition reflected substantial operational and financial benefits to the business and these were overwhelmingly delivered. Overall the project is a success and the business continues to reap the benefits.
Allan Kennedy, Head of Finance, eir – April 2017
