CASE STUDY CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

COMPANY nTelos Wireless

HEADQUARTERS Waynesboro Va

EMPLOYEES 1300

SERVICE LOCATIONS Kentucky Maryland North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Virginia and West Virginia

SALES STRATEGY 65 brick-and-mortar stores plus inside sales

BUSINESS nTelos Wireless provides high-speed nationwide voice and data coverage for over 430000 retail subscribers across a seven-state area The companyrsquos licensed territories have a total population of approximately 81 million residents of which its wireless network covers approximately 6 million residents The company is also the exclusive wholesale provider of wireless digital personal communications service to Sprint Nextel in the western Virginia and West Virginia service area for all Sprint CDMA wireless customers

At a Glance

PUTTING CUSTOMERS ON SPEED DIAL

With Microsoft Dynamics CRM nTelos Wireless revolutionizes how it handles customers post-sale at retail stores mdash and thatrsquos only the beginning

ldquoOur CEO is very data-driven When I give him information wersquove gleaned from our CRM system he takes notes and takes actionrdquo says Ralph Kirtland vice president of IT for nTelos Wireless

TWEET THIS

2 CASE STUDY CRM

At nTelos Wireless new and old

blend seamlessly Itrsquos a tradition

that began in 1897 when the

regional phone carrier was

launched as the Clifton Forge-

Waynesboro Telephone Co

Twenty-two years ago nTelos

entered the mobile arena when

it launched its wireless division

Then two years ago it spun off its

wire-line division into a separate

enterprise called Lumos Networks

leaving it as a pure-play wireless

company

At the time of the split nTelos realized it needed a better

way to follow up on new sales generate leads and improve

customer satisfaction at its 65 brick-and-mortar stores

spread across Appalachia and the Mid-Atlantic

ldquoWhat we needed was a call-back program that allowed

us to reach out to customers to make sure they were happy

with the phone and the service they had selectedrdquo says

Ralph Kirtland vice president of IT for nTelos Wireless

ldquoWersquod had this type of program in the past but it was all

driven by emails and Post-It notesrdquo

With the high staff turnover rates typical of retail a lot of

those calls were never made Even when they were nTelosrsquo

400-plus sales staff had no easy way to record the outcomes

of the calls capture new leads or share that information with

other parts of the organization And management had no

way to measure its top performers on the store floor

So nTelos turned to CDW for help finding a customer

relationship management solution that fit its needs After

weeks of meetings with relevant stake -

holders across the organization CDW rec-

ommended Microsoft Dynamics CRM and

brought in technology experts Ledgeview

Partners to implement the system

Sweeping ViewLike a lot of midsize and large companies

nTelos had developed a series of technology

silos over the years that prevented it from

easily and strategically sharing information

across the organization notes Ray Casey a

CDW CRM technical specialist who served as

an adviser to nTelos Wireless during its CRM

design and deployment

ldquoWe started by looking at nTelosrsquo

e-commerce siterdquo Casey says

ldquoWe took a strategic look at how

their business was currently set

up and figured out how to tap

horizontally into all components

We positioned CRM as a framework

that could reach into every part of

the operation offering one catalog

of products across the web point

of sale and inside sales as well as

inbound servicerdquo

Initially nTelos experimented with

cloud-based CRM services from another company It was a

good way to both test how CRM could help nTelosrsquo business

and demonstrate the potential benefits to key stakeholders

and management sponsors Casey says

Once the company could demonstrate a solid business

case for CRM it decided to leverage its existing investment in

Microsoft products and adopt Dynamics CRM Kirtland says

ldquoWe are already largely a Microsoft shop We use

NET for our in-house point-of-sale system SQL Server

for our data warehouse and a Microsoft stack for our

e-commerce platformrdquo he says ldquoAnything that isnrsquot a

telecom billing app or middleware solution is Microsoft So

the fact that Dynamics was made by Microsoft and highly

rated by Gartner made our decision a slam dunkrdquo

Another key selling point was its smooth integration with

Microsoft Office Kirtland adds ldquoOther CRM vendors claim

to work seamlessly with Office but they canrsquot compare to

how Dynamics operatesrdquo he says ldquoItrsquos just another folder

in Outlook it feels just like yoursquore working with emailrdquo

50 of all CRM systems will be cloud-based by 2020SOURCE Gartner Research

ldquoWersquore not yet at the point where the CRM is the system of record for all of our customer information but that is our long-term goalrdquo mdash Ralph Kirtland vice president of IT for nTelos Wireless

TWEET THIS

38008004239 | CDWcom

Take Note Critical CRM Planning DecisionsAdopting a customer relationship

management solution often involves

systemic change across many different parts of the

organization Here are five questions whose answers will

help you shape your CRM strategy

1 Cloud or not Organizations need to decide up front if

they feel comfortable putting their most valuable assets mdash

their customer data mdash in the cloud says Ralph Kirtland vice

president of IT for nTelos Wireless

2 Whatrsquos your legacy Most organizations underestimate

the amount of time and effort required to deal with legacy

data says Chuck Hoffmann an applications consultant for

Ledgeview Partners But many IT shops donrsquot realize that it

may not be necessary to import years of old data to run the

business he adds

3 Can you be honest Moving to CRM requires both an

honest reassessment of existing business processes and

the willingness to change them says Ray Casey a CDW CRM

technical specialist ldquoYou need to be able to look at your

existing systems and say lsquoThe emperor isnrsquot wearing any

clothesrsquo rdquo he says

4 Got local expertise Itrsquos worthwhile to have a CRM expert

inside your IT department Kirtland advises ldquoMy belief is

that every business-critical system needs its own expert

in-houserdquo he says ldquoThings break from time to time You

need someone who can assess how bad the breakage is and

what it will take to fix itrdquo

5 Wherersquos the boss Systemic changes such as CRM

adoption require participation of all key stakeholders mdash

as well as strong support from senior management

When it came to implementation nTelos Wireless opted

for an on-premises solution rather than a cloud-based tool

The primary reason Data security Kirtland says

ldquoWhen we started this process the operating

assumption was that we would go to the cloudrdquo he says

ldquoBut as we put the question in front of a bigger audience

it became clear that we werenrsquot comfortable putting the

crown jewels mdash our customer data mdash in the cloud yetrdquo

Eventually Kirtland believes the company will move

such data to the cloud ldquoEvery day as the cloud gets more

mature that decision point moves a little bitrdquo

Data-Driven ChangeWith the new CRM in place nTelos salespeople now are

guided through a series of scripts identifying whom to call and

when the questions to ask and how to record the results

Initially the system prompted them to make three calls

bull On Day 1 New customers received a call asking if they were

satisfied with their purchase and the sales experience

bull On Day 5 They received another call to see if they needed

any accessories or knew of potential customers they

were willing to refer

bull On Day 30 New nTelos Wireless subscribers received a

call to make sure they understood their bill

From the get-go new customers were no longer falling

through the cracks Kirtland says If a salesperson left the

company a store manager was quickly able to assign that

personrsquos responsibilities to another employee Whatrsquos

more nTelos was able to ensure that all calls were made and

to grade salespeople on their proficiency at making follow-

up calls he points out

The results have been so dramatic and the system has

worked so well that nTelos has been able to reduce the

number of times it needs to contact customers post-sale

Now its salespeople call on Day 3 and Day 45 after an initial

purchase Customer referrals have risen while calls for tech

support have dropped saving nTelos tens of thousands of

dollars in support costs Kirtland says

ldquoWersquove been able to head off a number of calls that might

have otherwise gone into our customer care organizationrdquo he

says ldquoIf a customer has a question about how the phone works

the sales rep can usually handle it And we get more referrals

now because we have a better completion rate when calling

customers Without that phone call you may have a happy

customer who wants to refer other people to you but canrsquotrdquo

Even better the number of product returns attributed

to ldquobuyerrsquos remorserdquo has dropped by 20 percent within the

first 90 days saving the company more than $200000

over two years

ldquoIf you catch customers within the 14-day return period

you have a chance to educate them about whatrsquos really Vla

stim

il Šes

taacutek

Vee

r

48008004239 | CDWcom

This content is provided for informational purposes It is believed to be accurate but could contain errors CDW does not intend to make any warranties express or implied about the products services or information that is discussed CDWreg CDWbullGreg and The Right Technology Right Awayreg are registered trademarks of CDW LLC PEOPLE WHO GET ITtrade is a trademark of CDW LLC All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the sole property of their respective ownersTogether we strive for perfection ISO 90012000 certified121684 mdash 130903 copy2013 CDW LLC

CASE STUDY CRM

causing any problemsrdquo Kirtland says ldquoTheyrsquore less likely

to storm into the store after two weeks and demand their

money back A better-educated customer is a happier

customerrdquo

Rapid DeploymentDeploying the system was relatively speedy says Chuck

Hoffmann an applications consultant for Ledgeview

Partners who managed the project Once the decision

was made to migrate to Microsoft Dynamics in-house the

initial implementation took about a month

Despite the fact that nTelos Wireless was essentially

starting from scratch cleaning and importing the companyrsquos

legacy data mdash typically one of the biggest headaches with

most CRM implementations mdash was a nonissue he says

ldquoThe hardest part was making sure users interacted

with the new system in as straightforward a way as

possiblerdquo Hoffmann says ldquoYou tend to have more

turnover in retail stores and a relatively new user base

compared to other businesses The Dynamics dialog

boxes had to be easy for newbies to use so we spent a fair

amount of time refining what the scripts looked likerdquo

One key to successful implementation was the amount

of careful thought and discussion nTelos put into the

process as well as its willingness to re-examine how

it operates

ldquoOrganizations may think their selling process is set

but once you open up the window of introducing CRM you

get to talk about whether thatrsquos really the best way to go

about it or if therersquos a better wayrdquo Hoffmann says ldquoThe

team at nTelos really had to think through what it wanted

to have happen during the sales process what kinds of

questions it should be asking customers when they call

and who should make the callsrdquo

Another key was the strong support from upper

management he adds

ldquoYou need to have your leadership team actively engaged

in making the project a successrdquo Hoffmann says ldquoYoursquore

disrupting employeesrsquo lives changing how theyrsquore used to

doing their jobs There has to be a good business reason for

doing that and you have to be able to communicate that

business reason to all of your personnelrdquo

Ready to ScaleSince the initial build Hoffmann says Ledgeview has

worked with nTelos to add more flexibility so the company

can design and refine its own scripts without the need for

third-party help

ldquoThey now have the capability to branch out into other

parts of the business besides retailrdquo he says ldquoWe were

able to take it to the next level in terms of flexibility and

the ability to tailor the system to meet other business

needsrdquo

In fact the retail store project barely scrapes the

surface of what nTelos plans to do with Microsoft

Dynamics Kirtland says

ldquoWersquore not yet at the point where the CRM is the

system of record for all of our customer information but

that is our long-term goalrdquo he says ldquoWe hope to achieve

that by the end of 2014rdquo

The ripples of change have already begun spreading

across the organization

ldquoOur CEO is very data-drivenrdquo Kirtland says ldquoWhen I

give him information wersquove gleaned from our CRM system

he takes notes and takes action It gives him a view into

the business what wersquore doing at the retail level and the

success wersquore havingrdquo

44 of all CRM implementations are used by sales organizationsSOURCE Gartner Research

TWEET THIS