Element451, a rising star in the realm of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), was focused on a primary objective: to increase the time to first value of their product and improve user adoption. They envisioned a seamless experience for their users, ensuring quick and efficient value generation from their offerings while ensuring broad and consistent product adoption.
Despite their clear vision, the road to achieving it was fraught with obstacles. The processes to support clients in setting up new implementations were unstructured, leading to unpredictable timelines for deploying client instances. In addition, many of Element451’s users were unfamiliar with CRM best practices. The lack of a formalized training plan and significant gaps in educational material for product use added to the challenge.
Stepping into this complex scenario was Ampersand, a data-driven consulting firm with a wide range of capabilities. Ampersand got to work, creating repeatable implementation journeys for new clients that spanned ten weeks. These implementation plans had a defined time-to-first-value for each task and activity, bringing structure and predictability to the process. ONE12th also identified gaps in the existing knowledge base and trained the internal team of Element451 to develop interactive video and visual-based content to fill these gaps. Further, they created an educational training series and material catered to various personas using the product, such as Admissions Advisors, Marketing, CRM Administration, Faculty, and Departmental Leaders.
The fruits of Ampersand’s meticulous efforts included a ten-week implementation plan defining client tasks supported by associated educational material. This plan was complemented by client instance data points to validate completion. Additionally, playbooks were developed for implementation support staff, providing clear guidance on actions to take during various deployment scenarios. To ensure user adoption, “jumpstart guides” were created for different client persona types. These guides not only informed and educated users about their tasks but also explained the value derived from completing each activity.
The introduction of these strategic initiatives empowered Element451 in several significant ways. A standard and efficient process was established to implement new clients, while the shared knowledge and best practices across the team increased. The company’s ability to report on client implementation based on client CRM instance activity was enhanced. Overall, it led to a drastically improved product knowledge base and an enriched customer service experience for all clients.
Ampersand’s intervention led to remarkable outcomes. The time for client implementation reduced drastically from 28 weeks to about 12 weeks. Customer satisfaction, as measured by the Net Promoter Score, improved by 23%. The team was able to scale its operations significantly, moving from one new client instance deployment start to seven per month, all the while maintaining high client retention of over 95%. Despite the addition of numerous clients, client ticket response remained steady.
These transformational results drew high praise from the VP of Customer Success at Element451, who remarked,
“The engagement has been a true pleasure, and I look forward to additional engagements in the future.”
This commendation epitomized the effectiveness of Ampersand’s strategic approach, emphasizing the value of data-driven insights, systematic processes, and targeted educational materials in enhancing product value and user adoption.
