Why install CRM and how it can boost your revenue
This post is based on the joint coaching session of Pavel Timets and Pavel Kovsharov «How to improve an entertainment center? Modern technologies and instruments».
What is CRM indeed? It stands for customer relation management, and it is a system of managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers. Most contemporary CRM systems meet 80–90% of the demands of the sales department (to a greater extent), as well as those of the call center, marketing and other departments (to a lesser extent).
Purposes of CRM:
- Increasing revenue from banquets, birthday parties and corporate sales
- Quality maintenance of the Guest and corporate clients database
- Analyzing efficiency of targeting and other advertisement campaigns based on the Guest and corporate clients database
- Increasing efficiency of sales managers
- Sales automation — purchase funnels, attaching and implementing tasks (by phone and mail)
- Analyzing sales and efficiency of sales managers
- Increasing and retaining Guests’ loyalty
There are many CRM systems in the market. Most popular of them are amoCRM and Bitrix24.
We at FUN24 have been using Bitrix for a long time now. This is a universal task manager which also functions as a CRM and a co-working site.
The basic functions of Bitrix24 as a CRM system are the smart client base and data storage witch can be used as operational system for managing sales. There is a profile page for every Guest where we can check necessary data, observe history of communication, track the path of order closing, make some latest offers and so on.
Automation makes every process precise, transparent and structured. Why is «transparency» important? Well, when you are meeting with investors, systems like Bitrix24 and amoCRM allow you to talk numbers and show reports if need be.
How to get data from Guests for a CRM system. Case of Pavel Kovsharov (Zamania chain of family friendly parks)
Not a long time ago, we introduced electronic signature. Before that, Guests would sign documents right in the park. Then one of our managers had to sort out that stack of paper and enter the data into an enormous Excel table. Now, this information is directly fed to the CRM system.
When at the register, a Guest is asked to fill in a digital confirmation form. It complicates entrance procedure but we found a way to make it easier. We set up special terminals by the register stand at the entrance where Guests can quickly fill in their initials, children’s initials, date of birth, phone number etc. That gives us all the information we need about Guests to offer them all the services they need (for example, a birthday party).
For their first time, Guests will fill in the form at the terminal or with the help of the employee at the cash register. The next time they come, they just need to tell us their phone number and a unique code sent by SMS for verification. This works just like electronic signature.
Thanks to electronic signatures and storing data in CRM, we can track how many times each Guest has attended our parks. We also connect parents to their children, so that we always know who watches over them, which used to be one of the most difficult challenges for us.
Automatic monitoring of birthdays in CRM. Case of Pavel Timets (FUN24 entertainment center)
Many entertainment centers have special offers for Guests celebrating birthdays. For example, a discount on entrance fee. What does that discount do? It is wonderful for any entertainment center when a Guest is celebrating birthday there. They bring up to ten other Guests who are beaming with good mood and infecting others with joy. And they’re more willing than usual to spend money as well. So you can guess entertainment centers love birthdays as much as Guests do!
At FUN24, you get a 30% discount if you right out celebrate your birthday there, and 10% if you come a week before or a week after your birthday. The difference exists to keep the center busy on working days. If we set up the same discount, then Guests would be more likely to wait until their days off. But with the generous 30% for celebrating on the exact date, Guests will show up throughout the week.
To use the discount, Guests should authorize on the FUN24 web-site. The Guest gets the link to our bot it WhatsApp, and we get their data. The bot is integrated with Bitrix24, so the Guest automatically becomes a contact in the CRM system. As soon as a new contact is added to the data base, our sales managers receive new tasks. They’re to send them emails, phone them two weeks in advance of their next birthday and so on.
On average, revenues from celebrating birthdays in entertainment centers account for up to 40% of turnover. When we gave our Guests an opportunity to celebrate with us, our revenue soared from 7% to 15%. That’s a two times increase. That’s millions of rubles per months.
To make matters simpler, here’s a scheme: Birthday party discount → WhatsApp bot → Automatic contact in CRM
We’re not trying to sell you Bitrix24 or amoCRM; we’re just telling that if you want to stay efficient and up-to-date in the XXI century, you will have to accept that CRM is obligatory for any contemporary business. And I want to be honest with you: implementation, regulation and correct maintenance of CRM will be one of your most straining challenges.
Implementation of CRM. Case of Pavel Kovsharov (chain of family friendly parks Zamania)
When I was implementing CRM, I probably made all the mistakes there were to be made. I even tried to work with makeshift CRM but, of course, we ended up hiring a full-time professional. This is called project governance. First, we prepared descriptions for all projects, then drafted design specifications and evaluated a number of options: amoCRM, Bitrix24, 1 °C and some others.
Our CRM expert helped us comprise detailed, step-by-step instructions for every employee. We organize coachings for sales managers where they learn how to operate this system.
The principal task of a CRM project manager in Zamania is to create a fully functional CRM platform and bring all sales managers there. We have a gigantic distant trade center that has a great amount of incoming, outgoing and dangling orders, as well as some project tasks. For instance, if an order is dangling, i.e. not completed, it is crucial for the manager to call the client back within 10 minutes. If they don’t do that, conversion drops dramatically. CRM system allows to monitor such cases and their indicators.
How much CRM experts cost
In Moscow, a CRM expert will cost you 150k rubles monthly (about $2500). But in regions, the difference is drastic: at FUN24, Kazan, a person working distantly at implementing CRM earns about 30k rubles (about $500). There is an alternative though: outsourced integrators who are free for you as they receive a share of your licensed purchase. For example, amoCRM pays outsourced integrators for bringing clients and serving them.
More of «Modern Technologies and Techniques»
