Lighting manufacturer deploys hosted CRM to improve sales interactions, customer service and retention
San Mateo, CA — October 4, 2005 — Acuity Brands Lighting has implemented the first phase of its Siebel CRM OnDemand initiative to centralize customer information and make it available across all sales, marketing and service groups.
Acuity Brands Lighting-Austin, a division of Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL), manufactures and sells lighting fixture lines such as Lithonia Lighting and American Electric Lighting. One of ABL-Austin's unique abilities under the Acuity Brands corporate umbrella is to be highly responsive to customer needs.
ABL said its goal is to leave each of its customers and prospects with a positive impression of the company via every interaction. To do this, the company needed to build a single source of customer information, as well as the tools and resources to effectively manage all aspects of sales, marketing and service. This would provide all users with access to any and all activity associated with a given customer, regardless of the transaction type.
With Siebel CRM OnDemand, ABL's specification and sales managers can now receive a snapshot of a specific account or opportunity before making sales calls, making their time with customers more productive. Customer service agents also use the e-mail integration capabilities of Siebel CRM OnDemand to record all customer communication and store it in the account file for future reference.
"We knew that by centralizing our customer data, we could reduce the time our teams spend searching for information. This would allow for more value-added communication and improve the overall customer experience," said Kurtis Wheeler, Acuity Business Systems Deployment Manager. "However, what impressed us was how simple Siebel CRM OnDemand is to customize and how easy it is to use. It makes our jobs rewarding when people really want to use the system as part of their everyday tasks. We also like the fact that we can easily migrate to an on premise solution if it makes sense for the business."
In addition, ABL management has been impressed with Siebel CRM OnDemand's ability to generate real-time sales forecasts and service request analyses to help the company adjust quickly to meet its business goals. "We just recently expanded our deployment to include the Sales Process Coach to manage new product development stages as they relate to specific projects and general opportunities," said Sheila Ryan, Inside Sales Manager at ABL-Austin. "I think we've certainly proven the business value of Siebel CRM OnDemand at ABL and look forward to helping the rest of Acuity Brands move forward with it as well."
