This article was originally written by Avanade alum Richard Oliver.

No matter the industry that my clients are based in, customer service and experience are important. But in hugely competitive markets – they are critical. 

In my experience, one of the most competitive marketplaces in the world is the global beverage industry. Established brands and disruptive newcomers are all competing for a share of a beverage market that will continue to increase across the globe. 

However, even the most established players cannot take anything for granted. Every day I see that the smartest are focused on ensuring they do all they can to provide compelling, personal and differentiating experiences to their key business customers across the retail and hospitality sectors, as well as end consumers. 

When time and service are top priorities
Following a split from a former partner, one of my clients decided to open its own new offices and infrastructure. This led to an urgent need to establish a new call centre from scratch, which would be the main artery for channelling all orders in the region. This meant not only setting up a new team in a new location, but also ensuring the technology was fully functional and implemented right the first time, so that those orders were processed efficiently – without any dip in service. 

After consultation with the team, Avanade helped to plan, implement and launch a new call centre operation, which was closely integrated with their existing customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. 

It was a challenging project especially because of the extremely tight deadline to get everything up and running – we had just months from start to end. Additionally, we needed to make sure that all the systems were simple and intuitive enough from an employee experience perspective to enable them to be quickly on-boarded and hit the ground running from day one with new staff to provide that efficient, hassle-free service to each and every customer.

The power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 
The solution we recommended that they use to meet their needs was Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (now part of Dynamics 365). This was not only down to the speed at which we knew it could be implemented (fast), but it was also less costly without compromising on functionality.  Ultimately, we knew that Microsoft Dynamics CRM would give them more flexibility than any other system on the market could. 

Since implementation completed, the Dynamics CRM Online platform has put more information at the fingertips of call centre agents than ever before, while enabling the automation of key elements of the client relationship management process. The automation of the new system ensures agents in the call centre receive notifications whenever customer details are updated. And by joining up the CRM and ERP systems in the Dynamics 365 platform, agents are also able to gain a clear 360-degree view of the customer; from order to depot, incorporating payment terms and all other information necessary to provide an accurate, timely service – something that wasn’t previously possible. The beauty of the platform also means that it could very easily be integrated with an existing mobile sales solution – after all, our job was to make life easier, not harder. 
 
Satisfying the client’s needs
As a result of our work with them, there were no drops in service and the overall client and employee experience was vastly improved. Despite the challenges encountered, Avanade delivered, which was celebrated widely across the organization. Cheers!