For today’s customers, the buyer’s experience has a significant impact on company growth. “An effective customer loyalty strategy is more critical than ever for brands to not only retain customers, but to affect their overall experience,” says Brian Solis, VP at Salesforce. “Everything starts with understanding what customers value and that takes knowing their preferences and expectations and also exploring innovative approaches to loyalty, even if those examples are outside of your industry.”

Recent research shows that 80 percent of customers say the experience a company provides is just as and maybe more important than the actual product or service delivered.

So when Architectural Lighting Works (ALW), a leading manufacturer of lighting solutions and innovative products, was concerned their Partner Portal was too challenging to use, they approached Simplus for solutions. 

The Challenge

Along with a clunky Partner Portal, ALW was also concerned about poor data consistency and tracking capabilities, making it difficult for the sales reps to access data-driven insights and plan strategies to create a better customer experience. 

ALW wanted both a solution and a partner that could provide a complete, holistic process. 

The Simplus Solution

Simplus worked closely with ALW’s operations team to gather internal and external user feedback to develop a Partner Portal reoptimization plan that comprehensively addressed all key pain points. 

Since ALW lacked deep technical expertise in the day-to-day Salesforce processes, 

Simplus Managed Services and Advisory Services maintain Salesforce operational continuity and road mapped the best path forward for the Partner Portal reoptimization. The Simplus Change Management practice worked extensively on this project to guide user adoption, develop curriculum, and provide professional training. 

“Our Change Management team developed an effective curriculum and performed professional and polished live webinar trainings with our entire agency network,” says Adam Cieciura, VP of Operations at ALW. “The approach was critically important to not only informing our partners of the system enhancements but ultimately seeing the value in the Portal and driving adoption.” 

The Results

ALW is excited for the future with a more streamlined quote management process with its partners. It’s a process that has already yielded great results in both end-user satisfaction and dollar value. Check out these results. 

• 33 percent increase in monthly partner quote volume. 
• 93 percent attendance at Partner Portal Agency Training webinars.
• 32 percent increase in monthly partner quote dollar value.
• Customer satisfaction ranking increased from 2.5 to 4 in measuring the level of comfort using the revamped Partner Portal. 

To read the entire case study, click here.