nokia crm case study

10 CRM studies you need to read before you select your next CRM

Take a look at these CRM case studies before deciding which is the best software for your needs

British Airways

Wells fargo.

1.  Uber

3. British Airways

4. Wells Fargo

6. McDonald's

8. Unilever

9. Activision

10. Amazon  

In a crowded market, discerning what the best CRM software is to meet your needs is difficult. Reviews, statistics, and user feedback are all useful, of course, but sometimes reading evidence of how a brand has employed a CRM tool as part of a specific project is what is really needed to convince businesses that a particular piece of software is a good fit.

The need for a trustworthy CRM case study is made even more pressing given the sheer number of solutions on the market - many with their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as target audiences. For example, would a list of the best CRM for startups be relevant for your company? Or would the best recruitment CRM be more suitable? There are also the best insurance CRMs , the best CRMs for real estate , the best sales CRM , and more to consider. 

One of the best ways of answering, “ What is CRM software? ” is to look at the tools already on the market and then, if you want to see how they have been employed effectively by brands in the past, examining some high-profile CRM case studies should be next on your agenda. Below, we outline 10 CRM studies that will demonstrate the full potential of this powerful solution and how it’s been used across a wide range of industries.

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The 10 CRM studies you need to read 

Today, Uber is known the world over for having disrupted mobility completely, garnering a valuation that dwarfs that of more established players in the automotive space - despite owning zero vehicle assets itself. However, despite its future-first ethos, Uber still depends on CRM software to ensure it is able to harness the huge quantities of data at its disposal. 

Uber uses Salesforce CRM software to extract data from individuals who engage with its brand on social media, ensuring that interactions are monitored, complaints are responded to, and all feedback can be put towards the creation of a better customer experience. By piecing all relevant data within a holistic dashboard, Uber can tailor offers, recommendations, and promotions based on previous customer interactions.

Uber has always understood that the real value lies in customer data - not simply providing a transportation service. That’s why it makes more sense to think of it as a technology company; not a taxi firm. With that in mind, finding a suitable CRM platform has long been critical to Uber’s success. This has allowed the company to monitor customer behavior and riding habits - even as it experiences rapid growth. 

Another of the great disruptors of the 21st-centrury economy, Airbnb couldn’t have achieved its huge success without relying on a suitable CRM solution. The scale of the Airbnb platform is mind-boggling. The platform boasts more than 100 million guests globally, has listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries, and is used by an estimated one in every four leisure travellers. 

This scale means that Airbnb is privy to huge quantities of data and faces a seriously large number of queries every day. To manage this, Airbnb decided to make use of the Zendesk CRM , which offered the scalability, reliability, and uptime needed to facilitate growth as the number of hosts and guests using the platform continued to rise rapidly. 

Airbnb’s Global Customer Experience team uses Zendesk to provide real-time support to customers across multiple channels, with every contact recorded within Zendesk Support. Zebdesk also empowers Airbnb to gain a grip of customer data by providing a 360-degree view of each customer. This means support can be personalized and a better customer experience can be delivered.  

The travel industry has bounced back remarkably well after being decimated by the pandemic. Brands have had to reconsider how their revenues are driven, however, with global airline capacity taking several years to return to pre-COVID levels. One of the ways that brands have attracted tourists back in the air is with value-add services like the British Airways Executive Club. 

Utilizing the Teradata CRM, the British Airways Executive Club is a loyalty scheme that allows individuals to earn points by purchasing flights, hotel stays, or car rentals through British Airways or its partners. Customers can also save their preferences so repeat bookings are smoother, ensuring a seamless customer experience. They also have the opportunity to work their way up the membership ranks, achieving blue, bronze, silver, gold, or Premier membership.

The British Airways Executive Club demonstrates how CRM solutions can be used to strengthen customer loyalty. The platform allows the airline to keep track of customer preferences so it can offer targeted deals based on their membership level and past bookings. 

One of the largest banks in the US, Wells Fargo manages sensitive information for approximately 70 million individuals. But even with its considerable scale, Wells Fargo must continue to uphold the highest standards of customer service - particularly given the competitive nature of its industry. As well as other established financial institutions, organizations like Wells Fargo have also seen their market share come under threat from new fintech start-ups.

In light of the increasingly competitive financial sector, Wells Fargo employs a CRM solution to ensure its many different departments run smoothly and customer communication is seamlessly enabled. This means empowering social media connectivity and collating customer contact across multiple channels. 

Wells Fargo has revealed that its use of a CRM has enabled it to greatly increase efficiency so greater focus can be placed on high-value work because certain manual tasks can be streamlined or even automated. This has led to the creation of more optimized platforms, allowing the bank to save time and energy and ensuring customers receive better service.

Once the world’s number one smartphone manufacturer, Nokia’s brand still carries some considerable heft - even if the likes of Apple , Samsung , and Google have taken its smartphone crown. Nokia’s use of the Salesforce CRM has played a major role in ensuring that the company continues to generate significant revenues in a fast-changing market.

One of the major challenges facing Nokia before it began using the Salesforce CRM was how to manage the diversity and scale of its products and markets across different geographies and languages. Salesforce allows Nokia to more easily organize its data - no matter how spread out it is.

Salesforce allows Nokia to select and segment data into specific target groups for more effective lead generation. It has also led to the creation of the Nokia Intelligent Care Assistant, which integrates directly with the Salesforce Service Cloud. This collaboration provides a holistic subscriber view, which enables truly omnichannel customer service, including proactive support. Although Nokia’s brand may not carry the same weight as it once did, without the company’s employment of the Salesforce CRM, it may no longer be around at all.

The fast-food giant McDonald’s has become one of the most recognizable brands in the world - but their success is down to more than just flipping burgers. McDonald’s has a long-running partnership with CRM platform Astute Solutions, which provides the restaurant chain with detailed insights on customer satisfaction levels and other forms of feedback. Providing a breakdown by region or individual restaurant, Astute enables McDonald’s to quickly identify potential customer issues so they can be remediated swiftly. 

With McDonald’s serving an estimated 60 million people every day, managing the huge amount of data at its disposal is key to providing a quality service. As such, the company’s CRM provides real-time access to customer information, integrates data from across a network consisting of thousands of restaurants, and provides accurate reports for managers.

Despite McDonald’s global standing, the fast-food space is a crowded one and the restaurant chain is always looking to open new sites and launch new products. In order to gain visibility into what customers want and how best to capture potential new customers, data is key. For an organization of McDonald’s size, managing this data has only been made possible through its use of a CRM. 

The automotive space has undergone massive change in recent years and further evolution is predicted for the not-too-distant future. Even though BMW may have been around since the early 1900s, it knows that no firm is immune from disruption - even those that have existed for over a century. 

With most vehicles now incorporating an increasing number of software solutions, they represent an effective way for firms to harvest, collate, and analyze data. BMW uses a CRM to realize the benefits that can be unlocked through this data, by capturing data from multiple sources including - whether that includes dealerships, web pages, call centers , SMS, or through direct marketing .

In addition, CRM software has played an essential role in the company’s loyalty scheme, “The Owner’s Circle.” This lets BMW owners of old or new cars register their vehicles online and monitor their car’s financing and maintenance. All this helps to strengthen the post-purchase relationship between the vehicle owner and BMW, allowing them to check the status of their new car order, view the maintenance history of a used car, or get reminders about upcoming service milestones. It’s about maintaining engagement after a transaction has been completed.

One of the world’s largest producers of consumer goods, Unilever manufactures a host of items that are commonly purchased by households across the world, including Dove. Persil, Domestos, and many more. Given the sheer number of goods Unilever produces, it understandably handles a huge amount of customer data. Using SAP’s CRM, Unilever was able to improve its call center capabilities and increase the productivity of its consumer-facing teams.

Unilever has also employed CRM tools to capture real-time information from customer surveys across and run targeted campaigns to capture customer data. The company’s use of the technology has allowed for faster response times to consumer queries and more efficient maintenance of customer databases.

Unilever represents a great example of how CRM tools can provide clarity and unity to a company that has grown far beyond its domestic market and offers products that spread across multiple categories and industries. The analytics functionality, in particular, allows Unilever to better understand consumer challenges allowing the company to apply its innovations and digitalization efforts to the launch of new products.

Video game maker Activision is responsible for some of the most popular series in the world, including the likes of Call of Duty , Crash Bandicoot, Guitar Hero, and many others. But where Activision’s only real concern was ensuring sales figures were high enough, now the company’s aim is to build long-lasting customer relationships. For that, a CRM is key.

Making use of the Salesforce CRM, Activision was able to completely overhaul its customer service offering. Before employing the CRM, almost half of all customers experiencing an issue spoke to an Activision rep over the telephone, but today 82% use an online self-service portal, with 10% opting for social channels. This has had a major impact in terms of cost reduction and customer satisfaction levels.

Because of the way that the Salesforce CRM can scour social networks for relevant posts, Activision has been able to get much closer to the gaming community. As such, it has become easier to understand their likes, dislikes, needs, and issues. Challenges have been resolved faster and insights have been put towards the creation of the next blockbuster game

Amazon may be one of the biggest companies in the world but it still requires third-party help in the form of a CRM solution. The e-commerce juggernaut not only provides an online retail site but also offers a popular cloud computing service in the form of Amazon Web Services, which has been using Salesforce CRM since 2006.

Elsewhere, Amazon has crafted its own bespoke CRM strategy to ensure it offers native integration with other Amazon software. The technology giant uses its CRM to share personalized offers and promotions with customers, collect data en masse and store it, and provide recommendations based on an individual’s purchase history. 

In the years since its founding, Amazon has seen plenty of companies come and go, but still, it remains top of the tree. Over the years, the company has understood that what sets it apart is not the products it offers, but the data that it has access to. And the best way of managing this is through a CRM.

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Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

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• Last updated on August 7, 2024
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Customers constantly demand deeper and more meaningful relationships with their chosen brands. That’s why organizations use CRM software to better serve their customers.

This article compiles practical CRM case studies from some of the world’s biggest brands, highlighting vital lessons you can replicate in your business.

Before we proceed, let’s look at the meaning of customer relationship management (CRM)

There are two main definitions of a CRM:

1. It refers to a business’s principles and strategies to better engage and retain customers.

2. It is a software system that helps businesses manage client relationships, leads, contacts, and campaigns, allowing companies to automate processes and increase productivity.

Examples of CRM software for lead generation, contact management, and automation include:

The Best Overall

A sales-focused CRM that leverages AI to automate sales, lead & demand generation. 

Best Budget Choice

Freshsales automates your sales process, and helps drives sustainable business growth.

Best for Workflows

Customize your workflows to track all aspects of the sales cycle, from lead gen to post-sale support.

Best CRM Case Studies

If you’ve ever looked at brands like Apple, McDonald’s, Amazon, or even Zara, you may wonder how they run such conglomerates and still provide efficient customer service. Keep reading, then; you’re about to find out.

Scott Cook said to focus on the customer instead of the competition. Most of these brands have no superpower. They’ve only learned to focus on one thing—the customer.

When you’re obsessed with delighting your customers, you will devise creative ways of satisfying them.

1. Coca-Cola CRM

The Coca-Cola Company is one of the world’s oldest and most influential brands. With a presence in over 200 countries, Coca-Cola started as a carbonated soft drink business. Today, it is a conglomerate with over 200 product lines servicing billions of customers globally.

Logically speaking, their existence across several decades and their continued relevance and competitiveness say a lot about their customer service. That said, let’s examine their customer relationship management (CRM). 

Coca-Cola CRM Case Study:

Inspiring optimism and happiness are at the core of Coca-Cola’s CRM strategy. This is evident in their  marketing campaigns , billboards, brochures, commercials, store locations, and products. Coca-Cola uses several enterprise CRM platforms to manage its clients’ relationships and stores globally. They use Salesforce and SAP primarily for contact management. System Applications and Products (SAP) is a strategic enterprise management platform that is quite robust and feature-rich.

While they use SAP globally, they use Salesforce on some of their country divisions to manage their business flow, connectivity, and contact management.

We have billions of transactions a day on Salesforce. And everything is connected collaborative, and mobile.

– Ulrik Nehammer, Coca-Cola Germany, CEO.

2. Zara CRM

When you hear the word “Zara”, what comes to mind is clothing, luxury, and lifestyle. Established in 1975, Zara is a Spanish multi-national retail clothing chain.

They specialize in clothing accessories, beauty, shoes, and other lifestyle products. Zara’s phenomenal success in fashion and beauty is a testament to its solid CRM strategy. They effortlessly delight their customers in a way that leaves them returning for more.

Zara CRM Case Study:

Zara’s CRM elevates its customer’s needs above the company objectives by leveraging transparency, incentives, support, personalization, swift check-out, and social media to achieve this.

Zara CRM starts with its website, which has a simple UI and is highly personalized to suit users’ needs. Then, it’s massively present on social media and contributes to social issues affecting its clientele.

The success of our business is based in principle on the idea of offering the latest fashions at low prices, in turn creating a formula for cutting costs: an integrated company in which it is manufactured, distributed, and sold.

– Amancio Ortega – Founder, Zara Fashion Chain

3. Unilever CRM

Unilever is a British multi-billion dollar conglomerate that deals primarily in consumer goods and consumables. They are arguably the largest producers of soap globally.

Brands like Unilever that have stood the test of time in quality, customer service, transparency, and consistency are worth emulating. With over 400 brands in about 190 countries, Unilever’s CRM strategy is paying off.

Unilever CRM Case Study:

Unilever’s CRM strategy focuses on elevating people’s well-being and helping them enjoy life to its fullest. This singular aim drives their excellent customer experience initiatives, marketing campaigns, products, and positioning.

Another main part of Unilever’s CRM strategy is centered around Value-Based Procurement. They are keen on supporting their suppliers with upfront value. They achieve this by empowering their suppliers and distributors with the tools to better relate to them.

They use Salesforce to support their business community and build solid relationships with their partners.

It’s about digitizing all the aspects of Unilever’s business to leverage the world of data and increase our digital capability in everything we do.

– Alan Jope, CEO at Unilever.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, known as BMW, is Germany’s leading automobile brand. They’re a luxury car brand and the  fourteenth largest producer of motor vehicles . BMW cars are known for their standard, uniqueness, and luxury. Let’s examine BMW’s CRM strategy. 

BMW CRM Case Study:

You’ll agree that BMW has become the world’s leading provider of premium automobile products. But the big question is, how did they get there?

BMW CRM case study is not too distant from the others. Firstly, the focus is on treating customers fairly, which is clearly stated in their  Supplier Programme . Their suppliers and end-users are at the core of their CRM strategy, which has kept them going.

Additionally, BMW CRM is focused on producing premium cars to attract new customers and retain the existing ones. Fortunately, it works for them. I’ve seen a couple of folks switch car brands to BMW because their cars are more reliable and have the highest quality.

I promise our customers will never have to compromise between driving pleasure and sustainable mobility.

– Oliver Zipse, CEO BMW AG.

5. Tesco CRM

Tesco PLC is one of the world’s leading grocery and general merchandise retailers. With operations in over 11 countries, Tesco is a hyper-growth company swiftly expanding across territories.

Although it started as a grocery store, it has now morphed into several industries such as banking, technology accessories, and a few others. Not just that, they’ve been named among the top customer-friendly organizations.

Tesco CRM Case Study:

Tesco is among the first multi-national brands to adopt CRM software. In 2009, Tesco announced that they were adopting the RightNow CRM (now acquired by Oracle).

Tesco’s CRM was primarily used in its call centres to support its electronics division. It was also used to amplify its omnichannel communication strategy by managing customer data and interactions across phone, chat, and email.

Adopting a CRM helped Tesco be present at all times for their customer when needed across channels. Most importantly, they were able to win the hearts of their customers.

The key to Tesco’s success is the customer-focused culture that has permeated the company.

– Jeremy Garlick, Partner, Insight Traction.

6. Uber CRM

With a presence in 72 countries, Uber redefines how we move and eat. Uber is an American mobility provider that allows people to move conveniently from one location to another. One of the things that makes Uber special is that it’s a mobility startup with no cars. That means it’s servicing two main customer bases: drivers and passengers.

As of the time of writing, Uber has a 72% market share for ride-sharing in the United States, with about 122 million monthly active users.

Uber CRM Case Study:

Uber’s mission is “ Transportation as reliable as running water, everywhere for everyone .” In other words, they aim to make transportation accessible at any time.

The big question is, what CRM does Uber use? Uber uses LiveRamp as its CRM anonymizer. Essentially, it uses LiveRamp CRM to segment users into specific life-cycle stages. This allows Uber to craft personalized and targeted campaigns that resonate with customers.

Furthermore, Uber uses CRM to gain deeper insights into how customers use their apps, the frequency, and overall interaction, and even sample their IDs. With these insights, Uber can better serve and delight its customers. More on Uber’s case study here.

There is a high cost to a bad reputation… it matters what people think of us, especially in a global business like ours, where actions in one part of the world can have serious consequences in another.” 

– Dan Khosroshahi.

7. McDonald’s CRM

McDonald’s is a fast-food conglomerate. It is currently the leading food service organization, operating over 30,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. McDonald’s expansion strategy is based on franchises and joint ventures. It also has some sister brands in the fast-food industry that are doing incredibly well.

Mcdonald’s CRM Case Study:

McDonald’s mission statements depict McDonald’s passion for differentiation, uniqueness, and class. McDonald’s CRM case study hinges on its passion for differentiation, which is evident in the architectural designs of its restaurants, food recipes and taste, service delivery, and mode of operation.

McDonald’s uses PowerCenter CRM, which Astute Solutions powers. This CRM helps McDonald’s efficiently manage its huge volume of customer contacts, analyze data, and manage its store location.

The benefits of CRM software to a business are enormous, and McDonald’s is not left out. They use it equally to enhance their marketing efforts and close more deals.

Our sustained performance gives us confidence that our strategy is working, as more customers are experiencing a better McDonald’s daily.

– Steve Easterbrook, CEO, McDonald’s.

8. British Airways CRM

British Airways is a UK-based carrier and one of the most prominent airline groups in the world. Over the years, it has built a reputable brand that has also given birth to several sister brands.

BA Group is a founding member of the Oneworld alliance. It has over 45,000 employees in 100 countries and assists about 40 million passengers annually. So how does it maintain awesome customer service?

British Airways CRM Case Study:

British Airways’ CRM case study is centered around “making their passengers feel confident.”

British Airways uses TCRM BA as its enterprise management solution. The company adopted it in 2002, and since then, they’ve been using it to do the following:

• Campaign management

• Management of loyalty programs

• Leisure database

• External requirements

• Cost savings

Best of all, they use this platform to efficiently manage and schedule all their marketing campaigns internally and externally. They are also used for customer service across channels.

As we prepare for a safe return to travel, we remain focused on offering our customers the most convenient and affordable testing options to support and facilitate a seamless travel experience.

– Sean Doyle, CEO, of British Airways

9. Amazon CRM

Amazon is an American conglomerate that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It is among the top five most valuable companies worldwide and one of America’s biggest employers.

Amazon, which started as an online book store, is currently dominating up to seven industries. It’s also a customer-centric company famous for its outstanding customer service.

Amazon CRM Case Study:

Primarily, Amazon’s CRM case study follows these four guiding principles:

• Customer obsession rather than competitor focus

• Passion for invention

• Commitment to operational excellence

• Long-term thinking

They aim to become Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work. That drive to become the best led them to create innovative products like I-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Amazon Echo, and Fire TV, to mention a few.

We see our customers as guests at a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

– Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

10. Apple CRM

Famously known for their slogan, think differently. Apple is a technology company specializing in consumer electronics, software, and online services. Apple is the world’s most valuable company and the first to hit a trillion in market capitalization.

Apple CRM Case Study:

Like Amazon, Apple is a customer-centric company that is truly obsessed with its customers.

Apple is also obsessed with its product quality. Their products are highly standardized and unique, which is why they enjoy a high level of brand loyalty. Apple’s customers are some of the most loyal globally.

The Apple CRM case study centers around four cardinal points: Apple customer-centric outlets, understanding customer needs, Apple ID, and irresistible branding that works. I explained them in detail here .

Additionally, like Amazon, Apple uses an in-house CRM to manage its customer data, marketing campaigns, and customer relationships. Apple loves owning its processes, so most of its operations are conducted in-house.

Conclusions

These case studies show us the efficacy and formidability of CRM software. When out to efficient use, it can be a potent tool. And it doesn’t matter the size of your business, whether big or small. All you need to do is pick a CRM that aligns with your business goals and run with it.

Looking for a CRM to start with? Here are our recommendations:  Zendesk ,  Pipedrive ,  Hubspot ,  Zoho , and  Freshsales . Click on any one of them to claim your free trial.

Frequently Asked Questions

Customer relationship management use cases are real-life examples and applications of CRM software and strategies. Like the 10 use cases from big brands listed in this article.

There are tons of use cases for CRM systems, but here are three profound ones: CRM systems can serve as a contact management system, a pipeline system for attracting and converting them paying customers, and a workflow automation station.

Essentially, the main components of CRM are contact and database management, workflow automation, omnichannel marketing capability, and integration options.

Viktor. A is a writer and researcher with experience writing about various topics, including CRM software, SaaS, finance, and technology. When he's not writing, he's swimming and traveling

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How to build a social brand: The Nokia case study

A “challenger brand” is what Tejal Patel, global head of social commerce and performance for Nokia, now calls the company.

Last week at Econsultancy’s JUMP event in New York, Patel said:

We don’t have the budgets that the big guys do…We don’t have the brand punch that they do, so we have to think differently. For us, it’s about incremental changes, the little things that will deliver big, build our reputation, our credibility,but also bring change inside our organization as well as outside.

For Nokia, that’s meant a larger role for social , and Patel broke down the company’s approach.

Social can live offline

Three years ago Nokia partnered with location-based social networking startup Foursquare to create the Nokia Gift Machine. The free vending machine, which can be found the world over from San Francisco and Dubai to London’s Brick Lane, rewards Foursquare check-ins and NFC interactions. The machine has so far dispensed 4,000 gifts ranging from chocolate bars to mobile devices.

“We really showed and demonstrated how online activity can deliver results in an offline world,” said Patel. 

Social puts the consumer center stage

With the “Switch” campaign, the company chose to revamp its home page to feature only consumer reviews and comments from social media, making sure the page was optimized for local markets.

The effort had measurable results: The progression rate from the home page to Nokia’s main products page showed a 35 percent increase, and users averaged a whopping three minutes on the home page alone, a stat to note when no product information or spec appeared on the page at all.

Social turns employees into advocates

An internal competition called “Switch Pitch” encouraged Nokia employees worldwide to submit a short video to convince viewers to switch from any device to the company’s Lumia. The winner, who has not yet been announced, will receive 10,000 euros, and the video will be featured in an upcoming campaign.

Again, results: Employees from the CEO to board members and others have submitted more than 400 videos so far. Patel explained:

It’s not just the product managers or the marketing managers who know the key selling points of our devices. This is turning our employees into advocates, and they’re the most important people. If our employees don’t buy into what we’re trying to do, then we’ve got no hope of convincing consumers.

Social means being open

One of the first brands to embrace 3-D printing, the company has recently released the design files for its Lumia 820 to allow anyone to design custom 3-D prints of the device’s removable shell. This move helps Nokia build relationships with key communities the company wants to reach, said Patel.

Results once more: Within a few days of releasing the files in January, Nokia saw a 500 percent increase in the volume of online conversations around the Lumia 820. Clearly, awareness has been sown.

Social drives collaboration

In late January, Nokia invited three design schools to reimagine the Lumia 820 shell. Three winners will be invited to a six-month internship with the company’s design department in London, and their designs will be showcased at Social Media Week in New York later this month. Winners will additionally have their shells produced as a limited edition for purchase. The effort again continues to build bridges with communities Nokia wants to reach.

Death to agencies

Patel noted that each of the ideas behind the social efforts was homegrown and low-cost, comparatively speaking.

Over the last year or so, we’ve been very aggressively, proactively cutting down on agency retainers not only because we have the cost pressures everybody does, but also why should we be paying agencies for them to take that knowledge? There’s no real long-term value for Nokia. The right investment is for us to have the right people internally.

That approach seems to be garnering the company the results it craves. In a like-for-like comparison, Samsung gets a 67 percent engagement rating; Nokia gets 65 percent. “We’re in the same ballpark as them with a fraction of the spend,” said Patel. “It’s not about big budgets. It’s about thinking really cleverly about how you spend your money.”

Let’s play ball

The executive underscored her point by playing a clip from Moneyball , the film that traces the efforts of baseball’s low-budget Oakland Athletics to compete against the deep pockets of the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and other teams.

The As did get to battle the Detroit Tigers for the division series last year but fell short of the mark. Whether the same fate awaits Nokia in its bid to top competitors remains to be seen, but as Patel remarked, the company is at least in the ballpark.  

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AVA - Customer experience analytics

Power your customer service management and improve your telco customer experience

What is the purpose of customer experience analytics?  

One major challenge for any Communications Service Provider (CSP) is tracking an individual’s journey across networks, transactions and interactions together, which can reveal an inconsistent and disjointed customer experience. Having a 360 degree view of your customer is vital to providing exceptional customer experiences.

To create this single view of the subscriber means not only pulling in data from many different sources, but it also requires breaking down silos inside the CSP. Consumers buying services from a CSP view all branches as a single company, while inside the CSP, fixed and mobile networks are completely separated from a customer experience angle. It is impossible to understand a complete view of the customer journey across the entire network if those are separated.

A holistic way to understand your customer’s experience across mobile and fixed networks, services and business is an imperative for the CSP. The only way to alleviate the challenges is to build a solution that gives an end-to-end view of insights across multiple domains.

• What is customer experience analytics?
• Telco customer experience
• Nokia AVA Customer Insights
• Why choose Nokia?

Related solutions and products

How to improve customer experience in telecom.

Nokia’s customer experience analytics gives you a complete view of customer satisfaction, revenue, and device and network performance. It helps you identify issues quickly and prioritize improvements based on their customer and business impact.

Your customers expect to consume any content on any device and enjoy superior network and service quality. To keep them happy, you need access to customer experience data and key performance indicators (KPIs). But this information is scattered across different teams within your organization.

Our customer experience analytics provides real-time data intelligence for off-the-shelf use cases that augment human intelligence in networks, operations, care, marketing and management and to automate business processes, for example:  

• Automated network optimization
• Autonomous care
• Automated marketing engagements
• Automated VIP monitoring
• Automated SLA monitoring

Nokia Customer Insights: A comprehensive, analytical approach to improve customer experience

Nokia ava customer insights – a holistic approach to telco customer experience.

Nokia AVA Customer Insights collects all customer-centric network and business data. This approach supports mobile and fixed networks, multi-technology and multi-vendor environments in an agnostic manner so that CSPs can leverage existing investments in data sources. The offering builds on a platform for processing large amounts of customer data and converting it into real-time, long term and predictive, actionable insights. It comes with off-the-shelf use cases as well as micro-services and open APIs for any CSP application and machine learning or analytical environment.

Leveraging AI to deliver a personalized experience in the new normal

Towards ultimate customer-centricity.

Profile-driven ML CEI across touchpoints for every individual subscriber

Unique X-dimensional data model with 330+ business and network KPIs and dimensions, for slicing and dicing

Most comprehensive use case library in the market with operationalized use cases

Openness and flexibility (APIs, toolkits and interfaces, probe agnostic)

Customer Insights enables the operators to address questions that are of interest for different organizations

Technical complaint reduction in care by prioritizing actions based on customer impact for Middle Eastern Operator

Engineering

Network NPS improvement for European Operator

Agents report increased customer engagement for American Operator  

Marketing and sales

Agents have improved identification and resolution of customer problems for American Operator  

Customer care

Issues proactively detected before customers call care for European Operator  

Service operations

Nokia AVA Customer Insights features and benefits

Nokia’s customer experience analytics brings together an AI-driven view of customer, service, network, billing and transactions insights, providing a common language across business functions. These business insights are actionable and linked to CSP business processes and priorities, thereby enabling the CSP to steer their operations across departments in line with their business goals.

The solution also comes with pre-built content applications to drive the most common outcomes, for example, in a care or operations center. And the overall offering includes advanced consulting to help CSPs assess and prioritize use cases and drive adoption and outcomes across their organization.

• Putting customer experience at the center of your business

Customer Experience Index

• Single score for every individual subscriber in the network
• Measure Proxy-NPS, to effectively detect promotors & detractors
• Most contributing KPIs for Subscriber experience

Customer Quality Insights (including High Value & Roamers)

• Customer problems per Group, per Location, Per device, Per Service
• Voice, data and messaging failure and usage trends
• Inbound roamers’ network experience
• Enterprises and high ARPU & VIP individuals

Customer Care Insights

• Individual subscriber troubleshooting for voice, SMS & data
• Real time diagnosis & drill downs
• Clear view of the satisfaction, profile and usage trends for single subscriber

Subscriber Clustering

• Inbuilt subscriber profile with Dimensions and KPI, for Clustering using machine learning algorithms 
• Over the Top Insights (OTT) & Service Experience 
• Near real time view of OTT service usage, quality & service trending
• Understand QoE of Each Apps, in Each location and Impact on Subscribers

Fixed Broadband Insights

• Per Subscriber, per group, per segment, Per location, Per network element, per device analytic Insights for Fixed broadband experience
• Connectivity Index to measure experience

Why choose Nokia for telco business intelligence and customer experience management

Nokia AVA Customer Insights for telco business intelligence and telco customer experience management comes with embedded analytics and machine-learning automation and artificial intelligence algorithms implemented by Bell Labs. It provides flexibility and openness with analytics toolkits and open APIs.

Customer Insights helps you increase customer satisfaction by giving you relevant data about customer and network experience, roamers, corporate customers, and customer care. You can use this data to:

• Gain a holistic view of the fixed and mobile customer experience
• Move from reactive reporting to predictive analytics and automated actions
• Adopt an analytical approach that focuses your teams, tools, and processes on the customer experience

In addition, our solution lets you boost your customer experience management capabilities from any starting point. It gives you actionable insights on every customer and cell. Built-in analytics that use Bell Labs machine learning algorithms automatically tune these insights to your needs and improve prediction of customer satisfaction scoring.

• AI Gets Personal: 360-degree Customer CX
• Customer experience analytics: an end-to-end view of the customer experience
• Experience-centric operations with Customer Experience Analytics
• Nokia Customer Insights
• Three ways to create extraordinary customer service experiences

Customer success

stc reinvents customer experience on its fixed network using Nokia’s Customer Insights for Fixed Services (Fixed CEM)

• Nokia Improve efficiency by providing an excellent employee experience

Infographics

• Improve efficiency by providing great employee experiences
• Reinventing customer experience in digital time
• How can telcos improve customer experience?
• MTN Nigeria – Digital Transformation Journey

White papers

• Delivering a superior customer experience
• Profiting from 5G, IoT and virtualization with service-oriented operations

AVA - Fixed Network Insights

Enhance broadband user experience and optimize fixed network operations with prescriptive analytics

AVA - Customer and Mobile Network Insights

Unleash limitless insights – with one solution for all your operations.

Learn more about network analytics

Telstra case study by Analysys Mason on Orchestration

Level up your customer experience: Why CSPs need to embrace AIOps

Autonomous Operations - is it time for a new Network Operating System?

Unlocking revenue and efficiency with intent-driven autonomous operations

Optimizing energy efficiency with AI-powered energy management software

Latest news

14 Dec 2022

Nokia analytics software selected by BT in five-year deal to improve operators’ fixed access customer experience

12 Sep 2022

Nokia announces strengthened software portfolio focus in security, automation, and monetization

11 May 2022

Nokia announces new SaaS services targeting network energy efficiency and home device management

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Nokia Change Management Case Study

Nokia is a company that has undergone significant change over the years, transforming itself from a mobile phone manufacturer to a leading player in the telecommunications infrastructure market.

This transformation was driven by a range of factors, including changes in market conditions, advancements in technology, and shifting customer needs and preferences.

However, perhaps the most important factor in Nokia’s successful transformation was its approach to change management.

In this blog post of Nokia’s change management case study, we’ll examine key strategies and tactics that the company employed to drive its successful transformation.

By examining the lessons learned from Nokia’s experience, we can gain valuable insights into effective change management and the critical factors that are required for a successful organizational transformation.

Let’s start reading.

Brief History of Nokia Journey of Change 

Nokia was a Finnish company that produced a wide range of products, including paper, rubber, and cables. It was not until the 1980s that Nokia started focusing on telecommunications equipment, but even then, it was still a relatively small player in the industry.

In the late 1990s, Nokia made a strategic decision to focus solely on mobile phones, which at the time were rapidly growing in popularity. Nokia recognized the potential of the mobile phone market early on and invested heavily in research and development to create innovative and user-friendly devices.

Nokia’s decision to focus on mobile phones paid off, and by the early 2000s, the company had become the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer, with a dominant market share. Nokia’s success was due to its ability to offer a wide range of phones at different price points and to develop cutting-edge technology such as the first mobile phones with built-in cameras and internet connectivity.

However, Nokia’s dominance in the mobile phone market was short-lived. The company struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of technological innovation and the rise of new competitors, such as Apple and Samsung. As a result, Nokia’s market share declined sharply in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and the company eventually sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft in 2014.

Nokia refocused on telecommunications infrastructure and services. It was a again a success story. In 2015 Nokia acquires French telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent.

What are those external and internal factors that caused change?

There were several external and internal factors that led to Nokia’s change management and transformation from a mobile phone producer to a telecommunication infrastructure service provider. Here are some of the key factors:

External factors:

• Increased competition: The rise of new competitors such as Apple and Samsung in the mobile phone market put pressure on Nokia’s mobile phone business, leading to declining market share and profits.
• Rapid technological change: The rapid pace of technological innovation in the mobile phone industry made it difficult for Nokia to keep up and remain competitive.
• Shift towards smartphones: The shift towards smartphones and the decline of feature phones also contributed to Nokia’s decline in the mobile phone market.
• Opportunities in telecommunication infrastructure: The growing demand for 5G networks and other telecommunications infrastructure services presented an opportunity for Nokia to diversify and expand its business.

Internal factors:

• Strategic decision-making : Nokia’s leadership recognized the need to adapt to changing market conditions and made the strategic decision to shift its focus towards telecommunications infrastructure services.
• Strengths in telecommunications: Nokia had a strong history and expertise in the telecommunications industry, which gave it a foundation to build on in expanding its business.
• Investment in research and development: Nokia continued to invest in research and development, allowing it to develop new products and services in the telecommunications infrastructure market.
• Acquisitions and partnerships: Nokia made strategic acquisitions and partnerships to expand its capabilities in telecommunications infrastructure services, such as the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent and the partnership with Xiaomi.

07 Key Drivers of successful change management of Nokia 

The successful change management of Nokia from a mobile phone manufacturer to a telecommunications infrastructure provider was driven by several key factors. Here are some of the most important drivers:

1. Clear Strategic Direction

Nokia’s clear strategic direction helped guide decision-making at all levels of the organization, ensuring that all stakeholders were aligned towards common goals and objectives. This helped Nokia to allocate resources more effectively, ensuring that investments were directed towards initiatives that supported the company’s long-term goals.

The leadership and employees focused its efforts on key priorities, such as developing new products and services in the telecommunications infrastructure market, and helped to minimize distractions from other activities that were not aligned with the company’s strategic objectives.

2. Agility and Adaptability

Agility and adaptability are important characteristics for organizations looking to succeed in a rapidly changing market environment. Nokia’s ability to demonstrate both agility and adaptability was key to its successful transformation from a mobile phone manufacturer to a telecommunications infrastructure provider. Nokia was able to quickly recognize and respond to changing market conditions and pivot its business towards new opportunities, such as the growing demand for telecommunications infrastructure services. 

3. Research and Development 

Nokia’s continued investment in R&D played a critical role in its successful transformation from a mobile phone manufacturer to a telecommunications infrastructure provider. By investing in R&D, Nokia was able to develop new products and services in the telecommunications infrastructure market and stay ahead of its competitors. This allowed the company to offer innovative and cutting-edge solutions that met the evolving needs of its customers. Additionally, Nokia’s investment in R&D helped the company to build a strong intellectual property portfolio, which further strengthened its competitive advantage in the market.

4. Operational Excellence 

Nokia’s focus on operational efficiency and continuous improvement was a critical factor in its successful transformation from a mobile phone manufacturer to a telecommunications infrastructure provider. By streamlining its operations and reducing costs, Nokia was able to improve its competitiveness and profitability in the highly competitive telecommunications infrastructure market. This focus on operational excellence helped the company to optimize its production processes, reduce waste, and improve product quality, which in turn helped it to deliver products and services to its customers more efficiently and at a lower cost.

5. Strong Leadership 

Nokia’s success in transforming itself from a mobile phone manufacturer to a telecommunications infrastructure provider was due in part to the strong and experienced leadership of CEO Rajeev Suri, who played a key role in leading the company through the transformation process. Suri’s leadership was critical in rallying employees around the new strategic direction and ensuring that all stakeholders were aligned towards common goals and objectives. Suri also provided clear direction and guidance to the organization, helping to steer the company through the challenges and uncertainties of the transformation process.

6. Cultural Change 

Nokia’s success in transformation is also due to cultural change. Nokia encouraged employees to be more innovative and agile in their work, fostering a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. The company also emphasized the importance of collaboration and teamwork, encouraging employees to work together to solve complex problems and achieve common goals. Nokia invested in employee development and training, helping to foster a culture of continuous learning and development. This cultural shift helped to create a more flexible, innovative, and agile organization that was better able to adapt to changing market conditions and drive the company’s successful transformation.

7. Acquisition and Partnerships

Acquisitions and partnerships are critical tools that Nokia used to expand its capabilities and build a competitive advantage. By acquiring companies with complementary products and services, Nokia was able to expand its capabilities in telecommunications infrastructure services, giving the company a competitive advantage and helping it to build a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. Additionally, by partnering with other companies in the industry, Nokia was able to leverage the strengths of its partners to deliver innovative solutions that met the evolving needs of its customers.

Final Words 

Nokia’s successful transformation from a mobile phone manufacturer to a leading player in the telecommunications infrastructure market is a powerful case study in effective change management. By adopting a clear strategic direction, investing in research and development, focusing on operational excellence, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration, and pursuing strategic acquisitions and partnerships, Nokia was able to adapt to changing market conditions and pivot its business towards new opportunities. Ultimately, Nokia’s transformation serves as a powerful example of how organizations can successfully adapt and evolve in response to changing market conditions, leveraging their strengths and capabilities to drive growth and success in new markets and industries.

About The Author

Tahir Abbas

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7 CRM Implementation Case Studies That Every Growing Business Can Learn From

Updated On: 19 Jun, 2024

“We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.” ~ Jay Baer, Marketing and Customer Experience Expert

It doesn’t matter how much data is available unless we can derive meaning from it. As per a study, businesses are missing out on $5.2 million in revenue due to untapped data.

Certainly, every business is collecting plenty of data on a regular basis but not every business is using it properly. The difference lies in the fact that not every business is using a CRM that can become a game changer for them.

Also, every customer expects a lot from the chosen brand. So, it requires all businesses, whether growing or established, leverage the power of a CRM and serve their customers better.

CRM may mean different things for different businesses but the ultimate goal is to satisfy their customers through great customer experiences. The many features and functions of a CRM can play a crucial role in this and that’s why 91% of businesses with over 10 employees use a CRM.

However, CRM implementation can be a big task for growing businesses. From finding out what they need from their CRM to making a CRM choice, there’s a lot that needs to be done.  But you are not alone if this seems like a monumental task for you.

1. Omega Financial

2. vk ventures, 3. fitness bell india, 4. moneynotsleep, 5. ajay modi travels, 6. learn digital academy, 7. upanal cnc solutions, want to write your own story, 7 best crm case studies.

To give you the confidence and ideas to get your CRM implementation done right without any hassle, we have put together useful CRM case studies based on our own customers. Every CRM case study here highlights important CRM use cases and vital learnings that can help you in a number of ways.

Take a look at each CRM case study and learn how you can make the most of a CRM and get the implementation done right as per your business needs.

About the Company

Omega Financial is a renowned name in financial distribution that focuses on investment, particularly in mutual funds, and has been operating since 2010. They combine science, data, and technology with human expertise to deliver top-notch wealth management services.

🚩 Challenges They Were Facing

Being a part of the Fiserv sector, Omega Financial deals daily in bulk transactions and processes. Every transaction follows its distinct path and involves various customer touchpoints. Moreover, these transactions take place on a global scale, spanning both online and offline channels.

The main difficulty lay in overseeing the progress of these numerous operations, ensuring no task was overlooked, and assessing the overall business’s well-being. To address this issue, they required a centralized platform that could centralize all operational aspects and foster improved team collaboration.

How Kylas Helped?

Kylas has proven to be a game-changer for Omega Financial, leading to a remarkable enhancement in its operational efficiency. By implementing this CRM, the company has successfully streamlined its processes, enabling teams to work more efficiently and collaborate seamlessly. As a result, productivity has seen a significant boost across the entire organization.

One tangible outcome of this improvement is a remarkable 45% growth in sales. To effectively track and quantify sales performance , the company has adopted a system of assigning weightage points to each deal closed by salespersons.

Prior to implementing Kylas, sales executives were struggling to reach the target of 1500 points, typically achieving only 500-600 points. However, with Kylas in place, the average executive now consistently surpasses the target, scoring higher than 1500 points.  

Customer Testimonial ⭐

“We have seen a 45% increase in our sales in the past year- all thanks to Kylas. My team’s overall performance and productivity have improved because of the automation in the system. Even though Kylas is a Sales CRM all my departments use it on a daily basis. Kylas has helped us transition from hard work to smart work and I would like to rate it 5/5.” – Yogendra. S, Director of Sales, Omega Financial

Read more →

VK Ventures holds a significant position in the e-commerce and fintech sectors. The company has created a portal that facilitates merchants all over India to offer a wide range of financial and utility services. These services include account opening, cash deposits, withdrawals, recharge, bill payments, money transfers, micro-FDs, insurance, and more.

Through this portal, merchants can efficiently cater to their customer’s needs while earning a commission on every transaction they facilitate.

VK Ventures is an active player in the e-commerce and fintech sectors. The company has consistently emphasized providing exceptional services to its customers while prioritizing their needs. To support its operations, VK Ventures had an 80-member sales team utilizing a custom-developed CRM.

However, this CRM, developed in Ahmedabad, proved to be outdated and lacked essential features. As a consequence, the company encountered numerous challenges, particularly in effectively managing the large sales team and tracking leads generated from various marketing campaigns.

Thanks to Kylas, VK Ventures achieved a comprehensive customer view consolidated in a single database. This encompassed essential details like customer names, addresses, financial information, and more, readily accessible to the management.

The implementation of Kylas significantly enhanced operational agility for the company. VK Ventures successfully integrated with various external applications and ensured meticulous recording of every process in the CRM, thereby improving transparency.

The positive outcomes of this transformation manifested in increased sales and overall business growth for the company. VK Ventures now enjoys improved client management and better control over ad campaigns while making judicious expenditures across different sources.

“With Kylas, we have been able to track a plethora of fintech-related customer data with ease. Our sales reps can now instantly respond to customer inquiries, which has led to better conversion rates. The industry will witness growth in the times to come, and we are sure that with Kylas by our side, we will meet customer expectations and scale our business positively.” – Vinay Kedia, Director, VK Ventures

Fitness Bell India is a leading Fitness & Nutrition Consultation firm dedicated to helping clients achieve a healthier lifestyle. The company offers expert health advice, personalized diet plans, and tailored workout routines, all delivered through the collaborative efforts of a team of professionals, including dieticians, trainers, and healthcare experts.

With their guidance, Fitness Bell India can help you start your transformative journey towards improved health and a better physique.

Prior to adopting Kylas, Fitness Bell depended on Excel sheets to store customer records. Unfortunately, this manual data entry method was prone to human errors and consumed a significant amount of time.

As a consequence, data often became fragmented across multiple sheets, making it cumbersome to access historical information and past communications with prospects or clients. This disjointed flow of communication resulted in decreased customer experience and satisfaction.

Furthermore, the inflexibility of Excel sheets meant they couldn’t be customized to suit the company’s specific business needs, further hindering their operations. The absence of customized reporting capabilities also made it challenging to make data-driven decisions, adding to their business challenges.

Fitness Bell found the perfect fit for their needs with Kylas CRM, designed specifically for fitness professionals to efficiently engage, follow up with, and sell to clients. This user-friendly CRM empowered Fitness Bell to manage its sales process seamlessly, including contract renewals.

With Kylas, the sales team streamlined day-to-day operations related to data management, securely organizing all customer data for efficient nurturing and personalized touchpoints. Sales representatives tracked interactions with customers, while Kylas’s adaptability accommodated various membership options.

The sales manager easily assigned leads and tasks to specific staff members, ensuring timely follow-ups. The customizable dashboard provided comprehensive oversight for management, and Data Export functionality simplified data transfer.

Fitness Bell gained valuable insights for decision-making through crucial sales metrics and customized reports. Kylas’s multiple integrations fostered better relationships and faster conversions while linking WhatsApp business accounts strengthened customer connections.

Kylas played a vital role in promoting CRM adoption within the sales team, contributing to improved efficiency and success.

“With Kylas, we could scale up sales and improve customer engagement in the past 3 months. Features like Smart Filters helped us to filter data, identify hot and warm leads, and prioritize our leads. We are very happy to say that Kylas not just helped in team collaboration, but improved customer engagement as well.

Kylas does a great job of listening to its customers and keeping up with their feature-related demands. It’s a trustworthy platform that has helped in our path to success.” – Himanshu Kumar, Co-Founder, Fitness Bell India

MoneyNotSleep stands out as India’s pioneering Financial Media House tailored exclusively for Part-Time Traders. Established on December 8th, 2020, MoneyNotSleep is dedicated to delivering essential financial news updates, highlighting investment and trading opportunities, and providing market predictions for the best-performing stocks, equities, bonds, and companies.

Amidst the Covid challenges, MoneyNotSleep ventured into creating a platform for potential investors to build wealth through trading channels. However, as the business grew, it faced several hurdles. One major challenge was handling fragmented data stored in Excel, making it difficult to track leads and deals, impacting sales performance and growth.

The lack of team collaboration in closing deals was apparent, with internal communications suffering, leading to missed information by sales reps. Transitioning to a remote workforce during the pandemic added complexity in monitoring the sales team’s activities.

Recognizing the need for a comprehensive solution, MoneyNotSleep sought to reevaluate its technology strategy. They needed a scalable, integrated, and efficient platform to cater to bespoke needs while enhancing customer experience. Flexibility and adaptability were vital factors in their search for the right solution.

When the pandemic forced MoneyNotSleep to transition to remote work, coordinating with their dispersed sales teams became a challenge. However, Kylas proved to be a savior, facilitating collaboration among remote sales reps and significantly improving team performance.

Kylas brought about a revolutionary change by providing a comprehensive view of customers through centralized data management. The sales team could now track every interaction with leads, customers, and deals, gaining insights into customer behavior to cater to their needs effectively. This transformation from fragmented processes to a fully-integrated system empowered managers with complete control and visibility.

The multi-metric & multi-dimensional Reporting feature in Kylas enabled the sales team to generate performance and sales forecasting reports efficiently, surpassing the previous manual methods of progress tracking. Even while working from home, the sales manager could closely monitor the team’s activities and productivity.

Kylas streamlined data importing, particularly from external sources like their Leads databases, saving time and reducing manual tasks. With routine tasks automated, the sales team’s productivity surged, resulting in a faster sales process pipeline.

Inter-team communications improved significantly with Kylas, enabling a clear visualization of the entire customer journey and facilitating necessary corrections. The Kylas mobile app made curating client information more convenient, leading to better customer support on the go and enhanced satisfaction.

Reflecting on their journey with Kylas, Nishant appreciated the improved flow of information within the organization, directly impacting the end user’s customer experience positively. Kylas played a crucial role in helping MoneyNotSleep navigate the challenges of remote work during the pandemic and elevating their sales operations to new heights.

“After implementing Kylas, the sales team started leveraging the full potential of Kylas’s automation capabilities to take over a number of activities currently executed manually. Kylas has made our sales team more efficient and effective by automating their daily activities, reducing manual efforts, and saving time. Now our sales team can focus more on selling.

I am excited to say that with Kylas, the sales activity has increased by a whopping 150% in the last 3 months. Not just that, the revenue also went up by 20%. Kylas has allowed us to support clients better in the selling process, in turn, leading to greater customer satisfaction.” – Nishant Mishra, Co-founder, MoneyNotSleep

Ajay Modi Travels , based in Ahmedabad, is a well-established travel service company renowned for its diverse range of travel-related offerings across India. With over two decades of experience, the company remains dedicated to delivering top-notch services and tailor-made holiday packages to its valued customers.

The Indian travel and tourism industry took a hit during the pandemic, causing a significant decline in both domestic and international travelers. Ajay Modi Travels also experienced the adverse effects of this situation, leading to an unexpected slowdown in their business.

As the pandemic situation gradually improved, the travel industry began to witness signs of recovery, and Ajay Modi Travels saw a surge in inquiries. Recognizing the opportunity to capitalize on this increased interest and fortify their position in the market, the team decided to take action.

The influx of inquiries brought a diverse range of requests for customization, highlighting the need for a robust system to manage customer data and streamline all processes. Additionally, handling bulk data through manual entry became inefficient, prompting the search for an automated solution that could efficiently manage appointments and booking deadlines, ensuring no opportunities were missed.

Thanks to Kylas CRM, Ajay Modi Travels achieved a comprehensive 360-degree view of their customer database, including crucial details like names, addresses, booking history, and more. This enabled travel agents to efficiently manage customer accounts and handle bookings, saving valuable time.

The streamlined tracking of miscellaneous travel-related data made responding to inquiries easier, improving conversion rates.

Mr. Alaap Modi expressed satisfaction with Kylas’s support and customizable features. The platform seamlessly integrated lead capture forms, prioritized inquiries, and assigned them to the right agents. Workflow automation empowered in-house tour managers to create custom rules based on customer preferences.

With Kylas’s automation, concerns about missed appointments or inquiries vanished, as custom rules ensured prompt communication through emails and reminders. Mr. Alaap Modi also praised Kylas’s receptiveness to new ideas, making the partnership even more valuable for Ajay Modi Travels.

“Currently, we have 20+ users using Kylas, and let us tell you that they have not missed a single lead or call from any prospective traveler. Kylas didn’t just help us boost our sales; it also helped us build strong relationships with our clients. In fact, in the last 6 months, our sales increased to 30% and our customer satisfaction improved by 20%. This CRM is beneficial for businesses looking forward to scaling new heights. I would recommend Kylas CRM to everyone in the travel & tourism industry.” – Aalap Modi, Co-Founder, AjayModi Travels

Learn Digital Academy is a specialized training institute committed to empowering students with university certifications and on-campus placements. Distinguished as India’s sole awarded agency-based digital education institute, they offer a comprehensive learning journey encompassing training, certification, internships, and placement opportunities.

With a dynamic team of professionals, their mission revolves around upskilling aspiring individuals in cutting-edge disciplines like digital marketing, data science, artificial intelligence, and graphic design. As they continue to grow, Learn Digital Academy remains dedicated to providing a transformative learning experience for all.

As Learn Digital Academy expanded as an Ed-Tech business, its counselors found themselves handling a substantial amount of information daily. Initially, they utilized LeadSquared as their CRM for the sales team. However, when the management made the decision to downsize the sales team, they had to transition to using Excel and Google Sheets for data management.

The counselors at Learn Digital Academy regularly reached out to prospective students to identify suitable candidates and boost enrolments. Managing call logs for each call on Excel became a challenging task, leading to difficulties in following up on inquiries promptly, which ultimately resulted in a decline in the enrolment rate.

Recognizing that Excel sheets were no longer sufficient to meet their needs, Nishant realized it was time to explore alternative solutions for their data and customer management requirements.

Kylas CRM proved to be a game-changer for LearnDigital Academy, streamlining student enrolments and admissions with its comprehensive view of every contact and inquiry. The team seamlessly synchronized inquiries from various sources, efficiently tracked incoming students and stored all their details in one centralized location.

The Bulk Update and Bulk Delete features offered by Kylas CRM significantly reduced manual efforts, enabling the team to manage a large volume of student inquiries effortlessly and save valuable time.

Nishant highlighted the transformative impact of Kylas CRM on their counselors, who can now make one-click calls to candidates through IVR directly from the platform, greatly enhancing their outbound efforts.

Moreover, Nishant commended the seamless onboarding and adoption process for this new platform. The availability and responsiveness of Kylas’s Customer Success team through various communication channels, including Telephony, Chat, WhatsApp, and Email, impressed Nishant.

He further praised the team’s promptness in responding to queries within an hour and resolving issues within 24 hours, always handling their requests with utmost priority.

“Kylas’ notes, task reminders, and meeting updates have helped our counselors organize their daily tasks better. Our productivity has improved with this CRM system and most importantly- now we do not miss out on a single lead.

The productivity dashboard, multi-dimensional reports, and Smart Lists in Kylas helped us track inquiries that needed follow-up by our counselors .

I am delighted to say that due to timely follow-ups through Kylas’s automated messages and emails, our overall enrolment rate has improved significantly by 30%.” ­ – Nishant Jhunjhunwala, Co-Founder, Learn Digital Academy

Established in 2011, Upanal CNC Solutions specializes in offering service and maintenance programs for all CNC machine services. As a prominent wholesaler and dealer, Upanal provides a wide range of products, including Milling Machines, Turning Machines, CNC Machine Spare Parts, and more.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, Upanal is known for its tailor-made service and maintenance programs, catering to various needs, from simple care maintenance of technically challenging CNC machines to handling exceptional masterpieces in the industry.

Upanal CNC Solutions, a thriving business, upholds the belief of delivering top-notch service at competitive rates, all while understanding and catering to the unique requirements of its clients. As its clientele base expanded rapidly, Upanal recognized the importance of having a cohesive system that could provide a clear overview of its sales pipeline.

To meet their evolving needs, Upanal sought a CRM solution that would efficiently organize their sales team’s workflow and minimize errors in data collection. They required software that would enable their sales team to consistently follow up with clients, thereby enhancing the likelihood of lead conversions.

Thanks to Kylas, Upanal gained invaluable transparency, allowing them to access a comprehensive view of each customer’s activity log in a single place. The need for centralized information concerning clients, leads, and deals, including contacts, calls, past meetings, and opportunities, was fulfilled, significantly enhancing the visibility of their sales pipeline .

When asked about the top three features appreciated by Poonam, she highlighted Kylas’s ability to create custom reports and provide insights into sales performance. The automated workflows were also a standout feature as they allowed for streamlined sales processes. Additionally, the in-app notifications kept the sales representatives updated, ensuring no important updates or tasks were missed.

“Not only that, Kylas’ robust customer service helped us with quick training that helped our team get adapted to new business processes easily. Transitioning from one software to another was effortless.

It has been going great with Kylas and I am glad we made the switch. As a sales CRM, I would rate it 4/5.” – Poonam Anvedkar, Internal Sales Team Leader, Upanal CNC Solutions

With the right CRM in place, you can serve your customers in the best manner possible. If the CRM implementation is done correctly, it doesn’t matter how much your customer expectations evolve. You will always be on top of your sales.

If you want to understand how Kylas can help your business grow, Schedule your Demo with us and we will tell you how.

Shagun Sharma

Shagun is a content marketer at Kylas, extremely well-versed in all things Marketing. She works closely with the sales team to create best-in-class content for our readers. Her experience combined with her thorough research skills makes all her blogs very in-depth and insightful. In her leisure time, Shagun enjoys hiking, gardening, and immersing herself in music.

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12 Successful CRM Implementation Case Studies to Learn From

CRM implementation can seem like a monumental task to complete. From knowing which CRM to choose, to understanding how to fit it in with the rest of your sales stack , there’s a lot involved from pricing to convincing decision-makers to making sure it works well from the start.

If you’re looking for CRM implementation case studies to give you ideas and confidence to get started, then look no further.

12 CRM Case Studies

Want to get this done right (the first time)? Learn from the CRM case studies of companies that implemented a new CRM successfully to improve the customer experience, drive customer engagement , and increase revenue.

1. How Customer.io Uses Automated Handoffs to Enable Smarter Sales

Company: Customer.io

Customer.io is an established martech provider that needed a CRM to work better with both an inbound and outbound sales process. Plus, they needed it to fit well with their current tool stack and give them automated workflows.

This case study interview with Alex Patton, Director of Marketing and operations at Customer.io, digs deeper into the technical setup the company uses with its CRM platform and how that process maximizes the team’s time and productivity.

2. 6 Tips for Assessing Your CRM + Optimizing Workflow—from a Revenue Coach

Company/Organization: High Kick Sales

Kyle Stremme’s consulting firm, High Kick Sales, enables sales teams to create an optimized process and tech stack. This case study explores the insights Kyle gained from helping B2B and B2C companies develop their CRM systems and processes, plus details on how he helps managers analyze their current CRM and decide on a better system.

3. Implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Hotel Industry from an Organizational Culture Perspective

Company: Anonymous UK hotel chain

This study, done by the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, examined a hotel chain in the UK as it implemented a new CRM, noting what worked and what didn't about its implementation process.

They administered a questionnaire to 346 hotel chain managers and found that organizational culture readiness was one of the most determining factors in the success of a CRM implementation.

4. Choosing and Implementing a CRM for Small Business

Company: Bean Ninjas

Bean Ninjas is an accounting firm for eCommerce businesses. Their tech stack was dissonant and unconnected, and their ‘CRM’ (actually a project management tool) didn’t even have email built-in. The lack of functionality was impacting their business.

Their self-written case study goes through choosing the right CRM, implementing the system into a more optimized sales workflow , technical integrations, and the end results.

5. How AAXIS Digital is Saving an Estimated $250,000 by Switching from Salesforce to the HubSpot CRM Platform

Company: AAXIS

This CRM implementation case study focuses on how an enterprise company migrated from one extensive CRM to another, saving them lots of money on a system they weren’t using to the full.

The case study explores how they chose their new CRM and their accomplishments with it, including increasing marketing automation and better aligning sales and marketing. For specific Salesforce resources, check out our list of CRM implementation resources .

6. Replacing HubSpot with Close: Scaling Trufan in a CRM Reps Love

Company: Trufan

Trufan (now Surf for Brands) is a fast-growing SaaS startup with a tech-savvy target market. So, they needed a CRM that could move quickly alongside their team, helping them build well-constructed automation that could scale as they grew.

This CRM implementation case study shows how a wrong decision slowed their progress and how a new solution helped them scale faster.

7. A Successful CRM Implementation Project in a Service Company

Company: Anonymous service company from Slovenia

This academic case study by Piskar Franka and Armand Faganel examines the process a service company in Slovenia followed alongside CRM consultants to implement a new solution.

They concluded that a proper CRM implementation can improve customer relationships , achieve greater information sharing between employees, and lead to better strategic decisions. This is mostly interesting for historical purposes, as it gives some insight into the complexity involved in implementing a CRM into a larger company in 2007.

8. Hownd Cut CRM Costs by 80 percent in 2 Weeks—While Saving SMBs During COVID

Company: Hownd

Hownd works with brick-and-mortar businesses to get more foot traffic, and their mission since the start of the pandemic is to help SMBs get back on their feet and recover. They needed a CRM that would help them cut their costs to help others and help them move quickly to fill the needs of their customers.

This case study/COVID success story shows how Hownd found the right CRM for their business, cut costs, streamlined their process, and continues to help SMBs survive through hard times.

9. The Ultimate Team Effort: How the Close Sales Team Joins Forces to Build More Solid Deals

Company: Close

This unique case study is the story of our CRM software company and how we’ve implemented our CRM tool into our sales stack. It digs into the nitty-gritty of technical setups and integrations, API, and how it all works together for a smooth, profitable process.

10. Switching to HubSpot Adds up for Casio

Company: Casio

This enterprise CRM implementation case study shows how consumer electronics company Casio switched from a custom-built CRM to one that was more inclusive for their marketing and sales teams. It shows how they updated their inbound marketing process and increased their new customer sales by 26 percent.

11. The Unique Sales Process ResQ Club Uses to Power It's Mission to Zero Food Waste

Company: ResQ Club

ResQ Club, a Finnish company on a mission to make zero food waste a reality, needed a CRM solution that would help them track customers and partners and scale quickly.

This case study shows how they used Close to build their own custom processes with Custom Fields , email sequences that are personalized to different European cities, and Smart Views that keep sales reps focused on the right deals.

12. Strategic Issues in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Implementation

Company: Anonymous UK manufacturing company

This paper from 2003 by Christopher Bull from the Department of Business Information Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School discusses the effects of a strategic customer relationship management process and how it affected this manufacturing company.

The results of this study highlighted that CRM implementations frequently failed. It also referenced a study of 202 CRM projects, which concluded that only 30.7 percent of organizations said the CRM implementation improved how they sell to and service customers.

Testimonials that Highlight the Benefits of CRM Implementation

What kind of benefits should you expect once you’ve implemented a new CRM ? It depends on your company and current pain points. If you are considering switching to a new CRM or implementing one for the first time, here’s what real CRM users say:

1. Nick Parker, Founder at FTOCloud

“With Close, we're able to keep track of hundreds of deals and clients over multiple months while simultaneously unifying our team's communication.”

2. Tim Griffin, Founder & CEO at Cloosiv

“ We didn’t start getting traction until we started using Close. I don’t know if the company would still be here if we hadn’t implemented it.”

Read the whole story here.

3. Maryl Johnston, CEO at Bean Ninjas

“The real benefit of Close is less about sales admin time and more about closing more deals. Because Close makes it very easy to stay in touch with customers and allows Sales to manage their pipeline without needing a sales admin, we can now go into Close and see all the leads in a broad view.”

‎4. Aimee Creighton, Sales Administrator at Bean Ninjas

“ The biggest win for me is the cut-down in labor time of setting up leads in our task management system (not designed for lead management) and ensuring all fields are filled out. It significantly reduced the time-intensive manual process of documenting leads. I feel like Close has completely cut that down, and everything is right there from the dashboard. I think it’s been worth the investment.”

5. Monika Tudja, Business Development Manager at Now Technologies

“ I can't imagine my work-life without Close - I've been using it at my previous company and I 'demanded' implementing it on my first day at the current one. I'm useless without Close. Seriously thinking about getting an account for my personal life.”

6. Sara Archer, Director of Sales and Marketing

“ Since we've started using Close, we've QUADRUPLED our average revenue per user.”

Read how they did it here.

7. Sarah Haselkorn, Head of Sales at MakeSpace

“ You guys [at Close] have been a HUGE part of our growth so far, and with your support I have so much confidence that our sales team is set up to scale.”

8. Duncan Burns, VeggiDome

“I am able to stay on top of my outreach, correspondence, and follow-up seamlessly AND relax enough to do a better job, knowing that I'm not missing a beat!”

9. Michael Grady, Lazarus

“ This is a CRM that is all about focus with no bloat which is exactly what inside sales needs.”

10. Aubrey Lim, ThreeTrees

“My first time using a CRM. 8 months in and it's frictionless to use. My favorite features: being able to pull up colleagues' emails to a particular lead, bulk-uploading contacts, email templates.”

‎11. Timothy Corey, Director of Sales at Commonwealth Joe

“Close allows us to see where we should spend our time and effort. We can look at our sales for the same quarter last year and know what worked well and what didn’t -- this allows me to know where to put my energy, on what companies, and in what markets.”

Ready to Write Your Own CRM Implementation Success Story?

The right CRM helps you easily access customer information, track contacts, qualify leads, improve conversion rates, and more. If you're ready to implement a CRM, we can help.

For a successful CRM implementation , you need a clear plan to follow. That’s why we’ve given you the right resources to make a better decision. Get our CRM implementation guide here:

ACCESS OUR CRM IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE →

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The Rise and Fall of Nokia

By julian birkinshaw , lisa duke.

The case describes Nokia’s spectacular rise and fall, shedding light on the combination of external factors and internal decisions that resulted in the company’s handset business being sold to Microsoft in 2010.During the successful period of growth (roughly 1990 through to 2006), Nokia’s focus on design and functionality gained it a worldwide reputation. It was acknowledged as the first smartphone manufacturer. Through the early-mid 2000s it was the undisputed leader in the global mobile phone business. The case traces the first signs of trouble and the company’s subsequent decline over the period 2005 to 2010. Pressure in the early 2000s from low-end competitors led to early signs of problems. Then of course the game changed in 2007 with Apple’s iPhone and a year later with phones powered by Google’s Android operating system from HTC, Samsung and others. Nokia was initially dismissive of these new offerings but its proprietary OS, Symbian, was ageing badly and its App store (Ovi) was no match for Apple’s. In September 2010 it was announced that American Stephen Elop, formerly of Microsoft, would become CEO. Not long afterwards a partnership with Microsoft was signed which subsequently led to Nokia’s handset business being sold to Microsoft.

Learning objectives

• Understand why good companies go bad; in other words, see how the assets that enable companies to succeed can also be liabilities when the market turns against them.
• Provide insight into the nature of disruption in an established industry and why incumbent firms struggle to adapt.
• Examine the different paths companies should take to respond to disruptive forces.
• Understand the leadership challenge for executives when their performance starts to decline2. To understand the dynamics of change in a fast-changing industry.
• Identify strategies companies can use to adapt quickly to disruptive changes.

Other cases in Strategy

• Entrepreneurship
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Management Science and Operations
• Organisational Behaviour
• Organizational Behaviour and Strategy’
• Sustainability

Privacy Overview

Case Study 4: The Collapse of Nokia’s Mobile Phone Business

• First Online: 30 July 2018

Cite this chapter

• Tuomo Peltonen 2  

This chapter provides a wisdom-oriented reading of one of the most spectacular business failures of recent times: the collapse of Nokia mobile phones between 2007 and 2015. Using executive biographies and other published accounts of Nokia’s organisational patterns, the chapter attempts to offer a more balanced explanation of the processes behind Nokia’s inability to respond to the changing industry circumstances. The following analysis pays attention to the shaping of Nokia’s organisational culture. Company and its new leadership adopted a professional, no-nonsense approach in the aftermath of the problems of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The new generation of managers believed in a rational mindset supported by a bureaucratic organisational form. Leaning on a superior technological competence within the mobile phone sector, Nokia was capable of ultimately becoming the market leader. However, in 2007, with two major players, Apple and Google, joining the business, the established rules of competitive dynamics were irrevocably changed. Focus shifted to software and applications. Nokia’s risk-aversive and closed organisational culture could not respond in a situation where an open search for new innovations and a cooperative internal working mode were needed. An analysis of the development of Nokia’s organisational psyche following the emergence of a new generation of managers and executives highlights the role of local beliefs in using philosophical wisdom in critical circumstances. Nokia and its leadership were not able to abandon the outmoded habits and structures, as these had become integrated with the very identity of the company.

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Peltonen, T. (2019). Case Study 4: The Collapse of Nokia’s Mobile Phone Business. In: Towards Wise Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91719-1_6

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Emerging Nokia? (TN)

• Emerging Nokia?  By: Juan Alcacer, Tarun Khanna, Mary Furey and Rakeen Mabud
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Case Study 4: The Collapse of Nokia’s Mobile Phone Business: Wisdom and Stupidity in Strategic Decision-making

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Nokia: The Inside Story of the Rise and Fall of a Technology Giant

The case examines the downward spiral of Nokia, the mobile technology giant that once conquered the world, seen from the perspective of ‘insiders’ – based on interviews with Nokia executives at top and middle management level. They describe the emotional undercurrents of the innovation process that caused temporal myopia – an excessive focus on short-term innovation at the expense of longer-term more beneficial activities. Nokia’s once-stellar performance was undermined by misaligned collective fear: top managers were afraid of competition from rival products, while middle managers were afraid of their bosses and even their peers. It was their reluctance to share negative information with top managers – who thus remained overly optimistic about the organisation’s capabilities – that generated inaccurate feedback and poorly adapted organizational responses that led to the company’s downfall. The case covers the period from the early 2000s to 2010, with a focus on 2007 (the introduction of the iPhone) to 2010, when the CEO left. Read a related Knowledge article "Who Killed Nokia? Nokia Did" by Quy Huy.

After reading and analysing the case, students will understand (i) how emotional dynamics influence hard technological and strategic decisions in organizations as they translate into challenges for innovation, (ii) how emotional dynamics can undermine innovation and performance.

• Top and middle management
• Mobile phone
• Radical change
• Strategic agility
• Temporal myopia

Quy Huy

Timo o. vuori.

Lisa Simone Duke

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