Introduction

The client is a merchant service provider specializing in fraud protection for high-risk online merchants. As an upstart, the client was hyper-focused on efficiency and reaping the most value from their employees' time.

The founding team had years of experience in the merchant services industry. The team understood, first hand, the labor-intensive nature of the business. As a result, they were laser focused on streamlining and optimizing processes in order to serve more customers with minimal back-office staff.

Historically, the process of qualifying and on-boarding new customers is very labor-intensive. On average, the process can take 40 to 60 minutes per customer and with multiple back-office employees managing the process. The process includes back-and-forth emails to collect information, manually entering data into multiple PDFs and then manual data entry into processor web portals.

The client engaged TechOps to design and implement a process to automate and optimize every aspect of the sales, merchant qualification, and onboarding process.

Problem

The Solution

After evaluating the business's workflows and reviewing several technology options, TechOps recommended the Zoho application suite. Zoho offers multiple integrated products that including CRM, custom database development, and electronic signatures.

The solution included the creation of a custom web portal allowing customers to securely enter their information online, eliminating the need for email correspondence. The web portal integrates with a custom database which stores the customer information.

With only a simple mouse click, the customer information contained in the database is pushed into several PDF's, eliminating manual data entry. Those pre-populated PDF's are then automatically sent to the CRM where a salesperson can send via Electronic Signature to the customer, all without having to send a single email.

The CRM setup includes fully automated sales workflows and automate communications templates for every step of the sales cycle. At each step of the sales cycle, salespeople can use the automated communication system to send automated emails and follow-up messages from a trove of personalized templates.

All the while, the management team has access to valuable data from the CRM, including lead sources, active partners, and pipeline reporting. This information can be used to further grow the business.

The Result

The customer lowered the time required to process a new customer from upwards of an hour to nearly instantaneous with minimal involvement from sales or back-office staff. The customer will reduce overall back-office costs by up to $50,000 per year with this automated technology with more savings as the business scales. Additionally, through the use of the CRM, the customer increased sales conversion and became better able to track lead sources and active partners. Access to business intelligence will allow them to make better investing decisions.