Customer Success | The Scale People, Inc.

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Chris Buck

Operations Manager at The Scale People, Inc.

The Scale People, Inc.
A major distributor of weighing equipment in the US, The Scale People help their customers find out the weight of anything from newborn babies right through to aircraft. This Maryland-based company has even supplied the scales NASA use to weigh satellites going up in the Space Shuttle!

However, while many of those they supply are hi-tech, the way this family firm used to keep customer details was anything but. “When I joined the company back in 1990,” says Chris Buck, who now runs The Scale People with his brother, “my father kept customer details on a Rolodex.”

Once upon a time that might have been a practical solution, but it wasn’t a long-term option for a company with ambitions to grow.

Having been impressed by Act!’s ability to track customer histories during his time working in the computer sector, Chris introduced it at The Scale People and began the process of transferring historic data over to it.

Now Act! holds the details of over 44,000 customers and has become an integral component of the company’s sales and customer relationship building process.

In terms of efficiency we’ve been able to improve productivity by at least 30% using Act!. That puts us ahead of the curve, and our competitors, who are still using Outlook and can’t access or share information like we can.

Information where it’s needed

Using his experience, Chris has been able to customise Act! to create a truly bespoke system for the company.

“We’ve integrated it with Quotewerks,” says Chris, “so we now have a seamless sales operation that lets us send out quotes, monitor the opportunities with the greatest potential, and send out follow-up emails.”

However, it’s the recent installation of a new webbased version of Act! and the use of Act! Premium Mobile on the sales team’s phones that has really made a big difference.

“Now we can get supplier and customer details whenever and wherever we need them,” says Chris. “That means we don’t need to call the office, or explain what information we need, or wait for synchronisation with databases.”

That’s a great time saver, when members of the sales team can be on the road for 50% of their working week.

Incredible efficiency savings

Having that information to hand means that not only can Chris and the team help customers make the best buying decisions, but it also makes The Scale People far more efficient.

“We’ve probably improved our productivity by at least 30% using Act!, so the efficiencies we’ve made with Act! are just incredible,” says Chris who, as operations manager, is responsible for the company’s software and so best placed to assess the impact the software has had on the business.

“Using Act! puts us ahead of the curve, and our competitors, who are still using Outlook and can’t access or share information like we can.”

The internal transparency that Act! gives The Scale People means everyone can see what the rest of the team is involved with, which is of particular benefit if someone leaves, since their knowledge doesn’t leave with them.

Ahead of the curve

“We’re now using the opportunities feature to see what’s coming up on a weekly basis, so that we focus our effort in the right areas,” says Chris, “and that’s helping to create an increasingly effective sales process.”

Due to the complexity of their service programme, the company hasn’t tried to integrate Act! with it, but now they’re revisiting that as a possibility, with a view to creating a system that automatically co-ordinates the sending out of emails to customers prior to a scheduled service appointment by a technician.

It seems that when you balance up all its advantages, then on any measure Act! comes out as a really heavyweight performer.

Key Takeaways

By making Act! its CRM software of choice, The Scale People have been able to: Dramatically increase efficiency – by over 30%.
Maintain the details of more than 44,000 contacts.
Significantly reduce the amount of time the company’s sales force has to spend going back to the office.
Given them a competitive advantage over their competitors who are using less effective CRM software.

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