Decision on a new CRM system 

ACREDIA was faced with the challenge of replacing an outdated CRM system that was mainly used for documentation purposes but did not provide sufficient support for work processes. The starting point of the project was the search for a new CRM system that would map the entire customer interaction from marketing to sales to customer service and optimally support the employees in their daily work.

Initially, the change management and communication with the team posed a number of challenges, as a previous attempt to implement CRM with a different system and a different partner had just been aborted.

„The initial situation was challenging. We were working with a very old CRM system and a recent project to introduce a new system had failed. The challenge was to convince the employees to invest energy in a new system again and to give them the confidence that it would succeed this time.”- tells Herbert Gspan, Bereichsleiter Marketing und Sales

Before the introduction of Dynamics as the central software for customer interaction, ACREDIA had a number of different systems where customer-related areas of the company could document their interactions, but there was no standardized interface to collate all the information and enable a holistic view of the customer.

Decision for Dynamics and gorelate

After a thorough market analysis and an evaluation project, ACREDIA Versicherung opted for Dynamics 365, according to Herbert Gspan. For him, the decision was relatively clear, as the interaction and integration of the different Microsoft products completely convinced the team at ACREDIA. The seamless interaction between Teams, as well as Outlook and Dynamics, was particularly important. This allows a cross-system process to be created for employees that always focuses on interaction with the customer and their satisfaction.

"As part of the evaluation project, we defined our detailed requirements for the CRM system and our implementation partner. In the end, the choice fell on gorelate. Two factors were decisive: the very good economic offer and the human factor, from the very first moment we had the feeling that we were working with a competent partner,“ tells Gspan.

According to the team at ACREDIA, gorelate stands out not just for their professional competence and specialized CRM and Dynamics focus, but also for their proactive drive and the personal, highly responsive nature of their project teams

Areas of Application of Dynamics 

Due to the versatile possibilities and the seamless integration of various Dynamics 365 modules, ACREDIA decided to implement Dynamics across different stages of the customer journey. ACREDIA utilizes Dynamics 365 Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Sales, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service to create a unified 360-degree customer view and keep all departments informed about various customer interactions.

This enables seamless customer communication across all business units, as data and interactions are centralized. As a result, marketing campaigns can be managed with greater precision, customer service is made more efficient, and the sales process receives optimal support. Through this integration, ACREDIA aims to strengthen customer relationships and ensure long-term success.

Patrick, what improvements have become visible since you started using Dynamics in sales?

According to Patrick Plank, ACREDIA has achieved significant improvements in both existing customer management and new customer acquisition through the use of Dynamics. Dynamics enables transparent documentation from initial contact to closing, which greatly facilitates communication tracking and response times. Another key advantage is the ability to better interpret the behavior of potential customers. If a lead hesitates or takes a long time to respond, the team can quickly identify whether interest is low or if other hurdles exist. For existing customers as well, this transparency is a major benefit for teams across various departments at ACREDIA, enhancing both customer understanding and loyalty.

Julia, what improvements have become visible since you started using Dynamics in marketing? 

Before the introduction of Dynamics, marketing was unable to perform data-driven analysis or evaluate performance indicators. Julia Bogner reports that Dynamics has enabled the marketing department to achieve improvements across various areas, particularly in making processing times significantly more efficient.

Newsletters and other informational mailings can now be easily created directly within Dynamics, incorporating personal customer characteristics. Through customizable customer journeys, it is possible to respond to different customer attributes or interactions, creating highly personalized campaigns. ACREDIA can now conduct data-driven analyses to better understand the target audience and their needs. A/B testingalso plays a vital role here, leading to significant improvements in key parameters such as open rates and event registrations.

The creation of designable forms in Dynamics and their deployment on the company’s website is another crucial process. This allows information requests or event sign-ups to be easily accessible and captured directly in Dynamics for further processing.

Furthermore, lead scoring and distribution in Dynamics 365 has proven extremely helpful. Potential leads are automatically evaluated and prioritized based on predefined criteria, allowing the sales team to focus on the most promising contacts. The automatic distribution of leads to the responsible employees ensures fast and efficient processing, significantly optimizing the entire sales cycle.

Brigitte, what improvements have become visible since you started using Dynamics in customer service?

The Customer Relation Center at ACREDIA was founded in 2018. Initially, the customer support team relied primarily on Outlook as their main management and communication tool. However, as customer and employee numbers grew, this approach became increasingly challenging. Ultimately, a clear need for action was identified, particularly regarding the documentation of past inquiries. Before the Dynamics implementation, phone calls had to be documented separately in a standalone tool. There was a lack of a comprehensive 360-degree customer view, not only in collaboration with other departments but even within the service team itself.

Brigitte Ludwig reports that with Dynamics, a clear history of customer inquiries across all channels is now visible directly at the customer level, enabling much more effective case resolution. Creating new inquiries in the system is both simple and efficient: email requests are synchronized directly to Dynamics, automatically converted into case records, and routed to the correct team member.

Dynamics makes it possible to map the entire communication history within a single request while also referencing similar past cases or recent interactions as a guide for resolving current issues. As a result, the company has become more efficient in both processing and documentation, allowing them to address customer needs with even greater precision.

ACREDIA also utilizes the integrated Service Level Agreement (SLA) measurement in Dynamics. The system automatically recognizes which SLA applies to a customer and records it on the inquiry. Through a visible timer, the assigned agent can immediately see how much time remains to resolve the issue, allowing for clear and effective prioritization.