Zodiac Pool Care enables new areas of business with Maximizer CRM

Zodiac Pool Care SA is the leading provider of swimming pool products such as pool cleaners, saltwater chlorinators, heat pumps and mineral sanitisers in the South African market. Zodiac is part of a global company with head offices in Paris, France. Zodiac required a customer relationship management solution to power its customer loyalty programme and enable the company to manage a database of over 100 000 users of its products within the South African market.

Before switching to Maximizer, Zodiac made use of a bespoke solution that was developed 12 years ago. This ageing CRM system allowed for only one product category and was limited to database management and focused on customer care.

Says Philip Hughes, marketing manager for Zodiac: "We had a very real need for a more up-to-date CRM solution that would not only enable our customer loyalty programme but also allow Zodiac to maintain a large database of consumers, conduct direct marketing activities and provide our customer care department with the tools it needs."

Hughes says Maximizer was chosen over other CRM solutions based on its ability to meet Zodiac's needs exactly and at an affordable price.

We considered a few CRM applications," he explains. "But chose Maximizer because the modules we required were not standalone products, but rather bundled with Maximizer. The fact that other solutions required additional purchases made their costs prohibitive. Maximizer is also a global product, so if Zodiac chooses to extend its services internationally, this could be done."

Zodiac chose to phase in Maximizer, enabling specific modules for their corresponding departments within the company, at intervals. The organisation selected Maximizer Enterprise solution and had 10 users loaded on the system at time of writing.

Implementation for the customer care team, which was first to start using the application, took only a few weeks - including training," says Hughes.

Maximizer CRM is deployed at Zodiac using Microsoft SQL Server and is integrated with Crystal Reports for reporting, as well as third-party scanning software that is used for channel management.

This application is used to record product serial numbers, which are then integrated into the Maximizer database," says Hughes.

The company makes use of Maximizer's Service and Marketing modules, including a custom-developed loyalty programme module, which was created specifically for Zodiac by implementation partner, JRB Solutions South Africa, contracted by Maximizer Business Partner CRM Consultants.

This module allows Zodiac to capture data from warranty cards sent out with all products. Dealers complete these cards, which are then returned to Zodiac who award their dealers with points. Maximizer's Workflow Automation module is then used to generate and automatically send customer statements pertaining to their loyalty earnings.

Zodiac also intends to make use of Maximizer in its sales department in the future.

By switching to Maximizer Enterprise, Hughes says Zodiac Pool Care is now able to deliver value to its customers and drive business activities that were not possible before.

Maximizer allows us to offer our customers a loyalty programme and to conduct direct marketing activities. These were not possible with the previous application we were using," he explains.

Maximizer was definitely the best choice for Zodiac as a CRM solution, when we factored in costs," he adds.

Zodiac is also able to simply and rapidly capture customer data and maintain a CRM database with workflow automation taking the hassle out of communicating with customers.

Hughes says this allows the business to focus its marketing activities and promote its core business without wasting time on repetitive tasks.

“Maximizer has saved us time and enabled the business to achieve more than what it could before. We look forward to expanding our use of the product in the future," he concludes.

For more information on Maximizer CRM, please visit: www.jr-b.co.za/maximizercrm.aspx or contact us on the details below:

Tel: +27 11 319 7256 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +27 11 319 7256 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: +27 11 319 7260
Email: info@jr-b.co.za