TeleCloud uses Zoho's workflow automation to increase revenue by 30% without an increase in overhead

About TeleCloud

TeleCloud is a hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider leveraging the most advanced and customizable PBX platform for small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses. They also offer a range of solutions, including internet services, managed services, IT support, cloud backup solutions, disaster recovery, ransomware protection, and more. Their high-tech solutions are responsive, robust, and scalable. Their customized plans come with the best features and are integrated to suit their business needs.

Challenges

TeleCloud has been in business for over a decade. Josiah Salser, Director of Operations at the company, remembers the days when their tech stack consisted only of Google spreadsheets, Google Drive, and email. Since they were all working remotely at the time, what they needed was a cloud environment where they could access all of their information remotely.

With their order volume growing, they realized that managing it using a spreadsheet with hundreds of lines was a recipe for disaster—in part because it was exhausting and time-consuming to find specific records.

The team members at TeleCloud would each add their comments next to the order column, resulting in a chaotic system of management that was preventing them from fulfilling more orders and providing a high-quality customer experience. They recognized a significant need for a better CRM system.

Solutions

After considering multiple CRM options for small businesses—like Hubspot and Bitrix24—they decided Zoho CRM suited them best.The former was difficult to calibrate and manage. And the latter lacked in user-friendly UI and seemed more complex.

Need for Change

To build the momentum required to grow their business, they needed a system to help them organize their data. Managing customer information in a spreadsheet made it almost impossible to figure out which stage a customer was currently at.

“When 300 customers are all in different stages and our staff add comments on cells highlighting their status it very easily boils down to chaos," Salser says. "It becomes hard to wield the information when the details don’t add up.”

Providing structure and driving revenue

TeleCloud wanted a solution that could give clear structure to the lifetime of a project, and also enable easy access for different team members who could work on a deal at one stage until it proceeded to the next. They also wanted the system to help them manage renewals and monetize them at the right time. These were some of the problems that they chose Zoho CRM to solve.

Transforming the business with Zoho CRM

Finally equipped with the software TeleCloud needed, Salser embarked on a journey to revamp the team's old habits and current practices. It took some time to get used to a new management system. They instantly saw how much better-organized it was now. Each department works through a separate module instead of stepping on each other's toes, but because the company's data is centralized, they all use the same set of facts. Shifting away from a very cumbersome process to an incredibly easy one delighted the staff.

“The new workflow has greatly increased our ability to process more customer interactions without having to hire more people,” Salser says, noting also that one of the biggest advantages of having a CRM is that it cuts overhead expenses considerably. With more people, more management is required—and with that comes greater expenses. “Now we're keeping the number of people low but training them to be excellent at their job," Salser says. "Plus, the automations will take care of all the redundant behavior—so this approach increases our revenue without increasing the overhead.”

The Cohesiveness of the Zoho One environment

TeleCloud's Zoho partner Signity Solutions helped them make multiple customizations and automate repetitive processes. For example, TeleCloud created a quoting tool using Zoho Creator. Now every time an order is submitted, a deal is automatically created for that account in the CRM and it then goes through its various stages.

According to Salser, right after TeleCloud implemented Zoho CRM, they received a huge influx of orders. At that moment, they realized there was no way they could have handled them without the CRM.

With the click of a button, one team member can move an order to the next stage, transitioning it smoothly to another team member. Using automations, TeleCloud is also able to remind people by email or a Zoho Cliq message each time that transition occurs.

Zoho Sign has also made a mark at TeleCloud; now that they've turned away from paper documents and instead collect e-signatures, their customers find it easy to manage documentation—thereby improving their overall experience.

TeleCloud also uses Zoho Books, Zoho Inventory, Zoho Workdrive, Zoho Cliq, and Zoho Marketing Hub. They're continuously adding more tools to their stack to improve their business. According to Salser, the benefit of these tools is exponentially larger than the initial costs, and even though they're independent tools, they add to the overall value. For example, the team previously used WhatsApp for staff communication and felt that it was sufficient, but only when they moved to Cliq did they realize how important it was to have a tool that integrates with the Zoho ecosystem—further increasing their possibilities.

These integrations are vital to TeleCloud, because with Zoho, the only limit now is their imagination. They're able to envision solutions, and Zoho tools give them the means to realize them. Any kind of automation they need for their order flows or customer interactions can be achieved through Zoho.