UK-based pioneers in shrink wrapping solutions, Yorkshire Packaging Systems, runs on Zoho CRM

Yorkshire Packaging Systems has been in the business of shrink wrapping packaging solutions for over 40 years, and their expertise across sectors has won them numerous awards. Blue-chip companies, as well as young and savvy startups, are part of their rich network of customers. YPS keeps with the latest in shrink wrapping technology and prides itself on going the extra mile to find a tailored fit for customers, whether that's sophisticated wrapping machinery or for the shrink film itself.

The company began their CRM journey with Act! in 2009, and found it was a poor fit for a team that is often on the move. Olivia Routledge, their VP of marketing, worked with Act! initially and found herself feeding the system with sales and customer data on behalf of their sales team. The team had no easy way of doing so themselves while traveling between demos and client visits across the country, so that onus fell on her. That's when Olivia began her search for a CRM solution that matched their working style, and their digital marketing agency recommended Zoho CRM. She signed up for the free trial, quickly got up to speed with how everything worked, and in just a few weeks, YPS was up and running on Zoho. "With some help from the support team, I learned how to use it and taught the sales and engineering staff. We migrated around 7,000 records from Act!, which took a while to clean up, but it was worth it. Zoho CRM came with the functionality to avoid the data errors we encountered with Act!" Olivia said. Now YPS manages their sales, engineering, and marketing teams all in Zoho CRM, using the following features on an everyday basis.

Webforms to capture online leads

One of the first things YPS set up was webforms to record all inquiries coming in through their website. Previously these inquiries were saved in spreadsheets and notes, leads often going cold. With webforms, all inquiry information is directly captured in the leads module of Zoho CRM. YPS has two kinds of forms on their website, one for gated content, gathering information in exchange for downloading material from their site, and the other for direct sales inquiries. "After setting up webforms, our follow-ups were more regular and we immediately got two promising leads from setting it up," Olivia said.

Deals module to track and monitor sales of shrink wrap machinery and film

YPS primarily sells two broad categories of products: shrink wrap machinery and shrink film. The sales team is also divided along these lines. Olivia qualifies leads before assigning them to their respective teams. The sales teams then updates details on their calls, meetings, and overall deal progress. The kanban view of deals has saved the team time in preparing reports and is now central to all sales meetings. "The kanban view allows the managers to see how much revenue is in different stages of the sales pipeline. This directly allows for faster decision-making," Olivia said.

Templates and product packets to save time

YPS sells different kinds of shrink wrap film in addition to machinery, and both products have several models and sizes. Olivia has information packets and emails for each kind of sales inquiry. Templates in Zoho CRM have made the information easy to find and store in one place in the form of ready-to-send emails and the information packs are saved as folders in Zoho Docs.

Advanced filters to find customer and product information

YPS' head engineer is an admin in their CRM account. One of his chief duties is to assign engineers to customer locations for demos, training, installations, testing, and repairs. Every time he gets a call from a customer, he uses advanced filters to quickly look up their information in CRM, including everything from the type of machine they own to the purchase date, warranty information, and more. He then uses this information to decide who to send on the job. They've also increased travel efficiency because their engineers use advanced filters in CRM to find other customers in their area who are due for a visit.

Customer surveys to assess quality of service

Their CRM account is also integrated with Zoho's Survey, which allows them to send surveys directly from CRM and automatically record and associate their responses. Olivia uses surveys to gauge vendor and client interest in their biannual events, as well as assess the service quality provided by the engineers during each customer visit. This is a crucial piece of feedback used in performance reviews.

Google Ads integration for tracking ROI

YPS' marketing agency uses the Google Ads integration to form a direct link between ad spend and leads generated. "You get to see what keywords used in our ads brought us the best leads. This is valuable insight in determining the course of our ad spend. The agency also receives conversion metrics on the ads, despite not being part of the CRM account. This feature saves me time in preparing my own reports," Olivia said.