BluWave Software deputy CEO Dylan Cooke-Tonnesen
The advent of mobile computing means that mobile sales teams can now use their mobile devices to improve their sales processes, especially considering that sales teams manage huge volumes of data and can do this much better with mobile devices and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which South Africa-based software developer BluWave Software says is “pivotal” to sales success.
With this in mind, BluWave has developed a simple, yet effective, solution for improving sales for new and existing customers.
BluWave Software is a South Africa-based CRM, service and business intelligence software developer, selling the product both nationally and internationally.
The “BluWave Service” allows users to strengthen bonds with existing customers to ensure continuous company growth through a powerfully efficient software – improving customer satisfaction and retention.
“It costs businesses six times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, which is why it’s important to give your current customer the best experience possible,” according to deputy CEO Dylan Cooke-Tonnesen.
“Customer success management requires teams to ensure customers have an excellent experience with your products or services, and that they achieve their desired outcomes from the products or services, which requires regular interaction with the sales team,” he notes.
He adds that by using BluWave’s service applications, customers are more likely to remain happy and loyal, ultimately granting a company the opportunity to retain customers longer than before, “which results in a cost of sales reduction of 25% and a boost in sales of 30% or more”.
Initially launched in 1989, BluWave CRM started off as a disk operating system, or DOS, product and by 2010, the cloud-based CRM solution was launched along with its companion product, BluWave Service.
BluWave Software helps companies to, effectively, win, grow and keep customers.
“This ensures an efficient business with positive results such as a boost in sales, improved customer retention and overall, a much better customer experience,” explains Cooke-Tonnesen.
Borne from CEO Byron Cooke-Tonnesen and Tania Cooke-Tonnesen’s partnership, BluWave is considered a tool to help manage prospects, while ensuring that after-sales support and product delivery remain top priorities – much like the sales process itself.
“If you make it easy for customers to do business with you, they are less likely to move to another supplier,” Cooke-Tonnesen tells Engineering News.
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In addition to simplifying management processes, BluWave Services allows customers to use electronic job cards from a smartphone.
“A paperless service environment is a huge plus, with job cards coming back timeously and accurately, with data loaded automatically from the field,” Cooke-Tonnesen notes, adding that there are over 1 000 active customers (with any number of users at each customer) of the company’s cloud-based solution.
What makes this significant, he enthuses, is that BluWave is considered a “small” local software developer competing against numerous large international software products.
“In fact, many of our users have moved from the international products to ours as we are more suited towards their needs, and all of our support is done in local times. Our pricing is also in rands, so there is no need to worry about a fluctuating exchange rate,” he comments.
Unlike other CRM developers, Cooke-Tonnesen explains that the company assists customers in implementing their system properly using a thorough implementation process and approach to go live.
“We like to ensure the success of our system, and don’t just dump it with the customer in the hopes that it will go well,” he says.
When purchasing a BluWave licence, the licence gives the user access to all three of the company’s products, namely BluWave CRM, BluWave Service and BluWave BI – the company’s data analytics tool.
BluWave BI is a free add-on for BluWave CRM and BluWave Service, and comes with many free pre-built dashboards that managers can use to make smarter decisions.
“We can also create custom-built dashboards to suit any sales or service reporting needs. Reports can be seen online or sent via email on a regular basis,” Cooke-Tonnesen says.
Data visualization is a core function of BluWave CRM, and it has dashboards that are used by sales teams, managers and executives to keep track and manage their CRM data. The company also provides a rapid dashboard development service with an Excel-type tool to create custom visuals for its customers.
BluWave makes maximum use of the cloud platform by providing out-of-the-box integration with all other cloud software – email, calendar diary and even accounting.
In addition to this, the service assists with diary management through managing daily, weekly and monthly views of each salesperson’s diary.
The CRM package also integrates with Outlook and most other Web-based email and calendaring software, such as Gmail.
This means that a user will get holistic customer relationship management, no complicated programme merging takes place, and “no time is wasted” when it comes to activity management.
Effectively, the entire CRM package means that a user can manage their activities on a mobile device or desktop.
BluWave’s cloud-based solutions can be used in almost any industry, with the exception of fast-moving consumer goods and retail. BluWave can be used wherever a customer has a physical sales team of internal or external salespeople – across all industries, for example, industries like capital sales, consumable sales or service companies.
The company puts its money where its mouth is, and Cooke-Tonnesen believes it “would be lost without” its own product.
“Every employee of ours uses BluWave for their different functions, from marketing to sales, implementation, training, finance and support. BluWave supports our needs fully,” he explains, noting that the company “wouldn’t be as passionate” about its product had it not been using it for its own success.