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LifeWay Christian Resources, headquartered in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the largest leading resource suppliers for Christian churches and bookstores in the United States. The corporation operates 110 LifeWay Christian Stores in 21 states nationwide. It is a combination of a Christian bookstore, publishing house, ministry, agency and supplier of church architectural services. Established in 1891, LifeWay is known for its community of people - and not just the 2,600-plus employees nationwide, but also its vast customer base - and the organization's continued success.
The Challenge
As one of the largest resource suppliers for Christian churches and bookstores in the United States, LifeWay Christian Resources needed a comprehensive corporate solution to facilitate effective internal communication and to better serve its vast and growing customer base. It needed a solution that was advanced and powerful, yet user-friendly and cost effective that would track customer interactions, analyze sales, track orders, store competitive data and deliver geo-demographic customer information. It needed to establish a customer-centric strategy built upon CRM's (Customer Relationship Management) premises for its call centers. "We needed a solution that could easily integrate with our custom solution," says Dodd Chassereau, one of LifeWay's Information Technology Department Managers. "At different times we had ACT!, MarketForce and TeleMagic, but none of these software packages had the open architecture and flexibility we needed."
"ACT! was just not powerful enough. We also tested other applications such as GoldMine, Siebel, and SalesLogix; they were just too expensive and not worth the value," says Chassereau. "So we turned to Maximizer Enterprise. It had everything we needed - the right functionality, ability to customize, and short deployment time - and it costs much less than other software solutions!"
The Solution
Where before there was a disconnect, now with Maximizer Enterprise there is streamlined corporate communication, integrated custom solution with their accounting and financial system, as well as improved and more personalized customer relations - all of which have resulted in enhanced customer loyalty and improved corporate success. "Since deploying Maximizer Enterprise for our order desks and sales centers, customer relationships and corporate communications have improved significantly. Our customers enjoy a more personal service and we gain their loyalty. This translates to long-term success," says Chassereau. As well, organizational workflows and communication, staff efficiency and coordination have also improved considerably. "Reporting is streamlined and organized - no more messy hand-written phone logs."
Tom Walters, Sales Manager of Broadman and Holman Publishers, the publishing division of LifeWay says, "Maximizer has become an important tool for improving the performance of our sales force."
LifeWay's Maximizer Enterprise is also integrated with the corporate intranet as well as their accounting and financial system to import data on a daily basis, all of which help centralize data and streamline information sharing for the sales staff. "Maximizer Enterprise is so user-friendly that we were able to integrate and implement customization on our own", says Chassereau. "We could customize the software the way we want to use it so that it fits perfectly with our company's goals and strategy. In fact, we plan to add more customization as we grow."
With Maximizer Enterprise, LifeWay has simplified its CRM processes and maintained customer information in a single, centralized database that all employees share. Everyone stays up to date and the organization stays connected and moves forward together.
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