Enable Makes a Fully Customisable and Secure CRM Solution for Zog Energy
Zog Energy is a domestic energy supplier started by two Queen’s Award winning entrepreneurs. The sole purpose of Zog Energy is to provide its customer with the best possible value energy.
Choosing SugarCRM through Enable Technologies
“We did a review of the market and Sugar came up as highly regarded. I really liked the extensibility and configurability of Sugar so that’s what sealed it for us” – Tony Chester, Director.
Zog Energy knew that there were industry specific Energy focused CRM systems, but they came with a hefty price tag. “Sugar was a much more cost-effective solution for us, and we felt confident that we could do a lot of the configuration ourselves, that’s why we plumped for it.”
The Buying Process
Zog Energy found it helpful that we offered them the community version first so that they could evaluate the system before they went through the buying process. “We saw the advantages in having Enable host the solution for us. Once we had completed our investigations on the community edition, for our live instance we chose Professional hosted by Enable.”
Easy Customisation and User Friendly
“We take on a lot of customer service people who have never used a CRM before, but there’s plenty of strong resources to help them.” Zog utilised the Sugar University, alongside Online Training from Enable, as well as leveraging the internal knowledge base.
Drupal Integration and API
Zog Energy’s CRM system is integrated with Drupal, and they use the Sugar API.
“There is a really powerful bi-directional REST API that allows us to insert, update and create records on all of the modules inside Sugar. Our internal systems drive everything through the API so the customer journey is fully automated. When a customer signs up with us on our website, you put in your email address and your expected consumption and you get a price. We capture all of this information and then use the API to create various records about the customer inside of Sugar.”
“Every month we run our customer statement process and over a 24-hour period I believe we do something close to 80-100,000 API calls.” So, it is no doubt that Zog Energy takes full advantage of the limitless API calls.
This extends to managing processes with SugarBPM, such as customers switching energy suppliers when they come on board. This saves Zog Energy hours on every new customer, whilst also providing peace of mind to the customer that their switch is effectively managed and seamlessly taken care of. The API updates a national system that controls all of the energy meters then communicates with all related suppliers to inform them of changes.
Favourite Sugar Features
• They use tasks within Sugar regularly, these are triggered by other internal systems, using the API to manage tasks within teams such as account management calls.
• Using the round-robin assignment for support cases allows for even distribution of workload amongst their support team.
• Configuration: A lot of the information is energy related, for example, market sector code, and the difference between domestic, industrial and commercial customer, Gas AQ which stores the annual gas consumption.
• Address Management: The ability to have multiple addresses linked to an account makes managing contracts easier when there is a different Billing and Supply Address.
• The ability to build custom relationships to achieve multiple contacts against one account enables them to manage joint account holders as well as those who have authority on accounts.
• Customer Statements: These are automatically generated and sent out periodically, and capture the opening balance, the closing balance, energy usage, VAT, standing charges and usage charges.
• Zog Energy heavily uses SugarBPM, an example would be when a customer moves out of a property and a new person moves in, the new occupant may not be known. Our process contacts Building Management companies, Landlords and Estate Agents for us. “To be honest, it’s absolutely awesome!”
The Challenge
Zog Energy are a B2C business that needed a slick CRM solution. Not only did they need a CRM that was suitable for the energy industry but they also needed the supporting services.
The Solution
Zog Energy use Sugar Enterprise as a fully customisable CRM solution that enables them to support their customers with ease through multiple Sugar Business Processes.
The Results
Zog Energy are now billing and supporting over 10,000 customers with a total of 6 users actively updating Sugar.
To find out more about Zog Energy, visit www.zogenergy.com