Realief Case Study

PowerObjects Helps Realief™ Neuropathy Centers Reach New Markets and Expand Operations with Microsoft Dynamics CRM in the Cloud

In the U.S. there are up to 50 million people that suffer with symptoms of pain and numbness from peripheral neuropathy and there is no known cure. The team at Realief Neuropathy Centers (Realief) developed a patented treatment protocol using phototherapy to help provide relief of the serious and sometimes debilitating symptoms of the disease.  Headquartered in Minneapolis, this innovative company was looking to grow and expand its operations nationwide. With several new offices planned to open nationwide, their goal was to help reach, educate and treat this growing population with its patented therapeutic laser treatment program.

Situation

As a growing startup company, Realief was looking for a CRM solution that would help them quickly scale their business. They needed a solution that would provide the ability to:

• Consolidate and track contact information in one CRM system
• Generate new franchise opportunities throughout the U.S.
• Track and manage the overall franchise recruitment process to comply with legal requirements
• Manage the overall marketing process with both franchisees and patients
• Market to, educate and nurture potential patients effectively and efficiently
• Access the solution remotely from anywhere, anytime due to a decentralized  staff

“We are a growing company and needed a CRM solution that would respond to our current needs as well as adapt as our changing business environment. We looked at other online CRM solutions including Salesforce.com and decided Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the best fit due to its flexibility, and strong customization and integration capabilities,” said Phil Walter, CEO of Realief Neuropathy Centers.

Solution

Under a tight deadline, the team at PowerObjects stepped in and was able to get Realief up and running quickly on Microsoft Dynamics CRM online through their PowerSuccess service-as-a-subscription program.  The program allowed Realief to work with a team of PowerObjects CRM experts to define their requirements, migrate their existing data, configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM online quickly and get the ongoing support they needed. “What I like about the program is that we have a team of CRM experts who we can count on to guide us every step of the way. PowerObjects took the time to really understand our business requirements and configure a solution that fits our needs. We couldn’t have done it without them,” he added. “As a growing company, we love the flexibility of the CRM platform and the ability to tailor the solution as our needs change. CRM and PowerObjects has been a big win for our organization and have allowed us to grow and scale our business very quickly. We couldn’t run without it.”

Key Benefits

As the company began expanding its business across the country, they were looking for CRM to help develop and manage the sales and marketing of both the recruitment of new clinic franchisee opportunities as well as prospective patients. In order to help reach the goal of bringing 10-15 new franchisees on board, Realief needed an automated process to handle the marketing and lead generation efforts. “In order to successfully market and acquire new franchises, we needed a way to track and manage our continuous multi-touch marketing efforts and connect that to our call center for follow-up,” said Robert Weigel, Realief’s Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Now with the workflow in CRM in place, Relief can control the entire sales and marketing process from start to finish. “We can send a series of marketing touches and have any responses or leads from the campaigns go directly to our call center in real-time. Based on the type of responses, the call center can automatically follow-up using a set of dialogs or scripts we have generated ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks,” he added.

In addition to using CRM to help in the recruitment of new franchise opportunities, Realief also needed a way to manage the complexities of the franchise process itself. There are many elements to franchising a business and PowerObjects also helped in customizing CRM to manage the prospective franchise recruitment process. “There are many steps and deadlines that need to be followed when signing on a new franchise and PowerObjects worked with us to help define our processes and workflows to  meet the legal requirements for our franchise agreements,” said Walter. 

In order to help reach a large potential patient population of up to 50 million who suffer from neuropathy, Realief utilized the marketing component of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to help launch a national multi-touch nurture marketing campaign. “Part of our marketing process is to educate the target market about our services and how we can help. We utilized the PowerMailChimp add-on email marketing engine which is integrated into CRM to create email templates, develop our marketing lists, send multiple emails and track our results right in Dynamics CRM,” said Weigel. Based on the response, Realief is able to specifically target each lead based on their response and tailor the follow-up communication whether by phone, email or direct mail. “CRM has allowed us be so much smarter about our sales and marketing which is invaluable. It allows us to gather the intelligence we need about each lead, track each response and generate the reports needed to see what’s happening in multiple locations and markets,” he added.

Both Walter and Weigel agree that the company has realized tremendous benefits thanks to PowerObjects’ guidance and expertise with CRM. “The PowerObjects team is amazing. Throughout the entire process, they’ve understood our business requirements and have delivered every step of the way. They have the uncanny ability to know what needs to be done and the expertise to make it happen. Working with PowerObjects has been a huge asset to our organization and we couldn’t have done it without them,” Weigel added.  

About PowerObjects

Established in 1993, PowerObjects is one of a handful of organizations recognized as a leader in delivering Microsoft Dynamics CRM/xRM solutions to customers. As a Microsoft Partner Gold Certified in the CRM competency, 2011 Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle recipient, and Microsoft President’s Club member (2009-2011), PowerObjects has an impressive and rapidly growing list of customers benefiting from Microsoft CRM/xRM. PowerObjects fully embraces the power of customer choice and offers hosted, on-premise and online CRM deployment options. Headquartered in Minneapolis with offices in Dallas and St. Louis, PowerObjects provides CRM solutions to businesses and non-profit organizations in multiple industries including healthcare, life sciences, insurance, financial services, publishing, distribution, manufacturing and professional services. For more information, visit www.powerobjects.com or call 612-339-3355.