Case Study: How Microsoft Dynamics CRM Turned Around a Medical Services Company

An ROI of 97 percent and a payback of 2.18 years speak volumes to any business implementation.

For PAML, this was the reality after employing Microsoft Dynamics CRM. For years, the Spokane, Wash.-based medical service laboratory logged customer interactions on paper records, causing regular inconsistencies and large-scale client headaches.

"We didn't have an enterprise-wide view with what was going on with our customers," said Rosalee Allan, FACHE, senior vice president and COO of PAML, during the CRM User Group Summit on Thursday. "We lost a million dollar client and couldn't see [the root of the problem]. That was our signal that we needed to do something different."

PAML found Microsoft Dynamics CRM in 2003 and began the implementation process. Within six months the company saw results.

"We began logging client service calls," Allan said, adding that her company reports between 1,500 and 2,000 client calls per day. "As we went on with the solution, we started looking for every touch point we had with our client. We figured out a way to categorize them and get them logged. [We use CRM] not only to log events but we also use it for our work flow. All of that is built in."

The implementation paid off.

"We have been able to handle a 15 percent increase in calls without adding staff," she said. "It has also improved customer retention issues. We haven't lost an account from a service-related issue for several years."

Additional ROI included the elimination of paper.

"Because the paper was gone, we measured how much paper is. We calculated the cost at $50,000 per year," Allan said, adding that employee satisfaction has also increased as a result of CRM.