Maneki Signage uses Zoho CRM to achieve a 360° customer view

The company

Founded as a family business in the 1970s, Maneki Signage has spent the last four decades crafting some of the most cutting-edge display signage in Singapore. As a local signage business that's intimately familiar with the needs of the local market, Maneki Signage can spot trends in both signage design and the signage market at large.

In 2014, Maneki Signage became the first Singapore signage company to offer a complete online ordering process, thereby catering to an increasingly modern and internet-savvy market that wants a faster and more convenient approach to the traditional consultation process of ordering signage. With its roots firmly planted—and using the advantages of modern design and manufacturing technologies—Maneki Signage is capable of delivering that traditional touch with modern convenience.

One can spot their work in Singapore at Capella, ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, Bedok Industrial Park E (whole estate), the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, and the Tanglin Club. The company's international presence is also visible at Invictus (Cambodia), Party Point (Indonesia), the Lighthouse (Maldives), and Road signage (Seychelles).

The challenge

Maneki Signage is a second-generation company that has long relied on traditional ways of doing business. After the business was handed over to Shu Ling, the current owner, and daughter of the founder, Ho Chin Huat, the team decided to focus on making the process of designing, ordering, and installing signage simple, modern, and online—in order to help customers save time, money, and effort.

To achieve its goal of digitalization, the team adopted several business applications, such as QuickBooks, RightSignature, Zoom, Google Sheets, OpenDrive, and more. As a traditional business not run by technocrats, Maneki Signage was finding it extremely difficult to manage multiple applications and their integrations with each other and achieve an easy flow of data within the business.

The team realized they needed a comprehensive business suite, and to move away from recording customer requirements on spreadsheets and toward a more reliable application. The best option would be a suite of applications that could handle Maneki Signage's customer data and requests, as well as their finance and administrative activities. For this reason, the team decided to evaluate Zoho.

Why Zoho

Why Maneki Signage's management chose Zoho

• Comprehensive business suite - The team wanted a comprehensive and integrated business suite that could untangle the disjointed business process that resulted from using multiple disconnected software tools. With Zoho, Maneki Signage has better interoperability via tools that exist within the same ecosystem.
• Affordability - Given the wide range of comprehensive business solutions available in the market, the team was impressed by the price at which Zoho offers its suite of useful functionalities.
• Reliability - The team was looking for a reliable and reputable brand that has been in the market for a long time and has demonstrated its ability to deliver trustworthy solutions to businesses.
• Low downtime - Downtime can be a huge turn-off for fast-paced businesses. The team at Maneki Signage, therefore, required a business solution that could enable them to do what they love and not get bogged down trying to fix their applications every day or week.

Why Maneki Signage's employees love Zoho

• User-friendly - Most of the company's employees are new to technology, so it was paramount that they found an easy-to-use business solution. Today, every member of the team loves working on Zoho.
• Comprehensive business view - The employees feel empowered having a single source of truth for customer and business data. Eliminating the need for multiple login IDs and being able to switch between applications easily are some of the biggest advantages for Maneki Signage's employees.

The solution

Maneki Signage has a unique business process that involves receiving orders, qualifying them, validating their requirements, finalizing them, collecting payment, and then designing, producing, and installing their products—and, lastly, soliciting feedback. The entire process is managed and tracked within the Zoho ecosystem via different Zoho applications, all of which are integrated with Zoho CRM to produce a 360° view of customers and deals.

Smart lead capturing

Maneki Signage has four major sources of incoming leads: website inquiries, online orders, social media, and recurring customers. All these sources are linked with several Zoho applications to automate the lead-capturing process. Website inquiries are powered by Zoho Desk, which creates a ticket whenever a customer submits an inquiry and adds them as a contact in Zoho CRM. Once the inquiry is evaluated and the requirement is qualified, the lead moves to the next stage. Online ordering is directly integrated with the CRM, which pulls the prospect's requirements and details into the CRM for further qualification. Leads from social media enter the system through Zoho Social—also integrated with Zoho CRM—which helps Maneki Signage generate more leads from social media and close deals faster. Zoho CRM also makes handling recurring customers easier by helping maintain records of the past requirements, communications, and billing and delivery details, which means the team can avoid repeating the same tasks again and again.

Enhanced order qualification

After capturing leads, Maneki Signage assesses the orders they receive to confirm that they have enough information about their requirements. Once all of the necessary information is available, the prospect is added as a lead in Zoho CRM and an order is added to Zoho Projects. They record the payments they receive using Zoho Books, which is synced with their CRM as part of their 360° view of customers.

Digital design confirmation

Prior to using Zoho, Maneki Signage required physical signatures from customers in order to confirm designs and initiate production. Today, the entire process is digital: designs are confirmed and signatures are obtained using Zoho Sign, which links to Zoho CRM, where all customer data is centralized and maintained for any future audits. Some design confirmations can only be obtained after a physical visit to the customer's site to assess the signage installation site. Maneki Signage plans to adopt Zoho Bookings and integrate it with their CRM to automate slot bookings, and make the whole process easier and faster.

Better production tracking

The company tracks the entire production process using Zoho Projects, which is also synced with the CRM in order to maintain a record of each stage of production and any notes added during or after each stage is completed.

Delivery management

Signage delivery can be executed in one of three ways: self-collection, delivery, or delivery with installation. Maneki Signage plans to implement Zoho Bookings to book slots for installation as well. The team envisions this will eliminate unnecessary manual communications and facilitate faster delivery. After delivery, the order is set to closed in Zoho CRM, which marks completion of the customer's order.

Feedback collection

Maneki Signage believes its recurring customer base is its greatest achievement, and accordingly goes a step further to collect feedback from its customers after delivery and ensure they offer the best service possible each time. After every order is completed, the team uses Zoho Survey to collect the customer's feedback, which is reviewed and recorded within Zoho CRM.

Benefits and ROI

Maneki Signage is proud to have made the switch to Zoho. They affirm the fact that Zoho has increased the overall efficiency of their business processes by automating and simplifying certain activities and saving them $40,000 USD per year. Zoho has also empowered their employees to be more creative and productive and to offer the best possible service to their customers—while Zoho takes care of all the repetitive mundane tasks.