Bootstrapping a Vertical CRM Product using Services: Cleverping CEO Haysam Ali (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Was there any technology element to what you were providing?

Haysam Ali: Not at first. While providing consulting services, we were able to build a CRM that provides intelligence into the data that we collect for them. That was then used to get other clients. Telefonica was the main case that opened the door to Frontier. We became one of the biggest players of Frontier in the US. We won a prize on the number of quality customers. That prize led us to other customers.

Sramana Mitra: What was special about what you did at Frontier?

Haysam Ali: I think I like to innovate. I did research and understood how the other competitors were positioning themselves. I saw that there was a lack of quality in the volume that they were bringing. This was a pay-per-performance. They were always concerned about targeting the right customer but not worrying about the customer staying for the long term.

I can still drive the same amount of customers, but I need to help them by doing some sort of customer service after-sales. That’s when I built a CRM to be able to micro-manage every single order that we placed for Frontier and making sure that our customers were completely satisfied.

Let’s just put it this way. Let’s say I sold 100 units. Not every household is going to get installed because in this industry, there are issues with the activation rates. A technician might go to your home and find that your house is not serviceable, or you were sold that it was going to be X and found that there was going to be Y.

All the players had an activation rate of 60%. We were able to improve the activation rate of Frontier from 60% to 80%. Other brands started to notice us and came after us. Our difference versus other players is quality over volume. We drive the most important thing which is revenue. If we sell a service and can’t install, there’s no revenue.

Sramana Mitra: In the case of Frontier, you built a CRM? Double-click on that for me. Did you not use an off-the-shelf CRM? There are so many CRM vendors. If not, why? What did you have to build that was different?

Haysam Ali: At first, we were using the portal that Frontier gave us access to. I’ve tried to work with Salesforce and other brands, but then I’ve decided that there might be another opportunity. Salesforce wouldn’t be tailor-made to our needs.

We needed a CRM that was going to be user-friendly. I wanted to build a CRM that any person could guide themselves without having a lot of training. When you first login to Facebook, you didn’t know how to manage the tool. But then, you’re able to learn by yourself. We were able to build something really simple with the goal of licensing this CRM to small players. They can’t afford Salesforce. It’s extremely expensive.

Sramana Mitra: Salesforce is not that expensive.

Haysam Ali: Well, not if in a tailor-made situation where you have to do integrations. It’s not only the frontend of the platform but also the backend. I need to do direct integrations with every brand to make sure that my system can provide the user the serviceability and then placing the orders through our CRM.

Salesforce charges them a huge amount for that. We decided to do a software-oriented business. That’s why I wanted to do the CRM ourselves thinking that we would have the same integrations with the new brands and then being able to provide this tool at a cheaper cost to small vendors.

Sramana Mitra: Is it a vertical CRM?

Haysam Ali: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: What is the TAM for a vertical CRM for telecommunications? Are there a lot of small telecom players that are in your target audience?

Haysam Ali: When we’re talking about players, I’m not talking about the brand itself. I’m talking about the competitor agencies that provide the same type of services that we provide. There are five to ten big players that do exactly what we do. One of them is called Red Ventures.

Then there are a lot of small shops. Imagine retail services. They can’t afford to have access to better tools other than the ones that Frontier or the brands provide. Imagine a mom-and-pop store selling five units each. Every time they sell something, they have to access a different portal that the provider provides. It’s very confusing.

We are integrating our CRM with every single brand so we can offer this to mom-and-pops for a small amount of license fee. Every integration that we do, it takes about six to eight months. We have 40 providers that we want to bring on board. You need to have resources to be able to do all of them at the same time or some of them at the same time.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Bootstrapping a Vertical CRM Product using Services: Cleverping CEO Haysam Ali
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