Contender UK Ltd
Gets Business Sailing
with the help of SuperOffice CRM
and Synergy Technology
Introduction
Contender UK was founded in 1986 by Martin & Carol Shires to represent the world leading brand of Contender Sailcloth in the UK. In 1989 they were joined by their son Alastair, who now heads the company. Contender have grown to become a major leader in the supply of premium fabrics for sail making, cover making, structural and architectural applications, plus associated sail hardware and fittings. Originally started as a trade supplier, eventually Contender made the decision to extend their high-quality and efficient service to the public.
The Contender Sailcloth brand is a world leader in fabrics for the sail making industry and has become widely respected for quality and excellence. Keeping pace with ever advancing technology, in 2012 Contender unveiled their unique C360° precision cutting service. The combination of highly trained staff, in-house software solutions and innovative automated laser and blade cutting machine has allowed them to stride ahead with a complete plot and cut service for fabricators.
Alastair Shires Owner at Contender UK shares his experience of the implementation of SuperOffice CRM at Contender UK with professional technical support provided by Synergy Technology, and the positive results of adopting the CRM system for use by their growing team.
“One of the main challenges of growing was making valuable company and customer information available to everybody as we grew. This problem compounded, becoming more and more difficult as the team grew,” said Alastair. “IT literacy was also a big issue for us, because we did not have any IT, so it was a massive step forward to put it in.”
After looking at a few different systems, Contender made the decision to go with SuperOffice CRM, implemented by Synergy Technology. “Synergy Technology had been instrumental in implementing our IT systems and ensuring that we maximise the effectiveness of SuperOffice within our business. The Synergy Technology team really has made SuperOffice a success for us as a product. They have supported Contender UK above and beyond what is expected at times and provide excellent ongoing technical support and guidance, continually encouraging us as partners to get the most out of the CRM system.”
Simplicity
One of the things that the Contender team like most about SuperOffice CRM, is its simplicity and ease of use. “SuperOffice is great for the staff because it requires comparatively little training and is completely intuitive. It is simple to use, and the team rally feel they get a benefit from it when they are using it, so this ensures that they do use it.”
The Contender team use SuperOffice to manage contact with their customers and prospects, but also as a resource management tool. “Primarily it’s a contact database, but also gives us a full history of specific activities, so quotes and outstanding queries with a customer – we can quickly look that up and reference it. We also use it to run all the scheduling and resource management for our C360 cutting service.”
Contender also use the built-in marketing module in SuperOffice. “We also do promotional emails promoting new products and shows that we are attending using the data in SuperOffice,” said Alastair. Being a part of SuperOffice, this means that Contender can market to the customers and prospects in their database, and the software automatically records responses such as clicks and opens, as activities in SuperOffice.
But overall, it’s the ease of use, that really sells the solution for Alastair “I think my favourite feature is the sheer simplicity of SuperOffice, that is the killer feature for me.”
“At the end of the day we are operating in a market that is very personal, our customers are almost bespoke tailors making sails, covers and fabricating architectural shapes to fit. For them and us it is about understanding personal needs and providing a personal and tailored solution. As we’ve recruited and got more people involved over the years, they have all remarked how easy to use and valuable SuperOffice is.”
Contender UK have used SuperOffice for 20 years now, supported by Synergy Technology every step of the way. Alastair says he’d happily recommend the solution: “I’d recommend everyone to have a look at SuperOffice and I can wholeheartedly that say it’s the only piece software that we have ever bought that does exactly what it says on the tin.”
Want More Information on SuperOffice CRM?
The Synergy Technology team is proud to be an official partner of SuperOffice CRM and to offer integration with a number of other platforms. Find out more by visiting our add-ons and integrations page, call us today on 0345 456 0050 or visit our contact page to send us an email.
