The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the necessity to shift to a digital-first world. This shift has been undeniable for everyone, requiring businesses to find new ways to manage and support their workforce through a successful reinvention. In the last 18 months, companies and entire industries have had to rethink their business models, how they engage with customers, manage supply chains, and leverage data in order to survive. This unprecedented world crisis certainly accelerated the impact the 4th Industrial Revolution had on the world as we knew it. Digital transformation at this scale has required workers all over the world to come along on the digital transformation journey.
If something has been proven over these last 18 months it is that companies that were able to adapt and go through a rapid and disruptive transformation obtained a competitive advantage that led to very positive results. On the other hand, companies that weren't able to connect their different data points were left behind.
One of those success stories is the Kiwi investment management firm Fisher Funds. The company now manages a portfolio of over $14 billion NZD and 270,000 customers and has experienced phenomenal continuous growth over the last 2 years despite the current crisis.
We spoke with Sabrina Beibei Qui, Data Analytics and Insights Manager at Fisher Funds, and she told us about her experience implementing Micado's NBA as an innovative smart data recommendation engine to empower her team.
What was your first step in the company's digital transformation?
When I first joined the company, I was shown a spreadsheet from our CRM, then somebody showed me something on SharePoint, and then I found something myself in our company's internal drive. I had multiple sources of data in front of me and I was like, that does not link together. So how could we do something about it? Then is when I found the Client360 Dashboard – the first client-focused dashboard Micado built for us in Einstein Analytics studio, and I started getting into Tableau CRM and the Salesforce ecosystem. Not only Micado personally helped me to get quick into the Fisher Funds business from a data point of view, but I feel like it's a journey that we all grow together.
Was there an established data-driven culture already in place?
I believe the company was really looking forward to using smart data for decision-making, I feel like there was not full trust in the data. Also, this data was not connected. The biggest challenge I found was that our team was using our CRM in a way that could be more efficient. Our service team was being reactive to customers' actions.
How has the relationship with Micado changed your job?
Before Micado I was working with Tableau and different BI tools and getting beautiful results and talking about the research insights and survey results, but I could never put the insights back to action and influence the operations or sales team tangibly. So, when I was able to obtain results that were meaningful, I couldn't stop talking about them.
I still remember one day our CEO walking into the office asking me to prepare data to be ready for release in 2 to 3 days but, because I had the new insights engine running, I knew where that data already was. So, I probably spent only one hour to find the data and then validate it. When I presented the insights on the same day, our CEO was totally amazed.
As the company grows its customer database, do you think the impact of the smart data recommendation engine will grow as well?
Yes, very much. I feel like we will not need to hire so many analysts now because you are doing very smart things here. Our team manages over 270,000 clients and is growing, and using this smart data engine we feel confident our team can provide exceptional customer support.
How do you find the whole process of working with Micado's Team?
It was very easy. Micado's team provided help and guidance from day one before we even got approval from our leadership team. It was definitely a challenging process implementing NBA through Covid-19, but our whole leadership team realised very quickly how important it was to connect with our clients in a very personalised way, and Micado helped us achieve that.
You have been really patient because we had so many questions at the beginning. I still remember the long spreadsheets that we used to collect all the feedback and you worked through the items one by one very quickly.
Do you find the app easy to use?
Definitely easy to use. Every team member from our side was involved in the design of the success tracking dashboards and alert page layouts from day one. Now our team can see everything they need on the same page.
What meant for the company to adopt a data-driven decision-making culture?
It was really important to have the support and understanding of the leadership team. We have a deeply embedded culture of service and client centricity, and it was important to base our decisions and customer support on meaningful data and insights.
I still remember one of my colleagues talking about the revolution that she experienced through the implementation of Micado's Next Best Action. Before we had a traditional working environment and now, you're just doing everything automatically and efficiently. Now you can just click your page and you answer a phone call and there is all the information you need.
After our conversation with Sabrina, Micado's CEO and founder Hans Arz complimented Sabrina and her team on the spectacular transformation and successful implementation of the tools provided.
“You have been able to make such a big change, even though the business has gone through such tremendous environmental change in itself. So, this really speaks about the work that you have done internally, getting your stakeholders on board with committing to such a big transformational change.
COVID has just made it very difficult in order to make decisions quickly, but rather than becoming a distraction, this has enhanced the great work that you've done internally to improve your internal operations”
Fisher Funds is a market leader in their industry and they have a focus on providing superb customer service. Adopting a data-driven culture not only translated into a more efficient internal operation, but it has also enhanced their capability to delight their clients and increase their engagement in a time in which it was more important than ever to connect in a personalised way.
Read the Fisher Funds case study
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