DSM Customer Portal Crystal Drew Customer Care Coordinator ANH North America
ANH US: Doing What It Takes to Encourage Portal Adoption The work of DSM Animal Nutrition and Health is to help meet the company’s goal of feeding, sustainably and responsibly, the 9.7 billion people who will share our planet by 2050. ANH Spain supports the development of a more sustainable global animal production industry. To provide optimal client support, DSM introduced a revised customer portal. Crystal Drew, a Customer Care Coordinator for ANH in North America, shared her thoughts about ways to boost customer onboarding and enhance the user experience.
When the customer submitted a purchase order, the team conducted a live demo. “The key element,” Crystal explains, “is using the actual purchase order during the demo to show customers how easy it is to submit the information on their own.” And when a customer wishes to add other users to the portal, Crystal conducts a second demo to ensure that the new user is comfortable with what the portal can offer.
The Two-Phase Process
After the initial onboarding, newly registered Portal customers are not abandoned. Crystal created a welcome package to compensate for the discontinued user flow functionality. The package includes screenshots of every portal page, the benefits of using the portal, and what information is accessible. In fact, appropriate accessibility is possible not only for the purchaser but also for the customer’s accounts receivable and payable departments.
When the portal was first deployed, an excel spreadsheet was created that captured every piece of pertinent information about our customer base. The team was tasked with an aggressive weekly target of registering 5-10 clients onto the portal every week - a manageable number resulting in the successful registration of 1-2 accounts per team member, leaving sufficient time for the day-to-day requirements of their role. When these efforts were exhausted, the team progressed to phase 2, which recruited the account managers as partners in the onboarding campaign. Customer Care, with Crystal’s support, facilitated, then delivered live demonstrations of the Portal to the business, where customized demonstrations for account manager / customer representatives soon followed. These hands-on sessions proved invaluable for our onboarding efforts as they shared with the audience how visually appealing and easy the Portal is to navigate - making it a very positive ordering experience for our business partners. “Every region has reluctant customers,” Crystal says. “So, we made an extra effort to convince them to try the portal.” This approach included live demonstrations, navigation of the quick reference card, and the assignment of a portal champion.
But It Doesn’t Stop There
When business prospects become vetted customers, ANH NA Customer Care immediately onboards the appropriate individuals with the expectation that they would use the portal. Not long after registration, all new customers receive a follow-up email with step-by-step instructions on how to activate their account, along with a copy of the welcome package for further referral. “The email provides a personal touch that’s missing when clients go directly to the portal.” Crystal describes the underlying rationale, adding “We don’t want customers to wonder if we’re still even there or whether we’re still connected to them.” The team also maintains contact with customers by sending notifications of any improvements to the portal, providing another good reason to use the portal.
Want to know more about the DSM Customer Portal? Contact your regional colleagues to learn more: https://dsm1234.sharepoint.com/sites/org-dnp/English/anh/ANH-Sales-Hub