Multi-franchise learning and development company grows conversion rate 10% with Bigin

About 24 Frames Learning and Development

Our customer 24 Frames Learning and Development is a pioneer in franchise based learning industry. They're a training and development platform with multiple franchises under one roof. Since 2019, they've been helping students find suitable courses for alternative careers in graphics designing, aviation, CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing) and English learning. 24 Frames started with only one franchise, Arena Multimedia. From June 2019 to June 2020, four new franchises, including Aptech, were added and the business expanded. As the business grew, so did the complexities of their work.

Business Challenges:

Lead management challenges

Before Bigin, lead management was managed by getting the leads manually from the apps of online listing platforms, like Sulekha , Justdial and various in house lead generation tools. The customer lists their services on these listing sites, and interested students reach out to them. The sales team used to track the students' requests from the apps and add them to an Excel sheet to follow up later. The people handling the leads had to stay glued to the apps, so that they didn't miss out on any new leads. The whole process was manual, confusing and extremely time-consuming.

Since every lead was being tracked manually, it was hard to keep track of each stage. The follow-ups didn't always happen at the right time, leading to lower conversion rates.

As the business grew and other franchises were added, the lead collection process became more complicated. Now, they were tracking different requests of students from different lead streams (listing sites, websites etc.) for diverse courses. After they added four different franchises under 24 Frames and started another branch office in 2020, the number of people handling the leads also increased. That, in turn, continued to complicate the process. The customer realized that their earlier method of lead management was not efficient enough anymore.

Conversion challenges

"We couldn't get a proper update about how many leads were coming and how many were converting. We were getting a distorted image and the numbers were difficult to keep track of." — Hema Maheswar, Director, 24 Frames Learning and Development

The lack of transparency also meant that there was no way to track individual sales metrics.

Need for transparency

24 Frames started looking for a platform where they could easily consolidate, view, and track lead information in one place. They needed to be able to see what stage leads were in to strategize better.

"We were beginners and didn't want complex software. We also didn't want to spend a lot of money on license fee and all. We were looking for something that was economical, and at the same time, met our needs." — Aarathi Padma, Center Head Animation (Arena Animation), 24 Frames Learning and Development

Introduction to Bigin

"Zoho Bigin is fairly priced. It meets all our requirements." — Prabir Jordan, Center Head - Aviation (Aptech Aviation), 24 Frames Learning and Development

Aside from the price and features, another reason to choose Bigin over competitors was that 24 Frames had experience with Zoho products. They were already using our products, including Zoho People, Payroll, and Books, and were happy with them. They wanted to stay in the Zoho ecosystem and knew that Zoho Bigin would fit right in, not only with their requirements, but also with the other apps they use.

How did Bigin solve the existing challenges?

1. They've migrated from a completely manual lead tracking system to automated lead generation system with Bigin. With the help of a link created on Zapier, they automatically add leads from the listing sites to the lead module on Bigin. Now, instead of the sales people needing to check with the listing apps, they just log in to Bigin and start calling from the built-in calling app. According to the customer, this automation has saved them a lot of time and manual efforts. It's also ensured that they are reaching out to the leads at the right time. Also, they now gather the digital marketing leads directly from their portal and add to Bigin.

2. Bigin also lends greater visibility to the management into the day to day work. Now, they track the number of calls made per person, the duration of the calls, see how many leads each person is pursuing, and distribute work accordingly.

3. Since using Bigin, our customer has been able to track all the leads from different sources in one platform and have a unified view of leads and progress. This has enabled them to create multiple tracks and assignments for the counselors and tele callers, and to track them as well.

4. According to the customer, one of the advantages of using Bigin is how transparent the lead cycle has become. Now they have visibility of all the stages that leads go through. This lets the customer chase the right leads, at the right time, depending on which stage the lead is in, and increase conversion rates. Having additional transparency around lead stages also lets the customer create clearer sales forecasts.

5. With Bigin, it is possible for the customer to plan in advance and assign leads, in the event someone is going to be off duty. Having visibility of all the leads each person is handling gives them clarity about their resources. They can make more informed decisions about workloads and hiring. This leads to overall improved resource management for the customer.

6. Using workflows, the customer set up a process to automatically send an email to their prospects whenever their contact information is added to Bigin. If they aren't able to contact a customer, the workflow triggers another mail. With timely communication, the chance of closing a deal increases. With email integration and templates available, sales people can reach out to the customers directly from Bigin with a single click, instead of going to another application.

Overall impression about Bigin

According to Hema Maheswar, the transition to Bigin was smooth. "I got one session from Zoho and that was enough for me. I trained my team after that. The other users also learnt it quite easily."

Why would he recommend Zoho to his peers?

Hema Maheswar says it's because of the ease of use, especially when migrating from Excel sheets and other applications. "Not all business users are always tech savvy so that part is relevant. Everybody can adapt to it with ease." Secondly, the price point. He feels it is quite affordable, even for smaller organizations. Lastly, integrations, like Zapier, and email templates.

According to Hema Maheswar, sales forecasting with Bigin has helped him set better business goals. Apart from improved time and resource management, Bigin has scaled tangible results in ROI and increases in conversion rates, too. "Conversion rate was 3-5%, and now it is at least 15%. That's also during the COVID19 situation," says Hema Maheswar.