AAA Western and Central New York has implemented a new CRM system from CDC Software to better manage communications to its 880,000 members.
More than 640 AAA associates will be using CDC’s Pivotal CRM 6.0 as the auto club works to increase membership, improve customer service and cross- and up-sell products. AAA also will be using the system to better segment its marketing communications, manage leads and campaigns, and consolidate data from the multiple legacy systems currently serving its different business arms.
“Most people traditionally think of AAA as primarily emergency road service, and we have that strong brand, so people don’t know that we offer other products like insurance or car repair or driver education,” said Lesleylinda Lannan, VP of member experience for AAA Western and Central NY. “It’s really part of our growth strategy to get closer to members and have them take advantage of more of our products. That led us to this CRM approach, so we can deepen relationships with existing members and manage information about members more effectively.”
Once people join AAA and remain members for a couple of years, they tend to have a very long membership, so being able to offer and explain the variety of AAA’s services to members was another reason for implementing the enterprise-wide CRM system, Lannan added.
Implementing Pivotal CRM is part of a larger AAA Western and Central NY initiative that is internally referred to as Member Focus. No marketing campaigns are planned yet, since the Pivotal system is still in its design stages, but when it is rolled out late in the year direct mail, e-mail and call center efforts are sure to follow.
“We’re trying to better understand our current members and have a better sense of what they need,” Lannan said. “Then we will be able to apply that learning to non-members and prospects, so it’s a fairly well-defined segmentation strategy.”
AAA chose Pivotal CRM following a formal RFP. The final round came down to three CRM providers, who were brought in to give demonstrations to AAA management and frontline users. AAA chose Pivotal CRM because it was flexible and able to integrate with the company’s other systems, including Microsoft Office.
