Kawasaki Motors Boosts Productivity with Tailored Dealer CRM System

Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC) is one of the largest distributors of powersports products including Motorcycles, ATVs, Side-By-Sides, and Personal Watercraft with a network size of over 1000 dealers. Besides the headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California, KMC has regional sales offices and/or distribution centers in Piscataway, New Jersey; Atlanta, Georgia; Fort Worth, Texas and Hebron, Kentucky.

The company’s District Managers had been managing their contact meetings with dealers using a contact management system that had been in place for several years.

KMC’s existing contact management system was rudimentary and their process was paper heavy. As their business needs grew, KMC did not get the support level necessary to adapt to data changes from the current system – Every system update necessitated a long progress.

KMC issued a Request for Proposal to 4 suppliers in their search for a more robust and flexible system. One of their key requirements was to have confidence in the supplier to meet their needs.

KMC ultimately selected Optimum Info’s cloud-based Dealer Contact Management System (IKON) to manage their dealer contact process. The fact that the system was really tailored to KMC’s industry gave Optimum Info a competitive advantage over other suppliers that would have required building a whole new system.

KMC was already a customer of Optimum’s Dealer Package Management Solution, a system designed to help manufacturers manage the complete life cycle of dealer document packages.

The success of this other solution helped KMC with the decision to go with Optimum.

During the implementation of the system, KMC requested some significant changes and Optimum was very accommodating in tailoring the system to their specific needs. KMC was impressed with Optimum’s flexibility and willingness to adapt and embrace change.

The launch of the system was very smooth and having a system tailored to how they wanted it to be designed helped KMC a great deal in getting familiar with it. The system was initially rolled out to 30 district managers and 15 field service personnel.

With a new system in place, KMC allowed their field organizations to collaborate with dealers more effectively and manage the complete contact report process:

Positive accolades from KMC users were mostly universal regarding their initial reaction to the system. Most tech savvy KMC users were excited about the new data features available in the system, while some users initially struggled and were resistant to change.

KMC users got comfortable using the system within 15 - 30 days, after their second or third contact report. Today, 100% of KMC‘s field personnel are using the system.

Because of the success of the system, District Managers, Field Service, and Parts and Accessories personnel now use the system. Some of KMC’s regional teams reached out and asked to have access to the system for their use as they were impressed with its capabilities

During the first 6 months, adjustments/enhancements were made based on initial user feedback and Phase 2 enhancements including new KPIs and Field Assignment feature were successfully implemented.