Business Talk Magazine

Customer Consulting Group: Consultants who have the most up-to-date and reliable skill sets for resolving a wide range of business problems.

As a rising company, a top priority is to improve corporate processes in a way that provides a quicker and higher return on investment. Today’s businesses are more tech-savvy and use more technology. Many vendors have made it easy to procure and modify their systems without involving certified professionals, thereby seemingly providing a path to save costs associated with the implementation. However, in doing so, many organizations often find themselves 6-12 months later struggling to get the desired result.  This often comes about due to poor user adoption which often stems from a poor system design and insufficient or inadequate training. As such the question arises, “Should I engage a specialist solution provider?”

Specialist solution providers know the importance of a solid solution design and the most effective ways to leverage the systems to perform specific tasks. They leverage many years of experience to know what is best for each organization and deliver optimal solutions within a specific time frame and budget, in a manner that maximizes the ROI. 

‘Customer Consulting Group (CCG)’ is a specialist solution provider that focuses on technology-based solutions that enable small and medium businesses to find and nurture more clients, increase productivity, and mobilize their workforce. 

Their primary solution offering is Customer Relationship Management (CRM), but the team also provide solutions that encompass collaboration platforms, digital forms, document management, electronic signatures, email and calendaring, human capital management, social media management, and websites from a variety of software vendors such as Microsoft, DocuSign, GoCanvas, ServiceM8, and others.

“We help with all project aspects including, general advice and guidance on the most appropriate applications to use, as well as the necessary implementation services required to ensure success. The implementation services range from initial design, documentation, and development through to delivery of training and ongoing support and maintenance,” says Michael Hopwood, the Managing Director.

Customer Consulting Group offers an initial free consultation to understand the business and then define a personalized business success strategy that often starts small, and gradually introduces additional improvements to the business, as it evolves. 

Michael adds “We take this approach because we understand that too much change at one time, often results in a slower realization of the intended benefits. And in some instances, an inability to realize the benefit at all. It also means that our clients can see a return on investment much quicker.”

The start of the COVID-19 Pandemic was the biggest challenge not only that Customer Consulting Group has experienced, but that the founder and Managing Director, Michael Hopwood, has faced in all his years in business. Nearly all active sales opportunities were paused due to uncertainties, existing in-flight projects were put on hold and many customers were no longer able to pay their bills. In essence, their revenue stream came to an almost complete standstill. Luckily the Australian Government assistance ensured that all staff were able to continue to retain their jobs and not be individually impacted financially, but the team knew that they needed to adapt to prevail. 

“We came up with new service offerings to help organizations adapt to the new way of working,” says Michael. He continues, “We increased our social media presence to provide people with more education and remain visible as the world changed around us, and most importantly we stuck by each other and continued to persevere. Luckily, our persistence paid off and the projects started to kick off again. As the year progressed the demand for our services increased beyond the levels that we saw before the pandemic, and as a result, Customer Consulting Group got back on the growth path again, adding, new clients, hiring new people, and increasing profit margins to a point where the results outperformed the plans made in 2019.”

Customer Consulting Group has plans to continue to grow the business significantly over the next 5 years and aims to be Australia’s most trusted business software solution provider for small and medium businesses.

Although the business has only been operating for three years and still quite small, it has been recognized as an industry leader. CCG was a finalist in the Local Business Awards in 2019 and 2020 as well as a finalist in the Australian Small Business Champions Awards in 2020, a Top 10 CRM Consulting Practice by APAC CIOOutlook in 2019, a high achiever in the 2021 Australian Achiever Awards, and now most recently one of the 10 Most Dynamic Companies to Watch In 2021. 

Michael adds “This sort of recognition is something that I would have typically expected from much larger organizations that have been around for a longer period. I owe this to the dedication of all of our employees to help deliver outstanding solutions for our clients, that ultimately drives them to become reference sites and help us to continue to grow and evolve.”

Innovation and creative thinking are critical components for CCG’s success, not only for the solutions they offer to their clients but also for the way they conduct business. 

“We are constantly thinking of ideas for ways that we can help our clients, find & nurture more customers, increase productivity and mobilize their workforce. Many of these ideas come in the form of new product ideas. Sometimes they might be an add-on to an existing piece of software that we sell and support, and other times its completely new product offerings. We encourage all staff to capture their thoughts and add to a product register for further review and consideration. We have so many wonderful ideas that we are in the process of starting a new division of Customer Consulting Group that will be focused on developing these ideas into products that we can take to market.” shares the MD. 

Michael highly credits that non-cognitive skills play a vital element in building a business. He advises young leaders that a significant factor in achieving results is hard work, and that economic growth is almost unlikely without a willingness to work tirelessly in the beginning. 

“Never give up and always stay true to your word. Even when it seems that nothing is going your way, if you continue to deliver on your mission to work towards your vision, whilst upholding your values, the universe has a wonderful way of giving back all of the good energy that you put out. Sometimes it takes a bit longer than you might have liked, but trust me the reward is worth the wait.” advises Michael. 

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