Third Wave receives a lot of questions regarding CRM Software and Customer Relationship Management integration into different businesses and companies.

Read our FAQ's or simply use our site search if you have a specific question you would like answered.

Q.  I run a small business and I don’t have that many customers. Why do I need special software to manage them?

A. CRM can benefit a small business by consolidating customer data into a single system. As a business grows, keeping a record of all transactions can become overwhelming. CRM tools allow you to manage your customer interactions more efficiently, so you have more time to focus on your service or product. Often one has few customers but you still need to measure the depth of those relationships

Q.  Is CRM difficult to set up?

A. CRM should not be difficult to set up. CRM implementation requires hardware and software installation, followed by a brief period of customization for the requirements of a particular customer. Some CRM software solutions require customization. The typical period for installation, system set-up  and training is 6-8 weeks. Expect increased sales in the first 6 months.

Q. Is CRM expensive?

A. In terms of the ROI, CRM is actually very affordable. CRM systems also require dedicated computing hardware, software installation, maintenance and the staff to manage the process. Third Wave has an inexpensive 24 month installment plan.

Q. Is CRM easy to use?

A. A good CRM solution should be easy to use. Third Wave have been developing CRM since 1989 and the Advantage product is mature and easy to use based on all of the feedback over the years.

Q. How does the customer service portion of CRM help a business grow?

A. Customer satisfaction is a key element of customer loyalty. Loyal and satisfied customers become long-term customers. Loyal customers are also your best advocates. Word of mouth recommendations create the most persuasive marketing for your company. In an age where negative customer feedback propagates quickly to online reviews and blogs, customer service cannot be overlooked.

Q. What is Third Wave Advantage Customer Relationship Management?

A. Third Wave Advantage Customer Relationship Management is a comprehensive CRM solution that helps small and medium sized businesses increase sales success, provide superior customer service, accurately forecast sales, and analyse business performance.

Q.  What sort of sales management functionality does Third Wave Advantage CRM offer?

A. The Sales Module supports your sales team at every stage of the sales cycle, from leads and opportunities management to fulfillment and invoicing:

• Complete customer view and activity management: View and manage account activity, customer history, calendar, and communications including phone, fax, and e-mail.
• Reports: Use or customize a wide range of reports to forecast sales, measure business activity, and identify trends.
• Opportunity management: Qualify leads and track opportunities separately from customers through the sales cycle.
• Information sharing: Centralised data storage and integration capabilities make it easy to access, update, and share consistent, current information across teams and departments.
• Quotas: Measure sales against individual employee goals.
• Direct e-mail: Customise templates and use Mail Merge from Microsoft Word to send e-mail to targeted groups.

Q. What sort of customer service functionality does Third Wave Advantage CRM offer?

A. The Customer Service Module helps customer service representatives deliver stronger, more consistent and efficient support, with the following features:

• Service Manager: Create and assign cases for customer service incidents and mange those cases from creation to resolution.
• Activity management: View and update calendar, workload, and records.
• Routing and queuing: Use workflow rules to automatically route service requests and cases to appropriate resources for resolution or reassignment.
• Searchable knowledgebase: Easily create and update a library of articles and FAQs.
• Contracts: Create, update, and manage contracts and service license agreements.
• E-mail auto-response: Use customizable templates and send automated responses to customer requests.

Q. How does Third Wave Advantage integrate with Microsoft Office?

A. The Sales and Customer Service Modules are integrated with Microsoft Office, supporting full sales functionality from Microsoft Outlook, e-mail templates and Mail Merge with Microsoft Word, and data export to Microsoft Excel.

Q. Does Third Wave Advantage CRM integrate with other accounting systems?

A. Third Wave Advantage CRM integrates with 90% of the accounting systems, including Sypro, QuickBooks, Pastel, Great Plains, SAP and many more.

Q. Does Third Wave Advantage CRM integrate with non-Microsoft applications?

A. Yes. Your Third Wave Advantage Business Solution Partner can help you customize your Advantage CRM solution for integration with third-party applications, using open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)  and other third party tools

Q. How is Third Wave Advantage CRM implemented and supported?

A. Third Wave Advantage CRM is designed for rapid implementation, with a proven process that ensures faster deployment, easier maintenance, and more straightforward upgrades.

Q. Can Third Wave Advantage CRM help me with turnover among my customer servicerepresentatives?

A. Third Wave Advantage CRM makes it easy for your business to provide consistent, effective service and increase volume capacity without adding headcount. Service employees can easily view, share, and update customer and product information, ensuring efficient, up-to-date sales and service. Automated routing and queuing of support requests ensures that Customer Service Representatives can assist customers efficiently from initial contact through resolution.

Q.  We need a solution that not only helps us acquire customers, but also keep them. Can Third Wave Advantage CRM help?

A. Third Wave Advantage helps your business improve customer acquisition and retention. With a complete view of customer information, your sales team can track customers and new leads through the sales cycle and easily update records, while service representatives will find it easy to track and manage support incidents from initial contact to resolution. Third Wave Advantage CRM also ensures more efficient and consistent sales and service processes, with customizable workflow rules that let you create and automate processes for sales, support, routing, and notifications so responses are always timely, and customer requests never “fall through the cracks”.

Q. We need to accurately forecast business activity. Wat reporting capabilities does Third Wave Advantage CRM offer?

A. Third Wave Advantage CRM includes a comprehensive set of reporting tools for measuring business activity and forecasting sales. You can run and view reports for sales Activity and quotas, closed and pending orders, support incident management and resolution, closed and pending orders, financial summaries and more.

The robust reporting capability of Advantage CRM will help you identify the opportunities, trends and problems that guide your business decision making processes. You also can easily export Advantage CRM data to other applications, such as Microsoft Excel.

Q. What if we’re not in a position to invest time and money training our sales team to use a new solution?

A. Third Wave Advantage offers the same logical user interface and intuitive work tools that your sales and support staff is already familiar with for Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Implementation includes online tutorials and telephonic support from Third Wave, so training costs associated with upgrading to Advantage CRM are minimal.

Q. How do I purchase Third Wave Advantage CRM products?

A. Contact Third Wave Software via the web www.thirdwave.co.za or telephonically on 011 462 6871.

The whole process is very simple and takes minutes to accomplish our formal working relationship.

Q. What type of training programs does Third Wave Advantage CRM offer?

A. Instructor-led courses, via 2 four hour courses, provide optimal learning conditions for subject matter that features extensive student-teacher interaction. Seminars include product demonstrations and Q&A.

Q. What are your product editions?

A. Advantage X6 is the only CRM product Third Wave sells. This means we are highly focused and are able to give you our full attention.

Q. What type of resources does Third Wave Advantage CRM offer to help me through the implementation process?

A. Third Wave Advantage CRM offers free Getting Started Guides to help ease your company through the implementation process. For more free resources, please visit our Support Portal.

Third Wave Advantage CRM has also provided administration and tools for non-technical people to change the application. Administrators can quickly add new fields to suit your business through the Administration view through a drag-and-drop user interface.

Q. How do I add more users to my account?

A. To add more users to your account, contact your sales representative, or call our general sales line on 011 462 6871 and one of our sales representatives can walk you through the process.

Q. Is support included in your products?

A. Yes. Telephonic support is available.

Q. Can I upgrade from one edition to the other?

A. Yes, all products are built on the same code base so you can easily move from one product to another. If you have not customized the application, the process is to run the database upgrade SQL script, provided by Third Wave Advantage CRM, against the open source database to turn it into a pro database. Then run the pro installer and point it to he upgraded database.

In a customised system, apply the same database upgrade process as mentioned above. Then merge over the customized files from the open source installation over to the new pro installation.

Q. What do you mean by a “Total Solution”?

A. Advantage - A Total Solution

Over the last 18 years, we have perfected the implementation process required to implement sales automation and CRM.  We consider this knowledge to be as valuable as our source code.  Thus the attached proposals include complete project management of the implementation to ensure that your system is implemented as effectively and efficiently as possible.

The following is a typical implementation process:

• A project planning session will be run first to discuss your requirements with the implementation staff, review interfaces to other systems and to plan as many dates as possible for the activities required.
• Our technical staff will install the system, meeting with your IT staff to train them in this process.
• Training for the Project Manager – off site at Third Wave Software Offices in Bryanston. This includes two 3-hour courses addressing all areas of the system. The first course addresses the basics of managing the customer base and activity and e-mail management.
• The next step requires an on-site System Set up meeting where we will meet with you on-site to help you set up (configure) the system.
• The project manager then attends the second Advantage course. The second course addresses system management of existing customers using call cycles as well as opportunity management and mail-merge.
• On completion of the system configuration the customer data will be imported from your existing/previous system and any other imports done.
• The user training includes user training courses – these courses are run on-site using your data and system configuration – usually these courses are run a few weeks apart. A problem management course may also be scheduled.
• After each user training course, we run an on-site review of your progress.
• The proposal also includes support and upgrades for the two year period.

If you are interested in finding out more about Advantage CRM Software and the benefits thereof, contact us or call us on +27 11 462 6871 and we will gladly be of further assistance.