Challenges Measuring ROI
Helsinki Partners is in the business of economic development. Their focus is promoting the City of Helsinki’s sustainable growth, attracting business to fuel the city’s thriving economy, and welcoming visitors to the capital of one of the world’s happiest countries.
“Helsinki is our product. That's how we see it,” says Sirpa Salmi, Senior Manager, Digital Business, Sales, and Marketing / Customer Insight for Helsinki Partners.
Measuring the return on their efforts, Sirpa says, has to date been difficult to concretely define. “It’s maybe the most difficult part, to prove our ROI in different stages and in different activities.”
Mergers and Multiple Systems
The challenge of measurement was made more difficult due to a merger of civic entities, effectively doubling the team and duplicating systems and processes.
“It was a challenging start because we had just merged two companies,” Sirpa says. “Our staff of 60 specialists each had their own way of working and data was spread across two different systems, neither of which was a proper CRM.”
Barriers to Team Communication
The newly merged teams struggled to communicate. Sirpa says, “Colleagues had an exceedingly tough time sharing information and keeping one another up-to-date because we didn’t have customer data in a central place.”
These communication barriers could also impact the customer experience, with different teams unknowingly communicating with the same customer. Sirpa says. “And that was a little bit confusing on the customer side.”
Time-Consuming, Manual Processes
Projects, like syncing hotel revenue information, used to take one person many days to compile and analyze. It was so convoluted that the report was only run once per year.
Consequently, Helsinki Partners often duplicated their work efforts. Sirpa says, “It was really, really hard to work in an efficient and synchronized way.”
Exploring Different CRM Solutions
As Helsinki Partners sought to gather data from across the organization, they considered the tools and processes that would best serve their team and stakeholders.
“We did a very thorough research project before we decided to move to HubSpot,” Sirpa says. “We compared different solutions, for example, Microsoft. But it was quite clear from the beginning that HubSpot was the optimal choice for us due to its strong, integrated marketing and sales value add.”
Implementing the HubSpot CRM Platform
The onboarding process was “very easy and very practical,” Sirpa says. “This has been the best IT project of my life.” Working with a HubSpot Solution Partner and HubSpot Support, Helsinki Partners consolidated customer information and centralized their diverse data sources, with resoundingly positive feedback from users across teams.
Tracking Influencer Marketing
Working with HubSpot has also opened the door for Helsinki Partners to track influencer marketing. Sirpa says using HubSpot allows the teams to measure the ROI of collaborations. “We can track influencers who write about us in articles and blog posts. And then we can calculate the value of the post or the value of the article depending on its reach.”
Attributing Marketing-Influenced Revenue
With HubSpot, Helsinki Partners have the information to correlate new investments to Helsinki area and hotel stays with their marketing efforts and support the economic development of their city. The data helps them determine which marketing channels and campaigns are most effective, creating opportunities for further growth and optimization.
“For example in congress team we are following and calculating business travelers who stay overnight in Helsinki, and it's estimated that one traveler brings about 1,400 euros per night,” Sirpa says. “This long-term growth figure tells us how we are doing and works as a benchmark with which we can understand what needs to be improved and, finally, if we are focused on the right activities.”
Measuring the Customer Experience
With the adoption of HubSpot’s CRM, Helsinki Partners is now beginning the process of gathering more customer data. ’’We are establishing a customer experience measurement model which will give us an in-depth understanding of why customers choose Helsinki and how satisfied they are with our services. And that provides us with more specific information on how to succeed going forward,’’ Sirpa says.
All the Answers in One Place
HubSpot has become a single source of truth for the Helsinki Partners team. Sirpa says, “I have got lots of feedback from my colleagues that they are enjoying the platform. All the relevant information is stored in one place and easily accessible on desktop and mobile so it’s really easy to follow and use.”
She noted that the utilization of information has been taken to a whole new level with customized dashboards in place. Plus, relevant data and information is available to teams in real-time.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Planning and producing campaigns and events have become more efficient due to this new data-driven approach. Helsinki Partners are now able to create tailored processes that support company goals. According to Sirpa, “We have a saying in our company now: if it's not in HubSpot, it's not existing.”
The impact of implementing HubSpot’s CRM is clear, positive, and measurable, Sirpa affirms. “The CRM is living proof of how effective our work is. We can leave out the unnecessary work and focus on the things that help us improve customer reach and achieve better results.”
Communicating Value to Stakeholders with HubSpot’s CRM
Better yet, Helsinki Partners is now able to communicate its value to stakeholders. Sirpa says, “The most important aspect of adopting the CRM is that the leadership team and CEO can easily see what is happening based on the reports from HubSpot. Helping our CEO provide accurate reporting to the Board is a major source of value.”
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