We here at Local First believe that relationships matter. We talk a lot about a human-scale, people first economy, which is based on relationships between a business, its employees, and its community. It takes a long time to build relationships with the many people who make this community function. And when it comes to maintaining relationships that are company and organization-wide, keeping track of how they evolve over time can be a tall order.
This is why the people at The Right Place, Inc. and Hello West Michigan decided to start using Salesforce, a software that helps companies and nonprofits capture the interactions that make up these important relationships. Like Local First, they work with businesses in West Michigan to create a resilient economy. Maintaining relationships with these businesses is essential to the efficacy of the organization and, while they’ve used Salesforce for a number of years, it wasn’t until 2016 when they connected with Database Sherpa that they really learned what the program could do.
Dave Riley, Director of Business Intelligence & Research at The Right Place, met Ashima Saigal at a nonprofit Salesforce group. He went in the hopes that he could learn more about the software and use it to its full potential. After the initial meeting, he and Ashima worked intensely for about six months until every piece was set in place for the employees at The Right Place to be self-sufficient.
“Before, I would have to go to five different people to get all the details of a relationship,” says Dave. “Now, it’s all housed in one place.”
He says that this not only creates effective ways to document and maintain relationships, it also helps the organization track their impact and get a better understanding of what their stakeholders need. He appreciates Database Sherpa’s focus on independence and self-sufficiency.
“You’re empowered,” he says. “You know what to do.”
To learn more about how your business or organization could benefit from Salesforce, visit databasesherpa.com.
