A recent independent study by Nucleus Research of Amplify Credit Union, a member-owned financial cooperative with 57,000 members in eight locations throughout Texas, proves the value of a unified customer experience. After implementing Salesforce a year ago, Nucleus found that Amplify has netted a 1079% return on investment, with a payback of just 16 weeks and an an average annual benefit of $2,784,792. (Read the full study).

A few years ago, the regional powerhouse searched for a way to streamline its customer data, which was spread across 80 different systems. After a painful procurement process with a Salesforce competitor that lasted for more than a year, Amplify’s leadership was frustrated and made the decision to move to Salesforce. The deal was done at breakneck speed and Amplify began immediately realizing results.

With Salesforce’s single view of the customer, Amplify can now upsell, cross-sell, prospect and nurture new customers more efficiently than ever before. It’s meant fast results and a complete change in its business.

In just one year Amplify has been able to increase its marketing team’s productivity--doing more than they could ever imagine. The company estimates, for example, that it would need four additional full-time marketing employees to do the same amount of work its marketing department does now. That’s saved over $300,000 in employee salaries alone. (Tweet this)

With a single data source unifying information, Amplify employees are now able to pull reports and create the type of actionable campaigns that have driven results. For example, reporting time has decreased by 98%.

“Before Salesforce, we would have to run 60 spreadsheets and connect them in Access databases that had to go on to get static information,” said Lisa Nicholas, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer. “Now I can click a button in Salesforce, and I get it all done.”

In a company with very tight headcount, Nicholas credits the cost savings and efficiencies her team has realized with providing the budget and internal buy-in to grow her department. “Salesforce is the only reason I'm getting another digital strategist and another salesperson in 2017” she said.

Beyond the personnel and reporting efficiencies, since launching Advertising Studio, lead generation is up by 50% and CPA is down by 50% (Tweet this) because of the power of lookalikes based on existing Amplify customers. When combined with the power of Journey Builder, the credit union is able to send targeted and personalized emails to prospects, increasing email open rates by 45% and click-through rates by 20%.

Nucleus Research estimated that Amplify would have needed to double its advertising spend with its prior marketing program, which was driven off its own CRM, to achieve the same number of leads per month as it does now with Salesforce Advertising Studio.

Implementing Salesforce has also had a direct impact on revenue, leading to an annual net profit of over $1.4 million and a 400% increase in revenue for Amplify’s outbound sales team. Amplify will soon begin deploying Mobile Studio and has plans to leverage the single view of the customer with its service teams. The goal is to provide a seamless experience regardless of the channel.

“It's like having a bunch of doors open to you, and you just have to know what door to keep shut,” said Nicholas. “That's the great thing about Salesforce. There are so many doors that you can open.”

Find out more. Download the full ROI study by Nucleus Research here.