It was back in 2009 when the vision of e-motion experts first saw the light of the eCommerce world, and they launched their first online shop for e-bikes – and that was just the beginning. More than 15 years later, e-motion has built a franchise network with over 95 e-bike shops across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Today, more than 1,000 employees work for the company, and the team manages a system with over 400,000 customer records.

But that’s far from all: in addition to a large customer base, e-motion collaborates with numerous franchise partners who, with the company’s support, have opened their own specialized e-bike shops – and the trend is growing. Standing still is not in e-motion’s nature – especially not when it comes to technology.

“The desire to optimize our existing sales and service processes led us to our digital project,” says Dennis Schmidt.

Optimizing processes – that can always be done. But e-motion had something more ambitious in mind: centralizing a widely spread, regionally organized customer management system. Since Dennis Schmidt and his team had already had a taste of Zoho in a previous work context, the decision wasn’t hard: Zoho it would be! But that requires the right partner by your side. The solution in this case: codafish. “We were looking for a Zoho agency – and we found one with codafish. During our initial talks, their expertise and clear focus on the Zoho software package immediately won us over,” Dennis sums up. Because e-motion wanted an agency that would provide full support for the initial implementation of Zoho CRM within the company. And that was just the beginning!

The goal was clear – now a plan was needed. And what better way to start than with codafish’s tried-and-tested workshops at the beginning of the project phase? Together, the status quo was assessed and a clear roadmap was developed. And in the process, the horizon of what’s possible with Zoho One expanded. It quickly became apparent: we would tie additional goals to the digital project and make use of the powerful tools Zoho puts at our fingertips. The top priority remained the implementation of a robust Zoho CRM – one that would not only allow efficient management of customer data, but also create a central platform for all franchise partners.

In addition, the final project plan included the following goals:

• increasing lead-to-customer conversion,
• measuring marketing activities more precisely,
• strengthening customer loyalty through automated after-sales campaigns,
• consolidating data processes across the various franchise locations,
• and accurately mapping the entire franchise system, including permission management and data sharing.

What might cause beads of sweat on many foreheads sparked genuine excitement at codafish: a new Zoho One journey was ready for launch

A look into e-motion’s “software cabinet” quickly revealed: the foundation for solid digitalization was already in place. WordPress as a content management system, Google Ads and Google Tag Manager, as well as Airtable as a cloud-based platform for database management – all of these components were already in use. Now it was time to connect these applications with Zoho.

At the heart of it all was Zoho CRM: in combination with Zoho Catalyst, codafish implemented not only a comprehensive sales pipeline management system but also consolidated existing data silos – such as those for franchise partners, locations, and employee information.

To optimize lead management, contact forms were integrated directly into the WordPress backend of the company website. A booking tool and a newsletter sign-up form were also added. The latter supports Zoho Campaigns in automating marketing and creating targeted customer journeys.

In addition to Zoho Projects as a project management tool for the team, the integration of Zoho Flow marked another key milestone: it connects WordPress, Airtable, and Callpage into one seamless system.

To bring all data sources together for business evaluation, Zoho Analytics is now in use – a cross-system analytics tool that processes information from Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, and velo.port.

And the most important aspect of all these implementations? Automation.

Because Zoho One delivers what it promises – and enables efficient work through automated processes: Whether it’s Blueprints for pre-sale, sale, and after-sales processes with clearly defined tasks, automated communication chains with reminders for inspections or lease renewals, or even integrated surveys – codafish and e-motion thought of everything.

Not all Zoho One modules have been implemented at e-motion yet – but the tools most important to the company are already in place. Dennis Schmidt is enthusiastic about the software’s impressive versatility and equally grateful for the support provided by codafish: “I would definitely recommend Zoho, but one must not overlook the complexity of the system. At first, I was completely overwhelmed by the possibilities, which made it all the more important for us to have codafish by our side. The Zoho One expertise – and especially codafish’s programming expertise when it comes to Zoho Catalyst – definitely earns a rating of ‘very good’ from me,” says Dennis.

Dennis’s words bring a big smile to the faces of seasoned Zoho pros like us – and leave us wanting more! Would you like to learn more about Zoho One? Then book your free consultation today. Together, we’ll talk about your goals and needs, and set off on your personal Zoho journey – with a tailor-made project plan in hand!