Managed resistance to change and adoption of new system to increase data visibility and productivity
The Situation
Situation: When I joined, Zoho had already been purchased for client support, but the team were still managing onboarding and support queries for four brands through Outlook. There was no meaningful reporting and no visibility of what clients were contacting about or workload distribution. The team were also doubling their work — replying in Outlook, then finding and closing the ticket in Zoho — because they didn’t trust the system and found it overly complex.
The Task
Task: I needed to move the team off Outlook and into Zoho as quickly as possible, eliminate double-handling, and create reporting that would give the wider business visibility on contact drivers, complaints, cancellations/churn reasons and service performance — and set the foundations for automation and self-serve.
The Action / Approach
Action: I started by understanding the resistance rather than forcing compliance. It became clear the setup was too complicated and training had been insufficient. I simplified the ticketing configuration so all brand queries could be handled from one clear inbox view, making it easier than Outlook. I then delivered targeted training to build confidence, temporarily adjusted productivity expectations during the transition, and approved short-term overtime to protect service while the team ramped up. Once usage was stable, I set a clear cutover deadline to retire Outlook and fully adopt Zoho. After adoption, I implemented reporting fields and dashboards, set up triggers/notifications for urgent and complaint categories, and created macro templates to improve consistency and speed. I also worked with the CTO to start integrating billing-related data into Zoho to reduce context switching and improve resolution quality.
The Result
Result: We achieved a 100% reduction in double-handling and moved the team fully off Outlook within my first month. We migrated multiple client-facing departments — including Client Support, Key Accounts, Finance, Quality and Onboarding — creating a single system of record and a full audit trail of client communications. The business gained clear visibility into reasons for contact, complaints and churn by brand and client segment, with productivity and performance reporting available to department heads. This insight directly enabled an automation and self-serve roadmap, which the company is now progressing with a Zoho partner.
