The hidden quality issue. Pro Series head stud kit MPS-2043 started arriving with a flaking finish this spring. In the standard-CRM report it's four vague mentions — "a possible signal, needs confirmation." In the Minecart report it's 21 mentions across 11 accounts, a packaging-change root cause, and 9 documented cases of counter staff quietly handing customers a competitor's kit instead of filing a warranty claim. Merrick's HQ would never see this — no claims were ever filed.
The name customers actually use. FoundryLine is the 2018 rebrand of Duncan Bolt & Stud — and old-timers still ask for "Duncans." Newer counter staff don't know the lineage and turn the sale away. Nine notes catch it happening; one counter card fixes it. In the standard-CRM version the entire signal is one stray line: "guy asking about duncan?"
Opportunities and traction, not just activity. The Minecart report tracks 7 real opportunities logged from field notes — $186K in annualized pipeline with stages and next steps — and shows traction against the Q2 goals agreed with Merrick (touches, displays, new-line adds) as progress bars. Campaign feedback comes back verbatim: display placement at 16 of 22 counters, and a rebate misunderstanding suppressing wholesale redemptions at 6 of them.
Exportable, not just readable. Three downloadable CSVs ship with the report — a Pro Series expansion target list, a win-back list for the quality-affected accounts, and the opportunity pipeline — ready to hand to Merrick for co-op and sample targeting. The standard-CRM report has to say what no agency wants to say: "we don't have the signal depth to build one."