Strengthening Customer Satisfaction with Expedited Quotes, Deliveries, and Customer Recognition
Founded in 1981, Coventry Plumbing and Heating Supplies (CPHS) provides a wide range of the latest in bathroom design, plumbing, and heating supplies. The company caters to the unique needs of trade professionals and retail customers, providing stellar service, industry expertise, and competitive prices to meet project requirements and budgets.
Originally deployed on an earlier version of Epicor BisTrack, the company wasn’t using the platform to its full potential—missing out on key retail and warehouse functionality. So, CPHS decided to make a move to another ERP vendor solution, but the move was a temporary stop, with the company soon returning to Epicor BisTrack.
Hear from Becci Aldridge, Bathroom/Kitchen Designer, and Lucy Tinkler, Office Manager with CPHS, to discover how the company quickly tapped into new BisTrack features to improve customer service by expediting order management, boosting warehouse and delivery processes, and providing a convenient eCommerce customer account portal.
CPHS was deployed on an early version of Epicor BisTrack but wasn't tapping into the platform’s full capabilities, leading to misconceptions that the platform couldn’t support the company’s three branch locations, 60 employees, and growing customer base.
As a result, CPHS decided to switch to an alternative ERP vendor, but the move was short-lived, as features highlighted during the product demo didn’t translate to real-life use cases. Gaps in capabilities were revealed during platform testing, with Aldridge explaining some of the challenges: “We soon realised the alternate vendor ERP solution wasn’t what it seemed, requiring us to change our business processes to fit the solution. For example, it didn’t support automatic transfers between branches, requiring approvals if another branch put in a request for products, which would slow down fulfillment.”
This led the company to re-engage with Epicor and request a demo of the latest features and functionality of Epicor BisTrack. The Epicor team showed up in full force, welcoming the opportunity to show how the platform could meet must-have requirements for CPHS, such as electronic catalogs for non-stock items and the ability to streamline delivery scheduling.
“In the end, we didn’t need a new solution, but rather an upgrade to the latest version of Epicor BisTrack—and to be trained on how to best utilise the platform,” Aldridge explains. “Once we saw Epicor BisTrack in action, we didn’t hesitate to redeploy.”
CPHS moved to a hosted deployment of BisTrack, ready to shift from a remote desktop version managed by a third-party provider. “We wanted the ownership to reside with Epicor to gain needed reliability and a one-stop-shop for support,” Aldridge adds. “And we’ve experienced 24/x7 uptime and access since going live.”
Epicor BisTrack is being used across the company’s three locations to support the entire customer lifecycle—from initial quotes through to order fulfillment and payments. For example, in the company’s busy showrooms, the creation of project quotes has been reduced by 50%. With the catalog functionality in BisTrack, supplier product and pricing information is preloaded in the system, eliminating the need to type out line items for custom quotes, many of which are 40 lines or more. These efficiency gains translate to better customer experiences.
“So many features in the latest version of Epicor BisTrack have improved our user experience and helped power our business to better serve customers,” Tinkler explains. “Now we’re able to turn around quotes two times faster and with improved accuracy, which translates to more orders.”
The company uses BisTrack to support both the trade and retail sides of the business, including counter sales—an area where the alternative ERP solution considered by CPHS fell short. “Customers in our industry are used to fast service, and we never want to slow down customer interactions, Aldridge adds. “Epicor BisTrack has helped our staff improve the sale from start to finish, and these efficiency gains are passed on to the customer, getting them in and out as quickly as possible.”
Warehouse staff also benefit from significant time savings, streamlining picking processes using bin locations and using real-time data to improve stock accuracy. To drive additional improvements, the company is evaluating BisTrack Mobile Warehouse applications, such as BisTrack Stock, which would help to enable employees to immediately verify that stock counts in Epicor BisTrack are consistent with amounts on the floor.
The move to an updated version of BisTrack also introduced new ways to leverage customer data to boost engagement. With customer stratification functionality, CPHS can better assess customer accounts, identifying where to focus efforts to improve customer loyalty. Tinkler explains why it’s important to go beyond order volume and total account spend when nurturing customer relationships.
“We hold numerous customer events, such as golf outings, and we often have the same customers in attendance. Data captured in Epicor BisTrack allows us to see more information to better look after all our customers, regardless of company size. Now, we can easily see how often customers visit the store, how often they purchase, and how quickly invoices are paid. As a result, we can uncover our strongest customer accounts, including sole proprietors, to broaden engagement and be more inclusive across our customer base.”
By leveraging Smart Views in BisTrack, CPHS is able to slice and dice information about the business, such as sales performance analysis and visibility into inventory health. Users can easily sort, filter, and work with data, identifying how quickly items are selling, then highlighting product lines that would benefit from special offers or clearance prices.
CPHS has a holding branch that distributes products to other locations. With BisTrack, the company utilises suggested transfers and min/max thresholds to maintain stock levels and help reduce time-intensive transfer tasks. “Transfer activities used to consume up to an hour per day, and we’ve reduced that to five to ten minutes, with our goal to have all transfer activities fully automated,” Tinkler shares.
Now we’re able to turnaround quotes 2X faster with improved accuracy, which translates to more orders.
New efficiency gains also extend to daily deliveries supported by BisTrack Journey Planner. Prior to BisTrack, customers or sales reps would contact the warehouse to determine delivery status. With improved route planning, digital delivery notes, and change order alerts, the company has optimised deliveries—especially valuable during the peak winter season where CPHS provides up to 40 deliveries a day.
With BisTrack Customer Portal, the company is preparing to launch new eCommerce purchasing capabilities and online account management. Customers will be able to access order statuses, account balances, and delivery dates at any time of day, reducing reliance on the Accounting and Sales department.
“Moving online allows us to modernise operations and gives customers more freedom and flexibility,” says Aldridge. “Providing customers with their own portal opens new doors for us, with customers able to quote an order from home at night and pick up items the following day. This new level of online engagement helps us keep existing accounts, while attracting a younger generation of new buyers.”
Epicor BisTrack allows us to maintain desired quality and service levels and drive improvements across every department. We have confidence employees are following desired processes with the latest information, resulting in consistent and ultra-responsive customer experiences.
In addition, Epicor Financials has helped transform the company’s financial and accounting processes, accurately capturing sales and expenses and running data-driven reports for cash flow insights. The company also plans to leverage AP automation capabilities to bring automation to accounts payable tasks to reduce manual effort and improve overall financial control.
Designed for end-to-end operations within the plumbing industry, BisTrack helps to deliver the features CPHS needs to effectively service its growing trade and retail business with innovative products, expert advice, and competitive prices.
“Epicor BisTrack allows us to maintain desired quality and service levels and drive improvements across every department,” Aldridge concludes. “We have confidence that employees are following desired processes with the latest information, resulting in consistent and ultra-responsive customer experiences.”
