Brampton Brick
Brampton Brick builds a stronger future with Salesforce
For Brampton Brick, success means helping a customer to build a sturdy home that looks smart too. And that means having a wide range of products, and delivering an excellent customer experience from start to finish.
“We’re on a strong growth trajectory at the moment, and have ambitious plans for continued growth ,” said Elliot Bender, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for Brampton Brick. “To expand at this scale, we’re heavily reliant on referrals and repeat customers, so we want to make sure we’re providing the best experience in the business.”
With an online customer community, proactive sales, and seamless support, Bender can be confident that the company has the scalability and service quality it needs to achieve its ambitions for growth.
“We’re on a strong growth trajectory at the moment, and have ambitious plans for continued growth ,” said Elliot Bender, Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for Brampton Brick. “To expand at this scale, we’re heavily reliant on referrals and repeat customers, so we want to make sure we’re providing the best experience in the business.”
With an online customer community, proactive sales, and seamless support, Bender can be confident that the company has the scalability and service quality it needs to achieve its ambitions for growth.
Inconsistent processes hold back efficient growth.
With seven facilities across Canada and the US, Brampton Brick manufactures and sells more than 65 million square feet of masonry and landscape products a year. The company has a heritage dating back to 1871, with its recent expansion coming from both organic and acquired growth. These acquisitions meant that Brampton Brick’s sales and service reps often had very different approaches and didn’t follow the same process, which led to inconsistency and organizational silos.
“We used to have three or four different sales processes, depending on where the sales rep was based, whether they’d come to us via an acquisition, and their personal preferences,” said Bender. “This led to a lack of visibility, which restricted our ability to grow efficiently and deliver a seamless customer experience.”
“We used to have three or four different sales processes, depending on where the sales rep was based, whether they’d come to us via an acquisition, and their personal preferences,” said Bender. “This led to a lack of visibility, which restricted our ability to grow efficiently and deliver a seamless customer experience.”
“We quickly recognized that Salesforce was a great platform to change the way we engaged with customers, improve transparency across the business, and break down silos,”
Best-practice processes and greater automation result in a more proactive approach to sales.
To align processes and make onboarding new acquisitions easier, Brampton Brick rolled out Salesforce in 2013. “We quickly recognized that Salesforce was a great platform to change the way we engaged with customers, improve transparency across the business, and break down silos,” said Bender.
Now, all Brampton Brick’s sales reps follow the same best-practice processes, supported by Sales Cloud. They can view all the information they need to find, win, keep, and grow their customer accounts. And it’s completely changed the way they work. “Salesforce has been a catalyst for a change in our culture,” said Bender. “We can be more predictive about our customers and more proactive in our approach, which makes everything run more smoothly, both internally and for the customer.”
For example, by streamlining approval workflows in Sales Cloud, Bender had removed bottlenecks and improved pricing accuracy. To ensure consistency and reduce manual data entry, Salesforce is integrated with Brampton Brick’s ERP system, providing complete transparency of the customer journey to everyone from a sales rep in the field to a customer service rep in one of the company’s seven locations, and enables the service team to place orders via the Service Cloud console. “We all see the same information, which really improves communication,” added Bender.
Now, all Brampton Brick’s sales reps follow the same best-practice processes, supported by Sales Cloud. They can view all the information they need to find, win, keep, and grow their customer accounts. And it’s completely changed the way they work. “Salesforce has been a catalyst for a change in our culture,” said Bender. “We can be more predictive about our customers and more proactive in our approach, which makes everything run more smoothly, both internally and for the customer.”
For example, by streamlining approval workflows in Sales Cloud, Bender had removed bottlenecks and improved pricing accuracy. To ensure consistency and reduce manual data entry, Salesforce is integrated with Brampton Brick’s ERP system, providing complete transparency of the customer journey to everyone from a sales rep in the field to a customer service rep in one of the company’s seven locations, and enables the service team to place orders via the Service Cloud console. “We all see the same information, which really improves communication,” added Bender.
Customers get a faster response and a better experience with Service Cloud
Following Brampton Brick’s sales revolution, the company was still experiencing some growing pains as a result of a disconnect between sales and service. In 2016, Bender brought the service team onto Salesforce as well.
“Any member of the team can now pick up a customer request and provide a consistent and relevant response, whereas previously we were unable to track individual conversations,” said Bender. “Both sales and service can see each customer’s full order history and account status, which helps us manage the relationship better.”
The account team can see if a customer is consistently exceeding their credit limit and take the appropriate action – which might involve extending it to support the customer’s sudden growth.
“Any member of the team can now pick up a customer request and provide a consistent and relevant response, whereas previously we were unable to track individual conversations,” said Bender. “Both sales and service can see each customer’s full order history and account status, which helps us manage the relationship better.”
The account team can see if a customer is consistently exceeding their credit limit and take the appropriate action – which might involve extending it to support the customer’s sudden growth.
Centralized information brings sales and service together.
With centralized data, sales and service teams can work more collaboratively together, and Brampton Brick’s phone lines are not jammed with internal calls. “Customers used to complain that they couldn’t get through, and it was because our service agents were busy trying to track down sales reps to verify information,” explained Bender. “By giving everyone access to the same data, we can now spend more time on the phone with customers.”
And if service and sales reps do need to discuss an account, they can do so on Chatter, rather than using email, which simplifies collaboration and increases efficiency.
And if service and sales reps do need to discuss an account, they can do so on Chatter, rather than using email, which simplifies collaboration and increases efficiency.
The Online customer community and app enable self-service.
To extend these internal efficiency gains to customers, Brampton Brick has built an online community on Community Cloud. “Using the community, customers can view their account, place orders, and check their credit,” said Bender. “It makes it much easier for them to work with us, which boosts our competitive advantage.”
Bender and his team have even built an app on the Salesforce Platform to handle complaints, where staff can log customer issues and upload photographs. “It doesn’t matter if the customer is in Brampton or Chicago, they can report problems to us without having to physically come into an office,” added Bender.
Bender and his team have even built an app on the Salesforce Platform to handle complaints, where staff can log customer issues and upload photographs. “It doesn’t matter if the customer is in Brampton or Chicago, they can report problems to us without having to physically come into an office,” added Bender.
Greater consistency and automation helps increase revenues without adding headcount.
Since implementing Salesforce, Brampton Brick has increased its revenues by over 40% with only minimal additions to headcount. Establishing greater consistency and automation has also reduced errors and sped up service delivery.
“Salesforce helps demonstrate to our customers that we’re a progressive, forward-thinking company,” said Bender. “With Salesforce, we can lay the foundations to build a better customer experience, which strengthens our reputation, and will support our growth ambitions over the coming years.”
“Salesforce helps demonstrate to our customers that we’re a progressive, forward-thinking company,” said Bender. “With Salesforce, we can lay the foundations to build a better customer experience, which strengthens our reputation, and will support our growth ambitions over the coming years.”
TRAILBLAZER SPOTLIGHT
“Salesforce lets me challenge my way of thinking; it keeps my ideas fresh and our options open.”
Elliot Bender, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing, Brampton Brick
Elliot Bender, Vice President, Business Development & Marketing, Brampton Brick
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