The Pain of Manual Ordering at a US Food Distributor

A US food distributor is unable to grow due to manual order processes

A US food distributor is struggling to process orders manually. Part of their business is selling to the end users like retailers and restaurants and part of their business is selling to redistributors who send in a large number of line items per order.

How do orders come in today?

• EDI:  Large customers push their orders to the distributor via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).  The distributor has to manually download these orders and re-enter them into their system.
• Phone:  Orders still come in by phone, where long hold time are common and have to be manually entered into their system.
• Email:  Some orders come in via email and have to be manually entered into their system.

Benefits of Using an Order Automation System

This distributor is focusing on automating orders using NetSymm. By using NetSymm, orders are

• Picked up directly from the customer’s system
• Checked for accuracy
• Stored on the NetSymm cloud, so the orders are always visible
• Sent directly into the distributor’s ERP system

Customers can receive automated confirmations of order receipt and their entire order history.  

With NetSymm, the customer service team gained back valuable time, since they didn’t have to spend time doing tedious order entry. They became a valuable extension of the sales team, and now had the time to manage inventory, onboard new customers quickly, sell new products and answer customer questions.

NetSymm allowed this distributor’s sales team to operate at a more efficient and higher level. The customer support team elevated their service and provided better support to their sales reps and ultimately better support to their customers.

Results

• Happier customers – since the customer service team has more hours in their workday
• Huge time savings – due to order automation
• Huge cost savings—due to the elimination of manual processes
• Ability to focus on growth

Ready to digitalize your order process?  Schedule a Demo