ABO GEAR (Pet Products)

TM
Case Study:
ABO GEAR
Contact Us:
(Pet Products)
The Company
ABO Gear (Australian Beach Outdoor) manufactures
all-natural, earth-friendly pet and outdoor products. Over
the past ten years, they’ve focused increasingly on the
pet products side of their business, using their outdoor
know-how to create rugged, high-quality pet gear. ABO’s
innovative ‘Aussie Naturals’ line uses green materials,
including recycled fabrics, to help pets and their owners
enjoy the outdoors together. They strive to make products
that are ‘Good for the dog, good for the planet, and good
for the wallet.’
ABO delivers to major national retailers including PetSmart,
Petco, Steinmart, Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, and
Ace Hardware. CEO Sherry Blackwell devotes herself
and her staff to a standard of excellent customer service,
maintaining smooth, efficient and correct orders as the
company’s highest priority.
The Challenge:
Customer Dis-service and Unreliable EDI
Since ABO’s popular and well-made products earned them
high volume business with major national retailers, they
needed a reliable EDI provider. But the first solution they
adopted made it extremely challenging for Blackwell and
her team to deliver their core customer service values.
“It was very frustrating,” Blackwell explained. “We were
trying to get large orders out to meet our customers’
deadlines, and our EDI provider’s server would go down
constantly. In addition, the software itself was difficult to
work with. And whenever we’d try to get in touch with
www.ezcomsoftware.com
877.765.3564 option 1
[email protected]
customer service, we could never reach a live person. We
had to leave a message, and it was usually days before
someone got back to us.” What made the situation even
more difficult, according to Blackwell, was that they thought
they had signed up with the ‘market leader.’ “They were
very overpriced,” Blackwell commented. “We were paying
top dollar for a service that was basically a dis-service.”
The eZCom Experience:
A Shared Value of Customer Service
About a year ago, Blackwell switched to eZCom’s cloudbased EDI solution, Lingo. Right away, she was impressed
with the application’s ease of use, and with the level
of customer service. She felt she had signed on with
a company that shared her business values and really
‘got it.’ “Each time I’d call, no matter who in the group I
reached, they knew my name. I really felt like I was part of
a family, and that that this is a group of people who really
love to help and love what they do—they are not in it for a
paycheck. The customer service is really over 100%.”
Blackwell noted the eZCom team’s high level of technical
expertise, as well. “We’re playing with the big hitters now,
so it’s important our information is correct and that if our
Case Study:
ABO GEAR
(Pet Products)
trading partners make any changes, we get notified right
away. eZCom stays on top of our customers’ compliance
rules and builds their changes right into the software, so
our documents and orders go out error-free.” In addition
Blackwell recalled how, on one occasion, one of her
trading partners made a consequential mistake. “The
folks at eZCom caught the error before I did, and called
me about it. Each person on the team has a great level of
professional expertise.”
eZCom’s customer service team has impressed Blackwell
with the quantity of service they provide, as well as the
quality. “They never rush you off the phone and they take
the time professionally and personally to make sure you
have clarity on the issue.” In addition, since Blackwell
doesn’t work with the application every day, she will sometimes forget things. “No matter how many times I call, they
are always happy to re-explain a process to me. They work
so hard to put up with me, I want those guys to get a raise!”
An Integrated Solution Saves Time,
Reduces Error
eZCom integrated ABO’s Quickbooks accounting solution with Lingo at the same time the company signed on.
Blackwell notes that since making the change, she’s seen
a dramatic reduction not only in the time she and her
team spend processing orders but also in the time spent
record-keeping. “Before we started using Lingo with the
Quickbooks integration, a single vendor could take me two
days. For instance, a purchase from Steinmart would be
anywhere from 200-280 orders with three different distribution centers. I would have to print out all 280 orders, and
physically key them in. Now, I press one button for each
distribution center, and it takes it right from Lingo, straight
into Quickbooks, and gives it an invoice number.”
“It makes ASN’s easier to work with as well,” Blackwell
continued. “Instead of me having to send 280 ASNs on that
many purchase orders and individually key each of them in,
I enter the information just once for each of the three distribution centers. It takes five minutes. It used to take two
days. Anything I need to do, this integrated solution does!”
The Recommendation
Blackwell is currently in the process of migrating all of
ABO’s trading partners over to the integrated Lingo solution. “We’ve had absolutely no glitches since we integrated
our Quickbooks with Lingo a year ago. I’m looking forward
to bringing over Petco drop ship. Once I complete that,
Lingo will be our exclusive EDI provider.” She feels that
anyone who wants to save time, save money, and have an
excellent customer service experience should switch to
eZCom. “When you click with someone, that’s who you
want to work with. They are a great company, and I am
very pleased.”

Download Report