Regina Balistreri and John Coyle, Director of Marketing / Documentation and Vice President of Sales at ADD Systems, respectively, join us to discuss today’s marketing initiatives, ways ADD Systems tools have helped clients grow their businesses, how ADD Systems software can help with marketing, and more.
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Brian Cohen: Welcome to ADDcast. I’m ADD Systems Multimedia Specialist Brian Cohen, and I’m joined today by Regina Balistreri, Director of Marketing and Documentation, and John Coyle, Vice President of Sales at ADD Systems. Thank you both for joining today.
Regina Balistreri: Thanks for having us.
John Coyle: Thrilled to be here, Brian.
Brian: Regina, can you start by telling us a little bit about your background and role at ADD Systems?
Regina: Sure. Since 2018, I’ve been the Director of Marketing here at ADD Systems, and recently picked up the documentation role as well. Before that, back in the early 90s, I was here at ADD Systems as a documentation writer and then moved on to be in sales. I moved out to California to be our west coast salesperson. And then I went on to work for another industry as a financial analyst and then came back here to ADD Systems and took on the marketing role.
Brian: John, same question to you.
John: So, I’ve been with ADD Systems for just over 10 years as the Vice President of Sales. Before ADD Systems, I spent about 20 years in consumer product goods, bringing all sorts of different things to market, to specialty and mass market retailers across the country.
Brian: Well, what do you see as some of the most important marketing initiatives today?
Regina: What I’d see as the most important marketing initiatives are really reaching more people. I don’t think that’s any changed over the last few years than it was for the last 100 years. You want to reach as many people as you can. Most people here want to increase their customer base and grow their company. And I think then it just becomes a question of how are you measuring those things? And what tools are you using to reach out to people to grow that base?
John: Yeah, to build on what Regina said, my take on marketing initiatives is really about how do we connect with our customers and prospects. The software that we deliver improves efficiency in their business, and, ultimately, those increases in efficiency will drive profit to their bottom line. So those are the things that they’re looking for when they think of software. As we look at our software and say, “How do we make sure that they understand what we offer?” We’re really looking for ways to convey that adding efficiency increases the bottom line, and it’s done through software. So how do we connect is really the goal. We want to connect with those customers and prospects in ways that make sense to them. And that’s how we’ve really defined our marketing initiatives for 2023 and 2024.
Brian: So what are some of the marketing goals ADD Systems’ customers have?
Regina: Well, Brian, I think they’re actually really very similar to what ADD Systems’ goals are like John was just speaking about. I think, across the board, you’re trying to reach your prospects, your customers, you’re trying to make sure you get your marketing message across. And that’s a lot of work these days. There’s high expectations for your communication with your customers. I think just from, you know, years ago, we’ve all talked about how Amazon kind of raised the bar. And now everybody has these expectations. And so, I think your goal is to use your marketing tools and your software tools to help you with that context. And that means automation. That means whatever you can get your software to do to make sure that contact happens so that you can have your time freed up to really handle the cases that really need that personal touch. You need to be able to talk to people as they come into your office, but you also need at the same time the software to be saying, “Hey, we’re going to be out there for a delivery tomorrow.” And, “Oh, fantastic. We got out there and your gate was locked.” So, we have that personal touch. But it’s really the software behind the scenes, getting that done. People really just expect more. I think you also want to know what’s going on. Now you got this automation happening, and how do you know what’s going on? It’s just happening in the background. Well, now there’s BI (business intelligence) reporting, and all sorts of reporting, that can tell you what’s going on, bringing exceptions to the surface, so that you still have your hands in it. You have the visibility into everything that’s going on out there, but you don’t have to have your hands actually pulling all the levers. Everything’s happening in the background. You get to focus on giving that personal attention to the person who just walked in the door or just called you.
John: Yeah, when I think about the marketing goals that I discussed with our customers, many of them are doing the same things as ADDs, trying to connect with their customers and their prospects in a way that their customers are going to respond to them. For some of our customers, it’s really about driving the fact that they are an all-in-one company and they’re there to support them in whatever their customers need. For others, it’s really about reaching out to a new group of customers. Maybe they’ve expanded into a new market and they’ve got to establish themselves as a key or dominant player in the market or somebody that people should consider looking for when they’re looking at, you know, potentially buying fuel or other products. So, building on what Regina said, one of the things that we talk to customers about is how do we leverage automation to increase that marketing efficiency. There are 100 different ways to touch customers. Today, we can do it through print; we can do it through mail; we can do it through radio; we can do it through email; we can do it through social media. Coming up with a plan that’s comprehensive is something that our customers are striving for. They want to hit a little bit of everything. But what they’re also struggling with or trying to work on is trying to have a common message across all those platforms, because one platform alone will not get it done today. It used to be very simple: you put it into print, and that was all your marketing was. And today, it really has evolved into a very complex marketing mix. Keeping the same messaging across and trying to leverage automation wherever possible to deliver that message has really become a key thing. I’m a big believer myself in the informed customer is a happy customer. And so, what I see in terms of marketing goals for our customers, is those that are trying to have a very active plan to keep engaged with their customers, deliver information about what’s going on with their business and software or services that they’re offering, is really the driving factor for them and trying to deliver a comprehensive total plan.
Brian: So what are some of the ADD software tools ADD customers can use to meet those marketing goals?
Regina: Well, I think like John was saying, our customers want to meet people where they are. They have a message; they need to get it across a number of different platforms and be consistent. So, we have a number of different software tools that can help you get that job done. I think the most basic one, when you think of messaging, is our customer communications module. And that really allows you to send really targeted messages to customers, both automatically and on demand. But if you want to do something on demand, you can choose a list of people that meet certain criteria, and send that message out. But that module lets you do more than just get that message out. It also lets you pay attention to what they want you to do. Do they want you to email them? Do they want you to text them? They only want you to text them only about deliveries and email about other things. You get to really fine-tune how you send these messages out so that you’re really paying attention to them. And it feels like that personal touch. And another set of tools that we have are our mobile products. So, when you talk about giving personal touches to customers, having a driver or a service tech with a mobile tablet, it gives them all sorts of information about that customer. So that driver really knows that customer when they get on site. That’s really important. That driver also can write down notes to get back to the back office about what’s going on at that customer site. So, the rest of the back office also knows what’s going on. Not to mention the fact that as they’re approaching a customer to do a delivery or something, or as they had them on their route, that customer is getting information or getting a text about the fact that they’re coming. So, there’s all those personal touches that the mobile products allow to give you that kind of really personal touch with your customers. And then I think there’s just the simple efficiency of the software. So, you give all your people back some time so that they can spend the actual time with people because there’s really nothing, even though we have all these marketing tools that allow you to do all these touches with customers and have all this, meet sort of the expectations of the new customer, really what everybody wants is that personal experience when they need it. They don’t want to sit on hold. And when they call the office, they want that friendly person on the other side. So you really want things that are going to allow your people to get that personal touch. And that’s what our software tools do.
John: I 100% agree with Regina. In fact, moving deeper into our software tools, we developed a product many years ago called SmartConnect. And that product has a number of different touches that aren’t what I would consider traditional marketing in terms of advertising, but ultimately are really delivering a customer service level of marketing to our operations or our customers’ operations. One of the ways that can happen is when a customer calls into a site, they leverage a tool in SmartConnect called phone pops. When you call a company, that phone number calling into the company triggers that back office system to pull up the customer’s information. So, when the CSR talks to the customer for the first time, they know who’s calling. They know information about their account, before they ever say, “Hello, and thank you for calling. Who are you?” And that type of customer service is, again, becoming a little bit more expected but is one way to really connect with a customer that I do believe is truly part of marketing, but is leveraged in the tool from our SmartConnect module. Another one is we see more and more customers, and this has transitioned a lot over the last say, 10 to 15 years, that we developed this tool is more customers are not calling in, but they’re logging on. And through our SmartConnect tool, it allows our customers to build a customer portal for their customers. So, a client who’s maybe getting a delivery of fuel can log in and check their past bills, can check their last orders, can order a new delivery. They can do all those things online, 24 hours a day. I have to say, I’m a big proponent of it. I do a lot of my bill pay myself in our household, and I do most of it at 10:30 – 11 o’clock at night. That’s when I have time to do it. So, I’m leveraging online tools, and so, ADDs developed the SmartConnect product to allow our customers to build these really in-depth customer portals that pull information directly from the software, and that’s feeding the customer’s ability to do more by themselves online. It’s like getting a 24-hour customer service agent for free. But those tools truly are marketing. They’re marketing the business; they’re marketing the messaging that we want to deliver to our customers. We want to show them that we’re there for them 24 hours a day. We’re making their lives easier. I really roll that into part of your marketing and your marketing goals and messaging. The combination of things that we’ve built around our customers’ entire businesses through software and software tools, is allowing them to connect with customers, their customers at a level that is driving their marketing message. And again, trying to level that consistency of message across all these areas is certainly key. What allows them to connect with customers and connecting with customers is establishing long-term relationships to keep those customers with you for a long time.
Brian: So, looking at the big picture, why is marketing such an integral piece of a company’s overall business strategy?
Regina: Well, Brian, I think people have expectations today, and you need to meet them to keep their business. I think the ultimate goal these days is to have your customer be your cheerleader. Nothing’s really changed from what it was 100 years ago. Word of mouth is the absolute best way to get business. So, if you can please one customer, and that customer goes around and becomes your salesperson because they’re so happy with your service, you give them such fantastic service, that they can’t wait to tell their neighbor, that’s the real goal. So, I think that’s what grows businesses. You can acquire a business and get a whole bunch of new accounts, but if you don’t treat them right, if they don’t feel like you’re hearing them, then they’re going to go elsewhere. People can jump quickly. And I think these days, you really want to get that person that really loves you. It’s your star player on your team, but you’re not paying them. They’re actually your customer. They’re getting out there and getting the word out. I think these tools help you keep that automation going so you never drop the ball on something. And then every time you talk to them, you can give that great service because you have that great company culture and that’s what you do. And now you’ve got these people out in the field who really can’t wait to tell people the story of how well you took care of them. So, I think marketing is, and always has been, a really important part of a company’s overall strategy. Now we just have a whole lot of tools and a whole lot of expectations of where to meet our customers so that we can please them.
Brian: So, John, can you share any real-life customer examples for fuel delivery?
John: Sure. When we think about marketing and the fuel delivery, you know, there’s a couple of different things I’d like to talk about. The first is let’s assume you have a customer and they placed an order, well, what you leave them at the time of delivery is marketing. So, a lot of our customers are leveraging technology, they’re leveraging our mobile distribution product that we mentioned earlier. Raven is the mobile delivery solution. And through Raven, we can leave them a priced invoice ticket. So, we deliver 300 gallons of fuel; we’ve put it in their tank; we’re leaving this door hanger on their door; we can’t put it in the mailbox, you know, due to postal rules, right? So, we need a way to market our company, but also deliver the invoice because, ultimately, let’s face it, that’s how we get paid. So, from the delivery hanger, the envelope, or the clear bag that we put it in, we’ve marked it with our marketing message, we put our company name and perhaps our company logo. The invoice itself is an opportunity to market yourself. Yeah, you’re giving a bill, you’re telling them how much fuel was delivered, you’re telling them the price, you tell them the taxes and any additional fees. But there’s a lot of real estate on that ticket. A lot of companies will leverage the back of the ticket to put some additional marketing messages. They really try to come up with something that looks pretty. It is an invoice but we want it to represent the company. And so, just in leaving a delivery ticket, we’re marketing ourselves to that customer. They’re going to pay that ticket, they’re going to look at that ticket. Hopefully, after that, they won’t think about it much. But, you know, that’s the opportunity to connect with them. When they get home, they say “Hey, ABC Fuel has been out to my house, I have my fuel for tonight, I’m going to be warm, and this is a good-looking ticket. I’m going to make sure I pay that bill and perhaps pay it online by leveraging the SmartConnect tool we mentioned. But that is all marketing related to touching the customer. In addition to that, again, if we’re leveraging all the tools that are available, well, I’ve actually texted the customer that I’m going out there today to make that delivery. After the delivery has been made, I might be texting the customer to say, “Hey, we put 300 gallons in your tank and your bill will be on the door.” So, we’re connecting to the customer both before, during really, and then after the delivery in both print and digital. It could also be email if that was the customer’s preference. But again, text is what we’re seeing most of our clients are engaging with. And again, that’s driven by as Regina said earlier, what I would call the Amazon experience. With Amazon, we learned, hey, we get a text when we place our order, we get a text when our order is out for delivery, we get a text and a picture of when it’s been delivered. So, customer expectation is really looking for that from fuel delivery companies, and, again, leveraging the right software gives you the tools to be able to meet that demand.
Regina: Just to follow up on that customer example and just thinking about that personal experience, when I visited my mom recently, I came out of the house on a cold day, and there was the Dixon Energy truck in the driveway filling the tank. I didn’t have to call. Everything was just there. They were taking excellent care of my mom. I waved to the driver, everything’s fine. But if something were to go wrong, my mom knows she picks up the phone and talks to Jennifer Pearson and gets that personal experience well taken care of. Not to mention that this is the first customer that we had at ADD Systems, first customer was Dixon Energy. But that’s just an example of the fact that the software is doing what it needs to do, to keep customers warm and happy. And then freeing up the people there to be able to, you know, pick up that call, talk to my mom, and make her feel well taken care of. That’s what people expect today. And it seems like it’s nice and easy. You just walk out the door, there’s a truck, but there’s a lot going on in the background. And that’s what these tools give you the ability to do.
Brian: So, John, how about some examples in the service/HVAC industry?
John: Yes, some of the same things that we leveraged in fuel delivery, we’re leveraging as a tool for customer experience and marketing on the service side. As an example, when we dispatch a technician out to a house, we’re again, leveraging email or text to notify the customer that somebody is going to be out today. When the technician has actually marked himself en route through our Pegasus mobile application, we can again text the customer to say that the technician is en route. That’s become an invaluable tool. We all had the experience where we’re waiting eight hours a day in the house for the cable guy who’s supposed to show up between the hours of eight and five, and he doesn’t get there till 4:45. I would have loved to have known when he was in route, so I didn’t have to sit at home all day. The technology that’s available to companies today, whether it be on delivery or service, gives us the ability to connect with customers and let them know where we are throughout the day. You know, I think when I look at this, I say Uber was one of the first ones that really drove the experience for customers. You order an Uber on your phone, you can track the driver, it tells you they’re four minutes away, you see them on the map and making their progress. So again, customers are expecting the same type of experience from fuel companies that as they’re making their deliveries or service companies as they’re coming out to do service. So, you need a software system that has the tools that allow you to deliver that same type of experience. And we’re doing that. So once the technician has arrived, he’s using his tablet to go over the job that he’s there to do. He’s able to give the customer an estimate that they can sign off on, on the tablet, we’re capturing a signature. All of which is going to be reported or sent via email to the customer after the experience, after the delivery has been made. And that’s going to allow us to have an end-to-end type solution. So, we’ve touched base with this customer, before we’ve come out, we’ve kept them up on our progress that we’ve made the way out where we’re delivering the final bill, they’re getting a copy of it, they’re seeing their signature captured, of course, we’re using that to make sure we get paid. And we’re able to sometimes capture payments right on-site if that’s part of the company’s practice. So, we’re really trying to leverage the tools that are available within the software to enhance that customer experience. And again, that experience is all part of our company’s marketing message.
Brian: So, Regina, what about c-store operations then?
Regina: So, for the c-store operations, our focus is on the home office and the back office. And really, that is to continue along the same theme, to give that manager and the people in the store the ability to have that time to give that personal experience. And then you’re really talking about, you have people coming in all the time. Personal experience opportunities are like abound. So, our software is focusing on the same thing: doing some automation, making things simple, so that the manager isn’t sitting there trying to do their shift reporting and, you know, muddling through all this paperwork in the back office rather than out on the floor helping someone understand something or telling them about the two-for-one deals. It’s really about getting that personal experience. So exactly the same thing as what we do in our fuel delivery side of our software, is what we’re doing in the convenience store industry as well.
Brian: Okay, so let’s look into the future. What marketing initiatives do you see coming up? And how is ADDs going to help with those?
Regina: So, I see the future is more of give everybody what they want, meet them where they live. And so, I think the tools will continue to evolve with that strategy. How do you get your brand across a number of different touchpoints? How do you make sure you have that personal touch? What tools and automation do you need in the background to help you get there? I think that’s what ADD Systems is always doing. So we have a good communication with our customers through our user group. We’re always listening to what’s the next thing they feel like they need. And then we make the tools to get there. And we make the tools while we’re talking to them while they’re telling us what’s needed. And then we’re out there in the field as well, listening to our prospects hearing what they need. And I think really, it is the same thing that’s always been, how do we get people to be able to make that personal touch? Whether that’s through an actual personal touch, or whether that’s through some marketing automation that gives that personal touch that shows the customer that you know what they want, and what they need. And that’s really the continuation of the goal from, you know, like I said, 100 years ago, it’s that personal touch.
John: Yeah, I’d have to agree with Regina. As we look to the future, we know that our clients are challenged with delivering their marketing message across so many platforms. The number of platforms and the types of messaging, honestly, it’s just going to continue to grow. We don’t know what the next Twitter is going to be, or the next Instagram, but we know that there will be another one. And there will be a new way for our clients to connect. So, whether it be in print in an invoice or a mailer, or putting things on the radio, our goal is to deliver software that gives them access to the information that they hold about their customers in the easiest formats possible, so they can leverage that information to deliver the marketing message that the company is trying to get out there. And it really is about connecting with the consumer, at their level the way they want to be connected. We’ve certainly done studies, and I’ve read a lot about the dynamics of boomers, first millennials, and how people want to be connected. We have clients who definitely want their bills sent in the mail; we have other clients who only want it via email; we have clients who are working with people who want to get texts and others don’t want to text, they want a phone call. You need a system that allows you to identify how each customer wants to be communicated and then uses that automation to be able to do that so that you’re able to deliver the messaging the way your individual customers want it. And that technology exists today; we’ll continue to look for more ways to deliver that. And we’ll work with clients to figure out what the next big thing is that we need to adapt our software to do.
Brian: So, if someone wants to learn more or implement some of these marketing tools, how would they get started?
Regina: Well Brian, I think they could go on our website to get more information. If you want to do some more research, it’s at addsys.com. Or call our office. Anyone’s happy to speak with you. It’s 800-922-0972. But really, we’re happy to meet you wherever you want to be met, whether that be doing your research on our website, emailing us for some information, calling us for some information, we’re happy to help.
John: Yeah, the only thing I’d add to that, Regina, is leveraging the AUG or ADD User Group. If you’re an ADD customer, we’ve got a user group that brings together a collective group of ADD users from across the country. They share ideas, and, basically, work together to find out what’s working in certain areas and be able to duplicate that in their own areas – communicating with others in the industry and finding out what’s working for them and trying to adapt those practices. I think the other thing is in terms of the software is working with your ADD sales rep and getting out there, whether it’s an ADD System software, or if you’re on some other system, but work with the company that’s giving you the tools and make sure you’re maximizing those tools. All too often I talk to clients that are prospects of ours, and they’ve got a system and they’re just not using it to their fullest capabilities. And because of that, they want to move to a new system. When they install a new system, they really want to make sure they get the most out of it. You know, there’s no point in buying a sports car and never getting it out of first gear. And when you buy a back office software that has all these tools, you want to make sure you’re working through all the gears and you’re getting that thing out to top speed. And that takes a little bit of effort, that takes some training, that takes a conscious decision to say what do we need to do next to be able to get more out of the system and working with your provider to do that. And providers are on standby to help you do that because we love to work with clients who are using the system to the best of their ability. As Regina said earlier, happy customers are your best advocates and marketing arm and salespeople. So, we want our customers out there using the system, proud of the system they’ve got, and talking to it about other prospects that ADDs is working on.
Brian: Well, Regina and John, this has been extremely informative. Thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today.
Regina: Thanks, Brian!
John: Brian, it’s been our pleasure as always.
Brian: To keep up with the latest happenings at ADD Systems, visit addsys.com/blog or connect with us on social media by following ADD Systems on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter/X. If you have any questions about ADDcast, feel free to reach out to us at addcast@addsys.com. Thanks for listening. Have a great day!
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