Splunk helps get segmented data to our sales associates quickly and efficiently, and gives them the confidence to make more informed decisions.
Ferguson Enhances Customer Service, Profits With Splunk Cloud
With $13.8 billion in revenue, Ferguson is the largest U.S. distributor of plumbing supplies and a top provider of related products.
Since 1953, a dedication to world-class service has fueled its growth to over 1,400 locations and 23,000 associates. Predictive analytics initiatives recently uncovered large amounts of valuable sales data, but the customer experience team struggled to get actionable information to regional teams. Since deploying Splunk Cloud, Ferguson has seen benefits including:
- Better alignment of organizational resources with customer needs
- Stronger customer relationships and loyalty reduces customer churn
- Profitable growth from a well-defined focus on customer needs
Challenges
- Dynamic marketplace requires fast response to changing customer needs transactional environment with high traffic volumes
- Volumes of data impacting reliance on spreadsheets and email
- Inadequate usability and adoption of existing business analytics
- Secure access to business and customer data
Business Impact
- Improved customer satisfaction with real-time predictive analytics
- Increased sales efficiency through quick adoption and ease of use
- Fast time-to-value and simplified solution management
- Superior customer experience that helps maintain market leadership
- Reduced reporting from one month to real time
- Profitable growth from well-defined focus on customer needs
Why Splunk
Ferguson operates in a dynamic marketplace where buyers range from small plumbers to billion-dollar refineries, and new housing trends affect product demand. In this climate, sales teams must anticipate customer needs and react quickly to changes in behavior. “The pressure on our sales team is high,” says Christopher Clark, director of customer experience and market research. Historically, a data-driven culture led to industry-leading service excellence, “but reliance on emailing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets was inefficient,” says Clark.
The customer experience group needed a better business analytics solution with greater usability and sales team adoption. Ferguson’s IT operations and security staff had already deployed Splunk Enterprise and introduced the platform to Clark and his colleagues. “I was blown away with the instant access to intelligent visual reports, the broad scope of use cases, and the embedded security in Splunk Cloud,” says Chandra Vaughan, customer experience and marketing analyst.
SLAIT Consulting partnered with Splunk and proposed a streamlined approach that would break down data silos at Ferguson. This included a holistic assessment to determine the best data sources for the company’s business analytics strategy.
