Auto Styling Truckman is a specialist supplier and distributor of 4x4 vehicle accessories, with a wealth of market and technical knowledge. The majority of products are available for next day despatch and the company manufactures and distributes hardtops for pick up trucks and 4x4s.
Their mission is to develop their position as the fastest growing UK supplier of quality aftermarket 4x4 Pick Up & SUV hardtops and accessories. With this goal in mind, Auto Styling implemented the Maginus multi-channel solution to help improve customer service, increase efficiency and manage their business. The solution handles core business processes - sales, marketing, customer relationship management, warehouse management, financials and reporting centrally, giving access to critical business data, inventory management and visibility of stock, improving business efficiency so the company can keep pace with customer demands and support future growth.
Background
Auto Styling UK Limited was founded in 2002 and later expanded the business through the acquisition of the Truckman enterprise, a producer of hardtops with 25 years manufacturing experience, to become Auto Styling Truckman.
The company is renowned for quality and service in the UK and Europe and only stock products that meet stringent quality requirements, merchandise includes; hardtops and canopies, tonneau covers, front bars, A bars, seat covers, car mats and mud protectors etc.
Challenges
Auto Styling Truckman is a true multi-channel business, selling both to businesses (B2B) and to consumers (B2C) via the web, catalogue, call centre and workshop. The company is primarily B2B (80%), selling direct to OEMs, garages and dealers, with a small B2C channel.
Previously, the despatch process at Auto Styling had been a long and arduous process, with the level of paperwork resulting in long transaction times, which was having a huge impact on resources, especially when high volumes of orders came in. There was also a high risk of manual errors negatively impacting on time, margins and the customer relationship. For this reason, Auto Styling decided to implement Maginus to improve efficiency and keep pace with the industry and customer demands.
Mike Wheeler, Managing Director at Auto Styling and Truckman, says, "When selling direct to garages and dealers it's important to ensure that stock is readily available for next day delivery. Providing a high quality range of car products isn't enough, it's imperative that we deliver and exceed on customer expectations to differentiate from the competition and continue to develop our services."
Being a multi-channel, multi-brand company, Auto Styling Truckman required real-time visibility of inventory in multiple warehouses and sales across all channels, for a clear picture of overall sales and stock, ensuring that customer demands and service agreements are met.
The solution
Auto Styling Truckman now uses the Maginus multi-channel solution to manage both multi-channel B2B and B2C elements of the business. Core functionality includes sales, marketing, customer relationship management, warehouse management, financials and reporting. All details relating to customers and stock are held on one database. Stock is available to fulfil orders from any channel and staff can get a 360° view of each customer showing every mailing, telephone call and transaction, regardless of the channel used.
The system ensures that Auto Styling is very disciplined as a business and everything is handled efficiently from taking an order to warehouse management and customer service. The company has further enhanced despatch management, which required better visibility and connection with carriers.
For additional functionality, including; accurate tracking and email updates and better visibility of parcels – operating a more efficient despatch process, a carrier interface was incorporated into the multichannel system , using an API (Applied Program Interface).
Mike commented, "Having previously used the Maginus multi-channel solution during my time as CEO at Formula 4x4, I understood its capabilities. It's easy to use and fully scalable, meaning that it's able to manage and process high volumes of orders as the business continues to grow, supporting and facilitating future growth at the desired rate. For this reason, when it came to selecting a system to support the company Maginus was the obvious choice."
Benefits
The company is bucking the current economic trend by increasing in turnover by 40% in the past 12 months. They expect this to increase a further 20% in 2012. "This growth has been underpinned by the Maginus system, which has improved efficiency across the company, from order management to the warehouse operations and next day direct despatch," says, Mike.
The Maginus multi-channel solution allows Auto Styling and Truckman to be very customer focused and flexible in terms of dealing with and resolving customer queries. Immediate access to the customer information and order history means that the call centre can quickly handle all customer enquiries.
There is a complex and wide spanning product range and the Maginus system is able to identify exactly which vehicle make and model a customer requires, ensuring the correct part is ordered, picked, packed and dispatched.
Mike at Auto Styling, commented, "Ours is a very complex multi-channel business and Maginus is the only system capable of handling all of our requirements within a single integrated system."
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