American Plains Case Study
BACKGROUND
For over 60 years, American Plains Co-op has been a local agricultural leader and ag service provider committed to excellence in the agriculture space. In that time, American Plains has grown to 16 elevators and 13 fueling site locations and offering agronomy, seed, feed, bulk fuel, grain, and farm supply services. While remaining committed to unwavering support of its growers and its community, American Plains is constantly looking for ways in which to provide more value and improve the customer experience.
THE OPPORTUNITY
With continued growth over the years, and a commitment to deliver the best in class customer experience, American Plains was looking for a solution to help them better engage with growers to grow and retain their business. “Growers are asking for an app to view their account information and Bushel has a reputation for providing great service, that’s why we went with Bushel for our app,” said Cammie Vaupel, Communications & Brand Programs Coordinator
American Plains partnership with the Bushel platform includes integration and data from Ever.Ag’s EFC Merchant Ag enterprise software. Bushel’s technology and integration allowed for a seamless digitization of scale tickets, contracts, settlements, and additional insights for growers to be able to immediately access this information from a smartphone or desktop without the need to track paper tickets or mail, or fear losing important documents. This has led to a winning formula for both American Plain and its growers
Speaking on the benefits and value of the product, Vaupel mentioned how Bushel and the integration with Merchant Ag solves a big need for their growers. “We saw growers visiting other websites for grain pricing, and we wanted to keep them locked in to American Plains. Our new app gives them easy, instant access to tickets and contract information, utilizing our app vs looking elsewhere,” said Vaupel.
RESULTS
Since onboarding with Bushel, American Plains has seen their growers easily adapt to all the new digital tools. After launching, grower adoption jumped 300% in the second month following their full marketing efforts to drive adoption. Push notifications allow for direct and widespread communication to growers, and continue to be leveraged throughout harvest. This has included important updates such as new hours at specific locations.
“The implementation with Bushel went very smoothly, and it was easily able to connect to our ERP data with MerchantAg. It has saved time for our office staff with providing that account information to our growers to view when they need it most,” Vaupel said.