The start of a new calendar year is a natural time for reflection, planning, and goal setting. How might you increase your impact with your customers this year? What can you do to more fully engage your farmers in 2024? If these things are on your mind, we’re here to help. Below are some ideas to help you drive farmer adoption and increase their use of your Bushel-powered app and web portal.
Engage Your Staff
The first step in further engaging your farmers’ use of your Bushel-powered tools is engaging your staff. Driving adoption is a team effort and the Bushel team is happy to assist you. Our team of customer success managers are your strategic partners, and they are committed to ensuring your team is set up for success. They would be happy to schedule a training session for new employees or give a refresher to any members of your staff.
“Our customer success manager has been great, just every step of the way. He is very thorough, providing feedback, asking questions, and just staying in line with what we believe we need and where we’re going. So I think we’ve just always been on the same page. I’m grateful that they’ve even reached out to our farmers and asked, ‘What can we do better, and how can we do it better?’ So I found a lot of value in that they’re willing to go the extra mile for my farmer just like I am.”
– Lindsey Bowers, United Ag
Push Notifications
Use push notifications to share important updates with your customers, such as holiday hours or introducing new team members. Here are more suggested uses for push notifications:
- Location Update/Hours
- Special Events
- Market Fluctuations
- Commentary
- New Features
- Meetings
- Links to important articles, etc.
“I sent a push notification out today about our holiday closure and processing year-end settlements. Right away I had three people call and say, ‘Hey, can I get a check today? I like that feature.” – Lou Pfister – Woodall Grain
*Apple Users must have push notifications enabled to receive those alerts, so encourage your farmers to turn on notifications for your app. Enable notifications from Settings.
Need a refresher on sending or scheduling push notifications? Check out these articles:
eSign
Sending contracts or other documents using eSign is a time saver for you and your farmer customers. An eSign contract also provides the farmer with a digital record in both the app and web portal, reducing risk for your business.
“Esign dropped our contract turnaround time to a single day. In E-sign, we can see when we submitted it for their signature, when they signed it, and when it was returned back to us. That’s a better auditing trail in that regard, for sure.” – Pat Yerxa, Ritzville Warehouse Company
Make Offer
Engaging with farmers digitally can mean more opportunities to drive origination.
“I tell my farmers – you need to start using the app (to make trade offers). It’s not like old-school marketing. We don’t move 10 cents in a week. We’re moving 30 cents in a day sometimes. You’re missing huge opportunities. You need to use the app – it adds an extra layer of marketing capabilities for you.” Jeff Smale – Smale Farms
Learn more about Bushel’s bid, offer, and hedge management solution
Promotions
There are many ways to promote your app and web portal to your customers. Here are a few suggestions based on success stories from our customers.
- Marketing Kits
Are you using your Bushel-provided marketing assets to promote your app and web portal? When you launched your Bushel tools you received a marketing kit with posters, statement stuffers, sticky notes, digital ads, and social media graphics. If you aren’t already, start putting them to use today to remind your customers about the benefits of your mobile app and web portal.
2. Social Media
Have you engaged with your farmers via social media yet? Don’t be nervous…we have graphics made just for you! The graphics were created as part of your marketing kit. If you need access to these files, don’t hesitate to contact your customer success manager.
Don’t forget to also use your website to promote your app and web portal.
3. Adoption Contests
While the time-saving and efficiency value will be strong enough on their own to entice many farmers to use your Bushel-powered tools, some folks need a little extra incentive. Adoption contests are an excellent way to encourage those who have not logged in yet to do so and reward those who are already active users.
For example, you can host a raffle for your farmers. Raffle off a coveted item. Use an electronic raffle wheel tool (like this one: https://pickerwheel.com/) to randomly select a winner from the users whose initial log-in to the app occurred during the contest time frame. Reach out to your customer success manager for directions on how to access your logged in user report in the web portal.
4. Grower Events
Do you host events for your growers? Our team would love to join you. Events can be a great way to inform your customers about your Bushel-powered app and web portal, the value they bring, and help drive adoption.
As your partner, we strive to help you get the most value from your Bushel-powered tools. In the new year, we encourage you to try some of the suggestions above and see what resonates most with your customers.
