Walsh Grain Terminal Testimonial
The Partnership
Taking care of those you do business with is more than sending a holiday card, slicing a discount, or even being close friends. It’s about having a genuine desire to make your customers truly successful. And at Walsh Grain Terminal, they’re doing just that.
“Anything that helps the grower is a benefit to us.”
– Kilen Flanagan, Grain Merchandiser, Walsh Grain
Their Opportunity
Walsh Grain Terminal is a grain facility located in Park River, North Dakota. Their facility serves over 100 growers. Having over 100 growers means that they have to make over 100 phone calls and remember over 100 names and faces. For a team of eight, that takes a significant amount of time. Walsh Grain would have to answer questions such as: “What are cash bids at? How much is left in my contract? What is the market?” over and over throughout the week. This is how Walsh Grain knew they needed to invest in a digital platform. One that could provide most of the answers to their growers questions any time of day. Word of Bushel Mobile and Web products caught Walsh Grain’s attention from one of their board members. “I thought it was a good idea, and a good concept,” says Kilen Flanagan, Grain Merchandiser at Walsh Grain.
The Solution
This solution for Walsh entails business insight for growers to view commodity balances, what’s left on contracts, how the market is looking, and so much more. The means in which this information comes to the growers? Walsh Grain Terminal’s Bushel Mobile app. “I would say it’s been much easier when farmers know what they got in; they’re calling and not asking. They just know a bit more about their business,” says Flanagan.
“Instead of going to Google and plugging in the website, they [Walsh Grain growers] can just go into the app and see what cash bids are for that day, or what else they want to know.”
– Kilen Flanagan, Grain Merchandiser
Their Results
The integration of the Walsh Grain app has not only helped their growers, but also the administration team at Walsh. They now are able to have more meaningful conversations with their growers during the time they would have spent answering the questions mentioned above. “They just know more. It’s made our jobs easier with guys looking at cash bids and prices more.” Says Flanagan. It is ultimately assisting them to make better business decision.
“The idea behind a transparent easy-to-use platform for our growers to check on the business they do with us, was the number one reason. We liked the concept, and want to stay progressive in any way possible, especially when it comes to marketing and customer service.”
Since joining the Bushel platform in August of 2018, the Walsh Grain app now has an adoption rate over 98% amongst their growers. Walsh’s adoption rate has almost doubled since starting the integration process. To achieve such a high adoption rate, Walsh Grain took advantage of the marketing kits provided by Bushel. The marketing kits consisted of posters, signs, a website ad, and push notifications through the app to inform their farmers.
“Making the app user-friendly with all the data clean and tidy for farmers has been one of the most useful parts.” Says Flanagan.
The drastic increase in adoption shows that the growers of Walsh Grain are enjoying their digital experience. Their app is not only taking care of their growers but also giving their facility a competitive advantage amongst neighboring elevators.
“We’re your [Bushel’s] customer, but at the same time the farmer is the customer as well. They’re the ones that make it sell. If our farmers don’t like it, we aren’t going to carry it.”
– Flanagan