How to Identify Communication Channels to Move Your Business Forward
Presented By Proagrica As the market continues to grow increasingly more complex and competitive, Ag Retailers are in need of a strategic advantage. Some key areas in which Ag Retailers are looking to gain an edge include workflow optimization, identifying new business or growth opportunities, decreasing turnaround time and enhancing client communication.
Forward thinking Ag Retailers are making strides in these areas through an understanding of the tools available to support their success and remaining ahead of the curve in the rapidly shifting marketplace. “In order to be competitive, a lot of it really is about bringing together the information needed to make decisions – purchasing, taxes, agronomic information – and gaining a true understanding of the abilities Ag Retailers have at their fingertips,” says Scott Cogdill, Director of Agronomy Solutions for Proagrica. “The right tools can even strengthen relationships; they can become an extension of the grower/agronomist/Ag Retailer relationship in a digital format.”
Understanding Agribusiness Communication Channels
Like many industries, Agribusiness continues to rely on email and Microsoft Office communication solutions. “Mostly like everyone in day-to-day life, agribusiness today is very email-centric — text and phone, as well,” says Mr. Cogdill. “We are starting to see growth in digital communications, but I am still a firm believer that the vast majority of communications are happening between the standard forms of communication. Reports are often in the form of spreadsheets — it is how we look at purchasing history, things like that.”
With any form of communication, there are risks and benefits. “In traditional communication, you think about how long AR can drag out, how long billing can take,” says Mr. Cogdill. “Realistically, you are going to add at least 14 days to AR. Putting proposals in spreadsheets versus pulling them out of your agronomic system creates a risk for human error and it creates a disconnect. You have to remember where everything is and update multiple places. Then, you have to communicate with growers after finding information in many places.”
Relying on the time-tested options of email and spreadsheet communication also comes with positives and negatives, such as:
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“We have all lived and died by the excel spreadsheet. We are now starting to see the problem with dual entry. There is no reason to replicate that data to send to someone in a spreadsheet if it exists in your data system.”
Scott Cogdill, Director of Agronomy Solutions for Proagrica
Utilizing an Omnichannel Approach to Communication
While Omnichannel communication strategies have been growing in popularity since 2008, it is only recently growing in popularity among Ag Retailers and within agribusiness in general. “Omnichannel helps the relationship become tighter between the Ag Retailer and the grower. It makes Ag Retailers more efficient, but still requires their knowledge and information. It can benefit every point in the business process,” says Mr. Cogdill.
Omnichannel is defined as a cross-channel content strategy used by organizations to improve their user experience and drive better relationships with their audience across points of contact. Rather than working in parallel, Omnichannel communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate. “Omnichannel is meant to be the digital version of a relationship between your company and your agronomist/growers/customers. There may be no financial transactions, or there may be. It is up to the end user to decide what their Omnichannel presence is,” says Mr. Cogdill. “With solutions like Proagrica’s Omnichannel platform, it can be about cataloging history, tracking the relationship, sharing messages or it could focus on financial transactions and allowing growers to connect to their loans and engage with commerce. Simply put, it is an extension of the relationship.”
Ultimately, industry experts, like Proagrica, have created Omnichannel solutions in order to help Ag Retailers gain visibility into their business, catch missed opportunities, better serve their customers and more easily communicate across their teams. “One of the big advantages of Omnichannel is that it does allow you to create that communication scenario you want for your company,” says Mr. Cogdill. “For most agribusinesses, there is data everywhere. Omnichannel allows you to reduce the noise around the data and truly focus on the impactful information. It creates the narrative that the Retailer is trying to demonstrate to the grower. It creates a streamlined communication tool with real-time access to game-changing information.”
Moving Forward
Looking ahead, Ag Retailers must identify the solutions that allow their processes to be more efficient and their businesses to grow more profitable. “Margins are tight, cost is always a concern. The reality is that Omnichannel solutions are about seeing the value and eliminating excessive spending because you can make more efficient decisions,” says Mr. Cogdill. “At Proagrica, we are trying to create models that allow scalability and the retailers can choose what fits their needs in terms of cost, productivity, etc. So, they can pick their own journey when it comes to Omnichannel.”
Proagrica is uniquely positioned to partner closely with Ag Retailers to integrate all communication channels and enhance relationships with growers by both providing the seamless customer experience they now expect and protecting sensitive product pricing information. To learn more about Omnichannel solutions, click here.