Testimonials

Running 11 different campaigns at the same time over a large number of contracted field sales agencies can be a real challenge. Briggs + Walker allows us to manage them all on an equal footing, monitoring in real time and with the same set of metrics. We’ve now centralized our campaign distribution, and can push new prices and promotions uniformly with the click of a button.

Digitization of our field sales activities has made a huge improvement to our operations. Before switching to Briggs + Walker, we had to wait until the end of the week for status reports to come in; now we can monitor every move as it happens.

Our field sales agents adopted the FieldBuddy app effortlessly with minimum training required. Our agents have used them to increase cross-sales by over 30%.

There is also a big time-saving and quality improvement with digital data capturing and validation. Simple things like address validations and bank account checks have reduced fallout and increased the number of new enrollments.

We felt that the ease of use and overall user experience is far beyond what is offered by alternative solutions in the market. Plus it’s comforting to know that the technology is solid, compliant and continuously improving with new features. With Briggs + Walker, things have definitely become more professional and secure.

After investing in our own platform for a number of years, we decided in 2016 to switch to the Briggs + Walker field marketing suite. Apart from the financial resources involved, we realized that it makes more sense partnering with a leading commercial solution focused on field marketing rather than trying to keep up with the market on our own.

In the transition to Briggs + Walker, there initially was internal resistance and concern about possible extra work. However as people became familiar with the processes, everyone realized that their worries were unfounded and things have actually become easier and more efficient.

In addition, digitization has helped harmonize the sales process with full capture of all customer details. In a paper world we always found certain text fields left blank or notes scribbled on the side. We no longer have to worry about data leaks or missing customer data at all.

Briggs + Walker’s Location Manager is unique in its kind and easy to use. It provides a standard in the industry that allows multiple agencies or even an entire sector to collaborate from one central planning tool.

A shared visual map shows in real time what locations are available and which are already booked by other agencies. Everyone knows the embedded business rules like cooling off periods and nobody can get around them. It makes planning of the available public space manageable, and at the same time team crossovers or canvassing fatigue is minimized.

Also, campaign coordination between advertisers and agencies is now well-coordinated. We always have the latest campaign materials available and it is clear and consistent when changes are made.

Today Briggs + Walker continues to provide us with a proven and solid solution that is constantly evolving with new innovations.

The difference from paper to digital is massive. Paper forms were always poor for data quality. Sometimes not all the data was captured or there were mistakes due to hard-to-read handwritings. Now with digital forms data quality is always 100%.

Another important advantage of digital is GDPR compliancy and data security. Paper forms remain very cumbersome and virtually impossible for managing sensitive data.

Since we switched to FieldBuddy we’ve had a great reduction in cancellations. That’s because its data validation and processing is instant, and it lets us follow up immediately after sign ups.

It’s also been really helpful to monitor performance as it happens in the field. We can now proactively coach our people in the moment, instead of giving them guidance after the fact.

Speaking with industry peers, we hear they struggle with things like not having data available in real time, or tablet software slowing down due to server issues. Often they use very basic planning tools like Google Docs, which is quite limiting. Denmark’s field marketing industry would benefit from a more coordinated approach if more agencies used the location planning capabilities of Briggs + Walker.

Briggs + Walker solutions are very straight forward and require minimum training for planners and promoters in the field. The toolset is very robust, while at the same time flexible with API connectivity and HTML5 customizations.

Overall, it has extended our capabilities greatly. We can now have more active campaigns at the same time in the field, A/B test campaigns, and make instant updates in content. In addition to sales we can now also capture leads, check polls, hold surveys or we simply collect data for our business intelligence to optimize performance. These simply wouldn’t be possible to capture with single paper-based forms.

Briggs + Walker offers a great tool for storytelling. With paper-based field marketing, you can only show some pictures and static graphics. But with FieldBuddy, we can devise new rich-media propositions in-house and test them in the market with the click of a button. Plus, having tablets in the field looks professional; paper-based field marketing can come across as a bit shady.

Use of campaign content has increased since switching to FieldBuddy; it really helps canvassers build their storylines better than a bucket list of USPs. We have continuous contact with coaches to optimize the showreel for both new and experienced canvassers. We can see which slides are used, and easily replace poor performing slides with new ones or further optimize via A/B testing.

We integrated a savings calculator into FieldBuddy, which has been a real confidence booster for our canvassers. They’re now able to tell exactly what a household’s actual savings will be, instead of giving a ballpark figure. Our canvassers in the field have turned into true ambassadors who ‘consult’ people on the best solution instead of ‘selling’ them whatever they can.

Through Briggs + Walker we monitor shift start-and-end times and respective street/D2D sales efforts. This is especially important as it costs us a lot of money per shift, and therefore we want canvassers to run a full shift and not miss out on sales opportunities. Cutting shifts short can be disastrous for our bottom line performance, since it is a numbers game.

We never considered to developing an in-house solution as it would consume too much internal resources. Developing our own solution would also miss the point of having multiple field marketing agencies working together to coordinate campaigns, instead of having agencies crossing each other in the field. The Location Manager truly sets Briggs + Walker apart from other solutions out there.

Planning effectiveness has increased by 400% since we’ve started using Briggs + Walker. Innovative features like heatmaps allow location planners to take advantage of big data and instantly determine the best locations in a color-coded map overlay. This lets them be more in control and make decisions with certainty, instead of solely relying on gut feeling.

For the first time, we are not looking at a black box but are looking at data; how many doors are knocked on, shift duration, write-off reasons, most used slides, etc. This type of information really allows us to optimize campaigns and coach our people in the field.

With FieldBuddy we can fully adopt the look and feel of our national campaigns, and extend our branding coherently with our ambassadors in the field. The digital FAQ turns our canvassers into true ambassadors, and empowers them to answer questions without hesitation.

Our canvassers use FieldBuddy as a natural extension of their sales efforts and they really use the campaign materials to enhance their story. Equipped with a digital storyboard, canvassers are perceived as more trustworthy. This is further supported with email/sms notifications that are instantly sent to new enrollments.

In addition, real-time API connections allow people to immediately take part in the next lottery; there is no delay here. In the past, the enrollment process could take up to several weeks before people could be part of a lottery.

Address-based field marketing is a big innovation leap for us. Canvassers can identify who’s already a customer, who’s already been visited in the last months, and see which houses are on the do-not-knock list. It’s the perfect solution to minimize complaints and work efficiently. At the same time it exponentially increases available location inventory.

Training and campaign distribution costs across agencies have gone down significantly. We’ve completely eliminated the need for campaign printing and data entry, while improving our quality control. Realtime IBAN and address checks have proven to be a game changer.

Briggs +Walker is right at the core of field marketing. The moment there is a trend or a new opportunity, Briggs + Walker is there to lead field marketing innovation – and we immediately can take advantage. It’s a living application that gets better every day.

We want our customers to have a great impression of us from day one. Before working with Briggs + Walker, subscriber contracts were delivered to us several days after they were signed, so it could take up to 10 days for a new customer to receive their first newspaper. This didn’t fit with the way we wanted people to experience NRC Media. By linking Briggs + Walker’s API with our systems in real time, we’re now able to deliver the first issue to their doorstep by the next day.

In the past we didn’t have complete access to customer information and many of the quality checks were done by contracted field marketing agencies. Now with all the data sent to our systems in real time, we can have our in-house call center follows up with new subscribers directly. We’re able to provide complete clarity to the consumer upfront. Fallouts due to wrong bank account or contact details have been reduced to zero, and the net number of new registrations has increased significantly.

Coordination amongst agencies has also improved a lot since we’ve been using Briggs + Walker’s Location Manager. The planning tools open up exciting new ways for us to use our CRM data to optimize location selection. This is the future – field marketing is finally catching up to what’s been possible in online marketing for years.

Information arrives just as fast, and with the same level of detail as my colleagues in online marketing are used to. We now have ownership and control of the experience throughout the entire customer journey. Briggs + Walker has enabled us to become a frontrunner in our field.

The financial model of Briggs + Walker is very flexible. It works on the basis of mutual success and not on a fixed license per user. This means that you’re flexible in terms of workforce and only pay a small amount for every new subscriber. We pay only for what we use, not for how many users we have.

We believe in taking full advantage of a proven commercial solution and benefitting from the latest innovations from day one. Briggs + Walker was the only partner that could make our step with real time data possible. It’s a solid solution, and they really understand how field marketing works.