Wholesale B2B and outdoor industry news, tips, and tricks.

A Conversation With See Kai Run

Written by Mark Johnson | 10/18/17 4:00 AM

We work hard to provide brands with a modern platform that increases efficiency and smooths out their customer interactions. Envoy makes it easy for brands to do business so they can focus on increasing their successes. We had a chat with the folks over at See Kai Run to see how Envoy has helped them bring their B2B system forward into the modern age. Read on to find out how Envoy is helping See Kai Run improve their business.

Can you give us a quick history of See Kai Run?

In 2004, a Seattle mom was on a quest to find a shoe that was best in health and design for her son’s feet. She was looking for fun, sophisticated styles that also promoted healthy foot development; but she didn’t find any, so she created See Kai Run. Today, a dedicated team of footwear makers and designers carry on this mission. Our experience and footwear knowledge ensures that every style we produce provides flexibility, is easy on and stays on, and has room to move!

What challenges did you face before you adopted Envoy?

Before Envoy, Customer Service used manual entry for orders received via, e-mail, fax, and even standard mail. The additional hurdles required to process and confirm orders were challenging for both the CS team as well as the sales force to manage and reference orders. Overcoming human error was a common challenge in our process at all levels.

In addition to Customer Service challenges strain was placed on our Marketing team to provide assets to both the sales force and to accounts. We were heavily reliant on drop box and were creating ad-hoc requests for various accounts. Consistency in message was becoming a challenge.

We were also heavily reliant on hard copy catalogs to convey our product offering and in telling our Brand story.

Lastly were also heavily reliant on communicating inventory through excel worksheet distributed through e-mail. Transposing that information into an order form would often create error that could lead to a negative sales experience. There were too many moving parts to our system.

How did Envoy help you solve those problems?

First, both our sales team and accounts now have shared visibility of our most current available inventory and can easily place orders on the spot. Prior to the sell-in process our reps can build customized assortments for accounts that they in turn can either approve for order or make adjustments to fit their merchandising plans.

Also all marketing assets live in one place so both Rep and Account can access current See Kai Run tools for a unified brand story.

Lastly, Reps and Accounts have instant access to a digital catalog and our seasonal product story vs. waiting for our hard copy catalog to land on doorstep. As a result we gained up to six additional weeks for selling and additional sales data to inform critical buying decisions.

What kind of effect have you seen on your business since you implemented Envoy?

We saw an increase in pre-booking by 30% and a 40% reduction in order entry time.

What features of Envoy surprised and delighted you?

  • Assortment planning
  • Ease of order entry
  • Category Filters
  • Size run copy and paste functions

What’s the most significant benefit that Envoy has brought to your brand?

Envoy has been our river guide to modernizing our sales process and adds an additional level of professionalism to our organization.

Time is one of our most valuable resources. Envoy has helped remove hurdles in our sales, marketing, and customer service process making it easier for accounts to work with us. By freeing up all stakeholders time we have seen a higher return on investment creating additional value for our Brand!

Anything else you’d like to add?

Envoy’s team is a pleasure to work with! We are only scratching the surface of the capabilities of Envoy and look forward to continue exploring options to remove additional hurdles to streamline our processes!

Thanks to See Kai Run for taking the time to chat! Visit See Kai Run to learn more about a great brand. If you would like a demo of Envoy get in touch with us here. And look for more conversations with other great brands and members of our community in the future!