Empire Safety & Supply Secures a&

Rex

For more than 17 years, Empire Safety & Supply Co. has been supplying industrial safety
equipment to government agencies, utility companies, and private contractors. The company
has earned the distinction of serving as the primary safety supplier for the state of California.
To manage and track its customer relationships to its best advantage, Empire Safety relies on
ACT! by Sage.

An Integrated Picture
Several years ago, the company was using Goldmine® as its contact management system
and Sage BusinessWorks Accounting for its back office accounting functions. “There was a
link between the two systems, but when that link was discontinued we decided to replace
Goldmine,” says Tony Smith, eCommerce coordinator for Empire Safety. “It’s important to us
to have integration between our front and back office systems.”

Empire Safety was impressed by the powerful marketing and communication tools included
with ACT! and selected it as its new contact and customer management solution, in large
part because of the integration between ACT! and Sage Businessworks.

More recently, the company upgraded its accounting software from Sage BusinessWorks
to Sage MAS 200 ERP, which also integrates with ACT!. Empire Safety and the company’s
Sage Software business partner are in the process of configuring the ACT! Link, the
component that facilitates the integration between ACT! and Sage MAS 200. “We’re excited
about the integration,” Smith says. “That is a big reason we prefer to stick with Sage
Software products.”

Strategic Marketing Pays Dividends
At its customer conferences throughout the year, Empire Safety invites customers and
prospects to explore new product offerings, meet various safety product vendors, and attend
training seminars. ACT! is the primary tool Empire Safety uses to promote these conferences
and track attendees. “Last year we had 200 attendees at each event,” Smith says. “ACT! is
the tool we used to coordinate the marketing and registration.”
Smith created a custom tab within ACT! to enter and track the registration details, such as
the classes individuals have signed up for, their T-shirt sizes, and event location. “I added
custom fields and built drop-down boxes for the responses,” he adds. “It keeps the data
consistent and speeds entry.”

Prior to the event, Empire Safety prints name badges for
attendees using the ACT! mail merge function. “We distribute
goody bags at the event, so I’ll print a list of attendees sorted
by location and T-shirt size to help us stock those bags.”
Another report shows which attendees have signed up for which
sessions, so that staff can place targeted literature related to
those sessions in the correct bags.

The company’s strategic and consistent marketing with ACT!
is paying off. A first-time attendee at last year’s event recently
placed a $30,000 order. “ACT! helps us keep in contact with
prospects, eventually turning them into customers,” Smith says.

Build an E-Mail Marketing Engine
Empire Safety utilizes Swiftpage, an e-mail marketing service
integrated with ACT!, to track the e-mail marketing messages
it sends. Smith selects a target list from ACT! and uploads it to
Swiftpage.

“Swiftpage writes information back to ACT! telling us which
messages were delivered, who opened the e-mail, and who
clicked on a link within the mail. We can then produce a list of
contacts who didn’t receive the e-mail invitation and send an
invitation by mail to that group,” Smith explains. “We can also
follow up with those who did receive the e-mail invitation but
have not responded.”

Smith appreciates that the e-mail messages are sent from the
Swiftpage server, not his own company’s server because it
allows him to send a large volume of messages quickly and track
opt-outs and bad e-mail addresses.

Develop an Efficient Workflow
The company’s sales director refers to ACT! to review the sales
team’s performance — helping them stay on track with company
expectations. Reports and inquiries show which customers have
been recently contacted and which have not.

Staff records the notes about each customer and prospect
communication in ACT!. “It helps us provide a continuity of
service,” Smith says. “The next time they call us, we know what
they asked about and what they were quoted.”