Get Customers, Keep Them Forever
On a cold November day in Minneapolis some 85 years ago, 12-year-old Harry Brooks was given $15, a cart and horse and was told by his stepfather, "Harry, sixth grade is plenty these days and it's time for you to start earning a living." Undaunted, Brooks bought some bananas and loaded them in his cart. When the bananas started turning black, he took off his coat to cover the load as he crossed the Mississippi River. A stiff wind found young Brooks with $10, a horse, a wagon and no coat.Brooks tried his hand at apples the next day, which turned out to be a better venture and led him to the premise of his then-fledgling business: find the best quality produce and deliver it to customers as they need it. Today, H. Brooks & Company is one of the larger independent produce houses in the region and is run by Harry's grandson Phil Brooks.
H. Brooks has learned over the years that the customer is king — a philosophy shared by Lawson's founders and its new management team led by Jay Coughlan, president and chief operating officer. "The concept of excellent customer service is never out of style because often that's the biggest point of differentiation between you and your competitors," said Jim Parks, director of Information Systems, H. Brooks & Company.
A quarter-century after Bill Lawson, chairman, Lawson Software, sat down and wrote a custom financial program for H. Brooks in its Minneapolis office, the relationship remains strong. In fact, recently H. Brooks added a new Lawson accounts receivable module to its financials, payroll, human resources, purchase order and inventory control solutions. H. Brooks runs about 85 percent of its business on Lawson applications.
Lawson produces results
Lawson's purchase order and inventory control systems have helped H. Brooks not to pay purchase orders more than once. Discrepancies between purchase orders and invoices are automatically flagged by the Lawson solution and sent to H. Brooks' buyers for immediate resolution.
"In a week, we turn over all of our inventory about three times — that's the same number of inventory turns that most businesses do in a quarter," said Phil Brooks, president, H. Brooks & Company. "We're on a fast business cycle here. We have to be adaptable and turn around and ship products within minutes, and the stability and robustness of our software helps us do that."
"We lead the industry in terms of number of employees and sales per dollar per employee," Parks said. "We're light years ahead of everyone else and I think our Lawson solution has helped us get to that point."
Lawson's accounts receivable solution is also boosting customer relations at H. Brooks. When customers called and asked how much they owed prior to the Lawson implementation, it would take a couple of days to reconcile accounts. Since the installation, H. Brooks can determine immediately which items are open.
"Some people here thought we were going to have to hire extra people to control open items, but Lawson has actually reduced the workload of our accounts receivable employees," Parks said.
H. Brooks also has worked with MHC Companies, Minneapolis, for laser printing their accounts receivables. "MHC reformatted everything and it turns out perfectly," Parks said. "It's all automated and it saves us a lot of time."
H. Brooks was the very first Lawson customer, and from the looks of it, they won't be moving on anytime soon. "When Bill and Richard Lawson said, 'Get a customer, keep them forever,' they meant us," Brooks said.