Bringing Customer-Centric Service Standards to a $14B Agricultural Manufacturer and Distributor
Problem
A large agribusiness operating as both a product manufacturer and distributor was navigating a rapidly changing market shaped by regulatory pressure, rising input costs, and increased consolidation across its retailer and grower base. As retailer customers scaled and became more centralized, expectations shifted toward greater pricing transparency, operational reliability, and ease of doing business—exposing friction across wholesale purchasing, programs, systems, and service models. While the organization’s cooperative structure was designed to create long‑term value for retailers, that value was not consistently understood or experienced across customer types. Recognizing the risk of losing relevance in an increasingly competitive landscape, the organization needed to reassess its market position and redesign the retailer experience around evolving customer needs. They engaged Excelerate to bring customer-centric service standards to their business.
Approach
Excelerate grounded the work in a rigorous, end‑to‑end understanding of today’s retailer experience. The team reviewed more than 35 internal data sources and conducted interviews with internal stakeholders and 29 retailers across roles, sizes, and regions. Excelerate synthesized these insights into two customer journey maps to align cross‑functional teams around critical moments and sources of friction. Structured workshops and working sessions then surfaced, refined, and prioritized opportunities, narrowing a broad set of ideas into a focused portfolio of actionable solutions. From this foundation, Excelerate defined a clear future‑state vision anchored by priority initiatives and translated it into a sequenced roadmap to guide execution.
Results
The engagement established customer‑centric service design standards for a large, complex enterprise, grounded in the distinct needs of different retailer segments. By combining internal knowledge with direct retailer input, the organization replaced fragmented assumptions with a shared, evidence‑based view of the end‑to‑end retailer experience. This clarity reduced uncertainty around experience breakdowns and created a common fact base for cross‑functional decision‑making. A disciplined prioritization process narrowed a broad set of ideas into a focused set of high‑impact opportunities with clear internal process implications. The work concluded with a sequenced future‑state roadmap, enabling leadership to move forward with confidence while longer‑term outcomes mature over time.