Case Study Border States
Empowering Border States to craft a compelling digital experience that fosters deeper customer engagement.
+16%
organic sessions
+12%
engagement rate
+60%
enrollment page visits
The Situation
Border States is one of the largest employee-owned electrical distributors in the United States, providing products and services to the construction, industrial, and utility markets. Over the past few years, they have partnered with Smith to accelerate their digital transformation, implementing a multi-phase programmatic approach to drive customer engagement.
“One of the great things about Smith is they lead with empathy, with the context of what the customer expects from an experience. They really get us to think differently.”
Jon Axtman – Director of Digital CX
The Work
An initial step in this process was building out self-service tools to empower their customers and create efficiencies of scale. Smith enhanced the Border States Customer Business Platform by introducing online bill pay, including ACH and self-service invoice payments. We redesigned admin pages for consistency and integrated stored payment methods and invoice status into a PCI-compliant system. A pilot with select customers highlighted areas for improvement and showcased the initiative’s transformative potential.
Building on this foundation, we shifted our focus to enhancing user engagement and modernizing the digital experience. This initiative aimed to create a seamless, user-centric journey that effectively communicates the Border States brand story. This consisted of customer profiling and research to inform a new brand voice, revamping the brand narrative and visuals across over 70 pages, and optimizing site structure for intuitive navigation.
Real Results
Border States experienced rapid adoption of the online bill pay feature which streamlined payments and reduced workload, saving hundreds of hours in accounts receivable. Our modernization efforts created a seamless journey that aligns with the brand. Looking ahead, we will continue our collaboration with Border States to evolve their digital experience, driving business growth and boosting user engagement.
