Bursali Towels
A developer and manufacturer of towelling products for many well-known brands, smaller niche customers, and promotional towels for various clients.
Learning points
- High speed reliable internet is particularly useful for design businesses, allowing complex files to be easily shared.
- Effective digital infrastructure including CRM, auto-reply emails, and VoIP telephones can negate the need for sales reps enabling significant cost savings.
- Online advertising can have a significant impact on business performance.
Overview of the business
A family business established in 2005, Bursali Towels supplies bulk and wholesale towels to the UK and international markets. Importing finished cotton towels from global suppliers, the business both embroiders and prints towels. Printed towels are an extra service that has been added to the business in the last 18 months. Bursali Towels are the only printed towel suppliers in the UK and their fast order turnaround of 7 days gives them an edge on their European and International competitors that can take anything from 6 weeks upwards.
Clients may order weekly or every 3 years, and as such having an effective CRM system is essential. Interestingly, with a customer base of over 3,500 clients featuring well-known brands, sports clubs and other customers, a very small proportion of business comes from within Wales.
Bursali Towels information flow diagram
Highlighting the internal and external communication flows of the business.
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Superfast broadband adoption
Connection was previously maintained by Airband, with upload speeds of 45Mbps and download speeds of 95Mbps. With the introduction of VoIP telephony, however, the connection became unstable and a switch was made to fixed connection. The speeds are slightly slower but the continuity of connection was deemed more important, as being able to respond quickly to customers is highly valued by the business. The costs are marginally lower with fixed line but this was not a consideration in making the switch.
Significantly, the printed towel function of the business would be impossible to achieve without high speed connectivity. This is due to the highly detailed nature of the data files that are required to be printed, along the lines of photo quality files. This information is emailed from customers to Bursali Towels and is then transferred either via a USB or the network to the printing machines.
IT skills capacity
The business owners are both IT literate and enjoy learning about new technologies and their use. They attend seminars to learn key skills and to keep up-to-date with technological advances. Where necessary, they will employ an external IT specialist to remedy any problems they may be encountering.
Use of digital technologies
Maintaining their principle of “best quality, best value, and best service”, the father and son entrepreneurs aim to answer all phone calls after 2 rings. Whilst little-to-no business is done face-to-face, it is felt that fast telephone response gives the level of customer service and ‘personal touch’ their clients deserve.
The business has recently changed their telephony system to be based in the cloud, meaning that as their headphones are connected to the network they are able to answer the telephone anywhere in the warehouse with a range of 100 foot versus previously 10 foot. Very little telephone traffic is outgoing, customers typically call to discuss their needs alongside exchanging ideas and data via email.
These quality principles also mean that the business seeks to build and maintain relationships with their customers and some of this is achieved through an effective CRM system. Whilst it can take time to set up, a system that sends timed follow-up enquiries or highlights that the office is closed but the enquiry will be dealt with as soon as possible helps these relationships.
We couldn’t have built this business up without technology, because we’ve made the technology work for us. Our CRM system sends out personalised emails, hundreds of them every day, to customers who have contacted us.
The CRM system also informs potential customers that the office is closed, but sends them an automated pricelist with the promise of a telephone call when the office re-opens. The business owner has found that customers and suppliers often prefer to consult the website and communicate via email, meaning that monitoring the website analytics can be important for business generation.
We can monitor what customers are interested in, which pages they go back to, and if they’ve been to any particular page between two and four times we send them a targeted email automatically. A bespoke email regarding that page.
The business has a fully digital business model with even the telephone service being delivered via broadband. Essentially, the owner is able to monitor international cotton markets utilising a range of technologies, even honing in on local markets in India, as fluctuations in this core product can have a large impact on profitability.
Business performance
Superfast broadband has enabled a number of efficiencies and allowed the business to expand. A business that sees busy and quiet periods, it has recently used this quiet time to build new offices with the view of taking another person on who will answer the phones and provide customer service, enabling one of the owners to take a step back as he comes towards retirement age. Add on to this the recent expansion into printed towels and the business is steadily growing. Importantly, the owner notes that one of the most significant impacts on business performance has been Google advertising.
I always say the best thing I ever did in this business was start advertising on Google, and the worst thing I ever did was not to start for the first five months.
