Written by: Pat Thornton, Trending in Propane
Source: Destwin Provides Leading Portal Solution for Retail Propane Marketers
Built by Destwin, a PCI DSS Service Provider and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant organization, the Destwin Fuel Dealer Solution (FDS) is an award-winning platform offering secure customizable solutions to fit the needs of a retail propane business. According to the company, the FDS web portal and Destwin Connect Mobile App integrate in real-time across your systems to provide greater 24/7 customer self-service, retention, sales and marketing.
Robert Kulawiec, COO of Destwin, said the company started in 2007 in response to growing demand for interactive websites. “Portals provide many ways for customers to interact and do business with a company without the need to talk to a person at the company,” Kulawiec said. “This means customers can pay their bills, order fuel, and interact with the propane dealer on a schedule and at a time that works best for them. Portals are database driven and include shopping cart-like capabilities. They interact with back office software, usually through an API, to receive basic customer account information from, and to send portal transactions to, the back office system. In the energy business, portal data can include, among other things, customer transaction history, pricing plans and tank monitor data.”
Kulawiec noted that Destwin specializes in portals. “With our singular focus on portals, we can provide a robust application including features like online contracting, e-signature solutions, new customer application and onboarding with integrated credit check, and credit card surcharges and convenience fees. Our portal is feature rich because over time, we’ve added capabilities that our customers have asked for.”
Co-founder Gary Sippin Discusses Destwin Programs
Originally started by Gary Sippin and Bill West, Destwin started as an effort to build a portal for Sippin’s heating oil company. Sippin had a background in design graphics as well as front-facing interactive websites and West, Sippin’s tenant, had a lot of experience in relational database integration.
“Two things were critical as we developed a program,” Sippin said. “It needed to have a customer facing business web portal and it had to talk to the back office.” Sippin noted that the customer database, tank information, parts information and routing and scheduling data were critical components of the back office software.
“It is important to understand that portal technology is designed to augment the staff, not replace them,” Sippin said, “And while many portal functions work well in a self-service environment, some tasks are still best handled by skilled customer service agents. Most importantly, the self-service functions of the portal free up valuable human resources so they are available when needed for such tasks. Self service capabilities include common functions such as payment processing and transaction look-up, but also include many proprietary energy specific functions such as service plan enrollment, tank monitor viewing, and even price protection contracting. The Destwin price protection contracting and risk management system (Called ARM, or Advance Risk Management) is by far the most advanced on-line contracting system available for today’s energy marketer.”
Sippin believes integrated SMS messaging has also become a necessity in today’s online world. “This capability allows an energy marketer to provide real-time notifications to customers about important events such as service visits and deliveries,” he said. “SMS messaging can also be used quite effectively to automate online reviews. Since automating our online reviews, our company quickly became the number one rated energy provider in our state of Connecticut.”
No longer an owner of Destwin, Sippin is back to focusing on his heating oil and propane business but proud of the product provided by Destwin. “I am pleased to say that Destwin is a company staffed by energy experts. In fact, I believe that any member of the team could walk in and take over most any role at an energy company,” Sippin said. “Most importantly, it’s Destwin’s many strong customer relationships that have built and refined the software platform. While many innovations were created directly by the Destwin team, a significant portion of the product evolved from customer provided ideas and feedback from innovative marketers.”
Rhoads Energy’s Ussery-Thompson Discusses Destwin Benefits
Heather Ussery-Thompson, Director of Customer Interaction at Rhoads Energy in Pennsylvania, is pleased with the Destwin team over the past six years. “Robert and Michael have been great partners in allowing Rhoads to grow and further develop the customer portal, while providing 24-7 account management for its customers,” she said.
“We have well over 60 percent of our customer base interacting with our company via the Destwin portal, which makes it a vital tool for customers who need to access their account with us after regular business hours. At the same time, we have the same staff size as before. The Destwin portal simply allows our team members to spend more time creating stronger customer interactions with those not using the portal.”
Ussery-Thompson is particularly pleased with Destwin’s approach in always working to improve the features of the product to better suit their customers. “Other companies typically say the product is what it is, but Destwin is always willing to evolve and make site improvements that will make the customer experience better,” she said.
Kohley at Excel Propane Pleased With Destwin Results
Zach Kohley of Excel Propane in Michigan is another Destwin customer who is pleased with the product and its capabilities. “We made the switch to Cargas several years ago which provided a lot of new features for our team. A year later, we added Destwin which gave our customers a lot of new features,” he said. “Now customers can set up their own contracts which has been a game changer for us and the customers. They have the flexibility to do it on their own at 10 pm on a Saturday night or they can still do it directly with a staff member over the phone during the week. It is good to provide that flexibility!”
Kohley said that Destwin’s knowledge of the propane industry and always having an answer to specific issues made them their choice when choosing a portal. “They’ve been a phenomenal partner and we definitely appreciate their ability to make their portal match our policies!” he said. “We don’t want our pay in advance customers ordering online, for instance, and they have been able to make adjustments in situations like that.”
Integration with the backend software is also a plus for Kohley. “Right now, if a customer pays online, within 10 seconds, it is reflected in the Cargas software as well so there is no delay as there is with some software that might take a full day before such information is shared. We like transactions to be reflected in real time across multiple platforms!”