Inspiration Meets Technology
Climbing a mountain often takes physical endurance, top-quality gear, expert knowledge, and at times, the sheer will to reach the top. Inspired by this premise, the team at Mountain Remedy delivery service understands what it takes to begin an arduous, but rewarding journey in serving their cannabis community. The view from the summit provides a different perspective, and Mountain Remedy stands ready to be a personal sherpa for their customers’ paths to happiness.
Mountain Remedy opened for business in 2017 with four employees and two Bay Area locations: Concord and Walnut Creek. In 2018 the company relocated to Oakland. From day one, the company’s ethos has been to create a personable and caring environment for both its customers and staff. This approach proved successful. Two years later, Mountain Remedy is now in 17 California cities with 65 team members, and that original philosophy is as important as ever. Starting out, the company averaged two dozen deliveries per day. Today, Mountain Remedy averages 500 daily deliveries with promotional deal days growing to over 700.
Founder and CEO Rob Spearin said “When we started it was more of a manual process to create and track orders, there was no integration. Our CRM was Google Voice on the dispatch side and the process was a nightmare. Thankfully, Onfleet delivery software enabled us to automate the process and provide better customer service.”
BLAZING New Trails
Rob first met the BLAZE team at last September’s Hall of Flowers cannabis trade show in Northern California. Hunter and Rob were on a mission to meet vendors to find technology partners and support. They met with tech heavyweights, and then Rob met with BLAZE reps at the show who guided them through the platform. Rob summed it up best by saying that “BLAZE is the only option to grow into a bigger company.”
Integrating Onfleet vastly improved the customer fulfillment process but a few initial obstacles required a new direction. When assigning a delivery order to a driver the system would go back and forth with different drivers and platforms. This was very inefficient, especially while the clock was ticking for delivery. Thankfully, Onfleet integrates directly with the BLAZE platform. Now an order is seamlessly created in BLAZE and shared with Onfleet in a simplified process for the delivery driver. According to Operations Director Hunter Pawlaczyk, efficiency is improving so the drivers are happy. “The drivers are our brand ambassadors,” Hunter explained. “They need to be Menu Experts as well to help educate our customers about products and options. We want them to make great, personable impressions.”
Rideshare and food delivery apps have changed the customer service landscape forever, and cannabis delivery is no exception to these now standard expectations. Customers and patients want real-time data on their order status, and Mountain Remedy strives for order delivery within 90 minutes of placing it.
Dependable and Consistent Service
After placing their order, Onfleet automatically sends the customer a follow-up text with a link to track their order process, including their place in the driver’s queue and an ETA. Dependable and consistent service is critical for delivery companies, and for Mountain Remedy, the results are satisfied, repeat customers. Rob told us the story of a favorite customer who is a cancer patient and placed a delivery order three times a week. “Customer service is so important to us, and to see her improve was so inspiring to our entire team,” Rob explained. “Customer retention has been stellar, and just like any other process with any company, we always want to improve the experience. Everything is about the customer and our employees, and we’re lucky to rely on BLAZE and Onfleet.”
Robert Fierro, Onfleet’s Strategic Account Executive noted, “Delivery is a critical part of the equation. When you solve this with Onfleet and marry it with a trailblazer like BLAZE, the ability to serve many more customers compounds.”
Chris Violas, BLAZE’s CEO, agrees that synergy is critically important. “We are excited to work with Onfleet. They are a huge part of the operation for many customers like Mountain Remedy. We continue to tighten our connection with their platform and we just released the two-way integration between BLAZE and Onfleet. You can now assign, delete or update delivery times all in Onfleet and it communicates that back to BLAZE,” Chris said.
Integrations Compound Efficiencies
Hunter also weighed in on the integration elements. “BLAZE’s integration is like night and day for our operations. Prior to BLAZE, we couldn’t accurately rely on our digital product inventory. It was frustrating to list a product on the menu when in reality we had limited quantities or did not have the product in stock forcing a customer to replace an order. “Initially, our weekly inventory was visual, not digital,” Hunter said. “The BLAZE platform provides notice of low inventory known as the Low Inventory Threshold (LIT) and it saves an enormous amount of time” Hunter noted that at first there was no reporting feature, so he spoke directly with BLAZE developers to customize their BLAZE dashboard. “BLAZE is the most receptive software company for feature development I’ve ever worked with,” Hunter added. “They produced an effective solution almost overnight.”
BLAZE has over 40 integrated partners. Click here to learn more about the Onfleet and BLAZE integration. The BLAZE platform can help you scale your business, increase efficiency and growing sales. Like Mountain Remedy, we’re here to lend a hand and help guide your journey to the top of the mountain. Are you ready to BLAZE a new path for your company? Our Sales Team would love to talk about how we may help you, so send us an email to get things started or call us at (415) 964-5689 (push 2 for Sales).
