Case Study: How to Scale Your Business (Without Really Trying)

About the Business

Taurus Logistics Ltd. is a family-owned business offering international shipping services for vehicles, yachts, heavy machinery and “anything that’s a little different.” They see themselves as problem solvers. Their goal is to make shipping hassle-free for customers around the world. 

The Problem

The staff was having trouble keeping up with requests from the website. They were manually generating quotes and emailing them to prospects (who might not receive or open them). This labor-intensive process was limiting Taurus’ ability to grow.

Our Approach

We studied their existing quote process as the first step in creating a custom Rails application to replicate it on their website. We had to understand huge amounts of business logic, how the industry works, and how quotes are calculated. We learned about things like “bunker adjustment factor” (the bunker of a boat is where fuel is kept; this factor changes depending on the price of fuel).

Using our agile development process we were able to quickly demo the application, get it launched, and with continual iterations, make it better and better.

The Results

• Generates quotes that are identical to those which had been manually created, saving thousands of admin hours annually
• Prospective customers receive quotes instantly, 24/7 (instead of waiting 24 hours or more)
• Deliverability has increased: Instead of sending an email attachment, we embed a unique link so people can view quotes online
• Taurus staff not only see which quotes were viewed, but how many times people looked at their quote (a very good indicator of interest)
• 60% of the quotes requested from the site are automated 
• 90% of those quotes were viewed by potential customers
• Taurus has expanded their online marketing efforts, effectively scaling the business without having to hire more staff

“There's nothing I like better than sending out a quote in the middle of the night while I'm in bed, sleeping soundly. This application has had a major impact on our bottom line.”

— Richard Hack, Managing Director
Taurus Logistics Ltd