Central Restaurant Products, a distributor of restaurant products, provides a menu of buying options for its 250,000 customers.

The company, launched in 1981, has grown by letting customers browse and buy through its multiple selling channels, says Nat Norris, director of multichannel marketing.

“We have customers who order from our catalog, our sales force and our e-commerce site,” Norris says. “We try to align all three of our channels to be consistent in our messaging, and provide personalized attention to our customers.” By combining a personal customer relationships with an assortment of products relevant to their interests, Central Restaurant has been able to build customer loyalty, he adds.

In 2015, the Indianapolis-based Central Restaurant generated between $15 million and $20 million in total revenue, about 20% of it from online, Norris says. In 2016, the distributor expects revenue to increase 20%, and its business-to-business e-commerce revenue to grow at the same pace. Customers ranging in size from mom-and-pop bakery shops to large government associations located across the United States can shop Central’s roughly 110,000 SKUs at CentralRestaurant.com, which receives about 240,000 monthly unique visitors, Norris says.

The company launched the e-commerce site in 2001 on homegrown technology connected to its self-built enterprise resource planning, or ERP system, which Central uses to organize its inventory, financial records and customer relationship management system. “Having the e-commerce site tied directly to our ERP system speeds up our customer service offering,” Norris says.

Central records in its ERP system the particular ways that customers engage with Central on its e-commerce site, and through phone calls and emails with sales reps. Central then uses that information to develop customer profiles based on how customers interact with it, then personalize web content according to a customer’s profile.

One example of how Central is using customer behavioral data to build its business is through site search. In July 2014 Central deployed on its site Hawk Search technology from e-commerce provider Thanx Media Inc. Norris views the new site search as a lead-generation tool that learns which products customers like in search results, providing customer service reps with leads on customers’ interests.

“We use the Hawk Search technology as a learning algorithm to help move our products,” Norris says. “We’re driven by a hybrid of online and offline behavior. With the Hawk Search algorithm, we present products that you may consider more lead generation to customers rather than those that result in an actual buyer conversion.” Lead-gen items are products a customer has not purchased before, and that may need more follow-up marketing and sales efforts. By clicking on one of these items and expressing interest, but without clicking to buy it, these customers can be considered leads to follow up on.

Hawk Search analyzes what visitors to its site search for and fine-tunes its search results over time as it gathers more information, Norris says. Hawk Search uses an algorithm to generate more relevant results as it learns what products visitors are searching for. While the system improves most search results automatically, it also allows customer service reps to also log in to each customer’s account, and manually set a particular item to appear first in certain searches or customize business buyers’ navigation options. After learning what customers want and need, reps can make sure they’re seeing the products—including new and promotional items—most pertinent to their known interests.

In 2016, Central is working with the Hawk Search team to tailor its search engine to the actual words and phrases customers use to search for the pots, pans and other products on its site. “We’re leaning on Hawk Search this year to provide quicker solutions to our customers” in their search for the right products, Norris says.

Hawk Search starts at around $800 per month and increases based on such factors as the amount of site traffic and content it manages, Thanx Media says. Norris declines to comment on the cost of deploying the technology.

Central Restaurant Products is owned by TAKKT, AG, and a Germany-based holding company for suppliers of business equipment.

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