Recently, AutoQuotes welcomed Ann Holtzapple and Meghan Hurst from Vulcan to the AQ office for a 3E Forum. The 3E Forum is designed specifically for AQ manufacturers and publishers to “engage, “educate” and “exchange” with the AQ staff to maximize their publishing experience in the AQ Catalog.
Vulcan offers commercial cooking equipment under both the Vulcan and Wolf brand names. Ann and Meghan, both marketing team members, wanted to learn more about how Vulcan can better utilize the AQ Catalog to support their customers.
“I read about the 3E Forum on the AutoQuotes’ blog and I knew it was a good opportunity for us to get up to speed on all that AutoQuotes offers”, said Meghan, Marketing Manager at Vulcan.
Ann and Meghan spent two days working with the AQ content, product management, marketing and customer support teams to review their AQ Catalog content and media, learn about AQ’s advanced functionality and get a hands-on demonstration of other solutions available to AQ customers.
“We rely on AutoQuotes to provide the Vulcan and Wolf product information our dealers require day in and day out, so staying on top of content and media is a top priority for our team,” said Meghan.
Vulcan’s roots can be traced back to 1865 to a foundry company in Louisville, KY, while the Wolf brand was established in 1934 in Los Angeles, CA. Vulcan acquired Wolf in 1965 and thirty years later in 1999, the organization was acquired by Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a Fortune 200 global manufacturer. Together, Vulcan and Wolf continue to deliver a diverse range of cooking equipment including ovens, ranges, fryers, griddles, steamers, and more.
“Vulcan doesn’t only build fryers or only build ranges. We offer a comprehensive portfolio of cooking equipment for a complete kitchen,” said Ann, Vulcan’s Digital Marketing Manager.
In their roles, Ann and Meghan focus on communicating and supporting Vulcan’s dealers, reps and customers with easy-to-access product information in multiple formats. “We know our dealers and reps count on AutoQuotes to do business,” said Ann. “I want to learn new ways to leverage AQ to provide our dealers and reps with the tools they need on a day-to-day basis.”
– Ann Holtzapple
Vulcan values its relationships with dealers and reps and recognizes the service and knowledge those channels provide in the FES industry. It leans on those channels to connect with end users.
“We work with dealers and reps to understand the needs and challenges of our end users, as well as engaging with end users directly,” Meghan shared. “We listen to feedback and our products are developed to address pain points in order to enhance kitchen operations.”
AutoQuotes supports a customer-centric philosophy and created the Forum to better understand our customers - that’s where the “exchange” comes in. We want to know how our customers are using AQ, hear about ideas to improve our software and service, and learn about how AutoQuotes can continue to support our customers through new challenges as the FES industry evolves.
What did Ann and Meghan think of their 3E experience?
“This program was a great resource for us. We learned how our team can work together to enhance Vulcan’s presence in AutoQuotes,” said Meghan. “We were able to look at AutoQuotes from the perspective of our customer.”
“In a digital world, I appreciate the importance of media in the Catalog and how AutoQuotes’ is supporting that with 360° photo capabilities and expanded media services,” said Ann. “We learned about the ability to filter search results in the catalog by whether there is an accompanying CAD or Revit file. These files are very important to our customers and over the past year, Vulcan has added over 140 CAD and Revit files to the AutoQuotes Catalog.”
Many thanks to Ann and Meghan for visiting with us. 3E Forums are available from April to October, based upon availability. We host the Forums at the AutoQuotes’ office in Jacksonville, Florida. AQ publishers can reach out to their Content Account Managers to learn more about creating their own unique 3E Forum experience.
