The Challenge

Avco's business depends on recurring weekly orders. Before Salesmsg, the team relied on phone calls and email to chase down those orders, and neither channel worked well for the pace of the operation.

Calling a pizzeria means reaching whoever happens to answer. That person might be on break, might not be the decision-maker, might tell you "we don't need anything" when they actually do. Two days later they're scrambling for a last-minute order.

Email was worse. Once opened, it disappeared into the inbox. There was no persistent record of who had responded and who hadn't. Tracking missed orders meant hours of backtracking through email threads, and things still fell through.

For a team of roughly 20 people handling order follow-up, the phone-and-email process was eating time the business didn't have.

"With email, once you opened it, it was gone. You had no idea who still needed to respond. With Salesmsg, every unanswered message sits right there until someone handles it. Nothing falls through."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries

The Solution

Avco moved to Salesmsg roughly 4 to 5 years ago, replacing Red Oxygen (a basic text-to-email tool with no shared inbox). What started as a broadcast tool for order reminders quickly became the system the entire operation runs on.

Today, Salesmsg is Avco's standalone system of record. No HubSpot. No Salesforce. No CRM at all. Two Salesmsg accounts map to the two business lines, and the team manages all customer ordering and communication through them.

How the workflow runs:

1. The team sends recurring-order broadcasts prompting customers to place their weekly order ("Hey Joe, what do you need this week? You have until Thursday")
2. Customers text their orders in directly, 24/7, on their own schedule, including after hours
3. If no order comes in, a follow-up text goes out instead of a round of phone calls
4. Delivery notifications and receipts go out via webhooks with photos and confirmations
5. Saved/canned messages let the team click a response instead of typing from scratch
6. Promotions and "running behind" broadcasts keep customers informed when timing slips
7. The art department and sales reps message each other through Salesmsg instead of email, because texts get seen and not everyone has their work email connected to their phone

Allison Ullger, who found Salesmsg, built out Avco's usage, and has owned the texting system from the start, oversees all inboxes from her accounting role. Individual reps see only their own.

"Our customers close up shop, text in their order at midnight, and we pick it up in the morning. They don't have to wait until business hours. They don't have to call anyone. They just text it and it's done."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries

Core Features Used

• Broadcasts: Weekly order reminders and follow-up nudges sent to the full customer base
• Two-Way Texting: Customers text orders in directly, and the team responds from the shared inbox or the mobile app
• Keywords: Used to run and measure broadcast engagement
• Saved Messages: Pre-written responses the team can send with a click
• Webhooks: Delivery photos and confirmation notifications pushed automatically
• Tags and Fields: Organize contacts across the two business lines
• Shared Inbox with Role-Based Visibility: Allison sees everything; reps see only their own conversations

"I'm not calling a pizzeria five times hoping the right person picks up. I send one follow-up text: hey, I didn't get an order yet, do you need anything? That's it. Done."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries

The Results

All figures below are Allison's verbal estimates from the interview. Backend data (message volume, inbound/outbound split, response times) is pending.

~50% reduction in order follow-up time. The combination of text messaging and automated follow-up cut the time the team spends chasing orders by roughly half compared to the phone-and-email process.

~3 full-time hires avoided. On a team of about 20, Avco would need roughly 3 additional people just to handle the phone call volume that text follow-up now replaces.

24/7 customer-initiated ordering. Customers text their orders in on their own schedule. Midnight after close, Monday morning before the cutoff. The orders are there when the team arrives.

Eliminated the majority of phone calls for order communication. Text replaced both the outbound chase and much of the inbound "where's my order?" volume.

"Without Salesmsg, we'd need at least 3 more people on the team just to make the phone calls that a follow-up text handles in seconds."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries

Business Impact

• Recurring B2B order follow-up runs through text instead of phone calls, saving roughly half the time previously spent
• Approximately 3 additional hires avoided on a ~20-person team
• Customers order on their own schedule (24/7), reducing missed orders and last-minute scrambles
• Delivery notifications via webhooks cut "where's my order?" calls
• Internal team communication moved to text, improving visibility and response time between departments
• Business continuity during the Microsoft outage: Avco texted customers "our phones are down, text us" and messages got read
• 4-5 years of loyalty driven by consistent product investment and responsive customer support

"During the Microsoft outage, our phones went down. We texted every customer: our phones are down, just text us. And they did. Every message got through."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries

Conclusion

Avco Industries doesn't use a CRM. They don't need one. They run the operation on Salesmsg.

Weekly orders, delivery confirmations, follow-up nudges, internal team messages. It all lives in two Salesmsg accounts that serve 20 people across two business lines.

The win isn't more orders. It's the same orders through a faster, lower-friction channel that gave the team back half their follow-up time and made 3 extra hires unnecessary.

"We've been with Salesmsg for almost five years now. Most vendors stop improving after a while. Salesmsg hasn't. The product keeps getting better, and that's why we've stayed."

–– Allison Ullger, Accounting & Texting Systems Lead, Avco Industries