Case Study: W.W. Grainger achieves improved customer service and operational efficiencies with Dun & Bradstreet

Grainger Provides Better Customer Services Through Operational Efficiencies

Grainger, a Fortune 500 distributor of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products, faced the challenge of managing a very large customer base while keeping credit, collections and sales aligned. Inaccurate or late corporate hierarchy information forced manual investigations, slowed account set‑up and hindered decisions about which prospects to pursue or avoid — all of which risked customer service and operational efficiency.

By partnering with Dun & Bradstreet and using D‑U‑N‑S numbers, DNBi and Portfolio Risk Manager, Grainger moved hierarchy linkage to the front end, trained credit teams on the tools, and began automating monitoring and account set‑up. The result was fewer manual investigations, more accurate credit limits and proactive risk alerts, tighter sales-credit collaboration and measurable gains in operational efficiency that support better customer service.

W.W. Grainger

Edwin Bell

Senior Manager for Credit Administration