Case Study: Palmer Holland achieves dramatic efficiency gains and faster collections with Esker’s AI-driven automation

Creating a streamlined enterprise with Esker’s Customer Inquiries Management, Order Management & Collections Management automation solutions

Palmer Holland, a 155‑employee North American distributor of specialty chemicals and ingredients, was rapidly growing but burdened by manual, email‑centric processes. Customer inquiries required extensive routing, order entry demanded heavy CSR data entry, and collections relied on time‑consuming back‑and‑forth with no online payment option, all of which risked needing additional headcount to sustain growth.

To address this, Palmer Holland deployed Esker’s AI‑driven Customer Inquiries Management, Order Management and Collections Management solutions, including rapid implementation and a customer self‑service payments portal. The automation cut email routing from about four hours a day to four hours a week (AI classifies >90% correctly), achieved 96.8% accurate order recognition with growing auto‑processing, enabled roughly $1M in self‑service payments, and consolidated collections to one FTE—freeing staff for higher‑value work and supporting growth without proportional hiring.

Palmer Holland

Alza Toor

Customer Service Manager