Success Story: Frontier Natural Products Co-op

Client Profile:

Established in 1976, Frontier Natural Products Co-op is both a manufacturer and distributor of natural and organic herbs, spices, aromatherapy products, and essential oils. Located in Norway, IA, Frontier is dedicated to nourishing the world through high-quality natural and organic products.

Client Challenge:

As the Business Unit Manager Direct, my responsibilities include selecting products we sell, managing the direct channel of the business, and overseeing member services. My role in member services also involves assisting with the annual election for board of director positions.

Our election challenge was to find a way to immediately add online voting to our annual election process. Our organization is committed to environmentally friendly and sustainable business practices whenever possible. Therefore, we wanted to reduce the printing and mailing involved with our election process by introducing web voting for our members.

SBS Solution:

We resolved to find a vendor to help us implement a hybrid election system that included both electronic and paper ballot voting options. We researched three different companies and chose Survey & Ballot Systems (SBS) based on the phone consultation we had and the hybrid voting solution they proposed.

Members were either emailed an invitation to participate via the web or were mailed a paper ballot if they didn’t have an email address on file with us. Members embraced the new election procedure, while our staff appreciated the streamlined process. SBS tabulated online and paper votes received from our members then certified the election results.

Working with SBS was a pleasure. During the project, communication with SBS was phenomenal; they reacted quickly to our election’s tight time frame and responded rapidly to our requests.

“Working with SBS was a pleasure. During the project, communication with SBS was phenomenal; they reacted quickly to our election’s tight time frame and responded rapidly to our requests.” ~ Shannon Ousley, Business Unit Manager – Direct, Frontier Natural Products Co-op