Customer story

Ferguson cuts Salesforce training costs for 2,500 employees with Pendo

2,500+
employees trained on Salesforce
Image

Ferguson at a glance

Company

Ferguson is the largest U.S. provider of plumbing and HVAC products, and serves both residential and commercial customers. Their 36,000+ employees support 1M+ customers in North America.

Industry Manufacturing, Construction
Company size Enterprise (1,500+)

Products used

Challenge

Sales associates weren’t spending enough time with customers because they’re bogged down with software training and difficult-to-navigate software. 

Pendo’ing it

Ferguson uses Pendo’s analytics and usage insights to know where users are getting stuck so they can provide in-app guidance to employees.

Results

Ferguson cut back on support and training costs and improved sales productivity.

Contents

Happy employees lead to happy customers. And Ferguson, a leading provider of HVAC, plumbing, and industrial services, knows just how important this is. “It’s our mission to be the premier, customer-oriented supplier of services,” Amy Beal, director, business learning (and digital adoption enthusiast), explained.

After shifting 2,500+ employees to Salesforce, Beal’s team knew that their customer experience (CX) depended on getting employees onboarded—and fast. So, they turned to Pendo to cut training costs and keep their customers happy.

The million-dollar question: How to train your team on Salesforce?

Ferguson didn’t have a CRM in place before moving to Salesforce, and training users (without overwhelming them) was no small feat.

“Onboarding was a major problem—especially for the tenured folks that’ve been doing this for 40+ years,” explained Jonathan Downer, product success manager at Ferguson. (He also answers to Pendo Guru). 

Historically, Ferguson used out-of-app channels to share updates, reminders, and best practices. But most associates missed—or ignored—them, leaving them without the information they needed to best perform their jobs. 

And if they did see the training, they probably forgot 70% of it after just 24 hours.

“Our customer-facing associates are inundated with information.”

Cathy Ferguson, manager, instructional design

From information overload to timely guidance 

To help associates learn and adopt Salesforce, the team created contextual, timely walkthroughs with Pendo In-app Guides. From learning how to set up an account to navigating day-to-day tasks, each associate learned the CRM at their own pace, on their own time.

Because this information was always available within the Pendo Resource Center, associates could re-learn anything they’ve forgotten. 

“Associates don’t get a ton of exposure to niche use cases in training, so we’re using [Pendo] Guides to bridge the knowledge gap,” said.

“Guides let our team spend less time searching for information, and more time adding value to each customer interaction.”

Amy Beal, director, business learning

With Pendo, they can send the right message to the right user, when they’re ready for it—and not a moment too soon.

Scaling operations without scaling support

In-app communication is only one part of Ferguson’s approach to Salesforce adoption. They also use Pendo Analytics’ paths, funnels, and dashboards to understand usage, like where (and why) employees get stuck. Then, they create guides that eliminate workflow friction and support tickets. 

When associates received a vague error code after trying to log into their Salesforce phone system, they’d give up—abandoning the workflow and submitting a support ticket. “To fix this, we added a Pendo tooltip to explain what the error means and how to fix it,” Downer said. “It’s really helpful.”

Downer and his team aren’t the only ones that love Pendo’s process analytics. “Sales loves the dashboard. Our internal teams are really excited about that level of insight into user behavior,” Downer noted. 

“Pendo is a really big win for us because it helps employees feel comfortable and confident in Salesforce.”

Cathy Ferguson, manager, instructional design

With these insights and the tools to scale in-app support, Ferguson’s 15-person training team can help everyone without losing sleep at night.

Adoption and ROI begins with Pendo

Pendo has been so impactful that everyone at Ferguson, from sales leaders to individual contributors, has taken a Pendo-first approach to internal communications. Now, the first question their team asks is: How can Pendo help, eliminating rounds of requests, unneeded work, and “endless meetings.” 

And this is just the beginning. They’ve got a laundry list of work to tackle with Pendo, from creating cross-app guides to helping folks navigate more complex workflows. 

“Pendo is a key piece of our overall employee experience. As we grow with Pendo, we’re constantly looking at how we can improve our tech ROI and increase sales. The sky’s the limit.”

Amy Beal, director, business learning

See how Pendo can start delivering value to your organization on day 1

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