.png?width=2000&height=810&name=Header%20case%20BOSKA%20B2B%20(1).png "Header case BOSKA B2B (1)")
1. Understand the resistance
Boska’s B2B customers weren’t exactly queuing up to use their new portal. Many of them weren’t particularly tech-savvy, and they liked the familiarity of a phone call.
“They were really used to just pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey, I want those same products I order every month.’” - Pascal Verheul, Boska
That kind of muscle memory doesn’t go away overnight. It’s not about aversion to technology. It’s about habit. And in many cases, the customer’s perception is that the old way is easier.
Step one is recognising that this resistance is emotional, not logical. It’s not a feature problem. It’s a comfort problem.
2. Start small (and smart)
Boska didn’t flip the switch for every customer at once. They started with their smallest tier of buyers, the long tail of cheese shops and gift stores that placed modest but regular orders.
“The lowest tier of customers, yes, we made the webshop for them. Some of the middle layers also can order there…”
Smaller customers meant less operational risk if something went wrong, and it gave Boska a proving ground to refine the experience. It also gave the team space to learn which onboarding tactics worked best, without getting buried in support tickets.
3. Incentivise the behaviour you want
Change happens when the new path is easier, or the old one becomes more painful.
Boska did both. They added friction to manual orders (higher shipping thresholds, added fees) and made the digital route more appealing (lower thresholds, faster processing).
“We made the order cost and shipping cost higher for manual orders… and if you order online, you get free shipping above €300.”
They didn’t ban phone orders outright. But they made it clear: self-serve gets you a better deal. Simple. Understandable. Effective.
4. Stop enabling the old way
At first, Boska’s back office kept helping customers place orders manually. But they noticed something: adoption stalled at 30%. Because if the old way still works, why bother learning something new?
So they drew a line.
“After a while, we said, ‘No more manual orders.’ People were nervous; ‘we’ll lose sales!’ But we didn’t.”
That internal commitment was key. Because if your team doesn’t stand behind the new system, your customers won’t either.
5. Make the win obvious
Over time, the results spoke for themselves. Fewer mistakes. Fewer calls. Fewer complaints about order status. And a huge drop in internal admin time.
“Now 90% of the orders go through without us even seeing them.”
That’s the dream, right? But it only happened because Boska stayed the course. They didn’t just launch a portal. They committed to changing customer behaviour.
Final thoughts: this is about people, not portals
If you want to shift your customers to digital ordering, you need to think less like a software rollout and more like behaviour change.
Start with a small group. Add incentives. Add friction where it matters. Support, but don’t enable. And most of all, don’t flinch when things get uncomfortable.
Because they will. But that’s the point where change actually begins.
Final thoughts: stop treating manual orders like a customer service
They’re not. They’re an operational liability dressed up as helpfulness.
Boska didn’t make the shift overnight. But they committed. They made it easier to order online. They added friction to the old way. And when the time came, they drew a line.
“After a while, we said, ‘No more manual orders.’ People were nervous, ‘we’ll lose sales!’ But we didn’t.”
That’s the real cost of manual orders: they keep you stuck. And the sooner you stop carrying that cost, the faster you can grow.
