A man stands beside a large pile of steel pipes, showcasing industrial materials in a construction setting.

GetPipe.com

GetPipe.com, a division of Hempel Pipe & Supply, streamlines inbound calls with AI Receptionist (AIR), resolving 92% of inquiries and automating 90% of all calls.

getpipe.com/hempel-pipe-supply/

Region

Americas

Company size

20–99

Industry

Retail

Products used

≈100%

calls accurately routed by AIR

38%

time savings

92%

calls resolved using AIR

Our customer service staff was stretched thin. The AI Receptionist is streamlining inbound calls by directing them to the right place, freeing up approximately three hours per day, per person.

Corbin Lichty-DeWitt

eCommerce Operations Manager

From counter service to scaling success

Founded in 1984, Hempel Pipe & Supply is a family-owned, full-line distributor of pipe, valves, fittings, and industrial supplies based in Davenport, Iowa. For decades, the business focused primarily on local industrial parts sales. However, when Greg Hempel, the owner, began to expand the website, it led to a fundamental shift toward ecommerce. Suddenly, the company’s online presence, GetPipe.com, caused the business to explode in size, nearly doubling year after year. Greg Hempel’s operation quickly transitioned, selling parts all over the United States and internationally, competing directly with giants like Home Depot and Supplyhouse.com. This exponential growth prompted the company to re-examine their approach to customer engagement.

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A company drowning in its own success

The small customer service team found itself completely “bombarded” by phone calls. Every time the phone rang, an employee would have to drop what they were doing and answer the main line. The challenge wasn't just volume; it was misdirection. Customers would frequently be transferred from one employee to the next, bouncing around internally before finding the right person for sales, accounting, or customer service. According to Operations Manager Corbin Lichty-DeWitt, this call-bouncing happened too frequently and did not align with the business.

Not only was this inefficient, it was unsustainable. Management realized their explosive growth was stalling at the first line of engagement. They couldn't keep hiring new staff to answer a relentless stream of calls and simply needed an automated solution to manage the growth

Our goal is to automate as much as we can. AI Receptionist has definitely achieved that goal.

Corbin Lichty-DeWitt

eCommerce Operations Manager

Automation takes the wheel

Having recently transitioned to the RingCentral phone system, Corbin was finding value in the RingCentral unified platform. While the business uses Microsoft Teams for cloud-based document management, all internal calls and messaging are handled through RingCentral. However, this transition occurred during a period of explosive growth, where order volume surged from about 50 per week to 200 per day. This rapid scaling made the existing call handling capacity immediately insufficient and untenable.

When Corbin was notified about RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR), he immediately saw its potential to address the company's call management crisis and quickly implemented the system. Corbain was shocked at how simple and easy it was to set up, recalling that “after one or two days, everything was set up and working.”

The impact was immediate and transformative. AI Receptionist now answers every call and, using tailored greetings and keywords, routes callers to the correct department with incredible precision. Corbin proudly states that call routing success jumped to "almost 100%", silencing the internal bouncing that plagued their office. This efficiency translates to 92% of calls being resolved directly by the system. GetPipe.com also achieved tangible improvements in operational efficiency. For instance, the owner uses call analytics to review usage during busy times to manage staffing.

Before we got AIR, calls were getting bounced around before reaching the right person. I would hear it all day long, to be honest. I haven't heard any of that since the transition—AIR does great.

Corbin Lichty-DeWitt

eCommerce Operations Manager

Saving time, scaling revenue

For Corbin, the moment of certainty arrived when he saw the immediate impact on the team. The AI Receptionist was "taking stress off of all of the employees". The switch to a consistent, intuitive AI voice also made the company feel "professional," giving the business the legitimacy needed to match its status as a high-volume global seller.

The real value for GetPipe.com is in time regained and stress relieved. Three hours saved per employee per day which amounts to approximately 38% of a standard 8-hour workday. By no longer being tied to managing and directing incoming calls, employees were suddenly free to focus on their core jobs, sales and customer service.

Unlocking the next level of AI-driven scale

This newfound efficiency directly supported the company's massive growth; still, the team recognizes that there is still more to leverage with AI Receptionist’s impact such as its built-in texting capabilities and strategic platform integrations. By leveraging RingCentral's AI Receptionist, GetPipe.com didn't just survive its explosive growth, it embraced it.

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