Brakes, a Sysco company, is the UK’s leading food and drink wholesaler to the catering industry. Playing a critical role in the business, the website spans multiple domains and generates over £1 billion in annual revenue.
With so much at stake, Brakes needs true visibility into customer experience (CX) and performance 24/7—so issues can be identified and resolved before they impact orders. And with customers placing high frequency, repeat orders, even small disruptions can quickly affect satisfaction, NPS, and loyalty.
As eCommerce Lead at Brakes’, Justin Mills is responsible for its customer-facing eCommerce capabilities, overseeing both EDI integrations as well as the company’s web platform used by thousands of B2B clients. Justin’s team use thinkTRIBE to keep a close eye on three key areas - site operability, site speed and the broader CX.
Challenges
1. Sensitivity to CX issues with high-frequency ordering
With regular purchasing cycles and large, complex orders, Brakes’ customers quickly feel the impact of any slowdowns or disruption. Even minor issues can lead to frustration, lower NPS scores, and loss of repeat business.
2. Heavy database load and complex query logic
Brakes’ tailored product ranges, custom pricing, and individual trading terms—combined with large orders and extensive favourites lists—create heavy, complex database demands. The system processes large, frequent queries that, if not correctly optimised, can slow down performance. Monitoring is needed to reflect this real-world complexity to accurately identify where and when issues arise.
3. Limited visibility of CX and performance issues
Before thinkTRIBE, Brakes had little insight into CX issues and relied on customer support teams to raise them. Their internal dashboards only tracked incomplete orders—making it difficult to work proactively.
Solution
A true picture of end-to-end CX and performance 24/7
Brakes turned to thinkTRIBE’s manages SaaS solution to gain round-the-clock visibility into the CX and performance of real user journeys. By monitoring end-to-end user interactions using the same desktop and mobile browsers their customers use, thinkTRIBE gives Brakes a real-world, outside-in view of how their site is truly delivering to customers.
Results
1. Peace of mind with real time CX visibility
With thinkTRIBE in place, Brakes no longer relies on customers to report problems. Monitoring runs 24/7, providing real-time alerts and true visibility into live customer journeys - giving the team confidence they’ll catch any issue before it impacts revenue or loyalty.
Justin explains “The reassurance thinkTRIBE gives—the immediacy of knowing when something’s wrong—that’s priceless.”
“thinkTRIBE has massively improved the team’s efficiency. The responsiveness and speed of the alerting is key. And as well as alerting, thinkTRIBE’s client support team watch over our monitoring and get in touch the moment they see an error. That’s brilliant, because if I miss something, I know they’re following it up.” Justin Mills, eCommerce Lead
2. Early warning system for fast detection of issues
The thinkTRIBE Wallboard has become a core part of daily operations at Brakes—displaying live customer journey data on the Digital Team’s desktops and dedicated office TV screens. Combined with email alerts, it gives the team their first sign that something may be wrong and enables them to quickly begin triaging issues.
Before thinkTRIBE, Brakes relied on customer care teams to flag website problems, typically losing 30-60 minutes per issue. Now, with proactive alerting and real-time visibility, Brakes can spot issues immediately and act promptly — often before customers are even aware.
3. Streamlined error resolution with smart diagnostics
When an issue arises, Brakes can quickly assess the impact and determine the appropriate response. thinkTRIBE’s video replayer and single sample views allow the team to investigate issues and pinpoint root causes faster. Whether it’s a slow-loading page or a journey cutoff, the team can quickly isolate the component causing the delay and move swiftly to resolution.
Brakes particularly value the video replayer tool, enabling the team to replay affected journeys and validate errors. This clarity ensures customer-impacting issues are resolved quickly—keeping journeys fast and NPS scores strong.
Justin explains “By having the thinkTRIBE tool in place and getting that immediate alert, we get an early warning and can invoke the right support process straight away.”
Critical areas—such as pricing logic, where errors can prevent customers from placing orders—are prioritised. At the same time, Brakes can also track less urgent issues, like missing images, to stay on top of brand experience.
“The level of technical detail is amazing. You can drill down quickly and see exactly where the issue starts.”
“I love the replayer,” Justin adds. “You can play back the journey and fully understand what’s happening. That’s really useful for validating errors—and when an issue is escalated, I already know whether it’s something that needs action.” Justin Mills, eCommerce Lead
4. Ongoing optimisation for new releases
Brakes deploys new features every three weeks. With thinkTRIBE’s Site Release Manager, Justin receives performance reports at regular intervals following release—allowing him to track any unintended drops in speed or experience and take swift corrective action.
“Site speed is directly linked to lost sales,” Justin explains. “I need to make sure that with a given functional release, we haven't taken a wrong turn in terms of detracting from journey speeds. And thinkTRIBE gives me an immediate response on that – so we can quickly look back at what we've changed and fix it moving forwards.”
5. Impact of faster journeys on NPS and retention
Journey speeds are a core focus at Brakes because of their direct impact on NPS and retention. With thinkTRIBE, the team has been able to both improve journey speeds and quantify the results.
Brakes has established a clear link: a 10% increase in site speed leads to a 4.4% improvement in NPS—demonstrating the measurable business value of performance optimisation. Better NPS, in turn, drives stronger customer retention and reduced churn.
Conclusion
Today, Brakes operates with confidence. Justin and his team have the visibility and insight to protect over a billion pounds in online orders and to consistently deliver excellent digital experiences that strengthen NPS and customer retention.
Justin says “We would absolutely recommend thinkTRIBE. The reassurance it gives—the immediacy of knowing when something’s wrong—that’s priceless. The team are friendly and responsive, and our efficiency has improved massively. It’s made a huge difference.” Justin Mills, eCommerce Lead
