Putting Your Customers' Needs First

of EDI is that it allows a company to extract data from a vendor and/or customer and integrate it in their own computer applications according to how they want the information displayed to their employees. This can be very useful when you are trying to display data from multiple customers and/or vendors and wish to display the info to your employees in some standardized format for their evaluation and use. American Electric began testing EDI with customers in late 1989; Home Depot was one of their first retail sales channel customers to send their orders via EDI. Today, most major customers send at least some of their orders via EDI and there are now over 40 different EDI transaction sets for exchanging data with vendors and customers. EDI not only saves money and time for both the vendor and the customer, but it provides better service for both parties. • Online Stock Check – People may debate over the steps involved in converting a prospect to a customer, but one thing is for certain…at some point in the process, once a decision has been made on WHAT to purchase, the question of WHERE to purchase the item becomes paramount. That is where product availability takes “center stage”. Whether you sell your product directly to an end user or you sell your product through distribution or some other middle tier sales structure, ultimately somebody is going to want to know WHEN THEY CAN GET THE ITEM? Many companies produce a variety of items; some items that are sold in high volume and/or to numerous customers might be normally carried in stock while other items might be made on demand by special order only. For stock items, buyers like to know if the item is currently available for immediate purchase; due to unforeseen demand, an item that is normally in stock may be temporarily “out of stock”; likewise, make-to-order (MTO) items normally have a “lead-time” in days or weeks as to how long it will take to produce the item. Also, if you sell your products through distribution or a retail network, that organization may not carry all of your items in their inventory, so they will need to know how long it will take to get the subject item(s) for their customer(s) … both availability and shipping time so they can relay this information to THEIR customer! The likelihood of making a sale often depends upon the ability and accuracy of the product availability information that is provided to YOUR customer. The more information you can provide your customer…the better the chances are that you will secure the order. Here are some of the data elements we provide when a customer performs our online web stock check: o Catalog Number along with Universal Product Code, Customer Part Number (if applicable) as well as product category of the item being sought o Photo of the item with an extended description to confirm that the item being entered is indeed the item being sought o Links to Product Data Sheet, Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) if applicable, product label, etc. o Listing of any applicable substitutes (in case subject item is not in stock); substitute maybe identical item in different pack size under another catalog number or may be simply another catalog number that is a possible substitute.