Putting Your Customers' Needs First

action…then simply adjourn the meeting until such time the necessary people and facts are present to address the issue in a timely manner. Too much time is wasted in most corporations today in meetings that are little more than status reports that could best be communicated via email or other means.

• Value of Online Service Every phone call to Customer Service represents a FAILURE to serve the customer via the Internet! As Director of e-Commerce at Thomas & Betts, my office was located next to our Customer Service organization (which I had responsibility for when I first joined the company) . I often remarked to the Customer Service Representatives that my job was to “put them out of business”. Of course, I was ‘half-joking’ as I would always say that I would find them something else of importance to do in the company. But seriously, every time the phone rang in Customer Service that was a signal to me that our e-Commerce web efforts were not “up to par”. Having been a Customer Service Manager for many years at three different companies, I have a pretty good understanding of the vital role that the customer service representative plays in an organization. Whether the customer service representative aids in the selling of a product or providing a service or both, he or she is an important member of the service team. If your direct customer or end user CALLS your company for assistance as opposed to more easily finding the answer to their question or concern on the web…then in most instances you have failed to deliver the level of online service demanded by today’s performance standards. If you expect to be the easiest company in your market to do business with…then you must be able to satisfy your customers’ needs in most situations without the necessity of a phone call. Imagine that your customer just received a product availability inquiry via phone from their customer or they are at their service counter assisting a customer who is looking for product availability. Looking on their own internal computer system, they realize that they do not have the product in stock. Now, what is their next step… Who should they contact first? Will the customer service rep be available immediately when they make the call to the vendor? How likely will they be able to provide an instant answer? o Which supplier is easier to retrieve the necessary availability information from? Do you think your customer really wants to put their customer “on hold” and call you OR be standing there in front of the customer fumbling to get the information they need to answer the query? A good web system with complete stock availability information makes YOUR COMPANY the preferred first stop in their search for Product Availability! The secret to a good web design is to provide the customer with the SAME information that you would provide to o Item may be available from multiple vendors… o Who is most likely to have the desired item? o