Future-Proof Your Business: Improving Customer Engagement
The Office Supplies industry is experiencing an unprecedented amount of change. The reducing volume of product sold and increasing competition has had a downward pressure on selling prices and consequently margins throughout our industry: manufactures, wholesalers and dealers.
In these continually competitive times we believe it’s never been more important to ensure independent dealers maximise their opportunities to engage with customers however the customers want to communicate with you. This need for dealers to have a robust multichannel capability is exactly why Office Power was created in 2012 and has grown so strongly since with then many dealers who have embraced it seeing significant increases in their net profit.
Buyers Behaviour
One of the main changes in the industry is the buyers behaviour – less and less buyers want to order over the phone and an increasing number would prefer to order online, potentially via mobile, so it is crucial that dealers provide the ability for customers to engage and buy in any way they want to, and at any time!
What You Need to Ensure
Our industry is at the stage that just having any old website is not good enough – you need to make sure:
The website is easy to use with onsite search that delivers the results the buyers are looking for.
The product information and images are current and up-to-date to enable an easier buying process for both new and existing customers.
Tailoring pricing structures to incentivise customers to buy more – the ability to develop and easily implement sophisticated pricing structures through one purpose built integrated system and then report on every detail so you can monitor, manage and control the effects of the changes you make is crucial in order to implement pricing correctly.
Presenting information to customers in the way they want it – whether customers want complicated cost centres, multiple order approval levels or just online access to their invoices, statements and past purchases having the ability to easily give them the information is a great way of both retaining existing accounts and gaining new ones.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be providing more information on what you need to consider when planning for the future of your business with blogs from genuine industry experts on Operations, Pricing, Merchandising and Marketing. Be sure to check back to this blog on a regular basis or contact Office Power on 0207 3923930 for an informal discussion about the services we deliver to smart Office Products dealers across the country. You really have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.
