FEATURE COVER FEATURE WORKING SMARTER Not only does the Live Chat service help
our customers but it enables us to gather insights, which are fed back into the business to ensure we are constantly creating a service that customers want and need. It can assist in updating our product range, since products that are regularly requested can be passed to our product teams to be considered for our inventory. Listening to customers is important and provides the best route to innovation. This is one of the reasons why we have
built up such a broad range of products; listening to what our customers want and need and using our global capabilities and supplier relationships has ensured we can always deliver what is needed, when it’s needed. Our other significant investment has
RS Components highlights product sourcing functionality, range and customer service as key to cost efficiencies
I
n an industry gathering real pace in a time of economic recovery and
increasing demand, never in recent times has it been more important for operations to run smoothly, continuously and cost-efficiently. The importance of working smarter can often be sidelined in the quest to make financial savings, with price becoming the key focus. However, concentrating on effective procurement, using a supplier offering impeccable customer service and product sourcing functionality, will soon start having an effect on the bottom line without even thinking about product price, according to Gary Bradley, Country Manager for RS Components (RS), previously known as Radionics. Recognising that the procurement process can have a significant impact on a company’s expenditure, RS has made significant investment over the last few years in an eCommerce solution that ensures product sourcing is easy, product range is available, speed of delivery is feasible and customer service is high on the agenda – all of which leads to a more efficient sourcing process which in turn generates cost savings. We have ensured that our 77 year heritage in the electronics components market, being renowned for a strong global inventory, reliability and speed of delivery, has not got in the way of our drive to innovate. Our eCommerce solution has become a
8 SUMMER 2014 | IRISH MANUFACTURING
kingpin in our offering. Since eCommerce is an increasingly important area for many customers, we wanted to differentiate our solution and so combined a highly technical approach with a human touch. After three years of development and piloting, the roll-out of our Live Chat real- time service took place in the last quarter of 2013 throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. The service is now live in 29 markets in 19 different languages. Helping to guide customers through
their purchasing journey and assist them in their decision-making, ‘chat agents’ educate customers, make the process smooth and help them to make cost savings, both in effective product sourcing and reduction of downtime. Furthermore, the service is non-selective; customers of all sizes can access the same level of support. With more than 20,000 chats per month, Live Chat has improved our customer satisfaction levels and helped increase our average order values, driving online sales conversion.
Gary Bradley
been in the development of the end-to- end process focusing on key areas such as product, supplier and process optimisation, among others, to create significant cost savings for customers. Our huge data capability means we can analyse customer usage and make recommendations to them based on their own consumption data. Whether it’s looking at reducing the number of products used or simply substituting for energy saving products, which lower maintenance costs, training and educating customers on these efficiencies can make a real difference to the bottom line for those wanting to overhaul their Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) procurement process. Executing this value process in a business can reap great rewards – and when it’s applied to a multi-site organisation the cost savings can be dramatic. Our process has been developed following a study in partnership with Manchester Business School, which has assisted in the development of White Papers on our findings. The results and savings our customers
are seeing through the investment we have made are evident, the great feedback we are receiving is remarkable and our increased sales and customer acquisition is proving that our investment has been worthwhile. Investing in a strategy for the long-
term is important. Putting innovation at the forefront of that strategy is key in staying ahead of the competition.
RS Components
www.rs-components.com Enter 200
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