Wholesaler Guide
The customer is king T
With recession potentially looming following recent global stock market falls, good customer service has never been more important.
he electrical industry has faced many challenges in recent years, with electrical wholesalers and
manufacturers continuing to operate as an essential and much-trusted service. Matt Dyer, office manager at National Ventilation, talks about what makes excellent customer service and why going the extra mile is so important. Clear and easy-to-use communication channels, quality products, and the best staff are all critical to success. These are vital areas for manufacturers to perfect when it comes to ensuring for wholesalers, working with them is a seamless, effective and rewarding experience.
Customers consistently highlight the following key areas of improvement for organisations they interacted with: • Make it easier to contact the right person to help me
• Better website navigation • Easy to use Apps • More friendly/helpful staff • More knowledgeable staff • Quality of product/service
To be sure of great customer service, wholesalers should look to work with manufacturers who can already tick all of these boxes.
To back up these points, a recently released report on the state of customer service across the UK revealed that satisfaction levels are at their lowest since 2010. With customer satisfaction driving business performance, persistent low levels of satisfaction have the potential to undermine the UK’s economic recovery.
The latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which benchmarks customer satisfaction at over 275 of the UK’s leading organisations, is 75.8 (out of 100), a drop of 0.8 points compared to July 2023 – and 2.6 points below its highpoint of 78.4 in July 2022. Since 2019, the companies that have secured the highest levels of customer satisfaction have achieved continued financial stability and discipline with stronger satisfaction resulting in an increasing customer base.
The report finds that a third of customers prefer excellent service, even if it costs more. Better service also results in customers trusting an organisation and feeling reassured that they receive the support and advice they need. This why electrical wholesalers and manufacturers must strive to provide superb customer service every time, with a sharp focus on the following vital areas.
“By working with manufacturers that train all their staff to a high level, wholesalers can rest assured that they are being given great advice.”
A clear route to essential information Visiting a website only to discover you can’t find the information needed, or it’s buried under an obscure heading, is enough to put off any potential or existing customer. Websites should be easy to navigate ensuring that the relevant information can be easily found by a visitor, and that they don’t have to click through multiple pages to get to where they want to be.
Customers want information at their fingertips, so a choice of digital channels is an additional
22 | electrical wholesalerSeptember 2024
advantage. To this end there are a growing number of manufacturers offering free Apps to help electricians and wholesalers find the products they need. For wholesalers, it means they can swiftly and easily find a product to show a customer. Furthermore, this allows electricians to find the right product for the job or check installation details in technical brochures, no matter where they are. Some Apps, such as National Ventilation’s Know How App, allow everything to be downloaded so it is available offline too - ideal when Wifi signal is poor.
The right outcome
It’s extremely frustrating to contact a company and not be able to get in touch with the right person quickly via the communication channel of your choice. Whilst some prefer to pick up the phone,
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