Electrical wholesalers and manufacturers have faced many challenges over the last year. As essential services, they have continued to operate throughout the pandemic and have had to adapt to ensure they can continue to deliver excellent customer service.
Going the extra mile in providing excellent customer service has never been more important. Manufacturers too should be prioritising supporting electrical wholesalers in making their customers’ lives easier.
In January this year, the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) asked UK customers to identify the key areas that organisations needed to improve based on their experiences. The top five were:
Wholesalers will need to work closely with manufacturers to ensure they are ticking these boxes and providing great customer service.
These days, customers are used to having plenty of choice for getting in touch with organisations and everyone has their preferred method. Some like to pick up the phone, others prefer to email, fill an online contact form or start a live chat. Companies need to ensure that they offer a range of options like these and that every one works effectively.
Having a well-trained and knowledgeable sales/customer service/technical support team is crucial for ensuring customers have a good experience and get their questions answered.
Being unable to find the information they want or need on a company’s website is a big turn off for both potential and existing customers. Customers expect to be able to easily navigate a website to find the information they are looking for quickly. If they are required to click through multiple pages to get to where they want to be, you’re at risk of losing them.
While it’s great to have digital options available for taking calls, it can be extremely frustrating for customers if it’s hard for them to get through to an actual human. While digital options were introduced to make interactions swifter, most customers still prefer to talk to a person on the phone.
It goes without saying that offering high-quality products is crucial for a wholesaler’s reputation and success. To ensure that you’re working with good manufacturers, it’s useful to look at their returns level. If you’re unable to attend face-to-face visits to see new products because of the pandemic, there should be options to attend virtual product launches where you can learn about new products and the benefits for your customers.
Excellent customer service is essential to the success of manufacturers and wholesalers. It’s important to strike a good balance between traditional methods and modern alternatives to ensure customer expectations are met and exceeded. Going the extra mile will help you to win new business and inspire customer loyalty.
About Bridgewater Professionals
Bridgewater Professionals specialise in recruitment for jobs within the wholesale, distribution and manufacturing industries, recruiting highly skilled individuals at all levels across the UK and Ireland.
If you’re an electrical wholesale, distribution or manufacturing professional interested in developing your career, get in touch with us today.
