IE
We’re just about to issue a survey to customers asking them to tell us how demand is increasing and how they see the next few months, so that we can make sure we stay ahead of that in terms of stock availability and returning staff.
As our National Sales Manager Julie Holmes has been saying in the trade press this week, I don’t think it’s ever been more important for customers to talk openly and honestly to their suppliers as much as they can.
We obviously want to keep a close track on demand to help us plan, but this survey is about much more than that. The feedback that customers give us will tell us where to focus our efforts over the coming months, and what kind of support we can offer which will make the biggest difference.
We’ve already listened to customers and reduced our minimum order value and increased deliveries to 48-hours, but now we want to work out how we can adapt our service and our sales and marketing support, and how we can continue to meet and, as much as possible, exceed expectations in the months ahead.
There’ll obviously be a huge switch to digital engagement which we’re preparing for in-house, but we’re not going to impose our way of working on our customers. Tell us what you want from us, and we’ll do our best to tailor our approach.
The survey will be landing with you in the next week or so, so please take some time to give us as much input as you can. We’ll be sharing what we learn with our customers so that we can all use the results to gear up our businesses to match the shape of the likely recovery.
As Julie has said, the Coronavirus has emphasised how interdependent we all are in this industry and how much we are ‘all in this together’. If we can continue to talk and work together, then I think we’ll all undoubtedly see the benefits.
Richard
