Combined forces: TW Perry has created a formidable marketing juggernaut by positioning its web site and e-commerce initiatives in alignment with a comprehensive customer support program

Prosales, Nov, 2003 by Chris Wood

Flashy and functional, dean and comprehensive, TW Perry's Web site and e-commerce platform are a virtual gateway to the Gaithersburg, Md.-based pro dealer's very real world--a realm where the focus is on marketing, the emphasis is on customer service, and the business model is firmly supported with technology. The independent dealer's marketing mantra--that the company only succeeds when its customers succeed--is fueled by an approach that leverages traditional event-based marketing, training and education, pull-through sales, and state-of-the-art information technology (IT).

This melding of two traditionally opposite ends of the corporate brain trust--creative marketing and computer technology--has enabled TW Perry to develop a true synergy focused on a full-service customer service "mission," an approach the company considers critical in today's highly competitive home building market. It also earned TW Perry the first dual-category award in the PROSALES Excellence Awards.)

"It's amazing what has happened in just the past decade,' says TW Perry president and CEO Ed Quinn of his company's success in charting the course of their own future alongside the growth of their contractor partners. "A good remodeler or custom home builder can write his own ticket now. As their demands for different options and products grow, we've responded with program offerings. It has been a rising tide that has been great for us and great for them."

Tech Time

Linking all of the pro dealer's customer service components under one strategic marketing umbrella, the TW Perry Web site (www.twperry.com) has separate sections for all of the company's outreach efforts. A host of features, including online product catalogs and account access; separate service areas for builders, remodelers, and architects; company contact info, employment and event announcements; and links to product vendor sites and industry news keeps the dealer's contractors competitive by providing business tools, information, and education. But even with this wide-ranging functionality, the site maintains a clutter-free design and a streamlined back end.

"There's nothing fancy and secret or proprietary that we use ... not just on the customer side but throughout our whole IT structure" says Gary Bowman, TW Perry's vice president of merchandising. For example, the corporate Web site is written in HTML with Microsoft Active Server Pages. It runs on a Windows 2000 Server with IIS 5.0 Dynamic Web pages connected to a Microsoft Access, database to enable product listing updates and provide research links and event notifications on the fly.

The Web server enabling TW Perry's online account access for customers is Dell Poweredge 500 SC with one gigabyte of memory and a dedicated T1 connection that rapidly uploads information from TW Perry servers to customers' Web browsers. The customer access interface, which was co-developed by TW Perry and Albany, N.Y.-based SPRUCE Computer Systems, uses Citrix Metaframe software to connect users to the TW Perry server via file Web. "We didn't write any hard code, which sped up our time to market," says Bowman. "We picked some of this, some of that, bundled it together, added some great in-house content and design work by [director of marketing] Kristin Vick and 'boom."

Key to the Web site is its dual functionality. Customers can use the site as a portal or home page to access both general business information as well as TW Perry's major marketing, customer service, and account management application tools. "The Citrix software, in particular, enables account access over the Web so we did not have to supply customers with outside software, they just come to TW Perry Online and go from there," says Bowman.

However, that's not to imply that TW Perry customers are left to surf around the Web site in a lone search for the information they need. Complex electronic services, such as the dealer's customer account access--which includes real time pricing, job costing, and account review modules--require a modicum of support to get contractors up and running.

For example, customers interested in advanced electronic services like account access are personally trained by Vick, who conducts hour-long sessions each month on how to use TW Perry's online systems. "The worst thing in the world is using a new technology and getting frustrated and then giving up," explains TW Perry CO0 Rich Cortese. "So we require that you go through an hour of session training so you can learn the benefits instead of the frustration, and we get a much better response that way."

Online account training is the perfect example of TW Perry's emphasis on working cohesively with customers to surpass traditional supplier/purchaser relationships and develop business practices as a team--and the payback is a two-way street. "Contractors are extremely inquisitive and ask a lot of challenging questions," says Vick of her monthly training sessions "I end up learning a lot about their needs and expectations and they way they work that I can take back to TW Perry and use to improve [our company]."