Virtual highway: put your company into information overdrive with a Web site that meets your customers' needs

Prosales, Feb, 2003 by Chris Rader

One of the keys to a successful distribution operation is to have a great location. Today, that means not only having a strategically positioned yard, but a virtual headquarters as well. The reasons are simple. First, anyone who has access to the Internet can quickly and easily visit your online location without a requisite road trip. Second, if you have a site, competitive barriers are knocked down and all available customers--many far beyond your traditional service areas--can view your company's information.

The important question to answer here is not whether or not you should have a site, but what level of online information your customers are demanding and how you should deliver it. In the construction supply industry, sites generally can be classified into three different levels that build progressively:

Level I: Information only These sites contain dealer locations, maps, contact inf6rmation, products (possibly molding or stair-part profiles), and services. They also often include a credit application or similar documents. Although some dealers have sites at this level professionally designed and deployed, the sites can be successfully executed with in-house resources.

Level II: Information and customer data. On top of a general information layer, these sites provide customers with access to account balances, payment history, invoice history, pricing inquiries, and/or delivery status.

Level III: Information, customer data, and e-commerce. In addition to encompassing all of the information included in Level I and Level II sites, these virtual storehouses allow customers to input information directly into dealers' in-house databases. Examples include functionality for placing orders, changing orders, and making payments. These sites may allow customers to set up new jobs, track incentive travel points, and manage information that usually requires a fax, phone call, or visit with a salesperson. Since Level II and Level III sites have customer-sensitive information, I highly recommend that you seek the advice and/or services of a professional developer if you are planning to go this route.

To choose the right Web strategy you need to conduct some market research. Ask around. In some areas you will find that the majority of customers want to do business with a Nextel and a handshake. The answer here is a Level I site. In other regions, e-commerce is becoming a technology of choice, which will necessitate a Level II or IH site.

The more functionality your site offers, the more you will need to balance maintaining face-to-face contact with your customers along with the use of e-commerce. Just because clients are placing orders online does not mean your sales staff can stop making follow-up calls or visiting jobsites. In fact, customer relationships should become stronger because the burden of placing orders, scheduling jobs, and performing daily tasks shifts toward the customer, freeing up more time for sales staff to concentrate on customer service.

The tip of the month: If you have a Level III site, consider enhancing it so that salespeople are notified in real-time when one of their customers places an order. The idea behind e-commerce is not to replace the salesperson, but rather to replace the salesperson's redundant activities and at the same time allow the customer to control part of the process. Chances are if you provide contractors with a simple and effective online order-taking process, they will encounter no roadblocks on the virtual highway.

Chris Rader is the president of Rader Solutions, a Houston-based management information, education, and training consulting firm for the construction supply industry. E-mail: crader@radersolutions.com