5 Ways to Improve the Wholesale Customer Experience

Providing an excellent customer experience strengthens the loyalty of 64% of customers, according to a Salesforce survey. In today’s world of instant gratification, customers expect on-demand engagement and satisfaction of their needs. Industry 4.0 is revolutionizing every market, including wholesale distribution, and it is the key to enhancing the customer experience, and ultimately, leading to the industry’s success.

Here are five ways to improve the customer experience through the digital transformation of your wholesale distribution business.

Technology

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is automating manufacturing and improving efficiencies through smart technology such as sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. These advanced technologies collect real-time data and analytics to improve productivity and enhance the customer experience. Such data can be crucial to catering towards customers, 45% of whom, Salesforce noted, say they will switch brands if a company does not actively anticipate their needs. Wholesale distributors must stay abreast of this rapidly evolving transformation and invest in smart technology to outpace the competition because it will only continue to progress. In fact, the total number of IoT connections will reach 83 billion by 2024, according to Juniper Research, and sensors will reach $27 billion by 2022, reports Zion Market Research. To support such advanced technologies and securely store and process big data, wholesalers will need to proactively monitor and maintain their IT infrastructures.

Omnichannel Environment

Rather than a multi-channel approach, where a customer can access your business from multiple touchpoints, from mobile to desktop, an omnichannel approach creates a uniform customer experience that picks up where they left off across all touchpoints. According to Salesforce, connected processes are very important to winning the business of 70% of customers. To ensure retailers receive their goods and services as quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively as possible in this omnichannel environment, wholesalers must utilize fully integrated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions to streamline business processes, from inventory management to scheduling shipments. Not only will this improve real-time demand fulfillment of customer expectations, but also increase customer security and improve compliance with vendors. Healthy IT is critical for an omnichannel environment and a seamless customer experience.

Anywhere Operations

Anywhere operations is an IT model that supports customers, enables remote employees, and delivers product deployment from anywhere, no matter the location of the assets or people. Gallup identified anywhere operations as a top strategic technology trend, and estimated that by the end of 2023, 40% of organizations will have implemented anywhere operations. Fully integrated EDI solutions will help implement anywhere operations, drawing together various business operations as well as improving real-time decision-making. The ability to remotely access real-time information, data, and analytics from anywhere at any time allows on-the-road salespeople to provide updated pricing, check inventory, and review customer profiles for a more tailored customer experience. Wholesale distributors need to maintain a health IT infrastructure to sustain anywhere operations and must manage asset tracking, software licensing, and hardware warranties and provide 24/7/365 help desk support to ensure their mobile workforces never miss a sale due to IT headaches.

Uptime

According to Salesforce, 66% of customers want instant, on-demand engagement. A slow website or shipping mistake can cost brand reputation and loyalty. It is critical that wholesale distributors ensure their products and services are always available to the customer or risk losing their business for good. A Vanson Bourne survey found that 82% of companies had experienced unplanned downtime in the past three years for an average time of 4 hours and costing an average $2 million. As a result, 46% of companies could not deliver services to customers and 37% lost production time on a critical asset. From supply chain management to a reliable online presence, wholesalers and distributors must maintain a smooth integration between the back end and front end of their business, and that means dedicating resources towards decreasing downtime. Increasing system uptime reduces errors, improves productivity, and enhances the customer experience.

Security

It is also important to maintain a healthy IT infrastructure for security. System glitches cause 27% of data breaches in the consumer industry, according to Ponemon Institute; and the average cost? $2.59 million. Whether it’s from the non-compliance fines, cost of lost productivity, or various charges to get your systems back online in a timely manner, the cost of unsecure systems is high. Maintaining the security of your systems and customer data is not only important for compliance, but also for customer loyalty. 59% of customers believe their personal information is vulnerable to a security breach, reports Salesforce, and 54% agree a commitment to safeguarding their data strengthens their loyalty. Wholesalers must support the front end of their business with seamless, healthy IT on the backend, because without security, there is no customer experience to be had.

A good customer experience is built on good technology, whether that means IoT devices with real-time data, seamless omnichannel environments, anywhere operations and support, system uptime, or information security. If your IT department is small, overwhelmed, or even nonexistent, a managed service provider has the expertise and bandwidth to ensure optimal technology performance at your wholesale distribution business. An award-winning MSP, NexusTek offers multiple managed IT plans with various levels of support so that you can find the plan that best fits your company needs and goals. Our 24/7/365 proactive system monitoring, alerting, and maintenance keeps your IT infrastructure running smoothly to increase uptime, decrease glitches and breaches, support advanced technologies and applications, and enhance customer loyalty. Improve the customer experience with managed IT from NexusTek.