TheAgileStartup

Thule Rules! - B2B eCommerce Channel Conflict Update

Last week I posted on a problem that I had uncovered with the Thule Distribution Channel.  I was desperately in need of finding a replacement key for my car top carrier before the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.  What I found was that Thule had set up an intermediary service called Shopatron that in the name of preserving the integrity of their distribution channel, was actually standing in the way of a timely delivery of that key. 

Today I want to update my experience and give a very loud shout out to Steve D. who is Thule's Internet Manager!  He not only found, and professionally responded to my blog post, but he personally expedited my key order.  I hope Thule knows how wonderful an employee Steve D. is.  In my experience, he is a rare find and Thule is truly lucky to have him in their employ!

b2b2dot0 SAP ecommerce Net Promoter Score

A company's Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty.  It is based on your customer's answer to a single simple question:

"How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?" 

Answers to this question segment your customers into detractors, passives and promoters.  Subtracting the % of detractors from % of promoters results in your NPS.

According to the creators of the NPS:

"In most industries, this one simple statistic explained much of the variation in relative growth rates; that is, companies with a better ratio of Promoters to Detractors tend to grow more rapidly than competitors."

The Dark Side of On-Line Customer Services - AmEx Lays Off 1500

The headline into today's Raleigh, NC newspaper, the News and Observer (N&O) reads: "AmEx Will Cut 1,500 Jobs in Greensboro".

Why? 

According to the N&O article:

"As customers shift to electronic bill paying and online customer service, the volume of calls the center handles has dropped."

People When You Want Them, Technology When You Don't (tm)

Nothing speaks of the role that technology plays in customer service as well as these advertisements from Esurance.  These guys get it!  It's absolutely amazing to me how perfectly they have tapped into the gestalt of our society with their trademarked tag line of "People When You Want Them, Technology When You Don't".

Why Your Customers Don't Want to Talk to You

Great blog post today over at Harvard Business Review entitled "Why Your Customers Don't Want to Talk to You".  Finally, some bona fide research that supports my long held belief that customer self-service is way more than just a leftover fad from the dot com era but is more of a cultural evolution that is now past its tipping point.

Google Analytics is an SAP Customer Service Agent's Best Friend

Wouldn't it be awesome if through some amazing telepathic feat of technology you could be alerted to the fact that one of your customers is starting to get really anxious about the delivery of their order?  You then surprise them with a proactive phone call and work them through their delivery anxieties?  Well, you can if your customers are using your real time integrated SAP Order Management website to check status and it is hooked up to Google Analytics. 

Grinding the Gears of Customer Service

At the end of the day, b2b2dot0's raison d'être is all about customer service.  Our company's mission is to enable SAP manufacturers to provide a world class self-service order management experience to their customers.  We also know that providing mind-boggling customer service to our clients is at the core of our business model.  So when I see examples of bad customer service, I just cringe...and write about it :-)

Monitoring b2b2dot0's SaaS Availability

At the heart of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model is the understanding that the service will always be available when needed.  In our 24x7 flattened world, that pretty much means all the time. 

Agility in Action - Supporting an SAP Distribution Center Relocation in Real Time

One of our clients innocently sends us an email on Tuesday, April 27th asking us to close up one of their microsites in 3 days...for 3 days...in support of relocating one of their distribution centers.  The request was a simple one, "deactivate all of our French users, and only our French users, for the specified time period, so that we can make the physical and logical changes to our distribution model." 

Placing Spreadsheet Orders Directly into SAP

If you think of yourself as a car company, you're destined to produce nothing but cars.  However, if you think of yourself as a Consumer Electronics Company, as Fast Company magazine just dubbed the Ford Motor Company, you're free to produce cloud enable entertainment centers that can take you places.

The Value of SAP Order Status According to Google

Over the last several months, we've had several conversations with manufacturers who have told us that their primary means of receiving orders from their customers is via EDI or FAX/email. Furthermore, because of their desire to provide superb customer services to their customers, that was not going to change in the near future.  They reasoned that if that was their customers' preferred way to interact with them, who were they to tell them otherwise?  They certainly were not going to ask their customers to retype their orders into an eCommerce website!

The Evolution of b2b2dot0's Client Services

Last September I wrote a post entitled "Customer Support in an SAP Integrated World".  In that post I discussed the (positive) impact that our "On-Demand" model has had on our ability to respond to our clients from a technical perspective.  Today I'd like to take a look at the impact that the On Demand model has on our client services from a business model perspective.

Hertz Gets Social Media!

On January 9th I posted a blog entry entitled "Hertz Encounters of the Bizarre Kind".  It recounted my most recent rental experience with Hertz...which was to say the least...less than stellar.  Frankly, I didn't write the post to elicit any sort of response from Hertz.  Had I wanted to do that, I would have availed myself of either the 800 number or survey url listed on my receipt.  I wrote it as a case study of inattentive customer service and something to learn from.

Hertz Encounters of the Bizarre Kind

Every so often I have a customer service experience that provides me with a "learning moment".  Either I'm so impressed with the experience that I want to figure out how to emulate it at b2b2dot0, or it is so weird or abysmal that I'm left wondering how things got that bad for that company, and I wonder how I'm going to inoculate us from that same disease. 

This learning moment is brought to you by the Hertz Corporation.

Confessions of a Verizon wireless International Roamer

I can write about this now that my nightmare is over.

Love Letters to an SAP CIO

Most CIOs would agree that they have a thankless job. 

They are expected to do more than is humanly possible, with less than is minimally required, and deliver results faster than are theoretically possible.

"We can't accept phone or fax orders, sorry."

It's right there on Velo Orange's home page.  They actually have the chutzpah to tell their customers that phone and fax orders are not accepted.  What?  Are they crazy?  Isn't that poor customer service?  Aren't they afraid that they'll lose business?  Or are they "crazy like a fox"?

Customer Support in an SAP Integrated SaaS World

Google just alerted me to a blog posting on the SAP Developer's Network.  It is entitled "How to Improve your CRM eCommerce Support".  As I read it, I came to the stark realization that we at b2b2dot0, and our clients, take an awful lot for granted when it comes to the value that the Software as a Service business model brings to customer services.  Today's post will shed a light on the topic.

Opening the SAP B2B Kimono - Update

Last February I posted a blog entry entitled "If we are going to open our Kimono..." that dealt with the impact of exposing your SAP system, and internal business processes, to the web.  Since then, we've experienced two more GoLives, and many more examples of how launching an SAP Integrated B2B sellside ecommerce website forces you to "clean up your act".

Inside the tornado

There is never a dull moment here at b2b2dot0!  Every so often I like to stop for a moment and take stock of where we're at and what we're doing.  This feels like one of those moments.

"Our customers aren't our secretaries!"

"They are NOT going to rekey their orders into our SAP integrated eCommerce website for us.  Their purchasing systems generate faxes and emails and that's what they are going to continue to send to us."  I heard this story...yet again...this week and wanted to weigh in on this topic.

Are you hiring?

Well you should be!  I know these are the craziest economic times that we've seen in generations.  Even Toyota is going to report an operating loss this year for the first time in 70 years.

"We don't need no stinkin' website"

As we spend more and more time interacting with manufacturers in the marketplace, we occasionally meet up with the organization that dismisses the need for a B2B eCommerce website.

Back to the Future...when real time isn't.

How can you tell when an eCommerce website is out of sync with its back office inventory and financial system?

Our Website is Down!

I really don't ever want to hear those words.  Earlier this year, my then favorite SaaS provider replaced their normal login page with the following message to their website's anxious visitors (including me and several of my consulting clients):