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“THE KEY TO EVERYTHING WE DO IS THAT AS CUSTOMERS GET COMFORTABLE WITH THE TECHNOLOGY WE OFFER, THE REAL VALUE WE OFFER THEM IS OUR EXPERIENCE AND PROFESSIONALISM AND THAT WILL NEVER GO AWAY.”


Mark Howes President Culinex Fargo, North Dakota


is creating its portal in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese (among others) to cater to its multi-lingual customer base.


Culinex also made a huge investment in technology in the past couple of years, which Howes expects to pay off as the company learns and utilizes more of its capabilities. The e-commerce site the company built using SuiteCommerce enables customers to enter the portal from anywhere and on any device. Customers not only can browse and order products, but also see their order history, pay bills, and more. The site also enables Culinex to anticipate customer needs and make sure products are in stock when customers place orders.


“We want customers to use our system to make it easy for them to work with us,” Howes says. “The key to everything we do is that as customers get comfortable with the technology we offer, the real


42 FEDA News & Views


value we offer them is our experience and professionalism – and that will never go away.”


Retaining Your Customers


Attracting customers to your site and getting them to buy is only half the battle: “Of course we want your business,” Adams says, “but more than that we want your repeat business,” he stresses.


Rapids Wholesale uses a semi-automated sales follow-up system.


Customers


receive automated order status and shipping emails after the sale. In addition, they get requests for product and performance reviews and NPS [Net Promoter Score] scores. The company offers customers incentives to participate, and the responses enable the company to determine what works and what doesn’t. Longer term, the company uses different


email platforms to re-engage customers who haven’t been active in a while, with some missives more personal and others more value/reward based.


ACityDiscount does much the same thing: The company utilizes follow-up emails, using feedback from product and service reviews to improve the customer experience or spend more time training so sales associates are better able to handle customer questions or requests.


Action Sales uses Constant Contact email blasts to let customers know what’s on sale or to deliver coupons. The company also is working on an automated text notification system for delivery teams to alert customers to impending deliveries or delays.


Beyond the short-term, after-sales


communication generated by these systems, many of these dealers also use their CRM systems to nudge salespeople to contact customers personally. “Sales reps can’t visit customers due to COVID,” says Howes, “so our new system makes it possible for customers to get what they need and turns reps into more than simple order-takers. They’ve had to morph into a new role as consultants.”


Plus, ERP systems are now enabling dealers to tie together all the data and communication,


from prospecting and


lead generation to after-sales support and customer retention. Culinex, for example, invested in NetSuite, an all-in-one ERP with CRP, modules.


e-commerce, and other ACityDiscount, meanwhile,


developed its own proprietary system in- house. For both, the goal was to integrate all sales functions in a single database.


Digital technologies have also proven themselves to be invaluable when it comes to the building block of sales: forging relationships.


“Our brand-new ERP


system streamlines the entire process,” Adams says. “It frees up our sales and marketing teams to make more of those personal, meaningful connections.”


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