Preparing for New Customers Today

What does Rexel’s U.K division, (also known as Newye & Eyre), Lutron, Rockwell Automation, Philips Lighting and probably a few other industry companies have in common? They are all preparing to market to a new generation of customers with enhanced technological tools.

• Consider, Newye and Eyre recently launched a e-commerce new website. According to a press release, 20% of orders are being placed after hours. Click here to see the new site, which is pretty impressive. The software platform comes from a company called Hybris, which does have an office in the U.S.. Don’t know how they developed the content. Food for thought … once Rexel implements Eclipse across its U.S. network, will it launch something like this (which could compete with Grainger except for product breadth) or will it default to the Eclipse e-commerce platform and be similar to so many other distributors?
• Lutron, Rockwell and Philips are bringing new services to their customers … via iTunes (for iPhones, iTouch and iPods). Lutron and Rockwell are offering applications, Philips has a podcast. Interestingly, a search on electrical in iTunes provides a list of downloadable apps for electrical formulas, definitions and more (of which some are free). To find the apps, search for “electrical” or for the manufacturers, in iTunes. (The Lutron Homeworks app was mentioned in an article in USA Today last week.)

The growth in web usage, coupled with the need for increased productivity (at all levels of the channel) and a changing workforce is stimulating increased interest for technological tools from the electrical industry.

In many instances, however, investments need to be considered based upon “intuition” and observation rather than facts. Investing in iPhone apps is based upon understanding one’s customer base and the fact that iPhones (and Blackberries) are being used by “our” customers, who may be interested in apps to help make them more productive (or answer the occassional question).

With many of the recent new web and smartphone capabilities, there are many opportunities for distributors and manufacturers to explore enhanced technology to differentiate themselves – whether it be revenue generation activities, social marketing, customer service, providing information, new training methodologies and much more. Unfortunately, frequently the long established decision makers frequently discount the concepts thinking they “know” customer needs.

Now is the time to get closer to your customer, ask them about their needs, perhaps more importantly anticipate their needs and experiment. And remember, you need to tell your customers (and employees) of what you offer.

Have you developed an “e” plan? What social marketing efforts are you using / considering (and yes, you can reply anonymously!)?