Dees Stribling

Different kinds of catalogers should have different customer service policies, according to Timothy Holody, COO of Seta Corp., which markets through the Palm Beach Jewelry catalog and ships 1.5 million to 2 million units of jewelry a year to customers. “But whatever your policies are, they have to be set up in such a way that you can measure their effectiveness, and their impact on your bottom line.” Holody’s presentation at the recent National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schaumburg, Ill., was a case study, “A Real World Look at Customer Service Policies,” which focused on how Palm Beach Jewelry handles various customers

For companies that ship to residential locations, it may behoove them to take advantage of the U.S. Postal Service, which can still provide cost-effective shipping despite the recent rate increases. That was the message of Alicia Berry, COO of DVD Empire, a Web-based DVD retailer, at a session during the recent National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schaumburg, Ill. “The most important thing you can do to control costs is to figure out where each of your packages is going and how much it costs — the daily numbers,” she said. “That way, you’ll be able to take advantage of what the USPS has

The general idea behind the “60 Ideas in 60 Minutes” session, a customary panel presentation at many conferences, is for attendees to come away with at least one or two good ideas. The trick is to wade through all 60 to find one worthwhile. The 60 in 60 session held during the recent National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schaumburg, Ill., gave those in attendance tips for making their contact centers run more smoothly and profitably. We’ve extracted the best ones below. * Establish a metric to measure sales per hour per rep, said Timothy Holody, COO of Seta Corp., which markets through the

In a call-center context, successful upselling represents an important revenue stream, but not every call center is maximizing its upselling potential. Penny Reynolds, founding partner of the Call Center School, a training organization based in Lebanon, Tenn., discussed how to boost upselling revenue at last week’s National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schaumburg, Ill., during her presentation, “From Order-Taking to Upselling: A Plan for Increasing Phone Order Revenues.” “At the heart of the plan,” she said, “is taking your call center out of an order-taking mode into a sales mode.” She offered the following tips: * Find the right people. Candidates should be interviewed and

Operations and fulfillment “is about people, not systems,” began Bruce Breckbill, vice president of sales for Lehman’s, a Kidron, Ohio-based cataloger of non-electric appliances and household goods, during a session at last week’s National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schauburg, Ill. “Think of it this way: Good people can overcome and modify bad systems sometimes, but good systems with bad people [are] crap.” Breckbill’s presentation focused on four critical areas for O&F managers: * getting the right people, * understanding employees, * making them feel valued and, * fostering self-awareness. 1. “Getting the right people should be simple, but of course, it isn’t,” he said. “The key is

Published rates have spiked throughout the parcel industry, and will impact the bottom line of any cataloger who ships goods through any of the major parcel carriers. But according to Tim Sailor, founder/president of Long Beach, Calif.-based Navigo Consulting Group, the impact doesn’t have to be negative. Despite recent rate hikes, catalog/multichannel shippers still can cut good deals if they play their cards right. “Shippers don’t have the advantage now, since carriers are incentivized to sell their services at the highest possible cost,” Sailor said during a session at last week’s National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment in Schaumburg, Ill. Recent rate