Order Fulfillment

The rapid development of sophisticated technologies has been tantalizing. So much so that it’s been suggested companies can improve efficiency by replacing expensive, variable-cost human labor with incredibly efficient hardware and software, both fixed costs. Such promise has led to change in the call-center business, beginning with call-routing menus and leading to sophisticated, interactive voice recognition systems. Despite countless horror stories of customers lost in “promptland,” most of this technology has been developed with the best intentions. Yet numerous studies have shown this promise often has remained out of reach. A recent Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index survey found that 55 percent of customers

As a consultant, one of the things I love to do when touring a B-to-B catalog company is to take a look at the customer order just before it gets sealed. I usually make a point of doing it during the first tour of the operation. What I find usually astounds me.
Most often, standard marketing materials — a catalog, a flyer or two, maybe a thank-you card or survey — are tossed helter-skelter in the bottom of the box, covered by the items being ordered and the void fill of choice. Imagine what happens when customers open that box presuming, of course,

As has been its annual custom, B-to-B list firm MeritDirect’s annual co-op event in White Plains, N.Y. on July 12 was kicked off by a provocative and entertaining presentation by catalog veteran and futurist Don Libey. Having heard Don speak plenty of times in the past (and despite his frequent speaking appearances, rarely does he repeat a single concept, strategy or idea), I’ve long since learned how to filter through his motivational pep talk and the meat of what he delivers. While always entertaining, his shtick is always chockfull of meat, but it often looks beyond tomorrow. And after all, we all want to

Merchandise analysis is an ongoing process. Although most companies should schedule formal reviews at the end of each season, the key to profitability is staying on top of the metrics that drive any multichannel business. Postmortems, as many of these reviews have been labeled, have a negative connotation in many marketers’ minds, and as a result, often are sidestepped. I’ve found that changing them to “preseason kick off” reviews promotes an offensive approach to profitability that can be maintained throughout the season. Of course, each business can apply its own weight to the measures to make final decisions. As multichannel merchants say, “It’s all about

Catalogers’ Updates PetSmart: The multichannel pet supplies retailer in late April sold its State Line Tack equine assets to PetsUnited, a holding company for a Web-based marketer of pet and equine products, including Dog.com, Fish.com and Horse.com. PetsUnited plans to move the State Line Tack online and catalog business from Brockport, N.Y., to its Hazelton, Pa., facility by July. Cutter & Buck: This apparel cataloger/designer in April agreed to be acquired by the Sweden-based New Wave Group AB, a designer/marketer of assorted apparel lines for the corporate promotional and consumer retail markets in Europe. Under New Wave Group’s ownership, Cutter & Buck

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

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

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

Sometimes after a meeting or a difficult interaction we think, “What a disaster!” Sadly, there have been many recent disasters, real ones, that have put families, businesses and communities at risk or out of commission. Most people avoid the topic of disaster planning like the plague — but it’s the plague that might be coming. An AT&T survey on disaster planning found that, on average, more than 30 percent of U.S. companies have no disaster recovery plan at all. What’s more, of the companies surveyed, more than 20 percent have neither updated nor tested their plans during the previous year, and more than

BACKGROUND: A trained CPA Liz Plotnick-Snay will soon enter her 12th holiday season with the Delaware, Ohio-based Gooseberry Patch catalog, a company started in 1984 by her next-door neighbors JoAnn Martin and Vickie Hutchins. The two working moms — JoAnn was a teacher, Vickie a flight attendant — shared a love of collecting antiques, gardening and country decorating. As their children grew, so did Gooseberry Patch and they eventually moved the business to a building large enough to house their kitchen and home décor products, gourmet foods, cookbooks, calendars and organizers. The Gooseberry Patch catalog is filled with hand-illustrations of its products. It also