New dogs learn old tricks
One of the most telling examples of how far e-commerce has evolved in the past decade happened this summer at the eTail 2007 conference in Washington.
Operations & Fulfillment
Giving FEEDBACK
Why put yourself through the agony of giving performance feedback when 1) the problem really isn’t very bad, 2) she’s probably not going to change anyway,
Pick a peck of products
Sales were booming at Evergreen Enterprises. So the firm expanded into a 500,000 sq. ft. warehouse to handle the volume. That’s where the trouble started.
Delivering on a promise
Eric Lituchy runs a lean operation. His online gift firm, Delightful Deliveries, drop ships all of its orders. And this allows it to add product lines like gourmet-baked goods without making costly inventory commitments.
The Case for Yard Management Systems
The vast yards around distribution centers and warehouses often have the reputation of being inefficient and relying too heavily on manual labor. But the best-performing operations realize the significance of solid yard management to company profitability.
Do You Have the Right Vehicles?
As your operation grows, the type of powered vehicles that will work best for you may change. Growth often means increasing numbers of SKUs and larger on-hand quantities. If your company provides replacement consumables or spare parts, you may find a growing parts inventory that must be maintained and selected from.
Having Her Say: Customer Service is Declining Again
According to a new survey from marketing consultancy Hornstein Associates, customer service standards have hit an all time low in 2007. E-mail response to customer queries declined 50% since 2002. The report argues that a heavy reliance on technology
E-learning Pays, Part III
The chief purpose of a call center is to provide the company with efficient, cost-effective customer interactions, but many managers are too busy putting out fires to concentrate on efficiency. Once implemented, e-learning is a time- and organization-saver.
Awaken From The Customer Relationship Coma
The word coma means deep unconsciousness which seems to be the state to which some customer care organizations have evolved. How this happens is a curious combination of submission, negligence, and just-plain burnout from the battles and demands customer care professionals often face routinely.
Avoiding Dead Air
As in broadcasting, silence, or dead air, is not golden on the telephone line. In fact, it’s anything but. And it can wreak havoc in your contact center, especially among newer customer service representatives.