IDEAL SUPPLY, WITH HEAD OFFICES IN LISTOWEL, Ontario, Canada, is well known throughout the terri- tory it serves for its exceptional customer service. For example, Ideal is the only electrical distributor in the area that offers what it calls “shotgun delivery service”: product delivery within five to 15 minutes of receiving an order. When electricians are on the clock at a jobsite and need products ASAP, Ideal delivers ASAP. Considering the company’s extreme responsiveness to customer needs, management was surprised and more than a little concerned to hear from customers that its customer service could use a bit of improvement—so Ideal jumped into action. Within eight months, Ideal and NAED had launched a new curriculum for inside/counter sales, which includes EDGE, Counter Pro, CEP Inside Sales, Bottom Line Basics, and several online soft skills courses on topics such as com- munication, productivity, time management, and business etiquette. The curriculum was—and still is—mandatory for the 80 counter/inside sales associates at Ideal’s 30 branches. Today, in addition to sales, associates in all de- partments with any customer contact—e.g., quotes and contracts, purchasing, and warehouse—must also complete the training. Targeted Training The NAED inside/counter sales curriculum is highly cus- tomized to the electrical distribution industry, and it in- cludes the course Developing Your Customer Focus. But Ideal wanted to target training and performance goals even more precisely. It wanted to know: What exactly does its customers mean by “customer service”? What does its
THE “WOW” FACTOR
Ideal Supply maintains its branded customer service edge through focus
groups, sales training, core values, internal ambassadors, continuous improvement
workshops, and dedicated teams of specialists. by Jan Niehaus
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RF Technologist Chris
Rozema shows Wanda
Coxen how to verify
that the correct part and
quantity is being picked.
