Here at Rationalizations `R' Us, I've got a thousand reasons
(well, half a dozen, easily) why it's not only good for the
British Cars list to keep Dana Henry's account open, but also
why Charles Runyan should spend the money for the account.
Here are some of the benefits to an electronic account from
TRF's standpoint (though many of these benefits accrue to the
Britcars list members as well):
- a technical support line. If customers past, present or
future have specific questions about the application,
installation, or construction of TRF products, this is a
way that the customers can get directly to the source.
It's not suitable for a hotline, because of the turnaround
time, but it's good for longer-cycle questions, such as
often arise during the many months of a restoration project.
- automatic record-keeping of interactions. If you want to
track a support line, there isn't a better way to support
accountability, automatic tracking, and logging than to
keep an electronic record that is *in fact* the same as
the customer's request. No "paper trail," but the electronic
trail is self-tracking.
- 24-hour support. I had three friends over at my house last
night helping work on my MGB; Chris left at 10, and I shut
down shortly thereafter. If I'd needed to, I could have
sent email to TRF *right then* asking for a call the next
day or to place an order. (Dana, do you folks do telephone
checks with electronic signature verification? If you did
that and supported email orders, I'd do a LOT more business
with TRF for my MGB parts. As it is, I support the local
restoration shop, who buy mostly from Moss. If I could send
you folks a parts order by email, then follow up with a phone
call to do the electronic check deal, well, I have about
$400 - $500 worth of MGB stuff I need to order this month or
next month...)
- rapid feedback of customer information. (Sometimes more
rapid, or maybe rabid, than you might like. :-) This can be
a two-edged sword. As long as you keep your customers happy,
this is a good thing. For instance, if you're planning to
introduce a new product line, this would be a great way to
poll the customer base for requests about products they wish
they could get, about what their concerns are, and about
other information that could help you more successfully
introduce the new product. (Spitfire seatbelts spring to
mind, for example...)
- electronic distribution of parts updates, price lists, etc.
Not necessarily by throwing it out to the list at large -- I
really couldn't care less what the price is on the muffler
gudgeon babbiter for a TR-3A -- but by maintaining your own
electronic mail records, indexed by customer database (you
*do* have a customer database, right?), you could take ad-
vantage of low-cost phone connection times to send out
high-speed downloads of your price list updates, sorted by
what cars the customer has according to your records. Compare
that to the cost to write, print, store and mail these updates
via conventional means. Now, true, you print them on newsprint
and ship them third-class, but you also have to send me all the
TR junk, and you have to send Chris all the MG garbage, when
we're only really interested in the cars we have. If you
can't figure out just how to do this from within your database
and word processor, surely any of probably 200 people on this
list would be happy to consult in return for a gift certificate.
(Or you could just buy a Mac. :-)
- customer demand. If nothing else, I think you could just print
out all the messages that have passed over the list during the
last few weeks and show *them* to Charles Runyan, and remind him
that the customer is always right. We *like* having you on the
list, and in fact most of us would like your presence here to be
even a little more obvious than it has been. I would think that
several of the suggestions I've made here would pay for themselves
if you could implement them. For more on just how to do it, give
me a -- well, send me email. :-)
In short, there are a lot of benefits to keeping Internet access. (Just
ask anybody on this list who's temporarily lost it due to classes ending
or company "right-sizing" or other disturbances in the Force.) I imagine
your workload is probably already too high to take on a lot of these all
at once, but hey, it's almost 1994, maybe a prioritized list of projects
to pursue and stages in which to pursue them wouldn't be a bad way to
start the new year.
Communication has to be a two-way deal. You get out of it what you put
into it. If all you ever plan to do with the Internet account is read my
amusing anecdotes on this list, well, I'm flattered, but I don't think it's
a good business decision. On the other hand, you just got about $100
worth of computer consulting time free of charge, along with six ways
that companies out here are using electronic communication and telecommuting
to save and make money. Think about *that* when Charles Runyan wonders
whether the British Cars list is worth keeping.
--Scott "Now, if they could only *deliver* the stuff electronically" Fisher
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