MSC Industrial increases customer support to match growing e-commerce

As reported by Digital Commerce 360, MSC Industrial attended the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition June 6-9. Senior Director of E-Commerce Mike Roth discussed the company’s balance between investing in the digital shopping experience while still retaining a personal customer service experience. The article points out MSC’s high ranking (72/300) on the 2017 B2B e-commerce 300, a list of high-profile B2B companies that represent 72 percent of B2B e-commerce sales in the U.S. Steve Baruch, senior vice president, chief strategy and marketing officer, also spoke at the presentation. He highlighted the positive relationship between digital and customer experience and how when digital presence rises customer support has to follow. He and Roth then go on to describe the three ways a B2B business can successfully combine e-commerce and customer service. 1. Know your audience. According to the article, MSC has applied a variety of digitally-driven marketing research to supply their sales teams with information valuable in making personal connections with their customers. By examining certain customer habits, MSC gained valuable information about their customer’s buying behaviors. Such data opens news doors for MSC’s sales team. 2. Listen and respond. By gathering and evaluating customer feedback from a multitude of avenues, MSC has been able to evolve their customer interaction methods. For instance, after analyzing feedback data, the company realized customers wanted their shipping data in real time and changed their website to include shipment tracking. The company adjusted to the changing needs of their customers. 3. Build loyalty by winning your customer’s trust. MSC knows the preferred communication and ordering methods of a business can vary. Baruch mentioned, for instance, that some small customers prefer to work through the website for communication, order management and inventory control but prefer to speak to a dedicated customer care team for real help. MSC also pushes to promote their customer care phone number as a way of balancing online presence and personal care. Dirxion provides MSC with new ways to meet the growing e-commerce needs of their customers through Dirxion’s online catalogs. MSC’s Big Book is embedded within their website and can be accessed from anywhere without having to leave the site. This allows customers to work within their preferred methods of ordering. Other Dirxion features, such as Google Analytics support, allows MSC to know what products their customers are interested in and interact with the most. Dirxion’s customization capabilities keeps the catalog on-brand, an aspect of building brand loyalty and earning customer trust.