46 | MARCH 2020
Business
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
ONLINE AND IN PERSON,
PUTTING CUSTOMERS
AT THE CENTRE IS OUR
HIGHEST PRIORITY
Edgetech’s Head of Marketing
Charlotte Mercer explains how the warm
edge pioneers are embracing technology
to deliver outstanding customer service
The future of shopping is online.
Retail has already been rocked by the
rise of Amazon and its equivalents, and
we’ve seen household names suffer. Tradi-
tional retailers are more focused than
ever on their online presences
as a result.
The scale of the shift has
been spectacular. In 2017
alone, internet-only sales
increased by 15.9%. By
August 2018, 18.2% of
the UK’s retails sales were
made online.
And it’s only going to
accelerate in the decade ahead.
Analysts GlobalData expect online shop-
ping to increase 30% by 2024, while Retail
Economics foresee it at least doubling in
the next ten years.
24/7 functionality
Fenestration, and construction more
generally, is in many ways a totally dif-
ferent world. Industry has tended to lag
behind retail and the high street when it
comes to embracing the digital revolu-
tion.
But it’s inevitable that people who
are used to purchasing more and more
online in their personal lives are going to
want and expect that in business too.
And that, combined with a long-term
commitment to making IGU manufac-
turers’ lives as convenient as possible, is
why we’ve launched Edgetech’s very first
e-commerce platform.
With our quick and intuitive online
ordering system, our customers can now
place orders in minutes, wherever they
are, and whenever suits them best.
Alongside that 24/7 functionality, it lets
you make repeat orders with the click of
a button and track your purchase from
initial order to dispatch
and delivery. Quanti-
ty-based savings are
applied automatically,
and, for larger orders,
you can upload directly
from Excel.
Complementing our online
ordering system, we’ve also brought in
electronic invoicing and electronic deliv-
ery tracking to make dealing with us as
straightforward as possible – and to help
drastically reduce the amount of paper
we use. As a business, Edgetech is firmly
committed to sustainability – after all
Super Spacer has helped make millions
of buildings all round the world more
thermally efficient – and we’re constantly
looking for ways to reduce our ecological
impact.
Customer Fulfilment Team
With all that, our hope is to make our
customers’ lives just that little bit easier.
But while online is important, e-com-
merce isn’t something we’ve implemented
in isolation. In fact, it’s part of a much
bigger ongoing shift in how we operate at
Edgetech.
Since 2016, we’ve been committed to
putting the needs of our customers at the
centre of everything we do. We’re examin-
ing every aspect of our business, and mak-
ing radical changes to the way we work
with one aim in mind – better meeting the
needs of IGU manufacturers.
In the last twelve months, we’ve com-
pletely reorganised our admin and custom-
er-facing teams to offer even better service.
All departments that are heavily involved
with customers on a day-to-day basis have
been merged to form a new Customer Fulfil-
ment Team.
Our receipt of goods, customer service,
production specialists and others are now
based in the same office, allowing them
to offer a much more agile, streamlined,
joined-up service.
These reforms have had an immediately
positive impact – shortly after they were
implemented, we went two weeks without a
single back order for the first time in more
than twelve months!
Best-ever customer feedback
We’re also strongly focused on measur-
ing customer service – and we’re delighted
to say recent surveys have returned the
most positive results we’ve ever recorded.
We use the Net Promoter Score system
for gauging customer satisfaction. Each
quarter, we select forty customers at ran-
dom and ask them how likely they are to
recommend us on a scale of one to ten.
By subtracting the number of Detractors
(people who give us six out of ten or less)
from the number of Promoters (nine out of
ten or above), you’re left with a total Net
Promoter Score, which is used to measure
overall customer satisfaction.
Our NPS scores have been steadily
climbing over the last year – from 47 in
July 2018 to 62 in November 2018 (a score
of 50 is regarded as excellent).
In Q1 of last year, however, the company
achieved 94 – the best result in Edgetech’s
history, and probably one of the best NPS
scores ever recorded.
That tells us we’re going in the right di-
rection – but we’re not complacent. Wheth-
er it’s online or in person, we’ll continue
striving to put customers at the centre
until we can say with confidence that
we’re the most customer-focused business
in our industry.
AWARDS
ANNOUNCED
AS LATEST
ADDITION
TO GLAZING
SUMMIT
An awards event focussing on
organisational excellence within the
industry is set to take place at this
year’s Glazing Summit, which takes
place on Thursday, October 8th at
Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham.
The list of categories are as fol-
lows:
• Sustainability Award
• Employer of the Year Award
• Outstanding Achievement
Award
• Customer Experience Award
• Corporate Deal of the Year
• Family business of the Year
• Start-up business of the Year
• Fast-Track business of the Year
• Entrepreneur of the Year
The awards are free to enter, with
a transparent, independent judging
process, and entries open on March
1st and close on June 30th.
The Award Ceremony will take
place at the Glazing Summit’s
evening Leaders Dinner in the
Edgbaston Banqueting Suite, with
the industry’s most influential and
visionary leaders attending.
For more information on the awards,
tickets or sponsorship opportunities
visit www.glazingsummit.co.uk,
call 01934 808293 or email hello@
glazingsummit.co.uk