The online shop creates more time for face-to-face customer consultancy

What significance does the HANSA‑FLEX online shop have for the branches? To gain an impression of this we interviewed Christian van der Veen, Head of the Branch Management.

Not in the least. The online shop is an important factor in securing the future of our company. Our customers are increasingly going digital, and we have to move with the times. On the one hand technologically, and on the other so that we can continue to offer a high-quality service. Our customers also have fewer and fewer employees who they can send to the branches to make purchases, so the online shop is an important additional sales channel that can be used alongside our branches.

It's an important supplement, but it can never be a replacement - it's very important to understand this. Our online shop can't be compared to a pure webshop where you just order whatever you can think of, but is simply another ordering channel for our customers. Nevertheless, the convenience of online shopping, which is familiar from private consumption, is slowly being transferred to our business divisions. We must always keep in mind that everything is becoming increasingly simple and more convenient.

Das ist bei standardisierten Produkten wie Armaturen, Kupplungen oder Ventilen durchaus möglich. Und unser neuer Schlauchleitungskonfigurator ist ein Beispiel dafür, dass es auch bei kundenspezifischen Produkten gut funktionieren kann. Wenn es aber um Produkte wie Baugruppen oder Aggregate geht, ist unser hervorragender Kundenservice, der schon immer unser Markenzeichen war, unverzichtbar.

In recent years, standard parts have no longer been dispatched from the individual branch, but from our central warehouse. This has been very well received by customers and is working very efficiently. In the end, this acceptance was also decisive proof for me that our customers are prepared to use the online shop.

We neither want to nor will become a purely mail order company. Personal contact with the customer is always our top priority. In our industry, individual consultation is of central importance to us. The online shop can and should only be a supplement to this, a support function that takes the pressure off the branches and offers customers quick and easy access to standard products.

This means that our employees in the branches have to process fewer orders for standard parts personally and can focus more on core tasks such as providing competent customer advice. We want to have time for our customers when they come to our branches. Everything that is standard, that is needed on a recurring basis, can be processed via the online shop and this gives us more time for personal expert dialogue.

HANSA‑FLEX's Click & Collect service relieves the branches in a similar way by allowing employees to concentrate more on their core tasks. The efficient processing of standard orders via the online shop gives employees the opportunity to use their time and expertise more for individual technical discussions and thus further increase the quality of service.
 
For customers, Click & Collect means faster availability of their orders and the opportunity to receive personalised advice and specialist expertise at the branch, while at the same time simplifying the ordering process for standard products via the online shop.

Of course it does. The best possible service for our customers is always at the heart of everything we do. In our business, the need for specialist advice and maintenance will never disappear. An online shop can't replace our experts in the branches, let's be clear about that. But it does give them more time to provide valuable advice and other services. The subject of service in particular will become even more important in the future, in that the shortage of skilled labour means that our customers will increasingly work with external experts like us. They can continue to rely entirely on our mobile services in future, personal support from the branch will be intensified and they will also have the option of ordering simpler items productively via the online shop.