Page 11 of Vol
13 Issue 5 - June 1997By Daniel Gauthier
Bosal Canada Inc., Kingston, Ontario
Page 11 of Vol
13 Issue 5 - June 1997
Surprise! Your best friend telephoned long distance to tell you he'd like to come to your place for the weekend. It's been years since you've seen each other. He'd like to bring his wife and son, too - you all get along so well. You're looking forward to it, everyone will have a great visit.
He also needs your help changing the universal joint on his 1984 Mazda B 2200, knowing that you're good with cars and that you know people who can find you most any part you need! (Hmmm, you think, "hope I can find what's needed" - he hasn't told you what the par number is" Well, even if you can't get the needed part, you can at least have some quality time together. But, you do love to work on cars.) After getting more information, and the type of part needed, you hang up.
You want to be all ready, so you call your
contact at the garage to order the Mazda part. Wouldn't you know
it - that particular number is backordered for at least two
weeks! What to do? Your garage contact says if he can get the old
design, he can modify it. Several phone calls later, it looks
like a very distinct possibility. It's a long shot, but the only
shot there is. The above scenario was "yesterday",
today it will be somewhat changed, and five years from now, it
will be a lot different - because of the INTERNET (International
Network). In five to ten years, every person involved in the
automotive aftermarket will be connected through the World Wide
Web (www). Likely you will be too, like it or not. You'll have to
do it to survive.
There will be less back and forth long distance phone calls to solve critical and unique problems. For example, I was speaking with Frank, a friend at work, the other day. He told me that he now gets news from his brother in England almost every day. For the cost of being connected to an ISP (Internet Service Provider), he can "talk" to his brother easier and cheaper than making a long distance telephone call.
So let's return to our opening "scenario". For those involved in the automotive industry, for example, processes will be far more simplified once everyone is on the same Inter "network". Search for a "rare" part, maybe event a discontinued one. Get the best price through the traditional chain - manufacturer to distributor to jobber who sells to the garage customer and consumer. Get instructions for a "delicate" repair directly from a tech hot line. Even buy or resell reconditioned parts. This is an idea who's time has come! I call it a paradigm. And, you have a choice - now! Either get on the wagon, or get dragged behind it.
The Government of Canada has approved a nationwide project, Industry Canada, to teach you how to "surf the net" (see what's happening all over the world). If you need or want to learn about the incredible business potential this tool has to offer, 2,000 students are being hired during the course of a three year period, to teach an estimated 50,000 small and medium - sized businesses across the nation, just how to use The Net to your advantage. The objective, of course, is to get all of us connected, competitive and ready for the world wide race to knowledge, faster and smarter business.
Being on The Net is very user-friendly, once you get comfortable with a "Navigator". No, this isn't learning to use a compass, the sun, starts and moon to find your way around, a Navigator is a piece of software. It's installed on your computer by an ISP and sometimes it's free or you pay a nominal fee averaging $60. At this time, two of the main competitors for Navigators are Netscape and Microsoft Explorer. Once you're connected, you get your own available by e-mail and Usenet news groups, the communication tool par excellence.
So the way things are going now, about five years down the road, long distance calls will probably only be used for very specific needs, and most likely the opening of my story would look something like this:
Your best friend just e-mailed you a not asking for a favor. He needs a replacement part for the universal joint on his 1984 Mazda B 2200. He's sourced it to Phoenix, Arizona, and the manufacturer is backordered for that part. Then he found a reconditioned one through a virtual car shopping mall. He wants to help him install the part because he knows you're good with vehicles. You want to say "yes" right away, but you also want to be sure that this indeed is the correct part for the job, so you ask him to send you a scan of the drawing of that part. You also get technical information that you can take to your garage friend to get his feedback. He says he can get that old design modified - GUARANTEED! The magic word, the one you wanted to hear.
You call your friend back and tell him to get his family together and get over to your place for a weekend get-together. The repair to his Mazda B2200 is now a "piece of cake"! You might like to try visiting these
Web sites this month:
www.nitrofc.com - Motorsport Funny Car. Watch your fingers, it's hot!
www.cotc.com - Contest for the
best car of the century. Journalists around the world voted for
''the'' car of the century. A must from the Netherlands.
www.rco.on.ca/reincarnate.html
- The Ontario ReinCARnate program. You've likely heard about it.
Reduce pollution, reuse auto parts and recycle metals and fluids.
If your car dies, receive a tax break and get a free tow.
Article number 2:
By Daniel Gauthier
Bosal Canada Inc., Kingston, Ontario
Page 10 of Vol 14 Issue 1 - January 1998
Daniel
Gauthier
Interaction Web Response - The New Push Technology
We've seen how Call Centre Technology can apply to the
aftermarket. A company like Mosaix
can help a jobber manage incoming volume of calls and save money.
So, let's look at how the Internet can help you pick up new
business -effectively.
Accustomed to browsing the Internet, aftermarket
businesses are now faking a dramatic different model: Push
Technology. Jobbers can use Call Center's technology and adapt it
to its environment. A Call Centre leader in telecommunication,
Lucent Technologies (www.lucent.com) does that with the
application it's developing called Interactive Web Response
(IWR). Lucent built an application in their web site that tightly
and seamlessly integrates it with an existing operator answering
questions. Why? To push sales! As opposed to letting surfers
"do it themselves", the CSR (Customer Service Rep) will
take control of what they're looking at. At a jobber's web site,
it could say "Check out our spark plug special!". For a
price, companies are ready to adapt your web site to Push
Technology.
Toronto-based Westminster , can integrate
a mail flyer with a personalized web site. Other companies (www.unix.com) can provide
you with an automated e-mail response software 24 hours a day,
365 days a year (Enterprise Communication Services) without
touching your keyboard or hiring a full time employee. If no CSR
is available, your service sends an e-mail back to your customer
saying: "We're away from our mail until tomorrow. We'll
respond to your message when we reopen."
The basic principle behind Push
Technology is problem solving: How to notify your audience
that you've added new content or updated your site. With Push, web page
technology is automatically delivered on a scheduled basis
without requiring visitors to bookmark your site and constantly
revisit to see if there's anything new. Visitors subscribe to
"channels.` PointCast
has more than 1 - millions users and 50 content (channels)
providers. By subscribing to a Push provider (www.canadiantire.ca), you
choose the information you want to be kept updated on, regularly
receiving an e-mail inviting you to read the latest add on.
Sometimes they'll offer something unique making it worthwhile
being a regular subscribe. That's Push Technology.
At present, there's a war going on in the Push
Tech race... Netscape,
Microsoft,
Marimba. You have the
choice of your Push
platform. But one thing's sure, as long as the technology
remains "non intrusive", the Push ;clients will remain
faithful.
Of course, to emanate a likeness to Push
service, there's always the old-fashioned e-mail! It doesn't need
to be that sophisticated -a simple message above your address
inviting your potential customers to sign a "guest
book" or subscribe to your weekly/monthly newsletter
does the job.
A coworker, Sean
Hickman
(Sorry, his page has moved)
, is a motorcycle fan. (Sorry, his page has moved)See what he did with $25 and
spare time!
Extranets:
Integrate your company to an "Extranet", and get new
customers via Internet. As Marc W. Mcelroy, Answer Think
Consulting Group, puts it -an Extranet is "an information
and communication network that casts a net wide enough to take in
your suppliers, trading partners and often, their
customers." Based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, the ( www.inet.net ) company knows what
Extranets are all about. Mcelroy says: "an extranet support
is not the enterprise, but several interconnect businesses that
rely on each other. It's called inter-enterprise, or interprise.
;Simply, Extranets support electronic interaction that typically
occur in the normal course of business." That's the cost
saving!
Look at this union: The Automotive Industry Action Group
regrouping 1,200 companies in the auto sector, has developed an
infrastructure -Automotive Network eXchange (ANX) providing a set
of electronic communications services for the auto industry.
That's the kind of partnership the aftermarket needs. Bell
Telephone is involved in the service, so ask Rene Jones of Bell
Global Services Group for a white paper on this subject.
Where does all this lead! One day, you'll
interact with your fiercest competitor and together conquer new
grounds! "Its the next frontier -competition becomes
coopetition. You need a part, you're associated with all the
manufacturers of all the car parts in North America
(independently if they belong to your buying group or not) and
you're the only one who knows your customers' preferences. So you
quickly combine forces with a business partner integrated in the
Age of Technology." "This idea is dependent on the
extranet's ability to cross-fertilize ideas and rapidly bring
together people form different organizations" adds Mcelroy.
You'll share portions of customer needs. Instead
of selling your competitor's weaknesses, you'll be protecting
your strengths. As Mcelroy says, "the network will be the
computer, the interprise will the company, and the Extranet its
underlying infrastructure."
Web sites this month:
www.gatewaytoindia.com
-Taking about creating alliances over the Internet, a Bombay,
India company is sort of trying to do that (at your own risk,
however) by advertising export of automotive wiper blades to 6
countries worldwide.
www.theautochannel.com
-Cyber guide magazine. Go to video coverage of the Cycle World
International Motorcycle Show. Se the 98 models. You need a
"livescreen" plug-in application.
www.motorsport.com -
Accessed over 690,000 times since opening for virtual presence.
They clover all types of auto racing -Formula One, Indy and NASCAR. They have 29
corespondents. Over 300 press releases just on F1. All the GP
results and news about Villeneuve.
www.nashbridges.com
-See Don Johnson's car in Nash Bridges Fridays at 10 PM
www.amazon.com -the internet
success story selling books on line. Go to their search engine
and type "automobile". You'll get over 1,000 titles.
Click further and order by mail.
www.4x44u.com - (psst, their server is down. If
anyone knows where they are gone, let us know)America's
4x4 video magazine on the net since 1994. A SEMA member who
received multiple awards and recognition for their Web
publication. Over 10 million raw hits per month. Real audio available.
By Daniel Gauthier
Bosal Canada Inc., Kingston, Ontario
Page 14 of Vol 13 Issue 9 - December 1997
Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) & The Automotive Aftermarket World
With the proliferation of PCs and the soaring utilization of the Internet, the aftermarket industry faces a technical question that no longer can be put on hold: How do you integrate telephones and computers?
The next few columns will look
at Computer Telephone Integration (CTI)
by trying to answer the above question -first, in demonstr
...demonstrating that the Internet can help a jobber save money.
More specifically, we'll look at various companies offering
Internet services help to better understand and manage "Call
Avoidance". Second, in observing how the Internet and CTI
can help you pick up new business -realistically. So, follow me
in this prime time search of the World Wide Web.
How can a jobber manage to deal with the
variance of traffic and orders processed throughout a year?
Today's aftermarket companies can copy formal call centres,
informally. A jobber can hold a competitive advantage over his
competitors with the help of the Internet. We're talking about a
substantial advantage a jobber must hold over his competitors.
We're talking profitability managing customer relationship.
That's what Thomas M. Isaksen of Mosaix believes. The Redmond,
Washington (www.mosaix.com)
company specializes in call centre solutions. Customer service is
delivered on a one-to-one basis.
As this direct sales rep put it.
"Scalability to a smaller sofware-based solution is only a
matter of time." Indeed it is.; Northern Telecom (www.nortel.com)
just announced an affordable and flexible entry-level call
handling solution at the 1997 World Conference on Incoming Call
Centres Management August 19th. Another one (www.lucent.com)
called after receiving my e-mail, stating that this kind of
package has been around for quite a while. Companies like
Dialogic Corp. in New Jersey has; implemented a technology (www.dialogic.com)
where voice-over-Internet is a practical application.
Conferencing can bring participants around the World to share a
presentation on a whiteboard. And all users see results
immediately! So, where does that put the aftermarket industry? I
say the ;jobber is at the edge of all theses new technologies.
Take, for example, the day to day routine of closing a part sale.
Call Avoidance: Lower the number of incoming
calls and you can save. You don't want your clients to stop
calling and placing orders, but in truth, companies are
specializing in helping you to do just that. Why? Two reasons. A
jobber wants its garage customers to be as self-sufficient as
possible. Rather than calling you to search out a part, your
client can browse your Internet Web site and find what he needs
himself. Then he can call only if he; wants a part from you. You
click once to get your price. And you double click on the
"CALL ME" button at your WD to confirm the part's on
its way (www.spdata.com).
and you click again to generate an invoice! What a difference the
World Wide Web can have on an organization!
You already made the sale, but a CTI system
connected within an Intranet took care of the logistics. An
Intranet is a network with a network. Computer companies install
a firewall to provide a barrier between the internet world and
your Internet server. The server does just what its name implies
--it allows self-service by your customers. Call Centre
organizations along with Internet Service Providers (ISP) will
give access to your "virtual store" only to those who
have a valid account ID on your server. It allows them to look
into your inventory, order parts, track a shipment's status,
download catalogue updates, land consult your virtual technical
department. You name it, you've got it!
So the next time a coworker, client or boss
comes to you and says "you're wasting your time on the
net", tell them that a large consultancy has determined that
it's five to six times more expensive to get a new customer than
to keep an existing one. "This forms the basis upon which
companies are investing in many technologies that will allow them
to better manage a customer asset. These investments today are in
such things as call centres, web sites, and systems that improve
the productivity of these customers retention operations and
allows prioritized service for more valuable customers,"
concludes Isaksen.
Next month will look even deeper into CTI with a
practical example: Interactive Web browsing (IWB) applications.
Web sites this month: :
www.xborder.com/corporateonline (this site has closed its doors since I wrote
my article. Good ideas don't always last)--This is a
"not-related" aftermarket magazine, but what a gem.
Their journalists in New York, Montreal and England inspire me
and the subjects I bring you.
www.carmag.co.jp --Once in
Japan, they'll bring you back to North America. For those 4 x 4
lovers.
www.cnnsi.com/motorsports
--Latest news releases in motorsports. NASCAR, Indy racing. Complete
stories, no teasers. You name it, they have it.
It's unfortunate that me e-mail address has been incorrect. I
know some of you expressed concerns about the suggested Web sites
being "American flavored". If you do have a suggestion
of Canadian web sites related to aftermarket, please spam me.
Go back home: Here