Sharing Files With Customers

Over the past several years email has replaced paper mail and telephone calls as the primary method for communicating with customers. Email is fast and easy to use, but there are many drawbacks. The larger your organization, the more likely it is that your company has a serious problem with the time it takes to read and respond to emails. Many of your customers have the same problems.

An article in the August 2012 Macworld magazine by Joel Mathis suggests we Stop Using Email for Everything, and talks about some alternatives.

Let’s look at one area where email is not the best tool. Many companies associated with construction business want to exchange large files and have a place to share files with their customers. One software that I’ve been looking at seems to “have it all.”

ShareFile by Citrix really seems well thought out and easy for “mere mortals” to configure and use. Pricing begins at $30 per month, and each pricing level includes a 30-day free trial. I signed up to try out the most basic level, and found that it was not only easy to use, but I was happily surprised with the level of personal attention I got from the representative assigned to my account. My account rep went so far as to look up my company, download the logo, and customize my “site” with it – all without my having to ask.

The ShareFile website has “what you can do” videos customized to many industries – including construction. I strong suggest you check this video out when you have 7 minutes… it provides a good overview of the product as it might apply to a component manufacturer - or one of your customers.

Let’s say you want to set up a “space” for each of your customers you regularly do business with. In that space, you want to see individual folders for each project you are working on, and in those projects, all the files for that project. You want the customer to be able to download files, upload files, and you want to be notified anytime they do either. You want to be able to see all of your customers’ “spaces,” but you want them to only be able to see theirs. All of this is possible with ShareFile.

You want to be able to limit the number of times a file can be download? Set an “expiration date” after which a file can no longer be downloaded? That’s there too. All in all, it seems to be a very impressive and easy-to-use collection of tools for managing the files we share with our customers.

The Report Card on Service

How does a supplier differentiate themselves from their competition? “Price” is one obvious answer. “Quality” is another. “Service” is a third. I want to unravel “service” a bit and describe aspects of what that might mean to our customers. You might want to take a piece of paper out and give your company a grade on each area you think might be important to your business. Just ignore the ones that have no relevance.

Ease of working with us – Are we reachable? Do we return phone calls, emails, quotes, inquiries quickly? Do we act like we enjoy being in business and serving customers’ needs? Are our truck drivers as easy to work with as our sales reps? Does everyone with customer contact know how important their role is?

Design suggestions – Have we created pathway to enable our designers to offer suggestions, such as making the commons over the garage capable of accommodating light storage or changing the “suggested” orientation of the floor system to ease the work of plumbers or the a/c people? Are we using the hard-won design experience we have to help customers create a better structure this time?

Lead time – Does our lead time vary, or remain generally consistent? Is there a limit beyond which we don’t (if at all possible) allow it to go? Does the way we manage our lead time help or hurt our customers?

Delivery Package – By delivery package I mean everything – the paperwork, the components, the ancillaries. If we look at the delivery package, is it designed to be as easy to use as possible for the customer? Are the trusses still in the order that we manufactured them, or in the order they will be set on the building? Are the trusses clearly marked? Is information identifying the truss, the bearing locations, the bracing locations, girder plying instructions, and erection information easy to locate? Are we resistant to doing more for customers? Why?

Field-friendly components – Do our wall panels have built in strapping? Are the fillers built-in or field framed? Do our hips require field cutting of “cats” or have we undertaken something like “lay-in gables” to reduce hip framing time? Do we line up the webs, or the chases in the floor trusses? Do we offer products like Stabilizers to reduce erection time? Are we asking for feedback after framing is complete, discovering what worked and didn’t work for the framer?

Looking for ways to help more – Are we looking to take more on, or do we feel like we do too much already? Whatever our attitude is, it is probably shining through to customers. Are we asking customers if there are more things that we could be doing for them, more things that they would like supplied along with their component package, or more products that they wish we offered?

Responsiveness – When something goes wrong, can we get a body out in the field quickly to investigate and help out? If we need a new truss or a repair, are we blazingly fast, or painfully slow?

Marketing – Many of us do many of the things described above – and many, many more. Cumulatively, these things cost (or can cost) a lot of money. Have we itemized all the things we do and used that list to both entice new customers and remind existing ones just how hard we are working to keep / get their business? Every employee with customer contact should be able to recite a dozen or more things (from memory) that are done simply to make buying our stuff as pleasurable (or at least as painless) as possible.

How did you do on your report card?