Training in preparation for the new Order Fulfilment structure is now well underway. This will support a smooth transition of customer groups enabling the objective of a customer-centric function.
Members of the Hull team have been taking part in training over the past three weeks, working on SAP and Salesforce. Going forward the team will be responsible for contract sales for larger orders as opposed to their previous responsibility of smaller standard orders for all merchants.
Despite the challenges of the change in emphasis and the fast pace of learning, the training is being well received by the colleagues, supported by their teams who have taken on extra responsibilities to allow the training to take place.
Order Fulfilment Team Leader Tracy Smith said: “Now we have introduced the team members to the contract market, looking after contractor requirements, they can see where the product is going – a housing development, a doctors’ surgery, a football stadium.
“Colleagues are now seeing the end results of the work that they contribute to and I think that’s giving them extra drive.
“That’s the strongest thing that has come out of this, they also have the opportunity to look after their own customers and they really see the value of that.
“It was a steep learning curve but they have dug deep, put extra time into it and they are doing extremely well.”
Carrying out the training on Microsoft Teams has also had positives, with trainers able to use the ability to share screens and provide instant support.
Internal Sales Trainer Serena Dockerill said: “This has been a team effort across the Order Fulfilment function, with Colette’s team taking on additional work and Rachel’s team heavily supporting their colleagues to enable them to fully focus on the training.
“The leadership team across the function and the training and HR teams have also been very committed to ensuring the planned outcomes are achieved.”
On the training course are Jackie Denman, Sarah Williamson and Sue Sonley, with the trainers Serena Dockerill and Tracy Smith.
Sue said: “Our training started with an insight to the ‘day in the life’ of our customers, what type of orders we would expect and the types of issues we would expect to deal with.
“We were made aware of the project types and an insight to the Contract management both in Salesforce and in SAP.
“Tracy and Serena come with a wealth of knowledge and are brilliant at explaining and showing us around the new Salesforce procedures and layout.”
She added: “I’m thoroughly enjoying the concept of being able to speak to specific customers and getting to know the characters both in the branches, and in the case of the contract management the Installers and External Sales Teams.
“It will be great to manage a contract from start to finish from the Order Fulfilment stage and to have the satisfaction that our customers are happy with the customer service and any issues resolved.
"Our trainers have been brilliant and very patient explaining the system and I feel we are all growing more confident each day and looking at going live within the next couple of weeks."
Earlier this year, the Order Fulfilment team began the transition journey following a recommendation of Project Flywheel to move into a more customer-centric model. The new structure is designed to allow the business to serve customers through one point of contact end to end. It features dedicated teams specifically responsible for national merchants, independent merchants and specialist customer groups, which includes direct supply, POD, panel manufacturers and export.
The Nationals and Specialists team will be led by Colette Jones in Armitage and the Independents team will be led by Rachel Watson in Hull. The restructure aims to ensure customers have a single point of contact at Ideal Standard and that our teams are more aware of their role within the overall project process, from initial inquiry to completion and aftercare.
The next steps will include training more of Rachel’s team and beginning to transfer customer groups to the new dedicated teams. The aim is to complete the transition process in early 2021.