Markem-imaje responds to covid-19
“With face-to-face and work place access limited, the B2B portal allows us to facilitate the ordering process remotely.”
449%
growth in quarterly B2B e-commerce orders
Markem-Imaje streamlines B2B e-commerce to support essential production.
As the COVID-19 crisis evolved in Europe and the U.S., Markem-Imaje’s divisions became concerned that some of its suppliers would be unable to maintain stock levels. With many of its customers relying on its product tracing and identification solutions to help them meet compliance requirements for essential food and healthcare products, the company urgently needed to ensure it could continue to supply and support its customers, even as staff members were forced to work from home.
It also needed to maintain and service its products for customers, at a time when most sites were closed to visitors.
Markem-Imaje is a Trailblazer in helping businesses manufacture packaged and essential goods.
Markem-Imaje is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of specialised product identification and traceability solutions for the packaging industry.
The company plays a critical role in ensuring businesses remain compliant during the production of many essential items, including food, beverages, and pharmaceutical products. For example, it provides printers that print barcodes and other coded information on packaging. Safeguarding the production of these items is particularly important during the current crisis, which has seen widespread shortages of items including personal protective equipment, toilet paper, and packaged food.
With the COVID-19 situation worsening, the company quickly recognised the importance of keeping its service and B2B commerce channels operating to support its customers through this difficult period. It also realised it needed to keep customers informed as the crisis unfolded. Markem-Imaje was able to do this with the help of Salesforce technology already in place.
“What we’re trying to do is stay very close to our customers, to make sure their problems are being addressed and that communication is as fluid as possible,” said Christophe Lopez, Vice President Global Customer Care Operations at Markem-Imaje.
Visibility over customer data makes remote working easier.
With many of the company’s employees working remotely, ensuring customer care and help-desk teams could continue to support customers seamlessly was a priority for Markem-Imaje.
“We needed to ensure that we didn’t have any capacity issues that would prevent us from putting into effect the business decisions we were making,” said Lopez.
Fortunately, Sales Cloud allows team members to securely access a complete view of the customer from wherever they are working. This means they can continue to provide customers with exceptional customer service. Labor-saving automated features such as Salesforce’s configure, price, quote functionality are also helping to ensure customers' needs are met. This functionality allows customers to quickly generate quotes at their convenience, without the help of a sales agent.
The company is also using virtual assistant solution SightCall, available through Salesforce AppExchange, to provide technical services via video technology at sites where visitors are not permitted.
Online commerce capability streamlines customer experience.
Markem-Imaje’s self-service portal, built with Salesforce B2B Commerce, has also helped the company meet its customers’ needs during this period. Using the platform, customers can quickly and easily reorder and track shipments without needing to contact a sales representative or service agent. This allows both Markem-Imaje and its customers to focus more time and resources on running their businesses.
With complete connectivity across the ordering process, the technology has also reduced the potential for ordering errors. Meanwhile, automation of many routine administrative tasks, such as data entry, has freed team members to refocus their efforts on increasing sales and customer satisfaction. This has helped to reduce back-office congestion and costs associated with servicing customers.
Markem-Imaje’s customers have proved to be highly receptive to the shift online, with new users quickly realising how useful the site is ticking off tasks like downloading invoices or requesting a service intervention. As a result, the number of customers using the platform doubled. The platform also saw twice the amount of revenue since the March downturn.
"COVID-19 has been an accelerator for B2B Commerce," said Lopez.
Clear communication keeps customers informed at every step.
Markem-Imaje is using Salesforce’s Pardot marketing automation solution to convey important information about the organisation’s COVID-19 response to customers.
It is also helping to grow the pool of customers able to benefit from the company’s online channel by sharing details of its dedicated landing page with customers who haven’t previously used the platform.
“With face-to-face access limited, we want to remind customers that the B2B portal is a support tool they can safely use,” said Amadou Sylvestre, Customer Care Transformation & Program Director in Markem-Imaje. “It also means that we can facilitate the ordering process remotely.”
The company plans to roll out Service Cloud to help further transform B2B customer service, improve efficiency, and become more cost-effective.
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