Reported Donna Loyle

If your catalog’s back-end operations are suffering from the”blame game” -- that is, contact center and distribution center (DC) reps have gotten into the nasty habit of pointing fingers at one another when problems arise -- try this team-building tactic offered by Liz Kislik, president of Liz Kislik Associates, a management consulting firm: At least once a year, bring your contact center reps to your DC and have them actually work there for a day, picking orders, packing boxes, etc. “This helps minimize the ‘they’ scenario. When reps are talking to customers about fulfillment problems, it helps the reps to understand the difficulties encountered

Like other insert media programs, such as package stuffers and blow-ins, miniature catalogs have been around a long time. But in recent times, their popularity among catalogers appears to be on the rise. Catalogers as diverse in nature as nursing mother products marketer Motherwear International and B-to-B uniforms mailer UniFirst Corp. have been successful marketing through mini-format catalogs. What’s more, multi-title apparel and food cataloger Crosstown Traders plans to test its first miniature later this year. Defined primarily as having no more than 24 pages at various dimensions, miniatures can be a more efficient way to get your product offerings in front of

It takes only one negative event to lose a customer, says Bob Thompson, founder of CRMGuru.com. In fact, a CRMGuru.com study found that 83 percent of respondents said they stopped using a company’s products or services of a company based on one unpleasant experience. Following are five strategies you can employ to retain the right customers for your business and win back those who are about to defect. They were offered in Thompson’s new white paper, “The Loyalty Connection: Secrets to Customer Retention and Increased Profits,” published by RightNow Technologies. 1. Identify potential defectors. Monitor customer activity, and pinpoint those who have become infrequent

Compiled by Donna Loyle Increase DC Capacity A recirculating row pusher is one of several new options available on the A-780 case palletizer from FKI Logistex. This feature improves case flow and allows higher palletizing capacities with rates up to 45 case-feet per minute. Another new feature, a high-speed hoist, enables increased capacity and noise reduction, note FKI Logistex officials. And the new system is RFID-enabled, which allows distribution center personnel to track inventory more easily. For more, visit: www.fkilogistex.com. Create Cushioning Material Your packers can create air pillows at a rate of 20 feet per minute with the new AIRPlus

If your goal is to produce high-quality, response-generating catalog creative -- and let’s face it, who wouldn’t want that as an ideal goal -- here are a few do’s and don’ts. Don’t get caught up in the “concept of pretty.” Having an aesthetically pleasing catalog is great, but your creative staff’s real mission is to get your company’s message across clearly and quickly, says Sarah Fletcher, creative director of Catalog Design Studios, a Providence, R.I.-based catalog design agency, and an industry speaker. “A clear message trumps pretty in a big way,” says Fletcher. “The objective of the catalog design exercise is not to produce art,

Do you know where all of your online affiliate ads are being posted? Seriously, every single one of them? “Senators are beginning to wonder if marketers know where all of their online ads appear,” noted Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president of government affairs at The Direct Marketing Association, during his talk at the Catalog-on-the-Road Conference in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 1. Cerasale said one car maker found its ads posted on a pornography Web site. “It’s your brand,” he told the roomful of direct marketers. “If you lose customers’ trust in this way, it’s awfully tough to get it back.” He advised merchants to establish parameters with

Customers who cared enough about your company to actually notify you of their changes of address should be handled with extra special care, said Bill LaPierre, vice president of catalog brokerage at Millard Group, during his talk “What Were They Thinking?” held at the Catalog-on-the-Road Conference in Cambridge, Mass., on Feb. 1. “Don’t treat them like they’re new customers or like catalog requests,” LaPierre said, speaking from his own experience. He moved last year, and recorded how catalogers whom he had notified with his new address handled this new information. Some sent catalogs with messages welcoming him as a new customer, “even though I had been

The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSTA), in the planning stages for many years, finally went into effect on Oct. 1, 2005. So far, it’s a voluntary program in which remote sellers collect state and local sales taxes and remit them to the jurisdictions in which their buyers reside. As you know, merchants currently are required to collect state and local taxes only if they have nexus (a physical presence such as a store or headquarters) in the state. Consumers are expected to pay sales taxes on their online and catalog purchases. Of course, most don’t bother or don’t know it’s required. As

Recruiting, interviewing, training and hiring the right customer service reps (CSRs) is a crucial component of your catalog’s success. The Ascent Group, a Kite, Ga.-based management consulting firm specializing in customer service operations and improvement, offers in its white paper”Improving Front-line Recruitment& Hiring” the following tips you may find useful. 1. Hire for attitude; train for technical skills. “Consider potential, not necessarily experience,” note the white paper’s authors. During the interview ask questions that would demonstrate if the candidate is motivated and enthusiastic, and loves to serve others. 2. Match candidate expectations with work reality. “The more a candidate understands the job, the work

The four Mondays between Thanksgiving and Christmas -- aka: “Cyber Mondays 1 to 4” -- were the peak selling days during the 2005 holiday shopping season, according to Performics, a division of DoubleClick Digital Advertising Solutions. No surprise: Cyber Mondays 2 and 3 were particularly strong selling days. This year, there will again be four Mondays between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Cyber Monday 4 may be a stronger selling day than it was in 2005, note Performics officials. That’s because Christmas day is, itself, a Monday, and so Cyber Monday 4 (Dec. 18) will fall a full week before the holiday, leaving adequate time for