F. Curtis Barry Co.

Edited by Donna Loyle Two industry veterans share their insights on how to best leverage operational benchmarks and best practices. A catalog executive suffers from no shortage of metrics to watch for: from average order value to e-mail inquiry turnaround times to indirect labor costs to number of calls answered in 20 seconds or less. The real questions, though, are how to use the numbers, and if the metrics even are appropriate to track for your operations. Comparing operations solely on numbers can be misleading. Is it better to establish a set of best practices and then hold your staff accountable to them?

Edited by Donna Loyle Two industry veterans share their insights on how to best leverage operational benchmarks and best practices. A catalog executive suffers from no shortage of metrics to watch for: from average order value to e-mail inquiry turnaround times to indirect labor costs to number of calls answered in 20 seconds or less. The real questions, though, are how to use the numbers, and if the metrics even are appropriate to track for your operations. Comparing operations solely on numbers can be misleading. Is it better to establish a set of best practices and then hold your staff accountable to them?

Edited By Donna Loyle You discover a terrific product that you know your customers will love. The vendor's pen hovers over the quantity line on the order form. How much should you buy? Three catalog executives shared with Editor Donna Loyle their insights and methodologies for projecting how much merchandise to stock for each catalog campaign. --- Ron Zientarski, vice president of purchasing and inventory management, Corporate Express, Grand Rapids, MI Product: business-to-business office supplies and furniture Size of warehouse facilities: The company has 257 office products locations, including 40 distribution centers spanning more than 6 million square feet. SKUs: 70,000,