A Chance for Better Customer Service
Dr. Holger Franke, head of technical department, Klaus F. Meyer
Digital transformation already takes place in the chemical industry. Industrial costumers send requests for quotations via browser supported websheets. Here you have the opportunity to offer more products at the same time via internet. This process will probably be developed in the future furthermore.
Some bigger customers already require all the distribution carried out via a web interface. That means orders will be sent via the system, the confirmation happens to be forwarded via the same and even the invoicing and the payment will be processed that way.
Since companies use different kinds of systems, it may take some time to get used to it. The big players offer webinars to help out. All of this is time consuming and binds resources. Customers most of the time have very strict deadlines to fulfill. The contact from human to human is somewhat also being lost.
For a small company in distribution the situation is very challenging. However, digital transformation can be seen as a chance for better service for our customers.