Pictured left <strong>to</strong> right are Amie Potter, direc<strong>to</strong>r of cus<strong>to</strong>mer service; Tom Barry, purchasing; Pam King, cus<strong>to</strong>mer service representative; and Shane Rogers, transfer supervisor. One successful marketing effort now in its third year has been AP&T’s partnership with the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League. The Titans play their home games in Nashville. AP&T is the “Official Office Supplier of the Titans” and also partners with Titans Radio for the “American Paper & Twine and Titans Teacher of the Year” program. Another focal point, this year, has been the reorganization of the purchasing program and staff. “With our purchasing organization, we have continued <strong>to</strong> evolve and grow,” Shaffer said. “The purchasing side of our business was a very flat line. We developed product segment teams <strong>to</strong> get better organized and more focused. “Now, we have a foodservice team, a jan/san team, an office products team and a packaging team. The teams can really look at the best products on the market, what fits our cus<strong>to</strong>mers’ needs, quality products vs. not quality products, the best purchasing programs, the best rebate programs and what our cus<strong>to</strong>mers want in the market. Circle 3 “We just had <strong>to</strong> get a little more strategic about dividing our purchasing staff in<strong>to</strong> teams that could work <strong>to</strong>gether, and I think that is what we have done in the past year.” Wright added: “We were also able <strong>to</strong> unite our purchasing staff, sales staff, cus<strong>to</strong>mers and vendors <strong>to</strong>gether. It is not uncommon for our purchasing staff <strong>to</strong> have significant interaction with cus<strong>to</strong>mers.” The company’s reorganization efforts also carried over <strong>to</strong> cus<strong>to</strong>mer service. “We changed the way we handle cus<strong>to</strong>mer service a great deal,” Shaffer said. “We have cast a broader umbrella <strong>to</strong> make sure things are more consistent across the organization. We are not so focused on putting out fires like we were prior <strong>to</strong> the new system. Now we can focus on being proactive and getting ahead. “Our cus<strong>to</strong>mer service philosophy is <strong>to</strong> go above and beyond. We pride ourselves in putting <strong>to</strong>gether programs for cus<strong>to</strong>mers <strong>to</strong> meet their specific needs. Many of our programs, especially with larger cus<strong>to</strong>mers, are very cus<strong>to</strong>mized <strong>to</strong> their needs. “We excel at implement- ing programs efficiently and without mistakes. For example, we have, during the past two <strong>to</strong> three years, strived <strong>to</strong> eliminate mistakes from our order picking delivery process. We “We have a significant amount of inven<strong>to</strong>ry for our cus<strong>to</strong>mers. We have a saying — ‘A back order is a mistake.’ You are not going <strong>to</strong> have <strong>to</strong>o many back orders if you have adequate inven<strong>to</strong>ry.” — Senior Vice President Mark Wright are very efficient and we have a lot of checks and balances in place all the way through <strong>to</strong> make sure orders go out correctly.” AP&T officials have organized the company in such a way that the various segments such as sales, purchasing, cus<strong>to</strong>mer service, etc., interact and communicate, all in a team effort <strong>to</strong> best meet cus<strong>to</strong>mers’ needs. In this system, many times a cus<strong>to</strong>mer’s most frequent contact is a cus<strong>to</strong>mer service rep, rather than the sales person. “<strong>Sales</strong> reps do a great job interacting with their cus<strong>to</strong>mers and purchasing agents,” Spivak said. “However, many times their cus<strong>to</strong>mers rely more on our cus<strong>to</strong>mer service people.” The system is designed <strong>to</strong> allow the cus<strong>to</strong>mer <strong>to</strong> interact, daily if needed, with the same cus<strong>to</strong>mer service rep who has access <strong>to</strong> all the information needed <strong>to</strong> get the cus<strong>to</strong>mer taken care of quickly and efficiently. “We must figure out how a cus<strong>to</strong>mer wants <strong>to</strong> be serviced, whether it is the old-fashioned way of feet-on-the-street (a sales rep comes by every week), or whether through some application on an iPad. I think t<strong>here</strong> is a big gap in how people want <strong>to</strong> be <strong>to</strong>uched and this is a key point. We have <strong>to</strong> make sure we have the ability <strong>to</strong> do all of them.” — Vice President Karen Doochin Shaffer While the company does have a call center <strong>to</strong> allow a cus<strong>to</strong>mer <strong>to</strong> phone in and talk <strong>to</strong> any of the cus<strong>to</strong>mer service reps, it is the direct relationship between a cus<strong>to</strong>mer and a cus<strong>to</strong>mer service person that is most desired. “The system allows cus<strong>to</strong>mer service person A <strong>to</strong> always deal with cus<strong>to</strong>mer B,” Shaffer said. “For our larger cus<strong>to</strong>mers with very cus<strong>to</strong>mized programs, we are very big on creating that triangle between the sales rep, the cus<strong>to</strong>mer service person and the cus<strong>to</strong>mer, so it is very ‘clean’ in the delivery of programs and products. “T<strong>here</strong> is an additional bond from the cus<strong>to</strong>mer service side <strong>to</strong> the cus<strong>to</strong>mer Continued on Page 39
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