New Ideas to Help Improve Customer Service
Computerized catalogues and multiline cordless telephones are two new products designed to help small businesses improve customer service in the 1990s.
Xentek, a Vista, Calif.-based power supply maker recently launched its catalogue-on-a-disk as a way to encourage computer designers and engineers to include Xentek power supplies in their new computers and accessories.
Betty Trenberth, Xentek’s former marketing director, sat down with advertising executive Peggy Lefebvre to figure out a way to “add pizazz” to Xentek’s marketing program. Because Trenberth and Lefebvre are both technically oriented, they decided to put Xentek’s 32-page product catalogue on a computer disk.
“Our idea was to have the disk become an electronic salesman that would help educate customers about the products,” said Lefebvre, whose Anaheim advertising agency specializes in helping high technology clients promote their products and services.
The catalogue-on-a-disk idea has met with such positive response from clients that Lefebvre has set up a division in her agency to produce computerized catalogues.
And Trenberth has left Xentek to open her own Vista-based business called Teledisk. She said Teledisk will specialize in developing software programs for putting catalogue information on computer disks.
The concept is not totally new. A few years ago, Trenberth said Motorola released its product catalogue on a computer disk, but did not do much to promote it.
Trenberth said any company with a catalogue of 20 pages or more could save money by putting the information on a computer disk. She said the major expense is paying a computer programmer to put the catalogue information on a disk. In Xentek’s case, the job went to a staff member. After that, updating the disk is simple and inexpensive.
“It costs about $1.80 a copy to produce a two-color, 36-page catalogue, compared with about 82 cents to produce each computer disk,” said Trenberth. She said the computerized catalogues are designed to be easy to use even by people not totally comfortable with computers.
So far, response from Xentek’s customers to its 5 1/4 -inch floppy “Powerdisk” computerized catalogue has been positive, Trenberth said. One computer company recently asked for six Powerdisks so every engineer could keep one next to his or her computer. Currently, Xentek customers who select products from the Powerdisk call in their orders by telephone, but Trenberth said eventually orders could be placed over phone lines with the computer.
Trenberth said any company with an inventory of products to sell should consider making product information available on a disk in addition to or instead of a printed catalogue.
Cordless telephones have been around for a while, but last month American Telephone & Telegraph released a new, multiline Merlin model designed specifically for busy small businesses. Unlike the single-line home version, the new phone can handle up to five lines simultaneously.
Liz Morris, an AT&T; spokeswoman, said the new cordless phone was developed to enhance the Merlin phone system, which is designed to serve small businesses needing two to 100 phone lines.
Lew Mitchell, owner of Lew Mitchell’s Orient restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, was among the first AT&T; customers to buy the cordless phone.
“Our business is based on service,” said Mitchell. “People come here to eat, but they also come here to do business.”
Instead of asking customers to walk across the room to accept calls, he brings the phone to their table.
“I just walk in there and say, ‘This is for you,”’ said Mitchell. “I can leave the phone on the table and trust him not to call Uganda.”
Mitchell, who paid about $500 each for the phones, said he considers them a good investment.
Other phone makers also offer multiline cordless phones. For example, Radio Shack has a two-line model for about $160.
Where the Hot Prospects Will Be in the New Decade
Children’s fitness centers, senior day-care centers and sock shops are among the hot business prospects for the 1990s, according to Entrepreneur magazine. Kiddie gyms are popping up across the country, as are day-care centers designed to care for elderly people. These senior centers provide a lower cost alternative to home care for ambulatory seniors who enjoy being part of a group.
Brew pubs, which are restaurants with small beer breweries, are also a good investment. On the West Coast, the number of brew pubs has grown from 50 to 82 in recent years. (Gorky’s Restaurant in Hollywood is one of the newer ones.)
Mobile automotive services and home inspection services are also attractive business opportunities, according to the magazine’s editors.
Selling bottled water is also a good way to make money, since the sale of bottled water doubled from $1 billion in 1985 to $2 billion in 1988. The public’s interest in health, combined with the taste of some local tap waters, has encouraged new bottled water companies to compete against the industry veterans, Sparkletts and Arrowhead.
If you like children, opening a day-care center has great potential this year. Currently, about 2 million children are spending their time in 65,000 child-care centers across the country. But, every month, more mothers return to work and are looking for somewhere safe and stimulating to leave their children. Being a wedding or event planner is also an option for the 1990s because people are too busy to organize things themselves. Or if you are a computer whiz, there will be about 8 million home computers sold this year, and most of those new buyers will need training and instruction.
