Enhancing Customer Loyalty Via an Extranet
Building a business process focused Extranet, a secure communication channel to your customers, vendors or partners, can be an important tool to positively affect your business. If it's done right.
Think of your Extranet as being the "customer state of mind" that fuels your relationship to your customers. Your brand promise for service and support should be obvious in the way you deliver what the customer expects. This is not the place for glossy MARCOM messages. This is "get the job done" time.
One of OakTree's clients, Golf Scorecards, (GSC) uses an Extranet so their customers, golf pros, can easily proof their course's scorecards prior to printing. Busy golf pros access PDF proofs through the GSC extranet which shortens the time and cost to get to the final "press ready" version. Being able to view a PDF of their scorecard, submit comments and/or approvals online gives them more control of the ordering process.
Benefits:
- Saves time and money by eliminating need for printing a color proof and sending this by overnight mail.
- Enables multiple decision-makers in multiple locations (or single decision-maker who is on the road) to view the proof and conveniently submit comments or approvals.
- Enables the GSC Production Department to receive written comments and approvals that are easily tracked. Filling out the Comments and Approvals form results in email to Production staff with the course name in the subject line.
- Using the Extranet, project history is tracked (what version of the proof was posted on what date), which GSC can review to manage the change process (and eliminate excessive number of changes by customers).
Turns out, golf pros are notoriously bad at anticipating when they need to re-order, despite GSC's regular inventory check calls. Cutting out a day or two of the process from getting the order to courses receiving cards can make a huge difference. (Can't play golf without a scorecard!)
By making the buying of scorecards easier for golf pros, GSC generates consistent repeat business.
Much can be learned by looking at Amazon's model of building customer loyalty by making their "Extranet" a very personal link between your buying patterns and suggested purchases. The key is to make the experience relevant.
Extranets are used for:
- Exchanging corporate data in a secure but accessible setting
- Sharing wholesale product catalogs exclusively with their dealers
- Collaborating with partners in joint development projects
- Jointly developing and delivering product or service training with vendors or customers
- Providing services created by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks
- Sharing industry news of common interest exclusively with partner companies
Business relationships are built on trust so Extranets require privacy and security. Sometimes this requires firewall management, digital certificates or passwords for user authentication or possibly the encryption of messages. The technology needed is driven by the type of data your customers or partners need to transact. Obviously banking applications have higher data security needs than a GSC, but some level of privacy is critical.
Extranets should be designed and built as an intimate communication vehicle between you and your customers. Easy of use, ease of navigation and meeting their immediate (24/7) product or information needs are the goals. The reward is customer loyalty.
About OakTree Digital
OakTree Digital is one of Portland, Oregon’s most established internet design and development firms. The company has been creating partnerships with a wide range of clients from small companies to technology giants since 1993. Organizations benefit from OakTree’s balanced approach to great creative and smart technology, helping clients with a stronger brand, increased revenue, and a broader market presence.