Whereas there is little incentive to improve customer service in the special gases realm, there is an entirely different story in the safety products (goggles, gloves, fire extinguishers, etc., where Amazon.com is a major competitor. Amazon’s customer service, fulfillment, marketing prowess is second to none. Despite a re-designed website (July 2014), Airgas is far behind Amazon in the aforementioned areas and is well aware of the need to improve their capabilities. Why is this important? For Airgas, the fastest growing customer segment are those customers who spend between $1201-$6000 per year. Customers in this revenue band:
• Buy a high percentage of safety products
• Most likely to purchase these products via the online channel …show more content…
As a company that has grown via acquisition, there were many legacy systems in place that the acquired companies used for sales analysis. There was no standardization, with each organization operating as it’s own entity under the corporate umbrella. Some used platforms like Cognos, others used Microsoft Excel as their analysis tool. There was no unified marketing effort. Recognizing the drawbacks this approach, Airgas began an effort to bring everyone onto the SAP platform so that all business units would be on the same business platform. The effort has generated mixed …show more content…
Life Sciences and Healthcare) utilize analytics to gain a understanding of business trends and opportunity. The Life Sciences and Healthcare (LSH) market segment has been more receptive to participating in online sales transactions and are major purchasers of safety products. Airgas regional offices that support the LSH have a great interest in obtaining and utilizing web data and sales information to support marketing efforts. The Airgas Interactive unit (responsible for the Airgas.com web site) has been leading the effort to obtain and utilize customer data derived from customer web interaction (via Google Analytics) and to leverage that content to drive marketing decisions. The Airgas marketing department uses analytics to derive sales behaviors from the transactional perspective (who bought what, quantity, frequency, channel, new, existing, etc.) in an attempt to identify opportunities, spot revenue bleed, and generate
• Buy a high percentage of safety products
• Most likely to purchase these products via the online channel …show more content…
As a company that has grown via acquisition, there were many legacy systems in place that the acquired companies used for sales analysis. There was no standardization, with each organization operating as it’s own entity under the corporate umbrella. Some used platforms like Cognos, others used Microsoft Excel as their analysis tool. There was no unified marketing effort. Recognizing the drawbacks this approach, Airgas began an effort to bring everyone onto the SAP platform so that all business units would be on the same business platform. The effort has generated mixed …show more content…
Life Sciences and Healthcare) utilize analytics to gain a understanding of business trends and opportunity. The Life Sciences and Healthcare (LSH) market segment has been more receptive to participating in online sales transactions and are major purchasers of safety products. Airgas regional offices that support the LSH have a great interest in obtaining and utilizing web data and sales information to support marketing efforts. The Airgas Interactive unit (responsible for the Airgas.com web site) has been leading the effort to obtain and utilize customer data derived from customer web interaction (via Google Analytics) and to leverage that content to drive marketing decisions. The Airgas marketing department uses analytics to derive sales behaviors from the transactional perspective (who bought what, quantity, frequency, channel, new, existing, etc.) in an attempt to identify opportunities, spot revenue bleed, and generate