5 minute read
30 YEARS OLD AND STILL LEARNING
Office seating and home office furniture supplier Teknik found itself deluged with frantic customers at the start of the pandemic and, thanks to its emphasis on customer service and good communication, the company ensured that everyone received their orders in good time.
When the first national lockdown was announced on March 23, 2020, it changed how and where many people worked at a stroke. It also meant a lot of businesses needed home office equipment and supplies as soon as possible – resulting in a deluge of calls from reseller and end-user customers to Teknik for products.
At the same time as dealing with new ways of working themselves, Teknik had to focus carefully on keeping information flowing to customers. “We thought we were already good at this but learned, very quickly, that our systems needed refining – this was a fast and steep learning curve!” says Mark Galliano, director of Teknik.
“Prior to lockdown, we had already taken steps to move paperless so, thankfully, we had already done some of the work. Developing our customer portal created a backdrop for other adjustments we needed to make - which has helped both us and our customers enormously in reducing the volume of emails and ‘phone calls.
“This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I was forced by circumstances to stop pondering it and actually do it so, bizarrely, I am quite grateful for the ‘nudge’ as it has been very well-received!”
Teknik already had a large range of home office desks and matching ancillary furniture available, having started to focus on the sector about five years ago in order to differentiate themselves from the competition. This process was accelerated over lockdown. “Rather than suddenly adding a new range as a response to the COVID demand, it was a continuation of our planned range development,” says Mark.
NEED FOR SPEED
Teknik holds stock and delivers it to end-user customers for dealers. Mark explains that this meant they had the systems and logistics in place to address the need to get products quickly to end-users. “Larger customers can take advantage of bulk purchasing, which cuts out the double handling of goods going via our warehouses; customers that do not want to be involved in stocking themselves can still take advantage of our UK stocks, and the broader elements of our ranges, without taking the risk and investment involved,” he says.
Mark adds that service standards were not compromised for speed. “Price and product are important to get right but, within the market we operate in, where we offer a drop ship service for our dealers and retailers, they need to be able to trust that we will represent them well when we interact with their endusers, so service is critical, and the ability to support the end-users is core to what we do.
“Our customer service department is the largest of our administrative teams; we regularly receive feedback that affirms that we do a good job. We don’t hide behind our warranty; in ongoing trading relationships, I have always felt that goodwill was more important than guarantee.”
As part of this service offer, Teknik offers a customer hotline. “We feel that it’s important that we do our best to support retailers and their customers; quite often, the teams within a retailer are not specialists, and don’t have the technical knowledge to answer productrelated questions. This means that end-users can be ‘lost’ in the system, and become frustrated.”
Going forward, customers will also be able to track their orders through the customer portal; this is currently being beta tested before full roll-out.
POST-COVID CHANGES
Mark notes that, since COVID-19, there is a much greater understanding of the working from home (WFH) market now among dealers. “Pre-COVID, we needed to persuade many office product dealers that this was a largely untapped sector, and it would be worth their while to explore it, so they to needed to take a leap of faith to try it out,” he says. “That seems to have changed now. Yes, it will level out, and some of the heat will fade, but I believe the WFH market will form part of the normal offering for our sector in the long-term.”
IMPORTANCE OF CHAIRS
The rise in working from home has increased the importance of workers having the right chair to maintain their physical wellbeing. Teknik has been involved in office seating for more than 30 years, so can provide in-depth advice for something that can be easily overlooked. “The right chair is incredibly important; each employer has a duty of care for their workers, and a key part of this is the chair they sit on,” says Mark. “Although this may seem to some like a complex issue, it is not; a few rudimentary adjustments on a chair can make it perfectly acceptable for most users.
“For home workers, one could argue that the adjustability of the chair is even more important because, counterintuitively, people who are working from home tend to be seated for longer periods each day. However, in my opinion, one of the most useful things people can do to protect their posture is to regularly get up and move about!”
FUTURE
Looking forward, Mark hopes that if the pandemic ends there will be a return to something approaching normal. “We will retain an element of flexible home working within our teams, but I also yearn for our Teknik family to be able to interact together in the office again. I miss the informal communication that comes from that, and I miss them all!
“Additionally, I would like the supply chains to stop being a battle, and costs to normalise - I am optimistic they will. Notwithstanding either of these things, we will continue to grow our ranges at pace. We have a huge number of products lined up and ready to go. “I think that 2021 is going to be an exciting year.”
