Just a year ago, the business world, and the world in general, was thrown for a loop with a pandemic resulting in mandated closures, bringing traditional communications to a screeching halt. For businesses dependent on making connections through face-to-face conferences, meetings, and sales calls, the shutdown was a blow from which many couldn’t recover. For the team at Miller Products Company, though, the challenges they faced revealed an opportunity to increase digital marketing efforts and build a sales and support protocol that reduced the dependency on face-to-face meetings conferences.
“Making connections in the digital world is easier than ever,” said Kerry Richardson, Sales and Marketing Manager at Miller. “With high-speed internet, an investment in some very economical software, and some equipment updates, we were able to stay ahead of the pandemic and support our customers right from our offices in Osceola.”
Miller Products Company has always had a strong digital presence. As a base, their web site not only offers a “Who-Is-Miller” functionality, but also serves as a valuable resource for information on industrial manufacturing. The site provides access to their extensive catalog of stock pins and fasteners through an online shop as well as news and information on the ever-evolving world of custom precision CNC and Swiss CNC machining.
“It’s important to help the industries we serve find the information and products they need,” said Richardson. “But with the pandemic we had to take it all a step further.”
With sales calls and face-to-face calls put “on hold,” Richardson quickly moved his customer support operation online. There, he realized the future of building stronger customer connections. Enter, ‘The ZOOM Room.’
“We tried a number of video conferencing solutions, but keeping it simple and accessible made the most sense.” said Richardson.
The video conferencing software, ZOOM, quickly became the go-to for online community connectivity and conferencing. From schools and universities holding online classes and events to businesses and trade shows going “Virtual,” ZOOM made inroads around the barriers forced upon these types of events. Low cost and easy to use, the software made it possible to stream, in real time, video and audio to anywhere in the world. And with the investment of a high resolution web camera with lighting, a studio-quality microphone, as well as a dedicated space specific for production, the Miller Products Company “ZOOM Room” was created.
“{The ZOOM Room} takes the awkward ‘Computer / camera in a cluttered office’ look and makes it a professional, branded, engaging experience for our team and our customers.” said Richardson.
From behind the “News broadcast-like” desk set up, Richardson went on to explain the impact taking customer support calls and meetings, and even introductory sales calls online made. While sales and production predictably took a hit from the pandemic, 2020’s overall sales and profit numbers as compared to 2019 and 2018 showed a slight uptick for Miller. As an added benefit to taking meetings online, it reduced the amount of travel, trade-show fees and expenses associated with traditional sales and marketing efforts.
“When a company can sustain customer and sales support while reducing overhead,” said Richardson. “That’s a win-win in our books.”
As businesses start to re-open and social distancing protocols are softened, face-to-face events like trade shows and sales calls are easing back into the picture. But for the team at Miller Products Company, the benefits they experienced, including building stronger connections through The ZOOM Room, will be an added value to the traditional customer and sales support efforts.
“We’ve extended our market with the digital access The ZOOM Room provides,” said Richardson. “We can now meet with anyone, anywhere, and virtually any time of the day.”
If you’d like to set up an appointment to meet with a Miller Products Company representative or if you have any questions about custom CNC or Swiss CNC machined parts, please reach out to Kerry Richardson, Marketing and Sales Manager for Miller Products Company at 1-800-245-7034 or click the “Schedule a meeting” link below.
