With big box stores continuing to expand, lumberyards need to find any possible edge to compete. One advantage independent lumberyards have over corporate chains is the human connection—but that doesn’t mean you can just say “trust us, we’re local” and leave it at that. Making a concerted effort to boost the quality of your customer service is a must for today’s DIYers, builders, and contractors.
Here are seven tips to help you get started:
Drive Lumberyard Success with a Customer-Centric Culture
1. Start with a focus on your customers
Nothing else you do will matter if you don’t have a strong customer-centric foundation. Train your staff to recognize customer needs and follow through with stellar service. It shouldn’t be about ticking off boxes; rather, it’s about understanding how customers drive a lumberyard’s business and making bold decisions to serve their needs.
When hiring, look for people who have the experience or inclination to always put the customer first. Ensure you have leadership that cultivates communication and values input from all the members of the team. With everyone on the same page, you will meet and even exceed customer expectations.
2. Streamline Your Lumberyard Operations with E-Commerce
Once you start reshaping your culture to be more customer-centric, you can consider specific tools to enable customer-centricity. Look for software that can do things like streamline quote creation, automate RMA authorization requests, and manage warehouse logistics. The more you can automate, the faster turnaround times will be, and the more your people will be able to focus on delivering high-level service to the customer.
It’s true that purchasing building materials is a bit more complicated than buying a new pair of sneakers online, but e-commerce is about more than just convenience. With a comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use portal, your customers can view their buying history, research products, and make preliminary purchasing decisions, even if they end up making the final sale through a rep. It goes back to adopting a customer-centric culture: Think about how e-commerce could improve their buying experience, and then invest in a platform that will deliver those improvements.
3. Close Communication Gaps to Enhance Contractor Satisfaction
How often does your team have to play telephone to relay information to a customer? How much time does that take? And how often does the message change by the end of the chain? Look for opportunities to close those gaps, such as having a live person field calls and route them to staff members that can answer customer questions promptly. Nothing can be more frustrating than getting an automated switchboard that sends you off in the wrong direction. This is why, when you call into BPI, you’ll always speak to one of our friendly receptionists who will try to get the information you need right away.
When your staff spends less time passing messages along, they can spend more time solving complex problems for your customers.
4. Save Costs and Build Trust with Accurate Material Takeoffs
Underestimating a material takeoff can lead to additional deliveries that cost as much as a thousand dollars per run. And if it’s a recurring issue, those costs can stack up quickly. Even worse, you’ll risk developing a poor reputation with contractors, who will become dissatisfied and start shopping elsewhere.
At BPI, we’ve partnered with MiTek to offer advanced modeling solutions to help lumberyards reduce errors and waste. Not only will your lumberyard be able to make more accurate material estimates, but your customers will appreciate the convenience.
5. Protect Building Materials with Quality Packaging Solutions
Building materials can be delicate, and as they jostle around in your delivery truck, they can become damaged, which is sure to upset contractors who are ready to get to work. A lumberyard with a customer-centric culture will recognize the risk and use high-quality packaging for deliveries, saving builders and contractors valuable time and money.
When you partner with a reliable distributor, you can have the packaging taken care of for you. BPI’s careful approach to packaging building materials with custom labeling options not only prevents damage, but also makes it easier to track items from location to location, preventing deliveries from getting lost in the shuffle. BPI also job packs and labels materials by unit numbers and floor designations to help builders keep their materials organized.
6. Efficient Jobsite Deliveries That Save Time and Resources
Provide better delivery services to builders’ and contractors’ job sites than your competitors. That means delivering product in a way that cuts down on their material handling at the site, improving production and cutting costs. For example, BPI delivers well-packaged, palletized doors directly to the jobsite for easy unloading and placement at the correct unit and floor. Lifting pallets to higher floors using telehandlers eliminates manual carrying of doors, reducing labor costs, potential injuries, and damage during handling. This method saves your builders time and resources by providing easier storage and transportation and ensuring the doors remain protected until installation.
7. Partner With a Distributor That Elevates Your Yard’s Overall Efficiency
Partnering with the right supplier can significantly elevate your lumberyard’s customer service and overall efficiency. A reliable building materials distributor not only ensures timely deliveries and high-quality packaging to protect materials, but also offers innovative solutions, such as job-specific labeling and palletized deliveries that streamline operations on-site. By working with a supplier that prioritizes accuracy, such as using advanced modeling tools for precise material takeoffs, you can reduce costly errors and enhance contractor satisfaction.
When your supplier shares your commitment to a customer-centric approach, it empowers your lumberyard to exceed expectations, build stronger client relationships, and ultimately drive more revenue. BPI, for example, does exactly that.
At BPI, we care about seeing lumberyards succeed—and we can help you cultivate the sort of customer-centric culture that’s more vital than ever. Reach out to our team today to learn how we can help you provide stellar customer service.
