Online Relationships

These three companies from the 2000 Inc. 500 are using the Internet to enhance their communication with staff and customers alike.

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Strategies: Managing on the Web

There's more to the Internet than information. It's also about communication -- about getting closer to the people who matter the most: your customers and your employees

By now, you've probably heard of this Internet thing and the myriad opportunities the Web gives you to interact with people across the world. But chances are, you'd settle for something a little closer to home.

The Internet doesn't just let you introduce your company into countries and markets you've never before dreamed of; it also represents a terrific opportunity to enrich your interaction with the people you already know: your customers and your employees.

A large number of this year's Inc. 500 companies have used the Internet to enhance their communication with staff and customers alike. What follow are tales of three representative companies. Though their businesses and Internet strategies differ, each one has blended human-relations savvy with financial prudence to produce handsome payoffs.

Dealing with crabby customers
John R. Keeler knows his customers. As CEO of John Keeler & Co. (#182), an $8.7-million importer of crabmeat based in Miami, Keeler understands that the people he sells to -- wholesalers and distributors who in turn sell his shellfish to restaurants and supermarkets -- will waste no time shifting to his competitors if his prices are even slightly higher than the going rate. So until recently, Keeler's perpetual problem was how to increase his under-5% margin without raising his prices.

Keeler saw the Internet as a possible solution. His reasoning was simple: If he could use his Web site to attract new customers, then he could close more sales per hour without spending more on hiring new sales staff. Plus, if his customers switched to ordering on the Web, he'd reduce some nagging expenses associated with traditional sales, such as phone bills and fax paper. Those gains could easily offset any initial costs for Web design and technical consulting.

But Keeler didn't think his unwired customers would embrace Web shopping. "The Internet has a low priority for most of the industry," he explains. "People are caught up in the day-to-day business of pricing, supplying, and delivering." Still, Keeler figured it wouldn't hurt to ask his customers whether they'd order his crabmeat on the Web. One month, along with a batch of invoices, he sent out a survey, tailored to what he considered to be a technically limited audience, that included such basic questions as whether the customer had an Internet connection.

When 20% of his then-200 customers indicated that they would buy crabmeat over the Web, Keeler decided to convert his existing site -- www.onecrab.com -- from an information-only Web presence into one that was capable of conducting online transactions. Six months into the site's operation, Keeler has no regrets: 37% of his customers -- including 25% of his old customers -- are buying over the Web, and online sales now account for 50% of his total volume. On its own, the site has attracted 80 new customers. And most important for Keeler, his profits have increased by 2%.

Beyond improving the company's numbers, the site has allowed Keeler to manage his customer service better. Scheduling a delivery of crabmeat requires lots of planning. Will the product be shipped in cans or bags? By truck or plane? By which delivery company? Tasks that used to consume phone time -- and by extension, personnel time -- are now handled through online order forms, which contain drop-down menus replete with shipping and packaging options.

Keeler paid $15,000 for a local Web-design company to revamp his site. Although $15,000 is a pittance compared with what some companies spend on E-commerce software and site design, costs may rise for Keeler as Onecrab.com develops. He wants to hire an IT manager to maintain the site, which handles sales pretty smoothly but has sections that are outdated and could use the attention of someone whose full-time responsibility is keeping the site fresh. One chart that lists supply and price trends for his product is four months old, as is another section that is supposed to feature weekly columns by Keeler. "I have to plead guilty to not spending more time on it," admits the CEO.

Keeler has several initiatives planned for the new IT manager, the biggest of which is to begin communicating real-time price changes and order-status updates to customers' Web-enabled cell phones. Keeler thinks wholesalers will be especially receptive to that idea because they're a price-sensitive bunch who will buy food in large quantities and stockpile it if they think they've found a bargain.

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