CE Pro July 2021 - 32

CE PRO DISTRIBUTORS GUIDE 2021
Operations
pick up products, so a lot
less personal contact, pickup
after hours and ordering
remotely. We secured the
areas of pickup, sanitizing,
social distancing, etc. Our
members have provided jobsite
delivery as well, anything
to make sure our customers
lives are easier during such a
tough time.
LUTHER: We offer a limited
local pickup, but most
of our products are shipped
nationally. Amazon set the
standard for everyone, so
we've worked extra hard to
bring 2-day and overnight
shipping to most of our
customers who participate in
our P3 Rewards Program. We
work on keeping everything
in stock so most orders ship
out the same day.
CE Pro: In terms of
support, integrators have
always leaned heavily on
their distributors. What are
some ways you addressed
last year's special business
needs (Zoom meetings,
webinars, demos, virtual
happy hours for continued
engagement, etc.) and what
does ongoing support in
2021 look like?
HOLZER: Despite operational
changes throughout
the past year, PowerHouse
Alliance members were able
to maintain the high level of
customer service, technical
support, and trainings that
our dealers expect. When
training locations were
closed, members relied on
live and recorded webinars
to introduce new products
and offer trainings to dealers.
In 2021, I expect that
32 | CE Pro July 2021
members will begin to host
in person trainings again
as guidelines are lifted but
I think recorded trainings
and webinars will still be an
option as they give dealers
the opportunity to listen on
their own time. PowerHouse
members are looking forward
to meeting in-person soon.
YODZIS: Our team
worked very hard with our
currently host 3-4 webinars
per month and plan on continuing
this cadence. Since
dealers cannot always make
the webinar or have team
members with an immediate
education need, we store all
our session on-demand.
We are looking forward
to reintroducing live training
later in 2021. Training videos
are also available for our
proprietary brands at snapav.
topics to our webinar roster.
Additionally, we make all our
webinars available for replay
following the session for any
customers not able to make
the live event.
Our on-demand training
platform, ADI Academy,
allows dealers to participate
in industry and product
training anytime, anywhere.
ADI Academy offers a variety
of training across several
" Going forward, I believe we will
have mask mandates at trainings
and still use video conferencing
more than in the past, so networking
products will continue to have
strong growth. "
-Helge Fischer, Catalyst AV
vendors to get a consistent
training schedule together
to ensure customers were
able to keep up to date with
new products and developments.
Now, we are focused
on creating more personal
interactions.
Our team is scheduling
virtual dealer meetings with
reps and vendors so that
they can have one-on-one
interaction that gives dealers
the opportunity to be heard
and have their questions
answered. We've been very
successful with these meetings
and look to continue to
bring together dealers and
vendors when we get back
to traveling.
WHINNA: The need for
continuing education did not
stop so SnapAV Pro Stores
immediately shifted our comprehensive
dealer education
program to webinars. We
com where we typically get
40,000+ training/product
information view per month.
APPLEBY: We made sure
our service offering matched
the " new way " people are
working whether from home
or contactless transactions
with paperless billing, extended
return policies, online
returns, flat rate shipping
and more.
We ramped up our online
webinar offering. We implemented
a new digital
experience platform to
increase customer engagement
through free webinars
and demos and improve the
overall digital experience for
attendees. The feedback from
customers on the new platform
has been extremely positive,
and we're working with
our internal subject matter
experts and supplier partners
to continue adding additional
categories including security,
access control, IP video,
networking, cyber security
and more.
Dealers can use the
platform to enhance their
business skills and earn
Continuing Education Units
(CEUs). Customers can sign
up for individual courses,
or get access to all training
courses with a one-year
subscription.
FISCHER: Most dealers
are sick of Zoom meetings.
Things will normalize, as
restaurants, movie theaters
and more open up and
people, " feel " like things are
getting normal and being
vaccinated there will be less
fear - that is key to actually
having meetings and demonstrations
with dealers.
Our online training
webinars have been very
successful, with AVPro Edge,
cepro.com
http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro July 2021

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