Technology Reseller - v08

technolog y reseller.co.uk Q&A 21 Listen and Learn ML: In the context of listening and learning, I would add that there are now more ways than ever to interact with Midwich. We are on track for over 2,000 customer visits this year and the number of people we welcomed through our doors at events last year was over 1,500. We’ve really bolstered our calendar in terms of training and events for our customers. We’ve done a number of regional and technical roadshows around our technical AV products and we’ve done events up in Scotland alongside the flagship event we have here today. TR: Are resellers becoming more demanding.? Do they need more interaction with distributors? ML: The needs of customers haven’t changed. They have always needed first class customer service and that is something that remains constant. But as more and more products are put together and with more and more products hanging off the network, an AV system may be complex, so it’s becoming more important for us to provide that top level of customer service, to ensure that customers get the right answer at the first time of asking to minimise disruption. Technology Reseller (TR): Midwich has just announced a 33.6% increase in revenue for the six months to June 30 2017. What are your priorities for 2018? Mark Lowe (ML): Listening and Learning. In 2017, we placed particular emphasis on listening to our customers; we conduct regular surveys and we spend a lot of time finding out what is important to them. What we find is that quality of account management and speed of response are of the utmost importance, so we have invested record levels in training our staff in those areas, spending over £250,000 on staff training in the last 12 months. We’ve mixed generic sales and customer service training with a real focus on the technical capabilities of our staff to help increase the number of enquiries we can resolve at the first time of asking. We want to minimise the redirecting of customers and ensure they have a fantastic customer experience. Our customer survey scores were already very high and they have improved markedly year-on-year – 85% of our customers think Midwich is easy or very easy to do business with and 85% say they are happy and delighted with us. Both of those are up on the year before. Stuart Mizon (SM): Training our people to ensure they deliver first class customer service is of absolute, paramount importance to us. We are a specialist distributor; we try to add value through the whole chain of engagement, from pre- sales right the way through to post-sales. If we don’t listen to our customers and understand what is important to them, how can we deliver the right level of service to them? We did that before, but we have now dialled it right up to the top of the agenda. We are on track for over 2,000 customer visits this year and the number of people we welcomed through our doors at events last year was over 1,500. Continued... Channel Vision Dave Stevinson, Managing Director, GNR 1 What was your greatest challenge in 2017? 2017 was a particularly challenging year – yet one particular challenge that stands out was the full integration of Entatech into GNR Tech in 8 weeks. 2 What was your greatest achievement in 2017? Personally, it would be leading my tennis team  to victory in the Manchester 2016- 2017 Pennant at the ripe old age of 46. This was supposed to be my final game. 3 What were the key growth areas for you in 2017? As a company we focus on four areas – Software, Devices, Connectivity and PC Components. We see growth coming from software as we have just recently launched our new ESD portal. 4 Any lessons learned in 2017? Yes, I have a genuine passion for learning, coming from a family of academics. This year we are working very hard on applying corrective and preventative action to these lessons. 5 What is your main focus for 2018? We will aggressively develop our business and look to grow our software business. We are working with some exciting publishers and we are incredibly hyped with their roadmaps.  6 Reasons to be optimistic about 2018? 2018 is going to be West. It is a new year with so many opportunities and if we can execute on our vision, it will be a splendid year. 7 Reasons to be fearful about 2018? As a company we remain cautiously optimistic and we are watching/ anticipating various scenarios that might result from the wider economic environment and the channel, where we expect to witness further consolidation amongst our peers. Midwich’s annual Technology Exposed event, this year held at Mercedes- Benz World in Weybridge, gave Technology Reseller the opportunity to catch up with Midwich Chief Operating Office Mark Lowe and Divisional Director Stuart Mizon to find out more about the specialist distributor’s recent successes and its priorities for 2018. Continued... Mark Lowe