alanwilliamson

Dealing with customer problems the ScrewFix way

Different companies have different attitudes when it comes to dealing with customers online. We have at one end of the spectrum, Simply Computers, that just have no notion of what it means to put the customer first (as I have painfully detailed). At the other end of the spectrum we have one of the UK's largest DIY chains, ScrewFix (part of the Kingfisher (aka B&Q) group), who seem to be doing it right.

ScrewFix are having problems filling their orders; so instead of pushing on ahead and taking the orders, it has suspended trading from its website. A bold but welcomed statement. Ironically their problems are nothing to do with their computer systems, its the physically packaging and warehousing where their problems are lying; just not enough people to do the lifting.

Reading a little background on this, it would appear that their old computer system was so bad it slowed the website down enough as to not flood the warehouse staff with too many orders. After they upgraded and moved to a faster and more robust system, the orders soon flooded the backend logistics.

ScrewFix obviously had many more customers than its older system could cope with; a good position to be in for any company. But interesting to note that the bottleneck was its website, a signal to other companies to pay a little more attention to the infrastructure in which they place so much reliance to; your website has a natural ceiling.


 

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