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HVACR Wholesale Supplier elevates their B2B customer experience

“Timeliness of the customer feedback is a key success factor for us. While we previously relied on phone calls to customers days or even weeks after their visit, HappyOrNot enables Johnstone Supply customers to share their feedback at the exact moment of their experience, making it more relevant and reliable.”

Kevin Dier
Vice President of Business Development, Johnstone Supply
Industry: Retail
Area: USA
Solution: Smiley Touch, Smiley Digital

Key improvement results:

25%

reduction in dissatisfied customers

50%

fewer unhappy customers
than the industry average

Improved

customer experiences
during peak months

Growing

partnership with HappyOrNot
for a 360° view of customer satisfaction

Johnstone Supply aims to be more attentive to customers

Johnstone Supply is a leading North-American based wholesale distributor of parts, supplies, and equipment in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) industry. The company is not your typical retail storefront — in some cases, the wholesale distributor will see the same customers multiple times a week or as much as twice a day, every day.

Johnstone’s goal is to be able to identify customer service issues and be more attentive to customers’ needs across its 400 store locations. The wholesale distributor also plans to increase its digital success, including providing customers with alternative ways to give feedback.

Missing real-time, tangible feedback

Especially during the busiest times of year when customers might experience extended wait times, delays in product availability, and reduced customer service, Johnstone needed a simple way to monitor and improve the customer experience.

Before partnering with HappyOrNot, Johnstone had previously tried different solutions for collecting customer feedback but was always missing the real-time, in-the-moment part of feedback which is critical in order to take swift action.

Phoning customers days and weeks after their visit to request feedback wasn’t getting us the most accurate information, so we needed something more timely. We’ve noticed that with the HappyOrNot Smiley Touches at our locations, customers being able to respond immediately following their experience is providing us with more relevant and reliable feedback.”

User-friendly Analytics makes applying feedback easy

The HappyOrNot team helped Johnstone Supply leaders and local store owners understand the user-friendly Analytics reporting system, develop the right customer questions, and implement and set up the service in store locations across the United States and Canada. Johnstone also plans to add Smiley Digital on its individual store websites to get omnichannel customer insights.

Johnstone staff now have a clearer understanding of what is and is not working when it comes to keeping their customers happy — from face-to-face customer service experiences, to product availability and wait times. They are now even more motivated and engaged, playing a very vital role in ensuring customer happiness.

Each month, we have leaders from our stores share best practices during our Customer Experience Improvement Project (CX IP). This is one of the many ways in which we utilize the feedback we receive from HappyOrNot. Not only does it bring a competitive spirit across our companies, but it also helps our people understand what each store is doing to raise their scores, and to take those learnings into their own stores.”

Customer dissatisfaction reduced by 25%

With year-over-year improvements since signing on with HappyOrNot, Johnstone Supply has lowered its share of unhappy customers by 25%. The wholesale distributor is now able to focus on customer happiness even during the busiest months.

While the average rate of unhappy customers in the wholesale industry is 9.1% — or nearly 1 in 10 — Johnstone Supply has used the HappyOrNot feedback data insights to achieve a rate of only 3.8%. This means Johnstone has over 50% fewer unhappy customers compared to the industry average.

Accountability from our staff around customer satisfaction is something we’ve noticed, compared to before we partnered with HappyOrNot. Our employees are absolutely more engaged with in-store customers, which we attribute to the sense of ownership and pride when a customer visits their store and interacts with the Smiley Touch kiosk on the way out.”

About Johnstone Supply

Serving the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration industries since 1953, Johnstone Supply is a leading wholesale distributor of parts, supplies and equipment for HVACR contractors across 400 locally owned and operated stores throughout the United States and Canada.

Johnstone Supply store owners and staff pride themselves in their customer service and product selection, helping HVACR contractors develop and grow their businesses. Learn more about Johnstone Supply at www.johnstonesupply.com.

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