VoIP Supply: Creating Memorable E-commerce Experiences
Based on current research, VoIP Supply represents 50 percent of online VoIP hardware sales with more than a dozen competitors making up the other 50 percent. Interestingly enough we also represent more than 50 percent of the total personnel involved in online VoIP hardware sales with 70 employees at the end of the first quarter of 2008.
While we have continued to grow our business over the past few years, enough to earn a variety of awards including the Inc. 500 last year, we have lost some of the market share we used to have to these new ecommerce start-ups. We also lost our largest competitor last year as a result of what I perceive to be a flawed business model; the model that all of our other competitors share today as well. Leading with price and leaving value out of the equation will only get you so far in business.
At VoIP Supply, we employ dozens of highly-trained technicians, engineers and sales executives, all of which are willing and able to help a customer pre-sale and post-delivery. Not one of our competitors can even go so far as to boast that they have a dozen employees. Our sales staff is trained daily on product information as well as selling value first and not being reduced to just another online retailer selling with the lowest price as their value proposition.
How else is price not the focus at VoIP Supply? We offer a live call center with 20 dedicated sales executives, nearly a dozen customer service professionals, our unparalleled go3™ warranty program, proactive outbound telephone calls to notify customers of shipping details, product back orders and firmware updates, provisioning and fulfillment services with real time access to inventory and shipping information, pre-sale technical expertise for complete PBX solution configurations, and dozens of internal initiatives to expand our service offerings and customer communications.
Price does matter and we recognize that. A lot of our customers have spent hours of their time invested in a series of pre-sale education and post sale technical support configuring their original deployments and have then gone to a “no value” ecommerce competitor when they need a bulk purchase; where price sensitivity is the leading factor. Growing our business foundation and infrastructure did not support being the lowest in the industry and often forced us to lose business or walk away from VoIP deals because of low profit margins. While our business model is still to lead with value and focus on what else we can provide to our customers before and after the sale, new tools and measures have been put in place as of this year that permit resellers of VoIP equipment to enjoy the benefits of VoIP Supply’s staff and their capabilities, while meeting their budgetary needs.
The really exciting stuff is yet to come and not far away. VoIP Supply will be launching a new version of its web site during the middle of 2008 and will be adding a lot of new tools, functionality and enhancements over the current version. Our internal teams of software developers, designers and marketing experts have been hard at work revamping and implementing these changes. We have also grown our sales department by more than 100 percent so far this year and are implementing several strategic partnerships to offer additional value to our new customers and the more than 50,000 existing VoIP hardware buyers. Great things are happening at VoIP Supply, so look for a lot of announcements throughout the remainder of the year!
3 Comments
You guys are the biggest in the industry, I’ll give you that. You guys are a good company, I’ll give you that as well. But how effective are you at growing into a GREAT company? We get plenty of your old customers saying “anybody but Voipsupply”.
This articles does have several half truths, who advertises the lowest price on GXP-2000’s? Many competitors offer extended warranty services and although you were the first in the industry, it is hardly a new concept in tech/ecom.
But that is why I respect Voipsupply, you are a good competitor. You innovate within our industry to provide value to the customer. You also may be getting a tad bloated and vulnerable to younger, faster, leaner company who can provide more for less.
Not everyone is ipphone-craphouse and you better not fall asleep thinking everyone is.
w00t
@anon
I will let Ben extrapolate on your comment further, but I can tell you that we do not think we are perfect nor have we ever claimed to be, but the essence of a great company (in my eyes) is one that is always trying to improve and that is exactly what we do each day. I know of few other companies that consistently place the same amount of emphasis on training and personal development that this one does on a daily basis…all designed with improving the customer experience in mind.
Whether you think we are getting bloated or not (I disagree with that statement 100%), we are not a “sleeping giant” and as we continue to progress through our strategic plan for the year I suspect that many of our competitors will be wishing that was the case.
As a competitor, I would like to thank you for commenting. It is because of you (and the rest of our competitors) that we will always be conscious that we need to be constantly learning, growing and developing like a great company does.
Thank you for the comments and compliments, your feedback is appreciated. It is unfortunate that some past customers have experienced the occasional negative side effects of rapid growth and constant change with the purpose of improving. I too have heard similar comments from customers and it is always upsetting but is also always taken to heart and used as an additional catalyst to improve further.
To a customer who tries a product for two months and gets upset when we will not take it back at full value, followed by statements such as I’ll never buy from you guys again!Âť, I can do little more than apologize, attempt to explain the reasoning and thank them for their business. To meet the customer’s demand always would not permit me to pay for the 72 people working at VoIP Supply and run a successful business with the commitment and resources to improve for the benefit of all existing customers and those that we will serve in the future.
To the comment about bloat and providing more for less I would completely disagree. We are getting bigger and the perceived bloatÂť is the building of teams and management to improve everything that we do internally and externally, most importantly to be able to provide better service to our customers, before and after the sale, which is something that smaller and leaner companies cannot even attempt to provide with any hope of scaling.
Again, thank you very much for your feedback. Rest assured that we are not sleeping and are 100% focused on taking care of our customers and growing our business to meet the needs and demands of our existing customers and the VoIP marketplace.