A better way to customer satisfaction

1st December 2015

Any customer new to Top Tubes is in for a pleasant surprise. “The way we handle customers at Top Tubes is different”, says Craig Gibbs, ERW Sales Manager. “Easy to buy from” is the mantra that he and his team, comprising of Joe Dukes, Lee Richards and Mark Clapham, live by.

Craig, or one of his team, act as account managers for their individual customers. They have a finely tuned knowledge of their requirements – from the way in which each particular customer needs their tube delivered, the way it’s packaged, the frequency of delivery, even to the time of delivery – the account managers have this knowledge at their fingertips. They act as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for each of their customers and can handle any query from an accounts query to a quality issue. “We know very well” says Craig “that the thing customers dislike above all is to be passed around a company from pillar to post when they have an issue over an order”.

The ERW sales team, L to R: Joe Dukes, Lee Richards, Business Development Manager Steve Hill, Mark Clapham and Sales Manager Craig Gibbs.

Top Tubes ERW account managers all have years of experience in the tube industry, experience which enables them to act almost as stock managers for their particular accounts, knowing in advance what they will require, often even before their customers do and so can pre-empt their requirements. In today’s volatile market, flexibility is what’s required. If a customer needs a delivery sooner than anticipated, the first point of contact is the relevant account manager who will, nine times out of ten, be able to arrange for the requirement to be accommodated.

A welcome return

What were previously known as House Accounts – large, traditional accounts which have not had a dedicated account manager are now coming under the aegis of Mark Clapham, a new addition to the ERW sales team. Whilst Mark is new to the ERW team, he’s not new to Top Tubes, having worked here previously as Conduit Sales Manager prior to the Conduit division being sold off in 2012.

Mark’s task is to bring the House Accounts into the Account Manager framework and he’s currently busy going out to meet customers. He is highly complimentary about Top Tubes’ account manager ethos. “It’s not a sales-led way of working” he says, “it’s customer led, the customer is the pivot around which Top Tubes works”.

“Our slogan ‘Taking Tube Further’,” says Craig, “encapsulates our whole philosophy and influences everything we do, every day”.