Well into my third decade of providing technical advice to customers and architects, one of the substantial changes that I’ve observed is the greatly increased expectations customers have of their suppliers.  This is not only in terms of the quality, accuracy and relevance of the advice given, but also the speed that they respond.

Back in the early 1990s, it was common for an architect to send a set of drawings for a project in the post – with no CAB or BIM! This was followed up with a follow up phone call several days later.  During the call, the drawings would be reviewed and a glass specification agreed, with written confirmation posted a few days later.

From start to finish, the whole process could take as long as two weeks, which seems unthinkable now!  At the very least, customers now want same day answers, if not immediate responses.

With the number of phone calls in decline, technical enquiries are now received via emails, websites, Social Media and more recently, instant messaging. Instant messaging in particular is proving to be an effective tool in meeting heightened expectations.

For our instant messaging service, we use Live Chat which is freely available to those customers who’ve registered for our online business support resource, MyPilkington.  Judging by the number of repeat users, its popularity amongst our customers and others in the supply chain is increasing. Live Chat is an efficient medium for providing customers with fast and efficient answers and assisting specifiers with projects specifications.

Customers now expect instant answers – even to the most challenging questions – and instant messaging such as Live Chat is helping to serve that need.

If you have a technical question on glass, why not try Live Chat via MyPilkington?