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axis diplomat for Multi-Channel Retailers

Mail Order companies, or Multi-Channel Retailers, have particular requirements which are separate to, or in addition to, the requirements of a wholesale or distribution company.

Automatically import orders direct from your own website and from marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay
Handle Card Payments easily and efficiently via SagePay or PayPoint
Improve the efficiency and accuracy when noting addresses by using Postcode Address Retrieval
Keep your customers informed with automated order progress update emails
Improve the efficiency of your picking and packing process with hand-held paperless picking and direct interfaces to your carriers
Improve the efficiency of your call centre with integration to your Avaya telephone system, including outbound calling from customer account and automatic screen-popping of customer details on inbound calls

Order Automation

One of the key areas where axis diplomat can help drive efficiency gains is in automating many of the aspects of dealing with your orders.

Customer's orders can be imported directly from an axis vMerchant website, from a variety of 3rd party websites and from your Amazon or eBay stores. If you have a bespoke website that you wish to retain, we can also discuss your requirements with your web developers and provide them with the information they need to interface to axis diplomat.

Payment Processing

Multi-Channel Retailers will almost certainly find that the bulk of their orders are paid by credit/debit cards and the built-in support for card payment or authorisation using SagePay or PayPoint means that payment processing is both quick and simple, whether in a telesales/call centre environment or online using an axis vMerchant eCommerce website (where you can also accept PayPal of course).

The level of integration is such that you can either take payment with the order or simply authorise the card at point of order and request funds at point of despatch (which also handles part payment for part shipments).

Postcode Address Retrieval

Also aimed at increasing efficiency and accuracy in the call centre (as well as online in your checkout stages of an axis vMerchant website) the axis diplomat system is designed to make it quick and easy to create new customer records by interfacing to the Royal Mail's Postcode Database (PAF) via GBG Loqate (formerly PCA Predict / Postcode Anywhere). More accurate addresses means fewer lost parcels - which is a "win-win" because every lost parcel costs money and reputation. Your call centre staff are also more efficient and appear more professional as they do not have to spend time asking customers to spell difficult or complex addresses.

axis diplomat has also been optimised to handle the much larger numbers of customers dealt with by the typical multi-channel retailer, with a number of companies having literally hundreds of thousands of customers on file.

Marketing Campaigns

Sales & Marketing techniques for Multi-Channel Retailers can become quite sophisticated with the use of the Campaign Management module in conjunction with the standard facilities for Gap Analysis and Email generation. Use Gap Analysis, for example, to identify groups of customers that buy one range of products but not another and generate targeted marketing using the facilities within axis diplomat to manage the marketing campaign(s) to send bulk email, generate mail merge files for paper mailings or label printing, manage a telesales campaign or, in conjunction with suitable fax software, fax shots.

Delivery & Despatch Management

Multi-channel retailers and mail-order companies often have warehouses as well, of course, so many of the warehousing and stock control facilities are equally relevant - not least the ability to interface with most of the main carriers such as DPD, DHL and UPS. Not only do these interfaces reduce errors and save time by sending information to the carrier's system but, with most carriers, axis diplomat is able to receive back a tracking reference which can be incorporated into the automated delivey advice email sent to the customer.

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